Public Nuisance formed in Sacramento in 1964 as an instrumental surf rock band called the Jaguars. After the British Invasion and folk rock movements of the mid-1960's they added vocals and changed their name to Moss & the Rocks, and at that time their line-up consisted of David Houston, their principal songwriter, on guitar, keyboards, harmonica, and vocals, Jim Mathews on guitar, Pat Minter on bass and vocals, and Ron McMaster on drums and vocals. Even while known as the Jaguars, the group were known for their stage antics, with Houston sometimes smashing his guitar on stage, and the group wore hairstyles that were considered long for 1964. The group's manager was Gary Schiro, who had connections in Los Angeles and managed two other local bands, the New Breed and the Oxford Circle, and when Moss & the Rocks won a battle of the bands contest they were able to gain free recording time at Ikon Studios, a small label in Sacramento, which hosted numerous garage bands in the area. They recorded the folk rock-influenced single, 'There She Goes' b/w 'Please Come Back', which was released on Ikon on 1965, and later that year they re-recorded both tunes for a single released on Chattahoochee Records. In 1967 the band changed their name to Public Nuisance, and in early 1968 they recorded a series of demos which for years remained unreleased. These recordings saw the group augment their raw garage rock sound with experimental psychedelic elements, and their lyrics saw the band engaging in social commentary that addressed topical concerns of the era.
They became a popular live act throughout much of California during this period and opened for The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, and Sonny & Cher, as well as for The Grateful Dead. Later in 1968, they taped several demos at Fantasy Records in San Francisco, but were not signed to the label, but eventually Schiro arranged a contract with Equinox records, a label run by producer Terry Melcher, who was noted for his work with The Byrds and Paul Revere & the Raiders. At the end of 1968 and the beginning of 1969, they commuted to-and-from Los Angeles, where they recorded an album's worth of songs, but like their previous outings, none of the recordings saw release. This was because producer Terry Melcher, who had sub-let houses to director Roman Polanski and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, became emotionally distraught after Polanski's wife Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson. Melcher chose to terminate recording commitments he had made with Wilson because he had socialized with the Manson family, and the result was that Melcher closed down the label, and all upcoming releases were cancelled. Public Nuisance soldiered on, playing several shows at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, but they disbanded in 1970. In 2012 Third Man Records finally released the shelved album as 'Gotta Survive', a decade after Frantic Records had compiled all the band's recordings and released them solely in Germany and the U.S. This album consists of the 1968 demos, and so could be considered their debut release, with 'Gotta Survive' being the follow-up album, which would have been released in 1969.
Track listing
01 America
02 Time Can't Wait
03 Darlin'
04 Now I Think
05 Daddy's Comin' Home
06 Pencraft Transcender
07 Katie Shiner
08 Man From The Backwoods
09 One Man's Story
10 I'm Only Sleeping
11 Hold On
12 Going Nowhere
No comments:
Post a Comment