Cold Sun - Dark Shadows (1970)

OK, let’s put this Cold Sun discussion away for good. Over the last few years there has been a concerted effort, by some few, to *magically* elevate the band – Cold Sun to “legendary” status in the pantheon of Texas Psych.

To those thinking that this album will be reminiscent of the fabled Sixties Texas Garage Rock Sound will be in for a major disappointment. There’s a reason this album was never released in 1970; it sucks! It’s nothing but a bunch of meandering, devoid-of-melody, uninteresting, noise and ill conceived modality exercises. And let’s face it folks, Cold Sun IS NOT somebody like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (East West) or Frank Zappa or (fer Christ sake) Neil Young on his Trans album. Guys like that can pull off "different". Cold Sun? They’re a bunch of tuneless tools. Yes Elizabeth, YOU can be able to listen to Billy Miller learning to play his autoharp.

There’s been a lot of talk that this album is some sort of "missing link" between legendary groups like the Velvet Underground, the Doors, the 13th Floor Elevators, the Golden Dawn and more modern music. Uhhhh… the four groups above could do something that Cold Sun, seemingly, cannot accomplish: carry a tune. Additionally, this *talk* is manufactured stuff. All of these opinions are being concocted by a select few, a circle-jerk, of people who want to push Cold Sun up into undeserved status. Those who talk about Cold Sun in the same breath as bands like the Velvet Underground and 13th Floor Elevators should have their tongues torn out with red hot tongs.

Really? Cold Sun Dark Shadows sounds like Miller and his cohorts had been listening to the first Yes album and the first King Crimson album and were trying to affect some sort of “Prog-Rock” sound with a gimmick. But, again, Yes and King Crimson knew what a melody was. The effort isn’t helped that Bill Miller can put an alley cat, howling at night on a fence, to shame. Omigod! It’s horrific. He goes up and down and upppppp and downnnnnn with this pasty little voice that sounds like he’s getting corn-holed rather roughly.

Miller’s vocalizations, combined with the tuneless music, make for an exercise in pain upon listening. Oh yes, just in case you’re thinking that, like Captain Beefheart, Cold Sun just needs to be “appreciated” well… Captain Beefheart was a genius; Cold Sun is a bunch of, gawd-awful, posers. Again, there’s a reason their album never came out. There’s a reason only 300 copies were pressed when it did come out for the first time, years later.

Looking back, this whole Cold Sun emergence lately seems to be the invention of Patrick Lundborg aka: the Lama. Lundborg has written much prose about how wonderful Cold Sun Dark Shadows Bill Miller is. To me, Lundborg is trying to give Cold Sun props; Billy is his buddy. More like, Lundborg is trying to prop up the putrid, sagging, carcass of Cold Sun.

Beware! Buy this album at your own risk! Don’t buy into the cross-talk that these guys were “great”. Cold Sun couldn’t carry bands like the Red Crayola & Golden Dawn’s jockstraps.

If you’re unconvinced, I have pasted some samples below. It’s God-awful. It’s God-awful AND it’s late to the party God-awful. Don't be fooled into buying this album! Don't be a fool and put them up as a legitimate Texas Psych band from the Sixties. (source)