Twentieth Century Zoo

Twentieth Century Zoo emerged as an unremarkable psychedelic outfit from the latter half of the 1960s, becoming the first Phoenix ensemble of that style to secure an album release with national distribution, albeit on the minor Los Angeles imprint Vault Records, which meant scant public exposure. The group had grown out of the Bitter Sweets, whose pair of local singles appeared in 1966 and 1967. Between 1967 and 1968 Twentieth Century Zoo issued two singles on the modest Caz label, the initial one being “You Don’t Remember,” a solid example of psych-punk in the vein of the Music Machine.

During late 1968 the musicians cut Thunder on a Clear Day in Los Angeles for Vault Records. Its extended fuzz-sustain riffs and prominent organ work recalled the approach of Fever Tree, yet the record offered little to differentiate it from the many comparable American albums of the period. Occasional hard blues-rock passages surfaced as well, occasionally descending into monotony across extended cuts such as the ten-minute rendition of Little Walter’s “Blues with a Feeling.” In Phoenix the band supported several prominent visiting acts, among them Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer, before issuing one additional Vault single and disbanding in 1970. Sundazed reissued the album in 1999, appending non-LP singles and outtakes as bonus material.