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Saturday, January 14, 2017

Various Artist - Ah Feel Like Ahcid (Some of The Greatest Psychedelic 60's)


Size: 202.3 MB
Bit Rate: 256
mp3
Found in DC++ World
Some Artwork Included

The first compilation of its kind to open up the late Sixties U.S. vaults of EMI labels Capitol, Tower, Imperial, Liberty, etc. Psychedelia is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary since the original Summer Of Love. Many of the tracks on this CD have never been reissued - more so than the previous volumes in this Series, Take My Tip and Insane Times.

Psychedelia was borne in the mid-60s on the West Coast and this CD includes several of the movement's pioneers from the San Francisco, Bay Area and LA scenes - namely Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Steve Miller Band and Mad River, plus the maverick talents of Captain Beefheart. 

Plus the Beach Boys, of course! Kim Fowley was/is a charismatic svengali-likle producer who has recorded a plethora of different artists - but his classic track 'Bubblegum' was later covered by Sonic Youth. Hour Glass evolved into the Allman Brothers! The Balloon Farm's 'A Question Of Temperature' and the Third Bardo's 'I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time' are two of the finest examples of psychedelic garage punk ever recorded.

This excellent compilation contains 24 tracks with a running time of nearly 80 minutes. Among Psych collections, this baby is most certainly amongst the very best. From the opening of the fuzz-drenched guitar by The Balloon Farm with "A Question Of Temperature", there is not a clunker in this entire collection.

Luckily for us, EMI utilized it's canon of various labels such as Capitol, Tower, Liberty, Roulette, Imperial, and Blue Thumb, to give us a delightful trippy collection of rare 45's, demos, and selected L.P. tracks. As I said, there is not a bad track here with all tracks being at least good, with most tracks being very good to excellent. 

With the selections coming between the years of 1966 to 1969, and only 1 from 1970, this cd has truly hit the Mother Lode of 60's American Psychedelia. Some of my favorites are The Third Bardo with "Five Years Ahead Of My Time", Detroit's SRC with "Up All Night", Morning dew with "Crusader's Smile", The Fallen Angels with "Mother's Homesick Too", a totally fuzz-drenched, Psych instrumental by The Human Beinz titled ""April 15th", and even an early Steve Miller Band gem labeled "The Beauty Of Time Is That It's Snowing", which was from their 1968 debut, "Children Of The Future". 


Moving along to other choice tracks, we get the very rare Mother Trucker's Yellow Duck with "One Ring Jam", Chris & Craig with the middle-Eastern influenced "Isha", with harpsichord and trippy-harmony vocals, Mad River with the instrumental "Wind Chimes", Gandalf with the Raga-rock guitar of "Can You Travel In the Dark Alone?", Hour Glass with "Bells", David Axelrod with the Jazz-Psych "Urizen", The Common People with "Soon There'll Be Thunder", and Quicksilver Messenger Service with the rare B-side "Bears" It is rather ironic that the last track in the collection done by 

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, titled "Ah Feel Like Ahcid", is essentially the only track that is Not Psychedelic-flavored but more a Raw-Blues gumbo mix. I think the reason it was used was to complete the collection with the title. 

Along with the excellent Psychedelic musical selections, we also get an excellent 16 page, very well annotated booklet written by Mr. John Reed that gives valuable info about each and every track on this collection. Also, each tune has either the picture of the L.P. it was taken from or the photo of the 45, is it was a single. I have over 20 Psychedelic compilations in my collection and this one certainly takes it's place at the top. You could call it "Psychedelic Nuggets"! As it says in the great liner notes, "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out"! I give this baby my 100% SMRZ Guarantee! MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! (By SMRZ!!)

01. The Balloon Farm - A Question Of Temperature - 2.39
02. The Third Bardo - Five Years Ahead Of My Time - 2.14
03. The Book of Changes - I Stole The Goodyear Blimp - 2.22
04. First Crew To The Moon - The Sun Lights Up The Shadows Of Your Mind - 2.19
05. SRC - Up All Night - 3.06
06. Morning Dew - Crusader's Smile - 2.47
07. The Fallen Angels - Mother's Homesick Too - 2.22
08. The Human Beinz - April 15th - 6.55
09. Kim Fowley - Bubblegum - 2.28
10. T.I.M.E. - Tripping Into Sunshine - 3.06
11. The Steve Miller Band - The Beauty Of Time Is That It's Snowing - 5.18
12. The Beach Boys - Never Learn Not To Love - 2.31
13. Chris & Craig - Isha - 2.16
14. The Raik's Progress - Sewer Rat Love Chant - 2.38
15. Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck - One Ring Jane - 4.23
16. Mad River - Wind Chimes - 7.10
17. Gandalf - Can You Travel In The Dark Alone - 3.04
18. Hour Glass - Bells - 2.25
19. Food - Forever Is A Dream - 4.06
20. David Axelrod - Urizen - 4.00
21. The Common People - Soon There'll Be Thunder - 2.21
22. Fargo - Sunny Day Blue - 2.30
23. Quicksilver Messenger Service - Bears - 2.08
24. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Ah Feel Like Ahcid - 3.04

Some Bonus:
25. Ant Trip Ceremony - Four In The Morning - 4.31
26. Bob Smith - Don´t Tell Lady tonight - 3.09
27. Bubble Puppy - Hot Smoke and Sasafrass - 2.33
28. Darius - Sweet Mama - 2.34 
29. Euclid - It´s All Over Now - 3.23
30. Gold - Fried Neck Bones (Fillmore West) - 5.33

Part 1: Ahcid
Part 2: Ahcid
or
Part 1: Ahcid
Part 2: Ahcid
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Part 1: Ahcid
Part 2: Ahcid




Thursday, January 12, 2017

Sleepy Hollow - Roller Coaster Man (The Beatles alike Band US 1972)



Size: 77.5 MB
Bit Rate: 256
mp3
Found in OuterSpace
Some Artwork Included

Sleepy Hollow were a Philadelphia power-pop trio that on their only album followed the same trail that Badfinger or the Raspberries used to fill the void the Beatles had left. This album was reissued on 1977 as "Billay" by the scam label Tiger Lily. 

The albums starts with Sincerely Yours, almost a retake of the Shangri-las Remember (Walking in the Sand) full of drama, strings and synthesizers as sung by an angry John Lennon. 



One Time sounds like an A Hard Day's Night - Help lost track with a George Harrison slide solo straight from the All Must Things Past era and feel-good la-la-las. It's followed by Take Me Back, a plaintive mid-tempo with a functional string arrangement and more Harrison-like guitars. Talking Out Of Turn follows, again resting on a Harrison approach. 

Next is Lay it on the Line a mournful ballad accompanied by a guitar played through a flanger and catchy lines all over. Love Minus You with its McCartneysque piano it's a good track, albeit some strange drum rolls on the end of every chorus. Lady starts as an acoustic effort and develops into a baroque-pop tune which sounds more akin to the Left Banque for a change. Roller Coaster Man it's an up-tempo rocker not far from the Raspberries, with a sparkling piano line, a horn section, a sax solo and a final coda that without fail is going to bring the Beach Boys to the back of your mind. The album closes with Hades, a slow and spooky christmas tune lead by a grand piano and full orchestra arrangements.


All in all, a solid work primarily recommended to early 70s pop lovers. Does it stands to its reputation as a "hidden gem"? Well, it's up to you to decide that. I don't think it could be match with the best efforts of Badfinger or Big Star, but that's a hard mountain to climb for everyone else too.

Sleepy Hollow were a power pop trio who hailed from Philadelphia,USA and comprised of members, Richard Billay (vocals,guitar,piano),  Richie Bremen (bass) and Joe Zucca (drums).  The band released a single album on the Family record label in 1972. Family was an independent label that released a handful of records between 71 and 74 before going bust and is probably most known for releasing Billy Joel's debut solo LP.

The music on the album evokes late period Beatles with Billay doing a fine Lennon snarl on LP opener "Sincerely Yours".  "Take Me Back" is a pure Raspberries-esque ballad with some fine George Harrison influenced slide guitar.  

"Talking Out Of Turn" sounds like it came straight off Emitt Rhodes' Mirror album and the guitar solo sounds uncannily like the one on "Hotel California" by the Eagles, pre-dating it by a good five years! "Lady" is a gentle McCartney style acoustic ballad with string section added by co-producer Tom Sellers (known for his top 20 hit cover of the Who's "Overture From Tommy" as the Assembled Multitude in 1971). Closing track "Hades" is an epic, Christmas themed ballad with massive orchestration, clocking in at over 6 minutes and an unlikely choice for a single release.

The LP was re-released in 1977 under the name "Billay" on the infamous tax scam label, Tiger Lily.  In true Tiger Lily style, it was released without the band's knowledge. 

Not a lot of info can be found about what happened to the band after the album came out but a YouTube search brought up a great power popper by Billay/Sleepy Hollow called "I Surrender" and the artwork attached to the video shows Sleepy Hollow plus another new member and appears to be a collection of recordings dating from 1974-1998.  If anyone knows of these recordings I would be grateful of any details.

01. Sincerely Yours  03:01
02. One Time  02:05
03. Take Me Back  03:53
04. Talking Out Of Turn  02:48
05. Lay It On The Line  02:43
06. Love Minus You  02:30
07. Lady  02:40
08. Roller Coaster Man  02:58
09. Hades  06:16

1. Sleepy Hollow
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2. Sleepy Hollow
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3. Sleepy Hollow