The Firebirds - Light My Fire (1969 - exploito-heavy psych, Blue Cheer)

From all accounts this isn't even a real band. Just a group of studio muscians cramed in a studio to make a quick buck on the wild and untamed youth and their endless hord of disposable income.

But unlike other fly-by-night mob-money exploito-shlock toss-offs, The Firebirds and their alter ego (read: label cash in) 31 Flavors manage to tear a new hole in the delicate fabric of stoned-dead Blue Cheer style acid-guitar nightmare rock. Burried under an avalanch of toxic-fuzz, the all-fills-all-the-time drums despratly try to dig, nay, beat their way out of this flash-back induced hell. The punchy bass acts as the massive counter-weight, giving force from the back, and the amature-Robert Plant gives this warship its direction.

Ok, so thay sound like Blue Cheer. A bit of Hendrix and maybe some Iron Buterfly. Check out my Bang post if its still up. They also steal the Doors melody from "Light My Fire."

This Firebirds album first got attention on the killer An Overdose of Heavy Psych album out on Arf! Arf! reocrds. They didn't have the whole album like I do hear, instead they pulled just the 4 most monstrous tracks from and added a few missing tracks from the 31 Flavors Hair album, which is the same band under a different name. This gets very confusing so stick with me: The Firebirds' Light My Fire album has less tracks than is listed on its sleeve. It appears that it lists the tracks "Free Bass", "Free Drum", and "Free Fuzz", which don't appear to be on this album. The CD version I have here on Radioactive Records (I can guarentee it's a boot, this label has gotten into some trouble before) only has 8 tracks, while the sleeve lists 10. The liner notes to An Overdose of Heavy Psych explain that "Free Drum" and "Free Fuzz" instead appear under a different band name 31 Flavors on the album Hair. Both albums were originaly released on the Crown lable in 1969 around the same time as Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath's firsts.

Yet another album might exist, released as The Electric Firebirds Dance Party Time, but who knows. What I've done here, is taken the Light My Fire album as it appears on Radioactive Records I trid fixing the track list because it was clearly wrong (someone let me know if I messed up), and then I added three tracks from the Arf! Arf! comp so that "Free Bass", "Free Fuzz" and "Free Drum" play back to back, as they are infact one song. Yes this means you get the track "Free Bass" twice, each from a different source. So shoot me....

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I want to take the time to mention here, just as a side note, that the original Blue Cheer, or at least a Dickie Peterson (bass, vox) and Paul Whaley (drums) led incarnation, is currently on tour, and just recently came to Boston. Sure they were a bit dusty, but when they realy started to get going, it made you realize that these guys pretty much invented this sound. I don't know when people started to call guitars axes, but Blue Cheer could cut down a Sequoia. Check 'em out if you can. Anyways...

- overview by denez

Tracklist:

1. Warm Up
2. Delusions
3. Reflections
4. By Baby
5. Gypsy Fire
6. Free Bass
7. No Tomorrows
8. Light My Fire
9. bonus - Free Bass
10. bonus - Free Drum
11. bonus - Free Fuzz

variable bit rate, ripped from CD.

Buy this album from Radioactive Records HERE!!!!!

or do this:
http://rapidshare.de/files/24188778/The_Firebirds_-_Light_My_Fire__1969_.rar

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