Phafner

Phafner was formed in Marshalltown, IA, in 1969, and immediately attracted local attention by playing a hard-edged, drug-induced brand of rock & roll. The band consisted of two sets of brothers -- Dale Shultz on guitars and vocals, James Shultz on bass, Steve Smith on lead guitar, and Greg Smith on vocals -- along with Steven Gustafson on drums. In 1971, the band decided to record an album of their own original material, so they got together in a local basement studio and put six songs together for what became the Overdrive album. In order to attract some attention from a major label, they pressed 50 copies of the record (on the Dragon label). Overdrive has become legendary among collectors of hard-rock music, and a copy of the original album will fetch well over $3,000 on today's collectors market. Now, for the first time, by way of a licensing agreement with Buckskin Music, Overdrive is available on CD. Housed in a digipack case with dragon-themed art work, the CD contains the six songs from the original album. Clocking in at just over 25 minutes, it features great, blues-influenced hard rock with loads of fuzz guitar, in the style of such artists as Josephus or early Johnny Winter. Unfortunately, there are no bonus tracks on this reissue, although the band did record a couple of cuts for a proposed second album in 1972. This is highly recommended to any fan of early-'70s hard rock. The opening cut, Plea From The Soul, has lots of fuzz and mouth harp; Uncle Jerry and Rock n Roll Man feature breckneck guitar work whilst by contrast Whiskey Took My Woman is slower and bluesy.
This group was an advanced psychedelic-rock unit. Their sound was not given its due on this recording however. The sound is in fact, below average. The music is allowed to drown out the vocals, and by and large it sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. With a little loving care, and another good mix down, this album would sound incredible.
In 1973 they recorded some rough cuts for what was to be their second album, Meathook. Sadly the band fell apart before the album was completed but two of these previously unreleased tracks, Breakdown and Cat Black Claw, can now be heard on the Animus Ochlus retrospective album - which is not a straightforward reissue of Overdrive, as it omits some of the original material. Overdrive features some pretty fine and varied guitar work.