Psychedelic music, as a genre, gets treated like a red-headed stepchild by many music fans. Trust me, you doubters: there is so much more to it than noodly jams that go on for weeks and trippy-hippy lyrics. Yeah, OK, there’s certainly been no shortage of psyche that would fit that bill. There are good and bad examples of every type of music, yes? I urge you to move beyond your preconceptions and expand your, uh, horizons. Or, as the saying goes, may the baby Jesus shut your mouth and open your mind.

Note: The following paragraph is a rough generalization. I’m trying to boil down a fairly complicated genre into one meaty little graf, so please don’t jump down my throat with your nit-picking protestations about how I’m glossing over important distinctions and obvious exceptions and yadda yadda yadda. Nobody cares, frankly. Not even me, and I live for shit like that.

We can break psychedelia down into two camps: English vs. American. On the one hand, you’ve got the sorta pastoral, it’s-all-so-beautiful, natural-imagery-and-lovely-melody school. On the other hand, there’s the full-on day-glo freak-out blown-mind rama-lama. Those of you who’ve read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test could break it down along Timothy Leary vs. Ken Kesey lines, but since those two guys were pretty much assholes and not everybody has read that book, let me put it this way: American psychedelia wants to give your brain a stir with a big ol’ stick, just to see what comes of it, while British psyche wants to show you the beauty of the stick itself, the myriad whorls and lines of the bark sparkling with the morning dew, etc. Got it?

Alright then. Kelly Stoltz, while technically an American living in San Francisco, comes down on the British side of the psyche equation. He’s one of those self-contained self-produced one-man-band deals made possible by modern recording technology, yet his sound is pretty firmly entrenched in the late 60s – early 70s. On Below The Branches, his latest release, piano is the main instrument, with guitar (mostly acoustic, some electric), bass, drums, little tinkly percussion bits, and the seemingly ubiquitous analog synth in the mix as well.

“No World Like the World” sounds as if it could be an outtake from Nilsson’s The Point, which is not a comparison I make lightly. Then you’ve got the Beach Boys pastiche of “Ever Though of Coming Back”, the Ray Davies/Kinks feel to “Winter Girl”, the, uh… well, I swore I’d never use the term “Beatle-esque”, but fuck it, it fits “Wave Goodbye” and especially “Prank Calls”. Sue me. And while Stoltz’s influences are fairly obvious, that doesn’t mean that all we’ve got here is a case of slavish copy-cattery. It’s more “vibe” than “downright imitation”. If I had to draw a comparison, it would be to the sort of thing that Kingsbury Manx did on their last record. In fact, “Words” and “Mystery” could so easily have fit on The Fast Rise and Fall of the South that I had to check and make sure I wasn’t playing the wrong files on the computer. That's not a bad thing.

Right. So where does the psychedelic aspect come into play? Well, it’s a combination of such tell-tale sonic flourishes as the “Day In The Life” orchestral warm-up leading into “Wave Goodbye”, for example, or the sitar that pops up on “Little Lords” and “No World Like the World”, the harpsichord on “Summer’s Easy Feeling”, some lovely guitar feedback here and there, etc., and, perhaps most of all, the lyric content. An example? Sure. How’s about “Summer’s easy feeling for you flows / The western sky’s a blue kaleidoscope / The city’s fine but I don’t really care / if I can stretch an arm and find you there”. Really, I could quote you most of the lyric sheet, though. The upshot of it all: the listener is wrapped in a warm, slightly psychoactive blanket consisting of the groovy nature of the universe and interpersonal L-U-V, while pleasant instrumental hooks gently massage the weary, slightly dazed and/or confused brain. There are worse ways to spend forty or so minutes than listening to Below the Branches.

So that’s our representative of the more pastoral side of psychedelia. In the other corner, we have Laugh In The Dark, the debut disc from Seattle’s own Invisible Eyes. Where Stoltz’s disc is all bucolic and good-natured, the Eyes come on aggressive and blaring and loud and snotty, in the fine garage rock tradition. I’m told that they were the last band personally signed to Bomp Records by that label’s founder, the late Greg Shaw. Just shows that he had good taste right up to the end.

Conrad Uno recorded the album. He’s worked with The Fastbacks, Mudhoney, Young Fresh Fellows, The Fall-Outs, etc., etc., so you know that things are gonna sound good. That said, I can’t really tell you what the songs are about, since guitarist Aubrey Nehring’s vocals are so drenched in reverb that it’s difficult at times to decipher what language he’s using, much less what he’s saying. I can tell you that he’s got the requisite adolescent existential angst in his adenoidal howl, so it doesn’t really matter all that much. He makes with the nifty, fuzzy guitar-strangling, too. Janet Hurt provides the cheeseball keyboard stylings; why more garage bands don’t utilize this vital element of the sonic palette is something of a mystery. Think roller rink circa 1965 and you’re just about on the money. Holding down the bottom end are Adam Svenson (drums) and Ian Barnett (bass). Both acquit themselves quite well.

Songs are generally short and snappy, ranging from the 48 second keyboard instrumental “Whiskey Vampire” to the epic 6:27 Bo Diddley rumpus of “That Old Song”. Most come in around three and a half minutes – the optimum length for the genre. Garage rock is, by definition, a very conservative style of music. There’s only so much you can do within the confines and still have it be recognizable. This is where the CD format betrays the band, as you’ve got 16 (!) songs, all sounding fairly similar. That's not a knock on the band, by the way, as they're working within the constraints of their chosen idiom. I think they could have cut it back to a more reasonable 10-12 tunes (as you’d find on a vinyl album), although then you get people thinking they’re not getting their money’s worth. There’s just no pleasing some folks.

Also, it would be tough picking out songs to omit, as they’re all pretty damn good. “That Old Song” would be on the list, as it’s kinda drawn out beyond its capacity to entertain, but after that I just don’t know. “Revelation”, “Monster Blues”, and “Little Loretta” are all stand out cuts, that’s for sure. The whole affair is ripe with snotty lysergic punk attitude; you can just picture the cheap light show shining over the stoned juvenile delinquents trying desperately to simultaneously hang onto their minds and cop a feel off that tuff chick wearing too much mascara and a lit-up grin.

So there you have it. Two schools of psychedelia, well represented by two really good albums, and nary a trace of patchouli anywhere. It was a good day.

Kelly Stoltz’s Beneath the Branches is available through Sub Pop Records; Invisible Eyes’ Laugh In The Dark is available through Bomp! Records.