Mind-bending psychedelia from America where the anonymous space cadets are mostly armed with fuzz guitars

Since the early eighties I’ve bought many hundreds of ’60s garage / psychedelic compilations. At the time they were about all I ever listened too. It was a voyage of discovery, a seemingly endless one at that.

Almost every week new way-out compilations would appear in the independent record shops and the countless dealer-lists I’d receive through the post.

I’d feverously buy the one’s I could afford out of my student loans, then dole money. The eighties weren’t so bad for music if you looked back to the sixties.

The time has come to revisit those glorious vinyl garage compilations.

THE IN-KEEPERS – ’That Was Just His Thing’/’The Cobweb Threads Of Autumn’ (RCA 74-0229) August 1969

”God created man,
God created woman
And they created.”

Religion and late ’60s psych collide with this creepy number, trippy Association style la-la-la’s, fuzz, sinister voice, strings and brass flourishes – all this equals ’Flower Bomb Songs’ worthy.

I reckon The In-Keepers would have looked like cool hippies with shortish hair but with black goatie beards in black threads and wearing crimson rosary beads around their necks.

The flip ’The Cobweb Threads Of Autumn’ is a sunshine pop effort that’s real tight and well produced. Curt Boettcher fans will dig this one.

Just out of interest, the producer for both In-Keepers 45s was Pierre Maheu who also produced the garage classic ’Gotta Get Some’ by The Bold. (27/07/13)

Loos Foos And The Fiberglass Cornflake – ‘I Think I’ve Got You’ / ‘Bless Me Father’ (Ace Record Co ARS-135) Sept 1969

Here’s a weird 45! The top side ’I Think I’ve Got You’ and the one the band or record company thought would sound better on the radio is a pleasant enough pop song.

It has a ’soulful’ feel and above average vocals. It’s even an OK song but it doesn’t really do much for me. Maybe because of the ’soul’ vibe and soul just ain’t my cup of tea maan.

The flip however is more my scene. ’Bless Me Father’ is a cool psychedelic song with haunting organ, distorted guitar and wah wah. It’s also blessed with some fuzz. This song has turned up on the CD only ’A Fistful Of Fuzz’ compilation in the late 90s.

Both songs were written by R. Sousa. I don’t know anything about the band apart from the rumour that they hailed from Rhode Island in New England, so any information will be appreciated. (01/04/07)

’Bless me father for I have sinned.
And these are my sins.’

My interview with Rick Sousa can be found here.