Tobruk - Tobruk (1972)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 5:51 AM 0 comments

Tobruk was formed by some North-American guys living in Brazil, and the album got released in 1972 on the Cash Box label.
"Theme from My Mind," taking full advantage of a psychedlic mood using an organ. This second track, probably works out the best and the vocalist even has a bit of Beefheartian swagger to his growl. Unfortunately, the vocalist here isn't the main man for the group, which is effectively a bummer. Alongside his blues growl is some pretty dark, acerbic guitar noise. It's no Velvet Underground, but if the Doors couldn't cop a jazzbo for its soloing needs it might have sounded like this - an early highlight.

In 1972 Tobruk probably sounded as tripped out and ready for revolt as any other group of ex-pat Americans living the diaspora. But one than needs to wonder how they all wound up in Brazil. The music that the band set to tape incorporates nothing from their adopted homeland. And assumingly, since the disc is in English and not Portuguese, it didn't impact the culture too much.
Tracks
01. I'm In Love With You
02. Theme From My Mind
03. Queens Are Made
04. Hello Crazy People
05. Heart Of A Sound Spirit
06. Ad Lib
07. Send It For Tomorrow
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Dandelions – Dandelions (1971)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 5:38 AM 0 comments

It was just two years ago when we met each other — that’s when it all started. Jim CURRAN started giving us guitar lessons. After a while we always played together at the shows at school. Then we had a photography class with Frank. He taught us how to develop pictures and what a photographer should know. One day it was very nice out so we went over to the college to ake pictures and there was a great big dandelion field and so we thought why don’t we take pictures here. So we all picked some dandelions and posed in them. Frank took our picture and we developed it. In a few weeks we were together at Kitsy’s home for the weekend and Uncle Scott and Aunt Judy were there when we started to make up some songs. Uncle Scott said, “Why don’t you two make an album since you’re so good?” We said, “O.K.!” So we started making up songs and Kitsy came up with the idea of using the picture of us as the album cover. We figured out how it was going to look and everything so we made up a whole bunch of songs. Some of them we forgot and they weren’t any good and so we had to make up new ones. Our new ones turned out pretty good. Then we had singing lessons with some of the teachers at our school. Before we could record we had to practice doing our songs, so Jim said we should have a show of our own for the school just to get used to crowds. We did and we sang all our songs. Finally we had a whole bunch of rehearsals for the album and we had background people like Wendy and Mike — Mike played the drums and Wendy the bass. It really started to sound good so we had our first recording sessions. On our first recording session we recorded 4 songs but we only used two: “Dandelions” and “Tuffy”. In our second recording session we were tired of rehearsing and recording so we decided we were going to do them all that day. They all turned out good. The following Monday night at 8 o’clock we chose which songs we wanted to do which finished the album. We had everybody who wanted an album at the College School send in $5.00 to us. When we got pretty much money we finished the album and that made us very proud. Thanks to http://www.swanfungus.com
Musicians:
Jim Curran – Director
Wendy Katz – Bass
Mike Kieffer – Drums
John MacEnulty – Professional Assistance
Tres Williams – Guitar
Kitsy Christner – Guitar
Tracklist:
01. Dandelions
02. The College School
03. Tuffy
04. War
05. They Call It Love
06. The Children Of Sunshine
07. Uncle Harry
08. If You Are Lonely
09. Talking
10. It’s A Long Way To Heaven
11. Harmony
12. Talking
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The Stowaways - In our time (1967)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 4:55 AM 0 comments

The Stowaways were a promising quintet who managed to leave behind an album's worth of impressive material on Calvin Newton's Justice Records label, based in Winston-Salem, NC. Tim Tatum was the lead singer, equally adept at lyrical Beatles covers or harder punk sounds, and the rest of the band was Tommy O'Neal on lead guitar, Paul Quick on rhythm guitar, Ken Knight on bass, and Ken Tanner at the drums.
Tracks
1. What a Shame
2. I've Been Hurt
3. It Won't Be Wrong
4. Summertime
5. It's Alright
6. It's Only Love
7. Just a Toy
8. You Lied
9. C.C. Rider
10. Sunny
11. Good Good Loving
12. Play With Fire
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Ghost - When you're dead - one second (1970)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 4:24 AM 0 comments

The nucleus of The Ghost formed around former Velvet Fogg guitarist Paul Eastment, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Shirley Kent who would go on to a solo career as a British folk and jazz singer. This is a pleasant album to listen to, but it is remarkably uneven, especially the first half of the tracks. “Hearts and Flowers” and “Time is My Enemy” have an almost Fairport Convention kind of thing going on for example, including the very dated but pleasant hippie-harmonizing vocals of Kent and Eastment. But “When You’re Dead” and “In Heaven” are fully developed and guitar- driven psychedelic works in the finest tradition of The United States of America, Jefferson Airplane, and all the rest of the west-coast flower-power kids. So it seems like the band is really trying to find a sound that works for them, rather than taking a sound and direction they already shared and trying to develop it.
By the second half of the album the band settles into a very folk-influenced sound with farfisa organ, simple vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar, and tambourine.
Tracks
1. When You're Dead (4:25)
2. Hearts And Flowers (2:54)
3. In Heaven (3:21)
4. Time Is My Enemy (4:06)
5. Too Late To Cry (5:04)
6. For One Second (5:25)
7. Night Of The Warlock (4:22)
8. Indian Maid (4:21)
9. My Castle Has Fallen (2:57)
10. The Storm (3:36)
11. Me And My Loved Ones (4:09)
12. I've Got To Get To Know You (4:02)
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The Shiver - Walpurgis (1969)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 3:54 AM 0 comments

Originally released in 1969 on the Maris label (catalogue number 20501), this is the only album the Swiss band Shiver ever released. It also contains both tracks that were issued as a single: "Hey Mr. Holy Man"/"The Peddle." It also features the very first time the famous designer H. R. Giger delivered some of his art to become an album sleeve. Later on he would do it much more, with Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery being the most famous one.
Musicians:
Dany Ruhle - lead guitar, harmonica, vocal
Jelly Pastorini - organ, piano
Mario Conza - bass, flute, vocal
Roger Maurer - drums, vocal
Peter Robinson - lead vocals
Tracks
01. Repent Walpurgis
02. Ode To The Salvation Army
03. Leave This Man Alone
04. What's Wrong About The Blues
05. Hey Mr. Holy Man
06. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
07. No Time
08. The Peddle
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The Leaves - All the good that's happening (1967)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 6:40 AM 0 comments


The Leaves were an American garage band formed in California in 1963. They are best known for their version of the song "Hey Joe", which was a hit in 1966. Theirs is the earliest release of this song, which became a rock standard.
An uneven album, and understandably so because the group was disintegrating at the time it was made. The band's folk-rock sound is still its strongest side, and they play hard on numbers like "Twilight Sanctuary" and "With None Shoes," and give good accounts of Donovan's "To Try For the Sun" and Buffy St. Marie's "Codine." They get into a good dance groove on a cover of Jimmy Reed's "Let's Get Together" and the band original "Officer Shayne" (spoiled by a silly chorus), and achieve a sweet, languid spaciness on "On the Plane." Much of the rest is weak, however, and the group's psychedelic efforts here, "The Quieting of Oliver Tweak" and "Lemmon Princess," are embarrassingly fey compared with the psychedelic numbers on their prior album. Only Bobby Arlin was left at the finish of the sessions, and he padded the album out with the guitar-dominated, almost totally instrumental blues-oid "Flashback."
Tracks
1. Twilight Sanctuary (2:35)
2. One In The Middle (2:33)
3. On The Plane (2:34)
4. Officer Shayne (2:50)
5. Let's Get Together (2:50)
6. Introduction To A Cartoon Show (0:34)
7. With None Shoes (2:20)
8. To Try For The Sun (2:58)
9. Codine (3:55)
10. Flashback (The Rhythm Thing) (4:16)
11. The Quieting Of Oliver Tweak (The Stone Freak) (2:22)
12. Lemmon Princess (2:02)
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Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (1971)

Posted by Amelia Swhizzagers On 2:06 AM 0 comments

The song and album title is a reference to the experience of being towed along in a small boat by a harpooned whale (see Nantucket Sleighride.) The person to whom the song is dedicated, Owen Coffin, was a young seaman on the Nantucket whaleship Essex, which was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. In the aftermath of the wreck, Coffin was shot and eaten by his shipmates. The Essex's story was recorded by its First Mate, Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex.

"Nantucket Sleighride" was used as the theme to the long-running British political television show Weekend World.
Mountain is an American rock band whose main fame was in the 1970s. The band was inspired by Cream and enjoyed the involvement of unofficial Cream bassist and producer Felix Pappalardi.

Mountain played at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and their first album, Climbing!, was released the following year. The album included the track "Mississippi Queen" which reached No.21 on the Billboard charts. The band split after the live album, Mountain Live (The Road Goes Ever On) (1972), and two of the members went on to form West, Bruce (from Cream) and Laing which achieved success in their own right. After reforming in 1974, the band released a live album and Avalanche, but that was to be the last of their studio output until 1996's Man's World. Leslie West, and Corky Laing continue to "rock on" as Mountain to this day.
Tracks
o1. Don't Look Around - 3:47
02. Taunta (Sammy's Tune) - 1:00
03. Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin) - 5:55
04. You Can't Get Away! - 3:28
05. Tired Angels (To J.M.H.) - 4:42
06. The Animal Trainer And The Toad - 3:29
07. My Lady - 4:35
08. Travelin' In The Dark (To E.M.P.) - 4:26
09. The Great Train Robbery - 5:50
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