WEST COAST POP ART EXPERIMENTAL BAND – Volume One

Raw, sometimes sloppy material by this enigmatic, psychedelic cult band appeared on an extremely rare debut album in 1966 (their first LP for Reprise, Part One, is usually considered their first recording). The West Coast Pop Art were always a strange act, and this collection does nothing to tarnish that perception. It’s not so much the weirdness of the sound — they could be plenty weird per se on Zappaesque freak-outs like “Insanity” (co-penned by Kim Fowley), but only occasionally. It’s more the sheer unpredictable range of the material. One minute they’re attacking “Louie, Louie” and the classic jazz instrumental “Work Song” with all the finesse of teenagers in their bedroom; the next they’re doing pretty psych-pop tunes with a bizarre edge, like “I Won’t Hurt You”; then there are the Dylan covers, which are approached as if they are Yardbirds’ tunes, with splashes of feedback and hard rock/R&B arrangements. And then there’s an original baroque pop number worthy of the Left Banke or late-period Zombies (“She Surely Must Know”), a sharp, witty, country-tinged rocker (“Sassafras”), and covers of the Left Banke’s “She May Call You Up Tonight,” and the mawkish “Funny How Love Can Be.” No stylistic consistency whatsoever, in other words, but plenty of wacky energy, and occasional actual inspiration. Which makes this hard to recommend to anyone other than psychedelic junkies. But if you fit under that umbrella, it’s not bad at all, though wildly erratic.