The Jugs - First Batch

I've always complained to no end that the state of Vermont never reached it's quota of truly fried private press hippie rockers in the seven-ought-tees, a disgrace considering the plethora of granola osmosis the state endured from '69 onward. The Philo label sucked up a lot of local talent, and while impressive in their scope and professional flair, most of those LPs lack the grit and gristle that drives me wild... Having grown up in the Green Mountain state I can count a mere handful of actually home-made longhair releases I would go to bat for, so resigned I've been for the most part on anything new coming to light on this... though one can always dream! It seemingly took forever, then, for this slab of teenage Deadhead litanies to surface on the collector scene - a whole long player's worth of rural jamming w/ properly zonked shit-kicker attitude and a few ace original tunes, the perfect antidote to the last time you actually forced yourself to sit through a Mark Winokur LP. "First Batch" was issued in 1981 on the custom press imprint at Green Mountain Records, the band consisting of 5 students from the Vershire School in southern Vermont who had recently returned from a class trip to Mexico where the bulk of the songs were written. The small private school was closed several years later, due to various tawdry reasons which seem in keeping with the existence of "First Batch" as a musical reminder of the place and time it came to be. I can't proclaim this some kind of masterpiece that will appeal to everyone, as it's a true paen to late 70s Deadhead mores and moves, but for me the thing just oozes summer charm, and many stony vibes close to the heart of this olde Vermonter... so jump for joy!