Owsley Sunshine – The Issri EP

Regurgitated Sunshine

Throughout the history of Psychedelic music, there have been people who simply wrote songs about psychedelic experiences (or what they thought they would be like), and then there have been artists such as Brian Wilson, Can, and Mercury Rev who have used the medium as a vehicle to drive progressive music and ideas into a listener’s subconscious. Unfortunately, the former group still exists today. Case and point: Owsley Sunshine.Without a spec of originality or intrigue, Lincoln natives Owsley Sunshine decorate their latest record, The Issri EP, with stock psychedelic phrases, and washed out, pointless jams. For the most part, each song sticks to an uninspired formula of a mundane sing-a-long followed by a rock-and roll explosion and topped off with a monotonous freak out. Their vocal melodies and delivery may be compared to Ian Brown of the Stone Roses, but they don’t come close to Brown’s charisma. The chorus of “Sumoeday” demonstrates just how unchallenging the lyrics tend to be: “My baby is home, so we’ll get high/My baby is home, they sold you a lie.” In addition to those elements, overall, the music just seems very straight forward. No new and interesting sounds or instruments. No strange or thought provoking lyrics.

There are bands that are more provocative in a two-minute song than these guys are throughout this whole EP. Indeed, it’s as if Owsley Sunshine picked up a copy of the “How to Play Generic Psychedelic Music” handbook, committed it to memory, and regurgitated it onto a trite, unnecessarily long 40 minute disc.