1 Jump Thru the Golden Ring
2 Integrated Circuit
3 You Don't Love Me
4 She's That Kind of Lover
5 Steamroller			play
6 Atom Bomb
7 Frustration			play
8 Don't Change
9 Rock and Roll
10 Mr. Destroyer (live)
11 You Don't Love Me (live)
12 Jump Thru the Golden Ring (live)
13 Steamroller (live)

Line-up:
Phil Jones - bass, vocals
Jim Gustafson - guitar, lead vocals
Judd Gaylord – drums

The story of guitarist/vocalist Jim Gustafson is a long one. Poobah is his most famous band and this record was originally released on a small label in 1979. The band at this time was very hard working and dedicated and not only do we get the full record but also some extra live tracks from 1979. The booklet has some great pictures and a very nice long interview with Jim to compliment the music. Poobah was at this time one, if not the best underground US hard rock acts. Great guitar work and cool hard rocking songs….Jump thru the Golden Ring is a killer track with a great guitar riff and Jim’s high pitched vocals at times. He plays a ripping solo on this long 7½ minute track, which you also are treated to a more psychedelic live version as one of the bonus tracks. Integrated Circuit is a short instrumental work out that leads into You don’t Love me, which features a heavy bass line and some blasting guitar! No shortage of guitar solos in Poobah! I would not say that Jim is really into writing deep lyrics, just rock and roll ones about women, like the next number, She’s that kind of Lover, which features a long guitar workout. The title track is next and later is included a live well extended version that is even better. This is a slow paced track with heavy riff and nasty solo! Atom Bomb is an unreleased track from the 1979 recording session that made this record and it features the drummer on the piano. I can see why they left this one off the record as it is something really different and did not really fit with the rock tracks but it is still a pretty cool laid back track to start before it takes off into a jam with Jim playing that mean ass guitar. Frustration is a short 2 minute rock track and sung by the bass player Phil Jones. Don’t Change features 12 string guitar and is a quite cool special track. The regular album ends with Rock and Roll, a cover of the Led Zeppelin song. The 4 live tracks are also great with the band really jamming it out and it is more psychedelic than the actual record. Cool band… ---aural-innovations.com

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1. Flesh Fantasies
2. Pullin' Me Down
3. Watch Me
4. Coast to Coast		play
5. Let's Rock		play
6. Thru These Eyes
7. Crazy
8. Keep on Rollin'
9. Right Out of the Night
10. Out of Sou

Personnel: 
Jim Gustafson - Guitar & Vocals, 
Phil Jones - Bass & Vocals, 
Gene Procopio - Drums, 
Ken Smetzer - Vocals, Organ, Piano, String synth

This album was originally released back in 1976 during the peak of Poobah’s career and has now been lovingly re-mastered and reissued by Ripple Records. Poobah were formed by guitarist Jim Gustafson back in 1972 in Youngstown, Ohio and U.S Rock was the band’s second of three albums which have become cult classics over the years.

This reissue package offers the original album supplemented by four bonus tracks to add something for the collector. Musically the band offer up classic 70’s rock bringing to mind Cream, Sabbath and even early Kiss on some tracks.

The main feature of the album is the guitar work and the unique vocals of Gustafson, I have a sneaking suspicion that a young Justin Hawkins from The Darkness may have been influenced by Jim’s falsetto style.

Whilst the vocals at times may be a bit much, the guitar work is never less than stunning. On songs like ‘Flesh Fantasies’ and ‘Let’s Rock’ Gustafson’s riffing is first rate, oh and if you don’t dance to ‘Let’s Rock’ then I would check for a pulse!

Stand out tracks for me though were the slower, psychedelic sounding ‘Right Out Of The Night’ and ‘Your Way, My Way’ which carry you away to a Californian beach circa the mid-seventies unsurprisingly. With some laid back and chilled out guitar work both these tracks are of their time but still have a certain magic even now.

The band toured with the likes of Canned Heat, Judas Priest and Alice Cooper at the time and had the credentials to make it into the upper leagues, but poor management and various setbacks meant that by the late 70’s, and after three albums, Poobah had called it a day.

This re-issue serves to show how good a band Poobah were and why they have gathered a cult following over the years. It’s worth buying just for the OTT vocal opening of ‘Watch Me’, it has to be heard to be believed! ---David Wilson, getreadytorock.me.uk

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