Plasticland. 1984 USA-Wisconsin

I certainly knew of Plasticland but never actually heard their music until now. Wow! I had no idea that America was harboring such an authentic psych band - in the early 1980s! These guys were retro long before it became fashionable. I've heard plenty of 80s bands with some psychedelic influences, but they're still 80s sounding bands, many of them coming from the New Wave camp. Not Plasticland. This is late 60s psych all the way. And the songwriting is fantastic, very much like the best of those 45/SP compilations (and there's 15 tracks - almost as many as on a CD comp!). Great acid fuzztone guitars, and plenty of mellotron too (an extinct instrument in the 80s, not to mention there isn't that much use of it in authentic 60s psych either). Considering the out-of-time space rock band F/i, Milwaukee had it going on in the 80s, that's for sure. This predates Sun Dial's Other Way Out by 6 years, and it's very much on the same plane. Easy recommendation for fans of neo psych.

Ownership: LP: 1984 Pink Dust/Enigma. Single sleeve. Pink vinyl. One of the real anomalies in RT's collection - hope to find more like this! Surprisingly not that expensive of an album, so worth snapping up if you get a chance. Doesn't the guy on the right (I think he's the main songwriter) look like Elton John?