Various – Pebbles Volume 3 "The Acid Gallery"

Tracks 12 and 13 are sequenced in reverse order on the disc.

Just dope, smokin dope, dropping acid, freak out! On my top 10 of all time albums. If you don't got you need it🤘

The first two Pebbles albums were pretty mind-blowing at the time ('78/'79)... but this is the one that blew the doors right off. I seeing this in Virgin Records and it was £9.99. Believe me - this was a LOT of money in '79 and I couldn't really afford it. A bit later I knew I had to have it so gave in and handed over the dosh.

Some of the tracks hardly qualify as LSD-inspired - Mike Condello is just a silly novelty (quite funny though), the Dave Diamond and Godfrey tracks are pseudo-hip spoken-word surreal flights of fancy and the Lea Riders Group track is a wild bit of MC5/Blue Cheer style heaviosity taken from an obscure film soundtrack (great sound though - love to see the film 'They Call Us Misfits').

The second Driving Stupid track 'Horror Asparagus Stories' is listed but isn't actually on the album (you have to get the Pebbles Box on Ubik to hear it - they lost the single when the album was being mastered and had to find another one). The Third Bardo track is more or less straight swaggering garage punk (one of the all-time greats though).

So - a few flaws and a few tracks that don't really fit .... BUT .... the upside is a ton of absolutely crucial acid-punk tracks from 66/67, bridging the era when LSD was made illegal, went overground and became a massively influential cultural totem.

The Crystal Chandelier play a moody sub-Doors slab of downer-rock. TC Atlantic turn up with their best ever tune - the amazing 'Faces' with fantastic chiming guitar solos. Jefferson Hankerchief is a bubblegum novelty - but a good one. Flight Reaction is way-way-WAY WAAYY out. Spider and The Fly is a Vincent Price homage complete with tiny fly's voice as he is consumed by the spider: "help me! help me!!". Voices Green and Purple is probably the best-ever acid-punk track. Just sums up the whole vibe for me.

Yeah its a bit creaky in the audio reproduction dept.... bit lo-fi n' fuzzy sounding. Just crank it up and relive these glorious flashbacks.