Gomorrha - Gomorrha (1969)

Here in PDX, it seems that summer might finally be hitting. So to mark the occasion, 'bout some hard-driving German psych-pop? After this record, Gomorrha decided that hard prog was where it was at, and re-recorded their debut with a more pronounced psych/blues sound and English lyrics, but I prefer this rawer, less self-conscious version.

Track listing

1. Lola

2. Totes Land

3. Flammenhände

4. Reise

5. Regenbogenschein

6. Gestern

7. Kreiseltanz

8. Sommer

9. Trauma

Dance on a volcano

Also listen to:

The Lollipop Shoppe - Just Colour (1968)

The Misunderstood - Before the Dream Faded (1982)

Sunshine Fix - A Spiraling World of Pop (1993)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)

Early Elephant 6 magic courtesy of E6 co-founder Bill Doss. If you're expecting this to be warm, fuzzy, wistful, lo-fi indie rock, just because it's an early E6 cassette: you're absolutely right, that's exactly what it is. "Turtle Song" is particularly great.

Track listing:

1. Listen for the Day

2. Love Athena

3. I'll Be Gone

4. You Won't Be

5. Queen Misery

6. Learn

7. Temptation

8. Turtle Song

9. Superman Suit

10. Leonard upon Entering the Fish Market (Speaks of Apple Butter)

But it's not me

That you see

It's only a feeling

That you believe

Similar listening:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

Related:
Marbles - Marbles (1993)
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The weirdest, most psychedelic Apples in Stereo record. Pretty sure this was the first Elephant 6-related album I ever heard, having snagged it from my cooler older sister's room in a quest for non-punk music to help me through a breakup with a high-school sweetheart. Seven song-songs interspersed with a series of instrumental vignettes and sketches. "Strawberryfire" is a piece of Beatles worship for the ages -- it's almost too on-the-nose, but it's executed so beautifully that all is quickly forgiven.

Relatedly: I've been going back and replacing old links with higher-quality rips -- including almost all of the Elephant 6 ones -- so enjoy. And I haven't listened to all of them, so let me know if there are any issues with them.

Track listing:
1. I. Her Room Is a Rainy Garden
2. II. Morning Breaks (And Roosters Complain)
3. The Shiney Sea
4. III. The Significance of a Floral Print
5. Strawberryfire
6. IV. From Outside, in Floats a Music Box
7. Ruby
8. V. She Looks Through Empty Windows
9. Questions and Answers
10. VI. Drifting Patterns
11. Y2K
12. VII. Les Amants
13. Benefits of Lying (With Your Friends)
14. Ruby, Tell Me
15. VIII. Together They Dream into the Evening

I would do anything to be anywhere else

You should also hear:

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Beulah -
When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Circulatory System - Circulatory System (2001)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)
Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

A glorious, colorful aural tapestry featuring most of a then-recently disbanded Olivia Tremor Control. Comes off less as a collection of songs than a joyously psychedelic celebration of the very act of making music and its endless possibilities. The sheer volume of amazing music that Elephant 6 was churning out around this time is astonishing, and Circulatory System is one of the very best -- right up there with Black Foliage (linked above) and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Track listing:
1. Yesterday's World
2. Prehistoric
3. Diary of Wood
4. Outside Blasts
5. Joy
6. The Lovely Universe
7. Round
8. Inside Blasts
9. Illusion
10. Waves of Bark and Light
11. Now
12. A Peek
13. Fingers
14. Days to Come (In Photographs)
15. Symbols and Maps
16. The Pillow
17. Stars
18. Should a Cloud Replace a Compass?
19. Time or Dateline
20. How Long?
21. Your Parades

Here comes the perfect day
We're inside the Milky Way

More from E6:

The Apples in Stereo -
Science Faire (1996)

Beulah -
When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Paper Garden - Paper Garden (1969)

A first-rate lost gem of 60s psychedelia. Colorful and ornate -- at times to the point of cacophony -- but with tinges of darkness and paranoia lurking in the peripherals. What Sgt. Pepper's might have sounded like if The Beatles didn't have all that money and spent more time doing all the drugs that they were so fond of namedropping.

Track listing:
1. Gypsy Wine
2. Sunshine People
3. Way Up High
4. Lady's Man
5. Mr. Mortimer
6. Man Do You
7. Raining
8. I Hide
9. Raven
10. A Day

How I hate to go to bed

You would probably also like:

Gary Lewis -
Listen! (1967)

The Five Day Week Straw People -
The Five Day Week Straw People (1968)

The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)

Related:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)
The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)
Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

Essential 90s indie psych pop. A colorful, dizzying sound-journey through a world of Beatles/Beach Boys-style pop, as refracted through a kaleidoscope then recorded onto a four-track. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea aside, Black Foliage is the quintessential Elephant 6 record, and one of my all-time favorite albums.

Track listing:
1. Opening
2. A Peculiar Noise Called "Train Director"
3. Combinations
4. Hideaway
5. Black Foliage: Animation 1
6. Combinations
7. The Sky Is a Harpsichord Canvas
8. A Sleepy Company
9. Grass Canons
10. A New Day
11. Combinations
12. Black Foliage: Animation 2
13. I Have Been Floated
14. Paranormal Echoes
15. Black Foliage: Animation 3
16. A Place We Have Been To
17. Black Foliage (Itself)
18. The Sylvan Screen
19. The Bark and Below It
20. Black Foliage: Animation 4
21. California Demise 3
22. Looking for Quiet Seeds
23. Combinations
24. Mystery
25. Another Set of Bees in the Museum
26. Black Foliage: Animation 5
27. Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)

In the blink of an eye, you get several meanings

You should also be listening to:

Bongwater -
The Power of Pussy (1990)

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Marcos Valle - Marcos Valle (1974)

Beautiful psych-tinged Brazilian pop. Fits pretty much any mood you can throw at it.

Track listing:
1. No Rumo Do Sol
2. Meu Herói
3. Só Se Morre Uma Vez
4. Casamento, Filhos E Convenções
5. Remédio P'ro Coração
6. Brasil X México
7. Tango
8. Nossa Vida Começa Na Gente
9. Novelo De Lã
10. Cobaia
11. Charlie Bravo

The moment your head hits the pillow

More Brazilian excellence:

Gilberto Gil - Gilberto Gil (1968)

Milton Nascimento - Minas (1975)

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

Before the Apples in Stereo, there was Marbles, Robert Schneider's first project through which his love for 60s psych pop by way of messy, lo-fi indie rock fully blossomed.

Track listing:
1. Laughing
2. Kite
3. Swimming
4. Head
5. Bottom of the Sea
6. Pyramid Landing
7. Death My Bride
8. Invisible
9. Inverse Gazebo
10. Play Fair

I wanna swim with you

The Five Day Week Straw People - The Five Day Week Straw People (1968)

Some choice early psych for dat ass. The Five Day Week Straw People isn't some lost masterwork, but it's a solid collection of upbeat, druggy 60s garage rock. Plus -- and this is important -- it does contain "Sunday Morning?", whose warbly guitar textures and ethereal vocals arguably make it a (very) early piece of proto-shoegaze. It's also straight-up one of my all-time favorite songs.

This reissue contains the 10 original album tracks, followed by 9 previously unreleased songs from John Du Cann's other band, The Attack.

Track listing:
1. Five Day Week Straw People
2. I'm Going Out Tonight
3. Gold Digger
4. Postmen
5. Car Wash
6. Feel Like Having a Party
7. Sunday Morning?
8. Does It Rain!
9. If You Were Around
10. Dust in My Eyes
11. Magic in the Air [bonus]
12. Mr. Pinnodmy's Dilemma [bonus]
13. Freedom for You [bonus]
14. Strange House [bonus]
15. Feel Like Flying [bonus]
16. Too Old [bonus]
17. Go Your Way [bonus]
18. Now the Sun Shines [bonus]
19. Sleep Like a Child [bonus]

Get yourself free

Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't - Individualized Shirts (2001)

Related:
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)
The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)

One of the lesser known Elephant 6 acts, Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't is the brainchild of Olivia Tremor Control keyboardist Peter Erchick. Individualized Shirts is the project's first record, and it has everything that you know and love about E6 -- fuzzy guitars, 60s psych pop-inspired vocal melodies and harmonies, and a warm, analogue, homemade-sounding recording. Why haven't you heard this album?

Track listing:
1. Ten Thousand Years Old
2. If I Leave Tomorrow
3. Do Be Day
4. Karaoke Free
5. Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't
6. I Am Instead
7. Big Giant
8. Million Pieces
9. Moon River
10. Me and Bob
11. Sleep Come Easy
12. I Stopped with Victor
13. Pueblo

Given half a chance, we all end up like someone
Someone we don't like

Gilberto Gil - Gilberto Gil (1968)

A colorful fusion of bossa nova (and probably some other Brazilian styles of music with which I'm not as familiar) and psychedelic rock, with orchestral arrangements courtesy of Rogério Duprat. Think Os Mutantes. In fact, really, think Os Mutantes: they're Gil's backing band. If I knew what was good for me, I'd probably listen to this every morning, and be a happier, more successful person within a few weeks.

Track listing:
1. Frevo Rasgado
2. Coragem pra Suportar
3. Domingou
4. Marginália Il
5. Pega a Voga, Cabuelo
6. Êle Falava Nisso Todo Dia
7. Procissão
8. Luzia Luluza
9. Pé da Roseira
10. Domingo no Parque
11. Barca Grande
12. A Coisa Mais Linda que Existe
13. Questão de Ordem
14. A Luta Contra a Lata ou a Falência do Café

Come on, summer

The Open Mind - The Open Mind (1969)

Some early psychedelia for your spring break/work week. The Open Mind is this UK band's only LP, and it's a collection of short, catchy, Nuggets-like psych pop gems, with lots of vocal harmonies, druggy lyrics, and fuzzed-out leads. I have a shit-ton of records like this that I never post, for some reason.

Track listing:
1. Dear Louise
2. Try Another Day
3. I Feel the Same Way Too
4. My Mind Cries
5. Can't See You
6. Thor the Thunder God
7. Horses and Chariots
8. Before My Time
9. Free as the Breeze
10. Girl I'm So Alone
11. Soul and My Will
12. Falling Again

Looked at the moon and it was crying
Looked at the trees and they were sleeping

Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)

Easily my favorite record from this under-appreciated branch of the Elephant 6 collective. There's a bit of all types of psychedelia -- Eastern-influenced musical mantras ("Wings of Light"), acoustic pop ("The Winter Is Coming", "The Sun Is Forever"), heavy quasi-doom ("The Albatross"), dark alt rock ("The Skeleton"), fuzzed-out, homespun bliss ("People Underneath"), and whatever one might call the sweeping, urgent album opener, "Embrace the Crimson Tide" -- so if you don't like the sound of one track, you can be sure that the next one will be completely different.

Track listing:
1. Embrace the Crimson Tide
2. Skeleton
3. The Great Society
4. The Winter Is Coming
5. Wings of Light
6. The Sun Is Forever
7. People Underneath
8. Green Sea Days
9. The Naughty Villain
10. Leopard's Teeth
11. Birds in the Backyard
12. 10,000 Telescopes
13. The Albatross

There's no path for you to follow
Drift your way right through tomorrow
There's no need to run
No need to hide

The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The Apples in Stereo are, as far as I know, the only band from the Elephant 6 collective who still actively record and put out albums. Science Faire compiles a bunch of singles and EPs from before the release of their first (and IMO still best) proper LP, Fun Trick Noisemaker. Personally, I prefer this fuzzier, messier, more lo-fi material to the exuberant, polished power pop they ended up making. I dig that shit, too, though.

Track listing:
1. Tidal Wave
2. Motorcar
3. Turncoat Indian
4. Haley
5. Not the Same
6. Stop Along the Way
7. Running in Circles
8. Hypnotic Suggestion
9. Touch the Water
10. Glowworm
11. To Love the Vibration of the Bulb
12. Time for Bed / I Know You'll Do Well
13. Rocket Pad

Silvery light of a dream

Gary Lewis - Listen! (1967)

An excellent, obscure gem of sunny psych pop. I think I'm trying to counteract the rapidly approaching rainy season with songs like "New Day" and "Look Here Comes the Sun" (which, it's worth noting, was written before the Beatles song), and it's working, kinda.

Track listing:
1. Jill
2. Don't Make Promises
3. She'd Rather Be with Me
4. Look Here Comes the Sun
5. Happiness
6. Bring the Whole Family
7. Reason to Believe
8. New Day
9. Small Talk
10. Angel on the Corner
11. Six O'Clock
12. Young and Carefree

Turn to the east, watch for the dawn
The night we loved in is now nearly gone

The Legendary Pink Dots - Chemical Playschool 1 & 2 (1981)

Early, duel-cassette release from the semi-legendary Legendary Pink Dots pink dots. It's essentially a quadruple album, as each side has over forty minutes of music, adding up to over three hours of warped, psychedelic, synth-based genius! Originally uploaded by/copped from Shards of Beauty.

Track listing:
-1A-
1. Defeated
2. Voices
3. Ideal Home
4. Black Highway
5. Soma Bath
6. Doll's House
7. Louder After Six
8. Phallus Dei
9. Stand Firm, Damien
10. (untitled)
11. Dying for the Emperor
-1B-
1. Peace Krime 1
2. Brighter Now
3. Peace Krime 2
4. Mpnmep Cptaha
5. Apocalypse Now
6. Professional
7. Donna's Blitzed Again
8. Brill
9. Witch Hunt
10. Break Day
11. Break Down
-2A-
1. City Ghosts
2. Onward
3. Legacy
4. For the Pearl Moon
5. Sensory Deprivation
6. Temper Temper
7. Amphitheatre Shuffle
8. Misfortunes
9. Red Castles
10. Hanging Gardens
11. detaefeD
12. Before the End
-2B-
1. Waiting for the Call / You'n'me
2. Amphitheatre 1
3. Frosty
4. Another Kind of Violence
5. The Wedding
6. Starch on Sunday
7. Caligula
8. Fin

To mourn the death of colour

The Gerbils - The Battle of Electricity (2001)

Second and last album from this gang of Elephant 6 weirdos. Gonna be honest: I've always felt that "Are You Underwater", the wondrous, anthemic album opener, writes a check that the rest of The Battle of Electricity can't quite cash. It's a great record, but "Are You Underwater" is such a huge, gloriously uplifting song (think: an early 2000s indie rock interpretation of "Tonight, Tonight") that the ragged, nerdy, lo-fi pop songs that follow feel a bit deflated by comparison.

BUT! This is probably more an issue of sequencing than deteriorating song quality, as The Battle of Electricity slowly reveals itself as a worthy addition to the E6 Hall of Fame. The early-album sag is counteracted by a trio of fuzzed out gems ("Meteoroid from the Sun Strikes a Dead Weirdo", "Song of Love", and "The White Sky") that provide a much-needed visceral release and counterpoint to the album's less immediate first and last acts.

Track listing:
1. Are You Underwater
2. (i)
3. The Air We Share
4. Lucky Girl
5. (ii)
6. Fail to Mention
7. (iii)
8. Meteoroid from the Sun Hits a Dead Weirdo
9. (iv)
10. A Song of Love
11. (v)
12. The White Sky
13. (vi)
14. (vii)
15. Snorkel
16. The Battle of Electricity
17. Share Again
18. (viii)

Why do we like each other between our time submerged?
Or will we bother holding hands and treading water?

Skip Bifferty - Skip Bifferty (1967)

Great early UK psychedelia. Songs that range from jaunty piano ditties to full-on head trips, all with a solid, genuine emotional core. Skip Bifferty didn't enjoy much mainstream success, but this, their only full-length, is somewhat of an underground classic. This version features the original album (tracks 1-14), followed by the remainder of their recorded studio output.

Track listing:
1. Money Man
2. Jeremy Carabine
3. When She Comes to Stay
4. Guru
5. Come Around
6. Time Track
7. Gas Board Under Dog
8. Inside the Secret
9. Orange Lace
10. Planting Bad Seeds
11. Yours for At Least 24
12. Follow the Path of the Stars
13. Prince Germany the First
14. Clearway 51
15. On Love
16. Cower Girl
17. Happy Land
18. Reason to Live
19. Man in Black
20. Round and Round
21. This We Shall Explore
22. Schizoid Revolution

Feeling strange vibrations in my spine