Pepper Tree - You're My People (Flower Power/Psychedelic Rock from Canada 1971)

Band formed in 1967 by Garagan (Friends Of The Family), former "Lost Children " members, Brennan and Richmond, Argent (Outcasts) and Oulton and played first gig at the Shore Club in Hubbards, N.S. Oulton left and band continued as a Quartet. Keyboardist Quinn was brought in to replace Argent. After Doug Billard (Central Nervous System, Five Sounds) joined, the band was spotted by a talent scout in the summer of 1969 and suggested they make a demo tape. This led to them being signed by Capitol Records.
First two singles were recorded in Toronto with Jack Richardson producing. Capitol wanted only original material and band supplied Everywhere/Mr. Pride which both charted. Second single was not as strong as first. Band was encouraged to move nearer record label and moved to Toronto. Billard, Brennan and Richmond all left for various reasons. Band met up with White (Central Nervous System, Five Sounds) in Toronto and Cornerbrook, Newfoundland native Brockway was found after placing newspaper ad. Garagan assumed lead vocal chores.
This line-up moved to a farmhouse in Alliston, Ontario in October of 1970 to prepare for recording of their "You're My People" album. Album was recorded at RCA's Toronto Studio and produced by Jack Richardson. Six songs were Quinn/Garagan compositions, three were Quinn/Garagan/White/Brockway compositions and one Quinn song. All songs were commercially viable with the exception of live favorite "Airplane" which clocked at over five minutes and included organ solo in it's middle section. Keith Jollimore did the horn and string arrangements.
Album made White a local guitar hero in Halifax as all the budding guitarists in the area had to learn the guitar licks on the album particularly the opening bars of "Airplane".
Record company felt band should have a frontman and Matt Minglewood (Moon - Minglewood and The Universal Power) was brought in for six months. When White left, band contacted Halifax guitarist Zemel who packed up and joined the band in Ontario. Minglewood left to form "Cold Duck" and was replaced by Terry Hatty who stayed for 3 months in 1971. After the departure of Minglewood and Hatty, Garagan once again assumed lead vocals. Zemel was the guitarist on the Quinn penned "Love Is A Railroad" single. Zemel was replaced by another Halifax guitarist, Edgett who played on this line-up's last two singles. These songs were written by individual members including Garagan's "Midnight Lady", Quinn's "Teach Me How To Fly" and "Put A Smile Upon Your Face" and Brockway's "Funky Music". Garagan left the band in 1972 and Quinn left the following year.
The final lineup of the band were all Newfoundlanders when Brockway brought in MacLeod (Played guitar in "Garrison Hill"), Parker (Garrison Hill) and Butler.
In 1974, a band called Peppertree (not Pepper Tree) released a single on Aquarius Records (Montreal). The tracks were Take Back My Love and Knowing How You Feel and both were written by P. Pruneau. The single was produced by Jack August of Moonquake fame. There does not seem to be any connection
between this Peppertree and Pepper Tree. 
Brockway went on to play with Rhinegold, Telemann (which later became Wrabit), Hanover (AKA Hanover Fist), Lee Aaron and is currently in Big Smile. Garagan and Quinn both joined Molly Oliver for a couple of years after Pepper Tree. Garagan still plays occasional gigs. Quinn wrote songs for Roger Whitaker among others and formed Quincepts Productions Ltd. Brennan passed away in the late 70's. Richmond went on to play with the Truro based band "Horse" and then became a minister. Billard had a hit single with the song "I've Lost My Place" on United Artists in 1975. Zemel is still playing and involved in CD production and graphic design with SVP Productions. Edgett also still plays in the Halifax area. Brian "Too Loud" MacLeod went on to play with Chilliwack and The Headpins before succumbing to cancer in the mid 80's.

http://nsclassicrock.8m.com/peppertree.html

Ant Trip Ceremony - 24 Hours (1968 Great US Psychedelia)

How did such a wonderfully strange name such as Ant Trip Ceremony come about? The band's name came from Steve DeTray. He entered Oberlin College in Ohio in 1964 but took a hiatus from college in 1966 and part of 1967. He went to stay with his brother in Logan, Utah. There Steve formed a band and needed a name. By chance he mentioned it to an English professor at the nearby University in early 1967. The professor suggested a phrase, "ant trip ceremony", from an American novel whose title Steve can't recall. The author described modern societal life as an ant trip ceremony. Steve thought it spoke to the alienation felt by many of the younger generation in 1967, and the name stuck. So in essence there were two different groups with the name Ant Trip Ceremony. The first one Steve formed in Utah in early 1967 and then the second one which he formed at Oberlin in the fall of 1967.

Steve left Utah in the summer of 1967 and headed back for a tour of duty at Oberlin College. The band he had in Utah had broken up and Steve wanted to put together another band at Oberlin. Steve put out the word that he wanted to form an electric rock and roll band. Gary Rosen was playing in a blues band with George Galt and Mark Stein. Stein, a multi-talented instrumentalist, was a flute major at the Oberlin Conservatory. Roger Goodman was a brilliant keyboard player, but refused to play it while in Ant Trip Ceremony and only wanted to sing. All the members for the new band were from Oberlin with the exception of Jeff Williams who was a local sixteen year old up and coming jazz musician.

The Ant Trip Ceremony album was recorded during two sessions. the first session was in February of 1968 in a rented hall at Oberlin. Steve was there for the first sessions but had left Oberlin by the spring of 1968 and was not present for the second recording session. The album was called "Twenty Four Hours"because that was the feeling behind the sessions (ie.that it took what seemed like twenty four hours to record). The machinery used for the recordings was primitive. The band used a KLH tape deck for playback and a two track Roberts reel to reel for recording. When they wanted to multi-track they would record on one side of the tape and then record on the other side as well. Then they would mix it down to the KLH. The reason the album sounds somewhat imbalanced is because the KLH had one faulty speaker and thus the speaker balance leaned heavily to the left. This ended up affecting the final mix-down.

How were the songs chosen for the album? The band felt ready to record their original songs. These were performed live before student audiences. During live shows, the band was wild, but sadly no live tapes exist. Thus the original songs done on the album when performed live were more psychedelic and improvised. Where did the band play live? Mostly at Oberlin and at off campus parties. The band was known for getting into strange and long jams. Furthermore no song was ever done twice exactly the same. They were, in some ways like the Grateful Dead of the region. When the band played it was a happening, a genuine psychedelic event. Shows went on for hours, with the audience in a wide variety of states of consciousness.

Three hundred copies of the album were pressed and one hundred were sold for $3.00 each!! The album's expenses was shared equally by the band members. The artwork and production was done at Oberlin for free. Why was the album done? Steve was leaving Oberlin, and the band wanted to capture some of the magic they had collectively created anything could happen in those days, that there were no limits. The producer of the album was David Crosby, an Oberlin student and good friend of the band who was very much into music production and sounds. Sadly, he passed away during the making of this reissue and will be missed greatly. The artwork for the album was of its time with psychedelic-mind-zapping art work. It was without a doubt a counterculture statement!!
What are the songs about?

"Elaborations"-a great example of Steve's development of the Indian Raga form, with his guitar tuned to get a sitar sound. He had also been to Berkeley in the summer of 1967 and was wowed by bands such as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Quicksilver.
" Pale Shades Of Gray"-.words were written by Steve's first wife, with some Procol Harum influence, is about the pain of alienation.

"River Dawn"- George wrote this song about escaping the restrictions of campus life by sitting on the banks of the Ohio River when the sun was coming up.
"Locomotive Lamp"- Garyís first song as a singer-songwriter. It was a forerunner to the Grateful Deadís train/drug imagery. ìLittle Babyî- a blues cover song that was done by Gary and George's blues band before Ant Trip Ceremony.

• Violets Of Dawnî- the band members were fans of Eric Anderson and covered the song, that was also done by the great Northwest group, The Daily Flash.

• Hey Joeî- the band loved Jimi Hendrix (of course) and did this cover version in his honor. ìFour In The Morningî- a weird but strangely ethereal song that bears a striking similarity to ìHey Joeî with its despondency and desperateness.

• Outskirts- A song about alienation, has words by Oberlin poet, Sandy Lyne and music by pianist, Neal Evans.
• What the matter nowî- written by George's friend , Jack Lee. Lee used to play with Mother Earth. George got the tune from Jeff and added different words to it.

• Get Out Of My Life Womanî-a then popular cover song that west coast bands such as ìThe Doorsî were performing.
• Whatís The Matter Nowî-a lovely psychedelic number that predates the background vocal effect John and Yoko were doing in 1969 and 1970. ìSometimes I Wonderî- no available comments on this blues flavored melody.

Ant Trip Ceremony lasted for about one year, then disbanded upon the memberís graduation from Oberlin College. In their wake they left this fine artifact from their oeuvre and forty years after ì24 Hoursî was first released it sounds as good as ever.

01.Outskirts
02.Pale shades of gray
03.Hey joe
04.Four in the morning
05.What's the matter now
06.Elaborations
07.Riverdawn
08.Violets of dawn
09.Locomotive lamp
10.Little baby
11.Sometimes I wonder
12.Get out of my life woman

Post by CGR

 

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Eire Apparent - Sunrise (Irish Prog/Psych produced by Jimi Hendrix 1969)

For an album that never had a hit to drive it, by a group that isn't too well remembered on its own terms, Eire Apparent's Sunrise is amazingly well known, at least as an artifact among Jimi Hendrix fans, owing to the fact that the guitarist produced it (and played on parts of it). But one wonders how many people have ever actually listened to the album -- as it turns out, it's a pleasing, tuneful, and occasionally bold psychedelic pop/rock excursion, similar in many ways to the Yardbirds' Little Games album, except that Eire Apparent were apparently far more comfortable with psychedelic pop stylings here than Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, et al., were on that Yardbirds record. The mix of lyrical acoustic and electric guitar sounds, some tasteful light orchestrations (strings and horns), and trippy lyrical conceits all works extremely well; this is a surprising psychedelic pop release, gently trippy most of the way through with a few searing contributions by Hendrix. Almost as important are the hints one gets of Ernie Graham's subsequent songwriting range in embryonic form on numbers such as "Rock & Roll Band" and "Magic Carpet" -- his work is rootsier and mostly more accessible than that of Mick Cox, the other major songwriter in the group (though he does make a pleasing contribution with "Let Me Stay"). Between their best songs, the group's overall musical facility, and Hendrix's contributions, the whole album ends up extremely strong and consistent, and well worth hearing on its own terms, even if it wasn't breaking any new ground musically. The record should have done better than it did, but its release by Buddah (which had virtually no presence in England) limited its overseas impact -- and, in any case, the group had lost most of its British audience by then. Also, American radio probably didn't know where to place it, since it straddled both the pop and psychedelic categories (and in very bold terms), along with elements of roots rock. And it missed an opportunity as well -- the original LP release was missing the single B-side "Rock & Roll Band," which covered a lot of the same territory that the Hollies were to parlay into a Top Ten hit a couple of years later with "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)." Juxtapose that with numbers like "The Clown" -- which plunged into psychedelic/metal in a pop framework that distantly echoes both Hendrix's music and that of the Yardbirds of "Happenings Ten Years' Time Ago" -- and one can see the range this group had. It's all admirable music, but was apparently too tough to sell easily without a hit single to pull people in. And it's all still worth hearing, even four decades on. [The 1991 Repertoire Records CD included "Rock & Roll Band" as a bonus track.]

AMG Review by Bruce Eder

Vibrators - Pure Mania (British Punk/New Wave 1977)

Were the Vibrators real punks? Maybe not, but then again, were the Stranglers? Or Eddie and the Hot Rods? Even more to the point, was Steve Jones? Plenty of rock careerists jumped onto the punk/new wave bandwagon in the wake of the Sex Pistols' success (and more than a few folks, like Jones, stumbled into the new movement by accident), but unlike most of them, the Vibrators took to the fast/loud/stripped down thing like ducks to water, and both Knox (aka Ian Carnarchan) and Pat Collier had a genius for writing short, punchy songs with sneering melody lines and gutsy guitar breaks. If the Vibrators were into punk as a musical rather than a sociopolitical movement, it's obvious that they liked the music very much, and on that level their debut album stands the test of time quite well. Pure Mania boasts a bit more polish (and less politics) than many of the albums from punk's first graduating class (such as Damned Damned Damned or The Clash), but if you're looking for a strong, satisfying shot of chugging four-square punk, cue up "Yeah Yeah Yeah," "No Heart," "Petrol," or "Wrecked on You" and you'll be thrown into a gleeful pogo frenzy. Maybe Pure Mania isn't purist's punk, but it's pure rock & roll, and there's nothing wrong with that.

AMG Review by Mark Deming