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The Chocolate Watchband: No Way Out
The Chocolate Watchband
No Way Out
(Sundazed, 1967)
1967 was supposed to be the year the Chocolate Watchband finally made it big. They had spent the last couple of years gradually climbing their way to the top of San Francisco’s R&B scene. They had paid their dues and put in their work; now it was time for things to pay off. By the end of 1966, their raw, raucous, Rolling Stones-y sound had landed them gigs alongside Jefferson Airplane and Captain Beefheart. They had released their first two singles—and they were both hits. The Chocolate Watchband was on the radio. They were in the movies. They had a wealth of talent. And they had a catalog of proven material. All that was left to do was lay it down on their first full-length record. And so, in the new year, that’s exactly what they set out to do.
Not Dead Yet: Why the Album Isn’t Going Anywhere
The album is dead. Or so they tell us anyway, over and over again. Steve Jobs declared it obsolete years ago. USA Today claims that “the very concept of songs integrated into a whole faces extinction.” The New York Times has featured one expert after the next making dire predictions: “The album is going to die,” they say. “An album-centric plan will be a thing of the past.” And frankly, it’s hard to argue with them; the stats do seem to be on their side. By 2007, just four years after the very first iPods hit the shelves, single-song sales were already accounting for two-thirds of the music market. Individual tracks outsell albums online 19 to 1. And between 2000 and 2005, CD sales plummeted by 25 percent. Tower Records has crumbled. iTunes has exploded. It’s pretty easy to imagine that an album-less society is just around the corner. It seems like a foregone conclusion that, in just a few short years, we’ll have trouble even finding a dozen or so songs strung together in a pre-determined order.
But you just try telling that to Bryan Scary. The Brooklyn-based songwriter is a die-hard devotee of the long-player format—and to prove it he released his debut, a concept album called The Shredding Tears. One of the finest records of recent years, the album uses a recurring cast of characters and a tracklist of songs sewn seamlessly together. It’s clearly the work of an album-lover. And if you’re left with any doubts, just ask him about it and he’ll clear them up pretty quickly.
Os Mutantes
Os Mutantes
Os Mutantes
(Omplatten, 1968)
I have the feeling that if Os Mutantes had been an American or a British band, they would have been huge. That’s impossible to prove, of course, but listening to their self-titled debut, it’s easy to imagine that if the trio had formed in London or New York, they would have had their fair share of time on the Billboard charts and magazine covers on the newsstands. But, as luck would have it, they weren’t. They were Brazilian. They were formed in Sao Paulo and they sang in Portuguese. And let’s face it. It was hard enough to get booked on the Ed Sullivan Show as it was, never mind being thousands of miles away singing in a language few people in the US or the UK could understand. So instead of hitting the stage at Monterey or smoking up in the back of a limo with the Beatles, Os Mutantes and the rest of Brazil’s Tropicalia scene would have to wait a few decades before getting any of the international recognition they deserved.
The Free Design: Kites Are Fun
The Free Design
Kites Are Fun
(Project 3, 1967)
The Free Design was not cool. There’s no use denying it; they were about as far from cool as you can possibly imagine. In an era of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, the Free Design was playing music together as a family. In the days of the Beatles and Stones singing about Vietnam and “warm guns,” the Free Design were singing about kites and umbrellas and their little brother Woody. And to top it all off, at a time when it must have seemed like every band in the world was hopped up on goofballs, the Free Design were saying things like, “If it takes drugs to free your mind, you’re reaching out for nothing. Your imagination is where it’s at.” Not exactly the kind of attitude we usually associate with the Summer of Love.
So Why So Glad? Music For a Sunny Disposition
For the first few songs on the Polyphonic Spree’s Wait EP, it’s business as usual for the 24-piece orchestral-pop collective. The band, famous for their militantly cheerful outlook on life and penchant for wearing matching outfits, smile their way through their trademark odes to hope—all penned by the group’s frontman and songwriter, Tim DeLaughter. At first, there’s no sign that the fourth track will be any different. It opens with the sound of a twinkling piano, the kind of gentle instrumentation found on every Polyphonic Spree record. But when a light electric guitar joins in a few bars later, it’s playing some awfully familiar chords. They’re hard to place at first—you know you’ve heard that melody somewhere else before, but it’s not until a few moments later, when the vocals kick in, that you realize where. “I’m so happy ’cause today I found my friends / They’re in my head,” DeLaughter sings. And that’s when it clicks. It’s “Lithium.” It’s Nirvana.
The Land Of the Rheostatics
The Rheostatics
The Story of Harmelodia
(Perimeter Records, 1999)
The Rheostatics never made much of a dent in the U.S. The Toronto four-piece failed to find the kind of mainstream success that would have allowed them to break through south of the border, despite a fluke Top 40 hit that landed them a short-lived contract with Sire Records. Those who knew them, though, loved them (and tended to start their own bands), so for more than 20 years the Rheos were the quiet center of the Canadian indie music scene, praised for their quirky, eclectic rock, an incredible live show, and a wildly diverse catalog of records—two of which, 1991’s Melville and ’92s Whale Music, are both regularly ranked among the greatest Canadian albums of all-time, right alongside Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the Band.
Shine On Silver Apples
Silver Apples
(self-titled)
1968, Kapp Records
By 1967, the Overland Stage Electric Band was teetering on its last legs. The New York City five-piece had found some success playing covers of straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll at gigs in the East Village, but tensions within the group were steadily tearing them apart. The lead singer, Simeon Coxe III, had gotten his hands on a vintage ’40s audio oscillator and was insisting that it become a part of the show. The rest of the band was understandably upset - this was more than a decade before electronic music would become an accepted practice. Before long, the band was down to two members, Simeon, and drummer Danny Taylor. Now with full control, the two members re-christened themselves the Silver Apples and set about releasing one of history’s great forgotten albums, their self-titled debut.
The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World
by: Adam Bunch
Philosophy of the World
(Third World, 1969)
I’ll admit it: You’re probably not going to like the Shaggs. And, I’ll tell you why. Because you’ve got taste and the Shaggs sound terrible. They can’t sing in key. They don’t know how to play their instruments. The drums rarely, if ever, keep any kind of steady time, and the guitars are consistently and wildly out of tune. Their lyrics are simplistic to the point of being childish; some would call them just plain dumb. Even their biggest fans (Frank Zappa claimed they were better than the Beatles; Lester Bangs called their record “a landmark in rock ‘n’ roll history”; Rolling Stone once declared them “Comeback of the Year”) have to admit that the Shaggs are one of the least musically talented ensembles in the history of rock. It’s hard to deny that, when it comes to musical virtuosity, the Shaggs make Sid Vicious look like the guy from Shine. But just because you don’t know what you’re doing doesn’t mean you can’t make music that’s fun to listen to—and there’s no better proof of that than Philosophy of the World.
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by: Adam Bunch
published: October 8, 2008
in column: Crate Digger
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