Posts Tagged ‘heavy 70′s’

Album of the day: Glitter Wizard – Hunting Gatherers (Vinyl)

Posted on Monday, April 1st, 2013

Praise for Glitter Wizard‘s Hunting Gatherers from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We thumbed up the spacey synthy glitter-glam garage retro not-really-metal of this SF band’s Siltbreeze 7″ a while back, but then somehow skipped over reviewing their subsequent full-length, and are even a little behind the times in getting to this new LP of theirs too, but that’s ok ’cause the Glitter Wizard guys are also behind the times.

Or maybe way out futuristically in front, way out anyway, again using ’60s and ’70s rock inspirations like Deep Purple, Hawkwind, The Doors, Bloodrock, Black Widow, and Iron Butterfly to help formulate their super groovy, more wizardly-than-thou sound, one that’s got lotsa synth, jamming electric organ, some flute and sax. Along with catchy riffs and amusing lyrics, often gleefully unserious (“I don’t worship the Devil, the Devil worships me”). Our kind of entertainment!

There’s one little hushed-folky-trippy-acoustic number, ‘Sunlit Wolves’, but otherwise most of the trax are swaggering rockers, such as ‘Wizard Wagon’ (about the singer’s van, it would seem) which definitely has hit potential, in our world anyway.

‘Motorider’ reminds us of both The Stooges and Steppenwolf, and when they get heavier on the 7+ minute ‘Space’ it sorta sounds like an agitated Om with keyboards. Album-closer ‘Big Sur’ also has that Om / Sleep vibe, due to the chant-like vox and slomo swinging plod. It’s another long one, the longest here at close to 9 minutes, and so about half way through stops plodding and starts ripping and rollicking, reminding us more of early early Sabbath, like back when Sabbath covered Crow’s ‘Evil Woman’ on their first single.

That said, though, mostly Glitter Wizard doesn’t even seem all that heavy or metal or even proto-metal. They’re retro-proto-proto-metal maybe? Definitely G. Wiz love their ’60s sounds but do their own cool new thing with that, rather than going for some kind of Nuggets redux. For fans of Blood Ceremony (minus the female vox and much of the metal) and Danava and Mammatus when they do get heavy-ish.

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, Captcha Records, Gltter Wizard, heavy 70's, Hunting Gatherers
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Album of the day: Bolder Damn – Mourning

Posted on Monday, March 18th, 2013

Praise for Bolder Damn‘s Mourning from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Bolder Damn‘s only album, Mourning, came out originally on vinyl in 1972 in a scant pressing of only 200 copies. We actually reviewed a previous reissue of it (the band’s own self-released ’25th anniversary’ CD from 1996) way back when, ...read more

Album of the day: Mos Generator – Nomads

Posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Lovingly pinched from ThisIsNotAScene: I don’t know if you caught any of the excellent shows on the BBC recently about classic albums and the enduring magic of vinyl? Hosted by an effusive and engaging Danny Baker, they had me going back to my dusty shelves and pulling out long neglected ...read more

Monday Song: Grand Theft – Scream (it’s eating me alive)

Posted on Monday, February 11th, 2013

Every Monday morning we’ll post a kick-ass song to get your week going.

Album of the day: Coloured Balls – Ball Power (Vinyl)

Posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

Praise for Coloured Balls‘ Ball Power from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Of the ’70s heavy rock releases from Australia of which we’re aware, the two albums by a band called Coloured Balls stand out as being crucial to connoisseurs of loud guitar rock (along with the mighty Buffalo, of course). This ...read more

Album of the day: Troubled Horse – Step Inside

Posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2012

Praise for Troubled Horse‘s Step Inside from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: The new, five years in the making Witchcraft album is indeed awesome. But OLD Witchcraft, we still love too of course. So how ’bout some new old Witchcraft, sort of, in the form of the long awaited full-length debut ...read more

Album of the day: Blood of the Sun – Burning on the Wings of Desire

Posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012

Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: The only thing that’s ever been guaranteed when it comes to Texas-based classic heavy rockers Blood of the Sun is quality. Granted, if you have to make a guarantee, that’s a good place to start, but throughout the band’s decade-long tenure, they’ve been through lineup ...read more

Album of the day: Santa Cruz – Down On My Knees

Posted on Monday, August 20th, 2012

Lovingly pinched from The Sleeping Shaman: Once upon a time, in a land far away (Japan actually) there once lived a label called Leaf Hound. With a name taken from one of the most influential Seventies rock groups, they put out a universally excellent series of releases new and old, ...read more

Album of the day: Lord Fowl – Moon Queen

Posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Lovingly pinched from The Sleeping Shaman: Oh, so you have a band, that’s great. Wow, look how many notes you can play and how many times you can change tempo…and your songs have so many parts…I’m impressed!!! Now please unplug your instruments, step aside and let Lord Fowl show you just ...read more

Album of the day: Wicked Lady – Psychotic Overkill

Posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Praise for Wicked Lady‘s Psychotic Overkil from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: As promised last list, here’s the second of the two volumes of collected wah-wah overload and heavy fuzz freakout from this legendary underground UK hard psych power trio, circa 1969-1972, who were doomy and proto-metallic, but also fairly melodic ...read more