Shindig! Vol2 No.5 • July-Aug 2008
On sale now

THE WEST COAST POP ART
EXPERIMENTAL BAND’s story should
really be made into a film. Its central theme is akin to a fairytale in
reverse – well almost. Bob Markley (the older, wiser huckster who wanted to be in a rock ’n’ roll group to impress the young girls so badly that he bought himself into one) was most certainly a little like the wicked queen in Snow White. For him rock ’n’ roll was the elixir of youth, and he would get it at all costs.

The one-minute-folkpop- the-next-shit-your-pants-unnerving quality- of-the music stood out from the standard garage and psych fare of the time. This was a band with a mystique to
equal The 13th Floor Elevators.
Youth may pass us by like a flicker of an eyelid, but hearing the intro of the angelic ‘Shifting Sands’ or the sexually charged bass thrum of ‘Smell Of Incense’ makes you feel young, deep down inside. Maybe Markley was onto something? Isn’t the freedom found in rock ’n’ roll music the very essence of youth? However badly Markley’s
life may have turned out in the end, for a fleeting moment he froze time with his elixir.

WCPAEB authority Tim Forster ties together the loose threads from 20 year’s worth of research and brings the story to a close. We feel very privileged to be able to run this epic
drama.

Johnny Black’s highly detailed San Francisco ’65-67 timeline closes with “The Death Of The Hippie” event, a superb interview with Mad River and Patrick The Lama’s accompanying
pieces on the Human Be-In and an Esoteric Trips San Francisco rare LP guide. Many thanks to Johnny for getting this rolling – we have received so many letters praising our excellent SF coverage.