If Howlin Rain got this year rolling with their early-70s hard rock vibe-infused The Russian Wilds, then you could say that Electric Shepherd is bringing 2012 to a psychedelic close by bravely grabbing a handful of knobs on the same time machine and sending themselves back even further with The Imitation Garden.

Except they’re not. They’re right here – well, San Francisco, actually – right now.

But the vibe of the past is there, for sure: you could imagine The Imitation Garden being blasted from the rafters of San Francisco’s Longshoreman’s Hall at 1966’s Trip Festival or blaring out of the open door of Ken Kesey’s backhouse at his place in La Honda while Neil Cassady does his cool jerking and writhing dance on the grass. This is the sort of music that turns the most state-of-the-art featherweight ear buds into a pair of vintage weigh-a-ton Electro-Voice Regency cabinets.

In short, The Imitation Garden is a trip – a very good trip.

It should be noted that Electric Shepherd is only a trio – at least that’s what the liner notes claim. I haven’t looked up any pictures of the band yet to see how many limbs they have (at least six apiece is my guess). This I can tell you: bassist Tommy Anderson, drummer Sonny Pearce, and guitarist/vocalist Mark Nelsen crank out some amazing sound amongst the three of them – not just in terms of volume, but rather in depth and dynamics. They use their ears as much as their hands and feet; their music is a weave of action and reaction – the kind of magic that transformed The Warlocks into something else.

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