Owen Maercks “Teenage Sex Therapist” LP with Download Code / Booklet / Lyric Sheets Edition of 500
Digitized by Jim O’ Rourke
Restored & Mastered by Jeremy Pisani
FIRST PRESSING OUT OF PRINT!
Owen Maercks’ Teenage Sex Therapist LPs is one of the forgotten twisted pop masterpieces of Twentieth Century. Owen had been in Monster Island with Henry Kaiser, who proposed he do a solo album or his songs. Henry had moved back west by this time, so Owen went out and recorded this album there. Henry produced, and added amazing horn parts by Jon Oswald, Larry Ochs and John Gruntfest. The album was mixed, pressed and distributed exclusively to radio stations, record labels and the like, in hopes of getting Owen signed. The music didn’t fit any extant pigeonhole, however, so no deal was in the offing. About the only note of its passing was made by an A&R guy at Elektra, who swiped the arrangement (and lyric rearrangement) of “Little Black Egg” (originally by the Nightcrawlers) for use by his protegees, the Cars. Well, fuck them. Teenage Sex Therapist is ripe with jawdrop moves. Flashes of Eno, Beefheart, Lou Reed, the Bonzos, and various of Owen’s other obsessions, fight each other for air time. And everyone goes away a winner. If this one doesn’t make your teeth wiggle, you need a new jaw. – Byron Coley, 2014
Pop-centric avant-garage / psych-punk with manic, clipped vocals, elliptical lyrics, and a band led by free / improv guitarist Henry Kaiser (along with the cream of Bay Area jazzers). Teenage Sex Therapist blenderizes surf riffs, swirling psych, ‘60s punk, and avant-jazz into a post-punkian construct of perfection, akin to the kitchen-sink punk approach of UK group the Homosexuals—and the set even features a minimalist take on the Nightcrawlers’ classic “Little Black Egg.”
(See full review in UT #38)
-Jeremy Cargill, Ugly Things Best Of 2014
