Leave the existential stuff to The Doors and those fey prog rock groups. Steppenwolf arrived just a touch later at their breakthrough than many other bands from the L.A. psychedelic rock scene, so why now are they regarded as a dusty old relic with a couple of memorable hits? They actually existed in one form or another up until 2018, but their heyday can be neatly compressed into a three-year stretch in the public eye as America's no-nonsense biker/rock rebels during a time when it was actually radical to play the role - at least in the mainstream. Of course it followed that three-fifths of the group hailed from Canada or Germany, in the case of front man John Kay. All of their records are recommended listening, although the closest the band got to a cohesive record - for me, anyway - was Steppenwolf 7, where Kay really got some deep authentic statements on record. They were always at their best when they mined clear, keyboard-driven, street-style pop songs, and deserve more credit for this.
If there was a band I kicked myself for missing out on when they were active, it's Bongwater. But I'm not sure you could call them a band in the traditional sense. Sometimes the best music makes you laugh out loud or just say to yourself "WTF" and on a consistent basis, that is what Bongwater's music does. Mark Kramer's winding layers of psychedelic-soaked sounds provided a shifting yet reliable base for bandmate Ann Magnuson's diverse, rather odd and poetic rants on a wide range of topics. Another notable feature were their covers, which were often radicalized takes on the originals. Even if it flopped, it was an interesting flop ("Bedazzled" from The Power of Pussy is a great example). I find it counterproductive to review each one of their albums, because they all follow the same general format, even though from album to album the tone does slightly change. All of their albums are recommended listening.
Revised spots 11 thru 20 below:
11. The Messiah of Mott Street
12. The Miracle at Camafeo
13. Camera Obscura
14. The Diary
15. Something in the Woodwork
16. You Can't Get Help Like That Anymore
17. The Flip-Side of Satan
18. Little Girl Lost
19. Death on a Barge
20. Silent Snow, Secret Snow
The name was funnier than the group's actual image, lyrics, and music.
If you're curious, consult the following - http://markprindle.com/fearless.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20080524211429/http://www.sacurrent.com/music/story.asp?id=67994
I can't think of any other group that best personifies the term "jam band" than this motley crew out of Wales, whose hypnotic repetitions rendered the Dead's country-tinged scene quaint, and even Hawkwind's supposedly future-seeing two-chord space vamps look rather contrived.
"Same Song" remains ridiculously Infectious to this day. Too bad the group tied it and this EP to such a clunker of a movie (Dan Aykroyd's flop "Nothing But Trouble").
