The Place and the Time [PA] [Digipak]

Performer: Moby Grape
Producer: David Rubinson
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Moby Grape: Don Stevenson, Jerry Miller, Peter Lewis, Skip Spence, Bob Mosley . One of rockdom's ultimate coulda-been-contenders tales, Moby Grape exploded out of San Francisco with a 1967 debut that many critics consider the artistic peak of their city's fabled scene. A quintet (each of whom sang and contributed songs) that featured three excellent guitarists, the Grape had a tighter sound than most of their contemporaries and boasted a mystique that could have rivaled the Band's or Grateful Dead's had not terrible management and bad acid derailed their juggernaut. After their undeniable debut, the band nonetheless cut three good-to-great records--WOW/GRAPE JAM, MOBY GRAPE '69, and TRULY FINE CITIZEN--from 1968-1969. This fantastic Sundazed two-disc set collects previously unreleased rarities from their early years--each track a peek into their extraordinary depth. Jerry Miller's leads sizzle on "The Place and the Time" and "Sweet Ride (Never Again)" while a first album outtake, "Rounder," foregrounds the headlong energy of the band's best singles. "Skip's Song" predicts the shambolic epics Skip Spence would bring to blown-mind realization on his solo masterpiece, OAR. While not the best springboard for beginners--for that, try MOBY GRAPE--THE PLACE AND THE TIME is essential for fans wanting more of their classic era.

Record Collector (magazine) (p.87) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A]n unexpected blast. Taut, pithy and stylish, their brand of heavy-psych melodica is perhaps a tits very best on some of the demos included here."

The myth surrounding San Francisco psych legends Moby Grape is largely based on their magnificent debut album and the cult status of their mercurial songwriter Skip Spence. Despite major label support, the bands early singles failed to cause a stir, yet those 10 well-crafted, deeply soulful songs were compiled for the band's brilliant self-titled debut album. The follow-up, WOW, charted but marked the departure of the enigmatic Spence; his ethereal composition "Seeing" was one of the highlights of the patchy MOBY GRAPE '69. Despite legal struggles over name rights, the band continued to record and tour in various lackluster reunion formations (though never with Spence) and under hybridized names into the 1980s. Spence died of lung cancer in 1999.

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