V/A - Brown Acid Ten Heavy Hits Vol. 1 (RSD)

In the span of just five years, we’ve released ten editions of the Brown Acid series, all of them packed with brilliant long-lost, rare, and unreleased hard rock, heavy psych, and proto-metal tracks from the ‘60s-‘70s. With so much essential material to choose from, if you’re on a limited budget or you don’t know where to start, this record is for you! We’ve collected ten powerful tracks, one from each edition, here to provide your first dose. We know you’ll be back for more.

With each Trip, we unearth even more incredible bangers that somehow eluded popularity in their day For every classic rock mainstay like Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad, there are hundreds of great bands who, for a variety of reasons, were previously lost to the sands of time. Brown Acid seeks to rectify that, with all tracks painstakingly licensed legitimately and ensuring that the original artists are paid. As the series editions grow higher into the double digits, here’s a quick lysergic drop to get you up to speed.

Zekes, led by the songwriting duo of brothers Lenny & Kenny Gayle, opens the collection with the slithering buzzsaw guitars and hard-rock howl of "Box", a monster that gives Blue Cheer a run for their leaden blues. The 1970 track is originally the B-side to the band’s “Leaving You” 45 rpm single on the Beverly Hills label.

The squealing guitar harmonies and Sabbath plod of Ash's "Midnight Wish” are a psychedelic prog-fest from 1971 by this Australian quartet, one of few bands with the foresight to have made a music video way back then. The Factory’s “Time Machine” serves ample Rod Serling sci-fi paranoia alongside an insistent guitar riff, reverb soaked drums and one of the most psychotic sounding vibrato vocal lines this side of The Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird.”

Daingerfield, Texas group Kanaan’s 1969 fuzz-drenched ripper “Leave It” is a rousing anthem of boogie rock groove and wailing vocals. You may be familiar with George Brigman's psychedelic punk masterpiece Jungle Rot, but you don't know Split until you've heard the charmingly disjointed bedroom-fi production of "Blowin' Smoke.”

Truth & Janey are well known for their incredible 1976 LP No Rest For The Wicked. But their proto-metal 45-only single “Midnight Horseman” released four years earlier is a fantastic, formerly long-lost wonder. Blizzard was Rod McClure's high school band, but you couldn't possibly guess that teenagers recorded this heavy slab of obscure Oklahoma rage in 1973, sounding like a hypothetical MC5/Hendrix collaboration.

Luke and the Apostles ain't no Xian group, even though this 45 is of biblical proportions. "Not Far Off" is a tight and slinky jam sure to give your significant other bedroom eyes. The Doors and Elektra Records' producer Paul Rothchild called the Luke and the Apostles LP the "greatest album [he] never got to make.”

Indiana rockers Ice’s stunning full length debut languished unreleased for 50 years until RidingEasy issued The Ice Age in 2020. Back in 1970, the band recorded 10 original songs at 8-Track Studios in Chicago, only to break up shortly thereafter. Two of the tracks were eventually released as a 45 in 1972, but confusingly under a different band name, Zukus! “Running High” deftly balances wayward psychedelic pop and troglodyte thunder.

Louisville, KY quartet Conception's excellent revision of Blue Cheer's "Babylon" adds heavy phaser effect on the guitar and a more driving rhythm to make the song entirely their own. Lead guitar and high harmony vocals by Charlie Day (not to be confused with the Sunny Philadelphian actor) are assertive and commanding as he implores listeners onward to hallucinogenic nirvana.