? STRINGFELLOW STEAM BALLOON- Garage Grail LP

$

218

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Format: LP
Artist: Stringfellow Steam Balloon
Title: S/t
Year: 196?
Country: USA                          
Label: First (Taiwanese label)

Condition Vinyl: STRONG VG to VG+ -- hard to tell, pressed on red transparent. Plays strong. Ultra slight storage warp DNAP.
Condition Sleeve: VG-?? Odd plastic lined paper jacket-top plastic seam is split all the way + corner of paper has broken off, but can be repaired.

Comment:  

One of the first record that I found when I moved to California -- and have never once come across another copy or met anyone 

else who had even heard of it. It actually took me three years before I even 

figured out the name of the band! Once I figured it out, I would do monthly searches on Google and 

eBay in hope to track any info down. For years, nothing ever turned up - until recently (2009), a man by the 

name of Thomas Chase mentioned it on his website (http://homepage.mac.com/techase/PhotoAlbum14.html)

about living in 60's Taiwan. I quickly emailed him and found out a little bit more about the group -- this was his response:

"Stringfellow Steam Balloon was one of many bands that were formed by teenagers who were military and diplomatic dependents in Taipei, Taiwan during the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The members were: T---- W----, M--- K-----, K-- C------ and I believe M--- G----- was in the band too. These bands played primarily for dances at local teen clubs and dances at Taipei American School. There were occasional other gigs at clubs or special occasions. Once an ad hoc group of us flew to the island of Kinmen to put on a concert for the Nationalist Chinese troops stationed there.

I arrived too late on the island (October 1967) to have caught SSB while they were still playing, but the record circulated quite a bit. I don't know how many copies may still be in existence, but I would think that if you were to contact people who had been in Taipei during that period they'd be interested in buying your copy if you were interested in parting with it. It would be great if someone would turn the tracks into mp3s, but I don't think anyone has done that. By the way, what color is the vinyl of your copy? I think mine was red, but I can't remember for sure. The band scene in Taipei was pretty wild. Too bad more of us didn't get ourselves recorded. Other bands of significance during my time there included Florence Moog Blue Band, the Clocks, DsAl Trio, Brass Cloud, Tribal Gathering and Agraybus. Hope the information helps put the record in context."
Musically, i'd describe it as rock with sass(?) -- not entirely fuzzed out screaching garage, but not your conventional 'rock' of the time period either. I can recognize a few of the songs as being covers (Them and a few others), but I can't say for certain the number of originals vs covers since the song titles are all written in broken nonsense english. There is no information listed on the jacket in regards to songwriting...
I've been hanging on to this record -- for years, it's been one of the only lp's that I would not part with, but times change and I must move on! This is your chance to own an incredible, (mostly) undocumented album. I can almost guarantee with certainty that another copy of this will not turn up for a long, long time. This is some serious holy grail type shit. Good luck.
Listen: http://www.divshare.com/download/12227498-406 and http://www.divshare.com/download/12227499-2b4

All records graded visually. I grade conservatively on a scale of Sealed, M-, EX, VG+, VG, VG-, G.

Shipping charges
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