Some bands succeed because of the vision and talent of their leader.
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band represented a more unusual phenomenon, a band that enjoyed a measure of success despite the efforts of their founder and leader,
Bob Markley. The son of a wealthy oilman,
Markley had money to burn and an unsuccessful career as a singer and songwriter, and when he decided he wanted to form a rock band, he recruited
Danny Harris,
Shaun Harris, and
Michael Lloyd from the L.A. band
the Laughing Wind to be his backing group in exchange for new equipment and stage clothes, as well as an elaborate light show. Giving the project the evocative but cumbersome name
the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, the group summoned a unique blend of folk-rock, psychedelia, jangle pop, garage rock, prescient hard rock, and experimental rock that was often exciting but frequently hampered by
Markley's clumsy, sometime bizarre lyrics, periodically overbearing vocals, and less than impressive percussion work. In the strictest sense, the
WCPAEB may have been
Markley's band, but ultimately it was his hired hands who were responsible for what made them memorable. After self-releasing their debut album, the
WCPAEB landed a deal with
Reprise Records, which issued their three best-known LPs: 1967's
Part One (which offered the best blend of their musical flavors), 1967's
Vol. 2 (featuring plenty of ambitious percussion jams and some of
Markley's most pretentious and curiously menacing lyrics), and 1968's
Vol. 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil (arguably their best LP with the most interesting studio experimentation, and also the one where
Markley and his musicians seem most divided in their outlook). The exemplary British reissue label
Grapefruit Records has gathered the entirety of the group's work for
Reprise in a superbly rendered four-disc box set, 2023's
A Door Inside Your Mind: The Complete Reprise Recordings 1966-1968, and it's the definitive look at their most fruitful period. The set includes freshly remastered versions of the
WCPAEB's
Reprise LPs in their stereo and mono mixes, a number of non-LP single sides and edited versions, some studio outtakes, and previously unreleased remixes of the songs from
Vol. 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil, which offer a less cluttered presentation of the tracks.
Gray Newell's liner notes give a well-detailed history of the group with some "truth is stranger than fiction" moments, and while some may miss the absence of the
WCPAEB's three non-
Reprise albums, this is as good a study of the band's most illustrious era as anyone could ask for. If you're at all interested in
the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
A Door Inside Your Mind should satisfy almost any curiosity you have about their legacy. ~ Mark Deming
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