I saw a photographic exhibition once in which a photographer attempted to lay out his life in black & white. I don’t remember the person’s name but you wouldn’t know him anyway— he never reached any level of fame as far as I know— yet, anyway. He was a nobody who loved taking pictures and being in pictures and he laid his whole life out in photos, mostly of himself and people who must have been nobodies too.
So you think you know something about music, huh? I thought I did too until I started writing this column and getting schooled by people not only more aware of psych than myself but more knowledgeable. Why, some of my past columns spawned related columns (not mine) at least as long, disputing my claims. Okay, not quite. But almost. Let us just say that, like many of us, the more I know, the less I know.
Back in 2007, Pop Culture Press magazine asked me to conduct interviews for their Summer of Love Issue which featured the forty years which had passed since. I interviewed Bob Segarini (The Family Tree), Peter Albin (Big Brother), Tracy Nelson (Mother Earth), Dehner Patten (KAK). I also interviewed Gary Duncan, legendary guitarist for Quicksilver Messenger Service). It was a dream come true. Quicksilver had been my favorite of the San Francisco bands, the epitome of what I thought psychedelia was all about. Gary was very gracious and forthcoming when we talked and the result was one of my personal favorite experiences in all of my writing. So pour a cup of coffee or pop a cold one. If you’re not among the biggest Quicksilver fans there are, you are about to learn more about Gary Duncan than you thought you would ever know.
But first, a word from our sponsor. Well, not sponsor, exactly. In fact, just the opposite. Well, not exactly opposite. A few weeks ago, you might remember that I posted a few words about Sheldon Gomberg, the man behind Sweet Relief III: Pennies From Heaven, an album recorded for charity (all proceeds will go to Sweet Relief, an organization committed to helping musicians in need), and before that, I devoted a column to that organization through an interview with Sweet Relief‘s Rob Max.
A few days ago, I saw a picture of a couple of Darrell Vickers‘ friends and fellow band members standing before a wall of vinyl, only a small portion of a collection which more than likely takes up a whole house. Vickers has been digitizing and posting the most rare (and most odd) of the records under the guise of Radio Vickers, a hobby which thus far has handed many a fan of oddities music that which they might not have ever found. You never know what you’re going to find when Darrell points the finger, but one thing I did find and am thrilled to have found, actually, is a collection of odd bands from down under recreating the original Nuggets: Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, this one titled Antipodean Interpolations of the First Psychedelic Era. Bands like Velociraptor and The Gooch Palms and King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard and The Murlocs serving up covers of The Standells‘ Dirty Water and Sagittarius‘s My World Fell Down and The Leaves‘ Hey Joe. And that’s just the tip of the Vickers iceberg.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 