Zerfas “Zerfas”

Prog,Psych

Until recently this one was completely unknown to me; I bought it after reading a glowing recommendation from a Rising Storm commenter (nice to see the process working in both directions.) Gratifyingly, it turned out to be as good as its reputation.

It’s better still for being a vanity release from a bunch of unsigned but clearly precociously talented teenagers. It was lovingly cut over six months in 1973 at the tiny 700 West Studio in New Palestine, Indiana, using a four-track 3M recorder, plenty of overdubs, a lot of homemade wine and a hell of a lot of creative ingenuity. There’s no need for me to give a detailed historical perspective of the band, the album or the studio here, because it’s all available at the excellent website dedicated to 700 West and I couldn’t improve on that compiler’s excellent job.

Interestingly, the band members chose to add colour to their 1969-British-prog-rock style songs with the techniques of 1967 psychedelia, and the album stands as a fine psych/prog artefact despite being several years behind the timeline. The fun starts with You Never Win, which opens with a fade-in backwards version of the closing fade-out “ a simple but brilliant idea. I Don’t Understand launches with an eerie half-speed recording of small children’s voices, whilst the meandering instrumental heart of Hope is washed by shoreline effects. Much use is made elsewhere of backwards voices, backwards instruments, fade-outs, fade-ins, wild stereo panning, ring modulators, tape loops and leftfield echo effects, and even a blast from an elkhorn. However, the underlying compositions don’t rely solely on these touches for interest; the eight songs, all originals, offer an engaging variety of styles from the Born To Be Wild knockoff of You Never Win through the cosmic boogie of Stoney Wellitz to the lush progressive soundscapes of Hope, culminating in The Piper which appropriately recalls Pink Floyd’s earliest stoner offerings. The playing and singing are excellent throughout, especially considering the tender ages of the musicians; Herman Zerfas’s keyboards in particular are exceptional.

The word on the street among other reviewers of this album is that it’s the record the Beatles might have made if they’d stuck with the psychedelic formula after Pepper. Personally, I don’t buy this; these youthful compositions lack the distinctively whimsical signatures of the mature Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. To my ears there’s some Floyd influence, some Grape, some Dead, some Steppenwolf, some Allmans, maybe even some Steve Miller, but really such comparisons are unnecessary. This is a fine album by a fine band in its own right, and should be respected as such.

Finally, be sure to ignore the CD release by Radioactive, which is purportedly mastered from vinyl and has a poor sound to suit. The Digipak CD from Lion Records of Germany is another bootleg to be avoided.

“Stoney Wellitz”

:) Vinyl Reissue | 2008 | Phoenix | buy here ]

White Noise “An Electric Storm”

Art,Electronic,Psych

One of the strangest releases of 1969 was this collaboration between David Vorhaus, an American orchestral double-bass player and composer with a background in avant-garde classical music, and Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, a pair of sound-effects engineers from the BBC’s Radiophonic workshop, providers of themes and incidental sounds for such shows as Out Into Space and Doctor Who. What drew these unlikely bedfellows together was a shared desire to create experimental electronic art music, at a time when Bob Moog’s early experiments in the US were still barely getting off the ground and available electronic sound generators were limited to military surplus oscillators and simple home-built circuits. The process involved endlessly overlaid electronic tones, percussion, vocal tracks and found sounds, assembled into recognisable pieces via hundreds of tape edits on a bank of six two-track Revoxes.

So what has all this to do with rock’n’roll? Well, the demos produced by Vorhaus and Co. stirred unexpected interest from Chris Blackwell, the innovative proprietor of Island, the burgeoning UK psychedelic/progressive music independent. As a result of its release on that respected imprint, the ensuing album, which took a year to assemble, was taken up by the most hardcore of those admirers of trippy sounds who’d already got past early Pink Floyd, Zappa, the Nice and other leftfield pioneers from the world of rock and who were prepared to tolerate the lack of rock instrumentation and flowing hair in the pursuit of true psychedelic weirdness.

A friend played me this album soon after its release, and I promptly declared it unlistenable. (Mind you, I’d also just declared Lennon’s Revolution 9 and Zappa’s Freak Out unlistenable, so that’s where I was at the time.) Forty years later my liberalised ears find these recordings irresistible. I know it’s a cliché, but this record truly is unlike anything else; probably the nearest thing to it is The United States Of America’s eponymous opus from the previous year, which similarly marries electronics, avant-garde composition and general strangeness but lacks the peculiarly British whimsy, emotional gamut and outrageous sonic variety of An Electric Storm.

Of the seven tracks, only the first five manage to approach conventional song structures. Four of these are quirky love songs involving various permutations of synthesised accompaniments with Ute Lemper-like vocals, the highlight being the simulated group orgasm voiced by a group of male and female vocalists on My Game Of Loving. By contrast Here Come The Fleas is a charming comic interlude reminiscent of the Floyd’s Several Species of Small Furry Animals, festooned with electronic bleeps, clicks and boings. Thereafter, any resemblance between the remaining tracks and music as conventionally understood in terms of harmonic structures is purely accidental. The lengthy, maudlin but beautifully-constructed The Visitation chronicles in cinematic fashion the revisiting of the girl with roses in her eyes by her deceased biker lover, while the closing Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell starts with a cod-Black Magic chant which segues into a full-blown, percussion-driven electronic rendering of a hurricane; its seven minutes were allegedly constructed in one evening when Island became impatient for the album’s completion.

If all this sounds difficult, that’s because it undoubtedly is. It’s also compulsive, fascinating and occasionally mind-blowing, and successive CD reissues in 1994 and 2007 indicate that there’s still a market of brave souls out there willing to give it a go. Are you brave enough?

“Your Hidden Dreams”

:D CD Reissue | 2007 | Universal | buy here ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1969 | Island | search ebay ]

Felt “Felt”

Classic Rock,Psych

Not much is known about this mysterious hard rock/psych group.  Felt hailed from Alabama and released their only album on the Nasco label in 1971.  Formed in the late 60s, Felt’s lineup featured two solid guitarists in Myke Jackson and Stan Lee.  The latter would eventually play guitar for the legendary (and great) late 70s/early 80s punk band, the Dickies.  Other group members were bassist Tommy Gilstrap and drummer Mike Neel.

Their album is a sterling example of late 60s/early 70s American underground rock n roll – a very strong disc.  Felt alternates between crunchy blues based rock (with biting teenage vocals) and Beatlesque psych.  Their ten minute epic, “The Change,” is two or three songs wrapped into one.   Most bands would never be able to pull a trick like this off but Felt gets by on great musicianship and interesting arrangements: plenty of potent guitar solos, fresh organ interplay, blistering drums and brooding hard rock vocals.  “Weepin Mama Blues” and “World” are similar cuts with more of a blues influence – solid early 70s hardrock with none of the histrionic wailing or 10 minute guitar solos that plagued so many LPs of the era.  The remaining half of this disc sports more of a psych feel.  “Look At The Sun” is a downbeat popsike gem while “Now She’s Gone” and “Destination” are great tracks that feature jazzy time signatures and good psychedelic guitar work.   Felt is definitely a keeper without any real weaknesses – a solid 4 star album.

Akarma reissued this lost gem several years ago.  Flawed Gems followed Akarma in 2010 with a bootleg version of Felt.

“Look At The Sun”

;) MP3 Album | download amzn ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1971 | Nasco |  search ebay ]
8-) Spotify link | listen ]

PODCAST 24 Roots Rock

Americana,Country Rock,Folk,Podcast

THE RISING STORM

Running Time: 54:03 | File Size 74 MB
Download: .mp3
To subscribe to this podcast: https://therisingstorm.net/podcast.xml [?]

1.  Go and Say Goodbye – Buffalo Springfield (1966)

2.  The Lost World – Peter Grudzien (1960’s)

3.  Eight Days A Week – Spur (1969/1970)

4.  Make You Mine – Fingletoad, Strange and Siho (1970)

5.  Cold, Cold World – Blaze Foley (1975-1978-)

6.  Ain’t No Use – Moby Grape (1967)

7.  Goin’ Down To Texas – Moby Grape (1971)

8.  You Been Cheatin’ On Me Honey – Riley (1971)

9.  You Just May Be The One – The Monkees (1967)

10.  Innocence Song – Cowboy (1971)

11.  Going To Nevada – Bluebird (1970)

12.  Here Comes The Blues Again – Delbert McClinton and Glen Clark (1972)

13.  The Seventh Son – Dion (1965)

14.  You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – Bob Dylan and The Band (1967)

15.  Just Me And Her – Whistler, Chauncer, Detroit And Greenhill (1968-)

16.  Last One Asleep – Wilson McKinley (1969)

17.  Rat Faced Dog – Little Feat (1970)

18.  Faithless Lady – Cambridge (1977)

Steve Young “Seven Bridges Road”

Americana,Country Rock

If you’re a fan of country-rock, Americana, or the 70s Outlaw Movement, you know that Steve Young is no run-of-the-mill artist.  1969’s Rock, Salt and Nails was a fine debut but on this disc Young comes into his own as a songwriter.  One could make the case that this is Young’s best LP, though the next 3 records that follow Seven Bridges Road are also very good.

Confusingly, there are three versions of Seven Bridges Road, each one featuring a slightly different song lineup.  For my money the 1971/1972 Reprise version (the green album) is the best, but the Blue Canyon (1975) and Rounder LPs (1981) each have something to offer fans.  Recording originally commenced in Los Angeles with Ry Cooder on hand but then sometime later, sessions were moved to Nashville.  Things didn’t go so smoothly down in Nashville.  Steve Young recalls: “These sessions were a clash of vibes.  Some pickers were into it.  Others, I had to fight it out.  There was a lot of friction between those Nashville players and me because of the way they were used to doing things, but it came out quite well.”

Seven Bridges Road is full of incredible performances.  Young’s songwriting is stronger than ever this time around, his singing is often compelling and the musicians that support him are in excellent form.  The title cut and “Lonesome On’ry and Mean” (a big hit for Waylon Jennings) are outlaw classics that have made other artists lots of money.  That being said, much of this album’s strength is in it’s variety: “Come Sit By My Side” is gorgeous folk-rock, there are two hard driving, boozy country-rockers in “Long Way To Hollywood” and “The White Trash Song”, the gutbucket country of “Many Rivers” and quirky Americana (“Ragtime Blue Guitar” and “One Car Funeral Procession”).  Seven Bridges Road is one of the truly great country-rock records.

Seven Bridges Road (Reprise):

“One Car Funeral Procession”

:) Original Vinyl | 1972 | Reprise | search ebay ]

Luke Gibson “Another Perfect Day”

Americana,Classic Rock,Country Rock,Folk

Along with Bruce Cockburn’s debut, Another Perfect Day was one of True North’s first releases in 1971/1972.  Prior to this disc, Luke Gibson fronted Luke and the Apostles, a legendary garage blues group who released an excellent punker in 1967 titled “Been Burnt.”   From here, Gibson went on to play in Kensington Market, a psych pop group who released two intriguing albums in the late 60’s (Aardvark is a great psych pop effort).  Disagreements and drug abuse killed off the Kensington Market.  From here, Gibson revived the Apostles once more in 1970, releasing another good hard rock 45 titled “You Make Me High.”  It was a popular record for the time but not enough to change the struggling group’s fortunes, so Gibson decided to embark on a solo career.

Listeners must’ve been shocked when they heard Another Perfect Day. The LP isn’t the psych, garage, or hardrock that colored Gibson’s past records.  The vocals are informed by hardrock and country-rock rather than folk or honky tonk.  This gives the music a sparse but ballsy quality – it’s what makes Another Perfect Day so unique.  Some tracks like “See You Again” and “All Day Rain” have electric guitars but for the most part this record is quiet acoustic music.  “Full Moon Rider” one of the album’s key tracks, is a riveting piece of music that features fiddle, superb vocals and a hard rocking ambience.  Other highlights are “Lobo”, a beautiful heartfelt country tune, the world weary title track and the trippy acoustic harpsichord laced gem “Angel.”  Great vocal performances, accomplished musicianship, a good backwoods vibe and strong songwriting make this one of the best discs I’ve heard in quite some time.  Long thought of as one of the best singer songwriter albums to come out of Canada, Another Perfect Day is the real deal – authentic stuff.

“Angel”

:D CD Reissue | 2010 | True North |  buy at true north | amazon ]
8-) Spotify link | listen ]

Atomic Rooster “Death Walks Behind You”

Classic Rock,Prog

Although it provided the background to my formative years as a musician, I’d be the first to admit that the late sixties/early seventies first wave of British progressive hard-rock veered wildly between creative sophistication and plodding self-indulgence. For every Led Zeppelin, there was a Black Sabbath; for every Deep Purple, an Edgar Broughton Band. (My apologies to adherents of those two combos.) Somewhere in the middle came the curiously-named Atomic Rooster, whose constantly changing line-up centred on keyboard wizard Vincent Crane released a series of undistinguished albums plus one genuine gem, the sophomore effort Death Walks Behind You.

Classically-trained organist and pianist Crane had been the instrumental cornerstone of wigged-out psych outfit The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, as witness his Hammond histrionics on their eponymous long-player. The Rooster should have satisfied Crane’s search for his own direction but, bedevilled by impatience, musical perfectionism and manic depression, he changed his style and his fellow musicians almost from year to year in search of a constantly moving and unattainable target. The second, and best, line-up teamed Crane with guitarist/vocalist John Cann, a.k.a. Du Cann, and drummer Paul Hammond. Cann had seen through the psychedelic era with Five Day Week Straw People and Andromeda and offered crunching rhythms and flyaway bluesy leads not unlike Ritchie Blackmore, whilst Hammond was a teenage tub-thumper with no real CV but just the sort of no-frills, aggressive style that Crane’s prevailing riff-tastic compositions demanded. In the best Jimmy Smith tradition, Crane played the bass lines on his pedals and on the bass-boosted low keyboard register of his B3. Between them they could sound as full as Deep Purple with two musicians fewer, and usually did.

At first sight slightly unnerving with its Dark Side imagery, but actually surprisingly accessible and in places even commercial “ Tomorrow Night would become a top twenty single in the UK – Death Walks combines mostly straightforward but tightly-executed riff-based chord structures and bass lines with formulaic Gothic horror-inspired lyrics, overlaying these with energetic, optimistic soloing by the two frontmen. The net result is surprisingly up if you don’t take the words too seriously and aren’t put off by the cover art featuring William Blake’s Nebuchadnezzar and clichéd shots of the band in a graveyard. Mostly eschewing the possibilities of overdubbing in the studio, the tracks are largely played live, as evinced by the BBC radio session versions of two of the same tunes offered on the CD reissue as bonus tracks. (I recall hearing that actual session back in the day, and it’s clear that the trio was a hot live act.) The lightest moment is provided by Tomorrow Night with its catchy riff, singalong refrain and brief, soaring solos, whilst the title track is the most ponderous, starting with eerie piano arpeggios and creaking into the most leaden of descending chromatic chord sequences. Cann kicks off the surprisingly funky Sleeping For Years with what became his trademark feedback introduction. The oddly titled Vug and Gershatzer are instrumentals on which the band’s undoubted musicianship is given free rein, Cann and Crane exchanging lines in fine conversational style on the former while the latter confirms that Crane wasn’t far behind Keith Emerson in the deranged virtuosity stakes.

Death Walks proved the commercial and artistic zenith for all three band members. Crane carried an ever-mutating Rooster into the eighties before taking his own life in 1989. Hammond was badly injured in a road accident in 1973 and played only at intervals thereafter. Cann formed a praiseworthy and briefly popular hard-rock quartet, Bullet, a.k.a. Hard Stuff, but moved post-punk   into uninspired power-pop which considerably diluted his talent. Recently he’s overseen the reissue of the Rooster catalogue and associated items on the excellent Angel Air label.

“Sleeping for Years”

:D CD Reissue | 2009 | Castle | buy here ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1970 | B&C | search ebay ]

uReview: The Allman Brothers Band

Classic Rock

[ratings]

These guys any good? Is this album a good choice for a start? Where’s the sweet spot?
I need schooling on these Brothers.

“Come And Go Blues”

;) MP3 Album | download here ]
:) Orig Vinyl |1973 | Capricorn | search ebay ]
8-) Spotify link | listen ]

PODCAST 23 UK Psych

Podcast,Pop,Psych

THE RISING STORM

Running Time: 56:48 | File Size 78 MB
Download: .mp3
To subscribe to this podcast: https://therisingstorm.net/podcast.xml [?]

UK Psychedelia’s Finest Hour

The rediscovery of British psychedelic music over the last twenty years or so has unearthed a stream of rare recordings from the magic period, 1966-1968. It has to be said that quite a lot of these deserve to remain rare, and that many others have dubious psychedelic credentials, but some excellent previously passed-over stuff has also surfaced on a number of anthologies. The Rising Storm brings you (well, in my humble opinion) UK Psychedelia’s Finest Hour: sixty minutes of whimsy, Baroque, cod-Oriental and just plain electronic madness, all wrapped around lysergically-assisted lyrics and acid-drenched instrumentals. A sitar here, a Mellotron there, everywhere a Fuzz Face. A couple of copper-bottomed hits, a clutch of genuine obscurities and a whole bunch of unexpected curveballs from well-known names just passing through. Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.

1. George Martin “Theme One”
2. The Who “Armenia City In The Sky”
3. Nirvana (UK) “Rainbow Chaser”
4. Traffic “Hole In My Shoe”
5. The Beatles “Baby You’re A Rich Man”
6. Tintern Abbey “Vacuum Cleaner”
7. The Ivy League “My World Fell Down”
8. Dantalian’s Chariot “Madman Running Through The Fields”
9. David McWilliams “The Days of Pearly Spencer”
10. Cream “Dance the Night Away”
11. Keith West “Excerpt from a Teenage Opera”
12. The Small Faces “The Universal”
13. Donovan “Hurdy Gurdy Man”
14. The Yardbirds “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”
15. The Aquarian Age “10,000 Words in a Cardboard Box”
16. The Rolling Stones “In Another Land”
17. Pink Floyd “Apples and Oranges”
18. The Pretty Things “Defecting Grey”

Spur “Spur of the Moments”

Country Rock,Garage,Psych

Spur was an unknown Illinois band who gained some local notoriety in the late 60’s but never hit the big time (they opened for many of the era’s big bands: The Byrds, Cream, Bob Seger, Steve Miller and The Grateful Dead).  For Spur of the Moments, Drag City compiled the best tracks from their sole album (1968-), along with several outtakes and rare 45 cuts.  Tons of blogs and rock magazines/fanzines have reviewed this gem, so we figured we’d give our own spin on this exciting new reissue.

While Spur of the Moments is by no means a cohesive, album-like statement, each song is finely crafted 60’s rock n roll that’s well worth a spin.  Spur started out life as a garage band who called themselves The Unknowns.  The Unknowns would eventually change their name to Spur and touch on a variety of classic 60’s sounds: garage, folk-rock, heavy psych and country-rock.  It must’ve been a challenge to assemble and piece together this anthology.  Spur were certainly long-lived by 60’s standards (1965-1972) but they were also a group who frequently revamped their sound/style and spent very little time in the recording studio.  That being said, Drag City does a great job putting all their highlights together in one convenient place.

The LP’s first five cuts are its most brilliant ones.  We begin with “Mind Odyssey,” a classic slice of psychedelic country-rock that’s highlighted by fluid guitar work and mild studio experimentation.   With “Tribal Gathering,” Spur turns a classic Byrds track into a 14 minute Grateful Dead-like acid guitar jam.   “Time Is Now,” another great performance, is quality West Coast psychedelia with good harmonies (about mid way through), fuzz guitar and a strong Jefferson Airplane feel.  These 3 cuts also suggest that Spur may have been listening to The Byrds’ Notorious Byrd Brothers album.  “Modern Era,” a 1966 single which was originally backed by a cover of Gene Clark’s “Feel A Whole Lot Better” (not included), recalls 5D Byrds, with it’s punchy, jangley guitars and acid fried lyrics – definitely a keeper.  “Mr. Creep,” a terrific cut from Spur’s sole album, sports cool, distorted vocals, razor sharp guitars and bizarre lyrics (great, twisted garage psych).  Other fine tracks: Spur’s excellent country-rock take on The Beatles’ classic “Eight Days A Week” (banjo and steel guitar make me think of a cross between Dillard & Clark and The Flying Burrito Brothers), the suprising power pop of “Help Me I’m Falling” and the jumpy garage number “Be Tender, My Love.”

Spur of the Moments is only being offered on vinyl and MP3 formats (not cd).  This is certainly one of the better reissues of 2010.  A good one to own if you’re into Moby Grape, The Byrds or Buffalo Springfield.

“Mr. Creep”

:) Vinyl Reissue | 2010 | Drag City | here ]
;) Digital Download | here ]