Bummer, Man

As a member of the Skygreen Leopards, Glenn Donaldson released a dewy pop/soft-psych album called Disciples of California, which, true to its title, sounded like the work of men trying to capture sunlight on recording tape. But when he and fellow Leopard Shayde Sartin concocted the debut of their new project, Giant Skyflower Band, they intended to create something on the more damaged side of the spectrum — "bummer psych," in their words. Though the fractured whimsy of English songwriters like Syd Barrett or the Television Personalities may have provided the inspiration for 2007's Blood of the Sunworm, Donaldson and Sartin haven't abandoned their California worship entirely. The disc features enough maggots-in-the-mind lyrical imagery — sample title: "Rainbows and Dreams (with Worms Singing)" — to remind one of some lysergic fallout, but it's all slowed down to a hazy dream-pop shuffle. Live, the Papercuts' Jason Quever contributes added guitar and organ magic and an ancient drum machine keeps time from the bottom of a well. And when the three harmonize on Liverpudlian odes to girls named "Mary" or "Jane," it should keep the bummers to a minimum.