VARIOUS ARTISTS The Golden Road: The Electric Coffee House Volume 2 Psychic Circle CD
This second volume of Psychic Circle’s US mid- 60s folk-rock series is every bit as good as its predecessor. One or two inclusions such as The MC2’s
‘Smiling’ or 3’s A Crowd’s ‘Bird Without Wings’ are West Coast soft sike rather than folk-rock, good as they are, but otherwise everything is on the money. The Woolies, Rogue Show, The
Kind, The Last Draft, Raintree, Bob & Kit and Morning Sun are some of the unfamiliar names you will encounter and enjoy here. Garage-friendly stylings from
Robin Kingsley (the stage name of Ian Whitcomb’s brother) rub shoulders with the smoother SF friendly vibes of The Happy Medium and the PF Sloan-ish Jimmy Satan’s ‘What’s It All About’. Overall, a very good mix and one well worth your investigation. Paul Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS I Gotta Be Me: 20 Garage Missiles From The USA
Psychic Circle CD Here‘s a second instalment of largely
VARIOUS ARTISTS Encomium In Memoriam Volume One. Jan Berry of Jan & Dean Cinecam Music Productions
www.boxoclox.com
Produced by Jan Berry’s
biographer Mark A Moore and Cameron Michael Parkes and featuring a plethora of Jan and Dean cohorts
like PF Sloan, Vic Diaz (Matadors), Jill Gibson, Mike Deasy, David Marks, Don Grady (Yellow Balloon) and Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson band) and Lisa Mychols this is a wonderful tribute to the late singer.
Based on the original versions
arranged and produced by Jan and transcribed from his personal music scores the intention is to illustrate how good Jan’s arrangements were and to inspire listeners to re-examine the original recordings.
Eschewing the big hits in favour
of more complex tracks like ‘Anaheim Azusa’ etc and ‘When It’s Over’ and post crash tracks from the unreleased ‘Carnival Of Sound’ this is a wonderful album. Containing three previously unreleased songs and audio snippets of Jan with Arnie in the garage and in the studio this is essential for all fans of Jan and Dean. Pat Curran
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SD: Are you pleased with the result? MM: We’re pleased, given that we had no recording budget. I initially transcribed the music scores and Cameron Michael Parkes (a graduate of the film scoring program at UCLA) helmed the project as a co-production with
me.Cameron was the hands on producer ,and sang many of the vocals. Our guest artists made invaluable contributions ,taking the project to a higher level.
SD: Were artists pleased to be involved? MM: They participated in honor of Jan’s legacy as a writer ,arranger and producer, especially those who played or sang on the original recordings in the sixties. The younger artists caught the spirit of the
uncompiled American mid- tolate ’60s garage 45s from Psychic Circle (the first being the Who Needs Tomorrow collection). There are 20
nuggets here, all of which are worth your ear time. Stylistically they range from the post-twist stomp of King Charles & The Counts ‘Salt ‘n’ Pepper’ and crooner gone trendy-bendy Jack Eden’s ‘It’s Only A Dream’ to the unissued at the time ’67 acid rock acetate of Hex’s ‘Doubt’ (issued as a blink and you’ve missed it 45 in the ’90s) and Group Axis’s wacked out take on ‘Smokestack Lightning’. In between, choice fuzz-tone
escapades are embarked upon by such unknowns as Kevin Coughlin who supplies the title track, Bobby Simms & The Simmers (‘Big Mama’) and Bobby Saint Clair (‘Fool That I Am’). It’s an ear-festival all the way and a sound investment. Paul Martin
VARIOUS ARTISTS It Came from the Beach Ace CD
www.acerecords.com The subtitle, “Surf, Drag And Rockin’ Instros From Downey”, tells you exactly what has come from the beach. Downey was the
Pat Curran talks with album co- producer and Jan Berry biographer Mark A Moore.
Shindig:What was your raison d’etre in doing the album? Mark A Moore:I’ve been researching the life of Jan Berry for a long time, and when I saw his personal music scores, I realised they were the authentic parts used by the ‘Wrecking Crew’ to record the original songs. I knew then I wanted to do an album based on those. An aural documentary highlighting some of Jan’s best and most complex arrangements, to augment my eventual biography. The album is meant to shed new light on Jan’s sixties productions, and to inspire people to go back and listen a bit deeper to the original Jan and Dean recordings.
Southern Californian studio/label that created surf classics like The Chantays’ ‘Pipeline’ and The Tumblers’ ‘Boss’. Such tunes have been
comprehensively comped, so this CD collects 29 several slightly less famous early ’60s tunes in a similar style. Lots of instrumental approaches are covered, especially several ripping, snorting, squawking sax-led stompers, some atmospheric, moody guitar laments and plenty of dancers with the required quotient of reverb and twangggg. The bands are mostly teens, too young to sign their contracts. The Rumblers have six tracks, The Pastel Six four, with two apiece for The Rumblers, Hustlers, Blazers, Nevegans and Chevells. The wonderfully monickered Sir Frog & The Toads win the best band name award. The packaging is excellent, with a 20
page booklet full of photos and covers of hot rod magazines. Compiler Brian Nevill supplies detailed and thoroughly researched liner notes. Phil Suggitt
Various Artists Mad Mike Monsters Volumes 1-3 Norton Records
www.nortonrecords.com Mad Mike Metrovich was a much-loved
project and did a tremendous job.
SD: Was Dean Torrence asked to contribute? If not why not? MM: Dean initially agreed to participate but in the end it didn’t work out. But we were pleased to be able to use a number of photos from Dean’s personal collection in our album packaging and there’s also a quote from Dean in the liner notes.
SD: I loved the unreleased songs .Are there many more? MM: Jan and Dean’s ‘Carnival Of Sound’ remains unreleased. We did several tracks from that project on our album. There are also a few good Jan Berry solo compositions that we’d love to finish at some point.
SD: I also loved the inclusion of the missing vocal backgrounds on ‘I Know My Mind’ and the string arrangement on ‘Laurel and Hardy’. What was your thinking behind re-instating them? MM: They were too good to exclude. We felt that they fleshed out the songs beyond what Jan and his collaborators initially recorded. The raw materials were there on paper, quite good and authentic to the 1968 project, so we chose to use them.
SD: Volume
One.Can we expect further volumes then? MM: Yes. We hope to do a volume 2 at some point in the future. There is a lot more great material to explore.
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