#phafner

Phafner ”Overdrive” 1971 Private 1971 Iowa Psych Hard Rock

full album.........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1oR4MM7Kds&list=PLF-92rCh83ErxErhA0ehezre_pDMohhxt

Phafner was formed in Marshalltown, IA, in 1969, and immediately attracted local attention by playing a hard-edged, drug-induced brand of rock & roll. The band consisted of two sets of brothers -- Dale Shultz on guitars and vocals, James Shultz on bass, Steve Smith on lead guitar, and Greg Smith on vocals -- along with Steven Gustafson on drums. In 1971, the band decided to record an album of their own original material, so they got together in a local basement studio and put six songs together for what became the Overdrive album. In order to attract some attention from a major label, they pressed 50 copies of the record (on the Dragon label). Overdrive has become legendary among collectors of hard-rock music, and a copy of the original album will fetch well over $3,000 on today's collectors market. Now, for the first time, by way of a licensing agreement with Buckskin Music, Overdrive is available on CD. Housed in a digipack case with dragon-themed art work, the CD contains the six songs from the original album. Clocking in at just over 25 minutes, it features great, blues-influenced hard rock with loads of fuzz guitar, in the style of such artists as Josephus or early Johnny Winter. Unfortunately, there are no bonus tracks on this reissue, although the band did record a couple of cuts for a proposed second album in 1972. This is highly recommended to any fan of early-'70s hard rock.  ......       AllMusic Review  by Keith Pettipas ......      

In 1969 Phafner was born. The group released this record in 1971. The only problem was that they produced only fifty copies of the album. Recently this LP sold for $3000.00. Well, now you can buy it as a CD, and for quite a bit less. You will only be able to get it from Akarma Records. Of course if you would rather spend thousands of dollars to locate a mint vinyl copy, go for it. You should really listen to this CD first before you experience moments of insanity and compulsive, addictive collector driven buying.

This group was an advanced psychedelic-rock unit. Their sound was not given its due on this recording however. The sound is in fact, below average. The music is allowed to drown out the vocals, and by and large it sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. With a little loving care, and another good mix down, this album would sound incredible.

I must give full credit to the group…musically they were absolutely excellent. I think with another shot in the studio to remaster this recording, Phafner could be appreciated as a legend of psychedelic rock as they so justly deserve.