FEVER TREE Second Album

 Original released on LP UNI 73040

(US, December 1968)

The second (and arguably most fully realized) album from Texas psychedelic band Fever Tree, "Another Time, Another Place" owes less to the sound of roots-based contemporaries like the 13th Floor Elevators, Moving Sidewalks, or the Sir Douglas Quintet and more to heavier West Coast acid rock. One of the most underrated '60s psych bands, Fever Tree comes off like a coincidental midnight meeting of Jim Morrison, Steppenwolf, Jefferson Airplane, Iron Butterfly, and Jimi Hendrix at the tail end of a drug and whiskey binge. Luckily, however, the group transcends its influences by sheer force of attitude. The material here (mostly written by producers Scott Holtzman and Vivian Holtzman) is of generally pretty high quality, wisely avoiding too much of the drippy "ice cream cones and cosmic smiles" type stuff that bogged down the work of pretenders like Ultimate Spinach and Tricycle. Fever Tree was always a real, down and dirty rock band, and this record is no exception. Although in the liner notes the group stops just short of apologizing for including the oft-covered song "Fever," this version actually kicks some serious ass. Other highlights include the bawdy, roadhouse-style rocker "What Time Did You Say It Is in Salt Lake City," "Grand Candy Young Sweet" (a frightening, tuned-down plodder that sounds like Soundgarden's Kim Thayil jamming with Jandek), and the excellent chamber pop tune "Death Is a Dancer." The album's only questionable moment comes with "I've Never Seen an Evergreen," a sullen, hazy drug song that might have fit perfectly on a Roky Erikson album, but just sounds out of place here. Also of note is the over seven-minute instrumental "Jokes Are for Sad People," which fulfills the unwritten psychedelic statute requiring one long trippy jam per album, but thankfully does so with a minimum of pointless noodling and a generous helping of compositional flair. (Pemberton Roach in AllMusic)

FEVER TREE Debut Album

Original released on LP UNI 73024

(US 1968, March 28)

Formed in Houston, Texas in 1966 as Bostwick Vine the band quickly changed their name to Fever Tree. Like a lot of Texan bands they relocated to San Francisco. They had a top 100 single with "San Francisco Girls" which led many to believe that they were a bay area band. Their mix of rock, pop & psychedelia were a winning combination and they established themselves as a second division west coast band. "Fever Tree" and "Another Time, Another Place" were excellent albums reaching No.s 156 and 83 respectively in the Billboard charts but by the time of "Creation" (1969) they were on the way down. Their final effort ("For Sale", 1970) was poor. The band reformed in 1978 for live work but no further recordings were made.

The self-titled debut album of this unfairly neglected psychedelic band is an odd mix of slick studio work laced with surprising moments of eclecticism, from soundtrack references to hard rock worthy of the best bands of the time. They open up with a pretty good piece of musical prestidigitation, melding Johann Sebastian Bach and Ennio Morricone into the album's first track, which segues neatly into a hard rock style that's their own on the spaced-out, Ravel-laced "Where Do You Go," which sounds like the Doors and the Jimi Hendrix Experience jamming together. They also roll over "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out," squeezed into a two-song medley, like a proto-metal steamroller while quoting "Norwegian Wood" and "Eleanor Rigby"; then switch gears into a beautifully elegant, gently orchestrated pop/rock rendition of Neil Young's "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing" that's worth the price of admission by itself. The harder rocking numbers (especially "San Francisco Girls") are highly diverting artifacts of their time, while the last two songs, "Unlock My Door" and "Come with Me (Rainsong)," show off a totally unexpected and beautifully reflective folk-rock side to their sound that's strongly reminiscent of Phil Ochs' work on "Pleasures of the Harbor" and "Tape from California". The variations in sound and content, plus the fact that the only keyboard player, Rob Landes, made any large contribution to the in-house songwriting (mostly the work of their producers, Scott & Vivian Holtzman), makes it difficult to pin down precisely what Fever Tree was about, beyond the evidence at hand; but taken on its own terms, the album ought to be better known than it is, which is probably also true of the band itself. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)