Now-Again Records

Equatics Doin’ It!!!! LP Now In Stock (And We’re Still Giving Away a Freebie)….

You asked for it, and we responded: the LP version of our official reissue of the Equatics’ dark soul/funk masterpiece Doin’ It!!! in a thick, “paste-on” cardboard sleeve that mimicks the original album jacket. Now-Again’s LP reissue of Doin’ It!!!! also comes with Egon’s extensive liner notes printed on the back of the sleeve.

And, in case you still don’t know who these high-school soul maestros are, we’re still offering you a taste: their cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Buy: The Equatics: Doin’ It!!!!
Catalog Page: The Equatics: Doin’ It!!!
Download: The Equatics: “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
More info, pictures and full liner notes here.

Equatics Doin’ It!!!! CD For Sale Now!

It’s available now – the official reissue of the Equatics’ dark soul/funk masterpiece Doin’ It!!! Packaged as a “mini-LP” in a thick, “paste-on” cardboard sleeve that mimicks the original album jacket, Now-Again’s reissue of Doin’ It!!!! also comes with a eight page booklet with full liner notes, annotation, and never-before-seen photos of this most impressive organization.

In case you missed it last time, ’round, don’t forget to grab a free taste – the band’s cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Buy: The Equatics: Doin’ It!!!!
Catalog Page: The Equatics: Doin’ It!!!
Download: The Equatics: “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
More info, pictures and full liner notes here.

The Equatics: Doin’ It!!! Official Reissue Coming In February (Grab A Free MP3 Now!)

It’s almost here – the lost dark soul/funk masterpiece from Hampton, Virginia high school champions of Pepsi’s “New Sounds Of 1972” challenge. The stories of great high school funk bands are, thanks to an abundance of reissues, commonplace. The tales of great high school soul-bands are still rare. Enter The Equatics and their brooding masterpiece Doin’ It!!!!

This official reissue was licensed by the Equatics’ bandleader, bass player Benjamin Crawford. Packaged as a “mini-LP” in a thick, “paste-on” cardboard sleeve that mimicks the original album jacket, Now-Again’s reissue of Doin’ It!!!! also comes with a eight page booklet with full liner notes, annotation, and never-before-seen photos of this most impressive organization.

In anticipation of this reissue, we’re giving you a taste now: the band’s mournful cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Link: The Equatics: Doin’ It!!!
Download: The Equatics: “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
More info, pictures and full liner notes here.

The Equatics – Doin’ It!!!!

Read the full liner notes here.

Tracklist:

Side A
A1. What They Doin?
A2. Walk On By
A3. Merry Go Round
A4. Santana Part 1
A5. The Touch Of You

Side B
B1. Santana Part II
B2. Ain’t No Sunshine
B3. Cicso Fare
B4. Where Is Love?

Original session produced by Benjamin Crawford and Frank Johnson.
Recorded at Alpha Audio, Richmond, VA. Circa 1972.
Originally issued as RI 3580 (A/B) 1972.
This reissue produced, annotated and researched by: Egon
Additional coordination by Jeff Dynamite and Leon Michels, with thanks to Phillipe Lehman.
Liner notes by: Egon.
Restoration and remastering by Paul Gold.
Art Direction by Trevor Karma Gendron.

CD in “Mini-LP” tip on sleeve. 2010. NA 5062.

The Equatics

Read the full liner notes here.

The stories of great high school funk bands are, thanks to an abundance of reissues, commonplace. The tales of great high school soul-bands are still rare. A ballad or two on the random Douglass High School Stage Band album or Timeless Legend’s mesmerizing entry on Columbus’s 1972 1st Annual Inner City Talent Expo notwithstanding, high school bands rarely struck into the realm of “grown folks” music. Enter The Equatics and their brooding masterpiece Doin’ It!!!!

If this is categorized as a “funk” album – and it was for the last ten years, by those few lucky enough to own an original copy – it holds its own. But it was as a soul band – one as inspired by the melancholic musings of Bill Withers as the psychedelic-pop of the self-proclaimed “Black Moses,” Issac Hayes – that the Equatics shone. These young souls offered world-weary, beat-heavy ballads that stand on par with any of the great independent organizations of the early 1970s. That a group of teenagers could offer such an angst-ridden plea as that of Leo Davis’s “Merry Go Round” not only transcends the limitations that came from the band’s average age (seventeen, at the time of the album’s recording), but also the barriers the stood in front of this group of small-city hopefuls.