Flyte - Movin' Faster / Don't You. 1983 USA-Michigan

From the Christian southern Michigan town of Hillsdale. This isn't that haha. Starts off in cock rock mode with light metal riffing and doesn't really develop. B) Tells us they "like to rock". No way, really? Boogie metal I guess. This song is really dumb. 

4/15/24

2.0 / 1.5

The Free - Decision For Lost Soul Blue / What Makes You. 1968 USA-Detroit

Detroit based group, many consider the A side one of the high water marks of psychedelic, given its massive fuzz break about half way through. As a tune, it's pretty good, with a consistent tribal top beat. The other side is more friendly, with a hippie singalong style and some finger pickin' guitar. Given the major label exposure (was later issued on ATCO), this is one of those 45s you actually have a chance of finding in the wilds.

5/6/20 (first listen); 12/17/23 (review / new entry)

Sounds Synonymous - Tensions / Babylon. 1969 USA-Michigan

From Flint, Michigan. Both sides of this very rare 45 have been comp'd quite a bit, and I have the B side since it's on the For a Few Fuzz Guitars More release. Both are very heavy for their era, and it doesn't seem too many of these bands were able to get to the LP stage. Though a whole album of music like this could prove to be exhausting - like early Blue Cheer in that way.

11/30/19 (first listen); 12/17/23 (review / new entry)

Maxx - 200 Years / Castles. 1969 USA-Michigan

Speaking of Michigan bands that started private and then moved to a major label (see The Free entry). From Lansing, Maxx starts off in heavy rock territory, with some almost metalish guitar. It's a good tune too, better for my tastes than The Free. Best I can tell, the Mainstream release is a promo that features the first track only. The second song is fairly lengthy for a single at five minutes, and contains more of a jazzy trippy sound with meandering lightly tuned guitar. I like it too - so having the original Signal press is the way to go here.

12/17/23

The Psychotics - School Boy Blues / If You Don't Believe Me, Don't. 1969 USA-Michigan

From Grand Rapids (wondering now if I shouldn't have a separate tag for this fine, but relatively small, city). The a) side is super - truly psyched out blues with killer fuzz and organ. Vocals are definitely of the blues, or even early punk. B)'s pacing reminds me of The Doors in their bluesier moments. And their organ sounds older than even Manzarek's! Finishes with a blistering fuzz solo. This is really great. 

7/22/22

The Blues Company - Experiment in Color / She's Gone. 1968 USA-Michigan

From Bay City. Yea, definitely more garage than psych. The a) track has a killer name, but musically is pretty tame by 1968 standards. B) is even more typical. Hugely sought after, but mostly lost on me. I'd rate it good, but nothing more.

7/22/22

Phlegethon - You're No Good / The Sun. 1970 USA-Michigan

From Michigan. Looks like I heard this nearly four years ago in my initial discovery of the underground psych world of 45s. The a) side is indeed the track that Linda Ronstadt made famous. But with an ancient organ and killer fuzz! And some downer male vocals. The b) side also features some fine fuzz, but is more rural friendly. Lots of pirate comps out there featuring a), would be nice to get something legit out there.

12/9/18 (first listen); 7/22/22 (review / new entry)

Dick Rabbit - Take Me To L.A. / You Come On Like a Train. 1968 USA-Michigan

I've written about Dick Rabbit before, and it was for their other single. This is very similar to that one. Heavy fuzz psych guitar trio clearly molded after The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Both tracks are great, but the B side is lethal! This one needs to be comp'd with a full history.

7/22/22

The Wanderers - On the Road / Sleepin' in the Sun. 1968 USA-Michigan

Garage band from Michigan, near Grand Rapids. Pretty typical garage sounds, not very adventurous for the psych era, though there are remnants of that on the a) side. B) is fairly poppy but pleasant. Decent period piece. There's a lot of info about the band here.

7/22/22

The Mergers - Loving You / Unworthy American. 1967 USA-Detroit

The Mergers were a band from the Detroit area who released this one 45 before disappearing. The a) side is a low key drifty psych pop track with dual male and female vocals, picked guitar, and ancient organ. Very nice melody even though the vocals are a bit out of tune. The b) has a great bass riff followed by more haunting organ. Vocals are more like Eric Burden here. Man, the organ against the rhythmic breaks are killer here. Really like this one.

Ownership: SP: 1967 Cass. Online acquisition (2021)

7/24/21 (first listen); 1/27/22 (review / new entry)

Sly Dog - Your Soul / Cryin' For Love. 1982 USA-Detroit

Sly Dog were a little known group from the Detroit area who released only this one 45. The a) side sits at the conjunction of hard rock, AOR, and progressive rock. There's some fine flute that gives credence to the latter style. Good guitars as well (both acoustic and electric). The b) side is pure AOR, not too far from Gerry Rafferty with the presence of saxophone. Certainly could have been a regular on FM radio, though 1982 is too late for this kind of commercial rock. This is the rock sound of 1976/1977. The a) side makes this one a keeper.

Ownership: SP: 1982 private. Online acquisition (2020). Comes in a fold over paper pic sleeve with recording details on the back. 

7/4/20 (first listen); 5/16/21 (review / new entry)

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)

Wells and Fargo - Mother Goose Sonata / Winter Wind. 1968 USA-Detroit

There was an obsession among the psychedelic crowd with nursery rhymes during the late 60s. Fortunately the a) side is not one of them - but references the literature. It's a great track with psychedelic guitars way out front, and nice harmonic breezy vocals. There's a weird piano part at the end. Overall sounds more British, though I'm sure this is American (after some research, looks like Detroit). 'Winter Wind' has a similar vibe, but is more towards folk rock and gone are the acid guitars. Still an excellent piece. There's also a piano bit about 2/3's through. Maybe it was their little brother? ("let Timmy play a few notes too.."). The a) side is something you'd expect to find on a comp somewhere.

Ownership: SP: 1968 GVS. Online acquisition (2020) 

6/22/20 (first listen); 3/7/21 (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)

TNS - Time's Up / Telling Your Fortune. 1971 USA-Michigan

TNS were a high school band from Wyoming, Michigan (near Grand Rapids) who only released this one fantastic single. Alternately they used the acronym to mean Take No Shit, Tougher'N Shit - or for the wedding receptions - simply The Nichols Sound. 'Time's Up' is just one of those gems of the American underground. Hard rock, or in reality proto metal, with some heavy riffing, screaming vocals, and lethal guitar solos. 'Telling Your Fortune' is a cover of the Chicken Shack song from 1970, and is also amplified considerably. According to their bio, the band recorded this in 1971. No release date was given, though 1972 seems to have taken hold in the internet age. Either way, it's definitely of that era. Supposedly 500 copies were pressed, but good luck in actually finding one of them. 

'Time's Up' is part of the Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares compilation CD that I own. 

9/5/19 (first listen to the a side); 2/10/20 

Dick Rabbit - Love / Trip. 1969 USA-Michigan

Dick Rabbit were a band from Bay City, Michigan (near Saginaw) who played in the Detroit scene with The Amboy Dukes and The Stooges. 'Love' is completely immersed in the zonked out Hendrix zone and is brilliant. 'Trip' is a Donovan cover and is a bit more coherent, but less exciting.

2/10/20

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)

Tribal Sinfonia - Do You Want Me / Something Has You Turned Around. 1970 USA-Detroit

Tribal Sinfonia were a band from Detroit, but their sound was a bit removed from the usual heavy funk / soul /acid groups of the locale. Here one picks up hints of Latin rock era Santana, and there's some wonderful fuzz, flute, horns, and harmony. Also I can hear some of New York state's finest - Micah - in these grooves. 

9/8/19