"All I See Is You," cut in 1967 by the Minneapolis band
Jokers Wild, is the sort of tune garage-psych obsessives live for, with a lively melody, some great rhythm guitar work, straight-out-of-the-garage Farfisa organ, and delightfully naïve trippy accents, most notably the use of a slide whistle to mimic the (alleged) sound of a psychedelic journey.
Jokers Wild released three singles between 1967 and 1969, but they left a lot of unreleased recordings behind, and
Step Outside Your Mind is a 21-track anthology that features their rare single sides along with a wealth of unheard material. In many respects, the music on
Step Outside Your Mind reflects the path of a lot of bands from this era: The earliest tracks are clearly products of the late garage rock era, as teenagers with fuzzboxes began dipping their toes into psychedelia, as on "All I See Is You" and "Tomorrow." Before long, they start to come correct with psychedelia, and the songs get more languid, the lyrics get more poetic (for lack of a better word), and tracks like "The Grass Is Greener" and "Sunshine" document the group's descent into flower power. Near the end of their run, psychedelia fades out and hard rock takes center stage, as "American Dream" and "Dissatisfied" embrace bigger, fuzzier guitars and a pronounced blues influence. There are a few detours in
Jokers Wild's journey -- "Copper Penny" is an upbeat pop tune that may have been an effort to please AM radio programmers, and a rough but enthusiastic cover of
the Easybeats' classic "Good Time" is fun despite some truly regrettable percussion. Most fans of garage and psychedelic rock prefer for their compilations to err on the side of completism, and
Step Outside Your Mind is more than thorough, including nearly all the known studio recordings from the group, but there are just enough clunkers here (in particular the aimless blues jams "Dissatisfied" and "Park Music," both of which are over six minutes and feel a lot longer) that judiciously trimming a few tracks might have made this a more entertaining listen. That said,
Sundazed Records is to be commended for giving this obscure combo a definitive document, with a fine liner essay on the band's sometimes convoluted history and plenty of rare photos of the musicians in action.
Step Outside Your Mind may be more
Jokers Wild than a lot of listeners want, but there's no arguing that everything you need from the band is here. ~ Mark Deming
