La Familia Inc. - La Tuna / This Time. 1972 USA ~ San Francisco, California

Now this one really caught me off guard. The beginning of 'La Tuna' has a nice tight horn section, with rhythm electric piano, playing Latin salsa music similar to early Santana in their native roots mode. Then comes the most screaming fuzz guitar I've heard in ages! We're talking Carlos Santana x2 here. Very unexpected but we get our total money's worth in this extended solo. This is followed by a trumpet lead which leads to a psychotic "La Tuna" rant, and then back to the horns. Whew - what a killer track! The b) side flips over to the Chicago Transit Authority, and reminds me of the more poppy tracks from their first three albums. Unfortunately there are no Terry Kath like breaks, but it's still a pleasant song.

Both of these tracks are on their second album from 1972 called Para La Gente. No idea what kind of consistency the album holds. But 'La Tuna' needs to be comp'd on some psychedelic anthology. 

Own.

9/16/25 (new entry)

Earth Opera - Colorado / Kick'en Back. 1976 USA ~ Colorado

Hard to imagine two bands with the name Earth Opera, but here it is. And the other group was relatively well known from the 60s, so it's a rather strange choice. Perhaps they thought they could get away with it buried way out in the desolate ranch lands of eastern Colorado. I mean, seriously, Otis is in the middle of nowhere. I live in the state and I've never even heard of it.

They actually squeaked out an album as well, and both of these tracks are on it. The reviews that I read about the album are pretty harsh, but I didn't find these two tracks so bad. Both fit into the mid 70s hard rock zone, with a little bit of dude posturing. There are no extended solos to help the lack of songwriting. Perhaps the 45 length makes it more tolerable?

It's from Colorado, so I'll keep it.

3.0 / 3.5

Own.

9/4/25 (new entry)