When I was in High School, the music I listened to was described alternately as acid rock, space rock, jam, and prog rock. This music was epitomized by bands like Hawkwind, Tangerine Dream, some Amboy Dukes ("Journey to the Center of Your Mind"), Nektar, Camel, Captain Beyond, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Iron Butterfly, Pink Floyd before they went "pop" with "Dark Side of the Moon," and much of Hendrix's live material.
This style of music was typified by spooky synthsizers, long wandering guitar solos, and oftimes nonsensical lyrics about space, time, drugs, or mythos. Lots of fuzz and special sound effects. Usually long, in excess of 10 minutes, and derogatorily described as "plodding." The onos was that people would drop acid and sit around wasted listening to this music. OK. That probably was true, but even straight it was fun music to listen to. I guess I enjoy the meandering spontaneity of it, like there's no real form, or plan, it just seems to flow endlessly in a free-spirited improvisational give-and-take between musicians.
I believed this style of music became extinct along with those bands in a giant dinosaur-like die-off caused by the massive meteor strike that was known as Punk Rock in the late 70s. I've tried to find bands that played this music, but I couldn't and had to settle for bands that were putting out current "progressive rock" such as Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Spock's Beard and such as those. Not bad bands, in fact, very good bands and very good songs, but more in the "pop" vein of being structured, a beginning, middle, and end, melodies, harmonies, bridge, etc. Nothing free-form. I settled for this because I believed my music was long gone.
I believed eroneously. While searching for something to listen to on Live365, I found a station that plays what it calls "stoner rock." Acid rock, stoner rock, OK, I guess I get the connection.
I've been listening to this station the last couple of days and the music is just wonderful. Loud, meandering, screaching lost guitars without the obnoxiousness of modern heavy metal. What more could a former freak from the '70s ask for?
But now I'm wondering if this is a recent genre, within the last 10 or so years or if this has been around, just underground, since the 70s?
I'm assuming this is underground music, or at least, not commercial, because the list of bands I've listened to so far is not a list of Who's Who in Rock but just "WHO?"
Nearly every song I've heard so far has been a "gotta get that!" by bands with odd names like Monkey3, Ufomammut, SubArachnoid Space, Lord Brain, Johnson Noise, Astrosiniq, 57 Chevy, Acid King, Clutch, 5ive, Earth, Sons of Otis, Electric Wizard, Kyuss, Liquid Visions, Glasspack, to name just a few.
Anyone know of these bands? Familiar with this genre? Is there a family tree that can be traced to an originator band (like metal/hard rock can be traced to Black Sabbath/Led Zepplin and prog can be traced to the Moody Blues/Yes)?