Exclusive Album Stream: Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats, Vol. 1

Vol. 1 is an oddity amongst “premieres” in that it technically isn’t a premiere at all: you may already have a copy. If you were one of 30 lucky people who bought the debut by Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats on CD-R when it first came out in 2010, congratulations, you have a VERY rare item on your hands.

For the rest of us, today offers a special opportunity to hear one of the biggest acts in today’s retro/psych rock scene back before anyone knew who the hell they were. Or he, really: the album was written and performed entirely by Kevin Starrs, now the band’s eponymous leader. It’s endearing in its rawness with drum flubs, slightly out-of-tune guitars, botched vocal lines and muffed transitions throughout. But that same rawness is what makes Vol. 1 so remarkable: it’s impressive how well-formed the ideas and concepts behind Uncle Acid already were at such an early stage. It didn’t take much for Starrs to get from Point A to Point B — Point B being Blood Lust, the band’s first proper record, released in 2011 — because Point A and Point B were basically one in the same already, just minus some production savvy.

Why the re-release now? Sure, the album has been available to curious internet hunters for years, but Starrs didn’t want to put it out officially until it was completely ready, explaining:

It was a D.I.Y project from the beginning so I wasn’t going to give it up and let someone else mess with it. I Also wasn’t going to cash in on something for the sake of it. I wanted it to sound the best that it possibly could. The record deserves my full attention, so with no new album to distract anyone in 2017, it was the perfect time to work on it and release it on CD and Vinyl. It can stand on it’s own… flaws included.”

Stream the album in full below. Vol. 1 comes out tomorrow, October 13th, via Rise Above Records; pre-order here.