It's New to Me: Part One by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (1967)

Illustration from PS Magazine, the Preventative Maintenance Monthly #83, 1959

Part One by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band is an interesting album by an interesting band. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (yes, I'm going to keep using the full name) started out, for better or for worse, with a rich LA eccentric named Bob Markley. He had connections in the "biz", so he struck a deal with some talented young musicians to put together a band - they would make good music, and he would pay for stuff and play tambourine. Part One is actually the band's second record (coming confusingly in the middle of a four-album sequence, the other albums being titled Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3). I'd guess that Markley's desire to have a "far-out" psychedelic band is responsible for Part One's weakest aspects, the two spoken-word tracks that Markley contributes vocals to. "1906" is your standard psych-apocalypse doggerel track, and "Help, I'm a Rock" is a completely unnecessary cover of a Zappa novelty. For some reason, both of these tracks ended up on West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band singles, and I think they were actually A-sides (although the record on these things is far from clear as far as I can see).

In spite of Markley's dubious contributions, Part One is a very cool psych-rock album once you get past the two novelty tracks. The rest of the band was quite talented - guitarist Michael Lloyd and the Harris brothers contribute some excellent tracks to the record, including the gentle ballad "I Won't Hurt You", the folky "Will You Walk With Me", and the album's best song "Transparent Day", which has a great not-quite-Byrds, chiming guitar riff. And some of Markley's showbiz connections come through as well - Baker Knight, Bob Johnston, and P.F. Sloan all contributed decent songs to the project. I'm curious to see how the other West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band sound - from what I've heard, it was a revolving-door lineup with the bank-rolling Markley being the only constant. People say that every release has some worthwhile moments, but I'm guessing that I made the right choice by starting with Part One.

"Transparent Day" by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band