URBAN ASPIRINES: Psychic Ills: The Early Years

Friday, May 01, 2026

Psychic Ills: The Early Years

When it comes to following the beat of their own drum, New York’s Psychic Ills have exemplified the phrase since their beginnings in 2003. Initially spawned from electronic-centered home recording experiments, they progressed into all-night full-band exploration in a neighborhood where noise wasn’t a

problem. They soon after evolved into a live band seemingly at home within the extended jam, exploring a variety of musical terrain. The early years saw several releases for Social Registry, tons of time on the road, and collaborations with artists as diverse as Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) and Sonic Boom (Spacemen Three/Spectrum). In 2011, their first effort for Sacred Bones, Hazed Dream traded in the synthesizer space-outs and raga rumbles, and delivered records of sunburned psych pop, awash in warm tones and blues damaged songwriting.

01. PSYCHIC ILLS - DINS 2005

Dins is the full-length debut of New York City's Psychic Ills; a band known for their squalling live shows that combine post-punk sonics, deafening drones, psychedelic weirdness, rhythmic tribalism, and loose, shambolic, improvisational jams that have everything to do with chaos and intensity. That weird Eastern

tinged mental drug orgy thing that seems so elusive to so many nowadays drenches these proceedings. Check the hand drumming and snaky guitar in "East" for starters. There's that eerie blues thing going on with the modal guitar line, with hypnotic bass lines and hand drums. It's the payoff before the seduction where everything that's delivered in a haunted, wooly sanguine blur was never promised. Who knows what's being sung, and who cares? It's silvery, slithering melodic fabric has no seam, everything lies down together in a psychedelic rock & roll orgy of acid-guzzled, dark-thrummed bliss. Dins does it, over and again.

Psychic Ills – Dins
Label: The Social Registry – TSR024
Format: Album, Digipak
Country: US
Released: 2005
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Ethereal, Electroacoustic, Experimental

TRACKS

01. East 1:39
02. Electric Life 5:26
03. (Untitled) 4:25
Effects [Stereo Parametric Equalizer] – Charles Burst
04. January Rain 5:38
05. Inauration 1:57
06. I Knew My Name 8:33
07.Witchcraft Breaker 2:12
Horns – Jesse Trbovich
08. Another Day Another Night 8:08

Flac Size: 244 MB

02. PSYCHIC ILLS - EARLY VIOLENCE 2006

Early Violence, a 35-minute album with a December 2006 release date, marks the first time that some of

Psychic Ills' pre-Dins recordings have been available on CD. This disc unites the contents of Psychic Ills' first two releases, "Mental Violence I" (a 7" record) and "Mental Violence II" (a 12" record), with two previously unreleased songs: "Highway of Death" and "Diamond City Redux." Although Psychic Ills were still finding their creative way during those first few months, they had an attractive style early on: a spacey and hazy yet distorted, gritty, and rockin' style that drew on influences ranging from shoegazer bands of the '90s and 2000s to '60s and early '70s psychedelic garage rock.

Psychic Ills – Early Violence
Label: The Social Registry – TSR032
Format: CD, Compilation
Country: US
Released: Dec 5, 2006
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

01. Vice 2:25
02. Killers 4:25
03. Diamond City 4:01
04. Days 7:09
05. Highway Of Death 3:51
06. 4AM 6:14
07. Red-Split 3:35
08. Diamond City Redux 4:20

NOTES

Tracks 1 & 2 from: Killers 7" single 2003
Tracks 3, 4, 6 & 8 from: Mental Violence 12" single 2005
Track 5 from: Various Artists CD compilation xgLA: Sophistication Meets The Streets (U.S. Pop Life Vol. 19) 2005
Track 7 from: Various Artists 2xCD compilation Every Day Since Sixty Six / Ascension Days (When We Rise) 2005
(Unlisted Track 8 not mentioned on packaging).

Flac Size: 207 MB

03. PSYCHIC ILLS - LIVE AT LEVITATION 2012 (2022)

The fifth LP in this Live at LEVITATION series features New York psych legends Psychic Ills capturing

the band’s spellbinding performance in 2012."The first thing that grabbed me when I listened to our 2012 performance at Austin Psych Fest is Tres declaring at the start of the recording “It’s good to be back in Texas” because that simple sentiment captured everything we felt in that moment—the nostalgia and privilege of coming back to our home state for such an iconic festival." - Elizabeth Hart (Psychic Ills)

Psychic Ills – Live At Levitation
Label: The Reverberation Appreciation Society – RVRB-053
Series: Live At Levitation
Format: Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition Sep 30, 2022
Country: Europe
Released: 2012
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock

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