Otherworld Cottage Buzzing As A Bright New Year Beckons

December 22, 2016 - In the Winter 2016-17 issue of Ugly Things Magazine, Mike Stax opens his review of Travis Pike's Odd Tales and Wonders, 1964-1974: A Decade of Performance, "UT readers may know Travis Pike for his great 1968 single 'If I Didn't Love You Girl,' recorded with Travis Pike's Tea Party and later included on the Tougher Than Stains compilation."

Now, Otherworld Cottage is announcing that the next New Untouchables album entitled Le Beat Bespoke volume 7, scheduled for a Spring 2017 release, featuring rare underground sixties dancefloor favorites from Dr Robert DJ sets, will include Travis Pike's Tea Party's "If I Didn't Love you Girl." The album will become available in April, and the "If I Didn't Love You Girl" single featuring both tracks and original label artwork will follow that summer.

Mike's Odd Tales and Wonders book review continues, "… Pike had appeared in the 1966 movie Feelin' Good, a print of which he recently restored and uploaded to YouTube causing much joy among '60s rock 'n ' roll enthusiasts." The Perlich Post blog of November 7th, 2016 went so far as to say, "The best music video of 2016, was actually shot in 1966," and tells visitors to "Check the amazing 50-year-old footage of Boston's Travis Pike & The Brattle Street East playing 'Watch Out Woman.'" As of today, some 3,000 visitors have.

Mike's review then points out that "Pike is interviewed in some depth by Harvey Kubernik in this [UT] issue, but for those wanting more info on his colorful life (specifically the period 1964-74), this fascinating autobiography/work portfolio [Odd Tales and Wonders], goes deeper still."

The book may go deeper, but Mike goes wider, calling attention to Pike's current CD releases of songs from his sixties catalog, and the Otherworld Cottage 50th Anniversary DVD release of his father, James A. Pike's 1964 theatrical featurette, Demo Derby, that played across the country with the Beatles Hard Day's Night, and for which, Travis Pike wrote the title song.

You'd think all that would give the Otherworld Cottage crew enough to buzz about, but there's more. A 20th anniversary edition of Pike's 98-minute, award-winning performance of Grumpuss, his original epic narrative rhyme staged at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, for the benefit of the UK Save the Children Fund, is about to be re-released in HD.

The 1997 Grumpuss live-to-video performance won a Silver Plaque for Special Achievement – Writing, at the 1999 Chicago Film Festival, and earned rave reviews. The University of Rhode Island's Newsletter for the Council of the Literature of the Fantastic reported, "This is classic British fantasy at its best. Reminiscent of Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien, Pike's Grumpuss is poignantly true of both the foibles and the triumphs of humankind … quality family entertainment."

We didn't have the heart to tell them Travis is an American from Boston, Massachusetts, less than 80 miles from URI.

Don't miss the Harvey Kubernik/Travis Pike follow-up to the Feelin' Good interview in Ugly Things posted in the pdf file below.

Enjoy the Holidays!