Pisces - A Lovely Sight (1969) [Reissue 2009]

1969's A Lovely Sight, Pisces' only attempt at an LP, never made wax; but the fuzz guitar phrases and tambourine shuffle of "Dear One" instantly illustrate the band's woozy realm. Deeper inside, bass scales borrowed from Sgt. Pepper give way to Who moves wrecked by bad fidelity and harsh intrusions of found sounds. Jefferson Airplane's swirled, lysergic Haight Street utopia melds with the urban narcosis of the Velvet Underground's East Village.

But Pisces hailed from another ghost town altogether: Rockford, Illinois. The unsettling balance of their unissued LP combines homespun psychedelic vision and secondhand studio trickery with naive readings of the rock sound of the day, resulting in a diverse, haunted rock headspace few coastal bands ever flew through, let alone over.