UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS Notes from the Underground

February 1999

The United Empire Loyalists will probably get a kick out of being included in this column (I hope, in some perverse sense anyway) because it formed 30 years ago! Back in the heady days of the 60's, the band was the premier Vancouver psychedelic band who opened and hung out with the Dead. It has now released its first album, Notes from the Underground. The cuts on this disc date from as early as 1968 and as "late" as a reunion concert in 1990. Despite, or perhaps because of, its period feel, the album has a lot of charm. Nevertheless, there's a spectacular arrangement of "I Know YOU Rider," oblique tinges of psychedelia in "Looking And Searchin'," and several bluesy excursions including "You Don't Love Me." Even though the fidelity of the disc is variable ranging from acceptable to good, the music is real period stuff and worthy of attention, especially if you enjoy early Grateful Dead or Country Joe & the Fish. The eight-minute "Columbus" gives the listener an inkling of what might have been, as does the funky "Otis Redding Jam." The latter has the same feel as Country Joe & the Fish's "Rock And Soul Music."