The Litter - $100 Fine (1968)

The heavy psych band The Litter from Minneapolis released their second album $100 Fine one year after their debut album Distortions, trying to repeat their success of their hit single “Action Woman”. The album features various cover songs from other great bands, together with some cool tunes by the band itself.

“Mindbreaker” sounds like a theme song for an action hero, making a great opening song. The tempo quiet fast, rocks this song with an amazing solo part.
Always a fan of the British psych scene, the band decided to cover some of their favorite ones. “Here I Go Again” and “Tallyman” are two songs, paying tribute to the scene and come with a cool, fuzzy guitar. More focused on the bass guitar is “(Under The Screaming Double) Eagle”, featuring a strong and dominating bass, not bad though. It goes through your whole body, when you play it like the band recommends it: “To enjoy your album, play it at the loudest volume your equipment, ears and neighbors will permit.”

What makes this such a great album is the fact that the Litter doesn’t bore you, there’s always something new and funny too find. One example is the strange “Apologies to 2069”, which sounds like a part from the Barbarella soundtrack, due to all its weird samples.

Like so many bands the Litter has a quiet long track at the end of their album, that almost every time is a psychedelic masterpiece, it's the same here. “She's Not There” attracts your attention through the very catchy and melodies chorus. The organ does the rest and keeps you in the ban of that song. Even though it is only a Zombies cover, it is nonetheless a really great song. And this is what makes all the old albums so great, you get a pretty awesome song at the end.

The CD includes also the song “Confessions (Of A Traveler Through Time)”, which according to the text in the inlay, was never released before, as it was recorded for the movie Medium Cool. For the final cut of the movie, the studio decided to cut the song out and use one of Frank Zappa’s songs instead. So here we can finally enjoy this heavy psych bonbon.

The Litter has so much more to offer than “Atomic Woman” and their second album is pretty cool and currently remastered available on CD.

Psch-Out - Soundtrack (1968)

The hippy movie Psych-Out has a really sweet and psychedelic soundtrack, and making a movie about the flower power scene, it is no surprise that the soundtrack is so loveable. The movie probably wouldn’t work without the soundtrack. Question is: Is it good enough to stand on its own? It definitely is, where the score from The Electric Flag, for the movie The Trip disappoints a little, the Psych-Out OST makes a cool compilation of great psychedelic songs.

It all starts with “The Pretty Song From Psych-Out” by the Storybook, which slowly introduces us into the world of Psych-Out and can be seen as the main theme for the whole LP. We start together as a group, covered in wads of smoke, everyone is high and then we begin our own little journey.
The first half of the LP features the normal tracks, still very psychedelic, but compared to the trippy second half, more organized and structured. “Two Fingers Pointing On You” by the Seeds and Strawberry Alarm Clock’s druggy “Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow” set the right mood for our journey through the world of Psych-Out.
The very fuzzy and by Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” inspired “Ashbury Wednesday” marks the starting point of the strange trip we are about to experience. Songs like “Psych Out Sanctorum” are totally trippy and with its monotone guitar work transfer me almost into a trancelike state. Unfortunately is the song too short to accomplish just that, but together with the rest of the songs still to come it can be done. A very slow track making me forget the now and here is “The Love Children”. The soft hi-hat as well as the sweet melody, assisted by the lovely sitar, let your mind wonder off.
Actually the most songs from the Storybook are responsible for the great spiritual feeling. They add a more experimental touch to the score, whereas the Strawberry Alarm Clock brings the more flower power orientated tunes, with all its happy feelings.

Beginning with a feel good tune from SAC, the soundtrack also has to end with one. So “The World’s On Fire” represents the finale of our trip through the world of Psych-Out. Pretty neat is the fact that the short and also the long version of their extremely psychedelic “The World’s On Fire” are included. So that you get the benefit of the full version, with all its weird and nice little sounds.

The Psych-Out soundtrack supports one of the most psychedelic movies ever made and also on its own, it is a strong album, which definitely deserves your attention.

The Sacred Mushroom – The Sacred Mushroom (1969)

The Sacred Mushroom from Cincinnati made a strong blues album. A group of five people formed this band and they even lived together in a house, called the Mushroom House. So what have these mushroom people for us? No sweet trippy stuff like the cover makes you believe, but an intense and energetic blues rock album.

A cool riff with a great melody starts the album; bluesy and of course a catchy chorus that animates you to sing along, that’s “I Don’t Like You”. “You Won't Be Sorry” follows the lead of the first song, pushing its way into your brain, leaving the chorus in there just to come back days later to haunt you. That’s how catchy and good the melodies are. Talking about catchy melodies and choruses, “Mean Old World” is one of the songs that were stuck in my head for days. I just couldn’t get rid of it.
A rocking song is “Catatonic Lover”, full of guitar solos it speeds up a little before the “All Good Things Must Have An End” brings us the blues. Harmonica and sad lyrics make this the ultimate blues song of the album.
My favorite song is “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”, because of the lyrics, the sound, the melody and the guitar solo. A song that makes me feel good and sad at the same time, I can’t really describe it. It is like all the good aspects of Sacred Mushroom are put into one song.

The guitar dominant “Lifeline” ends the Sacred Mushroom album and of course we get a lot of guitar solos again. With its 6 ½ minutes it is also the longest track on the album, it seems like the band gave all their best at the end so that we’ll return another time, and that’s what I’ll do.

The Sacred Mushroom has fast, rocking songs as well as slower blues numbers on it. Even though I could have lived without the slow ones, like “I Take Care” and “All Good Things Must Have An End” this is a good album, because it has a lot of energy and that’s what I like so much about it. And of course the parts where I can’t help myself and I just have to sing along.

We're Late For Class - #40 Another Collection (2009)

We're Late For Class is a group of musicians who make great and trippy music. They just released their 40th CD/Collection.

I’ve heard the new We're Late For Class while I was on the train. I never had such a train trip before. If you enjoy really weird and spacey music, this is the CD for you. The tracks seem to go on forever; it is just like the world slows down to let you experience the songs without the pressure of time.
There are noises, spoken words and samples from I don’t know where, worked into the songs and together with all the people in the full train, it made a quiet surreal 40 minute train trip. But also outside a train you can enjoy the cool sounds of We're Late For Class.

Because I was traveling and not paying attention to the names of the tracks, I can’t tell you too much about them, but for this sort of music it is better if you experience it yourself. Get a nice bottle of wine, relax in your garden and lose touch with the reality.

You can also find more great stuff on their blog.

Elias Hulk - Unfinished Business (2008)

“Elias Hulk, back in the studios, dreaming up new songs.....” That’s what it says on their homepage and that is what they did.

But let’s start at the beginning: A week after I wrote the review over Unchained, the 1970 album of the blues rock band Elias Hulk, I got mail from some of the band members. They were wondering if I would be interested in their new songs, sure I was.

Unfinished Business is a 3 track EP full of blues and vitality. The opener “Beneath My Disguise” actually continues where the band left off 38 years ago. Due to the great vocal work the song is overflowing with energy. It is like the Hulk never left. The cool melody makes this my personal favorite of the new tracks.
The “Rock’n Roll Life” slows down a bit after the straight forward attitude of the first track and gives us a great truckin’ song. When I listening to it, I always imagine myself driving along a highway somewhere in the desert.
We also get to hear a new side of Elias Hulk, the balladic “Heroes”. A piano together with an electric guitar that reminds me a bit of Queen, but just a little bit. You can also hear that the three songs are new, as the guitar sounds clearer than on Unchained. And so this sad little song ends the far too short EP.

So what is there to say about the new Elias Hulk tracks: Let’s hope they make more, because I like what I hear and if they make more like “Beneath My Disguise” I couldn’t be any happier.

So check out Unfinished Business.

The Electric Flag – The Trip (1968) [The Trip Soundtrack]

The Soundtrack to the movie The Trip is completely made by The Electric Flag, even though the band that can be seen in the beginning of the movie is the International Submarine Band. All tracks are instrumental and some of them are very cool psychedelic songs.

“Peter’s Trip” is the most recognizable song from the soundtrack; it has a really catchy melody. It is followed by a slow guitar-heavy song called “Practice Music”.
There are a lot of different types of songs covering the bad trip situations of Paul and the more spaced out ones. “M-23”, “Hobbit” and “Fewghh” belong to the darker visions and therefore have a gloomy atmosphere. Whereas “Fine Jug Thing” is a real nice psych song, with some great guitar solos. It lets you trip along quiet easy and is not too fast; a good instrumental track with some organ sounds.
“Senior Citizen” is the song, if I recall it correct, from the circus-like scene where Paul meets the judge, played by Dennis Hopper. This track creates the typical carnival and circus atmosphere and these kinds of songs always make me feel like a child that stands before the cotton candy guy.
Meditation is the first thing that comes to my mind while listening to “Synethesia” and it must have been a song for the slower parts of the movie as you can really meditate to this song. That doesn’t make it a bad song though; it is a short yet very pleasant song.
“Flash’ Bam’ Pow’” is the most chaotic and psychedelic number on the whole soundtrack. It almost packs all very weird and spacey scenes into one short little song.

What’s funny is that the commercial about the soap is also included on the soundtrack and so it is no wonder that “Psyche Soap” doesn’t fit into this instrumental soundtrack. It rips you out of the whole concept of instrumental dreaminess, but maybe that’s just part of the trip, right?

The soundtrack does not feature the most spaced out music that can get you on a weird trip like the movie itself. The music contributes very well to the movie but on its own it is just a sweet little soundtrack without any acid qualities. However it is a cool soundtrack that lets me relax whenever I need to.

The Trip & Psych-Out (1967 & 1968)

Two amazing movies about the psychedelic era together on one DVD. This time is the Midnite Movies Double Feature from MGM worth buying. Both films are presented in a very good quality, considering the age of these two psych masterpieces, only the sound on The Trip could have been a bit clearer. Psych-Out comes with the trailer and a documentary over the production and some background information from the makers and the actor Bruce Dern. The Trip has a bit more special features including the trailer, a documentary, a poster gallery, a psychedelic light box and a short feature only about the psychedelic light effects.

The Trip, starring Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Susan Strasberg and Dennis Hopper is about Paul (played by Peter Fonda), a commercial movie maker who experiences with LSD for the first time. He takes the drug in a controlled environment under the supervision of his friend (Bruce Dern).

We follow our protagonist through this trip, which starts off with kaleidoscope-like pictures, as we see different colors in different shapes, note that this all happens while his eyes are closed. The first freak outs that Paul has are not too dangerous, as his pal protects him from too dangerous situations. Already at this point we can see that Paul has to be careful if he doesn’t want to end up having a bad trip.
The first really weird trip sequences are not that great. It gets more interesting when Paul leaves the safe environment of the house and meets normal people on the street. The scene where he talks to the woman in the self-service laundry is just hilarious. Worth mentioning is also the first love scene with all its light effects. In the beginning I thought it was really amateurs done, but after just one minute the magic of the scene kicked in and I was lost in this scene, just starring at the colors and shapes. It is one of the best trip sequences Paul has.
During the whole movie new, weird and really strange pictures are cut into the movie making it quiet spacey to watch. Clearly this was the intention of the movie, letting us know what a LSD trip would look like.

The script was written by Jack Nicholson, who at the time was more into writing than acting. Roger Corman and some of the acting crew, except Bruce Dern who had a strict no drug policy, went off on a LSD test trip, to see what it was like. With Roger Cormans words: “I could not make a movie about LSD without taking it myself.” He himself did not have a bad trip and so he had to ask people who did have one, to get their experiences into the movie as well.
Not wanting to make a pro-drug movie the producers decided to state a warning at the beginning of the movie and let it end the way it does. Nevertheless I think this movie is more neutral and no agenda ruins this great psychedelic piece of art.

“If you want to take the drug without taking it, this is the movie.” so one of the advertising slogans for The Trip and I think this gets the idea of the movie quiet good.

Psych-Out is a movie about the hippie culture and a more colorful approach to the trippy days of the late 60s than The Trip. Starring Susan Strasburg, Dean Stockwell, Adam Roarke, Bruce Dern and Jack Nicholson, this movie is about a deaf girl, who is in search for her brother in the great hippie city of San Francisco. Very quickly a group of hippies musicians decide to help her on her quest.

This movie is full of great music and covers the psychedelic era really wonderful. I have never seen a movie this colorful; there is almost no scene that is boring.
The cast acts good and believable, with an Adam Roarke who was made for his role. His friendly face and the omnipresent smile make him the best hippie ever. Jack Nicholson on the other hand is in my opinion not the best choice for Stoney. But I guess this is only because I am not the biggest fan of Nicholson in that kind of roles, as he can play crazy characters truly awesome, but he lacks the ability to play a nice guy from San Francisco. He would have been more believable as the insane brother and in turn Bruce Dern could have been an amazing Stoney.
Despite this it is one fantastic movie that with all its flower power character shows also the downsides of the life as a hippie. The really bad trip that the artist has or the problems our group faces at the junkyard. “Reality is a rotten place to be.”

My tip is to watch The Trip first and then Psych-Out. The Trip is the freakier one and is more about the whole acid experience, whereas Psych-Out concentrates more on the Flower Power culture. Both movies are very psychedelic and it is hard to say which one is better. I like both movies equally and I’m very happy with the MGM version. Normally there are no special features on the DVD, but this time there is enough and so is my advice to you to buy the double feature, unless you find a better version of them elsewhere.

If you are looking for the most psychedelic movies ever, which cover the whole feeling of that great era, then you should check out these two. Enjoy and remember: Relax, go with it!

Hook - Hooked! (1968)

Hook is a funky psychedelic band from L.A. Their second album is titled “Hooked!” and that is what can happen to you after listening to their music.

The album begins with a song that sets the mood to the happy mode and you don’t care how the rest of the album sounds like, because you are already enjoying yourself.

A great fuzzy guitar intro starts “You’re Lookin’ Fine” and the organ will pave the way for the short but very cool guitar solo later in the track, a neat little psychedelic song. From here we go to the slower “There’s Magic In The Air”, which feels very relaxed and mellow and the lyrics reveal what the music already implied, someone is on a good trip. Luckily we can join him.
“Son Of Fantasy Il” is one of the heavier maybe even the heaviest song of the album. It is full of vitality, a rocking song that increases the tempo after the little trip we just took. The interesting thing about this song is that suddenly everything stops and a solo begins, it is like everyone gives the solo instruments some room so that they can unfold their full energy. The guitar solos is a bit high-pitched though.

“The Hook can cook, you know what I mean.” and there’s nothing more to add to “Hook Can Cook”.

My favorite song of the album is clearly “Love Theme In E Major”. The great melody and the James Brown-like voice spread the love through the speakers right into your living room. A happy tune making even the grumpiest person feel good again. The bluesy ending makes it a perfect song. “A Beautiful Tomorrow”, along with “Love Theme In E Major” are the funkiest songs of the album.
After a short two-song-break is the distorted guitar back in action with “You Need People”. It doesn’t come back with an overstuffed intro, but with a solo slowly sneaking up on you.
The closer is the melodic and calmer “You Don’t Have To Stay” with a nice psychedelic touch, not only due to the vocals, but also because of the bongo sounds and the fuzzy outro.

“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to stay.” but who can resist such a funky, sometimes spacey, sometimes bluesy, heavy psychedelic album that makes you feel warm inside.

Gun – Gun (1968)

One of my favorite acid rock bands is Gun. They made only two albums and I really can’t understand why this band wasn’t a great success. The dark cover may give you the wrong idea of what to expect. What you can expect is a fantastic acid rock album with lots of guitar solos and a trumpet as well.

The album starts immediately with a fast song and what is their only big hit, which was even covered by Jimi Hendrix. “Race With The Devil” has a crazy sounding chorus accompanied by a trumpet. So be aware of crazy laughs, trumpets and an amazing guitar.
The second song is a bit sad, as “The Sad Saga Of The Boy And The Bee” doesn’t end very well for the bee and the violin at the end covers the fight of live and death that our little bee has to face very well. It really makes you think of a bee fighting for its live. After “The Sad Saga Of The Boy And The Bee” follows an instrumental song that gives you some room to prepare for the rocking “Yellow Cab Man”. Here is the guitar very dominant and an amazing solo part makes this one an unforgettable rock song.
The chaotic beginning of “It Won’t Be Long” turns quick into a quieter, more melodious track, where the guitar doesn’t take to much control of the song. “Sunshine” has a great chorus and the trumpet is back in action. Still with a little guitar solo, this song focuses less on the six-string and more on the relaxed lyrics and the mellow, yet energetic atmosphere of the track. It has a, what I like to call Sunday-morning-feeling. It is a smooth song that marks the starting point of the calmer part of the album. The piano intro of the “Rat Race” leads us to a very slow song with soft organ sounds, a placid little song.
The last song tells you already with its title what to expect. A countdown from ten to zero in all kind of different languages starts the trip. “Take Off” starts off as a normal song until the instruments take over and the normal structure is lost. Associations with Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida come to mind, but it is not a copy of this epic psychedelic song. Every instrument gets a solo part and therefore makes “Take Off” the longest song of the LP. But it is worth listening the whole eleven minutes.

Gun gives you a lot of great guitar solos, which are dominant on almost the whole LP. The first part is a fast, rocking, energetic and straight-forward album, whereas the second half has slower tracks on it. Altogether it is a great album and one of my favorite LPs.

Space Farm – Space Farm (1972)

This is one of the albums I had to get because of its great looking cover. Judging a book by its cover is not always the smartest thing to do, it’s the same with music.

Although the first track is quiet good, this does not apply for all tracks on the album. “Space Farm” starts a bit trippy and this spacey feeling continues in “Homeward Bound”, a hypnotic guitar invites you to forget what you are doing.
A real nice guitar leads us through “Infinity Way”. The voice could be louder and I get the feeling that the instruments are the real protagonist of the album and the voices appear to disturb the mix of spacey and weird guitar sounds instead of supporting them.
“Walking Dream” reminds me of Jimi Hendrix, yet it does not reach his class, as again the singer doesn’t leave an impression. What does leave an impression is the great melody that almost haunts you for days. This is the strongest song of the album and the following much weaker “On The Loose” is in my opinion just there to pass the time for the interesting “Flying”, where the guitar is omnipresent.
The slow and bluesy “Gypsy Queen” has for the first time good vocals; they contribute to the song and no longer annoy me. The chorus in “Wheel” does the same; it sounds a bit like early Sabbath, a bit squeaky but good. Unfortunately is the chorus the only thing worth mentioning. The last track of the album “Lover Not A Dancer” has the best vocal work and a strong guitar as always.

It is not one of my favorite albums but when I’m looking for a trippy guitar and just wanna have something in the background while being busy with other stuff, this album fulfills it purpose.
The most outstanding feature of the album is the use of spacey, trippy and sometimes hypnotic guitars. Vocals are not one of the qualities of Space Farm, however the spacey guitar is.