Artist	Song
Human Beast	Mystic Man - {Volume One}
Fraction	Sanc-Divided - {Moon Blood}
Monocles	Spider & The Fly - {Pebbles Vol. 3/The Accd Gallrery}
The Dakotas	The Spider & The Fly - {Rubbles Series: Volume 1 - The Psychedelic Snarl}
The Olivers	Beeker Street - {Garage Beat '66 Vol. 1}
Waterloo	Why May I Not Know - {Circus Days UK Pop-Sike Obscurities 1966-1970}
The Essentials	Freedom - {Psychedelic States: New York in the 60's, Vol. 1}
Ace Kefford Stand	Gravy Boo - {The Rubble Collection - Volume 9}
Mystery Meat	You Won't Believe - {Profiles}
Gabor Szabo	Paint It Black - {Raga Jazz}
Moonkyte	Way Out Hermit - {Count Me Out}
Irish Coffee	A Day Like Today - {Irish Coffee}
La Cofradfa De La Flor Solar	Se Ama O No Se Ama - {La Cofradfa De La Flor Solar}
Comus	The Prisoner - {First Utterance}
Jan Dukes De Grey	Mice And Rats In The Loft - {Mice And Rats In The Loft}
D.R. Hooker	I'm Leaving You - {The Truth}
The Fredric	Saturday Morning With Rain - {Phases And Faces}
Linda Perhacs	Porcelain Baked Cast Iron Wedding - {Parallelograms}

Comment:

Yet another installment...Here's a highlight:Mystery Meat - ProfilesCourtesy of Patrick the LamaIf there is a Great Lost Garage Album out there, this 1968 artefact by Illinois band MYSTERY MEAT could be it. Like most garage LPs it is a primitive recording, featuring an inexperienced, enthusiastic band. Unlike most garage LPs, however, it has no cover versions but a string of originals ranging from good to unbelievable, and the decision to bring in a skilled, versatile vocalist adds a depth unusual for these teenbeat concoctions. Before moving onto the "meat", here's some background on the band and the LP courtesy of Dick Leighninger:"...We were all students at Blackburn College, located in Carlinville, Illinois. I was a Senior and the other members were Juniors. I had been singing with a local barbershop quartet, the college choir, and a trio that did original folk songs. Wayne Joplin and Ron O'Dell had been writing songs, and were looking for a singer to help them, and they recruited me. (Blackburn is a small school... we only had about 500 students at the time, so everyone knew everyone). We recorded the album in the basement of our college's administration building... a building that the students had just finished building, but the basement had not yet been divided into offices. So, it was a big space, where we would not disturb anyone at night, when we practiced and recorded. I don't remember exactly how many albums we made; my memory is that we went around the room, and said... "well, how many do YOU want, how many do YOU want?" We then added them up, and made that many. We also may have had a minimum order to fill, but it couldn't have been more than about 25, I think. The record was made in St. Louis, Missouri with a custom label company for RCA Records. We only performed once, and that was at the college. We did not have typical posters for the event, nor do I know of any pictures that were taken. We were pretty much hermits in the basement...""Profiles", then, is an album that consists of twelve 1966-sounding beat/folkrock originals and no covers, just like the Bachs LP, the payoff being that the Meat songbook may be even stronger than that of their Illinois colleagues. Although recorded in 1968 the songs had been written from 1965 and onwards, which explains the slight "lost in time" nature of the album. Tunes such as "Put Me Down" and "Girl Named Sue" are teen-drama masterpieces worthy of the Dovers, and that's saying something! There are also rawer numbers like "Rung by rung" with a three-chord progression typical for Midwest garage bands, and a hint of psychedelic influences on the great "Sunshine makes it". Dick Leighninger's lead vocals are awesome, hitting that yearning Tim Granada/Sid Herring teen innocence we all worship, and making even the lesser tracks shine. Those vocals and the evocative, heartfelt Farfisa organ may recall the All Of Thus album from upstate New York, another obscure garage behemoth, but again I would rate the Mystery guys higher. I'm inclined to credit Chicagoans New Colony Six with a certain influence on the overall style, but oddly the end result reminds me even more of English band Complex (see review #63), whose marvy first LP is one of the few true garage-sounding Brit albums. Apart from the vocal/organ similarities there's a freshfaced teen enthusiasm and brooding sophomore melancholy that connect these two little-known wonders.So, in short, if you are a fan of great American teen-beat sounds, you have no excuse not to check out the Mystery Meat LP. I would have loved to give the Shadoks reissue a Strong Buy rating, but in light of a $50 price tag and some less than perfect sound-processing I would recommend a test drive before the first down payment.

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