Red Machine (Willie and the Red Machine) / Wayne Van Dam - I Wrote This Song For You / More Than You'll Ever Know. 1975 USA-Michigan

From Kalamazoo, Michigan. Red Machine (see Ownership notes below) is a super two sider. 'I Wrote This Song For You' is gorgeous - a sweet, soft, and sensual psychedelic ballad with fine lightly amplified guitar. I think they feature female vocals, but who is Willie? Could be a male soul singer. Beautiful in any case. The flip side is completely different. Starting with ripping fuzz, the track never lets up. Great example of hard psych. 

Just learned that Wayne Van Dam was in a band called The Scavengers that had one single on Fenton, that is highly sought after.

Ownership: SP: 1975 Red Machine. Online acquisition (2020). 

We added the following commentary in Discogs' Edit section: Wondering if the band isn't Red Machine? One side says Vocals Wayne Van Dam. The other side just says Willie and the Red Machine. There is nothing else on the label Red Machine, which also leads to it possibly being the band. Not going to change it yet, as not enough data to do so. 45Cat also lists it as a split release. They have a date of 1975, but not sure where they got that from. 

8/21/20 (first listen); 5/16/21 (review / new entry)

Straight - Save Your Breath / Coming of the Rain. 1975 USA-Los Angeles

Obscure horn rock presumably from the Los Angeles area. 'Save Your Breath' is a kick ass ripper with superb analog synthesizer and electric guitar. 'Coming of the Rain' is from the pop side of the genre, yet no less satisfying, and contains a great melody with strong instrumentation. 1975 is way late for this kind of music, and thus Straight didn't make much of a name for themselves, though they did get picked up by ATCO for one more single. If you're a horn rock fan like me, you'll want to get this.

Ownership: SP: 1975 Encore. I found two copies in one week (one in Rapid City, South Dakota, one in Denver). 

10/16/20 (first listen / review / new entry)

Damrod - Once Again / Twelve Hour Man. 1975 USA-Chicago

Damrod were one of those classic proggy hard rock bands we often find in the Midwest part of the USA, though very few ever made much of a splash in their era. Similar to early 70s Uriah Heep but mixed with a mid 70s progressive rock awareness. Great organ, fuzzed electric guitar leads, and synthesizer. One SP is their total output and both tracks are excellent. Would love to know more about these guys - and do they have more material? Presumed to be from Chicago since that's where the label is from.

Ownership: SP: 1975 Ruby. Apparently a stash of new copies had been discovered in the last few years. I just bought one of them. Seems to be going out of stock again.

6/25/20 (first listen /  review / new entry)

Last Episode - Take a Second Look (short and long). 1975 USA-Detroit

Last Episode lyrically - and in harmony - remind me of The Temptations circa 'Papa was a Rolling Stone'. Socially charged that is to say. But the music is hard funk, just the way I like it, with great guitar, horns, and keyboards. It's the same song on each side, but the longer version (by about a minute) has more instrumental work.

I can't find any history of the group. Both Wade Marcus and Melvin Davis were said to be in Detroit by this time, so we'll go with that until further notice.

As far as I know it's never been comp'd. It was a promo only with no accompanying LP. 1975 was probably just a tad late for this kind of angry-on-the-streets sound, as good-times disco was on the horizon. This is exactly the type of 45 that find themselves going for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. But there's plenty of supply, so it remains bargain basement. If you're a collector of such music, this comes as an easy recommendation.

Ownership: SP: 1975 A&M. From a garage sale (2019)

8/15/19 (first listen); 6/18/20 (review / new entry)

Quorum - April's Song / Dream a Dream. 1975 USA-Detroit

Oh, how do I wish to hear a whole album by these guys (archival tapes anyone?). From Michigan, they completely fit my ideal for the classic "Midwest Progressive rock" band of the mid to late 70s,  that I've cataloged to death here and other places. There are only two short tracks on this 45, and yet in these moments we hear the defining characteristics of the region and era: Commercial and FM ready, yet complex and very much progressive in its execution. We can dream I suppose...

Ownership: SP: 1975 Quorum. Online acquisition (2020).

3/17/14 (first listen); 2/23/20 (review / new entry)

Nirvana - Duh / Kome da Kažem. 1975 Croatia

Usually when I hear of a 45 single as "progressive rock", I take it with a grain of salt. Yet another dealer trying to pawn off their commercial rock single as "prog". And yes it happens a lot.

Nirvana is definitely progressive rock. Even though they are only a guitar trio here, the band constantly twists and turns through these songs. And it's hard rocking as well, marrying two of my favorite styles together. 'Duh' (Ghost) is slightly better, but I found both tracks easy on the ears. As I was scrambling for comparisons, the first band that came to mind was Argentina's El Reloj of all groups, but with only one guitar. It's the just the way the songs unfold. Nirvana sings in the native tongue, all the better as far as I'm concerned.

Other than this single, Nirvana were on two festival LP comps. If the band is this creative with their singles, then one has to think they could go deep on album. We can only hope that there are recordings lying around in Zagreb somewhere. Anywhere.

2/6/20

Xebec - Seventy Five / Dissonet + Live. 1975 USA-Michigan

Interesting to note that RYM lists FIVE bands with the name Xebec. To me, on first glance, it looks like the name of an Aztec god... or something. So what is a Xebec anyway? A Mediterranean sailing ship used for trading in the 1700s. Well isn't that exciting. Guessing then, using the age-old trick of looking for a band name in the trusty Webster's, this one stood out.

OK, then, what was I talking about? Yes, a band named Xebec. This particular group with the sailing ship moniker was from the western Michigan town of Grand Rapids, and who managed to eek out this one obscure 45 before completely falling off the face of the Earth - and remains undiscovered as we speak. Tragedy that. Because this is - stop me if you've heard this before from moi - a bullseye for the Midwest progressive rock sound of the 1970s. Just down the road from these guys were three Chicago bands: Yezda Urfa, Pentwater, and Graced Lightning. If you're familiar with any of those, then you know what to expect here. This falls on the complex side of the genre. Awesome.

The single itself features a near four minute instrumental ('Dissonet') as well as a seven minute cover of Touch's pioneering Seventy Five, which would have been an enlightened choice in 1975, long before that album enjoyed a renaissance.

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I was also a sent a full live recording from The AC that shows the band stretching out. The original material is fantastic, as well as the covers - which include Yes, Genesis, and Gentle Giant. So yea, these guys were hardcore progheads even back then. The recording itself has many dropouts, but still worthy of a greater audience.

Hopefully Xebec is sitting on a full canister of unreleased studio and live tapes. This one is begging for an archival release.

This was from the last batch of discoveries from The AC in early 2015. Here were his notes to us: "Xebec are one of America's many "lost" progressive rock bands of the 1970s. They existed for a few years in the fertile prog underground scene of the upper midwest (Grand Rapids, Michigan in this case), but only managed to release one virtually unknown EP before packing it in and going their separate ways. However, like many such bands, there is more unheard material sitting in the vault, so to speak. The studio tracks consist of one instrumental original and a very intriguing cover of Touch's seminal "Seventy Five", given a mid 70s midwestern prog makeover. The lengthy and fairly well recorded (though a bit rough in spots) live set consists of a few originals and a number of covers, this time including Yes, Genesis, and Gentle Giant, but once again sounding so distinctly midwest prog as to almost become their own unique entities. The originals are a mixture of very Yes-inspired progressive songs and a couple of more experimental instrumental tracks, including an alternately spacey and aggressive 9+ minute number that's pretty amazing. Back in the heyday of US prog reissues/archival releases, I could have seen labels like Syn-Phonic or Shroom putting this material out, but these days I'm not sure it would fly. Regardless, this stuff is pure gold for those interested in this particular time, place and style."

Ownership: SP: 1975 Ultra Promo. Recent online acquisition (2020). Interesting to note that even though this is a 7 inch, it's still at 33 RPM. They probably figured most prog guys didn't have a turntable that played 45's....

11/5/15 (first listen / review); 1/28/20 (update / new entry)