Utterly unknown folk-jazz-prog pop stuff with a nice spiritual jazz touch on some tracks and weird bluesy quirkiness on others. Definitely not solid the whole way through but there are some gems on here. It's about a hundred dollar record and thats mainly do to the fact that there arent more solid tracks, like the potential was very high on this one and instead of really going for it they had fun and got goofy when the going got tough. But I really do enjoy it and like I said there are some really great forward thinking jazz tracks on here so don't be dissuaded by my harping on its not being as good as it should be crap. There was ZERO info out on this LP, but the interesting this is this guy, Mike Baumann, is I believe the original member of Grayps, a local 60s psych outfit, here's what I said in my Ebay auction for this record:
"Scarce Private press LP with Mike Baumann and Steve Huntington playing most of the instruments and writing most all the songs. This LP is unfindable in all the research I have done, however I do think that this is the Mike Baumann from the Ohio 60s teen garage band The Grayps, and I think he was in a band in the Ohio area in the 70's called Gandalf. If I am mistaken and that is another Mike Baumann musician from Ohio (which I doubt...) I apologize, but I'm almost certain it is the one and the same. That Mike Baumann played drums for Grayps I think. Anyway, the album is really solid and has a diverse sound that a lot of late 70s early 80s private press records have. Some tracks are cool jazzy blue-eyed soul with great lyrics and spiritual jazz sounding chorus parts, other tracks are straight ahead early 80s folky softrock, like Toto or something. Others are instrumental jazz ensemble with prog elements. But my favorite 3 tracks are all in the soundclip above, and combine the best elements of all these genre descriptions into cohesive songs that you rarely encounter on something this obscure.."
LISTEN AND ENJOY!! - Full .rar
14 comments:
many thanks for sharing this in its entirety
Thanks for this post. But this Mike Baumann isn't from the 60's band. The Get A Grip Mike Baumann was born in 60 or 61. Post if you find him.
Thank you for alerting me to that and I will certainly alert you to such findings. I never could confirm the connection, but the name places they played around and a couple other items i discovered made me think it was him, so you mean this mike baumann was only 20 years old when he made this? thats surprising, I pegged him around 30-35, or right about the age youd expect for a teen in the 60s to have a band. But if youre saying you know he was 20 when he recorded this LP I'll go with it.
He was about 20. I think they were all friends who went to Frostburg State together. He also did the cover art.
As "anonymous" correctly pointed out, the Mike Baumann from 'Get a Grip' was born in 1960. He was a junior at Frostburg State College when he and fellow student, Tom Huntington, composed, played and produced the songs for the album during the winter of 1980. These guys also invited folks from the college music department and local band scene to play on their record. It was truly a neighborhood collaboration.
The composing/producing was done by both Thom and Mike. They brought their own songs to the table and, for the most part, worked together to produce the final cuts. Breakfast and Coffee was probably the only exception. Thom brought in a drummer from the Eastern Shore (of Maryland) and laid all of the guitar tracks himself. I had the priviledge of working for these guys on this project and it WAS a lot a fun but also a lot of work. Thom financed the project and, interestingly enough, Mike also did a lot of the album artwork. Ridiculous amount of talent in both of these guys. Anyway, thanks for posting this. brings back great memories.
HA! i got one of these. after graduating from fsu, Mike joined "Lost in the Shuffle" based in Long Branch, NJ. About a year later, Tom joined after graduating from Berklee. two really brilliant, awesome and talented dudes.
- the bass player (lost in the shuffle)
The Mike Baumann who played guitar in the Dayton, Ohio area band "Gandalf" graduated from high school in 1970. I was in another band with him from 2003-2005.
Incidentally, if anyone is interested in hearing more from the Mike Baumann formerly of Gandalf, he has been playing with a band called "White Rabbit" for several years now. See http://whiterabbitband.com/ for details.
I have an Autographed copy to Nick, If You're Really Into Music Stick With It. It Can Be The Most Pleasurably Rewarding Thing In Your Life.
Thomas Huntington
This is a different Mike Baumann. Mike Baumann from the Columbus Ohio 60s band Grayps was born April 13th 1950. He was my father.
This is a different Mike Baumann. Mike Baumann from the Columbus Ohio 60s band Grayps was born April 13th 1950. He was my father.
This is a different Mike Baumann. Mike Baumann from the Columbus Ohio 60s band Grayps was born April 13th 1950. He was my father.
can you reupload please this one?
thank you
John
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