May Is for Psychedelia (A Playlist of Favoritel Nuggets)

I've always enjoyed psychedelic music despite never having dropped a tab of acid in my life. It combines mind-bending sounds with a special kind of brightness, even in its darkest moments. It's a kind of music that just makes me feel alive. For that reason May is the best time to listen to my old psych records. It's the month when spring is in full bloom, where on a rainy night you can actually hear the grass and trees gulping down the water and in the sunshine that follows the sound of life bursting forth. 

It was this time of year in 1999 when I purchased the great four disc Rhino Nuggets box set, chock full of psych garage of the most obscure vintage. In that spirit here's a playlist of my favorite psychedelic songs you might not know about. 

Rolling Stones, "Citadel"

Conventional wisdom says that Their Satanic Majesties Request was a wrongheaded, self-indulgent failure to copy Sgt Pepper, finally corrected when the Stones went back to the blues. While I must acknowledge that their 1968-1972 run after this album is maybe the best in rock history, Majesties is weird in a fun way. This song has amazingly gonzo guitar and a mind-bending bass sound like a bad trip come to life. It's psychedelic, but with the hardest edge the Stones are capable of. Flower power this is not. 

The Move, "I Can Hear the Grass Grow"

Hey, check it out, I'm not the only person who can hear the grass grow, The Move can too! They might be the best band whose catalog is not fully available on Spotify. I firmly believe this song was the inspiration for Spinal Tap's "Listen to the Flower People."

Small Faces, "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake"

I am a sucker for bands that were big in Britain that never made it in the States. That applies to The Move, but also to the Small Faces. This is the title track to the album, which has many a banger on it, but I find it's this instrumental intro track that gets me in a relaxed mood.

Chocolate Watch Band, "Dark Side of the Mushroom"

Speaking of instrumentals, this one sounds like a smoggy LA sunset over Hollywood Boulevard. It's also a perfect example of how the darkest psych songs still sound bright. 

Brian Jonestown Massacre, "Vacuum Boots"

The Brian Jonestown Massacre only modern band who has mastered the dark brightness of vintage psychedelia. This is less moody than some of their classics, but is a stone cold banger. The fuzzy riff is an all-timer. Rave on.

The Human Society, "Knock Knock"

I mentioned the Nuggets comp off the top, and this is one of the many gems it contains. The riff is so damn powerful and the singer's anguish and alienation just bleed right through the grooves. I swear to God I heard this is a beer commercial once. Some ad exec is a person after my own heart. 

Pink Floyd, "Matilda Mother"

Pink Floyd is probably the most successful psychedelic band ever, managing to bridge the gap between hippie happenings and arena rock. I remember in high school, in those pre-streaming days, asking someone what their Syd Barrett-era stuff sounded like, since I had never heard it. They told me "the music doesn't play, it sort of sounds." Well reader, I was awfully intrigued. I still love their first record, especially this song, which sounds more like a trip to Middle Earth than any of their songs that are more explicitly Tolkein-y.