Psychedelic States CD's

[paul messis]

Hey Guys.

What's the low down on these compilation cds.... is the tracks good, sound quality good, packaging and information good etc.

Also how many discs in the series are made?? I am contemplating buying the lot as a replacement to my 'Highs in The Mid 60s LP's'.

If anyone would be helpful in letting me know how many volumes in this series were made, i'd be greatly happy.

thanks

Paul

 

[Frantic]

http://gearfab.swiftsite.com/

 

[Lee de Parade]

It's a spotty series. Some tracks are really good, a lot of pedestrian stuff and the sound quality isn't always that good.
I think it's pretty good liner notes. I'd give the whole shebang a solid 5 on a scale to 10.

 

[greenfuzz]

I'd bump that to a 7. The liner notes for the first several volumes were excellent but as the bands got more obscure the notes have been dwindling. There's always several group photos, however, and label scans - and for the most part the songs are solid.

 

[pfft]

Sound quality is atrocious on some cuts. I have the 2LP version of Alabama, and even there you hear that dreaded 'chec-chec-chec' noise that appears on wrecked CD-Rs.
The front cover art is unimpressive, but the fact that they include colour label shots of all the songs is a big plus. The liner notes are factual and to the point. No funny anecdotes or colourful descriptions of the sound.
The song selection is good - there aren't a lot of songs I dislike.

If they'd done a proper job with the sound quality, this series would have been essential.

 

[buckeyebeat]

The sound quality on these is inexcusable. No one has mentioned the numerous skips (I counted 3 on on CD I listened to recently). CDs are made to hear music....if sound quality is poor, no amount of package detail can redeem them.

If you can't make a product that sounds good, than you are in reality INSULTING the music and the listener and the musicians that made the recordings, no matter how 'reverential' you claim to be.

 

[greenfuzz]

I do know Gear Fab has issued poor sounding dsics, but I don't believe that is the case for every volume of the States series. Granted, I'm not the perfect judge because I'm far from an audiophile. I tend to listen to the beat/melody and enjoy a tune for its musical quality rather than its sonic quality. Obviously, the better a song sounds the more enjoyable it is to hear...but since I regularly listen to acetates and poor sounding live recordings, my sensitivity to (and concern for) sonic quality is very much lessened.

 

[Derf66]

Paul save your bread! I bought a bunch of these at one time, and man was I sorry. The sound is TERRIBLE. You will find it very frustrating because there are some unknown tracks. Rather than leave some pop and crackle the guy sucks the life out of the songs with cheap sound restoration software. Over processing them to the point where he is literally adding more artifacts than he is removing. The worst part for me is that many of these tracks are probably not going to get a second life on a decent comp. There are some good pictures of bands and also label scans like mentioned earlier. Stick with your highs in the mid sixties for now, and if you know somebody who has some of these borrow them and be disgusted for yourself. I will take Mike's 7 and Lee de Parades 5 ands subtract them and give these dogs a 2.

 

[Lee de Parade]

Hahaha, lovely review Derf!

Paul, I'll give 'em a new spin this weekend when I get back to Stockholm. If you'd like I could up some of the best tracks on Grooveshark. But I'm not really an audiophile either - I can take a lot of shit. But the 'chec-chec-chec'-thing pfft is taking about is true on some tracks.
And when it came out it was pretty expensive too.
There should DEFINITELY be an excuse to put out a series of comps that focuses on REPEATING all the bad tracks that has been put out on lousy sounding comps through the years.

 

[Derf66]

I am just calling it as I hear it. If Psychedelic States was a good series I would be praising them, but as Buckeye Beat stated and I quote "If you can't make a product that sounds good, than you are in reality INSULTING the music and the listener and the musicians that made the recordings, no matter how 'reverential' you claim to be." I recently heard their Panicks comp, and it is also dreadful! A real insult to the legacy of the band.

 

[pfft]

I just got the New York vol. 3 CD, which for the most part sounds pretty good.
It was great to finally hear the Luv Wons acetate in its entirety - Please Don't is fantastic.
I believe this is MTM's copy? Unfortunately there are no label shots of the acetate - will this be pictured in TBM?

 

[MopTopMike]

Bosshoss now owns it, I'm sure he will upload a scan. Seems Roger did not do any fooling around with the transfers I sent over.

 

[howlin' hoosier]

I have the Indiana set - have to get the home state comps when they appear, as there aren't many of them.

 

[pfft]

Bosshoss now owns it, I'm sure he will upload a scan. Seems Roger did not do any fooling around with the transfers I sent over.

Would love to see scans of this, Bosshoss, if/when you have a spare moment :)

 

[The Raven]

I'd bump that to a 7. The liner notes for the first several volumes were excellent but as the bands got more obscure the notes have been dwindling. There's always several group photos, however, and label scans - and for the most part the songs are solid.

when you say "the first several volumes" do you specifically mean the Florida volumes and the Georgia vol? those all came out early on when they still had their deal Akarma goin on. It seems like once that fell thru, the quality started goin downhill....i know few exact details about what led to that, but my imagination sees the exit of Akarma's people causing Gear Fab to become a much more low budget/one man operation, stretched to the limit. Again, just a hunch here.

yeah, i've got 4 Psych States comps: all the Ohios's plus the Wisconsin, and i concur with everyone here, they are dissapointing (though not the worst comps ever, imho) and unless you(Green Fuzz) can elaborate on yr comments here, i probably wont buy anymore of them. The first Ohio would've been perfect if not for the fact that one of the best tracks (The Purple Persians' 'I Heard The Word') has a skip in it, otherwsie, that cd is fairly free of the obvious digital glitches that plague most of the others in the series and its track list, imho, is top notch in terms of rarity and quality.....but it must be said, the 2nd Ohio vol sounds really solid mastering/production wise but it isn't essential for anyone but Ohio completists due to the inclusion of a fair amount so-so tracks and repeats from other comps.

 

[greenfuzz]

What you pointed out is what I'm specifically referring to when rating the series: top notch track lists in terms of rarity and quality. There are always many songs I've never heard before on each volume, and if you include photos and (admittedly...as I've pointed out...much skimpier in the newer volumes) liner notes, each volume is worth my time.

I've gone on record as stating that I'm NOT an audiophile by any means. If I have the choice to spend my money on a $300 set of headphones or $300 on a beat-to-hell acetate, I'll buy the acetate every time. I'd say more than 80% of what I listen to are acetates, poor quality live recordings, distorted reels and mp3s. I dig the music much more for the history behind it than for the sound quality (or even quality of the actual music). I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but bit-rates, decibels (and insert audio jargon here) are far outweighed by the joy I get in discovering music I enjoy and that I haven't heard before - regardless of sound quality.

Thats' not to say that a song shouldn't be presented in the best quality possible on legit reissues; it's just not my primary area of concern (when buying--not reissuing myself).

 

[The Raven]

ok, fair enough greenfuzz, in that case i'll get a little more specific: are there skips on the first couple Psych States comps? i also would *not* call myself an audiophile, but skips are maybe the one thing i never tolerate on either old or new records....

 

[The Swyne]

The Psychedelic States series is ok in my book. I'm not afraid to say I own every single one, including the latest (NY) volume. I like this series because it features many unheard nuggets, at least to my ears. I can always appreciate that in a compilation, despite all it's other flaws.

But the skipping in tracks?
No - that I DON'T like.

 

[EXPO67]

The Psychedelic States series is ok in my book. I'm not afraid to say I own every single one, including the latest (NY) volume.

I've never bought any Psychedelic States CDs but I've heard one or two via CDR and they didn't rock my boat with their 'sound quality' so I never bothered collecting them.

 

[greenfuzz]

ok, fair enough greenfuzz, in that case i'll get a little more specific: are there skips on the first couple Psych States comps? i also would *not* call myself an audiophile, but skips are maybe the one thing i never tolerate on either old or new records....

Sorry - I haven't listened to the first couple since they were initally released. I honestly can't recall if there are skips.