Summer's End Mixtape

At the beginning of summer, I started digging deep into the recesses of this vast internet to find some new musical curiosities to explore. It was time to recalibrate the ears. This impulse apparently manifested in a key word search on "psychedelia". I dug my way to a few stockpiles of nice 60's/70's vinyl rips; things I would never find otherwise. Some of the albums have been reissued on CD; most have not. Interestingly, my favorite finds were less psychedelic and more rootsy blues-based rock, or, straight up hard rock.

Here is a sampler of some of my favorite cuts from this summer's deep cut binge; sequenced for maximum enjoyment. Hope you enjoy it. Sorry for the file size and ramble.

Sunrise Over One More Day [9 songs, 43min, 89.2MB, .Rar]

The Talent:
Note: Some links may require some further navigation.

Jamul, Jamul [1970, Lizard]
Research shows that this band shared management with Steppenwolf; this is actually a pretty good starting point in describing their sound: bluesy hard rock but more countryfied and less polished than Steppenwolf. More info here.

Solid Ground, Made in Rock [1976, ?]
Swedish heavy guitar rock. Pounding drums, lots of riffage. This album grew from a cult classic into a 1991 CD reissue and a 2004 reunion with the original lineup. That's the power of crate-digging and reissuing beloved artists. More info here.

Bear Mountain Band, One More Day [1971, Predator]
This is the description that won me over: "Extremely rare, trashy Arizona booze soaked psych rock LP with some blistering guitar and outlaw atmosphere." Pretty much nails it.

Blackwater Park, Dirtbox [1971, ?]
German hard rock with English vocals. This band loves big dirty guitar solos and aggressive riffs. One has to love the lack of irony in 70's hard rock. Reissued and worth picking up. Why not, eh?

Sid Rumpo, First Offense [1974, Mushroom]
Australian blues/pub rock. I like this record quite a bit for the keyboards that come into play during the second half of the album. They're all talented players and can take a pop song into an extended jam nicely.