September 11 Conspiracy

If you want to know why producer Gary Usher is revered in some circles, play The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading next to the pretty much self-produced For Children of All Ages. A name as trendy as the Jefferson Airplane - and a sound that is absolutely the Airplane - meets the Mamas & the Papas; the '60s guitars sound smart; the 1967 liner notes by Lawrence Dietz tell you nothing about the group; and the front cover looks like something Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper encountered during Easy Rider. "It's a Happening Thing," like much of this record, tries too hard. Decades after it was recorded, there is charm in a band like the PBC (which rhymes with PCP) being such an authentic figment of someone's countercultural imagination. Sandi Robison is stunning on "Then Came Love," and the production by Gary Usher really is impressive - it makes the record something special…

With 26 tracks from 1966 and 1967, this CD acts as a comprehensive supplement to the Peanut Butter Conspiracy's more widely circulated recordings for Columbia and Challenge. While seven of these recordings found official release in 1966 and 1967 on the Vault label, the rest were previously unissued. Too, it has seven cuts (both released and unreleased) by the Ashes, the group from which the Peanut Butter Conspiracy evolved, though most of this material was done in the early days of the era in which they were going under the Peanut Butter Conspiracy billing. Because a lot of this was done in the group's formative days, much of it's a little (and sometimes a lot) more folk-rock-oriented than the more psychedelic output on their Columbia albums…

Perhaps it was just their name, but the Peanut Butter Conspiracy somehow failed to reap due plaudits during their existence. From an early incarnation as the Ashes onwards, their story intertwines with those of several Californian contemporaries while, at its best, the band's music fused Bay Area-styled invention with '60s LA sunshine harmonies. They scored early on with the deathless "Turn On A Friend (To The Good Life)". By the time of their third album, released in 1969, they had begun moving into Rock and R&B territory whilst retaining those glorious harmonies and Alan Brackett's effortlessly commercial songwriting. For this special edition, Rev-Ola uncovered no less than six previously unreleased tracks which they think are so good they have decided to reconfigure the album in their honour.