Psychedelic

At one point during Of Montreal's set at the Orpheum Thursday night, singer Kevin Barnes tied a noose around his neck, mid-verse, and smeared red paint over his half-naked body. It may have been Halloween eve, but it was business as usual for the band. The Georgia-based sextet has recently strayed from the baroque folk-pop it crafted in the '90s, instead embracing an edgy soundtrack of glitz, gloss, and glam. Judging by the show, its performances have followed suit. These days, the band's act is more stage production than concert, rivaling the makings of an off-Broadway play.

On paper, Rubblebucket could seem like a hot mess. But the idiosyncratic eight-piece band — born at the University of Vermont, nurtured around Boston, and subsequently transplanted, perhaps inevitably, to Brooklyn — has fused its own fashion of heady dance-pop that somehow just works. On the strength of a style melding propulsive polyrhythms, syncopated horns, new wave-era art-school rock, and gleaming pop, all within a slyly psychedelic aesthetic, Rubblebucket may be on the verge of a breakthrough.

LOS ANGELES - James Gurley, the innovative guitarist who helped shape psychedelic rock’s multilayered, sometimes thundering sounds as a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company, the band that propelled Janis Joplin to fame, has died of a heart attack. He was 69. Mr. Gurley was pronounced dead Sunday at a Palm Springs hospital, two days before his 70th birthday, the band announced on its website. One of many prominent guitarists to emerge from San Francisco’s psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s - others included the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia,...

WILL C. ADIEU OR DIE An instrumental remix album for a '60s band, let alone the Beach Boys, doesn't exactly sound like the sexiest way to launch a comeback. But for Somerville rapper/producer Will C., who's kept a low profile since his last solo album in 2009, it's an opportunity to pour all his considerable talents into a project that transcends the stale remix album formula. "Adieu or Die" isn't a few "Pet Sounds" tracks with new drums on top; it's a heavily researched, quietly ambitious, and brilliantly crafted work in its own right.

ALLSTON - Old Glory hung on the back wall of Harpers Ferry's stage, but instead of 50 stars, the corner of the flag bore a swirly constellation. It had been tacked up by headliners Akron/Family just prior to their performance Sunday night and proved a fitting standard for the spacey, spacious instrumental that introduced what would eventually spiral into almost two hours of wild jamming music. No matter the rumors about Akron/Family - originally a quartet of Brooklyn-based Midwesterners who have been dubbed folk and touted as some kind of cult - nothing prepared the...

On paper, Rubblebucket could seem like a hot mess. But the idiosyncratic eight-piece band — born at the University of Vermont, nurtured around Boston, and subsequently transplanted, perhaps inevitably, to Brooklyn — has fused its own fashion of heady dance-pop that somehow just works. On the strength of a style melding propulsive polyrhythms, syncopated horns, new wave-era art-school rock, and gleaming pop, all within a slyly psychedelic aesthetic, Rubblebucket may be on the verge of a breakthrough.

Turns out that defiant swagger, festival-filling anthems, and snarling melodicism aren't the only things that Kasabian learned from Oasis. The British rockers have also got the melody-borrowing bug. Listening to "Velociraptor!," Kasabian's fourth album, you'll spend half the time trying to figure out the melodic quotation. Sometimes it's easy, like the breezy '60s psychedelic tones of "Le Fee Verte," where the band sings about "Lucy in the sky. " "Let's Roll Just Like We Used To" lifts the melody from 1980s dance pop hit "Let the Music Play" or whatever mystical Eastern musical mode it came from originally.

This is the first record Mark Olson and Gary Louris have made together as the Jayhawks in 16 years, and an expanded, worldly, even experimental sound describes what resulted. That is certainly the case with the winding, shape-shifting "High Water Blues," say, or the guitar effects that show up in "Guilder Annie. " But, really, "Mockingbird Time" is more a return to the classic Jayhawks sound that the pair mined - especially on the one-two punch of their early 1990s releases, "Hollywood Town Hall" and "Tomorrow the Green Grass" - before Olson's departure in 1995.

SAN FRANCISCO -- If the Summer of Love established San Francisco as the hub of hippiedom, the summer of 2007 may be remembered as a time the country commemorated 1960s counterculture by taking the "counter" out of it. From New York, where Lincoln Center is devoting its outdoor music and dance season to the era, to Minnesota, where the Minneapolis Institute of Arts mounted a psychedelic art and photography exhibit, people of all ages and political...

The debate about whether a duo of guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey constitutes the Who seems strangely fitting. Among Townshend's narrative preoccupations, seeking and defining one's own identity in the world and remaining relevant to the here and now, are themes that have been at the core of the songwriter's greatest works. True, the fearsome force of nature that had once been the Who with drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle is no more -- that band exists only in digital memory banks and the collective memory, or wishful...

Turns out that defiant swagger, festival-filling anthems, and snarling melodicism aren't the only things that Kasabian learned from Oasis. The British rockers have also got the melody-borrowing bug. Listening to "Velociraptor!," Kasabian's fourth album, you'll spend half the time trying to figure out the melodic quotation. Sometimes it's easy, like the breezy '60s psychedelic tones of "Le Fee Verte," where the band sings about "Lucy in the sky. " "Let's Roll Just Like We Used To" lifts the melody from 1980s dance pop hit "Let the Music Play" or whatever mystical Eastern musical mode it came from originally.

This is the first record Mark Olson and Gary Louris have made together as the Jayhawks in 16 years, and an expanded, worldly, even experimental sound describes what resulted. That is certainly the case with the winding, shape-shifting "High Water Blues," say, or the guitar effects that show up in "Guilder Annie. " But, really, "Mockingbird Time" is more a return to the classic Jayhawks sound that the pair mined - especially on the one-two punch of their early 1990s releases, "Hollywood Town Hall" and "Tomorrow the Green Grass" - before Olson's departure in 1995.

The band moe.’s celebratory show Thursday at House of Blues not only set a welcoming tone for the new year but also underscored what a great 2010 it was for the group itself. In the year behind us, moe. observed its 20th anniversary, released a greatest-hits package, headlined one night of the new Nateva festival, organized its own fests, and unspooled a list of new songs, a few of which made strong showings Thursday, the first of a two-night stand. After an opening set by groove-heavy RAQ, the men of moe. took the stage...

LOS ANGELES - James Gurley, the innovative guitarist who helped shape psychedelic rock’s multilayered, sometimes thundering sounds as a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company, the band that propelled Janis Joplin to fame, has died of a heart attack. He was 69. Mr. Gurley was pronounced dead Sunday at a Palm Springs hospital, two days before his 70th birthday, the band announced on its website. One of many prominent guitarists to emerge from San Francisco’s psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s - others included the...

At one point during Of Montreal's set at the Orpheum Thursday night, singer Kevin Barnes tied a noose around his neck, mid-verse, and smeared red paint over his half-naked body. It may have been Halloween eve, but it was business as usual for the band. The Georgia-based sextet has recently strayed from the baroque folk-pop it crafted in the '90s, instead embracing an edgy soundtrack of glitz, gloss, and glam. Judging by the show, its performances have followed suit. These days, the band's act is more stage production than concert, rivaling the makings of an...

Reprinted from late editions of Saturday's Globe. SOMERVILLE - It has toured the world and been the subject of an immensely well-received recent documentary, but Friday night the Northampton-based Young@Heart Chorus made its long-overdue debut in the Boston area. Director Bob Cilman promised it wouldn't be the last and that's good news for any local concertgoers who've ever questioned the axiom that age ain't nothing but a number. The 27-voice strong choir - average age 80 - brought a capacity crowd at Somerville Theatre to its feet several times with a tremendously...

WILL C. ADIEU OR DIE An instrumental remix album for a '60s band, let alone the Beach Boys, doesn't exactly sound like the sexiest way to launch a comeback. But for Somerville rapper/producer Will C., who's kept a low profile since his last solo album in 2009, it's an opportunity to pour all his considerable talents into a project that transcends the stale remix album formula. "Adieu or Die" isn't a few "Pet Sounds" tracks with new drums on top; it's a heavily researched, quietly ambitious, and brilliantly crafted work in its own right.

SOMERVILLE - It has toured the world and been the subject of an immensely well-received recent documentary, but last night the Northampton-based Young@Heart Chorus made its long overdue debut in the Boston area. Director Bob Cilman promised it wouldn't be the last and that's good news for any local concertgoers who've ever questioned the axiom that age ain't nothing but a number. The 27-voice strong choir - average age 80 - brought a capacity crowd at the Somerville Theatre to its feet several times with a tremendously vivacious two-act, 80-minute performance that was the...

SOMERVILLE - It has toured the world and been the subject of an immensely well-received recent documentary, but last night the Northampton-based Young@Heart Chorus made its long overdue debut in the Boston area. Director Bob Cilman promised it wouldn't be the last and that's good news for any local concertgoers who've ever questioned the axiom that age ain't nothing but a number. The 27-voice strong choir - average age 80 - brought a capacity crowd at the Somerville Theatre to its feet several times with a tremendously vivacious two-act, 80-minute performance that was the physical embodiment of...

ALLSTON - Old Glory hung on the back wall of Harpers Ferry's stage, but instead of 50 stars, the corner of the flag bore a swirly constellation. It had been tacked up by headliners Akron/Family just prior to their performance Sunday night and proved a fitting standard for the spacey, spacious instrumental that introduced what would eventually spiral into almost two hours of wild jamming music. No matter the rumors about Akron/Family - originally a quartet of Brooklyn-based Midwesterners who have been dubbed folk and touted as some kind...