HUM- DOWNWARD IS HEAVENWARD

Well, what to say about HUM? a cult act if there ever was one. Spacey (but not shoegazy) alt-rock with lyrics about girls and astronomy. When I say "alt-rock" I worry it conjures memories of Pearl Jam or Stone Temple Pilots or something else that sucks but I'm thinking more along the lines of Smashing Pumpkins' heavier songs circa 95! This is very blissful music with the occasional crushing guitar part and feedback-laden lead melody. I feel like by describing it, as I'm trying to do right now, I'm over contextualizing it and not getting to the point. This band is really good and sadly forgotten in comparison to other bands from the era. This is their last album but it's a good starting point!


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13th FLOOR ELEVATORS- THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUND OF

This album is a perfect example of why garage-rock has already been done to death and why you and your skinny-jeans-wearing, trust-fund-living bros really shouldn't start a garage-rock band. This came out in 1966 and was already turning conventional garage-rock on its head by adding all the acid-fried weirdness of Roky Erickson and his band to the mix. That's right, 1966. It was that long ago that people saw garage-rock as something stale enough that a new direction was warranted entirely. In case you haven't read other posts on the blog, I hate garage-rock and especially the thousands of shit eaters who have decided in the last ten years that they should start a garage-rock band. It's FUCKING OLD. Seriously. Even if you just want to pay tribute to the genre, a real rarity these days since most schmucks' idea of classic garage is the Black Lips, the Gories did it better than anyone else ever could have so maybe it's time everyone stopped trying???

Anyway, I don't want to take away from the greatness and innovation that is this LP. This is one of the first psychedelic albums and it's awesome! The songwriting is incredible, the guitar playing is the catchy little bit of sugar that keeps it from descending into absolute weirdness and Roky Erickson's voice is perfect for these songs. If you don't like music from the 60's as a rule or if you like garage-rock and haven't heard this then you must click the link!

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CULPEPER'S ORCHARD- S/T

This is something of a lost-classic. Unfortunately it's really great heavy-psych with elements of prog and folk... Not exactly a style that hipster music-nerds are currently enamored with so I imagine this will stay in the lost-classic section for at least a few more years. According to Wikipedia they weren't even a big deal in their homeland of Denmark... shitty because this is better than a lot of supposedly 'classic' music from the era. You may want some chemical-aid before taking in this one

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