There are some songs that, when heard randomly and out of context, can still shock me silly. Well, “Red the Sign Post” was one of those songs that recently snuck up on me via an old mixtape. Uh, the mix was old—old enough that the sticker label had fallen off, so I had NO idea who I was hearing. For a second, I thought it was a stray Pain Teens track I’d forgotten. Anyway, it wasn’t the Pain Teens, it was sike greats Fifty Foot Hose!!
Fifty Foot Hose were an experimental, psychedelic group from San Francisco, active during the late 1960s. Their LP Cauldron is fantastic: It’s heavy on the electronics effects, expansive, and weirdo West Coast sike. [Their 1998 comeback album, Sing Like Scaffold, is surprisingly great, too. —Segal]