Saturday, April 22, 2006

Leaf Hound-Growers Of Mushroom (1971 UK Blues Hardrock)

Recomended!

Leaf Hound -- like Killing Floor -- was one of dozens of other working-class heavy rock bands who sprouted up in England during the British blues-rock boom of the late '60s. They immediately found themselves in the shadow of better bands, including Led Zeppelin and Free (to name just two), which may have led to their short life together. They recorded only one album, Growers of Mushroom, which found its first release in on the German-based Telefunken label. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the title track and leadoff track, "Freelance Fiend," were both left off that release. This error was corrected for the October 1971 release by Decca Records, but, by then, Leaf Hound had suffered from various internal problems and already called it a day. The album reportedly took only 11 hours to record in Mayfair's Spot Studios, which may be the reason there's nothing too special about this LP. Nevertheless, it has become a much-sought-after LP by collectors (mint condition copies have reportedly sold for as much as 1,300 dollars). Lead vocalist Peter French -- who went on to form Atomic Rooster and later worked with Cactus and a later lineup of Randy Pie -- is in fine form here, and his scorched-earth screech may even remind some fans of Robert Plant. His cousin, guitarist Mick Halls (who replaced Foghat-bound lead guitarist Rod Price, guitarist in French's earlier group, Black Cat Bones), doesn't have the same guitar prowess that, say, Jimmy Page had at the time, but he's no slouch either, showing considerable skill throughout. Interestingly, the song titles -- like the band's name -- were taken from an anthology of stories by horror author Herbert Van Thal
(allmusic.com)

Recently the band reformed
and again are playing concerts
http://www.leafhound.net


1 Freelance Fiend
2 Sad Road To The Sea
3 Drowned My Life In Fear
4 Work My Body
5 Stray
6 With A Minute To Go
7 Growers Of Mushroom
8 Stagnant Pool
9 Sawdust Ceasar
10 It's Gonna Get Better

http://rapidshare.de/files/18667707/Leaf_Hound.rar.html

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

heb ze gisteren gezien in 013 op he ROADBURN-festival.
BEDANKT

10:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Somehow track 4 did not load clean and after about 4 minutes sounds horrible. Any chance for a repost of just that track??
Great job on your blog.

10:50 PM  
Blogger Dirk said...

yeah ill re-post that one later!!

8:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Many thanks for posting that dirk. A great unsung LP of the 1970s along with stuff like Captain Beyond etc.

6:27 PM  
Blogger thinlizzy44 said...

wondering if you might be able to re-post. been lookin for this lp for a while. thanks!

5:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.4shared.com/file/40003711/ac563433/leaf_hound__growers_of_mushrooms__01_freelance_fiend.html

freelance fiend mp3. :)

3:04 AM  

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