The Love Generation - Montage. 1968 Imperial (LP). Thrift shop pickup in Cheyenne, Wyoming (Oct). The Love Generation are pure unadulterated Sunshine Pop. Similar to The Association, Sagittarius, The Millennium, and The Free Design. The latter is - by far - my favorite of this type of saccharine infused pop. The odd thing is you'd think a band from Los Angeles would have a better feel for the style than a group from Buffalo, New York. Unfortunately The Love Generation is too orchestrated, sweet, and sappy to appreciate. Over-engineered. Ultimately it gets down to the songwriting, and the only track I took notice of is 'Love is a Rainy Sunday'. Good on the whole, but inessential.
Eric Burdon & The Animals - Love Is. 1968 MGM (2xLP). This was a straggler from the RT collection. Sprawling double set with cover tunes that go into extended jams. Fairly dull but has some good ideas and instrumentation. I far prefer The Twain Shall Meet from this era though. (May)
The Zombies. 1965 Parrot (LP). Another RT remnant languishing in the listening box. An almost perfect copy too. I had a pretty beat one that I sold at one of the shows, and I didn't really pay attention to it then. For 1965, this was groundbreaking stuff. 'She's Not There' is brilliant. But mostly this is pop music from an earlier era. Of historical interest, but not really my thing. (May)
*Trigon - Emergent. 2005 HeavyZenJazz (CD). Collection revisit (Apr). For cosmic blues jamming, I feel that Trigon perfected that sound on this effort. It never really gets boring, and the production is first rate. It's not a sloppy run through. This might be the gold standard of the late era groups doing this kind of thing. Not progressive in the slightest, just plug in and wail.
*Montage. 2001 Sundazed (1969) (CD). Thrift shop find (Mar). Montage is essentially the third Left Banke album, and is orchestrated Baroque Pop. There's some wonderful melodies interspersed throughout, and recalls a more innocent time. A New York City that didn't exist even then, but provided a fanciful departure for listeners. Fine reissue with extensive liner notes and four relevant bonus tracks, though two are instrumental arrangements of songs on the LP. The overall package makes it a keeper.
Spacemen 3 - Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To. 2018 Superior Viaduct (1986) (LP). In the early 90s when me and my running set were uncovering every stone looking for obscure prog and psych, this title stood out with its most outrageous and hilarious title. We never did hear it back in the day, though maybe one of the guys secured a cassette dub of it. So when a heavily marked down new sealed copy showed up, I nailed it. And this is the extended 2 LP version that includes even more outtakes. The album itself is just that, and was recorded in 1986. Eh, I wasn't very impressed. Pretty basic guitar trio alt-rock stuff. More like 1966 garage revival than cutting edge neo psychedelia. The album doesn't live up to its name. Should have been called Drinking Coffee To Make Music To Drink Coffee To. (Mar)
* - Keeping for the collection
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