Quicksilver Messenger Service

Acid Rock was the heaviest, loudest variation of psychedelic rock. Drawing from the overblown blues improvisations of Cream and Jimi Hendrix, acid rock bands relied on distorted guitars, trippy lyrics, and long jams. Acid rock didn't last too long -- it evolved and imploded within the life span of psychedelia -- and the bands that didn't break up became heavy metal bands.

Acid Rock was the heaviest, loudest variation of psychedelic rock. Drawing from the overblown blues improvisations of Cream and Jimi Hendrix, acid rock bands relied on distorted guitars, trippy lyrics, and long jams. Acid rock didn't last too long -- it evolved and imploded within the life span of psychedelia -- and the bands that didn't break up became heavy metal bands. [-] Hide

The Moody Blues

Although they shared some similar aesthetics and production techniques, British Psychedelia was quite different than its American counterpart. In general, British psychedelia was either more whimsical or artily experimental than its American counterpart, plus it tended to work within the pop song structure. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, however. No matter how many concise, pop singles they released, Pink Floyd still stretched out dramatically on stage, taking songs into uncharted... [+] Read More

Although they shared some similar aesthetics and production techniques, British Psychedelia was quite different than its American counterpart. In general, British psychedelia was either more whimsical or artily experimental than its American counterpart, plus it tended to work within the pop song structure. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, however. No matter how many concise, pop singles they released, Pink Floyd still stretched out dramatically on stage, taking songs into uncharted territory with each performance. However, these general rules do more or less apply, particularly to the studio recordings of British psychedelic acts. [-] Hide

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The Barbarians

Garage Rock was a simple, raw form of rock & roll created by a number of American bands in the mid-'60s. Inspired by British Invasion bands like the Beatles, Kinks, and Rolling Stones, these midwestern American groups played a variation on British Invasion rock. Since they were usually young and amateurish, the results were much cruder than their inspirations but that is what made the sound exciting. Most of the band emphasized their amateurishness, playing the same three chords, bashing... [+] Read More

Garage Rock was a simple, raw form of rock & roll created by a number of American bands in the mid-'60s. Inspired by British Invasion bands like the Beatles, Kinks, and Rolling Stones, these midwestern American groups played a variation on British Invasion rock. Since they were usually young and amateurish, the results were much cruder than their inspirations but that is what made the sound exciting. Most of the band emphasized their amateurishness, playing the same three chords, bashing their guitars and growling their vocals. In many ways, the garage bands were the first wave of do-it-yourself punk rockers. Hundreds of garage bands popped up around America and a handful of them -- the Shadows of Knight, the Count 5, the Seeds, the Standells -- had hits, but most were destined for obscurity. In fact, nearly all of the bands were forgotten in the early '70s, but the Nuggets compilation brought them back to the spotlight. In the '80s, there was a garage rock revival that saw a number of bands earnestly trying to replicate the sound, style, and look of the '60s garage bands. [-] Hide

Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood

Obscuro is a nebulous category that encompasses the weird, the puzzling, the ill-conceived, the unclassifiable, the musical territory you never dreamed existed. Or, to put it another way, it's the kind of music that devoted record geeks play for one another, with the announcement "you have to hear this." Obscuro records might be novelties good only for a laugh or two; they might be so utterly bizarre that you can't quite process them no matter how often you've heard them; they might be... [+] Read More

Obscuro is a nebulous category that encompasses the weird, the puzzling, the ill-conceived, the unclassifiable, the musical territory you never dreamed existed. Or, to put it another way, it's the kind of music that devoted record geeks play for one another, with the announcement "you have to hear this." Obscuro records might be novelties good only for a laugh or two; they might be so utterly bizarre that you can't quite process them no matter how often you've heard them; they might be failed experiments in commercially accepted styles, or wildly uncommercial; or, they might just be extremely rare records that have become legendary among collectors in part because very few people have heard them. Though it can come from virtually anywhere, obscuro tends to be concentrated in areas that either tried to push the boundaries of studio technology, or that experimented with offbeat instrumentation or stylistic fusions. More specifically, that means exotica and space-age pop (from the easy listening side), as well as psychedelia, progressive rock, and experimental (read: avant-garde) rock. Although obscuro records are by definition obscure and difficult to discover (much less track down), the Re/Search compilations Incredibly Strange Music, Vols. 1 and 2 (and their accompanying books) make a good entry point, as do most of the reissues on the Arf! Arf! label. [-] Hide

The Byrds

Psychedelic rock emerged in the mid-'60s, as British Invasion and folk-rock bands began expanding the sonic possibilities of their music. Instead of confining themselves to the brief, concise verse-chorus-verse patterns of rock & roll, they moved toward more free-form, fluid song structures. Just as important -- if not more so -- the groups began incorporating elements of Indian and Eastern music and free-form jazz to their sound, as well as experimenting with electronically altering... [+] Read More

Psychedelic rock emerged in the mid-'60s, as British Invasion and folk-rock bands began expanding the sonic possibilities of their music. Instead of confining themselves to the brief, concise verse-chorus-verse patterns of rock & roll, they moved toward more free-form, fluid song structures. Just as important -- if not more so -- the groups began incorporating elements of Indian and Eastern music and free-form jazz to their sound, as well as experimenting with electronically altering instruments and voices within the recording studio. Initially, around 1965 and 1966, bands like the Yardbirds and the Byrds broke down the boundaries for psychedelia, creating swirling layers of fuzz-toned guitars, sitars, and chanted vocals. Soon, numerous groups followed their pattern, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, both of whom recorded psychedelia in 1966. In no time, groups on both sides of the Atlantic embraced the possibilities of the new genre, and the differences were notable. In Britain, psychedelia tended to be whimsical and surrealistic. Nevertheless, bands -- most notably Pink Floyd and Traffic -- played extended instrumentals that relied on improvisation as much as their American contemporaries the Grateful Dead, the Doors, Love, and Jefferson Airplane. In other corners of America, garage bands began playing psychedelic rock without abandoning their raw, amateurish foundation of three-chord rock -- they just layered in layers of distortion, feedback, and effects. Eventually, psychedelic evolved into acid rock, heavy metal, and art rock, but there continued to be revivals of psychedelia in the decades that followed, most notably in the American underground of the mid-'80s. [-] Hide

Thunderclap Newman

Psychedelia was an underground phenomenon in the mid-'60s and, like many underground phenomena, it eventually went overground. It didn't take too long -- once the Beatles delved into the style on 1966's Revolver, it was just a matter of time. Where straight psychedelic music actively pushed boundaries, psychedelic pop, by and large, took those innovations and applied them to concise, catchy pop songs. The psychedelic effects were used as trippy dressing -- sitars, fuzz guitars, tape effects,... [+] Read More

Psychedelia was an underground phenomenon in the mid-'60s and, like many underground phenomena, it eventually went overground. It didn't take too long -- once the Beatles delved into the style on 1966's Revolver, it was just a matter of time. Where straight psychedelic music actively pushed boundaries, psychedelic pop, by and large, took those innovations and applied them to concise, catchy pop songs. The psychedelic effects were used as trippy dressing -- sitars, fuzz guitars, tape effects, backward guitars, even Beach Boys harmonies, were all blended into something trippy, but usually not too freaky, since the tight song structures and melodies gave everything a framework. At times, psychedelic pop songs were studio creations, but there were organic bands such as Sagittarius whose psychedelia was considerably bright and melodic; there were distinct Beach Boys influences, but they weren't as bubblegum as, say, the Lemon Pipers' "Green Tambourine." Because it had a stronger pop content, psychedelic pop had a slightly longer shelf-life than psychedelia, existing into the early '70s, which is a little odd. What's even stranger is that some psychedelic pop is more interesting than average psychedelia, since it had weird, occasionally awkward blends of psychedelia and pop conventions -- the Neon Philharmonic's 1969 album The Moth Confesses is a prime example of this. [-] Hide