Brain Suck is an old CDRWL entry brought back to light. Here were my notes from back then: "Archival LP release from somewhere in Ohio, unearthed by one Al Simones, who put out a couple of freaked out psych guitar albums in the 1990s. The LP has been carefully distributed, and so its scarcity has caused the value to remain high. The kind of release that used to be the sole domain of Rockadelic Records. Fuzz guitar and organ lead the psych rock parade. Very much a product of the great Midwest, and the time and place are very apparent. Compositions stray more towards the thinking man's genre, ala Cleveland's Dragonwyck. A nice discovery, and would definitely benefit from a CD reissue."
Considering the latter, that day has finally come about. See the Ownership section for more. It was presumed back then that the music was from 1969, so the sound would have to be considered advanced for the era. Ah, but now we know it's from 1972 - which is much more in line with the times. What you get with Brain Suck is a very strong hard rock album, with an enormous amount of heavy organ and - of course - loud guitar leads. There really wasn't too much of this kind of music being released here in the States real time in 1972. Bands like Sir Lord Baltimore and Bang come to mind, though Noah has a stronger organ presence. That small town in Ohio turns out to be Salem, which is pretty close to Youngstown, one of the premier steel towns in America. The birthplace of Poobah as well.
In addition to the full release of Brain Suck, the CD contains two unreleased tracks from the band from one year earlier that are similar in construct. And then finally, there are 6 tracks from Noah's predecessor band known as The Sound Barrier. This group did manage to get out two singles in 1967 and 1969. All 4 tracks from the 45s plus two demos from 1968 are on this CD. The music here would generally be classified as heavy psych, and are not to be missed. The '69 single represents two cover tunes and features female vocals. One can tell the band is seeking for some commercial success, but did not achieve any. Thus Noah was born. An excellent archival release, essential for fans of early 70s American hard rock.
Ownership: CD: 2021 Guerssen / Galactic Archive (Spain). Recent online acquisition. Jewel case with a full booklet containing liner notes, photos, and recording details. Guerssen continues to be a gold star reissuer. For vinyl fans, they also released the album as a 2 LP set, which appears to be the exact same. Interesting to note that the original release from 1995 turned out to be unofficial (which I didn't know until Paul Hess wrote into the CDRWL a year later). While not addressed in the liner notes, it was stated as such in the press release for this reissue. As I noted above, the supply had been carefully controlled, and therefore was prohibitively expensive. Good thing I had waited for the proper release, and it is far more comprehensive.
12/20/09 (CDRWL)
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