THIS IS THE 1981 AUSTRALIAN REPRESSING on RAVEN 'Light Blue' label. The single cover is in VG+ condition: normal wear and without any major deteriration BUT surface ringwear to clean, sticker mark on rear (near top right corner), light discolouration/wear on corners/spines, 1,5 seam split on top centre, left spine is fully readable; for details see photos (with and without flashlight). The vinyl is in VG+ condition (some clicks/mild crackles), and plays wonderfully and without lessening in sound quality.

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THE CHOCOLATE WATCHBAND  

Back in the mid-'80s, the Chocolate Watchband were trapped in an odd paradox (which actually wasn't that bad a place to be for a band that didn't exist anymore). They hadn't played a note together in almost 15 years, but their original albums were changing hands for $100 apiece or more, and a series of vinyl reissues, first as bootlegs from France and later legit ones from Australia, were selling around the world, and in numbers that only increased as more people had a chance to hear them. What's more, the group's sound was starting to be emulated in the work of then-current bands, playing obscure clubs in places like New York's Chelsea district and other locales as far east as the District of Columbia, made up of teenagers who were too young ever to have seen or heard the Watchband play, and living 3,500 miles east of where the Watchband played out its existence, and most of its gigs, two decades before. The group had reached this paradoxical situation -- nonexistence juxtaposed with a burgeoning cult of admirers around the world -- simply by being the best garage band of the '60s, or, at least, the best one ever to have had a serious recording career.

<reissue, originally published in 1968>

LP     RAVEN  RECORDS    RVLP-1001

MADE IN AUSTRALIA     1981 REPRESSING

INTERNATIONAL SERIES

Barcode and Other Identifiers

LABEL: RAVEN - LIGHT BLUE LABEL - BLUE TEXT

Catalog on cover: (spine & rear) RVLP-1001

Catalog on labels: RVLP-1001 A / RVLP-1001 B

Matrix / Runout (Side A, Etched): MA-12332-A RVLP-1001-A 13181A Rob.

Matrix / Runout (Side B, Etched): RVLP-1001-B Choc W.B. (2)

On labels: RECYCLING ROCK'S RAREST RELICS

AMCOS By Arrangement with: EMI Records

Produced by Ed Cobb - A Tower RecordingAll Rights Reserved

© 1981  Raven Records, Australia

(on Side A only): By Arrangement with; Astor & EMI Records

(on Side B only): By Arrangement with; EMI Records

On Back Sleeve: Tracklist & Credits

An original Tower Records............All Rights Reserved © 1981 Raven.........Australia.

This recording must not be copied or reproduced in any form.  Remastered from original tapes.

RECYCLING ROCK'S RAREST RELICS

Side 1: VOYAGE OF THE TRIESTE - IN THE PAST - INNER MYSTIQUE

Side 2: I'M NOT LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE - MEDICATION - LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO

(IT'S ALL OVER NOW) BABY BLUE - I AIN'T NO MIRACLE WORKER

grading

RECORD VG+ but (please, read above description)

SLEEVE VG+ but (please, see pictures and read above description)

Inner Mystique seems to be the Chocolate Watchband album that fans and casual listeners know best, even though it was the one of their three records that was most disconnected from any active incarnation of the group. Slapped together in late 1967, in the wake of the virtual collapse of their lineup and rushed out in February of 1968, its original first side contained not a single note played or sung by the Watchband itself. Instead, engineer Richie Podolor assembled a group of studio musicians, playing a pair of languid psychedelic instrumentals -- "Voyage of the Trieste" and "Inner Mystique" -- in which the sitar flourishes and flute arabesques hung like jeweled ornaments, sandwiched around a new recording by singer Don Bennett (who'd already supplied some vocals without the group's knowledge or approval on their first album) of "In the Past," the latter a song originally written and recorded by the Florida-based psychedelic-punk band We the People. The second side was comprised of a hodgepodge of superb finished Watchband sides -- most notably "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" and "I Ain't No Miracle Worker," mixing punk bravado and angst, which have long been the album's selling points -- and outtakes such as "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" and "Medication," with Bennett's vocals replacing David Aguilar's, and one remixed and partly redubbed version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." As with the group's first album, however, Inner Mystique is sort of "guilty with an explanation" -- yes, it's a mess in terms of continuity, with two different singers and three different vocal/instrumental combinations present, but the three full Watchband tracks are killer recordings that can hold their heads up with the best rock records of 1967; what's more, even the Bennett-sung/studio band played "In the Past" is worthwhile, Watchband or not, as a piece of shimmering psychedelia with a great beat and arrangement; and even "Voyage of the Trieste" and "Inner Mystique," as pieces of psychedelic background music, were good enough that one of them ended up on Rhino's Best of the Chocolate Watchband collection. And that's not bad for a 28-minute album with only eight cuts on it, pieced together with only the barest (if any) participation by the band...(AllMusic)