Various Artists ‘Brown Acid The Nineteenth Trip’
At this point, stoner rockers, doom-metal mavens, garage rock collectors, heavy psych-heads and proto-metal worshipers around the globe can practically set their watches to the bi-annual, spring and fall releases of RidingEasy Records, by now, long-running and legendary Brown Acid series. Consisting of long-lost sounds emanating from the ‘comedown’ period, of the post-Woodstock, pre-punk rock and roll underground, between the years of 1968 and 1976.
The collection is the brainchild of Lance Barresi co-owner of LA’s Permanent Records, and RidingEasy Records head honcho Daniel Hall, who joined forces with the idea of pursuing as much of the weird, out-of-print, long-lost, music from this Twilight Zone era as they can unearth. Most of the artists featured never released full-lengths, the only documentation of their existence being a 45, perhaps self-financed, sent to local radio stations and/or labels in hopes of landing a record deal. So, this is where the pair toil, combing record fairs and swap meets like rock and roll archaeologists looking to un-earth these buried treasures.
Every single ‘trip’ in the Brown Acid series has been good-to-great, not a single one of them has been a dud in any way, which speaks to Messrs Barresi and Hall’s tastes, and their sheer determination to find this material in the first place. As well, it must be noted that all of the songs featured are licensed by the artists, or their estates, if they are no longer on this plane is existence.
All of the volumes open with bangers, and The Nineteenth Trip is no exception, as Dick Rabbit, three brothers out of Bay City, Michigan, the same state that gave the world MC5, The Stooges and Grand Funk Railroad, dropped the latter’s meets Blue Cheer fuzzed-out thud of 1968’s You Come On Like A Train. Next up, we have Blizzard, hailing from that word-famous, rock & roll hotbed of Oklahoma City and their track Be Myself, which is a rockin’, rollicking, hard rocker with some sweet backup vocals, tasty ‘70s shred, and some pretty stellar, Midwest, Bill Ward-style crash and bash drumming.
chock full of nasty tones and bad vibes…
Fox, featuring Gary Pihl, who went on to join ‘70’s AOR hard-rock darlings Boston, unleash a grimy, crawling, proto-metal burner in Sun City Part ll which is chock full of nasty tones and bad vibes, while Minnesota’s Sweet Wine gives the listener a blast of good old ‘70s boogie rock with Brining Me Back Home. Enoch Smokey, out of Iowa City, chose to do a blazing, cover of the Chuck Berry classic Roll Over Beethoven adding their own shred-heavy take on this all-timer.
The second half of The Nineteenth Trip kicks off with Ohio’s Flight featuring Vic Blecman, who was also in the garage band The Cavemen and apparently was quite the rock and roll man about town. Their riffy, sleazy, driving rocker Get You is one of the cooler tracks in the entire Brown Acid series where Blecman and Flight also appeared on The Sixth Trip. Elsewhere, Quick Fox gives us Indian, a bit of a combination of ‘60s psychedelia and ‘70s hard rock with prog-ish flourishes that addresses the plight of Native Americans.
Next up, is the amazingly named Bonjour Aviators and the raw, rudimentary, ass-shaking,riff-heavy rock of The Fury In Your Eyes. We get another band from Oklahoma with the two-brother duo Cedric and the garage rock, downstroke, primitive rhythm madness that is I’m Leavin’. Hailing from Sweden, Zane closes The Nineteenth Trip with Step Aside, a spaced-out, psychedelic mind-fuck of the highest order, especially when considering the era as it gives off some Hawkwind vibes, krautrock leanings and all sorts of trippy weirdness.
As always, I enjoyed another ‘trip’ in RidingEasy Records Brown Acid series. Spring will be here before we all know it, and I’m confident that Barresi and Hall will have something special up their collective sleeves for The Twentieth Trip.
Label: RidingEasy Records | Permanent Records
Scribed by: Martin Williams
