Mexico City’s Exploded View put out a four-song EP three years ago that’s perfect for this time of year when half of the world is approaching summer and the other half is approaching winter. Summer Came Earlyis the hope of everyone on the planet every year.
The opening title track drips like a lazy candle on a porch railing overlooking a warm beach. It sounds like a record being played in a distant apartment you can’t find, or something from a dream you had once with its smoky guitars, rattlesnake drums, and hypnotizing vocals from Anika Henderson.
“Forever Free” is like a story of a haunted house or at least the female ghost who lives there seeking to have a nice chat with anyone, or perhaps even take a living lover to bed. “Mirror of the Madman” has this cool 1960s swing beat to it while Henderson half-sings, half-tells the story of a mysterious figure she saw during a walk one day.
“You don’t say nothing at all,” Henderson sings / snarls on “You Got a Problem Son” as psychedelic guitar and garage rock drums swirl around her like the snakes on a caduceus symbol.
This EP can be a great way to start your summer days or one to escape the winter blues. It will alter your perception of what lies ahead and what is coiled around you.
FUZZ, the raw power trio comprised of Los Angeles-based Ty Segall (drums, vocals), Charles Moothart (guitar, vocals), and Chad Ubovich (bass, vocals), will release their new album and first in five years, III, on October 23rd via In The Red. Today, FUZZ release a new single, “Spit,” and its mind-bending stop motion video. Following lead single “Returning,” an auditory meditation on the power of one and the different perspectives of one, “Spit” is fierce with buzzing guitar licks and pummeling percussion. Its video, made by Moothart, reflects this intensity, with nightmarish characters spun from wire and trippy collages.
“‘Spit’ was written early in the process of working on III. When Ty and I first started working on this song, we didn’t know if it was even going to be a FUZZ song or not,” says Moothart. “We wanted to make a song that felt straight forward, but had a subtle tweak that over time gets more obvious. The verse riff almost feels like you’re falling asleep at the wheel then the chorus opens up with a melodic, but sharp riff that adds to the punch-drunk feeling of the verse.”
Moothart elaborates on the video: “I started doing stop motion as a quarantine experiment. I wanted to make experimental animation that I could try to make sound design for, and I ended up just making a FUZZ video. It was an extremely fun project to take on in this time. It was especially fun to open up for feedback and ask for direction so that I had to challenge myself to complete something that felt cohesive. I was honored when it became more clear that I had actually created something that the band wanted to stand behind from an aesthetic standpoint.”
The follow-up to 2015’s II, “an impressive double album made for headbanging and the cultivation of bad vibes” (NPR Music), III keeps the focus on the live sounds of the band. It was recorded and mixed at United Recording under the sonic lordship of Steve Albini, with minimal use of overdubs and studio tricks. Albini’s mastery in capturing sound gave FUZZ the ability to focus entirely on the playing while knowing the natural sounds would land. It takes the essential ingredients of “guitar based music” and “rock and roll power trio” and puts them right out on the chopping block. It was a much more honest approach for FUZZ — three humans getting primitive, staying primitive.
A pyramid of sonic destruction and psychic creation, all shades of color, truth and lies. III is the pillar of unity and singularity. Log out, drop thought, turn up. Listen to “Returning”
FUZZ Tour Dates: Thu. Dec. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom Fri. Dec. 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom Sat. Dec. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom Fri. Jan. 22 – Sat. Jan. 23 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Mon. Jan. 25 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom Tue. Jan. 26 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre Wed. Jan. 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre Fri. Jan. 29 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s Sat. Jan. 30 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall Thu. Feb. 4 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall Fri. Feb. 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom Sat. Feb. 6 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall Sun. Feb. 7 – Montreal, QC @ La Tulipe Mon. Feb. 8 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair Wed. Feb. 10 – New York, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Thu. Feb. 11 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom Fri. Feb. 12 – Baltimore, MD @ OttoBar Sat. Feb. 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts Sun. Feb. 14 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre Sat. March 13 – Istanbul, TR @ Zorlu Art Center Tue. March 16 – Nimes, FR @ Paloma Wed. March 17 – Barcelona, ES @ Upload Thu. March 18 – Madrid, ES @ BUT Sat. March 20 – Bilbao, ES @ Santana 27 Mon. March 22 – Biarritz, FR @ Atabal Wed. March 24 – Paris, FR @ Trabendo Thu. March 25 – Lille, FR @ Aeronef Fri. March 26 – Köln, DE @ Gebaude 9 Sat. March 27 – Berlin, DE @ Columbian Theater Tue. March 30 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla Wed. March 31 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
Keep your mind open.
[Head on over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Recorded live in the parking lot of the famous Pappy and Harriet’s music venue in Pioneertown, California, Levitation Sessions by OSees is another great live set put together by the Reverb Appreciation Society and the folks behind the Levitation Music Festival. It’s also another great live album from Osees / Oh Sees / Thee Oh Sees / OCS (By the way, John Dwyer, if you’re reading this – I recommend “Eau Seas” for the next spelling, possibly calling the album under that moniker Water Weird.) that brings out some old tracks the band hadn’t played in years.
The album / show starts with the crowd favorite “Carrion Crawler,” getting things off to a deceptively quiet opening before unleashing rock fury. Mr. Dwyer (lead singer / guitarist) and his crew (Tim Hellman – bass, David Rincon – drums, Paul Quattrone – drums, Tomas Dolas – keyboards) give you a four-count to catch your breath before launching “I Come from the Mountain” at you like a rocket. “Static God” is the re-entry burn of that same rocket, and by now you’re holding on for dear life. Hellman’s bass is the harness keeping you in the rocket’s seat while Rincon and Quattrone are the sounds of the heat shield nearing critical failure. Dolas’ keys rise as Dwyer screams, “It doesn’t matter at all – your fucking institutions!” Impermanence is the only real thing.
The post / garage punk of “Sewer Fire” is outstanding and might cause you to pogo in your living room or office. Just try not to do it in your car while driving. “Chem Farmer / Nite Expo” blends keyboard-heavy prog-jazz with mammoth-heavy riffs and cymbal crashes. It ends with Dwyer yelling, “We have fun!” “Dreary Nonsense” is both fiery and goofy, which means it’s great. “The Fizz” is one of those older tracks they haven’t played in a while, and it has a great call-and-response chorus and fun keyboard dexterity from Dolas.
“Corrupt Coffin” and “Together Tomorrow,” both each under two minutes, blend together like a punk cocktail made out of Red Bull, sweat, vodka, and highly caffeinated Earl Grey tea. “Night Crawler” is pure psychedelic fuzz to lull you into a smoky headspace. You take a breath, and then “Terminal Jape” comes around the corner to mug you and then shove you into oncoming traffic. “The system has been broken down!” Dwyer grunts as the whole band turns into a tsunami. “Rainbow” slows things down a bit, but it’s almost a feint because “Heart Worm” is a straight-up punk boot to the head. “The world’s so fucked up!” Dwyer sings. It’s hard to argue with him if you watch the news.
The band pauses a moment before “Transparent World Jam” melts your mind and perhaps your body into lava lamp ooze. As Oh Sees like to do, they end with a mostly instrumental jam. This one is the nearly twelve-minute-long “Block of Ice” – a track that reminds you of Zappa, Allman Brothers, 13th Floor Elevators, and My Bloody Valentine all at once.
Few things can top the energy of a live Oh Sees show, and capturing that energy in a recording is a colossal feat. Levitation Sessions sounds great and the record’s mastering by J.J. Golden cannot be understated. This is a nice appetizer for, hopefully, many more live shows to come.
Keep your mind open.
[Levitate over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
At first blush, you’d never guess that Holy Motors is from Estonia. Their music sounds like shoegaze made by a band that grew up in the American southwest and spent their teen years making out with their respective lovers atop red rock mesas during sunsets and then spent the night drinking spiked yerba mate and counting stars.
Yet, they are from another continent. Their love of Americana and psychedelia is evident from the first track of their new album, Horse. On “Country Church,” lead singer Eliann Tulve tells a tale of a cowboy facing a moral crisis and looking for guidance, but the “country church is only open on Sundays, but the night comes down on me every day.” The guitars shimmer but have a dusty edge to their riffs throughout the track.
“Endless Night” would fit right into a David Lynch film with Tulve’s reverbed vocals, the hazy guitar chords, and the distant drum beats in the tale of lust and theft in a seedy roadside motel. The sad country blues guitar of “Midnight Cowboy” adds a classic touch to Tulve’s tale of unrequited love (“You’re the stream I never swam in…”). “Road Stars” has two tired people realizing they could be tired together if they could get past their vices and egos.
“Matador” is another spooky road story as Tulve sings of being on the run from creepy men in her hotel room and spending every cent she can get on gas so she can keep moving. The guitars on the track go deep into psychedelic visions during the chorus and the simple drum beat is almost a tribal chant. The guitars turn into mesquite smoke on “Come On, Slowly.”
The guitars on “Trouble” bring spaghetti western scores to mind with their mix of bold chords and echoed soft touches. The stunning instrumental closer, “Life Valley (So Many Miles Away),” is like a long lost Velvet Underground or Traffic cut that sinks deep into your veins and carries you away from whatever you’re dealing with at the moment.
Horse is one of those records that lures in the back of your head once you hear it and emerges in serene moments. It’s a record that, if you hear part of it in passing, will stick with you and make you seek it.
What do you get when you combine Mötorhead, The Cramps, Misfits, surf rock, grindhouse movies, hallucinogens, guitar, bass, and drums? You get The Death Wheelers and their new album, Divine Filth.
The album is pretty much the soundtrack to a lost post-apocalyptic movie involving bikers fighting the living dead, or a Satanic cult, or an evil corporation, or all three. The Death Wheelers are known for creating albums like this, and their records make you wish you had some sort of teleportation device that could take you to the alternate dimension where these films exist.
“Welcome to Spurcity” opens the album with deep synth-wave bass that brings to mind 1980’s slasher films (and the power tool guitars certainly help), and then the guitars, bass, and drums kick in with stoner-doom power to set you back on your heels. It ends with the sound of the bands’ motorcycles racing off into a zombie wasteland. “Ditchfinder General,” a nice play on the Vincent Price film Witchfinder General, is brilliant thrash metal that transitions into spaghetti western rock. It works, believe me.
“DTA (Sucicycle Tendencies)” begins with instructions on how to smoke a joint before thudding bass, agile guitar shredding, and military march drums come in to cause a miniature riot. The title track comes at you like machine gun fire after we hear a group of men declare war on another gang who’s been picking them off one by one. It’s non-stop after this little bit of dialogue. You can hardly catch your breath for four minutes.
“Lobotomobile,” believe it or not, brings in surf rock elements. “Born mean. Savage servants of the devil!” is the opening line to the raucous “Corps Mortis” – which seems to up the bass and swap the metal guitar riffs with 1960s garage rock grooves. The drumming on it, by the way, is batshit crazy.
The opening lines of “Murder Machines – Biker Mortis” are, “It is the biker’s drug. / How dangerous is it? / It’s very dangerous.” That pretty much sums up the whole album, not just the song. Everything on Divine Filth has a rusty saw blade edge to it (but look and listen carefully and you’ll see the rest of that blade is highly polished by expert craftsmen). “Motörgasm – Carnal Pleasures Pt. 1” is a wild, sexy, psychedelic, and, yes, funky jam that must’ve been just as fun for them to play as it is for us to hear.
“Chopped Back to Life” sounds like a bar fight that leads to a foot chase that then leads to a motorcycle chase that ends up in a junkyard next to a cemetery where the people in the fight end up having to team up to fight zombies from next door – but still end up finishing their fight once the zombies are dead (again). “Road Rite” starts with a quote from, if I’m not mistaken, Pink Flamingos, so The Death Wheelers’ love of trash and exploitation cinema crosses multiple boundaries – which only makes me appreciate them more. The album’s closer, “Nitrus,” would make Dick Dale proud – as it sizzles with his style of playing and frantic surf drums that send the record off on a roaring note.
I should mention that this wild, face-shredding instrumental album was recorded in two days. This hardly seems possibly when you hear it. A live Death Wheelers performance must be like standing in front of an open blast furnace if they can make an album this powerful in 48 hours or less.
Any album by the Newcastle quintet Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs should come with a roll of duct tape to secure your face to your head due to the constant threat of band’s booming, fuzzed-out riffs blasting it to smithereens. Their newest record, Viscerals, is no exception.
Beginning with mosh-pit inducing drums by Christopher Morley, “Reducer” takes off like an experimental rocket car across desolate salt flats. It shifts momentarily into bass-heavy sludge from John-Michael Hedley and echoing vocals by Matt Baty telling us that “Ego kills everything.” He’s right, of course, and that statement is woefully apparent in the 2020 political climate. The swirling guitars of Ian Sykes and Sam Grant on “Rubbernecker” produce a pulsing effect that creeps up your spine and settles somewhere in your amygdala.
“I’m dancing with the devil with his two left feet,” Baty sings on the creepy, jarring “New Body,” which is over seven minutes of controlled chaos as Baty yells, “I don’t feel a thing!” to a red-tinged harvest moon while standing in a thaumaturgic circle. Or at least the ceiling in the recording studio while standing in comfy sneakers. I’m not sure. The short “Blood and Butter” is a haunting spoken word track that melts into the thrash metal-like “World Crust,” which sounds heavy enough to crack its namesake.
“Death is in bloom!” Baty shouts on the doom-psych killer cut “Crazy in Blood.” It’s a standout track on a standout record and the type of song that makes everyone stop and listen. “Halloween Bolson” is bubbles like a witch’s cauldron and then builds to a rapid boil of space rock guitars and enough fuzzy bass to awaken a hibernating grizzly. The song crunches for nine straight minutes and, just when it lets you catch your breath, it cracks you in the head again with another massive riff. The closer “Hell’s Teeth” is a great shout-and-response track (“Let’s rock! In peace!”) that is both radio friendly and potentially speaker-damaging.
Viscerals is true to its name, as every song is either savage or seething, often both. It’s a powerful record for bizarre times that brings things into focus through fuzz.
Any album that is (apart from two songs) recorded in a Spanish national park is bound to be interesting. Any album recorded in a Spanish national park that is also as heavy as Mars Red Sky‘s self-titled debut album is stunning.
I mean, good heavens, the first lines of the first track, “Strong Reflection,” are “Dead stars are burning in the sky, their light reflecting in your eyes, and here the ravens don’t show. Where I’ve been, you don’t want to know.” That alone is metal AF, so the heavy bass that moves like a mastodon, the drums that hammer like its heart, and the guitar that wails like its trumpet blast is heavy enough to knock down your garage. “Curse” is a throwback to 1970’s stoner rock with its echoing lyrics, fuzzed-out guitars, and lyrics about acid rain and how “The greatest fun, it’s not fun at all.”
“Falls” is a wild instrumental blending guitar psychedelia with thunderstorm-like drumming and bass so gritty that you could probably sand lumber with it. “Way to Rome” is a tale of gladiators (or slaves, or both since they were often one and the same) preparing for death. You can’t go wrong with lyrics like “Ride the dark horse through the fire, through the storm, as we’re set to die in the heart of the sun.” Again, metal AF, and the song shifts like sand dunes back and forth between psychedelic rock, stoner metal, and even a bit of krautrock.
“Saddle Point” is another cool instrumental, and “Marble Sky” is a harrowing tale of burning entrails, crushed mountains, and beings emerging from holes in the sky. The vocals are covered in reverb through this track, bringing to mind Black Sabbath tracks. The guitar also takes on a bit of a blues flavor as well, which is a great touch. The closer, “Up the Stairs,” is a fuzz-heavy track about climbing what seems to be an endless stairwell into space and away from the “evil sound” of Earth. That was eight years ago. Where is this stairwell in 2020? I’d like to take a walk.
This was an auspicious debut in 2012. MRS are working on a new full-length album. Let’s hope it comes soon. The world needs heavy stuff like this to shake it awake.
Live from the Astral Plane is the latest in the Levitation Sessions put on by The Reverb Appreciation Society. The sessions are recorded live performances that are later streamed for ticket buyers and then released as official live albums from the respective bands. The first, from July of this year, was by Holy Wave. The newest is by Death Valley Girls, and it’s a stunner.
Any album that begins with 1980’s New Age synth-wave directions on how to astrally project is bound to be a trip, but it’s not surprising coming from DVG. They are known proponents of manifestation and utilizing the laws of attraction. The nine minutes of instruction end with “Now, with blessing, go forth.”
And DVG do exactly that, creeping out of your bedroom closest at 2am with the sublimely spooky “Abre Camino” – a track that builds on horror film heartbeat drums from Rikki Styxx and vocals from guitarist / lead vocalist Bonnie Bloomgarden and bassist / backing vocalist Nicki Pickle that border on being incantations. It bubbles like a cauldron and by the time they reach the three minute-fifty second mark you’re thinking, “Holy f*<k, they are not screwing around.”
Lead guitarist Larry Schemel leads the charge on “Street Justice” with riffs that never let up for almost three straight minutes. “Death Valley Boogie” brings in some Southern California surf riffs and some of Pickle’s fastest bass moves. The way “Sanitarium Blues” moves back and forth from low-key psychedelic grooves to hard and fast garage rock choruses is sharp.
Bloomgarden adds organ on “More Dead (Than Alive)” to provide weird contrast to Schemel’s frying pan-hot solo. Somehow, he conjures up even more heat on “666” (but, should we really be surprised with that title?). “Disco,” one of DVG’s early hits, is always a blast to hear, live or otherwise, and this version from the astral plane doesn’t disappoint.
“Wear Black” brings the band’s surf influence back for us. “It’s a man’s world, that’s what you think. It’s a man’s world, it’s not for me,” they sing on “I’m a Man, Too” – a song that throws down the gauntlet at man-splaining, sexual harassment, and male douche baggery (“If you’re a man, I’m twice a man as you.”).
“Dream Cleaver” is a nice tease since it’s the closing track of DVG’s upcoming album, Under the Spell of Joy. “Disaster (Is What We’re After)” has this great garage punk energy through it and some of Styxx’s heaviest, wildest beats. The closer, “Electric High,” chugs like a phantom train that uses bones instead of coal in its engine and leaves you a bit out of breath and wanting more by the end. Yes, the feeling is a bit tantric.
And, yes, you need to hear and own this. Let it take you out of your body, your social media feeds, your mind-space, your ego, and whatever else is containing you.
Keep your mind open.
[Levitate over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Originally released in 1971, Santana‘s third album, originally titled Santana but later known as Santana 3 (or Santana III or Man with Outstretched Hand), was the last of their albums featuring the original “Woodstock-era” lineup of musicians for their first two classic chart-topping, platinum-selling albums (Santana and Abraxas). It’s also the debut of a chap named Neil Schon who would later go on, with original Santana member Gregg Rolie, to found some obscure band called Journey.
To say this album is a classic is an understatement. The band was firing on all cylinders in 1971 and experimenting like few other bands were at the time, mixing Latin funk with jazz, R&B, psychedelic rock, Afrobeat, and garage rock with such ease that it was easy to forget they were still college-age dudes who hadn’t been playing together for decades.
The opening track, “Batuka,” brings in the sweet percussion from Jose Chepito Areas and Coke Escovedo and builds it, along with David Brown‘s killer bass lick, to a surprisingly heavy jam. It flows so naturally into their classic single, “No One to Depend On,” that you barely notice the transition. The mix of English and Spanish vocals from Carlos Santana (not to mention his fiery guitar solos) and Michael Carabello‘s conga work were destined to make the song a hit. The breakdown into deeper beats and heavier guitar is outstanding.
“Taboo,” has a sweet mellow groove throughout it that was probably the soundtrack for many trip-out sessions in early 1970s San Francisco. The “Toussaint L’Overture” is a great example of the blend of musical styles Santana could create that was, and still is, hard to define. It’s definitely not just “Latin rock,” “world music,” or jazz. It’s something in-between and also beyond all of those things. It’s also simply stunning and nearly six minutes of jaw-dropping percussion that dances all around you.
“Everybody’s Everything” was another top single from the record back in 1971 (reaching #12 on the charts), and the addition of Tower of Power horns certainly helped it reach that point. The tune takes off right out of the gate and doesn’t stop its hot groove for three and a half minutes. Rolie’s organ solo on it is also nice. “Guajira” is something you hear in the sultry Central American nightclub of your dreams.
Santana and Schon’s guitars on “Jungle Strut” are a great match and bounce off each other well. Rolie also gets a great opportunity to shine on a hot organ solo. “Everything’s Coming Our Way” is a bright, bouncy track with Santana singing in his falsetto and Areas’ putting down rapid grooves between jazz lounge beats. Their cover of Tito Puente‘s “Para Los Ruberos” is as hot as you hope it will be.
The reissue ends with three previously unreleased live tracks from their famous July 04, 1971 concert at the Filmore West – “Batuka,” “Jungle Strut,” and “Gumbo.” All are solid live cuts and make you wish you could slip back in time to catch that show in person.
III / 3 / Santana / Man with Outstretched Hand is a true classic and a must-have for Santana fans and fans of 1970’s funk-rock. Is that the proper term to describe their music? I don’t know if it is, or if it matters after hearing an album as good as this.
Keep your mind open.
[Stretch out your hand to the subscription box while you’re here.]
The forthcoming eleventh edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, Brown Acid: The Eleventh Trip will be available October 31st, 2020. Today, Metal Injection shares the first single, “Diamond Lady” by Larry Lynn HERE. (Direct YouTube and Bandcamp.) The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. Read interviews with the series curators via Paste MagazineHERE and LA Weekly HERE.
About The Eleventh Trip: This Trip opens with Adam Wind‘s “Something Else,” featuring groovy crooning and a very acid-damaged guitar riff that meanders across key signatures like it ain’t no thing. This 1969 single by the Tacoma, WA band predates grunge by 20 years, but the band’s heavy psych and murky tones are just the stuff Northwest heroes Mudhoney sought so fervently at their peak. Lead singer Leroy Bell‘s excessive vibrato gives the tune its charm, but the heavy breakdown in the middle is the real payoff.
Boston bruisers Grump return to the series with a previously unreleased dose of raw soul layered in greasy horns, plucky harmonized guitar leads and chirping organs on “I’ll Give You Love.” The track packs twice the punch of their cover of Elvis Presley‘s classic “Heartbreak Hotel” heard back on The Eighth Trip, itself a fan favorite.
Stevens Point, WI is the actual origin of Bagshot Row, a little-known band taking its name from a street in The Hobbit. However, they sound much less fantasy obsessed than their name suggests and more akin to Sugarloaf of “Green Eyed Lady” fame. Their swaggering “Turtle Wax Blues” of 1973 will put some extra hair on your feet and send you searching for this lone 45 single like a ring that possesses magical powers to control all of Middle Earth (or at least Middle America.)
Larry Lynn‘s “Diamond Lady” is the B-side to his 1970 single “Back On The Street Again.” Larry Leonard Ostricki adopted his stage name while performing with The Bonnevilles in the mid-1950s in Milwaukee, WI, and later with The Skunks. Larry Lynn’s eponymous band explored bluesy psychedelic rock from 1969 to 1978, only to reunite in 2009 and they still perform to this date.
Renaissance Fair take things in a very weird, very fun and undeniably heavy direction with an insanely distorted organ that sounds like a monstrous vacuum cleaner over dirge rhythms and growling vocals on their – we reiterate – weird 1968 track “In Wyrd.” Think if someone left a copy of The Doors‘ Strange Parade out to warp in the sun on a blown-out toy record player, and then visiting space creatures attempted to imitate what they’d heard.
Chicago, IL’s Zendik bring it all back down to Earth with their politically-charged 1970 firestorm “Mom’s Apple Pie Boy” which echoes the unabashed rage of The MC5 and anthemic sarcasm of CCR‘s “Fortunate Son.” The band’s only publicly released single “Is There No Peace” (previously heard on Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip) boasts the proto-punk refrain “God is dead!” This equally direct polemic was recorded during the same sessions, but unreleased until now.
The opening cowbell of Daybreak‘s kicked back 1977 rocker “Just Can’t Stay” affirms that the boogie is back on this swaggering nugget of FM-ready rock from San Mateo, CA. “Just Can’t Stay” closes the band’s lone 4-song EP, and the band delivered on the promise, vanishing into the ether shortly thereafter.
West Minist’r of Fort Dodge, IA make their desires clear on “I Want You” with an undeniably driving riff and particularly beefy sounding synth leads that would fit in fine on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The song, originally released on Magic Records, is the B-side to “Sister Jane” and the band’s last of three singles issued between 1969 and 1975.
Debb Johnson of Saint Louis Park, MN is a BAND, not an individual member of the band. The 7-piece group featured a full horn section and three-part harmonies on their 1969 self-titled album. The backstory on their name is: three of the group’s seven members shared the last name Johnson, so they then took the first letters of the last names of the other four members and combined them into the word “debb.” The politically minded “Dancing In The Ruin” speaks a truth all-too-familiar to this day backed by a brand of wailing acid rock crossed with Buddy Miles‘ Expressway To Your Skull style funk.
Crazy Jerry sends us off on a high note with “Every Girl Gets One,” featuring crunching riffs, rollicking electric piano, stop ‘n’ start rhythms and a curious telephone call sounding like a creepy answer to the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace.” Crazy Jerry is the alter-ego of guitarist Jerry Ciccone, who can also be heard on a few soul/funk and rock records from the 70s, including The Left Banke‘s second album. But here, Jerry is…well, simply crazy.
Keep your mind open.
[Trip on over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
