The Day After The Sabbath 51: Return To Sanity

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TDATS 51 is an un-themed collection of great tracks, some more and some less known among obscure rock aficionados.

Track List:

01. Edge - Lady Of Darkness (1970)
02. Indian Summer - Black Sunshine (1971)
03. Magi - Fryin' Away Time (1976)
04. Clear Blue Sky - My Heaven (1970)
05. Mutzie - The Game (1970)
06. Gary Wright - Whether It's Right Or Wrong (1971)
07. Andromeda - Return To Sanity [Alt. mix] (1969)
08. Les Goths - Turn Over (1969)
09. Edgar Broughton Band - Love Gang (1976)
10. Petalouda - What You Can Do In Your Life (1973)
11. Poobah - Mr. Destroyer (1972)
12. Arcadium - It Takes A Woman (1969)

Edge kicks things off with a perfect opener, a great bluesy hard rocker with a catchy riff. They have a west-coast background, drummer/singer David Novogroski having been with Boston Tea Party previously. Indian Summer were a Coventry, UK band who made one accomplished album of hard prog in 1971, featuring great keyboard work. Managed by Jim Simpson, who also looked after Black Sabbath and Bakerloo, their album was produced by Rodger Bain, who was responsible for Sabbath's debut album.

Indiana's Magi are next with a great track "Fryin' Away Time". They made a solid album in 1976 called 'Win or Lose' but soon disappeared. Clear Blue Sky's single album, on Vertigo records, is noted for it's Roger Dean cover art and for having a track called Sweat Leaf, allegedly inspiring Sabbath's song title. Mutzie, Led by singer/guitarist E."Mutzie" Lavenburg were a Detroit psychedelic outfit, also including brothers Barry on bass and Andee on keyboards, and a horn section. Their sole LP Light of Your Shadow appeared in 1970. Gary Wright was the one-time keyboarist for Spooky Tooth and he created some solo works of more commercially-aimed rock. The Andromeda track is taken from their 1969 album and the intro is very metal! They featured John Du Cann on guitar, later of Atomic Rooster and Hard Stuff, who has unfortunately just passed away at the time of writing this.

Le Goths were a short-lived rare example of French heavy psych, and The Edgar Broughton Band deserves it's first use on my comps. Probably known to a lot of you already, they were involved in many a 70's rock family tree are still playing occasionally, noted for Rob 'Edgar' Broughton's awesome gritty vocals. Petalouda were an incredibly obscure Greek band, I have not been able to find out much about them but this track is some of the best psych I've ever heard, with an exotic Greek flavour and a delectable drum break at 3:10. They remind me a little of Agamenon, a band I used on the Spanish comp #39.

Ohio's Poobah are up next. Another blogger's favourite, they featured the blazing lead talents of guitarist Jim 'Poobah' Gustafson but struggled through the 70's making three self-released records between 72-79. The comp ends on Arcadium's "It Takes A Woman", a UK based late 60s psych band that had one album of skillful and emotively-sung music.



Thanks for listening! Rich

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The Day After The Sabbath 50: Dubia Excrementis Bovis

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[PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 2011 AND MANY OF THE ACTS MENTIONED MAY WELL HAVE A LOT MORE KNOWN / AUTHENTICATED HISTORY NOW]

Since writing this, one band that is now well-documented is Tsee Muds, you can read a whole lot about them in my 2022 comp: TDATS 144 Venezuela 1 (link)

For the milestone of 50 (!) volumes I realized that I should do something a little different, so I finished off an idea that has been brewing for a while. This may well kick up some controversy with people out there, especially those who hold any of these bands dear. It's a collection of songs that in my humble opinion, may not be quite what they are purported to be. I will not go into too much detail, but suffice to say, some do not sound as old as they are alleged to be. Some of them sound like they were not recorded on equipment of the age, or some of them sound just that little bit too knowingly heavy for the time, Combine this with a lack of substantiated evidence to the contrary and we have some mysteries indeed. So, not wanting to cast a negative impression over the comp, the other common link between them is that they are all cool tracks, enjoy!

01. Stone Axe - Slave of Fear (1971)

02. Lucifer Was - Scrubby Maid / Teddy's Sorrow (1971)

03. Heavy Goods Vehicle - Race With The Devil [Gun cover] (1976)

04. Tsee Muds - Amandote Esta Dios - Concha Acustica Parque del Este (1972)

05. Golem - Godhead Dance (1973)

06. Dietro Noi Deserto - Dentro Me (1971)

07. Supernaut - Keeper Of The Keys (1974)

08. Mind Doctors - Rising Sun (1976)

09. Wicked Lady - Why Don't You Let Me Try Your P.C.P (1972)

10. Vulcan - Noname (1978)

11. Punch - Deathhead (1970)

We start with a heavy as hell track which has come to light quite recently on the internet, a killer single by "Stone Axe" who reportedly were Ex Josefus (see vol #38) members Pete Bailey and Ray Turner. [Editor: As of 2023, this single has now been re-issued on the Yunque Records label, as well as included on various comps (link)]. Next we have Heavy Goods Vehicle, I repeatedly read sketchy information about these rough recordings on forums etc as "the heaviest underground recordings ever" and after finally tracking them down, I found them quite underwhelming, but this Gun cover is good fun and relevant to the blog. Next up is two tracks from Lucifer Was. The strangeness here is that they clearly don't sound like they were recorded with 70's equipment. The story goes that they have been improved and had some re-recording done in recent times, but it still leaves you wondering how much of it originates in any way from the early 70s, if any? 

Next up is a song that a Facebook friend recommended, Tsee Muds, it's on youtube with an interesting looped video clip of them playing an apparently huge rock fest in Venezuela. I love the song, but were 'Tsee Muds' a real band, is that clip really them? Who knows. [EDIT 2025: Tsee Muds has been cleared up in vol144]. Next up is Golem, who were allegedly a UK electro-prog act recording in 1973, this does not sound like it was recorded in 1973. Next up is Dietro Noi Deserto. This act has an interesting story. It is allegedly another name that the artist known as 'Jacula' and 'Antonius Rex' used, actual name Antonio Bartoccetti. Now I think the gothic keyboard stuff of those two former acts sounds way to digital to have been recorded on equipment of the 60s/early 70s as stated. The Dietro Noi Deserto stuff on the other hand is in my opinion much better musically, and also sounds of it's time, so where is the truth here??

The Supernaut demo was recorded in 1974, and contains a few long instrumental jams that are obviously Sabbath inspired, but again there is little information to substantiate the recording dates. Next We have two tracks side by side, connected by the artist Martin Weaver. I have no doubts that he and Wicked Lady were musicians in the late 60's and early 70's, but something does not sound right to me when I try to believe the earliest Wicked Lady stuff was recorded in 1969. This great Mind Doctors track also sounds a little to clean and digital for a minor recording budget in 1976, maybe Pink Floyd could have done it then, but Mind Doctors? To end the comp we have two great tracks from Vulcan and Punch. The super-heavy bedroom psych Vulcan have an album available online called 'Meet Your Ghost' and Punch have one alleged single release in 1970, of which Deathhead is the B-side.

Thanks for listening! Rich

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The Day After The Sabbath 49: I Am The Witch [female vocals pt.2]

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Volume 49 is another selection of tracks with female vocals. There are now six volumes with this theme.

So far those six are: 17 (link), 49 (link), 71 (link), 97 (link), 129 (link) and 154 (link).

The last time I did this was in vol 17 last year and as you can see it's taken me a while to find a decent amount for another, the task has been rewarding as I've had to look far afield from the usual suspects that I used in that one.

TRACKS

01. J.C. Heavy (Manchester) - Do What You Like (1971)
02. Alta Tension (Argentina) - Mississippi Queen (1970)
03. The Rattles (Germany) - Devil's On The Loose (1971)
04. A Euphonious Wail (California) - Night Out / I Want To Be A Star (1973)
05. Aguaviva (Spain) - La Niña de Hiroshima (1971)
06. Uta (France) - Baudelaire (1969)
07. Renaissance (UK, Surrey) - Rajah Khan (1972)
08. Birtha (Los Angeles) - Free Spirit (1972)
09. Pamela Webb and The George (UK) - Hold On, I'm Comin' (1969)
10. Tomorrow's Gift (Hamburg) - Prayin' to Satan (1970)
11. Circus 2000 (Italy) - I Am The Witch (1970)
12. Zephyr (Colorado) - Hard Chargin' Woman (1969)

J.C. Heavy were a short-lived act from Manchester UK and have one of the most immediate, hard-hitting tracks here. The concept of an Argentine psych-fuzz band covering Mountain's Mississippi Queen is like a match made in heaven and Alta Tension's short but sweet track nails it! The Rattles started life as a Hamburg beat group and played with The Beatles, later they made some hard rock/pop crossover and this track is wonderful.

We head back into Latin territory with Spain's Aguaviva and this stunning track based on an anti-war poem which translates to "The Girl of Hiroshima". It is quite unforgettable and unlike anything else I have come across so far for the blog. I used an 'A Euphonious Wail' track back on vol 44, that album has been growing on me and I find the lyrics of the track 'I Want To Be A Star' poignantly ironic coming from this long forgotten band. Uta was a French pop singer who heavied it up for this single B-side and Renaissance were an early UK prog band who created a haunting epic in the track Rajah Khan.

Birtha are one of the only all-female bands I have found, they play some great hard rock'n'roll and the track from an extremely obscure female solo singer Pamela Webb is an excellent heavy-fuzzed cover of the Sam and Dave classic. Fans of Amon Duul will dig the Krautrock occult heaviosity of Germany's Tomorrow's Gift, as they will also Italy's Circus 2000 with their similarity to the contemporary crop of female-fronted occultists like Blood Ceremony. Colorado's Zephyr end the comp with a massive slab of blues-rock and the guitar expertise of a young but already skilled Tommy Bolin (James Gang, Deep Purple).

Cheers, Rich

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The Day After The Sabbath 48: Bad Vibrations

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Volume 48 kicks off with The Hook who assaults us with the heaviest track from their debut album, and impressively heavy it is for 1968. Sleepy John and Sudden Death were two US bands who's early 70's recordings languished for decades in absentia until the wonderful Rockadelic (also responsible for Crank) did us the favour of unearthing them, bringing us some cool proto-hard rock.

01. The Hook (US) - Son Of Fantasy (1968)
02. Sleepy John (US) - You Say (1970)
03. Sub (Germany) - Ma-mari-huana (1970)
04. October Cherries (Singapore) - Are You Ready [Grand Funk Railroad] (1971)
05. Sainte Anthony's Fyre (US) - Chance Of Fate (1970)
06. Puhdys (Germany) - Türen öffnen sich zur Stadt (1974)
07. Scorpion (US) - Can't Get Blood From A Stone (1973)
08. Ning (UK) - Machine (1971)
09. Alamo (US) - The World We Seek (1971)
10. Sudden Death (US) - Road Back Home (1971)
11. Schizo (France) - Paraphrenia Praecox (1972)
12. SRC (US) - The Badaz Shuffle (1972)
13. Gift (Germany) - Bad Vibrations (1972)
14. Three-Headed Dog (UK) - Slick Solution (1973)

15. The Bear Brothers (UK) - Red Shoe Trucken (1972)  

Sub's peon to the herb is an early gem of trippy krautrock and October Cherries are the first Singaporean band I have ever used, doing this cool Grand Funk cover. Sainte Anthony's Fyre were a power-trio from Trenton, New Jersey who's rough recordings still convey their hard rocking intentions perfectly. There is an interview with their drummer Bob Sharples here at Psychedelic Baby webzine. Puhdys are a German band who are still around, this is their first single and at the time they were in Uriah Heep/Deep Purple mode, thanks to bonistik for sending me that scorcher. Scorpion, Ning and The Bear Brothers are all one-single bands who have vanished into obscurity, but good and novel recordings they left behind indeed.

Memphis's Alamo produced a solid album of hard rock with cool hammond and gravelly vocals in 1971, and France's Schizo (first appearance: Vol 45) were too good to not use another of their murky unusual tracks. SRC were an also-ran from the productive Detroit scene and this is a great hypnotizing track with some excellent guitar breaks. Chances are that Gift are already known to you as a bloggers' favorite, and they fit in neatly with other German proggy proto-metal bands like a personal fave of mine; Night Sun.

Many thanks to Nololob for bringing Three-Headed Dog to my attention today; "Three-Headed Dog - Hound of Hades CD. Previously unreleased early 70s underground hard rock unearthed from the infamous Birmingham rock scene which brought us such luminaries as Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. Three-Headed Dog were among the lesser known and more obscure acts playing the circuit which included others like Iron Claw, Necromandus and Flying Hat Band."


Cheers, Rich.

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