Search - Beauregard Ajax :: Deaf Priscilla

My Old Band

C. Leo Hartshorn | Lancaster, PA USA | 08/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Why would I give this flashback from the 60's such a high rating? Because I was the drummer! I found the album released by Shadoks while searching my old band's name on the internet. I was surprised to hear that tapes of our group somehow circulated in Europe for a number of years before Shadoks got hold of them. No one in the band is getting any royalties, but it was nice to see the work we did with producer Bob Keane (Ritchie Valens, Bobby Fuller Four,etc.)finding an audience after 38 years!"

A very enjoyable CD

Melkor | San Diego, CA USA | 02/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD was a blind purchase for me. I was at an independent record shop that specializes in psychedelic and garage music. I asked the clerk for a suggestion, since I really do not know much about this musical genre. I had been listening to a lot of Electric Prunes and Roky Erickson lately, and wanted something similar. The clerk recommended this CD to me, telling me it was "very popular".



It is a very good CD. Not what I was looking for, but I enjoy it. Rather than the groups I mentioned, this seems a little closer to the Strawberry Alarmclock brand of psychedelic or the Scott Walker type of dark pop songs. Almost every track clocks in at under three minutes, but the songs flow well into each other. The songs have a cool and steady drum beat with an acoustic guitar backing up the rhythm. The bass lines are melodic, yet ominous. The vocals are drifting and haunting. The warm fuzz of an electric guitar comes in and breaks things up at the tail end of the songs.



I think this is definitely a good purchase for those, like me, who are just beginning to dig under the surface of the 60's and early 70's. There are so many interesting bands out there other than the Beatles and all the "Woodstock bands" we all know about. It's too bad that the drummer says in his review below that the band won't see any royalties from this release. Still, as a music fan, it's nice to know that someone is willing to keep music like this in print.

"

Unknown jewel

TomFra | Rome, Italy | 11/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Don't want to review the entire album but a single track of it which, in my opinion, represents the whole. If, as suggested by the etymology of the word, Kaleidoscope is a "visor of beauty", then this track is well suited to represent the singular quality of the whole Beauregard Ajax's album, "Deaf Priscilla". Kaleidoscope, in particular, is a seemingly naïve song but actually very sophisticated. You like it immediately, not just because it is catchy, rather for it makes you inevitably complice. The surreal text, the Lo-Fi, evanescent, almost feminine David Ferguson's voice, the surf rock fuzzed out guitar arrangements of Charlie Hendrix, are a perfect example of what the 60s East Coast early American psychedelic scene could express. For this reason, the whimsical Kaleidoscope is well placed alongside the production of the best known band of that period as Love, The Seeds, and The Doors. Maybe the entire album "Deaf Priscilla" is not a masterpiece tout court, but Kaleidoscope is, surely, a little (and semi-unknown) jewel.

Deaf Priscilla"