Aardvark Nostril Hair Crisper

Mad River had everything going for them. Skinny girlfriends at Antioch College, catered blotter acid, a major-label contract, the late sixties ... what could possibly go wrong?

A cursory dip into their recordings will reveal why they were never as big as (uh) Pacific Gas & Electric. It's Lawrence Hammond's "mournful, quavering vocals" as Allmusic puts it, "a voice to crisp an aardvark's nose hairs."

I'm betting he was in the band because he had family money. That's my guess. It's not that he was without talent. It's just that the talent was beyond human comprehension. Maybe they sing like this on Planet Zzyxxlo, which is eight billion years away from your house. Here's their first album, with a psyched-up sleeve guaranteed to give you a contact high.

And here's the first Berkley e.p., recorded in the spin-polarized tilt-a-whirl of cosmic optimism and jungle despair that birthed The Country Joe & His Fishes.

And their second album, Paradise Bar & Grill where they made the traditional kaftan-burning move away from psychedelia to country rock so familiar to habituées of La Maison d' Mousse©.

And Jersey Sloo, a limited edition e.p., with a better sleeve. I'm not bragging here - it would be impossible to come up with worse than the original. Nice selection of early studio cuts.

And a ragbag of bootleg odds and ends, live shit and demos. Not for the fainthearted (their Antioch audience certainly wasn't - listen hard and you can hear their girlfriends cheering).