"Psychedelic" music questions, plz chime in...

[jammybastard]

Impromptu quiz, came up in rehearsal last night and I thought this would be a great to ask/discuss this...

Please answer if interested, but don't comment if just to say something negative or start and argument.

That said...

This only pertains to YOUR opinion, and your answer should have everything to do with art and should have nothing to do with commerce.
Keep it as short and focused to start.
:AOK

1.
what makes good "psychedelic" music?
2.
what makes bad "psychedelic" music?
3.
what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?

4.
Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.

Thanks!

 

[enocaster]

1. what makes good "psychedelic" music?
Disconnects listener from reality … expands definition of what reality is … confusion of the senses … altered perception of time … causes dreamlike state

2. what makes bad "psychedelic" music?
hangups, genre exercises

3.
what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?
pass

4.
Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.

Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTLJMSbEnn0

The Marmalade - I See The Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCn61DuBrgo

Idle Race - Days Of Broken Arrows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN8U5GdvrPo

 

[flameburst]

1.
what makes good "psychedelic" music?
Attitude, Snot, Class A drugs, Fuzz, Wah, Reverb...

2.
what makes bad "psychedelic" music?
Immitators, pretention, bad drugs...

3.
what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?
Bm9, Em, A, Am, C, G.

4.
Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.
Levitation (13th Floor Elevators), Long Day's Flight (Electric Prunes), Mr Farmer (The Seeds).

 

[haymaker]

"Bm9 - the most psychedelic of all keys"

 

[Scott Miller]

1. what makes good "psychedelic" music?
Repetition, floatingness, noodling, cheesey organ, lyrics that make no sense.
2. what makes bad "psychedelic" music?
Seriousness.
3. what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?
E, for the relentless drone effect.
4. Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.
"Porpoise Mouth," Country Joe and the Fish
"Tomorrow Never Knows," Beatles
"Third Stone from the Sun" Hendrix

 

[sfarnell]

1. what makes good "psychedelic" music?

Successful risk taking. focus on intuition rather than "keys"

2. what makes bad "psychedelic" music?

Failed risk taking. Monotony. diatonic boredom

3. what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?

B

4. Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.

Dark Star (Grateful Dead)
extended "Slumber" jam (Steve Kimock, KVHW)
Jam from Scarlet Begonias into Fire on the Mountain (Grateful Dead)

 

[amishtwister]

Ostensibly I like "psychedelic" music, but a lot of what gets classified as such does not seem in any way psychedelic to me. I think lots of shoegaze type stuff sounds more like a drug trip than anything I've heard from the Dead (I admit to having very limited exposure to the Dead). So to answer the questions:

1. In my opinion, psych music should simulate an altered mental state or perception. Not neccesarily the drugs, although that is maybe a good reference point. You shouldn't need to be high to enjoy it, but it should trick you into thinking you are.

2. Bad psych to me is stuff that is only enjoyable when one is on drugs. Like all music, this is very subjective. It can be hard to work drones in an interesting manner for any length of time, and bad songwriting is bad songwriting, no matter the genre.

3. A and E are always easy.

4. Machine Gun by Slowdive - Poppy psych, with keyboard & treatments by Eno.

Meth of a Rockette's Kick by Mercury Rev - Epic song with sunny backing vocals, horns, loud guitars, and kitchen sink sounds.

The Diamond Sea by Sonic Youth - The noise section is fabulous. Really free-form and far-out. It will transport you.

All in my humble opinion, of course. I also agree with "Rain" and "Tomorrow Never Knows". Somehow The Beatles pretty much got all of psych music summed up in two songs. Brilliant.

 

[SG John]

Some other nice psych songs are "Stain On The Sun" by the Bevis Frond, "Echoes" by Pink Floyd, "Two White Spiders" by Donovan's Brain, "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" by Ten Years After, and a bunch of Pink Fairies, Alchemysts, Abunai!, and Hawkwind stuff.

The Bevis Frond is probably my favorite Psych band.

 

[flameburst]

"Bm9 - the most psychedelic of all keys"

...It's called "Lick my love pump" Oh... wait that was D minor

 

[george4908]

I think you have to divide psychedelic music into at least two genres to make sense of it. One is the more or less serious psychedelia that delighted in experimentation, new sounds, new song structures and usually, but not necessarily, extended instrumental sections. Being stoned out of your gourd wasn't a requirement to get into this stuff, but it didn't hurt, either. Think of early Dead, early Pink Floyd (pre-DSOTM), Jimi, etc. Then there's the pop variation designed for commercial radio that appropriated the sounds of psychedelic music and shoehorned them into 3 minute songs. Think "Incense and Peppermints" as just one example. Or most anything with fake sitars. Some bands managed to combine a bit of both -- Jefferson Airplane was certainly radio-friendly, but live they would get into more interesting explorations.

Then there are other hybrid subgenres, like punk-psychedelic (Blues Magoos), psycho-surf (the Mermen), jazz-psych (arguably Tony Williams Lifetime), and others.

 

[TwoTubMan]

"Acid rock is music you listen to when you're high on acid."

Phil Lesh, ca. 1968

 

[Tone Disciple]

1. What makes good psychedelic Music?

Extended jamming over a droning backing.

2. What makes bad psychedelic music?

Extended jamming over a droning backing.

3. Best keys for psychedelic music?

As mentioned - Em, Am, dropped D, Bm9

4. 3 best psychedelic songs?

Still raining, still dreaming - Hendrix

Its All Too Much - Beatles/Harrison

Season of the Witch - Super Session - Cooper, Bloomfield and Stills

 

[sonicD]

1) One big twelve dollar word: Transcendence
2) Music that tries, but fails to create Transcendence
3) There’s no such thing as a “psychedelic” key.
4) (1) Almost anything in the Jefferson Airplane catalog, but “Bear Melt” from Bless Its Pointed Little Head would have to rank right up there at the top as a primo example.
(2)“Soap Shop Rock” by Amon Duul II, from Yeti
(3)“Section 43” by Country Joe and the Fish (Monterey Pop Festival – You Tube it!)​

I'm not a big Dead fan, but you can't not mention them here - they eventually "out grew" the psychedelic thing, but they certainly helped create the genre.
Also, I'd agree with the earlier poster about The Diamond Sea. A lot of Sonic Youth's stuff heads towards psychedelia, but they use different techniques to get there. They excel at the whole Transcendence thing.​

 

[RickC]

1. what makes good "psychedelic" music?

Echo! (not necessary, but sufficient)


2. what makes bad "psychedelic" music?

Forced "trippy" lyrics


3. what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?

D - don't ask me why


4. Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.

"Make the Journey" - Tractor

"Love Will Find a Way" - Spirit

"Mechanical World" - Spirit


/rick

 

[speedtaco]

1. Echo/delay and a wah wah
2.Bad lyrics
3.Not sure there is a particular key
4. a.Dazed and Confused
b.Set the Controls for the HEart of the Sun
c.still thinking on that one....

 

[Dandy13]

1.
what makes good "psychedelic" music?
music that sounds good while you're stoned OR music so good it makes you feel like you're stoned

2.
what makes bad "psychedelic" music?
posers

3.
what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?
you're thinking too hard if you feel like there is a right or wrong answer too this

4.
Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.
off the top of my head:
good morning- dandy warhols
come into our room - clinic
everything in it's right place -radiohead

 

[slinco]

My favorite psychedelic songs are anything by the band Gong (Daevid Allen era). Great stuff.

 

[imonabuss]

1) Aoxomoxoa by the Dead.

 

[Leonc]

1.what makes good "psychedelic" music?

The open-minded exploration of different sounds in a musical context. Experimentation.

2. what makes bad "psychedelic" music?

Contrivances, reliance on what's been established, bad, insincere lyrics

3. what are you favorite "psychedelic" keys to play in?

no faves per se.

4. Name 3 of your favorite psychedelic songs.

1983 ... Merman - Hendrix
Up From the Sky - Hendrix
Meeting of the Spirits - Mahavishnu Orchestra

 

[phusana]

What makes it: Fuzz, wah, backwards loops of anything, harpsichord, sitar, slightly detuned piano played simply, reverb, phased vocals, drones...

Dukes of Stratosphear