V/A - Drink Beer! Yell! Dance! (1961-66)

Best Garage comp I have heard in the last few months. Bunch of mid-western boy-man bands with severe inclinations to get rowdy! So easy to enjoy, so impossible to replicate.

Pisces - A Lovely Sight (1968)

Beautiful soft psych from "lost" Chicago-era group. Numero recently issued this on vinyl for the first time! Enjoy what is here, but do yourself, and them, a favor and go here and order the real, smelly wax. It is so tasty, especially when you realize the singer was but 17, and the last the band knows, she jumped town shortly after this recording, due to alleged involvement in some sort of check fraud scheme.

Jerry Solomon - Through the Woods (1973)

Another slab of pure id from Big Jerry. This release finds him getting a bit pastoral. If you enjoyed the more freewheelin' part of Past the 20th Century, you'll love this. This album actually takes The Marble Index by its stilted neck, and makes it look like the conceited work of a Teutonic pretender to the throne. Pain is not fame, beauty, a mellotron, and heroin addiction. This album is pain, joy, and a good share of life's genuine madness all blended together.

Henry Flynt - New American Ethnic Music: Vol. 3, Hillbilly Tape Music

Utterly entrancing. Like early Kraftwerk but recorded in Bo Diddley's North Carolina cabin.

BBC 4 - Krautrock Documentary (2009)

If you have a spare hour, check out this recent BBC triumph. (Double click on the videos to get to the other parts, there are six parts).

Lazarus - Lazarus (1971)

Sometimes it's easier to forget that the born-again movement in this country had its roots in the counterculture. This is Lazarus' first album, released on Albert Grossman's Bearsville label, and the contains beautiful early 70's folk schlock ballads with three-part harmonies and tasteful strumming. Produced by Peter Stookey of that other, somewhat Biblical folk trio, the heavy, overt Jesus stuff doesn't really start until side B.

Track listing:

A: Refugee/Whatever Happened/Looking Through/Listening House/Circuit Rider B: Warmth Of Your Eyes/Blessed/Eastward/Memory Of A Stranger/Doncha Cry/Rivers

Soft Sounds For Gentle People Vol.1 (1967-70)

Sometimes you got to get back to the basics and relax. Soft is the new hard, anyway. If you need a porous overdose of soft psych, this comp is the first step. There are four or five more volumes, with one specializing in he-she duos and the other in solo 'mystic' males. Vol. 4 definitely wins the new-age award for questionable taste in cover-art. The first one is below to get you started, we don't want to be redundant so take a trip in the Tyme-Machine to get more. If you have problems getting more, and need a fix, comment, and we'll see what we can do.

Jerry Solomon - Past the 20th Century (1971)

Here it is. For all of you waiting for some Big Jerry, here he comes. This album was distributed while Jerry was living on the streets of LA. This is his masterpiece, eight tracks of the most real alienation ever muttered and belted. He was always paranoid of "collector scum" so it's kind of unfortunate that only a select few have been able to hear this album in its entirety. There are murmurs of a reissue, so grab this below while it lasts (not very long).

Mayor of Rocky Ripple's First Demos (2010)

Of the many hidden treasures of the Midwest, it does not get better than Bloomington, IN-based Elephant Micah. This time it is a collaboration with Pete Schreiner, EM hinted at the existence of Rocky Ripple on the recent Equine Emblem 7". Now the Mayor has arrived with an EP of utterly tasteful folk nuggets. Release yourself from whatever and head over here to download and donate.

Tommy Jay - "Memories"

If there was a VH1 countdown of 80's DIY ultra jams, this track would be on it. Absolute pop gem, total top 40 material. They used to say the Taft family was Rust Belt elite, I beg to differ, between Cincy and Harrisburg, this man is a Godz.

Hear.

Ruth White - Flowers of Evil (1969)

The only way to be truly weird in 1969 was to be so self-serious and lonely that you were not weird at all, just amazing.

Ruth White is a golden goddess, is she alive? I don't know, but I hope she somehow knows how much simple joy she brought into the world with a moog, some tape loops, and hammy translations of poems by Baudelaire.