Fantastic Magic - Witch Choir

Quite the treat for those of you who enjoy mind altering psychedelia!! I stumbled upon this release a while ago on Id Reverberations and I didn't really give it the listen this release deserves. I'm hooked. This cassette wavers from moments of anxious, schizophrenic jabbering to calm, peaceful surf pop influenced harmonizing. I listen to this when I want something relaxing but not mind numbingly boring. I'd recommend this to anyone to listen to while sober or on drugs. It's probably better while on drugs (specifically LSD) actually, but I wouldn't know.

A surprising tid-bit is that Nathan, mastermind behind Wavves, was a part of this, now defunct, band! Who knew he'd go from awesome, drone-y, psychedelic, folk pop to slightly mediocre (although catchy) lo-fi noise pop? Oh well....still a fan of both bands!

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Feature: The Curiously Strong Peppermints - Endless Fields of Poppy

The Curiously Strong Peppermints are a Minneapolis-based psychedelic acid-pop quintet. Their bio claims they sound like "Elliott Smith backed by The Flaming Lips playing The Beatles backwards," but that was written under suspicious circumstances involving a ferret, two buckets and a typewriter. What else is 'known' about the band may not be true: demos recorded from inside a box, using shoehorns and eggbeaters; concept albums about Lady Gaga's right testicle; pianos drenched in gallons of peach yogurt. Are there actually seventeen members of the band, but twelve of them play nothing and simply perform pantomime at their homes while the remaining five perform/record the music at a gig or studio?

What IS known is that their debut album "Endless Fields of Poppy" was self-released in the imaginary internet realm three months ago, with a physical release on the mysterious Sunshine Cortex Records. The album was apparently 6 years in the making, recorded by the band in living rooms, garages, basements and bedrooms. A mix of melodic pop, layers of reverbed sketchy vocals, fuzzy basses and backwards drums. Plus a plethora of instruments such as air organs, glockenspiels, theremins, toy pianos and a Hawaiian tremoloa. This is headphone music, people. If your ears could smile... well... you should really see a specialist for that.

Visit The Curiously Strong Peppermints online at www.myspace.com/cspm

Stay tuned for a review later this week!

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The Olivia Tremor Control - California Demise 7"

You can't talk about Psychedelic Pop without bringing up The Olivia Tremor Control. This band is what The Beatles would've sounded like if they continued on the musical path they started with Revolver. California Demise is a great starting point to listen to The Olivia Tremor control because it's the shortest and most controlled of their recordings, however that doesn't take away from the fact that this is a mind blowing 7". Featuring OTC in it's initial line up with, now indie rock legend, Jeff Mangum on the drums (he started out as a drummer before picking up the guitar). You can see that, even in this immature state, they were starting to experiment with drone/sound collage recordings in "California Demise pt. 1" and "California Demise pt. 2". "Fireplace" is a highlight for those Jeff Mangum fans out there as it features Jeff on vocals (gasp! it's like a new NMH song!).

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