ROKY ERICKSON - Reverend Of Karmic Youth [USA psychedelic rock 1979-85] 1990 Skyclad Records SIX 66 CD

 

Like Syd Barrett, a common point of reference, Roky Erickson rose to cult-hero status as much for his music as for his tragic personal life; in light of his legendary bouts with madness and mythic drug abuse, the influence exerted by his garage-bred psychedelia was often lost in the shuffle.

Erickson

MILES OVER MATTER - The Vagabonds Of Psychedelia (The Anthology 1980-1982) [UK freak beat, psychedelia 1980-82] 2015 Paisley Archive PA037

 

Between 1980 and 1983 M.O.M were the premier band in London's new Psychedelic scene. Their wild and wonderful reinvention of the 60's British Pop/Rock musical style wouldn't be echoed again until almost a decade later with the Manchester bands.

 

Something was happening and for those that were there it was powerful "...the excitement I felt back then when everything was ahead. When Miles Over Matter took to the stage and proclaimed: “Something’s Happening Here!” I believed them" Mark Nevin of Fairground Attraction.

 

Featuring 12 previously unreleased studio tracks as well as 6 live cuts, plus Something’s Happening Here and Park My Car (from the psychedelic compilation A Splash Of Colour, released in 1982).

Vagabonds

LOOSE GRAVEL featuring MIKE WILHELM - Thanks For The Memories [USA rock, country rock 1975-76] 1992 Bucketfull Of Brains BUCKET-1

 

Loose Gravel was formed in San Francisco, California, USA, in the early-70s by Mike Wilhelm (guitar/vocals; ex-Charlatans), Kenny Sreight (bass) and Gene Rymer (drums). The line-up also sometimes featured Chris Wilson, later of the Flamin’ Groovies. Several tracks they recorded between 1971 and 1972 were later released on Wilhelm’s self-titled debut, eventually issued in 1976. These included a searing version of ‘Styrofoam’, later popularised by pub-rockers Ducks DeLuxe. Michael Deryckx (bass) and Rol Gjano (drums) then joined Wilhelm and together they recorded two privately-pressed singles, ‘Frisco Band’ and ‘Gravel Rash’. However, Wilhelm folded the band in 1976 when he joined the Flamin’ Groovies. He remained in the line-up for seven years, after which he resumed a low-key solo career that included the album Mean Ol’ Frisco in the late 80s. Loose Gravel’s Thanks For The Memories meanwhile combines three studio tracks with a live set recorded at the Coffee House, Long Beach, California, in 1976.

Tracks 1-3 recorded at Kelly Quan's studio, San Francisco, 1975.

Tracks 4-12 recorded live at the Coffee Gallery, North Beach, San Francisco, 6th February 1976

Mike

PERE UBU - Elitism For The People 1975–1978 [USA rock, art rock 1975-78] 2015 Fire Records FIRELP406

 

Collecting the bracing and brilliant Pere Ubu in their earliest incarnation, with the devastating one-two knockout blow of 1978 studio bookends "The Modern Dance" and "Dub Housing", followed by "The Hearpen Singles (1975-1977)" and a red hot live set "Manhattan", recorded at the legendary Max's Kansas City in 1977; "Elitism For The People 1975-78" serves as a gut punch. As vital as ever, no band before or since has ever sounded like Pere Ubu - period.

Pere Ubu

ABNER JAY - True Story of Abner Jay [USA blues, country, folk compilation 1963-1976] 2009 Mississippi Records MR-036

A classic! Abner Jay was a one man band with a style completely onto himself. His music harkens back to the sounds of the 1800's (pre blues) but somehow sounds wholly modern at the same time. Abner plays drums with his feet, electric banjo and harmonica and sings with one of the richest baritone voices you'll ever hear, all at the same time.

This LP features the creme de la creme of Abners' self released music from the 60's and 70's - hits like 'I'm so depressed', 'Vietnam', 'St. James Infirmary, and 'The Reason Young People do drugs.' One of Mississippi Records absolute best titles hands down.

Jay

SOUND CEREMONY - Sound Ceremony [UK, Canada rock, proto-punk, psychedelic rock 1979] 2018 Celestial Sound Production RWG 002

 

"We bring to your attention, an invitation to the bizarre." So goes the final song on Canadian born guitarist and songwriter Ron Warren Ganderton 1979 LP with his group Sound Ceremony. Ganderton self-released three LPs with the band while living in the United Kingdom during the 1970s and 80s. First came Guitar Star (1978), then Sound Ceremony (1979) and finally Precious As England (1981). Despite some modest distribution and frequent gigs, the band never seemed to really take off and Ganderton eventually returned to his native Vancouver (where he still resides), leaving hundreds of unsold records in the attic of his house. While these copies seem to have been lost to the ravages of time. All of the group's efforts are undeniably unique, but their middle record is the true brain-damaged winner of the bunch. The record surely fits somewhere into the UK punk explosion of the day, but it's also looks back to the mid-sixties rock that Ron cut his teeth on and ahead to some sort of maniac future form of entertainment that perhaps has not been invented yet. Ganderton's mildly "out of it" stream of consciousness lyrics show a clear lack of self-censorship and that's really one of the albums strongest assets. He has created this character of himself as a huge rock star and a sex symbol, and who are we to deny his claims?

Sounds like a jacked up mix of Modern Lovers if they were football hooligans and a British Velvet Underground.

Ron Warren

VVAA - Local Customs - Lone Star Lowlands [USA garage, psychedelic, southern, british blues 1970-72] 2010 Numero Group 034

 

Long after the Bopper’s plane crashed and the Winter brothers (Johnny and Edgar) and Janis Joplin split, Texas’ Golden Triangle was home to a vibrant group of musicians, songwriters, and entrepreneurs just trying to make it in Houston, let alone the world. Holed up in a run-down strip mall, groups like Mourning Sun, Insight Out, Sage, Sassy, Mother Lion, Hope, Circus, and Boot Hill tracked out hundreds of demos, most of which were put on the shelf and left to bake in the southeast Texas heat. Until now.

The Numero Group has painstakingly audited every tape in the Lowland archives, selecting the best of the best (22 tracks on CD, 28 for the 2LP) for this peerless compilation. The songs themselves run the gamut: southern boogie rock, CSNY clone workups, British blues thunder, garage-psych hangovers, Morricone-tinged supper club instrumentals, yacht rock, and what can only be described as Bobby McFerrin fronting the Velvet Underground...each of them threaded to another in the way only a tightly-knit scene knits its output together. Forget bringing these treasures back to life—Lone Star Lowlands gives them the life they never had.

Lone Star Lowlands