I'm working hard to keep my mouth shut until the time is right, but in the service of pre-release PR I can at least mention that we have a recent discovery coming up for release that is a MAJOR psychedelic discovery, a fukkin GAME-CHANGER both musically and historically. We're talking originator stuff here, baby. Watch for details to creep out as the project continues... shouldn't be too long, really.

On a less secretive note, we just printed a new run of Acid Archives 2nd Ed books. This is the third printing of the second edition...got that? Except for a few typos, the content is unchanged from the Second Edition books available earlier. The book briefly went out of print and that is no longer the case. Check with your distributor or retail hipster.

As for the Third Edition, you're looking at it! The Second Edition book has turned out to be fairly comprehensive, and that is the print version that will live on, not least since it seems it keeps finding new readers each month. The current blog, however, is where you can go for the really new data, reviews, gossip and occasional corrections.

There's even more Lysergia events on the horizon, including a brand new book later this year, and an LP reissue that will appear in conjunction with the mystery item described above. This LP is a mystery in its own right, but at least some people are familiar with it!

To celebrate the final arrival of agreeable Spring temperatures up here by the Arctic Circle, here are the Kaplan Bros! 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxabR0szXgc

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 22:16 MEST

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Thus sang Ptarmigan many moons ago, and rightly too. I have developed a certain fascination with the Vancouver scene over the years, in fact one of the very first "obscure" psych LPs I ever bought from Paul Major was the first Mother Tuckers Yellow Duck LP (a $20 title a the time). Picking up the rare pre-LP version of "One Ring Jane" on Duck yesterday closed a cycle of sorts, though I'm not sure what kind or why. In any event, this most interesting freak scene could have been what Boston failed to become, i e: the next San Francisco. I'm far from an expert on the subject, but would venture that Vancouver was in the crosshairs for a music business make-over around 1968-69. Learning fast, the industry knew to look for a sizable town with a strong regional influence, a substantial college student body, and an active local music scene with genuine freak bands that were locally respected. The icing of the cake, and the hard nut to crack which I think really killed Boss-Town, was a credible commercial group who could sell millions of records but still be considered underground. This is what the Airplane did for SF, and the Doors did for LA. No band did it for Boston because those band couldn't write hits!

My belief is that the band poised for this key role in Vancouver were the Collectors, and I also think that the relative failure of the Collectors is what caused the music biz to leave Vancouver after only a half-hearted try, as evident in the remarkable rarity of the second Mother Tuckers LP as an example. Had the Collectors lured the buyers with their ambitious artrock it would have been different, but the basic problem was the same--there was no "Light My Fire" or "Somebody To Love" in there.

And so the Collectors filled cut-out bins and a very promising band like Mother Tuckers were left to fade out by Capitol management, and true freaks like My Indole Ring, Mock Duck or Seeds Of Time didn't even have time to get the record contracts waiting upon them if the signs for Vancouver's many stars had been right. 

That's my theory anyway. Here's a bunch of intense video material to back it up:

Some of the great Vancouver acid rock footage that was on Youtube has been removed (like the live Mother Tucker's show), but I was startled to find a sequence of My Indole Ring which is completely different from the old CBC/Retinal Circus material. This is hosted by Lulu, who expounds on 'psych rock' and 'acid' before the band kicks in. You can tell the difference instantly because the singer isn't wearing the weird hat he had on the other clips. As a bonus, I think the sound may actually be better than the Retinal Circus show (which I think was used for the Shadoks release). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dzL12pTxiw

Serious interview with Country Joe explaining hippies, 1968... and a bunch more looks at Vancouver's emerging freak scene... brief clips from the local Be-In '67.
https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1kGq5gcK4sk&h=FAQGTUMed&enc=AZOzo0dkogIxfhkETGpGOid6htJMAxIps710qh5dg7v5RL_2TAwGUmkZYqM4ZdXrlrB7YT0_lSWO3lZ9MXp1LXKdRtEz-akqVglhWNYWeg88A8R3lwAFgyNMt7Ywb4Z78fSDwycoRKPMFB4oxE8rnVtGhpd-XSFjaW9spEUB70Sl_w&s=1

This one has a live performance by the Northwest Company doing long raga fuzz rave-up versions of "Hard To Cry" and "Get Away From It All"... not. Alas, we get the opposite of that, with an awful blue-eyed soul number introduced as "their latest hit". You have been warned. On the upside are 5-minute interviews with Vanilla Fudge (not too common) and Jimi Hendrix. Again, presumably all unique material to "Let's Go"/CBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1doYS7rnac

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 20:40 MEST

Updated: 15 May 2014 20:42 MEST

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Lest I forget, just a note to mention that I was contacted recently by a Californian who had come across one of my 13th Floor Elevators pages when researching his old '60s band. Here's what he (John R.) wrote:

I was the singer for "The Inmates" (later named "Sky") and I saw on your site a shot of the poster of "The Elevators" gig on September 30 1966 at the San Bruno Armory. We opened for them that night and I've been trying to find that poster along with a couple others - Moby Grape at Kings Beach Bowl September 2 1967 and The Grassroots at The Coconut Grove in Santa Cruz in '67 or '68. We were high school kids and pretty thrilled to be playing with those cats.

Due to their appearance on one of the most coveted Elevators posters (see image here), the Inmates have secured a place for themselves in underground rock history for the foreseeable future. Ínformation about the supporting bands has a certain contextual value, and in the case of San Bruno nothing has been known previously about the Inmates or the other local band listed, the Westminster V.

I felt that their story was worth preserving at a more suitable spot than the Acid Archives blog and forwarded it to my colleague Chris at the great Garage Hangover site, where the Inmates should fit right in. I'll add a link to the piece once it's up. One very cool detail I must share right away is the fact that the Inmates actually played "You're Gonna Miss Me" as part of their standard set list!

Thanks John R for getting in touch, and keep an eye out for more on the Inmates, and maybe a bit on other local bands too.  

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 23:46 MEST

Updated: 20 April 2014 23:48 MEST

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KIRK FELIX (MD)
For My Friends 1972 (Coward RI 3555)  [gatefold]

Odd acoustic folk LP from a peace-loving troubadour who played coffee houses when not serving overseas as a sergeant in the US Marine Corps (!). Apparently Felix was aware of how strange this seemed, as he poses with a peace sign on one photo and named his label 'Coward', which he clearly wasn't. In any event, the music is mostly conventional '60s Village sounds in a Fred Neil-Gordon Lightfoot vagabond folk tradition, and despite the '72 date it doesn't reflect much of the more expressive and freer moods that the s-sw style brought. At times he gets moody a la early Tim Buckley and these spots are the most interesting on the album. There's Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell covers alongside a string of originals. He has a nice harmonious voice and the album is consistent in style and quality, but only folk collectors need to concern themselves with Felix' LP, which has several things in common with another LP from the same area, Jon Batson. [PL]

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 23:35 MEST

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Working my way through old CD-R binders while doing hard disk transfers, I came upon an item I hadn't seen in 10+ years. It could well have been included in the Acid Archives book, but already at that time I had forgotten about its existence.

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THE SINNERS ( )
The Sinners  1966 (no label)  [Gold Star acetate only] 
Sent to me long ago by a gentleman in the Los Angeles area, this is a sleeveless demo/acetate disc for an album credited to 'The Sinners'. No other information is present, but the grooves themselves contain a powerful garage message. Opening with a very good, intense take on "Mystic Eyes", the twelve tracks traverse a broad '66 spectrum including British covers such as an efficient "I'm A Man", a couple of vocal pop tunes ("It's Not Unusual", "Pied Piper", "You're The One"), one James Brown ("I'll Go Crazy") and two oldies (the Bell Notes "I've Had It", Richie Valens' "That's My Little Susie"), even more British Beat covers, and possibly an original or two. There's none of the residual surf or folkrock often found on this type of albums, which may or may not give a clue as to the band's origins. The vocals are semi-buried in places which suggests it may have been a rough mix acetate only. In any event, there's more Them via "Here Comes The Night", Animals' "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and, somewhat unusually, "Concrete And Clay" by Unit 4+2. Looking at the track list, I would venture a recording date of late Summer 1966, with "Pied Piper" the most recent track, while the bulk of the material looks more like a '65 set list than '66. All numbers except one are identifiable covers, the exception being "Ya Done Me Wrong" which is either an obscure r'n'b cover or in fact a band original. The odds are decent on the latter, as it's an uncomplicated tune with a fair debt to Jimmy Reed as processed through the Rolling Stones. If this checks out as a self-written number, it is the high point of the disc along with the opening "Mystic Eyes". It's a little unfortunate the band's live bookings demanded three (or more) lame pop tunes where they could've done the Byrds and the Raiders instead, but all over a respectable obscurity certain to interest garage collectors. [PL]

Note: after I posted the above, noted garage expert Mike Markesich suggested that this could be the East LA Sinners, who had a major label contract but no records out. The appearance of an obscure Richie Valens cover offers this hypothesis some weight.

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 22:21 MEST

Updated: 20 April 2014 19:14 MEST

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I've now gotten the chance to hear this rarity a few times, and the interest seems warranted; it's got the special atmosphere that are vital for private pressings to raise attention with collectors, and a fairly attractrive sound with good vocals and well-written songs. It reminded me a little of Neil Young around After The Goldrush, except that the vocals are more like Stills than Neil. I need to hear this some more to write a genuine review, but so far Sorrell's LP seems agreeable, yep. 

This one appears to have been known in certain secretive cells, but was news to me when someone alerted me to the recent eBay auction. Still haven't heard it, but contextual data alone makes it seem like an AA contender.

CHILD'S PLATE (WA)
Child's Plate 1974 (Yantis)  [100#d; insert]

Appearing on the same label as the very rare and quite good Strange, this one may be even harder to locate--apparently a copy was sold back in the '90s but otherwise I have never heard of it before. Judging by the credits it is essentially the solo work of one Dan Sorrell, who wrote the tunes, sings and plays guitar and keyboard. We'll have to get back to you regarding the music ("drifting, introspective folk psych in a loner, singer/songwriter direction") but obviously it's a non-acoustic 'rock' title offering the interesting combo of sitar and Arp synth, which makes me wonder if it's a Sky Sulamyth or William E Nowik type nocturnal shroom tripper. Once heard, I'll update this. Moving on to what is known, this was not only on the same label as Strange, but the two albums do in fact overlap in the credits due to the presence of Mark Rensel, who here is credited with recording and production, in addition to the Arp noises. He is credited on the Strange LP for a couple of the live recordings, while another 'Rensel' named Robert (his brother?) was part of the actual Strange/BarApp band. Possibly Rensel owned the label/studio where both Strange and Child's Plate were mastered. Claims of the LP being a limited 100 press may be true, at least the recent copy showed a hand-written '78 of 100' on the lower right cover corner. [PL]

DAN SORRELL => Child's Plate 

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 17:01 CET

Updated: 15 April 2014 23:10 MEST

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It took a little while, or 3 years to be precise, but the special hard-back edition of the Acid Archives book is now completely out of print. This was a limited, individually numbered edition of 100 copies, signed by me on the title page. For the record, the hard-cover variants break down like this:

#1-25 are 'lettered', meaning that they are denoted by letters 'A' through 'Z' rather than numbers, with 'X' omitted. These copies were intended primarily for contributors and close friends, but a couple were sold to collectors. With the book came a bonus CD-R with 'mystery' music, which was 23 songs selected from obscure LPs featured in the book.

#26-75 are numbered in standard fashion, and sold to collectors and Acid Archives fans. The bonus 'mystery' CD-R described above was included.

#76-100 are numbered in standard fashion and sold commercially. The only difference is that the 'mystery' music CD-R was not included. 

All 100 copies are autographed and numbered by hand by the author. The copies were individually priced depending on how many were left and what mailing arrangments could be made, but $90-100 was a frequently logged price.

The very last copy I had is now sold, and the hard-back will never be reprinted. Next time you'll see it will be in the second hand market.

Thanks all for the interest. I'm noticing the regular soft-cover version is getting harder to find as well, we may have to do something about that. 

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 00:10 CET

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Del Jones was a militant black activist and sworn enemy of ghetto heroin use. Among record collectors he's also remembered as the creator of "Court Is Closed", a rare underground funk-rock title which has demonstrated remarkable crossover potential with psych specialists, such as the fine gentlemen who coordinated the vinyl reissue about a decade ago. This all refers to the 'rock' version which, as Rockadelic Rich recently revealed, was Del Jones favorite version. The 'funk' version (with the African map on the cover) was created for commercial reasons only, and held less sway with Del.

Here's a mash-up I did combining elements of Del Jones' title track and a Puerto Rican kid speaking about the ghetto from an anti-drug spoken word record I have: http://www.lysergia.com/03CourtIsOpen.mp3

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 15:20 CET

Updated: 18 February 2014 15:27 CET

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I've probably spent more time defending Strawberry Alarm Clock than any other group on the planet, and it's good to see how the perception of the band has finally begun to change, from the idiotic misconception of them as a "bubblegum" or "exploitation" group into the actual realization that they were a real rock band, grown out of one of the best garage bands of the westcoast (Thee Sixpence), and they proved this for anyone with ears on two outstanding LPs of melodic SoCal psychedelia.

All that said, the vintage SAC (first 3 LPs) offer troublingly little for the avid fan/collector to go out on manic hunts for. Only a couple of non-LP 45 tracks, no withdrawn records or small label discs of unexplained origin, no rare mono promo or quad variants, and a gloomy lack of variation for the foreign picture sleeve 45s (either the "Incense" LP photo or dull title sleeves; the Italian "Tomorrow" is a rare exception). After getting said "Tomorrow" PS and the All-American pre-hit pressing of the "Incense" 45 I figured there wasn't much more, especially since I've been tracking the band for 30 years.

But surprise, surprise, my eyes fell on this odd LP format record, pressed up without sleeve and never commercially released:

This was intended for broadcast on the US Navy's own radio station, and includes ad spots aimed at sailors and sailoresses urging them to sign up for long contracts with subsidized education and whatever. It is narrated by the ubiqitous Dick Clark, and features, indeed, the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Alas, this isn't a live music performance, but rather a short interview where Dick Clark speaks with SAC "leader" Mark Weitz and the other members introduce themselves with name and instrument. The band is referred to as a "quintet" at this point, and judging by the selections played I would place it in early 1968--there are LP tracks from the 1st album but none from the 2nd album, and the most recent 45 "Tomorrow" is heard. Interestingly, "Incense & Peppermints" is not played.

The program runs some 15 minutes and includes four SAC songs in what seems to be stereo LP versions. The sound is remarkably good and a little different from the familiar UNI sound, but this is surely due to different manufacturing circumstances and nothing else. So, you get some mighty fine SAC music that you've heard before, and maybe 90 seconds of chatter that you haven't heard before, and the added bonus of Dick Clark praising the fine young Santa Barbara men in all kinds of ways, "Progressive band"; "the now sound" etc. I can dig it.

Now, flip the disc over and what do you get? Another program for Navy radio broadcast again featuring the Strawberry Alarm Clock! Dick Clark and the band greet each other as old friends, and this time the members reveal their ages (Weitz is oldest, born '45) and engage in a philosophical discourse on what genre their music belongs to. Apparently plenty of people referred to them as "jazz-rock"! This was probably taped shortly after or even at the same session as the program above, since there is no new material (from the 2nd LP) performed. So I'm guessing Spring '68 for the entire disc as a "release", which meant distribution to various Navy bases around the world. How many copies were pressed? How much did the band get paid? We do not know.

While it would have been more exciting with some live music or maybe more indepth interviews, this rarity will suffice as a needed dark horse in the early SAC catalog.

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 22:26 CET

Updated: 1 February 2014 22:39 CET

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I mentioned the Oxpetals scoop long ago, but didn't get around to updating the tabular breakdown until now. Isn't it a beauty? All figured out by diligent and knowledgable internetters taken in by the strange magic of Steve Kaczorowski, aka Steve Drake, the king of karaoke rock!

Get the full and unbelievable low-down here. 

STEVE DRAKE BAND: “Cold Sweat” (Odyssey, 1976) 

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 22:38 CET

Updated: 1 February 2014 21:12 CET

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During the slow but steady grind to transfer anything worthwhile from old cassettes to WAVs and MP3s on my hard disk, I ran across an old Maxell C90 that is charged with lysergia. Not to sound too much like Grandpa Simpson, but the history of this tape is strongly linked to some substantial changes in my life that are still being felt today.

The year was 1988, I was doing college but spent as little time at 'campus' as possible, preferring instead to hang out with my psychedelic colleagues in the newly formed Lumber Island Acid Crew. Through Mr Subliminal we had hooked up with the now legendary record dealer Paul Major, whose mail-order catalog was entering a phase of rapid expansion. We marvelled over Paul's informative and clever rants on obscure LPs none of us had heard of before, and with frequent intervals cash or trade deals were set up with Paul, who was as genial on the phone as his list indicated. After I mentioned to him that my top want was The Deep "Psychedelic Moods" Paul promptly came up with a stereo original in just a few weeks time--although as rare then as it is now, he actually underpriced it.

Another thing he offered was to tape his rarer or lesser known records to the extent that he had time. I was just shedding my collection of Doors picture sleeve 45s, several of which I already had sold to a DJ guy from Los Angeles while at Plastic Passion in London (a story in itself). Knowing that Paul dug the Doors I offered him a 45 for each tape, and he went for it right away. I checked off a few things I had been curious about and the tapes duly arrived shortly after. All of it was worth hearing, but what really did a number on my head was the the cassette seen below, with Marcus "House Of Trax". As I recall we deliberately held back playing the tape until the next psychedelic session, which came about soon enough. There were several of us doing good quality blotter, and at an early stage the Marcus tape was put in the deck.

I can still recall the bewilderment in my semi-lysergic head as the swirling keyboards, feedback guitars and trippy vocals came on. One must bear in mind that this was 1988, and private pressings were still an almost unknown phenomenon, for which there was no real frame of reference. My view of psychedelic music was traditional, even if I had begun chewing on the Bobb Trimble and DR Hooker side of things. What boggled my mind with Marcus was the fact that it was A) clearly a 'modern' production from a multi-channel studio, but B) at the same time totally psychedelic. I was familiar with 'neo-psych' which was like twee Pink Floyd imitations, but this Marcus record sounded real--being an acidhead I felt I could identify another acidhead with some certainty. This raised the question: who the hell recorded full-blown psychedelia in the late '70s? And of course: are there more records like this? As the private press collector scene exploded in the late '80s-early '90s the answer to the latter question would be a resounding Yes, to my and everyone else's delight.

But that Marcus record, man, there was more to it than the realization that psychedelic music was a timeless phenomenon. Its sentiments, as presented via Marcus' lyrics and voice, seemed to align perfectly to my state as a new-fangled psychedelicist. There were messages running through it which I immediately understood--"Tripping In Time" was easy enough to grasp, but "The City Of Inbetween" and its rejection of dichotomies in favor of ambiguity was exactly the kind of unorthodox wisdom you aquire during those first few trips. The arc of Side 1 reaches an appropriate LSD peak with "Sweet Inspiration", where an otherworldy warmth blends with life-affirming melancholy into the kind of complex emotional cluster that awaits inside the trip space, if nowhere else.

One of Marcus' greatest achievements may be his ability to present the psychedelic consciousness as an open space that anyone, more or less, can enter. He rejects the egocentric pull of acid creativity and insists on the availability of radical insight and spiritual love for all, much like newly converted psychedelicists tend to do. It's all there in "Sweet Inspiration"--the peak moment of celestial love, the insistence upon the value of the trip, the exhortation for one to join with him and all the others that have opened the doors to Innerspace.

Sweet inspiration
Knocking at your door
Come on in
There's room for more

As a psychedelic philosopher and weekend buddhist I don't really believe in coincidences, except on a very small scale. There couldn't have been a more propitious time or a better LP for me to come across as a sophomore hallucinogen student than Marcus, no matter that only 75 people in the world had heard of it at the time. During the year that followed I would set aside a "Marcus moment" for each psychedelic journey, during which I pulled out the Maxell tape, located an available ghetto blaster or Sony freestyle, and went inside the "House Of Trax" for 30 minutes of private headphone meditation. My fellow Acid Crew members were fully aware and slightly amused by this ritual, not least since Marcus' greatness was far from agreed upon. But as my testimony here hopefully shows, there was more to my infatuation than just the musical quality in a good/bad sense.

Things continued like this for a year or two until one day my psychedelic self had matured enough that Marcus' role as teacher for the newly initiated seemed less important. I still loved the LP, and I still love the LP in 2014, but the special part it played in my life was a thing of the past, brought forth today by coming across this old C90 cassette. The Lumber Island Acid Crew kept tripping and a new musical talisman would soon present itself to replace Marcus, once more with a perfect fit for where my mind and soul were at the time, circa 1991. This new talisman was Spirit Of Love by C.O.B, but that's a whole other story for another time...

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 17:39 CET

Updated: 8 January 2014 21:49 CET

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I picked up an obscure '60s underground paper from LA called 'Open City' and as often there were some curious surprises in there, such as the only review of the ACID SYMPHONY 3-LP set that I've ever seen. Some other interesting reviews, check it out. In addition there was a long and respectful discussion of Corman's "The Trip", an interview with the US Kaleidoscope, a syndicated interview with the Doors, a review of the Airplane at the Hollywood Bowl, and an instalment in Charles Bukowski's "Dirty Old Man" series of short stories that would ultimately be assembled for his debut book. But this was as early as '67 and the Buk a complete unknown. Cool paper, odd that I haven't run across it earlier.

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 19:59 CET

Updated: 2 January 2014 20:06 CET

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Opinions may differ as to the aesthetic value of Gwydion's music, but surely every private press collector with a heart must admire this full-page ad. Knowing his audience, the man didn't advertise in Rolling Stone but instead the occult digest FATE, which more than a decade earlier had run a few pioneering LSD articles among its stories of werewolves and UFOs.

The wholesale price is quite competitive. Thanks to avid Acid Archives reader Ken B for this one! 

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 22:41 CET

Updated: 29 December 2013 22:56 CET

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Here's a real review of a placeholder in the AA book, after I finally located a copy; both this and its predecessor are rarely seen.

LITE STORM (CA)
God Is Truth 1974 (Sai Sound Samitee 10-50)
The second of two albums that the hippie-rockers Lite Storm recorded under the aegis of their Hindu guru Satya Sai Baba, who appears on the cover and is heard throughout the record. The old Acid Archives review suggests that this sequel is similar to the preceding God Is Love, and while they have much in common, there seems to be a certain development in process. The unusual mix of embryonic new age (eerie electronics), liturgic Eastern chanting, and trippy CA folkrock is recognizable, but here given a further spin as Sai Baba picks up the mic and sings a few songs himself--not just the kirtan chanting, but real pop songs. One of them sounds more Bollywood than CA guru music, but the bulk of it is typical '70s hippie-folk with a light rock setting, atmospheric keyboards & wordless vocals, and Sai Baba and the Lite Stormers (male and female) sharing lead vocals, often by trading lines. It's kind of catchy, and fun to hear traces of old '60s sunshine lyte-psych mutated into this unorthodox spiritual music. Whatever Sai Baba's game was, he clearly had no objection to the disciples' Western musical activity. Compared to God Is Love I think this is a more consistent and finalized album that plays through like a charm, but the kirtan curveball gives the psychedelic/new age aspects of the music an ethnic pop sheen which needs to be weighed in. Well-written songs and arrangements with some spooky psych passages and nice female vocals, and as a crossover item it finds its inbetween-ground in a fairly unique spot. [PL].

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 22:31 CET

Updated: 25 December 2013 22:54 CET

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The long-running mystery of the last "real" Seeds line-up which did the two MGM 45s in 1970 was finally cleared up via Jeff Jarema's liner notes for the double 45 reissue recently. In case you missed it, Sky Saxon and Daryl Hooper recruited a completely new band with no ties to the various '68-69 players. The new guys were a Pasadena band known as Solid Mist who jumped aboard not knowing where the Saxon magic might take them, although the end result was limited to a number of live gigs and those two 45s. I refer to the reissue 7-inch and my indepth Sky Saxon page for details.

The main purpose of this post is to announce that I now own a copy of "Did He Die", the 2nd MGM 45 and one which I doubted I would be able to score, since it's as rare as some Back From The Grave discs! It landed here sounding more intense than any repros, as 45s tend to do. I also noted that "Love In A Summer Basket" was the designated airplay pick.

The other thing I wanted to share was the discovery (by Richard MJ of Flashback), finally, of a period media reference to this last Seeds line-up including band member names. The reason no one has utilized this info before is because it appeared only in an obscure publication called Entertainment World, which had a few issues around 1970. This brief news item would have been a real scoop a few years ago, and is still worth passing on today.

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 17:49 CET

Updated: 19 December 2013 20:09 CET

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I finally found time to scan and document my prized copies of Flower Scene, an independent British music magazine which existed 1967-68 and is rarely seen today. The Lama Workshop has now been expanded with a Flower Scene introduction, content index and some scans for two early issues. Skip Bifferty in the flesh, gov'nor! While waiting for the page to load, here's a small but rare shot of Paper Blitz Tissue who had the great "Boy Meets Girl" 45 (Chocolate Soup vol 2).

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 23:19 CET

Updated: 19 December 2013 20:13 CET

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It was easier back when you only had to keep track of Funhouse and Midnight Records catalogs to have a full grasp of new reissues. Nowadays many indie records sort of leak out into the real world without anyone bothering to advertise them, presumably because the internet networking is good enough to move 500 or 750 copies of a repro without standard PR. The risk, obviously, is that people who would love the reissue don't get to hear about it until much later.

Here are two reissues that you may not have heard about:

KEVIN APRILL: Sunset Upon An Imaginary Beach Of Latent Energy (Del Val, US)
This is a limited reissue of a 1-known-copy US private press basement wonderama which seems quite interesting, with references to Madrigal and Charlie Tweddle. I had to order one right away, and maybe you do too. The Del-Val label is back after a few years of hibernation.

CASE: Blackwood (Lion Productions, US)
Another one I never expected to see a reissue of, like Todd, Misty Hush Revival, etc. Discovered some 10 years ago by a young Texas craterist, Case is highlighted by a dynamite westcoasty basement psych track, while the rest of the album left me rather unmoved, as evident from the Acid Archives review. However, holding a real rekkid, even a reissue, in one's hand can change the impression substantially, so for now I'm just noting that this one is out from the renowned Lion Productions, with band info (recorded during X-mas break 1971 by a PA high school quintet) and color photo insert. Limited edition of 500 copies, which is a lot more than the RPC original, of which very few copies are known to exist. 

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 17:01 CET

Updated: 19 December 2013 20:13 CET

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The bold and beautiful few who share my journeys through the shunned woods of mid-60s teenbeat LPs have now come up with another buried artefact from ancient days. Previously undocumented, we give you...

THE CHAPLAINS (Nashville, TN)
More Soul 1965 (MIC 2109)  [no sleeve]
The band were students at Vanderbilt Univ in Nashville, class of '65. The album apparently never came with a cover. Proud explorer Erik Lindgren reports that "...there are a few good garage numbers and a bunch of horn rock soulish covers. The three or so bona fide garage songs don't have horns and are spirited. Musically in the league of most Justice LPs...". Erik also forwarded a track list, viz: 

Side 1
1 Gloria
2 For Your Precious Love
3 Can I Get A Witness
4 In Crowd
5 Treat Her Right
6 Cry Baby

Posted by Patrick at Lysergia at 16:37 CET

Updated: 6 December 2013 16:40 CET

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