The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Companion

Compilation album by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

Released

June 7, 2011

Recorded

1960 - 1971

Genre

Length

1:13:56

Label

Sunbeam

Producer

Steven Carr

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band chronology

Transparent Day
(1986)

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Companion
(2011)

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band Companion (sometimes known simply as Companion) is a compilation album by the American psychedelic rock band the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (WCPAEB), and was released on Sunbeam Records on June 7, 2011. The album is a collection of demos, tracks that appear on early singles, and rare material that derive mostly from the group members' side-projects before, during, and after the WCPAEB's recording career.

All of the tracks featured on Companion were previously released, although a number of them had never appeared on a commercially accessible album. The first nine tracks, devoted to early projects instigated by Bob Markley as the lead vocalist and record producer, hold insight into the unusual self-appointed frontman's musical style. Perhaps more intriguing are the bands formed by Michael Lloyd and Shaun and Danny Harris—the young masterminds behind the group's enigmatic leader—who's recordings would sometimes manifest themselves on WCPAEB albums and later solo careers. The Laughing Wind, the folk rock predecessor "discovered" by Markley prior to the band's formation, reveals a more embryonic version of what the group would develop into.

The tracks "Sassafras" and "I Won't Hurt You", both from the band's first album Volume One ("Sassafras" only appears as a bonus track on the 1997 reissue of the album), are credited to the WCPAEB.Companion unexpectedly concludes with the avant-garde electronic tune "Leiyla and the Poet" by experimental composer Halim El-Dabh. The album also features an informative booklet with rare photographs of the band members.

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Wikipedia