Review: 'Peeled' by The 40 Watt Banana

In the late sixties and early seventies, New Zealand's The 40 Watt Banana made music that is at once fairly experimental and the kind of thing you'd hear on the soundtrack of a Roger Corman acid flick. With a name that sounds like something Kevin Arnold of The Wonder Years considered calling his garage band before settling on "The Electric Shoes," The 40 Watt Banana are very, very much of their era. Kevin Clark and Dave Parsons are the core of the group, and the former's trumpet and latter's sitar are the dominant instruments. Imagine Hugh Masekela crashing an Incredible String Band jam session, and you'll start to get the picture.

To be clear, all of these elements are pluses. Late sixties psych, groovy jazz, sitars, and goofy, psychedelic band names are all awesome. Though Clark and Parsons aren't quite virtuosos, they do brew up a heady sound, and much of what they brewed is on Pharaway Sounds' new vinyl comp Peeled. The liner notes include a caveat regarding the sound quality: only the single "Nirvana" (a relatively pop-ish track that has appeared on a few compilations and is the one number with vocals) was culled from an original master tape. However, the warning is unnecessary since audio quality is always far from dire, and the lower-fi sound of some of this material just adds to the mesmerizing atmosphere that is the main appeal of The 40 Watt Banana.