Friday, August 17, 2007

White Lace and Strange US Heavy Psych and Power Fuzz 68-72 CD


"Heavy Psych and Power Fuzz"??? 20 tracks of bands that feel through the cracks. Think Hendrix, Zep, Cream, Blue Cheer, Sabbath, etc. Comps like this-obscuro old school odd ball types are always risky, but the occasional rewards are worth wading through the rivers of wanna bes.
This comp harkens back to the days when beer came in cans with pull tops and got drunk in large quantities in parking lots before classic rock dinosaurs kicked out the jams. Jeans were mandatory and shirts were optional. After who knows how many dozens of early to mid 60s garage comps, this dose of under the radar hard rock is total frenzied blast of fun.

The first 3 tracks are all killer, but my jaw hit the floor with track 4 Detroit's own Power of Zeus's(one album on Rare Earth) anthem "It Couldn't Be Me" which came to my attention last year as a Sabbathy sample on Obie Trice's 2nd LP. This nugget alone is worth the price of admission, but you get a lot more.
Boston gets 3appearances with Banchee, Eden's Children and Brother Fox and the Tar Baby who's "Steel Dog Man" has an awesome funky Hendrix groove. Walpole Mass gets on the map thanks to The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump! Who would have guessed MA was such a hot bed of hard rock! Don't forget my not so recent find of that Looking Glass 45! Genesis are up next with "Angeline" and push fuzz into the hard rock stratosphere on this midpaced stomper. Other stand outs are Mount Rushmore's "someone else's games". The bass playing on the Road's track "Spaceship Earth" might be familiar as it is Noel Redding at the helm. They also have a Rare Earth connection. T.I.M.E drop a jam that could easily be mashed up with any version of "Get Ready"- a more trippy take on that classic riff. Yellow Payges almost make you think Billy Childish snuck on here, but it just some standard bluesy garage stomp. You are so much better off grabbing this than dropping huge money on some Blue Cheer live boot.

Psychic Circle Records
are dropping some serious comps that are worth your time, but this is good place to start. Hats off to Nick S for putting this together. There is not surprisingly a connection to grunge godfathers Nirvana.... Liner notes are minimal but informative and readable for a change!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And Psychic Circle has another
compilation called "Who Needs
Tomorrow?" including tracks by
The Will-o-Bees [sic]...they
did a song called "If You're
Ready".

Of course, that band also did a
Mann-Weill song called "It's Not
Easy"...why not an ENTIRE Will-
o-Bees CD?

(Note: Those that don't know the
spelling of that band can get
stymied. Google doesn't always
spell-check,LOL!)