Stoned in the Bathroom

Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker
1971

This is going to blow your mind. A friend of mine turned me on to this record just last week by pointing me to Cousin Mike's blog, and I haven't been so pleasantly surprised in some time. You know the name Chubby Checker, right? He's the guy who did "The Twist", "Let's Twist Again", "Twist it Up", "The Peppermint Twist", "Twist and Shout", "Twist of Cain", "Twisted Sister", and was the inspiration for the 1996 Jan de Bont film Twister. But after his pop career faded, and before he resigned himself to the oldies circuit, he apparently decided to experiment a little (in more ways than one, presumably). This psych/garage/blues record never got a US release, but was recorded in Holland and released on a few budget labels over there. Nine of the Eleven songs were written by Checker himself, and let me just stress how good this stuff is. The first two tracks will convince you.

Check out Cousin Mike, too. Tons of great stuff there.

Chubby Checker

Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio

Alice Cooper
Pretties for You
1969

If all you know of Alice Cooper is "School's Out", "I'm Eighteen", and "Hey Stoopid", then do yourself a favor and check out this record. This is the group's debut from 1969, originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight Records. It's a bizarre mix of psychedelic garage rock, warped Beatles-esque harmonies, and dark, theatrical schlock. "Reflected" was eventually rewritten as "Elected" on 1973's Billion Dollar Babies, but the rest of this is barely recognizable as the same band. Pretties for You and their sophomore release, Easy Action (which I'll post some other time), were out of print for years, and when they were finally re-released in the late 80s, I was excited to hear them. Boy, I was downright confused. Then again I was rocking "(He's Back) The Man Behind the Mask" around that time.

Pretties for You