DANGER!! Incoming fire! BROWN ACID The Twenty-Third Trip… you have two options: immediately run and duck for cover or get your rocks off big time! Ten more vintage primal detonators from of the early days of hard rock, exploding across time to wreck your mind today, just in case you’re still standing after Trips One thru Twenty-Two. Out of the ash heap of ‘60s idealism comes harsh reality, uncontrollable urges, alienation, get-it-while-you-can-desperation dosed with brutal guitar as these long lost local bands rip it up, captured young right out of the gate, untamed by record biz producers, no namby pamby artsy fartsy moves, this is the sort of deadly to-the-point savagery that only real life unfiltered and gone sideways can deliver!
LOOKING GLASS - It’s Gonna Work Out Fine out of Watertown MA in 1969 snarls right in with gnarly proto thrash ripper guitar action as the singer delivers muddled vague promises to the hot chick he’s hitting on that they probably have a real love groovy future up ahead together if he just can get in her pants right now. Extended jam out at the end with groove shift and raw spitfire guitar licks spewing about.
FEAR - Wildwoodin’ is a brutal rip on the Nazz track ‘Wildwood Blues’ which itself rips on Yardbirds action with UK freak beat vibed vocal moves over a relentless galloping ZZ Top ‘La Grange’ styling rhythm attack. Savage fuzz lead and lyrics about getting out of your skull in beach party town Wildwood, New Jersey 1968 but refracted atcha in overdrive out of Vancouver BC Canada in 1971!
C. T. PILFERHOGG - Tight Mama presents the singer with a dilemma… he’s after a hot chick who is not quite over her previous lover in the first verse… “in between she saves her lovin’ for someone else” but bingo they get down with it leading to an “ah… play it boy” invocation firing up the guitar break, then she’s back in the third verse with bad news, she’s leaving but good news let’s get down one last time. ‘Tight Mama’ in this brilliant song about sex means holding the goodies back ‘tight’ at first but becomes thumbs up ‘that’s tight’ meaning you rule mama for giving me one last steamy ride. The lead guitar is frantic with jumping the gun intensity. Norton, VA 1973.
WHITE LIGHTNING - Before My Time from 1968 is Zippy Caplan’s band after he split from Minneapolis legends the Litter. Unrelenting minimal guitar action in a grab-your-throat trance rock zone, hypnotic riff gets more powerful by repetition, direct drive action with no frills, no leads, sounds like it could have been the basic track for an unfinished song and leaving it that way serendipitously unleashes an uncanny revolving door ear worm of relentless intensity.
KINGDOM - Mistress out of Jennings Louisiana in 1977 is about dealing with losing the girl, but… in sync with the rudimentary prog rock moves they deploy here, the lyrics intellectualize it up cosmic style. Dramatic vocal, no blues in sight, churning keys and guitar with shifting energies, ridiculously cool virtuoso overbite guitar break that boomerangs back with garage energy, absurd fun if you tilt your head the right way. The best ‘progressive’ hard rock is that least confined by overblown seriousness!
BLU-EREBUS - Plastic Year speaks some sorta truth out of Mount Airy, NC in 1968. Psychedelic embers flavored put-down about a shallow self-absorbed chick who can’t see how evolved the dude who has the hots for her is… “by the time you reach her it’ll be too late”… “she keeps her mind in a plastic bag”… terrific slow-foot loopy wah-wah guitar break, lurking organ trippy intro and seemingly double-entendre finish where the guy gets the goods… boasting that he “came through her plastic year”.
PAWNBROKERS - Dime-A-Dance Romance 1969 Fargo, North Dakota killer version of terrific Boz Scaggs song from the Steve Miller Band ‘Sailor’ LP. It’s always a treat when you find an obscure vintage local version of a seldom covered psychedelic rock classic. Fab convoluted ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ riff with some well-timed fancy shifts from a band who also covered ‘Smell Of Incense’. The ‘ooh-wee-ooh-la-la’ vocal hook here takes things right over the finish line, for me it beats the original version.
MINERAL WATER - Free & Easy storms across your head west coast outlaw style with nimble rhythm guitar moves and searing hard leads while the singer takes free love into an urgent post ‘60s detached zone, undercurrents of a desperate need to connect, but just get it now, don’t worry whether it’s gonna last. Centralia, WA 1970.
BLACK WATCH - Stumble On rocks out of Pompano Beach, FL in 1974, standing outside of time with old school Chuck Berry style hard rock ‘n’ roll shot through with fancy Jeff Beck Yardbirds lead guitar injections. Cool message in the lyrics, when things are going south just stumble on to the next scene and forget about it.
ONE MILE AHEAD - Contribution is off in it’s own lost in time realm but from Albuquerque, NM in 1971. Opens with garage band ambience right out of 1965, primitive basic chords and sound quality but when the vocal comes in it’s not typical teen ranting about girls in ‘65, it’s a cosmic plea from ‘71 to be socially aware. Helping someone out in their desperate moment will come back atcha when you need it the most. Maverick crude experimental guitar feedback action rides you out in style, an unexpected but undeniably perfect move taking this song into bizarro world delight!
