Biography

While still at prep school in the mid-'60s, this New England group recorded one of the rarest and most respected garage band albums, 1967's Calm Before..., divided equally between outside and self-penned material. This effort was distinguished from many other recordings of the sort not by the respectable covers (of material by Them, Wilson Pickett, Love, and fellow Boston garage bands the Remains and the Rockin' Ramrods), but by their beautiful, haunting original folk-rock ballads. Disbanding upon graduation, they were rediscovered by hardcore '60s collectors over 15 years later, with mint copies of Calm Before... trading hands for thousands of dollars. They re-formed for a live recording at their alma mater (the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts) in the early '80s, Alive Again at Andover. The Rising Storm have remained intermittently active in the years since, reuniting for club and festival appearances in both the United States and Europe during the '90s and into the new millennium, and releasing the album Second Wind on the Arf! Arf! label in 1998. In 2018, Sundazed Records issued a remastered edition of Calm Before... on CD and vinyl. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi