The Kinks, The Fugs, Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, Scott Walker, Lee Hazlewood, Fairport Convention, Bobby Conn, Serge Gainsbourg, Robert Wyatt, Mothers of Invention, Sun City Girls, Franco Battiato, Can, Faust, Parson Sound, Edip Akbayram, Ali Farke Toure, the Free Design, Silver Apples, The Monks, Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett, Gong, Red Krayola, Pere Ubu, Broadcast, This Heat, Ennio Morricone, Spacemen 3..
Sounds Like
"Psyched is definitely the correct word to describe their fluid psych-pop with a garage-twinge. Listenable, blastable, and somewhat danceable, Soft People have staying power." -Walrus Music Blog 3/26/08
"Soft People make their proper debut with the self-released The Vapors, an aptly named swirl of influences obscure yet unimpeachable. Everyone will hear something different, but fans of Vintage Violence-era John Cale, post-Swell Maps Nikki Sudden, and early King Crimson will surely lap it up like so much acid-laced milk.
Though costume changes seem to come with every song, the band’s basic engine is a droning, jangled, cosmic psych-pop that straddles terrestrial songwriting and intergalactic bliss. There’s French singing in “The Vapors,” fluffy horns on “Sugarmama” and lurid tinges of spaghetti Western in the middle of “Concentration.”
Once The Vapors starts making the rounds, Soft People’s currency will grow exponentially. Funny how making a bravura psych masterpiece can do that." -Doug Wallen, Philadelphia Weekly 3/5/08
"adorable pups"-Doug Wallen, Philadelphia Weekly 06.04.08
Formed in the winter of 2007,this West Philly band combines the lyrical wit and cynicism of Ray Davies, Mayo Thompson and Frank Zappa with the fluid musical versatility of Lee Hazlewood,Can, Os Mutantes, and various international reactions to the psychedelic, garageand prog rock explosion. Zach Sulat (vocals,guitar), Matt Ricchini (drums,vocals), and Michael Heinzer (bass) spent five years refining their songwriting, performance, free improvisation, and communal-living tensions as members of The Doctor & Philip and Burrs. Eric Carbonara (guitar), a solo musician with a record released recently on Locust Music’s Wooden Guitar series joined them to form Soft People.
Soft People have shared the stage with Damo Suzuki's Network, Dirty Projectors, Jennifer Gentle, Samara Lubelski, The Dodos, Birds of Maya, Begushkin, Stinking Lizaveta, Pattern is Movement, Castanets, Shapes and Sizes, Alec K Redfearn, Madagascar, Orion Rigel Domisse, Anup Pradhan, Lizz King, Whales and Cops, Public Record, Mike Tamburro, members of the Teeth and the Spinto band, and others.
please visit Live Music Journal for video of us, and other great shows around Philly!
just so you guys know, and can hopefully make it out, i put together a show at the tritone this coming wednesday. i'm pretty much doing the same set as back in june, and maybe with a bit of a head cold, but the other acts are great friends of mine and also very talented musicians. we're going to play on each other's sets so it'll be a full night of camaraderie. hope to see you there. tritone, aug. 15th, $10
