Psychedelic Rock

Psychedelic rock seems to be a genre that carries very heavy connotations. The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Pink Floyd all immediately pop into the forefront of the mind. These bands, though considered by most to define the principle elements of "psychedelic rock," also give it a bad reputation, in my opinion. Psychedelic rock was about more than simply extended guitar solos and distorted vocals with multiple layers of reverb and echo. In some cases, like that of the 13th Floor Elevators, it was about fusing the trippy pop sounds generally associated with the Beatles with raw and upbeat garage rock. In the case of bands such as The Red Krayola or The United States of America, it was all about introducing into rock music heavy doses of the avant-garde. Needless to say, my favorite psychedelic rock albums are those that are all about experimenting. So, instead of giving you the essentials, I'll recommend some albums, because whereas Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow" might be an "essential" psychedelic rock album, it doesn't really do much for me, so instead, here are some of my favorites:

The United States of America - S/T
Giles, Giles & Fripp - The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp
13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
The Red Krayola - God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It
Skip Spence - Oar
Love - Forever Changes
Flower Travellin' Band - Satori

The United States of America - S/T

Not to be confused with that post-grunge band, the United States of America were an avant-garde psychadelic band in the late 60's who appear, to me, to be the clearest precursors to Faust and Can in the entire psychadelic camp, who were using crazy electronics to such an insane extent before anyone else was, and who still succeed in making brilliant off-kilter tunes that are worth listening to by anyone with even a fleeting interest in krautrock or early-Pink Floyd era style psychadelica. They only made one album but it is quite the masterpiece. Fuck Piper at the Gates of Dawn, this is where it's at.

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Love - Forever Changes

Rated by many to be the best album of all time, I wouldn't go quite that far, but it's certainly a great album. Most of it is pretty straight forward poppy psychadelic rock, but you can hardly hold that against them, because they do it so damn well. Every song on here is an instant classic, full to the brim of beautiful, psychadelic bliss. When I listened to it the first time, it sort of slipped by me, but then I listened to it again, and again, and by the third time I recognized it as a masterpiece.

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The Red Krayola - God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It

Here's another album that's sure to get divided opinions. It's fans hail it as a visionary album decades ahead of its time, and see in it the roots for punk, new wave, post-punk, and indie rock. It's detractors say its an unlistenable pretentious piece of garbage. Who's right? They're both probably a little right. It has its incredibly pretentious moments (see: "Listen to This") but at the same time it is completely unlike anything else being recorded in 1968, and quite unlike anything else I have ever heard. I can't guarantee whether or not you'll like it, but, if you're anything like me, it'll find a special little crevasse in your heart to occupy.

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Giles, Giles & Fripp - The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp

This is one of the most quirky, whymsical, and delightfully British albums I have ever heard. Not only are the songs odd, poppy and experimental slices of artsy psychadelia, the snippets of "story" that come between the songs are incredibly hilarious. This album will make you laugh out loud and blow you away at the same time. Get into it.

hxxp://rapidshare.de/files/31786177/of.rar
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Country Joe & the Fish - Electric Music for the Mind and Body

This is a pretty straight-forward accessible psychadelic rock album. Some of its songs are very Doors-y, and all of them are very feel-good easy-going pieces of rock. Very chill and good.

http://www.uploading.com/files/BJEETMMK/CJFEM.rar.html
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