It's You!

The latest Love Psychedelico song is the end theme to the second season of the Japanese crime drama, ZETTAI REIDO (ABSOLUTE ZERO), which would be the equivalent to the American TV show COLD CASE. The song is called, "It's You".

Abbot Kinnet PV!

Here's the new PV for Abbot Knney!

ABBOT KINNEY: A Quick overview

ABBOT KINNEY is the name of the new Love Psychedelico album, their first in 3 years. In the interim between the the last album and this new one, they've toured Asia successfully and spent a summer in LA promoting a United States CD of their best work. In short, this album has been a long time coming so... how is it? It's a great Love Psychedelico album.

Kicking off the album with the Title track, ABBOT KINNEY begins on a light, sunny note. There's bubbly guitar runs and vague Reggae organ keeping beat. The second track, BEAUTIFUL DAYS, introduces a full on Country sound with a mandolin leading an acoustic instrumentation. HERE I AM, SECRET CRUSH and SHADOW BEHIND all contribute to a late 1960's / early 1970's Rock sound. These tracks are the ones that most recall the first two albums sound. The brief I'M DONE takes the riff of their earlier WASTING and relates a dark story of a break up that features Kumi's best vocals on the album.

The next song, HIT THE ROAD, recalls BROWN EYED JOE in vocal and sound. BRING DOWN THE ORION may be my favorite track on the album, lightly recalling FANTASTIC WORLD in it's chord progressions. HAPPY BIRTHDAY is a curious track. The song is just as the title suggests: it's a mid tempo birthday wish. THIS WAY, which has been promoted with a video on their YouTube Channel, is a driving track that best exemplifies the LP sound these days.

DR. HUMPTY BROWNSTONE is one of those patented sing / rap songs that KUMI's been shouting since the first album. The final track is a cover of CCR's HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN? retooled in a way only Love Psychedelico can do it.

All in all, this is an enormously satisfying album, but I'm thinking that might be due to their three year absence from the scene. Had it been released only 2 years prior, it might have sounded more pedestrian to these ears. That's neither here nor there, though, since it is what it is and what it is, is good. The production is solid as is the song selection. Kumi and Naoki seem to have drifted over to making solid, concise pop songs and have left a lot of the jamming behind. It's both a good and bad thing. The songs on this album are tight, but I'd have liked to have heard more of Naoki's guitar shredding.

I only have one minor criticism and it's very minor. Kumi's vocals just aren't as dynamic as they used to be. One of the reasons I love Love Psychedelico so much is the versatility of Kumi's vocals. She has this captivating ability to go from a loud commanding shout to a soft kittenish purr when the lyric calls for it. This ability is all but absent on this new album. Kumi seems to want to constantly belt out the lyrics and the songs don't always call out for that reading. Make no mistake, I love this new album, but I miss Kumi's softer side.

So, should you buy it? If you're a Love Psychedelico fan, yes indee-dee. You can buy it at CDjapan by clicking on the Album Cover above or below:

ABBOT KINNEY: The New Album

It's almost here! The new album from LOVE PSYCHEDELICO is being released on January 13th, 2010. Can you believe they've been around 10 years???!? From the clips on YouTube, it looks to be one of their best. Here are some clips:

Click on the above logo to go to the official Youtube page!

Click the Love Psychedelico Logo to reserve your copy of ABBOT KINNEY

And, of course, the official Love Psychedelico webpage has been overhauled and enhanced. Go give it a looksee!
http://www.lovepsychedelico.net/index.html

Totally misdirected and eventually vindicated!

Welcome to the first post for this blog in a long time. I haven't posted here in a long while because I haven't had any Love Psychedelico news for y'all.

At least, I thought I didn't.

Seems as though, when I was looking to the West Coast last summer for the latest Love Psychedelico news, I should have been looking to the Far East. On June 18th, 2008, Love Psychedelico was delighting it's fans at home with a double DVD box set. I only came across this set's existence last month and, today... after lots of searching, I finally have it in my grubby little hands!

I bought the box sight unseen. I didn't know what to expect, except it was official and I had to possess it. I expected it to be a deluxe version of the Golden Grapefruit CD+DVD set. I figured there'd maybe be a book or something. The box is actually a 2 DVD set of Live performances, PVs and some quirky extras. Each DVD comes in it's own Amaray case and the second DVD case contains a gold LP logo sticker and 3 photos of the 'Delico: one of Kumi, one of Naoki and one of the two of them jamming onstage.

When I went searching for this set, I was dismayed to find it was either sold out or priced at around $60.00US. I then went to eBay and found the set from a Chinese seller for $30.00+free shipping. I clicked the "Buy It Now" button so quick and hard that I almost busted my mouse!

I bought it on the 20th of January and received it today, February 7th. I can't be more satisfied.



The first disc is a 2007 concert at Budokan. It's not as elaborate as the last concert DVD, but it's actually better in it's intimacy. The 13 songs performed draws heavily on the Golden Grapefruit album with only 5 songs from earlier albums. It's a great show, and one made better by Naoki's first solo vocal on a short runthrough of Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild"! Also on the first disc is a small Documentary montage of the making of the concert.



The second disc is more dynamic. First, is a 6 song live performance at the Liquidroom. It's a smaller venue and it shows Love Psychedelico much more at ease with a smaller audience. They really get off on the audience's vibe and the overall result is much more electric than the Budokan.

Next are a selection of Video Clips. Most of these have surfaced on the Golden Grapefruit DVD, but it's worth it for the inclusion of the "7 Days" video and the live videos.

The Recording Reports are a great addition to this disc with the 'Delico shown in the studio recording and putting final touches on some of the Golden Grapefruit songs. The coolest one is the Everyone, Everyone clip, which is a pseudo music video with some fun camera trickery.

The Poetry Readings section is a bit puzzling. It's not really poetry in the strictest sense, but it is very Yoko Ono. If you like Avant Garde, you'll possibly like this quite a bit.

Finally, the second disc is rounded out with Commercials for the Golden Grapefruit songs and album.

I love this set and am exhilarated to have it in my collection. I believe there's one or two still on eBay for a comparable price. Go get 'em! They're NTSC and region coded ALL. That is, the discs will play on ANY DVD player.

Love Psychedelico on the radio and in print!

A page taken from a Japanese Magazine articleon the Delico. Anyone care to translate the text?

The beautiful promotional push for the new Love Psychedelico compilation, This Is Love Psychedelico, is rolling through the summer. Kumi and Naoki have been getting great press notices (though all too many lazily compare them to Sheryl Crow instead of acknowledging that both artists draw their inspiration from the same well of early 70's Rolling Stones' styled Classic Rock) and today they've done a little radio interview on PRI/BBC's "The World". This is particularly great because you can hear them speaking in English for a bit. As I'm sure you all know, the Delico doesn't do much in the way of sit down interviews so hearing them speak in Japanese or English is a rare treat.

Click here to go to "The World" and listen to the segment.

Here's a fab Live clip of the Delico playing "Your Song" from Amazon.com.

The Invasion Has Begun... Oh yes...

Yesterday, (Tuesday, May 20th 2008) Love Psychedelico's US Debut album was released. A few days before, the album was available on iTunes with an iTunes only bonus track, "Mind Across The Universe". Ah.... It feels good. Here's a look at the packaging:



This is the front cover. Notice the logo is embossed.



A view of the packaging with the right flap open.



This is the meat of the packaging. The book in the center reads right to left, Japanese style!



The back cover. When you buy the CD, please read the message printed next to Naoki's leg.

Note I didn't open the book for ya or show you the small gift of gratitude you get when you buy the CD. Those are things you'll have to discover for yourself.

As for the CD itself, it sounds astounding. It's mastered with HDCD, so if you can at all possible listen to it that way, please do. Dare I say this CD sounds better than the Japanese masters???

So, you may ask, why the silence for so long? Well, I've had many different irons in the fire lately, including papering the city of Pittsburgh with Love Psychedelico Logos in preparation for the CD release.

I have some photos of the placement of the fliers and postcards. Unfortunately, a lot of the places we hit told us to leave it with them and they'd do it later, but some were DIY and I took full advantage.



1: Love Psychedelico Postcards nest along with other happenings.
2: An L.P. poster stands guard at the entrance to Jerry's Records.
3: Another poster sits regally atop other bills at Heads Together.
4: The Beehive sports the latest in Japanese Band Handbills.

There was some resistance to the posters due to the dating of the posters. It said the album was being released in April and a few people questioned why I was putting up outdated posters. Hopefully, the posters will stay up long enough to pique some curiousity. I wish I had more pics, but I can only cross my fingers and hope the other posters are seen by the right people.

What other news? Oh! The 'Delico played an acoustic set in LA to a sold out, capacity house. I wasn't there, natch, but I heard it was fab. I hadn't heard about the SF show, but I can only imagine it was the same.

The Video for "Standing Bird" has been in rotation on MTV U to some degree of success.

When there's more news, I'll try to get it out to you! If you haven't bought it yet, you can get the "This Is Love Psychedelico" CD from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Best Buy. You can also get it directly digital from iTunes here.