Not Much Time To Lose

Birth Of Joy is a power trio from Holland. These guys play a mix of Sixties Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Blues and Grunge. Their main weapon is the incredible Hammond organ. Together with the guitars and drums, they've created an awesome sound. Beside that there are also these great vocals.

Their full length debut called Life In Babalou is an outstanding album with ten songs.

The sound of Birth Of Joy reminds me a lot of another great dutch band named De Wolff.

If you're interested in some more of this fantastic band, then you can stream their same titled EP at their Bandcamp site. Enjoy!

Birth Of Joy - Life In Babalou (2012)

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The Fruit Is Still Fresh

Exactly two months ago I've posted the album A Good Tip For A Good Time by the Norwegian band Cato Salsa Experience. In that post I've asked you to look out for that album, because it was really hard to get. There were a couple reactions by the readers of this blog. Because of these reactions I can call myself a happy owner of that CD.

Today I was pleased again when I found this CD on my doormat. It is the Japanese issue of the most recent album The Fruit Is Still Fresh. This version contains four bonus live tracks.

The Fruit Is Still Fresh is again a garantee for some infectious catchy and energetic Psychedelic Garage tunes. An example of that is the song Lovesick, once played and it remains sticking in your head for the rest of the day. You are warned! Enjoy!

Meet the hardest working band in Norway: Cato Salsa Experience! And (along with Ricochets, Madrugada, and Motorpsycho) they're also one of the most credible rock bands around our shores. I had the pleasure of seeing the latter half (to bad I missed the full set) of their performance at this years Roskilde Festival, Denmark, to experience what a great live band they are. So what about recordings then?

The Fruit is still Fresh is album number two (their debut A Good Tip For A Good Time came almost three years ago), with more of their garage'n'roll rhythm'n'grooves. Or; maybe one of the titles of the songs from this album is a fitting tag: "Rock'n'Soul". Their sounds twist and turns, and even though this music really begs to be performed live it works remarkably well on disc. Much thanks to the tightness of the band and the arrangements of the songs. The mixture of the charisma and energy of front man (singer/guitarist) Christian Engfelt, the dancing and playful bass thrills of Cato "Salsa" Thomassen, the steady drum-beat from the hands and feet of Jon M. Riise, all topped or touched with a spicy taste of organ by Nina Bjørndalen.

CSX have played 200 gigs the last three years, which is understandable when listening to how tight and punchy The Fruit... is. A few tracks: opening song "Living Longer Each Year"; the energetic "Runaround"; the explosive "Up & Around"; the slightly Television/Tom Verlaine-ish (guitars!) "Waiting For The Summer Sun". Plus my fave of them all: "Candyman", which is a rolling, stomping, thundering, whispering, blistering song.

Good luck around the world, CSX. Guess he success will increase (they've already been on tv soundtracks in Jackass and The Osbournes). In the USA they're (along with Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band) signed to Emperor Norton Records. In Japan Epic/Sony distribute the CSX groove-machine.

(By Håvard Oppøyen at Lukacafe.com)

Cato Salsa Experience - The Fruit Is Still Fresh (2003)

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A Good Tip For A Good Time

This album was once posted by fellow blogger Mari at the famous blog Doomed To Be Stoned In A Sludge Swamp, so all thanks and credits for this post go to her!

Cato Salsa Experience is a Sixties influenced Garage Rock band from Norway with slight Psychedelic tendencies. A Good Tip For A Good Time is their second release and it is such an awesome album. This album is filled with tunes that are really a garantee for a great vibe. The music is energetic and jumpy, it will somehow make your body move. I was hooked from the first time I've heard this album and I still am. So this urge to share it with you.

There is only one thing with this album: It is not available anymore! So I have a question to all of my readers: If you see this album somewhere, please buy it for me! If you see it somewhere on the web, please order it! I will reimburse all costs! Anyway... Enjoy!

Blasting from your speakers like a spicy tornado, Cato Salsa Experience shimmies, shakes, and squirms with unfettered guitar distortion, bombastic drumming, and layers of retro-cool organs that sound like they're as much fun to play as they are to listen to. Hearkening core elements of classic garage rock, Norwegians Cato Thomassen (vocals and guitar), Christian Engfelt (bass), Jon Magne Riise (drums), and Nina Bjorndalen (keyboards) fuse late-'60s models of the Rolling Stones and the Who with something derivative of the Hives and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. "Time to Freak Out!," "Listen to Me Daddy'O," "Got Soul if You Want It," and "So the Circus Is Back in Town" all swirl in an exuberant alt-rock, go-go dance shack infection. Though the album is easily digested as a whole, "Deadbeat" and "M.F." further exhibit fun jungle drums, goofy organs, freewheeling lyrics, and even some slick horn work by Jaga Jazzist. Perhaps it's the vintage equipment or the bands psychedelic name, but A Good Tip for a Good Time is raucous listening that dares you to dance around in your underwear for no particular reason.

(By Craig Curtice at All-Music)

Cato Salsa Experience - A Good Tip For A Good Time (2002)

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The Dead Tree Blues

The Dead Tree Blues is another great release by the Italian label Go Down Records.

Poison Deluxe is a side project with two members of the band OJM. Their music is pretty hard to describe. It is experimental Rock music with several influences as Rockabilly, Jazz, Sixties and Psychedelics. The organ has quite a major role in their music

Further there is this nice sounding jazzy guitar completed with piano bass pedals and the nice and steady drum parts. Thereby are the dual vocals well performed.

The Dead Tree Blues is not an ordinairy album. It is a rather surprising piece of work. Enjoy!

POISON DELUXE is the culmination point of two bands, Ojm and Chance Medley. Frank Puglie and Max Ear were the founding fathers of Ojm band. Frank shifted in 2004 and decided to keep searching for new sounds and music development with Chance Medley that sees the presence of the organist and keyboardist Stefano Paski. In january 2008 the three guys (Max, Frank and Stefano) joined together to start off with a new exciting project: Poison Deluxe. Even if their sound differs from the previous two bands, it keeps tight the link with the rock n'roll of the origins and the unusual but exquisite use of the piano bass (which use was honored by Mazareck from the Doors).

(Their bio from Facebook)

It may seem easy and obvious to sum up the Poison Delux experience as a possible contamination of The Doors’ sound ("P. Skunk" is supposed to be a blues track written by Manzarek as a divertisement) and the harmonic structure of nearly every enterprise by Josh Homme.

In “The dead tree blues” for instance, beside the above mentioned big blonde bloke, you would expect that genious Jack White to pop up, since the many-faceted matter of blues is tackled according to his accomplished style of guitar playing. All of this makes pretty good reference for a project moving its first, if not shy, steps. Possibly the best bit is to be found in the good taste displayed by Max Ear (here meeting his former Ojm band mate Frank Puglie on the guitar) in rearranging his boogie to defy the patterns of the main firm. This is exactly what you would expect from a side project: complete freedom in the development of songs (as well proved in the track appropriately titled “A free demonstration”). That’s why, beside the mentioned names, such an album would have profited from the contribution of the early Beck: tracks such as "When I'm down he comes down", "Vortex blues", "Old memories” and "Ocioidei" remind one of the experiments of mr. Hansen at least up tp "Mellow gold". The perfect sound to score with a girl… :-)

(From Go Down Records)

Poison Deluxe - The Dead Tree Blues (2010)

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Blinded By The Sun

On Trial was a legendary Psychedelic Garage Rock band from Denmark. This band made eight studio albums and Blinded By The Sun is the fifth one. On Trial excelled in their Psychedelic Sixties sound. If I'm correct there was also some involvement of some Baby Woodrose members. A highly recommended album by an outstanding band. Too bad they split up recently. Enjoy!

What is it with these guys? Even though I'm usually quite cranky at this hour in the morning (8:32 AM), it seems that these guys are allergic to making bad or even mediocre albums. Basically, if you like New Day Rising, you're gonna dig this one as well. Like that album, Blinded by the Sun has a tendency towards shorter, tougher songs than the ones so elaborately displayed on Head Entrance. The production is probably more elaborate here as well, while there's a bigger variety in styles and sounds. Some people collect stamps, others collect naughty toys or records, these guys seem to collect guitar pedals. Guf's influence is still increasing (he wrote more than half of the lyrics) and it shows, as about half of the album are tack-hard cuts of late '60s/early '70s psych rock, mixed up with hard rock, pop and even folksy stuff. The title track continues the more accessible direction of many of NDR's songs: it's muscular, yet melodic, tough, yet accessible. It's the same deal with most other tracks: "Everything" is a marvellous fuzzed-out rocker with vocalist Bo resembling the MC5's Rob Tyner so much it's scary, while "Driver" (an obscure cover) is ultra-catchy hippie music. Those songs are not even the hardest rocking tunes, the ones that are guaranteed to set their live shows ablaze. No, for those opportunities, there are cuts like the call to arms-rock of "Miles Away" that comes complete with sirens and all; the exquisite six minute-beast "Downer" (most likely to impress the stoners in the audience, think of Monster Magnet-meets-Pentagram) with its awesome guitar sounds and the simple, in-your-face hard rock of "Poor Soul." It's not a 50-minute rave-up, though, as the broadened sound palette also includes quieter, moodier material. The half-acoustic "Too Late," sung by Guf, is as atmospheric as this kind of stuff gets, dark and fatalistic. The real winner here, however, is "So Close," a wonderfully realized slice of lush L.A. psych-pop. With those melancholic vocals and additional trumpets it's a dead ringer for Love's folk-psych. With the exception of "Downer," all the songs are easily digestible and short, but in good old fashion, there's a reward for trip addicts at the end of the album, with two +10 minute space travels inviting the listener to enjoy the view from up above. "Slippin' and Slidin'" is a mantra-like dirge that takes a while to build up, but manages to create a weird, melancholy atmosphere and when those compressed vocals kick in, the visions are complete. "Kolos" is darker and heavier and despite being less melodic, there's damn fine guitar stuff goin' on and that acceleration and intensification probably leads to stunning results in a live setting. The brief "Kosmonaut" serves as a hard-rocking coda to that drone. Blinded by the Sun isn't a departure from New Day Rising like that album differed from Head Entrance before it, but because of the uniformly strong songs, terrific musicianship and occasionally beautiful moments, it ranks as an excellent album. Not as idiosyncratic as Head Entrance (God, I can't seem to keep my mouth shut about that one), but a lot more satisfying than most of today's self-conscious drivel that's being sold as "da new thing." Whatever, I'm sticking with On Trial.
(Review by Guy Peters)

On Trial - Blinded By The Sun (2002)

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Goodbye Orange Sunshine, Hello Santa Cruz

Orange Sunshine is the most famous Fuzz band from The Hague, Holland. This trio has performed their last show at the Gods Of Groove fest last saturday. Yeah, that's right, Orange Sunshine will stop existing. But don't be sad. Some members will continue in the new band Santa Cruz. Check out their MySpace page and listen to their tunes and order their one track album.
Now back to Orange Sunshine. This band made four full-lenght albums and they're all awesome. This is their second album called Love=Acid Space=Hell and it is full of great Fuzz/60's/70's/Garage/Hard Rock songs. The major influence of Orange Sunshine is Blue Cheer. Orange Sunshine is absolutely blessed with the best guitar player of the The Hague agglomeration. Their shows where always great and loud! Enjoy!

Orange Sunshine: catching the very soul of the motor-blues garage-punk and acid proto-hardrock era of the late '60's and the early 70's? With band members derived from several Dutch '80's and '90's hardcore, garage-, doom-, acid-, surf-, noise-, punk- and hard-rock bands (such as Top
Gear, Panty Boy, Twin Earth, the White Trash Minstrels and Sunwheel from the metro area
of The Hague/Den Haag and Cromlech from Arnhem, check out www.motorwolf.nl for more information), Orange Sunshine started in a squat in The Hague early 1999 as a traditional 3-piece power blues band playing a mix of blues covers and originals in a very explosive way, in the very same intense way and with the very same raw sound and the very same high volume as the much inspiring power blues bands BLUE CHEER, MC5 and STACKWADDY once did in the late '60's, rendering, or should we say screaming out, the same pain, the same drugs (LSD, amphetamines, opiates), the same tension and the same soul.

Many shows followed, in many squats and bars, parties and youth centres, regular venues and main concert halls, in the Netherlands and abroad, a first record was expected and so we plunged into our own analogue recording studio in the squat where we also lived and rehearsed.

We always worshipped the music and the sound of BLUE CHEER's first 2 albums and to make sure we got as close as possible to their organic energy and exhilarating dynamics, we decided to do the recording ourselves, using authentic valve amplifiers and cabinets (Fender bassman, ampeg SVT), drums (Rogers), effects (a.o. spring reverb, tape echo, Electric Mistress flanger, Big Muff and Avora fuzz), an old 1" tape recorder and an old mixing console, and authentic recording techniques i.e. recording the space around us, instead of the modern-day close-micing with tons of compressors, gates and digital multi-effects. When the volume is so up, that the air turns into french cheese, you better register that french cheese instead of all the separate instruments that are used. The source has to be pure, but it's the flow that one records! Thus 'Homo Erectus' was produced and released on our own record label Motorwolf records by the end of the year 2001.
A sincere tribute to the sheer ritual drug that is the early music of BLUE CHEER and with the self-made 3D sleeve (a photograph of a gospel preaching freak messiah and his guitar God apostles on a German second-world-war tank) and the enclosed self-made Gibson- flying-V-shaped 3D glasses the record (limited to 500 vinyl copies) was sold out in half a year, you bet how eagerly all these record collectioneurs wanted to buy our bullshit story of the excavated acetate from an obscure '60's group. 2002 saw new opportunities for the band with a new bass player (Mischa Poppe) and a first small eastcoast/mid-west US tour. Very soon our sound and music began to evolve with the new band member and our new SUNN amplification (the ultimate howlin' and growlin' tube machines!), developing more into the black roots of rock'n'roll and rhythm'n'blues of CHUCK BERRY, BO DIDLEY and HENDRIX (the music we listened to as kids), while at the same time growing more into the CREAM-like pop song structures of the psychedelic '60's, but without losing the heavy rock aggression and wildness of our original set-up. Therefore we wanted another recording style for our second album release 'Love = Acid, Space = Hell' (recorded in our Motorwolf studio and released on Motorwolf records in 2003), more sort of like a 'professional' studio recording from around 1970 (perhaps even just as the old ROLLING STONES sounded on their records at the time), with all the limitations of that era (no computers, only an 8-track tape recorder, old-school condenser microphones, no digital mastering), resulting in a very warm sound, yet with a much more 'produced' production than 'Homo Erectus'. The hilarious 8-minutes drum solo (probably the first on a record in more than 25 years) and the over-the-top space-echo-laden and reverse-tape-recorded guitars and drums in our version of BO DIDLEY's 'hey mama, keep your big mouth shut' certainly add to the distinct and long gone psych/progrock feel of the record. A second small eastcoast US tour was done in december 2003 and very soon our fresh release, which had far better distribution now, was well received throughout the world. And while we are currently working on a lot of completely new material, a small German tour has been done around christmas 2004, a 7" is released on Germany's Swamp Room records at the same time (feat. a re-interpretation of the FUZZTONES' song 'Black-out') and our debut album 'Homo Erectus' is rereleased (with 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks) on cd by Holland's Clear Spot/Headspin records and on vinyl and cd by Japan's Leaf Hound records in the beginning of 2005. 2005 started great with holland's prominent 'roadburn' festival, but just before the 'stoned for the underground' festival in erfurt, germany, our bass player Mischa had to quit the band due to serious ear damage! Our friend Antal Buisman from the Zippies helped us out on bass for a few shows in the summer and autumn of 2005, but we're finally back with a new bassplayer: Mehdi Rouchiche, former guitar player of The Hague's old-school HC sensation Shorttime and graphic designer of Godspill, and we're closer to the old BLUE CHEER sound than ever before! However, we will still record an new album with Mischa Poppe and perform his last Orange Sunshine shows in Japan in 2006. Further plans for 2006 are a french/italian/swiss/german tour, 'Black-out' on the coming 'The Hague Motor Rock Vol.2' compilation by Motorwolf and the final release of the never released album 'Ruler of the Universe' (on vinyl by Motorwolf and on cd by Leaf Hound records), named after the 15-minutes long epic space psych track from Terry Brooke's Strange that we cover on the A-side (including sitar, tablas, crazy sectarian-cult-choir-like vocals and lots of endless manic soloing with a self-oscillating echo device). This album was produced while we recorded for the 'Homo Erectus' LP (with our former bass player Thomas van Slooten, who is now taking care of all the coming album artwork), during our 'psychedelic freak-out' sessions. And excessive heavy acid fuzz madness it is! Definitely the wildest, craziest and most extreme stuff we have ever done, of which one track ('Balls knocking') was previously released in early 2002 on the first volume of Motorwolf's 'The Hague Motor Rock', a compilation of 25 heavy garage-/surf-/punk-/ acid-/doom-/hard-rock bands from our metro area.
A fourth LP (as said before with Mischa Poppe) is also planned with a further development of our music, expanding into the styles of the early '70's, with subtle elements of black soul, gospel and funk (FUNKADELIC, SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, CURTIS KNIGHT, GRAND FUNK), jazz (i.e. boogie, GEORGE BRIGMAN's style of melodic soloing), proto-doom hardrock (RANDY HOLDEN's POPULATION II) and even some techniques from Latin-American progrock groups (LOS DUG-DUG'S from Mexico, PAPPO'S BLUES from Argentina). Will we stick to our original principles or will we fall into the same trap as lots of heavy bands did during those dreadful 1970's?
The irony of this all is that we actually hate cliche blues rock, hippy space rock and other lame cannabis-influenced 'psychedelia', and all these terribly pretentious and technical progressive/kraut rock bands from the '70's (flutes!), you can imagine lots of people had a bloody good reason to ignite the punk virus! Thank the lord for the bad-acid-trip drug rock magnet that inflamed many a good band, 'damn you hippies, we still got our music!
(Their bio)

Orange Sunshine - Love=Acid Space=Hell (1971/2003)

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Swedish Ancestors?

Thanks to Rudy for suggesting this awesome album!
Baby Grandmothers were a Psychedelic Hard Rock band from Sweden. This trio was inspired by music such as Jimi Hendrix and Cream. Their self-titled album from 1968 is an absolute classic.
This album contains excellent songs, especially the tracks Bergakunden and Being Is More Than Life. These are long-drawn-out songs where guitarist Kenny Håkansson excels. This guy is almost as much a virtuoso like Jimi Hendrix was! Baby Grandmothers were even support act for Jimi Hendrix on his Swedish tour in 1968!
Baby Grandmothers was an awesome band and this album is highly recommended! Enjoy!

One of Sweden’s most obscure psychedelic treasures, Baby Grandmothers evolved out of the T-Boones in 1967 and only officially released one single in Finland (Eteenpäin!, aka Forward!, May 1968) during their lifetime before the power trio of guitarist, Kenny Håkansson, bassist, Bengt “Bela” Linnarsson and drummer, Pelle Ekman joined forces with Mecki Bodermark in the reincarnated Mecki Mark Men, a highly prized, Swedish psych outfit that released a much-loved 1969 album for Mercury, ‘Running In The Summer Night.’ (MMM, rumoured to be Hendrix favorite Swedish band, were also the first Swedish band to tour America, where they recorded their final album, ‘Marathon’ at Chess studios in Chicago, later to be released by Sonet in 1970.) This archival release (which marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s formation and was compiled with detailed, historical photos and liner notes by Dungen guitarist, Reine Fiske) includes various live recordings of mostly soundboard quality (although the source tapes appear to have been sonically washed for improved presentability – these are definitely not your dodgy, microphone down the pant leg audience recordings), which only scratch the surface of conveying what the band sounded like, but will be of much interest to fans of fellow Swedish psych monsters, Pärson Sound and their myriad offshoots such as International Harvester and Träd, Gras och Stenar. A taste of the band’s mind-melting attack is evident the A-side to that single, ‘Somebody Keeps Calling My Name,’ wherein Håkansson moans the title like some psychotic patient in a mental ward before ripping off a brain-bending solo for a track that’s much more focused (but no less psychedelic) than the hippy-dippy assaults of their fellow countrymen. Imagine vintage Cream and Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd morphing into a primeval Hawkwind sonic brain attack and you’re on the right track.

The flip side is up next (‘Being Is More Than Life’), presented here (as was the opener) from a live Finnish broadcast on March 24, 1968. It’s a meandering, freeform improv, which is essentially an elongated Håkansson guitar solo. Surely, one of the most unusual (and, at nearly six minutes, one of the longest) singles, psych or otherwise to come out of the Scandinavian sixties scene. A two-song, nearly 40-minute(!) live performance from late October, 1967 at the legendary Swedish psychedelic underground club FILIPS (where the Grandmothers were the house band) yields the 17-minute ‘Burgakunden’ and a nearly 20-minute version of the single’s B-side! The former is a rafter-rattling chunk of heavy psychedelia and together they just may be the most impressive examples of vintage Swedish psychedelia you’re ever likely to hear. Although it’s unknown whether this was one such recording, but the band did share the FILIPS stage for all-night jam sessions with the likes of Hendrix and The Mothers when they rolled through town, and Jimi’s influence, particularly on Håkansson’s amazing guitar work is immeasurable. Throughout, Håkansson dons the guitar God crown, exploring every nook and cranny of sound he can emit from his guitar, although to label him a “Swedish Jimi Hendrix” would be unfair, as he, perhaps intentionally, lacks or avoids the blues’ structures underlying many of Jimi’s solos.

Stretched out to sidelong proportion, the single takes on a life of its own and, despite the somewhat dodgy condition of the source tape, whose historical importance far outweighs it’s lack of pristine quality, is 20 minutes of sheer Hendrixian mayhem which actually precedes Hendrix’ guitar-burning performance at Monterey by two months. The fact that this is performed in front of what sounds like an audience of about 5 is not only shameful, it’s downright criminal, so mucho kudos to Fiske for rescuing this from oblivion. (And, oh, that video footage of the Grandmothers should someday surface, although, interestingly, Fiske suggests in his liner notes that this segment, which was provided by film-maker Stefan Jarl, was originally intended to form the soundtrack to the first film in Jarl’s Mods trilogy, ‘Dom Kallar Oss Mods’ (‘They Call Us Mods’). The slot eventually went to the Lea Riders Group, but we’re lucky to finally be able to hear this amazing piece of history.)

The band’s September 30, 1967 performance at FILIPS gives us ‘St. George’s Dragon,’ which finds the band in fine improvisational flight, with Linnarsson’s rolling bassline more prominent around Ekman’s galloping drum rolls and Håkansson’s by-now familiar fire breathing guitar bursts. So if you’re in the mood to experience the ultimate in six-string manipulation and total guitar destruction, you owe it to yourself to add this to your collection of vintage psychedelia, Scandinavian or otherwise.

(By Jeff Penczak at Terrascope)

Baby Grandmothers - Baby Grandmothers (1968)

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*Thanks and credits to Andy from Another Sucker On The Vine!

In The Sixties People Would Have Called This Groovy

Cherry Coke is a trio formed by Mat Bethancourt (Josiah, Kings Of Frog Island, The Beginning). This band plays some great 60's inspired Psychedelic Garage. I did post two singles of Cherry Choke some earlier here. This is the full-length debut album. It contains ten great songs. It reminds me a bit of the bands Cream and Blue Cheer. I think you can call it "groovy"! Enjoy!

Guitarist/vocalist Mat Bethancourt, also of Josiah and The Kings of Frog Island, now joins bassist/backing vocalist Gregg Hunt and drummer Dan Lockton in Cherry Choke, a garage rocking power trio whose self-titled debut album revels in its simplicity and rootsy flavor.

Split even on CD into sides one and two, Cherry Choke offers ten straightforward tracks wherein the fuzzy tone that’s come to be expected from Bethancourt in Josiah and The Kings of Frog Island mostly takes a back seat to a cleaner type of distortion akin to the ’70s-inspired indie that’s dominated the party rock ideal for the better part of this decade. If I said Cherry Choke takes inspiration from Hendrix, The Stooges, MC5 and T-Rex, it would be the same as saying “they play garage rock,” but there it is.

There are some hits and some misses throughout the album, but the memorable “Ride My Black Balloon,” at track three, is the first real showing of Cherry Choke at their best. Somewhat less frantic than “She Turns Me On” and “The Lie,” which come right before it, the repetition of the title line drills it into your head so that you start repeating it, mantra-like, without even realizing. Though “Reflections in Black” is both more distorted and more aggressive, “Ride My Black Balloon” still remains the strongest number on the side one. The short psychedelic instrumental “Jezebel” helps to divide Cherry Choke and set the tone for the album’s broader-reaching second half.

Side two begins with “Cheetah,” which fits well alongside side one’s more forthright cuts, but it’s with “I Can See the Girls Grow,” with a further back vocal from Bethancourt and a deeper guitar sound — one that still bounces along at a fairly good clip — that Cherry Choke commences its expansion. The last three tracks, beginning with the most Hendrixian “The Need,” are unmistakably the highlights of the record. “The Need” balances the fuzz with the swagger and is the first real instance since “Ride My Black Balloon” in which Cherry Choke’s songwriting seems to be in focus. While other tracks have a frivolous, spontaneous, jammed-out appeal, there’s no denying the solo in “The Need” is well constructed and immaculately executed. Leading into the faster “In My Mind” and instrumental closer “Fridays in June,” the album’s close presents its brightest moments.

Cherry Choke has enough of Bethancourt’s style and sound to please fans of his previous work, but pushes in a direction altogether different. Nonetheless, they are an organic-sounding trio with Hunt and Lockton offering much in the way of striking classic rock rhythms and a couple genuinely remarkable tracks on their debut, well suited to whatever outdoor chicanery you might be getting up to this summer.
(By JJ Koczan at StonerRock.com)

Cherry Choke - Cherry Choke (2009)

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What!? Lorenzo Again?

Thanks to Rudy for sharing this nice discovery!
I guess that Spids Nøgenhat is the first band of Lorenzo Woodrose (Baby Woodrose, The Setting Son, Dragon Tears and Pandemonica). So this album must be Lorenzo's first recording!

En Mærkelig Kop Te (meaning: A Strange Tea Cup) is an album with six great Psychedelic songs blended with 60's and Space rock. All songs are sung in Danish. If you like Lorenzo's work, you really should listen this one! Enjoy!

In 1993/1994 Lorenzo (at that time under the stage name Aramis) and Aron of On Trial spent some time together playing acoustic guitars and getting it off in a very basic folk format. They also played acoustic folk in the streets of Copenhagen, trying (very unsuccessfully) to expose the common public to Roky Erickson, Love, Spirit and the likes. Lorenzo was at that time already full on recording his own 4-track folkpsych recordings, later to be known under the name of Pandemonica. This was a big inspiration for all, and led to loose and stoned late night Jamming in the rehearsal room.

In 1995/96, Lorenzo, Aron and Hobitten (before entering as fulltime member of On Trial), decided (this may be too precise a term) to explore the psychedelic folk format even more. Back in the safe environment of the rehearsal room a plan was taking form in the minds of the three musketeers. Three guitars, a singer, some natural inspiration, an expanding folkrock collection and lots of echo on top. It sounded just right for the psychedelic space invaders. A setlist found it's way to the band, and they liked to play live with this constellation.

In 1997 The band got a deal to play Friday and Saturday at Cafe Rust for a month. A hard place to play folkrock. You can imagine a room full of party people trying to score. The crowd didn't want to listen to three acidheads stoned out of their minds, so they never got back there again. One day Lorenzo said to the other guys, "We're gonna call ourselves: Spids Nøgenhat." Yes, of course! Spids Nøgenhat is the danish botanic term for the magic mushrooms also known as Liberty Cap and Spitzkegliger Kahlkopf, and it was definately mushroom music coming out of the speakers. Then followed gigs at Loppen (CPH), Achtung Cowboy (CPH), Posehuset (Nykøbing Falster), kulturfabrikken (Nykøbing Falster) Swamp Room Happening (Hannover), Stengade 30 (CPH) now expanded to a foursome including Elverpigen Lene on additional vocals. The last gig was at Filmskolen (CPH).

In the year 2000 Spids Nøgenhat recorded "En Mærkelig kop te", A set of songs from the bottomless well of Lorenzo's songwriting craftmanship. Full electric band backing (organ, bass, drums played by Lorenzo) and strong, well-written danish lyrics. In spite of the minimal promotion it became a serious cult/underground LP in the years to follow.

Facts and loose ends:

Some 4-track recordings from the period 95/96 found it's way to the Aron LP "Blackbeacon". The song "it's living" may be one of the first recordings of what later incarnated as Spids Nøgenhat. And until some live recordings get released, this is, along with their only 45 (Alrune rod/En drøm), the closest you get to hearing the original live sound of Spids Nøgenhat. Also, the song "2000 kilometer i en 2værelses lejlighed" was included on a Swamp Room Happening compilation LP, released in 2000.

2001 saw Lorenzo start fuzzed out caveman garagerockers Baby Woodrose, who is now enjoying great and well deserved recognition from all over the world. The LP "En Mærkelig Kop Te" was recorded at Mad Scientist Music Lab in the Northwest part of Copenhagen. Nick Hasselby took all the pictures and worked as engineer on the recordings.

In 2003 a Christiania support cd was released by Helicopter Records and featured an unreleased recording from the album sessions titled "Mere Frihed"

Another song "Hobbitten's Drøm" originally intended for the Spids Nøgenhat album, but recorded much later, was included on the Dragontears album project "2000 Micrograms From Home" released in 2006, featuring the original line up and members of Baby Woodrose largely re-introducing the echoey sound of the original band.

A film, by Niels Plenge, documenting danish underground sounds on vinyl, was planned to include recordings of Spids Nøgenhat in the studio. The project never got finished, but at some point it may see the light of day. Live recordings of nearly all Spids Nøgenhat's all too few concerts document the band as a productive and broadminded psychedelic experience.
(From MySpace)

Spids Nøgenhat - En Mærkelig Kop Te (2001)

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Italian Garage Vibes

A while ago I've posted the 7' single Uomini from the Italian band Mastica here. This is their debut album from 2004. Mastica plays some nice Sixties Psychedelic Garage Rock. Compared with the Uomini single, there is not so much Hammond organ on (12) Treize Cigarettes, but instead you get a lot of good guitar riffs served. (12) Treize Cigarettes has twelve great songs that brings you forty years back in time. Enjoy!

Mastica - (12) Treize Cigarettes (2004)

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This Is The Beginning

Mat Bethancourt is a man who got famous with the bands Josiah and The Kings Of Frog Island. He also played with the bands Cherry Choke and The Beginning.
The Beginning was a five piece band from the U.K. This band is more focused on the 60's and 70's Psychedelic music. The album This Is The Beginning contains seven outstanding songs. Great songs are The Ju Ju Man and the 13 minute Baby's Takin Me For A Ride (I would almost swear that Keith Richards played here). This Is The Beginning is an album with great grooves and it shows again the midas touch of Mat Bethancourt. Too bad it stayed with one album. Enjoy!

The Beginning were born of a heavy consumption of psychedelics and late sixties/early seventies drug rock culture from both sides of the pond. Blending the west coast acid jams of The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service with the hard rock of Led Zeppelin and Man, The Beginning boast members of both UK fuzz rockers Josiah, The Kings Of Frog Island and UK power pop trio Bronco Bullfrog. This Is..... takes you on a trip of highs and higher highs and drops you off somewhere near the twelfth of never. Unashamedly retro, This Is.... blows straight through your fucking mind.
(From MySpace)

The Beginning - This Is The Beginning (2004)

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Lo-Cow-Motion

The Karovas Milkshake is a Russian Garage band and they take you 45 years back in time. This trio plays some great 60's Psychedelic Garage Rock! The Lo-Cow-Motion Single contains four nice songs. These guys remind me a lot of bands like The Yardbirds, The Monkees, The Kinks, The Sonics, and so on. My favorite song of this single is Hey Girl!, a great song with a Psychedelic twist. Enjoy!

The Karovas Milkshake - Lo-Cow-Motion Single (2010)

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Money For Soul

Money For Soul is the second album by Baby Woodrose. This album is again full of pleasant Psychedelic Sixties Garage Rock tunes. Great songs are: Honeydripper, the single Disconnected, Hippy Chick and the title track Money For Soul. This album is another proof of Lorenzo Woodrose's musical genius! Enjoy!

Superfuzz, good stuff! 30 seconds into Money for Soul, and you’ll be thinking you found yourself a combination of early Mudhoney (vacuum cleaner fuzz) and Monster Magnet (Guf Lorenzen’s soulful vocals are a bit reminiscent of Weindorf’s), but a few minutes later you’ll realize you’re beamed back to the second half of the ‘60’s, to a time when each kid with a garage had a guitar and bashed out simple rock ‘n roll. When I tried to visualize the members of Baby Woodrose, I came up with a bunch of slackers in a haze of pot-smoke, fondling their worn-out copy of Nuggets and cherishing a closet full of obscure 45’s. Whereas many of their Scandinavian brethren (Hellacopters, Hives, Gluecifer, to name a few of the obvious ones) dabble in high-energy rock that first saw the light of day more than 35 years ago, Baby Woodrose goes a few years further back. Although it’s obvious this is a contemporary band, their influences are to be found on the Nuggets-compilation and psychedelic albums (just not the extended jam-kind): The Sonics, pre-Forever Changes Love, The Seeds, The Standells, and so on. In the hands of most other melomaniacs (what I assume they are), Money for Soul could’ve come off as a hopelessly hollow genre exercise, but it’s become much more than that here, as the band tears through four decades of garage rock with a stylish aplomb that’s pretty rare nowadays.
It’s not that the album contains instant garage classics that could match, say, The 13th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” The Remains’ “Don’t Look Back,” or Love’s “7 and 7 Is,” but there’s hardly anything bland either, as these concise, natural sounding tales about women, sex and drugs (for the most part) are ideally suited when you’re gonna organize that retro-party you’re thinking of. Of course, leader Lorenzen already had the opportunity to exercise with On Trial (where he played drums), and this time as well, one catchy hook is immediately followed by a next one, guitars buzz like in the golden days of 1965-‘68 and deliciously nagging organ melodies wind up now and then. It’s no surprise that “Disconnected” – with its no-nonsense attitude and brevity – was a single, as it embodies everything that’s good about psychedelic garage rock. There’s even better stuff, though: the rudimentary “Pouring Water” has to be the catchiest song to come from Denmark in a long, long while, “Never Coming Back” sounds like one of the greatest tributes to The Seeds AND The Sonics ever recorded, while the exuberant title track, with its pleasantly offensive lyrics (“You know how to suck dick, but don’t know how it feels” – allegedly about a record company executive), matches anything by, say, American neo-garage band The Mooney Suzuki. Like that band, Baby Woodrose also succeeds in incorporating a generous dose of soul (and a salute to Redding, with a lot of “Gotta gotta gotta” in “You Own It”), melody and attitude. Not as hard-rocking as the party tracks, but equally memorable, are the psychedelic pop of “Hippie Chick” and “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” songs that undoubtedly would get Sky Saxon’s seal of approval. It all goes to show that nostalgia and inventiveness needn’t be opposites, and if it weren’t for the fact this trio has digested 40 years of rock ‘n’ roll-history (with a bit of imagination, there are also hints of glam, punk and Blue Cheer-muddiness to be found), most of these songs would’ve fit nicely on any excellent 60’s music compilation. Even the gloomy ballad “Carrie” (also a single) works pretty well and serves as a nice break halfway the album. In fact, the only minor complaint that I have is that they felt the need to close the album with the much heavier “Volcano,” an excellent rocker in stoner-fashion, but one that somehow doesn’t seem to fit on this album and comes off as a weird afterthought. Anyway, Baby Woodrose’s second album is a winner. They’ve recently won some prize in Denmark, so now it’s up to the rest of Europe (and the world) to head over to Bad Afro Records and read more about them (or order a copy of Money for Soul).
(From Guypetersreviews.com)

Baby Woodrose - Money For Soul (2003)

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Another Project Of Lorenzo Woodrose.

Thanks to Maciej for sharing this album!
Lorenzo Woodrose is famous from bans like On Trial, Baby Woodrose, Dragontears and The Setting Son. Pandemonica is a solo project before Lorenzo began Baby Woodrose. I cannot tell much about it. It seems that Lorenzo played all instruments by himself. The result is a strange and Psychedelic album. It's a combination of Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock and 60's Rock, Influenced according MySpace by: 13th Floor Elevators, St. Michael, Aleister Crowley, Bevis Frond and Black Sabbath. This album is the first of a trilogy. The voice of Lorenzo is clearly recognizable. This album sounds great, a lot different than other stuff I've heard from Mr. Woodrose. Enjoy!

Pandemonica - I (2000)

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One request: If someone got Pandemonica II and III, please share it!

Let's Go Retro!

Thanks to Anders for sending me another great album!
Yer from Brazil plays some awesome Retro Rock. There are a lot of influences here, according to their MySpace the following: Hendrix, Free, Stones, Beatles, Faces, Humble Pie, James Gang, Derek And The Dominos, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Winter, Dylan, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, BB - Allbert - Freddie King. In fact Yer combines 70's Hard Rock, 60's Rock and Blues together to a great sound. First Of Many Others is an album with some great variety, from Heavy to Psychedelic, from Blues to Mellow. If you like some Retro stuff, then this is your thing. Enjoy.

2008 has been kinda a “Sargent Peppers Lonely time” for YER. Since Yer..s debut Ep in 2005, they had played and grown as a band, going deeply inside their heart and soul, searching for breath moment off the stage, that kind of nirvana insight as keruac on the Mountains with his devils had and mad about. Sort of things that make us a better human been; seen, listen, feeling the movement of the world.
As a trio, the difficult to assimilate and express all the contemporary rock style make they go into their own studio, call it simple “Power of Soul” that meaning it self.
That was the last thing missing for Yer, free time rolling songs, tracking fields, mixing their own songs like their idols Eddie Kramer, Glyn and Andy johns bros, Tom Dowd and much more mates. Having a really good times, as the golden years when Traffic had composed songs in a small cottage in rural Berkshire or when The Band did the same, living in Woodstock.
Now Yer just become the own self intuitive feelings, putting they selves all together without any misunderstanding and block of the big bosses, and this is not what you going to find around, because Yer is what they are, simple a Power of Soul, making good, strange, wrong and maybe confuse songs, things they are shitin.. off for the bloody wankers, because this is pure. If it will be good, is your decision, because they are far away on the mountains of south Brazil….. cheers!!!

London..s air has ever been the “wicked place” for rock..n..roll, you know, and was there that Fabiano Koeche de Melo completed his mastership in rock, blues and psychedelic feelings. After two years walking around the Queen..s land , Fabiano has backed to south Brazil and in 2005 recruited his younger brother Mauricio (bass) and the old friend Guilherme Pitt (drums) to form a band. The most talented power trio from that area. Here you can appreciate the first Yer..s EP, called “Cheers Mate!” Melting amps in a full pelt performance with a old fashion style is quite rare to find out on the rock arena on this days, loud guitar bends with a les paul through a marshall amps, hard beats rhythm on drums and a big and strong bass lines that could make mrs Bruce and Bogert cry of jealously – yeah mate, that..s a real rule for Yer, just make a kind of Blues / Rock with the “old smell” without lose the 90..s energy.
(From MySpace)

Yer - First Of Many Others (2010)

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21th Century Beat.

Beat is a kind of Rock music that was played in the sixties. In those days there were a lot of Dutch Beat bands, for example Q65. At the end of the nineties there was Kek '66. These guys played Beat music new style, but with the same feel as the sixties. Their second album On The Outside Looking In is a nice one. Expect Garage Rock with the vibe of The Who and The Kinks with a small dose of Psychedelics. Enjoy!

Risen from the ashes of The Kliek, Kek ’66 has joined the mission of keeping the Dutchbeat sound high on the European sixteez scene scale. This is the band’s second album which offers an authentic section of everything good that was goin on around ‘65/’66 on both sides of the Atlantic. As usual, there’s a bunch of carefully chosen covers ranging from the garage-punk stylings of "Bad part of town"(The Bare Facts), "Too bad (The Bad Roads), "No time to rhyme"(The Spirit) and "You got me (The Prodigal) to the 12-string chime of Jackie DeShannon/Searschers "When you walk in the room and Randy Bachman’s "animalism "One day". Still, the originals are what this band is all about, and there, you have it all, the folk-rocking jangle of the opening "It’s in my mind", the moody "love ballad "Try to fall in love again", or the beat-pop of "Lie, cry & say goodbye", sounding like some raw garage take on The Zombies sound. "Make believe it’s nothing combines some of Neil Young’s most sophisticated ‘Springfield moments and a refrain that someone forgot to take to the top of the charts back in the mid’60s, "Take her home tonight will most definitely make you "feel a whole lot better and they even explore some Russian sounding folk in "Love is everything".
Thanks to the bands like Kek ’66 or The Waistcoats, it seems that the time is near when it will be the American/British bands who will have to fight for their position on the scene.
(From Popism)

Kek '66 - On The Outside Looking In (2002)

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Blow Your Mind!

A while ago I tried some Baby Woodrose (The Hawaiian) and I got sick as hell. I blew my stomach, so to speak!
So I prefer the Danish Baby Woodrose, a very nice Psychedelic Garage Rock band with a sixties feeling. Baby Woodrose is formed by Lorenzo Woodrose, who also plays or had played in several other bands like On Trial and The Setting Son. Blow Your Mind is the first album by Baby Woodrose and I say it's an awesome one! Enjoy!

"The music is very different from Lorenzo’s main band On Trial, this is 60´s sounding psychedelic rock with a strong pop vibe. If you have (and love) the Nuggets box you’ll love this as well, if you also like The Wellwater Conspiracy and bands like Farflung and ST 37 you gotta buy this disc as well. ...Lorenzo has a great voice that at times reminds me of Dave Wyndorf’s, on top of that he handles all the instruments himself on this CD. ...You simply can’t go wrong with a record filled to the brim with acid guitars, trippy lyrics, great vocals and extremely catchy melodies with a strong pop vibe (which is an art that seems to have been more or less forgotten since the heydays in the 60´s)."

(By Hogfeldt at Stonerrock.com)

Baby Woodrose - Blows Your Mind! (2001)

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The Third Bardo.

A while ago I posted the 60's Psychedelic Acid compilation Pebbles Vol.3 - The Acid Gallery here. One of the tracks of that compilation was Five Years Ahead Of My Time by The Third Bardo. Since I've heard that song I'm complete obsessed about it. So I was searching for more songs. I found this EP on some blogs. These a nice songs, but not so great as Five Years Ahead Of My Time. If you like Sixties Psychedelic Acid, maybe you will like this one. Enjoy

The Third Bardo recorded just one single, "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time," which appeared on Roulette in 1967. That one single, however, is lauded by many collectors as one of the greatest 1960s garage/psychedelic tracks. With its mysterious lead guitar lines that recalled the theme to the Twilight Zone, Eastern-like minor melody, creepy organ, and one of the most definitive sub-Jagger garage snarl lead vocals ever, it was worthy of more exposure than it got. However, although it got some airplay on the East Coast, it was pulled off the radio, lead singer Jeff Monn has recalled, because of perceived drug associations, although in fact there are no overt drug references in the lyrics.

The Third Bardo's material, oddly, was produced by Teddy Randazzo, who had been a singer in the 1950s, and then later producer for Little Anthony & the Imperials. His session with the Third Bardo was far weirder than could have possibly been expected given his resume, the group laying down ominous psychedelia with Eastern-influenced melodies and odd sound effects. Six tracks were recorded at the Third Bardo's one and only session, much of the material co-written by Rusty Evans, who had helped craft similarly strange stuff for the Deep. Aside from "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time," however, just one song, its B-side "Rainbow Life," was released. The other four cuts (including an alternate version of "Rainbow Life") would surface much later on Sundazed's 2000 10", six-song EP The Third Bardo.

After the Third Bardo broke up in 1967, Monn went solo and did an album for Vanguard in the late '60s, changing his name to Chris Moon for another solo album that came out on CBS/Kinetic in 1970. Jeff Beck considered hiring Monn as his singer in 1971, but the pair didn't hit it off and nothing came of it. "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" became a cult favorite among '60s collectors after its inclusion in the Pebbles reissue series, and was selected for the expanded Nuggets '60s garage box set in the late 90's.

(By Richie Unterberger at All Music Guide)

The Third Bardo - The Third Bardo EP (1967)

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Hot From The Press.

Almost a year ago I posted a video clip of the Psychedelic Sixties Rockers called DeWolff. At that time these guys were aged 14 - 17. Now a year later these fellows are still quite young.
DeWolff released their full length debut album now. Strange Fruits And Undiscovered Plants is a very great album. It's like the sixties have never been away. The Hammond sounds incredible. The drums are much like Ian Paice style. The guitar is cool, don't expect Heavy Fuzz, but it's still great. You don't think the singer is that young, he has a very grown up voice. All with all a very great album. This is one of the major surprises of 2009.
I'm glad I cought this on vinyl. You should also do that. Enjoy and if you like this stuff, go get yourself one here!

DeWolff is a three-headed rockmonster that crawled right out of the Mississippimud to shake, rattle and roll the world with some raw, psychedelic sixtiesbluesrock. Armed with a screaming Hammond-organ, a muddy, howling guitar, thunderous drums and a soulful voice, these three Wolf men take you back to those wonderful 60’s and 70’s, when bands like Led Zeppelin, Cream, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple ruled the world of rock ‘n’ roll.

DeWolff was founded in 2007 in a town in the Southern part of the Netherlands (Limburg) called Geleen and consists of Pablo van de Poel, brother Luka van de Poel and Robin Piso. On the 5th of July 2008, DeWolff won the final rounds of Kunstbende. DeWolff was the first band in Kunstbende-history on which the jury had no remarks at all!

DeWolff is an absolute live-sensation: their partly-improvised songs sometimes last more than 15 minutes! It’s got style, it plays loud and it plays with soul and passion: that’s DeWolff!
(From their website)

DeWolff - Strange Fruits And Undiscovered Plants (2009)

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