THE MISUNDERSTOOD
The Misunderstood were a psychedelic rock band originating from Riverside, California in the mid-1960s. The band moved to London early in their career, and although they recorded only a handful of songs before being forced to disband, they are considered highly influential in the then-emerging genre. Creem, in their September 2004 review, wrote, “The saga of the Misunderstood is one of the most unbelievable, heartbreaking, and unlikely stories in the entire history of rock.” Classic Rock’s June 2010 issue stated, “The truth is that this band (the Misunderstood) were so far out on their own, so individual and innovative that you can only wonder at the set of circumstances that conspired to prevent them from becoming the iconic name that was surely their destiny.” (More from Wikipedia)
An overview of the Loons was published in the San Diego Reader in 2015 upon the release of Inside Out Your Mind; eight other articles about the band had been published previously by this alternative weekly. The article lists the “genre” for the Loons as noise/experimental and punk and describes the “full scope of their sound” as “Beatlesque vibes reincarnated in the form of post-punk fervency”. Influences are listed in the article as the Pretty Things, the Seeds, the Yardbirds, the Monks, the 13th Floor Elevators, MC5, the Misunderstood, and the Dutch band the Outsiders.
(June 2017)
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Mike Stax’s exhaustively researched article over four issues in Ugly Things on the Misunderstood led to the publication of a book on the band called Like, Misunderstood that was co-written with the band’s lead singer Rick Brown; as quoted in the Union Tribune article, Stax says: “They came pretty close to making it in London, they got a deal with Fontana Records, had a single out and had media (coverage). Then, the [U.S. military] draft claimed the lead singer, and they were finished overnight, just as they were on the verge of success. They would have been the first psychedelic band, with an album out before before [Jimi] Hendrix and Pink Floyd. They were cheated. Their music was world-class.”
(September 2017)
