{"id":505,"date":"2007-04-19T22:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-04-20T02:00:01","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2007-04-20T10:00:54","modified_gmt":"2007-04-20T10:00:54","slug":"whither-goest-thou-psyche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/whither-goest-thou-psyche\/","title":{"rendered":"Whither Goest thou, Psyche?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Tonight <strong>Townsman Saturnismine<\/strong> checks in with his long-promised piece on the future of psychedelic music. Turn off your mind, relax, and read along. I think you&#8217;ll dig what he has to say!<\/em><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IUFIQQG3168?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s quibble over definitions.  We find psychedelia\u2019s genesis in mid-60s pop with <strong>The Beatles<\/strong> leading the way. The meandering syrup of \u201cI\u2019m Only Sleeping\u201d and \u201cRain\u201d ripened into psyche on \u201cTomorrow Never Knows\u201d, \u201cStrawberry Fields\u201d, \u201cLucy in the Sky&#8221;, and \u201cI Am the Walrus\u201d.  We speak of a music that is by turns mimetic of <strong>altered states<\/strong> of consciousness or nostalgic of an <strong>idealized childhood<\/strong>.  Maybe it\u2019s a sort of a sonic equivalent of Lewis Carrol\u2019s words or Dali\u2019s images.  Other themes may include space travel or \u201caeroplane\u201d imagery.  Psyche was a music at the interstices of developments in recording, the coming of age of a generation, and other arch practitioners: <em>Piper<\/em>-era Floyd.<\/p>\n<p><em>But is this all?<\/em> I hope I\u2019m being too limiting.  <\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/orangesandlemons.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"301\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Is this all there is?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sure, other bands came and went, especially in the &#8217;80s: Plasticland, <strong>The 3 O\u2019Clock<\/strong>, Rain Parade.  The Dukes of Stratosphere were so much fun that XTC imported some of their side project\u2019s flavor for their most commercially successful albums, <em>Skylarking<\/em> and <em>Oranges and Lemons<\/em>, complete with <em>Yellow Submarine<\/em>-inspired cover art.  None of them, however, really did much to expand the vocabulary of the field.   <\/p>\n<p>Since then, more bands have tried on psyche for size, too.  No need for a list.  You know their names.  But maybe you haven\u2019t heard of <strong>Silver Sunshine<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>If not, listen to this song, which is pretty representative of their eponymous debut album.<br \/>\n<!--Media Player file:http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/VelvetSkies.mp3--><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/VelvetSkies.mp3\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/VelvetSkies.mp3\">Silver Sunshine, &#8220;Velvet Skies&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Psyche done well, wouldn\u2019t you say?  However, upon hearing such an efficient compendium of \u201cby the numbers\u201d psyche clich\u00e9s, I wondered to myself: <\/p>\n<p><em>Do I ever again need to hear a new song with lyrics about someone\u2019s uncle or \u201cauntie\u201d (or granny)\u2026riding a bicycle\u2026to the park\u2026or in the sky\u2026with \u201clots of colors\u201d\u2026on a Sunday\u2026where we can play\u2026or paint\u2026a song sung in <strong>an exaggerated British accent<\/strong> that\u2019s either pinched to sound like John Lennon on \u201cI\u2019m Only Sleeping\u201d or distorted to sound John on the second half of \u201cTomorrow Never Knows\u201d\u2026and which ends with an explosion?  I don\u2019t know.  But\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As I complained in our recent \u201cbiggest disappointment\u201d thread: psyche suggested so many creative possibilities, but its practitioners gave us so little.  Seemingly overnight, the most successful devices of the genre ossified into empty convention.  But why?  And what happened to all those possibilities?  <strong>What does the future hold for psyche?<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pxLpEX2bt8w?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nIs it on an island, or does it have a relationship to other genres that are vital right now?  Can its palette expand, or are mind-altering sonic experiences only to be found elsewhere?  Can other styles of music be described as having psychedelic aspects?  I remember seeing the word used quite a bit to describe the original lineup of <strong>Dinosaur Jr<\/strong>.  <em>Is there an expanded definition\/use of the word that suggests the genre\u2019s possible revitalization, rather than a slavish imitation of the past?<\/em>  Tell me, RTHers, I need to know what you think about this genre and where its headed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight Townsman Saturnismine checks in with his long-promised piece on the future of psychedelic music. Turn off your mind, relax, and read along. I think you&#8217;ll dig what he has to say! Let\u2019s quibble over definitions. We find psychedelia\u2019s genesis in mid-60s pop with The Beatles leading the way. The meandering syrup of \u201cI\u2019m Only <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/whither-goest-thou-psyche\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}