The Consumption

Another long-forgotten psychedelic slab. Like Trip Thru Hell the other week, this 1968 gem started off with a limited pressing that only gained in mystique thanks to its rarity and its oddball production – Chris Dadge tells me it was recorded by a producer who’d only ever done classical work, hence the distant guitars and resonant vocals.

Underground music is a funny thing. Better production might not’ve made Out of the Bachs a hit, but the oddly lo-fi quality sure helps in making it feel like a long-lost something. Not to say that overburdened mics are all The Bachs have going for them – the band covers a lot of garage rock territory in its one and only offering. Pristine Haight-Ashbury ballad “My Independence Day” should’ve granted these guys a more prominent place in the Nuggets canon, while Velvets-y raver “Show Me That You Want to Go Home” and the sinister “Minister to a Mind Diseased” show off rougher edges; closer “I’m a Little Boy” gives itself over completely to psych mind games, falling somewhere between Kontroversy Kinks and Sell Out Who, minus the studio wizardry. Lofty comparisons, sure, but not entirely unwarranted, either.

(For an absurdly long interview/band history, check Beyond the Beat Generation)

Sample songs:

“My Independence Day”

“Show Me That You Want to Go Home“