Headwinds - Warrior Song / Just To Be With You. 1977 USA ~ Los Angeles, California

I can't remember how I first heard about Headwinds, but the 45 found its way onto my want list eventually. The music here is a commercially oriented progressive rock. Somewhat like same era Yes and Starcastle. And the B) side leans towards Styx even. The synthesizer work in particular is very much from the prog school. Nice saxophone, acoustic guitar, and harmony vocals. It's not rhythmically complex, so this for fans of lush "symphonic", though it would have been better served had it featured mellotron. Headwinds aren't for underground fans looking for psych excursions. Given that this is a custom pressing, I'll presume the band had no real intention of getting radio airplay. Rather they were documenting their efforts to that point in time. One wonders if they have more material sitting in a vault somewhere.

After some research I found 'Warrior Song' on YouTube posted by keyboardist Mark Poynter (going by Eric). It's a longer take. So there may be more after all.

Further research teaches us that Headwinds were from Pasadena and often played with Van Halen. Now isn't that interesting? Especially back then when Mammoth / VH were at their heaviest. After breaking up in 1980, two of the members (guitarist Michael Britton and keyboardist Poynter) joined forces with Tommy Lee (yes, pre-Motley Crue) to form a hard rock band called Dealer (there is an archival CDr demo of their recordings). Later, guitarist Michael Britton went onto to form Romeo then his namesake Britton, who managed to put out three albums. Later Britton found Woodbury Boys in Salt Lake City and that seems to be the end of the line from a recording perspective.

You would never know that Headwinds housed heavy metal / hard rockers in their midst as they didn't display that angst on this 45.

Own.

3/28/25 (new entry)

Bonfire - Contrast / Circle. 1975 Netherlands

Both of these tracks are on the LP. However they are distilled here, and is a different mix (if not different recording). The concentrate versions of both of these songs is just as enjoyable as the fleshed out instrumentals.

Own via the Pseudonym CD reissue.

1994 (first listen); 1/25/25 (review / new entry)

Vimana - Zebra / Masquerade. 1977 Brazil

If you arrived at Vimana's sole release with the idea that you were going to hear prog rock, then I think 'Zebra' will have you scratching your head. It's mostly a funk / disco hybrid, common for the 1977 era, though it does sport fine keyboard and guitar solos with some nice percussion sprinkled in. 'Masquerade' is, of course, the overt progressive rock track here. A real beauty, calling on the softer side of classic Yes, with a Mediterranean flair similar to the French and Spanish bands of the time. Some fine bass and flute propel the track to great heights. I can't think of another Brazilian band doing this kind of music in the late 70s.

2/23/20 (first listen / review); 1/21/25 (new entry)

Bill Stein - Where To Go, What To Do? / Come To Me. USA

Eclectic 45, but has elements of hard rock, psych, AOR, and prog. And how about that label name?

Own. 

I found two copies and we sold one of them. I suspect it may have been released in Colorado. 

9/12/19 (first listen); 3/27/20 (review); 1/1/25 (new entry)

Objectivo - Glory / Keep Your Love Alive. 1970 Portugal

Obscure band who released three singles and an EP from 1969 to 1972 at a time when not much music like this was being produced in dictator controlled Portugal. These two tracks lack identity and mostly play to 1970 era UK and American commercial rock trends with slight nods to psych and even early prog. Side 1 has a Procol Harum vibe that makes it interesting enough to hold onto.

Own. From a local estate sale (2024)

8/4/24

Buzzard - Blurry Visions / Please. 1971 South Africa

Of the four South African 45's I found at an estate sale, this was the clear winner. In the parlance of the hipster: It's a banger. Not only are both sides catchy, but they have some mean fuzz instrumentation, especially the mid guitar solo on 'Blurry Visions'. The music is very much in the same league as the UK psych prog scene of 1969 to 1971. The Pussy Plays album came to mind here a couple of times. This is a heavyweight. 

Ownership: SP: 1971 RPM. Found at an estate sale (2024). The others will be featured in the next Psychedelic Journal edition.

8/4/24 (first listen / review / new entry)

Grupo Miel - Get Down Tonight / Sombras de Colores. 1976 Chile

The first track is a cover of KC & The Sunshine Band. That's... interesting. Some cool Moog work though. The B side is intriguing. Starts off as a ballad and then goes into a prog direction with some fine guitar. Then back to more poppy material. Amazing a band like this could exist in Chile during Pinochet's reign. They don't appear to be political, so that probably helped. They were post Sacros.

3.0 / 3.5

12/30/23

Silverhorse – Weariness / Lady Marian. 1980 USA-Cleveland

Starting off very much in the same territory as Kansas' 'Carry On Wayward Son', Silverhorse's sole release promises eight minutes of hard rock / prog / AOR. And that's pretty much what you get. More stripped down - no violins or keyboards to get in the way. But dual guitars and harmony vocals are very much accounted for. It appears they're from the Cleveland area, and their sound is hardcore Midwest club circuit. Grab it if you see it.

Ownership: SP: 1980 Thoroughbred. Recent online acquisition (2023). There is a picture sleeve, but my copy doesn't have it. It's obscure but not enough to qualify for the Unknown Vinyl blog.

5/24/23 (first listen / review / new entry)

Night Watch - Babey Blues / Battle Cries. 1984 USA

Another great discovery, the b) side has an intriguing prog meets neo classical metal sound. So it turns out to be from 1984 right at the advent of the neo prog movement, with traces of hard rock and metal. Sure would love to hear a whole album of this! The a) side is completely different and is blues rock, old school style. But... and it's a big one... it features a killer psych solo! What an interesting find. The photo on RYM has WKNH, which is a station in Keene, New Hampshire. Maybe they were from the region?

Ownership: SP: 1984 T.H.X. Online acquisition (2022)

2/5/22 

Happy - When and How / Letting Easy Take Me. 1974 USA-Virginia

The a) side is a complete stunner. Starts off beautiful enough with acoustic guitar and keys, which leads to a goose bump inducing mellotron strings chord progression. This track is absolutely loaded with mellotron strings, and is particularly gorgeous when the guitarist plays an equally beautiful lightly amplified jazzy solo on top. What an absolute monster of a track, the pinnacle of psychedelic folk. The flip is completely different and is southern rock, though despite the jarring contrast, is pretty good actually. There's some unusual drumming up front, and the latter half has the guitarist back out front with another great solo! Love his style, expressive but subdued.

Ownership: SP: 1974 Studio 1. Online acquisition (2022). Since I added this to Discogs, it's really taken off.

5.0 / 3.5

2/5/22

Starfire - Islands / Slippery. 1974 USA-Los Angeles

Interesting one here. I knew both of these tracks from their sole album, which is also extremely obscure. Somewhere along the line I ended up with the bootleg CD, so that's how I heard them in the first place. Never expected to find the original 45 though, and not expensive either! For 1974, the progressive rock presented is a bit out of date, but there's not a whole lot from the States that played in this genre back then either. Heavy on the Hammond organ, sounds more like a 1970 transitional album out of psych. Maybe like SRC's Traveler's Tale.

Ownership: SP: 1974 Crimson. Online acquisition (2021).

4.0 / 4.0

11/2/21 (first listen); 1/27/22 (review / new entry)

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)

Shira - Liar / Frank's Ant Farm. 1973 USA-Philadelphia

Shira are a somewhat unknown group out of Philadelphia who released two promo 45s and then disappeared. 'Liar' is a kick ass hard rock number with a little bit of a funk edge. 'Frank's Ant Farm' is a dual guitar proggy hard rock instrumental that oddly reminds me of Automatic Fine Tuning. Excellent two sider. 

It would appear their other 45 isn't worth bothering with.

Ownership: SP: 1973 Jamie promo. Recent online acquisition. 

4/19/21 (first listen); 6/6/21 (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)

Roadwork - Come Into My Life / When it Comes to Lovin You. USA

OK, time to start digging into my new discoveries for 2021. And this one is a total unknown. The a) side is the winner here, with some flute, organ, and killer guitar solos. Kind of a mix of hard rock, funk, and prog. I'm not fond of the b) side. The style is escaping me, but it's completely different than the flip. It's crowd pleasing club music, with a saxophone lead horn section and a snappy styled pop jazz I guess. Like a proto Huey Lewis maybe? No bueno. But the a) side more than makes up for it. Thinking this is from the late 70s.

Ownership: SP: 19?? Patch. Online acquisition 

6/6/21 (first listen / review / new entry)

White Magik - I Can't Come Back / After It's Over. 1971 USA

The a) side is a mellow drifting psychedelic number with fine Hammond organ, and a lightly amplified electric guitar. Melancholic and very good. The flip gives us some wah wah and more tempo. The vocals maintain their trippy breezy nature. Excellent organ solo that leads to a progressive rock break, followed by a guitar solo. Very good two sider throughout.

Yet another mystery band. Discogs suggests a Dec 1971 or Jan 1972 date. 

Ownership: SP: 1971 Shantih. Online acquisition (2021). 

4/19/21 (first listen); 6/6/21 (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)

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)

Harmon, Pelot, Prichard & Bear / Joe Prichard - Loneliness / Advantage, Miss Evert. 1977 USA-Missouri

Sounding more like a law firm, Harmon, Pelot, Prichard & Bear get right down to proggy business straight from the get. This is the archetypal Midwest prog sound. Mixes hard rock, AOR, and complex progressions with ease. Apparently Joe Prichard is the keyboard player, as the b) side starts off more like an electronic track, but with saxophone layered on top. And a little boogie/honky tonk piano as well. An odd instrumental song honestly. The a) side is what you're after here. Desoto is a small town south of St. Louis. Before men played women sports, cutie Chris Evert dominated tennis in the mid to late 70s. Given that, I'd put 1976 or 1977 as the date of this interesting release (and that was confirmed later).

I've just been recently informed that this is the same Joe Prichard who was in the group Joe Prichard and Gibraltar, a very rare 1974 private album that I was unfamiliar with prior.

Ownership: SP: 1977 Cadde. Online acquisition (2020)

10/25/20 (first listen); 5/16/21 (review / new entry)