Chance - Harbor Nights / Magic Eyes. 1978 USA-Colorado

Solid AOR music from down south in Pueblo.

Full history of the band here

I got into a bit of a dispute on Discogs when another owner insisted this was psych garage and removed AOR. I had to disagree on that one, and put back AOR, though left their interpretation out of respect of other's opinions. That person also added 'Magic Eyes' to YouTube, so you can hear for yourself. But there's no way this is psych ;-)

 

Own. From a local garage sale (2019). I consider this the first 45 obscurity I found in the wilds where the music was agreeable too (i.e. not country). I didn't really know what I was doing yet, and bought all of the 45s for a $1 each (there were about 150 titles). Fortunately there were a few that were worth much more than that and I made a healthy profit. Last year I finally ditched the rest in a bulk auction, and I think they went for something like 30 cents each. Haha - I should have cherry picked. But that's how you learn!

2019 (first listen); 3/27/20 (review); 1/1/25 (update)

Crossfire - King Will Come / Truth. 1978 USA-Virginia

The A) side is a mix of hard rock and prog, with excellent guitar and organ. Great guitar solo as well. The flip starts off with a cool groove and breaks from there into an organ prog styled riff, followed by an excellent Allman Brothers like jazzy psych guitar. And it just continues on with an excellent organ solo to boot. One of our best discoveries of the year!

Totally guessing about Virginia, since that's where the label is based.

Ownership: SP: 1978 Casey. Online acquisition (2021).

4/19/21 (first listen); 12/11/21 (review / new entry)

Faustus - Come on Down / Days of Swashbuckling. 1978 USA-Illinois

This is one of those bands that have a better moniker and titles than the actual music. The A) side is a mix of boogie rock and melodic AOR. The latter saving the effort. The B) side is much better with a mix of earnest hard rock and prog rock ambition. There's some faint mellotron as a backdrop. For whatever reason, I'm most reminded of Ethos here. Not a life changer, but worth tracking down.

Hard to tell where the group is from. Plenty of references to north central Illinois, Chicago, and St. Louis. They managed to finally get an album out in 1983, which looks to be an attempt at radio stardom. That which did not happen obviously.

Ownership: SP: 1978 Golden Eagle. Online acquisition (2021)

Looks like we ended up with the exact same copy as the original poster once had on Discogs! Ours has the signatures in the same place. It's too exact to be a coincidence.

5/3/21 (first listen); 12/11/21 (review / new entry)

PBX - Milktoast Repose / Gangplank. 1978 USA-San Francisco Bay Area

This is an old CDRWL discovery, and I recently picked up a copy for myself. My original scratch off notes stated simply: Fantastic progressive rock from the Bay Area (Los Gatos). Very complex similar to a Yes/Gentle Giant/King Crimson hybrid. The first group that leaped to my mind was Yezda Urfa!

Pretty hard to argue with that really. And at 10 minutes and change, you get your money's worth for a 45. I can say at this point, this is the best progressive rock 45 in my collection. It was The AC who discovered it (as was often the case), and his full notes are far more comprehensive. He wrote: "Bay Area (Los Gatos) prog band who's only release was sadly this obscure EP. Usually, I wouldn't submit an EP quite this short (around 11 minutes total) for inclusion here, as it would be tough to reissue without additional archival material, but in this case we already know that such material does indeed exist. And what wonderful news that is, as I can say without risking hyperbole that this release is amongst the strongest ever recorded by a progressive rock band in the United States. The usual ultra-complex Yes/Gentle Giant-isms of the US underground prog scene are here in full force, but the real difference is that this is more guitar-driven (no keyboards here at all, surprisingly) and ferocious than the usual suspects, with heavy elements of mid 70s Crimson and even some classic Mahavishnu stylings on display. The guitar absolutely rips through the solos (especially on side 2) and the drumming is flat-out world class, in the Billy Cobham/Furio Chirico mold. Vocals are surprisingly smooth and melodic for an underground US act, giving it an almost British touch at times. Just jaw-dropping stuff, really. It's nothing short of a tragedy that they never recorded a full studio album, but as I mentioned above, there is some good news to report. Guitarist/band leader Peter McKibben (who is still musically active) has been contacted and had this to say:

"PBX was a crazy band, trying to make a mark in the Bay Area (SF) music scene when punk and New Wave were starting to become popular. Probably wasn't the right time for a progressive jazz/rock outfit to try to get noticed, but we were having fun, so we didn't care. We actually played on some punk/wave shows, opening up for Pearl Harbor and the Explosions and the Dead Kennedy's (they hated us). I just found an old cassette from 1978 of PBX playing outdoors in Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley. On the other side of this cassette, is a live recording of PBX playing at a weird dive called the "I Café"...I believe Pearl Harbor played after us on that occasion. Anyway, a longtime friend of the band knows an engineer who's been converting cassette recordings to cd. I don't know what kind of condition the tape is in, but he's going to try and make the transfer."

Well - that was 6 years ago, and obviously nothing's come of it yet. But who knows? Maybe this will serve as a reminder. For someone. Anyone....

Ownership: SP: 1978 Collage. With picture sleeve. Recent online acquisition (2021).

5/17/15 (first listen / review); 6/6/21 (update / new entry)

Robin Banks Band - Positive Side / Flyin' and Cookin'. 1978 USA-Denver

Certainly one of the top 5 of the SP's I picked up last year, Boulder's Robin Banks Band remains a complete mystery. As you can see, it was produced by Ed Cassidy, I presume of Spirit fame (confirmed it is him). The production is first class as well. The a) side is a bit quirky and funky, and oddly reminds me of Illinois' Peter Berkow. But it's the b) that just slays. Featuring a wonderful bass line, strumming acoustic guitar, and soaring flute, it's a progressive rock wonder. And when the searing electric guitar hits, you'll be wanting this to be part of The Unknown Progressive Rock 45s Vol. 1 compilation. How this remains unknown is beyond my comprehension.

We received the following comment on UMR: "Dear Purple Peak: what a find! This is David Gibran (David G Smith). I sang the A side and played the "soaring flute" on the B side and was RB's keyboard player and one of 3 writers. Nice review and thank you for it! FYI: all the members of the RB Band are still with us. I'm preparing to release my 11th album since the RB days. What a ride! Take care dgs"

Ownership: SP: 1978 private. Online acquisition (2020). Picture sleeve with no info other than the date. Has a regular spindle hole but it's still a 45. 

6/23/20 (first listen); 5/16/21 (review / new entry)

Crawdaddy - Traveling Down The Road / Lovers At Night, Strangers By Day. 1978 USA-North Carolina

I think with a name like Crawdaddy, and coming from North Carolina, you can guess what this might sound like. And you would be right. The a) side is the winner here. Starting off with electric piano, it has a late era Doors meets Allman Brothers vibe. Some fine slide guitar as well. The b) side is a bit too honky-tonk for me. Not that it's country music - it's still rock - but it's that element of the genre I don't enjoy.

Ownership: SP: 1978 New Hope. Online acquisition (2020). 

6/16/20 (first listen); 3/7/21 (review / new entry)

Meduza - Dimé. 1978 USA-New Mexico

Meduza were from Albuquerque, New Mexico and released this one 45, with the same song on both sides. It's a strong example of Santana influenced Latin rock, with perhaps a bit more Hispanic culture thrown in. Excellent guitar and percussion. Complete unknown as I write this. It's been said this might have been recorded in 1978.

2/23/20 (new entry)

Zeugma - Témoignage / Le Magicien. 1978 France

When you name your band Zeugma, then one can only presume a Magma styled masterpiece awaits. Or at least some off the rails hyper prog album like Yezda Urfa. I said something very similar recently about the Swedish band (have to look it up...) Zthürehz. And like said Swedish band, Zeugma is nothing of the sort. 'Témoignage' is a decent hard rock song, with a couple of cool breaks. 'Le Magicien' is a fairly dull folk rocker with little to offer beyond a nice bit of guitar at the end. Not a bad way to spend 11 minutes, but you probably won't do it again.

5/10/19