Maximillian – Maximillian

When it time to clear this from my new acquisitions shelf, I realized that I hadn’t played it much, and thought that was at least in part because when I got it, my wife really didn’t care for it. Then I realized I had never put it into my collection’s spreadsheet. Then I realized I had never recorded it in Discogs, either. So I played it again, and remembered why it had been skipped over – I wasn’t sure I was keeping it. I’m still not.

At their best, Record Store Day releases bring us hard-to-find rarities, important diverse recordings long out of print. And when I see something that’s a little unfamiliar but adjacent to my interests, I’m likely to give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a try. That’s what happened with this record – based on what it seemed like it would be, I bought it. Sometimes, taking a chance doesn’t pay off.

So, what is it supposed to be? According to the label’s page on Bandcamp,

New York City based African-American & Latino hard rock/psych trio Maximillian released their sole self-titled album on ABC Records in 1969, then promptly vanished. It has remained a collectors’ conversation piece ever since.

“Conversation piece” is correct. Let’s take more straight from the label’s mouth:

Maximillian combined elements of beat poetry, a little bit of The Fugs, a hit of Funkadelic, a lick of Cream and a vibe of Hendrix worship with an ambition that seems to have jumbled these influences. The Maximillian album is a rare artifact of late-60s psychedelic rock whose appeal is not the skill of their musicianship, but the downright strangeness of it. While at times it sounds like the trio is playing entirely different songs at the same time, it’s said that producer Teddy Vann had a hand in the album’s sometimes confusing production.

Obviously, those influences (and any mention of The Fugs) would have gotten my attention. But on repeated listening, I can’t emphasize enough how much it “sounds like the trio is playing entirely different songs at the same time.” This is garage psych funk soul, which still sounds like something I should love – but for me, this album never comes together. It’s just … rough.

So now I can file it away under M, and if I ever finish this project so that I can reorganize my entire collection, I would probably tuck it away under “Curiosities,” records that I keep but almost never play.