The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders

The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
There're all kinds of outlandish behavior in music, a good deal of which mellows over the years into merely peculiar or boorish art. Really weird, however, is enduring and The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders is really weird. The sole major-label recording by remnants of acid folkies the Holy Modal Rounders (essentially Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber) and Stampfel's spinoff "rock band" the Moray Eels (which included playwright Sam Shepard), here is an unholy noise that mates the urban-hippie aesthetic of 1968 with a deep-seated love of deep folk music. Jug music for the psychotic segment of the psychedelic set, this 13-song collection is outlandish even by the Rounders' by-now well-established standards. Opening with the nearest thing to a hit the band ever produced--"Bird Song" (familiar to fans of the '60s flick Easy Rider)--the collection tumbles forward like a bad trip across a tremulous American landscape. Think of it as an East Coast cousin of the Mothers of Invention's contemporaneous We're Only in It for the Money. The 2002 reissue boasts entertaining liner notes from Stampfel and Richie Unterberger that will clear up a little of the chaos heard on the disc. But only a little. --Steven Stolder

Product Description
Led by maverick folksters Peter Stampfel & Steve Weber, the Holy Modal Rounders fused Greenwich Village strum & Appalachian drone with enough mind-altering chemicals to derail the Wabash Cannonball. This 1968 masterpiece spotlights such drug-addled ramblings as 'Bird Song', featured in the Easy Rider soundtrack. Remastered & available on CD for the first time. Water Records. 2002.

Tracks:

Bird Song
One Will Do For Now
Take-Off Artist Song
Werewolf
Interlude
Dame Fortune
Mobile Line
The Duji Song
My Mind Capsized
The STP Song
Interlude 2
Half A Mind
The Pledge

Amazon.com

There're all kinds of outlandish behavior in music, a good deal of which mellows over the years into merely peculiar or boorish art. Really weird, however, is enduring and The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders is really weird. The sole major-label recording by remnants of acid folkies the Holy Modal Rounders (essentially Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber) and Stampfel's spinoff "rock band" the Moray Eels (which included playwright Sam Shepard), here is an unholy noise that mates the urban-hippie aesthetic of 1968 with a deep-seated love of deep folk music. Jug music for the psychotic segment of the psychedelic set, this 13-song collection is outlandish even by the Rounders' by-now well-established standards. Opening with the nearest thing to a hit the band ever produced--"Bird Song" (familiar to fans of the '60s flick Easy Rider)--the collection tumbles forward like a bad trip across a tremulous American landscape. Think of it as an East Coast cousin of the Mothers of Invention's contemporaneous We're Only in It for the Money. The 2002 reissue boasts entertaining liner notes from Stampfel and Richie Unterberger that will clear up a little of the chaos heard on the disc. But only a little. --Steven Stolder

Album Description

Led by maverick folksters Peter Stampfel & Steve Weber, the Holy Modal Rounders fused Greenwich Village strum & Appalachian drone with enough mind-altering chemicals to derail the Wabash Cannonball. This 1968 masterpiece spotlights such drug-addled ramblings as 'Bird Song', featured in the Easy Rider soundtrack. Remastered & available on CD for the first time. Water Records. 2002.

Album Details

1968 Elektra Album Available on CD for the First Time. Includes the Track 'bird Song' that was Used in the Soundtrack to 'easy Rider'.

Customer Reviews:

Are You normal,? this is nothing for You.......2006-08-16

If You're not prepared before listening this could be a mental schock. The upspeeded combination of amphetamin and LSD makes the music going crazy. This kind of hippie-hallucination shows how sounds from inside a brain can wind up in recorded tracks. How they do it I can't understand. But I love it and realize that even music can be a drug. A healthy one.

sound sound.......2006-03-06

First I got, "good taste is timeless" and it was ok, but not as wacky as the album cover promised. A couple years later, I got this one. This is the album I was looking for and immediately understood my dissapointment in "good taste is timeless" The producer of this album started with the name Barry Friedman, and by the end went by Frazier Mohawk. That should give you some inkling of what you are getting into. Although "The STP Song" (actually titled August, 1967) is cut in half, the destruction of the singular song contributes to the overall aesthetic (I don't really think there is a concept here, aside from lets get these guys in the studio before they forget these songs). The brevity facilitates listening to the album straight through, creating a streaming experience instead of a collection of compositions. Even at 29 minutes Meethmr takes it time, from the ethereal nasal voyage of bird song to the frantic panic of getting a F on your report card, this album is a must.

DU JI.......2003-10-17

My mom gave me a nickel to buy a pickle, I didn't buy a pickle I bought some du ji, du du du du du du-ji how I love du-ji I love to du my du-ji I du du du. Did you ever hear of the Doobie Brothers? Well Stampel and Webber are the Duji Brothers. Buy this Immediately!

truly fine citizens get REALLY wrecked..........2002-11-12

and here's the result. this is one of two holy modal rounders releases that are truly over the edge, the other being indian war whoop, and this one blows war whoop out of the water. listening to this makes me think there is a possibility to the long standing myth that late 60's acid rock/psychedelia was worth the vinyl it was burned on. the first thing you'll notice is: peter stampfel, singer of the bird song, REALLY does sing that way. the second is: beneath all the half assed playing lies some good songs. thirdly: these are funny songs that REALLY are funny (see half a mind & take off artist). the one gripe i have is that its all over much too quickly-this is a short album and those who expect their cd's to have 70+ minutes of music might feel a little gyped. but better 30 great minutes than 70 okay minutes, as i always say. survey says: buy this!

Ridiculous but also Sublime.......2002-08-07

This wonderful album is as weird as everyone says it is, but it also has some truly lovely moments. "One Will Do for Now" sounds almost like a Renaissance madrigal, and "Dame Fortune" is one of the most haunting, sublime songs I've ever heard, from anyone. That's what makes this album extraordinary: the range from sublime moments like these to the ridiculous, but hugely enjoyable, other songs on this album. "That's artiste to you"!

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