Check out this local underground group that’s becoming a national touring act
The Psycodelics released their debut album in April, played Bonnarroo in June, and are heading out on a tour that will take them to Los Angeles and Canada this fall.
Cameron Wescott’s first shots of crowd-pleasing adrenaline came in grade school, while impersonating James Brown. That “Mr. Dynamite” energy still fills him as he fronts The Psycodelics, singing lead vocals over infectious bass lines.
Wescott sees The Psycodelics’ blend of soul and funk as a refinement of sounds pioneered by Parliament-Funkadelic and Sly & the Family Stone, just as Brown built on the sound of juke joint singers whose music was never recorded. “James Brown was the crown jewel of all these years of refining that happens out there in the country,” says Wescott.
The Psycodelics are a Lowcountry-bred band. Like Brown, drummer Sean Bing hails from Barnwell. Guitarist Whitt Burn grew up nearby in Walterboro. Keyboardist Noah Jones and Wescott connected as students at the Charleston County School of the Arts.
With the release of Please Keep Off the Grass in April, The Psycodelics have grown from an underground Charleston act into a national touring band. After performing at Bonnaroo this summer, they’ll travel as far as Montreal and Vancouver on a fall tour that also includes shows at Tipitina’s in New Orleans and The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
It’s not entirely new territory. Bing plays drums with Doom Flamingo. Jones and guitarist Jim Rubush performed regionally with their previous group, Little Bird, and Wescott and Jones have toured with Stop Light Observations. But Please Keep Off the Grass, a four-year recording project that reached the finish line at Coast Studios in North Charleston, coincides with a shared intention to make The Psycodelics the members’ primary creative vehicle.
The band’s first break came in 2023 when they joined pianist Neal Francis on a regional tour that concluded in New Orleans with a blessing from Funkadelic’s George Clinton himself. When they approached security at the airport, they saw Clinton sitting in his bejeweled pilot’s hat and “Atomic Dog” jersey. “He called us over and said, ‘Y’all look like a band,’” Wescott recounts. “We told him we were The Psycodelics, and he said, ‘Sounds like somebody I know.’”
Songs like “Sun & Moon (Mansa Musa)” can trace a direct lineage to P-Funk, from the quirky voice-overs to layered vocal crescendos. Wescott wrote the song as a history class assignment at the College of Charleston, drawing from the story of Malian emperor Mansa Musa.
“Lucky MF” taps Stevie Wonder vibes, while the slow-grooving “Hots” draws on more traditional soul influences. Bing’s vocals are a Psycodelics secret weapon, from taking the lead on “Hots” to his Phil Collins’-esque sound on “Won’t Chew.” “Noah brings this plushness to the sound with his chord voicing, and then I’m this quirky buzzing bee coming on top of that,” Wescott says.
The Psycodelics pay tribute to their influences by building on the sonic legacy of performers such as Brown. “There’s a different kind of grit in the way that soul and the blues are joined in the Lowcountry,” says Wescott.
It’s a sound with mass appeal. After releasing Please Keep Off the Grass, The Psycodelics weighed an offer from a Los Angeles-based record label. With or without a deal, Wescott believes in the band’s trajectory. “There are seemingly divine things happening with this band,” he says. “I’ve always known that this (band) is it, and I’m focused on finding the gratitude.”
WATCH The Psycodelics perform ”Ladybug” from Please Keep Off the Grass for their 2025 Tiny Desk concert submission:
