Silver Sunshine are a quartet from San Diego. They wish they were from England circa 1966-67. The classic sounds of the rough-and-tumble Brit psych groups like
the Move,
the Who,
the Kinks and
Pink Floyd, as well as lesser-known bands from the era like Skip Bifferty,
Honeybus and the mighty Wimple Winch are what inspire them.
The Beatles, too, you can't ignore their influence.
Silver Sunshine do a pretty good job of pulling it off on their self-titled debut album, combining a modern update of the freakbeat sound (spiraling guitars, twee lyrics, billowing vocal harmonies and stately pianos) and some hooky tunes. "I See the Silver Sunshine which borrows liberally from
the Move's "Fire Brigade," the clattering rocker "Way Up in the Big Sky," "When She Wakes Up Tomorrow" and "If I Had the Time," a sweet folk-rocker that shifts the scene to L.A., 1966 -- are all as good as any by the cream of today's retro-psych bands like
the High Dials or the Telepathic Butterflies. The few songs, like the doomy acoustic ballad "Nightmares" or the too polished "Greenfield Park," that stray from the '60s template, are the least successful and the record is a trifle over-produced, a few rough edges here and there might have made things more exciting and less reverential. As it is, the group should be proud of how closely they come to re-creating the sound of mid-'60s London and their debut would fit nicely into a collection filled with
Move CDs and Rubbles box sets. ~ Tim Sendra