I reviewed volume one or two of this awhile ago. House Party on one wax platter. Just get it. Shouters,Squawkers,Bar Walkers. Tunes that get it done. Marvelle and the Blue Mats is a killer. Lynn Minor drops a pretty textbook track for this comp series. Mel Brown drops "chicken fat" for the organ grinders.
You know you are dealing with some rare records when google comes up empty handed. I guess the only question is how did I miss Volume 3?
Pavement stretched out into some territory that was pretty much the Grateful Dead's and they did a lot to make that country-pysch rock thing palatable to kids born in the 70s. Never been able to get down with the Dead-and I am clear on how many bands I do like are clearly in the same vein. Regardless can't do it. Relatively Clean Rivers are a mid 70s band who get genre-checked as acid-folk, country-rock, pastoral, and most notably my new favorite category rural rocker! Got the frowned upon Radioactive Records CD.(label sucks cause they don't give money to the bands/songwriters). 9 tracks that do pretty good to live up to and occasionally defy genre expectations and stereotypes. Make no mistake this is some mandatory organic sandals and composting everything commune rock, but it's mid 70s time frame has some synth type stuff sneaking around. One thing I like is no song sprawls on for more than 6 minutes. I think the mids 70s recording time frame also gives it a post-manson family summer of love failure vibe that takes the edge off what could be unbearable flower power positivism. There is also a few jabs at some Far-Eastern sounds. This is what I wished a lot of the krsna related records I dug up sounded like.
I have never understood the people that post audio files on youtube with static pictures of an album cover or spinning record, but this is the 2nd track from the RCR record.
Growing up wasn't easy for the youth crew. Just look at this B-team "gorilla biscuits" line up. Porcell and TC3? This was definitely the awkward larval stage before Quicksand and Civ would appear. Not to be a hater, but tanks tops, long hair, and creepers?? What is this the 2nd Uniform Choice LP? The looks might not have been up to par, but "coded messages in slowed down songs" turned out a lot better For example-the Moondog demo. Walter was really pushing the envelope with this. For years, I had a shitty tape copy of the demo. Thanks to the internet, you can buy a digital version that seems to sound as bad as my x-generation copy. Regardless, these songs were sick. Pointing the way towards Quicksand. Some-like The Distance turned up in the last gasp of GB and others turn up on the Civ discography CD that equal vision put out. I wish Quicksand had recorded some of these. They deserved to be preserved with way better sound quality. I remember standing outside the Safari Club in DC when I was in college waiting for a Moondog/Burn show. Club never opened. Don't know if it was the bands fault or the club, but I remember waiting for at least 2 hours for something to happen. Would have been stoked to see some odd Moondog lineup. Another cool Walter related thing can be found here. GB LP with him doing vocals....
