DESCRIPTION:
Artist: The K-Pers
Title: The Red Invasion
Track: 11
Album: The Psychedelic States: Alabama in the 60's Volume 1

By this fifth installment, it had already become quite clear the logic that reissue label Gear Fab used to put together the CDs in its Psychedelic States series. The modus operandi entails recovering as many obscurities and unknowns as possible from the maw of the '60s on a regional basis and presenting them, for better or worse, to the public no frills. If rather more than fewer of the songs tend to lean toward the "for worse" side of the spectrum, so be it. Even the stinkers tend to be loveable in their hormonal, beetle-booted, eczematous mediocrity, instant time capsules to transport the listener to a halcyon rock era when virtually every suburban garage and Elks club came stocked with its own Beatles or Rolling Stones manque no matter how remote or unlikely the region in which they were situated. In the case of this entry in the series, those garages were located in tumultuous Alabama, a hotbed for political turmoil during the era, yes, but not usually considered a haven for rock. With this album, though, Alabama teens quite famously make a case for their state. There are really no out-and-out lost classics here as on other Psychedelic States CDs, but the hack, adenoidal, insolent misses are actually fewer per capita than the intriguing-to-wonderful cuts (tracks by the Versatiles, the Rites of Spring, Randy & the Holidays, the Seeds of Time, and the Rockin' Rebellions are particularly worthwhile, if not all psychedelic), a nice flip-flop of prevailing States ratios. One can almost listen to the album clean through, a high recommendation indeed. More than the other CDs in the series, this collection has a heavy R&B and blues flavor, quite natural for music that originates in the Deep South, which perhaps accounts for its maintenance, for longer stretches of playing time, of a more distinct and gritty spunk. Finally, it should be said that Gear Fab provides the featured artists with compensation and credit, often for the first time. That in itself makes Alabama in the 60,s, Vol. 1 a worthwhile relic for those dedicated to the rock music of the era. ~ Stanton Swihart, Rovi