I Love the Sound of a Guitar Playin'

It seems I'm always trying to make like a Jehovah's Witness (or sumpin' else equally useless); Perpetually trying to convert y'all to underrated artists whose collective discogs are rarer than hen's teeth. Well... this post ain't gonna be any different.


EARLY WORKS: 1964-66 Feat. Fender IV & Sons of Adam

Born in 1945, Pennsylvanian Randy Holden had a vision for taking the guitar into unexplored vistas at an early age. After a brief stint playing covers locally, he formed the Fender IV, a surf-cum-British Invasion-inspired combo that became mainly a showcase for Holden's six-string pyrotechnics. After having his head turned Over, Under, Sideways Down by the then-godly Yardbirds, or more specifically, their Riff Master General, Jeff Beck, the IV/Holden made their way to the West Coast reborn as the Sons of Adam.

This collection compiles tracks from both of 'em in reverse chronological order (Whatcha expect? It's a Japanese import). The Sons were a band that, if you'd heard one of their ditties on a "Nuggets" or "Back From the Grave" comp, would have ya jacking off like an ape in a zoo cage to hear more. Look no further. Although essentially Yardbirds-lite, there's some fine snot-caked garage punk like the Holden-penned "I Told You Once Before" as well as more melodic moments like a killer run through the Zombies' "You Make Me Feel Good". The Fender IV, although steeped in stock surf arrangements, had a certain intangible darkness about their sound that puts 'em ahead of the many bands mining the same territory in the era. Especially delish is the lone vocal number, "You Better Tell Me Now", that throbs with an ultra-macho, barely concealed violence.

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THE OTHER HALF

Feeling restricted by the lack of ambition and over-reliance on cover material of Sons of Adam, Holden joined San Francisco's Other Half in late '66. Essentially a garage band that managed to dangle precariously close to the psuckedelic precipice, their sole LP is a charmer. They possessed in Jeff Nowlen a gifted vocalist whose Eric Burdon-as-filtered-through-Keith Relf bark added a sense of urgency to the underwritten, almost skeletal rave-ups. Although dismissed by critics & Holden himself as an inexperienced band not having a clue what they were doing, that's exactly what I love about it. It's the cliched runaway train that never quite derails, and I've added their 45-only classic, "Mr. Pharmacist" as a bonus.

Disillusioned by the aforementioned Nowlen taking liberties with the songwriting credits, Holden packed up his axe once again. He was briefly considered as a replacement for Jeff Beck in his beloved Yardbirds (ah... the possibilities!), but as we all know, a certain Mr. Page was waiting in the wings.

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POPULATION II

After a brief stint in Blue Cheer (he appeared on side two of "New! Improved!") which left him once again with little more than a pot to piss in, with that band's managerial and drug problems (he claims they rehearsed all of once during his tenure), he decided to strike out on his own to make the album he'd always wanted to make. Choosing acquaintance Chris Lockheed as his drummer, mainly because he insisted he could play drums and keyboards at the same time.

On his never-ending quest for infinite sustain, "Population II" was recorded in an opera house on 20 Sunn amps wired in parallel! If the word monolithic didn't exist, we'd hafta invent it to describe the Himalayan riffage to be found here. Put it this way: If Hendrix was "choppin' down mountains with the edge of hand", Randy's guitar was snickerin' at such a feat as it glowered down menacingly at the cowering peasants amongst the rubble it was soon about to permanently deafen. Holden once remarked that whilst flailing away during the sessions for this album, he was knocked to the ground when he'd hit a certain harmonic overtone. That's exactly what'll happen to you if it's your first experience with "Population II".

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