1. Jan & Dean | Fun City
I found this one on an old Jan & Dean bootleg I bought, because it had material from their lost Psych album Carnival Of Sound on it. This is a random unreleased song from the late 60’s or early 70’s by Jan Berry. I’ve always thought this song was catchy & upbeat… I dig the line Pay all your tolls, leave them behind, cross the bridge, follow your mind! in the chorus too, it's kind of a Pop song with Psychedelic lyrics.
2. The Peanut Butter Conspiracy | Time Is After You
When I was younger I spent all my time learning about 60’s Psychedelic Pop Music and culture. I was listening to bands like The Millennium, Spanky & Our Gang, Harpers Bizarre & The Byrds when I found this album. This song always embodied the Psychedelic ideal to me in some ways with its message of breaking free of Time.
3. The Paper Fortress | Butterfly High
Tandyn Almer is a cult favorite of the Los Angeles 60’s Psych scene with his hit for The Association's Along Comes Mary, even appearing in Leonard Bernstein’s Inside Pop TV special which famously included Brian Wilson performing Surf’s Up solo on piano. I was obsessed (and still am) with tracking down everything he was involved in making when I found this 45 that he wrote with Eddie Hodges. Tandyn recently passed away, but before he did we had a few conversations via Facebook about his Music and various things. He gave me lyrics for a new song he wrote called Rita Lynn Pops In that I still hope to record someday.
4. P.F. Sloan | New Design
I started recording my first album in 2007 and in July of that year P.F. Sloan performed at the Calgary Folk Fest. He also gave a 3 day songwriting workshop which I attended alongside 5 other musicians. We basically spent 3 hours a day all with guitars, showing him our songs & getting feedback, then hearing stories & songs from Phil. Needless to say it was a pretty cool experience, cooler still that we’ve stayed in touch & he even showed me some (then-unreleased) material from his amazing new album My Beethoven when I was in LA one time.
5. Anita Carter | I Don’t Need You Anymore
Many call Anita Carter the best female singer ever in Nashville & I tend to agree. She’s amazing - her voice is perfect, she wrote Ring Of Fire and was the first singer in Nashville to record with an orchestra. This track from 1967 also includes session legends Charlie McCoy & Wayne Moss on it, both of whom I recorded with in Nashville alongside Anita’s daughter Lorrie for my song Hayseed as well as some Carter Family covers. I was staying with Lorrie the 2nd time I was in Nashville and heard this song on the Bear Family boxset of Anita Carter’s work - it blew me away!
6. The Moody Blues | Go Now (Bessie Banks Cover)
Denny Laine sings this early 60’s British Pop jam and delivers a killer lead vocal. He was also the singer in Badfinger & played with George Harrison’s live band. This song kind of encompasses all the varied feelings you go through during a break up.
7. Spiritualized | Shine A Light
I saw Spiritualized play last summer and this song was THE ONE. It's sort of one of the hopeful songs that cheer you up if you are down. It also reminds me of my cousin who passed away at the end of 2013 who I got into Spacemen 3/Sonic Boom/Spiritualized stuff. We were supposed to go see Spiritualized together when I was in Europe in 2013, but it didn’t work out & we saw Joan Baez which was chill too I guess. He still went to Spiritualized & had a good time… And, yeah, I guess this is just a special song for me.
8. Azeda Booth | Kensington
Azeda Booth is one of the best bands to ever come out of Calgary (where I’m from) & their album In Flesh Tones is definitely a masterpiece to me. In Flesh Tones was released in 2008 which was a special time for me too as I was starting to feel more comfortable making Music & expanding my horizons, often alongside Jordon (Azeda’s singer) with whom I was recording a bunch of stuff (both of our material) at the time. Kensington is also an area in Calgary where I grew up & spend a lot of time in and have a lot of fond memories of as a lot of important people to me live there.
9. White+ | 红 - reD
Myself & my friend Benson recently started a booking agency called Two Headed Dog Booking (两个头的狗售票店) after being approached by Ricky Maymi of The Brian Jonestown Massacre to help book the Canadian dates for some Chinese bands touring North America. We booked White+ & Carsick Cars on tour, and are currently booking Birdstriking & Chui Wan. I’ve heard a lot of amazing stuff coming out of China lately, but I have to say this jam is my favorite so far.
10. Super Furry Animals | Slow Life
When I was 18 I lived in England and was starting to expand my taste for Weird Music beyond the Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane & Miles Davis I was listening to. I somehow ended up at a Super Furry Animals concert and was completely blown away. They definitely opened me up to Psychedelic Pop & Electronic Experimentation and I had to include them on the list. They still are doing amazing stuff, Gruff’s new project American Interior is a real life tale of a 17th century Welsh relative of his who explored North America on a crazy solo mission - the film is especially great!