The Paisleys

To put it cruelly, the Paisleys were exactly the kind of band roasted by the Mothers of Invention so unmercifully on We're Only in It for the Money. Their Cosmic Mind at Play album abounds with naive cosmic clichés of late-'60s psychedelic music, performed with sincerity and respectable instrumental competence. A lightweight (though not totally embarrassing) effort that put the electric keyboard more to the fore than many similar bands did; it found a greater audience when it was reissued for collectors on LP in the 1980s. The Paisleys were formed in Minneapolis, and their sole album was produced by Warren Kendrick, who produced a bunch of other garage rock and psychedelic recordings in Minneapolis in the mid-'60s to early '70s (most notably for the Litter). The Paisleys actually helped Kendrick build the studio in which Cosmic Mind at Play was recorded, and only a couple of thousand copies were pressed when it was released in 1970. The legitimate 2003 CD reissue of the album on Sundazed added six bonus tracks, all but one of them previously unreleased, from 1968-70 demos, outtakes, and live recordings.
© Richie Unterberger /TiVo