According to Ken Scott’s Archivist book, Ron Ellis and Michael Lynch recorded no less than six LPs of Xian melodic folk music with their families between 1974 and 1979, all released on their Seattle-based Ra-O or Raven Records labels. “Songs For Our Children” is their fifth release (from 1977), and the title is pretty self-explanatory. [...]
Imagine if you will, Carlos Santana fronting Pink Floyd circa Wish You Were Here, with a dash of Camel and a little Popol Vuh for flavoring. Add some synth and smooth melodic vocal harmonies chanting devotion to Hare Krishna, and you’ve got the sound of Jagad Guru Chris Butler’s “Mantra Electric” double LP. Released in [...]
The Huntington Beach, California-based Outstanding Records label may be better known to Waxidermists for releasing the “It’s Broken” LP by Bob Chance, but they’ve been responsible for numerous other interesting releases since 1968, including this little gem of a single. Both sides feature a keyboard-dominated soft folk pop sound, with a bit of a jazzy [...]
Nichelle Nichols is best known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek TV series from the late 1960′s. She followed her Trek co-stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy into the recording business in 1968 with an LP titled “Down To Earth” for Epic Records, which was re-issued on CD by Rev-Ola [...]
This perky little 7″ was one of my choice finds from a guy selling records out of his garage in Cottonwood, Arizona last year. Interesting artist name, pink Hawaiian label, great titles — sounds promising, put it in the pile, it’s worth a try. Didn’t take long after setting the needle down to realize that [...]
While I have no idea WHAT a Spray Pal is supposed to be, thanks to the liner notes on this single we at least know WHO they are (or were, as it were). Kristin Gushurst on keyboards and Susanne Lewis on guitar & vocals were Spray Pals, and this single hailed from Denver, Colorado circa [...]
SWARTHMORE ELEMENTARY 6th GRADE: We Love Recess - Recorded Publications Company (US) AZB-27272 Oddball and totally unique 1968 private press LP with hand-inscribed cover from the Swarthmore, PA Elementary School 6th grade class performing an original play entitled “We Love Recess”. Try to find another one of these in your lifetime, OK? But wait! Halfway [...]
Here’s a fun artifact from the glory days of the exploitation LP. It’s another of the uncountable number of Batman-related releases from the mid-60’s, this one on the Movietone Records subsidiary of ABC Records. With songs written by Billy Page and arranged by Gene Page (father/son team perhaps?), they’ve managed to tap into the offbeat, [...]
Sole release from this L.A.-based band circa 1977. I’m guessing UCLA students from the contact address on the back cover, and sounding a bit like a crunchier Devo, without the synths. Not quite punk rock, though I first remember seeing the sleeve pictured in a 1978 L.A. Times article about local punk singles. Doctors Wives [...]
Ambient / Electronic composer Tim Clark started his career in the early 1970′s composing Moog synthesizer soundtracks for Planetarium shows at the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York. According to the liner notes on this privately-pressed LP, Clark was the Music Director at the Strasenburgh, and it was his job to assemble complete soundtracks for [...]
Released on the Czech Supraphon label, “Night Club 68” features not only a way cool mod pop art LP cover, but a nice sampling of the groovy young sounds from hip Prague nightspots. Pavel Sedlacek opens the proceedings by covering a couple of UK beat pop hits — his version of The Move’s “Flowers In [...]
Warren Kime may be best known to record collectors for his trio of Brass Impact LPs on the Command label released in the mid-to-late 60’s. An excellent overview of his career and how these LPs came to be can be found here: http://www.spaceagepop.com/kime.htm. There’s one LP the Space Age Pop overview missed, though, as his [...]
“The young approach to music is here. We choose love as our theme. We sing, we write, we play and live it. It’s in our every scheme. Of all that we have experienced, love is the best we’ve found. Now we pass it on to you, so there’s more love around.” If ever there was [...]