Pyewacket Lives! (The Psychedelic Reconstruction of a Sixties Pop Group)
The story of Pyewacket is the ultimate “been there, done that” tale in the music business. Being from Marin, California and having never ‘made it’ back in the late ’60s, the band gave up trying, as did many bands, and disbanded for many years.
The main songwriter, John McKindle, just couldn’t live with the situation any longer, so he decided to re-record all of their music once it was discovered that their master recordings were lost for all time. This Wellsian tale takes us back to 1967 when Pyewacket was a viable and vibrant band with a future despite the dark cloud on their horizon. In 2010 McKindle placed himself wholly in the mindset and mood of the era and retreated to his home studio to set the record straight. The result is a perfect melding of The Beatles meet The Byrds, twelve-strings well in hand, four part harmonies a wonder to behold. This psychedelic reconstruction of the original tunes is fresh and bold, and sound on first listen like tunes you’ll swear you’ve known all your life.
Pyewacket was formed in January 1967, the original members being:
Bill Lombardo drums and vocals
Steve Simone Norstrom lead guitar
John Scott Cady bass
Shannon Myhill lead vocals
John McKindle guitar, vocals, and provider of songs
Drake Dawson Manager
John McKindle explains the origins of Pyewacket: “We met each other at the College of Marin in 1967, except for Shannon (she’s my sister). Bill, Scott and Steve were in a band called The Next Step at the time, with Kyle Hunter and Jim Brewer. I had just moved up to Marin from Southern California the previous October. We started rehearsing in February, and by May we were doing gigs around the Bay Area. Jim Brewer actually came up with the name Pyewacket, a witches familiar from the movie Bell Book and Candle. We didn’t want to be The whatevers, we wanted to be something less tangible and more all encompassing. Pyewacket was perfect. In the summer of 1967 we recorded a demo album at Dick Vance studios in Oakland that even got some airplay on a few of the local FM stations though we weren’t yet signed. It was going pretty well until Steve and Shannon became a thing, and the thing was with child. Any road, Shannon left the band, as did Scott, and things were never quite the same. Steve moved to bass, and we added Mark Moulin, an absolute guitar wiz. The sound got heavier, still melodic, but that’s a story for a different set of songs. The band continued until sometime in 1969 in many different forms, but it’s the beginning that we all remember the most, a true bonding of souls, real love, and it showed in the music.”
Unfortunately, after so many years, Pyewacket’s master tapes deteriorated beyond repair. The recordings the band made become unplayable, or at least impossible to listen to, that along with the passing of their manager, Drake Dawson in 2008, prompted John McKindle to re-record the songs. “I played and sang all the parts as close to the original way we had done them as I could. Bill, Scott and Steve were the real players, and Shannon has ‘THE’ Voice. I mostly wrote, arranged and sang. These recordings don’t have quite the vibe of the originals, but if you like them, just imagine what they would sound like with all of us playing together. I began recording this album in December 2010. A bit more rocky, still a lot of Byrds and Beatles influence, but with some Who and Buffalo Springfield thrown in just to keep you guessing.”
“To make a long story a little shorter, I started working on mastering and sequencing the tracks I loved the most and the result is ‘1967’ ”, explains ItsAboutMusic.com president Dean Sciarra, “an album that, by all rights, shouldn’t exist. But here it is. Take one grossly ignored artist, add a lot of dedication and talent, along with a never-give-up attitude and what you get is this phoenix of music that so rightly deserves to exist. I love it and I hope you do too.”
Pyewacket song samples: http://www.itsaboutmusic.com/pyewacket.html
Other new releases from ItsAboutMusic.com: Natural Gas ‘Natural Gas’, Space Opera ‘Safe At Home’, Michael Stanley ‘Shadowland’, ‘Nektar – A Tab In The Ocean – Deluxe Edition’ (2 CD Set), Barry Goldberg ‘It’s All My Vault’, Dino Valenti ‘Get Together’, ‘Nektar – Remember The Future’ – Deluxe Edition’ (2 CD Set)
For more information visit www.ItsAboutMusic.com/newreleases.html
Source: Glass Onyon PR
