Bulbous Creation : You Won't Remember Dying

THEY CALL IT

STORMY MONDAY

BUT TUESDAY'S

IS JUST AS BAD 

NICE SOUNDING 

RARE ALBUM RIP !!!

 A Kansas-based 

obscure rock band

 whose music was a 

downbeat mixture of

 psychedelia and hard rock, 

Bulbous Creation 

would have to wait until

 many years after

 they broke up to

 receive any recognition 

outside their home town. 

The Bulbous Creation album

 sat unreleased 

until 1995, 

when collector and archivist 

Rich Haupt 

ran across a copy 

of the session 

and gave it an 

unauthorized release 

on his 

Rockadelic Records label.

 The low-key release 

built a cult reputation for 

Bulbous Creation's

 lean but powerful,

 doomy music 

and expressive lyrics.

Bulbous Creation 

were formed by 

bassist 

Jim "Bugs" Wine 

and guitarist,

 vocalist, 

and songwriter 

Paul Parkinson,

 both of whom grew up

 in Prairie Village, Kansas,

 a town about ten miles 

from Kansas City. 

Parkinson took up guitar

 in his early teens 

and played in a handful

 of ad-hoc groups 

during his high-school days, 

most featuring his 

good friend 

Wine on bass.

 In 1966 

Wine went into the military,

 and heettled in

 Kansas City, Kansas 

upon his return

 three years later. 

Wine was keen on

 starting a band, 

and a newspaper ad 

brought him together 

with a talented guitarist, 

Alan Lewis, 

and a capable drummer, 

Chuck Horstmann. 

However,

 the band needed a 

boost with its songwriting, 

and after Wine ran into his

 old friend Parkinson,

 he was soon invited to 

join the group 

and contribute

 lyrics and vocals. 

A fifth member, 

keyboard player

 Lynne Wenner, 

occasionally joined

 the group on-stage.

 Lewis was keen on

 naming the new band 

Bulbous, 

which didn't sit well

 with his bandmates,

 but when someone suggested

 tagging Creation

 onto the moniker,

 the group agreed on

 the new name.

The ongoing efforts of 

record collectors 

and

 rock & roll archivists 

from the mid-'70s 

onward suggests that 

nearly every American city 

of any size had

 at least one band

 that was too weird 

for the locals in

 the'60s and/or '70s, 

and in Kansas City, Kansas, 

that honor was proudly held by 

Bulbous Creation. 

In addition to having 

a name that either

 sounds like a joke or

 something Robert Pollard

 would have coined

 for one of his 

Guided by Voices 

Suitcase tracks,

 Bulbous Creation's

 compelling eccentricity is

 confirmed by the 

eight-song album 

the group recorded

 one day in 1971, 

not long before 

they broke up,

 insuring the band's 

magnum opus 

would not be heard 

for decades.

(The album sat unreleased 

for years until it was given

 an unauthorized release

 in 1995, 

with the

 Numero Group

 finally pressing a

 band-approved version

 in 2014.)

 In many respects, 

Bulbous Creation

 sound like a bent but

 reasonably typical rock band 

of the day on 

You Won't Remember Dying; 

the melodies evoke a time

 when psychedelia 

was drifting out of consciousness 

and tougher hard rock sounds

' were taking their place, 

and both are clearly part of

 Bulbous Creation's 

aural formula. 

Guitarist 

Alan Lewis 

was presumably familiar with

 Tony Iommi's style,

 but rather than create a

 crushing wall of riffs like

 Black Sabbath, 

Lewis left enough open space

 to make the songs feel 

spare and evoke

 a feeling of vague dread.

Bassist

 Jim "Bugs" Wine 

and drummer

 Chuck Horstmann 

similarly held down

 the rhythms while 

giving themselves lots 

of breathing room, 

which left plenty of space 

for vocalist and songwriter 

Paul Parkinson, 

a bitter semi-hippie moralist 

who offers up fearlessly

 doomstruck poetry

 about drugs

("Hooked"), 

war 

("Fever Machine Man"), 

God's judgment

 ("Under the Black Sun"),

 and Satanism 

("Satan" -- no one said the guy was subtle).

 Since finances dictated that 

Bulbous Creation's album

 be recorded in a single day, 

You Won't Remember Dying 

sounds more like a demo

 than a finished product, 

but the band's merger 

of the trippy and the heavy 

still communicates clearly, 

and Parkinson's dramatic lyrics 

are evocative and full

 of fury that seemingly 

embraces and rejects 

the counterculture 

at the same time.

You Won't Remember Dying 

was doubtless a bit much 

for the kids in 

Kansas City, 

Kansas in 1971

 but decades later,

 this band sounds like they

could have been onto

 something rather remarkable, 

especially if they'd had 

more time and

 better help in the studio;

 as it is, 

this is still an utterly 

fascinating artifact

 of a shadowy period 

in the freak scene.

Cancer claimed the life of

 Alan Lewis

 in 1998, 

and in 2001 

Paul Parkinson 

succumbed to

 leukemia

LINE UP

Paul Parkinson

 (vocals, guitar)

Jim "Bugs" Wine 

(bass)

Alan Lewis 

(lead guitar)

Chuck Horstmann 

(drums)

Lynne Wenner

 (keyboards, live)

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