Garcia Peoples, “Show Your Troubles Out” (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)
Jam bands will always be with us. You can take that to the bank. Thank—or curse, depending on your disposition and size of your attention span—the Grateful Dead and Phish for perpetuating predilections for perpetual improvisation in the rock realm, inspiring hundreds of groups to get far out and freaky and to stretch conventional song structures into lysergic taffy.
Garcia Peoples shamelessly telegraph their indebtedness to the guitar god Jerry and company. Oy. But don’t let that scare you away. On their toothsome 2018 release, Cosmic Cash, the Rutherford, New Jersey quintet favor the more concise, melodious side of the Dead, with only one track cracking the 10-minute mark (and it’s a good’un). While Garcia Peoples don’t extenuate into “Dark Star” territory or drop any sort of “King Solomon’s Marbles” or “What’s Become of the Baby” weird-trippage on your head, they do finesse out some gorgeous, serpentine aural sunshine. You’d have to be special kind of grump not to wanna slip inside these silky, ambling tunes that disperse tension with ease.
“Show Your Troubles Out” alternates between mellow, blissful passages and flaming rave-ups, and it’s the second of the latter mode here that lifts this song into the must-hear-over-and-over portion of your listening diet. I can’t help flashing back to the end of the Feelies’ “Slipping into Something,” and that’s higher-than-Dr. Timothy Leary praise in my book.
Garcia Peoples play the Sunset Tavern Friday, January 11 with Howlin’ Rain and the Kingdom Boogie Band.
