Brinsley Schwarz “Silver Pistol”

Americana,Country Rock,Folk,Pop

Silver Pistol

This was the Brinsley’s first acknowledged classic, Silver Pistol, released in 1972. To me, Brinsley Schwarz is the best rock music Nick Lowe has ever made though I know many new wave fans will disagree with this statement, favoring his 78-79 solo material.

The Brinsley’s began making records in 1970 with more of a rambling late period psychedelic jam band approach. Silver Pistol is when the band really came into their own with some outstanding original material from Nick Lowe that recalled the intimacy of the Band. Though unlike the Band, many of these songs have more of a reckless punch and new guitarist/songwriter Iam Gomm contributes four great, driving country-rockers to this impressive set.

While 72’s Nervous On The Road is usually cited as their finest work, I think Silver Pistol is just as good with creative songwriting and wonderful songs. Tracks like Merry Go Round have a warm downhome feel with jangly McGuinn style rickenbacker guitar chords and prominent Garth Hudson influenced organ playing. Egypt even seems like it could have been a lost outtake from the first couple of Band albums, it’s that stellar and full of cerebral organ work. In Dry Land the band really nails down the American country-rock sound while sounding individual and completely original. Another song, Nightingale is a very beautiful, personal statement that features accordian and beats most U.S. bands in the Americana sweepstakes.

Following the Silver Pistol lp, Brinsley Schwarz made three other great albums and eventually broke up around 1974-1975. They, along with Eggs Over Easy, are considered the founding fathers of England’s early 70’s pub rock movement. These groups played an English version of U.S. country-rock throughout England’s numerous, local pubs. I think pub rock can be a little more aggressive at times then U.S. country-rock and most of these groups found their main inspiration from the Band. It’s also important to note that on Silver Pistol the Brinsley’s cover two Jim Ford tunes. Jim Ford released one very good solo album in the early 70’s and during the Silver Pistol sessions was a key influence to Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz.

In 2004, BGO (Beat Goes On) reissued the excellent Silver Pistol along with Please Don’t Ever Change (another good one). These albums are essential to fans of roots music and country-rock and have a ragged charm that’s all their own.

“Nightingale”

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Aorta “Aorta”

Art,Pop,Psych

Aorta

Aorta was a highly talented rock band from Rockford, IL that released two albums throughout 1969 and 1970. The band was originally known as the Exceptions, a popular soul rock group that played around the Chicago area and released a handful of singles. It’s interesting to note that the Exceptions had at one time included future members of H.P. Lovecraft (another great Chicago psych band), the New Colony Six, Chicago, The Buckinghams, and Illinois Speed Press. The Exceptions eventually morphed into Aorta when band members felt a more progressive direction was needed.

In 1969 Columbia released this startling record which was a mix of psychedelia, soul, jazz, folk, and rock. The album was housed in a beautiful, graphic sleeve that has always overshadowed the great music from within. Musically speaking, Aorta’s sound comes close to Boston band Listening or even the more psychedelic aspects of early Blood, Sweat and Tears during its Al Kooper phase. There seems to be some kind of concept that reoccurs under the Mein Vein theme. Aorta is solid throughout though, featuring strong musicianship, inventive studio wizardry, superb songs with a healthy dose of fuzz guitar and wonderful string and horn arrangements.

Some songs like Heart Attack and Ode To Missy Mxyzosptlk have lots of organ and are very early stabs at what would later be coined progressive rock. Ode to Missy has some intense guitar solos and a great studio psych out ending that will put your stereo speakers on overdrive. A personal favorite is the more restrained Sprinkle Road to Cork Street, which is a dramatic folk-rock track with horns and a beautiful medieval-like intro. Trippier tracks like the spooky Catalyptic with its ethereal, acid church organ work extremely well too and make it clear that these guys could play any style of music well. What’s In My Mind’s Eye is a great lost piece of psychedelic pop that has really cool disembodied vocals and a prominent horn arrangement.

Aorta may seem grandiose and even downright indulgent at times but make no mistake this really is a great lost record. Vinyl originals are easy to come by and sell relatively cheap on Ebay as Aorta was a very popular local band. Both albums have even been reissued on CD a few years back and more recently as a digital download. Conclusion: definitely pick this great album up if you’re looking for some far out, wild psychedelia with a hint of early progressive rock.

“What’s In My Minds Eye”

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Love “Forever Changes”

Folk,Psych

Forever Changes

I think everybody must remember where they were the first time they heard Alone Again Or. For me it was a high school summer, driving my car, just marveling at the beautiful guitar line and mariachi rhythms, and the building drama of the chorus that goes so close to the top and never over. Any sucker riding shotgun over the next two months would be subjected to this powerhouse lead-off track from Love’s third record.

It’s important to not let Alone Again Or overshadow the rest of this classic disc. The masterful songs on Forever Changes manage to accept and transcend the sound of the era. In a Los Angeles scene where the Byrds were absent heroes and the Doors would shortly become immensely more popular, Love was and will remain the coolest, baddest group from this time and place.

Forever Changes is one of those albums where every moment of sound is as thoughtful as the last. The tunes are led with an acoustic rock combo and string orchestra with horns. Lyrically, the album represents both the light and dark sides of the 60s; these were reportedly Arthur Lee’s last words, as he believed he was soon going to die, and in reality his band was falling apart.

Tracks like Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale drive with a southern California sound forged by Love, part folk-psych and nearly part tropicalia. Lee’s voice is authoritative but welcoming on A House Is Not A Motel and lean electric guitar leads provide quintessential psych sounds. The poetry can get dark sometimes, in The Red Telephone with its suicidal hint, but it remains somewhat down-to-earth when “The snot has caked against my pants…” opens Live And Let Live.

I have read all manner of scandal from contemporaries of Love, including one wondering why the band hadn’t chosen Hate for their band name. Their story, revolving around the genius of Arthur Lee won’t equal the story told on this record; while not a concept album or rock opera, it gives an eerie glow of some tale, or lesson never learned. A beautiful, haunting suite.

“Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale”

:D CD Reissue | 2008 | Rhino | Collectors Edition | buy from amazon ]
:) Vinyl | Elektra | search ebay ]

Embryo “We Keep On”

Prog,Psych

We Keep On

Embryo are a brilliant Krautrock band that began in the late 60’s, creatively flourished throughout the 70’s and are still making great music today. While contemporaries the Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk pioneered electronic rock and Can were content exploring the avant garde fringe elements, Embryo favored a jazzy form of space rock with very strong elements of world music.

Christian Burchard has always remained the constant throughout Embryo’s long, varied career. On this recording he is the lead vocalist and also plays mellotron, vibraphone, percussion, drums, keyboards, marimba, mellophonium, bass, guitar, and saz. We Keep On is often regarded as Embryo’s masterpiece, an overwhelming lp mining West African rhythms that reach deep into unexplored regions of your mind. Burchard’s vocals are strange and unconventional in an almost proto new-wave way. The first song, Abdul Malek, sounds like nothing I have ever heard before and should really appeal to psych fans (take note of the acoustic raga riffs) even though this is a 1973 release. Don’t Come Tomorrow is another good trancey song with understated mellotron, piano, vibes, and interesting bamboo flute courtesy of Charlie Mariano.

The lp is divided evenly between instrumentals and vocal tracks (there are 6 songs in total and 2 extra on the recent reissue by Disconforme). No Place To Go features crazed Burchard vocals and some fabulous jazz guitar playing while other tracks like Hackbrett-Dance and Flute and Saz tap into something new and totally original. In 1975 Miles Davis had this to say about Embryo, “That German hippy group where Mal Waldron used to play; they are doing interesting things. You know, man? They are good musicians, just playing good shit!” This was the ultimate compliment coming from a jazz master and a good enough reason to check out this great, lost album.

“Abdul Malek”

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The New Colony Six “Breakthrough”

Garage

Breakthrough

This midwesterner is jam packed full of great songs in the classic garage tradition. The New Colony Six was founded by lead vocalist Ray Graffia but included a fine guitarist by the name of Jerry VanKollenburg, organist Wally Kemp, bassist Craig Kemp, vocalist Pat McBride and drummer Chic James.

They took Chicago by storm on their debut Centaur single I Confess (1965) which is featured on the above lp. It was a tough British Invasion powered single that reached the #2 position on the WLS Silver Dollar Survey. Confess was only kept from being a #1 local hit by Lou Christie’s “Lightning Strikes” and notable for the inventive guitar sound created by VanKollenburg feeding his instrument through a Leslie speaker.

Around the time of recording their debut lp, the band decided to release the legendary At The River’s Edge single. Although the very good flip I Lie Awake received airplay, At The River’s Edge was really their moment in the sun. It was a menacing garage punk single driven by frantic pace and wild harmonica playing, At The River’s Edge was Chicago’s version of Them’s fantastic Mystic Eyes single. At this point the New Colony Six were a popular live act throughout Chicago and were known to raise hell on stage. During the summer of 1966 Breakthrough was released, and if there was any flaw at all with the lp it came down to the two lunk headed covers of current pop rock singles Hang On Sloopy and Mr. You’re A Better Man Than I. The other 10 songs were sterling group originals ranging from tough gritty rockers to softer more melodic folk-rockers. Besides the superb singles other highlights were the Raiders-like A Heart Is Made Of Many Things and the dreamy Don’t You Think It’s Time To Stop You’re Crying which featured more ace guitar work from VanKollenburg. Another song worth pointing out is The Time Of The Year Is Sunset. Other reviewers have mentioned that this reflective gem could be a counter part to the Rising Storm’s killer Frozen Laughter.

All in all this is a very strong debut that will appeal to fans of the early Guess Who, Outburst era Wailers, and mid period Paul Revere and the Raiders. The band released some other fine singles and a respectable though less aggressive garage pop album titled Colonization before transforming into a bubblegum-hit-making act.

“I Confess”

Below is one of the highlights from their second album Colonization. Let Me Love You was one of their last true classics and underneath the psychedelic production and monstrous fuzz leads is a folk-rock song with a soft, pretty middle section and glittering 12-string guitar runs. They rerecorded a much better version of Mr. You’re a Better Man Than I that works quite well too. While not as good nor as raw as Breakthrough, Colonization is still a solid pop record that hinted at their bubblegum future.

“Let Me Love You”

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Spirit “The Family That Plays Together”

Psych

The Family That Plays Together

Many of you are probably familiar with this great, underrated LA band that was started by drummer Ed Cassidy and guitarist Randy California in 1967. The roots of Spirit can be traced to prior groups the Rising Sons (who released one excellent blues rock single in the mid 60’s) and the Red Roosters. While Cassidy and California were the heart and soul of Spirit, Jay Ferguson handled lead vocals while Mark Andes and John Locke played bass and keyboards respectively.

Spirit crafted many fine albums in their day but most people cite this album along with Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus and Spirit of ’76 (double lp) as their masterpieces. The Family That Plays Together hit the record shelves in 1968 and featured a wild, young guitarist in Randy California. Cassidy was an excellent middle aged drummer and Ferguson was an outspoken, courageous lead singer. Spirit definitely stood out amongst a crowd and the different personalities within the group eventually tore them apart.

The above record featured Spirit at an early peak, opening with their biggest radio hit I Got A Line On You. This was the most atypical song on the album but great guitar driven hard rock anyhow. California’s leads were fantastic and innovative and there is no doubt that he was one of LA’s top rock guitarists. Some of the songs such as the spacey It Shall Be or the heart wrenching Darlin’ If have beautiful string and horn charts that bring to mind Love’s classic Forever Changes album. The Grateful Dead-like It’s All The Same and the strange psych blowout Aren’t You Glad showed California’s mastery of the fuzztone.

He was clearly breaking new ground with tone and texture but for me the true masterpiece on this album is Dream Within A Dream. This song opens with some intense Hendrix influenced riffs which eventually drift into space, riding high on insane, droning bumble bee fuzz riffs that hit really hard. It’s one of the great slices of LA guitar psych and mandatory listening for any casual rock fan. For those who have not given this legendary band a chance, it is worth your while to do so.

“Dream Within A Dream”

Below is the great My Friend track from the Original Potato Land album. Potato Land was a weird science fiction rock opera/concept album recorded around 1971/1972. Some of the songs were later rerecorded (probably during the early 80’s) and released in 1981. At this stage in the game Spirit were basically cut down to the duo of Cassidy and California and would remain so for many years after. In early 2006 the original Potato Land album was released off the Acadia label. This cd reissue off Acadia is the album to get and not the 1981 vinyl version, as it presents the album in its original form (it’s full of great songs) and also contains more tracks. My Friend is one of the highlights off this great lost record, a fine slice of power pop.

“My Friend”

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The Fugs “Village Fugs”

Folk,Pop,Punk

Village Fugs

This is also known today as The Fugs First Album. These guys weren’t really musicians, certainly not vocalists, they were beat poets and activists that wanted to be musicians. The record was made possible because their friend Harry Smith, curator of the Anthology of American Folk Music, convinced Folkways to let them record in their studio. Thank you, Harry Smith.

A classic. What we have here is not only a genuine artifact from the downtown 60s scene, but actually a pretty listenable record. The Fugs pumped up their line up for this record with Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber from The Holy Modal Rounders (pictured right), and Steve even contributed one of the Fugs most well loved songs, Boobs A Lot. Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg are the real poet masterminds behind the Fugs, however, and their songs are often offensive or hilarious, concerning sex, drugs, and politics.

This album should be viewed along side another album called Virgin Fugs, which is a bootleg containing outtakes from the same recording sessions. Songs vary from stony diatribe drones to loose pop songs like Supergirl, one of my favorites. And I’ve always got a big kick out of Nothing: “January nothing, February Nothing… Reading nothing, writing nothing, even arithmetic, nothing… Harry Smith and Allen Ginsberg, Nothing Nothing Nothing.” The aesthetic of the Fugs is instant punk, not the sound particularly, but the do-it-yourself approach. The sound of Village Fugs teeters between that of a skiffle group and an amateur R&B combo. The percussion is always plentiful and varied, like they raided some restaurant’s kitchen, and Ken Weaver rounded it out on the drums.

It may not be music you put on to relax to, or set the mood, or dare to DJ with… but you have to hear it!

“Supergirl”

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The Holy Modal Rounders (self-titled)

Pop,Psych

The Holy Modal Rounders

A damn fine record! For years, I’ve been trying to get my ears around The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders with limited success. It’s a totally weirded out record that kicks off with the If You Want To Be A Bird single famously featured on the Easy Rider soundtrack. The problem I had understanding Moray Eels was a lack of context – now that I’ve got my hands on this joyous and addictive little gem, I’m more anxious than ever to dive in deeper with the Rounders catalogue.

Bound To Lose: Documentary
Recently, I had the (spur-of-the-moment) opportunity to catch Peter Stampfel introduce a showing of the new documentary film chronicling his band, entitled Bound To Lose. Pete is a real eccentric with an amazing speaking and singing voice, tuneful and squawky like no other. The documentary was quite good and renewed my interest in the Rounders. Instead of uncovering many of the details surrounding the original Holy Modal Rounder recordings (1 & 2, Indian War Whoop, Moray Eels), the doc relied on footage and stories concerning the modern day Rounders. It’s hard to blame the filmmakers for this angle because they are such interesting characters and prolific artists. I highly recommend a rental for fans of the band or those looking for a pleasant introduction to this fascinating group.

You’ve got to start at the beginning, though. Their debut album, way ahead of its time, is one of the most fun records I’ve heard in a while and would spawn the genre of freak folk. The Rounders were heavy into the folk revival scene of the early 60s in NYC’s Greenwich Village and also heavy into drugs. Interestingly, their reworking of Hesitation Blues on this record featured the first recorded use of the term “psychedelic.” The tunes performed here on guitar and fiddle, or guitar and banjo, are essentially folk standards with new and often satirical lyrics. Stampfel confesses to this writing technique in the liners: “hear song, forget song, try to remember song while adding your personal wrinkles, bingo!”

There are traces of the less traditional and electric route the Rounders were headed down on originals like their “hit” song Euphoria and the catchy pop oddity, Mr. Spaceman. Most important to note, of course, are the voices. Sure to turn off casual listeners, but remarkably unique and strangely perfect. Something about their alien brand of harmony is indefinably great, and in brief little moments, truly beautiful. This record is a wonderful ride and an essential slice of music history.

“Euphoria”

Note: The debut record is packaged as a twofer including their 2nd record, pretty much every bit the equal of the first. Excellent deal ($9 digital download).

:D CD Reissue | 1999 | Fantasy | buy from amazon ]
:) Original Vinyl | 1964 | Prestige | search ebay ]

Appletree Theatre “Playback”

Baroque,Concept Albums,Pop,Psych

Playback

Playback was released in 1968 off the Verve label. Both John and Terrence Boylan were the brains behind this project that is divided into three acts. It’s an inventive pop album with great songs, strange sound effects, comedy bits and trippy dialogue in between some of the tracks. Fans of Friends era Beach Boys, Family Tree, the Smoke (Michael Lloyd’s band) and the Millennium will really love this record though it has more of a downbeat mood than the before mentioned sunshine pop classics.

Playback was released in two different album covers (both covers are great) and was supposedly one of John Lennon’s favorites from 1968. Some of the tracks, such as I Wonder If Louise Is Home suggest the boys may have indulged in too many psychedelic drugs, with its distorted megaphone vocals and soaring horns. The album opener, Hightower Square, and Nevertheless It Was Italy are strong hallucinary floaters that play it straight, with light psychedelic arrangements. There’s even a beautiful 52 second acoustic track with gorgeous strings and downer vocals called Saturday Morning.

The real meat of this jaded pop album lies within it’s best 3 tracks: Brother Speed, You’re The Biggest Thing In My Life, and the wonderful What A Way To Go. Brother Speed is a great blue-eyed soul drug number with stax-like horn arrangements, pounding drums, stoned vocals, and a loud guitar psych solo. It’s a good one for sure but You’re The Biggest Thing In My Life is superb as well with tons of guitar feedback within the confines of a creepy but pretty conventional pop song. The album comes to a close with the outstanding What A Way To Go. This is one of the great introspective acid folk-rock songs that hits a downer psych nerve that few can equal. It’s a good one to play for square friends as the track has beautifully spaced out vocals and crazed, nonsensical lyrics.

In 1969 Terrence Boylan returned with a solo psych pop album credited to Alias Boona which I have never seen or heard. Just recently the Appletree Theatre’s Playback was reissued but can only be bought off Terrence Boylan’s homepage (The Official Terence Boylan Website). Highly recommended!

“What A Way To Go”

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:::: Top Ten Rediscovered Gems of 2007

Off Track

In lieu of a best reissues of 2007 list, we’ve scoured a host of popular music blogs, mostly using The Hype Machine and elbo.ws, to pin down many of this year’s most resurgent tracks. It’s always like when one of these gems finds an overdue reappraisal, proving its time-worn strength and offering hope that a perfect time and place exists for music’s true lost treasures.

10.
Flying Burrito Brothers – Sin City
I can’t figure exactly why the Burritos were back in style this year. Maybe it had something to do with their Amoeba Records live archive reissue [an aquarium drunkard] that came out this year, but every where I turned the cosmic American heroes were popping up this year, this masterful track prevalent.

9.
Harry Nilsson – The Beehive State
Between buzz from the new Nilsson documentary [aquarium drunkard] and an LCD Soundsystem cover version of Harry’s powerhouse Jump Into The Fire, Nilsson and the shandemonium shadow pole is back this year. Perhaps his 2007 prowess was spurred on by the late 2006 full album covering of Pussy Cats by a band called The Walkmen. As any of his material from any time is always stunning, and Nilsson is on in general, above is a track from the fantastic Nilsson Sings Newman.

8.
13th Floor Elevators – Slip Inside This House
The Elevators have been in vogue for a while now, but this was a great year for Roky Erickson. There was a new documentary out this year entitled You’re Gonna Miss Me and Roky performed at select showings [speed of dark] with his band The Explosives. And now just another excuse to post the official track of this blog, SLIP INSIDE THIS HOUSE (complete with artificial rising storm sfx).

7.
Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine
The 40th anniversary of Piper At The Gates of Dawn saw a luxurious reissue [mainstream isn’t so bad], although Jason will tell you it’s complete BS to leave out demo tracks like Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream. The album was finally restored to its proper mono Syd Barrett mix and Astronomy Domine recaptured the ear of many.

6.
The Monks – Monk Time
Punk precursors and energetic experimental popsters The Monks got their due in spades [20 jazz funk greats]. Black Monk Time is as essential as it gets and maybe the only reason we haven’t reviewed it yet is its overwhelming presence elsewhere in 2007! Their fantastic single Love Came Tumblin’ Down did make our mix tape, however.

5.
The Modern Lovers – She Cracked
The Modern Lovers’ landmark self-titled debut was finally reissued in the US this year and it seemed to strike a chord [said the gramophone] with just about every blog I check. This album was recorded in 1973, amazingly sharp and ahead of its time.

4.
The Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard
A few years ago groups like the Strokes brought back the immediate raw rock appeal of classic groups like the Velvet Underground. After a tiresome flood of Strokes copycats, the bands making a name for themselves today are smartly harkening to deeper depths in the garage and psych vein. Namely among them is therisingstorm.net’s favored modern group, The Black Lips, often pegged for their Seeds influence [gorilla vs bear]. (I also find their sound resembles that of The Outsiders.)

3.
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood – Some Velvet Morning
Lee Hazlewood is an unforgettable music producer that passed away in 2007 [some velvet blog]. His work with Nancy Sinatra on the album Nancy & Lee is monumental and the one-of-a-kind Some Velvet Morning received much warranted attention.

2. & 1.
The Kinks – Strangers
The Kinks – This Time Tomorrow
And topping the list! The credit here must go to Wes Anderson, whose brilliant films give new life time and again to some of the best unknown gems [the yellow stereo] ever recorded. Seeing these two from Lola Vs. Powerman put to image, for me, was breathtaking; it brought to focus the emotional appeal in these tracks that had been hiding from the populous, who hadn’t even known they wanted it. From the film, Darjeeling Limited. (To new friends of this album by The Kinks, don’t miss their earlier material or the well-worth-it Muswell Hillbillies [stwof].)

**************************************************************************************
To finish off I thought I would include a few favorites that are new to me in 2007. Nothing mind shattering and totally arbitrary, but what the hell. Of course, credit for pointing the way goes to Jason, as always, so thanks Jay. **************************************************************************************

The Flatlanders – Tonight I’m Gonna Go Downtown
I’ve made a full on switch from country rock to straight up country this year, and still haven’t heard a more lonesome twang, laid back swing, or real deal perfect country record than The Flatlanders. Love this album every second [so well remembered].

Doug Sahm & Band – Is Anybody Going To San Antone
Yeah, I can’t help it with the country rock but this Doug Sahm cat can really invade your psyche. There is something so simple and familiar to each of his tunes, yet they all live fine and strong on their own. I had always thought the Sir Douglas Quintet was just another mod clone, but they are their own beast entirely. Special thanks to IV, of course, for that monster eye roll when I didn’t know who Sahm was, earlier this year!

Bobby Charles – I Must Be In A Good Place Now
This album hit me like a brick recently. It’s like a continuation of The Band with a whole new angle, so real and immediately pleasing, but continuing to stay with me.

Thanks for reading.