Anonymous - J. Rider

1976

Rock scholars often point out the rapid evolution of music during the '60s. Just look at how much underground rock evolved from 1965 to 1967. One minute everyone is playing acoustic guitars and hanging Joan Baez posters in their dorm rooms; the next minute everyone is dropping acid and recording twenty minute free-form jams. This breakneck pace didn't slow down much in the '70s either, what with metal, disco, rap, funk, and punk all jockeying for position. Odd then, to discover this album by the appropriately-named Anonymous was actually recorded in 1976. One listen to "J. Rider," a standout track from their lone album, Inside the Shadow, immediately conjurs up the Summer of Love. Saturday Night Fever, this ain't. Today of course it's not strange to hear a band 10 years past their expiration date. Just ask all the bands that haven't stopped worshipping at the altar of Weezer since, oh, 1995. Still, even in the stylistically diverse '70s this record must have sounded way out of place.

It didn't help that the band only printed up 300 copies of Inside the Shadow . Now almost impossible to find, originals command around $500.

According to Fuzz, Acid, and Flowers, the group was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.