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more rare album stuff I've been finding...

 
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jefflewis



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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:40 pm    Post subject: more rare album stuff I've been finding... Reply with quote

To make an update to the topic of a few months back, in which I made some recommendations of rare/weird/psychedelic/private-press/etc albums, I must say I have not made many earth-shaking musical discoveries in the recent bunch of months.
But here's some of the best most interesting stuff out of all the albums I've tried...

"Ted Lucas" - this is an obscure singer-songwriter album from the early-mid 70s, Wooden Wand recommended it to me, and I bought it as a download from the Amazon store. It has a couple of pointless "jam" tracks at the end, but the first chunk of the album is really quite good, almost similar to the more downbeat songs on "Oar." It took a few listens to fully grow on me, but this is high quality stuff in a weird slow moody way.

"The George-Edwards Group", an album strangely called "38:38" from the mid-late 70s.
This is an album that has slowly grown on my over the whole past year until I now hold it in rather high regard. Folky-psychedelic band, with some cool 70s synthesizer sounds, very atmospheric and gentle, but with enough variety and dynamic to be a strong album from top to bottom. I think Drag City has done an official reissue of this, I bought the official download from Amazon or from some other site, I forget. By the way the name George-Edwards is just the band name, and this album has nothing to do with the guy named George Edwards who was in the 60s band H.P. Lovecraft, but I was legitimately confused at first because this really does sound like what the H.P. Lovecraft band might have evolved into if they had pursued the great dreamy spaced-out folk-psych-rock sound of their songs like "The White Ship" and "Electralantando" or whatever that title was.

"The Plastic Cloud" - this is a late-60s psych-rock band from Canada, very rare and expensive and famous among rare record collectors. I had read about this album for many years, so I had high expectations for it when i finally found a legitimate download to buy, and of course I was a bit disappointed. It is a legend because it is so rare (and the guys look cool on the album cover), but the album is actually not THAT great in my opinion. It is a pretty decent psych-rock album, maybe as good as... oh, I don't know... the 4th Country Joe & The Fish album, or The Chrome Syrcus or something like that, a real three-star sort of album. Nothing BAD about it, definitely solid and enjoyable enough, but nothing especially mind-blowing or super-weird or super-creepy or super-smart or super-unique. Still, I do find myself returning to it pretty often, it's an album I like re-listening to. I'm glad to have finally heard it.

A bunch of other stuff that I could write about... Marc Mundy... Fraction... Wendy & Bonnie... none of these are making my all-time-greats list but some of it is cool stuff.

Oh yeah, and here's an oddball recommendation - I finally got a copy of the 2nd Strawberry Alarm Clock LP ("Wake Up It's Tomorrow"), which is the only one I didn't have, and I think it really is the best... I found a scratched-up copy for only $7 in a record store in San Diego when I played there! It's everything I hoped it would be... SO weird... totally cheesy and wanna-be commercial and bad and pathetic and stupid, but also totally weird and cool and funny and scary and trippy. If you like that particular sort of 60s stuff, like Ultimate Spinach, this is a must-have album. If you don't like that sort of stuff you will probably hate this record.
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jefflewis



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:59 pm    Post subject: The "lost" Fugs album Reply with quote

I've been reading Ed Sanders' fantastic book "Fug You" about the lower east side on NYC in the 1960s, all of his memories of political events and concerts and lots of craziness and his tours with the Fugs and lots of other stuff, in fact it would probably make a perfect companion book to Patti Smith's "Just Kids" (which I haven't read yet). Anyway, Ed goes into some detail about the "lost" Fugs album potentially intended to be titled "The Fugs Eat It" from 1967 which they recorded for Atlantic Records, but never came out because Atlantic dropped them. Within a year the Fugs had signed a new contract with Reprise Records, and re-recorded most of the album, and it came out with the title "Tenderness Junction" on Reprise. Based on Ed's notes in the book, I believe I have assembled the original lost album, from Fugs out-takes and bonus tracks which have appeared over the years on various box sets and CD reissues, etc! Of course, I might be the only person in the world to care about this stuff...

In Fug You, Ed gives the entire track listing, in order, for the album he originally presented to Atlantic. Much of the "Fugs Eat It" ended up on "Tenderness Junction," but there's a few tracks that are either different recordings or ended up elsewhere. Only one song from the "lost" Atlantic album seems to have never yet seen the light of day, a studio version of Coca Cola Douche.
Here's what it says on Ed's 1967 typed credits list for Atlantic, so I have assembled this as an iTunes playlist, and I've noted next to each one in the below list where I managed to find the track.

Side A:
1) Turn On/Tune In/ Drop Out
(seems to be the same recording as ended up on Tenderness Junction, I used the bonus-track mono version from the Electromagnetic Steamboat box set.)
2) Knock Knock
(Totally different recording than the Tenderness Junction version, I took this from the Electromagnetic Steamboat bonus tracks. This is certainly the original Atlantic studio recording, though I think the Tenderness Junction version is an improvement. Not a great song in either version.)
3) Wide Wide River
(Totally different studio recording from the later studio version that appeared on It Crawled Into My Hand. This is certainly the original Atlantic studio recording, I got this from the "Fugs Second Album" CD bonus tracks.)
4) Nameless Voices
(This is also certainly the original Atlantic studio recording, I love this song, I got this from the "Fugs Second Album" bonus tracks, on which it is titled "Nameless Voices Crying for Kindness.")
5) Wet Dream
(Totally different recording than the Tenderness Junction version, I took this from the Electromagnetic Steamboat bonus tracks. This is certainly the original Atlantic studio recording, but this bonus track has a veeeeery long, and not very funny, spoken introduction by Ed that may or may not have really been intended for final inclusion on the Atlantic album. The fact that my compiled playlist of tracks hits the 55-minute mark overall, probably too long for a 1967 vinyl album, would make me tend to think that this 15-minute track would have been edited way down, perhaps down to just the 3:20 song itself, with no extended intro. On the other hand, the placement as the final track on Side A would seem to be the spot you might put an extended-intro sort of song.)

Side B:
1) Seize the Day
(Totally different recording than the original Broadside version, this is a slicker studio production, and certainly this is the version intended for the Atlantic album. I took this from the Electromagnetic Steamboat bonus tracks, where it is titled Carpe Diem, and I believe this same studio version is also found as a bonus track on other modern Fugs releases, maybe on the "Fugs Second Album" CD and/or the "Don't Stop! Don't Stop!" box set. In any case the original lo-fi recording of this song, as appears on the first Fugs record, is better than this studio re-recording.)
2) CCD
(I believe THIS is the only missing track from the Atlantic album. Presumably a studio version of CCD, also known as Coca Cola Douche. So weird that of all the original lo-fi early Fugs tracks that they bothered to re-record in a studio version that they would pick this one?!?! One explanation is that the Fugs recorded this Atlantic album a few months before ESP illegally released Virgin Fugs [which includes the original lo-fi recording of Coca Cola Douche], so it's true that there was no available recording of this song in early 1967 and Ed & co may have merely wanted to make sure it was properly documented and publicized since it was probably one of the more notorious Fugs songs, and they seem to have played it live at almost every show. WHERE has this lost studio track disappeared to? Maybe the studio version was just too lame and embarrassing for even Ed to allow it to be a bonus track anywhere? Maybe it will show up someday.)
3) Hare Krishna
(this is the same recording, featuring Allen Ginsberg, as appeared on Tenderness Junction. I used the bonus-track mono version from the Electromagnetic Steamboat box set.)
4) Dover Beach
(seems to be the same recording as ended up on Tenderness Junction, I used the bonus-track mono version from the Electromagnetic Steamboat box set.)
5) Aphrodite Mass in 5 Sections
(Hard to tell how different this is from what ended up on Tenderness Junction, it does seem that at least some of it is exactly the same but this bonus-track mono version from the Electromagnetic Steamboat box set clocks in at 9:48 whereas the official Tenderness Junction version is only 8:29, I'd have to give a closer back-to-back listen to figure out which of the 5 sections are different. Anyway this does seem to be the original Atlantic version of the track.)



In Fug You there are repeated laments about how this album should have been the Fugs' entry into the 1967 pantheon of great groundbreaking albums, and Ed feels that the Fugs lost a considerable amount of publicity momentum in the situation. It's true that if this album had been released by Atlantic as originally intended, as an immediate follow-up to the high-selling second Fugs album, it might have made more of an impact rather than being delayed for a year and half re-recorded. Also, as Ed notes, it would have gotten a considerable publicity push if this Atlantic album had come out as intended in early 1967, because it would have come out right on the heels of Ed's cover-feature in Life magazine, a huge bit of press. On the other hand, the Tenderness Junction version really seems to be a MUCH better album. Despite losing the wonderful "Nameless Voices", the Tenderness Junction album has the tremendous benefit of not using pointless re-recordings of CCD and Carpe Diem, instead adding GREAT new material "The Garden Is Open" and "War Song," also "Fingers of the Sun" and the "Exorcizing the Evil Spirits from the Pentagon" recording as well, in some ways those are the four best songs on Tenderness Junction, and this original version of the album is just not nearly as good without them. In fact, if the Tenderness album had dropped "Knock Knock" or "Wet Dream" in favor of "Namelesss Voices" it would have been a complete best-of-both-worlds sorta thing.


Anyway, there ya have it.
Jeffrey
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Dav
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll check these out.
Not rare i guess but i've discovered a couple of really nice psychedelic lp lately.

rainbow ffolly - sallies of fforth (really like this one a lot) it's from 1967
and also the cursed lp by Billy Nichols - would you believe.

Billy Nichols made his lp in 1968 and got realesed 35 years later. He was obsessed with Brian Wilson's pet sounds when recording this LP. A really nice LP too.

I recommend both.
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jefflewis



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PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool, I haven't heard either of those albums... I'll take a look for them on the internet when I get a chance!
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AFB



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PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I fully plan to listen to all these recommendations, and then make some of my own.
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jefflewis



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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 7:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Listening to the Rainbow Ffolly album again this morning (the one Dav recommended). Definitely some nice stuff on it, though a bit more "pop" that I usually like from psychedelic album.
Haven't heard that Billy Nichols album yet.
I just bought a psychedelic CD that I'd never heard of, California 1968, band is called "The Daughters of Albion"... but it's awful!! It has a cool weird black & white photo on the cover, looks sort of scary and dark, but the album is pretty boring poppy/commercial stuff without much for interesting music or lyrics... well, maybe I'll like it more after a few more listens.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 7:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh yeah, but an album I bought recently that is actually really great is "This is Marijata" from 1976, African stuff...
Only 4 songs, whole album is only about 26 minutes long, I guess it barely counts as an "album" (maybe it was originally a 10-inch?).
You can buy the download album on Amazon for only 5.99 USD, and I think it's well worth it... I'm not much of an expert on African rock/afrobeat/funk/psych/1960s-70s bands, but I do love Fela Kuti (and Chrissy Zebby Tembo), and this Marijata album is really good stuff. Best thing I've found lately.
Check it out - you can hear samples here -
http://www.amazon.com/This-Is-Marijata/dp/B004QN08EU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361212955&sr=8-1&keywords=Marijata
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 6:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I keep on listening to that Marc Mundy album (from 1971), kind of a funny one, like a combination Turkish-pop-outsider thing. Wooden Wand recommended it to me. It's not my usual sort of thing but it really has a lot of charm.
Here's my favorite song from the album -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzIkcu4mEzk
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The George-Edwards Group is really nice, i listened to it on youtube.
Really enjoyed the Ted Lucas lp too, somehow made me think of Little Wings.
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 2:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm, that's a good question/comparison, I wonder if Little Wings has heard that Ted Lucas album!
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jefflewis



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PostPosted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also, that's really cool that you heard and liked the George Edwards stuff!
Like I say, it took a little while to grow on me... but after I had heard the album two or three times it sort of became one of the favorite things that I'd found that year.
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