my mum recently got into soulseek and has started to download all kinds of stuff. when i was up at mum and dad’s for christmas i raided their computer and took a cd-r home with me full of mp3 albums from mum’s stash. among the jethro tull, devo and stewart copeland (?), i found the self-titled 1967 album from ultimate spinach. i haven’t yet had the chance to ask her about ultimate spinach, but luckily there’s always allmusic.com to fill the expansive gaps in my musical knowledge:

Ultimate Spinach was one of the most well known, and perhaps the most notorious, of the groups to be hyped as part of the “Bosstown Sound” in 1968. The name itself guaranteed attention, as one of the most ludicrous and heavy-handed “far out” monikers of the psychedelic era, even outdoing formidable competition such as the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. Although the group were competent musicians with streaks of imagination, their albums were generally poor third cousins to the West Coast psychedelic groups that served as their obvious inspirations.

well if that hasn’t talked them up to the point where you are just hysterically scrolling for the hyperlink, let me add three words: extreme stereo separation!

Ultimate Spinach - Funny Freak Parade (3.55MB)