"What's big and purple and lives in the ocean?"That's how they got the name Moby Grape, apparently - one of the best bands to emerge from the psychedelic era in the late 60's.
They were a fixture of the San Fransisco music scene along with the other local heavyweights, Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, and this - their debut album - is their best by far.
Moby Grape had five members, including three guitarists, and everyone sang and contributed to the songwriting on this album. The result is an awesome mixture of rock, blues, country and folk music delivered with an intensity so raw you can hear the guitar amps buzzing on the record. There's also a squeaky bass drum pedal that can be heard, and I swear it gets louder each time I hear it.
Moby Grape never really got off the ground though and the original line-up imploded after a few years. Guitarist Skip Spence (who incidentally used to be the drummer in the early Jefferson Airplane) was forced out of the band after this album due to mental health issues and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, eventually living out the rest of his days in drug addiction and alcoholism until his death in 1999.
Check out drummer Don Stevenson on the front cover sneakily "flipping the bird" on the washboard. This was air-brushed out on some later pressings of the album - but of course this is the cover you need to track down. What a bad-ass.
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