Though the Mainstream record label is best known for its jazz, blues, and soundtrack releases, in the late ’60s its founder, Bob Shad, explored the rock world to search for new talent. His first rock band signing, Big Brother and the Holding Company, released their debut album on the label, only to have their contract sold to Columbia as Janis Joplin’s star began to rise, but dozens of likeminded artists waited in the wings.
All Kinds of Highs: A Mainstream Pop-Psych Compendium 1966-70 collects the best cuts from the psychedelic pop catalog of Mainstream (and related label Brent), offering a heady hodgepodge of vintage sounds and crafting an immersive experience by using original mono mixes where available, and including extensive liner notes. Where the similar…
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…compilation With Love: A Pot of Flowers focused on Mainstream’s west coast-based signees, All Kinds of Highs tackles the rest of the country, pulling two to four songs apiece from about a dozen artists. Most familiar are Detroit acid rockers the Amboy Dukes — featuring a young Ted Nugent as guitarist — who offer their consciousness-heightening break-out hit “Journey to the Center of the Mind” and a fiery take on Big Joe Williams’ “Baby Please Don’t Go,” plus Houston band Fever Tree, with the pre-”San Francisco Girls” orchestral, Baroque-influenced singles “Girl, Oh Girl (Don’t Push Me)” and “I Can Beat Your Drum.” Record hunters will also note three tracks featuring the sweeping harmonies and deft guitar work of Chicago-centric group Growing Concern, as well as selections by Cleveland-based, England-influenced psych rockers the Tiffany Shade, and upstate New York wildmen the Jelly Bean Bandits. And don’t count out the virtually unknown bands appearing here: West Haven, Connecticut’s the Wrongh Black Bag (sic) serve up a tight slab of garage rock featuring soaring vocals by Christine Bernardoni (aka Christine Ohlman, who would become lead singer of the Saturday Night Live Band decades later); Paraphernalia stretches out in the grass with the fantasy-like “Sunny Days (And Good Good Living),” and the Underground refresh with their breezy folk-rock.
CD1
1. The Amboy Dukes – Journey to the Centre of the Mind [03:16]
2. The Orient Express – For a Moment [02:03]
3. The Country Gentlemen – Saturday Night [01:55]
4. The Stone Circus – Mr Grey [03:05]
5. Ellie Pop – Caught in the Rain [02:33]
6. The Tangerine Zoo – Nature’s Children [03:50]
7. Fever Tree – Girl, Oh Girl (Don’t Push Me) [02:34]
8. The Tiffany Shade – An Older Man [03:04]
9. The Sixpentz – Please Come Home [02:17]
10. The Bohemian Vendetta – Riddles & Fairytales (45 Edit) [02:41]
11. The Underground – Get Him Out of Your Mind [02:40]
12. The Art of Lovin’ – You’ll Walk Away [02:24]
13. The Grammy Fones – Now He’s Here [02:16]
14. The Jelly Bean Bandits – Generation [02:56]
15. The Superfine Dandelion – Crazy Town (Move On Little Children)[02:24]
16. The Orphans – Twenty Light Years Away [06:11]
17. The Growing Concern – Edge of Time [04:31]
18. The Fun & Games Commission – Someone Must Have Lied [02:36]
19. The Tangerine Zoo – Can’t You See [03:49]
20. The Wrongh Black Bag – I Don’t Know Why [02:20]
21. The Underground – Easy [02:47]
22. The Tiffany Shade – One Good Reason [02:22]
23. The Scarlet Letter – Timekeeper [03:13]
24. The Art of Lovin’ – You’ve Got the Power [02:57]
25. Ellie Pop – Can’t Be Love [02:34]
26. The Jelly Bean Bandits – Tapestries [02:23]
CD2
1. Fever Tree – I Can Beat Your Drum [02:02]
2. The Tangerine Zoo – Trip to the Zoo (45 Edit) [02:43]
3. Ellie Pop – Seven North Frederick [02:21]
4. The Art of Lovin’ – Good Times [02:28]
5. The Tiffany Shade – A Quiet Revolution [02:03]
6. The Scarlet Letter – Mary Maiden [02:57]
7. The Bohemian Vendetta – All Kinds of Highs [03:39]
8. The Amboy Dukes – Baby Please Don’t Go (45 Edit) [02:42]
9. The Underground – Take Me Back [02:33]
10. The Sixpentz – Imitation Situation (“4/4-6/8 Time”) [02:35]
11. The Off-Set – You’re a Drag [02:07]
12. The Growing Concern – Sit Down I Think I Love You [02:24]
13. The Jelly Bean Bandits – Neon River [02:36]
14. The Orient Express – A Little Star [02:23]
15. The Tangerine Zoo – Another Morning [02:46]
16. The Stone Circus – Sara Wells [03:06]
17. The Superfine Dandelion – Day and Night [02:47]
18. The Underground – Satisfyin’ Sunday [02:35]
19. The Art of Lovin’ – Paul’s Circus [03:12]
20. The Fun & Games Commission – Today – Tomorrow [02:32]
21. The Growing Concern – All I Really Want [02:20]
22. Paraphernalia – Sunny Days (And Good Good Living) [02:37]
23. The Tiffany Shade – Would You Take My Mind Out for a Walk[02:19]
24. Maxx – 200 Years [02:42]
25. The Sixpentz – Tinkle Talk [02:19]
26. Freeport – I Need Your Lovin’ [02:42]