Thank You All Very Much

A typically freaky 1968 release from the estimably freaky Texas label International Artists, Thank You All Very Much is an all-over-the-map blend of guitar-based heavy psych, early country-rock, and an oddball music hall sound possibly influenced by the Kinks (especially on the jaunty "Jessica") and certainly unusual for a Texan group of their era. Singer and pianist Endle St. Cloud (it's also the band's name, à la Brinsley Schwarz) has an unusual voice with a heavy vibrato and often a higher-than-normal pitch; he sounds a bit like a slightly less-elfin version of T. Rex's Marc Bolan on a lot of tracks. The songwriting is kind of uneven, with the second side, featuring the loosey-goosey groove rocker "Like a Badge" (which has a fake-out turntable-slowing-down ending) and the tense "Laughter," better off than the first. The album's oddest feature has to be the piano solos between each track, which feature St. Cloud performing a variety of hectoring monologues in various character guises. Thank You All Very Much is that rarity, an obscure psych-era platter that's actually worth the trouble it takes to track down.