Johnson High School Stage Band - Awright, Awright MYSTERY DISCS 2025-07-22 | By far the most popular school records are the ones where the bands get funky. The most well known being the Kashmere Stage Band out of Texas. Personally, I think there is a lot more to enjoy beyond that stuff, but of course I love it too....and this is an absolute funky, psychedelic, wild, untamed monster of a record. An instant classic of its type. Kudos to the director Samuel "Doc" Marks for encouraging this kind of magical, musical anarchy. This particular song is a cover of a Maynard Ferguson track.
Holly Tannen - Cutty Wren MYSTERY DISCS 2025-07-14 | This is an amazing album that really lives up to the promise of its title. This song, in particular, evokes a lost, ancient time full of mystery and darkness. It's about the hunting and subsequent eating of the king of the birds, the wren. The stark, heaviness of the instrumentation combined with Ms. Tannen's wonderful delivery really evokes a deep, strange, intoxicating magic.
Carousel II - What Im Doing MYSTERY DISCS 2025-07-02 | This excellent and enigmatic album was made in 1978 by this highly successful Detroit wedding band and represents their attempt, in the words of the band leader Chet Penkala, to do something "new and exciting". It's a hugely ambitious album of all original songs that are saturated with beauty and melancholy. It has such a unique, almost other-worldly vibe. You can read more about the band and the album here: psychedelicbabymag.com/2025/03/carousel-ii-interview.html
Immaculata Guitar Group - Keep On Smilin MYSTERY DISCS 2025-06-20 | I was not familiar with this song before hearing it on this record but it was a hit for the band Wet Willie. This fantastic version, from a Louisiana high school group, is such a massive explosion of joyful energy and good vibes that it's impossible not to smile when listening to it. That's my experience at least! : ) Hear their amazing cover of O-o-h Child here: youtu.be/T01zrV_-7PI
Mary Corcoran - Go Laddie Go MYSTERY DISCS 2025-06-11 | A truly beautiful and timeless song for truly dark and terrible times. I hope that listening to this brings a moment of peace to those whose brains are melting like mine. This song, of course, is otherwise known as Wild Mountain Thyme and its roots are over 300 years old. Beauty and wonder are eternal.
Manheim Township Jazz Band - Chameleon MYSTERY DISCS 2025-05-22 | Another fantastic and truly unique cover of the Herbie Hancock masterpiece by a school band. It starts off as a killer, ultra-funky, slow and low interpretation of the track, but then they take things in wholly original and unexpected directions. The untamed Sax solo (with handclaps) is truly something magical to behold.
Day and Night - Someshine Suntimes MYSTERY DISCS 2025-05-15 | A lovely little folk-psyche affair that has an awful lot going on for its very brief run time. I also love the cool, hippie wordplay of the song title. Truly delightful!
Victor Valley Senior High School Choral Department - Eternity Road MYSTERY DISCS 2025-05-06 | An incredible and unexpected reinterpretation of a Moody Blues album track from this Southern California school choir. The singing alone is wonderful but the relentless breakbeat drums, primal bass and wild piano propel it into the stratosphere. Props to music director Howard E. Potter for allowing these kids to let their freak flag fly. Hear another fantastic track from this album here: youtu.be/DDOL0Ne80aY
Rebecca - One Foot In MYSTERY DISCS 2025-04-23 | The mysterious Rebecca (no surname given) certainly had a wonderfully unique vision. She had complete control over her sound in writing, producing and playing keyboards on this wild and incredible track. The unconstrained and untamed vibe just builds and builds and keeps you off balance throughout. Hear the equally bold flipside here: youtu.be/G4MYk2CSmYA
Ted & Curtis Voel-Pel - I Dont Know Why MYSTERY DISCS 2025-04-16 | An exquisite and infectious forgotten groover from the Voel-Pel brothers. I really love the supremely funky and serpentine guitar and bass sound here. Built for the dance floor!
The Beckley Gospel Belles - Jesus Met the Woman at the Well MYSTERY DISCS 2025-04-10 | The Gospel Belles add their unique, infectious magic to this traditional gospel song and fully make it their own. The complexity of their intertwining vocals on this amazing album is truly a wonder to behold...whether you are religious or not (like me). Here another incredible track here: youtube.com/watch?v=B_FW9bs-7y4
The Gimmicks - Acapulco Sunset MYSTERY DISCS 2025-04-03 | The Gimmicks were a Swedish band that basically did a wonderfully loose and intensely groovy take on the Sergio Mendes sound. They recorded this album while on a residency at the Las Brasas Hotel in Acapulco....which also inspired this fantastic original song. Wish I could have seen them there!
Showcase Productions - Wild Sounds MYSTERY DISCS 2025-03-26 | An eclectic selection of one minute long tracks from a collection of library music records. These songs were intended for use at radio stations as interval or background music when a specific mood was needed. I wonder what mood these wild and wonderful tracks signified?
Edward Molenda Jr. - Resurrection Power MYSTERY DISCS 2025-03-19 | I initially flicked past this in the thrift store because, when I quickly scanned the cover, I thought it was a calendar (which quite often find their way into record bins given their similar size). Anyway, something in my brain nagged me to circle back around and look more closely... and I couldn't be happier that I did. The moment the needle hit the record I knew it was something truly special. What unfolded was a devastatingly sad and heartfelt outsider masterpiece. A million questions filled my mind about the artist and his remarkable record. Luckily someone that knows the man had posted one of the other songs on youtube with a detailed story of its origin (link below). Edward Molenda Jr., a terminal cancer survivor, wrote and recorded the record after his partner died in 2015. In his extreme sadness he was inspired by the Bluebirds he could see in the snow when staring out of his apartment window. This epic, hypnotic, heartbreaking track, which ends this incredible album, is its most overtly religious song, but its message remains powerful and universal. Read about Edward and hear another song here: youtu.be/SIz-6M-f74I?si=T8-R3TRBDo6HeLuG
Olivia Newton-John - Anyone Who Had A Heart MYSTERY DISCS 2025-03-12 | Something a little different for my channel. As far as I can tell this is a previously unknown (on the internet at least) recording of the Bacharach and David song. Interestingly this was one of the songs that Newton-John performed on the television talent competition Sing, Sing, Sing in Australia in 1965 (when she was 16). She won the competition, the prize being a trip to Great Britain, where she remained to build her career. Segue is an Australian label, so I presume that she must have recorded this at some point before she left. She later recorded the song again for her 2004 album Indigo - Women Of Song.
Kay Weaver - Could Life Be For Us? MYSTERY DISCS 2025-03-05 | Fantastic, moody and punky new-wave song poem written by Cecilia M. Hamme and sung by my favorite song poem legend Kay Weaver. Song poems were songs written the general public who paid a company (like Columbine here) to have session musicians and singers record them and then press them on vinyl. There's really nothing like them...and I love them deeply.
La Mesa Junior High School Vocal Department - Carwash MYSTERY DISCS 2025-02-26 | Stripped down and atmospheric take on the Rose Royce classic with spectral Wah-Wah and organ taking it somewhere truly otherworldly....also hand claps galore! You really get a sense of being in the room from this amazing recording. I dig it so much!
Lebanon Junior High Chorus - Total Eclipse of the Heart MYSTERY DISCS 2025-02-18 | Wonderful, evocative and powerful version the Bonnie Tyler song. I have always genuinely loved the original and it feels tailor made for a choral interpretation. The age of school records was coming to the end by the time this was pressed but this feels like a fitting and emotional bon voyage. (Dedicated to Garek, happy trails man)
Highland View Junior High Choir - Ascensions MYSTERY DISCS 2025-02-10 | This is something truly special. Probably the most out-there, psychedelic and technically impressive school choir recording I have ever heard...and Junior High at that! Incredible work by the amazing director Joyce Eilers. It's a real show stopper! On an interesting side note the writer of this, Louis F. Davis, Jr., also co-wrote the 70's pop-country smash 'Convoy' and formed the neoclassical group Mannheim Steamroller. Wild!
Expression - The Letter MYSTERY DISCS 2025-01-30 | A truly ambitious and explosive reworking of the Box Tops classic by this talented and tight Nevada lounge band. Of special note is the fact that multi-instrumentalist Frank Cole hooked his Wah Wah pedal up to his Saxophone for this wild performance. Nice work Frank! What I wouldn't give to have seen this performed live.
Tommy Redd - Flower Girl MYSTERY DISCS 2025-01-23 | Ultra lo-fi and moody loner psyche. Mr Redd felt the call of more trippy times and moved beyond the country vibes of his regular band The Reddymen to create this ode to a grooving hippy girl. He played both the bass and 12 string here to wonderful lysergic effect. The flip is also a trip…in a very different and much darker way. Seek it out.
Showcase Productions - Psychedelic Sounds MYSTERY DISCS 2025-01-14 | It's always fascinating when library music attempts to get 'hip". To hear how seasoned studio musicians interpret the 'heavy' sounds of the youth. To illustrate this, I selected 6 tracks from a collection of records designed for use at radio stations. I tried to join them into a cohesive, psychedelic whole. Enjoy the trip!
9 W North - Eileen MYSTERY DISCS 2025-01-07 | Moody, lo-fi psyche-garage-soul dealing with, as these records so often do, lost love and heartbreak. There’s a glorious, freeform, looseness to the whole thing which takes the song in some unpredictable and wholly groovy directions. I hope Eileen dug it!
John Muir - Crystal Falls MYSTERY DISCS 2024-12-30 | Happy New Year to all! Here's a perfectly tweaked tune to ring in what is sure to be a very tweaked year. This song poem by Michael Apples was given some serious synth-garage-psyche-rock vibes by the sessioners at Columbine Records. The music perfectly suits the slightly lysergic nature of the lyrics. What were the "crystal falls there in the sky" that Mr. Apples felt compelled to write this song about?
Bay Port High School Swing Choir - Rock the Boat MYSTERY DISCS 2024-12-23 | Happy Holidays to all! I wanted to post something festive and this felt perfect. The Hues Corporation party classic is transformed into a beautiful and spiritual hymn to 'love and devotion". Such a wonderful arrangement that only becomes more poignant when the joy is released in the final part of the song. Blissful.
Rev. & Mrs A. R. Vander Ploeg - The Train Song MYSTERY DISCS 2024-12-19 | It's always fascinating when a burst of avant-garde energy bursts forth from the more 'traditional' parts of society. This is a prime example. It's a literal head trip, created to psychedelically inspire a vision of the journey to the afterlife, through really wild musical experimentation. All aboard!
William Smith - I Will Love You MYSTERY DISCS 2024-12-09 | In my opinion, the two (that I know of) Central High School Hootenanny records are total masterpieces ranking among the best school records ever made. This song is a perfect example of why I think that. This monumentally dreamy and evocative cover of this song is far better than any of the other versions I've heard. Which is true of a lot of the songs on these albums.
The Connetquot High School Stage Band - Lifting MYSTERY DISCS 2024-12-02 | An incredible, incendiary, primal, ultra-psychedelic burst of total energy from this high school band out of Bohemia, New York. The song is an original composition by their (clearly super groovy) director, Skip West. Kudos and thanks Mr West!
Roger Anderson - Desert Tears MYSTERY DISCS 2024-11-26 | A unique and truly wonderful outsider-psyche song of lost love and heartbreak (as these kind of records often are!). I adore the playful, magical musical arrangement that really complements Rogers heartfelt, yearning vocals. You can hear the equally emotional other side here: youtube.com/watch?v=Mw-TIMBNL84
The Weather - Olivia MYSTERY DISCS 2024-11-15 | Lovely and enigmatic psyche-folk song of lost love and regret. I'm always a sucker for a poetic spoken word intro too!
Krisendale - Without You MYSTERY DISCS 2024-11-08 | A beautiful, heartbreakingly melancholy, but ultimately uplifting song from this legendary (to me at least) duo. Music will help me through these dark times as it always does.
The Ephlats - Sugar Magnolia MYSTERY DISCS 2024-10-31 | In tribute to Phil Lesh who sadly died this week, here's a super joyful version of The Grateful Dead's legendary song from their brilliant album American Beauty. I really love the back and forth between the male and female members of the group, who were all attending Williams College in Massachusetts. Sunshine daydream!
Souvenir - Another Time MYSTERY DISCS 2024-10-21 | A truly magical and gently psychedelic take on a dark, beautiful and enigmatic song by the legendary Tom Rapp of Pearls Before Swine. The addition of lovely female vocals and wonderful, trippy and organic slide guitar really brings something fresh to an already amazing song. Cool to see a band anachronistically letting their freak-folk-flag fly in 1982.
York High School Swing Choir - Fly Like An Eagle MYSTERY DISCS 2024-10-15 | I have always loved this Steve Miller song so I was very happy to find this fantastic, rousing version by a high school choir. There's something really special about hearing these trippy, cosmic, righteous lyrics sung in this way. Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'...
Wells Wolverine Middle School Concert Band - Moonride MYSTERY DISCS 2024-09-27 | Incredible sci-fi trip from these teenage space cadets with layers of analogue synth and super cosmic vibes. I've heard a lot of school band records...but I've never hard anything quite like this! Far Out!
Omene Harlims - Bring Out The Good In Me MYSTERY DISCS 2024-09-18 | True loner-outsider-synth-soul out of Oakland, California. I adore Mr Harlims' unique, singular and magical musical vision. Check out the wild instrumental breakdown here, it's a real jaw-dropper. Harlims only put out two records on his own Ancient Times label and then disappeared from view.
Ron & Ann Holm/Dave Zimmerman - Dear Mercies Shoes MYSTERY DISCS 2024-09-08 | Lovely, evocative and melancholy folk duet from a consistently great and surprising album. In the 90's they would have called this 'freak folk' but I'm not sure if that's a thing anymore ; )
Stauz - Bikers Lament MYSTERY DISCS 2024-08-29 | A perfect example of an album where you'd never guess the sound based on the cover. The punky, primitive, outsider, garage rock blast of this song perfectly encapsulates that. According to the tongue-in-cheek liner notes it was based on a "recently discovered Dead Sea scroll". What's certain is that it's an absolute, molten, scorcher.
Greenbank Senior Public School - Spinning Wheel MYSTERY DISCS 2024-08-06 | This Canadian school band and choir nail a wonderful and joyful take on the Blood, Sweat & Tears classic. This has to be one of the most covered songs of all time but this version might be my favorite. I hope it brings some sunshine to your day.
Kay Weaver - Where Could You Be? MYSTERY DISCS 2024-07-27 | 'Song poem' records are albums made up of songs written by members of the public. They paid to have a company record them with session musicians and singers and then press them onto vinyl. There are an untold number of these albums and singles and the majority of them seem to be undocumented and unknown. I wonder what the writer 'A. McGriffe' thought of this interpretation of their lyrics. I hope they loved it as much as I do. What a wild sound!
Jimmy Brown - The Life I Live MYSTERY DISCS 2024-07-18 | A perfectly beautiful piece of unknown, psyche infused, baroque folk-rock. Brimming with sunshine and with a rich seam of soaring, heart-felt romance throughout. This is the second song I've posted from this incredible e.p. from the brilliant enigma that is Jimmy Brown. You can hear the other wonderful track here: youtu.be/s3VrVg8rS8w?si=yqTaf4gfJ4g1TX2b
Johnny Bello’s Strawberry Cliffs Of Monica – Black Oil MYSTERY DISCS 2024-07-08 | The only record released by this LA group and (as far as I can tell) the only psyche record released by this label. It's an epic and mysterious song that keeps you guessing throughout. The ambitious production and arrangement, combined with Bello's dramatic and passionate delivery, make it something truly memorable...and very far-out indeed.
Marilyn Gordon - Red-Winged Blackbird MYSTERY DISCS 2024-06-29 | An absolutely beautiful, incredibly haunting rendition of this wonderful song by Billy Edd Wheeler by this high school student. This album is amazing throughout. It's so cool to hear these students embracing the folk boom of the 60's with such passion and skill.
Benson High School Stage Band - Chameleon MYSTERY DISCS 2024-06-14 | There's not much I love in life more than a school band cover of Herbie Hancock's Chameleon. They're always so different to each other and this one is no exception. It's is bit looser, slower and groovier than usual and really brings it's own flavor generally. I especially love the Vibes accents throughout. 100% good vibes only.
Jim Alexander - Western Troubador MYSTERY DISCS 2024-06-07 | This dreamy, gently psychedelic ode to a cosmic cowboy is the title track to this excellent, eclectic and inventive record. Jim had a unique vision for sure, taking in elements of country, folk and psyche. It makes for a heady listen. I'd put this in the same vein as Gene Clark's magnificent album No Other...although perhaps on a much lower budget. So good.
Planet Street - Choose Your Weapon MYSTERY DISCS 2024-05-29 | To my ears this infectious, new wave mantra out of Massachusetts should have been a hit. The A-side is great too to but the flip is something truly special. Like Laurie Anderson jamming with The Cars. A real neon earworm.
Rusty Blue and Revision - Power Play MYSTERY DISCS 2024-05-21 | An incredible short, sharp, shock of propulsive, outsider psyche-rock. Every song on this fascinating album was written by Rusty and they're all great and wildly eclectic. There's a really unique and addictive vibe throughout. Ultra wild!
Northeast Junior High School Rock/Show Ensemble - Birthday & Let It Be MYSTERY DISCS 2024-05-15 | The awesome cover alone was obviously enough to convince me to buy this album blind. Luckily it turned out to be great with a really interesting selection of songs. The record ends with these very different takes on two Beatles classics. Both fantastic in their own way. They complement each other so well.
The Smith Trio - The Place Prepared For Me MYSTERY DISCS 2024-05-08 | Raw, punky and magical country gospel with truly wonderful vocal Interplay and killer playing. I'm not a religious man but this music really rouses something deep in my soul. Glorious!
