Psychedelic Horseshit - 'Too Many Hits' 2x7" on Columbus Discount Records

I remember getting the first PH (I can't spell and psychedelic just hurts me every time) single with stapled pieces of notebook paper, and magazine photos to the sleeve. I'll admit I just bought it solely based on the name, they had balls to call themselves that based on someone's first impression of what they were doing... I figured it was a joke side project and this would be their only release. Would I ever get tired if dragging it out and saying 'this is Psychedelic Horseshit...no the name of the band is...' probably not. Definitely not...so it was a win win situation really. I don't remember much of the sound of that single except it was pretty anti-melody extreme. Like the new TNV, but without a song...nice, it was an end game for an age that's for sure. But this double single is a huge range of great for PH, and I'm starting to take them really seriously.


D1-A-Side (45): ...like this first song 'Endless Fascination', it's a kinder, gentler PH, really clean catchy acoustic. All of their playing is just sloppy enough to give it that one-take quality, they are about the composition of the track as a whole. There's multiple tracks of acoustic solo's, organ, all panned in either direction, so it's just on the border of sounding completely chaotic. Whatever echo/reverb he's got on the vocals is just perfect, it's not too giant, he also has a great Thurston quality to the vocals, slightly distorted, with the acoustic, it's like a really amazing rehearsal space SY session. This pleasant acoustic surprise continues further with 'Sun-bleached kool aid.' The two acoustics are on either channel, just slightly behind each other. The acoustic solo section is phased out distorted strum, with a new layer of guitar on top of the former mess. They have great original ideas for constructing a song...and it's just a bonus that I wouldn't mind putting these on now and then...just for fun. If they came up on random, (you see I have a big system with 25 record players and a relay switch box that triggers them, so I can have songs at 'Random'. Like a 10 disc changer in the trunk of the car, except these are in the other apt I have to rent. It's complicated.)
The B-Side of this first disc, gets a little tropical and more chaotic here. Laser beams, slow guitar, ukulele, random bursts of repeated synth/samples. These are the tracks that get challenging, and ou have to be ready for that ride.
Once Green crystal cigs, it's like they are in the garage with extra distortion. The vocals/lyrics always rule, it's trippy, of course psychey, but they really are trying to give you a catchy pop song. It's just they are from another planet...so it's different.
'Blurry Times' really pulls out the stops. Imagine a chorus made out of the most annoying 'eeeeeeeennnnnnnn' tone from an electronic experiment radio shack kit. It pierces through the vocals, the acoustic doesn't stand a chance....everything is blasted out by this tone. Genius. I love it.

D2 - A-Side (33): 'Let down (and hangin around)' opens with the opening of a can of beer and some tuning up. This one really blasts out the distortion...I love this folk, sonic youth mess. If I had to choose between TNV and PH...well...don't make me. The melody that keeps blasting into the song is just great. It's a mix of room noise, plugged right in, dropping pieces out, or the cable itself cuts out, and they kept it. They really appreciate the mess of making music....well I appreciate their mess anyway....I appreciate it when I hear a carefully placed effect panned all the way right. I know that's a pretty specific choice they had to make, it took work to set up the mix that way...yes it's ridiculous, but it's not gimmicky for it's own sake. They are having fun with the possibilities and making it all sound really good. It can all stand up on it's own without the headphone version. Based on the freewheeling feel of this I'd be really interested to see these guys live, they have a sense of humor.

B-Side: ...For a minute 'Astral Weeks Again' sounds like Nodzzz...it's really pop...or the Dead Milkmen...I keep hearing them in a lot of stuff like this. Especially the vocal delivery, it's fast, talking a little snotty...harmonica never sounded so good, here's the difference between TNV and these guys, yes they are very similar in fidelity, this is just a texture thing I'm hearing. This sounds like a live rehearsal space, everything is recorded clean, there isn't a hiss because of the medium they are recording on to, it's all in the room, or pedals...I hear silence in parts...each piece is on it's own distortion plane...it's not a huge layer of wax paper indiscriminately layered on the whole thing. It's not better or worse...just a different way to approach the rock....wait a second I swear there is a distorted banjo in one of these...

This was way above and beyond what Columbus Discount promised for Year One of the series, this sleeve is really nice, and the discs fit into folder pockets at the bottom of the whole thing. A double single is more than I ever hoped for, and there's my name, in the edition #... damn that's weird. Just when you think it couldn't get better, they pull something like this. Year two, I can't wait....

I'm sorry there's no where to get this, I just felt like talking about it. Go over to a friends house, get together people, listen to records you don't have and can never get. It's about more than just being a creepy collector hoarding records in the basement.