Thursday, December 10, 2009

Aum ● Resurrection

This lost artifact of late ‘60s psychedelia comes to us via Bill Graham’s Fillmore label, a business venture established around the success of the famed concert venues. Fillmore recordings are rare—the label only existed for a brief three years—but Aum’s Christian-influenced brand of blues-based hard rock is even more obscure. Resurrection, first released in 1969, was actually the band’s second lp (Bluesvibes appeared earlier that year on the Sire label). The album is a serviceable slice of San Francisco heaviness, its religious overtones making it one of the more unique efforts from the Haight-Ashbury district. The choral-influenced “God is Back in Town” is the most obvious in its Christian references—“Have you heard the Word?”—although the title track, a mellow blues number, is also rife with religious imagery (“…and the ghost of a thousand suns/came shining through the trees/and relieved my soul/of all the fears… I’m not afraid anymore”). Jesus must have been a rocker, though, for the trio also knocks off a couple of nasty hard rock songs in “Bye Bye Baby” and “Little Brown Hen.” Not surprisingly, Resurrection was a hard sell. Aum was done by 1970; Fillmore Records closed up shop shortly thereafter.

Notes: Graham also founded a label called San Francisco Records, which was home to both Cold Blood and Tower of Power. From the Fillmore stable of artists, here’s Aum and the title track to its second and final album: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw3OrLYfGNc.

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