Welcome to part 2 of my collaboration with DJ Juggles. Sometimes it's good to mix things up by inviting fellow musical explorers to join in here. In this case we have more awesome obscure vinyl rips made available to us by Australia's DJ Juggles. Since the mid '70s he's been collecting exactly the kind of music that TDATS adores, not only collecting, but also championing such bands as a radio and live DJ.
Here we have a selection of fifteen tracks, from the USA and Australia, ranging from 1971 to years unknown (and in one case, from a mystery band) and again spanning all styles of heavy psych, prog, AOR, hard rock and metal. I listened to a lot of singles that Juggles has revealed to us over recent years and I personally selected these 15 sides according to their excellence and apparent obscurity, so I'm sure that this will be another adventure into genuinely unknown territory for the large majority of readers! This is part 2, part 1 was posted back in early October 2023 in TDATS v150, so go see that one now as well if you missed it! (link)
TRACKS
01. Sound Company - Imaginary Fix (1971 Neosho, Missouri)02. Weather - Railroadin' (1972 Jonesboro, Arkansas)
03. Vision - Love Is What's Happening (1979 Los Angeles, California)
04. Spectrum Ltd. - I Can't Stand The Lying, Lying (1977 Ohio)
05. Amber Band - Keep It Burning (19?? San Diego, California)
06. Blue Gravel Rock Band - I Heard It Through The Grapevine (19?? Texas)
07. Ukiah - Why Did You Lie To Me? (1978 Ohio)
08. Collision - I Gotta Know (1973 Texas)
09. Dahlquist - Farewell To The Dreamer (1978 Texas)
10. Dink Stover - How Can Love Survive (1975 Encino, California)
11. Good Mother Sunday - Strap Yourself In (1975 Ohio)
12. Rush Brothers - Dark Side Of Today (19?? Golden, Colorado)
13. Straight Up - So Blind (1974 Minnesota)
14. Unknown Artist - Wind Of Miracles (19?? Long Beach, California)
15. Fox - Ziggy Stardust (1974 Australia)
DJ Juggles Interview part 2
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| Juggles at the decks |
Are there any other tunes that you like to play at DJ events for specific times? What's a good crowd-warming track? Or maybe a good long track for when you want to have a break and get a beer etc?
Honestly there's a heap to get the crowd rocking but they are probably more commercial ie: Lizzy, Buffalo, Angels, Master's [Aprentices], Sweet etc
Break time is usually a 10 minute Buffalo track or Los Destolles depending on crowd and how things are vibing. I normally throw in a few strange tracks to see what the punters are doing at THAT time as well.
Where is your favourite place to go in the USA when you are looking for records?
The US back in the day was like a cultivating pearl, every visit we would meet someone new who would lead us into another shed, shop or their friend's home that would be like an open shell with the Pearl just waiting to be harvested. However some of my best finds were in Texas. The last few years it's been St. Louis with the help of my good friend Massimo Contreras.
What are your opinions on the historical importance of your collection, and the future of this obscured music in these days of streaming and digital audio, with physical media becoming less common for general music consumption?
That's something that I have probably not given too much thought to. I would imagine that in today's world most of it may already be digitised.
I do have a few boxes where this still hasn't happened, however I think overtime they will come to light. Presently we have some fantastic bands and artists being pressed onto records either from lost acetates or tapes. We also have a heap of reissues and LP comps having been released over the years. The current crop of people like Adam from Ancient Grease Records, Mike from Little Stones, Daniel from Riding Easy with Lance from Brown Acid etc keeping this space interesting and alive. We also have blogs and Youtube channels like yourself at TDATS, Massimo at Psych 45s and Jordan at Heavy '70s who are forever introducing stuff to all the peeps willing to dig on the internet.
No doubt it has become easier for the modern digger as they search the internet whereas in the old man Juggles' days you psychically searched with a portable [turntable] by your side, scoured through sales catalogues or traded mixtapes with friends. Then you had the Haupt brothers with Rich at Rockadelic and The Guru John at OPM Records (Other People's Money) releasing and finding gems.
Personally I would like to commend Adam at Ancient Grease Records and his peers as it is people like them who will make sure that these gems are never lost.
I agree, and with that, thanks again to DJ Juggles for his time in answering these questions!
Juggles' recommendations above
Rich Haupt interview (Rockadelic Records)
THE RECORDS
Most of the technical information here is taken from Discogs. If anyone has more light to shed on any of these singles drop me a line and I will update it here!
In 1971 they laid down a 6-track demo at Damon Recording Studios in Kansas City, which resulted in a few 12" acetates, and 'Imaginary Fix' is from that session. The same year they recorded a 2-sided single in Tulsa, Oklahoma which was properly released on the studio's Derrick label. There is an extensive interview with Sound Company drummer Kenny Vaughn over at PsychedelicBabyMag (link), where he talks about their later exploits in California, after changing name to Mizzouri Foxx.
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| Sound Company |
Juggles and Massimo have overseen the release of a three track 45rpm EP in 2023, which you can read more about at Mizzouri Foxx's website (link) and the official shop page (link).
Weather was led by Jim Murray, who also made some solo music (link). This single was released on the Jonesboro, Arkansas label Wham Records, produced by Jim & Anita Murray and backed with a cover of Free's All Right Now, which would be great to hear sometime!
Here's a nice bit of catchy boogie rock.
Here's another really catchy song with a great production, it could have been a big hit for a famous band!
Recorded at Golden Track studio, San Diego. Produced by Steven Wetherbee. Written by Dan Pinnella and Ed Cunningham Jr. Lyrics by Laurie McCardell.
Like the Supremes song in the previous Juggles volume (link), here's another great rock cover of a soul pop hit.
Produced by Fred Carroll. Released on the Bellaire, Texas label Solar Records. The b-side is credited to B. Scarmardo, who may be in the band. Blue Gravel seemed to like making soul covers, as they also released Otis Reading's Respect. Tymeshyfter at RYM (link) says this about the single: "This label was headquartered in Bellaire, TX, and most of the acts they released were Texas natives as well. And a large number of those releases were in the hard rock vein, this one being no exception. The A-side is a mid-tempo, psychedelic hard rock cover of the Motown hit with a fuzz bass riff, organ, wah-wah guitar, incl. the break, and a heavy overall sound. The other side is a mid-slow pop ballad with organ, mild guitar, vocal harmony chorus and a nice guitar break - all reverbed. Probably from 1971."
Here's a great piece of melodic hard rock, with a chorus worthy of Thin Lizzy!
A "Crunching double sider..." in DJ Juggles' own words, and I have to agree! This one has a real raw, punk immediacy about it, quite different to rest of the tracks in this volume.
Vocals by Johnny Lopez & Fernando Lopez. Written by Johnny Lopez & Fernando Lopez. Produced & recorded by Jeff Smith. "A product of Texas Sound Studios" (506 W. Hildebrand Ave. San Antonio).
Here's a metallic prog riffer, from a collection called "Kangaroo Jam".
From the KNFO-FM (K-95) benefit Album for the Waco Family Abuse Center. There are eight acts on this record, which you can read more about on Discogs (link). From the sound of this track, I thought this possibly was an '80s recording, but Juggles has confirmed it was recorded in 1978. John Haupt, who first showed him the track, found it on demo tapes that were made before the Kanagroo Jam record was released around 1979/80.
Here's another catchy, pop-inflected rocker, there's quite a few in this volume, which is really cool! This one in particular reminds me of an excellent song I encountered years ago during TDATS searches, namely East of Eden's "Northern Hemisphere" (link). There's a similar vibe here, especially in Stover's use of mellotron, somewhat like 'Eden's violin.
This one has had a great reception on my youtube channel (link), and for good reason, it's a real blues rock stomper, somewhat similar to Maternal Joy's "Fat" on TDATS v70 (link) or Cobra's "Midnight Walker" (link).
Written by D. Brickler & G. Wanger. Produced by Bud Reneau. Recorded at AMG (Cincinnati, OH).
Here's a great rural rocker packed with catchy hooks and loads of ripping guitar segues.
Time for a diversion now, with this epic power ballad from a band with some prestigious members.
Written by Hogan, Kenet, Lundeen, Miller & Murry.
Straight Up have connections to some famous bands. Singer-guitarist Randall "Xeno" Hogan (link) was a formative member of Cheap Trick, (which he left to join Straight Up, according to wikipedia) and drummer Tom Murray (link) was a formative member of garage psych legends, The Litter.
Here's a true obscurity which is undocumented anywhere so far, including Discogs.
Made by "Premonition Productions". Written and produced by R. Romano, D. Cook, B. Berman and J. Graham. Recorded at Pakaderm Studio, Long Beach California. Also credited as Pakaderm Studio, Los Alamitos, this studio was owned by John Elefante and Dino Elefante, operational until 1993. The earliest release from the studio in Discogs (link) is 1979, so "Wind Of Miracles" could well be later than that.
Here's our closer, from a band that featured way back in the Australian vol80 of TDATS (link). In Jugg's words, "Fox's Ziggy Stardust is a number that I have finished my shows off for as long as I can remember. I think it all came about as a kid I loved Bowie and truthfully still do. When Fox released this it gave me an excuse to play Bowie in my Obscure heavy shows without having to feel I was selling out the underground rock world... shallow at the time? YES! but it got a cracking track into my shows on a permanent basis."
Written by David Bowie. Fox were Peter Laffy (Guitar, Vocals - later worked with Mondo Rock and Jim Keays), Neil Hodgson (Bass, Keyboards), Michael Upton (Vocals) and Les Oldman (Drums, Vocals).
Stay tuned for the next volume of TDATS....if you'd like to get email notifications for all new volumes, sign up in the box on the right-hand panel of this site, or follow on youtube, instagram, X (twitter), facebook or other links below. Cheers, Rich.
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