THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Sixteen trips might fry the fragile psyche of your average teenager, but the hoary old heads at Brown Acid boiled our brain pans long ago! So we’re bringing you EVEN MORE hard rock, heavy psych and garage rock rarities from the North American wasteland of the 1970s. From L.A. to Youngstown, Toronto to Charlotte, The Sixteenth Trip has got you covered. As always, original copies of these 45s would cost you a pretty penny — if you could even find ’em. And by now you know the drill: This ain’t no bootleg. All songs are officially licensed.
Our 16th instalment kicks off with Shuckin’ and Jiving, a seven-minute power jam from L.A.’s kings of garage psych, The Seeds. The song appeared as a single in 1972 with You Took Me By Surprise on the flipside. It was the only release on Productions Unlimited, a label created by (or for) the band at the tail end of their late ’60s/early ’70s run as Sky Saxon & The Seeds. Get shucked!
Very little is known about the band Nothing, beyond the fact that Young Generation is the flip of Sittin’ On Top Of The World, one of four singles released by the ASG label out of Cincinnati in the mid-’70s. What we can tell you for sure is that Young Generation is a funk-injected hard rock banger of Buckeye State proportions, complete with what sounds like anonymous oral…
Macbeth released their one and only 45 in 1978, with the steamrolling Freight Train as the B-side to Didn’t Mean (To Come This Far). Boasting a thick-ass riff, a tasty stereo-panned guitar solo and at least one space laser sound effect, this one should satisfy fans of Blue Cheer and Grand Funk alike. Bassist Ned Meloni went on to play with UFO guitarist Paul Chapman, Virgin Steele guitarist Jack Starr and — in a brief stint — doom legends Pentagram.
As it turns out, Saturday night ain’t just for fighting. One-and-done Canadian psych-rock warriors Sarawest will tell you it’s also for gettin’ Hot & Heavy, and they’re not wrong. This swirling 1974 freak rock fuzz-bomb will get the party started every time. And that porno guitar? Outta sight.
After releasing their full-length debut Cuttin’ Loose in 1976, North Carolina rockers Brotherhood Of Peace shortened their name to BOP and dropped this single two years later. Feel The Heat (In The Driver’s Seat) is freeway funk-rock in the classic Southern style.
Released in 1969 as the flip to School Daze (which opened The Eighth Trip in high style), Attack’s Dream was written by Thom Strasz. That’s the same St. Clair Shores, Michigan, resident who penned the highly sought-after garage-rock diamond City Of People under the name The Illusions in ’66. And this acid-drenched rocker rocks hard.
Brown Acid favorite Marty Soski rides again! After appearing on our third and eighth trips with his band Inside Experience and the fifth with Lance’s Fireball, the Ohio guitarist and vocalist graces our 16th with Marilyn, the 1976 A-side to Fireball. This time, our man unwinds a psychedelic threnody to the artist formerly known as Norma Jean Mortenson, perhaps inspired by Elton John’s then-recent Candle In The Wind.
Formed by three brothers — David, Bruce and Barry Flynn, all GM factory workers — along with organist Tom Applegate, The Headstones (also known as simply Headstone) lent their 1974 garage boogie Carry Me On to The Fourth Trip. This time, the Midwest psych rockers return with their killer 1975 instrumental Snake Dance. You can hear echoes of this particular guitar style in the recent work of Swedish adventure-rock overlords Hällas.
The band Clinton were from Pennsylvania, but that didn’t stop them from writing about New York City. Midnight In New York is the flipside to their sole single, 1976’s Falling Behind. Stylistically and thematically, it’s not unlike something famous Noo Yawker Ace Frehley would’ve written for KISS around the same time.”
