#psychel

[icingcover]

Into the Ligth by Akoustik http://ift.tt/1w8YheX

[thankyoustu]

Stan Hubbs - "Let's Go On Back To Camp"

A while back, Stu made me a tape of Stan Hubbs' 1982 psych masterpiece Crystal.  Holy moley on a fried Oreo!  This is the damn jam!  Every song is weird and wonderful.  True, some tracks are stronger than others, but seriously, Crystal is totally on my list of top 50 albums in their entirety.  Every song has that incredible--and incredibly cheap--synth that sounds like computerized Christmas lights from the 80s, but the moments of psychedelic jam out where the guitar and the cheap synths just blend and melt are downright transcendental.  The singers sound like a bunch of kids at a summer camp or on a suburban cul-de-sac.  They've just come in from swimming--wearing track shorts, t-shirts, and wet swim suits.  It's as if Stan called out to the neighborhood kids to come jam with him.  Something about it is innocent--in that respect, yet in a way I imagine Stan sparking a joint and passing it to all the minors, slipping them some hits of acid.  (Interesting to note:  Hubbs is the only documented person to die of smoking too much pot.  The man died of a THC overdose.  That's a lot of freaking weed, man!)  Aside from the drugs, Stan really becomes--as my friend Mona says--the guru in this mystical and psychedelic sound trip.  When all the other voices are sort of bopping through the song and Stan comes in with "I said, 'Let's go on back to camp,'" he commands such presence and pause and order.  Mona often said, "It's like the guru is speaking," and all the cacophony of these kids ceases for a moment.  The words are pretty weird and great, evoking a kind of Charlie Manson or Dusty and Sweets McGee, late 60s LA scene:  "She walked in the station cool and slow/ She asked me could she use the phone, she asked me who that she could call/ Looks like you been downtown all night, looks like you been uptown all night/ I said, 'Let's go on back to camp.'"  I think it's time for Stan to make another round in my tape player.  Thank you Stu!  For exposing me to Stan Hubbs, I'm completely and always indebted to you.