Beautiful 45 I recently encountered from Sacramento, an interesting blend of outer space lyrics and imagery with a superbly primitive folk rock groove. I know very little about this outfit, though I think this is the only thing they ever did. The A-Side has got this marvelously frantic vibe happening replete with a kitchen-sink percussion breakdown, but it's the B-Side which totally slays me as it lays psychedelic love philosophy on the pursuit of exploration in all kinds of space, and fades out on a ramped up swaying riff with wordless vocal refrains. Really haunting, magical stuff. Hope you enjoy...
Found a copy of this 7" about a month or two ago and really dug the sound, sorta reminded me of a cool laid-back mash up of the Dead and Big Star! Hailing from Omaha, Wheelhaus was comprised of the Van Fleet Brothers, Larry and Gary, and their buddy John Cannon. I called up Larry and spoke with him about the band which was a short-lived outfit playing the usual home-town gig circuit of bars and regional festivals. They recorded this one single at Pacific Ave. studios, and were able to get it some local airplay and in the juke-boxes. I was hoping they may have had an LP I had never heard of before, or even just a few more 7"s, but alas this is it! Can't say I'm complaining though, as this 45 is just about perfect... that rare combination of mellow 70s groove and an almost effortless power-pop sensibility. Musicianship is really high too, just dig the shimmering guitar explosion at the end of "Room at the Top"! That song has been stuck in my head for weeks, something about it just catches the vibe of kicking around in the summer twilight so perfectly, the bliss of having nothing to do. It's a love song though, too, slyly winking at that girl who'll never quite come around... melancholy, but free. My gut tells me these guys would've put on quite a show! You can check out Larry's further career in music here, he's still very active in the Omaha area. He kindly sent along these clippings. Looks like great times! Thanks, Larry!
Room At the Top
You've Got to Give her Rock'n'Roll to Keep Her Home
Easily one of the most sincerely weird - and great - records I came across last year was this private press LP from Santa Monica by a guy simply known as Lewis! A good friend turned me onto the record with the caveat that we should try to find him, a trail which was becoming increasingly confusing and eventually impossible. Our search for Lewis ended with a Guam address sans phone number, so I'm going to leave it at that! But the music still stays lodged in my brain, a bizarre floating late night SSW trip with cosmic synth washes, enigmatic vocals, and just a truly wigged mood. I'm completely serious when I say that the vibe on here is just about the closest thing I've found via vanity press records to the highly atmospheric universe of David Lynch's Twin Peaks... Like that show it's ostensibly a really cheesy platform but everything is just so soaked in some kind of weightless transcendence and spooky subterfuge that it just totally destroys me! There's something very very world weary about the LP but couched in this great faded mumbly croon that seems effortless, yet pushing at somewhere far out... I've really been fascinated and mystified by the whole thing, and I hope some other folks will be too. Thanks to Aaron in Canada for first turning this up! Lewis if you're out there, get in touch!
Picked up 2 45s by this group recently and have been grooving on their slightly subdued late 60s small-town vibe. Has that fumbly earnestness mixed with bare bones country rock sentiment that makes records like the hallowed Hickory Wind of Indiana just glow. Have literally nothing to report on this band, though I'll say the above 7" is the better of the two. They get a great late night rehearsal sound on Midnight Memories, and She Fades Away is a perfect breezy ride through rustic heart-aches.
Midnight Memories
She Fades Away
On the Road Again / Lookin' for Love is basically two sides of the same song with different lyrics in a pretty straight ahead country rock vein. Fun laid back vibe with some great barn acoustics and swamp wah on the solos. Make sure to listen to the lyrics of On the Road, they crack me up - especially the marvelously out of touch bit about not getting paid at one gig in Louisiana but being invited back again next year for being so nice about the inconvenience! Anyone with further info on this mysterious combo, please drop a line... And as always, I will see you soon!
Enigmatic rainy day loner garage 45 from California... I've had it for a few years and puzzled over the why's and where's but a friend recently was able to make contact with Danny who lives in New Jersey and recorded the 7" sort of ad hoc on a vacation to Southern California with his family in '74. Still can't quite figure out if this is Buster Jones' "BJ" label which had a number of soul releases and was active more or less when this would have been recorded. A band was provided for the occasion, and that's about all there is to tell. Enjoy the fragile teen ambience on "Lonesome Man" and warbly basement shuffle of "When Will the Sun Shine." It's a rare one!
I had the pleasure of speaking with Philip Lewin recently, a Toronto area song-smith and musician who released two marvelous LPs back in the 70s. I would describe both records as very personal statements from a unique perspective... something all too rare when it comes to self-released folk and rock music from those halcyon days. Phil is that wonderfully dialed voice which possesses a beautifully cynical mysticism, an intellectual drift fallen on hard times, and ragged musical ends that find their home just because they can. I was so caught off guard when I first heard Diamond Love and Other Realities a few years ago that I played it back to back for days in a row, before finally giving Phil a call a year or so later. Upon hearing Am I Really Here All Alone? a bit later the whole picture clicked, and I could see all these fascinating threads weaving in and out of both records... heartfelt, sad music that reached out and commanded everything I had as a listener. Astonishing late night epiphanies that arose from something very familiar and pushed far out into the atmosphere: cerebral moving dystopic visions of love and longing, of magic and holy people moving in tawdry circles, dark and light like the album cover flashing in the fog, all of this - mind you - wed to a canvas of fragile electric leads and accomplished confident song-writing...Watercolors, which I've posted below is a piece of music that has always stopped me dead in my tracks, an epiphany of the slender line between existential ecstasy and dread, as heavy a song as anything you'd call to mind from your 70s folkie pantheon of Tims and Bobs... and so it is I remain rapt and raving! It's my pleasure to present this interview, as I consider myself a true fan and hope a few more people might dig into these records and enjoy Phil's story. I'm surprised too that Am I Really Here has not been reissued on vinyl yet, as it seems like it would go over well with a wide group of folks - in lieu of that, I've posted a track from each record for you to check out... and should you wish to purchase a CD of either album from Phil himself, he can be contacted here. So without further ado... Phil!
Interview with Phil, March 14, 2010
A snap of Brian Gauci and Wyatt MacDonald, from the Diamond Love Sessions
Watercolors from Am I Really Here All Alone?
Diamond Love from Diamond Love and Other Realities
Posts have been light lately... Apologies. So so busy with work right now! Found a copy of this cool garagey rural-ish pounder from the Bronx recently and figured I'd share the sounds. Both sides have that great youthful 60s flashing immediacy... and rightfully so, as I doubt they ever cut anything else. Mysterious label I don't know much about either... thought for a minute when I first picked it up that it was the prolific country studio out of New Mexico, yet a NY address and a production credit to the Maple Syrup Kids (!?) is about all there is to tell. A friend mentioned that this Gold Dust may have had some soul singles out too. If anybody has more info drop a line!
Beautiful 45 I recently encountered from Sacramento, an interesting blend of outer space lyrics and imagery with a superbly primitive folk rock groove. I know very little about this outfit, though I think this is the only thing they ever did. The A-Side has got this marvelously frantic vibe happening replete with a kitchen-sink percussion breakdown, but it's the B-Side which totally slays me as it lays psychedelic love philosophy on the pursuit of exploration in all kinds of space, and fades out on a ramped up swaying riff with wordless vocal refrains. Really haunting, magical stuff. Hope you enjoy...
