Mushroom: Naked, Stoned & Stabbed

Naked, Stoned & Stabbed plays so cohesively from beginning to end that it might have been conceived and performed as one single piece, divided by its natural movements into tracks, and then each track arbitrarily given some whimsical title ("Celebration at Big Sur (The Sound of the Gulls Outside of Room 124)," for example). And while we're at it, we might wonder, with no disrespect intended, if Naked, Stoned & Stabbed is the psychological diary of a hallucinogenic experience.

In its current incarnation, Mushroom's cast of characters have played with such a wide variety of progressive musicians—Gongzilla, John Cale, Crazy Horse—that it's almost hilarious. Naked casts Mushroom's stylistic net out even further with good bait. "Though You're Where You Want to Be, You're Not Where You Belong" shape-shifts into a country-jazz vamp that ebbs and flows into a hypnotic, vaguely menacing Velvet Underground drone. "All the Guitar Players Around Sean Smith Say He's Got It Coming, But He Gets It While He Can" echoes classic '70s acoustic sides by Hot Tuna, and rings out crystalline and pure. Hand percussion and bells twirl with guitars and other strings while "Tariq Ali" explores the spirituous world ethnomusicology of Oregon.

Laced with wah-wah and electric rhythm guitar spikes, swelling in and out of focus, "Take Off Your Face and Recover from That Trip You've Been On" seems the most obvious post in Naked's hallucinogenic diary. But it's hardly the only entry: Cycling riffs of bass and marimba form the wriggly spine of "Indulgence," which transports you deeply "Under the Spell." After "Walking Barefoot in Babylon" through a weird, brilliantly colored jungle of sound, "I'll Give You Everything I've Got for a Little Piece of Mind" scrambles your brains back into their proper omelet.

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