The Tripping Daisy are a band from Dallas that belongs to the psychedelic school, but not to the violent and dissonant one of Ed Hall and Vas Deferens, rather to the softer and more melodic strain practiced especially by Brit-pop. Catchy choruses played at full volume without particular technical finesse: if Jane�s Addiction were to cover the Hollies, the result would sound like Tripping Daisy.
The single My Umbrella, with its Cheap Trick�like rhythmic drive from Wes Berggren�s thick guitar and Tim DeLaughter�s emphatic vocals, launches the band onto the national stage. On Bill (Dragon Street, 1992 � Island, 1993) there are even more pop-oriented songs, such as One Through Four, alongside eruptions in the vein of Jane�s Addiction that account for their live reputation, such as On The Ground and Blown Away. The album closes on a dramatic note with the apocalyptic blues-rock of Triangle. Echoes of the most serene Merseybeat are nonetheless very strong, both in the vocal harmonies and in the rhythmic progressions, an influence that the single Get It On forcefully reinforces.

I Got A Girl is the catchy song on Elastic Firecracker (Island, 1995), but this time the dominant element is the wild side of their music, the one that in Rocket Pop and Step Behind leads people (somewhat prematurely) to speak of the new Jane�s Addiction, and which in the long, agonized Prick (nine minutes) recalls early Led Zeppelin. The power ballad Same Dress New Day nevertheless suggests a more mature future.

The pursuit of commercial success leads to the excesses of Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb (Island, 1998), with its syrupy blend of Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie, and its grandiose, almost self-parodic arrangements. Field Day Jitters tries to revive the Hollies as on their first album, but its explosive riffs sound out of tune. The exaggerated melodicism of Sonic Bloom and Human Contact draws equally from the most saccharine Broadway pop and the most languid Bowie-like crooning. The stray dogs of the past are barely recognizable in the effervescent rock and roll of Mechanical Breakdown and New Plains Medicine, which have become playful novelties. The symphonic excesses of Pillar, the rhythmic nursery rhyme of 8 Ladies, and the ramshackle waltz of Your Socks Have No Name have a certain charm�the same charm as works like Abbey Road, but only within that subgenre. In the end, it feels like listening to a group of well-meaning beginners equally influenced by the neurotic rock of Pixies and the psychedelic rock of Flaming Lips. The long psychedelic ballad Waited A Light Year (six minutes) is the only genuinely sincere track. The rest is a constant exercise in flexibility, as if the band were merely an instrument in the producer�s hands. A record of pure form, devoid of substance beyond inspiration, which distances them from their fanbase without managing to propel them into the charts.

Guitarist Wes Berggren died of an overdose in 1999. Tripping Daisy dissolved after Tripping Daisy (Sugar Fix, 2000).

Tim DeLaughter formed Polyphonic Spree.