»Brown Acid: The Fourteenth Trip« compilation of rare/lost 60s-70s pre-metal singles shares Moog-frenzy tune »I’ve Been You« by Mijal & White
»Brown Acid: The Fourteenth Trip« compilation of rare/lost 60s-70s pre-metal singles shares Moog-frenzy tune »I’ve Been You« by Mijal & White.
»Brown Acid: The Fourteenth Trip« will be available on LP, CD and download on April 20th, 2022 via RidingEasy Records.
Tracklist:
01. The Legends – Fever Games
02. Mijal & White – I’ve Been You
03. Liquid Blue – Henry Can’t Drive
04. San Francisco Trolley Co. – Signs
05. Blue Creed – Need A Friend
06. Transfer – Play It Cool
07. Appletree – You’re Not The Only Girl (I’m Out To Get)
08. Cox’s Army – I’m Tired
09. Raven – Raven Mad Jam
Courtesy of US / THEM Group:
The forthcoming latest edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, »Brown Acid: The Fourteenth Trip« will be released April 20th, 2022.
Ultimate Classic Rock shares a new track »I’ve Been You« the 1973 Moog-frenzy by Mijal & White.
Metal Injection recently launched the 1969 raging lead track »Fever Games« by The Legends.
The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. Read interviews with the series curators via Paste Magazine HERE and LA Weekly HERE.
About »The Fourteenth Trip«:
The Legends’ »Fever Games« is a 1969 fever dream of heavy psych on par with Blue Cheer at their heaviest, featuring an incredible intro with whammy-bar gymnastics through an Echoplex. This Harrisburg, PA power trio, featuring Dan Hartman (Edgar Winter Group, et al) and his brother Dave, also name-checks Jimi Hendrix Experience in the midst of the song’s most blatant Hendrix rip. Perhaps that’s how Fever Games work? Whatever the case may be, this stunning rocker is the B-side to »High Towers«, the band’s second single out of four released over 5 years.
Next up, another banging track driven by wild sound effects. In this case, Mijal & White serve up some Moog run rampant on their lone 45 from 1973, »I’ve Been You«. Runaway oscillators and modular synths spurt and sputter over some Tommy James & The Shondells bubblegum garage psych. The duo was a Detroit recording engineer (Mike Mijal) and a local musician (Mike White) tinkering with new technology with magical results. Could this heavy lysergic pop gem have inspired Meco’s »Star Wars Galactic Funk« just a handful of years later?
Liquid Blue bring us back to the era’s strong meat ’n’ potatoes blues-rock with this 1969 Texas rocker »Henry Can’t Drive«. Sure, Henry can’t, but this blazing track sure can drive. This 1969 single on the Texas Revolution label is the band’s only release, with this A-side being penned by brothers Hal and Ted Hawley, also of Lone Star State psychedelic rock unknowns Glory. The dueling guitar solos and the way the band erratically shifts gears makes this one as valuable as liquid gold.
Hailing from Olivet, Michigan, the San Franciso Trolley Co.’s name may be misleading, but their ripping rager »Signs« has all the answers you seek. Their extremely rare 1970 A-side, backed with »Rainbow Heaven« is a blitzkrieg workout of frantic drums and a wailing guitar lead that spits fire and brimstone. Not exactly the Flower Power love-in one might expect given the name, but thankfully these youngsters sound like a hard rocking 13th Floor Elevators meets the MC5.
Blue Creed was never a real band. That is, the West Virginia group never performed publicly. The band was the brainchild of coal miner & songwriter Bill Rexroad who paid all of the pickup musicians and financed all of the recordings himself. »Need a Friend« indeed. Rexroad sought an original sound by putting guitar speakers in oil drums (an illustration of which became the logo of his label Mo/Go Records) and perhaps never having showed off that kind of showmanship on stage doomed Blue Creed to obscurity.
Transfer’s velvet smooth groove has an almost proto-punk feel like a mashup of the Velvet Underground and The Flamin’ Groovies. But the lyrics referencing tokin’ reefer and the twanging surf lead situate them closer to their heavy rock brethren. This very rare 1974 self-released 45 is this lone archive of the band’s existence, who, we assume just kept right on playin’ it cool into oblivion.
The cowbell lead-in announces that you’re in for a good time before Appletree’s »You’re Not The Only Girl (I’m Out To Get)« even begins. And when it all kicks in, this Grand Funk adjacent headbanger features silky guitar leads, sweet high vocal harmonies and stomping drums to drive the point home. Apppletree was led by songwriter Gary Apple, who also penned the single’s curiously titled A-side »The Ballad of Pencil«. The date of the band’s sole release is believed to be 1971, but where Appletree took root remains unknown.
Cox’s Army deploy the grungy rocker »I’m Tired« which sounds like if Jimi Hendrix fronted Mudhoney. Yes, please! Though they hailed from Aurora, IL, it sounds like there’s definitely some Pacific Northwest in their blood. Particularly in the gritty production, which hints at The Sonics’ “bustin’ outta lo-fi” style, and the bluesy shuffle rhythm that’s thwacked out on what sounds like a cardboard box. »I’m Tired« b/w »She’s A Fool« is their only known release.
Not much is known about the enigmatic Columbus, OH musician known as Raven, whose »Back To Ohio Blues« closes this edition. Upon completing his damaged-biker Back to Ohio Blues 5-song album in 1975, he gave away most of the few hundred copies that were pressed and vanished from public eye. The mantra-like droning riff of this 8-minute jam is a »Black To Comm« style epic, driven by Raven’s hostile, no-bullshit diatribe until it all busts open for an insane 2-minute long drum solo soaked in odd effects that sounds like it was copped from a Melvins album. It ends with a droning acoustic guitar coda, in which Raven repeatedly wails, yells and yelps, “lets go make some more love.” It’s easy to understand why this album has been a cult bootleg favorite until its 2021 reissue on our own Permanent Records.
»Brown Acid: The Fourteenth Trip« will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on April 20, 2022 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital at Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well