The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - A Child's Guide to Good & Evil

With their soaring psychedelia, achingly pure folk-rock and Zappa/Beefheart strangeness, these seminal underground gems from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band--Part One, Vol. 2 and A Child's Guide To Good & Evil--can be seen as encyclopedic primers of the late-'60s Los Angeles musical experience.

Tracks:

01. Eighteen Is Over The Hill
02. In The Country
03. Ritual #1
04. Our Drummer Always Plays In The Nude
05. As The World Rises And Falls
06. Until The Poorest Of People Have Money To Spend
07. Watch Yourself
08. A Child's Guide To Good & Evil
09. Ritual #2
10. A Child Of A Few Hours Is Burning To Death
11. As Kind As Summer
12. Anniversary Of World War III
13. Shifting Sands (Single Mix)
14. 1906 (Single Mix)

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***The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Part One & Volume Two -FANTASTIC UNMISSABLE U.S PSYCH BAND!!***

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band's first album for Reprise was the best of the group's career, in large part because it was the most song-oriented.

It was still plenty weird, almost to the point of stylistic schizophrenia, but when you got down to it, much of the record was comprised of fairly catchy songs in the neighborhood of two and three minutes.

At times they sounded like reasonably normal, fairly talented Byrds-like folk-rockers ("Transparent Day," P.F. Sloan's "Here's Where You Belong"); at others, a Kinks-like garage band ("If You Want This Love"); and at others, a fey Baroque pop outfit (the orchestrated "Will You Walk With Me"). There was an undercurrent of unsettling weirdness and even paranoia, though, in some cuts with otherwise pleasing tunes, like "Shifting Sands," with its sizzling distorted guitars; "I Won't Hurt You," with its heartbeat bass and disconnected vocals; and "Leiyla," where a standard teen garage rocker suddenly gets invaded by spoken dialog that seems to have been lifted from a vampire B-movie.

The cover of Frank Zappa's "Help, I'm a Rock" flung them into freakier pastures, emulated convincingly on the group original "1906," an apt soundtrack to a bummer acid trip with its constant spoken refrain, "I don't feel well." It's true that all but one of these songs (the nondescript "'Scuse Me, Miss Rose," written by famed Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash/Simon & Garfunkel producer Bob Johnston) is on the Transparent Day compilation.

But there are good reasons to consider buying the Sundazed 2001 CD reissue: The thorough liner notes start to unravel the history of this mysterious band, and mono single mixes of "Help, I'm a Rock" and "Transparent Day" are tacked on as bonus tracks (Richie Unterberger)


The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, no strangers to weirdness on their prior 1967 album Part One, had still often stuck to relatively straightforward, concise, and pop-flavored songs on that LP.

Here they stretched out into less structured, more avowedly psychedelic (and indeed experimental) territory, with mixed results.

"Smell of Incense" (covered for a small hit by Southwest FOB) was sublime psych-pop.

Yet "Suppose They Give a War and No One Comes" was just some fool -- actually the band's chief investor, lyricist, and tambourine player, Bob Markley -- grafting silly, self-consciously freaky recitation of a vintage 1936 Franklin Roosevelt speech onto an ominous fuzz guitar backup.

Other cuts like "In the Arena" and "Overture -- WCPAEB Part II" were free-form psychedelic creepiness without the strong content of, say, likely influence Frank Zappa.

Yet some of the strangest efforts exert their own strange charm, like "Buddha," with its unfathomable delineation of a garden of delights set against chimes, tinkles, and gongs.

Interspersed with all this was some generic country-folk-rock (although the wavering backup bagpipes on "Delicate Fawn" give even that a weird sheen), fair harmony soft rock ("Queen Nymphet"), and unhinged garage-psych-fuzz madness.

There's half a decent (if screwy) psychedelic album here, and half incoherence, particularly when so many disparate tracks and styles are slung against each other.

The CD reissue on Sundazed adds mono single mixes of "Smell of Incense" and "Unfree Child." (by Richie Unterberger)

Tracklisting:

(Part One)
01.Shifting Sands - 3:54
02.I Won't Hurt You - 2:24
03.1906 - 2:18
04.Help, I'm A Rock - 4:26
05.Will You Walk With Me - 3:01
06.Transparent Day - 2:18
07.Leiyla - 2:55
08.Here's Where You Belong - 2:50
09.If You Want This Love - 2:52
10.'Scuse Me Miss Rose- 3:03
11.High Coin' - 2:04

(Vol Two)
01.In The Arena
02.Suppose They Give A War And No One Comes
03.Buddha
04.Smell Of Incense
05.Overture: Wcpaeb, Pt. II
06.Queen Nymphet
07.Unfree Child
08.Carte Blanche
09.Delicate Fawn
10.Tracy Had A Hard Day Sunday
11.Smell Of Incense

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band:
*Dan Harris (guitar)
*Shaun Harris (bass guitar, vocals)
*Michael Lloyd (guitar, vocals)
*Bob Markley (tambourine, percussion, vocals)
*Ron Morgan (lead guitar, electric sitar)

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***The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Volume One (US 1966) - Great & Legendary Psych band!***

Psychelatte says: One of my top fave Psych bands ever! They did a good half dozen wacky, melodic, funny and wigged out albums. I adore them!
"Volume One", not to be confused with the other album "Part One". This is their first album release, "Part One" was actually their second. Anyways this is a pretty interesting album. There are quite a few covers on this album. And they are pretty good ones at that.

01 -Something you got
02 -Work song
03 -Louie, louie
04 -Don't break my ballonn
05 -You really got me
06 -Don't let anything!!! Stand in your way
07 -I won't hurt you
08 -If you want this love
09 -Insanity
10 -It's all over now, baby blue
11 -She belongs to me
12 -She surely must know (previously unreleased)
13 -Sassafras
14 -She may call you up tonight
15 -One day (previously unissued)
16 -Funny how love can be (previously unissued)
17 -Obviously bad
18 -Endless night (previously unissued)
19 -Tell me what you want to know (previously unissued)
20 -Just you & me (previously unissued)
21 -Chimes of freedom (previously unissued)
22 -Scuse me miss rose (previously unissued instrumental)

VOL ONE

Markley, A Group (1969) (West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band rarity)

Arguably this is in fact the last WCPAEB album, produced by Bob Markley and Michael Lloyd. All the tracks are composed by the above personel. Musically, it's not as good as the WCPAEB but contains some good tracks: Next Plane To the Sun, Sweet Lady Eleven and Magic Cat. Quite surprisingly, there are also several bubblegum influenced tracks (Zoom, Zoom, Zoom being the worst).

(Stephane Rebeschini)
unknown:
Reissue on CD of what was actually the 5th and final album by West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Singer/womaniser Bob markley thought it better to release it under his own name, as a showcase for his various dementia's. The album is chocked full of rich harmonies and delicate arrangements which show the abundant influence of Michael Lloyd, who co-produced the album with (mad) Bob . A surprisingly consistent and accomplished album for a band about to collapse under the collective weight of it's own insanity.
There are few groups as enigmatic, as mysterious as The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. The prime mover in the band was Bob Markley, born in Oklahoma and the son of an oil tycoon. He moved to Los Angeles early in the 1960's, and in late 1961 he began his recording career with "It Should've Be Me" / 'Summers Comin' On", released on Warner Bros. Both sides were pure teen doo-wop, giving little indication what would follow. Markley remained involved in music, and three years later he met up with two brothers, Shaun and Danny Harris, whose interest in music seemed inevitable as their father was a renowned classical composer and their mother a concert pianist. In 1964 Shaun and Danny formed a group The Snowmen, with two musicians who would go on to form The Sunrays and score 1967 hits with 'Andrea' and 'I Live For The Sun'. Later, with the group now split, Shaun and Danny were studying at the Hollywood Professional School where they met Michael Lloyd, leader of yet another local band, Laughing Wind, who had cut some tracks for Tower Records. With Bob Markley and John Ware, a friend of the family, they started a new group. In 1966 the line-up was Dan Harris (lead guitar), Shaun Harris (bass), Michael Lloyd (guitar), John Ware (drums), and Bob Markley who became the inspirator of the band. They band played around all the Sunset Strip clubs and "every freakout that ever happened at the Hollywood Palladium" (to quote Ware).
By 1966 the band had signed to Reprise and their debut album, 'Part One', included some daring cover versions of L.A. contemporaries as Van Dyke Parks, Frank Zappa and P.F.Sloan. The album opened with one of its strongest cuts, the marvelous 'Shifting Sands'. Here is all that was good about the early WCPAEB, that mixture of understatement and melody, with exceptional guitar work which flew over the top of the song, creating an atmosphere that was itself unique. It's the style that the group would expand on. The album-sleeve was a colored collage of anonymous photographs, with no personnel listed. It is not clear who actually played on the album, although Bob Markley is listed as the co-producer.
With the release of the group's second album 'Vol 2', Markley's hold on the group was obviously completed and the air of anonymity removed. The WCPAEB was clearly seen as a trio, with photographs on both the front and back sleeves. Alongside Markley were the Harris brothers. The album included some gems. "Smell of Incense" is particularly good with some strong instrumentation. Released as a single (in a cut-up and remix version), it was the hit the group never had; They were curiously beaten by a cover version by the Southwest F.O.B., who reached no.56 a few months later.
The third album 'A Child's Guide to Good and Evil' appeared in mid 1968 and was the group's most accomplished collection. Still operating as a trio the band now found themselves with a new depth of sound, better able to shape their ideas. This was fully explored in "Eighteen is Over The Hill", where by using layers of multi-track, there was now a fuller wash of harmonies and instruments to complement the often-complex material.
Another confused period followed after the group was dropped by Reprise, as their sales were falling. Bob Markley took out some time to work as producer on other projects.
The WCPAEB did, however, re-appear, and a further album 'Where's My Daddy' was released on Amos Records late in 1969, although not of the same class as the Reprise material. Once again the line-up was made up of the crucial three.
This album effectively ended the name of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, although some time later the trio resurfaced together for one last project, a Bob Markley solo album.
'Markley, A Group' released on the obscure Forward label, was effectively the fifth Pop Art album; the personnel was the same and indeed, the music too was an extension of 'Where's My Daddy'. Once again it lacked the heady atmosphere of say "Smell Of Incense", but it was by no means indispensable.
'A Group' did, however, mark the end of the collaboration between Markley and the two Harrises and they each went their separate ways.

01 - Booker T & His Electric Shock 2:23
02 - Next Plane To The Sun 2:14
03 - Roger The Rocket Ship 2:45
04 - Elegant Ellen 2:19
05 - Little Ruby Rain 3:01
06 - Message For Miniature 0:27
07 - Sarah The Sad Spirit 2:36
08 - Truck Stop 3:20
09 - Zoom Zoom Zoom 2:12
10 - Sweet Lady Eleven 2:19
11 - The Magic Cat 2:59
12 - Outside - Inside 2:39

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