There weren’t many psych pop albums coming out of Texas in the late 60s but Green is probably the best of them. Atco released this album in 1969 but somehow it was lost in the shuffle. Typically, psychedelic bands from Texas favored either folk based sounds or heavier acid/stoner rock. For this reason, Green stands out amongst the pack as something different. Green is also a unique album because the group seamlessly integrated horns into a sound that is both consistent and vintage. Not much is known about this group other than that they came out of North Texas State University in Denton. Also ..read more

The Electric Banana Blows Your Mind is a disc of highlights from recording sessions that took place from 1967 to 1969. Three of these albums were recorded in the 60s with the best of these tracks (all the tracks with vocals) collected for this reissue. For contractual reasons, the Pretty Things recorded this music under the Electric Banana moniker for the De Wolfe Sound Library. The original Electric Banana albums had one side with vocal tracks while the other side had instrumental versions of those same tracks. For many years the music on the Electric Banana series were unavailable through r ..read more

The individuals behind the Motherlight LP never played a live gig as they were essentially a studio vehicle for Mike Bobak, Andy Johns, and Wil Malone. Morgan Blue Town, one of the UK’s leading psych pop labels, released this unsung gem in 1969. It’s one of the most collectible and expensive LPs from the 60s UK psych scene. Wil Malone had previously led the prolific UK psych group Orange Bicycle and would go on to release a folky solo disc in 1970 and also play in another psych pop group named Fickle Pickle. The Motherlight project saw him write most of the album’s lyrics, sing lead, play key ..read more

$100 Fine was the Litter’s second LP, coming off the heels of an otherwise excellent, mostly covers album titled Distortions. The $100 Fine LP was released in 1968 by the Hexagon label. This time around the Litter focused their efforts on more group originals. There are a handful of lesser known covers that were originally written/recorded by artists such as Jeff Beck, the Eire Apparent, the Zombies and Procol Harum. The album opened with the powerful acid punk madness of Mindbreaker. After hearing this track, one would think or hope this album would be a garage psych monster b ..read more

The music on All Hopped Up covered a period of a few years, 1974-1976. The LP was released in the Spring of 1977 by Red Rooster Records. NRBQ has released several fine albums but this has to rank as one of their very best – a minor masterpiece. Released during the height of the new wave/punk era, it sounds like nothing else from the time. In fact, none of these 13 songs sound alike. NRBQ cover an enormous amount of ground on this release, from rockabilly, country, folk rock, power pop, jazz, and more. Even more amazing that they make it work as well as they do. It’s pointless to list highligh ..read more

The Troyes were a garage psych band who hailed from Battle Creek, Michigan. The group formed in 1965 and later on released two coveted 45s in 1966/1967 by the Space label. In later years, Cicadelic Records/Lion Productions released two CDs/LPs of fantastic, unreleased music from the group’s prime years, 1966-1968. These recordings stand up with some of the very best local garage/psych of the era – without a doubt essential listening. Most of the songs recorded by the Troyes were in the 2 to 4 minute range. Some of these tracks, such as Morning of the Rain, the Good Night and Tomorrow verge on ..read more

Evolution was one of the first original hard rock/psych albums released by a homegrown Australian band. Prior to Tamam Shud, this group of musicians had been known as the Sunsets, a rock n roll combo that specialized in beat/R&B styled material. As trends progressed, the Sunsets changed their name to Tamam Shud. Evolution was their first album, released by CBS in 1969. The LP was financed by Paul Witzig, who would use four of the tracks as background music to his surf film Evolution. Leader, guitarist and primary songwriter Lindsay Bjerre wrote all the tracks on this LP. The sound quality ..read more

The Wildweeds were a popular regional group (Windsor, CT) that had a big hit with blue-eyed soul classic No Good To Cry in 1967. More significantly, this was guitarist Al Anderson’s first successful pop rock group. They are primarily known for their early Cadet sides but this album, which Vanguard released in 1970, is a radical departure from their mid 60s blue-eyed soul sound. The Wildweeds album is never mentioned along with the best of the early roots rock classics but to me, its as good as any of those albums. Wildweeds is characterized by Anderson’s warm vocals, concise guitar work and t ..read more

This is the first post in years. I began writing and talking about these 60s rock bands because of groups like Moby Grape. Moby Grape could effortlessly play any style of music you care to name and do it all extremely well. Whether it was country, blues, psychedelia, folk, or rock n roll, these musicians had a knack for making music that sounded natural and heartfelt. The Melvilles was actually Moby Grape under a different name. These recordings were a cassette only release from 1989/1990 (Herman Records). Skip Spence wrote one track, the anthemic All of My Life but I’m not sure he plays ..read more