Since its drug-induced ’60s beginnings, Psychedelic Rock has maintained a consistent presence on the musical landscape, progressing with the times but never losing touch with is trippy, mind-altering origins. While popular contemporary artists (Flaming Lips, Beck, Tame Impala, Animal Collective) continue to showcase a variety of approaches to Psychedelia for large audiences, today’s diverse, lesser-known Psych Rock scene is as strong as it’s ever been, proving there are still many music fans who like their music with a lysergic twist.
California’s Sugar Candy Mountain is one of the new breed’s top artists to keep an eye on if you’re a fan of modern Psych Pop and Rock. Wonderfully showcasing the music’s tendency to meld vintage elements with new and unique visions, Sugar Candy Mountain is the brainchild of Will Halsey, an active Bay Area musician and engineer who played drums for successful Indie act The Blank Tapes, and singer/songwriter/guitarist Ash Reiter. The two musicians met when Halsey responded to ad Reiter had placed looking for a drummer for her eponymous band, an Indie Pop outfit. Halsey got the gig, and the two became romantically involved (they’re getting married later this year).
Ash Reiter, the band, was going well, but as Halsey and Reiter began writing together more (both are also singers) and developing a more exploratory and expansive sound, they decided to put all of their focus into Sugar Candy Mountain (originally a side project for the pair). On the band’s blissfully fluctuating, highly melodic debut album, Mystic Hits, you can hear elements of Psych music new and old, as well as Tropicalia, Brazil’s fascinating answer to the ’60s Psychedelic innovators that was led by artists like Os Mutantes and Caetano Veloso. The compellingly disorienting Pop album was self-released in 2013, then rereleased on Oakland’s Royal Oakie label the following year.
Since then, Reiter and Halsey (and the various musicians who record and play live with them) have toured and recorded regularly. Sugar Candy Mountain’s second full-length 666, the first since the pair retired their other band and moved to Joshua Tree, Calif., is due this summer on PIAPTK Records, and is said to be more direct and simplified compared to Mystic Hits’ expansive, engulfing wall of sound.
Click here for more info on the free show.
This article appears in May 18-25, 2016.