The tracks, which are nothing short of magical, confound and confront each member’s personal retrospectives, most of which are at odds with the sum total of the whole, deepening the mystery of the Music Machine’s unity as the group pursued – and ultimately captured – what rock historians acknowledge was the vanguard of a genera. For this reason, I would have preferred the omission of certain outtakes, but these conceptual embryos provide the listener with a progressive evolution – a musical gestalt – heretofore unattainable without the two or three ‘takes’ on hand (gloved, of course); ie, rehearsal tapes, first mix, final mix – and even then, the listener may have to cross reference all versions of each song’s development many times over, to garner fully informed enlightenment.

Sean Bonniwell

Unlike the ex-folkies and beatniks that comprised the rest of the scene, the group, led by keyboardist and songwriter Ron Nagle, were older and came from an art school background, eschewing the jams and free-form modality of other local groups for concise ensemble arrangements. “The kind of writing that was going on in San Francisco then, to me, it was dogshit” says Nagle.

FAT CITY is the first of several volumes of the Nuggets From The Golden State series drawn from the exciting vaults of Werber’s San Francisco-based Trident Productions.

the zombies are coming the zombies are coming

It’s not so hard to imagine Don Gallucci at the helm of the Stooges’ ‘Funhouse’ sessions-.-no kidding and I am not. Maybe you wouldn’t think ‘The Owl & The Pussycat’ prime material for a guitar/organ combo, but I do believe the Bards may change your mind with their Them/Zombies-inspired re-telling. And the Monkees take on ‘Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day’ was swell, but…