The Five Deadly Sins

This highly original band from the Corona area outside of Los Angeles constantly changed and rearranged their sound before splitting off into various bands, including Syncopation, who includes three of the five original Los Cincos. They began as a highly competent garage band banging out some impressive sounds in L.A.'s coziest dives like Jabberjaw and The Smell. Then, they came up with a sort of circus-inspired groove, as the bandmembers began exchanging instruments mid-set and went off into more experimental directions. There's a psychedelic thing going on, too. This is about when they released The Five Deadly Sins, which includes one of their best songs, "Kissing at the Carnival." The album is basically a rock album with some sizzling organs and pounding drums and includes all the styles mentioned above. Two of Los Cincos are exceptional drummers: Sir Robert James Adams III and Jeremy Szuder. Otherwise, there's not much to the lyrics and the vocals are just adequate. Los Cincos were essentially a superb jam band and best experienced live. But Five Deadly Sins is probably the most interesting record they ever released.