The 1960s kicked off psychedelic music with flying colors. And sadly, so many underrated bands from that era have been lost to time. Let’s take a look at a few lesser-known bands that you might just fall in love with if you’re a fan of psychedelic rock!
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Condello
Condello is an interesting entry on this list. Mike Condello, the musician and producer who formed the short-lived band, was known for his work as a teenager in Phoenix, much of which includes albums that were released under a number of different names. He also worked in groups that spoofed other big bands of his era, such as The Beatles.
The band Condello, though, was formed in 1968 with Bill Spooner of The Tubers. Their only album was the 1969 release Phase 1, and it’s a gorgeous psychedelic work. It’s a masterful and influential album that more people should know about, in my opinion.
Los Dug Dug
This oddball little outfit technically didn’t release any studio work until the early 1970s. However, I’ll include them on this list because 1. They’re absolutely fascinating, and 2. They formed back in 1960.
Los Dug Dug formed in Mexico. They were clearly later influenced by The Beatles, as they were one of the first Mexican rock outfits to write their songs in English. Any of their 1960s bootlegs are essential listening, as is their debut album Dug Dug’s from 1971. Los Dug Dug is still together today, too.
Fapardokly
Good luck saying that one correctly from the get-go. Merrell Wayne Fankhauser, like Mike Condello, was involved in a number of bands and released a number of works under different names. For this list, we’ll focus on Fapardokly, which was technically a band called Merrell & The Exiles. For some reason, this psychedelic rock and folk outfit released their music under a band name that technically didn’t exist.
Their self-titled 1966 album has a ton of surf and even doo-wop elements that make it stand out. It became something of a cult classic years after it was released.
J.K. & Co.
Out of all the underrated psychedelic bands from the 1960s on this list, J.K. & Co. has been the hardest to find information on. All I could really find is that Jay Kaye, only 15 years old at the time, travelled to Vancouver from Las Vegas to record the album Suddenly One Summer.
Honestly, this might be one of those bands that have been more or less lost to time. I only got to listen to this 1968 album because I found it on a (probably burned) CD at a garage sale in Wisconsin in the early 2000s. It’s wild to see that there isn’t much information on this band beyond what some fans have been kind enough to upload online, which isn’t much.
Still, I’ll include J.K. & Co. on this list for Suddenly One Summer, which I consider essential listening for fans of late-1960s psychedelic rock.
Photo via the cover of Michael Condello’s ‘Condello: Phase 1’ (1967)
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