APPLETREE THEATRE Playback 1968 ORIGINAL ACID PSYCH LP Beatles Boettcher LISTEN

$

40

THE APPLETREE THEATRE "PLAYBACK" LP

ORIGINAL 1968 LP ON THE US VERVE FORECAST LABEL, STEREO FTS-3042

COVER IN VG++ shape

VINYL plays EXCELLENT

Original 1968 obscurity by the Appletree Theatre, “Playback” on the Verve Forecast label.  Here’s yet another WAY overlooked little soft and sunshine pop psych GEM – get this, a CONCEPT album with a storyline (but don’t ask me to follow it), by a band that’s heavily indebted to the Beatles (no strangers to concept albums) and the soft, dreamy pop of Curt Boettcher/Gary Zekley.  It’s almost as if the Yellow Balloon tackled “S.F. Sorrow” while on an acid trip – or the sunshine pop version of “Tommy” if you will.  

After a brief Monty Pythonesque spoken word opening about the Creation (talk about REALLY starting at the BEGINNING!), the Appletree Theatre launches into a perfect McCartneyesque bouncy sunshine pop song, “Hightower Square (the start of it all)” – guess all that Garden of Eden stuff was a little off.  Like much of the rest of the album, “Hightower Square” ‘s carefree happy-go-lucky Charms Blo-Pop appearance holds an unexpected psychedelic bubble gum center – a bouncy electric piano melody and beautiful harmonies spiked with sudden loud bursts of overdriven electric reverb that hits you out of nowhere like a wasp in your milkshake.  This is music made at the corner of Haight and Sesame Streets, the aural equivalent of the “DRINK ME” bottle in Wonderland.  Someone mid-song requests banana peels, and someone else replies “What do you want banana peels for?”  A jet engine pans from right speaker to left, ultimately dissolving/changing into a barrage of guitar feedback, which then fades out as a gentle music box melody fades in.  

Which leads into “Nevertheless It Was Italy”, a good-time strummin’ summery slice of sunshine pop that balances precariously on the outskirts of twee, like something off the Hobbits “Down to Middle Earth” album.  The beautiful baroque Boettcher-esque popsike punch of “You’re the Biggest Thing in My Life” is spiked with not one, not TWO, but THREE crazed fuzz guitars battling it out in a mind-melting triple freeform freakout solo, while the tempo picks up to a brisk marching band gallop, trying desperately to keep up.  

The lovely little “Lotus Flower” is the Appletree Theatre’s trip into Eastern mysticism – an exotic instrumental heavy on the finger cymbals and raga guitars and rumbling bass, creating a hallucinogenic miasma where instruments fade in backwards and then fade out.  Which sets us up nicely for our grand finale – and the Appletree Theatre’s finest moment – the lazy half-asleep final act appropriately titled “What A Way to Go”.  Now THIS is dreamy psychedelic pop at its finest – a stoned, lazy trip down a river of ether past endless fields of poppies – gently strumming guitars, breathy double-tracked vocals, soaring strings – it’s Buffalo Springfield’s “Expecting to Fly” on an overdose of Vicodin.  “Aahhhh…lazy day…what a way to go” the Appletree Theatre sings as if a million miles away, and it provides the perfect exit for this amazing sugar-coated Alice in Wonderland musical journey.  

What a way to go, indeed.  But in this case, getting there’s all the fun.  

HEAR IT!

PLEASE NOTE I NO LONGER SHIP TO ITALY DUE TO A CORRUPT POSTAL SYSTEM (THERE, NOT HERE).  BUYERS FROM ITALY AGREE TO PAY FOR GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL INSURED ONLY!

The less exciting stuff

Media mail shipping with delivery confirmation starts at $4.00 in the US, with each additional record only $1 additional shipping.  Overseas shipping has, unfortunately, gone way up in the fast few months, which translates to $15 for the first LP to Canada ($3 each one thereafter) and $24 for the first LP everywhere else in the world, with each add'l LP an extra $5 (so it pays to buy more, nudge nudge wink wink).   I accept payments through Paypal. 

I try to grade as best as I can, and I list as many blemishes/imperfections I can find (writing, ringwear, scuff marks, etc.) – Also, please note that I DO listen to these albums – I may not listen to every track, but my grades are based on LISTENING, not just looking at it, since chances are you’ll be listening to the record you buy, not just looking at it.  Most of the albums I sell are the ones I’ve enjoyed for years – and I treat my records with kid gloves.  But sounds speak louder than words, so check out the sound clips below – they’re from the actual record you’re bidding on. 

SHIPPING AND PACKAGING

Listen, I buy a bunch of records too (when I’m not getting outbid at the last second, which is more often than not) – and I know what it’s like to get a rare, one-of-a-kind album packaged dangerously in a flimsy bubblewrap package.  I hate that too.  So rest assured, I ALWAYS package albums with stiff cardboard reinforcements, same for 45s.  And yes, the records are removed from the sleeves (for albums).  I ship out once a week, every Friday, because I have a regular day job.  But I’d be willing to give that up if you’d all be so kind as to bid my items up to stupidly high amounts. 

 For more security and international tracking, you may request GLOBAL PRIORITY MAIL - but bear in mind the cost of this service is upwards of $30.  For expensive items, however, it may be well worth it.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a cost-effective way of tracking parcels to foreign countries yet, and shipping times vary depending on your country’s postal system.   Italy in particular seems to be really bad at delivering packages quickly, or delivering packages at all, now that you mention it.  I will always email you when your package ships, but once it’s on its way, please don’t ask me when it will arrive because I don’t know.  If the world’s postal systems can ever agree on a universal tracking system that’s affordable, I’ll be the first to use it.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN…

I will always leave positive feedback for successful transactions, and would appreciate the same in return.  All I ask of you is the following – please pay for your items within 14 days of the close of auction.  Compared to other sellers, that’s a generous amount of time, so if you don’t pay within 2 weeks, then I have to assume something’s wrong.  You’ll get an Ebay payment reminder at that point, and possibly a decapitated horse head in your bed.  If, after 30 days, you still haven’t forked up the cash, I’ll relist the item and yell at you if I ever see you in town.