Psych /
Magic Time: The Millennium/Ballroom Sessions
An awe-inspiring three CD set! We’ve emptied the Columbia vaults of material by these late-‘60s Curt Boettcher-led groups, whose dazzling soundscapes and choral arrangements created a perfect hybrid of sunshine pop and psychedelia. Produced with the bands’ full participation, Magic Time is the definitive compendium of Millennium/Ballroom material, including the entire Begin and Ballroom albums and an additional wealth of unheard songs and alternate versions, plus interviews and rare photos! Magi…
Omnibus
New Jersey's Omnibus formed from the ashes of garage bands from the New Milford area: The Cliffhangers, The Forerunners and The Vandals. Original members came from these three local bands and consisted of Jay Polt, Al Raimondi, Bob Wegrzyn, Bobby Marcinczack and Jerry Garino. They soon hit the local scene and got in touch with brothers Steve and Eric Nathanson who would become their managers and finance their first recordings. A United Artists recording deal was the next step, through wich the b…
Paper Garden
Gatefold cover vinyl reissue of 1968 psych record originally released on the Musicor label. Sgt. Pepper taught a lot of bands to play in 1967, including New York's Paper Garden, whose absorption of the Fab Four's Summer of Love statement came out on Musicor Records the following year. What Paper Garden can't match in terms of the Beatles sophistication they make up for in ambition, as exhibited on the harpsichord-enhanced pop genius of 'Lady's Man', orchestrated gems like 'Way Up High', the fuzz…
Begin
The Millennium looms large in the hearts of fans of the '60s sunshine pop genre. The studio group was the creation of legendary tunesmith/studio genius Curt Boettcher, who had previously been instrumental in the formation of the fabled '60s cult acts the Ballroom and Sagittarius. In 1968, Boettcher assembled a group of talented California singers and musicians (including singer/guitarists Lee Mallory, Sandy Salisbury, Joey Stec and Michael Fennelly and Music Machine drummer Ron Edgar) to record …
Red Weather
After leaving Blue Cheer in 1969, guitarist Leigh Stephens, whose pulverizing roar was an essential element of the band's original sound, made his solo debut with Red Weather. In contrast to his former band's stripped-down metallic blast, Stephens spread his musical wings to explore new musical territory. Although Stephens' trademark guitar sound is still prominent, it's featured in a more eclectic context that encompasses elements of avant-psychedelia and electric blues. Also featured is stella…
Outside Inside
Blue Cheer's second album, Outsideinside, fully matches its predecessor's primal power. The last Blue Cheer release to feature the beloved lineup of Stephens, Peterson and Whaley, Outsideinside is a bracing orgy of volume, distortion and aggression, with such highlights as "Just a Little Bit," "Come and Get It," the instrumental "Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger" and the band's distinctive take on the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction." Like its predecessor, Outsideinside has been out of print on vinyl f…
Vincebus Eruptum
Blue Cheer looms large in the annals of hard rock, laying down the sonic foundations of heavy metal, and serving as a crucial influence on the birth of punk, grunge and stoner rock. While the rest of the rock world was mellowing out and embracing the spirit of the Summer of Love, the seminal San Francisco power trio was churning out ballsy blues-rock anthems whose fuzz-heavy, adrenaline-charged intensity helped to alter the course of contemporary music.Vincebus Eruptum, Blue Cheer's landmark 196…
Bad Trips
Nobody went full-on electro-rock before Fifty Foot Hose. Before their brief-but-groundbreaking run in the late ‘60s, Bad Trips collects the demos, outtakes, and other rarities that complete the story of a band too far ahead of its time to last. Includes both versions of their multi-speed composition “Bad Trip.” From the pre-Hose tracks of boldly atonal, proto-psychedelic freakout music to early versions of songs that would land on their opus, Bad Trips brazenly displays how Fifty Foot Hose chang…
Mirror Man
An early 70s set from Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band – but one that was actually recorded in the mid 60s – a bit before the classic Trout Mask Replica! The set shows Beefheart and the band at their most unbridled – really jamming with bluesy roots, but into the very trippy outer limits – with the Captain on vocals, harmonica, and "first-time musette" – plus Alex St Claire Snoufer and Antennae Jimmy Simmons on guitars, Jerry Handley on bass, and Drumbo on drums (Dustygroove)
Mystic Siva
It's the rebirth of Mystic Siva, who are without any doubt one of the ultimate US psychedelic underground bands from the earliest 1970s. Finally, this album is now available with a more superior sound than anyone of us could ever have expected. The original album release featured guitar overdubs on three tracks, done with the intention to give the sound more power. However, the band wasn't entirely happy with the result. This Lp is remastered and remixed from the original tapes, with all the ori…
Mad River
180gram High Definition Vinyl, originally released in 1968 on Capitol; by far the most ominous-sounding of the Bay Area’s 1960s psychedelic bands, the music of Berkeley’s Mad River comes across like a spiralling, acid-spiked descent into hell. With a raw, garagey style marked by Lawrence Hammond’s quavering vocals and the interlocking exchanges of guitarists David Robinson and Rick Bockner, Mad River’s sound conjures a darker, more menacing version of Quicksilver Messenger Servic…
I'm Gonna Take You Home
There is no higher echelon whispered in spare breath amidst commune-psych heads than the lofty peaks wherein these record reside... the pinnacle of “outsider” psychedelic music. Father Yod and Yahowha 13 ride the eternal now and come up with a psychedelic classic. The story of Father Yod, Yahowa 13 and the Source Family could literally fill books, but rest assured, they truly were the "apex of high" in terms of psychedelic music. The basics: Father Yod was a WWII flying ace and spiritual…
Behold And See
It was legendary record producer Alan Lorber that came up with the concept of "The Bosstown Sound" -- "The Sound Heard 'Round The World" to market and promote the best and brightest of the Bean Town sixties psychedelic scene. (Boston's key groups at the time included Orpheus, Beacon Street Union, Ultimate Spinach, Chamaeleon Church and others). The Ultimate Spinach, arguably the finest of them all, produced magnificent examples of surreal psychedelic record-making, now prized by crate-diggers an…
Ultimate Spinach
Considered among the all-time classic psychedelic recordings, the Ultimate Spinach ’68 self titled debut is unearthed in its unfathomably rare mono form! The unique blend of psych, jazz, rock, Gregorian vocals and Baroque instrumentation sets Ultimate Spinach apart from anything released at the time. It includes the now famous “(Ballad of the) Hip Death Goddess,” an 8:12 classic featuring the eerie, haunting vocals of Barbara Hudson, an oft covered staple of the genre.It was legendary record pro…
Trip Thru Hell
On translucent gold vinyl. The C.A. Quintet’s journey to Hades burned hot enough to melt the ice in their frigid Minnesota environs. A coveted collectable since the psychedelic record collecting disaster whirl first started over 30 years ago, Trip Thru Hell (1968) is rightly regarded as the epitome of local psych-cum-garage rising above its humble roots into something truly monolithic. Evolving from the local circuit into a hellish beast of keyboards, lysergic lyrics, trippy guitars and even sub…
No Way Out
No Way Out, the thrilling debut album by the Chocolate Watch Band, immediately finds that cosmic sweet-spot of perfect garage-rock traction: where the rubber meets the road and the train keeps a-rollin.' Nobody ever did Mick Jagger any better (even Mick, himself) than the Watch Band's frighteningly superb frontman Dave Aguilar. "Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love-In)" and "Let's Talk About Girls" are on everyone's list of Top 20 garage rock anthems of all time. And that's just the tip of the ve…
Fever Tree
Their second, and self titled release, was by far their best effort, containing their most psychedelic and experimental material. Fever Tree's lone hit single, the haunting 1968 tribal anthem 'San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native),' perfectly captured the spirit of the psychedelic era. Although their signature hit led many to assume that they were a Bay Area band, Fever Tree actually hailed from Houston, Texas.
'San Francisco Girls' is also the centerpiece of Fever Tree's self-titled f…
Mother Trucker
A private pressing treasure of epic proportions! 'Like seeing God in a burst condom stuck to the tailpipe of a rusty pimpmobile, finding out Jesus stole your mama, looking for the meaning of life in a puke pile by a truckstop motel … kinda scary how real this dude is! Deep level real people music that sounds like no other LP in the universe. Everything about this sound could not possibly add up in anybody else’s mind, but Dennis has put a new place on the map.' - Paul Major (Enjoy The Experienc…
Philosophy of the World
Limited repress; LP version. "In 1968, three sisters from Fremont, New Hampshire strapped on their instruments and declared themselves The Shaggs. At that moment begun a peculiar tale that would last far beyond the group's five-year run. Dot, Betty and Helen (and occasionally Rachel, the fourth sister) played in the group on the insistence of their father, Austin Wiggin Jr., who was convinced they were going to be big. Years earlier, Austin's mother gave him a palm reading, predicting that her s…
Family Evil
Crystal Syphon, one of the greatest “lost” groups of the West Coast psych scene, came together in Merced, California in 1965. Originally a Beatles / Byrds-influenced unit called the Morlochs, they soon shed their original moniker and moved in a more psychedelic direction, becoming a fixture on the ballroom circuit from 1966-1970. Although their music may nod in the direction of the New Tweedy Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service at times, it’s imbued throughout with a distinctive …