John Swenson has long told me about the brilliance of the Holy Modal Rounders, but for years I didn’t hear what he heard. ESP-Disc recently re-released 1967’s Indian War Whoop and put out the previously bootleg-only Live in 1965. Between the two, they make it easier to appreciate the Rounders. I suspect both albums sounded different in their day than they do now, Indian War Whoop being a psychedelic musical narrative with more in common with Frank Zappa’s Freak Out! than Sgt. Pepper or Their Satanic Majesties. I understand it was atypical of the Rounders, but the differences are often cosmetic more than conceptual; Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber’s weirdness was deep and wide, and it could manifest itself in expansive, band-oriented formats or as an acoustic string band duo, as it does on Live in 1965.

The live album would fit with any collection of the first generation of Bloodshot Records’ artists as the Rounders find little known folk songs and bang them around with a healthy, amphetimine-fueled disregard for niceties. In 1965, though, the Holy Modal Rounders must have sounded audacious. After all, that’s the year Dylan was booed at Newport for going electric. Stampfel and Weber had a far more complicated relationship to folk music than Dylan did, fetishizing the old records to such a degree that they sing in emulation of the way they sounded at times, and basing their career on those songs. At the same time, they impose their personalities on the performances to such a degree that it’s hard to believe there are only two original songs on the album.