Shroomadelica! No one can take this seriously cos the NME is staffed with ex-Sun journalists. Personally I think it's quite promising. Whenever psychedelics light the litmus of white male rock, you've got to pay attention. Watch those fragile egos flicker and melt. It's pure voyeurism.
S'funny how the "Avant-Garde" often has humble beginnings in the coarse trendy student pop of the day. Ornette Coleman playing R'n'B. More pertinently and obviously Please Please Me > Revolution No.9. Crassly Loop > Main. Better The Walker Brothers > Scott. I always think it's a bit sad how "Wire" culture seeks to distance itself from it's less than elite origins. Doesn't Rob Young have healthy shoe-gazing pedigree? I'm talking post-jazz 'Wire" obv. Sad how the only admitted song canon is from the 70s; but when the chips are down The Grateful Dead are no more radical than The Beta Band. Maturity isn't necessarily the path to enightenment grasshopper.
I heard The Bees record today called Is it "Peas" or "Peace"? Quite a sexy looking ten-inch. That vinyl cult thing is exactly what enabled The Beta Band to cross-over into the hipster zone. It's a really nice record. Two tracks are quite stompy organ-y kind of things (think Country Joe and The Fish and shades of breakbeats) the flip side is a more Syd Barrett-y, quirky West-Coast rock-styled thing. Not AMAZING, but you know really nice, quite refreshing. I'll wager that in a year or so, if they keep with the strict fungi diet, these groups may yet produce something of lasting value.
Posted by Woebot at June 21, 2004 09:23 AM