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From The Vault: Blair 1523 – Beautiful Debris (1993)

February 24, 2017

From The Vault: Blair 1523 – Beautiful Debris (1993)

Blair 1523Beautiful Debris (Voxx, 1993)
Referencing their name from the San Antonio garage psych band The Outcasts (they were invited to appear in Houston, Texas with The Beatles, but turned down the opportunity), who had two brilliant hits smack dab in the middle of the 60’s “I’m In Pittsburg (And It’s Raining), along with “1523 Blair,” sent a sampler to Pete Kember, late of Spaceman 3, though by the time he could get in touch with the band found that they’d broken up. Nevertheless a compilation of sorts was compiled of these tapes.

Former member of Blair 1523 Alan Duke said, “Many moons ago I fronted a band called Blair 1523. I think it was the biggest mistake we ever made, and regret that we disbanded.” And there are many others out there who feel the same way, saddened that this bit of psychedelic wanderlust flashed like a flame in space momentarily, and just as quickly were gone. 
Beautiful Debris turned out to be just what the title inferred, bits and pieces, smooth breathy debris that hang like near sonically perfect musical ghosts, laced with infectious grooves of psychedelia that move with an eloquence and sense of longing and desire in an understated manner that doesn’t so much lay you back and waste your soul, more that it fills the listener with a stoned energy of expansive intimacy. Beautiful Debris comes on like the dizzying substance and anesthetic ether, delivering an array of intoxicating musical effects, and like the drug, is highly flammable, especially in conjunction with oxygen … suggesting that Blair 1532 was doomed to implosion once their notes first mixed with Earth’s atmosphere. 
Beautiful Debris is a snapshot of something that never took on physical form, and in that sense, feeling that these songs exist without a home, floating free, only adds to the beautiful mysterious nature of all things psychedelic.
*** The Fun Facts: The Outcasts took their name from the address of the Doyle Jones Recording Studio in Houston … Blair 1532 hail from a place called Crown Parish, located in Cornwall, on the southwestern tip of the UK.
– Jenell Kesler
© Copyright http://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2017
4 Comments
  1. scott moyle says:

    Hi. We came from a town called Camborne. We were still together when the album was released (I think!). Scott.

  2. Thank you for a great blog.

    I am one of the members of Blair1523.
    It was a good run we had and fun to be part of.
    We recently met up and didn't kill each other.

    I set up a facebook page for the group here is the link
    https://www.facebook.com/blair1523/
    It has photos cuttings links to videos and Bandcamp where i recently uploaded four tracks from our final rehearsal.
    https://blair1523.bandcamp.com/album/make-it-mine-ep/

    All the best and thank you

    George x

  3. Thank you guys for the comments. Would you be interested in conducting an interview for our magazine? Please let me know and feel free to contact me at: psychedelicbabymag@gmail.com

  4. Yeah that sounds good. will contact you via email.

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