1966 Time Life

The Mamas & the Papas' second album was made while the group was still riding high from the chart success of their first album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, and the two singles, "Monday, Monday" and "California Dreamin'," that made them icons of the young pop generation. At the same time, their personal lives were so messy that Michelle Phillips got bounced out of their ranks for a few months. Only the good vibes made it on the record, though, as the same creative team sought to recapture the beautiful harmonies and jangling, sometimes moody folk-rock that made their debut sound so good.

Of the great garage punk bands of the 1960s, some were louder (the Sonics), some were angrier (the Music Machine), and some were trippier (the 13th Floor Elevators), but few seemed like a bad influence on so many levels as the Seeds. The Seeds had long hair, a gloriously lamentable fashion sense, an attitude that was at once petulant and lackadaisical, and music that sounded aimless, horny, agitated, and stoned all at once. Is it any wonder America's delinquent youth loved them? The Seeds' aural signature was as distinctive as any band of their era, and they got a bit fancier with their formula as they went along, but they never captured their essential seediness with more impressive concision than they did on their self-titled debut album from 1966…

New from the Spanish Psych re-issue label Out-Sider is It Happened by New York singer-songwriter Paul Martin, which is a revamped version of a compilation of singles, studio demos and acetates that were originally collected for a 1996 release on Distortions Records. Between the years 1966 to 1967 Paul Martin (born Paul Myerberg) recorded some impressive demos at Tower Sound Studios in midtown Manhattan, which ran the gamut from Garage Rock to jangly Folk Rock, Soul-Pop and orchestrated baroque Pop Psych. There were a couple of singles released that are now much-desired collectable rarities for Garage Rock purists.

He never had a hit in the U.S., and he was only briefly a star in the U.K., but Dave Berry recorded a whole lot of material in the mid-'60s. This double CD only covers about the first half of his output for Decca between 1963-1970, yet contains no less than 57 tracks, making it likely to be the most definitive collection of his work during this era. Every one of his British hits (except 1966's "Mama") is here, along with all the non-hits, B-sides, LP tracks, and rarities from EPs. There are even five cuts that only appeared on either the Rhythm and Blues compilation LP or the live At the Cavern album, as well as two previously unissued April 1963 recordings ("Easy to Cry" and "Tongue Twistin'") produced by Mickie Most. Load on lengthy liner notes with firsthand quotes from Berry and many cool vintage period illustrations, and you have a package that's hard to beat for comprehensiveness…

Before emerging as a cult star in the 1970s, Lowell George was a presence on the L.A. folk-rock/psychedelic scene in the 1960s. With his group the Factory, he only managed to release one single during this time. Lightning-Rod Man rescues 15 tunes cut by this unit, including the single and over a dozen outtakes and demos. Almost exclusively original material, most of these tracks were recorded in 1966 and 1967. They show the group pursuing a slightly eccentric folk-rock vision that neither bears much similarity to George's more famous work nor matches the best work done in this genre by their L.A. peers. At times they echo Kaleidoscope in their vaguely spacy, good-natured folkish rock; just as often, they take cues from Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa in their skewed blues-rock and obtuse songwriting. In fact, Zappa himself produced and played on a couple of the demos, and one-time Mothers of Invention members Elliot Ingber and Roy Estrada show up on a few others. A few songs cut toward the end of the decade feature a heavier, bluesier sound that show George edging in a different direction. An enjoyable vault find, but not a major revelation.