What I’m Currently Listening to: Electric Prunes, Frank Tappa, etc.

In general, my taste in music is all over the place and extremely inconsistent. However, I stay in the vast genre of rock. I mean, this morning, I was listening to Big Mama Thorton, but now I have my earbuds in blasting Sepultura. This week I’ve found lots of new bands and developed a fancy of a few of rock’s sub-genres.

My likes and dislikes of rock are ever-evolving. Just a couple of months ago, I couldn’t stand the heaviness of Slayer, but now I’m all over them. I’ve formed a deep obsession with stoner metal, stoner doom, and psychedelic rock over the past two weeks. I like all rock, I really do, but I heavily gravitate to anything before the 80s. There’s this comforting feel even in the heaviest metal songs. The 50s, 60s, and 70s were notable moments in rock history. To go back there and listen to the initial bands, the ones that really changed shit, is almost empowering.

I’ve gotten into everything and anything, from Elephant, Sunshine of Your Love, Further In / Out, to I Can See For Miles and Spirt In the Sky. Stoner is not too far from the psychedelic rock but nearly unrecognizable next to 70s and 60s psych. It’s a lot heavier. But slowly, I realize how much I can’t hate rock. It’s beyond my ability.

Some of the stoner songs I’ve been playing on repeat are Over the Edge, High-Risk Trigger, and A Throne Abandoned. On the note of this week’s stoner bands, it’s a mix. Rolling Stones are quick to the list, as well as Black Sabbath. I’ve played a lot of Wishbone Ash, Frank Tappa, Rush, and Three Days Grace.

I find while I’m doing shit, I like to put on the heavy stuff as background noise. The late 70s stoner and up, the stuff that’s just pretty noise. And when I’m doing nothing, I put on the “heavier” stuff. To me, that means the songs that played monumental parts in rock, have some personal purpose, or those songs that have just been sticking around for what seems like forever. In other words, lots of Jimi Hendrix, Cream,The Byrds, Grateful Dead, and Trafic.