With the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love this year, the psychedelic sounds of the Bay Area in the ’60s are back in the popular consciousness. But Bay Area psych music shouldn’t just be thought of as a source of nostalgia; five decades after the Summer of Love, local bands are continuing to make stellar music applying a psychedelic lens to a number of styles and sounds. Sure, there are plenty of loud, heavy guitars at work in bands like Night Shapes and Nyre, but the trippy elements of psych also find a home in the warped R&B of Killer Whale and heady prog-pop of Once & Future Band.
This mix collects thirteen Bay Area artists exploring the varied dimensions of psychedelia. It’s admittedly an incomplete picture of trippy local music in 2017 — we’re excited for a new album coming soon from Sleepy Sun, and tried to avoid repeating bands from other mixes like Mondo Drag, Banquet or the great CCR Headcleaner. If anything, though, that caveat confirms the wealth of Bay Area psychedelic acts active today, including new bands Agouti and The Young Elders and longtime performers LSD and the Search for God and Dire Wolves.
Listen to the mixtape to learn more about all 13 artists.
Track Listing
Night Shapes – “Adolescent Recovery”
Once & Future Band – “Tell Me Those Are Tears of Joy”
K. Skelton – “Trouble”
Agouti – “Summertime”
The Love Dimension – “I’ll Find a Way”
Joel Gion – “Tomorrow”
Nyre – “If I ever go along”
The Young Elders – “She’s Gone”
Matt Baldwin – “Friends In LA”
Killer Whale – “Pink Pacific”
Heron Oblivion – “Your Hollows”
LSD and the Search for God – “Heaven”
Dire Wolves – “Cerebration Day”
