The Red Plastic Buddha - 2014 - Songs For Mara

Quality: 3.5 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 3.75 out of 5

You can aim directly for a modern recreation of the Nuggets sound, but the Red Plastic Buddha gives some heed to the resonance of slightly more modern acts like Luna and Primal Scream.  MAn, I'm a little depressed having to qualify those acts as being modern.  I've gone on some rants about the charm of mid Saturday afternoon college radio, and this is some music that would light your fire in that context.

These fellers do best with a bit of sneer.  "She's An Alien" gets it - "Go" gets it - and "Cosmonaut" hits the foot on the accelerator.  There's a cover of Love's "A House is Not A Motel," but "Trip Inside This House" is not a 13th Floor Elevators cover, and "Girlfriend" is not a Matthew Sweet cover.  I sort of thought they might be.  The ambient instrumentals "Staring Into the Void" and "Jupiter Gas" open up the chamber of spirits, which is fun but not quite the band's real strength.  I'd recommend that they go for their own Xtrmntr.

This really is the darker side of the psych pop liquified sphere.  The proper passion is here and it sounds good - I'm going to take the time to mention to the band, however, that they'd really benefit from the tube-blaster, slightly EQing in the red, saturated tape sound.  Sometimes modern technology is not what we need, but do take the time to explore the band's vibrations over yonder:

https://redplasticbuddha.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-mara