0484. The United States Of America
The United States Of America

Bonus points for staking claim to the name, double bonus for taking it and delivering (semi-)socialist music during the sixties (also: dedicating a song to Ché? priceless).

The United States Of America's debut (and only album while still a band) is experimental psychedelia that sounds like someone took their album collection, mixed it with their parent's vinyls, shattered it all against a wall and glued together the pieces anyway they (almost) fit. The most novel thing about it is probably the fact that they:

• didn't play any guitar on it
• did have a load of electronic sounds

That is: in a time when the norm was electric guitar and a synthesizer cost half a years salary, they were pretty counter culture even for counter culture as they replaced the six-string with home built frequency modulators, electric violins and whatnot.

This album actually reminds me of the Lord of the Rings, not the book-trilogy or even the Jackson-films, but the semi-animated seventies one. I.e. it might not be the greatest piece of art around, but it's sure enough an interesting one that, for a small following, is the greatest thing since the invention of fire.