Puff — Go With You

from Puff (1969)

This is what happened when the Rockin’ Ramrods tuned in, turned on, and dropped out: Puff (as in the Magic Dragon). Beautiful Acid-Test-worthy psych-pop balladry.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this track has the best organ sounds ever. (Sorry, Ray Manzarek) First, a chunky, gritty garage organ, then halfway through, hallelujah-worthy church pipes that’ll have you as blissed out as Jim Morrison riding the snake…

Rockin’ Ramrods — Bright Lit Blue Skies (1966)

Promised I’d post this gem from Boston’s Rockin’ Ramrods. Enjoy

Steve Hanft video for Bright Lit Blue Skies

from the new album by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti — Before Today (2010)

I’ve always been a fan of Steve Hanft videos. He directed a bunch of Beck’s classic early videos - Loser, Beercan, Pay No Mind. He also directed Kill the Moonlight, an indie film about a fish hatchery worker who wants to soup up his Camaro and be a bigtime racecar driver. The “I’m a driver, I’m a winner, things are gonna change, I can feel it” sample in Loser is from that movie.

But back to this video. Steve takes us to a girls’ school, which Ariel Pink and his cronies invade in a cardboard Trojan horse. I wonder if the scenes of the horse scooting around the streets is a nod to the sliding coffin that tears through the forest in the Loser video. Maybe!

Bright Lit Blue Skies is one of my favorites off the new album. It’s a cover of a Rockin’ Ramrods tune from 1966. I’ll post the original later.