The New Colony Six - Attacking a Straw Man (1969)

Chicago's New Colony Six originally emerged as a tough, British Invasion-styled outfit prominently featuring Farfisa organ and a novel (at the time) Lesley guitar. Scoring a huge local hit with "I Confess," their early recordings — exemplified by their 1966 debut album, Breakthrough — featured first-class original material that gave the sound of Them and the Yardbirds a more commercial, American garage-based, vocal harmony approach. The rest of the '60s saw the band gradually abandoning their roots for middle-of-the-road pop with horns and strings. Continuing to rack up major local hits and minor national ones, they finally cracked the U.S. Top 30 with "Love You So Much" (1968) and "Things I'd Like to Say" (1969).

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Today’s selection is by a band that I consider to me one of the most interesting Chicago bands of the 60’s, the New Colony Six.I don’t recall how I first heard their music (probably from a compilation of some sort) but during my peak garage/psyche days in the 80’s I managed to track down a number of their locally released 45s, as well as their later LPs on Mercury.The group formed in 1964, and started their career with a much different sound than when they dissolved in the 70’s.Their first big impact was the huge regional hit ‘I Confess’ in 1966. The early sides the NC6 recorded for Sentar/Centaur were US garage with a serious Brit R&Beat inflection, more Pretty Things than Beatles.They had two LPs released (in 1966 and 1967) on Sentar, ‘Breakthrough’ and ‘Colonization’ before being signed (like many other Chicago area bands) to Mercury in 1968.By that time their sound had evolved considerably, moving from their heavier roots, to lighter pop and eventually into sophisticated, Association style pop.The first time I heard today’s selection ‘Things I’d Like To Say’ (which was by far their biggest hit, making the national Top 40 in late 1968/early 1969) I had no idea I was hearing the New Colony Six. It was only a few years later when I picked it up on a CD comp that I realized how much they had changed as a band in a few short years.This had a lot to do with personnel changes. By the time they hit with ‘Things…’ brothers Craig and Wally Kemp had left the band, and vocalist Ronnie Rice (who co-wrote ‘Things.. and their other big hit of that period ‘I Will Always Think About You’) had joined.The sound of ‘Things I’d Like To Say’ sees the NC6 dropping all pretentions to fuzz-hood, choosing instead a lighter, more urbane pop sound. The albums from this period ‘Revelations’ and ‘Attacking a Straw Man’ are both fairly easy to come by and definitely worth picking up.I hope you dig the tune. (PeaceLarry)

Review by Bryan Thomas

1969's Attacking a Straw Man finds New Colony Six venturing even further into the realm of studio-born jazz and harmony ballad/soft rock, perhaps as a result of changes within the group's lineup and the fatuousness of pop music's ever-changing climate. Drummer Bill Herman (formerly of Aorta) had by then taken the place of original drummer Chick James, and keyboardist Chuck Jobes and guitarist Bruce Gordon (both of the local Chicago group the Revelles) had also joined after the departure of Wally Kemp and Craig Kemp. Like the self-titled album by then-similar-sounding local group Aorta, this album probably shouldn't be viewed as a psychedelic album, as it sounds closer to the lounge-ier jazz-inflected studio rock material of groups like Chicago, Ides of March, or Blood, Sweat & Tears. Three singles were issued from the album, but none produced a hit single, and due to the fact that group founder Ray Graffia also left just prior to the album's release in October, it's no wonder the band was in disarray and unable to promote it properly. (Graffia later formed the Raymond John Michael Band -- with former member Craig Kemp -- and recorded three singles for the Ivanhoe and London labels). After the release of this album, Les Kummel departed and New Colony Six leader Pat McBride retired from active participation, turning instead to production (in addition to producing future New Colony Six recordings, he worked with Trilogy at the Chicago-based Plynth Studios). In 1996, Mercury Japan released a CD entitled Best of New Colony Six, leading their fans to think it was a new greatest-hits collection when, in fact, it was a two-fer CD combining this album and their 1968 album Revelations. It was, at the time, the only compact disc of this material ever made available, though it is out of print.

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