Features Extensive Liner Notes by Chris Welch Including an in Depth Interview with Vocalist Peter French.
CD Reviews
Hard rockin' party
Aron D. Rush | Cross Timbers, Mo usa | 04/05/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I recently purchased this cd (not for $24, thank God!). I really like it alot! First off, let's get the Zeppelin comparisons out of the way. Yea, there's a couple of songs here that sound alot like LZ. That being said, if you like Zep 1 and 2, I see no reason you won't enjoy this. One guy said they sound so much like Zep he could fool his friends. His friends aren't too bright! Black Sabbath and Rush (among others) have songs on their first couple of albums that sound alot like early Zep but it's all good. Surely no one could take offense. Zep ripped old blues artists for most of their early material, and Stairway To Heaven is so close to Taurus on Spirit's first album that Randy California could've sued if he were that kind of person. With all that out of the way, this is a really good rock'n'roll album! It's jamming party rock, and alot of fun to listen to. There are times the lead guitar reminds me more of Jorma from Jeff Airplane than Jimmy Page (Sad Road To The Sea). I think if things had been different, this group could've really made something of their selves. I wish a live recording would turn up. For the most part, this is hard driving rock that reminds me as much of Free and Mountain as Zep. The title cut sounds 60ish, but that's not a bad thing in my book. There isn't anything here new and different. It's just good hard rock, plain and simple. If you like any of the bands I mentioned and want something else in that vein, give it a try. Peter french is an excellent vocalist for this kind of music and the band is tight. Roll one up, grab a cold one, and turn up the volume!"
Ever expanding mushroom head
D. K. Hughes | Atlanta, Ga. | 03/22/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album is great, a lost treasure to be sure. I can kinda hear the Led Zep influence some here have cited, I think they sound more like Trapeze during the Medusa era. Early 70's rock, with tasty licks and strong vocals. Great package with extensive liner notes, and history of the band. Recomended"
Peter French + heavy riffs = great album
Cervello | 11/14/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a very solid release if you are looking for the heavier side of early 70's hardrock albums. Yes, it sounds very much like Led Zeppelin, especially the first track, but this album still has so much orginality that it surely can stand on its own. I bought this album after having heard "In hearing of" by Atomic Rooster on which Peter French does the vocals. He really has a great rock'n'roll voice that fits so well with this kind of raw and bluesy hardrock. Extensive liner notes in the booklet, provides new info on this lost classic. And the icing of the cake, separating this even more from earlier editions is the addition of the last track, from the NEW forthcoming Leaf Hound album. And yes, its a good track, clearly vintage sounding, no need to change a winning forumla. And Pete's voice is in good shape. In my opinion this is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars though, since the songs in the end, can sound a bit meandering and repetitious. Especially some guitarsolos should have been shortened. Some more variety in the "in-your-face tracks" would have greatly improved this album also. Thus, needless to say probably, I enjoy "In hearing of" by Atomic Rooster even more than this album."
Recipe for Slop Rock Stew
colinwoodward | Virginia | 04/02/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I was in a record shop in the coolest part of town in the former capital of the Confederacy, where I heard this band playing overhead. It sounded pretty good, so I bought it.
"Growers of Mushroom," which, I am told, was recorded in one day, teaches you how to make some good ol' slop rock stew. Toss in heaping spoonfuls of Led Zeppelin, Cream, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk, and the Guess Who. Also throw in a little Live at Leeds and Sabbath. Stir, simmer, and serve.
Leaf Hound--which I think might've had some connections to drugs--contained the kind of guys no one liked to sit next to in high school. If originality is your thing, this band won't do it for you. I realize all these blues power bands lifted from the same Robert Johnson playbook, but if you spent time in the 80s thumbing through your parent's vinyl collection, Leaf Hound presents no radical departures. Most of the lyrics are in the "I'm gonna leave you woman/ you done me wrong/ as the train rides down the tracks/ I'm gonna shoot you down, baby girl" tradition. Singer Peter French can't shred as well as Barton Cummings, but he does a decent Cummings-Robert Plant-Joe Cocker impersonation.
Okay, they're derivative, but so what? This was made in the hard rock golden age of the early 70s, when even the not-so-great bands were pretty good. It's one of those albums that call up all the rock music you've ever heard, and in a good way. Track 3 reminds me of Hendrix's version of "Machine Gun"; track 4 sounds like Big Brother and the Holding Company's "I Need a Man to Love." "With a Minute to Go" sounds in parts exactly like "What Is and What Should Never Be" from Zep II. The title track, "Growers of Mushroom" might have been a lost track from "The Who Sell Out." When the guitar parts slow down on "Stagnant Pool," it predates Pearl Jam by twenty years.
Track 4, "Work My Body" might be the best on the album, especially when the pounding organ chords come in half-way through. The bonus track, "It's Gonna Get Better," with its emphasis on piano, sounds very different from the rest of the album, and it's nice in an early Rod Stewart kind of way. The last two bonus tracks are ill-advised. The band stumbles through "Hipshaker," which might have been a good song if the everybody were in sync. "Too Many Rock and Roll Times" steals the riff from Cream's "Crossroads" cover (or, if you prefer, steals Steve Miller's "Big Jet Airliner" riff).
In sum, the band has enough garage band energy to make the album zip by. These guys are the kind of stumbling, unpretentious, sloppy English rock musicians that make it all worthwhile.
"
Great
William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 05/10/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"These guys played hard, bluesy, riff based rock, late 60s-early 70s style. They are heavy and loud, and their riffs are chunky and drop like a hammer.
They are not as inventive as Led Zeppiln and not prog-tinged like early Deep Purple. Yet their guitar playing is great, and these are truely loud, metalic songs.
For the standards of their era, this was some of the hardest rock out there. It's hevey edge stands up perfectly today. Absoulutely enjoyable album, that can shread the paint from the walls, 40 years on."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1