Trevor McNamara - Yeah Captain 1969

First reissue from Australia on WIS, The Yeah Captain album was recorded in 1969 and it was the first album of its type produced in Australia, a milestone. Music ranges between heavy psychedelic rock and poetic acid folk, both in an outstanding level.

Trevor sang and played all instruments, creating a perfect full band sound, that really blows. An original album, is near impossible to find. Also included 2 bonustracks by Trevors 45 record, that was also recorded on Nationwide Recordings Adelaide. A piece by one man with various talents -- an absolute must

Extremely rare Australian album released in 1969. Playing all instruments Trevor creates a sound part way between acid rock and folk rock with multi-layered fuzz guitar mixing with acoustic guitar simple percussion and bass. At times the sound is a bit like UK band Fresh Maggots.
Thanks to ChrisGoesRock (Darius, Don't You Get The Feelin)

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New Zealand Trading Company - New Zealand Trading Company 1970

The New Zealand Trading Company album was released in the US in 1970, but only a few copies made it to New Zealand. On the back of the album the musicians stand beside the Mississippi River, resplendent in flared trousers and heavy sideburns. To get to Memphis, the members of the band took long, strange journeys.

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Keef James - One Tree Or Another 1972

This interesting album is better known for Rick Wakeman participation.

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Justine - Justine 1970

Though this obscure 1970 LP falls into the general folk-psych rock category, its focus is so all-over-the-place that it's hard to get a read on it. The group is Anglo-American, and at times the record seems very influenced by the poppiest side of American folk-rock, particularly in the blends of male and female vocal harmonies, which are extremely reminiscent of the Mamas & the Papas' approach in places. Yet there are also songs that have a more specifically British, gentle, reserved, acoustic quality; a character portrait of "Mr. Jones" with a whimsical British feel; and occasional off-the-wall burning fuzzy psychedelic guitar. At its most mature, it's slightly similar to, if an obscure reference point is allowed, the folk-prog-rock recordings that Giles, Giles & Fripp made as they were morphing into King Crimson (though not nearly as inspired). At its sappiest and most cooing, it could almost pass for a Californian sunshine pop recording. What the songs lack, however, are memorable choruses, or much cohesion between the parts, although the individual parts (especially the female vocalists' contributions) are often pretty. File under the section with the many stylistically confused rock bands of the period who had some talent and tried hard to say something important, but didn't quite have the goods. AMG.

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Devil's Kitchen - Devil's Kitchen 1969

Devil's Kitchen Band was a four piece rock and roll band that lived and performed in San Francisco from the Spring of 1968 through the Summer of 1970.  They were the "house band" at Chet Helm's "Family Dog Ballroom on the Great Highway" opening for, and often jamming with, many of the most well-known groups of the times.   They performed at all of the major West Coast venues from San Francisco's Fillmore West to L.A.'s Whisky A Go Go.

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1910 Fruitgum Company - Simon Says 1967

The prototypical bubblegum group, the 1910 Fruitgum Company was the brainchild of Buddah Records house producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, also the masterminds behind such phenoms as the Ohio Express and the Music Explosion. The Kasenetz-Katz formula was a simple one: they enlisted anonymous studio musicians (in this case, vocalists Mark Gutkowski and Joey Levine -- also the singer in the Ohio Express -- along with guitarists Frank Jeckell, Pat Karwan, and Chuck Travis, horn player Larry Ripley, and drummers Rusty Oppenheimer and Floyd Marcus), and prolifically recorded lightweight, fluffy pop songs which found an eager audience in fans looking for an alternative to the edgier rock music of the late '60s. With the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Kasenetz-Katz team scored their first major hit, the 1968 Top Five smash "Simon Says," launching the bubblegum craze; that same year they also scored with the singles "1, 2, 3 Red Light" and "Goody Goody Gumdrops," all three issued as title tracks from the group's first trio of LPs. 1969's "Indian Giver," the title cut from the Fruitgum Company's fourth album, was their last Top Five hit, and after one last LP, Hard Ride, the group disbanded; some of its members later resurfaced in the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus. AMG.

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Wishbone Ash - Argus 1972

If Wishbone Ash can be considered a group who dabbled in the main strains of early-'70s British rock without ever settling on one (were they a prog rock outfit like Yes, a space rock unit like Pink Floyd, a heavy metal ensemble like Led Zeppelin, or just a boogie band like Ten Years After?), the confusion compounded by their relative facelessness and the generic nature of their compositions, Argus, their third album, was the one on which they looked like they finally were going to forge their own unique amalgamation of all those styles into a sound of their own. The album boasted extended compositions, some of them ("Time Was," "Sometime World") actually medleys of different tunes, played with assurance and developing into imaginative explorations of new musical territory and group interaction. The lyrics touched on medieval themes ("The King Will Come," "Warrior") always popular with British rock bands, adding a majestic tone to the music, but it was the arrangements, with their twin lead guitar parts and open spaces for jamming, that made the songs work so well. Argus was a bigger hit in the U.K., where it reached the Top Five, than in the U.S., where it set up the commercial breakthrough enjoyed by the band's next album, Wishbone Four, but over the years it came to be seen as the quintessential Wishbone Ash recording, the one that best realized the group's complex vision. AMG.

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Wilson Simonal - Se Dependesse De Mim 1972

Wilson Simonal de Castro, a Brazilian singer, was born in Rio de Janeiro on February 26, 1939. He also died in Rio de Janeiro in June 25, 2000. Wilson Simonal was a Brazilian Singer of a great success in 1960 and in the first two years of 1970 decade.

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Trapeze - Trapeze 1970

Trapeze were the first act signed by the Moody Blues to their newly founded Threshold Records label, and remain the most substantial talent -- along with Nicky James -- ever to pass through that company's roster, apart from the Moodies themselves. Those listeners who only know the subsequent albums by Trapeze may be surprised by this debut effort, the sole recording left behind by the original five-piece version of the band. With Moody Blues bassist John Lodge producing a lineup that included ex-Montanas lead singer John Jones and guitarist/keyboardist Terry Rowley alongside singer/guitarist Mel Galley, bassist Glenn Hughes, and drummer Dave Holland, late of Finders Keepers, the sounds here don't closely resemble the hard-rocking work of the subsequent trio -- there are lush choruses, psychedelic interludes, and hook-laden romantic ballads scattered throughout this record. Yet that trio, of Hughes, Galley, and Holland, is pumping out high-energy music within the context of psychedelic pop/rock throughout this album, which comes off as a much higher-wattage alternative to the Moody Blues. And in some respects, this album also closely resembles the better moments on those three early Deep Purple albums (the ones with Rod Evans on lead vocals), when they were essentially a hard rock outfit still playing pop/rock -- the results aren't bad and, in fact, are quite catchy at times, but it's clear that three of these musicians are holding back to one degree or another in these surroundings. Galley's high-energy leads and power chords and Hughes' already larger-than-life bass are the dominant sounds about 60 percent of the time, overpowering much around them, with songs like the Galley/Jones-composed "Fairytale" and Hughes-authored "Am I" pointing the way to their future sound -- and even on Rowley's rock ballad "Send Me No More Letters," Holland is playing drums about as hard as the music will permit. The core trio does find a good compromise with Rowley and Jones' more lyrical, psychedelic pop sensibilities, and Trapeze probably could have held this sound together longer than they did but for Jones' and Rowley's departures. But it's also clear that there was another band trying to break out from within the sound of this lineup, which happened later in the year when Trapeze were reduced to a trio. AMG.

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Mother Goose - Stuffed 1977

Stuffed is the debut album released by Melbourne-based New Zealand band Mother Goose. The album spawned their biggest hit Baked Beans, a novelty song purporting the romance-promoting properties of the titular dish, and it went to number one in Australia.

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The Kinks - The Kink Kontroversy 1965

The Kinks came into their own as album artists -- and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter -- with The Kink Kontroversy, which bridged their raw early British Invasion sound with more sophisticated lyrics and thoughtful production. There are still powerful ravers like the hit "Til the End of the Day" (utilizing yet another "You Really Got Me"-type riff) and the abrasive, Dave Davies-sung cover of "Milk Cow Blues," but tracks like the calypso pastiche "I'm on an Island," where Ray sings of isolation with a forlorn yet merry bite, were far more indicative of their future direction. Other great songs on this underrated album include the uneasy nostalgia of "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?," the plaintive, almost fatalistic ballads "Ring the Bells" and "The World Keeps Going Round," and the Dave Davies-sung declaration of independence "I Am Free." AMG.

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Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green 1970

Cricklewood Green provides the best example of Ten Years After's recorded sound. On this album, the band and engineer Andy Johns mix studio tricks and sound effects, blues-based song structures, a driving rhythm section, and Alvin Lee's signature lightning-fast guitar licks into a unified album that flows nicely from start to finish. Cricklewood Green opens with a pair of bluesy rockers, with "Working on the Road" propelled by a guitar and organ riff that holds the listener's attention through the use of tape manipulation as the song develops. "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain" and "Love Like a Man" are classics of TYA's jam genre, with lyrically meaningless verses setting up extended guitar workouts that build in intensity, rhythmically and sonically. The latter was an FM-radio staple in the early '70s. "Year 3000 Blues" is a country romp sprinkled with Lee's silly sci-fi lyrics, while "Me and My Baby" concisely showcases the band's jazz licks better than any other TYA studio track, and features a tasty piano solo by Chick Churchill. It has a feel similar to the extended pieces on side one of the live album Undead. "Circles" is a hippie-ish acoustic guitar piece, while "As the Sun Still Burns Away" closes the album by building on another classic guitar-organ riff and more sci-fi sound effects. AMG.

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Red Holt - Look Out!! Look Out!! 1961

Born May 16, 1932, jazz drummer Redd Holt first came to prominence in 1956 as part of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, with whom he recorded popular instrumentals for the next nine years, including the 1965 pop-jazz hits "Hang on Sloopy" and "The In Crowd." Shortly after this commercial success, Holt and bassist Eldee Young left Lewis' group to record for Brunswick as the Young-Holt Trio with pianist Don Walker. After minor success with the soul novelty of "Wack Wack," Young and Holt restructured their group once again, this time emerging with the moniker that yielded them their biggest hit, "Soulful Strut": Young-Holt Unlimited. Holt started his own group in the '70s, Redd Holt Unlimited, that continued with the soul-jazz style of his previous groups. In the early '80s he played with Ramsey Lewis again briefly before concentrating on touring and performing as a leader. AMG.

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Buffy Sainte-Marie - Illuminations 1969

In the year 2000, the Wire magazine picked this spaced out gem from Native American folksinger and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie as one the "100 Albums That Set the World on Fire." Released in 1969, and now on CD, as of 2001, it was reissued as an import on 180 gram vinyl with its original glorious artwork and package. Interestingly enough, it's a record Sainte-Marie doesn't even list on her discography on her website. It doesn't matter whether she cares for it or not, of course, because Illuminations is as prophetic a record as the first album by Can or the psychedelic work of John Martin on Solid Air. For starters, all of the sounds with the exception of a lead guitar on one track and a rhythm section employed on three of the last four selections are completely synthesized from the voice and guitar of Sainte-Marieherself. There are tracks whose vocals are completely electronically altered and seem to come from the ether -- check out "Mary" and "Better to Find Out for Yourself" as a sample. But the track "Adam," with its distorted bassline and Sainte-Marie throwing her voice all over the mix in a tale of Adam's fall and his realization -- too late -- that he could have lived forever, is a spooky, wondrous tune as full of magic as it is mystery and electronic innovation. The songs here, while clearly written, are open form structures that, despite their brevity (the longest cut here is under four minutes), break down the barriers between folk music, rock, pop, European avant-garde music and Native American styles (this is some of the same territory Tim Buckley explores on Lorca and Starsailor). It's not a synthesis in any way, but a completely different mode of travel. This is poetry as musical tapestry and music as mythopoetic sonic landscape; the weirdness on this disc is over-exaggerated in comparison to its poetic beauty. It's gothic in temperament, for that time anyway, but it speaks to issues and affairs of the heart that are only now beginning to be addressed with any sort of constancy -- check out the opener "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" or the syncopated blues wail in "Suffer the Children" or the arpeggiated synthesized lyrics of "The Vampire." When the guitars begin their wail and drone on "The Angel," the whole record lifts off into such a heavenly space that Hans Joachim Rodelius must have heard it back in the day, because he uses those chords, in the same order and dynamic sense, so often in his own music. Some may be put off by Sainte-Marie's dramatic delivery, but that's their loss; this music comes from the heart -- and even space has a heart, you know. One listen to the depth of love expressed on "The Angel" should level even the crustiest cynic in his chair. Combine this with the shriek, moan, and pure-lust wail of "With You, Honey" and "He's a Keeper of the Fire" -- you can hear where Tim Buckley conceived (read: stole) the entirety of Greetings From LA from, and Diamanda Galas figured out how to move across octaves so quickly. The disc closes with the gothic folk classic "Poppies," the most tripped out, operatic, druggily beautiful medieval ballad ever psychedelically sung. That an album like Illuminations can continue to offer pleasure 32 years after it was recorded is no surprise given its quality; that it can continue to mystify, move, and baffle listeners is what makes it a treasure that is still ahead of its time. AMG.

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Jerry Moore - Life Is A Constant Journey Home 1967

This 1967 reissue is definitely of its time. recorded shortly before his ordination as a preacher, Jerry Moore’s “Life is a Constant Journey Home” is a meditative plea for peace and faith, delivered in a smooth plaintive voice and utilizing many of the familiar folk, country, Soul and light blues of era. Moore’s message is subtly Christian, but its overtly compassionate and fiery defense of love is certainly all-inclusive.

With light soulful blues, lyrics gently chiding, the title song opens things up with a mellow but edgy tone. This is a call to wake up, a search for a fast track to insight and redemption. Again, the music is dated and might seem more appropriate to an ad for a senior citizen health product than a memorable invocation to eternal love, but Moore’s voice, like that of more recently, Alexi Murdoch or Stuart Staples, has a gritty world-wise depth behind the lush croon.

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Dave Van Ronk - No Dirty Names 1966

While this is certainly among the more obscure of Dave Van Ronk's early LPs (none of which were exactly big sellers), it's one of the better ones. It's not radically different from most of the folk-blues albums he made in his early career. But there's a little more variety to the arrangements and repertoire than usual, with just as much of Van Ronk's growling gruff voice as always. For one thing, it's not solely Van Ronk and his acoustic guitar; there's also some acoustic guitar by Dave Woods and, more surprisingly, bass by Chuck Israels, a member of the Bill Evans Trio for much of the '60s. Van Ronk's tendency toward hokey good-time vaudeville-ragtime is kept in check, resulting in a moodier and more varied outing than many others in his catalog. While many of the 13 tracks are the kinds of folk and blues standards you might expect in a Van Ronk set (like "One Meatball" and "Statesboro Blues"), there's also a pretty good five-minute cover of Brecht-Weill's "Alabama Song." Stranger is "Zen Koans Gonna Rise Again," featuring a ghostly organ by Barry Kornfeld (though none of the other songs feature organ). Van Ronk's jazz influence comes to the fore in covers of Mose Allison's "One of These Days" and a rambunctious interpretation of Dizzy Gillespie's "Blues Chante" that's about as close as Van Ronkcomes to R&B on the LP. For collectors, though, the major alarm bells are rung by the plaintive if unexceptional "The Old Man." For it's an early Bob Dylan song that was never covered by anyone else, and made its first appearance on this album, though Van Ronk re-recorded it for subsequent releases many years later (Dylan's own version, an outtake from his first album, finally surfaced on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3, where it was titled "Man on the Street"). And you've got to be aware of Dylan's authorial involvement beforehand to recognize the song as one of his works, since no writing credits are given for the tracks on the back cover (though they're on the inner label). AMG.

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Bruce Cockburn - Bruce Cockburn 1970

Bruce Cockburn's self-titled debut's blend of diversity, enthusiasm, and innocence never quite resurfaced again in his work, especially in his more clinical, politically inclined tracts of later decades. The opening number, "Going to the Country," still evokes that hippie-esque, back-to-the-earth movement as well as any song ever recorded, complete with a sly wink that keeps it fresh to this day. And since this was 1970, the album also comes equipped with some of those quaint excesses of the period; try the nasal tone poem gracing "The Bicycle Trip." "Musical Friends" remains a lively, happy-go-lucky classic with piano signature lifted from Paul McCartney's playbook; it's difficult to picture the dour Cockburn of more recent years ever having this much fun. In contrast, "Thoughts on a Rainy Afternoon" offers a trance-like, introspective atmosphere reminiscent of British folkie legend Nick Drake. AMG.

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The Byrds - Ballad Of Easy Rider 1969

If Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde found Roger McGuinn having to re-create the Byrds after massive personnel turnovers (and not having an easy time of it), Ballad of Easy Rider was the album where the new lineup really hit its stride. Gracefully moving back and forth between serene folk-rock (the title cut, still one of McGuinn's most beautiful melodies), sure-footed rock & roll ("Jesus Is Just All Right"), heartfelt country-rock ("Oil In My Lamp" and "Tulsa County"), and even a dash of R&B (the unexpectedly funky "Fido," which even features a percussion solo), Ballad of Easy Rider sounds confident and committed where Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde often seemed tentative. The band sounds tight, self-assured, and fully in touch with the music's emotional palette, and Clarence White's guitar work is truly a pleasure to hear (if Roger McGuinn's fabled 12-string work seems to take a back seat to White's superb string bends, it is doubtful that any but the most fanatical fans would think to object). While not generally regarded as one of the group's major works, in retrospect this release stands alongside Untitled as the finest work of the Byrds' final period. AMG.

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Archie Shepp - The Magic Of Juju 1967

On this 1967 Impulse release, tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp unleashed his 18-minute tour de force "The Magic of Ju-Ju," combining free jazz tenor with steady frenetic African drumming. Shepp's emotional and fiery tenor takes off immediately, gradually morphing with the five percussionists -- Beaver Harris, Norman Connor, Ed Blackwell, Frank Charles, and Dennis Charles -- who perform on instruments including rhythm logs and talking drums. Shepp never loses the initial energy, moving forward like a man possessed as the drumming simultaneously builds into a fury. Upon the final three minutes, the trumpets of Martin Banks and Michael Zwerin make an abrupt brief appearance, apparently to ground the piece to a halt. This is one of Shepp's most chaotic yet rhythmically hypnotic pieces. The three remaining tracks, somewhat overshadowed by the title piece, are quick flourishes of free bop on "Shazam," "Sorry Bout That," and the slower, waltz-paced "You're What This Day Is All About." AMG.

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