The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 20 Oct 2018, 03:45

I love that United States of America album. I haven't asked Zilch Prichards what he thinks.
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Charlie O. » 20 Oct 2018, 05:11

Phenomenal Cat wrote:I love that United States of America album. I haven't asked Zilch Prichards what he thinks.

You can read it here. Pretty fun thread.
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 20 Oct 2018, 15:38

Charlie O. wrote:
Phenomenal Cat wrote:I love that United States of America album. I haven't asked Zilch Prichards what he thinks.

You can read it here. Pretty fun thread.


I just read it. You promised fun :evil:
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Charlie O. » 20 Oct 2018, 15:59

I lied.
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Muskrat » 21 Oct 2018, 00:50

THE SMOOTH SOUL STYLINGS OF SUMPTUOUS SI wrote:You've chosen arguably the best tracks from Ultimate Spinach and HP Lovecraft.


The Drifter was a favorite of mine. Also That’s How Much I Love Yor Baby (More or Less)
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Deebank » 21 Oct 2018, 07:45

The Modernist wrote:
Deebank wrote:
I used to have a copy of At The Mountains Of Madness by The HP Lovecraft. My mate picked it up in a junk shop in Brighton and thought I'd like it (as a collector of the great man's books). I listened to it a couple of times - it reminded me of that ersatz psychedelic musical theatre stuff (Hair! the musical and that sort of thing - Age of Aquarius).

Is it worth owt? :?


Probably! I'm jealous now. I bet it was that shop in Trafalgar Street.


He lived by n Hove (actually) and this was back the in the early ‘90s when you could still find the odd gem. He also gave me an album of rude songs done in Noel Cowherd style which was good fun - the Virgin Stirgeon.
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby zoomboogity » 21 Oct 2018, 19:56

Matt Wilson wrote:Exercises in sound and faceless in nature. They could have been made by virtually any band from that era. If you're going to start a thread, especially here at BCB, then you have to entertain the notion that others are going to disagree with you. It's not personal.


For the most part, I'd have to agree. True art, psychedelia or otherwise, has to come from within the artist. The end result may be something else entirely, but if it's great, then others hear the end result, think, "I want to start a band that sound like THAT!"... and work their way backwards, usually never working their way to the original inspiration - it just sounds groovy man, don't bum my trip! As provincial as it sounds, the majority of the best '60s psych came from San Francisco, London, and Los Angeles. Sorry, it just did. I suppose you could include Texas, had the 13th Floor Elevators been signed to a label that understood how to promote them. (They also should have stayed in SF when they visited.) You can dig up all the obscure garage bands from Kansas you want, and some of them had their moments, but seek out the Great Lost Psych Scene of Cedar Rapids or Biloxi - heck, even Bakersfield - and if you're lucky, you'll find a few singles that rely more on pastiche than true inspiration.

So, from the tracks here...

United States Of America - totally original, unreserved classic. (BTW, his name is Joseph Byrd.) To think that these guys actually made an attempt to tour with those unwieldy synths that would barely stay in tune. Would have been worth seeing.

H.P. Lovecraft - not bad, nice harmonies, but I think I've heard better by them. Psych should be fun, carefree, whimsical, colorful, anything but portentous.

Ultimate Spinach - nice vocal, lyrics barely high-school level. I've seen interviews by this guy, and he prided himself in taking acid while not aligning himself with hippies. Which is fine, but what WAS his point? He even admitted that the whole Bosstown Sound was a marketing gimmick that, as mentioned earlier, tried to create a movement by starting at the end - "See? San Francisco isn't the only city with a great music scene... now let's go find some bands." The SF bands formed organically over time, while the Boston bands didn't even know each other. The Spinach guy said that when he first saw an ad for The Bosstown Sound, he'd never heard of the other groups. What's worse, he formed the band by walking up to musicians in coffeehouses and asking them to join without even auditioning them. The guitar solo only warrants eight bars, not eight minutes - it's obvious about halfway through that he has nothing to say, then he has three more minutes to say it. As for the drums... there's a reason Hal Blaine and Jim Gordon got so much work. Now, if you're talking Bosstown Sound...



That's about as good as it gets, and even they're no WPCAEB.

Speaking of whom...

WCPAEB - Aside from Bob Markley's personal and lyrical grossness, he could still pull out some cool lyrics that weren't megaskeevy, the band had Ron Morgan (one of the true unsung '60s guitarists), and they hired Jim Gordon and Hal Blaine to play drums on their recordings. And they recorded in quality studios, not some cheap-ass place where the technology was ten years behind. A friend of mine has all their stuff (pre-reissue) on vinyl, and I digitized them all. Listened it a few times on the computer and removed the stuff that was just gross before burning it to disc, and ended up with two hourlong comps. Not the greatest LA band of their time, but the best stuff really holds up. Ron Morgan's guitar on the opening track of their Reprise debut is so far ahead of what most players at the time could even conceive:



As unnecessarily "wacky" as Markley got, at least he seemed to maintain some humor. By the final album, he was coming up with some pretty good stuff (Little Ruby Rain, Booker T And His Electric Shock). So not a completely useless band. Even an obvious Byrds pastiche like Transparent Day has its charms:



Of the songs posted on the previous page, Smell Of Incense is great. Unlike the Ultimate Spinach song, the extended jam goes places, between Morgan's guitar and the drummer's subtle fills (Gordon)? Eighteen Is Over the Hill is gorgeous, but were those titles really necessary? It's one thing when being sung by 21-year-olds in the '60s, but when you know the words were written by someone in his mid-30's... yuck. Sometimes you could ignore it, other times you just couldn't. But whatever, he got his in the end.

I know Zappa was aware of them - they did gigs together, they were on the same label, and WCPAEB recorded the first known FZ cover. So I wonder if that monologue at the end of Flower Punk was directed at him - "She will see me shaking and twirling my tambourine, and I will walk up to her, and I will impress her..." I bet it was!


Not that everything out of LA or SF was top-notch, not by a long shot - I've yet to hear any songs by Frumious Bandersnatch or Peanut Butter Conspiracy that equal the bands they so obviously emulate. Other than their appearance in Monterey Pop, I never cared for Quicksilver. Country Joe And The Fish are second-tier at best, although I did see Country Joe McDonald do a solo set a few years ago, part songs and part stories, and it was really enjoyable.

I've only recently begun to enjoy Jefferson Airplane, now that I figured out what always turned me off about them - the non-unison caterwauling was one thing, but it's that blasted lead guitar. Such a spiky tone that demands your attention, then he just plays a bunch of obvious blues licks. It's like the loudest person at a party who never has anything interesting to say. They seem to reign him in on Volunteers, so I've using that as my gateway. The first two songs are great, and I think Good Shepherd is my favorite song I've ever heard from them. Time to dig around and find out what I missed the first time out.
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Muskrat » 21 Oct 2018, 22:01

zoomboogity wrote:Psych should be fun, carefree, whimsical, colorful, anything but portentous.


:?
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby zoomboogity » 21 Oct 2018, 22:10

Well, yeah. Otherwise, you might as well listen to prog. At least Peter Hammill knew how to do that sort of thing correctly, at least by Pawn Hearts. I hear a lot of these '60s psych bands trying to take themselves seriously, and they just sound ridiculous. Nothing wrong with striving for High Art, as when Neil Young and Jack Nitzsche collaborated on Expecting To Fly. But why should anyone listen to me? Or should I speak, since I know nothing?
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Muskrat » 21 Oct 2018, 22:12

zoomboogity wrote:Well, yeah. Otherwise, you might as well listen to prog. At least Peter Hammill knew how to do that sort of thing correctly, at least by Pawn Hearts. I hear a lot of these '60s psych bands trying to take themselves seriously, and they just sound ridiculous. Nothing wrong with striving for High Art, as when Neil Young and Jack Nitzsche collaborated on Expecting To Fly. But why should anyone listen to me? Or should I speak, since I know nothing?

We're all entitled to our opinions. I am, on the other hand, updating my sig with a bit of a graft.
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby zoomboogity » 21 Oct 2018, 22:15

:D Glad to be of service!

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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Muskrat » 21 Oct 2018, 22:20

zoomboogity wrote::D Glad to be of service!


Truth is, I never regarded Lovecraft as psych anyway. Not sure how I'd classify them other than maybe "folk-rock", but I'd get plenty of argument on that. They're clearly old folkies, though -- like the Airplane and the Dead.



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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Matt Wilson » 21 Oct 2018, 22:31

zoomboogity wrote:I've only recently begun to enjoy Jefferson Airplane, now that I figured out what always turned me off about them - the non-unison caterwauling was one thing, but it's that blasted lead guitar. Such a spiky tone that demands your attention, then he just plays a bunch of obvious blues licks. It's like the loudest person at a party who never has anything interesting to say. They seem to reign him in on Volunteers, so I've using that as my gateway. The first two songs are great, and I think Good Shepherd is my favorite song I've ever heard from them. Time to dig around and find out what I missed the first time out.


You're talking about Jorma Kaukonen, who was a great player. Bob Weir has mentioned that they considered him the finest guitarist in San Francisco. It's funny you say they reign him in on Volunteers, as he plays some of his longest solos on that record. And "Good Shephard" was a traditional song that Jorma played early on - that's him singing too.

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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Charlie O. » 21 Oct 2018, 22:35

Every now and then Jorma gets off a good one - and he certainly isn't any kind of a liability on the first two albums - but zoomb's basically exactly right.
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Matt Wilson » 21 Oct 2018, 22:37

Really? I never thought of him playing basic blues licks all the time. Though his Hot Tuna stuff was mostly blues based.

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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby zoomboogity » 21 Oct 2018, 22:45

Matt Wilson wrote:You're talking about Jorma Kaukonen, who was a great player.


I don't doubt that he was/is. It just irritates me. I may grow to love it. I like their songs, their singing and their playing. A friend of mine said that he came to enjoy them more by watching live footage of them from that period. I may go down that road.

Matt Wilson wrote:It's funny you say they reign him in on Volunteers, as he plays some of his longest solos on that record.


Reigning him in does not equate to making him play less. He's playing more interesting stuff there. There are still a few of their albums I've never given a good listen to. As I said, I've missed out.

Matt Wilson wrote:And "Good Shephard" was a traditional song that Jorma played early on - that's him singing too.


My longtime favorite song of theirs is Embryonic Journey, so there ya go.

As for the "basic blues licks" thing you just wrote, maybe I miswrote. He just tends to go for the tonic note too often, compared to that clip I posted of Shifting Sands by WCPAEB, where Ron Morgan starts and ends his phrases in unexpected ways. By no means do I think Jorma sucks, but finest in the land? Well, I've been wrong before.

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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby zoomboogity » 23 Oct 2018, 18:01

How about these guys? From Greenwich Village by way of Denver, Colorado, we present:

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In some ways their music isn't very psychedelic, but the lyrics often hint as something more lysergic, and it's done with a good dose of humor. (I think That's Another Story is one of the coolest "love songs" ever.) But you have the opening track, the Devo-esque Machines, the classic closing track It Comes On Anyhow (sampled in The Chemical Brothers' It Doesn't Matter), and the between-song squiggles by Lothar, the band's theremin, and it's as psych as it needed to be. They only made two albums, and while I never warmed up to Space Hymns - that title track, talk about lame! - but this debut is good fun because the band never takes itself too seriously. Produced by Robert Margouleff, who went on to form T.O.N.T.O. with Malcolm Cecil and collaborate with Stevie Wonder in the '70s, among many others.

File under rock'n'roll "what ifs" - Lothar And The Hand People recorded for Capitol, while Pink Floyd's first couple albums were released on the Capitol subsidiary Track. When Syd was in need of a backing band, it's a shame that no one thought to get them together. A Syd/Lothar album collaboration could have been a real blast!

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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Charlie O. » 23 Oct 2018, 18:11

They were tremendous, but at the same time had a homely, put-together-in-the-basement sort of quality that I find endearing.

I couldn't disagree with you more about Space Hymn, though - I think it's very nearly a masterpiece, and the title song in particular is deeply beautiful!
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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby Matt Wilson » 23 Oct 2018, 18:12

Yeah, I always associated "Machines" with Lothar. I was shocked years later to find out that Manfred Mann did it first.

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Re: The Unsung Heroes of American Psychedelia

Postby zoomboogity » 23 Oct 2018, 19:11

Charlie O. wrote:I couldn't disagree with you more about Space Hymn, though - I think it's very nearly a masterpiece, and the title song in particular is deeply beautiful!


I'll give it another spin today. I'll be more than happy to be wrong about my original opinion. Two great Lothar albums are certainly better than one!


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