(Psychedelic Rock/Freakbeat) The Smoke - The Smoke - 1968, MP3 (tracks), 256 kbps

This West Coast band's excellent Sidewalk album was co-produced by Michael Lloyd, who wrote most of the songs, and Kim Fowley. An album of mild psychedelia it contains a fair degree of orchestration and was probably influenced by The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper LP, released the previous Summer. Some tracks, like Fogbound and Umbrella, had considerable commercial potential, others, like Song Thru' Perception are notable for their crispy, clear vocals and October Country for some beautiful string arrangements.
The Smoke formed when Michael Lloyd met Steve and Stan through some mutual friends. They played with a few other guys as The Laughing Wind, Max Frost and The Troopers, and worked together on Michael's project as Rubber Band. Michael Lloyd had previously been working - scoring some motion pictures and producing records - with a young business executive named Mike Curb. They had met four years previously when Michael was looking for some songs for a group he was recording. Michael started to work for Mike's company (Sidewalk Productions) about 1967. Mike liked the concept and songs for The Smoke album and agreed to sign the group and release the album on his Sidewalk label.
Towards the end of the project, Michael Lloyd's old friend Jimmy Greenspoon became interested in joining the band. They had been playing together for many years in outfits such as The New Dimensions. Jimmy didn't participate in the recording, but he did appear in the pictures and album cover art! While waiting for The Smoke to be released, Jimmy had and took a wonderful opportunity to become a founding member of Three Dog Night.
After recording The Smoke album (and briefly travelling on the road with The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band), Stan studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts and classical guitar at California State University Northridge. He played with Delbert and Glen (legendary R&B pioneer Delbert McClinton, who taught John Lennon how to play harmonica). In 1971, he was a founding member of Oingo Boingo, at the time, a surrealistic musical theatre group. He's gone on to write books on pioneer guitarists Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian as well as clarinetist Benny Goodman for the Jazz Master series. He's also written six solo guitar books for Warner Brothers Publications. In the late seventies he toured with Vicki Carr and Dory Previn as guitarist and arranger. Recently, he was orchestral supervisor for Rod Stewart's 1993-94 World Tour and the Page/Plant 1994-95 World Tour. In 1966 he was musical supervisor and conductor for Heart's concert video "The Road Home".
Drummer Steve Braim continued to write music and poetry, and was a performance artist in 1970-71 at Fresno State College. He's currently an upscale architect and builder in Los Angeles and plays accordion and writes poetry.
In the fall of 1969 Mike Curb became President of MGM Records and Michael Lloyd (then 20 years old) Vice-President of A&R. Over the years he produced records and wrote for many television shows and motion pictures. His credits include Lou Rawls, The Osmonds, The Burrito Brothers, Shaun Cassidy, Belinda Carlisle, The New Seekers, Eric Carmen, Stryper, kids songs on TV and video, the music from "Dirty Dancing", The Bellamy Brothers, Debby Boone, the late George Burns, Barry Manilow etc. and he became one of the most successful American record producers. His recordings have earnt over 100 gold abd platinum awards, several Grammys, Academy Awards, Dove Awards, Golden Globes and American Music Awards.