Saturday, September 15, 2012

Haymarket Square - Magic Lantern (1969 us, acid trippy psych, 2001 edition)



Drummer John Kowalski and bass player Bob Homa formed Haymarket Square in Chicago in the late '60s. Both had previously toiled in Chicago high school garage band the Real Things, the name a derivation and tribute to English beat band the Pretty Things. Not your typical amateurs, the Real Things actually played professional instruments and earned professional gigs until they disintegrated in 1967 due to the usual reasons of the season, leaving the two original members to assemble a new unit. 

Homa decided to place ads in the campus newspaper of the University of Illinois Chicago -- where both he and Kowalski had enrolled by this time -- as well as in two local Chicago dailies. Guitarist Marc Swenson, a 17-year-old lead player who idolized and emulated Dave Davies, was the first to answer and was quickly hired after a short, impressive audition. The three then set about searching for a singer, but were unsuccessful until receiving a call from Gloria Lambert, who had also seen their advertisement. At the time, she was biding her time in the folk band Jordan, Damian, and Samantha until something more exciting (i.e., electric) came along for which she could utilize her classically trained skills. 

An audition was set, and when the 20-year-old blonde with the powerful Grace Slick voice showed up, the three teenagers were somewhat awestruck and, of course, impressed, and snapped her up immediately. Like Swenson, Lambert also happened to be a strong burgeoning songwriter. The quartet took the name Haymarket Square in honor of the Chicago Labor riot that took place at the turn of the century.

Within a short time, the band had earned a strong local reputation and degree of popularity on the Chicago rock scene, playing premier rooms such as the Electric Playground and the Playboy Mansion in addition to the many teen clubs and hangouts, and sharing stages with important international groups like the Yardbirds and Cream, as well as local favorites H.P. Lovecraft, Saturday's Children, and the Shadows of Knight. Soon they were composing their own songs in imitation of their idols Jefferson Airplane, while also absorbing the city's blues and folk traditions, and adding a smattering of Lovecraftian occult touches. 

Haymarket Square's escalating stature led to an offer from the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in the summer of 1968 to act as backup musicians for a live work of art that was on display at the time, the Original Baron and Bailey Light Circus, produced by a pair of University of Illinois professors. It in turn led to Magic Lantern, released on independent Chaparral Records later in 1968. 

As the music featured on it was initially utilized as live accompaniment and created expressly with that purpose in mind, the album plays much like the records of the Airplane's middle, most psychedelic period, as much visceral experiences to fill San Francisco ballrooms as they are objects for home listening, or like early Grateful Dead recordings, intended as soundtracks for Acid Tests and experimental light shows. But as with the work of those bands, Magic Lantern transcends its intended purpose; in fact, it is one of the stronger -- not to mention one of the earliest -- slices of acid rock from the era, outstanding in every way, from Kowalski's expert drumming to Lambert's impressive, insistent singing to the intensely mood-filled, darkly textured original songs.

The band changed personnel shortly after the album's release. Homa chose to exit the band and was replaced by Ken Pitlik, while Robert Miller added a second guitar to the mix. This version of Haymarket Square continued through 1974, when they called it quits. By this point, Swenson and Lambert had married, while the others went their own separate ways. 
by Stanton Swihart
Tracks
1. Elevator (Gloria Lambert) - 7:06
2. The Train-Kept-A-Rollin' (Tiny Bradshaw, Lois Mann, Howie Kay) - 7:20
3. Ahimsa (Robert Homa, John Kowalski, Marc Swenson) - 8:14
4. Amapola (Marc Swenson) - 10:43
5. Phantasmagoria (Gloria Lambert) - 4:08
6. Funeral (Gloria Lambert) - 9:23

Haymarket Square
*Robert Homa - Bass, Vocals
*Marc Swenson - Guitar, Vocals
*John Kowalski - Percussion
*Gloria Lambert - Vocals

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The Misunderstood - Before The Dream Faded (1965-66 us, exquisite psychedelic fuzzed garage steel blues)




In 1966 the Misunderstood, an ambitious anti-war rock band from small town California, set off on a mission to England. In swinging sixties London they forge a revolutionary new psychedelic sound, but on the very brink of international success the heart of the band is ripped out when their lead singer is drafted by the US Army. Torn from stardom and faced with war or prison he miraculously escapes from boot camp and embarks on a spiritual journey to mystical India, living for seven years as a monk in a primitive ashram.

With the discovery of a secret ruby mine, and magical jewels, he becomes embroiled in further extraordinary adventures, his fugitive life forcing him to live in the shadows, one step ahead of the authorities. Children of the Sun is the thrilling true-life saga of the greatest lost rock band of the 1960s and one young man’s quest for spiritual peace, personal freedom, and survival.

Too little-known in their time to qualify as forgotten, the Misunderstood were, in all but riches and renown, the American Yardbirds: a panzer-garage quintet from Riverside, California, combining electric-blues lust with rave-up dementia and tight, flammable songwriting. After an early-’66 line-up change, the band boasted, in the country-raga invention and greased lightning of steel guitar prodigy Glenn Ross Campbell, its own Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page rolled into one.

These feral demos show why Peel went wild: singer Rick Brown’s deep, scarred bark, like Howlin’ Wolf swallowed whole by Eric Burdon; the searing psychedelic prophecy of Campbell’s pedal steel in the London audition takes of “My Mind” and “Children of the Sun."

Two weeks after that September ’66 session, Jimi Hendrix arrived in the UK and became all the rage, the immigrant acid king. But the Misunderstood got there first. Hear the proof.
by Adamus67
Tracks
1. Children of the Sun (Hill, Brown) - 2:50
2. My Mind (Hill, Brown) - 2:34
3. Who Do You Love (Elias McDaniel) - 2:26
4. I Unseen (Hill) - 2:01
5. Find the Hidden Door (Hill, Brown) - 2:16
6. I Can Take You to the Sun (Hill, Brown) - 3:38
7. I’m Not Talking (Traditional) (Original arrangement) - 2:25
8. Who’s Been Talking? (Traditional) - 2:57
9. I Need Your Love (Treadway) - 3:20
10.You Don’t Have to Go (Traditional) - 4:43
11.I Cried My Eyes Out (Treadway) - 2:39
12.Like I Do (Treadway) - 2:51
13.You've Got Me Crying Over Love (Hidden track) - 2:22

The Misunderstood
*Rick Brown - Harmonica, Vocals
*Glenn Ross Campbell – Steel Guitar
*Tony Hill - Guitar, Vocals
*Rick Moe - Drums
*George Phelps - Guitar
*Greg Treadway - Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
*Steve Whiting - Bass