The College Crowd Digs Me

"SAHB Stories" - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (1976 )       The Sensational Alex Harvey Band  has always enjoyed adding a little slice of avant-garde to their sound.  A little twist to their lemons.   On  "SAHB Stories"  (pronounced "Sob Stories"),   however, the theatrics are toned down just a smidge, and yet the album still delivers more often than the midwives at the Nonnatus House.   Everybody came to the party, especially guitarist Zal Cleminson and bassist Chris Glen , who always seem to play off each other with such ease and chapeau.  "SAHB Stories,"  the band's sixth album, has it all and with no drop-off.   The riffage bangs right alongside  Alex Harvey's  tongue-in-cheek swag without any problems.  Add a little atmosphere and attitude, and you have yourself a  surprisingly strong hoss for being this deep in their discog rodeo.         The Sensational Al...

"71Spiders" - Spider Fingers (2017) (CD front and back)       "71Spiders" is a pretty tasty piece of guitar-driven crankage that bangs out in various directions with a mid-70s hard rock flair. The influences are numerous on this 11-song collection and ring out from coolly familiar yet oddly different places.  And it's this curious chasm that draws you in and creates unexpected flashes of awareness, making for a fun spin.  One you'll want to crank up.       Spider Fingers  is a founding member of both  The Flying Sixty Nine  and  Electric Monster.    Spider  is responsible for all the music and lyrics on this, his solo debut album, and is a chameleon of sorts, being whatever is necessary.  There are a couple of traffic cones on this square, but most of the songs work, maintaining a cool tone that often carries an enjoyable and unexpected edginess.  If you like your 70s guitar churn-and-burn c...

"Anthem Of The Sun" - Grateful Dead  (1968 )        "Anthem of the Sun," the band's second studio album, is the one I've wanted to own for the longest time.  And I intentionally avoided listening to this album until I could actually spin it for myself.  Probably the  Grateful Dead' s most psych-ified album, where the colorful 'pass-it-around' circle rug begins to spread wider and wider for everyone to enjoy.  An essential album, especially for psych enthusiasts.  Soon, the band would drift into a more cosmic country-folk-rock direction while still maintaining their community aura of headiness.        The trip-fest square   is a multiple-net-free tightrope walk across hundreds of wires strung from every direction… and crossing streams like you wouldn't believe.  An almost blindfolded adventure of sorts.  The band is fearless in their 1968 lysergic leap of faith.  This square is the purp...

"A Summer's Night" - Montreal (1970 )       "A Summer's Night" is a unique and pleasant ride on a very lightly acid-ized jazz-folk train car that gives the mind a wee-curious sensation.  This was Montreal's only album, but it did make its way into the Acid Archives .  It's pretty unusual to find a copy out here in Kansas, and it was cheap, so I had to grab it.  "A Summer's Night" is sort of loungy and gentle, but more than ordinary.  Something's going on.  Fran Losier's vocals have a nice timbre that recalls elements of both Françoise Hardy (without the French accent) and a softer Connie Devanney (Ill Wind).       Richie Havens signed Montreal to his own label and contributes some sitar and koto (a zither-like instrument) with a light touch.  Nothing that would suggest a Woodstock flashback.  There is also some occasional flute that I'm a sucker for.   "A Summer's Night" isn't a great album, but it...

"Rainbow Ride" - Andy Kim (1969 )      I had a few dollars left on my gift card, and in a bit of a hurry, I spotted Andy Kim's "Rainbow Ride" sporting a $5 sticker.  Being a fan of psychedelia, I thought this might hold a little of that stuff, so I grabbed it.  The album cover was throwing off some pop-psych vibes to me, and when I got it home, cleaned it, and dropped the needle on the square, that's exactly what it was.  The psych elements are fairly light, with side one being the strongest. But overall, it's pretty good.      I'm sure Andy Kim was just trying to rub shoulders a bit with the lysergic vibes that were in the air at the time.  No foul for that.  There is some fuzz guitar.  Some phasing.  Some studio trickery and noise-dropping shenanigans.  All of these kinds of things, but in small doses.  Nothing to scare Mom and Dad.  I dug the innocence of the lite-psych dabbling  on the  "Rain...

"Hard Attack" - Dust (1972)      Not as heavy as one might think, but there are definitely a few bangers.  Two of them dive into the darker end of the bottomless pool.  Dust brings some heavy hard rock with some dustings of protometal.  The New York trio brings the riffage, and with better-than-average lyrics and vocals.  It's all good, but it's the bass that's the star of the bar to my ears.        Surprisingly, there are a few melodic chillouts on the album as well, but they play nice without sounding wimpy.  I mean, when it's time to bang, they bang.  And when it's time to chill, they chill.  Maybe Dust should have stayed in one lane, who knows?  But they pull off each equally well, and I've been spinning this one a lot.  Sometimes you don't get what you want, but you do get what you need.  If you are a lover of that early 70's rock discourse, Dust is another underground hider to check out. "Ha...

"Here Comes The Night" - Them (1965)      This is where it all started for Van the Man.  Van Morrison.  The band  Them's  first album, in the US, anyway, was  "Here Comes the Night,"  released in 1965, with the title track being the promoted single. B ut it was the song, "Gloria," that would cement Van's fate in the annals of rock 'n' roll asskickery.  Their debut album definitely holds its own against their better-known peers, but I'm guessing distribution here in the US might've been lacking because I seldom see any Them albums in the bins.  And that's a shame, shame, shame, because there is more to enjoy than what radio would have you believe.         "Here Comes the Night"  is a square that bangs R&B with cool garagey vibes that are raucous, soulful, and a bit menacing.  Morrison wrote 7 of the 12 songs, including "Gloria," but each song is delivered as if it could be his last.  Aft...

"Fantasy" - Fantasy (1970 )       Fantasy's self-titled album is a mix of psych and prog, a little heavier on the prog side yet somehow stays mostly grounded.  There are a couple more jammier rockers, one of which is an instrumental track... "Stoned Cowboy" ... that received a lot of heavy radio play for a fairly long minute.  If Jefferson Airplane Grace Slick vocals are your thing, or perhaps if the occasional Frumpy legend  Inga Rumpf snags your swag, you'll definitely enjoy this.  And singer  Lydia Janene Miller's vocals   belie her age.  She was just 16 when she hooked up with the band to record this album.  Miller sounds like a girl who could sell seashells down by the seashore, and customers would still hit the tip jar.  Good stuff.        As for this band that called Miami home,  Fantasy's  songs often slip into some kind of art-rock wigout, and at times, sound pretty dang ambitio...

"Pretties For You" - Alice Cooper (1969 - Rei 1970 )       "Pretties For You" is an unexpected Alice Cooper psych album.  The square is a widowmaker of surprises and louies from needle drop to label.  At times, the band rubs shoulders with The Beatles and shakes hands with the early Syd Barrett Floyd the next.  It gets heavy over here and goes jazz-trippin' over there.  Everything in good measure.  The harmonies are great.  The musicianship is solid.  And conviction is the rule of the school.  Not quite the dangerous, creepy, hard-rock sound the band would later create, but there is still a delightful strangeness here that hits the sweet spot.       And lest we forget, this was the band's debut!  And what they couldn't sell in the open market, I expect, would quickly change hands in the murkier alleys.  The album may be underrated or underappreciated; I can never make up my mind about which word to c...

"After The Gold Rush" (w/ Pink Text ) - Neil Young (1970 - Rei 1976)      I'm showing this Neil Young album because it's the rare-ish 1976 reissue with pink text instead of the usual yellow-gold.  I wasn't a fly on the wall when Neil found out, but apparently, he was plenty pissed and demanded that the albums be yanked from stores PDQ.  And that's what they did.  The pink text copies were pulled from record shelves faster than you can say 'hey-hi-you!'  How many actually got out is unknown, but it's safe to say not all that many.  I mean, they're out there, but...  So I guess in the whole Rock and Roll records scheme of things, these pink-text albums are like leprechauns.  I mean, they're around, but you don't see'em very often.       Some copies are known to fetch relatively high dollars.  Over $100 from time to time.  You're probably not gonna get rich, but there's still something cool about an album, "r...

"Down To Middle Earth" - The Hobbits (1967)      The album name and cover art 'had me at hello.'  And as it turns out, the music is pretty good, too.  If you’re a fan of pop-psych that rubs shoulders with sunshine pop,  The Hobbits... ”Down To Middle Earth” will be your cookie.  There are ten songs…each oddly different and clever, as if the artist is having us on.  Not overly psychedelic, and yet it's there.      There are a few tracks that are obviously meant for the mind, but a lot of this has a “more than meets the eye” kind of vibe.  A grower by design.  There are a couple of weaker tracks, but no bad ones.  Not a whole lot is known about the album other than it's a Queens, NY Jimmy Curtiss project, and any other involvement is mostly speculation.  This album has been tagged with the “exploitation” label as if that’s a universal bad thing.  Well, it’s not.  Not always.  Sometimes the square ...

"Presence" - Led Zeppelin (1976 )      Believe it or not, I've never owned a copy of Led Zeppelin's "Presence."   In any media format.  Nor did I have any recollection of ever listening to the square front-to-back at any time.  So I was excited to find a nice used first pressing for $12.  It was at a garage sale.  Literally.  Everything for sale was inside the garage.  Anyway, the cover and spine were clean.  The embossed title on the front is still readable.  And most importantly, the vinyl was a strong VG+.       I have to admit, watching the needle drop on a Led Zeppelin album I knew very little about for the first time gave me a bit of a rush.  This was the follow-up to Zeppelin's tour de force, "Physical Graffiti,"  so, of course, "Presence" was obviously gonna pale in comparison.  No surprise there.  But after shaking hands with the square a few times, apart from one misguided dir...

  "That Acapulco Gold" - The Rainy Daze (1967)       The Rainy Daze one-and-done offering,  "That Acapulco Gold,"  shakes hands a little with the psych driver but leans a little more into some good garage crankage.  And it is good.  Nothing here that's gonna really blow your mind.  On the other hand, there's nothing to make you want to lift the needle either, even if the songs are all over the map.  There's a little bit of everything.  The Rainy Daze even throw in a couple of covers and a medley. (Nothing special, but they do no harm.)  The title track "That Acapulco Gold"  is a kind of jugband thing atypical of the rest of the album and was released as a single, but then radio stations quickly pulled it from rotation because of the subject matter.  And finally, amongst all the other, there are still a few tasty lysergic affairs to keep the square real.      The variable Yahtzee cup of songs could've...