Katerinas Magic World

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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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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Though often footnoted by Led Zeppelin apologists for "Dazed and Confused," Holmes' long out-of-print debut album for Columbia's Tower imprint contains much more than that pilfered song. It often blurs into the more speedy, acid-drenched songs of the Byrds, the warped balladry of early John Hartford, or the sort of folk orchestrations that would be toned down and delivered with greater refinement on Nick Drake's "Bryter Layter."

Holmes is to be lauded for his daring production risks, mixing Greenwich village folk with fleeting horns, strings, and quick-fingered jazz leads. The electric bass underpinning many of the arrangements is nimble and ever-so unpredictable. The album is indeed a lost psych-folk classic, albeit one the casually aware often slight with "if it's so good why haven't I heard it" dismissal. That said, Holmes does slip into some "poor me" lyrical missteps here and there.
Tracks
1. Lonely
2. Did You Know
3. She Belonged to Me
4. Too Long
5. Genuine Imitation Life
6. Dazed and Confused
7. Penny's
8. Hard to Keep My Mind on You
9. Wish I Was Anywhere Else
10. Signs of Age
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Before Tim Buckley got carried away with jazz rhythms in the '70s, he made profoundly moving folk-rock albums that showcased his stunning vocal range, thoughtful lyrics, and penchant for occasionally imbuing tracks with surprisingly soulful, non-blue-eyed grooves and infectious jangle-pop melodies. Goodbye and Hello, his second album (recorded in 1967 when he was only 20), runs the gamut. Here Buckley hints at the sensual howl that would blossom in the '70s ("I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain," "Pleasant Street," "Hallucinations"). While he goes into hippie-poet-deep-thinker mode on a few songs, the excellent folk-soul tracks win out.
There's no denying that some of the lyrics on this album apply specifically to the incredible era that was the 1960s - but have the values and beliefs they espoused so vibrantly faded into nonexistence? I don't think so. Emphasis shifts, forms of expression change - but the things about which Tim Buckley sang so eloquently on this recording are eternal: war and peace (both internal and external); love and loneliness; the strife that is born between generations. The 60s era was full of bands and songwriters wrestling with these subjects, striving to help us all deal with them - and more than a few who tagged along for the ride with the hope of making a buck out of the movements that arose around them. Buckley - and his (then-) lyricist Larry Beckett were, as artists, reaching desperately and honestly for something higher, not for any accolades that might come their way as a result, but to latch onto something they could use to pull themselves (and the rest of us) up to a higher level. Tim Buckley succeeded in this more than most of his contemporaries.
The musicianship on the album is superb. Buckley has moved to a 12-string acoustic guitar, the instrument which was soon to become his main choice. Lee Underwood is along on lead guitar - and I can't say too much about Lee's contributions to Tim's music (and his life - he was one of Buckley's closest friends). Carter C. C. Collins makes his first recorded appearance on congas - another musician who would become a close friend to Buckley, as well as a frequent, welcome accompanist. Jim Fielder is along on bass on some of the tracks. Most of the rest of the musicians, while talented, are studio players brought into the recording by producer Jerry Yester - Elektra recognized Tim's potential, and wanted a fairly slick, commercial recording. It turned out pretty good from all angles - but it would be the last bow to commerciality that Buckley would make.

The album begins with a song dealing with the horrors of war - it was, after all, the era of Vietnam - but in the case of `No man can find the war', the lyrics suggest that the real war is not in the jungle, but in the minds of men and women: `Is the war across the sea? Is the war behind the sky? Have you each and all gone blind? Is the war inside your mind?' It is only when we fight - or at least make an attempt to do so - the battles that rage within us that real peace will come. `Carnival song', the next track (written by Buckley alone) speaks to hypocrisy and truth, and does so more directly than many of the more popular tunes of the day that addressed this subject. `Pleasant Street' (also written by Buckley alone) is one of his finest tunes - `Hallucinations' is just that - the melody, lyrics and arrangement combine to produce a gently swirling maelstrom that draws the listener into the images spun by the singer.

The next track, `I never asked to be your mountain', is in my opinion one of the best things Buckley ever wrote. In it, he addresses his first wife, speaking openly and poetically of the forces that pull two people together and drive them apart. His 12-string guitar thunders out the rhythm on this track, drawing the other musicians along with him into one of the most powerful pieces he ever recorded. At the end of the song, the listener aches to hear Tim cry out `...please come home...' over and over - this is piercing music straight from the heart, which is where all of Tim's songs originated.

`Once I was' follows, a song that speaks gently of love and change - a beautiful song. `Phantasmagoria in two' (which Tim and Lee called `The fiddler'), is a deceptively progressive step in Tim's songwriting - giving free rein to the meaning at the heart of the song, Tim abandons completely attempting to force the words into rhyme. The effect is perfect - Tim's lyrics are so moving, combined with his amazing voice and the melody, that it almost goes unnoticed, form being overshadowed (as it should be) by substance. `Knight-errant' is next - a nod to the romantic attitudes of the era that uses the images of a knight and his lady nicely, if a bit naïvely.

`Goodbye and hello' is Larry Becket's magnum opus - at least among the songs he co-wrote with Tim. It's quite a piece of poetry, with two stanzas existing side-by-side in several places (and sung that way by Tim) - the fact that Tim was able to take this challenge up and write the melody for it says a lot about his skills as well as his determination. This is a tune that, due to its complexity, was only performed live on a couple of occasions. It borders on being overwrought - but it stands nevertheless as a valuable document.

`Morning glory' ends the set - this was covered more popularly by Blood Sweat and Tears - a gentle song that is deceptive in its depth, dealing with the romantic notion (held by the `character' who sings it) that simply by asking a hobo about his life, that life can be experienced by the questioner. The hobo makes his point by his refusal to tell his stories to the singer - and Beckett's lyrics make the point as well, that experience is the greatest teacher.

This is an amazingly good album - a wonderful example of Tim's most `accessible' work - and one which will shine for many years to come. Once you've dipped into the rich well that is Tim Buckley's voice, allow yourself to become adventurous and move on into his jazz explorations (on HAPPY SAD and BLUE AFTERNOON), then on to his more experimental works (LORCA and STARSAILOR, which he considered to be his greatest achievement). It's a journey you won't regret. By Larry L Looney
Tracks
1. No Man Can Find the War
2. Carnival Song
3. Pleasant Street
4. Hallucinations
5. I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain
6. Once I Was
7. Phantasmagoria in Two
8. Knight-Errant
9. Goodbye and Hello
10. Morning Glory
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This lesser-known cult favorite is not only one of the most musically ambitious outings of Del Shannon's career, but also one of his most all-around consistent albums. The Further Adventures of Charles Westover finds Shannon embracing psychedelia in a personalized way: Instead of imitating the whimsy of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, or the creepy freak-outs of Their Satanic Majesties Request, he uses the cinematic quality of psychedelic pop to provide a vivid backdrop for his songwriting. For instance, "Silver Birch" uses a swirling mass of horns and densely layered backing vocals to add a haunting quality to its tale of an abandoned bride, and "Color Flashing Hair" uses vertiginous string motifs and churning horns to re-create the feelings of obsessive love described in the lyrics. Shannon's work on this album also differs from usual psychedelic fare because it mixes some earthier textures into its sonic brew: "Be My Friend" enhances its lusty plea for feminine companionship with wailing harmonica and gospel-tinged female backing vocals, and "River Cool" laces its swinging beat with some deliciously soulful organ licks. The overall effect is stunning, managing to fit the tag of psychedelic pop but still retaining the haunting, emotional kind of songwriting that distinguished Del Shannon's music.
Tracks
1. Thinkin' It Over
2. Be My Friend
3. Silver Birch
4. I Think I Love You
5. River Cool
6. Colour Flashing Hair
7. Gemini
8. Runnin' on Back
9. Conquer
10. Been So Long
11. Magical Musical Box
12. New Orleans (Mardi Gras)
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On first listen, this is light, throwaway pop psychedelia, and it's easy to see why it sold in such low quantities - and hence is so incredibly rare. Think of the black and white video of Spinal Tap in their earliest incarnation singing "Listen to the Flower People", and you've just about got it.

So it seems to be a complete joke at the expense of record collectors - because the humour in the delivery seems almost non existent - the sincerity makes your jaw drop, aghast, and the lightweight music makes you think of Barrett Pink Floyd without the overdrive.

But then you listen again, and things start popping out at you. You listen again, and your attention is even more strongly held - and so it goes on. For this is an album crammed with subtleties almost hidden behind songs that border on the twee, but in actual fact are full of poetic depth and disturbing imagery.

In the year that saw "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band", "Piper At The Gates of Dawn" and "Forever Changes" (among others), it's not hard to see how this gem got overlooked.

The character of this album is peculiarly English - in much the same way that "Piper..." is, but different... kind of musty, and filled with visions of middle class Victorian houses with manicured lawns and slightly overgrown borders, tea and cakes at 4, that sort of thing - giving more a warped yet perspicacious view of a solid reality, than some befuddled LSD-fuelled fantasy.

It's not really Prog Rock - but it IS incredibly progressive, even for 1967, when everything was progressive for the time, or so it seems.

THE MUSIC:

The introduction gives little clue as to the nature of the song that will follow; "Relax your eyes, for after all, we can but share these minutes", over an urgent "tick tocking" guitar... but then it all goes kinda Pete Tong. "Kaleidoscope, kaliedoscope, kaleida...". All very quaint and archetypally flower power - and that is it's strength.

The highlight of this track is the drumming, which has some superb "moments", but the overall arrangement is subtle, and the details are easily missed.

But it gets better... Much better. I'd guess the main issue here is that the opening track sets you off in the wrong direction, and every track can end up sounding like a dippy hippy tree-hug fest.

But "Tangerine Dream" is an album to discover, little bit by little bit - you simply need to allow the music to breadcrumb you into the depths of the forest, never to return...

"Please Excuse My Face" is an entertaining psychedelic pop tune, distinguished by the intro, which is remarkably similar to "Old Friends (Bookends Theme)" by Simon and Garfunkel. The open, airy arrangement is pleasing - but there are several songs by Love, The Byrds and Jefferson Airplane that are more imaginative and progressive.

"Dive Into Yesterday" is a lot more like it - possibly because by now I'm longing fo rsomething even half overdriven - with an imaginative introduction, nice drive and odd overall arrangement - largely caused, it would seem, by a bassist who is not too sure of what's happening, man. The riffing is cool, and there are some nice production touches and tangible psychedelic madness. Again, the drumming particularly stands out.

At 2:00 there are references to the lyrics of "Kaleidoscope", maintaining a subtle continuity that is easily missed, and around 2:55 there is a nice surprise - a return to the introduction of "Kaleidoscope", then some nice Floyd style development - along the lines of "The Gnome", but with some seriously odd experimentation on the guitar. The scooping attack on the word "Dive..." gives added propulsion to the most interesting track so far - although why water pistols should be filled with lemonade, and why that shuold interest the jester and the goldfish I'm still not sure...

"Mr Small The Watch Repairer Man" has even more production details verging on psychedelic (reefer?) madness - and quite insane drumming - it's like the stops are being slowly pulled out further and further as the album progressses. The vocals are practlcally Syd Barrett to a T.

"Flight From Ashiya" is much more experimental in terms of structure, with bass pedals a plenty to up the drama - and I get flavours of the Small Faces' "Ogden's Nut Gone", with added Nut Gone... A wall of sound is produced with a jangling Byrds-style guitar propelling the whole artifice in a disturbingly controlled way to the edge of oblivion.

"The murder of Lewis Tollani" begins with a drum heartbeat, then the story is narrated over slithering guitars - this is no ordinary song. For the next verse, the guitars undulate uncomfortably, and pauses add tension to the drama. This use of space in the music is what makes this really stand out.

"(Further Reflections) In the Room Of Percussion" seems like a return to standard song form - I was hoping for some great things from the very talented and precise Danny Bridgman, but this is, nonetheless, an enjoyable but very dark song; "My God - the spiders are everywhere!!!".

"Dear Nellie Goodrich" and "Holiday Maker" are great entertaining and startlingly observant songs, with more hidden depths, and "A Lesson Perhaps" is a poignant story of the King with no Kingdom, told in an appropriate style, with nice Mediaeval-flavoured guitar accompaniement.

But it's the 8:00 "The Sky Children" that I really wanted to get stuck into - all Proggers like the long tracks ;o). This is a strong that's very strong in melody - which is fortunate, as it's also very well endowed with lyrics...

For this song, a lyric sheet is very helpful for the first few listens, as it helps you realise that this is an incredibly well constructed and orcestrated piece, and highlights the main difference between Kaleidoscope and other 1960s psychedelic bands.

THE SUMMARY:

A wonderful, dreamy set of songs with a surprising bite that passes almost unnoticed on the first few listens. The bonus tracks are a nice addition, but the album is best taken in its original form to get a feel for how it was conceived (bearing in mind that some tracks were recorded considerably earlier than the album recording sessions)

This is not an album for those who want "hits", nor is it one for fans of the impossibly complex or crushingly heavy. It's not even real Prog Rock... although we are talking about 1967 here - so it could be.... Review thanks to Certif1ed
Tracks
1.Kaleidoscope
2.Please Excuse My Face
3.Dive Into Yesterday
4.Mr.Small the Watch Repairer Man
5.Flight From Ashiya
6.The murder of Lewis Tollani
7.In the Room Of Percussion
8.Dear Nellie Goodrich
9.Holiday Maker
10.A Lesson Perhaps
11.The Sky Children
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Steppeulvene (Danish language for Steppenwolf) was a Danish rock band which despite its short life has become the icon for the Danish hippie music scene. The name of the group was taken from the 1928 novel Steppenwolf by German Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Also in 1967, in California, the band Steppenwolf named itself after the novel.

Their only album Hip (1967) was the first rock album with original Danish lyrics, and has attained near-mythological status in the history of Danish rock.

The group was the result of a collaboration between lead singer Eik Skal?e, who had traveled in the Orient in the early 1960's and wrote the Bob Dylan-inspired, highly symbolic and almost surreal lyrics, and Stig M?ller (guitar, vocal), who wrote the drawling, psychedelic, folk-influenced music. The other members were S?ren Seirup (bass) and Preben Devantier (drums).

A tour in October 1967 came to a chaotic end when a concert was cut short by the police and the group members were arrested for cannabis use. Shortly after being released, Eik Skal?e went on a journey to Afghanistan/Nepal (on the so-called "hippie trail") and was found dead outside the city of Ferozepore near the Indian/Pakistani border in October 1968, apparently after a drug-induced suicide. Back in Denmark the rest of the group attempted to carry on, but, lacking the characteristic Skal?e as a front figure, quickly dissolved
Tracks
A1 Dunhammeraften 5:25
A2 Itsi-bitsi 4:54
A3 Til nashet 5:23
A4 Jensen 6:40
B1 0-0-0 5:02
B2 Lykkens pamfil 5:44
B3 Kvinde kom ud 4:03
B4 Kun for forrykte 5:19
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The original band, The Animals, broke up in 1966 and this band was entirely new except for lead singer Eric Burdon and drummer Barry Jenkins, who joined the original lineup when John Steel left in February 1966. With the new band, featuring guitarist Vic Briggs, bassist Danny McCulloch and electric violinist John Weider, Burdon began to transition from the gritty blues sound of the original mid-1960s group and moved into the pyschedelic era of music.

The album opened with the sound of waves washing over the title track, "Winds of Change." "Poem by the Sea" is a spoken word piece by Burdon with a swirl of echo-drenched instruments. "Good Times" and "San Franciscan Nights," were two of the most popular tracks, with the latter breaking into the Top 10 in 1967. Burdon was a fan and friend of Jimi Hendrix and wrote the fifth track as an answer song to Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" from earlier that year.
Tracks
1. Winds of Change
2. Poem by the Sea
3. Paint It Black
4. Black Plague
5. Yes I'm Experienced
6. San Franciscan Nights
7. Man-Woman
8. Hotel Hell
9. Good Times
10. Anything
11. It's All Meat
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'Bout Soul does not mean the same thing as soul-jazz, as the opening track "Soul" makes abundantly clear. Written by Grachan Moncur III and poet Barbara Simmons, "Soul" is a tonally free tone-poem that features Simmons' spoken recital. It's about what the concept of soul is, not what soul music is, and that should not come as a surprise to anyone acquainted with Jackie McLean's work. Even as his Blue Note contemporaries were working commercial soul-jazz grooves, McLean pushed the borders of jazz, embracing the avant-garde and free jazz. 'Bout Soul is one of his most explicit free albums, finding the alto saxophonist pushing a quintet -- trumpeter Woody Shaw (who sits out "Dear Nick, Dear John"), pianist Lamont Johnson, bassist Scotty Holt, drummer Rashied Ali -- into uncompromising, tonally free territory. This is intensely cerebral music that is nevertheless played with a fiery passion. Although the music was all composed, it is played as if it was invented on the spot. Fans of McLean's straight-ahead hard bop, or even of his adventurous mid-'60s sessions, might find this a little off-putting at first, but 'Bout Soul rewards close listening. It is one of McLean's finest modern contemporary sessions
Tracks
1.Soul (10:15)
2.Conversion Point (9:45)
3.Big Ben's Voice (10:06)
4.Dear Nick, Dear John (4:53)
5.Erdu (5:54
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The Through You lp was little more than rumor til a copy mysteriously appeared at a 2005 Austin record show. Contents Are were a garage folk-rock band from Quad City, Iowa that released two good 45’s and this 1967 private press album. It’s remarkable that the band were still in high school when they cut this lp as both the lyrics and musicianship are quite advanced.

In true DIY fashion the band pressed 100 copies of Through You and gave the lp’s away to eager fans who came to Contents Are live events. It’s a solid record to say the least, with influences coming from early Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and Rubber Soul era Beatles. Through You is full of good, 3 minute pop songs and it’s the kind of record that saw the beat/garage and folk-rock sounds merge. One song, Peace At Last, has complex lyrics and a wonderful mid period Beatles-like chorus. No Chance To Choose is another excellent, dark folk-rocker that strongly recalls John Lennon’s Rubber Soul compositions and hints at psychedelia. There are a few hard rocking tracks such as the opening, fuzzy Country Roads but most of this record is predominately folk-rock. Other good standouts are the folk-rock downers Dream Of My Predictions and Reccuring Changes, which feel like lost Gene Clark compositions in lyrical content and sound.

For many the highlight was In Trouble. This track is notable for beautiful back porch harmonies, jangly guitar and a distinct, rural Buffalo Springfield sound. It’s the kind of song that makes searching for private press records worth all the trouble and grief. Through You’s sound quality is a little muddy and probably will not be of interest to those who like clean, sparkling major label glitz. But to those wanting to explore buried local sounds, this is a great record that’s bound to grow on you.
Tracks
01. Country Roads
02. The Dream Of My Predictions
03. Uni-Love
04. Peace At Last
05. In Trouble
06. No Chance To Choose
07. Tonight In Venice
08. Unconcerned
09. Don't Take My Freedom
10. Recurring Changes
11. No Need To Be Blamed
12. If You're Relaxing
13. Brother Abbot
14. I Don't Know
15. Direction Of Mind
16. Future Days
17. New Mexico
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Amazing psych-raga bluesy rock from this underrated "classic" project by Ry Cooder. With a lot of inventions and variations, this music conciliates eastern buzzing ragas to rocking energy and synth progressive orchestrations. The opening track (divided into 5 parts) features a catchy bluesy vibe, nice percussions parts and evocative, dreamy like flute passages. Rapidly, the composition explores in a meditative style sitar / flute combinations...after 3 minutes, we have the return of Ry Cooder's typical guitar sound, communicating with inspired "ethereal" keyboards and buzzing sitar strings. It finishes with violin like strings with some expeditive classical covers...really enigmatic and passionate song. The second composition (for 6 parts) also alternate bluesy rock interludes and raga sonorities...featuring very catchy melodies and rhythms. Impressive bluesy-folky-psych raga fantasias!
Tracks
A Aton I 10:00
a. Leyshem
b. Zendan
c. Ceyladd Beyta
d. Becal
e. Ddom
f. Toadda BB
B Aton II 11:14
a. Dyl
b. Ralin
c. Tygstl
d. Pendyl
e. Jacayl
f. Menyatt Dyl Com
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The line-up consisted of singers/guitarists Tommy Andre and Reid King (the latter looking like a young Paul Williams). Judging by the brief liner notes on their albbum, the pair apparently met while attending college (I'm guessing in California) where they seemingly discovered a common interest in music.

Signed by Ken Handler's small L.A.-based Canterbury Records, the pair debuted with 1967's somewhat pretentiously titled "The Sound of the New Wave". Produced by Handler, most of the album's 11 tracks are originals that showcase the pair's heavily orchestrated soft-pop moves. Lots of references carry this as a psych effort. but other than the cover art, be forewarned that it isn't. Tracks such as 'Shadows of Good Bye', 'The Evening Mist - A Mounring Dew' and 'In a Lonely Towne' aptly exhibit the duo's decent voices and nice harmony work. Most of the songs boast fairly attractive melodies, though the arrangements are occasionally overwhelming and their lyrics suffer from standard college student angst which probably drove young female English majors crazy. Stuff like 'Live for Today' and the dreadful 'Autrefois (J'ai AIme Une Femme)' (the one non-original) are simply too MOR for my personal tastes, but anyone who likes late era Chad and Jeremy or Peter and Gordon (the phase where they started to get arty) might enjoy this lesser known act. Elsewhere, two 45s were lifted from the album::

- 1967's 'Where Do We Go from Here' b/w 'Not from You' (Canterbury catalog C-503
- 1967's 'Little Dreams' b/w Autrefois' (Canterbury catalog C-512)
Tracks
1.) Little Dreams
2.) Shadows of Good Bye
3.) The Evening Mist - A Mounring Dew
4.) Autrefois (J'ai AIme Une Femme)
5.) In a Lonely Towne
6.) The Shade of the Sun
7.) Walkin' On Down the Street
8.) Once
9.) Live for Today
10.) Not From Here
11.) Where Do We Go From Here
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The Music Machine (1965–1969) was an American garage rock and psychedelic (sometimes referred to as garage punk) band from the late 1960s, headed by singer-songwriter Sean Bonniwell and based in Los Angeles. The band sound was often defined by fuzzy guitars and a Farfisa organ. Their original look consisted of all-black clothing and black moptop hairstyles. Bonniwell was known to wear a single black glove.

The group came together as The Ragamuffins in 1965, but became The Music Machine in 1966. In addition to Bonniwell, the original line-up consisted of Ron Edgar (drums), Mark Landon (guitar), Keith Olsen (bass), and Doug Rhodes (organ).

Their debut album, (Turn On) The Music Machine, was released in 1966 on the Original Sound label. Seven of the twelve tracks were originals, written by Bonniwell. One of these, "Talk Talk", became a Top 20 hit in the U.S. The follow-up single, "The People In Me", peaked at #66. Bonniwell blamed the weak showing of this single on a supposed feud between the band's manager and a top record executive. Four cover songs were included on this release, due to record company pressure.

After a promotional tour of the U.S., the rest of the original line-up (Edgar, Landon, Olsen, and Rhodes), left Bonniwell, due to internal conflicts. In 1967, Music Machine (essentially only Bonniwell at this point) were signed to Warner Bros. and re-named The Bonniwell Music Machine. The name was changed to give more prominence to the band's core member, songwriter and vocalist. A self-titled LP was released that year, made up mostly of previously recorded singles with the original line-up. The recording spawned no big hits, despite the inclusion of a few more pop-oriented songs.
Tracks
1.Bottom of the soul
2.Absolutely positivily
3.Soul love
4.Something hurting on me
5.Affirmative no
6.The trap
7.The eagle never hunts the fly
8.No girl gonna cry
9.Me, myself and I
10.To the light
11.Tin can beach
12.Time out (for a daydream)
13.Astrologically incapatible
14.Discrepancy
15.Talk me down
16.I've loved you
17.You'll love me again
18.In my neighborhood
19.Double yellow line
20.The day today
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What do you get when you combine a Beach Boy (David Marks), an Arrow (Larry Brown of Davie Allan & the Arrows) & garage rock legend Matthew Moore...one of the most unjustly overlooked studio aggregations of the 1960s.The Moon's only two lps that were released/recorded back in '67 & '68 are quite ahead of it's time, considering the debut lp was done on a three track, the later on a 4 track! The sound is hugh with psych "analog" punch (especially the bass). Although the debut lp "Without Earth," is a little bit bright (nothing a good EQ can't change), there's still that big bottom end "full of wall" sound. Nevermind the some songs are killer "Beatles (think Magical Mystery Tour era) Psych style" full tilt. Others that have over the top hooks, and even one track that has sort of a funk groove (Got To Be On My Way) going on. The real candy psych tracks- Pleasure, I Should Be Dreaming (backward drums), Brother Lou's Love Colony, Someday Girl, Papers, and Faces, keep you coming back for more and more.
Tracks
1. Mothers And Fathers
2. Pleasure
3. I Should Be Dreaming
4. Brother Lous Love Colony
5. Got To Be On My Way
6. Someday Girl
7. Papers
8. Faces
9. Never Mind
10. Give Me More
11. Shes On My Mind
12. Walking Around
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The Mugwumps were a 1960s rock band. The Mugwumps made some recordings in the mid-60s, but the short-lived New York group, formed in 1964, is principally remembered for what its members did after they split up.

Members Mama Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty would become one-half of the Mamas and the Papas. Zal Yanovsky would join the Lovin' Spoonful. Jim Hendricks formed The Lamp of Childhood, which recorded three singles for Dunhill Records.

Jim Hendricks (not to be confused with rock guitarist legend, Jimi Hendrix) was the odd man out, not achieving any notable subsequent fame, but still having considerable success as a performer and songwriter. He wrote the top 15 hit "Summer Rain" for Johnny Rivers, and the theme song "Long Lonesome Highway" for the TV show Then Came Bronson. His 1989 album Running in the Light is considered a classic of Christian music.[citation needed] Now living in Nashville, Tennessee, Hendricks has recorded over 50 albums of traditional American folk, Mountain, Gospel, and Western music.
Tracks
01. Searchin'
02. I don't Wanna Know
03. I'll Remember Tonight
04. Here It is Another Day
05. Do You Know What I Mean
06. You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover
07. Everybody's Been Talking
08. Do What They Don't Say
09. So Fine
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The band formed in late 1965 and their lineup consisted of vocalist and saxophone player Peter Kraemer, guitarists Terry MacNeil and William Sievers, bassist Martin Beard and drummer Norman Mayell. Sopwith Camel is best known for being the second San Francisco band to get a recording contract with a national record label and the first to have a Top 40 hit.
Sopwith Camel released their first album (and only album recording during the 1960s), the eponymous Sopwith Camel, in 1967 on the Kama Sutra Records label. The band's only hit single, "Hello, Hello", became the first hit title to emerge from the San Francisco rock scene and reached #26 on the U.S. pop music charts in January 1967. The band's first album, and the vaudevillian "Hello, Hello" in particular, had more in common soundwise with earlier songs by The Lovin' Spoonful than typical 1960s psychedelic rock; producer Erik Jacobsen produced for both Sopwith Camel and The Lovin' Spoonful. The band was unable to follow up the success of their first album and hit single and disbanded later in 1967. Sopwith Camel's debut album has been re-released twice as Frantic Desolation in 1986 and as Hello Hello Again in 1990
Tracks
01. Hello, Hello
02. Frantic Desolation
03. Saga of the Low Down Let Down
04. Little Orphan Annie
05. You Always Tell Me Baby
06. Maybe in a Dream
07. Cellophane Woman
08. The Things That I Could Do With You
09. Walk in the Park
10. The Great Morpheum
11. Postcard from Jamaica
12. Treadin' [bonus)
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Electric Music For The Mind And Body, Country Joe and the Fish's debut album, was one of the first psychedelic albums to come out of San Francisco in 1967. Many timed their acid trips to peak during Country Joe and The Fish performances at The Avalon or The Fillmore, where they were frequent performers.

Tracks from the LP, especially "Section 43", "Grace", and "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" were played on progressive FM rock stations like KSAN and KMPX in San Francisco, often back-to-back. A famous version of the song "Love" was performed at the 1969 Woodstock Festival
Tracks
1.Flying High (2:45)
2.Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine (4:28)
3.Death Sound Blues (4:30)
4.Popoise Mouth (2:55)
5.Section 43 (7:30)
6.Superbird (2:11)
7.Sad and Lonely Time (2:30)
8.Love (2:28)
9.Bass Strings (5:07)
10.The Masked Marauder (3:16)
11.Grace (7:03)
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Replace the Great Man theory of rock with a social history approach, and the narrative changes dramatically. Instead of Elvis, Jimi, Kurt and the Hall of Fame gang, we get an endless series of basements and garages inhabited by young people who went on to be teachers, steel workers, architects, anything but rock stars. We get Guided by Voices pressing 500 copies of albums for an audience one tenth that size in 1980s Ohio. We get Quietus and Hyperplastic, whose respective Slayer-inspired riffs and genius anthem "Smoldering Resentment" were heard by approximately no one outside LaCrescent, Minnesota (population 5,000), where I went to high school in the 1990s. And we get Time, a group of guys who graduated from college in Champaign-Urbana in 1967 and turned down Fulbright scholarships and grad school fellowships to move to Buffalo, New York and play in a rock band.

They never made it, of course. A move to the Big Apple, a name change to Think Dog!, and a few gigs later the band went kaput, as its members drifted into careers in academia, computer programming, and whatever else responsible adults do. The band left not so much as a lipstick trace on music history, releasing exactly nothing during its brief incarnation. It did, however, stare down severe snowstorms and drive into Toronto in early 1968 to record an album that has only just now been released, nearly four decades after the fact, by Shadoks, the veritable Indiana Jones of rock archeology, a label that digs not into Egyptian tombs but into mildewy garages and stacks of dusty old reels to bring us the music that time (and probably even members of Time) has forgotten.

As such, Before There Was... is a fascinating window into a specific time and place, the late '60s Buffalo underground (of which Time constituted exactly one half, according to member Lynn David Newton's copious liner notes). It is not, alas, particularly distinguished music. Opening track "A Song For You" may be the album's most interesting effort, lulling listeners into a pacific state for two and a half minutes before launching into a bizarre, recorder-driven experimental breakdown as lumpy as any gravy the Mothers of Invention had yet poured by that point, then finally returning to its dopey love sentiments at the end. This is followed-in album sequencing seemingly structured less by any musical flow than by when the acid kicked in-by "Kemp's Jig," a 45-second long Renaissance lute piece. Go figure.

Elsewhere, Time offers trippy hippie tales of "cornucopias full of mirrors" on "Introductory Lines", which ends with a spoken stream-of-consciousness rant about "becoming and approaching Being" that sounds lifted from a cursory perusal of whichever Alan Watts or Ram Dass book happened to be lying around the Time house that evening. The band has no real group dynamic, but instead feels like a hodgepodge collection of three very different musicians. Liner-note curator Newton plays bass and brings the experimental ambitions, setting e.e. cummings' "Lily Has a Rose" to a convoluted 18/16 time signature and adding electronic tape chaos to another song. Richard Stanley, a music professor at SUNY somehow roped into this amateur hour, carries the lute and adds some pleasant instrumentals, including the nifty bluegrass ditty "Ma's Pan". Finally, Tom McFaul contributes the beatnik poetry and actual rock, forgetting only the concept of melody in such shouted efforts as "At Shadow's Eye".

Every now and then Time stumble into memorable moments. "A Song for You" must have raised some eyebrows in conservative Buffalo, where Newton claims audiences wanted nothing more challenging than Young Rascals covers. "Green Fields" carries a gently persuasive melody, as does "Dover Beach", even despite McFaul's resolute refusal to sing instead of shout. Newton's notes are a hoot, more engaging than much of the album. He's somewhat pompous, discussing his own songs in great detail while giving brief, often dismissive comments to other members' songs (one McFaul composition was intended for two vocalists, but Time never played it live because Newton couldn't be bothered to memorize the lyrics), and his notion of masculinity is retrograde at best ("Guys don't like to fall asleep touching each other," he declares; "In fact, real men prefer not to sleep in the same room as another guy." He also confesses feeling uncomfortable with the cummings line "If I let him kiss me twice"). But somehow this adds to the antiquated charm; Newton's description of Time's utter lack of success is a compelling story, and Shadoks affords him admirable space to tell it.

Mostly, Before There Was... works better as historical document than as art, reminding us (Like Beth Bailey's wonderful monograph Sex in the Heartland, about the sexual revolution in Kansas) that the counterculture was not monopolized by the Sunset Strip, Haight-Ashbury, and the East Village but extended into nooks and crannies across the American landscape. Its songs give us a pretty good clue as to why Time never hit the big time, but they make for a good complement to the notes in delivering a vivid portrait of the small time that too often goes overlooked and forgotten
Tracks
1. Song for You
2. Kemp's Jig [Instrumental]
3. Introductory Lines
4. Sad Benjamin
5. Lily Has a Rose
6. At Shadow's Eye
7. Green Fields
8. Waking
9. Ma's Pan [Instrumental]
10. Dover Beach
11. Elin Experience
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You can say that the Attack were in fact, at least a couple different groups for the fact that vocalist Richard Sherman had to regroup Attack from almost scratch 3 times. The Attack's beginnings lie in a group called The Soul System. With members coming and going, once a stabilized 5 piece arouse, the band came attention to Don Arden, a top agent who signed them, found their first single (Try It, a Standells tune), and changed their name to Attack. Issued in January 1967, the single didn't do much on the charts. However with it's heavy garage sound, it is considered a minor Freakbeat classic. The flip side We Don't Know is a rather strange jazz/soul and freakbeat hybrid with some silly lyrics. This same lineup stayed for the recording of their next single Hi-Ho Silver Lining before disbanding due to the lack of success with both 45's. Hi-Ho Silver Lining was met with fierce competition as Jeff Beck, who presumably heard The Attack's version and rushed out his own version as his first single after only a few days of The Attack's single. The result was Jeff Beck getting the hit with Hi-Ho. The B side to Hi-Ho was an awesome piece of freakbeat, Any More Than I Do. This number, apart from being featured in recent compilations of the years, was used by John Peel for a radio jingle for the pirate Radio London. The guitarist responsible for the powerful riffing on Any More Than I Do, David O'List left to join the Nice in breaking new ground for a while, whilst drummer Alan Whitehead went back to the Marmalade and the others faded into obscurity. Richard Sherman, now the only one left, regrouped The Attack with Scottish organist George Watt, drummer Chris Allen, guitarist Geoff Richardson and bassist Kenny Harold. Their follow up to Hi-Ho was another kinda cheeky and very English affair, Created By Clive. In a very ironic coincidence, two versions of Created By Clive were released the same day, by The Attack and The Syn! The result was neither got any attention that the song was meant for which was probably better off as the liner notes of their posthumous compilation Magic In The Air notes "Clive, a fashion designer who specialized in dressing debs in see-through mini-dresses, would have probably sued anyway". The new guitarist Geoff Richardson penned their B side, the slow tamped raga Colour Of My Mind. With the single just barely in the shops, a new guitarist John DuCann was added and the drummer and keyboard player were replaced too. With this lineup, The Attack went about playing all the venues available, Middle Earth, Tiles, the Speakeasy etc. However personnel changes shifted once more in the summer of 1967, and Geoff Richardson and Kenny Harold left being replaced by Jim Avery. The recorded the two sides of their next single, Magic In The Air/Lady Orange Peel but the A side was rejected by Decca for being too heavy and the band were sent in to record the harmless Neville Thumbcatch. Two more tracks were recorded in October 1967, covers of Morning Dew and Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever, but the single that was eventually released in January 1968 was Neville Thumbcatch backed with Lady Orange Peel. Thumbcatch was very similar to Cream's Pressed Rat And Warthog with it's narrative verses and trumpet melodies. With this single, the group disbanded again. DuCann and Sherman kept Attack alive, recruiting bassist Roger Deane and drummer Keith Hodge and continued on as a four piece. This last lineup recorded tracks for a future album and single, all left in the can. Before their split in mid 1968, the group recorded many songs, including Winding Up Clocks, Feel Like Flying, Strange House, Just Waiting, Freedom For You, etc. Unfortunately, not all of these tracks survived when the Magic In The Air album was being compiled. But featuring all their singles (with one exception, Created By Clive) and a handful of unreleased tracks from their 1968 album sessions, the compilation gives a better look at who The Attack were really about. Tracks like Magic In The Air, Strange House, Freedom For You & Colour Of My Mind justify their high place in British freakbeat/psych history. Perhaps with a more stable lineup, the band would have reached farther than they did.
Tracks
1 Magic In The Air
2 Colour Of My Mind
3 Mr. Pinnodomy's Dilema
4 Hi Ho Silver Lining
5 Try It
6 Freedom For You
7 Any More Than I Do
8 Strange House
9 Neville Thiumbcatch
10 Feel Like Flying
11 Lady Orange Peel
12 We Don't Know
13 Too Old
14 Go Your Own Way
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The Left Banke was a band from New York City in the 1960s. They only had a couple of bona fide "hits" before sadly self-destructing, but their unique style, dubbed "baroque rock" by critics, is still admired and influential among pop musicians to this day. What amazes me is that among the many "few hit wonder" bands of the 60s, most showed little depth in their album tracks. This is not true of The Left Banke, whose output was always of high quality
Tracks
1. Walk Away Renee
2. I Haven't Got The Nerve
3. Pretty Ballerina
4. She May Call You Up Tonight
5. I've Got Something On My Mind
6. Barterers and Their Wives
7. Let Go Of You Girl
8. What Do You Know
9. Evening Gown
10. Lazy Day
11. Shadows Breaking Over My Head
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