Sainte Anthony's Fyre - Sainte Anthony's Fyre (1970) Limited Edition (2013)

Legendary proto-metal/psych private press side: released in 1970 this is a classic wasted thug-punk album with a ton of fuzz, crude riffs and a totally crunching rhythm section giving way to doofy harmonies and endless murky distorto solos. The amazingly named Greg Ohm handles guitar and vocal duties and his approach is totally first Blue Cheer album in terms of its ambition and inability to match Hendrix in terms of third stone sonics. The lyrics are classic Bonehead about getting good loving and being turned on but most importantly the songs are simple excuses, mere vehicles, for total six string scorch.

The band have an amazing shuffling boogie style that trades doomy atmospherics for get-down dynamics and amphetamine breakouts in a way that has something in common with the early MC5’s testifying style but there’s something a little more crude and basement-blunt about Sainte Anthony’s Fyre that ‘does it’ that bit better.