Sometimes, you hear a band and obnoxiously opine, “now, just why the hell did this band that sounds JUST like this other band really NEED to put out an album of their own?”
And, with rock music, you’re usually right. The bewildering volume of underwhelming knock-offs could stretch from here to Uranus, for sure, but Philadelphia’s Telyscopes? Dude! Dude not only deserves a “pass” but some serious cheering from the sidelines! Touch (Get-the-Fuck) Down! Olympic levels of reappropriation here! Light and carry that long-extinguished torch! We miss it soooo much!
Remember the ‘90s heyday of Elephant 6’s re-envisioning of the Beatles & Beach Boys infectious choral work and tie-dyed riff psychedelia? Well, “High Fidelity Drag” picks up where early Of Montreal left off, mixing the Lo-Fi aesthetic of Cherry Peel with the frenetic, dizzying near-progginess of Satanic Panic In the Attic’s surfy, Wilsonian charisma…and then he adds in some downright funk-doppelganger OM’y bass lines. This tape is a serious keeper for mid-evening party-jamz-kicking! Long live Psychedelphia!
https://telyscopes.bandcamp.com/album/high-fidelity-drag
--Jacob An Kittenplan
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