Review: Various Artists ‘Brown Acid – The Twentieth Trip’
Spring is here, and all that comes with it, warmer weather, zombie Jesus, the universal stoner holiday and another installment, or ‘trip’ of Riding Easy Records long-running and now legendary Brown Acid series. As we’ve chronicled in detail, the series consists of unearthed, proto-metal, proto-punk, garage rock, heavy psych, heavy funk, and any and all sounds from the ‘comedown’ period of the American, post-Woodstock underground between the years of 1968 to 1976.
The series is the brainchild of RidingEasy Records founder Daniel Hall and Lance Barresi, co-owner of LA’s Permanent Records, who joined forces with the mission of digging up as much as they can mine of the weird, out-of-print, long-lost music from this Twilight Zone era of rock and roll. Most of the artists featured in the Brown Acid series never released anything close to a full-length, 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 Hall and Barresi toil, as they attempt to excavate as much of these wayward jams as they can possibly unearth.
Every single ‘trip’ has been good-to-great, with nary a dud to be found, which speaks to both Hall and Barresi’s tastes and their sheer determination to find this stuff in the first place. With that, we’ve arrived at The Twentieth Trip, which is certainly a milestone for sure. Hall releases these ‘trips’ twice a year, according to legend, on his favorite holidays, one being Halloween, the other being 4/20.
All prior Brown Acid trips come out of the gate swinging and the twentieth is no exception, with a cover of The Damnation of Adam Blessing’s Cookbook from 1971 courtesy of Afterflash. Not being familiar with the original, I had no expectations, so I found the track to be a bouncy, trippy and of the era, garage-psych song, which, not surprisingly, is about consuming psychedelics.
Next, hailing from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, we have Polvo, and their heavy, abrasive, Have You Ever Been There (Has Estado Ahí), also from 1971. According to the press release, this was issued on a major label, which is pretty amazing considering how gnarly this sounds, which includes the mind-bending, fuzzy-as-fuck shred in the guitar solo. Then again, Black Sabbath’s Master Of Reality was also released in ’71, so maybe some of these major label types weren’t as intimidated by the heavier sounds of the time.
a funky, slippery, organ-drenched rhythmic rocker…
Hailing from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, we’ve got Hot Candy, and the Zeppelin-style, heavy blues boogie of Darkened Passage which is followed by one of the cooler tracks on this trip, courtesy of LA’s amazingly-named Banana Bros, who completely bring funky rock and roll lunacy with swagger to spare on 1975’s Suck You In. Closing side one is another Pennsylvania band, The Jordan Brothers, who evidently have been playing rock and roll since the late ‘50s, and still play locally with their bouncy, organ-drenched ode to ’70s sex with Thank You For The Ride.
Watch Em Shine from Missouri’s Osage Lute kicks off side two with this six-plus-minute epic, heavy prog-ish rocker that fluidly weaves many of the edgier sounds of the era into a crazy sonic quilt. Sandy Torano & The Nimo Spliff proffer both one of the wildest names on this, or any of the previous Brown Acid comps, as well as the grimiest and most spiteful cut on The Twentieth Trip with A Year Ago Today. On a side note, Sandy apparently abandoned rock and roll and went disco later in the ‘70s, which means this is probably the coolest thing he ever did.
The aptly named Lazy Day show up with Don’t Dance In My Song, a funky, slippery, organ-drenched rhythmic rocker that even boasts a mid-section organ solo. Up next is the chugging, riff monster that is Hot And Tot Woman from Illinois rockers Flavor. There’s some pretty serious riffage and nasty leads which are complimented by a ballsy, surly attitude, making this fist-pumper one of the standout tracks for this reviewer.
The twentieth trip begins its comedown with an instrumental closer from Arizona’s Frozen Sun (cool name) with ‘69s Jamm Part 1, a wild, late sixties freak out featuring all sorts of fuzzy, garage-y, surf-y guitar, a wild rhythm section and a jazzy, improvisational feel. The rhythm section is tight as hell with the bassist holding it all down, wherein the drummer can engage in all sorts of behind-the-beat, tasteful, crash and bash.
As always, I enjoyed the latest Brown Acid. Every one of these is a treat to listen to and the care Hall and Baressi have put into curating this series is obvious. Twenty is a lot of volumes and would make an obvious ending point. Is this the last one? Who knows, as I imagine these guys have more in their vault, as this is such a fun and cool series. Looks like we’ll have to wait until Halloween to find out.
Label: RidingEasy Records | Permanent Records
Scribed by: Martin Williams
