Merrell Fankhauser & H.M.S. Bounty

After cutting some okay folk-rock and psychedelia on ultra-rare information along with his group the Exiles, guitarist, singer, and songwriter Merrell Fankhauser moved to LA, retitled his backing group H.M.S. Bounty, and documented an excellent, if obscure, cut of pop-psychedelia in 1968, Items. The varied offerings within the group’s only LP recalled such fellow Californian heavyweights as the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, as well as Captain Beefheart. They weren’t quite in the same little league as those legends, however the album includes a light and enigmatic air flow all its, and is really worth analysis by followers of past due-’60s West Coastline psychedelia. The group evolved in to the interesting mystical avant-garde/blues/intensifying rock and roll group Mu in the first ’70s.