KID MILLIONS, Oneida, Brah Records
5 Lost Classic Psych Albums
1. Chico Magnetic Band
Probably the most brutal psych I’ve ever heard. If Hendrix had less class and played rugby.
2. Martin Rev, Martin Rev
Suicide keys man undertakes a mostly instrumental journey through a teenage nihilistic emotional landscape. Instrumental except when he’s saying “tonight, tonight” over and over again.
3. Gary Higgins, Red Hash
Recorded in my hometown so it has that going for it. Kind of canonized now.
4. Anonymous, Inside the Shadow
This album either hits people or it doesn’t. What it has to recommend are Byrdsian 12-string rambles crossed with an undifferentiated Fleetwood Mac style male/female vocal team and a lose concept about painful lost love. The lyrics are good, the performances are great but some people haven’t been able to make the leap into loving it. I do.
5. Chrome, Half Machine Lip Moves
Damaged, poisoned croaks from some Bay Area miscreants who didn’t bother playing shows. Mechanistically funky and lysergically alienated. Add some awesome guitar shredding to the mix.
4 Post Punk Classics
1. Lost Sounds, Black Wave
Though not his band solely, Jay Reatard was a large contributor to this Memphis dark synth punk band with occasional lapses into kraut choogles and a non-stop cataract of rage. This double album is as good or better than Husker Du’s Zen Arcade.
2. The Wipers, Youth of America
The Wipers should be required psych listening. What’s strange about Greg Sage in the context of punk is his instrumental prowess. The title track is a 10 minute Hawkwind-esque psycho-drama about, well, The Youth of America. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and for a few years there wasn’t a better band making records in the US.
3. Boredoms, Sea Drum/House of Sun
This feels like the ultimate expression of a branch of exploratory music this Osaka band had been mining for five years. After they released this two song album they regrouped started doing more conceptual art pieces. Created through a few happy accidents in the studio – the interlocking drum patterns alone are enough to put your brain in another dimension.
4. Pere Ubu, The Modern Dance
The collision of dada, avant guard and punk in one transient creative expression.