TEENBEAT !

If you want a real case of musical whiplash, you can hardly do better than to put on this album. The title and packaging might lead you to expect a resolutely avant-garde piece, probably with screeching and discordant guitars. Instead the songs are absolutely gorgeous jazz and pop hook-laden stuff driven by vocal harmonies, cheerful organ riffs, and a horn section most soul bands would kill for. The lyrics are bitter, alienated, and cynical, but intelligent and poetic throughout. The result is indescribably wonderful. Any garage punker with three chords can rail against the injustice of the world, but John Trubee belts out “The Last Parade” with a brass section playing an arrangement that would do justice to Ennio Morricone. You just have to listen, captivated by the incredible juxtaposition of sentiment and music. Trubee will probably never become a popular artist because he won’t make any concession to popular taste and his own instincts are too confrontational. Even the dreamy “When My Ship Rolls In,” which has lovely pedal steel work and a ballad structure, dwells on the injustices of the past as much as the bright future that the singer envisions. The two instrumentals on this release are confrontational in a different way, mixing genres between spaced-out jazz and classical structures in a way that is genuinely exciting. Strange Hippie Sex Carnival is music to listen to intently and to marvel at, and it is well worth the effort to find a copy of this rare release. (Richard Foss, Allmusic)