Blues Magoos - Gulf Coast Bound '1970 [2020]

Tracks list

As original member Peppy Thielhelm and original producer Bob Wyld expanded the
Blues Magoos foray into Latin music meets mainstream blues, these May 1970
recordings take the previous years Never Going Back a step further. Gulf Coast
Bound is an improvement, retaining John Liellos vibes and percussion and pianist
Eric Justin Kas, who is the major songwriting contributor here (strangely
enough, he is listed as Kas on the album jacket and Kaz on the songwriting
credits). Slow Down Sundown could be the band Chicago vamping without their horn
section, some strange imitation monkey-sound vocals making their way onto the
platter mixed in with Daddy Ya Yas out-of-place tambourine as the song fades.

Erik Kas does the lead vocal on the 12-minute-plus opus Cant Get Enough of You,
which sounds like a strange marriage between Steely Dan and Traffic. The problem
here is that the band is a notch or two below Traffic and Steely Dan, and
despite the general improvement over the last disc and their initial dip into
this musical bag, there is no Walter Becker or Dave Mason or Steve Winwood here,
or, for that matter, a song as strong as Malos Suavecito or Steely Dans Do It
Again, which resembles Cant Get Enough of You. To be fair to this new Blues
Magoos, they came two full years before Malo and Fagen/Becker would all hit in
1972, so this album can be viewed as pioneering work. 

Its too bad ABC records didnt keep releasing this musical journey. Liellos vibes
add a marvelous touch, and if they were given a few more chances, maybe they
could have found another hit single. The seven-minute 54-second instrumental
Magoos Blues is lightweight John Barleycorn Must Die-era Traffic, and the new
rhythm section of drummer Jim Payne and bassist Cooker Lopresti is nondescript
enough to not get in the way. Of the pyschedelic/garage rock bands which changed
over to another format -- the Electric Prunes, H.P. Lovecraft, etc. -- in what
seemed like gambles to become respectable, this is the best of the lot. Eric Kaz
takes Tonight the Skys About to Cry and it, like the rest of this album, would
make for good FM radio filler in the middle of the night. Sea Breeze Express
follows suit, competent and pleasant music, but nothing outstanding, and,
unfortunately, nothing as breathtaking as the Electric Prunes Get Me to the
World on Time or the Blues Magoos own We Aint Got Nothing Yet, and that is the
bottom line. 
by Joe Viglione

Tracks:

01.	Gulf Coast Bound	3:51
02.	Slow Down Sundown	6:09
03.	Cant Get Enough Of You	12:21
04.	Magoos Blues	7:54
05.	Tonight The Skys About To Cry	4:14
06.	Sea Breeze Express	4:13


Personnel:

*Daddy Ya Ya - Percussion, Tambourine
*Richie Dickon - Congas, Percussion
*Pee Wee Ellis - Percussion, Saxophone
*Eric Justin Kaz - Harmonica, Keyboards, Vocals
*John Liello - Percussion, Vibraphone, Vocals 
*John Cooker LoPresti - Bass
*Jimmy Payne - Drums
*Peppy Thielheim - Guitar, Vocals

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