In Stores Now: A Lovely Sight by Pisces

Illustration detail from a movie poster for Harold Lloyd's A Sailor-Made Man by Joop van den Berg, 1921

The Numero Group has done it again. The archivist record label known mostly for their series of Eccentric Soul compilations, the Numero Group has been digging up rare and unreleased music of other kinds as well. This month they've released A Lovely Sight, an album that never really existed by a band called Pisces that barely ever existed. Underground '60s psych-pop is not the Numero Group's usual focus, but I'm glad they decided to put this one out. It's an interesting album, and as is often the case with Numero Group releases, the liner notes and storytelling of its origin is as powerful as the music itself.

Pisces was composed primarily of Jim Krein and Paul DiVenti, two musicians and music enthusiasts who lived in Rockford, Illinois in the late '60s. In music circles, Rockford is mostly known as the hometown of Cheap Trick, but the town's little music scene was around before those guys came along. Krein and DiVenti played around town in a few different struggling bands, eventually deciding to form a band together. They both had demanding day jobs, so their band gradually turned into more of a recording project when they got a small loan to open a music studio of their own. They got a lot of their equipment and recording know-how from Nielsen Music, the store owned by the family of Rick Nielsen (later of Cheap Trick!) Their arsenal included a 4-track reel-to-reel and some excellent custom mics made by a friend of theirs.

Heavily influenced by the Beatles, Krein and DiVenti wrote and recorded over a dozen original psych-pop songs in their little studio, when they weren't using the space to make money recording jingles and local mariachi acts. Their songs had an interesting low-key vibe that could be either serene or creepy, with a focus on close harmonies reminiscent of the Hollies or Zombies. Krein is a decent guitarist, and DiVenti's keyboards are as important to the band's sound as his smooth lead vocals. It kind of sounds like they were consciously recording one of each kind of stereotypical psych-pop song - they had a doom-and-gloom spoken word piece ("Genesis II"), a Paul-McCartney-style music-hall number ("Motley Mary Ann"), a creepy lullaby ("Children Kiss Your Mother Goodnight"), and a slow-burning garage rocker ("Like a Hole in the Wall Where the Rat Lives"). Their interest in experimental sounds livens up the material, and the recording-project approach to the music puts it in its own little world, isolated from any real scene. Krein and DiVenti got a small record label, Vincent Records (owned by a local tailor), to put out a couple of their singles but none of them went anywhere.

Pisces' last shot at a breakthrough came when Krein, teaching guitar lessons on the side, found that one of his students had a great singing voice. Seventeen-year-old Linda Bruner was a troubled young woman from a rough background, but her soulful voice was perfect for some new songs Krein was working on. She only recorded a few songs with Pisces, but Vincent Records liked them well enough to release a single under the name Bruner. Unfortunately, the single didn't sell and Linda decided to quit music for good. A short time later, the A Lovely Sight studio burned down and Pisces effectively ceased to exist.

Numero Group unearthed these recordings and has tried to put them into the form of a full-length LP, which had been in Pisces' plans at one point. The songs work well together, and the four numbers featuring Linda Bruner's lead vocals definitely add a much-needed depth to the album. My favorite of these songs may be "Are You Changing in Your Time", a simple folk song with delicate acoustic guitar by Krein and keyboards by DiVenti. Bruner's delivery is pretty nuanced for a teenager, and, while the song is not really representative of the more psych/experimental stuff on A Lovely Sight, it does capture the relaxed feel of the album. I don't know where Krein, DiVenti, and Bruner are today, but I hope they know that the Pisces album finally exists and people are enjoying it.

"Are You Changing in Your Time" by Pisces