Review: Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' -35th Anniversary Edition

Smashing Pumpkins debuted in the year of grunge, and though they fit in pretty nicely with that scene's predilection for grimy guitars and self-pity, there was something else going on. The scene lauded punk-level skills, but Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin were virtuosos, the latter seeming pretty well versed in jazz technique. Along with the noise typical of grunge, there were dreamy waves of psychedelia and goth. Plus Corgan had an innate sense of melody largely absent from grunge, with the exceptions of Kurt Cobain and Mark Lanegan. The Pumpkins were also capable of debuting with a remarkably consistent album that even Nirvana couldn't match with their own first effort. Though it doesn't swell with alterna-hits the way Smashing Pumpkins' next two albums would, Gish may still be their strongest album. At least it's my personal favorite.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #450 - 426

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's being beautiful from 450 to 426...

450. The Byrds- "Old John Robinson" (1968). in which The Byrds take a sort of old-fashioned folk tune and bring it up to date with a baroque string interlude and mega-phasing.

Review: 'Passion Is a Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash'

The Clash are considered to be one of the definitive punk bands and celebrated for being one of the most politically progressive bands of the punk movement. The reality is a bit more complicated than that. "White Riot" may speed by with the simplicity and velocity we expect from punk rock, but what would a mohicaned, safety-pin-nosed hooligan make of "The Magnificent Seven"? Latter-day punk Kurt Cobain was famously perplexed by Sandinista! And how does Joe Strummer's famous declaration "we're anti-violence" jibe with his tendency to punch people? Or the group's allegedly Marxist viewpoint synch-up with Mick Jones's zeal for luxury? Or the group's demand for active participation in social change synch-up with Topper Headon's druggy inertia?

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #475 - 451

Welcome back to Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500, in which I count my personal fave psych songs from 500 all the way down to #1! Today, let's see what's freaking out from 475 to 451...

475. The Association- "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" (1966), in which you refuse to listen to today's song because The Association is the band that did the wretchedly sappy "Cherish" and because it's called "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies", and I shout, "You're the one who's missing out!" just as you turn the corner and disappear from view forever.

Review: 'Ringo: A Fab Life'

Telling the story of a backline player, even one in a band as massive as The Beatles, can be tricky. Ringo Starr drove the band's beat, but he didn't drive them artistically, barely writing any songs or calling any shots regarding their musical direction. So as distinctive as he is as a person, there is always the danger that he will disappear way back on the riser when writing his biography, at least when covering his years in that band fronted by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Psychobabble's Psychedelic 500: #500 - #476

Here at Psychobabble, we love many genres, from punk to soul to new wave to jazz to alt rock to prog to goth. But no genre is dearer to your host's heart than psychedelia. The fanciful lyrics! The cacophonous yet dreamy music! The sitars! The Mellotrons! The unfettered Lewis Carroll references!

And so today begins a new series intended to be the mind-melting equivalent of licking a sheet of acid the size of the Sgt Pepper's gatefold. You will be counting along with me downward toward my personal choice for the single greatest psychedelic song of all time. Along the way, you will drift pass my 500th favorite psychedelic song, my 499th favorite, my 498th, my...well you get the picture. 

Each new installment will go live every Monday from now until it all wraps up in September or whenever (whoa, man, I'm way too high to do calendar math!).

I have limited my selections to the original wave of psychedelia, which means there will be nothing by very worthy later-day trip makers, such as Dukes of Stratosphear and The Flaming Lips, and much by those who did their doings between the years of 1965 and 1971. 

Although the years are limited, the artists will not be, though some are more favored than others because, to reiterate, these are my personal fave raves. So while you will encounter artists from NYC to LA, from Shepherd's Bush to Liverpool, from Brazil to Lebanon, you will not encounter The Grateful Dead. They're bullshit.

So slip into your cleanest Nehru jacket, flick on that lava lamp, fire up a joss stick, repeat "Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō" until you reach nirvana, turn to page 100 of The Wind in the Willows, and we will begin with our first batch of 25 lysergic anthems...

#500. Status Quo- "Pictures of Matchstick Men" (1968), in which a bunch of future pub rockers jump the psychedelic bandwagon with warped wah-wah guitars, a piercing yet infectious riff, and some nonsense about men made out of the sticks you use to light up smokes, though the average Status Quo fan is probably more inclined to light a Chesterfield than an herbal jazz cigarette.

Review: Muddy Waters's 'Folk Singer' (Chess Acoustic Sounds Edition)

The most profound impact Muddy Waters would have on pop was just around the corner when he recorded his second album in the autumn of 1963. Since The Rolling Stones had yet to make Waters a household name in households that didn't include a blues devotee, the folks at Chess needed to think up another scheme to provide their most mature African-American artist with the cross-over appeal to reach the young white market. 

Review: 'Ad Nauseum: Newsprint Nightmares from the '70s & '80s'

As a young child in the seventies and early eighties, I'd flip through the newspaper every day and stop at two sections: the comics and the movies. When I'd come across an ad for a horror movie, I'd inevitably think, "What kind of disturbed, sick individual would want to torture themselves by watching this horrible stuff?" What I should have been thinking when perusing the paper was "Does anyone actually think B.C. is funny?"

Review: 'Pink Floyd: Shine On'

An oral history is of no worth if there is no involvement from the principal players, and the most valuable sort includes original interviews with those characters conducted by the author. So right off the bat, Pink Floyd: Shine On remains true to its title words. 

Mark Blake, who has dedicated a good portion of his career to chronicling Pink Floyd, personally interviewed Roger Waters, Dave Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright over a 33-year period, right up until last year when he completed his oral history. Well, Wright's involvement didn't last quite so long, as the keyboardist died in 2008, and it shows in the relative scarcity of his quotes, but he still gets his say.

Review: 'White Zombie' Blu-ray

White Zombie was the first major zombie film, though today's legions of walking dead devotees might find it bewildering unless they somehow came across a musty box of classic E.C. comics. Victor Halperin's film features the voodoo variety of zombies rather than the shuffling brain-eaters that gave them the bum's rush right out the crypt door. Current sensitivities being what they are, this is probably for the best since the original zombie stories were so entwined with real-world issues of race and slavery. Garnett Weston's script does indeed identify slavery as evil, but it takes the zombification of a white woman to get anyone in his film to do anything about it. Plus there's one highly uncomfortable scene involving a white actor in blackface, which is especially galling considering how many genuine black extras there are in this movie. Welcome to 1932.