the united states of america.  not the constitutional federal republic seemingly to blame for everything wrong with this world we live in, but those sixites psych rock bastards of the same name. who sound sometimes simultaneously incredibly dated yet strangely modern. who existed for approximately one year and one album. who indulged in rudimentary electronicks and ‘substances’. who sounded for all intents and purposes like a californian (and all that entails) velvet underground.

i’ll point you in the direction of the red krayola and silver apples and jefferson airplane and blue cheer.  joseph byrd would probably prefer it if you didn’t mention zappa or phil spector.

managing to mix politics and art and music in a way that doesn’t make you want to kick their faces off, they had an odd mid-atlantic sound, which combined with the chanting choirs, brass bands, primitive synths and other found sounds makes for an ever interesting listen.  be it the aural collage of american metaphysical circus or the (relatively) straight ahead rock of the garden of earthly delights.

joseph byrd likes tom waits: “waits has come a long way.  he started more obscure and poet-like, but has gotten accessible and ‘real’ with age.  the opposite of bob dylan, who was the most important songwriter of the 60s (and that’s a definitive decade), but has become a cartoon of himself.  waits is how dylan should have turned out”

yup.

ed bogas wrote music for the garfield and friends cartoons and strangely some commodore 64 games i used to own.

portishead and the fall picked their pockets.

available from the wonderful folks at sundazed