Follow/contact
The other site
From '50s NYC clubland, a Yma Sumac-inspired version of "Babalu" by jazz/calypso singer Phyllis Branch.
Category Archives: Psychedelic/Pop
The teen art of lonesome
Heartbreak and loneliness, as topics, had already been beaten to death in teenage popular music on the eve of the British Invasion. But that wasn’t necessarily the problem. Rather, it was that heartbreak and loneliness were always so poorly and … Continue reading
Curt Boettcher productions
Curt Boettcher, ‘60s California studio wunderkind, belongs somewhere in a rarified constellation of pop music auteurs and true industry eccentrics. His productions and arrangements, his compositions and lyrical bent, his gravity-defying voice occupy the more imaginative, cosmic end of ‘60s … Continue reading
’60s Jangle pop
One of the reliable axioms of commercial music is that every chart success will inspire a legion of derivatives. In no way is this meant as criticism. The pattern tends to get a lot of appreciation around here, the cycles … Continue reading
The Bee Gees’ “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show,” as recorded in a half-million gallon tank by David Paul
I make a rare detour this week to feature an extraordinary video, and to talk to its creator, David Paul. The sour truth of being an obsessive music collector is that, like any addiction, the longer you feed it the … Continue reading
Journey into Mellow
A shorter post this week, owing not to lack of enthusiasm but rather to the scarcity of specifics about the subjects, as well as to their somewhat unclassifiable nature. In the late ’60s there seemed to briefly prevail a commercial … Continue reading
Early country rock
Country rock is largely, and probably accurately, identified with late ‘60s Los Angeles. The new sensibility drew its earliest and most influential adherents from a variety of musical quarters and pedigrees. In 1966 and ’67, when it first began to … Continue reading
Office Naps Summer 2010 Psychedelic Pop mix
The fifth installment of the Office Naps psychedelic pop mix. Sunshine dreams, bad trips, and modern astrology for Today’s Teen. Office Naps Summer 2010 Psychedelic Pop mix Pinnochio & the Puppets, Fusion (7″ 45, Mercury) Jackie & Gayle, Remember (7″ … Continue reading
Office Naps Winter 2008 Psychedelic Pop mix
The latest version of the psychedelic pop mix, streamlined and scratchier than ever. If anything, people tend to remember the decade for the sitars and sunshine harmonies and fuzzed-out guitars. The reputation is not entirely undeserved. But I am here … Continue reading
