In the Rough

The psychedelic element of the "psychedelic postpunk" tag usually stapled to Denver's Weed Diamond is sort of theoretical. Whereas the 13th Floor Elevators or Jimi Hendrix are inarguably making druggy-sounding music about drugs while on drugs, Weed Diamond has more in common with the sorta-oblique trippiness of the Beach Boys. And like the Beach Boys, the strength here is in the unpsychedelic realm of towering, gorgeous pop melody. The drug references seem incidental — even if these dudes were stone-cold sober, the pretty pretty songs would still get made. As it is, the pretty pretty songs involve heavy reverb, lots of fuzz, and titles such as "All of Denver Is Wasted," but they still sound supersweet, more like an early Cure demo than early Pink Floyd.

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• The Beach Boys
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Tan Dollar, Dash Jacket, and Neighbors play with Weed Diamond.
Tue., July 20, 8 p.m., 2010