Maalstroom- There’s A Party Going On/Gonna Tell My Momma

Maalstroom- There’s A Party Going On/Gonna Tell My Momma –Phoenix PX130 (1976 US)

Here’s a big one and still a bit of a mystery...It pretty much hits all the parts - satisfying Heavy Bonehead requirements along with high Garage ethics and also encroaches into Proto-Punk territory. There’s a Party Going On is all beer-swilling Biker Dumb Boogie BUT features one of the cheapest and most gratifying Fuzz guitar sounds around.
Gonna Tell My Momma is my favourite of the two tracks, the fuzz remains but is augmented by what sounds like frenzied bongos while the track’s tempo seems to fluctuate somewhat.
Recorded in 1976 at Pinnacle Sound Studios, it appears that the band may at one time been called Mississippi, but this is not definite. I have tried to track down different band members, but I only got as far as the producer listed on the label, Clyde Snider .

CS: “Around 1976 there was a band in my studio (Pinnacle Sound Productions at the time) called "Mississippi"...They recorded three songs; two songs were for a single and the third song was a song called "Birthday Nose Job" that had hilarious lyrics...”

However it appears that the session producer was an interesting gentleman called Jerry Katz

CS: “The producer was a guy named Jerry Katz. Katz was the one who arranged for the recording session. They were all from out of town so I was unfamiliar with any of them. Katz was a paranoid schizophrenic who thought the government had put a "square-wave transmitter" in his head and was listening in on all his conversations. However, he was a good producer for the band. The recording engineer was Bill Hammitt...”


It is not clear why Clyde ended being credited as producer.

CS: “I doubt there would be another Clyde Snider with Pinnacle Sound Productions anywhere else in the world. Maybe they broke with Jerry Katz and put my name on the label because I owned the studio...The main thing I remember about the session was how crazy Jerry Katz was. The band was in the studio for several days. Before every session Katz would place his head on our big Taberaser tape eraser and turn it on to the scramble the square-wave transmitter the government had put in his head. Then he would put aluminium foil in his ears...”

I have had no luck (so far) in tracking down the band themselves, it may be that one member now works at Clear 1017fm in Oregon, but I have had no response, hopefully this post will help bring more information to light

Hear a full version of There’s a Party Going On



Hear a full version of Gonna Tell My Momma