Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: Day Blindness
Company: Studio 10 Records
Catalog: DBX 101
Year: 1969
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG+
Comments: 1
Available: minor ring, edge and corner wear
Price: $100.00
One of the bands that apparently benefited from that corporate talent search was Day Blindness. Singer/keyboardist Felix Bria, drummer Dave Mitchell and guitarists Greg Pihl and John Vernazza started out in 1967. Within a year they'd made a minor name for themselves on the city's club circuit, where they became fairly regular performances at Bill Graham's Fillmore, the Avalon Ballroom, as well as a regular featured at free concerts at Golden Gate Park.
Recorded at San Francisco's Studio 10 with Tom Preuss producing, 1969's cleverly titled
"Day Blindness" seems to fall in the latter category. While we've seen it garner some fairly high sales prices on recent lists, musically their album isn't anything to get real excited about.
Recorded as a trio in the wake of Vernazza's
departure (he reappeared as a member of the Elvin Bishop Band, followed by a
stint with Norton Buffalo), the
remaining trio were certainly competent musicians, but none of their material was particularly original. Tracks such as "Young Girl", "Middle Class Lament" and "I Got No Money" offered up a fairly standard mix of pedestrian electric blues, harder rock numbers and modest psych moves. That lack of originality, coupled with the absence of a strong or distinctive singer didn't exactly help the proceedings. If you had to pick a couple of highlights, go with the bouncy "Live Deep" (which also sported a nice Pihl solo) and the weird, 12 minute plus Doors-influenced "Holy Land".
"Day Blindness" track listing:
1.) Still Life Girl - 6:22
2.) Jazz Song - 2:18
3.) Middle Class Lament - 3:38
4.) I Got No Money - 4:28
5.) House and a Dog - 1:58
6.) Live Deep - 2:45
7.) Young Girl Blues - 4:20
8.) Holy Land - 12:30
The band subsequently morphing into The
Fox, with Pihil reappeared in the mid-'70s as a member of one of Sammy Hagar's bands.