Garcia Peoples @ Sunset Tavern

Mellow and sunny psychedelia 🌝

📾: Garcia Peoples

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Garcia Peoples jerry-rigged their name to lure in legions of Grateful Dead fans. While the Rutherford, New Jersey-based sextet haven’t quite reached that influential jam band’s level of popularity and cultural impact, they have forged a formidable catalog over the last eight years, slowly building a devoted following among heads who like to have said body part expanded. So, yes, Garcia Peoples traffic in psychedelic rock, that of a particularly fluid, circuitous strain that’s more sunny and mellow than fearsome and heavy. Like a less bombastic King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Garcia Peoples possess the chops and melodic craftiness to take listeners on dazzling sonic trips while planting earworms in those blown minds.

At the Sunset, they’ll be supporting their sixth studio album, 2022’s Dodging Dues (produced by Matt Sweeney of Chavez and Bonnie “Prince” Billy quasi fame), which finds the group writing their most concise, conventional songs to date. This record may leave fans of their more outrĂ© inclinations on Nightcap At Wits’ End and One Step Behind slightly underwhelmed, but it will likely attract more new followers who prefer their jams streamlined and hooky.

Author

Dave Segal

Dave Segal

Dave Segal is a freelance music writer for The Wire, Pitchfork, Aquarium Drunkard, and other publications. He formerly served as staff writer at The Stranger and as managing editor at Alternative Press. Find him on Twitter @editaurus