NEVER EVER LAND

Here’s an amazing 3 CD compilation box set that was released by Charly Records last year but that I didn’t see mentioned in any of the year end polls that I came across. And that’s a crying shame because NEVER EVER LAND is up there with the very best label compilations on the market. Texas-based International Artists Records was responsible for producing some of the most exciting and influential garage & psych sounds of the Sixties. Compiler Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills classifies the songs into 3 groups: Disc One is called GARAGE- THE TEXAN EARTHQUAKE and is perfectly balanced between well-known bands like The 13th Floor Elevators or The Red Crayola and obscure bands like The Golden Dawn or Sterling Damon. Disc Two is subtitled OUT THERE! THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF I.A. and offers 26 other garage/psych nuggets before it clocks in at 77.57 minutes with a 60-second radio spot for the Elevators album “Bull Of The Woods”. Boring psych is nowhere to be found: these are killer tracks, drenched in fuzz guitars and heavy percussion! Again, we hear tracks by The 13th Floor Elevators and The Red Crayola, but also discover fantastic bands like The Bubble Puppy and Lost And Found. Finally, Disc Three says POT POURRI – POP AND ANYTHING GOES and then you start to realize just what an awkward way it is to classify the Texan label’s recordings into these 3 subdivisions. When I say that POT POURRI – POP AND ANYTHING GOES features great songs by Lightnin’ Hopkins and country singer Tom Harvey, I suppose you get the idea. Still, NEVER EVER LAND is a killer compilation (did I mention the wonderful 48-page booklet yet?) that you simply cannot afford to miss, especially at such a great price! Buy it now before it’s too late!

Listen to the track that opens CD2: Hot Smoke And Sasafrass – The Bubble Puppy (1968)