About Psychedelic Rock..

by

magnusti78

It all started, when I had to do some research about one my fave bands of today, Dance Gavin Dance, one of their album(latest), Happiness, whom it was being classified as psychedelic screamo. Of Course Screamo, to be definite would be kinda a less complicated to defined/understand with.(exceptions would be the correct use of metal growl/death growl etc)

To tell you the truth guys, I have never encountered music, defining a abuse/deviant but nonetheless its an expression/appreciation of the music.

So what is really this Psychedelic Rock? Taken from the word Psychedelic, it relates to drugs manifestation/abuse, yet to the latter, the cause and effects, is being in session. I somewhat made a thread on NarutoForums, under their music department discussion, and music critics,fans, and enthusiasts, answered my thread,(obviously the earlier replies, shows an argument the difference between space rock and psychedelic rock) so the bands/musical acts they recommend are Pink Floyd, Hawkwing, Eloy, Nektar and Muse.

The follow excerpt is from Jove, a music enthusiast, who is also a moderator on Naruto Forums posted his reply

"Psychedelia is pretty complicated. If I can thwart attempting to define it and present a loose history, I'll do that.

Basically, psychedelic music grew out of the two predominant guitar pop entities of the mid-60's (65-66): the garage and proto-punk of America, and the Mod or England. Mod was especially influential; bands like The Smoke or The Creation were essentially the blueprints for psychedelia. And there was one other key element: The Beatles.

From there, it grew in a number of different directions over the next few years (1967-1969). You had:

• Moody, somewhat drug-fueled pop: The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, etc.
• Swirling, fuzzy pop: Hendrix, The Amboy Dukes, Cream, etc.
• Freak-out: The kind of fuzzy-guitar-solo heavy groove music that you see in lots of movies from the era. Usually underscoring a scene with kids dancing in a poorly lit room, with a kaleidoscope of colored lights swirling about. This was the classic form of psychedelia: Yardbirds-like blues jamming (but faster) and insistent R&B rhythms.
• Folk based psychedelia: The Byrds, early Neil Young, and to a certain extent The Grateful Dead.
• Hard proto-punk: These bands basically formed the basis of the originalNuggets compilation, such as The 13th Floor Elevators)
• Trippy and experimental: And especially experimental with electronics. Bands such as The United States of America, Fifty Foot Hose, and The Silver Apples.
• Baroque Pop: The sort of psyche found on Zombies' Odessey and Oracleand Love's Forever Changes albums, for instance.
• Whimsical pop: this is a archetype British spin on psychedelia. Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn, for example.
• Classic Pop: a sort of instant reaction to psychedelic music. More of a British entity, these were bands that took elements of psychedelia, pop, music hall, and Mod and created classic, catchy pop singles. The Small Faces, especially, but also bands like The Move and The Idle Race. These bands form the basis of the Nuggets 2 compilations, which focused more on international Psyche bands. In America, The Millennium's Begin falls into this category, and is one of the finest albums of the era.

So, basically it was an expansion of things: of song, of mind, of playing. Fueled by drugs, natural energy, or intrigue.

And that's just Anglo-American psyche. This isn't even touching Brazil. Or Nederland, France, Mexico, Italy, or New Zealand.

The more aggressive elements of psyche would be found in bands like the MC5 and The Stooges, in part leading to hard psyche, hard rock, proto-metal, and punk. Whereas bands that were initially quite psyche like King Crimson Pink Floyd in part led to prog and such. Pretty much everything can be traced back to 1965.


I can't recall anything with post-hardcore or progressive; that would probably fall more with Boskov, or Lamb, or perhaps d_m. If you'd like something more current, I can recommend Motorpsycho."

To sum it all up, I want psychedelic to be infused with other musical styles/genre. I mean, Closure in Moscow, The Mars Volta etc... These are the first bands io listen to, with their psychedelic sound infused with progressive rock, alternative etc. but in relation to Jove's post, it is quite clear, infusing Psychedelic rock to the post-hardcore scene, is quite a taboo nor uncommon to the public's eyes. What is more important, the expression how the sound rationalize one's life, fulfilling its importance, why he or she lived for.

I don't know about you guys, but I am going still to listen to psychedelic rock.:)