Brand new vinyl record.

• Re-Issue
• Bonus Item: 16-Page Booklet

SHIPPING TIME AND RETURN POLICY:

SHIPPING: We ship within 2 business days of payment most of the time (orders place over the weekend won't be processed until the following Monday. We ship via USPS: First Class for CDs, Media Mail for vinyl, and First Class Mail International for overseas orders (orders over 4lb require Priority Mail International). Actual shipping time varies by destination.

RETURNS: We generally do not accept returns except if something is not as described, and we take care to make sure everything fits our description. Sometimes CDs or vinyl will have a "cut-out" slice or "promo punch" either in the corner or through the UPC code - we will include this in the description if applicable. If there is a problem with an item, contact us and we will figure out the best action to take. We do NOT accept returns if you decide you simply don't like the item, or have buyer's remorse - buy wisely, and ask questions if necessary. Damage incurred during shipping should be brought up with the carrier but is extremely rare as we box everything adequately, including using extra cardboard for protection.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMBINING SHIPPING ON MULTIPLE ITEMS WE SELL:

Use "Add To Cart". Before paying, there is a button marked "Ask Seller For A Total" - click this. Wait one business day for us to change the invoice or else it will charge you full shipping for each item (we will not refund extra shipping once paid). This may not work from a phone, only a computer. We have to change shipping by hand - typically we charge what is close to the actual cost with maybe a $1 USD handling fee per item to cover the cost of packing materials.

Item Summary:

Reissue of the legendary '70s California bedroom psychedelic album - restored/remastered transfer and never-before-heard demos. Includes a 16-page booklet with dozens of unpublished photos and images and a thorough investigation into this exceedingly rare artifact.

Psychedelic rock record collectors have been repeating the name Heitkotter as if it were a mantra ever since the first copy of a hand-made demo LP turned up in a Los Angeles music publisher's reject bin, with nothing more than that word scrawled across a plain white jacket.

Now-Again Records embarked some years ago on what seemed like a fruitless crusade – to find out more about this Heitkotter, his music, his story. In the process, we've visited the house where this confounding album was recorded, found Heitkotter's musicians, rescued the demo-recordings that paved the way for this album, uncovered unpublished photos and paintings by the man behind the album, and are now ready to present the definitive look into a musical vision equal parts dangerous and peaceful, nihilistic and optimistic. It's safe to say the world has never heard something like Heitkotter – it is a unique piece of art unlike anything that came before or has come after it.

The bizarre LP known as Heitkotter – recorded in around 1971 and pressed in a run of less than twenty five copies - was the culmination of one Stephen David Heitkotter's artistic career. Ross Dwelle, Stephen's childhood friend and the drummer on the record, describes the bedroom sessions in a handsome Craftsman home in Old Fresno as this young trio "trying to play five songs written by a man losing his mind... probably stoned the whole time."

Heitkotter, this time issued as Black Orckid, as we assume Stephen would have wanted it - is too complicated to be written off as a symptom of a greater ill, or lionized by a few (and dismissed by the majority) as "outsider" art. It's a rare and vital look at 60s and 70s American rock through the sad story – and incredible music – of an untethered soul. And as we hope to show in enlightening more of Stephen's backstory, it can also be considered sweet, kind and optimistic. The Heitkotter tale is cautionary, but Stephen's music is as close to the sublime as American rock has ever ventured.