Potter-St. Cloud

Like Brinsley Schwartz, Endle St. Cloud is both a person and a band, a peculiar acid-folk-heavy-psych blend from Houston whose 1968 album Thank You All Very Much is one of the odder releases on the semi-legendary International Artists label, also home to the Red Crayola and 13th Floor Elevators. Endle St. Cloud was the lead singer and piano player. Peter Black (formerly of the Lost and Found) played guitar, David F. Potter (of Los Angeles' East Side Kids) added drums, and Andrew Melinger (formerly of Houston's the Iguanas) was the bassist. The group originally formed in early 1968 under the name Endle St. Cloud in the Rain, by which they released the single "Tell Me One More Time (What's Happening to Our World)" backed with "Quest for Beauty." Neither of these songs appears on the group's sole long-player, Thank You All Very Much, which was released later the same year. (Interestingly, although the sleeve shortened the band's name to Endle St. Cloud, the label keeps the group's original, more mysterious name.) More than a year later, when International Artists was trying to come up with a charting follow-up to Bubble Puppy's surprise hit "Hot Smoke and Sassafras," two songs were pulled from this album, "She Wears It Like a Badge" and "Laughter," and released as a single credited simply to Endle, further muddying the nomenclatural waters. By this time, the group had split up; Endle St. Cloud and D.F. Potter split Texas for Los Angeles, where they hooked up with three local musicians and released a self-titled album as Potter St. Cloud on the Mediarts label in 1971.