Psychedelia / Prog / Kraut / Space / Psychedelic Folk (60s-70s)

http://abitlikeyouandme.blogspot.gr/2013/07/john-wonderling-man-of-straw-1968.html wrote:Johnny Wonderling was of French ancestry, born and raised in Queens, New York. In 1968, he wrote “Midway Down” (recorded and released by The Creation in April 1968) and released a version of the song in September 1968 on Loma Records, a sublabel of Warner Bros. His single was the last single to be released on Loma just before their absorption into the Warner Bros. Records label. Although “Midway Down” and its flip-side, heard below, were great songs, they weren’t promoted by the closing recording sublabel. Contributing to his own failure, Wonderling took an additional five years to record enough material to release a full-length album. By that time, 1973, his psychedelic music was antiquated and his album, Daybreaks, failed to make any impact on pop culture or the public. Wonderling remained in New York, living in Woodstock. In the late 2000s, he passed away in Paris, France while away on his honeymoon.

This song was the B-Side to Wonderling’s “Midway Down,” the last single to be released on Loma Records. It was written by John Wonderling, Carey Allane (real name Carey Budnick), and Eddie Goldfluss. Released in September 1968, the song never charted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frumious_Bandersnatch wrote:Frumious Bandersnatch was a psychedelic rock band in the late 1960s. The band was named after a character from the Lewis Carroll poem "Jabberwocky". Based out of San Francisco, California, the band was active from 1967 to 1969. Their initial three-song EP produced a minor underground hit with the song "Hearts to Cry". A recording of their live work, titled A Young Man's Song, was released on the Big Beat label.
The band was formed across the bay from San Francisco in Contra Costa County, and changed personnel several times in their brief lifespan (1967–69). Interest from several record companies came to naught, and the band's only release was a three-song EP on their own label, pressed in a quantity of 1000 and distributed locally.
Four members of Frumious Bandersnatch (Bobby Winkelman, Jack King, Ross Valory, and David Denny) became regular members of the Steve Miller Band. Valory, along with fellow Frumious Bandersnatch member George Tickner and manager Herbie Herbert joined former Santana members Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie to form the band Journey in 1973.

http://therisingstorm.net/the-freeborne-peak-impressions/ wrote:The Freeborne were a youthful Boston-based psych outfit whose five members, despite their tender years, all had considerable experience of playing a wide range of styles in earlier combos. Adapting their name from the movie Born Free and discovering the freewheeling creative delights of LSD, they signed to Monitor in early ’67 and concocted a set of highly psychedelic originals which were laid down at A&R Studios in NYC. Peak Impressions sold only modestly, probably because of a dilatory campaign of live appearances to support it. After the lukewarm reception afforded it the original Freeborne folded, though later incarnations with fewer or no original members did tramp the second-division concert circuit for a few years afterwards. Inexplicably, given their obvious talent, only guitarist Bob Margolin seems to have had an appreciable later career, playing in Muddy Waters’s backing band through most of the 70s and subsequently with blues-based outfits under his own name. There’s precious little documentation on the band anywhere, but the excellent It’s Psychedelic Baby website features an informative career interview with Margolin which includes insights into the Freeborne.

I was expecting this one to be good, having read complimentary accounts of it in both Fuzz Acid And Flowers and The Acid Archives. I was even more impressed when it arrived and the CD remaster proved to have been archived by Smithsonian Folkways whose estimable moniker now adorns the Digipak. And this is indeed an impressive collection. It’s notable for the virtuosity of the musicians whose ages ranged from just 17 to 19 and yet three of whom were precociously-talented multi-instrumentalists: and we’re talking orchestral hardware here – pianos, harpsichords, cellos, trumpets, flutes and recorders – not just standard rock frontline. It’s also remarkable for the variety and creativity of the material; one reviewer commented that there seemed to be too many ideas to fit into a single album, and I can see his point. Youthful enthusiasm ensured that nothing was left out and nothing left understated, and most tracks move through bewildering sequences of keys, metres, instrumentation and vocal stylings that give their definitively psych outlines a distinctly progressive edge. This is one to listen to right through several times to get the whole effect.

The lyrics are mostly generic trippy psych nonsense, but the music is invigoratingly original. Leading off with a soulful piano riff, the opening “Images” offers Byrdsy harmonies, pulsating bass and rippling guitar scales before switching into a baroque piano and trumpet waltz. “Land Of Diana” prefigures 70s prog, starting as a jazzy 5/4 and shifting into a bluesy shuffle after distinctly proggy organ and guitar episodes. “Visions Of My Own” sets a homely acoustic guitar and trilling flute against what sounds like a chorus of PDQ Bach’s infamous Dill Piccolos before mutating without warning into a military snare-drum march. “Peak Impressions And Thoughts” is all Piper-era Floyd with swirling Farfisa, spiky Syd-style guitar, fluid bass and crashing cymbals building to a furious final crescendo. “Yellow Sky” is definitive Britsike with wah-ed guitars, churchy keyboards and lots of tempo changes. The most conventional track, “Hurtin’ Kind Of Woman”, is a soft blues shuffle with jazzy guitar and energetic Hammond work comparable with the best of Brian Auger. Despite the multifarious musical landscapes visited here, only on the last two tracks does the band outstretch itself, with the ridiculously sombre harpsichord and cello, sub-Beach Boys harmonies and cod-poetic spoken voice outro of “A New Song For Orestes” and the unnecessarily lengthy and self-indulgent cod-classical piano/trumpet cadenzas and duet of the closing “But I Must Return To Frenzy”.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/salloom-sinclair-and-mother-bear-mw0000954664 wrote:Salloom-Sinclair and the Mother Bear is very much a 1968 period piece in its awkward, sometimes chaotic mix of blues-rock, psychedelia, and self-consciously hip literary wordplay. Like many such endeavors, the intentions are more interesting than the music. The band's most striking feature is the piercing, wavering voice of Robin Sinclair, who at her highest goes into Minnie Riperton-like stratospheres. Her singing is both impressive and, at times, irritating, often bearing a strong resemblance in approach to Janis Joplin's. At its most strident, sometimes, to pull in a more distant and obscure comparison, there are also similarities to Annisette of the Danish band Savage Rose. With their constant lurches into different tempos and sections, the songs rumble forward like a bus weaving through rush-hour traffic, often building off a heavy blues-rock base

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-strawbs-mn0000940076/biography wrote:One of the better British progressive bands of the early '70s, the Strawbs differed from their more successful compatriots -- the Moody Blues, King Crimson, Pink Floyd -- principally in that their sound originated in English folk music, rather than rock. Founded in 1967 as a bluegrass-based trio called the Strawberry Hill Boys by singer/guitarist Dave Cousins, the group at that time consisted of Cousins, guitarist/singer Tony Hooper, and mandolinist Arthur Phillips, who was replaced in 1968 by Ron Chesterman on bass. That same year, the group -- now rechristened the Strawbs, and doing repertory well beyond the bounds of bluegrass music -- briefly became a quartet with the temporary addition of Sandy Denny, who stayed long enough to record a relative handful of tracks with the group on the Hallmark label before joining Fairport Convention.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Holy+Mackerel wrote:The Holy Mackerel was an American psychedelic group. A short-lived, loosely shifting organization centered around the songwriting talents of Paul Williams (with occasional assistance from Roger Nichols), the group released an eponymous album on Reprise in 1968. Lead vocals were shared between Williams and his brother, Mentor Williams. Despite their album being a Billboard Magazine “Special Merit Pick”, the group had all but disbanded before the album was ever released. Williams’ later songwriting fame garnered it some attention, to the point where it is fondly remembered as a psychedelic cult classic.

When the Paul Williams/Biff Rose composition “Fill Your Heart” became a big seller for Tiny Tim (by virtue of being the B-side for his hit “Tip Toe Thru’ the Tulips With Me”), Williams was approached by producer Richard Perry with an offer to record his own album in 1967. Having become somewhat disillusioned with the music industry after having been let go from White Whale Records a short time prior due to a lack of success, Williams was daunted at the prospect of recording as a solo performer, and instead opted to front a group.

The group members were seasoned musicians of various backgrounds: Bob Harvey (bass, formerly of Jefferson Airplane), Cynthia Fitzpatrick (flute), George Hiller (guitar), Don Murray (drums, formerly of The Turtles) and Mentor Williams (vocals, guitar). The Holy Mackerel was recorded throughout the spring of ‘68; however, Harvey and Murray left the group before the album’s completion, to be replaced by Jerry Scheff (bass) and Michael Cannon (drums).

http://rockasteria.blogspot.gr/2011/03/930-fly-930-fly-1972-uk-wonderful.html wrote:Uk group with the curious name recorded at the beginning in 1972 a disc folk-rock namesake of a psico-progressive packing, 9:30 Fly. All the songs are dominated from the harmony of the voices of Michael and his wife Barbara Wainwright.

In November the group act together with Velvet Underground in Malver Winter Gardens. Shortly after the Fly vanished without any trace. So this record on the highly collectable Ember label is nowadays a dificult to find rarity.

http://www.last.fm/music/Country+Weather wrote:From 1966 until 1973 Country Weather played all throughout Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. In their early days they were known as The Virtues. Original members were Dave Carter on Bass guitar and vocals and his long time friend from grade school, Steve Derr, on rhythm guitar and vocals (It was Steve who taught Dave how to play bass), with Paul White on Lead Guitar and Craig T. Nelson (not “Coach”) on drums.

Greg Douglass was one of the hottest guitarists in Contra Costa County at the time, previously with the Statics and The Vibrants. Greg replaced Paul White on lead guitar, adding his song writing and vocal skills to the band’s sound. Craig, who didn’t like to practice, was eventually replaced by Bill Baron. Bill was a powerhouse of a drummer and when he played, it sounded like there were two distinct drummers up on stage.
It was this line-up of the Virtues – Bill Baron, Dave Carter, Steve Derr and Greg Douglass that would later change their name to Country Weather, after Chet Helms suggested that they needed a better name. So after an eye-opening experience one afternoon in 1967, they came up with the name Country Weather.
Country Weather soon attracted the fascination of the San Francisco Bay area music scene as well as the attention of Bill Graham. Graham decided to book them through his Millard Agency, where upon he put them on many bills at the Fillmore, Winterland and other high profile gigs as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread,_Love_and_Dreams_%28band%29 wrote:Bread, Love and Dreams was a British folk group who released three albums between 1969 and 1971.

Bread, Love and Dreams comprised two females and one male, all of whom sang.[1] Their second album featured guest appearances from Danny Thompson and Terry Cox, of Pentangle.[2][3]

David McNiven also contributed clarinet [4] and lyrics [5]to the Prog rock group The Human Beast.

http://www.discogs.com/Jed-Merlins-Song/release/6177165 wrote:"Mystical, medieval folk songs played and sung very convincingly. And unlike some in the genre, I'm under the suspicion that the psych aspect is unintentional, but rather a natural setting for the songs that were written. This was recorded as some kind of educational project for a Florida based program specializing in all things from the Arthurian period. As far as the music, it's beautiful minor key folk with intricately woven male and female vocals. Fans of bands like Stone Angel, etc. would do well to track this down. Makes you want to dance with the jester”.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/fallen-angels-mw0000321383 wrote:

What a mess! It's kind of glorious, but it's a wreck. The Fallen Angels were a legendary never-were band of British former rock icons. The majority of this album was recorded with former Humble Pie guitar picker Mickey Finn (not the T. Rex drummer), teamed with Greg Ridley from Spooky Tooth, Twink Adler from the Pretty Things, and former Fleetwood Mac rhythm guitarist Bob Weston. The lineup was changed almost immediately and after many recruitments and falloffs, a lineup fronted by Finn -- now including vocalist Phil May of Pretty Things fame (the band was on hiatus at the time) -- went to Geneva to record an album. After six weeks in Switzerland that were ruled by rock & roll-styled excess, The Fallen Angels had recorded only eight songs -- none of which were finished. Upon returning to the U.K., everybody quit but May. He recruited some more players and eventually finished the album with overdubs and new songs. Once done, May toured a bit and hung it up by reconvening the Pretty Things, at which time Finn re-formed the band and recorded three more songs. The original album was only issued in Holland, and is thoroughly unmemorable, sounding like a cross between the Eagles jamming with Humble Pie and the Black Crowes. It's just icky, garage-y British blues-style rock, and being recorded in 1976 was already four years past its prime. Even the Faces had already moved on. In retrospect, it sucks, but in a charming, unfocused, drunken way. Standout tracks, if there are any, are "Fallen Angels," "California," "Cold Wind," "Dogs of War," and "Chance."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellow_Candle wrote:Mellow Candle were a progressive folk rock band. Principally Irish, the members were also unusually young, Clodagh Simonds being only 15 and Alison Bools (later O'Donnell) and Maria White 16, and still at school, at the time of their first single, "Feelin' High", released in 1968 on Simon Napier-Bell's SNB Records.

By 1972, the lineup had expanded to include Dave Williams on guitar, Frank Boylan on bass, and William Murray on drums. With this lineup in place, the band released their only album, Swaddling Songs (Deram Records), which was commercially unsuccessful at the time. Over the years, however, the lone album by the band has received considerable critical acclaim and original vinyl copies are now very valuable. Boylan was later replaced by Steve Borrill (ex-Spirogyra), but shortly afterwards the band split up.

http://psychedelicized.com/playlist/c/children-the/ wrote:Before they became the Children, this Texas-based band began as a pair of competing garage combos in 1965. The Stoics formed in the spring of ’65. William Ash (guitar) and Rufus Quillian (guitar) were upper-middle-class kids, while Al Acosta (vocals), Sam Allen (drummer), and Michel Marechal (bass) resided in the city’s predominantly Hispanic northeast side. However, the five were united by a love of the Rolling Stones and the Kinks and decided to form a band.In early 1967, the band released the single “Hate,” before splitting in two over a disagreement. Ash was soon invited to join the Argyles, another band that had come together in the spring of 1965. The Argyles featured Stephen Perron (guitar, vocals), Louis Cabaza (organ, electric piano), Chris Holzaus (guitar), Benny Treiber (bass), and Steve Anderson (drums). The Argyles went further than the Stoics did, taking up the role as house band at the Blue Note Lounge on 1966, taking over for the Sir Douglas Quintet who had moved on to bigger things. Later in ’66, the band recorded their first single, “White Lightnin’.” They continued to touring around southern Texas until releasing a second single, a cover of the Beau Brummels’ “Still In Love With You Baby.” It was at this time that a dispute between Holzaus and the rest of the band. Holzaus left the band and Ash was recruited.

Upon joining the band, Ash brought drummer Andrew Szuch, Jr. who would replace Anderson. Cassell Webb also joined the band, and they made a dramatic change and became the Mind’s Eye. At this point, the Mind’s Eye released a single, “Help, I’m Lost,” and opened their own psychedelic club. The band began to experiment with LSD at this point. After only a couple of months, the city closed down the club due to the increasing number of drug-related incidents, so the band moved to California and the Summer of Love. Producer Mike Nesmith was initially asked to produce the band, but he was too busy with prior engagements. As a result, Davy Jones decided he would produce them. Treiber and Jones had a falling out, and Ash’s old bandmate Marechal was brought in as a replacement. The lineup was finally in place, and the band felt it appropriate to change their name. They came up with the Children.

The Children entered the studio to begin recording their debut album. Jones returned from a U.K. tour in late 1967, only to find out that his manager spent all the money he had set aside for his new record label. The band only finished three songs and were released from the label. An extremely limited-edition of the Ash-Perron composition “Picture Me” was pressed as a single and released on Laramie. However, the band’s money was yet again misused. The Children played popular venues on Sunset Boulevard, but were short on cash and taking increasing amounts of acid, so they headed back to Texas.

Once back in Texas, they signed with Cinema Records and started to record their sole LP with Leland Rogers. Rebirth was released in the summer of 1968 and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Texas psychedelia. Later in 1968, major label Atco picked up the album for national distribution. The Children were again facing internal conflicts. Perron contracted hepatitis from shooting heroin and was unable to work for more than half a year. Ash and his family moved to Japan and was replaced with Kenny Cordray. Zsuch was in a car accident, and was replaced by Jim Newhouse. The band returned to the studio in the summer of 1969 and recorded a cover of Bo Diddley’s “Pills,” which would be released as their next single. Perron and Corday also wrote and recorded “Francene,” which would later be covered by ZZ Top. The Children began to look for a new record deal that ended when Lou Adler saw them live and signed them on the spot ro Dunhill Records.

The band again moved to California to begin recording for their second album. The Children recorded under Adler’s Ode imprint, although an album was never completed. Two singles, “From The Very Street” and “Fire Ring,” were released by Ode, and the former became a minor hit. The Children moved back to Texas and Cabaza left. The rest of the band joined a disastrous B.B. King/ZZ Top tour opposed to returning to California. In 1971, the Children finally fell apart. As a result of his major drug abuse, Perron went into a mental hospital in hopes of kicking the habit. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful and died from what appeared to be an accidental overdose in 1973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ace_of_Cups wrote:The Ace of Cups was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1967. It has been described as one of the first all-female rock bands.[1][2][3][4]

The members of the Ace of Cups were Mary Gannon (bass), Marla Hunt (organ, piano), Denise Kaufman (guitar, harmonica), Mary Ellen Simpson (lead guitar), and Diane Vitalich (drums). Lead vocals were sung by all members of the band except Vitalich, and all five sang backup. The songwriting, too, was divided among the band members.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRC_%28band%29 wrote:The SRC was formed by Scott Richardson, the Chosen Few lead singer, with local band The Fugitives, which featured Glenn Quackenbush, Gary Quackenbush & E.G. Clawson, all based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Robin Dale, Bass & Vocals, the only British member of the group. Jeep Holland, manager of The Rationals, became their manager and suggested Richardson as lead singer. Bass player Robin Dale was added later.

Holland, also a record store manager, later served as Russ Gibb's booking agent and was associated with many of the top Detroit based artists of his time such as MC5, The Tymes, and others. The Quackenbush brothers went to see Richardson at one of the final Chosen Few gigs at the Ann Arbor Armory, run by Pete Andrews (later SRC's manager). They formed the Scot Richard Case, later known as SRC.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=4899 wrote:Abstract Truth (they shunned the prefix of "the" because they didn't want to sound dogmatic) was the brainchild of one Kenneth Edward Henson (dubbed Ken E Henson by David Marks).

The band Abstract Truth existed only for a very short time, but it was a time of super-creativity. They exploded on to the Durban music scene early in 1969, released 2 studio albums during 1970 (as well as a compilation in the same year!) and, after numerous line-up changes, imploded in 1971.

Henson had been the guitarist in a band called the Leeman Ltd, which had formed in Durban in 1965. In 1966 he and the enigmatic Ramsay MacKay got together with ex-Navarones members Colin Pratley and Nic Martens to create Freedom's Children, arguably South Africa's greatest rock band. Clive Calder, who signed Abstract Truth to EMI in 1970, said recently that Freedom's Children in his opinion "was then and probably still is today (over 30 years later) the only SA rock group that, given the right circumstances in the right geographical location, could have become an internationally successful rock band just by being themselves and doing what they did."

http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Products/Baba-Scholae-69__05-AV-spc-120920.aspx wrote:"The music itself is an excellent psych / folk rock / proto-progressive album. Perhaps not mind-blowing, but given the 1969 date, certainly one to two years ahead of its time. Fans of the genre will most certainly want to own this. It's a professional recording, not some muddy demo. "-Tom Hayes

"In 1969, legendary psychedelic/early progressive rock band Baba Scholae recorded an album at IBC Sound Recording Studios in London -- however, it was never officially released. The band's leader was Jean-Yves Labat de Rossi, better known as M Frog Labat, the synth and keyboard maestro on Todd Rungren's early Utopia albums and coincidentally, the founder of the Ad Vitam label. Only three copies (acetates) of 69 were made, but the album's cult following lasts to this day. Often compared to the work of King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and Gong, Baba Scholae's 69 is truly a 'lost and found again' masterpiece with music that was years ahead of its time. For a gem like this to have been buried for 43 years is nothing short of extraordinary.