Back catalogue: Psych/Garage Rock

Review: Toronto-to-LA starlet Elyse Weinberg's debut Elyse achieved only moderate success, reaching number 31 on the ole Billboard. Her second album, now reissued via Trading Places, was never officially released due to the collapse of Tetragrammaton Records, clinching the anticlimactic career of a genius (may we add that the highest heights worth climbing aren't the most visible). This lost album, arguably the most cohesive of her entire catalogue, sported a stellar lineup, with JD Souther on drums, Kenny Edwards on bass, and Nils Lofgren on guitar. Neil Young made a precious appearance on the standout track 'Houses', perhaps helping award the song its later covering by a seemingly never-ending daisy chain of contemporary folk-psych greats: Dinosaur Jr, Vetiver, Courtney Barnett. Weinberg's delivery is cuetsy, garrulous and gallant, touting herself a "good-time girl" in chirpy spirit spilt across ten ready-steady grooves.

Review: The tale of Weird Herald - a lost band of the 60s hailing from the South Bay of California - is one of talent, misfortune and mystery. They embodiy the essence of West Coast psychedelia and folk-rock, though they never got the recognition they deserved. Their lone official releaseia 45 with 'Saratoga James' and 'Just Yesterday'iwas just the tip of the iceberg. Their unreleased album from 1968, recorded before tragedy struck with the death of guitarist Billy Dean Andrus, features haunting folk-rock, spacey acoustics and electric jams that recall Moby Grape and Jefferson Airplane. With tracks like 'Untitled' and 'David of Bijou,' the band's mellow, harmonic side shines, while songs like 'Reapin' Seasons' show their harder edge. Their album was tragically shelved due to management issues, but reel-to-reel copies survived, and now, over 50 years later, they're finally available. With demos, outtakes, and bonus tracksiincluding rare 1967 basement recordingsithis release offers a fresh glimpse into the music behind the story.

Review: Not to be confused with the landmark London club of the same name - one of many sorely missed spots in the UK capital - Plastic People is almost the opposite of that now-defunct electronic dance music stronghold. Wildwood's 1968 garage psyche triumph is equally determined to encourage us to escape, only in a far earthier, rawer, and rougher kind of way. With plenty of hoarse guitar riffs, Hammond organ lines and powerhouse vocals coming from the man himself, this is a wonderful reminder of a ridiculously fertile period in rock & roll history that maintained values of the decade it rounded off, but was also increasingly looking to a future in which punk and progressive were beginning to lay their own foundations. In short, it's epic and trippy and incredibly human.