This week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is dedicated to Sean Bonniwell, who passed away on Dec. 20th 2011 of lung cancer. I thought of doing a tribute set in the second hour, but then hit upon an idea that I think Bonniwell himself would have appreciated: a Music Machine track in every song set. The result is a show with no less than eleven tracks from Bonniwell's Music Machine, one of the most underrated garage-psych bands of the late 1960s. Bonniwell was one of the first rock musicians to take a holistic approach to his musical presentation. The name of the band itself reflected Bonniwell's idea to segue directly from song to song for an entire set, never pausing long enough to let members of the audience call out requests that Bonniwell had no desire to play. Visually, the Music Machine had a look all their own, with all the members dressing entirely in black (including dying their hair) and wearing one glove on stage, years before Michael Jackson did his first moonwalk. The songs themselves showed a sophistication seldom, if ever, heard among their contemporaries. Elements of Bonniwell's music can be heard in later bands such as the Doors (Ray Manzarek's keyboard style in particular) and Iron Butterfly (especially Doug Ingle's baritone vocal style). In addition to the Music Machine tracks we have nearly two dozen more tunes by the usual variety of artists, including one or two you probably never heard of as well as some old favorites like Jimi Hendrix, the Standells and even the Grateful Dead. See the songlist below for details.

This week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is dedicated to Sean Bonniwell, who passed away on Dec. 20th 2011 of lung cancer. I thought of doing a tribute set in the second hour, but then hit upon an idea that I think Bonniwell himself would have appreciated: a Music Machine track in every song set. The result is a show with no less than eleven tracks from Bonniwell's Music Machine, one of the most underrated garage-psych bands of the late 1960s. Bonniwell was one of the first rock musicians to take a holistic approach to his musical presentation. The name of the band itself reflected Bonniwell's idea to segue directly from song to song for an entire set, never pausing long enough to let members of the audience call out requests that Bonniwell had no desire to play. Visually, the Music Machine had a look all their own, with all the members dressing entirely in black (including dying their hair) and wearing one glove on stage, years before Michael Jackson did his first moonwalk. The songs themselves showed a sophistication seldom, if ever, heard among their contemporaries. Elements of Bonniwell's music can be heard in later bands such as the Doors (Ray Manzarek's keyboard style in particular) and Iron Butterfly (especially Doug Ingle's baritone vocal style). In addition to the Music Machine tracks we have nearly two dozen more tunes by the usual variety of artists, including one or two you probably never heard of as well as some old favorites like Jimi Hendrix, the Standells and even the Grateful Dead. See the songlist below for details.