TCCDM Pulls One Out..."Satori" - Flower Travellin' Band (1971 - Rei 2021)

"Satori" - Flower Travellin' Band (1971 - Rei 2021)

We sometimes forget there were other bands from other places bringing the thunder and lightning.  In this instance, the Japanese metal-crushing...Flower Travellin' Band...were blowing out windows.  If you like the early sounds of heavy metal with a psych crunch, the band's second album "Satori" will be a mind-pleaser.

Flower Travellin' Band were doing it, man, and doing it with their own style of wrecking ball trippage.  "Satori" is a psych-twisted heavy rock square.  Gloom-dusted and lightly prog-seasoned.  And all with a unique and delicious oriental exclamation.  Dropping the needle on "Satori" will call to mind a couple of other bands that were blowing up around the same time.  Spin this and you'll know.  But they ain't copy-cats.  Just influenced.  And the album holds up still.

"Satori" - Flower Travellin' Band (back)

Of the five tracks on "Satori," favorites include the coffee-spitting powderkeg opener "Satori Part I."  And "Satori Part II" is a heavy lysergic flambeau.  The rest of the album is simply various degrees of ass-kickery.

My copy is an unofficial release from Life Goes On Records and has been one of my favorite spins of late.  Holding space on my eBay watchlist for some time, outta the blue, the seller threw a pretty decent discount offer my way and I took it.  I read there were some copies that were recorded too low, but my spin sounded as it should.  Clean and clear without any adjustment in the gain.  Do your research.  It's worth tracking down this essential square for your collection.

"Satori" - Flower Travellin' Band (inside gatefold)

Life Goes On Records

(Side 1 & Side 2)

Cat #  

LIFE001

SIDE 1  DEADWAX

LIFE 001 - A -  

SIDE 2  DEADWAX

LIFE 001 - B - 

"Satori Part I" - Flower Travellin' Band / "Satori" (1971)

TRACKS:

A1  "Satori Part 1" 5:22

A2  "Satori Part 2" 6:56

A3  "Satori Part 3" 9:40

B1  "Satori Part 4" 10:53

B2  "Satori Part 5" 6:56

PERSONNEL:

Joe Yamanaka – vocals

Hideki Ishima – guitar

Jun Kozuki – bass

George Wada – drums

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM 4 For Friday

(4 For Friday)

*  When the "Godzilla" movie soundtrack failed to include Blue Oyster Cults' definitive version of the song, the band responded with an awesome tongue-in-cheek parody..."Nozilla"... to throw back in their faces.  And it's fantastic! 

*  Check out these 44 interesting and unusual historical photographs.  Really good stuff.

*  Beavis and Butthead spend a minute explaining autotune.  This never gets old.

*  A workout illusion that has one fella scratching his head.

"Look Again" - Steely Crue mix (2022)

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM Pulls One Out..."Coryell" - Larry Coryell (1969)

"Coryell" - Larry Coryell (1969)

I enjoyed this spin very much.  Larry Coryell was a guitar jazz mage, of course, but here he is a firestorm of wah-wahs, distortion, and burn riffs.  Oh, the album is still held together with some jazz ideas and threads...but "Coryell" leans closer into the funky blues-psych rock on this square.  Hints of psych dust, anyway.  And I dig all the unexpected twists and turns. 

An album cover that has Coryell looking like Freddy Prinze after taking a few sips from the Kool-Aid punchbowl at a 'y'all come back' communal farm leaves little doubt, Larry Coryell was having a wee bit of a love-jones going on.  But this only makes for a lot of fun while Larry works it all out.  And don't let the album cover fool ya.  Coryell's guitar playing is an amazing trip.  I think side one may be the stronger, but that's splitting hairs.  "Coryell" sounds fresh and fine and adds a little something different on the wax to reach for on one of those woozy nights

"Coryell" - Larry Coryell (back)

Favorites include the longest track, "The Jam With Albert" which gets a wicked Coryell workout.  I really like "Sex" for an opener.  And the song, too.  It's a groovy funky thingamagoogah with tasty fuzz burns.  Gets the old heart going pit-a-pat.  "Morning Sickness" is a runaway powder keg with a nice long fuse.  "Elementary Guitar Solo #5" is the most different song with a nice gentle, almost floaty vibe that morphs into something else.  Coryell is butter.

Last year, I picked up Larry Coryell's RSD reissue of "At The Village Gate" and I really liked it, so I'd been keeping an eye out for this early Coryell offering.  I finally found this original copy buried in a dealer's box for only $5.  No real big thing, but still I get excited when I stumble on a record that's been on my radar.  It's that warm rush that keeps us going.  Anyway, the vinyl is on the Vanguard Apostolic label and has a really groovy record sleeve.  My copy is a Pitman pressing noted by the "ᴘ" stamped in the runout signifying a New Jersey stamp.  And that's how it goes.

Vanguard Apostolic sleeve & Vanguard Apostolic label

Cat #

VSD-6547

SIDE A  DEADWAX

V SD  6547  A  p  XSV222356-2A  3

SIDE B  DEADWAX

V SD6547 B  p  XSV222357-2A  3

"Sex" - Larry Coryell / "Larry Coryell" (1969)

TRACKS:

A1  "Sex" 3:51

A2  "Beautiful Woman" 4:32

A3  "The Jam With Albert" 9:20

B1 "Elementary Guitar Solo #5" 6:49

B2  "No One Really Knows" 5:07

B3  "Morning Sickness" 5:20

B4  "Ah Wuv Ooh" 4:22

PERSONNEL:

Larry Coryell - guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals

Mike Mandel - keyboards

Chuck Rainey - guitar, bass

Mervin Bronson - bass

Albert Stinson – bass

GUESTS:

Jim Pepper - flute, saxophone

Ron Carter - bass

Bernard Purdie - drums

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM 4 For Friday

(4 For Friday)

*  Is this a James Bond gadget?  Or some Mr. Bean trickery?  An anti-theft suitcase from the 1960s.

*  Genius Stanley Kubrick lining up a unique shot in "The Shining."  Who else woulda thunk it?!

*  On the early 8-track tapes, a guitar solo was used for "Pigs On A Wing" (pt one & two) to connect the last song with the first song and fill in the gap while waiting for the click-over.  This guitar solo was only heard on the 8-tracks.  And sounds fantastic!

*  A few cartoon characters in real life.

"Ain't Quite Right" -  Paul Stanley /  "Paul Stanley" (1978) 

:

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM Pulls One Out..."The Gospel According To Zeus" - Power Of Zeus (1970 - Rei 2019)

"The Gospel According To Zeus" - Power Of Zeus (1970 - Rei 2019)

There must be something in the Detroit water that makes so many good bands wanna blow your house down.  This time it's the heavy, hard rock sounds from...Power Of Zeus.   Recording just one album, "The Gospel According To Zeus"...PoZ delivers a square that holds up nicely alongside other, better-known bands from the same era.  I'm thinking, maybe, early Heep or Purple.  However, the Power Of Zeus has its own way to dance.

The obscure band has tasty Hammond and riffing guitars all over the album with psych and prog ideas dropping in and out in pleasant doses.  Even dips of doom sneak into the mix with attacking drums to push everything forward.  A bridge into the 70s is being crossed right before your ears.  Not everything is absolute first-string, but the stuff that's good is very good.  Surprisingly a few rap artists, including Eminem and Jay-Z, have sampled the chili.

"The Gospel According To Zeus" - Power Of Zeus (back)

Favorites include...the gloom and psych-infested epic..."The Sorcerer Of Isis (The Ritual of the Mole)."  It has a nice jam break and a spooky funk-driven vibe.  "In the Night" has a strange ominous vibe not unlike what BOC would later sharpen their teeth on.  The opener "It Couldn't Be Me" is a nice heavy psych rock 'how-do-ya-do?'.  Good stuff.

Power of Zeus was an Amazon purchase I made after watching one of "Matt Sands and The Psych Professor's" end-of-year Top Ten finds on Youtube.  Online purchases are not as much fun as finding one in the wild, but you do what you have to do.  My copy is a 2019 reissue on heavy wax and half-speed mastered at Abbey Road.  It was an RSD release and I think I spent $27 shipped. The record arrived safe, sound, and packaged as it should be.  (I mention this because I've read recently some are receiving their vinyl orders from Amazon shipped in a paper bag!)

Hype Sticker

Rare Earth label

CAT #

RS-516

SIDE A  DEADWAX

B1 494X0-07  A^  MILES . ABBEY ROAD ½ SPEED-ROOM 30.  

SIDE B  DEADWAX

B1 494X0-07  B^  MILES . ABBEY ROAD ½ SPEED. ROOM 30.

"It Couldn't Be Me" - Power Of Zeus / "The Gospel According To Zeus" (1970)

TRACKS:

A1  "It Couldn't Be Me" 3:53

A2  "In The Night" 3:56

A3  "Green Grass And Clover" 3:10

A4  "I Lost My Love" 2:12

A5  "The Death Trip" 7:40

B1  "No Time" 3:26

B2  "Uncertain Destination" 4:55

B3  "Realization" 2:49

B4  "Hard Working Man" 2:15

B5  "The Sorcerer Of Isis (The Ritual Of The Mole)" 5:48

PERSONNEL:

Joe Periano - vocals, guitar

Bill Jones - bass, vocals

Dennie Webber - Hammond organ, harpsichord, piano

Bob Michalski - drums, b-vocals

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM 4 For Friday

(4 For Friday)

*  Amazing illusion sculpture made from a variety of plastic trash pieces.

*  15 real-life facts that are downright creepy.

*  Four painted ladies join together to create one beautiful tiger.

*  A few comedy movies that may cause a salty discharge to roll down the cheeks. Maybe one or two anyway.

"The Valentine Pieces" - Danny O'Keefe / "O'Keefe" (1972)

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM Pulls One Out..."The Fabulous Wailers" - The Wailers (1960)

"The Fabulous Wailers" - The Wailers (1960)

This is an original pressing of The Wailers' debut..."The Fabulous Wailers" and honestly, I knew very little about this band other than they are known as one of the earliest garage-rock bands ever.  From the album cover, I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for.  Figured I'd bag it, tag it and file it away on the shelf.  But guess what?  This is really good.  Really good.  And I like pulling this square out when I'm feeling no cares.  If you love music history, you'll totally respect the trail of rock crumbs The Wailers were leaving behind. 

The Wailers were just teenagers from Tacoma, Washington rocking their shit out and hoping to get laid.  Despite the shirt and ties, The Wailers were coloring outside of the lines and not playing nice with others.  Plus they were writing their own songs.  Mostly badass instrumentals.  These guys were doing it.  "The Fabulous Wailers" is a fun spin front to back and will shake the "jaded" right out of your head.

"The Fabulous Wailers" - The Wailers (back)

Favorites include:

The cool strut "Beat Guitar." 

"High Wall"... has a surprising dark psych vibe

"Gunnin' For Peter" sounds a bit like...well, you can guess.

"Wailin'" is killer. 

I found this square, along with another I'll show later, at a record swap from a dealer I wasn't familiar with.  Fair prices...and he bundled which is always appreciated.  The cover was a little dirty, but the vinyl was VG. The square has a cool, lo-fi, monkey-wrench quality.

Golden Crest label

CAT #

CR-3075

SIDE A  DEADWAX

CR 3075 AA  X  M

SIDE B  DEADWAX

CR 3075 B

"Wailin'" - The Wailers / "The Fabulous Wailers" (1960)

TRACKS:

A1  "Tall Cool One"

A2  "Driftwood"

A3  "Dirty Robber"

A4  "Shanghaied"

A5  "Gunnin' For Peter"

A6  "Long Gone"

B1  "Beat Guitar"

B2  "High Wall"

B3  "Wailin'"

B4  "Road Runner"

B5  "Tough Bounce"

B6  "Swing Shift"

PERSONNEL:

John Greek - rhythm guitar, trumpet

Richard Dangel - lead guitar

Kent Morrill - keyboards, vocals

Mark Marush - tenor sax

Mike Burk - drums

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM Pulls One Out..."May Blitz" - May Blitz (1970 - Rei 2022)

"May Blitz" - May Blitz (1970 - Rei 2022)

"May Blitz" is a top-notch early hard rock stoner.  The guitar has a distinctive sound and the bass and drumming are fierce and on purpose.  The ideas are sometimes surprising and a whole lot of fun to crank.  May Blitz was a power triad out of the UK with a name that either could be a covert military operation or the name of a flabby bikini mama filling out an album cover.  I think I read somewhere it's the latter.  It's original, whatever.

There is a bit of a Cream vibe here.  No doubt the vocals sometimes echo Jack Bruce's timbre.  But this self-titled debut has more than that going on.  There's a solid and unique hard stone threading throughout this square that can make speakers grin.  I love the early heavy stuff and May Blitz is an essential banger.   

"May Blitz" - May Blitz (back)

Favorites include:

"Smoking The Day Away" 

"Tomorrow May Come"

"Fire Queen" 

"May Blitz" was an online purchase I made back in early November.  I'm just now spending some quality time with the album.  Whaddygonnado?  The barcode is printed on the actual hype sticker rather than the album which I think is a good idea.  May Blitz was one of the first four bands ever signed to the Vertigo label.  Who were the other three bands?  Only Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep.  The nearly-forgotten Juicy Lucy was the other band. (I've not come across anything by this band except in print.)

"May Blitz" - May Blitz (inside gatefold)

"May Blitz" - May Blitz (hype sticker)

Survival Research label

(Side A / Side B)

Cat #

SVVRCH044

SIDE A  DEADWAX

0^0^^2 774 - A - ^

SIDE B  DEADWAX

0^0^^2 774 - B - ^ 

"Smoking The Day Away" - May Blitz / "May Blitz" (1970)

TRACKS:

A1  "Smoking The Day Away" 8:21

A2  "I Don't Know?" 4:45

A3  "Dreaming" 6:35

B1  "Squeet" 6:51

B2  "Tomorrow May Come" 4:46

B3  "Fire Queen" 4:18

B4  "Virgin Waters" 6:34

PERSONNEL:

James Black - vocals, guitars

Reid Hudson - bass, vocals

Tony Newman - drums, vibes, congas, bongos

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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I Went...SI--SI--SIRIUS...All The Way Home (again) #63

(a short jaunt)

"Rudy" - Supertramp / "Crime Of The Century" (1974)

"Rudy's on a train to nowhere,

halfway down the line.

He don't want to get there, but he needs time."

A proggier pop flavor than some and with a whole Yahtzee of ideas tossed into the cup and ready to be rattled.  But there are no second-guessings with this roll.  You just relax, because the band is all in.  And once you get your head and ears in the right place...and all systems are a go...it's an out-and-out chest rush.  The first time I heard "Rudy" the song made very little if any, impression.  But...the first time I actually listened to the song, it punched my ticket like a conductor in a hurry for me to find my seat.  And that's exactly what it took.  It took actual active listening for me to get my ticket punched.  Active listening made all the difference.  Just put your hands on the wheel and count the headlights on the highway.  And sorry, but this one's too heavy for the riders in the back seat.  "Rudy" is for front-seaters only.  Find this one on Supertramp's third studio album. (OWN)

"Stone Cold Fever" - Humble Pie / "Rock On" (1971)

"Ooh stone cold fever, so hard to see.

I've got trouble in my backbone

since that lonesome day."

Reach for the knob and crank this one up.  Marriot and Frampton were on fire.  "Stone Cold Fever" is a great jam that burns the barn down.  "Rock On" might be the band's best album.  It's certainly my favorite square to spin.  Steve Marriot flies a little bit under the radar, but he was a force of nature.  "Peter the Frampton" left after this album to do his own thing, but he left on a high note.  This was Humble Pie's fourth album. (NEED) 

"Take It Back" - Pink Floyd / "The Division Bell" (1994)

"We were spinning into darkness.

The earth was on fire.

She could take it back, she might take it back someday."

Until I looked at my radio, you could have knocked me over with a feather if you had told me this was Pink Floyd. The shimmering beginning is pretty, but I was reminded of something Mike and the Mechanics did that's been long forgotten.  The song is missing the Yan with its Yin.  The meat with its potatoes.  The Waters with its Gilmour.  When the two are together, the balance has just the right seasoning.  Right now my equilibrium is askew.  I've never heard "The Division Bell" in its entirety.  Perhaps I should.  This was Mr. Pink Floyd's 14th square. (NEED)  

"WILMA,  I'M HOME!"  

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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TCCDM 4 For Friday

(4 For Friday)

*  Neither of these boxes are moving.  Not a smidge!  And you wanna take the word of an eyewitness?  Forgetaboutit!

*  28 awesome and seldom-seen vintage Hollywood photos. Patty Duke with Helen Keller who she portrayed as a young child in "The Miracle Worker" is especially cool.

*  A guy playing the entire "Freebird" solo on harmonica is pretty kick-ass!

*  I always wondered what Uncle Jed was talking about.  A bubbling crude.

"Mindbender" - Stillwater / "Stillwater" (1977)

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers

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