...Roundup...

Recently I spent some time with a few quality reissues... seems in the past year a load of stuff came out that were already personal favorites and a classy reissue was sorely needed!! Here are a few thoughts...



Jade Stone and Luv
maybe my favorite of this batch, gets the full treatment it deserves from Subliminal Sounds. really an untoppable LP the more lounge/rhinestone/weird stuff that I hear. this is just miles beyond the rest as far as charisma, creativity, wildness, and fun are concerned. on my old copy of this I would always get sad when 'reality' came on because it meant the voyage was over, but now you are treated to a KILLER track from a rare 45. i mean rally good. great inner sleeve interview with Jade, which if you had any doubts about how real this one is/was, sends them flying out the window. Mr. Stone lived it! sounds great, feels great... get one before they're all gone!!!


Peter Grudzien
another massive all time knock down the walls favorite of mine was released by Subliminal Sounds this year... cool thing is, the reissue is a double LP!! the Grudz's 2nd LP is included in this package and man, you do not want to miss this. "The Garden of Love" may be even further out than "the Unicorn" and well, fans of the seminal gay psychedelic masterpiece know just what that really means. I wouldn't rate one above the other, they're both totally unique and totally excellent. grab this before it gets tucked away into every crowded sanctuary this side of Paducah...

Rayne
i don't know if these are still kicking around, as the Shadoks label releases tend to get grabbed pretty quickly, but suffice it to say they did a really good job, and usual complaints about off sound quality from the label are not in evidence here. great insert with the band's story, and if you haven't heard this one yet in this lifetime, well, you're in for a treat. my favorite rural outlaw thrash ever.


Patron Saints
a very early favorite of mine as i began smelling the flowering buds of home-town american psychedelia... so i was very excited to hear its availability now in a beautiful reissue from the Time-Lag label. some say this issue loses a bit of atmosphere, as it draws from the master tapes and not the more compressed sounding original vinyl issue, and while i hear the difference, i think you can still love this one even if it sounds a little more 3-d... the songs are still gorgeous and the original cover art is lovingly reproduced with a lyric insert and a bonus 7" which has material as good as any song off the LP. i say GO GET ONE!


Raven
i was so pumped to see this one back on the shelves, and re-released by the man himself!! presented in a new cover(mr. R looking ready to take heads - look out J. Winter!), for a minute i feared a 21st century re-mix or some other infringement on the original Ohio basement biker blowout, but thankfully it is still as raw as ever and remains a fabulous slice of smacked out 70s dementia. on a musical level this has gotta be the single greatest biker private rock LP... if you find the right guy on ebay Raven will sign it for you! yow!


Mayo Thompson
love, love, love this record to death, and always kinda dreaded 200+ going prices for an original. this was a perfect solution to that problem... one of my all time favorite weirdo ssw/folk/??? records, and justly so it is just really hard to put into words what is going on here. Drag City just put this out with a bonus 7" that is also killer. a special one for the right ears... don't miss.


Bobb Trimble
a very anxiously awaited reissue of both of Bobb's lofty 80s mindbenders was found to be a cup half empty by those who had been reared on original copies of these masterpieces. complaints about tinkering with the sound and production circulated and while they do sound way too cleaned up, i would have to argue for the accessibility of these to ALOT of new ears. Secretly Canadian (a major indie label with wide distribution) put them out, Bobb is getting a nice cut of the loot, so ya know what? i can dig it... bonus: is the super cool first time issue of color jackets for these. check it out!

otherwise...
excited for the Farquhar repro on Shadoks to hit my doorstep, and the summer ought to bring several other long awaited things to greet the public domain, so stay tuned!! as a last note here, i currently have some titles on eBay that may interest readers of this site... folk/lounge/psych, etc. you can check them out here. i also have a bunch of things in the pipe for posting here. i will try to get to a few things up here before i drift out again... best, CG

Interview: Crystalaugur's Howard Kukla

Hello again!! Proud to present another interview, with another favorite musical act (well, their venerable rhythm guitarist!), a record I only heard for the first time last year, but quickly grew into a favorite, a great piece of cosmic teenage hard rock from a bunch of American kids letting their hair grow long, geographically way far off the traditional Southern axis of fast and loose ripping guitar leads and stoned grins... hailing from Singapore of all places!! The record was once hyped as Vietnam Vets taking a break from the sweaty jungles to blast an inner city auditorium (oh the spin!!), in reality the boys in Crystalaugur were high school
students living abroad in Singapore. Nonetheless, its a lot of fun no matter what way you come at it, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone picked this up for reissue in the next few years. Without further ado, Howard Kukla!


"Cosmic Journey"

Ok, I guess we should start at the beginning. Your musical tastes and
history. What'd you grow up listening to? What were you doing in Asia?

OK.
My personal musical tastes are Southern Rock - Allman Bros, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. I like anything with good guitar! My dad brought us to Singapore. He was civil service with the Air Force working on planes out of Vietnam.

The band got together in 1974 just like any other garage band. We were all high school students at Singapore American School. I lived there for 3 years. Most of the families were either in oil or electronics (TI, and such were just up and coming).
We did not have the best of band equipment, but we did it for the love of the music. We'd play anything from Led Zepplin to Grand Funk Railroad. We played at school dances and often just played and hoped people would show up to listen. The school operated on a semester calendar, so we had 2 weeks in January 1975 off. Actually, the school sponsored a number of events that students signed up for and participated in. Such as scuba diving trips to Thailand, excursions to Malaysia, cruise to Borneo and such in order to take in the culture all around us. The students had to do something constructive. So the band went to the administration with a proposal to make an album. We would write our own music, record it, have it pressed to vinyl and
distribute. The result was Terranaut. It is our own work. One of our classmates recorded it on a TEAC or AKAI 4 track reel-to-reel with over-dub of vocals and other sound effects. The artwork was done by the bass player's mother. We had the recording pressed by BMI Ltd in Singapore. Only about 200 copies were pressed. We gave them away to friends and family. It was never meant to be a money making venture. Just meant to get us through the 2 week semester break.


"You Got to Rap"

What is a Crystalaugur?
Where did Crystalaugur come from - it is a fancy term for clear light. Hey, it was the 70's! And a "Terranaut" is an earth man as opposed to an "Astronaut" - space man. He is supposed to be the last man on earth. You can understand my surprise when I start seeing copies of CD recordings for sale on various websites 30 years after the album was made. I feel quite humbled it was noticed and people actually like it. We had a blast making it. We recorded mostly in the school auditorium (horrible echo) and the teacher's lounge (muffled). And here we are now. The bass player lives in San Francisco, the lead singer is in Arlington, TX, I do not know where the drummer is any more and I am also in Texas. Our sound guy lives in Australia. And the girl "Pam's Song" is written for lives in Austin, TX.


"No. 4"

The sound effects were a great touch, and I love the "Cosmic Journey"
song. Did you authorize the CD copies?
I'm glad you like the record. We did not authorize any of the CD copies. But, then again, I never thought much about it. We are glad people still enjoy listening to this music after 33 years. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see this album do what it has done. It's a reflection of the staying power of good old rock and roll. As for a reunion of the group, I am all for it. Perhaps Guy, Kim and Bryan will read this blog and the wheels put in motion to get us back in the same town for a while.

Thanks again Howard! All the best from the Chimney-dome!!