Austin Psych Fest 3: Five Minutes With Rayon Beach

Leading up to Austin Psych Fest 3 (April 23rd - 25th at The Mohawk), we’ll be spending five minutes with many of the artists scheduled to perform at the festival. Today, we catch up with Austin’s Rayon Beach.

What does the term "psychedelic" conjure up in your mind?

Let's face it guys, listening to music on hallucinogenic substances is on par with trees, electricity and staplers when it comes to cool shit on planet earth. However, any kind
of music you make should be as meaningful to people that are gone as Salem or not. Psychedelic music implies a sound that to us is about people that pursued something visionary. Pursuing one's own visions, clarifying them and developing them.

Does Austin deserve to host a psychedelic music festival?

Well, yes, of course Austin deserves to host a psychedelic festival since we invented psychedelic music but we shouldn't get too carried away with it. Like the way New Orleans Jazz Fest, once a festival of esteem that appeared to celebrate the far reaching form of music it was named for, is now subject to appearances by such hooligans as Dave Mathews and Darius Rucker. We also don't need another Marley fest or Eeyore's birthday. As it turns out the drum circles are only making Eeyore take more Paxil. I don't think this festival is in any danger of that. Woohoo Silver Apples!

Roky Erickson or Stevie Ray Vaughan?

We know it's the people's choice but we have to go with Roky Erickson. Stevie Ray may have played on "China Girl" and "Let's Dance." He may have shared pint glasses of cocaine whiskey with Albert King. Maybe he reattached his guitar calluses with superglue. Sure he was able to catch as much tail in a kimono as in a Miller's Outpost poncho. But he also inspired legions of guitar wankey wankertons wanking it up in an endless wank hole of wankery from the dorm room to
the bar room.

What is right or wrong with the music industry today?

Well you know, it's like they say. It's not really about what's wrong or right with the music industry, it's about what you make of it. But come to think of it, it's also how well
you know Satan. And how many successful Scientologists you power yoga with. Twitter will drive traffic to your MySpace that's linked to your Facebook that you monitor with your Gmail. So yeah, we'd say it's like 80% You, 15% Satan, and 5% what Scientologists you know.

If you could invite one musician, living or dead, on stage with you, who would it be?

Sherlock Holmes.

Thank you for spending five minutes with Austinist.

Austin Psych Fest: [Official] [MySpace]
Rayon Beach: [MySpace]

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