LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

• LIMITED TO 315 NUMBERED COPIES!
• First-ever reissue of the ultra-rare 1968 promotional single
• Vintage-style picture sleeve
• Includes insert with liner notes by Cam Cobb, author of the Skip Spence biography Weighted Down
• Essential West Coast psychedelic folk-rock for fans of Moby Grape, The Byrds and early Donovan

A beautiful lost fragment of late-'60s California psychedelia, this single brings back the only two Weird Herald tracks that managed to reach vinyl during the band's original lifetime. The recordings first appeared in 1968 as a scarce promotional 45 connected with a run of shows alongside Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete, while the full album Weird Herald had been working on remained unreleased.

Based in Los Gatos, California, Weird Herald grew out of the San Jose and Saratoga folk and coffeehouse scene. At the heart of the group were guitarists and songwriters Billy Dean Andrus and Paul Ziegler, musicians whose circle overlapped with key figures of the Bay Area scene. Andrus had been a close friend of Skip Spence of Moby Grape, while the band also had ties with Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.

Saratoga James, written by Andrus, is a haunting acoustic folk-psych song inspired by his friend Jim Fletcher. Delicate finger-picked guitar and close vocal harmonies give it a dreamlike quality, with an introspective mood that recalls the more fragile side of mid-'60s psychedelic folk.

Paul Ziegler's Just Yesterday is equally striking but slightly more relaxed, blending shimmering folk-rock with gentle country influences and beautifully understated harmonies. Its warm West Coast atmosphere places it somewhere between The Byrds, Moby Grape and the mellower corners of the San Francisco psychedelic scene.

Together these two songs reveal the softer side of a band whose story was cut short before its planned album could appear. A superb archival 45 and an especially appealing discovery for collectors of obscure California psych and folk-rock.

Track Listing:

Side A
A. Saratoga James

Side B
B. Just Yesterday