The Mystreated are one of the most regarded and well-traveled of the small wave of garage bands who were prevalent in England throughout the '80s and '90s. Beginning with what can best be described as a style that sounded like an inept Monkees, they soon progressed into snotty '60s punk with a strong Music Machine influence before mellowing their tone and embracing the folk-rock sounds of Love and the Byrds. During their final years, they maintained a distinctive feel of their own that had firm roots in the '60s but avoided overt plagiarism. Formed in the small Southeastern English seaport of Folkestone in 1989 from the remains of the Sheds (who featured future Kula Shaker member Jay Darlington), the newly named Mystreated were intent on turning their backs on the acid house and indie rock of the mainstream. Martin Ratcliffe (guitar/vocals
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A world where windshield wipers fall in love and some people making a business out of licking lampshades may sound like something Ken Nordine imagined, but his 1967 album Twink was actually Nordine reading a little-known Beat Generation classic somebody else wrote. Robert Shure wrote the strange little poems, first published in 1957 by City Lights Books, the San Francisco publishing company operated by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It was a tiny little book, three or four inches across, illustrated with whimsical black and white drawings by Ray Zimmerman. Nordine, whose own cult classic, Word Jazz, was also first released in 1957, stumbled across the tiny gem years later, but instantly recognized a kindred spirit.
Two voices, one head, he said. I knew it was going to be perfect. He recorded the dialogue, talking to himself from opposite sides of the stereo spectrum, one voice recorded dry, the other drenched in ech
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Dane Sturgeon, in California, in the year 1967, made a record of
totally american dementia, proudly ignoring almost everything that was
made after 1962 - one of the bizarre artifacts that this era seems to
have produced more often than we imagine (but we are slowly
discovering).
A hybrid of Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley after the army and Byrds if
they were from Texas, "Wild'n'Tender" is an absolutely unique album, in
the private press bizarre records that have been discovered lately,
like Y. Bhekhirst, Jerry Rayson or Mark Melanson - although not so
extreme musically as those. Nothing is unheard here, in fact several
of the melodies are reminding something familiar.
Take a good look of the cover - this well-shaved man with the private investigator's coat and the cowboy hat and this look in his eyes and you'll know a lot about this record: Dane Sturgeon is trying to give us the impression of the title (and the reco
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With titles like "Watermelon Soup", "Immediate Ratification" "Coconut Lifesaver" and "Teenage Lima Bean" you know what to expect. If you've enjoyed Chocolate Soup series or the more psyched tunes of Pebbles, look no further for another chapter of multi-colored reverberation, full of every psychedelic essence known to these children' fried minds. Garage rhythms, lysergic guitar riffs, cheap studio effects, two-finger played farfisa and some of the most vibrating, underwater-recorded, Sonics-inspired and Syd-Barrett-treated songs you could possibly hear in this or any other life.
Watch Children were Marc Saxton on guitar and vocals, Martin Splichal on guitar, Elena Papavero on bass and John Kleiman on drums and their base was in New Jersey. Marc Saxton and Elena Papavero (the group's core - although Martin Splichal has written most of the songs in this cassette
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The sole LP of a Caifornian artist, released in Holland, has an impressive opening with the totally Barrett-with-strings "A Real Fine Time". A rather rich production - the basic rock instruments with something like a strings ensemble - often creating an amazing wall-of-sound, contrasting with the unusual melodic lines that Tingley uses in several tracks. This is rather different from the use of strings in other psychedelic records, like in "Forever Changes" and closer to Phil Spector's way. Sometimes flutes, layered vocals, tablas and acoustic guitars are used to give the desired psychedelic (or folky in a few cases) sound. I wouldn't know if the producer (Tony Vos - also jazz saxophonist, DJ in famous Radio Veronica) or Mike Tingley himself had studied the Beatles' arrangements in Rubber Soul or Sgt.Pepper that was released a little earlier, but this album is standing between the psychedelic era of the Byrds, Syd Barrett and Sgt. Pepper. There are a few songs that sound too mellow today and they could never be called psychedelic but rather teenage pop, like "Beg
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Jeremy & The Satyrs (US) - 1968 - Jeremy & The Satyrs
Tracks: 1 - In the World of Glass Teardrops 2 - Superbaby 3 - She Didn't Even Say Goodbye 4 - The Do It 5 - The First Time I Saw You Baby 6 - Lovely Child of Tears 7 - (Let's Go To The) Movieshow 8 - Mean Black Snake 9 - Conzonetta 10 - Foreign Release/Satyrized
Fronted by Jeremy Steig, who'd earlier played with Peter Walker, this
band's psychedelic rock LP has now become a very minor collectors'
item. It was produced by John Court who also worked with Electric Flag
and the Butterfield Blues Band. Jeremy was a cartoon artist like
his father William Steig (New Yorker Magazine etc.), whilst Adrian
Guillery was studying art in New Paltz / Manhattan.
The band backed Tim Hardin live, and some membe
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Psychedelically-inspired, trippy musicable to straddle the line between dreamy, hazy texture and a more earthbound, rhythmic, jarring aggression . "All The Colors" combines a shimmering, sitar-tinged melody line with straight-ahead power drumming, similar to early Psych Furs (without the sax). "Slippery Slide" uses eerie strings, more sitar and a loping riff to create a hypnotic texture. Drumming On Glass offer a potent mesh of guitar, bass and drums, painting sonic tapestries that flow with the heavens and also appeal to primal instincts. (Suburban Voice #31)
Starting with the joyful, sitar-based "All The Colors", Asparagus Tea is Drumming on Glass' debut and on of the most well hidden secrets of Bostonian psychedelic rock of the 80s. Released rather late to be a part of the revival thing, 'Asparagus Tea' survives and it's totally listenable until today, because it's not another imitation of the 60s. The sixties are present of course, as well as the psychedelic, eastern scales, dreamy/trippy melodies and arrangements and all the usual elements that we'd expect to find in a record labeled as "
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Baroquen Hearts is the third release of the Green Pajamas. It was a cassette, recorded at home and came out around 1985 on Tom Dyer's Green Monkey label. It contains what we could call 'embryonic versions' of the music that made GP the greatest psychedelic Northwest group of the last 25 years.
I'm saying 'embryonic versions' because these songs seem to be some of the hundreds that Jeff Kelly wrote and recorded in his reel-to-reel recorder. I don't know when these were actually recorded but - for the most part of it- there was definitely no Green Pajamas (at least at the recording). In fact this sounds more solo than "Coffee in Nepal", that came out under Jeff's name, a couple years later. [Note for the scholars: although it is generally listed as a Green Pajamas release, here is mentioned as Jeff Kelly solo project - and I think rightly so].
From the 14 tracks, only five songs that were played by a full band (A World Without You and I Want You Back (Ooh, Ahh), which are very close to "Summer of
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Six vinyls on Pokora's Record Collector Dreams, no entry in Fuzz, Acid & Flowers, this is surely pretty rare (even the Shadoks reissue was in just 450 copies and long OOP).
August was a trio (maybe from NJ), that poses with a giant sunflower on the cover and their sole record contains some of the best flower pop (with nice touches of psyche), you've never heard. Not unlike Soapwith Camel's LP or Dovers mLP, August created a teenage garage-pop sound, based strongly on the British beat, but there's also some Buddy Holy hidden beneath the beats and the boyish vocals.
It was released rather late for this style, and it may lacks the song that would stick into our ears, like "Hello, hello", "Frantic Desolation" or "She's Gone", but as a whole, it's approaching the two records mentioned above. Listen to it from start to end and you'll be in 1966, without getting off your chair.
Outstanding tracks: "You Say Love Dear", a mix of Kinks and garage, the speedy, pulsating "In Time You Know" and the great cover of "Eleanor Rigby" (although it was treated like a beat track, it retains its mel
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This 40-years old record
seems to have passed the test of time: not that it sounds "modern"
today, but it has this 'classic' touch that we see in music made with
honesty, love and joy.
"House of Glass" is the impressive
opening track, full of tension and convincing vocals over a 13 Floor
Elevators style music, "Born In the USA" is an almost straight R'n'B
track, complete with harmonica (but it sounds a little phony and out of
place), "Once Again" and "Sometimes You Wander" are nice soft-pop tunes
(California style), "The Means" is an excellent hallucinogenic flying
into the Beatles territory, "Do You Remember" is not far from Pearls
Before Swine. "I Want To See My Baby" is a much more successful attempt
on the psyche/blues style than "Born in the USA", with a nice fuzz
guitar, reminding "Death Sound Blues" of Country Joe & The
Fish, "Lady Blue" is basically a straight rock song, besides the
psychedelic arrangement. Then we have the organ-based "Passage #17",
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Fourth volume of the Maidens series and the concept has slightly changed: I've expanded the time range from the 60s until today, because the more I'm listening to these songs the more amazed I become from the fact that there are literally no great differences between the classic voices of the past and the promising voices of today, and the feeling of the music remains the same, in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s.
01 Penelope Houston - Harry Dean (Birdboys, 1989) The best possible
opening track, "Harry Dean" is from Birdboys, a record that should be
considered among the classics, along with Balaklava, Goodbye &
Hello or Sunshine Superman. Unfortunately it is not, but if you decide
to search for an album out of this series (including past or future
volumes) try this. I thought that it was out of print, but Penelope is selliing
it. Absolute, perfect beauty. ... Read more »
Maffitt & Davies - 1968 - The Rise and Fall of Honesty (Capitol ST2999)
Tracks : 1 Just Like A Woman 5:04 2 Landscape Grown Cold 4:06 3 Big Time Man 2:30 4 Kingswood Manor 3:52 5 Time Of Towns 3:53 6 Forest Lawn 3:14 7 Tom Thumb's Blues 5:25 8 City Sidewalks 3:18 9 You'll Never Know 3:57 10 Lungi Dal Caro Beni 2:37
This is a case of an album that is better than the Common People and in
a much better sleeve, but one where "Subtle" and "delicate" are the
words to sum it up and not the heavy freak out you'd expect from the
insane cover art of the duo amidst armageddon and a haunted house. With
nearly all the songs cover versions including two by Dylan, but most
old country standards you are instantly surprised when you hear what is
done to the songs. The music on this record is very soft and extremely
ancient sounding folk-psych with slight countr
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Although he only issued one single ("Never Mind"/"I'll Be Looking out for You" [EMI, 1967]), which sold poorly due to "Penny Lane"/"Strawberry Fields Forever" being released on the same day, Elli continued to record demos throughout the rest of the '60s. His plaintive, slightly accented voice and gentle arrangements that sat somewhere between the Beatles and the Zombies have gained a wealth of admiration since Dig the Fuzz records released a mini-album consisting of his single and acetate recordings in 1999.
Elli Meyer was born in Calcutta, India, in 1946, and moved to England during the swinging '60s to start work as a painter and decorator. As early as 1962, he was involving himself in the burgeoning music scene and began to sing in the local London group the Eagles, who went on to record for Pye. He then formed the Nutrons, but walked out to join the Ma
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In their native
Canada, Allan Fraser and Daisy Debolt are revered in the folk world by
those lucky enough to have seen them perform. They influenced other
musicians mostly from their live performances, not their recordings,
and if it's true that they were even better live than on this LP, I'll
gladly trade the entire "F" section of my collection for a video.
(Aaron Milenski, Lama
Reviews)
Yes, Fraser & Debolt are
a part of the folk history, although they were never famous, not even in the
underground or folk circles. They released two LPs, on titled "Fraser
& Debolt with Ian Gunther" in 1971 and "With Pleasure" two
years later. It's very difficult to find another duo based on lead and
harmony vocals, singing with more joy, so full of the life, the love
and the music they were making. You can find a lot of reviews
if you search a little, but all of them are about their first
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