The College Crowd Digs Me

"Rockin' At The Hops" - Chuck Berry (1960 )      This was Chuck Berry's fourth album, and not one of his best, but not bad by any means.  There are twelve songs on the square. Six tracks are "I wanna hear that one again" kind of songs.  And the other six tracks are just Chuck Berry generic.  Good, but I think you know what I mean.   Still, it's Chuck Berry, so even his weaker stuff has some legs.  Remember, we're still a few years away from The Beatles and The Stones breaking out, so this was all solid groundwork.      I didn't really need this album since I already had CB's yellow "The Great Twenty-Eight,"  but this album cover was too cool to pass up.  I may not play this one as often, but I like to display it.  It looks too cool to hide away.  Spektrum Music had this in their bin for $17, and for an album over 60 years old, the cover is still poppin' fresh!  Very clean.  This isn't an expen...

"Chamaeleon Church" - Chamaeleon Church (1968 )      This album was a Christmas present to myself.  I bought it in January.  I knew it was going to be a bit of a pony-up, but I was hoping to find a copy closer to $40 or $50.  That never happened.  Most were floating closer to the $100 mark.  I never once saw one in the wild.  I had to pay up, but it was a price I could live with.  $70, plus shipping.  You can find one cheaper, I'm sure, but I'd waited long enough, so I jumped.  " Chamaeleon Church" is a psych album, but it seldom gets talked about much in the community, other than the fact that SNL alum Chevy Chase was the drummer.  I'm sure this has moved the price needle up just a smidge.      But here's the thing.  The album has more going for it than just Chevy on the skins.  This self-titled album is pretty darn good.  The songwriting is especially strong, thanks to leader Ted Myers , ...

"Ram" - Paul & Linda McCartney (1971)       I'm still catching up on my "new arrivals" box, which goes back to October.  I'm slow, I know.  But I give almost every album I bring into the house at least a couple of active listening spins before moving on.  Often, a particular album will hang around the turntable even longer.  Busy is as busy does.  (I'm talking like young Forrest Gump as I type that last sentence.)   But it's all good one way or the other.      As for Paul and Linda McCartney's "Ram," it was rescued from a nearly full box of albums marked at $1.00 each.  Giving this square a good once-over, I would say the cover was VG.  There are corner dings and a mild bit of ring wear, but no splits or tears. No watermarks.  As for the vinyl, it looks VG and played VG+ after a couple of laps with my spinclean.  This will make a good player copy, and I'm cool with that.      I'm not a ...

"Back From Rio" - Roger McGuinn (1991)      "Back From Rio" was an album I'd been looking for...for longer than I thought would be necessary.  Not an easy album to find, though CDs are aplenty.  This was Roger McGuinn's sixth studio album and the one where all his cool cat friends showed up to cast their lot with the jingle-jangler.  And a lot of love can be heard on this album.  It's fun and special.      The album has the 12-string McGuinn magic all over the square, making everything a whole lot better.  (See what I did there?)  Not perfect, but nothing to skip either.  A fun one to spin.  A couple of original Byrd-peeps make an appearance.  Elvis Costello contributes a great song.  Michael Penn and even Stan Ridgway help butter the bread.  And there are other musicians that contribute, as well, but it's Tom Petty and a few of his bandmates that really shine the light on Roger McGuinn.  No sur...

"The Baroques" - The Baroques (1967)      In 1967,  The Baroques were walking their walk, bringing some early psychedelic desserts to an underground hookah house somewhere, I'm sure.  Not a lot of bells and whistles, but their self-titled album has its moments.  The square has a folky-garage-pop delivery that falls right in my wheelhouse.  The album has a few fuzz-bomb jammers.  There are a few atmospheric janglers with vocals that invoke a hint of the Brummels.  And there are a couple of songs a bit off-center, as one might expect, but even those arrive at a good place.  One of the earlier psych albums to be released, and a grower in the best of ways.         Not nearly as baroque as their name suggests, but the album does cross off a few Ts.  And the songwriting is especially good.  The album is often described as dark, and its cover suggests that, but that doesn't quite capture its essenc...

"Astral Yacht" - Astral Yacht (2025)      Hailing from the little cornhusker state of Nebraska, Astral Yacht is the creative duo of Derek Fisher and Jacob Pavlik .  This self-titled album brings a variety of heady fuel to provide safe passage on the psychedelic mind train.  The music is atmospheric, hypnotic, fuzz-speckled, and spacey, all with a good psych-dusting to sweeten the pot.        The influences heard here are many, but Astral Yacht has very much its own distinct way of delivering the mail.  It's not a concept album, but the tracks do flow nicely from one song to the next.  Different, but never drifting too far away from the picnic basket.  To be sure, this square is a neo-psych demogorgon with a few upside-down treats to be devoured. "Astral Yacht" - Astral Yacht (back) "Astral Yacht" - Astral Yacht (insert front - back) Favorites include: "Short-Circuit Mind" "Concentrated Skies" "Dreamer" "Follow Th...