Search - The Patron Saints :: Before Bohob, Vol. 1 (Birth of a Basement Band)

After years of prodding by fans and reviewers, The Patron Saints have released a 2-CD, 45-song set of cover tunes recorded from September, 1966 to late spring/early summer 1968, entitled Before Bohob, Vol. 1 (subtitled Birth Of A Basement Band). Here's a excerpt from the liner notes from the CD package: Once I actually held a tape recorder in my hands, it was all over. I was probably about ten or eleven years old, and had received a cute, toy-like little 3-inch reel-to-reel from my grandmother for my birthday. I was absolutely fascinated with it, spending hour after hour recording errant noises, household sounds and family members ad nauseum. I used to love to flip the tape over and play stuff backwards (predating John Lennon by years!). When the Patron Saints formed in 1966, I was able to couple my love for tape recorders with my other obsessions, electric guitars and rock n roll, and record us at various stages in our career , culminating in our most famous project, our 1969 independently written, produced and distributed LP, Fohhoh Bohob, now an unexpected cult classic. When our musical genre is listed in numerous musical websites and catalogs, it is invariably psychedelic garage rock or something equally obtuse. We re usually presented as three dorky emo -like teenagers who must have spent all of our formative years in our bedrooms penning our angst-ridden musical ideas and who, finally, painfully, put them down on tape. Often, reviewers will attempt to nail down our musical influences, often naming groups we d never heard of, let alone were influenced by. The truth, as you will hear in this musical chronicle, is that the early Patron Saints were never a Psych band...we were a hardcore R & B/Blues/Pop/Rock/Folk Rock/Country/Surf band. Well, maybe a little Psych, too, I guess. And we weren t a garage band, either...we were, in reality, a basement band. I don t recall ever playing in anyone s garage, quite honestly; we honed our craft in each other s basements. Over the years, a surprising number of fans and reviewers have written to ask me if there were any recordings of the Patron Saints made before Fohhoh Bohob. As well-known as the threesome on the Fohhoh Bohob sessions are, and the four Patron Saints who recorded The Latimer Sessions in 1970-71, for me, the real Patron Saints are the original five who started the group together in 66; me, Frank Stapleton, Jeff Alfaro, Jon Tuttle and Bruce Miller. The songs presented in this CD set are all live recordings made by the five of us, presented chronologically, spanning the period from September, 1966 to late spring/early summer, 1968. Recorded in a number of different situations with tape recorders of varying features and quality, I believe that our energy and ability shines through, despite any equipment limitations and engineering inadequacies. For a bunch of teenagers, we had a remarkable work ethic. We were all fiercely dedicated to learning and mimicking our musical heroes recordings as closely as possible, until we felt comfortable enough to stray from that formula and start developing our own distinct sound. We all liked working in a group context, and really enjoyed each other s company. While most of the groups in our local musical universe played it safe with the hits of the day, the vast majority of our repertoire was Rolling Stones songs (and a lot of obscure ones, at that), which gave us, by proxy, a bad boy image. To this day, members of local bands from back in the day will tell us how much they used to look up to us. Pretty amazing.