A melee of clangy guitars, screeching Vox Contintental, thick fuzz, angst, acid, and pure energy make Bohemeian Vendetta’s album one of the best garage finds ever reissued. It’s maybe no masterpiece, waiting to change your life or blow your mind, but it is the essence of rock music, and too powerful to miss out on.

After a series of ripping beat demos and a single for United Artists, even scoring a tv spot on Dick Clark’s Rate-A-Record, the Long Island bred Bohemians got a shot at a full LP on the legendary Mainstream label in 1968. Given the chance, this small group of teenage acid punks let loose with their monster, penning some excellent original numbers and warping a couple of very popular covers. The label delayed their album and hardly promoted it, relegating Enough to the cracks in the floor, but it screams.

While the album’s lead-off, Riddles & Fairytales is a little too good for words, songs like I Wanna Touch Your Heart combine a healthy Rnb feel with psychedelic interludes, and suprisingly well played vocal backups. Love Can Make Your Mind Go Wild shows the band could write and sing tunes on par with The Remains, adding their own touch with the fuzz lead breakdowns. And narrated segments and operatic interludes in numbers like Deaf Dumb & Blind and Paradox City reveal the band’s psychedelic tendencies. The two non-originals are daring and disturbingly drawn-out cover versions of Satisfaction and House of the Rising Sun. It makes you wonder why modern groups fear the notion to cover songs of their contemporaries – it’s part of the tradition of rock and roll, and so many rediscovered garage bands make that exceedingly clear.

After their album went nowhere, members of Bohemian Vendetta formed the backing band for Faine Jade. Today the record is available on an anthology put out by Distortions Records, including all the singles leading up to the album and unreleased acetates. There are also several fairly recent LP reissues. Enough is strange, but a record to reaffirm your love of garage rock.

“Riddles & Fairytales”

CD Reissue | Distortions | buy from amazon ]
Vinyl Reissue | 2006 | Tapestry | search ebay ]