Biography of The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

If a band could ever be called an average psychedelic group, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band fit the bill. This somewhat mysterious collection of L.A. players issued several albums in the late '60s that plugged into the era's standard folk-rock, freakouts, and trippy lyrics without establishing a solid identity of their own. But because the currents they were riding were themselves so inspired, average in this case doesn't necessarily mean bad. They cut a fair number of tracks, moving without rhyme or reason from straightforward Byrds and Kinks cops to zany orchestrated self-absorbed psychedelic pop to self-conscious exercises in hippy outrageousness (including, of all things, a cover of the Mothers' "Help I'm a Rock"). Though their legacy reeks of determined trendiness, the best of their output holds up reasonably well. ~ Richie Unterberger