UNDER-APPRECIATED ROCK BAND OF THE MONTH FOR DECEMBER 2011: THE MAGICIANS
So there I was a couple of weeks ago, working up a UARB article on a 1960’s garage rock band (Phil and the Frantics). I found practically nothing on the Internet about them (except for a really snide piece with lots of putdowns and profanity); there were some nice (though incomplete) liner notes on a compilation album that I have on them, but it just wasn’t coming together.Then I hit Wikipedia and looked up something on the legendary Nuggets collection (full name, and also how it is listed in Wikipedia: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968), when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a total list of blue names sans one. Blue in the Wikipedia world indicates a “wikilink” to another article.
In other words, someone has now written a Wikipedia article on every band on the Nuggets double-album set except one: THE MAGICIANS. (Actually there are now Wikipedia articles on the great majority of the bands on the entire four-CD Nuggets Box Set). Oddly enough, the last several times that I have listened to Nuggets, their song “An Invitation to Cry” has really stood out as a highlight. It is a clever idea for a song that has happened to a lot of people: getting an invitation to the wedding of a former girlfriend.
I have already praised this album to the high heavens when writing the UARB article on Hacienda (January 2011) nearly a year ago, so I won’t say too much more now. Back when Wikipedia was just a little over one-third its current size (as measured by the number of articles in the English-language version at least), I spotted a glaring hole in the rock band articles when I tried to look up something on Mouse and the Traps, a wonderful Texas garage rock band that I have long admired. (At that time, there were articles on maybe half of the bands on Nuggets). Their Nuggets entry “A Public Execution” sounds a lot like Bob Dylan, so you can imagine the appeal of that to me; as Lenny Kaye’s liner notes put it: “There are some who say that Mouse does Dylan’s Highway 61 period better than The Master himself”. On that band I found plenty on the Internet, including websites by at least one of the founding members of the group. Someone in the Wikipedia community even awarded me a Barnstar award for that “long awaited” (as they put it) article, and that sure felt good.
Songwriter and drummer Alan Gordon was playing in an inter-racial Greenwich Village band called Tex and the Chex; other members included Mike Appel (guitar) – who was later the manager for Bruce Springsteen early in the Boss’s career – and Everett Jacobs (bass). Gordon had co-written “An Invitation to Cry” with Jimmy Woods (who was not in the band), and Tex and the Chex had recorded the song. They were discovered by record producers Bob Wyld and Art Polhemus; the producers wanted a stronger vocalist, so they brought in Garry Bonner. The resulting recording (released in October 1965) was described by Richie Unterberger as “superb moody pop/rock with a touch of blue-eyed soul, enhanced by an imaginative production highlighting ominous distorted guitar riffs, graceful tempo shifts, accomplished vocal harmonies, and Bonner’s anguished lead vocal”. Most of their songs though are not as psychedelic but are more mellow pop/rock.
The band, now redubbed the Magicians, added Allan “Jake” Jacobs (guitar and vocals) and John Townley (guitar and bass) when Mike Appel and Everett Jacobs left the band. The band became better known when they replaced the Lovin’ Spoonful as the house band at the Night Owl nightclub in the Village. At one point, Felix Pappalardi – later of the hard rock band Mountain – was interested in joining up as the bass guitarist, but it didn’t work out. They even managed to score an appearance on a local CBS television show called Eye on New York – quite a coup considering that they did not have a hit song or an album.
The Magicians released three more singles on Columbia Records in 1966 and 1967, but none of them – including “An Invitation to Cry” – cracked the Top 100. (Same with Mouse and the Traps though – they released even more singles, and their biggest hit “A Public Execution” got only to #125 nationally – so that doesn’t mean a thing to me).
Following the break-up in 1967, Alan Gordon and Garry Bonner became successful songwriters, particularly with the Turtles; they composed two of the band’s biggest hits, “Happy Together” and “She’d Rather Be with Me”. Allan (Jake) Jacobs later recorded as Bunky and Jake, and also as Jake and the Family Jewels.
Like many a garage rock band before them, Collectables Records has issued a compilation CD on the Magicians called An Invitation to Cry: The Best of the Magicians, and that CD is definitely on my Christmas wish list.
* * *
FLASHBACK: The Under-Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for December 2009 – BEAST.
I really didn’t expect to find anything on YouTube by Beast., and I did have to hunt around quite a bit; but I finally stumbled onto several songs of theirs. None of them are videos; there is just a shot of the Beast album cover in each case. Apparently one person recorded every song on their first album, and others had recorded selected songs. The first song listed below is the opening cut on the album, which features chanting that sounds like animal grunts; the second is another good song that is a little different. If you like what you hear, there are plenty more that you could check out also.
I haven’t ever heard another band that is quite like Beast – the nice woodwind work is rare enough in itself – but if you know of one, please let me know!
“Floating (Down by the River)” – www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK7D6Kq9p8I
“Listen” – www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DkPiSMAA7s
Then I hit Wikipedia and looked up something on the legendary Nuggets collection (full name, and also how it is listed in Wikipedia: Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968), when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a total list of blue names sans one. Blue in the Wikipedia world indicates a “wikilink” to another article.
In other words, someone has now written a Wikipedia article on every band on the Nuggets double-album set except one: THE MAGICIANS. (Actually there are now Wikipedia articles on the great majority of the bands on the entire four-CD Nuggets Box Set). Oddly enough, the last several times that I have listened to Nuggets, their song “An Invitation to Cry” has really stood out as a highlight. It is a clever idea for a song that has happened to a lot of people: getting an invitation to the wedding of a former girlfriend.
I have already praised this album to the high heavens when writing the UARB article on Hacienda (January 2011) nearly a year ago, so I won’t say too much more now. Back when Wikipedia was just a little over one-third its current size (as measured by the number of articles in the English-language version at least), I spotted a glaring hole in the rock band articles when I tried to look up something on Mouse and the Traps, a wonderful Texas garage rock band that I have long admired. (At that time, there were articles on maybe half of the bands on Nuggets). Their Nuggets entry “A Public Execution” sounds a lot like Bob Dylan, so you can imagine the appeal of that to me; as Lenny Kaye’s liner notes put it: “There are some who say that Mouse does Dylan’s Highway 61 period better than The Master himself”. On that band I found plenty on the Internet, including websites by at least one of the founding members of the group. Someone in the Wikipedia community even awarded me a Barnstar award for that “long awaited” (as they put it) article, and that sure felt good.
Songwriter and drummer Alan Gordon was playing in an inter-racial Greenwich Village band called Tex and the Chex; other members included Mike Appel (guitar) – who was later the manager for Bruce Springsteen early in the Boss’s career – and Everett Jacobs (bass). Gordon had co-written “An Invitation to Cry” with Jimmy Woods (who was not in the band), and Tex and the Chex had recorded the song. They were discovered by record producers Bob Wyld and Art Polhemus; the producers wanted a stronger vocalist, so they brought in Garry Bonner. The resulting recording (released in October 1965) was described by Richie Unterberger as “superb moody pop/rock with a touch of blue-eyed soul, enhanced by an imaginative production highlighting ominous distorted guitar riffs, graceful tempo shifts, accomplished vocal harmonies, and Bonner’s anguished lead vocal”. Most of their songs though are not as psychedelic but are more mellow pop/rock.
The band, now redubbed the Magicians, added Allan “Jake” Jacobs (guitar and vocals) and John Townley (guitar and bass) when Mike Appel and Everett Jacobs left the band. The band became better known when they replaced the Lovin’ Spoonful as the house band at the Night Owl nightclub in the Village. At one point, Felix Pappalardi – later of the hard rock band Mountain – was interested in joining up as the bass guitarist, but it didn’t work out. They even managed to score an appearance on a local CBS television show called Eye on New York – quite a coup considering that they did not have a hit song or an album.
The Magicians released three more singles on Columbia Records in 1966 and 1967, but none of them – including “An Invitation to Cry” – cracked the Top 100. (Same with Mouse and the Traps though – they released even more singles, and their biggest hit “A Public Execution” got only to #125 nationally – so that doesn’t mean a thing to me).
Following the break-up in 1967, Alan Gordon and Garry Bonner became successful songwriters, particularly with the Turtles; they composed two of the band’s biggest hits, “Happy Together” and “She’d Rather Be with Me”. Allan (Jake) Jacobs later recorded as Bunky and Jake, and also as Jake and the Family Jewels.
Like many a garage rock band before them, Collectables Records has issued a compilation CD on the Magicians called An Invitation to Cry: The Best of the Magicians, and that CD is definitely on my Christmas wish list.
* * *
FLASHBACK: The Under-Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for December 2009 – BEAST.
I really didn’t expect to find anything on YouTube by Beast., and I did have to hunt around quite a bit; but I finally stumbled onto several songs of theirs. None of them are videos; there is just a shot of the Beast album cover in each case. Apparently one person recorded every song on their first album, and others had recorded selected songs. The first song listed below is the opening cut on the album, which features chanting that sounds like animal grunts; the second is another good song that is a little different. If you like what you hear, there are plenty more that you could check out also.
I haven’t ever heard another band that is quite like Beast – the nice woodwind work is rare enough in itself – but if you know of one, please let me know!
“Floating (Down by the River)” – www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK7D6Kq9p8I
“Listen” – www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DkPiSMAA7s
