Customer Reviews

Waleeco & Space Kids

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are always people who enjoy denigrating all of the bands which make up the Bosstown sound, but there are also people who enjoy these bands as well. If you're a fan of the Ultimate Spinach, or the Beacon Street Union, you will not be disappointed with this album. I personally think their cover of "Midnight Hour" is fantastic!

Having read the previous review of this album,it's time to set the record straight.Firstly,their cover of the midnight hour[all the other songs are originals]is a fair effort.I wouldn't call it either dreadful or fantastic.

But I would call the haunting,eerie "Dark Street Downtown" fantastic..a masterpiece with its distinctive vocals and piano accompaniment supported by lyrics of the finest order.Turn the lights out,light the candles and just listen.Breathtaking stuff!! Very Baroque and very beautiful.

This standard is maintained on "Prelude For The Town Monk", another Jack Kerivan composition and with equally thought- provoking lyrics.A young man in his late teens getting his message across in the most literate of ways and with a voice to match any before or since in Rock.

His third contribution is "Shadows",an uptempo,organ-driven number but with the same haunting mood of "Dark Street".The rest of the songs are written by Jack Kerivan and Phil Dubuque or Jack Kerivan and Rick Doyle. The latter collaboration contains two excellent instrumentals of a laid-back,psychedelic nature, "Portrait in Grey" and "Satori". Some nice phasing and experimentation that rounded off an excellent debut[and sadly only]album.

If you like Folk Rock, you'll like The Flat Earth Society.If you like Baroque,similarly.Psychedelic,garagey, quite a mix in this album..as the band themselves say "no particular bag at all"

I rate this album with any Boston album of the era and probably any album of any area.But it's for the mellow,haunting moments when you want to be both relaxed yet stimulated by thoughts and imagery.Was music ever so good?

Wonderful fare from one of Boston's greats and if you like this try The Rising Storm's "Calm Before" and The Beacon Street Union's two albums.

2 guitar-driven tracks on Flat Earth Society's 1968 album WALEECO -

"Four and Twenty Miles" (Surrealistic Pillow-inspired riffs)

"In My Window" - though generally overlooked by reviewers, are essential.

this band hailed from lynn, a moderately large city to the north of boston. i guess they can be considered part of the bosstown sound , but i could be wrong. musically, this is mostly so-so psychedelia and sixties pop that i believe has been quite overrated. their version of the wilson pickett classic in the midnight hour is utterly dreadful beyond comprehension. the stand out track here is the first one, entitled feelin' much better. to me, this is the only truly solid number that the flat earth society put out on this, their sole album.
of greater interest may be the space kids material, which features backing music from the seminal boston 60's outfit called the lost. this was apparently never released, it was done for a local pbs station. this fine band, whose recordings i recommend, featured future members of bands such as ultimate spinach, listening, bagatelle, and even the latest, much derided, version of the velvet underground! names like walter powers , lee mason, kyle garrahan, and willie alexander. the last is still very well known in boston today. the storyline which accompanies their music involves a couple of boys who take off into outer space by accident. it's unintentionally hilarious to listen to today.
overall, i would only recommend this disc to bosstown sound completists or true weirdos. little of this disc is really memorable.