No Silver Bird / Grey Zone

ROVR and Ace Records come together to form a new label catering for the new wave of demand for raw underground dance music from the 50s and 60s. They have enrolled the services of internationally renowned DJ Keb Darge to curate the releases. We kick off this new label with two haunting garage/psych killers from the mid-60s. The Hooterville Trolley’s ‘No Silver Bird’ is already in high demand with original copies fetching a healthy four-figure sum if they turn up for auction. Recorded in 1968 by this at-the-time unknown band at Norman Petty’s recording studios in New Mexico. Norman had just bought a fancy new “string machine” and excitedly asked if the boys would try it out on ‘No Silver Bird’. They did, and they loved it, but it must have sounded too strange for the record buying public of the day as the record flopped miserably (hence the high price tag today). The “string machine” however, gave the record a mysterious sound perfect for today’s cooler clubs. The Fog’s ‘Grey Zone’ is a tune that has recently been packing dancefloors from Tokyo to New York and everywhere between as a dubplate played by Keb. Also recorded in 1968, it was never released on vinyl until it appeared on an Ace compilation last year. In fact, the band released absolutely nothing when they were around, probably just playing local gigs till they were shipped off to Vietnam. Again, it has a heavy/dark sound that fits perfectly with the current trend in underground clubs.