Shiver - San Francisco's Shiver (1972) (2000)

Shiver played psychedelic rock like many other bands from San Francisco in the flower power era of the late 1960s/early 1970s, but what differentiated them was their shear raw energy, making these acid rockers equally at home with the Haight hippy set and greasy redneck bikers. This album, recorded on a two-track recorder in 1972 with no overdubs, captures acid rock in its heyday, with crazed guitar solos, a wild rhythm section, and out-of-control screamed vocals. In fact, a more professional recording might have muted some of the vitality; what we get here sounds live and raw. "Tough as Nails" and "Bone Shaker" are full-throttled aggressive assaults, while "Interstellar Vision," and the lengthy "Alpha Man" slow things down slightly as the band soars into space for a far more psychedelic display of pyrotechnics. Some of the other tracks are not quite as strong, being more typical examples of early-'70s hard rock, though still quite un-commercial in sound, and certainly Shiver deserve to be rediscovered more than many of the other countless bands from that era whose releases are now being stuffed in the record store racks.