You are here: Home / Archives for News

Ray Manzarek of the Doors dies

May 20, 2013 by 3 Comments
Ray Manzarek on keyboards

The Doors' Ray Manzarek, one of the most influential keyboardists in rock, has died at the age of 74. Manzarek spent most of his career keeping the psychedelic rock band's legacy strong, continuing to play its music in recent decades with bandmate Robby Krieger. "I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today," Doors guitarist Krieger said in a statement. "I'm just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him." Manzarek met singer Jim Morrison at UCLA film school in the early 1960s. They formed the Doors in 1965, quickly becoming a key act on the Sunset Strip, working as the house band at the Whisky a Go Go, and signing with Elektra Records … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Moody Blues prep ‘Timeless’ box set

May 13, 2013 by 1 Comment
Moody Blues box set includes studio recordings 1967-2003

With almost a half century of music-making to their credit, the Moody Blues have been long overdue for the sort of sprawling retrospective usually accorded rock royalty. That oversight is history with the June 11 release of an 11-CD box set. "Timeless Flight: The Voyage Continues" also contains three audio DVDs, three video DVDs and assorted memorabilia. Preorders are going for about $350. The "Timeless Flight" audio DVDs feature 5.1 surround mixes of six Moody Blues albums on Deram Records, including the psychedelic music classics "Days of Future Passed," "On the Threshold of a Dream" and "To Our Children's Children's Children." Group leader Justin Hayward oversaw the surround-sound remastering. The last Moody Blues reissue project of note came in 2008. Those expanded releases of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Recordings Tagged With: ,

Dead fans on their way back to ‘May 1977′

May 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
May 1977 Grateful Dead box set logo

May 1977 ring a bell? Maybe so -- that's the month "Star Wars" debuted in cinemas nationwide. Deadheads have a different frame of reference: Early in the month the Grateful Dead played its legendary show at Cornell University's Barton Hall. That's the one whose tapes are enshrined in the National Recording Registry. For the Dead, it was another tour stop in a "gloriously fertile season," at least according to producers of the upcoming 14-CD project "May 1977." The $140 set -- similar but nowhere near as massive as the "Europe '72: The Complete Recordings" -- will be numbered and limited. Only 15,000 are being made, but that's about double the number of "Europe '72" CD sets, which sold out in four days. (Pre-orders for "May 1977" are under way at dead.net) The five … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Psych-stars, Recordings Tagged With: ,

Electrifying: Country Joe & Fish debut revived

May 6, 2013 by 1 Comment
country joe mcdonald at monterey festival

"Electric Music for the Mind and Body" opens with the tale of a hippie hitchhiker, forlorn, ignored and waterlogged by the side of an L.A. freeway. The hours slog by. Finally, the hitchhiker is picked up by a couple of "cats in a Cadillac" -- one wearing a fez -- who give the traveler enough money for airfare. He goes "flying high," all the way home. It's a workable metaphor for the fortunes of the first County Joe and the Fish album, one of the stone-cold classics of the psychedelic music era. Owing perhaps to the condition of the master tapes, "Electric Music for the Mind and Body" languished in the compact disc era. The band's label, Vanguard Records, released a CD in 1990 that bordered on the shrill, with a mix out of whack with the original stereo. And so fans waited more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Reissues Tagged With:

Furthur’s Weir plays on in Atlantic City

April 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Bob Weir onstage in Atlantic City

Bob Weir was back in action Saturday as Furthur played Atlantic City, two nights after the singer/guitarist collapsed onstage after struggling through most of the band's show. Update: Furthur canceled its BottleRock Napa Valley music festival appearance of May 9. The Further web site said, "Grateful Dead & Furthur co-founder Bob Weir is unable to perform in any capacity for the next several weeks." Weir and the band will return July 11 in Brooklyn to kick off the summer tour, the post indicated. /update After Weir's fall in Port Chester, N.Y., a bandmate said on social media that Weir mistakenly had taken the sedative Ambien instead of a painkiller for a recent shoulder injury. "Sometimes the rock n roll life is not all rainbows & fairy dust," guitarist John Kadlecik posted on his … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Concerts, News Tagged With: ,

Austin Psych Fest all grown up

April 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Austin Psych festival poster for 2013

Austin's Psych Fest seems in danger of becoming an institution. The sixth celebration of psychedelic music sprawls across three days this weekend, with regional heroes Roky Erickson and the Moving Sidewalks headlining. "Austin Psych Fest has become the world's premiere showcase of psychedelic rock," the event's web site proclaims -- no brag, just fact. The festival has a distinct international flavor this year. Psych Fest peaks Sunday night, with Erickson, the Black Angels and then the Moving Sidewalks (pictured) laying waste to the "Reverberation" stage. Roky Erickson, an inventor of psychedelic music with the 13th Floor Elevators, returns after a 2011 performance at the festival. Top neo-psychedelic act the Black Angels include several producers of the event. The Moving … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Concerts, News Tagged With:

Richie Havens dies; folk hero of Woodstock

April 22, 2013 by 2 Comments
Richie Havens

The fiery and soulful folk singer Richie Havens, best known for his heroic work in opening the Woodstock rock festival, has died at age 72. Havens died after a heart attack at his New Jersey home, his manager said. Havens remained true to his Greenwich Village folk roots, but was a favorite among the rock festival crowds of the late 1960s. His albums between 1968 and 1971 were heavy with psychedelic imagery, notably "Richard P. Havens, 1983," the 1969 album on which he covered four Beatles songs and another by Donovan. But it was 1967's straight folk album "Mixed Bag" that first found Havens a wide audience, boosted by play on the emerging free-form FM radio format. Like Jefferson Airplane, he found the power and transcendence in its opening song, "High Flyin' Bird," by Billy Edd … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, The dead Tagged With: ,

Pink Floyd artist Storm Thorgerson dies

April 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Division Bell album Pink Floyd

British graphic designer Storm Thorgerson, best known for his artwork on Pink Floyd albums such as "The Dark Side of the Moon," has died at age 69. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, a friend since early teen years, said Thorgerson's album covers were "an inseparable part of our work." Drummer Nick Mason remembered Thorgerson as a "scourge of management, record companies and album-sleeve printers; champion of bands, music, great ideas and high, sometimes infuriatingly high, standards." Thorgerson also designed cover art for many of the U.K. rock elite, including Yes, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, the Nice, Black Sabbath, Mike Oldfield, 10cc and Alan Parsons. Thorgerson's close and long-running association with Pink Floyd made him one of only a few graphic artists whose fame can be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Psychedelic art Tagged With: ,

Record Store Day: Cream, ELP, Zombies

March 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
psychedelic music exclusives on Record Store Day - logo

Record Store Day's psychedelic platoon for Saturday includes Captain Beefheart, Cream, ELP, Roky Erickson, the Small Faces, the Zombies and, um, Alice Bowie. The sixth annual event promoting indie record stores has gone more vinyl than ever, with almost all titles available exclusively on the hip old-school format. In fact, King Crimson and the Dead are the only acts on the following list providing CDs. Other key artists checking in from the psychedelic era include the Animals, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd. Most of these titles are Record Store Day exclusives, meaning grab them this Saturday, April 20, or pay the piper at the gates of dawn. We're spoiled here in California (L.A. and San Francisco) with the massive indie depot Amoeba, but of course … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Psychedelic marathon’s eighth run

March 18, 2013 by 2 Comments
kkup psychedelic marathon poster

Almost 60 hours of psychedelic music will electrify the airwaves of Cupertino, Calif., this weekend thanks to a radio marathon hosted by the duo of J-Kat & Ruby Tuesday. Northern California "people's radio" KKUP carries the couple's "Eight Miles High" show Tuesdays from 8-10 p.m. (PT). The eighth edition of the psychedelic marathon kicks off at 3 p.m. Friday. Psychedelic Sight caught up with J-Kat (Dan Kind) as he prepped for the big show. Q: Three straight days of psychedelic rock! I'm already having "Toad" flashbacks. How long has your show been on the air? A: Susan and I have hosted "Eight Miles High" for the past 6 years. I've been programming at KKUP for 15 years. Q: What gets played on "Eight Miles High"? A: Psychedelic music, of course! But we also do a lot of garage, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Radio, TV Tagged With:
Next Page»
Get Adobe Flash player