In the Spring preceding the Summer of Love, Mayo Thompson founded The Red Krayola (nee The Red Crayola) with a primal, screeching proposition. The Texan guitarist/warbler tagged his spacious, feedbacking freak-folk "psychedelic" — but only in a "philosophical sense." Thompson went on to compact his initial notion of gamelan-inspired avant-garde (on 1967's Parable of Arable Land) into tightly wound visions of angular noise-pop (like 1981's Kangaroo?) and the rest is post-punk/math rock history. His philosophical psychedelia had legs, especially when he enlisted Jim O'Rourke, David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol) and John McEntire (Tortoise) as auxiliary Red men on Drag City albums (like 1999's Fingerpainting), getting more adventurous with each release. Funny then that Thompson's new CD Introduction goes back to Krayola's folksy beginnings. Lyrically absurd as ever, his blues, bossa and blip-folk (with only "Psy Ops" sounding like his skronky '80s output) is gorgeously skeletal, noir-country music that's remarkably sober. Prolific as Thompson is, Red Krayola shows are extremely rare. Be there.