STARSHIP BEER Nut Music LP original avant garde psych

$

50

Starship Beer-Nut Music As Free As The Squirrels LP

Original 1979 Land Mammal Records (LAMA 1066) - limited vinyl pressing of 1000 long out of print!

Improvisational rock trio Starship Beer was formed in the summer of 1972 by Kevin Whitehead, Pat O'Brian and Wes Mingin, then students at New York's Oswego State University. Founded primarily as a means to annoy their dormitory neighbors, the group drew equal inspiration from Captain Beefheart, Albert Ayler and Cream, creating free-form, chaotic skronk-jams topped off by O'Brian's stream-of-consciousness ranting — the group proved decidedly unpopular on campus, unofficially disbanding when its members graduated in 1974. But in the years to follow, Starship Beer occasionally reunited, and in 1979 the trio recorded an LP, pressing 1,000 copies of the self-released Nut Music: As Free as the Squirrels. By this time Whitehead was earning attention as a jazz critic, first for the Baltimore City Paper and in 1987 for National Public Radio's Fresh Air; he later wrote for the Village Voice and in 1998 published a book, New Dutch Swing.

Reviewby Jason Nickey Beefheart-style skronk, spoken-word jive poetry, free jazz improvisations, and just plain noise collide on this lone release from upstate New York weirdos Starship Beer. The best known of this trio, Kevin Whitehead, went on to be a jazz authority on NPR's Fresh Air; here, he lets his hair down, providing bass gurgles, clarinet bleats, and howls form the darkness. Pat O'Brien's lunatic rant "Black/White White/Black" opens the disc, followed by a dissonant and chilly solo piano piece, a silly scat and alto recorder number, and a winding piece for solo clarinet. Next, "Cavalcade of Stars" brings an almost heavy metal-sounding guitar/bass jam session to the mix, followed by a short but energetic improv session for clarinet, alto sax, and percussion called "Plumbing." "Ghost of Owls" is an all-vocal experiment and "You Fly in My Brain Like an Airplane" returns to the spoken-word ramblings of the lead track. Then there's the all-out aural barrage of "(At the Noise) Circus" before the wild ride ends with the somber (if eerie) "Air or Wind" and the cautionary tale "Chris the Nasty Boy," adding organ and melodica to the guitar/bass/voice mix of the first track. Far from original or groundbreaking, Nut Music gets points for its sheer intensity and proud defiance. Unpredictable, erratic, uneven, and often annoying, Nut Music is not for the casual listener or the faint of heart. 11 tracks.

CONDITION: vinyl VG++/cover VG+ (slight wear)

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