Psychedelic rock, also referred to as psychedelia, is a diverse style of rock music inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelic culture, which is centred on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music is intended to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs, most notably LSD. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously.
Country Joe and the Fish was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Berkeley, California, in 1965. The band was among the influential groups in the San Francisco music scene during the mid- to late 1960s. Much of the band's music was written by founding members Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton, with lyrics pointedly addressing issues of importance to the counterculture, such as anti-war protests, free love, and recreational drug use. Through a combination of psychedelia and electronic music, the band's sound was marked by innovative guitar melodies and distorted organ-driven instrumentals which were significant to the development of acid rock.
The Black Angels are an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas. Formed in May 2004, they took their name from the Velvet Underground's "The Black Angel's Death Song." They have released five studio albums and one compilation album.
The Zakary Thaks were an American garage rock band from Corpus Christi, Texas, United States, which formed in the mid-1960s.
Magic Carpet was a pioneering British psychedelic folk band of musicians that first appeared in the early 1970s.
Capsula are a Bilbao, Spain, based band from Buenos Aires, Argentina formed in 1998 by Martin L Guevara and Cyborg Coni Duchess. Their name is the Spanish word for capsule and derives from the David Bowie song "Space Oddity".
Patrick Lundborg was a writer on psychedelic culture and author of the books Psychedelia and The Acid Archives. Lundborg had a Bachelor of Science degree in applied systems science from Stockholm University, with additional studies in classic philosophy and the history of religion. Lundborg was an original member of the Lumber Island Acid Crew, a psychedelic artist collective which formed in Stockholm in the mid-1980s and remains active up to the present time.
The Linus Pauling Quartet is an American psychedelic rock group which specializes in a specific subgenre known as "Texas Psych", but frequently dabbles also in garage rock, stoner rock, punk rock, and heavy metal at various points throughout their discography. The LP4 was formed in 1994 by veterans of various local groups from the Houston and Clear Lake areas of Texas. Born of the same musical cauldron that birthed such renowned Texas Psych favorites as The Mike Gunn, Dry Nod, and Schlong Weasel, bands which also included later members of Charalambides and Dunlavy, the LP4 got off the ground when guitarist Ramon Medina and bassist Stephen Finley recruited drummer Larry Liska and singer/guitarist Clinton Heider and the quartet began writing and recording songs for their first album, Immortal Chinese Classics Music, released in 1995 on their own Worship Guitars label. The album surprisingly earned considerable attention beyond their native Houston, garnering notable reviews in several music magazines such as Q Music, Factsheet Five, Alternative Press, Crohinga Well, and Ptolemaic Terrascope, and featured "The Linus Theme" and "Hamburger Girl", two songs which came to define the band's early years, and which the LP4 revisited many times throughout their career.
Levitation is an annual 3-day music festival developed and produced by The Reverberation Appreciation Society. Since its sixth year in 2013 it has been held at Carson Creek Ranch in Austin, Texas. Inspired by the creative explosion of the 1960s, as well as by festivals such as ATP and Primavera Sound, they set out to create their vision of a music festival.
Basic Blues Magoos is the third album by the American rock band the Blues Magoos. It was released on Mercury Records in May 1968. The album saw the group transitioning from psychedelia back to their blues rock roots. Though the album has gained more favor over the years, it was received as a disappointment upon its original distribution and failed to chart.
The Velvet Illusions, also known as Georgy and the Velvet Illusions and the Illusions, were an American garage rock band formed in Yakima, Washington in 1965. The group, with influences spanning from R&B standards, the British Invasion, to early psychedelia, released five singles in their brief recording career. Despite never breaking out nationally, the band's music has been revived, thanks, in large part, to its inclusion on several compilation albums, most notably Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets: 1965–1968.
The Freeborne was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1966. The band was one of the numerous groups associated with the "Bosstown Sound", and is noted for releasing one eclectic album, Peak Impressions, in 1967, which exemplified the young members' versatility embedded in psychedelia.
Kikagaku Moyo are a Japanese psychedelic band from Tokyo. The band's name translates to "geometric patterns."
Weird Owl are a psychedelic rock band from Brooklyn, New York City formed in 2004. Their first recording, Nuclear Psychology, was released in 2007. Their debut studio album, Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed, was released in 2009 by Tee Pee Records. Their second album, Build Your Beast a Fire, was released in 2011, and received generally positive reviews. Their mini-LP Healing was released in 2013, followed by the album Interstellar Skeletal in 2015.
Build Your Beast a Fire is the second studio album by the American psychedelic rock band Weird Owl, released on July 26, 2011 by Tee Pee Records. The album was released following their 2009 album Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed.
New Candys is an Italian alternative rock band formed in Venice in 2008. The group consists of Fernando Nuti, Andrea Volpato, Alessandro Boschiero and Dario Lucchesi.
The Sonic Dawn is a psychedelic rock band, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are known as a prolific live act, having toured the European continent numerous times, and have released four full-length albums internationally. The Sonic Dawn describe their sound as "a psychedelic mixture of styles, from jazzy sitar pop to heavy acid rock." They have recently appeared alongside artists such as Graveyard and Brant Bjork.
Satan's Satyrs was an American band originally formed in 2009 in Virginia by lead vocalist and bassist Clayton Burgess. The band's lineup as of 2016 included Burgess, Jarrett Nettnin, Stephen Fairfield and Nate Towle. Originally influenced by groups such as Electric Wizard and Black Flag, Burgess mailed a demo tape to Electric Wizard and recorded their first album Wild Beyond Belief, which began with Burgess performing all the instruments while still being attending high school. The group began their follow-up album Die Screaming and were invited by Jus Oborn of Electric Wizard to perform at the Roadburn Festival in 2013. Burgess was then offered to join Electric Wizard in 2014 which he accepted. The group has recorded two follow-up albums since along with a split EP with Windhand which charted in Billboard's Top Heatseekers charts.
Atomic Forest was an Indian psychedelic and hard rock band from Mumbai, active in the early-1970s. They recorded a single album, Obsession '77.
It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine is a Slovenian online music magazine dedicated to psychedelic and progressive music news, band interviews and album reviews. It was founded by Klemen Breznikar in October 2010 and was originally based in Ljubljana; it is currently headquartered in Prebold. The webzine has covered an extensive range of music over the years, from electronic to heavy metal, but generally focuses on psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, progressive rock, progressive metal, krautrock, art rock, garage rock and space rock.
