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JAN & DEAN — Save For A Rainy Day
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PSYCHEDELIC SURF PASTICHE WASHOUT
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Carnival of Sound |
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Jan Berry's unreleased masterpiece from 1968. Carnival of Sound was slated as a Jan & Dean album for Warner Brothers, produced by Berry. In the two years following his debilitating auto accident, Berry assembled an ambitious sound for Jan & Dean in the psychedelic/sunshine-pop idiom, with arrangements featuring sitars, strings, brass, marimbas and other grooved-out instrumentation from the top L.A. session players of the period. Several of these Carnival cuts will be on the upcoming tribute to Jan Berry. For more information, go to: JAN BERRY / JAN & DEAN TRIBUTE PROJECT ON MYSPACE |
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Save For A Rainy Day |
| Recorded in 1966 while J&D leader Jan Berry was in a coma, Save for a Rainy Day was Dean Torrence's attempt to keep the Jan & Dean name alive. However, the album ended up being a more potent example beyond those humble aspirations. Dean Torrence utilizes his expressive falsetto vocal throughout, backed by a moody / mellow band sound that adds to the notion of its era. Save for a Rainy Day is linked together by rain sound effects at the beginning and end of every cut, and stands as the perfect inflection of a warm summer storm. The Jan & Dean version of "Yellow Balloon" was recorded for this album, and released simultaneously with the hit version by Gary Zekley’s group bearing the same name. |
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The Yellow Balloon |
| Producer Gary Zekley assembled a stellar psych-pop band (including the genre’s favorite son, Don Grady) following his chart success with the song “Yellow Balloon” in 1966. The group cut only one album, but what an album it was. Beyond the songwriting talents of Zekley and Grady, also featured are former Jan & Dean songsmiths, Jill Gibson and Don Altfeld. |
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The Heavy Blinkers |
| An exotic brew of summertime-pop-meets-acid-surrealism from the most unlikely of places . . . Halifax, Nova Scotia . . . meet the Heavy Blinkers — If you like your pop in the vein of Smiley Smile, Mark Eric, the Left Banke, Oddessey & Oracle era Zombies, Save for a Rainy Day or late ’60s Burt Bacharach, then check out any one of the Blinkers’ first four albums |
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The High Llamas |
| One of the most articulate voices in the second wave of Psychedelic Surf music, the High Llamas fuse a wallpaper concoction of Terry Riley-style tones, Esquivel sound textures and psych-era Brian Wilson experimentation / harmonics. But trying to pin it down to a handful of influences doesn’t do their music justice. If you like psych-era jazz, pop and/or easy listening, these hipsters will not
disappoint. |
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Elephant Six |
| The Elephant Six collective is made up of band-members that weave in and out of eachother's respective groups like a finely
wrought tapestry. Their claim to fame comes from imaginatory explorations into West Coast psych-pop and modular song editing,
akin to Brian Wilson's 1966-67 Smile album. Best examples include both Olivia Tremor Control albums (Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage Vol. 1), Her Wallpaper Reverie by the Apples in Stereo and the first Marshmallow Coast CD (where the meditative vibe
of the Beach Boys 1968 Friends album is fused through the indie-rock spectrum). |
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