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Digestor View Drop Down
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Light Year (S.F. 1973-75)
    Posted: November 28 2009 at 12:26
Light Year was a sort of prog rock/ fusion band my father started in around 1973 or so in San Francisco. I've made a myspace page with some pictures, reviews, and songs. They were never signed, though they did make a handful of recordings and played some pretty big shows, including some shows with the Tubes, and one of the only times an unsigned act headlined at the Keystone Korner. Check them out. No one has heard this stuff in probably 30 years or so.

http://www.myspace.com/lightyear74


Edited by Digestor - November 28 2009 at 12:29
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Points: 16913 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2009 at 15:12
Hi Digestor!  Well, I really enjoyed what I heard in my first skim.  The vocalist, while having one of those initially off-putting voices like the women in Sandrose and Jacula, tend to get under my skin and I end up enjoying them more than more standard voices.  It's a shame there wasn't a release.  I'll be playing this more over time, thanks for posting it!!
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2009 at 15:41
I'm glad you liked it! I think the vocals have been a common stumbling block (for the few people who have heard it), but I'm glad they grew on you.  I'll be posting more songs, a bio, more pictures, etc. in the near future.
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Points: 17628 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 28 2009 at 16:17
Thumbs Up  Wow - very interesting - (furious) fusion and irresistible female vocals - this songs are worth the effort ...


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Points: 16913 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2009 at 11:50
So Digestor......which one is Dad???Smile
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2009 at 12:22
That would be Zak McGrath, the drummer. He also wrote most of the material.

Edited by Digestor - November 30 2009 at 12:22
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Points: 16913 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2009 at 15:57
Well I certainly enjoyed it.  Keep us posted on any new developments.  Especially if there's ever an archival CD release.
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 02 2009 at 14:23
I updated the site with a new bio and another song.
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Points: 12813 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 03 2009 at 07:44
Interesting, although very much agree the vocals are a barrier to some decent jazz rock instrumental work* - guitarwork suggest to me similarlities to that of Gary Boyle, with Isotope and on his late 70's solo albums.
 
*but too the vocals heard on Finneus Gauge's two jazz rock albums, can inhibit listening to some excellent instrumental work that lie beyond.
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Points: 12813 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 03 2009 at 10:38
Posted info wrt Light year at Fusenet jazzrockfusion discussion group 4 hours ago, with link to My Space page, and got the following quick response:
 
Thank you, Mr Heath! I wondererd what happened to these guys. I was in a band called "Koan" (w/Joaquin Leivano) in '74 and we played with Light Year in a park in front of Berkeley City Hall (Calif). I thought they were amazing, especially the guitarist Sellman (called "Spider Sellman", for obvious reasons). Glad they recorded something.
Koan suffered the same fate: Bay Area folks weren't ready for odd time signatures and screaming guitars in '74. Joaquin turned out ok, tho.
thanks mate,
Peter McGibben
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 03 2009 at 17:51
Cool, thanks for posting that! I'm the drummer's son incidentally, not his daughter.
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 29 2009 at 21:06
I just added the songs "Buggy Cadavers" and "Giant Babies" from a live performance on KPFA in Berkeley. Enjoy!

http://www.myspace.com/lightyear74


Edited by Digestor - December 29 2009 at 22:35
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Points: 35940 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 29 2009 at 21:28
I like the vocals and I think it's a very good band.  Highly enjoyable.
Duos for fave acts
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Points: 1317 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2009 at 16:32
Digestor,I'm really enjoying what I'm listening too:great musicianship and the voice is awesome.
I was born in the land of Mahavishnu,not so far from Kobaia.I'm looking for the world

of searchers with the help from

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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 31 2009 at 18:03
I'm really glad everyone is liking it. I have quite a bit more material here, and I'm thinking of trying to get some small label to release it at some point. Any tips? Though I enjoy prog and fusion I'm not really up on the types of labels that put stuff like this out, especially something so obscure.

Edited by Digestor - January 05 2010 at 21:09
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 04 2010 at 04:46
So after about a year or so of talking to Green Tree Records, transferring old tapes, and putting together artwork and a layout, this music is actually coming out for real. Green Tree/NuMusi should have the Light Year album "Reveal the Fantastic" a couple of weeks from now. Very excited!
https://lightyear.bandcamp.com/
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Points: 17527 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 04 2010 at 21:11
Originally posted by Digestor Digestor wrote:

I'm really glad everyone is liking it. I have quite a bit more material here, and I'm thinking of trying to get some small label to release it at some point. Any tips? Though I enjoy prog and fusion I'm not really up on the types of labels that put stuff like this out, especially something so obscure.
 
I've been saying all along that there was a lot of music in the West Coast that fits progressive and many other areas, but getting some proper names and information is a total hassle. The West Coast, it seems had no publication or anyone that had a record of these things ... and because of it a lot of music was wasted ...
 
Or as I was told one time in a show in one of the local bars over there some 30 years ago ... "this city is meant to be tasted, loved and enjoyed. You can't take it with you!" ... was someone like Clarence Gatemouth Brown or something like that ... and sadly, a lot of this stuff is also ... kinda "lost".
 
I keep trying to revive it and find it and list it ... to no avail ... I get one song, or one album and the story closes. It's weird. It's like everyone died when Donohue died and Tim was too stoned to know the difference!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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Points: 4160 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 05 2010 at 11:16
Hey, Zak Junior, this is really good stuff and it deserves a release! Are you intending to ask some of the labels for a official release? I mean, there are plenty of labels today who are (re)releasing obscure progressive rock (Cuneiform, Musea) - and this one should be a no-brainer. If you have at least half an hour of studio/live material of decent quality, that should be enough for an album/compilation of sorts. What do you think?
Percussion, sir!
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2010 at 13:54
Originally posted by clarke2001 clarke2001 wrote:

Hey, Zak Junior, this is really good stuff and it deserves a release! Are you intending to ask some of the labels for a official release? I mean, there are plenty of labels today who are (re)releasing obscure progressive rock (Cuneiform, Musea) - and this one should be a no-brainer. If you have at least half an hour of studio/live material of decent quality, that should be enough for an album/compilation of sorts. What do you think?

Yeah, I found a label to put it out called Green Tree Records out of Berlin. I contacted a bunch of labels, including Musea, but the only one that was interested was Green Tree, so we ended up doing a licensing deal with them. It should be available in the next couple of weeks or so. Most of the songs are from one live session at Wally Heider Studios in S.F., but there are a couple of tracks from a demo they made as well. I really like the album we put together, and we remastered (or I should say, we mastered it. I doubt it was mastered to begin with.) everything, so it sounds really good.
https://lightyear.bandcamp.com/
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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2010 at 14:50
The cd is for sale now!

http://cgi.ebay.de/Light-Year-Reveal-The-Fantastic-Digipak-CD-/290501744463?pt=B%C3%BCcher_Unterhaltung_Music_CDs&hash=item43a340d74f#ht_796wt_741
https://lightyear.bandcamp.com/
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