Nominations Please for Worst Psychedelic Album

black foliage is amazingly disapointing

i bought a spirit record at one point that was god awful...and have forgotten its name.

So... most of the Sundazed catalog to thread.

That there review.

Mind you, I'm sympathetic to the OTC mention. I finally sold that damn thing back.

This is really unfair and really untrue. Their catalog is great.

hardly the worst, and in fact, a pretty fine slab of psych-noise.

i would vote for the first Womb album on Dot, just cuz it's my FAVORITE horrible psych album. And it is horrible. But in a "you really gotta hear this to believe it" kinda way.

Ptehfwjdfo0wkfjwe!!! (spit take) Whaaa!!?!? This is a great album! Though Black Foliage is weak.

I just found 'em well meaning but dull.

All obscure psych stuff reissued on Sundazed that is all good to great.

Matt, do you mean The Twain Shall Meet?

This is bananas. That's a fine album.

hardly the worst, and in fact, a pretty fine slab of psych-noise.

Isn't this the album with nothing but a spoken word story about plastic children and a piercing electronic tone throughout? Or is that Peachy? It's kind of cool but to call it a "fine slab of psych-noise" is the kind of misleading description I was talking about.

Just so it's clear where I'm coming from, I LIKE bad psychedelic albums (yes, even Vanilla Fudge).

Yes...that's the name of the album...Sky Pilot is a song on that album. The only song that I recall from the whole half-written mess, so I guess that's why I called the album that.

"trip thru hell" is great, dammit! i'm going to get all crabby.

(i don't really remember the music emporium album, but it can't possibly be as bad as the crazy people.)

the answer is obvious...

"It took a conspiracy of record company dunces working overtime to keep the Choir from the fame they so richly deserved. Pop-masters extraordinaire, the Choir's excellence would've outed eventually, but never told so well nor sounding so great!"

By the way, I didn't mean for my Sundazed comment to start a big Sundazed bitchfest. There must be other reissue labels that some of you have felt cheated by in the past. What other "scorching acid-fried mindbenders" turned out to be bunk? How about that Arkana (Arkama? Akahsa?) label? They seem to put out some pretty dodgy stuff.

Anyway, Reality is sitting in my office, and I take out my pen and he says, "Maurice, this is what I want. On band three, bar 30, I want a
marijuana leaf to pop out."

I write down, "Band three, bar 30, marijuana leaf pop out." Pop out of the record. He's putting me on, right? But I write it down!

I said, "What else?"

"One more thing, one more thing." He takes a deep toke. "One more thing, Maurice, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"At the end of side two, as it rejects, I want the record to self-destruct."

So I write down, "End of side two, self-destruct." I wrote this down on a piece of paper.

"Why do you want it to self-destruct?"

He takes a toke and says, "You know why I want it to self-destruct? Because they'll go out and buy it again and I'll get double sales."

I called him up, I said, "Reality, I got the pressings. Take one home and listen to it."

He comes into my office that night as I'm working with another group. He takes a toke--he's smoking constantly. I said, "You take the test pressings, tell me what you think. If you like it I'll get it all pressed and we'll get the record out."

Two-and-a-half, three weeks later, he calls me up and he's yelling. "You bastard! You cocksucker!" He called me every name in the book.

I said, "What the hell are you talking about?" I hung up on him. What right does he have?

He comes in the door, he takes that test pressing and he flings it and it ricochets off the wall, and it cracks! I grabbed him and I threw him in the chair, and he's smoking a joint. I said, "What the hell's wrong with you? Are you crazy? Don't you dare walk in the office like that!"
He said, "You lied! You cheated!"

I said, "What are you talking about? What's wrong with the test pressing? Here, put the test pressing on."

"You told me that that marijuana leaf will pop out on the third band, on bar 30!"

"What?! A marijuana leaf? You're putting me on! How am I gonna get a marijuana leaf to pop out of a goddamn groove? "

He says, "And then you lied again! I played side two until I'm blue in the face and the damn thing never reached its self-destruct!"

I never wrote anything down again, unless I was sure it was legitimate.

That record was the worst. The worst! I refused it. I rejected it. But they approved it so it had to come out because it's Kantner's friend. I went back to RCA and I said, "I'm gonna tell you right now. There's no way I can work like this."

Maurice got the worst of it, but Stephen Barncard, who worked on the mixing of the 1 album, also recalls Mr. Blipcrotch and friends.

Stephen Barncard: I remember a particular session that I did not participate in where they were trying to record a teapot. They had a part in a song where they wanted the teapot to whistle on cue, so they would back the tape up and try to anticipate the delay after the heat was turned on. Nobody told them they didn't have to do it that way; they could have recorded it separately on a two-track and spun it in. But they were too wasted to think of that.

Blipcrotch was this weird character that was the leader of the band. I have no idea why Paul signed them, I thought they were terrible, besides being idiots. I think since Paul lived in the same town as them, he felt sorry for them or something.

I said, "Yeah, you're talking to him."

He says, "I gotta talk to you about a record deal." He sits down in my chair and lights up this joint. Inhales, exhales. "Maurice, I want to do a recording."

I said, "All right. Who sent you in here?"

"Paul. I gotta do a recording. But I gotta do it on a certain day,Maurice." He takes another hit.

"What do you mean, a certain day?"

He says, "I wanna do it in Bolinas." Takes another hit.

I go, "Why Bolinas?"

"Because I'm waiting for this wave to come in."

I said, "Wave?"

"Yeah. At 4:32 on this particular day, a wave is coming in and I want you to record this wave."

"Record the wave?"

"Yeah. That's the wave that I want"--takes another hit--"for my sound."

I said, "Where's this wave coming in?"

"In Bolinas."

"You want me to set up recording equipment at the ocean? How am I gonna know which wave?"

He takes another hit and he says, "At 4:32, it's coming in."

I said, "Where'd you get this information?"

"From the almanac." Another hit.

This is how he's talking to me. And his eyes are bleary. So I get up and I go, "Okay. Is that what you want?"

He says, "But let me tell you, I want you in a row boat. Because as the boat's coming in with this wave, I want to get the highs and lows.

So I want a microphone for the top of the wave and a microphone for the bottom."

I said, "Hey, I can't get a microphone underneath the water. Jacques Cousteau is who you gotta call, not me! I can't do that! The only way I can record this, and I don't even know which wave you're talking about..."

"It's coming in at 4:32!"

After he left, stoned, he bumped into the wall, the door. He couldn't even walk down the stairs. I thought he was gonna tumble down my steps.

He leaves. I get on the phone, I get Paul. I said, "Paul, there's no way I'm signing this guy. I don't even know what the hell he does. What does he do!?"

Paul says, "He does things with his throat."

some real stinkers on Shadoks, too. Love Depression? Sound Factory?

Bad psych albums aren't bad because they are done in a rough or clueless way- because roughness and cluelessness generally enhance the disorientation and wobbly perception factor- what makes a psych record bad is when corny, half-baked effects/affectedness are dumped onto a chassis of standard conventional "square" songwriting- it's the instrumentalized approach to psychedelias as just a matter of a few odd echoes and sitar twangs here n there that leads to shitty psych, I reckon.

Wow, I never rant on this board, but I'm all riled up. A really terrible psychedelic record? How about that Devendra Banhart guy? A fraud! A complete fraud! Nobody thinks that's psychedelic, really, do they?!? But that's what they say in reviews -- we live in a crazy, crazy world, full of mixed up people.

on a tomorrow re-issue i have (of course nowhere near infront of me) theres a song by twink, i think about a good and bad wizard...which might be up there for the stupidest cartoon psych moment..

Damn. Irwin Chusid put his "Butterfly Mind" on one of his Songs in the Key of Z comps. Very difficult to make it through that one song; I can't imagine trying to sit through an entire album of him.

1. Zombies arent psychadelic really -- great, but psychadelic.
2. Sometimes the truth is boring such as the fact that Sgt Peppers is boring as hell and the tritest Beatles recording. They just dont get it at all but they want to try because its the new "thing". The Pretty Things dabbling in the psych waters with SF Sorrow is much better.

Skot, I'd love to hear Womb. I was tempted to bid on that eBay copy when you linked to it the other day, but I figured I would get outbid.

The Arcesia track on Love, Peace, and Poetry is at least enjoyable in the context of that record -- "White Panther." Haven't heard the album.

Gareth, there are a few great songs on that Music Emporium record (particularly "Nam Myo Renge Kyo," which is a classic).

I really dislike the first Devendra Banhart album (the only one I've heard).

My five cents for this morning.

...but the reissue must be heard for the long version of "pammy's on a bummer."

and clariying, i guess it's the original album version of the song on the rhino handmade reissue, not the single. woot.

Trip Maker is OTM about Tripsichord, I found em pretty disappointing. And I generally love ANYTHING from the West Coast. I'm like the world's biggest Frumious Bandersnatch fan. But I just couldn't get into the Tripsichord; I think the Quicksilver comparisons had set the bar too high for me. Still, I certainly wouldn't call it the *worst* album or anything; far from it. el sabor will hate me but I might nominate that St. Anthony's Fyre thing. If they count as psych, that is ... I guess they're more hairy chest-pound than anything. Or maybe that Vulcan Meet Your Ghost, that thing is hilarious. Of course I still have copies of both. But they are pretty bad.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743476514/qid=1113359655/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-0150621-8518442

Billy Mitchel - Might Be Hope (Mercury) Billy has a bad case of the scats. He's a homegrown hippie folkie who apparently would rather be the next Ella Fitzgerald. There is a lovely blissed-out track on here called "Electronic Dance" that is all sitar and strange female spoken word and sound effects that really gets a good vibe going and then Billy comes along toward the end and scats all over it!! Dude!! What the fuck?

Is "Invisible People" the Hamilton Streetcar single you guys are talking about? Cuz that's a corker: "He's got red shoes and a yellow tie/And you can't see him; neither can I/Well, he plays cards with the boogie man/Grows moss in a tuna fish can/Lives in West Invisible Land/But you can't see him/Invisible people, invisible people."

I heard a little bit of their album once in a store. I remember the Tim Buckley cover.

DLP-3773/25773 - What's Happening - Mind Expanders [1967] Love Syndrome/Theme From Pictures at a Psychedelic Art Exhibition/Cul de Sac/Downtown Trip/Pulsation/Night on Bald Mountain/Sensory Overload/Euphoria/Mandala

Yeah, kind of a shame given that the Bluethings were so fucking great. Might be a similar situation to Sean Bonniwell's solo album on Capitol (which I have not heard).

i can't possibly find an "O" big enough to express my astonishment in emoticon form. this is a beautiful album, totally down winter kind of vibe. ok, not really 'psych' maybe, but i love it. trizo 50 (who have some tracks on the phantasia cd) on the other hand SUUUUUUUUCK.

Sabor, are you into Michaelangelo? Void is supposed to be reissuing the Guinn album. (Might actually be out already, actually. He doesn't have a web site anymore, so I don't know. I get his catalogs in the mail.) The outtakes album on Void (Sorcerer's Delight) is great -- like a cross between Eric Carmen and psychedelic porno movie soundtrack music. Anyway, there's a song of his on the U.S. volume of Love, Peace, and Poetry if you don't know what I'm talking about!

The James Gang cover of "Bluebird" is ALMOST as fried as the Buffalo Springfield original. They are both awesome though.

"worst" is subjective, of course. I hate shit like JK and Company. Hate that Feather da Gamba record. Hate anything that sounds 'Rennaissance Fair' aka Forest, Mellow Candle, etc (LOVE the ISB though, strangely). Hate Siloah.

It's all about Stone Harbour, The Way We Live, Terry Brooks, Gal Costa's first two, Jeremy Dormouse, Tony Caro and John and Tarkus. That's what my life is all about.

(but the 'renaissance fair' comment describes how i feel about that style roughly 50% of the time.)

do you hate both phases of siloah, rog? the first and "sukram gurk?"

yeah, i didn't either. i said it was a bummer.

"when it's just a meandering meh of standard blues riffs through a fuzz."

This is really untrue.

it's funny because i had always been told roughly that ("meandering meh") about ultimate spinach. and i listened to it and liked it.

i honestly love the 2nd record though. i think parts of it are beautiful. i don't care about the dated hippyisms. some people just see them as a joke/exploito-psych group. whatever. doesn't bother me in the least. listen to that 2nd record and tell me it is standard blues riffs played thru fuzz. you've gotta be kidding.

Alice Cooper - Pretties for You

Easy Action does stomp it though, as far as L.A./Phoenix era Cooper.

(Also, The Flaming Lips totally stole "Levity Ball" to write their song "Ceilin' is Bendin'" from Oh My Gawd!!.)

can ANYONE defend this?

its by Onstage Majority, from Elgin, Illinois, and was recorded in Aurora, Illinois in, i think, 1971, though it doesnt say

for the full size pic

Psych can be the most wonderful stuff ever, or it can be the worst load of jumponthebandwagon missthepointedness. Sometimes its even terrible on its own terms.

A lot of singles come to mind, but a whole album? Never spent that kind of money on something as poor.

it isnt

this isn't really true.

Oh and Sgt. Peppers and MMT both do suck ass.

...We speed down the highway in a 1958 automobile that won't go but fifty, and an XKE Jaguar goes by, and I state to Clem, "Catch him Clem, and we'll rob him or steal all of his money," you know. And he says, "What shall we do?" I say, "Hit him on the head with a hammer." We magical mystery tour it...

Yes I do.

and yeah Gorguts and MMT both rock! c'mon man, "Flying"!!

i heard that "Flying" theme in something the other day, what was it ... oh yeah, Camel's "Air Born" .. dreamy!

Anybody who likes noise and then says that they don't think Blue Jay Way is fucking amazing is basically admitting that they're faking it.

No, you aren't, because "S.F. Sorrow" is a classic!

Also, I'm still really mad about the Eric Burdon hating that went on way upthread. I think we should just anoint like Stormy and Scott our pfficial psych arbiters, and come to them as gentle pilgrims unto gurus, cause everyone else is so wrong so much of the time.

So it's a classic. Acknowledged. I still say it. (I remember agreeing with Geir once, but I forget what about)

http://www.spankyandourgang.com/ozbach/taran4.jpg

(nah, not really psychedelic.)

just in case anyone missed that womb track that i talked about on here:

http://dutchtoenglish.com/womb%20-%20the%20happy%20egotist%20('69).mp3

also, lemme know when that time lag patron saints reissue starts selling for real money on ebay so i can hopefully make a profit of a dollar or two.

since it seems like there are more people on ilm gobbling up reissues and vinyl now than there was WAY BACK in 2006, this can make a good place for buyer beware tips about pricey reissues or whatever.

plus, since tim isn't around we won't have to spend half our time telling him how wrong he is. hahahahahha! just kidding tim! sorta.

We've gotten this far w/o a mention of the early Amon Duul records? Psychedelic Underground is a poorly recorded mess.

Psychedelic Underground is a poorly recorded mess
God bless it!

seriously, dude, it's like saying the first elevators album is ruined by electric jug.

also, lemme know when that time lag patron saints reissue starts selling for real money on ebay so i can hopefully make a profit of a dollar or two.

yah, wish i had bought that on vinyl so i could make some cash back. once i got over the novelty of it i realized it was pretty dull.

"why is it that the bands with good names suck a lot of the time?"

this isn't really true

Well, it is and it isn't, obv., since people's opinions on band names can vary as much as on the bands/LPs themselves.

Maybe not the worst, but the most personally disappointing: The Parable of Arable Land.

It's probably from san fransico. that might cross over into "acid rock" territory but god damn do I hate jefferson airplane.

but totally disagree with the parable of arable land. that album has some JAMS. I always liked them a lot more than 13th floor elevators, altho Im starting to come around on them. mayo thompsons first solo is awesome freak folk too.

Oh, I really liked the multitude of freaks let loose in the studio (both the concept and the reality), making all that horrible noise in between songs - it's the songs in between that I had a problem with! They just absolutely refused to imprint themselves on my brain.

yall upthread w/ yr Olivia Tremor Control noms are batty.

I remember hearing Blossom Toes' album "We are ever so clean" in a shop and thinking "that sounds great"

I got a copy recently, and ....

no.

yall upthread w/ yr Olivia Tremor Control noms are batty.

― tubular balls (Pillbox), dinsdag 17 mei 2011 9:15 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Yeah wtf is up with that? Black Foilage is nowhere near as great as Dusk at Cubist Castle, but come on, the worst psychedelic album? Seriously? Side one and two are utterly classic without failure.

I'm also here to say "The Twain shall meet" Eric Burdon, is barking but great also.

I have "declares War", but I was less fussed about that one.

Ogden's Fucking Nut Gone Flake. Does that count as psychedelic? any way it's awful.

Ha, side one is great..

Remove the StanUn bits and I think it's not awful.

oh, blow your cool, man!

Ogden's Fucking Nut Gone Flake. Does that count as psychedelic? any way it's awful.

You're deaf

Ha, side one is great..

You're half deaf

Remove the StanUn bits and I think it's not awful.

On second thoughts, you are deaf

1. Vanilla Fudge - The Beat Goes On

OTM x1000 - I pull this one out every few years just to see if it's as awful as I remember and yes, yes it is. I should probably just get rid of it but it looks so nice on the shelf.

see, I can get down with the worst music even just for lolz but this album is the acid rock equivalent of watching C-SPAN 3, soo dull and tedious and endless and THE BEAT GOES ON.

wonder how many trips it ruined in the spring of '68.

No such thing as too much Stanley Unwin

http://991.com/newGallery/Stanley-Unwin-Rotatey-Diskers-W-498235.jpg

Jefferson Airplane definitely the band whose albums I have been most consistently disappointed by, though they're not the worst psychedelic albums by any means

Well, if someone thinks Ogdens is awful, I defy them to think so if the talky bits were removed.

I don't think it's awful, so..

wow, those stories recounted by pat ieraci make that album by 1 sound like a stinker but i think it's pretty great

I really liked Parable ;_;

why has Red Crayola become so passe around these parts?

Kangaroo? remains one of my fave albums of the 1980s fwiw but re: Parable I feel quite the opposite to the charmingly tardy Myonga: I despise "the multitude of freaks let loose in the studio (both the concept and the reality), making all that horrible noise in between songs" and dug the songs. In fact, iirc, the (Drag City?) CD I have (had?) would not allow for ripping individual songs since the entire freakitude was divided into only two tracks (one?).

If that Cromagnon album on ESP (Orgasm is it called?) is psychedelic, then that's my vote for the worst: wall-to-wall caterwaul without even the benefit of Parable's occasional songs. People who rep for this album have way too much time on their hands (and don't get snippy - I'm envious of you, for serious).

Buckets of comically overrated psych albums too, natch.

Counterpoint: "Caledonia." Which more than saves that album from being the worst psych album.

I had never heard of/heard Arcesia before yesterday. Interesting backstory, but I couldn't get through a complete song. Painful.

And there is some ultrawrong slagging of Ultimate Spinach upthread. Debut is pretty much everything I want in a psych LP.

one more rep for Dusk At Cubist Castle

beautiful long lazy trip. amazingly recorded on a 4-track.

i'm thinking Happy Trails by QMS though I still have that album and plan on giving it more listens

DUDE!? Happy Trails? Seriously? That album is fucking godhead imo.

I don't feel tardy! (Just 'cause I take eight months to return an email...) Maybe I should give Parable another try one of these days - it's been like 15 years since I played it, maybe my opinion will have changed. And if that's the case, I'll revive the thread again in 2014.

Those Blipcrotch anecdotes are priceless!

'Transparent Radiation' is one of the essential songs of the era imo

i found the self-titled Earth Opera album at a free store a couple years back and wow it's pretty bad. my friends and i would die laughing every time we listened to it

see now i like both earth opera albums. admittedly my standards aren't all that high. but there is good stuff on both. david grisman and all. peter rowan. those guys are okay with me.

and quicksilver man i don't even know what to say. those albums are pure enjoyment for me. kinda like church if your church ruled really fucking hard.

idk, i can't ever make it through the who do you love suite or mona; rest of it is okay though...

i'm gonna check out s/t & shady grove, see if i can't find a way in that way

Think Quicksilver kind of caught a break when the guy who formed the band (Dino Valente) got tossed in jail, allowing Cipollina and the boys to make three really good LPs before his return. They sucked pretty bad after Dino got back.

idk, i can't ever make it through the who do you love suite or mona; rest of it is okay though...

I'm with you on that... plus, the plodding rhythm section... haven't heard the album in years though