Marvelous Beatlesque Psychedelic Pop/Rock from Australia: The Lovetones - Meditation (2005 Yep!)

Regardless of how good you are at the sound-matching game, it will be clear about a minute into the Lovetones’ Meditations that this band is familiar with the concept of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. If the tambourine-driven opener “Mantra” was indeed a post-Nixonian construction, it’s certainly not meant to sound like it. The connection between these bands is closer than that, actually: They share a label, and Lovetones lead man, Matthew J. Tow, even took a spin through Brian Jonestown Massacre’s revolving cast when he stepped in to drum on tour and contribute a couple of tracks to 2003’s And This is Our Music. That he keeps such rough company is probably a matter of concern for Tow’s parents, but it’s good news for fans of BJM’s considerable effort to efficiently retro-dict all that good stuff from the ’60s and ’70s.

 If you think you’ve ingested enough BJM Kool-Aid this year, I’d be inclined to agree with you. Fortunately the Lovetones have a thing for the Beatles – a band BJM has inexplicably managed to side-step so far. Not only can Tow sound like John Lennon any time he chooses (“Come Home” and “Pictures”), he’s inclined to cover the same thematic territory as Lennon’s band. Meditations has that mystic obsession with the universe, love, energy and occasionally even images of broken light: “I saw a million flashes of color and I saw you. Was I there in your future?” Tow apparently has a good spot to ponder lines like that. His vocals sound like they’ve been reverberating through galactic caves to find your mind through the same kind of echolocation used by bats to avoid stalactites. Timothy Leary is probably as big an influence here as either Lennon or McCartney.

 “Stars” has an appropriate Eastern-tinged opening for a track that will later benefit from a sitar (we all know how much George Harrison loved those), but it’s the distorted underwater vocals that bubble up and bring to mind “Blue Jay Way.” “Genius” is an entirely different Beatles homage; it’s a collage of sound that includes the kind of backward guitar noise of “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
At fourteen tracks, Meditations would get old if the Lovetones didn’t sound just as good doing their own thing. “A Place for Us” is dreamy, drifting and uplifting; “Wrapped Up in You” is a solid shoe-gaze love song; and album stand-out “Inside a Dream” has a pleasant blend of gentle, gliding guitar and straight-forward melody.

Meditations isn’t nearly as consciousness shattering as Descartes’ book of the same name, even if it may aspire to be. But for Beatles-juiced cosmic pop from that ongoing social experiment of Australia, look no further. All you need is Lovetones.

Wow! (Frank)

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Psychedelic Pop/Freakbeat of today: Green Seagull - Scarlet Fever (2018 Mega Dodo Records)

Taking their name from a mis-heard Rolling Stones lyric, Green Seagull are the latest band to burst out of London's burgeoning neo-psych scene. Their harmony-laden baroque/freakbeat sound draws upon influences such as the Left Banke, the Kinks, and the Association.

The band formed in 2016 when Paul Nelson (New Electric Ride) approached Paul Milne (Hidden Masters / Magnetic Mind) to work on some songs together. A shared enthusiasm for late-60s baroque psychedelia and 12-string jangle soon blossomed into a prolific songwriting team, and before long the duo had more songs than they knew what to do with.

They were joined shortly after by Sarah Gonputh on keys and Elian Dalmasso on drums, and the newly-minted quartet set about recording a demo in their rehearsal room on an old cassette 4-track. These lo-fi recordings pricked up the ears of Mega Dodo Records head honcho John Blaney, who immediately signed the band for an album deal.(discogs)

There are still wonderful bands out there today who play music heritaged from the bands of the sixties. And this band is one of them. They play fine psychedelic pop and freakbeat ''sixties style''. Spiced with a little prog here and there in some songs, the album sounds warm also because of the convincing arrangements. Just listen for yourself and if you like this kind of music from the sixties, then here comes another album. Recorded only 50 years later. You can buy the album HERE (Frank)

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Beat/Pop Rock/Psychedelic Pop: Les Sauterelles - The Columbia Recordings 1965-1967 (2002 Jaxx Records)

A Swiss '60s band that have sometimes been mistakenly identified as a British group due to their 1968 single "Dream Machine," a quite catchy and enjoyable facsimile of British flower pop with high harmonies, psychedelic lyrics, and driving guitars. The band had actually been recording since 1965, and established themselves as one of Switzerland's best and most popular groups. That's a status that isn't conferred upon most, Switzerland being a small country. Much of their first LP (1966) was filled with covers of popular rock hits. These were interpreted, however, with a brash energy that makes the record stand out above the scores of similar covers-oriented albums produced around the globe during the era. "Dream Machine" was a more original effort, and an album from 1968, View to Heaven, also had a more pronounced folk and psychedelic feel than their earliest outings. Les Sauterelles continued recording all the way into the early '70s, and several of their songs (notably "Dream Machine") surfaced on collector-oriented reissues in the '80s.(allmusic.com)

The ''Les Sauterelles'' was an outstanding non-British band in the sixties that produced great songs from beat to pop and psychedelic pop. Both their cover versions of well-known hits and their own compositions showed that the band was one of the best bands of popular music in Europe (except UK) in the sixties and could even compete with the outstanding Dutch bands.(Frank) (Thanks Christian :-) )

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Vocal, Sunshine/Psychedelic Pop, Pop Rock: The Buffoons - In Perfect Harmony 1969 (2014 USM Universal Netherlands)

Somehow I couldn't find an album review (but to be honest, I wasn't looking very much) and therefore just a few words from me.
The band comes from the Netherlands and plays a mixture of Sunshine/Psychedelic Pop, Pop Rock, with very good polyphonic vocals. A good pop album and the CD version has a much clearer sound compared to the LP. And that's good for this kind of music. The album has very interesting songs with some unusual arrangements. This album is not for everyone for sure but worth to listen to it.(Frank) (Danke, Christian :-))

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Psychedelic, Sunshine, Baroque Pop: The Merchants Of Dream - Strange Night Voyage 1969 (2011 Tune In)

Described in the CD liner notes as “a psychedelic concept album based around JM Barrie’s famous tale Peter Pan”, but in reality equal parts toytown-psych confection, twisted sunshine-pop song suite and wannabe stage musical, this curiosity from 1969 fails to convince as any one of these whilst exuding a homespun and totally unique charm that works if you don’t take it too seriously. Certainly I’ve found nothing else like it, apart perhaps from Mark Wirtz’s unfinished and unreleased Teenage Opera from three years previously which shares its guileless naivité. The blurb goes on to say that Strange Night Voyage “cleverly created a parallel between the original notion of Peter Pan as the boy who wouldn’t grow up and the contemporary rebellion against adult morals and mores and straight society that characterised Generation Gap America in the late sixties”. Well, maybe. But there’s no real attempt here to emulate the subversion of the Fish or the Fugs, the principal thrust of the lyrics being simply the perceived benefits of reverting to/remaining in a childlike state. Of course, for some hippies that also had, like, psychedelic connotations at the time, man . . .

Conceived by fellow St John’s graduates songwriter Jack Murphy and record producer Vinny Testa purely as a fun project, the songs were demoed to Testa’s friend George “Shadow” Morton, creator of the Shangri-Las’ hit catalogue. Morton saw potential in the project and scored a deal with Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss of A&M to record it and release it as an album. A core group of musicians was drafted to lay down the tracks, becoming the Merchants Of Dream, though not in reality a performing outfit. Murphy’s songwriting emphasised the vocal harmonies of MOR sunshine-pop and the sophisticated arrangements of show tunes, whilst Morton utilised his proven talents for leftfield orchestration and sound effects. The result came across like the Association on acid meeting the cast of Hair with elements of Sergeant Pepper thrown in for good measure. Whether this mixture proved unpalatable, or maybe the strange cover art was too much, or perhaps due to the lack of an obvious single, the label failed to promote the early ’69 release and it sank like a lead balloon until resuscitated for CD by Tune In forty-two years later.

Kicking off with an exhortation to “listen . . . grow young” and a brief soliloquy in an unconvincing Peter Pan voice, the album offers not one but two brief overtures, one per original album side, which recall Pete Townshend’s similar use on Tommy as they recap musical themes from the following songs. “The Strange Night Voyage Of Peter Pan” with its rolling power-pop rhythm and pulsating bass is the first of a series of disparate character portraits on the original topside dedicated respectively to Peter, Wendy, Hook and the Crocodile plus “Dorothy The Fairy Queen” and “Lovelife’s Purple Circus” (neither of these Barrie characters). “Circus” is a genuinely psychedelic montage item and probably the strongest track on the album, all disorienting tempo changes, disembodied organs, calliopes and circus sounds. On the flip the tracks take more abstract themes – the swirling waltz of “Come Back Into Your Childhood With Me”, “Sing Me Life” and the jokey toddler-rebellion of “When You’re Pushin’ Six”. The final “(We Are) Dream Vendors”, a fine takeoff of generic 1967 Britsike, closes with a crazy coda as the dream state evaporates and the Pan voice returns to intone “now I lay me down to sleep” and a series of “blesses” for Uncle Jack (Murphy), Uncle Vinny (Testa), Uncle Shadow (Morton), Uncle Herbie (Alpert), Uncle Jerry (Moss) and Uncle Everyone Else who had anything to do with the production and release.(therisingstorm.net)

If you never heard the Merchants Of Dream you should give them a try.(Frank)

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Jangle Pop/Folk Rock Legends: The Byrds - Papersleeve Singles Collection - The Original A's & B's Singles 1965-1971 2CD (2012 Sony Music Int'l, Japan)

I will not tell you the Story/Biography of The Byrds because i believe all people who are interested in sixties popular music will know this band.
I want give you the data about this 2 cd collection of the original a and b sides of the columbia singles released from 1965 until 1971.

All tracks in mono, except tracks 2-23 and 2-25 in stereo.
Track durations are taken from the booklet insert.

Comes in a 2CD jewel case which is slightly thicker than standard to accommodate the four-page insert and 52-page booklet. The booklet contains extensive liner notes in Japanese - a track-by-track commentary and a chronology - as well as full lyrics in both Japanese and English.

From the booklet notes:
1-1 Columbia single 4-43271 (A) - Released 1965.4.12 / Recorded 1965.1.20
1-2 Columbia single 4-43271 (B) - Released 1965.4.12 / Recorded 1965.1.20
1-3 Columbia single 4-43332 (A) - Released 1965.6.14 / Recorded 1965.3.8
1-4 Columbia single 4-43332 (B) - Released 1965.6.14 / Recorded 1965.4.14
1-5 Withdrawn single (A) - Recorded 1965.4.22
1-6 Withdrawn single (B) - Recorded 1965.4.14
1-7 Withdrawn single (A) - Recorded 1965.6.28
1-8 Withdrawn single (B) - Recorded 1965.6.28
1-9 Withdrawn single (A) - Recorded 1965.9.1
1-10 Columbia single 4-43424 (A) - Released 1965.10.1 / Recorded 1965.9.10
1-11 Columbia single 4-43424 (B) - Released 1965.10.1 / Recorded 1965.8.23
1-12 Columbia single 4-43501 (A) - Released 1966.1.10 / Recorded 1965.9.16
1-13 Columbia single 4-43501 (B)->(A) - Released 1966.1.10 / Recorded 1965.9.18
1-14 Columbia single JZSP 116476 (A) - Released 1966.11.4 (*DJ Only) / Recorded 1965.11.1
1-15 Columbia single 4-43578 (A) - Released 1966.3.14 / Recorded 1966.1.25
1-16 Columbia single 4-43578 (B) - Released 1966.3.14 / Recorded 1966.1.24
1-17 Columbia single 4-43702 (A) - Released 1966.6.13 / Recorded 1966.5.25
1-18 Columbia single 4-43702 (B) - Released 1966.6.13 / Recorded 1966.5.18
1-19 Columbia single 4-43766 (A) - Released 1966.9.6 / Recorded 1966.4.29
1-20 Columbia single 4-43766 (B) - Released 1966.9.6 / Recorded 1966.4.29
1-21 Withdrawn single (A) - Recorded 1966.7.28
1-22 Withdrawn single (B) - Recorded 1966.7.28
1-23 Columbia single 4-43987 (A) - Released 1967.1.9 / Recorded 1966.11.28
1-24 Columbia single 4-43987 (B) - Released 1967.1.9 / Recorded 1966.12.7
1-25 Withdrawn single (B) - Recorded 1966.12.7
1-26 Columbia single 4-44054 (A) - Released 1967.3.13 / Recorded 1966.12.5
1-27 Columbia single 4-44064 (B) - Released 1967.3.13 / Recorded 1966.12.6

2-1 Columbia single 4-44157 (A) - Released 1967.5.22 / Recorded 1966.11.29
2-2 Columbia single 4-44157 (B) - Released 1967.5.22 / Recorded 1967.4.26
2-3 Columbia single 4-44230 (A) - Released 1967.7.13 / Recorded 1967.6.14
2-4 Columbia single 4-44230 (B) - Released 1967.7.13 / Recorded 1967.6.21
2-5 Columbia single 4-44362 (A) - Released 1967.10.20 / Recorded 1967.9.6
2-6 Columbia single 4-44362 (B) - Released 1967.10.20 / Recorded 1967.8.30
2-7 Columbia single 4-44499 (A) - Released 1968.4.2 / Recorded 1968.3.9
2-8 Columbia single 4-44499 (B) - Released 1968.4.2 / Recorded 1967.12.6
2-9 Columbia single 4-44643 (A) - Released 1968.9.2 / Recorded 1968.3.13
2-10 Columbia single 4-44643 (B) - Released 1968.9.2 / Recorded 1968.3.12
2-11 Columbia single 4-44746 (A) - Released 1969.1.7 / Recorded 1968.10.15
2-12 Columbia single 4-44746 (B) - Released 1969.1.7 / Recorded 1968.10.8
2-13 Columbia single 4-44868 (A) - Released 1969.5.2 / Recorded 1969.4.18
2-14 Columbia single 4-44868 (B) - Released 1969.5.2 / Recorded 1968.10.7
2-15 Columbia single 4-44990 (A) - Released 1969.10.1 / Recorded 1969.6.18
2-16 Columbia single 4-44990 (B) - Released 1969.10.1 / Recorded 1969.7.1
2-17 Columbia single 4-44990 (B) - Released 1969.12.28 / Recorded 1967.11.30
2-18 Columbia single 4-45071 (A) - Released 1969.12.15 / Recorded 1969.6.17
2-19 Columbia single 4-45071 (B) - Released 1969.12.15 / Recorded 1969.7.22
2-20 Columbia single 4-45259 (A) - Released 1970.10.23 / Recorded 1970.5.31
2-21 Columbia single 4-45259 (B) - Released 1970.10.23 / Recorded 1970.5.31
2-22 Columbia single 4-45440 (A) - Released 1971.8.20 / Recorded 1971.1.17
2-23 Columbia single 4-45440 (B) - Released 1971.8.20 / Recorded 1971.1.11
2-24 Columbia single 4-45514 (A) - Released 1971.11.29 / Recorded 1971.7.27
2-25 Columbia single 4-45514 (B) - Released 1971.11.29 / Recorded 1971.7.26

This collection is highly recommend.(Frank)

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60's Pop, Pop Rock: The Guess Who - This Time Long Ago (2001 Ranbach Music)

In the CD era, the catalog of the pre-Wheatfield Soul Guess Who has been very hard to come by. Together with Sundazed's Shakin' All Over! (which focuses on their hardest-rocking mid-'60s cuts), this two-CD Canadian collection of rare and unreleased 1967-1968 recordings fills in the gap well.

A few of these songs did appear on non-LP Canadian and/or U.K. singles, like the devastating garage punkers "It's My Pride" and "If You Don't Want Me" (which are also on the Sundazed comp); the sappy 1967 ballad "His Girl," heard here in two versions, which was actually a minor British hit; "Flying on the Ground Is Wrong," one of the first (if not the first) covers of a Neil Young song; and unbelievably awful versions of Steve Lawrence's "Pretty Blue Eyes," recorded by the band in an attempt to get their label to release them from their contract.

("Croyez-Moi," an awkward French version of their 1966 single "Believe Me," appears for the first time here.) Most of this set, however, is devoted to unreleased material, recorded in 1967 and 1968 in the studios for CBC TV shows. Some of those performances are marginalia, like the almost note-faithful cover versions of "Light My Fire," "White Room," and "Love Is All Around," and the psychedelic instrumental "Sitar Saga."

Much of disc two, however, is devoted to late-'60s originals that find the band starting to arrive at their own hard pop/rock identity, including early versions of four songs apiece from Wheatfield Soul and Canned Wheat. The standouts are early versions of "These Eyes" and the Doors-ish psychedelic suite "Friends of Mine," which includes contributions from members of the Winnipeg Symphony and some free jazz sax near the end.

A CBC version of the single "When Friends Fall Out" (later to appear on American Woman), which alternates between grinding riffs in the verse and contemplative balladry on the bridge, saw Burton Cummings start to fully form his tense, belting vocal style.

There's a sense of a band fishing for a style throughout much of this anthology, not always successfully, but it documents an important transitional phase in the group's evolution.(Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com)

These guys played for the pop show ''Lets Go'' at the canadian television nearly 80 shows in two years and i think it was a very important time for the band to develop their abilities. Today maybe they are the biggest pop legends in Canada. For the audience and for the younger musicians.(Frank)

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Mystic Braves - Days Of Yesteryear (2015 Lolipop Records)

Stepping out from behind their previous more gritty garage sounding outing, “Days of Yesteryear” finds The Mystic Braves delivering a more tightly woven bit of lo-fi neo-psychedelia, complete with jangling sustained quivering guitars, Farfisa organ, and well delivered vocal harmonies that come off a bit etherial, and delightfully so ... think vintage Electric Prunes to the point where you’ll swear your hearing “Pushin’ Too Hard” drifting in the the background.

It seem that there’s more of this genre now then there was during the mid 60’s, and deciphering the good from the bad since The Allah Las burst onto the scene is getting harder than ever ... so allow me to say that The Mystic Braves have managed to combine that paisley garage psych with the smooth mellow imagery that’s become so popular, giving them their own space in which to expand your mind, and their sound.

All that’s missing is Andy Warhol, Twiggy, the Shindig Dancers, and a bit of the lysergic.

Review made by Jenell Kesler/2015
© Copyright http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2015

The album is nearly as strong as their previous album ''Desert Island''. And also here are no fillers. It's a little scary how the band manages to maintain such high quality without any weaknesses in their songwriting. It's pure fun to listen to these guys. Great.(Frank)

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Sixties Psychedelic Twangy Pop Rock From 2014: Mystic Braves - Desert Island (2014 Lolipop, Vinyl, Ltd. Edition)

When does a band become so derivative that it stops being a problem and just is? The Mystic Braves are a five-piece out of Los Angeles who are so thoroughly in love with the twangy, farfisa-inflected, hippie-trippy music of the 1960s that they play it a hell of a lot better than many of the bands who were actually there at the time. To put it another way: they don’t play psychedelic 1960s rock the way it was, so much as the way we remember it being.

Tunes like “Bright Blue Day Haze” and “Coyote Blood” are all aswirl with reverb-y guitars, farfisa lines, tumbling bass and groovy lyrics, set to jaunty tempos and packed with enough sonic density to remain engaging even after dozens of listens (trust me). The album is remarkably consistent from top to bottom, so it’s tough to pick a standout, but both the title track and album closer "Earthshake" are particularly infectious, the former with its interplay of keyboard and guitar and the latter with its classic chord progression and drowning-in-reverb vocals. This is a great album all around. Sure, it’s utterly indebted to the music of 50 years ago, but so what? It’s still great.(popmatters.com)

The band from L.A. are playing a really great twangy psychedelic pop style and the album seems to come straight from the sixties. Here's not one filler on the whole album.(Frank)

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Sixties Psychedelic Pop/Rock, Baroque Pop, Jazzy, Experimental by ex members of Paul Revere & The Raiders: Brotherhood - The Complete Recordings 1968-1969 (2014 Real Gone Music)

Right at the height of popularity for Paul Revere and the Raiders, the band’s core power trio of Phil “Fang” Volk (bass), Drake “The Kid” Levin (guitar) and Mike “Smitty” Smith (drums) left to pursue their own more ambitious musical goals. Subsequent lawsuits and a run of bad luck meant that the first, self-titled album by their new band, Brotherhood, would be delayed, and received little notice at the time.

Yet, by mixing a wealth of socially-conscious original numbers with hard-rocking reinterpretations of tunes by the Mamas and the Papas and Joe South, Brotherhood was a band brimming with promise. Between 1968 and 1969 the band released two more albums, one under their own name, the other a third, wildly experimental record (Friend Sound / Joyride) that drew upon Cage, Zappa and Stockhausen (and acid) for its influences.

Bringing together music that has been out of print for over 40 years and never available on CD until now, Brotherhood: The Complete Recordings includes all three albums the group cut for RCA on two CDs, plus a definitive history of the band by Bill Kopp, based on extensive research and a lengthy interview with Phil Volk, who contributes a note of his own. Remastered by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in NYC…one of the great lost bands of the late ‘60s!(Real Gone Music)

Only two words: Highly recommended. (Frank)

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