Archive for Strawberry Alarm Clock

Exclusive: Graham Parker, Other Big Stir Halloween Comp Contributors Tell Terrifying Tales

Posted in Exclusives, Interviews with tags , , , on 10/19/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Move over, “Monster Mash”: There’s a new, soon-to-be-classic Halloween soundtrack that’s about to dig your grave and toss you into it.

Astute readers of The Bad Penny may recall our special premiere of a new song by the cultiest of cult bands, Strawberry Alarm Clock, earlier this month. “Monsters” also appears on the just-released, 41-track Chilling, Thrilling Hooks and Haunted Harmonies, a Big Stir Records collection of spooky, silly and scintillating Halloween-theme songs.

A slew of the legendary contributing artists involved with the compilation recently shared — exclusively with The Bad Penny — a litany of ghastly anecdotes and jovialities in celebration of the record, which should be an essential spin at Halloween gatherings later this month and for many years to come. Kick back and get a kick out of what members of the participating bands told us in response to some of the questions we tossed their way.

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Song Premiere: Strawberry Alarm Clock’s ‘Monsters’

Posted in Exclusives with tags , on 10/02/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

For all the love and attention that psych-rock is getting these days – mostly courtesy of and directed toward newish bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Osees and Ty Segall – there’s still a dearth of appreciation and respect for some of the bands that established the heady, colorful sound in the first place. They include 13th Street Elevators, Love, Captain Beefheart and – perhaps more than all the rest – Strawberry Alarm Clock.

The band that formed in 1966 in Glendale, California, is perhaps best known for its prime placement in the über-cult 1970 classic movie Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, directed by sexploitation pioneer Russ Meyer and written by Roger Ebert based off a bizarre and beyond-campy story they both wrote. Strawberry Alarm Clock’s best-known song remains “Incense and Peppermints.”

Strawberry Alarm Clock has undergone lineup changes and breakups over the years but is roaring back with a new single, “Monsters.” The song sees an official release tomorrow with the B-side “White Light,” and The Bad Penny couldn’t be more proud to premiere both a day early. The record release of “Monsters” marks the first time a Strawberry Alarm Clock song has appeared on vinyl since the band’s initial stretch from 1966 to 1971.

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