This nice new reissue - and first time reish on vinyl - just HAD to be Record Of The Week. Boy oh boy do we love this band. An old, old favorite - in more ways that one, since these guys hail from the '70s. When we first discovered them some years ago, via their track on the Love Peace & Poetry: Latin America compilation, and then got their reissued albums on import cd, we were like, why aren't they famous?? Well, perhaps they are, or at least were, in Mexico where they're from (they're called Los Dug Dug's on account of being from the city of Durango, in the Mexican state of Durango).
Los Dug Dug's are, for us, a perfect blend of rock n' roll things we love: garage rock, psych-pop, power-prog. Lotsa cowbell, fuzz guitar, and flute, yes flute (especially on their second album, Smog). Part Tull, part Beatles, part Kinks, part Kiss...pretty darn kick ass really.
This self-titled album was their first, from the magic musical year of 1971, though sounding very sixties, and features English language vocals. It includes some of our favorite Dug Dug's songs, including the brilliant "Lost In My World" (also heard on the Mexican installment of the Love Peace & Poetry compilation series). There's also the frantic fuzzfest "Let's Make It Now" (which also boasts a drum solo), the groovy jangle of "I Got The Feeling", the equally groovy "It's Over" (with a nice JB's style intro), the very Beatlesy "Going Home", the lovely, spaced out "Sometimes", and the flutey, fanciful "Who Would Look At Me?", among other great flower POWER tunes. And when we say great, we mean really great. As in, this album is all-time favorite stuff for those lucky enough be clued in. Sure there's lots of wonderful obscurities out there, but Los Dug Dug's are one of those bands, like Q65, or Flower Travellin' Band, who you'd be hearing all the time on classic rock radio if they'd come from Detroit instead of Durango.
Now, we love ALL the Dug Dug's albums, and are happy to tell you that Smog (1972) will soon be getting the same reissue treatment by Lion/Get On Down soon, we should have it in a few weeks, and it'll probably have to be a ROTW too. Hopefully they'll also be reissuing Los Dug Dug's other albums Cambia, Cambia (1974) and El Loco (1975) eventually as well, one of these days.
Like we said, we've listed this album (and those others by Los Dug Dug's) before, but it was always tough to keep enough of 'em in stock, they were Mexican imports and never reliably available, seemingly going in and out of print in quite random fashion. Hopefully this new version will be around longer, and remain easy to stock! Also, this is the very first time we've seen any Dug Dug's reissued on VINYL, yay, and they've done a fine job of it.
Meanwhile, the new compact disc edition comes packaged in a nice, plastic protected miniature lp style sleeve, complete with obi strip... unfortunately beyond the brief blurb on the obi, there's no liner notes for this reissue, which is too bad 'cause we'd like to know more about this band who should be much better known north of the border. The obi alludes to the band's "failed trip to NYC" where they were hoping for their big break, that didn't work out but then they went back to Mexico and recorded this album, starting a sterling career regardless. We'd like to know more... according to Wikipedia, apparently they had some problems with the musician's union in New York, but upon their return to Mexico, bringing with them the music of the Beatles, they became one of the country's biggest rock acts, leaders in the new youth culture there. So it's unfortunate that some knowledgeable liner notes couldn't have been arranged, we're sure the Dug Dug's story is a fascinating one, but at least in all other respects the packaging is top-notch (though it would have been nice to have the tracklist someplace other than just on the obi, like on the back cover the way it is with the vinyl). In any case, it's the music that matters, and regarding that the obi has all the facts: "must have"... "essential".
'70s Mexican rockers Los Dug Dug's have been a big fave here at AQ for years and years, but for many of those years now we've had a hard time finding copies of the cd reissues of their albums to stock. Well, FINALLY just the other day we were lucky enough to get a batch of Dug Dug's discs back in, including (hopefully) enough of this one to list, which we'd never been able to do before! We also got a smaller handful of each of their other albums, already on our website.
El Loco originally came out in 1975, and was to be final Dug Dug's album. As you might guess from the cover, to an extent it emphasizes the power trio fuzzed out hard rock side of the band, but definitely not to the exclusion of the other elements that make Dug Dug's so great: the flutey prog, the funky grooves, the Beatlesy pop-psych... That cover photo, depicting the band jamming exuberantly amidst a cloud of dry ice fog, wearing glammy gear that in the case of the guitarist looks like it was borrowed from Ace Frehley's closet, is so cool though. How can you not dig the Dug Dug's looking like that? One thing you don't see in that picture though is the synthesizer, that makes its presence known in quite a trippy manner throughout the album, in particular on the appropriately crazy title track, all buzzing synth, choppy rhythms, and maniacal laughter!
There's a dozen tracks here in total, ranging from riffy rockers (like "Show Me", which might be what they're playing in that cover picture - or it could be "Stupid People" but where's the horn section?) to more gentle mellowness (such as "Quiero Verte"), some songs sung in English, others in Spanish. You get a flute-led instrumental, plenty of urgently uptempo acid rock grooviness, a bit of bubblegum pop, and dreamy psych... basically, like all Dug Dug's albums, El Loco is guaranteed to put a smile on your face one way or another!
Be warned, we don't really have a lot of these, and it might be a while before we can restock...
Rather surprisingly, vinyl of this was one of this year's Record Store Day releases. Wish we still had 'em but we sold all the copies we could get already. However, they also reissued it, as a two-for-one disc, on cd, and not being a RSD release we were able to get some of those to list. We've had reissues of both Dust albums before, most recently as rather expensive Repertoire imports, so here's the reviews of both of these proto-metal essentials.
For those who need to know: the American hard rock trio known as Dust are another of those legendary early '70s bands that get mentioned in the same breath with heavies like Captain Beyond, Sir Lord Baltimore, The James Gang, Bang, Stray, Leafhound, Highway Robbery, and the like. They cut two excellent lps of late-psychedelic-era proto-metal back in '71 and '72. Of their two albums, the first, self-titled one is swampier, with a lot of slide and country/southern rock moves on tracks like "Stone Woman" and "Chasin' Ladies". But then there's the lugubrious and weighty 10-minute epic "From A Dry Camel", and conversely, the gentle acoustic dreaminess of "Often Shadows Felt". Mostly, though, the album kicks ass with uptempo hard rockers, including the ripping, rollicking instrumental "Loose Goose" that closes the album quite frenetically.
Following that is 1972's Hard Attack, generally considered the harder of Dust's two albums, the more metal. Though that may be in part 'cause of the awesome Frank Frazetta cover painting, and album title! But perhaps it is somewhat more Sabbathian. "Downer rock" they called it back then (we're told). Their song "Suicide" (the penultimate track on side 2 of the original vinyl) - whooah, that could be Pentagram! That song alone makes this an essential purchase for any true doom/psych fan. It's an all time classic.
But it's not all doom n' gloom n' barbarians - Hard Attack has its lighter side, but unlike a lot of their peers, the poppier and/or less rockin' stuff Dust do here is actually really great. Sure, a song like "Thusly Spoken" features strings and a Beatlesy melody, but the lyrics still name-check Satan and speak of dancing demons. Lush, gorgeous downer-pop that sets you up to be crushed by the following, urgently hard-rockin' track "Learning To Die". They do that throughout the album, alternating gentle - even acoustic - numbers with the proggy proto-metal workouts that the headbangers of 1972 must have loved.
It's hard to understand why Dust didn't "make" it, as this stuff is certainly the equal of big sellers from their era by Deep Purple or Uriah Heep. Great singing, riffs, melodies, and that "feel" - it's all here.
We mentioned Pentagram above - if you've got that Relapse anthology of Pentagram's original seventies recordings, First Daze Here, you should definitely check out the work of Dust, who were both contemporaries of, and an influence on, the Ram's Head boys. Yes, Dust are an important name on the list of forgotten but godlike '70s hard rock bands that make today's so-called stoner rockers sound like punk/grunge wanna-bes. In a word (again): classic. Too bad you'll never hear 'em on your local "classic rock" radio station...
Oh, and Dust featured the future Marky Ramone on drums, by the way, before he decided punk was the way to go (or even had that option).
This remastered reissue sports its own new cover design, but inside the thick cd booklet there's smaller versions of the original album art, plus lots of vintage photos, and plenty of liner notes (including some from Marky), etc.
Of Dust's two albums, this 1972 LP is considered the harder of the two, the more metal, the somewhat more Sabbathian. "Downer rock" they called it back then (we're told). Their song "Suicide" (track 9) -- whooah, that could be Pentagram! This track alone makes this an essential purchase for any true doom/psych fan. It's an all time classic. Between that and the awesome Frank Frazetta cover painting, what more could you want?
But it's not all doom n' gloom n' barbarians -- "Hard Attack" has its lighter side, but unlike a lot of their peers, the poppier and/or less rockin' stuff Dust do is actually really great. Sure, a song like "Thusly Spoken" features strings and a Beatlesy melody, but the lyrics still name-check Satan and speak of dancing demons. Lush, gorgeous downer-pop that sets you up to be crushed by the following, urgently hard-rockin' track "Learning To Die". They do that throughout the album, alternating gentle -- even acoustic -- numbers with the proto-metal workouts that the headbangers of 1972 must have loved.
It's hard to understand why Dust didn't "make" it, as this stuff is certainly the equal of big sellers from their era by Deep Purple or Uriah Heep. Great singing, riffs, melodies, and that "feel" -- it's all here.
We mentioned Pentagram above -- if you bought that awesome Relapse label anthology of Pentagram's original seventies recordings that we recommended a few lists back, you should definitely check out the work of Dust, who were both contemporaries of and an influence on the Ram's Head boys. Dust are an important name on the list of forgotten but godlike '70s hard rock bands that make today's so-called stoner rockers sound like punk wanna-bes (bands like Lucifer's Friend, Highway Robbery, Orang-utan, Toad, Budgie, Sir Lord Baltimore, Captain Beyond, Leafhound, etc.). In a word (again): classic. Too bad you'll never hear 'em on your local "classic rock" radio station...
Not a new release, but listed for the first time 'cause we love it: The American hard rock trio known as Dust are another of those legendary early '70s bands that get mentioned in the same breath with heavies like Captain Beyond, Sir Lord Baltimore, The James Gang, Bang, and the like. They cut two excellent LPs of late-psychedelic-era proto-metal back in '71 and '72. This the first, self-titled one, and of their two albums, this one's swampier, with a lot of slide and country/southern rock moves on tracks like "Stone Woman" and "Chasin' Ladies". But then there's the lugubrious and weighty 10-minute epic "From A Dry Camel" and the gentle acoustic dreaminess of "Often Shadows Felt". Mostly, though, the album kicks ass with uptempo hard rockers. Maybe they could be considered the American version of Nazareth (with vocals somewhat less soaked in whiskey). What we're saying is: pretty great!
Dust features the future Marky Ramone on drums, by the way, before he decided punk was the way to go.
Of the many, many prog rock reissues out there, here's a recent one we HAD to list, the 1969 debut album from this UK band. Why? Well, track two "Isadora" reminds us a bit of the flute-laced pastoral pagan-folk ceremony of AQ faves Comus! Elsewhere this band unleash psychedelic freakouts amidst jazz-inflected grooves, wielding electric violin, distorted guitar, and "Sumerian saxophones" in a mixture of rocked out fiddle frenzies, tricky time signatures, folky vocal melodies, and moody Eastern atmospheres. It's a mystical-Mingus hybrid, as played by a rock band, their wide ranging non-rock inspirations also allowing for one track, "Communion", to be based on a Bartok string quartet.
We'd compare 'em to contemporaneous acts like early King Crimson, and violin heavies High Tide, though these guys seem a bit more, uh, playful than either of those groups. Despite (or because of) such songs as "In The Stable Of The Sphinx", East of Eden's Ancient Egypt schtick has got to be a little tongue in cheek - check out the band photos, they simply can't be serious in that King Tut drag they're wearing! Their music certainly sounds like it comes from Swinging Sixties London, rather than out of a dusty sarcophagus. It's groovy, baby. Ferinstance, the riffy "Centaur Woman" is like Cream with bluesy harp seguing into an eruption of full on free improv horns, and also boasts an extensive bass solo (hence the tagline for that one: "half-woman, half-beast, half bass-guitar"). If they had let themselves go much further out, maybe they'd have started sounding like Japan's Food Brain from around the same time. But instead East Of Eden stick with what might play in the pop scene of the day, being exotic but not overindulgently experimental.
This nice new reish includes three previously unreleased bonus tracks - two demo versions and a cover of "Eight Miles High"!
Here comes another lost gem from Brazil. This time it's from 1970 by a group led by the thrilling piano playing of Luiz Eca (who was in Tamba Trio / Tamba 4). This is dazzling and bright dynamic pop swimming in samba, African rhythms, and an undying pep that radiates throughout the recording. Joining Eca is a cast of 13 adding an onslaught of sounds and voices to the affair. The seven minute opener "Homen Da Sucurasal /Barravento" is one of the best lead off tracks we've ever heard! Catchy, bizarre and all the right and unexpected twists and turns. As the record plays out its samba roots are explored. On it, and throughout the album you can hear hints of the sounds of many bands that would came decades later like Stereolab and White Magic, of course all drenched in a samba vibe that would make Sergio Mendes proud.
Here's another one to add to the list of stellar '60s/'70s Turkish psych-rock reissues, along with Erkin Koray, 3 Hur-el, and Mogollar! From '75 or '76, Edip Akbayram & Dostlar are very '70s indeed...it's much more of a severe collision between the trad. folk tunes and the Western electric rock than some of those groups. The very first track might throw you for a loop, but past that sappy, poppy number with its soft-rock strings and horns and tinkling piano, this record suddenly gets a whole lot rockier, heavier, and funkier. Imagine an Anatolian Pop score for some groovy car-chase flick...the schlocky, sizzling vintage '70s synths enhance the kitsch value and sound good amidst the traditional ethnic instrumention (arranged by one of the Mogollar guys). Edip and Dostlar dish out the hard rock and funk with a groovy bottom end, psych guitar riffage, Edip's powerful vocals and wah-wah augmented Turkish saz. With proggy weirdness like flute attacks and studio tape speed manipulation, this is some bad-ass 'exotica' for sure. Anyone addicted to the Middle Eastern psych rock scene-sound from back in the hazy day like we are will find this a fine addition to their collection. Includes 4 bonus tracks quite like the album cuts. Real cool.
This one pretty much floored us when we first put it on. Track one, "Tourniquet", begins quietly, with a droning sound swelling up slowly, so we didn't expect the shocking outburst of sick fuzz that then erupts, the rest of the song alternating between distorted, disjointed riffs and gentler melodic parts. Its unhinged freakiness immediately made us think of Michael Yonkers' similarly crazed Microminiature Love album, a total genius AQ fave. So what the heck is this? The mysterious trio of Damin Eih, A.L.K. and Brother Clark (from Minneapolis, just like Yonkers) made this wonderfully twisted psychedelic rock record in 1973, privately releasing it into almost total obscurity and eventual psych-rock collector dreams. But thank the reissue gods, it's been deservedly rescued from oblivion and boy howdy is it ever something that we're happy to hear and we think you'll be happy about it too.
The eleven tracks feature fragile vocal melodies, delicate 12-string strum, weird trippy lyrics (telling you to "take off your eyes, lie down in your head" or chanting "world is ridiculous" over and over), and a few further doses of that aforementioned totally sick fuzz guitar (which doesn't really return in full force until the final track). Most of the album is fairly spaced out, the many mellower songs all delightfully druggy, dreamy, drifty... there's really some quite lovely stuff on here, in keeping with the trio's obvious interest in Eastern mysticism and inner mind trips. Furthermore, for an apparently underground DIY production, it's actually rather ambitious and accomplished, with effective vocal harmonies, electronic embellishments, ethnic instruments, and other interesting orchestration. Stuff like the Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" sounds like an influence... as does that song's obvious inspiration too.
Along with Yonkers, another AQ fave we could compare this to would be the Alice Cooper Band's psychedelic debut Pretties For You... but more surreal and subversive. Alice, even in his later shock-rock showman guise, would have shied away from lyrics like "rape and kill your parents or the blacks, and if you're one of those you can rape and kill the others back", a line found here in the deviant blues rocker "Return Naked" that ends this album with tour-de-force of really warped hippie-punk attitude and ultra-distorted, rubbery megafuzz riffage (the idea behind the song, we think, being about how the war is over in Vietnam, so now what?).
Never Mind is an album that's also possessed of the same lost and lysgeric vibe we got from another early '70s private press rarity reissued a while back, Stone Harbour's Emerges. And '80s psych savant Bobb Trimble could be another good comparison in parts ("Thundermice" in particular). Oh, and if you're gonna get the Dwarr reissue we made record of the week, this would make a good companion purchase, though despite some heavy moments it's not in any way metal, it still seems to share some of the same outsider DNA, this is possibly what Dwarr would have sounded like in '73 instead of '86...
Sadly, this digipack contains no liner notes to speak of, just recording credits, too bad 'cause we're sure there's quite a story behind and beyond this album, from what we've been able to glean from other sources about main member Damin Eih vanishing to India not long after this was originally released.
The Pretty Things, in a money making ploy used the alias Electric Banana. They recorded soundtrack pieces for the DeWolfe Music Library, who would store them away for whenever that hip swinging London sound was called for in a film. They appeared in some late '60s/early '70s soft porn titles and horror flicks like Michael Armstrong's The Haunted House Of Horror. These 15 tracks were recorded when The Pretty Things were at their best so the songs are totally great groovy british psychedelia.
It's funny that this record came out under the Electric Prunes moniker as the '60s psych band best known for their great hit "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" aren't really anywhere to be found on this record. Instead this is the brainchild and work of legendary arranger & producer David Axelrod -- much like their better known Mass In F Minor, this being its Judiac follow-up. Clocking in at around 25 minutes, and utilizing some of the best Los Angeles players of the late '60s Release Of An Oath is a brilliant concoction of rich grooves, prog moments, acid rock and classical tropes. It's no surprise that to this day Axelrod's work is sampled left and right because his sense of melody and his kick ass breaks are so damn perfect!
Our pal Dave put this KILLER record out and we think he describes it the best:
"In the winter of 1967, a psychedelic-garage-punk band from Woodland Hills, California, arrived in Europe for what would be their first and last tour of the continent. On the strength of their hit single 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night,' the band was welcomed with open arms by European rock fans as well as British rock royalty - they smoked out with Hendrix, partied with Brian Jones and Keith Moon, and hung out in the studio with the Beatles - but were also subjected to harassment and ridicule over the fact that their homeland was at war in Vietnam. Yep, good times, good times... Twenty days and six countries later it was all over. Luckily, on the last stop of the tour someone pushed the record button and this artifact is the result.
"Stockholm '67 finds the Electric Prunes at the height of the powers. Some ninnies have griped that the 'Prunes were nothing more than a psychedelic one-hit wonder, and a studio project at best. This performance burns the criticism to the ground. Over-amplified and fuzzed to the max, the 'Prunes here are explosive, noisy and wild. This recording proves that the Electric Prunes deserve to be ranked alongside the very best bands of their era."
The crude cover painting is sorta psychedelic, and though this album dates from 1982, the breathless obi text claims this to be the work of an "unknown brilliant all original outsider loner singer songwriter who completely sounds trapped in 1972 not '82!!", so we kinda had to check it out, being big Bobb Trimble fans after all, who also fits that description. But, we were also a bit wary, 'cause while it's true that the reissue label Riverman, based in South Korea, HAS put out some pretty cool stuff - including the George-Edwards Group and Ted Lucas discs we've reviewed recently - they also have reissued a lot of things that, uh, we don't quite "get". They seem to have a thing for American '70s singer-songwriter soft rock, maybe it's more "exotic" for them than it is for us, but a lot of their catalog seems to consist of justly-forgotten thrift store mediocrities that we have a hard time understanding why collectors (in Korea or elsewhere) care about. But yeah, once in a while they nail it. So we're always curious about their reissues, hoping they'll come up with a really amazing, acid folk obscurity or something like that. Plus they sure look good in their mini-lp style sleeves, with beguiling blurbs on their obis - that, again, they rarely really live up to. However, guess what? Peter Elizalde's oddly titled Winter Playground Mystery, kinda actually does! There is certainly something "outsidery" about it, that's for sure. Your mileage may vary, indeed ours already has, some of us here are totally digging on this (enjoying it a bit ironically, maybe, but for reals too), others like Andee gave it the gong...
Here's the deal. While there's elements of psych and prog here, what this really is, is "yacht rock"! Outsider yacht rock, but yes, yacht rock. Even though it's from '82, the Berkeley-based Elizalde, an obviously talented multi-instrumentalist, was super into seventies soft rock and jazz fusion, and we figure exceedingly influenced by the likes of Todd Rundgren and Steely Dan. So, much of this is synth laden, sprightly '70s sounding AM radio pop, with, naturally, the occasional cheesy saxophone solo. And oh boy is it poppy, these songs sound like hits that never happened, y'know, totally like they should be familiar, and in fact soon will get stuck in your head... yet they're just a bit weird and warped at the same time. In part that's 'cause Elizalde has an ever so slightly strange singing voice, often oddly high and nasal, which might have to do with the fact that he grew up in Peru, perhaps that's a little trace of a Spanish accent we're hearing? Or more likely he was a big Al Jarreau fan. Besides that, this disc is also full of surprises. For instance, track 5, "Passion Play", an exuberantly uptempo, POP-PUNK song that we definitely weren't expecting, which would have opened the original lp's second side with a bang. Really cool though, especially with its slightly incongruous keyboard lines, like some sort of super happy new wave. The wild guitar soloing on this one is also pretty choice. Later on, the album's big finale, "Day Dreamer", is another stop-and-stare-at-your-stereo number. It's one of the catchiest cuts on the record, with high pitched Bee Gees style vocal harmonies, but Elizalde also cranks up the distortion on his guitar, and also indulges in some over the top synth soloing, turning the track into a burnin' jazz fusion freakout by the end of its rather proggy 7+ minutes! Wow.
Overall this album is an eccentric mix of goofy pop pleasures, synth shred, and moments of truly emotional beauty. We also wonder if the several songs with a lyrical focus on winter, are somehow part of an exercise in Beach Boys/Brian Wilson emulation, but just about the opposite season to summer?
Well, you'll either love this or hate it, if the AQ staff is anything to go by. Enough of us love it, though, to suggest you open your heart to it, those of us here who did are happier for it. If we're gonna listen to "yacht rock", this gets our boat afloat... Though Elizalde is no Bobb Trimble, this is still pretty cool, and catchy, and quirky, and equally kitschy.
Wow! While Brazil gets most of the attention in terms of creating some of the best South American psychedelic music, we've recently been checking out the left coast of the continent, namely Chile, and have been digging some amazing stuff. Perhaps it's the epic geographical relationship of mountains and coast in close proximity that inspires such transcendent music or perhaps it's the constant political unrest of the period that cultivated a longing for the more earthy populace-empowered past. Smooth romantic harmonies, ancient flutes and dreamy textures of jungle and nature sounds are all key variables in the sound of great Chilean psych bands El Congreso, Congregacion (also reviewed on this list), Kissing Spell (featured on the Love Peace and Poetry Latin America comp), and their later incarnation, Embrujo. While Kissing Spell was more of a mellow psych-pop confection singing songs in English as was the trend of Latin groups seeking to become more commercially viable, the decision to become Embrujo stemmed from a revolutionary stance possibly inspired by the Brazilian Tropicalia movement both politically and sonically, to write songs almost entirely in Spanish and create a dynamic sound on their own terms upping the ante on their songwriting craft and musicianship. What they add to the equation is Gr-ooo-ve, driven along by fuzzy organ, simmering guitar and funky drumming, building on the traditional Chilean sound with fluid changes, solid rhythms, and like Os Mutantes, occasional wackiness. Tight hook-laden arrangements, lyrical breaks and progressive interludes are what make this sole 1972 album fetch astronomical prices amongst collectors of private press recordings. This is its first CD reissue and seriously, we haven't stopped playing it since it arrived in the store a few weeks ago. Finally we have enough to share this with the rest of you. Embrujo means "bewitched" in Spanish, and we are positive you too will be captured by its spell! Recommended!
Everyone here fell in love with Dreamin' Wild, a rediscovered pop gem from 1979, we made a Record Of The Week a couple years ago. The story of two teenage farm boys from rural Washington dreaming of making it big and the family who believed in them so much that they took out a second mortgage on their farm so their sons could build a studio and release records was as compelling as their music. The fact that their goals for success ultimately eluded them, only gives their music with its heartfelt earnestness, a deeper weight. But now their past efforts have finally gained the Emerson brothers some attention and with that, a discovery of more recordings made after the recording of Dreamin' Wild. All in all the brothers recorded over 70 tracks in that home studio, mainly led by Donnie's ambitions not to give up on his dreams of becoming a successful musician even after their sole record failed, while Joe turned more of his attentions to taking over the farm his family started and nearly lost.
Still Dreamin' Wild is less cohesive in form than its predecessor, mainly because the tracks jump various genres from power pop and new wave to synth balladry and soft rock. While there are some great jams like the opener, "Don't Fight" with its pulsating beat and haunting harmonies that we could see bands like Ariel Pink or Once and Future Band taking on, as well as the closer, "Don't Disguise The Way You Feel" which hearkens back to the sincerity of the first record, there are a few tracks that sound like music from any number of teenage movies of the eighties. Good thing? Bad thing? You be the judge! Definitely a deep cuts record that will appeal to fans of the duo and era in which they were made. Not as essential as its predecessor, but still a curious and entertaining artifact.
Pre-Tucky Buzzard Swinging '60s psych-pop band, pretty great!
Excellent early solo album from the Who's bassist... the title track is practically proto-metal!
Hey, cool! A reissue of the third, and we think probably best, album from these hard rockin' krautrockers (krauty hard rockers?), originally released on US label Billingsgate in 1974 (and recorded on the South Side of Chicago, while they were on tour in the States). The band were of course German, but vocalist/guitarist Cliff Jackson was a Brit. So, some internationally-connected krautrock here. It's also krautrock on the proto-metal side of things, for fans of the progressive heaviness of Captain Beyond, Lucifer's Friend, Leaf Hound, Toad, Cargo, and suchlike. And while Epitaph's choogle is not always super dooper heavy, 'cause they have a sweetly melodic popsyke side to 'em too, it's definitely (twin) guitar oriented, the two lead players getting a bit Allmans-y here, also reminding us of Wishbone Ash. Good stuff, often quite mesmerizing, when the guitars get to chiming and intertwinin', as they so often do on tracks like the rollicking, ripping "Tequila Shuffle", the Zep-leaning "Woman", and album-ending nine minute heavy riffing prog workout "Fresh Air".
This reissue is nicely packaged, and features a bunch of previously unreleased bonus tracks: 3 from 1976's 'The Lost Tapes', and 4 live one from a year 2000 reunion concert, including a drum solo!
We've gotta admit it, due to this comprehensive double cd collection of songs by the legendary Roky Erickson, those of us that weren't already are now newly devout fans of his work. Sure, we always liked his hits with '60s Texas psych pioneers the 13th Floor Elevators, of course, but god DAMN. Wow. This collection touches on the best of the 13th Floor Elevators while moreso elaborating on the multitude of music Roky created afterward, solo and with his band The Aliens (among others). Of course we knew that "You're Gonna Miss Me" was a stone classic of slightly-psycho garage-psych, and that 'chooga-chooga' electric jug sound (the 13th Floor Elevators' trademark) has also never failed to fascinate. But somehow we'd never investigated much further, thinking that perhaps the sad saga of Erickson's life (a psychedelic drug-damaged downward spiral) might be more interesting than his music. How wrong we were... disc two here is all post-1980 and a lot of it is brilliant. And of course totally weird.
Maybe you know the story of how, after the inevitable break-up of the LSD-fueled Elevators, Roky was busted for pot in 1969 and, given the choice between spending time in jail or in a mental institution, he chose the latter, claiming insanity. Doing so, however, only led him to suffer through painful shock-therapy and liquid thorazine treatments, rendering him more frail and emotionally damaged than before his admittance. Years after this "therapy", while living in a housing project in Austin, Erickson was busted for mail fraud. He had been stealing his neighbors' mail, taping it up on his apartment walls, unopened. So, you get the gist that the fellow's mental state is precarious at best, right? Add his obsession with schlocky horror films and you get songs like "I Think Up Demons" and his band being called Bleib Alien (bleib, an anagram for Bible).
So, disc one (22 tracks) starts off with a bunch of his '60s singles with The Spades and the 13th Floor Elevators, before moving on to the first of several "comebacks" in the mid-'70s. The songs that followed his institutionalization were either blissful country-type psych tunes or outer-space paranoia-laced ragers. "Starry Eyes" is one of our favorites. A beautiful, earnest, heart-felt melody and that lends loveliness to his throat-scratched lyricism. And then there's "Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play." Not really sure how he got his guitar to sound like that, but it's pretty amazing. Searing and raging with electricity. Really, there are so many amazing tracks on the first disc. Listening to 'em all, we were half-expecting the second disc to pale in comparison. BUT NO. It's totally jammin with his later-era songs, 21 of 'em. One (new) fave of ours here is the doomy "Bloody Hammer" from 1981 which totally makes us understand how that Swedish band Witchcraft was influnced by Erickson just as much as by Pentagram -- it sounds so much like it coulda been on Witchcraft's album! But even as late as '95 Erikson was releasing solid material in his inimitable style. With the same effectiveness in songwriting capability as later-era Johnny Cash, Erickson offers us "True Love Cast Out All Evil" (from 1988) among others.
Yup, this anthology is some essential stuff all right. And it's nicely packaged with liner notes that give a pretty good biographical picture of Erickson and detail the music and its players. You gotta check out the incredible assortment of photos too!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
In the last few years we all seem to have come down with serious cases of "Anatolian fever"! With amazing reissues of '70s Turkish psych by the likes of Selda, Mogollar, 3 Hur El, Erkin Koray, Edip Akbayram, Bunalim, Mustafa Ozkent and a bunch of great comps. We've been totally and completely blown away time after time by how charged and colorful the sounds coming from the Turkish underground in the '70s were.
Now Ersen gets the proper reissue treatment from Finders Keepers and it's about time, as his amazing and seductive voice has been evoking the most resplendently colorful memories and images of people and places. With instrumentation that's as immediate, funk filled and catchy as his comrades Selda and Edip Akbayram, and a voice that can really do no wrong, Ersen has become our newest Turkish Psych obsession.
It's amazing how well these songs have stood the test of time, sounding so alive, and relevant nearly 35 years after they were first recorded. Ersen has a very special place in Turkish music history, being a vocalist for a period of time for the pioneers of Turkish psych/pop, Mogollar. The truth is Ersen's voice could probably sing over any kind of music and make it all sound so damn good, as it's soulful and filled with such flair, that sort of voice doesn't come around that often. It's no surprise that hip-hop folks like Oh No, Madlib and the whole Stones Throw family have been quite obsessed with Ersen's sounds as well, every song jam packed with so many breakbeats and innovative sounds, just begging to be sampled and blasted on the dance floor. A true gem from a magical era in Turkish psychedelia!
Who are Thee Evaporators? And who is this Nardwuar The Human Serviette who leads their charge?! To most in the college radio / indie music scene he needs no introduction... and his legions of admirers / worshippers continues to grow by the minute. Man of many hats (preferably knit or tartan): tenacious interviewer, loose cannon tv and radio host, obsessive Canadian historian (and not just about music, check out the mining story behind the title track!), and irrepressible band leader of Thee Evaporators. He cannot be stopped -- not even by a mysterious brain hemorrhage a few years back! -- and unlike many other recent seemingly similar guerrilla interviewers, he's not out to simply fuck with people. His enthusiasm is genuine. His research can be fascinating and unbelievably thorough. Who's been placed under the Nardwuar microscope/microphone? The list is mind-blowing. Here's just a sampling: Politicians Mikhael Gorbachev, Gerald Ford, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and ahem, Dan Quayle, self-help impressarios Tony Robbins and Tom Vu, hard rockers Gene Simmons, Thor, Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Kevin Dubrow and Slayer, hip hop artists Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes, alt-gods the Strokes, Blur, Beck, Bright Eyes, White Stripes and Sonic Youth, punk legends D.O.A., The Damned, Sex Pistols' Paul Cook, TV personalities Jimmie Walker, Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Bob Denver (aka Gilligan), TV evangelist Earnest Angley, child stars Jerry Mathers, Eve Plumb, and Corey Feldman... the list goes on and on!
His band's music is by no means as eclectic, however it can be just as entertaining and educational. On the surface it comes across as pretty straightforward garage pop/rock, but you just might discover a little nugget in each song that sets it apart from the rest. It certainly helps heaps that he's got a solid band backing him up to boot. They are longtime friends bassist John Collins from the New Pornographers, his JC/DC recording studio partner and kickass guitarist Dave Carswell (also of Vancouver garage rawk vets The Smugglers as well as a former touring member of Zumpano) and drummer/grpahic artist Scott Livingstone. Infectious hooks and uplifting choruses grace such tunes as the cryptically titled "I.D.N.M.F.T.T.M.W.M.F.A." (translation: I Don't Need My Friends To Tell Me Who My Friends Are!). However, please be forewarned, the vocals may be an acquired taste. They often sound as though he's been hitting the helium tank... hard, but they do make a perfect foil for the occasional noodly '60s Farfisa organ. As well, The Evaps song titles and lyrics frequently tend to lean heavily on the silly button. You might be put off by titles such as "Addicted To Cheese" and "Shittin' Party", but the songs themselves are mighty hard to resist... particularly if you're a garage pop fan.
A side note: It's notable that this album finds itself on Jello Biafra's label (albeit licensed from longtime Nardwuar supporters Mint) for Mr. Biafra has been a worthy interview combatant for over a decade.
Extras: Interspersed with the music are a couple of interview snippits with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Rahzel (for more you'll just have to visit his humungous website). Plus you also get a handful of bonus tracks by Thee Dublins (the alter ego of the Evaporators' alter ego Thee Goblins).
Extradition were an obscure early seventies Australian psych-folk group very much influenced by the British Folk revival, in particular, Fairport Convention and Pentangle. Fronted by singer, Shayna Karlin, whose high timbre voice falls somewhere between Pentangle's Jaqui McShee and June Tabor, and multi-instrumentalist and sometimes singer Colin Campbell, who wrote most of the bands material. What sets them apart is how they shade their haunting and graceful compositions with an adventurous use of natural elements as instruments including leaves, branches, water, sticks and stones along with more exotic instrumentation of Chinese and Turkish gongs, harmonium, harpsichord, tablas and a Lebanese bell tree. This creates a more alchemical binding of music and nature that transports us to another place rather than grounding us in a traditional past. This cd contains the whole of their lone 1971 album plus six bonus live tracks including covers of Tom Paxton's "Hold On To Me, Babe" and Leroy Carr's "In the Evening" which was also covered by Karen Dalton. Beautiful!
More amazing voodoo groove.
1970 voodoo groove, amazing.
Reissue label Lion Productions is doing their job right, bringing us this collection of the obscure but oh so killer material from The Eyes. Tough '60s garage rockin' here, from these Ealing, England mods. The disc starts off with the one-two punch of their 1965 debut single, "When The Night Falls" b/w "Rowed Out". A really raw, proto-freakbeat smasher all right, A and B sides both. Stinging guitar, primal beats, and equally raw vox. Catchy too! And there's more, plenty more to like here. What made The Eyes sound so great? Well, maybe their songwriting talent, maybe their edginess. You can get an idea of these snotty young punks' attitude from the title of the b-side of their second single: "My Degeneration". Which helped get them banned by the BBC for their subversive lyrics! Not that anyone today would likely find 'em terribly offensive... 'Tis true, though, that the lyrics to "My Degeneration" were subtly suggestive, moreso when you learn that the the word "coffee", mentioned many times in the song, was a mod euphemism for having sex. And mods liked actual coffee too. The last straw, according to the extensive liner notes (thanks Lion!), was when BBC suits saw 'em perform a song entitled "I Can't Get No Resurrection" complete with a crucifix stage prop. So, though somehow they did get to play with the likes of The Kinks, The Move, and The Action, and got some pirate radio play too, they were a BBC no-no and thus failed to have a hit single. With record sales just not happening (making their releases today quite rare and collectable!) they were forced into doing a "tribute" record to the Rolling Stones, under the name The Pupils, just to make a lousy 180 pounds. Thus tracks 17-28 included here, all covers of Stones songs (or covers of songs the Stones themselves had covered!). In another world, maybe the Stones would have been covering The Eyes... well maybe not but there are definitely enough bad ass '60s beat rockers here to make this a recommended purchase for any fan of garagey goodness.
If you have been digging the recent Kaleidoscope (UK) reissues, then here is another treat: This re-issue of Fairfield Parlour's debut album on the Vertigo label, From Home to Home. The story behind this album and band name have never been fully made clear, as Kaleidoscope and Fairfield Parlour were the same band. Perhaps tired of being confused with the American band Kaleidoscope, who were better known; or sensing that the candy-coated psychedelia they had been dabbling in for two albums was waning fast, Kaleidoscope decided to adopt the new band moniker, Fairfield Parlour, and change their look from colorful twee paisley folksters to Old Tyme country-psych balladeers. So what is the music like? Well, while there is definitely a more haunting, lushly orchestrated sound evoking a darkly antique and mystical psych-pop vibe full of harpsichord, mellotrons, flutes and 12-string guitars, and the songwriting is more serious, it's not too far from a type of sound Kaleidoscope would have naturally progressed toward had they kept the same name. Lots of bands of the era from the Kinks to the Byrds had similar stylistic evolutions from psych pop to roots rock, but perhaps the band (or the label) felt that audiences somehow wouldn't make the transition. We can't help but think the confusion over the name change only made things worse for the band (they disbanded the following year after making one more album which was never released), it's a shame too because this album is really really great! This re-issue features the original album plus eight bonus tracks of singles demos, and alternate tracks. For fans of Euphoria, The Byrds, the Incredible String band and Muswell Hillbillies-era Kinks.
The first four Fairport Convention albums are cannon, no doubt about it. But while many may disagree with the inclusion of the first album, the one before Sandy Denny joined, and their full on embrace of traditional folk material on the fourth, Leige and Lief, pretty much all Fairport fans can agree that their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays, and third, Unhalfbricking are their very best. Thankfully Water has reissued both.
Unhalfbricking? What the hell does that mean? Perhaps the title was alluding to the transitional shedding of American rock elements that had featured more prominently on their first two records and laying the foundation towards redefining a traditional British sound. Sure there are still Dylan covers, in fact three of them, but the exiting of Ian Matthews brought in another Fairport stalwart, fiddler Dave Swarbrick which tipped the balance musically towards classic British folk. And what's more British than this cover? We think that's Sandy Denny's parents. So awesome! Of course, strong songwriting doesn't hurt, and Sandy Denny contributes her most famous song, "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" and the equally haunting "Autopsy". But the finest moment of the album (and prescient of their future sound) goes to the eleven minute take on the traditional tune, "A Sailor's Life". Rumor has it, that they recorded this song in a single take because Denny, suffering from a cold, didn't think she could sing it more than once (though she wouldn't stop smoking). It's definitely the band at their peak and one of the finest recordings they made. Unfortunately, as we mentioned in the "What We Did On Our Holidays" review, the band was cursed and this was the last record for teenage drummer, Martin Lamble, who died in a freak accident involving the band's van. This cemented their future foray towards traditional material as the band refused to play live any of the music that they previously recorded with Lamble. But it's the air of that legendary rock curse (which would also tragically claim Sandy Denny, eight years later) that gives the early music of Fairport Convention it's mysteriously bewitching and dark edge. Recommended!
The first four Fairport Convention albums are cannon, no doubt about it. But while many may disagree with the inclusion of the first album, the one before Sandy Denny joined, and their full on embracement of traditional folk material on the fourth, Leige and Lief, pretty much all Fairport fans can agree that their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays, and third, Unhalfbricking are their very best. Thankfully Water has reissued both.
What We Did On Our Holidays is our definite favorite. If there were one classic British folk-rock record we could recommend, it would be this one, mainly because it's so unclassic sounding. Here is the band at their most adventurous and unsettled, moving into different territory with each song. Mixing covers of American songwriters Joni Mitchell and Dylan with a wide array of original numbers and spirited takes on traditional material, we're taken through a trip of lively blues stomps, eastern mysticism, ghostly ballads and the best pairing of male and female vocal harmonies from Ian Matthews and Sandy Denny. Fairport Convention had the blessing of being made up of many other talented songwriters and musicians as well, including Richard Thompson, Martin Lamble, Simon Nicol, and Ashley Hutchings, but they were forever cursed by never having the same line-up twice on any of their records. While replacing former co-lead singer Judy Dyble (Giles, Giles and Fripp, Trader Horne) with Sandy Denny definitely upped their musical profile, this was sadly the last record for Ian Matthews. He went on to found Matthew's Southern Comfort and then later pursue his own solo work, but it just wasn't on the same par as his work on the first two Fairport albums. This is arguably the best line-up they had which makes for our highest recommendation.
They've done the FEFB's 2nd album Nipponjin, and 3rd album Parallel World, not to mention the sole record from pre-FEFB incarnation Far Out, so it's about time Phoenix also reissued the 1975 debut from these Japanese '70s space rock masters, led by the lost-worlds-obsessed Fumio Miyashita. In the Julian Cope Japrocksampler pantheon, this one ranks 41 out of 50, not quite as high as some of those others, but still in the thick of it. This debut demonstrates that even before Klaus Schulze took them under his wing as producer, they were doing just fine at making quite "kosmische" psych-synth symphonies all on their own. If you have any of the other FEFB related stuff you know what to expect!
Moogs and Mellotrons galore, in a more krautrock-than-thou Japanese heavy hippy blissout, melodic and meditative and massive, with much ritualistic-sounding vocal drama. Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues were other major Western influences, but the FAR EAST Family Band never let you forget that's where they're from. Some of the tracks here were afterwards radically re-mixed/re-recorded for Nipponjin (originally a Germany-only release, produced by Schulze) but not all of 'em.
The compact disc version comes in one of those cardboard "wallet" style digipacks, this one is especially cool though due to the die cutting of the front and back covers, through which you can see the clouds-and-sunset photos on the cd booklet, a nice touch! The vinyl version has the die cut covers too, presumably replicating the design of the original lp.
The subtitle here, or perhaps it's their slogan, is "Join Our Mental Phase Sound". It's a good slogan, whatever it means, and if you wonder what "Mental Phase Sound" is, all you have to do is listen. Total Pink Floydian, Tangerine Dreamy synthesizer laden space travel from Japanese hippies with krautrock connections! The Far East Family Band, as their name definitely implies, was a '70s hippie Japanese psych/prog outfit, forerunners of the likes of Acid Mothers Temple. Once known as Far Out (they were!), they got even trippier in their Far East Family Band formation, which included future New Age artist Kitaro as a member. This album was their 2nd, originally released in 1975, and is a classic for sure (#14 in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50). It was produced by krautrock legend Klaus Schulze by the way, for extra kosmische cred!!
Nipponjin is an electronic/organic/rock ritual, a symphonic ceremonial music, effortlessly fusing the spacey synths of the German krautrock scene with authentic Eastern mysticism in a way that probably made the European hippies jealous. Some tracks are propulsive, full of electronically effected drum beats, others more mellow and meditative, with the whooshing of synths... there's ethnic instrumental twang, heavy bluesy electric guitar noodling, stately rhythms, majestic vocal choirs, and it's all quite melodic too, making for memorable music that's a prog classic album for the ages, from Japan or anywhere else in the universe. Heck the side-long title track that opens the album qualifies all by itself.
This is the first time we've seen a non-Japanese-import (and thus non-ultra-expensive) cd reissue of this, so get it while you can. It's limited to 1000 numbered copies, packaged in a cardboard "wallet" sleeve like Phoenix did for Flower Travellin Band's Satori and other reissues.
Our '70s Japanese psychedelia section just keeps getting bigger and better, in part thanks to the UK reissue label Phoenix, who brought us Brast Burn last list, also recently Karuna Khyal, Far Out, and another Far East Family Band album, Nipponjin. That one was their second, from 1975, and if you liked it you'll like this, Parallel World being its 1976 follow up, boasting one of the most perfect cover paintings ever, showing the band sitting in a wooden boat, in space, flying through the colorful cosmos. (The guy with the headphones and shades is so cool!)
Once again produced by kosmiche electronics master Klaus Schulze (with Gunter Schickert as recording assistant), this proved to be the band's final album, but it's a fantastic one, that deserves honorary krautrock classic status even though the band are Japanese. It's certainly a space rock classic at any rate, beginning with "Metempsychosis", a trippy intro full of spooky synth squiggle and snip-snip-snip drumming that accelerates into a blissed out shimmer, a combo that they take to extended extremes on the next track, the 16 minutes of "Entering/Times", full of buzz and gurgle, propulsive rhythmic scatter-clatter, and grandiose prog moves... it sounds somewhere betwixt Acid Mothers Temple and Zombi, really!
Vocals make an appearance on "Kokoro", a mostly gentle, lovely sort of dreamy ballad, but one that also features some searing, soaring electric guitar action to bow down and worship. And THEN there's the title track, a suite, 30 minutes long! It's a doozy, encompassing funky wah guitars, thick synth fuzz, electronic tinkering tingling tinkling, even some dubbiness... At times it's urgently rhythmic, but that can give way to calm, spaced out drone, it's got parts that remind us of Can, parts that could be Funkadelic circa their most lysergic effort Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow, and parts that sound like Augustus Pablo. If every druggy hippy jam sounded like this, we'd be living in a Parallel World indeed!
Obligatory Japrocksampler chart position citation: Julian Cope put this at number FOUR in his top 50. We don't always agree with his rankings, but it's definitely worthy of being up there. And it's in Phoenix's usual "wallet" (whatever) packaging, limited to 1000 numbered copies.
Japanese '70s psych alert! Grab yer Japrocksampler and look this one up, you want it!! (It's number eleven on Julian Cope's list of his top 50 Japanese psych faves.)
Having reissued the Far East Family Band's Nipponjin, we were hoping that Phoenix would turn their attentions to that band's original incarnation. They made one album as Far Out, and rarely has a band name been better chosen. Their 1973 lp is a stone classic, from that iconic white glove hanging on a clothes line in front of a blue background album cover to the two side long tracks of tripped out, heavy psychedelic music within. Well, Phoenix have granted our wish, which is awesome 'cause we've always wanted to list/review this album but previous cd reissues have been expensive and hard to come by.
Track one/side one, "Too Many People", eases the listener into things gently, with an echoing heartbeat pulse, some ambient Moog drone, and sad and mellow vocals, accompanied by delicately grooving guitar/bass... by the halfway point (8 minutes or so in) the track has gotten a lot more menacing, with plodding, heavier beats, thicker bass, adorned with "Eastern" sounding guitar licks and distorted acidic soloing. Yeah! 'Tis something that Flower Travellin' Band fans will find to their liking for sure! Towards the end of the song, when the vocals come back in, it's built up into a rather majestically progtastic piece of work that, when it all too suddenly ends, will leave you, the listener, wondering where your epic Nipponese longhaired fantasyland went, what's with all this boring, non-cosmic, not-so-grandiose reality you've so rudely been reacquainted with?
To fix that, at least temporarily, put the headphones back on, and cue up track two/side two, "Nihonjin", another similarly massive trip that can only be described as "far out"... this cut was later reworked a couple years later for the Far East Family Band's Nipponjin opus, though the original here is rawer, less Klaus Schulzified and symphonic.
Like we said, Cope had this up at #11, but for us it might nudge right into the top 10...
Ah, yes it's summertime! Warm sunshine and trips to the beach! And what's more summery than surf music? Lo and behold, our favorite label for obscure and amazing reissues, Japan's EM Records, has a special new series of five, count 'em, five reissues devoted to lost "surf" music treasures. The first two, by Farm and Peter Martin & Finch, are out now, with the others to follow in short order. We're pretty sure all of 'em are awesome.
And if you're familiar with the eccentricity of this label, you'll know that this "EM Under Water" series isn't going to be about, y'know, "regular" surf music of the Jan & Dean or Ventures variety, nope. These first two releases are both soundtracks to rad '70s surfing movies, and are fully psychedelic, with tripped out grooves, synth experiments, and heavy rock jamming all part of the mix.
This one's really fantastic. The music for the legendary 1970 Australian surf documentary The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun was done by a hippy band called Farm from Santa Barbara who themselves were part of the SoCal surf scene. Their lead guitarist, Denny Aaberg, even wrote a novel about his surfing days called Big Wednesday that was eventually made into movie starring Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey! Other members later on played with such bands as the Surf Punks in the '80s and the Beach Boys in the '90s... and weirder still, The Captain from Captain and Tennille is on here somewhere too. But this is like none of that, needless to say. Farm's sound was more of a special surf/soundtrack/psych hybrid...
There's plenty of glorious mellow jazzy groovers on here, with organ that reminds us a bit of Bo Hansson's stuff, as well tracks like the heavy electric blues of "Zan Ho Zay" and the gorgeous folky acoustic guitar intricacy of "Innerspace". Mostly instrumental, but for two charming vocal cuts, "Crumple Car" and "The Eater", this is surf-psych at its peak for sure. A lot of the record was constructed around live jams, including the soundtrack's finale, the 13 minute improv "Coming Of The Dawn", a track Farm recorded in real-time response to a projection of the film's most awe-inspiring "inside the pipe" sequence. The filmmaker had rigged up a waterproof camera contraption that he was able to strap to his back and use to shoot while riding his board, one of the innovative techniques that made it a groundbreaking surf movie. This soundtrack had to help too!
This reish, done in the usual thorough EM style, is packaged in a nice gatefold sleeve with a thick, fully illustrated booklet in English and Japanese and other bits of ephemera tipped in, and includes a QuickTime video clip on the cd of an interview with the band. As well, both this and also the soundtrack to Drouyn include liner notes by Aussie surf music expert Stephen J. McPharland (author of Waltzing The Plank: The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Australian Surf Music 1963-2003).
Woah. This is a weird one.�A home-recorded psychedelic one-man-band "rock opera" from 1972, originally a rare privately pressed LP, now reissued on cd. Super freaky and moody and fuzzed out, with a messed-up "my woman done me wrong" vibe to it all. One JW Farquhar of Philadelphia sang and played all the instruments, though there are some other, presumably non-existent musicians credited on the sleeve... get a load of his supposed band, some of the best fake names ever: "Riffery Lowknut" on fender bass, "Slash Mullethead" on percussion, and "Callust Likfinker" on lead guitar! Steel Mammoth wishes they'd thought of those.
In the liner notes JW says that many of these songs "were written as an outcry against the materialistic nature of the woman during that time period". Maybe a little bit misogynistic? Well, apparently JW had just recently gone through a difficult divorce after having been married for 10 years, and was pretty down on women in general. Regardless of the merits of his bitter outlook, the bummed-out emotions expressed are certainly real. And feed into some genuinely twisted, trippy music.
The first two tracks, "The Formal Female" and "The Want Machine", are both multi-part suites, 11-12 minutes each. Groovy, laid back, lonely stuff, rife with FX and heavy doses of fuzz guitar (at one point, JW does to the traditional wedding march what Hendrix did to the "Star Spangled Banner"). "The Want Machine", with its funky guitar and guttural dialogue, almost sounds like the freakin' Jimmy Castor Bunch circa It's Just Begun, jivin' and acid-dosed (here, downer-dosed).
On "My Bundle Of Joy", JW's sad, melodic vocals are accompanied by what sounds like a primitive drum machine ticking away. It's really weird and lovely. Not sure what it reminds us of, maybe Vincent Gallo? Also, there's a good deal of woozy harmonica, or what could be Augustus Pablo style reggae melodica, all throughout the album. "Where Have You Been" and "Mansions" are equally odd and entrancing. Spacey, echoey, outsider rad dudeness! JW Farquhar is part George Brigman, part Dreamies, part Bobb Trimble, part Perry Leopold... like we said, a weird one. Not every Shadoks reissue is amazing, but sometimes when they find an obscure gem, like this, they really hit it out of the park, we're telling you. And as break-up records go, this one's unique.
First time on cd (outside of the God and Hair box set, that is) for this, the 2nd album from the Ya Ho Wha collective... we of course strongly urge the purchase of that whole set, but if you want to get this one separately, now you can. And it does include new liner notes from "family" members written for this reissue. Contraction dates from 1974 (like most of the Yod LPs, including their ultimate masterpieces Penetration and I'm Gonna Take You Home), and of course originals are hopelessly rare.
So...does groovy loungey hippy jams, doing the choo-choo train build up, but never really totally freaking out, with flutes and organ and guitar, and most significantly the wacked-out weird wisdom of Father Yod rappin' o'er top, sound good to you? Half-spoken, half sung, kinda drunken sounding. Here's a transcript of a portion of one of his raps here, to give you a bit of the flavor: "Let it all out and take it all back. But take it all back with consciousness. Desire, man. Desire's a trick. That's the trick. That'll bring old Saint Nick. Here he comes, see him there. All those goodies on his back. And he ain't got no prayer. He just wants to give to you, energy. The greatest gift of all, you'll soon see. That's it. Give it with a beat. Come on. Give it..." Hmm. The Father Yod-Santa Claus connection made explicit by the man himself!
One 24 minute, 41 second track. But you know what, that's quite a dose...
Back in 1995 Aquarius Records organized an all-day show benefitting us (and the IRS); performers included a short list of some of our favorite artists, such as Dirty Three, Barbara Manning, Mark Eitzel, Dieselhed, Virginia Dare, and J Church. One of the most highly-anticipated sets was the reunion of experimental psychedelic freaks The Fifty Foot Hose, led by original member (and current neon sculptor) Cork Marcheschi and featuring bass playing by Lennie Bova of Tripod Jimmie, plus a host of other likeminded folk. While Cork has issued the original Fifty Foot Hose album on his own Weasel Disc label (available here), this is a document of their fabulous live set from the Bottom of the Hill, and includes a 10+ minute encore jam that left some folks melting in their shoes and others' ears changed forever. Japanese import. Photos by Gail Butensky.
Wow, it's hard to believe we've never reviewed this album before because Fifty Foot Hose have always had a special place in our hearts. One of our favorite underground San Francisco bands from the original psychedelic era, we were very lucky to have them play at our 25th anniversary party when they revived a few years back, in the mid '90s. Led by bass player Cork Marcheschi, a noted sculptor and instrument builder, who, inspired by experimental composers John Cage, Edgar Varese, Terry Riley and George Antheil, began modifying his own form of electronic instruments using elements from theremins, fuzzboxes, cardboard tubes and a speaker from an old WWII bomber. Filling out the band were guitarist David Blossom and his wife Nancy on vocals who helped bring out the bands more jazz and psychedelic influences. Like a witchier United States of America (the band) with a more lysergic bent, Cauldron, the band's best known 1968 release goes through an array of styles from oscillating drone interludes, and folk-funk, to anxious mind-melting freakouts. This album has gone in and out of print so many times that it's no wonder we haven't been able to keep it around long enough to review it. A longtime favorite. Limited to 1000 copies. The lp is also quite limited (probably even moreso). Don't miss it.
Single featuring 2 classic tracks from this cult San Francisco '60s experimental psych rock outfit.
Originally, posthumously released in 1972, this album collects late '60s recordings by these long haired Illinois boys, apparently a band renowned for their live show. We were initially interested in this reissue from a proto-metal perspective, as the reason we'd ever heard of The Finchley Boys in the first place is 'cause of a pretty killer, almost MC5-ish, track by them included on the heavy psych comp Up All Night some time ago. That song, the hard rockin' anthem "Outcast", is the lead off track here, and it's only flaw is that it fades out too soon. But as much as we like that one, it's another track, their cover of The Kinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", that's our pick for the true classic here, a hard-hitting, garage psych workout with enough melancholic grandeur that it maybe coulda/shoulda been included on that Forge Your Own Chains comp that came out a while back. In their hands, it sure sounds like a track Roky Erickson/13th Floor Elevators fans oughtta dig. There's plenty more fuzzed out hard psych and rebellious acid rock on offer here besides, such as "Restrictions" and "Hooked", but what we discovered delving into this disc is that The Finchley Boys were a versatile (and talented) bunch. Among the 16 tracks total here, there's also some folkier acoustic hippie rambles, though they never go full-on country like you might have expected from a band with a name like theirs. Really, they're all over the hard/soft spectrum, doin' some wild RnB ravers and harmonica-laden blues rock (our fave is the way tripped out, almost underwatery-sounding "Finchley Boy Blues", plus they get points for the title "Deep Throat Blues" too), along with lovely dark psych ballads like "It All Ends". And there's even one seemingly out of place Motown style soul-funk number ("Bad When The Teardrop Falls") complete with horn section. Huh, wow. Pretty good though!
Definitely a very enjoyable reish for anyone into '60s acid blues action, who don't have to have it heavy ALL the time.
