Rolling Late-60's/Early-70's Thud-Rock Thread

The singer had the best name in all of rock, too. Are you ready for it: REALITY "D" BLIPCROTCH !!!

I wonder what the "D" stood for.

uh, grand theft, firebirds, etc.

anyone know anything about this GUN group? like, white guys with afros, looks good...

El Sabor - Buy all Gun. And buy all Three Man Army while you are at it. There is plenty of wonderful guitar stuff to marvel at.

http://www.gotarevolution.com/reality.htm

Anyway, Reality is sitting in my office, and I take out my pen and he says, "Maurice, this is what I want. On band three, bar 30, I want a
marijuana leaf to pop out."

I write down, "Band three, bar 30, marijuana leaf pop out." Pop out of the record. He's putting me on, right? But I write it down!

I said, "What else?"

"One more thing, one more thing." He takes a deep toke. "One more thing, Maurice, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"At the end of side two, as it rejects, I want the record to self-destruct."

So I write down, "End of side two, self-destruct." I wrote this down on a piece of paper.

"Why do you want it to self-destruct?"

He takes a toke and says, "You know why I want it to self-destruct? Because they'll go out and buy it again and I'll get double sales."

for some reason this thread's making me want to buy the bon scott and fraternity 2cd.

You got it!

I recorded a song for a Battiato tribute last year, but it's for an Italian label (Sillyboy), so I guess that's less surprising.

Uh, that IS the tribute I'm writing the liner notes for! I'm friends with the label owner Marco. So wait, which band are you in again?

Scott, reviewed for the Voice, I'm guessing? heh, that would have been totally appropriate subject matter -- although it's always fun to hear Mr. Eddy's take on anything.

But seriously, can't we talk about the Maximillian record instead?! And other, lesser oaf-rock too! Scrubbaloe Caine!

And Spooky Tooth -- seriously, what a band! And they gave the world not only Gary Wright and Mick Jones, but Ariel Bender! Mike Kellie! How can any band compare to one that splintered its way into Foreigner, Mott the Hoople, and the Only Ones?!? Plus, "Cotton Growin' Man"!!!

I saw her on the cover of some maternity mag once, so I guess that counts.

I only have Mount Rushmore 69, but I never play it. It didn't thrill me so much long ago. I should give it another spin.

Oh, and "High on Mount Rushmore" is moronic, but has great singing. I don't know "Mount Rushmore 69" at all. Agreed on Spooky Tooth -- I even like both eras -- I think the "reunion" lineup is awesome. And I'm serious about where all those people ended up; it's so cool.

Stephen Barncard: I remember a particular session that I did not participate in where they were trying to record a teapot. They had a part in a
song where they wanted the teapot to whistle on cue, so they would back the tape up and try to anticipate the delay after the heat was turned
on. Nobody told them they didn't have to do it that way; they could have recorded it separately on a two-track and spun it in. But they were too
wasted to think of that.

Blipcrotch was this weird character that was the leader of the band. I have no idea why Paul signed them, I thought they were terrible, besides
being idiots. I think since Paul lived in the same town as them, he felt sorry for them or something.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0412/smith.php

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0412/eddy.php

(As for Postal Service, um, I guess I prefer Superpitcher.)

Oh man, that tea kettle story is priceless.

Yes, Pink Fairies (there's a reason my fantasy baseball team is named Kings of Oblivion.) el sabor wrote:

for some reason this thread's making me want to buy the bon scott and fraternity 2cd.

This is actually pretty good! Or at least, the Fraternity tracks I have on a CD compilation are good. Kinda mildly heavy post-hippie back-to-the-land rock. The CD also has tracks from Bon's OTHER pre-AC/DC group .. not so good. The Valentines I think they were called? I'd have to check the CD. It's on See for Miles. I don't know about this 2CD thing, though. I may need to look for that..

Did any of you psychonauts ever get into that Holyground stuff? Any Thundermother fans in the house? I might have to torch one up and throw that on...

Spooky Tooth fans may want to find the first Widowmaker album, which features Luther and a very Spooky-Toothy lead singer. It's the definition of thud-like.

Was that Grand Theft "Hiking Into Eternity" LP really recorded in '72-73, or just some big elaborate mid-'90s hoax? Liner notes and bandmembers' names ("Crowbar Monsoon" yet!) are preposterous, and recording quality is too muddy to be conclusive. It's clearly a Grand Funk parody, but Grand Funk were as ripe for parody in '96 as in '72, weren't they? So it's a mystery. If anyone has a clue, I'd sure love to know!

Bang can be had through the band's website. "Bang -- music shot from guns!" And they were from Philly.

i thought it was actually a parody from the early 70s (allegedly members of bluebird, supposedly a rural rock band). but if it isn't, i can say they did a really good job on the production. fooled me.

leaf hound! yeah! i was just listening to that in the car last night. they should've been huge.

I'm realizing that's an essential ingredient for me. If you can't holler/gargle "WOMAN" with as much feeling as Frijid Pink, you're just not in the major leagues, I'm thinking.

Myonga OTM re: Third World War - High Time is a very good comparison. I still really can't fathom anyone who doesn't love all three MC5 lps. But they are out there. High Time might even be better than the first one; better to dance to, anyway.

Does the Mt. Rushmore lp have them on the cover, like on DP's In Rock?!

Most def! And/or "child" and/or "baby".

Best "woman" exclamation is the Sir Lord Baltimore dude at the beginning of "Master Heartache".

I'm gonna go home tonight and find the Group Therapy cut where he cuts loose with my favorite all time "WOMAN!" My first instinct is that it's on Hey Joe, but I think I'm confusing it with a hall of fame "LISTEN, PEOPLE!"

You know what I don't love as much as some people? That first Zior album. I never heard the second one. Great cover and all...

Ah yes, Dunhill. Home to DEMIAN. Can't believe I didn't like that record the first time I heard it. Thankfully, I came to my senses.

More free associating, has anybody heard this?? I've heard tell that the 18-minute Coloured Balls track on there - "God" - is like, THE great heavy distorto guitar overload track. But alas, it has yet to cross my path.

Never heard the Summer Jam LP -- sounds wicked, though. I mean, side two: God. That's pretty cool. A nice DJ set might segue that and ISB: Creation (at 16:XX, a little more equivocal, maybe).

Combination Captain Beyond, prog, heavy blooz thud and some funk. And it's not nearly as grand as the theory although the album does come
down on the better than average side of things. Review of it by the Saint of Cough Syrup can be found on-line at Rolling Stone. The Saint gives Ramatam the thumbs up in an accidentally funny and wretched essay.

They made it to a second record which I never heard.

Yes, it's Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. I have most of it on "Lock Up Your Mothers" which was a box set of three or four albums worth of material. Most of it, entirely great and about a step or a year on from the "black" Grand Funk live album.

Thanks for the link about that 70s metal book, I will check that out.
Some aspiring label needs to get together and make a nuggets style compilation of this kind of stuff, I know I would be interested.

GIMME

The "Medusa" album is good. So is "You're the Music, We're the Bandt." The first album was much mellower than the next two, not real predictive of the sound most fans came to like. Both of thw two records mentioned veer between loud crunching, very funky heavy rock and soulful torch music. There are a couple live CDs of the trio
that predictably dump the torch music for the Marshall stack.

After Hughes went on to Deep Purple the band kept putting out records, adding a second guitarist. "Hot Wire" was one of the better ones; it was full-on heavy funk and hard rock. Not much like it at the time on the hustings except maybe for Pat Travers. Extreme kind of took the idea, softened it up, paid more attention to wardrobe, got a sissier-sounding singer and made it more palatable to girls a decade or so later.

The album after it, "Trapeze," was not quite as good. Less funk for the sake of nondescript thud-rock. The album does feature a very good cover -- jaunty, actually -- of "Sunny Side of the Street," alone worth a bargain price if you can find a copy.

They became huge in San Antonio, like Budgie, and might have lived there for a time. Reissues were everywhere about five years ago, including a live one recorded in Texas called "Dead Armadillos."
This band, while still hard rock, was radically removed from the original which was produced by a member of the Moody Blues and subsequently taken out on tour with them in America.

Bottom line, best albums: "You're the Music," "Medusa" and "Hot Wire."

HOW could you forget Mel Galley's stint in Whitesnake from this pedigree??

But yeah, George pretty much covers it like a blanket, as is his wont. I'll just say that I LOVE that self-titled album from '75. It's great! I got it totally by accident too; some dude included it as a throw-in when I was buying a copy of the first album from him. I had never heard the group before and was curious about the Moody Blues connection; I ended up liking the later hard stuff a helluva lot more.

(it's funny, same thing happened to me when I bought Fly to the Rainbow; dude throws-in a copy of Lovedrive, and I ended up liking THAT better too!)

On another Deep Purple connection, how good is the second Captain Beyond record? I really like the first one, but I have heard the second one is pretty lame.

Another question, I recently aquired Atomic Rooster's "Death Walks Behind You" and think it is really good. Are any of their other albums as good? At least going by the Allmusic reviews, it seems the lineup and band sound changed album to album.

The 2nd Captain Beyond record is still pretty good! Not as good as the first, but ok. It's the 3rd one that really sucks and must be avoided at all costs. I think it was like a different band by that point.

I'm curious about Bolin, too. Always meant to check out his stuff. I bet George knows.

Joe Walsh era James Gang records are all pretty good. "Rides Again" is the best one. "Thirds" is much more mellow than the first two.

I had the Zephyr records, ditched them. Not hard rock -- chopsy musicians, good singer, though.

Bolin was on Deep Purple's "Come Taste the Band" and so is Glenn Hughes, I thin'. "Come Taste the Band" was better than Blackmore's last album with "Burn"-era Deep Purple. "Gettin' Tighter" is the prime cut, a slashing funky rocker halfway between hard rock and metal. I drag it out every so often.

"Teaser" was the first Bolin solo album and the one to have, if you have to scratch the itch. It's the most cohesive, has the best songs and is the most electric. There are half a dozen good numbers on it
but it doesn't compare with any of the band's he was in.

The second one was a mess, the only number memorable [scratching head] was "Don't Let Your Mind Post Toastee" which was autobiographical, maybe accidentally.

He's on "Miami" by the James Gang, too. The albums past Walsh were really up and down, mostly down, although to be fair not everything the Gang did with Walsh was gold, either. James Gang album(s) with
Dom Troiano -- avoid. James Gang album(s) with Tommy Bolin, "Bang" and "Miami," probably. Given the two, flip a coin or buy both as vinyl for 99 cents and burn the cuts you like to one CD.

Last good James Gang album, this time without a name guitarist, "Reborn" with Picasso painting on cover. Very tight, short rock and roll songs. Crunching cover of "Heartbreak Hotel," "Red Satin Lover," a woman-hating rave about fucking a slut.

I like it more than a lot of people because I saw them touring to support it, opening for Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare." Truth be told, live James Gang was better than the Alice Cooper show
which was strictly for very young children or people with the minds of very young children. I seem to recall about two minutes of it being good, when Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter had a guitar duel in
the space the bridges "Devil's Food" and whatever came after it.

I think Bolin's on the first two Moxy albums, here and there, sometimes uncredited. Moxy were better than Bolin solo albums and superior to Walsh-less James Gang. At one point the band recruited pre-Loverboy Mike Reno. That was their last record, a very poor one,
the band aiming for a sound that Loverboy would later own.

http://www.rhinohandmade.com/covers243/7871.jpg
http://www.rhinohandmade.com/covers243/7872.jpg

Courtesy of the good folks at Rhino Handmade:

http://www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso?Number=7871
http://www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso?Number=7872

I can't tell you how excited I am to hear that live disc. God I love Rhino Handmade. Although that damn Television live disc is out of print now, and I never got around to getting it. Thing is going for upwards of $40 on eBay. Oh well. Somehow I think I'll be able to take my time with these, though.

Scott, you know how you cannot possibly fathom how I can like the Postal Service? That's how I feel about you on threads like this. Still
got love for you, obv.

-- Matos W.K. (michaelangelomato...), May 18th, 2004.

hahahaha!!!

I found Spooky Tooth compilation. I liked the music but the guy with the real high falsetto singing voice didn't do much for me. I need to give that one another couple of spins.

A Deep Purple collection I have never seen get props but is excellent is this 2 cd set I picked up called "In Concert", which has two BBC shows both with DP Mk.II, one for John Peel and another concert right after Machine Head came out. The John Peel Show is blinding, as it is literally weeks after Gillian and Glover joined the band, so they stretch everything out with Blackmore and Lord going all over the place.

I still need to get some Groundhogs.

I am always amazed when I think about the fact that those Savage Resurrection guys were teenagers. Just like I'm always amazed that the Clear Blue Sky and T2 dudes were teenagers. And weren't the Gurvitz brothers teens when they did Gun? what happened to the teens? there haven't been any good teen bands since the glory days of hardcore. there just aren't as many wunderkinds around.

other recent things I picked up were the 2nd Hapshash and the Coloured Coat album (not bad at all!) and the Ashkan record (ehhh... it's ok.)

"the frost -vs- frijid pink. who was chillier?"

Yes, and lest we forget Shiver ...

I've gotten into Rory Gallagher in the past year or so and have been impressed by his records. There is a Deep Purple tie-in, as Roger Glover produced Gallagher's Calling Card lp.

http://makemyday.free.fr/70/70poster8.jpg

also: ORANG-UTAN! and STONEWALL! and CHICO (MAGNETIC BAND)! and a little greek instrumental love for BLUE PHANTOM!

Today I was listening to Lucifer's Friend. What year was that record? 71? maybe it is too prog to be considered "thud-rock" though?

lucifer's friend s/t is 1970, i think.

once again I must defer to El Sabor's excellent taste -- he actually recommended the thing to me back on the old Heavy Riffage thred -- I just finally got around to buying it now. I guess I've been scared of these kind of cover albums ever since I was so disappointed by the Flower Travellin' Band's Anywhere

but fuck, this Suck thing is really great -- It's really kind of nice and comforting to hear these old songs reinterpreted by a different group. It kind of makes total sense; in the way that jazz has a kind of core, "fakebook" or whatever, of classic tunes like "Footprints", "Moanin", "Goodbye Old Pork Pie Hat", "Four", "Giant Steps", etc ... kinda cool to think of an alternate universe where these heavy rock tunes have their own canon, and the best groups just kind of have at 'em!!

that's teh vibe I get from this Suck CD. I totally recommend it. Even to people who hated Anywhere. Don't let the cover-song factor dissuade you. They actually change the arrangements a bit, too. The "War Pigs" is great and funky. And the "Into the Fire" was really unexpected, kind of LESS-heavy as the Purple, but still a completely enjoyable version of the cut..

hmmm... this is what Popoff sayz about that "A Foot in Coldwater" lp:

'Stilted execution and equally stiff production once again plague this band of Canuck hopefuls, lone love light being the soaring vocals of Alan Machin. But there are five loud rock songs on this half-reish album, and each of those is less stingly on the top end than the brown towners from the past. The band revive two of their hit singles on the album as well, "(Make Me Do) Anything you Want" and "(Isn't Love Unkind) In my Life)" (plus two other earlier songs), providing the band with mild hits once again, this time top25ers becoming top10ers. Best of the bunch is "all Around Us" which begins as a bit of funky go-nowhere before exploding into a sinister progressive pomp-rock chorus, all told, the most ambitious track from the band's catalogue. "It's Only love" is perhaps the band's loudest, noisiest, sludgiest track ever, all sorts of guitar squalls burying Machin's valient rock-hero vocals. Again, a frustrating band, in total, not heavy enough for the metalheads and not too mentally proficiently [sic??] and financially blocked to churn out (new) proper pop singles.'

??

ah well, they sound kind of hot. bear in mind that Popoff basically thinks that the Chrysalis-era UFO is like the best band EVER, and he HATES s/t & Flying. he's a puzzler, to be sure

http://chrisgoesrock.blogspot.com/2006/02/suck-time-to-suck-raw-dirty-hardrock.html

dude has the whole album for download.

has anyone heard the Barbara, Hill, Chris, Ethridge - "L.A. Getaway" album that he links on there? i picked it up recently and it's really good (although not thudrock)

here are some of my other fave sites for downloading psych and prog
http://8daysinapril.blogspot.com/
http://chocoreve.blogspot.com/
http://kosstacmina.blogspot.com/
http://lysergia.blogspot.com/

i'd read that

xp - been reading those same blogs, jason, and i feel like it's endangering my sanity. 8daysinapril is killing me.

Coincidentally on the topic, "Sludge in the Seventies"

http://www.emusic.com/lists/showlist.html?lid=505486&nickname=GeorgeSmith

http://www.techwebsound.com/

sooooooo. Decibel is doing an upcoming issue devoted to stoner rock and i said i would do a list of 50 forgotten 70's thud-rock klassix. meaning proto-metal, meaning stoner blooze, meaning i could have just as easily revived the heavy riffage thread. i'm wondering whether i should go heavy on the (after the fact) canon or go mega-obscure or be more dollar bin friendly or what. should i throw in some rural prog riffing a la my beloved wishbone ash and glass harp or keep things dirty and smoke-filled a la dust and toe fat? by (after the fact) canon, i'm talking about leafhound, buffalo, pink fairies, sir lord baltimore, pentagram, ya know, great stuff, but kinda listed to death. this will be fun! and obviously no end to what i could add! i'm only writing a sentence (or hopefully two) about each.

You should do Dick Destiny and the Highway Kings. We did 70's obscuro thud rock in the 80's and more people are looking for the old things on eBay. Brutality was really as obscure as it gets.

Don't forget Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. Your Aussie readers will appreciate it. You should dig up some women, too. Flame, from Long Island, might fit the bill.

I'd also include Baker-Gurvitz Army. For the tune "Mad Jack" alone. They were the kind of semi-annoying proggy jammy hard rock band with superplayers that has never gotten enough love. You could group them with Three Man Army.

Scott, do you know any Socrates Drank The Conium records? Big saurian dual-guitar blues-psyche from Greece?

Don't know if they're available/rare. I dl'ed one off postpunkjunk last year.

Scott, you gotta include Chicken Shack's Imagination Lady! That is not obscure in the sense that is probably isn't all that rare, but obscure in the sense that it is one of the heaviest records that nobody talks about. I wish more people knew that one. Way better than any of the boring earlier Chicken Shack records.

I say you should lean more non-(after-the-fact)canon, aside from of course the can't-avoid listing (and yeah, Buffalo, Pink Fairies and Sir Lord would be there)

I was listening to the Cactus debut the other day. Holy shit does that rock like an absolute motherfucker. I always liked the story about the backstage fight between them and Sabbath at the Fillmore. I guess Rusty Day got tossed through a wall.

I saw Phil Keaggy mentioned above. A buddy from a family into heavily into the born-again thing took me to a concert of his in '85 or '86. What an unbelievable guitarist.

been listening to records that i own but have never listened to...pull this out this AM...it's pretty good! also, the cover seems to be the spiritual forefather to the cover of accept's "balls to the wall"

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41W0FCF38AL._SS500_.jpg

I got the first Bang album on vinyl a few months back. It was awesome.

You like Wishbone Ash, Ever heard Thunderpussy's Documents of Captivity? I thought that sounded pretty Wishbone Ash-ish (with the unfortunate addition of an occasional flute.) Aside from that, I'm really only familiar with the more "famous" acts, the JD Blackfoots and Budgies and Nitzingers and all that. Don't think I've ever discovered, entirely on my own, any record/band from that era that was both totally classic AND hopelessly obscure. (Goodthunder and Ramatam just didn't cut it, altho Spontaneous Combusion had their moments). And of course, thanks to the internet, there soon won't be any more obscure stuff at all. Which is kinda depressing...

Never heard Thunderpussy...I actually only heard Wishbone Ash for the first time this morning actually...I'll check out Thunderpussy though, with a name like that they can't lose.

thunderpussy are alright. i like the flute.

Scott, do you know any Socrates Drank The Conium records? Big saurian dual-guitar blues-psyche from Greece?

yeah, seconding this if you haven't heard 'em, scott. on the wings has a song called "death is gonna die" fer chrissakes. heavy and proggy.

as for the article, pick ten of each or something. my instinct would be not to go too crazy with impossible to find vinyl but is anything impossible to find thanks to the internet? also, CLEAR BLUE SKY!

And Thunderpussy's "legendary" Documents of Captivity is actually kinda nice, but sounds more like Wishbone Ash or something equally proggy than anything metallic. Plus the bassist doubles on flute, & that's just sad.
-- Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 18:13 (3 years ago)

You like Wishbone Ash, Ever heard Thunderpussy's Documents of Captivity? I thought that sounded pretty Wishbone Ash-ish (with the unfortunate addition of an occasional flute.)
-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 18:50 (Yesterday)

Sufferin' jesus - I finally train myself to always read the whole thread before posting to prevent such redundancies; and now I gotta try to remember to "Click here to display them all" everytime too!

And finally, if I haven't gotten my point across yet (Wishbone Ash good, flute bad) you can click here and read it a third time, alongside a few snarky remarks and a genuinely informative nugget or two.

this album is better than i remember:

http://www.recordsale.de/cdpix/i/illusion-if_its_so.jpg

heavier and funkier that i remember. haven't played it in years. i mean, it's no work of genius, but there is definitely thud involved. and lotsa guitars.

apropos this thread:

White Lace & Strange: Heavy Psych And Power Fuzz From USA 68-72

1. Persecution - Third Power
2. White Lace & Strange - Thunder & Roses
3. Dimples - The Hook
4. It Could Be Me - The Power Of Zeus
5. John Doe - Banchee
6. Steel Dog Man - Brother Fox And The Tar Baby
7. Hideaway Of Your Love - The Lemonade Charade
8. Angeline - Genesis
9. Loveless Lives - Blue Mountain Eagle
10. Someone Else's Games - Mount Rushmore
11. Get In The Wind - The Illinios Speed Press
12. Bide My Time - The Fields
13. Spaceship Earth - Road
14. Knocked Out - Eden's Children
15. I Think You'd Cry - T.I.M.E.
16. Darkness - The Underbeats
17. I'm A Man - Yellow Payges
18. Time Has Come, Gonna Die - Lincoln Street Exit
19. My Babe - The Uniques
20. Seventh Is Death, The - The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump

it's pretty good. i've got some of that stuff already and foolishly passed up lots of the rest, but it's good. oh, and mr. bevis frond's liner notes are shit (he "couldn't find any information" about the genesis from LA) and have a reluctant, book report-ish quality. but it's good overall. good sound quality.

Got label/retail info?

psychic circle is the label. the only website listed is soundlinkmusic.com, which seems to just sell radioactive, fallout and psyhic circle stuff.

uhh, forced exposure carries them.

i've always wanted that fort mudge album. and the brother fox album. third power are cool. i still want that lincoln st. exit album too. they became XIT.

i love that thunder & roses album. philly power-trio. lotsa great fuzzed out hendrix/cream rips.

i love the hook too. can't say enough good stuff about them. plus, one of them was chaki's dad!

i fucking adore that first Banchee album. so addictive. wish i could afford their second album.

the first illinois speed press album is great. highly recommended. not straight up hard rock though. a mix of folk/rock/hard rock.

eden's children rule.

t.i.m.e. had one or two good tracks per album.

i figured you'd have something to say about these, scott. i passed up the mudge album and i've regretted it ever since.

haven't heard the lincoln st. exit LP but there's a pretty cool ep i got on mysteryposter's blog.

i love the hook too. can't say enough good stuff about them. plus, one of them was chaki's dad!

wow! their song kicks ass, too.

i fucking adore that first Banchee album. so addictive. wish i could afford their second album.

i got both on one cd on lizard records. CONTEMPORIZE, MAAAAN!

i'm never buying radioactive/fallout stuff. i'm down with the ban. especially after knowing how radioactive treated george brigman. fuck them. they should be in jail. hey, if you are a fan, and you put out 200/300/500 copies of some forgotten shit on vinyl and then you are done with it, that's okay with me. you make a business out of ripping people off and do it for years? why can't anyone stop these people?

five of those groups on that comp made my decibel top 50. including road. if it's the same road. this road:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/56471.jpg

I'm late to the thread but nobody seems to have mentioned Stackwaddy yet. You can't get too much thuddier than that I think...

They were really entertaining in an utter shite kind of way. I once heard an interview where John Peel was talking about them (they were on his label Dandelion, for anyone who didn't know that part) and it was hilarious.

Apparently these lads were a bit flaky due to nearly constant drunkenness was the gist of it. Great stuff.... Someone got me into them when I became obsessed with the Dandelion label some years ago.

They finally released a comp of the label this year called Life Too, Has Surface Noise: The Complete Dandelion Records Singles Collection 1969-1972 which has some stuff I hadn't been able to track down and is up on eMusic. I wish I could have sprung for the physical product but maybe someone will get it for me for xmas. Anyway, the comp is recommended (in an OT way, i.e. not for its thuddiness) and does include both Stackwaddy singles, which in itself is a bit of a laugh. If you are looking to burn some eMusic credits, you could do far worse.

xxp: i think radioactive did stop, didn't they? i've bought stuff on radioactive since i found out they were weasels, but only used.

i've read things both way about fallout, though, and i don't know what to think. they seem to have business connections to sunbeam, who are generally recognized as legit and above board. as for psychic circle... don't know yet. they've only done comps so far.

it's all nebulous. i thought i heard that radioactive was involved with fallout.

er, this road:

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Broadway/8489/Jacket/Road.JPG

with noel redding

that's the one.

i'm pretty sure radioactive and fallout are connected somehow, btw, just don't know if their business practices are the same.

i think the fields and the yellow payges and the hook were all on uni. maybe.

the road keeps disappearing.

kinda spooky.

i was listening to uni recording artist pinkany canandy the other day. it will be awhile before i listen again.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/50145.jpg

someone should pay me to create the ultimate album cover database. that is free for anyone to steal from. every album ever will be the goal.

imagine that? with front and back covers. inserts. lyric sheets. does anyone have bill gates' number?

Yeah I picked up that 'White Lace & Strange' thing a couple weeks back... really entertaining comp. I only have the Third Power, Fort Mudge, and Eden's Children albums, so a lot of newness to me. I had heard the Illinois Speed Press album but usually pass it up when I see it in stores.

the Road track is really great! probably the standout to me .. I had no idea that Redding was in a band after Fat MAttress or that album even existed, until a few weeks ago when iamthewitch had a copy up for sale. my interest was piqued so this comp is nice timing.

I wonder how Kurt Cobain heard the Thunder and Roses track in 1987 ?? thrift store find? college radio station?

liner notes are shit .. and have a reluctant, book report-ish quality

hahahah, yeah! ... Which is funny cuz you would expect him to be all OTT and shit

I guess psychic circle is "his" label? they also put out a couple other comps .. a prog one and something else I think.

the road album came out on natural resources. a motown label. between that label and rare earth, berry gordy is my stoner rock god.

i put my fave road track on my hotheads II mix if you wanna download it:

http://www.wvvy.org/listen/content/19feb07mix.mp3

track-list here:

Skot's Rolling Vinyl-To-MP3 Conversion Carnival Thread.

i have an album by corliss on natural resources, i think. not so hot folk-soul stuff.

I guess psychic circle is "his" label? they also put out a couple other comps .. a prog one and something else I think.

yeah, it seems to be his deal. they've done six comps so far, all over the map. as far as mostly white music from the 60s and 70s goes, anyway.

oh... and i think two more just came out in the UK. so that's 8 comps in about six months.

dude has a lot of records. now he must share with the world. i feel kinda bad that i never got into the frond. too many records. has he ever done an album with his american counterpart brother jt? i never got into him either. too many records.

he just make mixes and post them on ilm like me.

when that decibel thing comes out i'll make a corresponding thud mix and post it here. deal? deal!

Re Stackwaddy -- There was a CD which contained everything from their two albums (s/t and Bugger Off!) except their cover of "The Girl from Ipanema." I reckon that isn't missing much. I get it out every now and then. It's a consistantly good listen if you're into their even more knuckle-dragging than the standard takes on white boy blooz and the odd Jethro Tull tune. Favorite song title: Meat Pies Have Come But the Band Ain't Here Yet.

dude has a lot of records. now he must share with the world. i feel kinda bad that i never got into the frond. too many records. has he ever done an album with his american counterpart brother jt? i never got into him either. too many records.

what you said. i know i've heard some frond that was pretty good but there's just tons of cold soup there. brother jt... man, having seen him live (solo) i just don't want anything to do with his music. terrible, terrible sub-beefheart bullshit.

i was really drunk one night at a brother jt show and the crowd was going NUTS and i just couldn't understand it. it just seemed so hokey to me. like mc 900 foot jesus/detachable penis hokey.

Ha-ha. You never had to suffer through John Terlesky's I-eat-mushrooms-and-acid demo cassettes from the 80's.

New Cactus live collection on Rhino Handmade

FORTY BUCKS?! FUCK A RHINO HANDMADE.

i am still so pissed at myself for passing up the black oak arkansas double live when i saw it used for $15.

I don't care about the price-I gotta have the live Cactus

the Toad s/t is a major jam in this vein

awesome 74 live foghat show from new haven on wolfgang's vault:

http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/foghat-concert/20053075-2393.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=071212

raging honey hush. really good sound too.

the free disc with the led zeppelin cover mojo called heavy nuggets is pretty awesome:

1. Terry Reid - Tinker Taylor
2. Pretty Things - Old Man Going
3. The Open Mind - Magic Potion
4. Mighty Baby - Egyptian Tomb
5. Second Hand - Rhubarb!
6. Leaf Hound - Freelance Fiend
7. Atomic Rooster - Night Living
8. The Move - Don't Make My Baby Blue
9. Slade - My Life Is Natural
10. Possessed - Climb The Wooden Hills
11. Procol Harum - Long Gone Geek
12. Blossom Toes - Peace Loving Man
13. Luv machine - Witches Wand
14. Pete Brown & Piblokto! - Aeroplane Head Woman
15. Warhorse - Solitude

milo started a thread on that mojo comp. it tis decent indeed.

good fuckin' god the version of leavin' again on this foghat show. it helps if you have your computer hooked up to your stereo. i am blasting this shit right now.

I almost bought that Mojo just for the cd. wonder if it's still around...

every once in while - like now - i have to hear that asbury park sabbath show from 75 on wolfgang's vault. kills me every time.

Introduction 0:15
Killing Yourself To Live 6:06
Hole In The Sky 4:27
Snowblind 6:43
Symptom of the Universe 4:35
War Pigs 7:35
Megalomania 10:06
Sabbra Cadabra Pt.1 5:29
Sabbra Cadabra: Jam / Guitar Solo 7:47
Sabbra Cadabra: Jam / Drum Solo 6:02
Supernaut 2:20
Iron Man 6:12
Guitar Solo / Orchid 2:43
Rock 'N' Roll Doctor (Incomplete)8:40
Black Sabbath 6:40
Spiral Architect 4:34
Children Of The Grave 5:33
Paranoid 3:47

Yeah, that show's sick stuff.

Just went over to wolfgang's vault and I gotta agree, that Foghat show rocks.

i always mean to put a link to this thread here, but i forget. so:

http://www.stonerrock.com/forums2/allposts.asp?Forum=ap442284636&ID=6301&StartAt=0

TONS of cool titles on there. LOTS of stuff I haven't heard. Definitely one of my fave interweb messageboard music threads.

Damn , that website's gonna cost me a lot of dough. Thanks!

Stonerrock.com profiled in the Voice seven years ago! How long it's been. E Pluribus Doomen.

i bought a vinyl reissue of this a long time ago and have just rediscovered the joys of a band that wanted to be cream, except faster and harder and less blues and more orchestral pomp:

http://www.vinylsolution.com/images/products/85515.jpg

i think the 2nd gun album is even better. leaner and meaner. more vicious at times. but i dig them both.

I'm guessing this little curio from Terry Manning would fit the parameters of this thread. I love his version of "guess things happen that way."

I love the cover of that Gun record. And I apparently need to get my hands on the second one.

Terry Manning, eh? Apparently the Forrest Gump of classic rock. Takes credit for Zolar X's Timeless reissue. Guess I didn't read the liner notes on that one close enough.

If you were only partly responsible for the first Point Blank album, you'll always be semi-OK in my book, sir.

i think the 2nd gun album is even better. leaner and meaner. more vicious at times. but i dig them both.

-- scott seward, Friday, January 11, 2008 7:50 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

huh i didn't even know about that...i don't really know anything abt gun, i just bought it cuz the cover looked can't-miss....i'll have to look for that.

Cross ref Three Man Army and later, Baker-Gurvitz Army. For latter, check if "Mad Jack" from the first LP is too your liking before proceeding further. Anthologies available for both. Have both. Like both. Proceeding from great ----> acquired taste.

i want that terry manning album! chris bell is on that record.

yeah I knew he was the precocious honky that worked on all those Stax tracks, and the Rock City thing w/ C. Bell, (and the Zep III & ZZ Top stuff obv) but I only learned of this solo outing a few months ago.

i heard that baker-gurvitz army thing at a friend it was pretty awesome, i remember the cover being great, like them riding buffalos or something

"(Illusion's IF IT'S SO) is better than i remember:

heavier and funkier that i remember. haven't played it in years. i mean, it's no work of genius, but there is definitely thud involved. and lotsa guitars."

I have all three of their LP's and IMO this is the weakest of the three, but they were a good band overall.

Another band y'all might want to check out is the Rugbys. Their 1969 album, HOT CARGO, isn't much, but the hit single from this album was "You, I" and isn't very hard to find, if you're into 45's. This definitely sounds right in line with the bands being talked about here.

Also (and this might come as a shock), but the Bar-Kays' BLACK ROCK lives up to it's title! Sure, the last two songs on side two are conventional soul songs, but everything else is right up the stoner alley. From that brief-but-magical time in the early seventies when all the funk bands were flirting with hard rock - not just the Bar-Kays, but also Funkadelic, Mother's Finest, Black Merda, Purple Image, and Black Lightning (two singles on MCA).

I'm listening to Trapeze's MEDUSA album right now. I like it, but it sounds a lot more low-energy than what I was expecting. Usually, when people discuss Trapeze, they're lumped in with more manic bands like Sir Lord Baltimore or Dust. I'll keep looking out for the other LP's...

I'm really digging the Bang song "Lions, Christians." Emusic has the catalog.

anyone know for sure whether the bang reissues are cds or cd-rs? i'm kind of wary of them because a guy who was selling them in his store said cd-rs.

i want that terry manning album!

you do! it's really good. sunbeam version has bonus tracks.

slightly outside the scope of the thread - from 1976 - been digging the solid ground made in rock reissue on mellotronen. i don't know if they just totally have no distro in the US or what, but only prog mailorder places and aquarius seem to carry it. great proto-metal/hard rock shit. "every evening, go to discotheques/they drink champagne and listen to t-rex..."

More releases in this vein, both from '69:

- EMERGE, Litter (Probe)
- RATIONALS, Rationals (Crewe)

For years, both of these albums were despised by fans of both bands' earlier, garagier records, but now that the collectors are starting to cream over late '60s/early '70s hard-rock, these LP's might finally get some shine...

i always wondered if that litter album sounded similar to the white lightning stuff...

Trapeze were 'discovered' by the Moody Blues who dragged 'em around with 'em as a support act on one of their big early American tours. Their first album is mellow stuff. Then they morphed into a harder-sounding band. You might have done a bit better with the "We're Just the Band but You're the Show," or whatever it's called. The couple of live albums from this period -- when they were a trio with Hughes as singer -- are the best representation of their hard stuff.

Then Hughes left and they became much more of a generic Seventies rock act, except with an inclination to do lots of funk. Hot Wire is the best-known album from that version of the band. I have it and like it but it has nothing to do with Dust or SLB. xhuxk might like it. That line-up did two albums, were big in San Antone. Then there was another personnel rearrangement that resulted in two or three records and I lost interest.

^^^
Earlier on in this thread, George "The Animal" Steele (is that you?) recommended MEDUSA (the album I found), HOT WIRE, and YOU'RE THE MUSIC, WE'RE JUST THE BAND...I'll be looking out for the other two I don't have.

Right now I'm listening to David Peel & the Lower East Side's AMERICAN REVOLUTION, from 1970...musically, this is cool punkish hard rock that goes down well next to two other Elektra acts, the Stooges and the MC 5. However, you gotta get past Peel's outrageous-for-the-hell-of-it lyrics (anti-religion, anti-cop, anti-everybody...even hippie rock critics hated him back then. I understand that this is the only time Peel ever rocked out; everything else is on the folkish side.

does that have his version of "helter skelter" on it?

Nope.

Yeah, it's me. Of the two, "You're the music..." is the best. Hot Wire is as I said above. Approach with a bit of caution if you don't want the funk. Lacks Glenn Hughes but adds a guitarist and still has Dave Holland on drums.

"EMERGE, Litter (Probe)"

one of my faves. i put it on my decibel thud-rock top 50:

http://decibelmagazine.com/features_detail.aspx?id=8926&terms=filthy+50&searchtype=2&fragment=True

"For years, both of these albums were despised by fans of both bands' earlier, garagier records"

this is definitely true of the litter record. basically psych heads wrote it off as "hard rock" which, um, i have never had a problem with! it just kicks ass, that's all i know. and i do love the first two litter albums a bunch.

"For years, both of these albums were despised by fans of both bands' earlier, garagier records"

"this is definitely true of the litter record. basically psych heads wrote it off as "hard rock" which, um, i have never had a problem with! it just kicks ass, that's all i know. and i do love the first two litter albums a bunch."

I'd read about the Litter and had seen their name dropped in fanzines when I thrifted my copy of EMERGE. I knew it wasn't gonna be a garage record - 1969 was a little too late for that - but right off the bat, I dug it for what it was.

anyone familiar with the Raven album Back to Ohio Blues? Just got a reissue and the descriptions sound awesome

I don't know if their album on the Lizard label has been reissued, but Frantic is another good band in this vein. I only have a 45 from the LP ("Midnight To Six Man" - yeah, the Pretty Things tune - backed with "Shady Sam"), but a friend who has the LP sez it has the same high standards. Produced by Gabriel Mekler, so it has that same ABC/Dunhill studio polish heard on Steppenwolf and Three Dog Night records, but the heaviosity still comes shinin' through...

And while I brought up ABC/Dunhill, any thoughts on the band Birtha? Or is that not heavy enuff?

the frantic record is on my filthy 50 list that i posted above. it's not an album that many people remember/have heard. it's not great, but it's good and scuzzy and that's why i put it on there. plus, great cover!

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20060307/4845986514.jpg

Good list, I have about 12 of the "Filthy 50."

Rev. Hoodoo, the Bar-Kays do indeed rock on the '07 collection Wattstax: Music From The Wattstax Festival And Film (3 discs, from the various LPs that came out of this, plus some prev unissued). They kill with "Son Of Shaft/Feel It"(9:19; "In The Hole" (originally an instrumental b-side, here with "screams, vocables," as the booklet says, and words too!)(lotta stuff happens in 2:47); and "I Can't Turn You Loose." This follows an equally hot set from Rance Allen, and Disc One has a great 5-song set from the Staple Singers. Overall, each disc is a little uneven, but for instance David Porter's "Reach Out And Touch Somebody's Hand" is followed by Richard Pryor's "Niggas" and "Arrest/Lineup." The Terry Manning album starts really good (with a parody of a Box Tops outtake, like teenaged Chilton forcing the obligatory gravel voice through a mouthful of hangover) and ends great ("I Can't Stand The Rain," with the Hi Rhythm Section, live at a last-minute fill-in gig, at a high school, I think!)(the guitarist cuts loose like I always hoped Sonny Sharrock would get to do on one of Herbie Mann's Memphis or Muscle Shoals sets)(yeah, he's good on Memphis Underground, but this is way past that)But the booklet explains that Manning just did the Box Tops parody as a one-off; played it for his boss, who demanded an album, and to me the results sound as forced as what he was kidding Alex about. But Edd Hurt really likes the whole thing, so maybe he's right (Manning also worked with Big Star, on Led Zep III, etc.)

Hey, Dow...

I am very familiar with the Bar-Kays appearance in the WATTSTAX flick. I've had the two original soundtracks for years, and while I usually lift the needle during the "Feel It" part, the "Son Of Shaft" half of that song kills on contact - matter of fact, I like the live version of "S.O.S." better than the studio, but then again this live take was the first version I ever heard.

Gospel-soul icon Rance Allen wasn't a stoner-rocker, but the distorted tone he gets on his guitar is on some kind of Blue Cheer steez. Too bad he doesn't play guitar live anymore! "Lying On The Truth" is amazing.

As far as Terry Manning, I'm with Edd Hurt - that album is really good, especially when you consider how hit-or-miss Stax was with white rock! I consider Manning's album to be one of those peculiar, twisted rock classics that could have only come out of Memphis, up there with James Luther Dickinson's DIXIE FRIED and John Prine's PINK CADILLAC. But Manning's LP is the only one that would fit in a thread devoted to Nixon-era hard rock...

And speaking of hard rock on Stax...the self-titled Moloch album definitely belongs in this thread. Recently reissued on CD.

anyone familiar with the Raven album Back to Ohio Blues? Just got a reissue and the descriptions sound awesome

of all of the albums i've seen described as having a "biker vibe," it's by far the best. not too bluesy or too boogie, just kind of pissed off stomping rock. alright, the title track is kinda bluesy, but not in a shitty way, and the vocalist is foaming at the mouth through much of it. rockadelic version made the rounds of the mp3 blogs a while back if you're interested in checking it out before you drop $20 on it.

was that Rationals album reissued on CD?

Also on Wattstax, after horns play fancy, Rufus Thomas says, "Ohhhh, I feel soooo inadequate." But he doesn't really! You can tell! A true thudster. (Sure hope the great Concord Music Group's Stax-Volt reissue series will include whole albums by him; he keeps having to hitch a ride with daughter Carla). The recent Blue Cheer set, What Doesn't Kill You..., has thud and bounce, which they may be getting from (and/or why they're attracted to) "Born Under A Bad Sign," although their cover isn't that great (it's okay though). The opening track is really stupid, but mostof the rest is pretty satisfying on my exercycle (but I need even more recommended biker rock than is already on this thread).

well, there's that reissue of betty's "handful" album on shadoks...

a bit late for this thread, from '92, but the High Speed & The Afflict Man 'Get Stoned Ezy' record is real cool, maybe in more of a "basement rock" way? what are the specific limits of basement rock vs. thud rock???

http://www.inblogs.net/siltblog/2006/03/superfuzz-bigmuffmudhoney-is_06.html

oops, from EIGHTY-TWO, not 92.

>>the self-titled Moloch album definitely belongs in this thread. >>Recently reissued on CD.

A bit overrated. I got this one on the Don Nix connection. He wrote all the material. Leans toward heavy psychedelic with acid bursts of blooz fuzztone guitar. But the entire thing tends toward slow in a molasses way and the rhythm section just never quite gets going the way you think it should for the style. Plus, it's on Fallout which is just another dodge name for the Radioactive ripoff label from Europe.

>>the self-titled Moloch album definitely belongs in this thread. >>Recently reissued on CD.

>>A bit overrated. I got this one on the Don Nix connection>>

I was probably more impressed by the band than the Nix connection, although it is unusual that the entire album was written by a non-member of the band...makes 'em look like a prefabricated bubblegum band or something.

I just dl'd this groundhogs album, thank christ for the bomb. damn, it's pretty good! it's not nearly as plodding as 'thud rock' (with all respect) makes it sound.

yeah, those dudes were probably like the next level above thud rock. really, they were on that shoulda-been-huge level, but i don't think they did very well in the US.

"maybe in more of a "basement rock" way? what are the specific limits of basement rock vs. thud rock???"

who else is basement rock?

I got an Afflicted Man track off of the Crud Crud blog, it's awesome!
Still pumped over finding a cdr of the first Dust album in the free box in the break room at the library I work at. How the hell did that get in there!?

Another thing that deserves mention is a UK biker group called Wicked Lady. They've got an album called "The Axeman Cometh" that thuds with the best of em.

Gott Punch, I do have that Betty album in Shadoks, and wrote about it on Rolling Country (since we also talk about bikers and everything else over there; Gorge recently discoursed/dosgorged astutely on Slade). I thought of most of it as being more like biker pop, remembering that the Doobie Brothers (!) were said to be biker mascots, very early on (that would be when Tom Johnson or Johnston's driving guitar and voice were more dominant, but still pop).Which was okay, except the wrong guy sang lead on most of it. But some good tracks, especially the one about vengence on the sawmill operator that done you wrong: "Good mornin, how do you do, I'm lookin' for a man with the name of, Harley Perdoo." Billy, I don't mean thud rock to=plodding, God and Gott forbid! Just has a lotta thud in it, though maybe not just thud. Like the new Apes album, with new singer: high voice x high lyrics x keybs x thud of bass and drums= ape sporting shredded wedding veil ov stars.

Meant "wrong guy sang lead on most of" Betty's Handful, not that Tom J. was wrong lead for Doobies; he was prob the rightest one for them.

This is a good thread.
I listened to that first Dust record a few days ago cuz of it. Still can't get behind Toe Fat, though.

also many xposts: i think basement rock is some sort of lo-fi/amateurish subgenre of thud rock...? sorta.

been jamming this lately, so nerdy, so awesome...they always seemed to be of one spirit with the first rush album to me (thx metallica for covering these dudes so i knew abt them!)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NXTZNGXML._SS500_.jpg

(of course, like all 2 disc sets, last half of the second disc is sort of a bummer)

Budgie have a few really badass albums. I'm still looking for a copy of Squawk, dammit.

What do you recommend, TM?

First five Budgie albums are generally good to excellent. Bandolier is my personal favorite. Budgie's live double CD, Heavier than Air is also invigorating. Described with other similar things here.

the first three are essential: budgie, squawk, never turn your back on a friend. if you like those, then you really like budgie and you'll want the rest of their 70's albums like bandolier and in for the kill. *never turn your back on a friend* is a solid starting point. the whole album is great. strong songs. just killer stuff. but i like most of their albums a bunch.

budgie x-post with gorge.

Thanks fellas

Those guys said it better than I could.

Some rare singles that'd fit right in with this thread:
- Mouse & the Traps, "Wicker Vine" (Texas garage-rockers get heavy with this 1969 single, probably available on any Mouse/Traps compilation...I know of two)

- Magi, "You Don't Know Me" (1971 single that was mistakenly included on a PEBBLES compilation)

- Curley Moore & the Kool Ones, "Funky Yeah" (more psychedelic funk, with a lot more distorted guitar than you're used to hearing on a funk record, thus qualifying it for this thread)

I guess I'd think "basement rock" as like Stone Harbor (would-be Uriah Heep), Sainte Anthony's Fyre (would-be Sir Lord Baltimore), Friedhof ... private press heaviosity like that

we talked about Gun on that Groundhogs thread... I still think "Yellow Cab Man" is the only song on the first one that i truly love. agreed w/ skot that the 2nd is better.

Hi James!

this one - Broheems, You Do Need A Copy Of Black Diamond! A.K.A. The Groundhogs Thread

that Frantic album is great

for Budgie, I'd start with Squawk ... that's their best as far as I'm concerned. does Rodger Bain still produce that one? can't remember, I know he did the first one.

(sorry just getting up to speed on all the recent posts)

Can't think of too much *new* stuff that I've picked up in this vein .. 'cept maybe that Maxmillian record that Hurlothrumbo mentions upthread. that thing is INSANE!!!!

for some reason i think rev.hoodoo - and you too stormy - would like the one and only five by five album on paula. unless you already own copies.

http://www.popsike.com/pix/20070801/260145271670.jpg

album is a little uneven, but worth the price for "hang up" and their cover of "fire". doesn't totally fit this thread. though they fuckin' rocked when they wanted to.

fyi: i have three singles (i think) that Paula put out and they are WAY louder than the album versions. and preferable if you are me. i gotta dig them out and maybe put them on a mix for ilm. "apple cider" rules. as does "fruitstand man".

singles usually go pretty cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/FIVE-BY-FIVE----APPLE-CIDER._W0QQitemZ200191741502QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL0801141342a34443

TM, fyi, Squawk is available here

but if you can find it, the hang up/fire single is what you want. some fine proto-thud psych.

x-post

fuck, apple cider is killer too though. i think they just sell to portugese deejays for freakbeat fancy dancer all-nighters in lisbon.

looking for five by five, i found a freedom 45 on ABC. playing now. they belong on this thread more specifically.

Freedom?

Hmmm, another LP I once passed up 'cause...hey, you never know with late-sixties/early-seventies rock, it isn't always that consistent! You see a fairly generic band name like Freedom on an all-purpose label like ABC, they could be either Argent or Bread, you know? There are no signifiers that say "THIS IS HEAVY." But I'll continue to keep an eye out for it, if they're turning up in a thread like this.

The reason it stands out in my mind is because, IIRC, they had a future Doobie Brother bassist in their lineup...an almost unrecognizable Tiran Porter, and his hair is conspicuously short, as if he just got home from Vietnam or something.

"but if you can find it, the hang up/fire single (by Five By Five) is what you want. some fine proto-thud psych."

Scott, I am very aware of 5x5...I don't have their album, but I've owned the single for years. "Fire" was a regional hit, which explains why it turns up so often in used bins. Great single, both sides of it. The only other songs I have by these guys are on a weak compilation on Charly called BORN ON THE BAYOU. It's an anthology of white garage-soul acts who recorded for Paula, like 5x5 and John Fred & the Playboy Band. Coulda been better, except that it's mostly covers of overdone soul standards, and many of them don't measure up to the originals. 5x5 are heard doing "Soul Man" and "You've Really Got A Hold On Me."

If you liked "Hang Up," you'll probably also like "Life (Don't Mean Nothin')***" by Michael & the Messengers on USA...freaky mid-sixties garage that is JUST hard-rock enough, by accident, for this thread. The A-side, "Romeo & Juliet" was featured on the NUGGETS album and box set. This band later altered their name to the Messengers and had an LP on Rare Earth.

_______________________________________________________________________
***the title could be "LIFS (Don't Mean Nothin')" - I figured a printer's error fucked up the title, but since the phrase doesn't really feature in the lyrics, who knows?

Hey, Stormy D, whassup!!

Is anybody here familiar with a new - or at least "recent" - band called Atomic Bitchwax? Evidently, their sole purpose is to play the kind of heavy metal-before-they-called-it-that music that we've been talking about...they're quite good at it too.

I had that Messengers album years ago, and I NEVER played it. The one on Rare Earth. everyone loves romeo & juliet. or if they don't, they are no friend of mine.

Freedom were cool. They even had an album on the Actuel freejazz label. Very hard-rocking, proto-metal, etc.

Atomic Bitchwax were cool. Or at least the stuff with Ed Mundell that I had was cool. I'm a fan of his. He's the guitarist in Monster Magnet. Heavy stoner jamz.

MY other fave band on Paula was The Uniques with Joe Stampley. Awesome southern garage pop with nice fuzz. I only have the 2nd album though. Never heard the earlier stuff. I might not like them as much as I like a band like The Gentrys, but, man, is that record ever solid. So cool. I don't know if it's ever been reissued.

The Uniques' second album...I'm assuming you mean HAPPENING NOW!

Even though they're usually considered a garage-rock band, the Uniques actually played a multitude of styles, like the southern party band they were. They also had their share of blue-eyed soul and teen-pop releases. I know there have been a few Uniques best-ofs floating around, but I don't know if any of their regular LP's (there were four in all) were ever reissued.

Freedom had at least three records on ABC/Dunhill. Freedom At Last is to be avoided. It's bad late Sixties 60's pop rock, poorly done, poorly sung, just poor. Freedom and Through the Years are the one's people usually go for. My take is the latter of the two is the best. It's turn up the volume early-70's Brit heavy white boy blooz and boogie by a trio. "Toe Grabber" is the high point of the latter. It galumphs along at a decent pace and the singer has an adequate-to-good blues shriek. Not going to replace your Mike Vernon-produced Savoy Brown records from the same time frame but it'll do in spots to break the monotony.

Freedom also had some connection with early pre-Trower Procol Harum, not to the former's benefit. The connection is heard on <i>At Last</i>, the LP to avoid.

I still haven't found an album that sounds like Fraction's Moonblood...that album really does something to me

the first track on that Road album is somewhat similar, looking for more of that heavy psych with intense vocals!

nothing is quite like the fraction album. dragonwyck are a band that i usually listen to when i'm in that kinda mood tho. might just be because i discovered both around the same time.

for some reason i think rev.hoodoo - and you too stormy - would like the one and only five by five album on paula. unless you already own copies.

i think i would like it, too, if i could find mp3s of the bloody thing. i haven't bothered pricing it yet, but originals of anything decent are usually too rich for my blood. i'm basing my need to hear it on their cover of "7 and 7 is," which is like as blue cheer thuddin' as i've ever heard a love cover get.

"The Uniques' second album...I'm assuming you mean HAPPENING NOW!"

actually, the one i have, is their last album. shows what I know. Man, someone has to reissue those other records.

i have this one:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/372548.jpg

We were discussing these over in the Super K thread, and they merit bringing over here...both Crazy Elephant's self-titled LP on Bell as well as the self-titled Gentrys album on Sun run about 50% heavy rock, if you're willing to wade through the bubblegum numbers. The Gentrys' LP was late in their career and can usually be found cheap. (It was even reissued on CD, on the Collectables label, with bonus tracks!)

Where is the love for Crazy Elephant?

Thank you, Billy Pilgrim, for pointing me in the direction of Squawk!

"self-titled Gentrys album on Sun"

one of my fave records. so beautiful.

i don't have the crazy elephant album, sadly. just the dark part of my mind single which i love. (well, that's the b-side, but it's the side that rules)

Not to sound like a collector geek or anything, but I have the DJ copy of Crazy Elephant's "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" where the flipside is the same song with the pitch control slowed down and played backwards.

And the retitled it "Hips & Lips."

("Backwards B-Sides - S or D?")

I don't have any Gentry's LPs, just a bunch of singles.
Are the album cuts really that worthwhile?

dude, ian, you NEED this album:

http://www.strawberrywalrus.com/usalbums/album286.jpg

everyone does.

TM- my pleasure! (literally. i'm listening to it today myself)

"I don't have any Gentry's LPs, just a bunch of singles.
Are the album cuts really that worthwhile?"

The debut MGM album with "Keep On Dancing" is really good teenaged garage rock from '65. The followup, GENTRY TIME, is a hokey attempt to slicken up their sound. The third LP is the one shown above, and like the Uniques, by this point (1970) they were just an all-purpose bar band who made this record to show off the many styles they could do, which is why it sounds like they can't decide whether they want to play hard rock or bubblegum. There's also a note-for-note remake of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" with one twist: the guitarist plays a REAL solo, rather than that one-note interlude heard on the original.

anyone know for sure whether the bang reissues are cds or cd-rs? i'm kind of wary of them because a guy who was selling them in his store said cd-rs.

They don't LOOK like cd-rs. But they do sound just a miniscule bit, I dunno, 'tinny' or something. If the source was vinyl rather than master tapes, at least they used pristine copies of the albums. So I don't think CD/CDr makes any real difference.

There's beena argument about this before but I've personally pulled identical tracks off CD-Rs and compared them to final copies on CDs and found no difference in wave forms and spectral analyses. That being the case, I'm skeptical anyone could hear a difference between the two unless the track was from sources which were distinctly different from the start.

On the other hand, CD-Rs can be cheap and deteriorate. The guy who's been peddling Starz reissues for the last seven years does it on CD-R. At one time when I was buying them he was using inferior media and they all developed read errors within two years. It's one of the few instances were I've found CD-Rs to be a problem. One other experience involved when I purchased a lot of fifty at a discount. They turned out to be readable only on the PC, PC's coming with superior drives than what you get in a commercial CD player.

As for the Bang stuff, it was never particularly high-fi to begin with. The first album's charm -- and it's their best -- was in its primitive production. As Bang brought more to the table their records became worse. Mother/Bow to the King isn't as good as the premier and the third LP isn't worth repeat listens, having almost nothing to do with what the band started out as.

my issue is i basically just don't feel like paying $15+ for cd-rs. i'm cheap, that's all. and they feel impermanent, and yes, i know, cds will probably rot to dust at some point in the future.

i actually have the lizard reissue of the first bang album, which sounds pretty good. they're kind of a spotty label, though, their nitro function reissue sounds like it's buried under a mountain of wet pillows (i don't know if the originals actually sound better, but they'd almost have to) and the mount rushmore two-fer i got has digital swimminess.

this crushed butler CD is so frustrating! just when you get really rocking it's over...too bad i guess all the other tapes were lost.

yeah!

there are a couple of other collections of jessie hector stuff - one with pretty much everything he did from the early 60s through the mildly punky late 70s stuff (the gorillas), the other just collects hammersmith gorillas material. if you use slsk, i definitely recommend checking out the one that has the helter skelter (band name) 7".

Isn't there a Crushed Butler/Third World War connection?

I just got a Jesse Hector CD last week at Dusty Groove that now resides in my "to be played" pile - looking forward to hearing it. I also scored a Harvest Records CD sampler in the cheap bin - even though it appears to be mostly prog, Edgar Broughton is on it. I bought it (a) just to see what the fuss over Broughton is, and (b) even though prog isn't my thing per se, I could probably take it in small doses on a comp like this.

Isn't there a Crushed Butler/Third World War connection?

-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, January 21, 2008 5:53 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

third world war has a song called "hammersmith guerilla", so maybe that was a tribute to them or something?

I'll bet that IS what I'm thinking about! Thanks M@tt

(a) just to see what the fuss over Broughton is

oh, jesus, please just download/buy/steal/get a tape of "wasa wasa" asap.

The Broughton song on that sampler was "There's No Vibrations, But Wait!"

If that's as good as he gets, I'm gonna take a pass!

uh, it isn't. not by a long shot. wasa wasa is more like demonic, crazy acid blues shit. not recommended if you don't like beefheart-y growling vocals, twangy and grotty guitars, lurching rhythm section. otherwise highly recommended. (but don't start off with "american boy soldier," that's not typical of the rest of the album.)

"wasa wasa is more like demonic, crazy acid blues shit. not recommended if you don't like beefheart-y growling vocals, twangy and grotty guitars, lurching rhythm section."

That's what I was hoping for, but they decided to use that dorky "...No Vibrations" track for the compilation instead. Thanks for the tipoff.

Wasa Wasa seconded here. Maybe a bit of Arthur Brown as well as Beefheart, vocal-wise. And yeah, that opening doo-wop parody is the low point of the album.

The unwary or less committed can get burned by Edgar Broughton records. For example, I hate Sing Brother Sing which was something of a high point for them because hippie festivals in the UK went ape over it. Wasa Wasa is still on my shelves.

yah, wasa wasa is krazy. i love sing brother sing too. the album after. i dunno, i've liked pretty much everything i've heard from the 60's/early 70's broughton band, album-wise.

ha! x-post.

"The unwary or less committed can get burned by Edgar Broughton records. For example, I hate Sing Brother Sing which was something of a high point for them because hippie festivals in the UK went ape over it."

The first time I heard of Broughton, it was in this rock encyclopedia I had in junior high that featured a load of obscure UK acts that never made it here in the States. Broughton was one of them, and their entry had all these tales about them packing up the van and playing protest songs in parks, which just SCREAMS "hippie jam band" to me. It's only in the last decade that I've noticed Broughton's band being called "protopunk" and being compared to the MC 5 and Captain Beefheart.

Me, I heard GBOA's cover of "Call Me A Liar" before even hearing OF the Broughtons.

dropout apache:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LxVC37rT5wU

love in the rain:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jAfIab0sCbk

there used to be more broughton on youtube. must have got pulled.

Heya, I posted Call Me A Liar today on mah blahg. Also, Scott, I tipped my cap to your work here. Love this thread.

holy shit, yesterday's children. seward, you've got them i'm sure. great stuff. great spooky tooth cover.

i don't have their album! not even the reissue. but i want one. i love the stuff i've heard from them. they've been comped pretty heavily.

not thud per se, but fans of the riff and the heavy and the extended solo will find cool stuff on the new hotheads mix i put up today. just in case you missed it:

sweet smoke for hotheads vol.3 - beards on fire with love

threw a frantic track on there at the end. but check out the third world track and the ross one and the rabbitt one and the savage grace one and the bull track. and the tiger track. and the gangsters of love one. and especially the peace & quiet track "looney tunes" which is a fierce and way over the top heavy rock instrumental that will make you pee your pants a little if you play it loud and you are drunk. the teegarden & van winkle track is hot too. off of the only album i own with a song credited to both bob seger and gary shider.

oops, that was me scott.

I'm not 100% sure if this is what thud rock is, but today am listening to Population II by Randy Holden (ex-Blue Cheer/Other Half), and it ROCKS.

hey, you know what? my intensity mix is still up online. i thought it was long gone. well, in case you missed it the first time, here's the track listing and link:

Tracks - Street Fighting Man (So rare you won't even find it on a WFMU playlist! Seriously, many great songs and albums only exist on the interweb as part of an old FMU playlist. I know, I've checked! Anyway, Tracks were a Boston-based band and they made one triple-album(!!!) boxed set(!!!) in the early 70's of seriously accomplished hard/prog/southern rock jamz and nobody has ever heard it. But now YOU have! A little.)

Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart - It's All Happening On The Inside/Abracadabra/Jumping Jack Flash (The whole first side of Tommy & Bobby's greatest achievment is one long song/suite, so you get three interlocking parts. I've played this at least a hundred times over the years. They are my gods.)

Mandala - Come On Home (Mandala made one late-60's white soul album that yields exactly one song with a guitar solo so sharp and piercing that it will leave you bloody for weeks.)

Noah - Bury The Remains (death-pop piffle. a bit of a breather.)

Glass Harp - Changes (In The Heart Of My Own True Love) (More fireworks. Courtesy of Phil Keaggy,a guitar god if there ever was one. Three amazing albums of powerful prog/hard rock and then Phil was off to do the lord's work.)

Orion - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (*Token Novelty Number* But, you know, with lots of crazy guitars.)

Redwing - Soul Theft (rockage.)

The Gentrys - Stroll On (genius rockage. from a genius album.)

Song - Medicine Man (So hard to pick one song from this album. It's all good. This is the mammoth closer. It has to be the heaviest thing that Curt Boettcher ever had a hand on.)

Circus - Stop Wait & Listen (Local pop-rock band from Ohio makes an album of cool rocking stuff, puts it out on their own label, and then...well, nothing. This one coulda been big. Maybe.)

Terry Brooks & Strange - Mister Strange (This is what cult guitar heroes are made of. From 1980 and released on Terry's own Star People Records.)

Harvey Mandel - Bite The Electric Eel (Noodles! Lots and lots of noodles!)

The Max Demian Band - See Me Comin' Down (Cool Thin Lizzy rip from Herman Hesse obsessed hard rockers.)

Dirty Angels - You Got Me Runnin' (Another great album from an unjustly forgotten band. This thing just keeps on giving.)

A Foot In Cold Water - Yalla Yae (Canucks invent the new wave of british heavy metal years before the fact and don't even break a sweat.)

Valhalla - I'm Not Askin' (Again, hard to pick one song. One of my fave records of all time. Along with label-mates The Damnation Of Adam Blessing, Valhalla were made of greater stuff than most. Now on CD! I think.)

Underground Sunshine - Gimme Some Lovin' (Best known for their Beatles Birthday cover, this is simply 8 minutes of senseless mindless fuzz abuse.)

Thee Image - Show Your Love (Unbelievably over-the-top. A friggin' monument to over-the-top. A word to the wise: always buy a record if someone in the band is wearing a cape on the back cover.)

http://dutchtoenglish.com/Intensity%20In%209%20&%20A%20Half%20Cities.mp3

not all "thud", but, you know, rockage and such. still sounds good. i'm listening to it now. cheaper than a bevis frond comp.

and you can still listen to side one of my last hotheads mix. for some reason side two cuts off after the track by the esperanto orchestra. here's side one:

(1971) curtiss/maldoon - man from afghanistan

(1970) houston - hairy one

(1972) teegarden & van winkle (with bruce) - going down

(1970) bull - feelin' pretty good

(1976) tiger - ordinary girl

(1973) gangsters of love - never is too soon

(1975) rockin' horse - love do me right

(1971) guillotine - hands of children

(1974) aut' chose - le freak de montreal

(1971) peace & quiet - looney tunes

http://www.dutchtoenglish.com/skotmix-hotheads-3-1.mp3

side one is fuckin' killer. that hotheadz mix was the best one i did. i think.

Damn, I only have 2 of those records and i want them all..... and I recently passed on a Damnation of Adam Blessing record- should have known.

newest skull sessions podcast has martin popoff and others discussing dust, ram jam, ursa major, etc, etc, etc,

if you are into that kind of thing:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/news/SHOCKWAVES-SKULL-SESSIONS-PODCAST-EPISODE-20-19891.aspx

(i haven't actually listened to it, but it looks like a good time for all...)

new Up All Night comp on Past & Present is great! just a superb sampler of hard rockin' psych stuff. kudos!

i think it's out now or very soon.

track-listing:

1. LIQUID SMOKE Warm Touch 2. TIN HOUSE Be Good And Be Kind 3. THE LITTER Journeys 4. THE FINCHLEY BOYS Outcast 5. HIGHWAY ROBBERY Fifteen 6. EUCLID Gimme Some Lovin’ 7. DAMNATION OF ADAM BLESSING Driver 8. SRC Up All Night 9. BANG The Queen 10. DRAGONFLY Enjoy Yourself 11. GRANICUS You’re In America 12. STEEPLECHASE Wrought Iron Man 13. SIR LORD BALTIMORE Kingdom Come 14. JAMUL All You Have Left Is Me 15. POWER OF ZEUS In The Night 16. HAYSTACKS BALBOA The Children Of Heaven 17. THIRD POWER Persecution 18. YESTERDAY’S CHILDREN Providence Bummer 19. HEAD OVER HEELS Road Runner 20. LANDSLIDE Sad and Lonely

Highway Robbery track is so friggin' FIERCE.

decent looking comp, although I have a lot of it. I love that Highway Robbery track .. definitely the highlight of their one LP. I used to play that all the time on my Thud-rock themed radio show. and "Up All Night" has always been my favorite SRC track. do I really need "Persecution" on yet another comp tho? I don't think so. there *are* other good songs on that Third Power lp.

I still think the two heavy psych comps that Bevis Frond put out are the ones to beat. introduced me to a lot of stuff i didn't already know.

Scott, you need a copy of the Highway Robbery lp? I have a spare ....

I just got to hear the Chico Magnetic Band album (I'm sure it was mentioned on here somewhere) and I'm totally in love! Great sound, particularly the percussion.

Now I just need to track down a reasonably priced copy...

i do want the highway robbery album. they are pricey. i can't really do pricey for myself right now. maybe i could trade you something.

i thought the bevis frond comps were a little uneven. but good! and a nice mix of rare stuff and dollar bin stuff.

i think this new comp is just a really good primer for people. a lot of it is what i would put on a hard rock/proto-metal nuggets boxed set. why won't rhino let me compile a boxed set like this? oh right i never asked them. someone should do it.

got my Tempest album in the mail today. another album i needed. the first Tempest album with Alan Holdsworth. Euro copies still sell for 50 bucks and up and I got a U.S. promo on ebay for $1.75! Sounds great.

mindblowin stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aF7j7FKzno

Jeezus, I get it.

Stray's 1971 album rules so hard. As always I'm not quite sure it fits in here. No, fuck that, it fits. When they build up a head of steam they sound like the brit MC5 or something. Alright, maybe not, but still... real good. I mean, Iron Maiden covered them, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coMlCLX4sP0

daaaamn that's hot.

Stray had quite a few moments. Suicide -- the very next album was their heaviest. The first had a bit of flower-power, as once can hear in that tune, in it.

Saturday Morning Pictures was about their high point in England. A few years ago there were at least two anthologies in circulation, both giving the curious a good place to start. They tried quite a few things on for size over the course of their career, often resembling a poor man's Status Quo.

I have a few of their record, pretty much like them all.

Things I...obtained overnight: Paul Kossoff's Back Street Crawler, the Black Cat Bones' Barbed Wire Sandwich, the two Killing Floor albums, the Kossoff Kirke Tetsu Rabbit album, the first Leaf Hound album.

I'm fairly certain there are an infinite number of obscure and cool hard/heavy rock bands that existed from 70-74, i feel like i hear of a new one every two weeks

I'm fairly certain there are an infinite number of obscure and cool hard/heavy rock bands that existed from 70-74, i feel like i hear of a new one every two weeks

Tell me about it. I'm now investigating Stray even as I dig through the aforementioned stuff.

Search this on YouTube, didn't want to add the link because of potential for embed fever bogging and crashing the threat.

Peter Frampton+Humble Pie Astoria Memorial Concert "AMC Four Day Creep" 20th April 2001.

Frampton, Ridley -- who died a couple years later, the ever present Clem Clempson and Jerry
Shirley at a memorial show.

The tune just punches your face.

I like the flower-powery stuff on Stray's first album--especially "Around the World in 80 Days."

I'm currently listening to German proto-Metal band Night Sun's "Mournin'" (which seems less proto- than actual- metal.)

Rhino Handmade boxes Vanilla Fudge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytduMVvGwu0

I totally recommend the s/t, post-Van Them album on Happy Tiger circa 1969. This is the thuddinest track, the rest is like heavier garage stuff, a surprisingly decent cover of "In The Midnight Hour," a song that should generally probably not be covered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHJYVgcHVLE

UFO really does not get enough props.

The first one always gets called boogie rock. I don't hear boogie, though. I hear THUD.

Has everyone heard "Rumblin' Man" by Cactus. Jesus Christ! Dunno what it's on other than the "Cactology" set.

I mean it was "previously unreleased" when that came out.

It was included on the Rhino Handmade set of their complete studio recordings, but that thing goes for $70 and up on eBay/Amazon.

damned dirty danes! dig the bass sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNkdr1aAMxQ

That Gasolin track is tight, btw.

Wanna buy the whole world copies of Cactus' "Restrictions" album right now. Some amazing, epic jams on there. Couple of throwaways but they're short and not annoying.

Also, PINK FAIRIES FINLAND FREAKOUT = AWESOME.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKz0Yqh7_yg

This drummer reminds me of a Bill Ward. "Evil" is great.

I found a remaindered cd copy of Silver Metre the other day @ HPB.

I still haven't heard them! Good?

Silver Metre-It's pretty good. I was expecting something heavier. It's stripped down--Leigh Stevens comes off in check, playing simple rhythm guitar with o/d solos instead of piling on masses of sludge. The singer sounds like a mushmouthed Lee Michaels. The covers are somewhat far afield-- "Superstar" (as in Jesus Christ...) and three early Elton John songs, including "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" which is like Country-Thud and my favorite song on the album.

That said, it still can get plenty heavy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXolaWYiZG0

doesn't thud out of the gate (do flutes negate thud?) but the samples i've heard of the new Steel Mill reissue might appeal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqvGkNLGekQ&feature=related

Mount Carmel, new band on Stiltbreeze is totes thud rock, if you closed your eyes you'd never know this wasn't from like 73

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRP07oJDwCs

I heard those guys on XM the other day, thats pretty good stuff.

yeah i need to buy it, the whole production, vox, everything sounds so vintage it's kinda eerie

It's getting too late for me to play the loud stuff (shhhh, the baby is sleeping), so I put on the album by ONE on Grunt from 72. Incomprehensible hippy gibberish!! But I love it. The singer pretends she is a trumpet and a flute!! At least I think she is a she.
The singer had the best name in all of rock, too. Are you ready for it: REALITY "D" BLIPCROTCH !!!

I wonder what the "D" stood for.

I kinda like this record.

poobah, 1972 I guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPeEiJSj_nA

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/bang_proto_doom_metal_cult_band_of_the_early_70s

Those first two Point Blank records are some good ole' rawk. They definitely have some awesome crunchy sounding guitars and lots of leads. You can see why Bill Ham signed them as they do have some ZZ tendencies in their sound.

this Mariani album perpetuum mobilefrom 1970 (feat Eric Johnson) totally rips.
insane guitar solos, great drumming, great lyrics about getting stoned and looking at the sky and stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d4rFwyLJn8

This new Cherry Red box, We're An American Band: A Journey Through The USA Hard Rock Scene 1967-1973, is pretty good. I'm working on a lengthy review; all the usual suspects are represented, with one notable exception: nothing by the Amboy Dukes.

No Bob Seger System stuff, either.

do like a bit of this stonery stuff. Whatever its called. Still struggling to work out why revisionists have invented a year 1990 year zero for music that is rooted much earlier. Like a later garage where teens try the same process on harder heavier rock. & people with proven ability try to see what they can do with it.
I'm finally picking up on Japanese stuff I should have got a decade and a half ago. Other international stuff too, like zam rock basically taps into a very similar feel.