I caught the Grizzly Bear-show here in Copenhagen yesterday, and I must say it´s a thrill to see that Grizzly Bear (and so many other upcoming bands) are working hard on their vocal harmony chops. Four guys on stage, 4 mics, and some pretty complex harmonies. Some of their influences are obviously from a folk background, and when they brought out their autoharps and flutes they would fit straight into any acid-folk scene in the late sixties/early seventies. After some googling I was also pleased to discover that one of their inspirations are the obscure Giles, Giles and Fripp, an early incarnation of King Crimson, blending acoustic folk arrangments with jazz freakouts and other spaced out sounds. Their rubble and outtakes compliation "The Bromsbury Tapes" is wonderful! Here´s a song where Judy Dyble, the first female vocalist from Fairport Convention guests, with some psychedelic background vocal effects on the chorus!
I´ve allways been facinated by what people in the 60´s thought the future would be like, allways expecting flying cars and pills replacing whole meals in the year 2001. We see hilarious traces of this in movies and music from that time, and one of my favorite futuristic products from the 60´s must be White Noise and their album "An Electric Storm" issued on Island in 1969. At that time BBC had their own studio for the exploring of sound waves and techniques, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, there sat the nutty professors with their Moog-synthesisers and tape loops experimenting with the future of sound and space age of music. In the wake of british psychedelia sound pioneers David Vorhaus, Brian Hodgeson and the lovely Deila Derbishire (on the photo above during the recordings) made the craziest psych sounds under the name White Noise. Their record An Electric Storm is as mindblowing as it is hilarious with it´s futuristic but dated pop-space-psychedelia ad the product of more knob twisting and tape looping than the whole Beatles catalogue all together.
Well, here´s a taste, the glorious opening track "Love Without Sound", indeed the sound of the future!
There are a couple of Norwegian 60s garage bands but a favorite is the newcomers from Moss called Death By Unga Bunga. Their hit song would be Don't Go Looking For My Heart, a true psychedelic garage anthem with frenetic screams and wild organ sounds. Check out the band on MySpace or download their song below.
I just found out that the name of the song that was stuck in my head is Abba, and the thrill of finally hearing the real song and not just the bits I remember in my head made me listen to it quite a lot of times. The reason why the song stuck to my brain is that the French garage band The Norvins opened their set at the Ballroom Bash in Leipzig with this song which both me and Dandy Longlegs recognised but could not tell where we had heard. Well, now it`s clear that it was The Paragons song Abba, and that this song is dangerously catchy. An interview with lead guitarist Pat Walters at 60sgaragebands here.
