Canned Heat - Selftitled (1st Album Mono 1967) + Bonus

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Canned Heat is the 1967 debut album by Canned Heat. It was released shortly after their appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, and features performances of several blues covers.

This debut long-player from Canned Heat was issued shortly after their appearance at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival. That performance, for all intents and purposes, was not only the combo's entrée into the burgeoning underground rock & roll scene, but was also among the first high-profile showcases to garner national and international attention. 

The quartet featured on Canned Heat (1967) includes the unique personnel of Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson (guitar/vocals), Larry "The Mole" Taylor (bass), Henry "Sunflower" Vestine (guitar), Bob "The Bear" Hite (vocals), and Frank Cook (drums). Cook's tenure with the Heat would be exceedingly brief, however, as he was replaced by Aldolfo "Fido" Dela Parra (drums) a few months later. 

Although their blues might have suggested that the aggregate hailed from the likes of Chicago or Memphis, Canned Heat actually formed in the Los Angeles suburb of Topanga Canyon, where they were contemporaries of other up-and-coming rockers Spirit and Kaleidoscope. Wilson and Hite's almost scholarly approach created a unique synthesis when blended with the band's amplified rock & roll. After their initial studio sessions in April of 1967 produced favorable demos, they returned several weeks later to begin work in earnest on this platter. 

The dearth of original material on Canned Heat was less of a result of any songwriting deficiencies, but rather exemplifies their authentic renderings of traditionals such as the open-throttled boogie of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" -- which is rightfully recognized as having been derived from the Muddy Waters arrangement. Similarly, a rousing reading of Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom" is co-credited to Elmore James. 

Blues aficionados will undoubtedly notice references to a pair of Howlin' Wolf classics -- "Smokestack Lightning" as well as "I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)" -- as part of the rambling "Road Song." While decidedly more obscure to the casual listener, Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones "Story of My Life" is both a high point on this recording, as well as one of the fiercest renditions ever committed to tape. Until a thorough overhaul of Canned Heat's catalog materializes, this title can be found on the Canned Heat/Boogie With Canned Heat (2003) two-fer that couples this title with their 1968 follow-up.

A hard-luck blues band of the '60s, Canned Heat was founded by blues historians and record collectors Alan Wilson and Bob Hite. They seemed to be on the right track and played all the right festivals (including Monterey and Woodstock, making it very prominently into the documentaries about both) but somehow never found a lasting audience.

Certainly their hearts were in the right place. Canned Heat's debut album -- released shortly after their appearance at Monterey -- was every bit as deep into the roots of the blues as any other combo of the time mining similar turf, with the exception of the original Paul Butterfield band. Hite was nicknamed "The Bear" and stalked the stage in the time-honored tradition of Howlin' Wolf and other large-proportioned bluesmen. 

Wilson was an extraordinary harmonica player, with a fat tone and great vibrato. His work on guitar, especially in open tunings (he played on Son House's rediscovery recordings of the mid-'60s, incidentally) gave the band a depth and texture that most other rhythm players could only aspire to. Henry Vestine -- another dyed-in-the-wool record collector -- was the West Coast's answer to Michael Bloomfield and capable of fretboard fireworks at a moment's notice.

Canned Heat's breakthrough moment occurred with the release of their second album, establishing them with hippie ballroom audiences as the "kings of the boogie." As a way of paying homage to the musician they got the idea from in the first place, they later collaborated on an album with John Lee Hooker that was one of the elder bluesman's most successful outings with a young white (or black, for that matter) combo backing him up. After two big chart hits with "Goin' Up the Country" and an explosive version of Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Work Together," Wilson died under mysterious (probably drug-related) circumstances in 1970, and Hite carried on with various reconstituted versions of the band until his death just before a show in 1981, from a heart seizure.

Personnel:
♣ Bob Hite – vocals
♣ Alan Wilson – rhythm and slide guitar, vocals, harmonica
♣ Henry Vestine – lead guitar
♣ Larry Taylor – bass
♣ Frank Cook – drums

Additional Musician
♣ Ray Johnson (brother of Plas Johnson) – piano

01. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Muddy Waters) – 3:11
02. "Bullfrog Blues" (Canned Heat) – 2:20
03. "Evil Is Going On" (Willie Dixon) – 2:24
04. "Goin' Down Slow" (James Oden) – 3:48
05. "Catfish Blues" (Robert Petway) – 6:48
06. "Dust My Broom" (Robert Johnson, Elmore James) – 3:18
07. "Help Me" (Sonny Boy Williamson II) – 3:12
08. "Big Road Blues" (Tommy Johnson) – 3:15
09. "The Story of My Life" (Guitar Slim) – 3:43
10. "The Road Song" (Floyd Jones) – 3:16
11. "Rich Woman" (Dorothy LaBostrie, McKinley Millet) – 3:04

Bonus:
Canned Heat, WBCN Studios
Boston, MA, 1972-02-22
Source: FM, Quality: A

-=Disc One=-
01.Back On The Road Again
02.Talking
03.Chicago Bound
04.Talking
05I Don't KNow What I'll Do With Myself
06.Talking
07.I Feel So Bad
08.Sneakin' Around
09.Talking
10.Big City (splice)
11.Big City pt.2
12.Talking
13.My Love For You Won't Grow Cold

-=Disc Two=-
01.Framed
02.Talking
03.Hill Stomp
04.Talking
05.Thats Alright
06.Talking
07.Let's Work Together
08.Let's Work Together pt.2
09.Talking
10.A Long Way From L.A
11.Talking
12.Have You Ever Loved A Women?
13.Radio AD for Canned Heat at the Electric Ballroom,Dallas,TX

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Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselhite, Harvey Mandel - Chicago Anthology (Great Blues US 1966)

Size: 140 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster (Not the Bonus Tracks)

Barry Goldberg Story: 
Beginnings. My mother sang and played piano, we used to play duets, then I heard Meade Lux Lewis on the radio and started playing boogie woogie by ear at 5 yrs old. First band was in high school, Denny Lee And The Ramblers. Mike Bloomfield had the rival band and we would compete for sweet 16 party gigs. That’s when I first met him. Influences were Meade Lux, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino. Each time period has had memorable moments, but the early blues, and rock ‘58 through ‘64 was the most fun. 

Not a business yet! Sitting in for Otis Spann, and playing with Muddy. Michael and I on the West side of Chicago, playing with Howlin’ Wolf. Playing on Charlie Musselwhite’s “Stand Back” album with Harvey Mandel, and last year’s Chicago Blues Festival Reunion with Sam Lay, Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Charlie Musselwhite, and Corky Siegel. Also San Francisco Blues Festival with Steve Miller and James Cotton. And time you play with great musicians you are influenced by them. There is a level of greatness, they bring you up to, musically,and spiritually. I miss that with Michael.

Actually when I was 5 and started playing piano, my aunt bought me a drum set, and I Muddy Waters was magical, James Cotton can really blow, nobody can shake a string like Michael Bloomfield or Otis Rush. Charlie Musselwhite, and Harvey Mandel are inspirational, I love Nick Gravenites singing, Tracy Nelson and Marcy Levy vocals, Michael Bloomfield’s intensity was unbelieveable. Steve Miller’s Texas shuffle, Buddy Miles powerful drumming. Mick Taylor’s slide playing, Bob Dylan’s funky rhythm guitar, Duane Allman’s slide, Jimi Hendrix’s all around amazing chops. 

Playing “Hey Joe” with him! I always wanted to play with Elmore James! Top five albums: Phil Spector’s Greatest Hits, Blonde On Blonde, here’s Little Richard, Chicago Blues Anthology on Chess, Best of Muddy Waters. The Jerry Lee Lewis’ Greatest Hits on Sun. The band I am playing with at blues festivals: Harvey Mandel, Zach Wagner on guitars, Don Heffington, Sam Lay – drums, Marcy Levy, Nick Gravenites, Tracy Nelson – vocals, Corky Siegel, sometimes Charlie Musselwhite on harp, Rick Reed – bass.

The old blues scene is almost gone. Most of the great masters are in blues heaven, but there is nothing like the power of playing the blues, and the ones that are left must keep that alive! It is synonymous as life itself.
The people in Europe have always picked up on American jazz and blues more then the American people and have traditionally supported and respected the music and the artists more. That’s unfortunate, because its right here in their own backyard.

I like Harvey Mandel, Charlie Musselwhite, White Stripes, Soledad, James Cotton, Jimmy Smith, Johnnie Johnson. I would tell the people of Macedonia to embrace the blues, because it is real and true and free! It helps you when you need it. When you’re up, or when you’re down the blues is always there to help you through! You can have a good time with the blues, it can be your friend when you’re down! You can always count on the blues! We would love to bring the Chicago Blues Reunion to Europe and Macedonia. Maybe there is a way. Dear Vasja, it’s always nice to hear from people who appreciate your work. Thank you for your interest, and love for the blues, blues forever, Barry Goldberg.

Charlie Musselwhite Story:
Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo can recollect a leaner time when his record collection had been whittled down to only the bare essentials: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band. Butterfield and Musselwhite will probably be forever linked as the two most interesting, and arguably the most important, products of the "white blues movement" of the mid- to late '60s -- not only because they were near the forefront chronologically, but because they both stand out as being especially faithful to the style. Each certainly earned the respect of his legendary mentors. No less than the late Big Joe Williams said, "Charlie Musselwhite is one of the greatest living harp players of country blues. He is right up there with Sonny Boy Williamson, and he's been my harp player ever since Sonny Boy got killed."

It's interesting that Williams specifies "country" blues, because, even though he made his mark leading electric bands in Chicago and San Francisco, Musselwhite began playing blues with people he'd read about in Samuel Charters' Country Blues -- Memphis greats like Furry Lewis, Will Shade, and Gus Cannon. It was these rural roots that set him apart from Butterfield, and decades later Musselwhite began incorporating his first instrument, guitar.

Musselwhite was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1944, and his family moved north to Memphis, where he went to high school. Musselwhite migrated to Chicago in search of the near-mythical $3.00-an-hour job (the same lure that set innumerable youngsters on the same route), and became a familiar face at blues haunts like Pepper's, Turner's, and Theresa's, sitting in with and sometimes playing alongside harmonica lords such as Little Walter, Shakey Horton, Good Rockin' Charles, Carey Bell, Big John Wrencher, and even Sonny Boy Williamson. Before recording his first album, Musselwhite appeared on LPs by Tracy Nelson and John Hammond and duetted (as Memphis Charlie) with Shakey Horton on Vanguard's Chicago/The Blues/Today series

When his aforementioned debut LP became a standard on San Francisco's underground radio, Musselwhite played the Fillmore Auditorium and never returned to the Windy City. Leading bands that featured greats like guitarists Harvey Mandel, Freddie Roulette, Luther Tucker, Louis Myers, Robben Ford, Fenton Robinson, and Junior Watson, Musselwhite played steadily in Bay Area bars and mounted somewhat low-profile national tours. It wasn't until the late '80s, when he conquered a career-long drinking problem, that Musselwhite began touring worldwide to rave notices. He became busier than ever and continued releasing records to critical acclaim.

His two releases on Virgin, Rough News in 1997 and Continental Drifter in 2000, found Musselwhite mixing elements of jazz, gospel, Tex-Mex, and acoustic Delta blues. After signing with Telarc Blues in 2002, he continued exploring his musical roots by releasing One Night in America. The disc exposed Musselwhite's interest in country music with a cover version of the Johnny Cash classic "Big River," and featured guest appearances by Kelly Willis and Marty Stuart. Sanctuary, released in 2004, was Musselwhite's first record for Real World. After extensive touring globally, he returned to the studio for its follow-up, the back-to-basics Delta Hardware, recorded in Mississippi. The set was hard-edged and raw blues and featured one live track, the hip-shaking "Clarksdale Boogie," recorded in front of a small but enthusiastic audience at Red's Juke Joint in that very town. Musselwhite returned to Alligator in 2009 and got down to business and cut The Well in Chicago, an all-original program that featured a guest duet appearance from Mavis Staples on the track "Sad Beautiful World." The song references the murder of his 93-year-old mother during a burglary in her home.

Harvey Mandel Story:
In the mold of Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, and Mike Bloomfield, Mandel is an extremely creative rock guitarist with heavy blues and jazz influences. And like those guitarists, his vocal abilities are basically nonexistent, though Mandel, unlike some similar musicians, has always known this, and concentrated on recordings that are entirely instrumental, or feature other singers. A minor figure most known for auditioning unsuccessfully for the Rolling Stones, he recorded some intriguing (though erratic) work on his own that anticipated some of the better elements of jazz-rock fusion, showcasing his concise chops, his command of a multitude of tone pedal controls, and an eclecticism that found him working with string orchestras and country steel guitar wizards. Mandel got his first toehold in the fertile Chicago white blues-rock scene of the mid-'60s (which cultivated talents like Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, and Steve Miller), and made his first recordings as the lead guitarist for harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite. 

Enticed to go solo by Blue Cheer producer Abe Kesh, Harvey cut a couple of nearly wholly instrumental albums for Phillips in the late '60s that were underground FM radio favorites, establishing him as one of the most versatile young American guitar lions. He gained his most recognition, though, not as a solo artist, but as a lead guitarist for Canned Heat in 1969 and 1970, replacing Henry Vestine and appearing with the band at Woodstock. Shortly afterward, he signed up for a stint in John Mayall's band, just after the British bluesman had relocated to California. Mandel unwisely decided to use a vocalist for his third and least successful Philips album. After his term with Mayall (on USA Union and Back to the Roots) had run its course, he resumed his solo career, and also formed Pure Food & Drug Act with violinist Don "Sugarcane" Harris (from the '50s R&B duo Don & Dewey), which made several albums. 

In the mid-'70s, when the Rolling Stones were looking for a replacement for Mick Taylor, Mandel auditioned for a spot in the group; although he lost to Ron Wood, his guitar does appear on two cuts on the Stones' 1976 album, Black & Blue. Recording intermittently since then as a solo artist and a sessionman, his influence on the contemporary scene is felt via the two-handed fretboard tapping technique that he introduced on his 1973 album Shangrenade, later employed by Eddie Van Halen, Stanley Jordan, and Steve Vai.

Recorded live in 1966 at the legendary Big John’s, a swinging Blues club in Chicago’s old town. "Together Records" released this concert 1971, USA.

Along with MANDEL and GOLDBERG this recording features CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE on harmonica, ROY RUBY on bass, MORRIS MCKINLEY on drums, and on guitar BOBBY JONES.

Personnel:
★ Bass – Roy Ruby
★ Drums – Maurice McKinley
★ Guitar – Dave Brian, Harvey Mandel
★ Harmonica – Charlie Musselwhite
★ Organ – Barry Goldberg
★ Saxophone – Cliff Davis
★ Vocals – Bobby Jones, The Day Jobbers

01. Slow Down I'm Gonna Lose You 03:04
02. I Loved And Lost 04:18
03. Big Boss Man 05:09
04. Funk 05:35
05. Aunt Lilly 02:09
06. You Got Me Crying 03:25
07. Times I've Had 02:12
08. Hoochie Cooche Man 03:32

Bonus Tracks:
09. Barry Goldberg & Friends - One More Mile [Bonus]
10. Charlie Musselwhite - Sundown [2006 Bonus Track]
11. Charlie Musselwhite - Blues For Yesterday [2006 Bonus Track]
12. Charlie Musselwhite - Key to the Highway Live [Bonus]
13. A.B. Skhy w. C. Musselwhite - Thinking It Over [Bonus 1969]
14. A.B. Skhy w. C. Musselwhite - Sweet Little Angel [Bonus 1969]

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Video of the week

Captain Foam and the Doctor was a two piece band out of Canton Ohio from 1967 till probably around 70. Richard Bertram played all guitars and Mike O'brien was on drums. Ritchard previously had led Lord Ritchie and the Mariners, and Mike O'Brien had been in the Angry and The 18th Century. Captain Foam was probably the loudest band ever live.'

Captain Foam was a Extremly loud Heavy Psych/Heavy rock band. This song is of the A side of their very rare sought after single from 1968 . Anyone who knows a member of the band is welcome to get it touch. Rumour has it that Captain Foam played a 45 min version of Crossroads live..

Enjoy!!

Not to be missed: Pentagram - All Daze Here 1972-76 (Very Good Hardrock)

Size: 237 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped By: ChrisGoesRock
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Compilation of early material from this hard rocking Sabbath influenced American underground metal band. Mostly unreleased tracks from the first period of this long lived but under recorded outfit. Fairly lo-fi stuff recorded live with some demos and with the first single included, the songs stand up well and the guitar playing is excellent. It is surprising they didn't generate more success. Stand out for me is ":Starlady" with a stunning piece of guitar work that give me goose bumps.Overall rating 4.5/5

The album starts with three of the five songs that came from their March ’73 recording sesh and gives the album its real coherence. However, the album hits its peak later on, so give it time if this stuff don’t smoke thy pole immediately. ‘Forever My Queen’ opens up just like Bang doing Sabbath in that remedial Bleib Alien-meets-‘Future Shock’-style, a grunge-a-holic trawl through the lowest grade of Iommi riffs. Vincent McAllister solos wildly and inappropriately all through and then it just… fades and fucks off in my favourite kind of AM radio fade – 3 secs max. Then, off into the next under 3-minutes bliss of ‘When the Screams Come’, complete with Bill Wardian bibles-at-the-sofa drum fills and Sabbalong time changes. 

Man, these guys are screaming out for an LP of their own but there’s not even bones for these dogs! And slowly out of the mists comes the sub-Joy Division/E Pluribus Sabbalong of ‘Walk in the Blue Light’ in which Vincent McAllister exposes his bassist-turned-guitar hero provenance with another Bleib Alien riff you always thought Ace Frehley woulda been knocking out before his Kiss days (not true, I’m sure). In fact, that whole Roky Erikson/Bobby Liebling thing that the Swedish band Witchcraft had going really manifests here in the atmosphere of ‘Walk in the Blue Light’, enjoying a real soaring clarity and openness that Sabbath obviously never approached because of their ubermetal groovelessness. 

Greg Mayne RICKENBACKER BASS Then, ‘Starlady’ kicks in from three years later and weez talking about a totally different, blazing, auspicious rock experience that sounds like a band that’s huge. Gone is the autistic, post-adolescent in-yer-boots vibe to be replaced with a Horned God confidence that screams and struts. Also, here we gotta nutha extra guitarist called Marty Iverson, who adds considerable weight to the sound and pushes the whole Pentagram trip into a Dust-as-played-by-Montrose experience even something like the Australian UGLY THINGS period of MC5/Yardbirds influenced groups. I know I keep punishing the Dust metaphors but Leibling’s voice is uncannily like Richie Wise’s at times. 

Track 5 is that classic ‘Lazylady’ 7” they recorded a year before as Macabre, and comes on with another ‘Walk in the Blue Light’ morons-on-the-frontier riff (play ‘em back to back – they’ze virtually the same fucking riff: excellent) over an Ace Frehley’s ‘Shock Me’/’Dark Light’-style throw away vocal that meets dirty Frank Zappa around the time of OVERNIGHT SENSATION (though this sucker is a year before that Mothers’ LP) – extremely charming and funny too. This is the toon in which Liebling disses his chick and kicks her out so she buys up the whole apartment block he lives in and has him kicked out, too. Nice.

‘Review your Choices’ is the fourth track from that same session that spawned the first three tracks on this disc. Again, we’re deep in Sabbath territory both lyrically and in its per-riffery. Sounds like Liebling never leaves the first four frets for his songwriting and Vincent McAllsiter is a committed ex-bass player when it comes to copping then staying true to the Liebling lick. He also exceeds at soloing like a flayling moron between each vocal delivery. Satan’s coming round the bend in this one, and there’s a man with a pitchfork, and.. oh whatever, I obviously suck this dung into every orifice with more gusto than most, or you wouldn’t be getting it served up as Album of the Month. Two months after that main sesh came the same Boffo Socko alias 7” ‘Hurricane’ that appears on GUITAR EXPLOSION 2, and is just Hendrix-filtered through Iommi’s week old socks. Deeply excellent, relentless, by numbers and irksome that it ain’t internationally known. A quick 2.05 classic, fade and outtahere. 

Then it’s time for two of the three best tracks on the whole record, and both recorded in their rehearsal with sometime extra guitarist Randy Palmer. ‘Living in a Ram’s Head’ (excellent fucking title, Herr Liebling) has a steaming incessant freight train quality you wanna keep playing over and over and over. Man, if they got more of this rehearsal room stuff in the can, clue me druids, I gots to know! The following track is ‘Earth Flight’ which coulda be spunked out in the late 1960s and appeared on PEBBLES VOLUME 5, or UGLY THINGS, or any classic hard rock LP of the time. Monstrous and full of demons, and worthy of ripping off forever. ’20 Buck Spin’ is the final one of the five track session from March 1973, and man does it smoke my unyielding pole. Vincent McAllister is as good here as he is rock in that photo of him you can see in the review. And that SG is more burning here that Iommi’s ever was (honest!) AND this guy never has to resort to soloing OVER his solos as Iommi did countless times (whaddya mean, I cain’t diss Iommi? Only after 20 years did Iommi’s solos become classic through sheer overplaying and I’ll challenge any non-motherfucker to disprove my unhasty assertion!) Someone should release these five tracks as 7” 33RPM European-style pic sleeve maxi single just so we can judge Pentagram on a contemporary 1973 level and understand the songs in context. This band will surely be revisited again and again in the next few years and will, like lost greats such as the Blue Things and the Swamp Rats, become an accepted part of Rock’s great canon like the little glitch that held that first LP up weren’t fucking owt at all. 

Geof O'Keefe DRUMS‘Be Forewarned’ is up next. What do I say? I been listening to this on heavy rotation for 21 years and it is demented and suffused with the kind of incandescant glow that marks it out as the work of the great. Batman-meets-Lucifer Sam-as-played-by-Heavy period Love is not exactly obvious, kiddies, and I think we see here the reason that Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Green Manalishi’ influenced everyone (except its own writer): it has that LOVE IT TO DEATH interweaving minor key dervish quality that we all try to cop, but rarely even glimpse. 

Then, we conclude with Pentagram’s finest hour by about ten bazzillion miles. ‘Last Daze Here’ is a beautiful, gleaming jewel of a death trip, with Bobby singing like he’s staring out of some spectacular ice palace and ain’t never coming back to the real world. He’s Mithra trapped in the mountain, he’s Loki with the poison reigning down on him,, but there ain’t nobody there to wipe it away in this particklier scenario. This song is imbued with a sense of tragedy you rarely hear in heavy rock. For those who don’t quite get it… whatever. But if you ever approached that post-everything vacuum, that empty cathedral in your head, that hollow, unspeaking, unblinking, unhuman emotionless inertia that even Iggy could only hint at in the flatness of ‘Sick of you’ then you truly NEED NEED NEED this song in your life. If Pentagram had only done this one song and been killed in a plane crash thereafter, we’d still be celebrating it 50 years from now. And when Bobby takes it down from his dazed almost whispered tenor to flat shark-eyed semi-spoken baritone and states: ‘Said it’s bin a little bit too long’, you feel the ice melt, then re-freeze instantly, and you know in that moment how tragic human life is, how intolerably short human life is, how the moments of adolescence that resurface in adult life must be celebrated and further celebrated, then howled about, shrieked out, screamed out… man, we are dead and in the fucking ground for so long… No No No No No No No… Gimme Life and gimme the six minutes of this toon on endless rotation.

Although PENTAGRAM did not officially form until 1971, the beginnings of the band date back to 1970, when vocalist Bobby Liebling joined Washington DC area band, SPACE MEAT, who then changed their name to STONE BUNNY. Aside from Liebling, the line-up featured John Jennings (guitar), Greg Mayne (bass) and Geof O'Keefe (drums), all of whom later turned up in PENTAGRAM. STONE BUNNY only stayed together for a few months because Liebling's harder vocal style wasn't right for Jennings' often melodic material, and they parted ways with the Jennings/Mayne/O'Keefe trio reverting back to the moniker SPACE MEAT before splitting up a brief time later. 

In the fall of 1971, Liebling and O'Keefe decided to pool their talents and form a band that could play originals in the heavy style they both loved. In addition to Liebling (vocals) and O'Keefe (switching to guitar), the very first line-up featured Vincent McAllister (bass), and Steve Martin (drums). They began working up original material influenced by their idols including Blue Cheer, The Frost, The Groundhogs, Stray, and Sir Lord Baltimore, and yet even in this embryonic phase, the sound was uniquely PENTAGRAM. After a month, John Jennings returned to the fold giving the band a twin-guitar style of groups like Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy but it soon became apparent that further fine-tuning was needed. Martin's jazz-influence style wasn't right for the heavy direction the band wanted to go in, and so O'Keefe returned to the drums. This sadly unrecorded Mark III line-up of Liebling/Jennings/McAllister/O'Keefe lasted for all of one rehearsal which blew everyone away, but later that evening, Jennings phoned O'Keefe and said he really didn't want to play heavy hard rock, leaving the remaining three members disappointed and without a guitarist. 

The trio soldiered on briefly with Liebling playing rudimentary guitar so they could at least keep working on material until one day when bassist McAllister suggested he try playing guitar. Liebling and O'Keefe figured they had nothing to lose and after a few numbers, realized there had been a guitar hero posing as a bassist in the line-up all that time! They were blown away by his Leigh Stephens-styled soloing, wild and raw. It was just what they needed. O'Keefe promptly phoned his former SPACE MEAT pal bassist Greg Mayne (who also was a friend of Vincent's to begin with, living in the same area) and on Christmas day 1971, the classic "original line-up" of PENTAGRAM was born, although technically it was the 4th version of the band. They rehearsed as often as possible for three to four hours a night at a bulk mailing warehouse in Alexandria, VA where O'Keefe's dad was an executive. Just before the band's first promotional-only single, "Be Forewarned"/"Lazy Lady" was to be pressed in the summer of 1972, the band decided to avoid the potential controversy of being labelled a 'satanic' band and changed their name to MACABRE. Subsequently realizing people had difficulty correctly pronouncing that word (Muh-cah-bra), they went through a number of other names such as VIRGIN DEATH and WICKED ANGEL before finally and permanently reverting back to PENTAGRAM. They played their first live gig on December 8th, 1973 at Montgomery Junior College in Maryland. This Liebling/McAllister/Mayne/O'Keefe line-up remained constant (with the exception of two additions) until late 1976. 

Product Description
Before the name was even coined, Legendary D.C. outfit PENTAGRAM was helping to invent the beast called heavy metal. For over thirty years the band, led by eccentric founder and vocalist Bobby Liebling, has remained true to its vision of songcraft in the macabre art. This unwavering dedication has influenced scores of renowned musicians some three decades on, and the legacy grows stronger with each passing year. First Daze Here Too is a brand new 2-disc set containing rare and unreleased studio recordings and live rehearsals from the early 70's. A deluxe 28-page booklet includes lyrics, detailed historical liner notes by drummer Geof O'Keefe and scores of never-before-seen PENTAGRAM photography! First Daze Here Too is 22 tracks of vintage PENTAGRAM classics from the vaults of the influential and critically-acclaimed D.C. legends!!! The legend lives on! 

Disc 1:
01. Forever My Queen (1973)
02. When the Screams Come (1973)
03. Walk in the Blue Light (1973)
04. Starlady (1976
05. Lazylady (1972)
06. Review Your Choices (1973)
07. Hurricane (1973)
08. Livin’ in a Ram’s Head (1974)
09. Earth Flight (1974)
10. 20 Buck Spin (1973)
11. Be Forewarned (1972)
12. Last Days Here (1974)

Disc 2:  
01. Wheel of Fortune  
02. When the Screams Come  
03. Under My Thumb  
04. Smokescreen  
05. Teaser  
06. Little Games  
07. Much Too Young to Know
  
Disc 3: 
01. Virgin Death  
02. Yes I Do  
03. Ask no More  
04. Man  
05. Be Forewarned  
06. Catwalk  
07. Die in Your Sleep  
08. Frustration  
09. Target  
10. Everything's Turning To Night  
11. Take me Away  
12. Nightmare Gown  
13. Cartwheel  
14. Cat & Mouse  
15. Show 'Em How  

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McDonald & Sherby - Catharsis (Heavy Guitar Driven Psych US 1974)

Size: 83.8 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped By: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included

"McDonald & Sherby's"  sole contribution to the canon of 20th century music was Catharsis, an album which originally appeared on the appropriately-named Omniscient label (Omniscient Records 1426S) Some have speculated that given the band's prog/psych leanings, Catharsis was probably recorded in the '70s, although the accepted wisdom is that the album was made at Minneapolis's Sound 80 Studios on 1969. The album consists of six long tracks with a decidedly heavy guitar-based vibe, all well- recorded and delivered with considerable aplomb."

"Latest offering in our series of Christian titles, this time from those noted style gurus, McDonald & Sherby, whose sole contribution to the canon of 20th century music was Catharsis, an album which originally appeared on the appropriately-named Omniscient label (Omniscient Records 1426S) Some have speculated that given the band's prog/psych leanings, Catharsis was probably recorded in the '70s, although the accepted wisdom is that the album was made at Minneapolis's Sound 80 Studios on 1969. 

The album consists of six long tracks with a decidedly heavy guitar-based vibe, all well- recorded and delivered with considerable aplomb. 

A guitar-based progressive album recorded at Sound 80 in Minneapolis. Though undated, the record sounds of a mid-seventies vintage, not dissimilar to fellow Great Lakes prog rockers Kopperfield."

*** I was in this band, and was shocked to find it here! It was indeed recorded at Sound 80 in Minneapolis, but the year is 1974 - not 1969. (In 1969 I was only in the 9th grade, and living in Japan.)

01. Addoranne - 10.06
02. Sharks Around Blood - 5.27
03. Run And Hide - 4.17
04. Space Beam - 4.35
05. Swim Free - 15.01
06. Drivin´ Me Crazy - 5.18 

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McDonald & Sherby - Space Beam (US 1974)

The Next Morning - Selftitled (Jimi Hendrix Infl. US Heavy 1971)

Size: 64.3 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped By: ChrisGoesRock
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A wickedly rare phase 'n' fuzz fueled slice of psychedelia circa 1970! - featuring ripsnorting guitar-work by Bert Bailey- these guys were Caribbean immigrants (four from Trindad, one from the Virgin Islands) and they idolized the Who and Jimi Hendrix.

African-American psychedelic groups, and rock bands from Trinidad, were both uncommon items around 1970. The Next Morning fit into both categories, making them an interesting curiosity regardless of their music. The music, however--average 1970 hard-rock with soul, hard rock, and psychedelic influences, particularly from Jimi Hendrix--is not as unusual as their origins. 

Rock And Roll, Here To Stay!, Ann Arbor Sun, May 7, 1971

One would not suspect from listening that the group were largely from Trinidad, with the proliferation of heavy, bluesy guitar and organ riffs, and the strained soul-rock vocals of Lou Phillips. They recorded one album, released in 1971, that received little notice before their breakup. 

The Next Morning formed in the late 1960s in New York, four of the five members having come to the city from Trinidad; Lou Phillips was from the Virgin Islands. Jimi Hendrix was a big influence on the band, as were some other hard rock acts of the period like the Who, and rock-soul hybrids like Sly Stone and the Chamber Brothers. 

The Next Morning were busy on the New York club circuit and attracted attention from Columbia Records, but ended up signing to the smaller Roulette label, whose Calla subsidiary issued their lone, self-titled LP in 1971. 

Although the jagged guitar sounds of Bert Bailey and some unexpected chord shifts made the album less pedestrian than some efforts in the style, the songs tended toward the long and meandering side, and the material was not as outstanding as their influences. 

The Next Morning's career sputtered out in the early 1970s, with bassist Scipio Sargeant finding some work doing horn arrangements for Joe Tex and Harry Belafonte. The Next Morning album was reissued on CD by Sundazed in 1999. 

01. The Next Morning 4:57
02. Life 2:57
03. Changes Of The Mind 6:01
04. Life Is Love 5:34
05. Back To The Stone Age 5:26
06. Adelane 2:51
07. A Jam Of Love 4:24
08. Faces Are Smiling 6:29 

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Can - BBC In Concert London 1973 (Bootleg)

Size: 133 MB
Bitrate: 320
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Found in Outer Space
Artwork Included

"Can" was a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany, in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first krautrock groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist, electronic, and world music elements into their often psychedelic and funk-inflected music.

Can constructed their music largely through collective spontaneous composition—which the band differentiated from improvisation in the jazz sense—sampling themselves in the studio and editing down the results; bassist/chief engineer Holger Czukay referred to Can's live and studio performances as "instant compositions". They had occasional commercial success, with singles such as "Spoon" and "I Want More" reaching national singles charts. Through albums such as Monster Movie (1969), Tago Mago (1971), Ege Bamyasi (1972) and Future Days (1973), the band exerted a considerable influence on avant-garde, experimental, underground, ambient, new wave and electronic music.

Early years: 1968–1970
The roots of Can can be traced back to Irmin Schmidt and a trip that he made to New York City in 1966. While Schmidt initially spent his time with avant-garde musicians such as Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Terry Riley, he was also eventually exposed to the world of Andy Warhol, Hotel Chelsea and, perhaps most importantly, the Velvet Underground. In his own words, the trip "corrupted" him, sparking a fascination with the possibilities of rock music. Upon his return to Cologne later that year, an inspired Schmidt formed a group with American avant-garde composer and flautist David C. Johnson and music teacher Holger Czukay with the intention of exploring his newly broadened horizons.

       “When I founded the group I was a classical composer and conductor and pianist making piano recitals, playing a lot of contemporary music but also Brahms, Chopin and Beethoven and everything. And when we got together I wanted to do something in which all contemporary music becomes one thing. Contemporary music in Europe especially, the new music was classical music was Boulez, Stockhausen and all that. I studied all that, I studied Stockhausen but nobody talked about rock music like Sly Stone, James Brown or the Velvet Underground as being contemporary music. Then there was jazz and all these elements were our contemporary music, it was new. It was, in a way, much newer than the new classical music which claimed to be 'the new music'.”

Up to that point, the inclinations of all three musicians had been exclusively avant-garde classical. In fact, both Schmidt and Czukay had directly studied under the influential composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Schmidt chose to play organ and piano, while Czukay played bass and was able to record their music with a basic two-track tape machine. The group was soon fleshed out by guitarist Michael Karoli, a 19-year-old pupil of Czukay, and drummer Jaki Liebezeit, who had grown disenchanted with his work in free jazz groups. As the group developed a more rock-oriented sound, a disappointed Johnson left the group at the end of 1968.

The band used the names "Inner Space" and "The Can" before finally settling on "CAN". Liebezeit subsequently suggested the backronym "communism, anarchism, nihilism" for the band's name. In mid-1968, the band enlisted the creative, highly rhythmic, but unstable and often confrontational American vocalist Malcolm Mooney, a New York-based sculptor, with whom they recorded the material for an album, Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom. Unable to find a recording company willing to release the album, the group continued their studio work until they had material for what became their first release, Monster Movie, released in 1969. This album contained new versions of two songs previously recorded for Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom, "Father Cannot Yell" and "Outside My Door". Other material recorded around the same time was released in 1981 as Delay 1968. Mooney's bizarre ranting vocals emphasized the sheer strangeness and hypnotic quality of the music, which was influenced particularly by garage rock, psychedelic rock and funk. Repetition was stressed on bass and drums, particularly on the epic "Yoo Doo Right", which had been edited down from a six-hour improvisation to take up a mere single side of vinyl. Liebezeit's tight but multifarious drumming was crucial in carrying the music.

Mooney returned to America soon afterwards on the advice of a psychiatrist, having been told that getting away from the chaotic music of Can would be better for his mental health.[5] The liner notes of Monster Movie claim that Mooney suffered a nervous breakdown ("caught in a Can groove"), shouting "upstairs, downstairs" repeatedly. He was replaced by the more understated Kenji "Damo" Suzuki, a young Japanese traveller found busking outside a Munich café by Czukay and Liebezeit. Though he only knew a handful of guitar chords and improvised the majority of his lyrics (as opposed to committing them to paper), Suzuki was asked to perform with the band that same night. The band's first record with Suzuki was Soundtracks, released in 1970, a compilation of music made for films that also contained two earlier tracks recorded with Mooney. Suzuki's lyrics were usually in English, though sometimes in Japanese (for example, in "Oh Yeah" and "Doko E").

Classic years: 1971–1973
The next few years saw Can release their most acclaimed works. While their earlier recordings tended to be at least loosely based on traditional song structures, on their mid-career albums the band reverted to an extremely fluid improvisational style. The double album Tago Mago (1971) is often seen as a groundbreaking, influential and deeply unconventional record, based on intensely rhythmic jazz-inspired drumming, improvised guitar and keyboard soloing (frequently intertwining each other), tape edits as composition, and Suzuki's idiosyncratic vocalisms. Czukay: "(Tago Mago) was an attempt in achieving a mystery musical world from light to darkness and return."

In 1971 the band composed the music for the three-part German-language television crime mini-series Das Messer ("The Knife"), directed by Rolf von Sydow.

Tago Mago was followed in 1972 by Ege Bamyasi, a more accessible but still avant-garde record which featured the catchy "Vitamin C" and the Top 10 German hit "Spoon". Czukay: "We could achieve an excellent dry and ambient sound... [Ege Bamyasi] reflects the group being in a lighter mood."

It was followed by Future Days in 1973, which represents an early example of ambient music, as well as including the pop song "Moonshake". Czukay: "'Bel Air' [the 20 minute-long track which took up the whole of side two on the Future Days original vinyl LP] showed Can in a state of being an electric symphony group performing a peaceful though sometimes dramatic landscape painting."

Suzuki left soon after the recording of Future Days to marry his German girlfriend, and become a Jehovah's Witness. Vocals were taken over by Karoli and Schmidt; however, after the departure of Suzuki, fewer of their tracks featured vocals, as Can found themselves experimenting with the ambient music they had begun with Future Days.

Much of Can's music was based on free improvisation and then edited for the studio albums. For example, when preparing a soundtrack, only Irmin Schmidt would view the film and then give the rest of the band a general description of the scenes they would be scoring. This assisted in the improvised soundtrack being successful both inside and outside the film's context. Also, the epic track "Cutaway" from Unlimited Edition demonstrates how tape editing and extensive jamming could be used to create a sound collage that doesn't gel perfectly, and that the flashes of genius in the improvisation needed to be cut from long, unconsolidated recordings.

Can's live shows often melded spontaneous improvisation of this kind with songs appearing on their albums. The track "Colchester Finale", appearing on the Can Live album, incorporates portions of "Halleluhwah" into a composition lasting over half an hour. Early concerts found Mooney and Suzuki often able to shock audiences with their unusual vocal styles, as different as they were from one another; Suzuki's debut performance with Can in 1970 nearly frightened an audience to the point of rioting due to his odd style of vocalizing.[citation needed] The actor David Niven was amongst the crowd who remained to hear what Can and Damo would do next. Asked later by Czukay what he had thought of the music, Niven replied: "It was great, but I didn't know it was music." After the departure of Suzuki, the music grew in intensity without a vocal centre. The band maintained their ability to collectively improvise with or without central themes for hours at a time (their longest performance, in Berlin, lasted over six hours), resulting in a large archive of performances.

Can made attempts to find a new vocalist after the departure of Damo Suzuki, although no one quite fit the position. In 1975, folk singer Tim Hardin took the lead vocal spot and played guitar with Can for one song, at two gigs, performing his own "The Lady Came From Baltimore". Malaysian Thaiga Raj Raja Ratnam played four dates with the band between January and March 1976, all of which were recorded, and did considerable studio work with them. Another vocalist, Englishman Michael Cousins, toured with Can in March (France) and April (Germany) 1976. Audiences in France disapproved of his presence and literally spat at him while on stage. There are eight recordings of Cousins performing with the band.

BBC Radio 1: 'In Concert' FM Broadcast
London, Paris Theatre, Recorded: 1973-02-19

★ Holger Czukay - bass
★ Irmin Schmidt - keyboards
★ Michael Karoli - guitars, violin
★ Jaki Liebezeit - drums
★ Damo Suzuki - vocals 

01. "I`m So Green" + "Spoon" (Improvisation) 35:24 
02. "Tatgirdid Janit" 22:16

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ChrisGoesRock