Eugene Record Convention

Got up this morning and left Portland at 6am to hit up the early admission to the Eugene Record Convention. To be honest I was expecting more, and don't get me wrong I found some good deals on a lot of records, but I was expecting a lot more rare stuff. Most of what I saw were things I could find in Portland. And the way it was talked up online I had the impression I could go in and check off everything on my list. Thought I would be swimming in Captain Beefheart which was not the case.

But here is a little recap of my finds.



Frank Zappa- Over-Nite Sensation 1973



Frank Zappa- Apostrophe 1974



Joe Walsh- But Seriously Folks 1978



Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited 1965



Beatles- Rubber Soul 1965



Beatles- Abbey Road 1969



Yes- Yessongs 1973



Grateful Dead- American Beauty 1970



Jimi Hendrix- In the West 1972



King Crimson- In the Court of the Crimson King 1969



Return to Forever- Romantic Warrior 1976



Neil Young- Tonight's the Night 1975



Traffic- John Barleycorn Must Die 1970

So I guess it was a pretty successful trip and I shouldn't really complain. But what else is the internet for besides whining?

Funkadelic

The hardest thing in the world is to stop a delic from funkin.

SteppenWolf

Steppenwolf!

John Kay is one bad mother shut your mouth! Here is proof.

Audience

Audience, House on the Hill, 1971

This a really awesome band for many reasons. Perhaps the biggest is that the guitarist classically picks all of his parts. The second best reason is how they progress from genre to genre not only within the album as a whole but specific songs such as this one...


This is my other favorite track from the album.

the Kinks

Ray Davies, you get me every time.

Neil Young

It's been a Neil Young marathon with me the last couple of days. When in doubt, I turn to brother neil.









Round and round and round we spin,
To weave a wall to hem us in,
It won't be long, it won't be long.

How slow and slow and slow it goes,
To mend the tear that always shows.
It won't be long, it won't be long.

It's hard enough losin'
the paper illusion
you've hidden inside,
without the confusion
of findin' you're usin'
the crutch of the lie
to shelter your pride.

Now you're movin' too slow
and wherever you go
there's another beside.
It's so hard to say no
to yourself and it shows.
that you're losing inside,
when you step on your pride and you cry.

How the hours will bend
through the time that you spend
till you turn to your eyes,
and you see your best friend
looking over the end
and you turn to see why,
and he looks in your eyes and he cries.

Round and round and round we spin,
To weave a wall to hem us in,
It won't be long, it won't be long.

Crabby Appleton

Crabby Appleton, 1970
This is a really great video. Really cheese, but the song is awesome.



This is pretty cool too.

Bonham

Gimme that John Bonham bass drum shit.

YES!

YES indeed. I think it's high time for a Yes marathon.

From the first album "YES!" 1969, "Beyond and Before".



From "Yes the Album" 1971, "I've Seen All Good People"


From "the Fragile" 1971, "Roundabout" what a banger. Check out Rick Wakeman's shiny cape!


And "Heart of the Sunrise", probably Chris Squire at his most badass.


From "Close to the Edge" 1972, "Siberian Khatru".


By far one of my all time favorite bands.

Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf- Spaceship Earth 1971

I really love this album. It's heavy stuff, but surprisingly diverse songwriting. This kind of psych-prog reminds me of the first Yes album. It's a pity they never went on to do bigger things. Check out the songs "Hot Water" and "Tongue in Cheek".

Judy in Disguise

John Fred and His Playboys, "Judy in Disguise" 1968.

I have fond memories of this song on the radio. John Fred misheard the Beatles "Lucy in the Sky" and penned this song in response. Love the break on this, and love the goofy 60s goodness.

Country Joe & the Fish

Country Joe and the Fish were one of the most adamantly anti-war psychedelic bands of the 60s.

Their first three albums "Electric Music for the Mind and Body", "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die", and "Together" all presented a mix of electric blues guitar, with spacey organ, forming a platform for their messages of protest and dissent.

Joe McDonald eventually found himself under government surveillance for being so openly anti war.

13th Floor Elevators

"Is this the 13th floor? I musta got the wrong elevator!" So cheese, I don't think that anyone in this video understood what Roky Erickson and the Elevators were doing at the time.
I'm not the biggest fan, but I love the sound, especially incorporating the jug.

World Psych

I was thinking I should post some of the highlights of all the world psych compilations I've been listening to.

Su Derenin Sulari by Husnu Ozkartal Orkestrasi
I found this off of the "Psych Funk 101" compilation. The group is from Turkey and recorded this in 1972. Pretty raw.


Allah Wakbarr by Ofo the Black Company, recorded in 1972. Available on the compilation "Love's a Real Thing: World Psychedelic Classics 3"


Selda Bagcan's Yaz Gazeteci Yaz. Turkish Psych-Folk, 1975.


Carinito by Los Hijos Del Sol peruvian psych off of the compilation "Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias From Peru"
love the video.


Here's a little sampler of Danish 60s psych/prog rock.

NAZZ

A young Todd Rundgren appropriates the progression from the Who's "Can't Explain" and kick starts a prolific career.
From 1968...
NAZZZZZZ!

Blue Cheer

Blue Cheer playing "Summertime Blues". 1968

There's a really awesome photo of Blue Cheer playing in some ones backyard in 1960s Portland... I want.

csnYYYYY

Gotta love Neil, gotta love big sur.

James Gang

BOOM! Pre- Eagles Joe Walsh, kickin ass and taking names with the James Gang.

Note the background projections of the album art.

Psychedelic Posters

the Seeds

The Seeds are some what of a guilty pleasure. Not that great of musicians, coming from a total garage rock background. But they did produce one or two catchy tracks.

Plus this awesome video!

Quicksilver Messenger Service

Another awesome psych band. I first got into them when I saw the Monterey Pop festival dvd that Criterion put out. The two best albums from the band are "Quicksilver Messenger Service" and "Happy Trails", after that they kinda fall off into self emulation, writing songs that are far too stereotypical of the psychedelic scene. But these two albums are honest and have some really great jams.

So dig on this you kids.

SPIRIT!

The next band I've been obsessing over for the last few months is one that stumbled into my lap. My roommate and I were digging through the everyday vinyl bins and stumbled across two albums by the L.A. based band Spirit. Neither of us had ever even heard of the band but the album art was awesome and the years were just the right time period. My roommate took a chance and bought them both, it was well worth it. Spirit is a psych band that had everything we wanted, a mastery of multiple genres that blend together, and both were total concept albums.

The band is a headed by guitarist Randy California, along with his step dad drummer Ed "Mr. Skins" Cassidy. Randy had been playing in New York, at age 16, with pre "experience" Jimi Hendrix. It's pretty clear that he learned a lot. The band only gained cult success, opening shows for the likes of Jefferson Airplane. But one of their songs has been ripped off and turned into one of the most famous rock ballads of all time. The song "Taurus" was stolen by Jimmy Page and turned into "Stairway to Heaven". Take a listen.



Anyways the band has some awesome tunes that no one has heard, so I figure I'd share a few.

Electric Music For the Body and Soul

Hello all,

I've been burning through music at a rapid pace and need an outlet to share my obsessions, even if no one reads it. So here it is, as the title hints most of the music is psychedelically inclined. But that doesn't limit me, oh no, I'm pretty much going to be posting whatever I've been digging lately which will include all genres.

So lets kick start it with some obscurities...

One of the great things about living in the NW is the large collection of psychedelic records lying around. Portland being a west coast port city, and having a rep for being liberal and open minded, it was a hot spot for a lot of the 60s San Fran psych scene to hit. So I've been finding lots of nice obscure psych music.

Fever Tree
A Houston based band that migrated to San Fran, eventually penning one of it's classic anthems "San Francisco Girls (return of the native)". But some of my favorite stuff by them I had first heard through a Madlib appropriation on the "Madvillany" album. The song "America's Most Blunted" loops a fever tree song as the back beat.



I'll give you another tune...