The Stalk-Forrest Group “The Stalk-Forrest Group” 1970/2017. Blank Records. The only album by the band that would become Blue Öyster Cult in ‘71 (same lineup minus bassist Andy Winters, replaced by Joe Bouchard), The Stalk-Forrest Group went unreleased for almost 50 years, though the tracks were released on a comp album in 2001: St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings by their original label (Elektra) but not in the order intended. The Stalk-Forrest Group recreates the band’s original intent: psychedelic hard rock with a prog-edge, a fair bit of guitar noodling and spacey vocals. Elektra did release one single from the album’s recording sessions as a promo-only: “What Is Quicksand?” (the album’s lead track), backed with “Arthur Comics.” I also like “I’m on the Lamb” and “Donovan’s Monkey” (mostly for the name and imagery, the psych-y vibe helps too).

I had never heard of The Stalk-Forrest Group before (though I’m clearly aware of Blue Öyster Cult – more cowbell!!); I received this record as a gift this past Christmas from a yoga student (I’ve been gifted waaayyyy more records as a yoga teacher than a vinyl blogger 🤷‍♀️) and apparently – or at least according to my student – until its physical release on vinyl, it was considered kind of a holy grail of lost recordings to collectors of late 60′s/early 70′s psych. There’s also a fair bit of confusion about the timeline of recordings, for what label they were being recorded, even what the band’s name was at the time! From Discogs: “There were at least two recording sessions by the band. The first, possibly at Elektra’s NYC studio, was archived under the briefly-used band name Oaxaca and resulted in a 10-song master tape. The second recording session, as The Stalk-Forest Group, was at Elektra’s Los Angeles Sound Recorders studio where six songs were re-recorded. These six songs were combined with three songs from the Oaxaca master to produce a 9-song Stalk-Forrest Group master tape. Both versions of the album were rejected by Elektra and not released, although the Stalk-Forrest Group album was assigned the catalog number EKS-74046…The Stalk-Forrest album is a combination of six re-recordings done in LA in February of 1970 and three songs from the earlier Oaxaca master: “What Is Quicksand?; “Donovan’s Monkey” and “Arthur Comics.”