H.P. Lovecraft II
Year: 1968
Format: Spotify
Grade: B+
Unlike its namesake, this short-lived rock band focused less on horror and more on psychedelia.
Coming after the band relocated from Chicago to San Francisco, the band's second and final album was largely improvised in the studio due to its breakneck live schedule.
It's a bit of an obscure gem, too. "Spin, Spin, Spin" has a spooky touch, with the vocal harmonies making it a memorable opener.
From there, things jump in different directions. Things fly off into drug-soaked incandescence in "It's About Time," while "At the Mountains of Madness" — a title inspired by the author Lovecraft — pilfers a few pages from The Doors' playbook.
It's a tie-dyed in the wool look through the periscope at the kind of music the Haight-Asbury scene produced apart from the legendary clutter and clamor of Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane.
Though the band was short-lived, it's a surprise H.P. Lovecraft isn't more favorably remembered.
Tomorrow's entry: Metallica, December 10, 2011, The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA
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