Opinionated Chicago music writer Jim Derogatis explores the origins and influences of psychedelia in his well-researched and thoughtful book TURN ON YOUR MIND. These influences prove to be as pervasive as a magic mushroom fungus, with usual suspects like Pink Floyd and Captain Beefheart sharing space with more contemporary organisms like the Orb and Aphex Twin. Derogatis is an unapologetic music nerd, a trait that serves him well on a journey that covers German bands like Can and Kraftwerk, British second- and third-generation psych rockers like the Teardrop Explodes and Portishead, and the disturbingly energetic multi-member Texas choral band the Polyphonic Spree. Derogatis makes no claims to impartiality, which lends his writing a certain prickliness reminiscent of his mentor, Lester Bangs (about whom he has written in a book called LET IT BLURT); he also finds psychedelic traces in unusual places, like the Culture Club and the latter-day works of Tom Petty. Many of his choices will doubtless cause endless debate among his readers: which is, of course, what music nerds like, and do, best. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.