{"id":29557,"date":"2025-07-11T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T09:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29557"},"modified":"2025-06-06T12:47:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T16:47:40","slug":"brown-acid-a-trip-worth-taking-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/brown-acid-a-trip-worth-taking-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown Acid: A Trip Worth Taking (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe prefer privately pressed records with a lot of chutzpah,\u201d says Barresi. The central Brown<\/i> Acid<\/i> aesthetic, Hall says, is \u201cloud, fuzzed-out guitars. It feels like a big, warm hug when you listen, because it\u2019s got all of the fuzz in the world.\u201d He says that the criteria for inclusion is simple: \u201cIs it a banger? Does it rock?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall and Barresi wanted the record series to have a distinctive look; each volume should be immediately recognizable as an entry in the series. \u201cOur thinking,\u201d Hall explains, \u201cwas that if somebody discovers Brown Acid: The Fourth Trip<\/i>, they\u2019ll be like, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a few before this; I should go find those.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleven years after its launch, the Brown Acid<\/i> series has taken on a life of its own. RidingEasy just released the 20th<\/sup> volume in the series. \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting for us, and for the artists,\u201d Hall says. \u201cWhen they get their record, they can show it to their kids, grandkids and friends. It\u2019s kind of a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guitarist and rock historian Lenny Kaye got the ball rolling with crate-digging rock compilations via his highly influential 1972 Nuggets<\/i> double LP. Rock obscurities have subsequently been documented via celebrated series: Pebbles<\/i>, Back from the Grave<\/i>, Psychedelic States<\/i>, Green Crystal Ties<\/i> and many others. But some compilations skimped in important areas: the records were sometimes sourced from poor-quality needle-drops, and the artists weren\u2019t always involved, much less compensated.<\/p>\n

Barresi and Hall have made a point of doing things right. While in nearly all cases, the tracks on Brown Acid<\/i> volumes are sourced from vinyl records, mastering ace Nick Townsend applies his considerable skills to cleaning up the audio, making the tracks sound as good as possible. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all legitimately licensed, and we\u2019ve always paid people on time,\u201d Hall says with pride. \u201cEven if it their royalty check is only $15 or $20.\u201d Due to its specialist nature, the Brown Acid<\/i> series is a labor of love for all involved.<\/p>\n

As the series has continued, the quality of the music has remained high. Hall says that while it\u2019s been fairly straightforward to acquire most of the tracks, some have posed a challenge. \u201cThere have been some tracks that took eight years to get over the finish line,\u201d he says, crediting Lance Barresi\u2019s persistence for the series\u2019 successes.<\/p>\n

In some cases, the popularity of a track on a Brown Acid<\/i> compilation has led to a deal to release an entire album by the featured artist. \u201cWe did that with a band called Spiny Normen out of Texas,\u201d Hall says, \u201cand two bands out of St. Louis: Back Jack and Parchment Farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown Acid: The Twentieth Trip<\/i> is filled with the same kind of roaring, riff-rocking tunes that have made the series an essential purchase for discerning listeners. Afterflash\u2019s \u201cCookbook\u201d suggests a garage-rock take on Cream; \u201cWatch Em Shine\u201d by Osage Lute features fiery dueling lead guitar work. And the pummeling \u201cA Year Ago Today\u201d from Sandy Torano and the Nimo Spliff suggests what a collaboration between Grand Funk and Three Dog Night might have sounded like.<\/p>\n

Both men emphasize that the well isn\u2019t in danger of running dry any time soon. \u201cNot in my lifetime,\u201d Barresi says with a chuckle. There are many great, rarely-heard heavy rock tracks waiting to be discovered. \u201cMy ultimate Holy Grails are records that aren\u2019t even known to exist yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

With well-earned pride, Barresi says that many music lovers who bought the first volume have gone on to collect every single release in the series, right up to the new Twentieth Trip<\/i>. \u201cBrown Acid<\/i> is good music,\u201d he says, \u201cand good music is timeless.\u201d Meanwhile, Daniel Hall says that at this moment, he has enough tracks lined up and cleared for release to fill at least five \u2013 possibly eight \u2013 more volumes. With RidingEasy\u2019s current release calendar, the series adds two new volumes each year, so listeners can look forward to more top-quality Brown Acid<\/i> volumes on vinyl and CD in the months and years to come. \u2018I don\u2019t see us stopping any time soon,\u201d Hall says. \u201cNot as long as people are buying the records!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… \u201cWe prefer privately pressed records with a lot of chutzpah,\u201d says Barresi. The central Brown Acid aesthetic, Hall says, is \u201cloud, fuzzed-out guitars. It feels like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,62,73],"tags":[5712],"class_list":["post-29557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-vinyl","tag-brown-acid","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29563,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29557\/revisions\/29563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}