Forgotten series: The Strange Flowers – Aeroplanes In The Backyard (2008)

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Imagine an amalgam of a psychedelic R.E.M. and the Grapes of Wrath, and you’ve got the Strange Flowers from Italy. More straight-ahead rock than garage, their music is nevertheless flavored with some way-out influences.

Check out the the title track, a pretty decent slice of psychedelia — with minimal effects. The Strange Flowers employ tremelo and wah-wah guitar with distortion (rather than fuzz and farfisa), for a melodic contemporary sound.

Meanwhile, the rockin’ and swirling “Clouds of Blonde Girls”– with its hint of Stone Temple Pilots in the chorus — wouldn’t have sounded too out of place on any American college radio station. “Tomorrow You’ll be Alone” sounds like early Blur, when they were rocking out.

If you’re looking for a more contemporary edged band with a very slight psychedelic edge, then these guys are perfect. The Strange Flowers were one most different sounding of all the bands in the Misty Lane/Teen Sound Records stable of talent at that time.

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Steve Elliott