I'm not going to lie. Alabama wasn't exactly ground-zero for the 1960's garage/psych scene. In fact, looking back on the other comps here, no band hailed from Alabama, and about the closest we ever get to Alabama is Florida and Arkansas. Yet, if you are willing to dial up the obscurity-meter a bit, there is plenty to discover in America's first (alphabetically) state.
Although part of a 19-volume series, none of the bands here have appeared on any other compilation I own except for The In, who scored a spot in the Garage Beat '66 series. While the whole "let's focus on a single state" thing is admirable, the series has taken some flak for being low-budget. I'm sure a lot of this is due to the fact the bands and their source material was fairly scratchy to begin with, but some of the transfers have left a lot to be desired (e.g. CD skip sounds have been reported on some volumes). Also this disc has a big error on it, with one song being repeated twice. I have since located the real track online and dutifully restored it to its rightful place. Thank me later.
Finally, the name "Psychedelic States" is misleading, as this series takes a Nuggets-esque approach of including a lot of pre-psych garage/punk material (sometimes even reaching back to 1965). It's not that I don't think they belong together, but it's generally not a good idea to use the word "psychedelic" to cover both of the sub-genres. Of course, that would rob the series of its snazzy pseudo-alliterative title, but I leave that to the marketing team to puzzle out.
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