Yesterday's Children, an American proto-metal band who enjoyed a brief, but unsuccessful three year career in the late '60's. Not to be confused with the Chicago band of the same name which appears on the "Pebbles" box set. They released three singles and one full length before splitting up in 1969. Apart from a few bits and pieces over the internet, not too much is known of the band.
The volume and fury behind this album is second only to Blue Cheer for the time period. Loud, aggressive, it just fucking shreds. This obscure little band from Connecticut could bring it as well as any. Vanilla Fudge, MC5, Sabbath, all come to mind. Ad a little psych and here you go.
Recorded in 1972, and released in Aug. of 1974 on Majestic Records, Blast's "Damned Flame/Hope" 45 was but a month behind the Stooges "I got a Right", which was taped in June of '74. Although nobody noticed it for five years. The same can not be said for Blast as their sole release was only pressed to the tune of 300-500 copies and was straight up alien to the general music consuming public of the time.
This is straight solid Punk Rock/Proto-Metal in the vein of Motorhead/Discharge.
Re-issued on Death Vault records in May of 2015, it sold out quicker than it took to press. Check out Death Vault Records page for some cool pics and reviews.
Fucking incredible krautrock from 1972, this album is four tracks (the first being 18 min.!) of intensely energetic sonic mayhem. Tons of awesome guitar and keys exploding through, highly active
drum/bass interplay forming an intense wall of sound and fury, and not a dull moment from some of these long tracks that make up the album.
Curt Cress, the drummer, was only 17 at the time of this recording.
One of the best krautrock albums from the '70's by a mile! Essential for ANY krautrock collection.
The band broke up right after recording this gem. But they left behind a crater blown on the surface.
A lot of mystery revolves around this one. I've read quite a bit about them, however I've only found
the same little bits of knowledge. The band hailed from Glasgow, and played some truly sweltering heavy prog/psych. Just a quick google search will find you a number of reviews, so I'll spare you mine, except for the fact that I think it rips.
The tapes for this album, were found, apparently in a shed in the '80's, and released on a label (on CD) called "Witch and Warlock." The band recorded this demo material in '71. Shortly after the band reformed under a different name and their manager, a wealthy Scottish business man moved the band to London around '74, where they recorded another demo, which remains missing.
Here is the link to a blog where the album was featured, and the members of Soho Orange contact the auther in the comments section and fill in some of the gaps of the history of this awesome band.
German band Tiger B. Smith, an extraordinary power trio formed from Bad Camberg cant help but let their influences (Hendrix, Edgar Broughton, Hawkwynd, and Sabbath) flood right out in a heaping mass of volume. In fact, nothing I could write here could be as accurately descriptive than the article from Julian Cope's Head Heritage, which I'm referring you to via the link. Progressive fuzz/bluesrock with long instrumental passages. The band formed in Frankfurt in 1972 following singer/guitar player Holger Schmidt's 1969 band Second Life, which spawned Tiger B. Smith. 2 albums were born of the band, 1972's "Tiger Rock", and in 1974 "We're the Tiger Bunch". There is also a self titled album from Second Life which I've also seen lumped in with Tiger's discography (1971).
There's no links for complete albums, so here's a collage of Tiger B. Smith's output over the span of their '70's career. There is another release from 1984, as well as a couple other bands formed by Schmidt that came after the bands demise.
Notes taken from the CD (2019 release) Electric Funeral were a pioneering Swiss hard rock band who sadly never registered any studio recordings at the time. Formed in the late 60's by Edi Hurt (drums), Pierrot Wemeille (bass), Alan Christinaz (guitar), and Dominique Bourguin (vocals). They were influenced by Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin. Famous for their loud (they played behind giant Marshall stacks) and powerful shows, their sound was too heavy-sounding for a regular label to offer them a contract.
'The Wild Performance" is made of private live & rehearsal tapes recorded in 1970, very raw and low-fi, but it's the only testimony of their brutal sound. First released in 1991 as a very limited (200, numbered, and now very sought after) LP, here's an expanded edition with newly remastered sound and four killer bonus tracks taken from the reels and tapes recently found in the bands archives. These tracks were also recorded in 1970 except for 'My Destiny (1973). Sound is still low-fi but slightly better than the original "Wild Performance" tracks, especially on the killer "You Can Help" (proto-punk a la Electric Eels), "My Destiney, and the alternate version of "To Be One."
"Electric Funeral should be mentioned right up there with their other country companions such as: Toad, Haze, After Shave and Pacific Electric."
This one is a real curiosity. Best I could find is that it's from Switzerland, and was recorded in 1970. It wasn't released until 1990 in a limited run of 200 copies on Vandisk (VAN-824).
It's heavy as hell and I just wish it was a little bit better sound quality, but I still like the grittiness of it! Pretty good hard psych/prog/proto metal that kind of reminds me of Edgar Broughton in parts. Turn it up!
The Midlands prog/rock scene was in full swing in '70-'73 and The Flying Hat Band were among the favorites of the scene. A strong, hard rocking power trio, the band featured guitar player Glen Tipton, famous for going on to become a career long member of another popular midlands band, Judas
Priest. TFHB only lasted for a couple years, but in that time became rampantly popular, even scoring a support slot for Deep Purple on a European tour. (all this with no album released!)
They did however sign a deal with Vertigo and record an album which was ultimately shelved by the label for having to close a similarity to their cash cow, Black Sabbath (sad!). After Tipton left for Priest, (who had recently signed with Gull for their first release) other members went on to join with bands such as Little Johnny England, The Albion Band, and from Canada, the Pat Travers Band.
Years after the demise of TFHB, a German label, SPM International (not to be confused with SPV, also from Germany) mysteriously released a split CD between TFHB and a band called "Antrobus" (Antrobus was later discovered to actually be Iron Claw, DO check them out. Either on this blog or elsewhere. You won't regret it!) titled "Buried Alive." (1992)
This CD contained four tracks from TFHB. Another unofficial release can be found on Acid Nightmare records. This time a split release featuring demos from Earth. (pre-Black Sabbath) As for the rest of the album, it's rumored that the master tapes reside still in Tipton's posession,
Only time will tell if they'll ever see the light of day.
*Trivia Time! TFHB drummer Steve Palmer, is the brother of Carl Palmer. (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer)
Lea Hart (a.k.a. "Barry" Hart) is no stranger to the English hard rock scene. Having fulfilled a multitude of duties from musician, to promoter, producer, song writer, manager and British Music Ambassador International. Throughout his career Hart has participated and collaborated with members of Bad Company, Iron Maiden, the Bay City Rollers, Giant, and Joan Jett. His own musical project, Slowbone, was formed in 1971 and released a whole slew of singles in '74 for Polydor and an L.P. for Tamala/Motown labels. After some lineup changes and a name change to "The Rollups", they finally called it quits and held their farewell gig in '79. After which, Hart returned to the stage as a solo act, and supported Judas Priest on a 1979 tour.
Hart then went on to replace Dave King (later of Flogging Molly) alongside Fast Eddie Clarke (former Motorhead) in Fastway, appearing on two albums with them.
This early band of such an expansive career is as damn fine a specimen of hard prog/proto metal as any other I've encountered. I have a feeling, had it not been for the un-tameable ambition of Hart, meaning to say, if you could get him to sit still, it most likely would have developed into one of the more mighty classic influences as any of the other bands which take so much credit for the development of metal.. This album, a collection of all their singles, was released far after the groups demise, as well as a live album: "Live at the Greyhound"
Recorded in a garage in the U.K., insulated with egg cartons, on a two track stereo Sony tape recorder and a small mixer, these are the tracks from 1972, as they were, recorded live, with five
microphones, no , over dubs, complete with drumsticks smacking into a mic here and there. Eight tracks of very powerful guitar driven hard rock were recorded within two days, (one of them, apparently on a different reel, lost forever) and later that same year the band had self destructed as members became unreliable and quit. The recordings however were taken into a direct -to-disc service, and cut into 4 acetate L.P.'s in hopes of finding a replacement bass player. Cassette copies were known to be recorded off for interested friends, however it wasn't until the singer's brother in law took the original tape reels 40 years later that it was released on C.D. A very cool story behind a very cool band with the unfortunate life span of a mayfly.
Shotgun Ltd. was a band for only a couple years. Which really blows my mind, because this is one album that stands out to me. This album is really good. From Culver City, Los Angeles, they started in 1967 as The Twilighters, a five piece instrumental surf band. Eventually they had decided that they wanted to add a vocalist, and did so under the name "Ash." Still in high school at this point, the band gigged regularly on the weekends and did fairly well performing a lot of prog. covers. Growing more serious about their music, the band took a three month hiatus to write original material after a series of successful residencies all around town. It was the singers, girlfriends father that got them hooked up with Jefferson Airplanes producer. They recorded this album over the course of three months in 1970. However, due to complications with their label, the album wasn't released for a year. Add that to a falling out with their manager, and the band ultimately firing him, they lasted a year more and as their singer puts it, "that was that."
The only album by this very short-lived New York based hard rock band is built around a beefy late 60'shard rock formulaand also mixes (although slightly) dashes of psych, blues & progressive rock. Influences of the day(and for fans of) Uriah Heep, Iron Butterfly, and Stppenwolf. Drummer Joe Forgione and bass player Tony Radicello had previously been with the Philadelphia psych/soul rock band Soul Survivors. Singer Dan Parrish came from an impressive doo-wop career spawning 12 singles between 1964 and '67, and was also a session musician for Jimi Hendrix, and Santana, and played guitar for Bob Marley in 1972.
The Steeplechase:
Bob "Bobby" Spinella - Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, Electric Piano, backing vocals,
Wow. The horrors I found while trying to track down not only info on this title, but any of the bands that appear on it! There is one that I got to already, Shado and their song "Evil City." So, it appears this fucker is rare beyond. A handful of these otherwise forgotten bands actually released independently pressed singles in very small volumes, but most of the tracks on this comp. never made it past acetate stage. It was obviously a vinyl release as there were only 200 issued, all with hand painted covers. Each one different. The bands range from proto-punk, to proto-metal and the not-very-much in between. I had been introduced to Lucifer some time ago via their "Fuck You" single which appears on this. And each other song has their own merit. Some faves in my camp are Shado's "Evil City", "Rip Off" by Grind, and the fore mentioned Lucifer track. (Classic).
It's a good thing these were compiled all that time ago otherwise these bands would have slipped right into the cracks, which are as wide as canyons for these titles. Enjoy!
Dig it, Steel Mill was an early Bruce Springsteen vehicle along with other members of the E Street Band - Vinny Lopez, Danny Federici, and Steve Van Zant. They regularly played gigs around the Jersy Shore and Virginia, landing some pretty good slots, opening for Grand Funk, Ike & Tina Turner, and Black Sabbath. Springsteen obviously is on lead guitar and vocals. They came together in 1969 and formed a band called Child, prior to this, some of the other members saw Springsteen's start up band called Earth (not to be confused with the Sabbath "Earth") In November of 1969 the band played their last show under the moniker of Child, as there was another band from Long Island with the same name who had just released an album under that name on Roulette. They were often mistaken for the other Child when they would play out of town shows, hence the The name change to Steel Mill. In early 1970, Steel Mill visited San Francisco and played at The Matrix and The Fillmore West. These recordings come form that appearance at The Matrix as there were never any albums recorded during the Springsteen era of Steel Mill. Since 2004 members of the old lineup have recorded and released the Springsteen era songs, and they still perform today.
