Here we are again in 2025, Brown Acid The Twenty-First Trip arriving right on time as the world at large degrades further into disorienting self-absorbed isolation and chaos. Ten powerful early hard rock brain benders, primal energy exploding sideways out of the ash heap of '60s idealism, rocking the darker side of human nature in style!
Raw and unfiltered, no compromise, blasting gnarly sound perfectly sequenced to take you on one helluva ride! Territory populated with dicey characters, perilous women, predators, bad relationships… anti-social alienation delivered with smoking guitars, real people ripping it with no self-defeating namby-pamby finesse sabotaging their brutal energy. Every track sounds fresh today because Brown Acid is the real deal when it comes to what matters in music… communication! Life itself sonically sneering across time!
Opus Est - “Maggie Johnsons” kicks it right out of the gate, taking only a minute and a half to do you in with brash proto punk attitude. Tight and savage riffing shifts gears with an ascending backup vocal hook right out of the twilight zone. The singer sounds disoriented, he can’t get away from Maggie quick enough! Power trio from Belgium in 1974 nail it to the wall and then the whole building collapses.
Freedom North - “Losing You” seamlessly alternates gutsy female vocal ranting with trippy floating guitar passages. Singer Franki Hart sounded psychedelic dreamy on their debut 45 “Doctor Tom”, here she sounds like her throat is gonna fly right into your face. Gnarly lead, harsh dry metallic guitar sound, score one for the ladies here, the dude’s a loser and she dumps him. Canadian band from 1970 cranked out four singles and an LP that year… this is their killer.
Accents - “Friendly Stranger” serves as an ominous warning for the girls. That seemingly charming guy you just met may be more Ted Bundy than Romeo… do not get in his car! Gushy organ, dark buried fuzz guitar, terrific post-psych catchy vocal arrangement. The band formed in Rhode Island in 1966 and cut this dark killer in 1969 in L.A. issued on the Gazzari label, associated with the legendary rock venue.
Brother Love - “Rock N Roll Band” takes the popular theme of being on the road to a new prequel type zone, the guy is headed to New Orleans to start up a band. Great details about wieners and beans, limousines and Cajun Queens, terrific fuzz riff groove like a sideways blend of “Satisfaction” with “Jumping Jack Flash”… best move is the innovatively crude way the lead guitar works a Chuck Berry approach into new territory. Trio led by the Pettito brothers out of Cleveland circa 1970. Perfectly placed break from the darkness on the previous tracks.
River Styx - “Bike Writer” out of Beverly, New Jersey in 1971 gets right back to woman trouble with lyrics as mysteriously inscrutable as the bizarre song title. Non-stop acidic fuzz guitar action all thru, weaving around but coming in for nasty little bites at just the right time. Vocalist rants with hallucinatory twisted Sky Saxon level intensity, searing distorted guitar burning it up on the extended fade-out.
Maxx - “200 Years” was originally issued out of Lansing, Michigan on the local Signal label and picked up for national release as a promo-only by Mainstream Records. The theme is the original USA ideal of ‘land of the free’ becoming utterly doomed by greed and corruption. Menacing light-touch Stooges style rhythmic groove with watery wah-wah action on the intro into dirty bad trip sheets of psychedelic fuzz guitar, this dark beast functions as a bleak epitaph for civil society, as pertinent now as in 1969!
Pump - “Kinda Like” is kinda like outrageous with it’s combination of askew vocal swagger over a churning groove veering into a ridiculously cool chorus about a young girl hanging out with an old man because he makes her feel safe like an old umbrella. Wait until his hand comes into the picture and try not to crack up! Fab primitive guitar lead rides you out and any song with the phrase ‘Nagasaki perfume’ in it is speaking my language! Left-field 1970 winner out of Newark, Delaware on the Dwikey label.
29.9 -“You Got Me Floating” takes the Hendrix song deep into the garage. Way loose vocal, serendipitously crude guitar add to the vibe in a way no virtuoso could top. Led by the Harrison brothers John and Doug out of Pittsburgh but recorded in late 1969 at a band communal party house in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. John later scored films for George Romero, and used 29.9 track in his own horror classic “Effects”.
Wakefield - “Here I Am” is a mini-epic with rudimentary progressive rock moves Sioux Falls, South Dakota style from 1979. Opens with a slinky start and stop stalking groove, vocal has the singer up on the stage but feels like a cage, the crowd isn’t really getting where he’s coming from. Extended break goes into double time with flying guitar leads and shifts gears into to a dreamy vibe with synth mimicking airy mellotron skies saying “you’ll find an answer someday”. Fat chance, you’re in Brown Acid Land!
Peacepipe - “Lazy River Blues” completes Trip 21 in deep psychedelic blues territory with lurking danger in the sinister chord changes, eerie effect dosed vocals, mournful acid guitar leads… makes you feel like you’re getting cornered by something scary you can’t see. Obscure heavy trio led by John Uzonyi from L.A. circa 1969, originally issued on the custom Accent label. The creepy vibe sticks with you like a phantasmic nightmare!
