Sleepy Sun

This San Francisco six-piece pays homage to the psychedelic rock that made its native city the capital of sex, drugs and jammy guitar solos in the late 1960s. It’s almost as if LSD had been spliced into the DNA of young bands in Northern California — conspiracy theorists, have at it — because all that psychedelic history is certainly at work in Sleepy Sun’s hazy atmospherics. But the band’s guitar licks owe a hefty debt to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, too. A sum of its influences, the band compensates for its trickle-down sound on its latest LP, Fever, through its solid musicianship. Gnarly dual-guitar heroics and the perfectly matched male-female harmonies of Bret Constantino and former member Rachel Fannan make for an oddly compelling fusion. Fever was a stand-out record of 2010 with its eclectic blend of gorgeous folksy acoustic numbers, druggy slow-burn jams and stretched-out stoner-rock anthems. Sleepy Sun is a young band with promise, and its energetic live show should prove anything but tiresome.