Take a listen to “It Won’t Hurt You” off the Triptides’ new album Alter Echoes and you’re sure to feel free as a bird flying eight miles high over the Sunset Strip that is until your strawberry colored alarm clock wakes you from your slumber and you rise from your mushroom-imprinted pillow to face another rainy day. 

While I can’t say for sure if that’s a Rickenbacker guitar being played on the track it sure as heck sounds like it (note: now confirmed to be a Ric 360!)  and either way these Angelinos have captured a certain classic LA World vibe and sound on the entire album that would no doubt have Russ Meyer salivating all over his ascot to hire these boys as the house band for the Hollywood bungalow party scene in his new movie titled The Immortal Pussycat Beyond the Motorpsycho Valley of the Mudhoney Vixens Kill Kill! were he not a long dead mazophiliac. 

So, not to dwell on this one song but it’s also got bongos, or congas at least, and about 25 seconds into the thing a maraca and a guitar countermelody enter simultaneously with some sweet stereo separation and really the album is chock full of these nice arranging and production touches so you can use it to show off your hi-fi system to your honey and everybody wins.

For example you’ll hear the old we trick of feeding a vocal part through a Leslie speaker on “Do You Ever Wonder?” and then a little later the sudden transition to a half-time Floydian blissed out freakout towards the end of “Let It Go” which then reverts back to its original upbeat jingle-jangle by its conclusion and also there’s the day-glo smeared psychedelic coda to “Hand of Time” which is groovy too. 

On its back half the album mellows out significantly (but what so you expect from the B-side) before the Triptides decide to end things on an up note with the frug-ready “Now and Then” sending their more dance-inclined patrons home happy. So hey, if any of this sounds appealing the Deli says ch-check it out! (Jason Lee)

Since its appearance in the late '60s, psychedelic music has been inspiring hordes of musicians, and has probably been the main reason driving the guitar pedal frenzy of the last decade, since guitarists devoted to the genre seem to need an ever increasing number of stompboxes. The current indie music scene offers thousands of artists that reference psychedelia, from subtly to wholeheartedly. One of the bands that most vigorously (and unapologetically) embraces the genre in its authentic acception is Los Angeles' Triptides. With their vintage sounding songs that could have been written in the '60s, their recent release "Afterglow" manages to reference in one record anybody from early Pink Floyd to Jefferson Airplane, the Doors and even The Beatles and The Byrds during their most psych years. Of course, this kind of revival comes with a LOT of stompboxes - the band's guitarists Glenn and Josh were kind enough to walk us through them with our friends at Delicious Audio - check out the feature here!

San Francisco based psych gospel rock band, Lee Gallagher and the Hallelujah have a show coming up tomorrow night at Brick and Mortar Music Hall in San Francisco. They'll be performing live with psych band, Triptides, mod revivalist band, The Electric Magpie and surf metal band, Father Howl! This is guaranteed to be a mind melting rock experience presented by psychedelic visual artist and promoter Mad Alchemy. Make sure you support local music and build up as much psych rock enthusiasm your mind, body and soul can muster!!