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[jefflewis]

Here's my most recent psych and garage and private press album recommendations!

"Creation" by the Druids of Stonehenge... starts out like it's going to be a really good psych/garage album, unfortunately soon turns a bit more normal garage/R&B... even so, it has a few really strong original tunes and great vocals and music. Maybe not an all-time classic but it hasn't left my turntable in weeks. Well worth a couple listens.

"The Bow Street Runners" - had heard about this one for a long time, 1970 psych-rock album, less "heavy" than one would expect from the late date, sounds more like 1968 and it doesn't disappoint. Not as good (or as extreme/weird) as Ultimate Spinach, but in that same general "classic psych" territory.

"Maui" by Merryl Fankhauser - I have long been a fan of Fankhauser's two 60s albums "Fapardokly" and "HMS Bounty", both great psych-rock-folk albums, but I had never checked out his later 1970s stuff, some is called "Mu" and some is under his own name, like this 1975 album. Some tracks better than others, but it's a very nice mellow 1970s Hawaiian country-folk-psych-songwriter sort of thing (mostly about UFOs), some nice synth touches and orchestral bits, definitely better than you would think a 1970s mellow solo album would be from a post-60s/psych guy.

Ones to avoid...
"A Gift From Euphoria" - I wanted to hear this album for so many years, what a let down! Overproduced country-pop-orchestral with one or two psych elements here and there, this is one rare record that deserves to be rare, i can understand why the buying public didn't go for it. It's a collector's legend for some reason, but to my ears i just don't hear anything memorable or exciting, no melodies or hooks or lyrics that interest me, and I've tried listening to it MANY times.

Also worth a mention, but maybe I have already mentioned them -
"Damon: Song of Gypsy", not quite the amazing supreme psych private press LP that it's often described as, I guess there's no way for it to live up to the hype, but it's pretty good (even though all the songs sound the same).
"The Plastic Cloud" - Famous mega-rare Canadian psych-rock, this one disappointed me for a while but has really grown on me. On the surface it's near-mediocre standard fare, but after a few listens there's a certain "x factor" that permeates this album, that elusive just-faintly-haunting ambience that justifies the desire to hear rare records!

[jefflewis]

I've had this Michael Yonkers Band album "Microminiature Love" for many years, I don't know why I've barely ever listened to it... it was recorded in 1968 but it was never released until about 2003. I think when somebody first gave it to me I didn't understand that it was an old 60s album, or even if I was told that it was from 1968 I didn't believe it.
This album is so far ahead of its time that it actually isn't in a cool way!
It sounds just like some home-recorded 4-track grunge-rock/indie band from the 90s, so it almost lacks the special 60s flavor that I love about weird/rare 60s albums. It's really quite amazing that this material was written and recorded in the 60s. And now that I'm finally giving this album a few fair listens, after owning it for about 7 years(!), it really is quite good.
And now that I've gotten more interested in it, I decided to find out who this guy and his band were, and what the story is with this weird album... it turns out it's a pretty interesting story and Michael Yonkers is/was a pretty interesting guy.
Here's his story, if anybody's interested...
http://www.citypages.com/2002-03-27/arts/lost-in-yonkers/full/

[Dav]

I've heard the Druids LP, i didn't like it.
thanks for sharing your find with us, always good to have new band to discover.
i know it's not really underground but my greatest find since a couple of years was the first Os Mutantes LP, s/t
It's so great...
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[jefflewis]

That first Os Mutantes album is definitely really good... I remember being a bit disappointed when I heard the later albums, but eventually i liked those too.

Actually I haven't had a good copy of the first Os Mutantes album in a long time. I had it on cassette, that I had dubbed from somebody, and the other side of the cassette was blank. So when Adam Green bought the Scott Walker album "Tilt" and he put it on the blank side of my Os Mutantes tape, but he didn't realize he was using a tape-dubbing machine that automatically flips the tape when it gets to the end of a side... and "Tilt" is a long album... so ever since then (1999?) my tape has had "Tilt" on one side, and "Tilt" fills up that whole side plus spills over and covers over most of the first half of the Os Mutantes album... so really i guess it's been more than 10 years since I heard the whole first Os Mutantes album! Finally time for me to get another copy, I guess!

[jefflewis]

Also, I wonder what your thoughts on that Druids of Stonehenge album are?
Were you just expecting something more weird/psychedelic, and were disappointed to find the album is basically just a garage rock/R&B album?
It's true that I was hoping it would be more interesting... but even just as a Standells/Shadows of Knight/Leaves style 1966-rock album it's quite good, plus that first song has a nice somewhat-more atmospheric/psychedelic feeling. I can imagine that they recorded the whole album in 1966/67 as a rock album but maybe by the time it was released in 1967/68 they said "oh, psychedelia is the new style, we'd better add one more song to the album so that we can keep up with the trends!"
I think a lot of 60s albums happened like this...

Anyway, here's some footage of them on a TV show... it's probably not going to make you like them better! It's super-dorky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBR6Xu9Hr4

I love that they are sort of funny-looking, especially the singer and the drummer, just a NY school band trying to sound like the Rolling Stones.... the songs on the album are much better than the songs from this TV shows.

[misshelenc]

How does everyone have time to listen to all this stuff let alone find it all??!!!
All I have been playing is an audiobook of Submarine I got from the library which is something I have read and seen the film of, but it's nice to have talking when doing the ironing and stuff, feels less lonely, I like the radio too. The sex scenes are really awkward to listen to though...just like teenage sex really.
xxxxx
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You don’t put your life into your books. You find it there.

[jefflewis]

Recent rare album finds and opinions!

Sixth Station, the album is called "Deep Night"... this is actually from 1982 or something like that, but it has become a rare famous record among collectors of "private press"/Christian rare records. I read about it in the book "The Acid Archives" (of course I love this book, I flip though it all the time!). The description made me curious, and I love the mysterious album cover... then I found that I could just officially download the album directly from Amazon for about $8, how could I resist? And it really is pretty good. It didn't hit me at first, but after about 4 listens it really stands up as a quite strong record, very much like Neil Young but more lonely, more lo-fi, more weird and religious. This is actually one of the best albums I've discovered lately.

Mark Fry, the album "Dreaming With Alice" - Really excellent British (?) psychedelic folk record, I am very shocked that I had never heard of this one before, it is very professional and very much in the Donovan style that I enjoy. My friend Jan in Berlin sent me the sound files for this, and I was immediately impressed. I think this is actually a somewhat well-known record, among people who are interested in this sort of thing. I have been trying to read about and find psychedelic records for about 20 years, how have I never even heard of this one before?! It has something in common with COB or Sallyangie or even Syd Barrett/Tyrannosaurus Rex/Incredible String Band, definitely in that British psychedelic/medieval/folk/hippie category, although not as good a songwriter, and could probably use a bit more variety in the material. Even so, a very good record.

John Phillips, a South African album called "John" - this is a South African guy, not the famous American musician but a different guy with the same name. I only have 6 songs from this album, it is insanely rare and never reissued I think. It is perfect Donovan-style psych-folk, beautiful, creepy, childlike, exactly what you want in this kind of record! Somebody found this album in South Africa and posted a few tracks on line, so these few tracks have been circulating among collectors. It's like finding a lost Donovan record, really.

Anonymous, an album called "Inside the Shadow" - This is a very famous record for people who are into rare private-press American LPs, something like 300 copies exist, it was from middle America about 1975 or something. now it has been reissued, so you can buy it on vinyl or CD or download it officially from Amazon (which is what I did). The album IS definitely quite good, but almost TOO good... it sounds so professional that it lacks the edge of strange/crazy/lo-fi uniqueness which is what usually makes these sorts of rare records feel so special. This album certainly has wonderful mystique - the album artwork is super cool and mysterious and weird, this lo-fi blue image on a white background, such a great cool strange album design... and the album title "Inside the Shadow" is also wonderfully mysterious... and you can't possibly have a better mysterious band name than "Anonymous"!!!! So yes, this album has all the great mystique that can make rare private press records feel so special. But the music itself is so high quality, the songwriting, the vocals, the harmonies, the musicianship, the guitar solos, it is all SO good that it really mostly feels like you are listening to a "normal" 1970s rock album from the Grateful Dead or Fleetwood Mac or Jefferson Airplane or something like that. It's crazy that a band this good could not get a regular record deal, and had to just make their own copies of their record, and were basically totally unknown. But from my perspective this high quality makes the record a little less "special". A very good album, but it is just not as unique/magical/strange as the best private press records (Virgin Insanity, New Creation, Dandelions, Peter Grudzien, etc). However, it is certainly not boring - I have listened to this album a number of times already, and I will continue to listen to it a lot, because it is just a damn good album. Great 70s hippie-rock band, with some great songs.

[jefflewis]

And another great find, though there seems to be some confusion among record collectors about whether this album was recorded in 1971 or in 1980....
it's an album called "Circuit Rider", and I had read a bit about it before finding out that there is now an official reissue that is downloadable from Amazon. It is totally creepy, unhinged, what is called "biker rock" or biker-psych", whatever that means... I guess it means music made be people who sound like they probably also like to ride motorcycles. In this case that seems accurate because there's a song called "Forever Angels Proud" which is like a statement about being a Hell's Angel and having a Harley motorcycle. The thing that I really like about this record is that most of the songs seem somewhat improvised but still great and full of personality, the singer sounds like he's influenced by Jim Morrison but is also really injecting his own personality into the songs. The Doors influence is actually better than the Doors because there's no cheesy commercial side to this album at all, it's totally dark and reverb-y and full of feeling lost and alone but also tough and disturbing. Well, it's not the greatest album ever, but it sounds unique to me, and that's always a special thing. It creates a real atmosphere. And because it is a full band, not just one guy, you wonder how a full band full of these strange people ever got together to make this record...