8. Attila: California Flash
Attila was a particularly unusual duo from Long Island that released a single LP in 1970. Formed by two members of the Hassles, Jon Small and Billy Joel, the LP featured massively heavy and distorted Hammond B-3 playing from Joel while Small flailed at the drumkit. Joel's organ gets treatment from anything and everything, especially promiscuous use of a wah-wah, everything is amplified to the point of white noise; the vocals rarely vary beyond shouts. Joel himself disowns the album, but it is interesting to see what the Piano Man was up to at the end of the psychedelic 60's. The album failed to sell, and the duo's fate was sealed when Joel seduced Small's wife, whom he eventually married.
9. Ultimate Spinach: Ego Trip
In 1967, when San Francisco briefly became the countercultural capitol of America, record labels went on a signing frenzy, signing any band they could find within miles of the city. In late 1967, arranger Alan Lorber hatched the idea to hype the Boston music scene as the next big thing, calling the bands active there by the moniker, "The Bosstown Sound". MGM records, who had largely missed the boat in San Francisco, attempted to get in at the ground floor with the Bosstown sound; their flagship signing was Ultimate Spinach. Their very name was an acid rock ridiculousism; hipsters smirked at Lorber's pipe dream and skipped the albums. Ultimate Spinach were doomed by the hype, but their debut isn't bad as far as acid rock goes; Ian Bruce-Douglas was the primary creative force as singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, and he specialized in darker, more frightening psychedelic imagry than most of the West Coast bands. Unrelenting promotion pushed this album to #34 in 1968; the band's follow-up would stall at #198, and they broke up after a third album failed to chart at all.
10. Kak: Lemonade Kid
Kak were from Davis, CA, but spent most of 1968 in the San Francisco Bay area, where their lone album was recorded. Sharing some similarities with Moby Grape, Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, they also specialized in a softer raga-rock, featuring trance-inducing drone. The band didn't last very long; they played about a dozen gigs before disbanding; chief songwriter Gary Lee Yoder would join Blue Cheer. "Lemonade Kid" is perhaps the best cut from their album, a gentle raga-rock with deeply psychedelic lyrics, and a soothing, bouncy lead guitar. The album didn't chart, and the band was well forgotten within the year.
Article comments
1 - Vern Halen
As is often the case, your tastes intersect mine. One point - I would disagree that Steppenwolf is an acid rock band - I think they had other elements that were more prominent. However, you make the point that their music holds up just fine; I wish the rest of the world would catch on to this and give John Kay & Co. the critical respect they deserve and not just regard them as a footnote to the 60's.
Iron Butterfly - if you get past In A Gadda Da Vida, they had some wonderful cuts. Their current best of CD is a must have.
Electric Prunes - second album is good too - a companion piece to the first.
2 - Douglas Mays
Great list. Yeah, I had too much to dream last night. But it wasn't drug induced.
Then there are your bands that are of the acid rock circles that were a bit more direct in their message, therefore removing the acid from the style a bit. Like Jefferson Airplane. The 'Crown of Creation' album is stellar. Songs like 'Lather' (hhhmmm...that one is acidic) or 'Greasy Heart' will stick with me forever. Huh, I guess that is all acid rock. But I like the selections you made. Ultimate Spinach? I remember that one!
Anyway, just a theory...
peaceloveguidance
3 - douglas mays
Oh god, so if it becomes a radio hit, does that make it ACID POP? Acid pop, I think I drank some of that stuff in the later 60s. It was like Tang.
4 - sydney
yu can add early flaming lips to that list i think..
5 - uao
Thanks guys. Vern, I'm with you on Steppenwolf, they're a lot better than given credit for.
sydney, I didn't include Flaming Lips because they're from a different generation, but they are fairly psychedelic in their own way. I classified them as noise pop.
6 - uao
Douglas-
Jefferson Airplane will be included when I do a Haight-Ashbury playlist (so much music, so little time). They're a lifelong obsession of mine, I also plan a stand-alone artist overview on them someday.
7 - Douglas Mays
uao, right on!
8 - SFC SKI
Ever since I read this column, The Stawberry Alarm Clock's hit "Incense and Peppermints" has been dominating my brain.
9 - Vern Halen
Trivia - Ed King, original guitarist with Lynyrd Skynyrd (he's on their first two albums, which means he's playing on the meir monster hit Sweet Home Alabama), was also guitarist for....the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Go fig.
10 - uao
Even more trivial:
I happened to wander into Amoeba records, a giant emporium of new/used rock stuff in the middle of Hollywood.
They have live shows in there, it's so big; one night, while waiting for a bus, I caught Los Lobos.
On this night, I wnett in there, and who was playing bu Strawberry Alarm Clock (or a band who claimed to be them, most of the members looked a little too young, but there was one grizzled guy, too). Fronting the band was Lynn Carey, former lead singer of the blues-hard-rock Mama Lion, an early 70's outfit that had their cover banned for featuring Carey breast-feeding a lion cub. Their music is long forgotten, but she had good pipes.
This is akin to hearing the Grass Roots fronted by Danny Partridge; it was kinda surreal.
All I was after was a cheap DVD of a flick or two.
11 - Eric Olsen
super uao, fascinating stuff, didn't know that about Billy Joel! Interesting that you see acid rock and psychedelia split, with acid rock emphasizing the "heavy" and mutating into metal. Thanks!
12 - Rick
Captain Beyond!