San Fran Returns to Its Psychedelic Roots

San Francisco seems to have had something of a psychedelic rock resurgence, though don’t ask any of the bands involved to identify themselves that way. “People are so aware of everything and don't really separate it that much,” a man whose band has the telltale brooding drones tells the Guardian. "They mention modern hip-hop in the same sentence as old psych stuff or the Monkees or whatever.”

There’s also the question of a scene, which flourished in the '60s but seems fractured, if not absent, today. “I'm not a very social person,” the rocker continues. “If I have any tie with psychedelia, it's that I like transforming my pop songs into something that will take you off into another place.” That sounds about right. But even if the sound is the same, there’s no “deep philosophical meaning” to it, another musician says. People today “are just borrowing an aesthetic that's already there—a sound more than anything else.”