Adam Ostrar announces U.S. tour dates, ex-Curious Digit, Manishevitz (Jagjaguwar) leader's solo outing

Austin, TX songwriter Adam Ostrar (formerly Adam Busch) launches U.S. Southwest and West Coast tour dates this week in support of his recently released sophomore solo album Brawls In The Briar on Super Secret Records. Please see tour dates below. 

Hear and share Brawls In The Briar via Soundcloud HERE. 

A veteran band leader of the last twenty years, and a songwriter of considerable output, Adam Ostrar now presents his second solo record Brawls In The Briar, after a career spent at the helm of art rock ensembles The Curious Digit (Jagjaguwar), Manishevitz (Jagjaguwar) and SONOI (Meno Mosso).

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Ostrar moved to Chicago in 1999 where he remained until 2014. During this time period as primary songwriter he released four Manishevitz albums on Jagjaguwar. He later formed the band SONOI with fellow Manishevitz alumni Ryan Hembrey and drummer Pierce Doerr.

In 2015, after relocating to Austin, he began his solo career with River of Bricks (Meno Mosso). Many of those songs emerged during a period spent studying guitar with African music scholar Nathaniel Braddock, who began teaching him a variety of finger style forms by way of repertoire including African, American Primitive, and British Folk icons Bert Jansch and Davy Graham.

In 2017, Ostrar signed on with Super Secret Records. He headed out to Southwest Texas to record
 at famed music studio Sonic Ranch. Joining him in this project were Wil Hendricks (Califone), Michael Krassner (Boxhead Ensemble) and Stephen Patterson (White Rabbits, Spoon, Hamilton Leithauser). Ostrar meticulously edited and demoed versions until he felt the songs were fully fleshed out and were ready to record with the band. The recordings were cut live in five days with no rehearsals.

Brawls in the Briar opens with the melancholic bounce of “Enemy” and sets forth the theme of cognitive dissonance that resonates with each additional track. Ostrar mixes referential, autobiographical and subversively political themes often and elegantly within the same song. "Brawls” is built atop a bedrock of vintage folk, open tunings, twelve string guitars, organ swells, synth pads, piano swagger, bossa nova rhythms and the gorgeous violin work of occasional guest Josh Hill on the Tim Buckley-esque “Drinking from a Candle”. Ostrar’s early influences -- Lou Reed, Robert Wyatt, Caetano Veloso -- still impact his work.

Brawls In The Briar is available on LP, CD and download on Super Secret Records.

ADAM OSTRAR LIVE:

2/1 Tuscon, AZ @ St. Charles

2/2 Joshua Tree, CA @ Landers Brew Co.

2/3 Los Angeles, CA @ Mt. Washington House

2/5 Portland, OR @ Turn Turn Turn w/ David Dondero and Birger Olsen

2/6 Seattle, WA @ Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar

2/7 Phoenix, AZ @ Cibo Carriage House

Artist: Adam Ostrar

Album: Brawls In The Briar

Label: Super Secret Records

Release Date: October 13, 2017

01. Enemy

02. Another Room

03. Warlock

04. Spare Me

05. Drinking From A Candle

06. Hammered White and Barking

07. Cossacks In The Building

08. Hot Air

09. Boy

10. Color of Bone

11. Cindy Tells Me

On The Web:

supersecretrecords.com/bands/adam-ostrar

Hear unreleased 1978 outsider psych-rock track by Spiny Normen via Classic Rock Magazine, LP out March 2nd

"A dark masterpiece." -- Paste Magazine

"A delightfully demented piece of work mixing hard rock, progressive rock, and twisted psychedelia into a darkly entertaining whole. Brilliantly maniacal." -- Classic Rock 

Spiny Normen premiere a new track from their forthcoming posthumous album -- 40 years in the making -- today via Classic Rock Magazine. Hear and share "Bell Park Loon" HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

Paste Magazine recently shared album opener "Arrowhead" HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

Spiny Normen is an incredible mid-70's Houston hard rock, progressive, psychedelic rock band (yes, all that and more) that featured mellotron, vox jaguar, crunchy, heavy guitars, flute with echo effects, and lots more. A totally lost relic this album is, recorded at the community college and never released. This band has a very English, dark, mysterious and proggy but very acid drenched feeling to it.  Vocalist/guitarist Steve Brudniak dishes on the band's founding and this exceptional recording: Circa 1976, Gerry and I would skip class, smoke whatever scrap of contraband we could scrape together and meet in the high school auditorium where there was a piano and bang out crunchy rhythms.... At home I shoved a mic into the family upright piano and overdrove a cheap recorder and home made echo-plex to get an impressive cacophony. Gerry was playing guitar, listening to Alice Cooper, hair down to his back and about the only Mexican American in a white bread school. He was cool! So when he said one day, "Hey man we should jam some time!" I was stoked. We did, man it was fun! I was soon on the lookout for a keyboard to become legit with. I found the already ancient Vox Jaguar in the Houston paper that had belonged to Fever Tree, one of the original psychedelic bands of the late 60s. I didn't know how famous they were at the time but I bought it for $160 and a Kustom blue sparkle vinyl amp with a speaker that I blew out just right, that made the most beautiful distortion, accompanied by a beloved phase shifter.  We began torturing our parents in various suburban garages and bedrooms after adding Norman Davis on drums and Steve Koch on bass. Back then it was a Black Sabbath sounding, blues based crunch. Songs like "Carry Your Water" and "Space Age Flyer" were early comps.  We made a 4-track recording in a local studio around then that our drummer didn't show up to the session for. All of us being Monty Python fans, and the Norman-no-show gave us the name Spiny Normen (with an E) which two more bands have since taken.  Over the next three years we began to experiment, waaaay off into the beaten path, spending months penning intense, bizarre, surreal and mind affecting pieces influenced by King Crimson, Pink Floyd, film soundtracks, Vandergraaf Generator, and the like along with some bad bad acid trips on my part. I was collecting keyboards ...a melotron (hell yes!) a single key play moog. Gerry was adding echoes, early guitar synth and tons of pedals. I learned the flute. New bass player Bruce Salmon and a try at another vocalist Bob Riley and various drummers, my favorite being Robert Winters, were in and out. In we went with a hired stand up bass player and a little Gerry Diaz engineering knowledge to the Alvin community college 8-track recording studio and just played like psychedelic Mozarts. Timpani, live effects, sound effect records, backward echo, violin bow on guitar and plenty of echo. Gerry and I on vocals now. What came out was still, to this day, in my humble opinion, some very complex, untouched territory, holy-what-the-? stuff. We were all about 19.  It didn't last long and we were way behind and way ahead of our time. I'm so ffffn thrilled though at 54 to see what this world of open-ended listeners will think of Spiny Normen now. The 19 year old Steve is getting his dream fulfilled. Gerry and I still experiment here and again with guitar and theremin in an effort called Psylobison. Just as touched, but its not going to give you such bad dreams. Spiny Normen will be available on LP, CD and download on February 23rd, 2018 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available at RidingEasyRecs.com.

Artist: Spiny Normen Album: Spiny Normen Label: RidingEasy Records Release Date: February 23, 2018 01. Arrowhead 02. Wrecko Wild Man Ride 03. Carry Your Water 04. The Monkeyweasel 05. To Meet the Mad Hatter 06. The Bell Park Loon 07. In The Darkness of Night 08. The Sound of Younger Times On The Web: ridingeasyrecs.com

Hear entire Terminal Mind (early 80s Austin punk trio & Big Boys compatriots) rare & unreleased album ahead of release

"Grayscale art-rock with punk desperation channeled through instrumental and songwriting legitimacy...Terminal Mind remains an act locals still celebrate despite a short lifespan and being under-recorded." -- Austin Chronicle

"Essential listening for students of American punk history." -- Paste

"Terminal Mind sounds remarkably fresh and prescient today." -- PopMatters

First-wave Austin, TX punk trio Terminal Mind are streaming their forthcoming retrospective album in full starting today via PopMatters. Recordings collects the short lived band's 4-song 7" (which fetches upwards of $100 on eBay), Live At Raul's compilation cuts and outstanding unreleased studio and live recordings from 1979-1981. Hear and share Recordings HERE. (Direct Soundcloud.)

Paste Magazine recently featured the carefully restored mix of the band's standout anthem "I Want To Die Young" HERE. Austin Chronicle shared the incendiary "Refugee" HERE. And, I Heart Noise hosted the powerhouse live soundboard track that perfectly showcases the band's exceptional melodicism and musicianship HERE. 

Terminal Mind play a one-off reunion show in Austin, TX at Beerland to celebrate the album release. Tickets and more information available HERE. 

Terminal Mind, formed in 1978, was one of the early first-wave punk acts in Austin, TX. Based far from the urban roots of a genre in its earliest stages, the band absorbed influences as disparate as Pere Ubu, Roxy Music, John Cale, and Wire. The life span was short, but their influence touched many of the next generation of Texas noise and hardcore acts as they shared bills with fellow proto-punks The Huns and Standing Waves at Raul's, The Big Boys on the UT campus, and even opened for Iggy Pop at the Armadillo World Headquarters.

Founding members Steve Marsh and the Murray Brothers, Doug and Greg, started as a trio before adding synthesizer player Jack Crow. Steve Marsh moved to New York with his experimental noise band Miracle Room (before eventually returning to Austin and forming space/psychedelic rock band Evil Triplet and beginning an experimental solo project dubbed Radarcave), while Doug Murary joined the Skunks and Greg Murray played in a later version of The Big Boys. Jack Crow passed away in 1994.

This collection of songs is a journey back to the 'anything goes' first steps of American punk as it left the dirty streets of New York and Los Angeles and made its way into the heartland. Like the Austin of 1978, Recordings is a small outpost of musical individualism that planted seeds for the alternative music explosion familiar to later generations. 

Recordings will be available on LP, CD and download on January 19th, 2018 via Sonic Surgery Records.

TERMINAL MIND LIVE:

01/19 Austin, TX @ Beerland (w/ Eastside Suicides) 

Artist: Terminal Mind

Album: Recordings

Label: Sonic Surgery Records

Release Date: January 19, 2018

01. I Want to Die Young

02. Refugee

03. Sense of Rhythm

04. Zombieland

05. Obsessed With Crime

06. Fear In the Future

07. Radioactive

08. Bridges Are For Burning

09. (I Give Up On) Human Rights

10. Black

11. Missing Pieces

12. Bureaucracy 

On The Web:

supersecretrecords.com/bands/terminal-mind

Sean Morales (James Arthur's Manhunt) streaming solo debut w/ heavy friends ahead of release on Super Secret Records

"A wild 8-song collection that's all over the map musically: power pop, proto-punk, garbled Krautrock, indie rock, Fat Possum blues, and more." -- Big Takeover

"Morales doesn’t stand still or stagnate in one genre, which gives Call It In an added charm. While others have attempted it only to suffer from a critic(al) identity crisis, here, it’s just charming." -- Ghettoblaster

Austin songwriter Sean Morales is streaming his forthcoming solo debut Call It In in its entirety ahead of release starting today courtesy of Ghettoblaster Magazine. Morales, who also plays in James Arthur's Manhunt, enlisted the help of several local scene luminaries to complete the project, a frenetic 8-song album that explores a variety of styles. Hear & share the album in full HERE. (Direct Soundcloud.)

Treble recently hosted the title track HERE. Austin Town Hall shared the forlorn "We've Been Apart"  HERE. And, the lead single, a cover of '70s British musician/producer Chris Spedding's "Video Life" previously premiered via The Spill and Big Takeover.

Sean Morales is a family man from Austin by way Norfolk, VA. He began writing the songs for Call it In while living alone in Houston, then started shaping the songs with wife and drummer, Erica Barton (also of Super Secret artists Faceless Werewolves), after moving back to Austin. Sean then reached out to Jonathan Horne, a brilliant Jazz-bent guitarist known for his work with Young Mothers, Ichi Ni San Shi, and Knest and other heavy friends from the Austin rock'n'roll underground like Orville Neely from OBN IIIs, Bryan Schmitz from the Golden Boys, and James Arthur from the band Sean regularly plays bass in, the blistering psych damaged James Arthur's Manhunt, to bring whatever they had on them at the time; be it laughter, Clubtails, or scorching guitar. The recording was expertly helmed by Stuart Sikes who's recorded cornerstone works by The White Stripes, Cat Power, and Loretta Lynn.

Call It In is an occasion to celebrate the ease of life. It's an inviting debut that calls you over for a sundown evening of bourbon on the porch and unfolds into unexpected conversational turns. There is an alien familiarity in this record that resembles a solo night drive through blabber and smoke to arrive at a familiar room to find that Alex Chilton, Wreckless Eric, and the members of Amon Duul are already in the house, waiting for Junior Kimbrough to play. It's something that could have conceivably happened at some point, but it's still a dream.

Sean made his first record with more mission than vision, by that we mean that this record is a comfort to those of us who think about records almost as friends we like to catch up with. Call It In will tell you the lowdown and take you to some unexpected places.

Call It In will be available on LP, CD and download on January 12th, 2018 via Super Secret Records. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

Artist: Sean Morales Album: Call It In Label: Super Secret Records Release Date: January 12, 2018 01. Video Life 02. Call It In 03. Bring Me Home 04. Whispertime 05. Problems 06. Slummertime 07. We've Been Apart 08. Party 1 On The Web: facebook.com/singharpy supersecretrecords.com/bands/sean-morales

Tal National - acclaimed African psych-polyrhthmic Afropop band - share first track from forthcoming FatCat album

"Searing, soaring guitar lines, vocals that alternate between mournful and celebratory, and rhythms that elevate the soul... Tal National reminds us that there's something deeper to its music than any genre slot or critical assignment could hope to capture." -- PopMatters Niamey, Niger band Tal National announce the forthcoming release of their third album for FatCat Records, Tantabara today with a premiere of the full length's first single via PopMatters. Hear and share "Akokas" HERE. (Direct Soundcloud.) Watch & share "Akokas" official VIDEO YouTube.  Tal National once again return to North America in late February, touring in support of the album. Please see current dates below.  Tal National is a band built on bringing people together. Their home country of Niger is split into a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities -- Songhai, Fulani, Hausa, and Tuareg voices all vie for attention under their national banner, and all are represented in the vast membership of Tal National's ranks. This gives the band's music its own particular mash of ethnomusical touchstones, from the bounce of kora, highlife and afrobeat, to the dusting of Tuareg Blues and the roiling boil of Hausa percussion -- they are truly their country's best cultural emissaries.  Gearing up for their third album for FatCat, Tal National look back on a fertile period spent honing their sound and touring the US several times -- leaving audiences sweaty and stunned time after time. They've laid down incredible sets at WOMAD and Roskilde, bringing the same intensity and jubilance to the festival set as they would a crammed club, converting the staunchest wallflower into a dancer for the night.  At their core, that's Tal National's intent, to make the people dance. Performances at their Niamey nightclub (yes, they operate their own nightclub) are regularly raucous 5-hour non-stop dance parties for 300 people a night. With Tantabara the band continues their ongoing quest to translate that energy to tape, bottling the party for personal use.  In 2013 the band's FatCat debut was released to wide critical acclaim: The NY Times placed it on their year end Top Ten and other publications followed suit -- The Guardian, The Independent, Mojo, Vice, The Wire, and others all sang exuberant praises. NPR, KEXP and WBEZ hosted frenetic live sessions. Two years on, their follow-up only cemented their status, adding shouts from Pitchfork, Afropop Worldwide, FADER, The Quietus and The Boston Globe to the fray. Though with each heaping of praise they all seemed to echo NPR's assessment that "there's no way you won't dance to this one!" Tantabara is the latest installment of Tal National's attempt to make a global audience dance.  The album was recorded in their hometown of Niamey, Niger, again with Chicago engineer Jamie Carter at the controls. The band have always carved a huge sound out of limited resources, which means using a remote recording rig in a dusty makeshift studio and working with minimal recording equipment and musical instruments on the verge of disrepair. This all adds to the band's communal spirit, though, and opening their home up as a studio means that everybody gets to be involved in the process. Over the 8 tracks on Tantabara, there are 8 different vocalists -- 7 of whom are full time members of the band.   They are a self-described "rock band," though their vision of rock may push well past what the West fences in around that term, and guitarist Almeida finds as much inspiration in trance as he does in rock's embrace. The grooves are the backbone of the album, and the intent is to create a trance-state that overwhelms conscious thought and lets the listener be surrounded by the energy and emotion of Tal National.  Brimming with the band's complex, intense spirit, the album is a continuation of the balance of tradition and innovation that have driven their previous albums. It's a joyous celebration and euphoric epiphany all in one complex package. We'd expect nothing less at this point from Tal National.  Tantabara will be available on LP, CD and download on February 9th, 2018 via FatCat Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.  TAL NATIONAL TOUR: 02/22 Marlboro, NY @ The Falcon 02/23 Brooklyn, NY @ Littlefiend 02/24 Boston, MA @ House of Blues 02/25 Portland, ME @ Space Gallery 02/27 New Haven, CT @ Cafe Nine 03/03 Rockland, ME @ The Strand Theatre 03/17 Baltimore, MD @ Creative Alliance 03/18 Charleston, WV @ Mountain Stage 03/23 Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival 03/24 Atlanta, GA @ Smith's Olde Bar

Artist: Tal National Album: Tantabara Label: FatCat Records Release Date: February 9th, 2018 01. Tantabara 02. Belles Reines 03. Entente 04. Duniya 05. Akokas 06. Pama 07. Trankil 08. Aminiata On The Web: talnational.com fat-cat.co.uk/press/artist/tal-national  facebook.com/TalNational

BlackWater HolyLight fuse alt-tuned gloom, heavy psych, gothic drama on 1st single from upcoming RidingEasy Records debut

Portland, OR quartet BlackWater HolyLight announce their forthcoming self-titled debut album today with an advance listen to lead single "Sunrise", available to hear and share via YouTube HERE. 

The notion of "heavy music" is continuing to expand of late, with many intrepid artists finding new ways to incorporate the power of traditional metal into new music, but without all of its trappings. Enter Portland, OR quartet BlackWater HolyLight to further swirl musical elements into a captivating hybrid of emotional intensity. Heavy psych riffs, gothic drama, folk-rock vibes, garage-sludge and soaring melodies all collide into a satisfying whole with as much contrast as the band's name itself. 

"I wanted to experiment with my own version of what felt 'heavy' both sonically and emotionally," says founder and vocalist/bassist Allison "Sunny" Faris. "I also wanted a band in which vulnerability of any form could be celebrated." BlackWater HolyLight -- Faris, guitarist/vocalist Laura Hopkins, drummer Cat Hoch and synth player Sarah Mckenna -- formed upon the breakup of Faris' longtime band and she sought a fresh start. "In my last band I was the only female in a group of 6, so I wanted to see how my songwriting and vulnerability could glow taking the drivers seat and working with women."

The band's self-titled debut begins with a simple, almost grunge-like riff as a chorus of voices introduce a melodic line in call-and-response until the band kicks in, slowly building into crescendo like a lost outtake from Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy. Elsewhere, "Sunrise" begins with a chorus-drenched post-punk groove until a sonic boom of heavily distorted guitar skree erupts out of nowhere. Nearly as suddenly, the song returns to its lulling core, subtly building the tension until it ruptures completely in a blast of noise. Likewise, "Carry Her" establishes a dark, sparse melody and distinctly thin sounding drums not far removed from early work of The Cure. However, BlackWater HolyLight's penchant for surprise attack finds a sudden shift into a doom-like dirge, colored with eerie synth notes and pounding shards of fuzz. Throughout the album, their songs shirk traditional verse-chorus-verse structure in favor of fluid, serpentine compositions that move with commanding grace. The band expertly, yet subconsciously, incorporates hints of Chelsea Wolfe, Celebration, Captain Beefheart, The Raincoats, The Stooges, Pink Floyd, Jane's Addiction and more to form their unique brand of dark'n'heavy transcendence..

BlackWater HolyLight was recorded by Cameron Speice at Gold Brick Studios and The Greenhouse, and with Eric Crespo at Touch Tourcher Recording in Portland. The album will be available on LP, CD and download April 6th, 2018 via RidingEasy Records. Preorders are available for LP & CD at www.ridingeasyrecs.com and digital at blackwaterholylight.bandcamp.com.

Artist: BlackWater HolyLight Album: BlackWater HolyLight Label: RidingEasy Records Release Date: April 6th, 2018 01. Willow 02. Wave of Conscience 03. Babies 04. Paranoia 05. Sunrise 06. Slow Hole 07. Carry Her 08. Jizz Witch On The Web: ridingeasyrecs.com instagram.com/blackwaterholylight

Terminal Mind (early 80s Austin punk trio & Big Boys compatriots) premiere track from discography + unreleased studio album

"Grayscale art-rock with punk desperation channeled through instrumental and songwriting legitimacy...Terminal Mind remains an act locals still celebrate despite a short lifespan and being under-recorded." -- Austin Chronicle

First-wave Austin, TX punk trio Terminal Mind premiere the first track from their forthcoming retrospective album today via Austin Chronicle. Recordings collects the short lived band's 4-song 7" (which fetches upwards of $100 on eBay), Live At Raul's compilation cuts and outstanding unreleased studio and live recordings. Hear and share "Refugee" HERE. (Direct Soundcloud.)

Terminal Mind, formed in 1978, was one of the early first-wave punk acts in Austin, TX. Based far from the urban roots of a genre in its earliest stages, the band absorbed influences as disparate as Pere Ubu, Roxy Music, John Cale, and Wire. The life span was short, but their influence touched many of the next generation of Texas noise and hardcore acts as they shared bills with fellow proto-punks The Huns and Standing Waves at Raul's, The Big Boys on the UT campus, and even opened for Iggy Pop at the Armadillo World Headquarters.

Founding members Steve Marsh and the Murray Brothers, Doug and Greg, started as a trio before adding synthesizer player Jack Crow. Steve Marsh moved to New York with his experimental noise band Miracle Room (before eventually returning to Austin and forming space/psychedelic rock band Evil Triplet and beginning an experimental solo project dubbed Radarcave), while Doug Murary joined the Skunks and Greg Murray played in a later version of The Big Boys. Jack Crow passed away in 1994.

This collection of songs is a journey back to the 'anything goes' first steps of American punk as it left the dirty streets of New York and Los Angeles and made its way into the heartland. Like the Austin of 1978, Recordings is a small outpost of musical individualism that planted seeds for the alternative music explosion familiar to later generations. 

Recordings will be available on LP, CD and download on January 19th, 2018 via Sonic Surgery Records.

Artist: Terminal Mind

Album: Recordings

Label: Sonic Surgery Records

Release Date: January 19, 2018

01. I Want to Die Young

02. Refugee

03. Sense of Rhythm

04. Zombieland

05. Obsessed With Crime

06. Fear In the Future

07. Radioactive

08. Bridges Are For Burning

09. (I Give Up On) Human Rights

10. Black

11. Missing Pieces

12. Bureaucracy 

On The Web:

supersecretrecords.com/bands/terminal-mind

Spiny Normen premiere lead track from unreleased album 40-years after recording via Paste Magazine

"A dark masterpiece." -- Paste Magazine Spiny Normen premiere the first track from their forthcoming posthumous album -- 40 years in the making -- today via Paste Magazine. Hear and share album opener "Arrowhead" HERE. (Direct YouTube.) Spiny Normen is an incredible mid-70's Houston hard rock, progressive, psychedelic rock band (yes, all that and more) that featured mellotron, vox jaguar, crunchy, heavy guitars, flute with echo effects, and lots more. A totally lost relic this album is, recorded at the community college and never released. This band has a very English, dark, mysterious and proggy but very acid drenched feeling to it.  Vocalist/guitarist Steve Brudniak dishes on the band's founding and this exceptional recording: Circa 1976, Gerry and I would skip class, smoke whatever scrap of contraband we could scrape together and meet in the high school auditorium where there was a piano and bang out crunchy rhythms.... At home I shoved a mic into the family upright piano and overdrove a cheap recorder and home made echo-plex to get an impressive cacophony. Gerry was playing guitar, listening to Alice Cooper, hair down to his back and about the only Mexican American in a white bread school. He was cool! So when he said one day, "Hey man we should jam some time!" I was stoked. We did, man it was fun! I was soon on the lookout for a keyboard to become legit with. I found the already ancient Vox Jaguar in the Houston paper that had belonged to Fever Tree, one of the original psychedelic bands of the late 60s. I didn't know how famous they were at the time but I bought it for $160 and a Kustom blue sparkle vinyl amp with a speaker that I blew out just right, that made the most beautiful distortion, accompanied by a beloved phase shifter.  We began torturing our parents in various suburban garages and bedrooms after adding Norman Davis on drums and Steve Koch on bass. Back then it was a Black Sabbath sounding, blues based crunch. Songs like "Carry Your Water" and "Space Age Flyer" were early comps.  We made a 4-track recording in a local studio around then that our drummer didn't show up to the session for. All of us being Monty Python fans, and the Norman-no-show gave us the name Spiny Normen (with an E) which two more bands have since taken.  Over the next three years we began to experiment, waaaay off into the beaten path, spending months penning intense, bizarre, surreal and mind affecting pieces influenced by King Crimson, Pink Floyd, film soundtracks, Vandergraaf Generator, and the like along with some bad bad acid trips on my part. I was collecting keyboards ...a melotron (hell yes!) a single key play moog. Gerry was adding echoes, early guitar synth and tons of pedals. I learned the flute. New bass player Bruce Salmon and a try at another vocalist Bob Riley and various drummers, my favorite being Robert Winters, were in and out. In we went with a hired stand up bass player and a little Gerry Diaz engineering knowledge to the Alvin community college 8-track recording studio and just played like psychedelic Mozarts. Timpani, live effects, sound effect records, backward echo, violin bow on guitar and plenty of echo. Gerry and I on vocals now. What came out was still, to this day, in my humble opinion, some very complex, untouched territory, holy-what-the-? stuff. We were all about 19.  It didn't last long and we were way behind and way ahead of our time. I'm so ffffn thrilled though at 54 to see what this world of open-ended listeners will think of Spiny Normen now. The 19 year old Steve is getting his dream fulfilled. Gerry and I still experiment here and again with guitar and theremin in an effort called Psylobison. Just as touched, but its not going to give you such bad dreams. Spiny Normen will be available on LP, CD and download on February 23rd, 2018 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available at RidingEasyRecs.com.

Artist: Spiny Normen Album: Spiny Normen Label: RidingEasy Records Release Date: February 23, 2018 01. Arrowhead 02. Wrecko Wild Man Ride 03. Carry Your Water 04. The Monkeyweasel 05. To Meet the Mad Hatter 06. The Bell Park Loon 07. In The Darkness of Night 08. The Sound of Younger Times On The Web: ridingeasyrecs.com