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Monday, December 8, 2014

Terry Reid

Terry Reid was a failry underappreciated English rock vocalist/guitarist ca. late 60's-early 70's....his first release was the interestingly titled "Bang Bang You're Terry Reid", which contained the single "Better By Far"...he was joined by Peter Solley on keyboards and Keith Webb on the drums. Seemingly, his lucky break was being asked to join Cream on thier 1968 US tour...."Bang Bang You're Terry Reid" is a MUCH better album than it was percieved as being at the time....."Without Expression" is another good number, aned the album holds up surprisingly well, in particular for those whom have never heard it.

An interesting story I had not hearad comes from the Wikipedia article on Reid....it seems that he was Jimmy Page's first choice for a vocalist for the "New Yardbirds", aka Led Zeppelin....since he was already committed to tour with Cream, Reid recommended Robert Plant. Apparently he was also offered the same job in Deep Purple (to replace Rod Evans), the position that was given to Ian Gillan.
His next release was also a quite good one, "Move Over For Terry Reid" (1969) which evidently was not terribly commercially successful, either, but listening to it today.....well, it's quite good as well...."Superlungs", "Rich Kid Blues", and his version of "Highway 61 Revisited" are all solid, and there is a good bit of other good, original material here. Likewise, his third full length, "River" is solid and was also rather poorly recieved commercially.

During the 1970's he releasead several albums, none of which set the charts ablaze, 1973's "Seed of Memory" is, in my estimation a collection of solid tunes, nothings spectacular, but certainly not as bad as a lot of the music of the early 1970's. Some, in fact, consider it his best and most mature work. In 1979 he gave it another go with "Rogue Waves", which is kind of "not so great", with some unisnpired covers and forgettable originals.

He gave up, more or less, on his solo career at this point, perhaps wisely, to concentrate on session work, he plays on a variety of albums for an assortment of bands during the 1980's, you may or may not know that "Speak Now (Or Forever Hold Your Peace)" from the debut album of Cheap Trick is a Reid composition.

Anyway, since then he's released an album or three, and I haven't heard em and don't have em....I do,
however, have a very nice "Silver White Light, Live at the isle of Wight 1970", which is a prety decent effort which wasn't released in official form until several years later, and is a very enjoyable set as well, nicely recapping some of his early stuff, leading off with aforementioned "Speak Now".
Reid has been underappreciated throughout his career, for my money, a lot of you kids have no clue who he is I am sure......but give a listen to the albums I have posted here, he was a fine singer and a good guitarist, and there are some excellent songs here, cerified by the number of varied artists who hve covered his work.

OK, this one is for the kids, you guys my age know Terry Reid.....if you are under 30, though, I'm betting you may not have.....want to know what you think....would he be more successful had he come along, say, in 1990 instead of 1968, just as an example......he was quite a talent, I think, and I think that some of you, depending on your tastes, may stumble on an unknwon (to you) gem here.

BANG BANG YOU'RE TERRY REID-01 Bang bang/02 Tinker Taylor/03 Erica/04 Without Expression/05 Sweater/06 Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart/07 Season of the Witch/08 Writing On the Wall/09 Summertime Blues/10 When You Get Home/11 Loving Time/12 Hand Don't Fit the Glove/13 This Time

MOVE OVER FOR TERRY REID-01 Superlungs (My Supergirl)/02 Silver White Light/03 July/04
(Or Forever Hold Your Peace)/09 Rich Kid Blues/10 The hand Don't Fit the Glove/11 This Time/12 Better By Far/13 Fire's Alive
Marking Time/05 Stay With Me baby/06 Highway 61 Revisited/07 May Fly/08 Speak Now

RIVER-01 Dean/02 Avenue/03 Things to Try/04 Live Life/05 River/06 Dream/07 Milestones
SEED OF MEMORY-01 Faith to Arise/02 Seed of memory/03 Brave Awakening/04 To Be Treated Right/05 Ooh Baby (Make Me Feel So Young)/06 The Way You Walk/07 The Frame/08 Fooling You

ROGUE WAVES-01 Ain't No Shadow/02 Baby I Love You/03 Stop and THink It Over/04 Rogue Waves
/05 Walk Away Renee/06 Believe In Magic/07 Then I Kissed Her/08 Bowangi/09 All I Have to Do Is Dream

SILVER WHITE LIGHT-LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT 1970-01 Speak Now (Or Forever Hold Your Peace)/02 Things To Try/03 C'mon Mary/04 Silver White Light/05 July/06 Without Expression/07 Dean/08 No Good Situation/09 Rich Kid Blues/To Be Alone With You


Hope you guys enjoy this one, couldn't decide what to do today, selected pretty much at random.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

From the Sports Desk

Certainly you didn't think I'd let a chacne to gloat about Ohio State slip by did you? Do I
HONESTLY think they are on of the four best teams in the country? Honestly? No, not really, but that isn't MY problem.....as awful as they looked earlier this year, relative to how they have played of late, with their making his first start third string quarterback, edged Wisconsin in the Big Ten Title Game, 59-0. An utter decapitation, no other words for it........I imagine they will get knocked around pretty good by Alabama, but they deserve respect and props for making the "field of four", back about week 3-4 I'd literally have bet thousands of dollars against it. They sure as hell promise to be a force next year as well........CONGRATULATIONS TO MY BUCKEYES, in some ways one of the most amazing seasons they have EVER had.......

Geez and the VIKINGS won today also.......improving thier record to 6-7, and looking better each week under great new coach Mike Zimmer........look for the VIKINGS to be a powerhouse in about 2016 (when their incredible new stadium will be open).....I don't CARE if my teams lose, but I do like for them to be headed in the right direction.......the Vikings are, without a doubt in my mind!

Red Lorry/Yellow Lorry

Perhaps a poor man's Joy Division, Red Lorry/Yellow Lorry are a somewhat underappreciated mope/drone rockers coming from Leeds England in the early 1980's....not for everyone to be sure, but I do enjoy these albums in the right frame of mind, much like one can love the music of, say, The Smiths, Joy Division, or Portishead as examples......

Red Lorry/Yellow Lorry were guitarist/singer Chris Reed, guitarist Dave Wolfenden, bassist Paul Southern, and drummer Mick Brown. I read that they considered Wire a major influence on them, and , yes, I can see that as well....they had a few successful singles  before the release of their debut full length, "Talk About the Weather".....saving thier best for first, if there is just one Red Lorry/Yellow Lorry album you want this is it (although "Smashed Hits" is also a fine compilation of their rearly stuff....). It is loaded with some of their best work, "Spinning Round", "Hollow Eyes", "Chance" and more, solid 4 star album I would estimate.

The follow-up, 1986's "Paint Your Wagon", is not nearly as good, although this version does include some bonus tracks ("Paint Your Wagon", "More Jipp") which did not appear on most copies of the album.....however, to me at least, the album sounds rushed and thrown together, and I find it quite disappointing.

And, this is pretty much where myself and Red Lorry/Yellow Lorry part ways.....subsequent albums ("Nothing Wrong", "Blow", maybe a couple more) have remained unheard by me, or forgotten by me, one of the other. As mentioned before, "Smashed Hits" is a good slice of the first  album, as well as a handfulHold Yourself Down of non-LP singles (the excellent "He's Read" , "Monkeys on Juice", and "Beating My Head", a recommended sampler if you prefer this kind of thing to something like "Talk About the Weather")

I also just found a 12" of "Spinning Round"/Chance" which contains an alternate version of "Spinning Round", and a couple of other tracks available eitehr here or also on "Smashed Hits".....
Gloomy stuff, droning guitar, throbbing bass, repititious drumlines, and Reed's somewhat Ian Curtis-
like vocals about describe it.....it's an acquired taste, for sure, but it has it's rewards. Let me know what you think of this, without checking they might have had a track or two on the goth-rock comp "The Black Bible" I posted a while back, if that helps you!

TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER-01 Talk About the Weather/02 Hand On Heart/03 Feel a Piece/04 Hollow Eyes/05 This Today/06 Sometimes/07 Strange Dream/08 Happy

PAINT YOUR WAGON-01 Walking On Your Hands/02 Jipp/03 Last Train/04 Head All Fire/05 Mescal Dance/06 Shout at the Sky/07 Which Side/08 Tear Me Up/09 Save My Soul/10 Blitz/11 Paint Your Wagon/12 More Jipp

SMASHED HITS-01 Beating My Head/02 Take It All/03 He's Read/04 Push/05 Hollow Eyes/06 Monkeys On Juice/07 Feel a Piece/08 Generation/09 Spinning Around/10 Hold Yourself Down/11 Cut Down/12 Chance



CHANCE/SPINNING ROUND (12")-01 Chance/02 Generation/03 Spinning Round/04 Spinning Round (alternate mix)/05 Hold Yourself Down

Opinions are always welcome, as are requests.....I will keep this up as long as you guys will have me!

Friday, December 5, 2014

Something I forgot to post yesterday......

I posted Ruben Chandler's obit for Ian McLagan yesterday, but completely forgot that he also sent me this link, sure sounds like something I, at least, am going to love to be reading........ it's a copy of Tony Sanchez' book "I Was Keith Richards Drug Dealer", certainly sounds worthwhile to ME..... if you grab one be sure and thank friend of the blog Ruben Chandler!

https://app.box.com/s/21nob6utnwome63a5ozz

The Scars, from the Dave Sez collection

The Scars appeared on the "Fast Product-Mutant Pop" collection which was in with the big batch of stuff we posted from Dave Sez the other day......he has been generous enough to also share the follwoing works from the Scars, can't wait to listen to this one myself as the comp tracks were awesome!

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Scars - "Live and Demos", and extras 1978-81
From the Dave Sez archive, the promising Edinburgh new wave band that sadly never made it but left us one classic punk-era album. This is all I have that's not from that. Full text and artwork of their vinyls included. A+ @275-300.
Robert King - vocals
Paul Research - lead guitar
John Mackie - bass
Calumn Mackay - drums
.....
Demos, probably 1978:
Hopeless Romantic
Romance By Mail
Slime
Peel sessions, 1980 and 1981:
Turn Me On - Peel 20.05.81
Remember Me - Peel 20.05.81
Je T'aime le Mort - Peel 20.02.80
Author Author - Peel 20.02.80
Live, probably in Groningen, Holland 1981:
All about you
Aquarama
David
Je T'aime le Mort
Leave Me in the Autumn
Obsessions
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Scars Extras
The missing Peel session tracks and one more live A+ @ 128-160 kbps. A gift for the great http://nuzzprowlinwolf.blogspot.com/ - go check it out!
She's Alive - Peel 20.02.80 @ 128
So Strange - Peel 20.02.80 @ 128
Vanishing - Peel 20.05.81 @ 128
They Came and Took Me - Peel 20.05.81 @ 128
Remember Me - live Groningen NL 1981 @ 160



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check comment section for the link, and once again thanks to my good pal Dave Sez!

artwork included with the link!

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Another Stones sidekick leaves us

Just days after the passing of Bobby Keys, now keyboardist Ian McLagan has left us also......quite
sad, and quite hard to make sense of in a world in which Keith Richards and Bill Wyman (who looks like Keith Richards grandfather) still walk among us......moral: ya never fucking know.....RIP to Ian, best wishess to his family from mine, at least, and thanks, once again, to friend-of-the-blog Ruben Chandler who has provided us with an obit for mr Mclagan, please check this and appreciate yet another of the great studio musicians of "our" time has left us.


http://fivegunswest.blogspot.com/2014/12/so-long-ian-mclagan-rest-in-peace.html

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

I decided to drag these dudes out since I mentioned them yesterday, and really haven't listened to
them that much in the past year or two...The West Coast Pop ARt Expermental Band was a sort of anything-goes psych band from Los Angeles ca. late 60's, compirsed of, more or less, vocalist Bob Markely, bassist/vocalist Shaun Harris, guitarist vocalist Danny Harris, guitarist/vovalist Michaeal Lloyd, guitarist Ron Morgan, and drummers John Ware and Hal Blaine.....this will be a tiny bit confusing, but in 1966 they released an LP entitled "Volume 1".....I thought I had a copy of this, actually I guess I don't, but it really isn't an essential work IMO.....covers of a lot of stuff like "Louie Louie", "You Really Got Me", and "Baby Blue" are interesting enough, but hardly as daring as the band's name would imply (however, if anyone has a copy, I'd like to own one just for the hall of it)/

The REAL meat of theier career are the next three albums...the first (1967) of which is entitled "Volume 1" (as opposed to "Part 1").....the cover material is FAR more esoteric (Zappa's "Help I'm a Rock", a Van DyKe Parks tune), and the originals begin to show the imagination and the fascination with psychedelic pop as demonstrated on "Shifting Sands", "1906" and in particular "Morning Dew".
The second LP, also from 1967, was entitled "Volume 2 (Breaking Through)" and is far better than the previous.....again, while not as "experimental" as the bands name would lead us to believe, this is some enjoyable pop-psych....it's a solid album, featuring "Suppose They Give a War and Noone Comes", "In the Arena", and the excellent "Smell of Incense", perhaps their best number....the album shows marked improvement over Volume 1, much more psychedelic, much more of a "statement".....hilariously dated today (songs like "Buddah"), it's a wonderful period piece, as well as a listenable slaba of psychedelic pop.

True believers generally rally around "Volume 3 (A Child's Guide to Good and Evil)", in which the concepts of psychedelic drug rockingexpand even more, and while this album is also delisciously dated too, it is a near-classic in the genre of late 60's psychedelic pop music. Thier best known track is here, "The Child of a Few Hours In Burnung To Death", mentioned previously that it was covered by Baby Woodrose, also 'serious" statements such as "Until the poorest People Have Money to Spend", "Ritual 1" and "Ritual 2"......also the legendary "Anniversary of World War III", which, SPOILER ALERT, contains two solid minutes of complete silence.

I think markely has used the bands name to release a fw pieces since this, but who really cares? These three pieces make up just about you will every need to hear from this crew, unless there is some great lost rarities album out there.....a more pure trio of period pieces of a specific place and time you will not find, people my age will certainly crack a smile if they have not heard these for 30 years, new listeners will shake thier heads and roll thier eyes.......be honest, how many of you have forgotten all about these? Let me know your views on these albums, I really did enjoy giving them a replay today!

VOLUME 1-01 Shifting Sands/02 I Won't Hurt You/03 1906/04 Help I'm a Rock/05 Will You Walk With Me/06 Transparent Day/07 Leiyla/08 Here's Where You Belong/09 If You Want This Love/10 'Scuse Me Miss Rose/11 High Coin

VOLUME 2 (BREAKING THROUGH)-01 In the Arena/02 Suppose They Give a War and Nobody
Comes/03 Buddah/04 Smell of Incense/05 Overture/06 Queen Nymphet/07 Unfree Child/08 Carte Blanche/20 Delicate Fawn/21 Tracy Had a Hard Day Saturday

VOLUME 3 (A CHILD'S GUIDE TO GOOD AND EVIL)-01 Eighteen Is Over the Hill/02 In the Country/03 Ritual I/04 Our drummer Always Plays In the Nude/05 As the World Rises and Falls/06 Until the Poorest People Have Money To Spend/07 Watch Yourself/08 A Childs Guid to Good and Evil/09 Ritual II/10 The Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death/11 As Kind as Summer/12 An Anniversary of World War III

So, talk to me, always want to know what you folks think......and any thing you may wish to request, or submit, without concern of any scrutiny, THIS IS THE PLACE!

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Baby Woodrose

After a few days rest (from WHAT?) of allowing other people to supply the blog with material, (and
infinite thanks to Dave Sez, Apanta Bapanta, and Ruben Chandler) I resume today, with a damn good one no less.... the (I think) complete album works of fuzzed-out psychedelic garage rockers from Copenhagen Denmark,they have brilliantly blended 60's garage-fuzz with modern day, Datsuns' like fury. Great stuff abounds here, lets see what we have.

They released some domestic material, singles/EP's which I don't have and don't know if it is collected on some of the albums listed here, if there is a "rarities" set floating around, I don't know about it and would like to check it out.

So, Copenhagen, 2000, out comes a thrilling album by a band who had struck with a couple of singles-"Baby Woodrose Blows Your Mind" was one of the top releases of that year, no cover material, but you'd never guess it as the tunes sound like they were stripped off of some long-lost "Nuggets" disc......"Right to Get High", "Baby Blows Your Mind", "What a Burn!", "Spinning Wheels of Fire" meld the elements of 60's hard fuzz and 00's stoner rock to damn near perfection....the album was recorded entirely by Uffe Lorenzen, using the name Lorenzo Woodrose......after the album struck, he added on Fuzz Daddy as drummer and The Moody Guru as bassist......I don't make em up.....
"Money For Soul", then was released in 2003 and was quite well recieved, argueably thier best disc, more textured and creative than the debut....."Honeydripper", "Hippie Chick", "Pouring Water....a better disc than the debut thanks to the power-trio format, I think, it's a really good one, I think most fans of the type of hard rock I enjoy (ya should know by NOW) would like to hear.

To capitailze on their sudden success, they released "Live at Gutter Island", later the same year....it's a short set, less than 30 minutes, and recaps a good number of the tunes from "Money For Soul".....it's good, it would be better as a full-length in my opinion.

Their next release, "Dropout!", was a brilliant one, one similar to (don't laugh) Guns N Roses "The Spaghetti Incident?" (which WAS a great IDEA, just not a great album), in which the band tributes an album full of singles which influenced their sound....it's not OBVIOUS material in the least either.....there is an Elevators track, but not a real well known onw ("I Don't Ever Want to Come Down"), tracks from Love, Lollipop Shoppe, The Saints, The Stooges, and more, smartly avoiding obvious selections and going for tunes tshat could have been written to order.....a favorite of mine, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band's "The Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death" gets an interesting treatment. Recommended.

They released another disc of originals, "Love Comes Down", in 2006, with a bit more of a modern, beefed up sound, I like it a great deal, actually, it was a limited release from what I can tell.... don't really know why, it smokes and reminds me a good bit of Monster Magnet..... that title track, "Christine", "Found My Way Out", and the psyched-out "Growing Younger" highlight this one, along with the fine cover depicting the ingestion of blotter acid!

Lorenzo Woodrose put the band on hiatus as he worked with his various side projects and with other bands, the next time he put together a unit using the "Baby Woodrose" monicker, Moody Guru and Fuzz Daddy were gone, and were replaces with drummer Hans Beck, bassist Kare Joenson, and second guitarist/vocalist Mads Saaby.....they released 2007's "Chasing Rainbows" with this lineup. While I prefer thet stuff done by the trio, the soundon this one veers toward the dark psychedelia whose influence had always shown through...., a logical progression, if you will, but you may want to think of this as a seperate band than, say, the one who released "Money For Soul" or whatever....."In Your Life" and "Dark Twin" stand out for me,the whole album DOES have a nice, creepy psychedelic vibe to it

For thier next release, the new unit popped out "baby Woodrose", 2009, a seeming return to the garage rock/fuzz stuff that had been thier earlier forte, say of "Money For Soul" or "Dropout!".....as I said earlier, I LOVED "money For Soul", this is not even half as good, but it does give a return to that garage sound, away from the druggy/psych stuff on "Chasing Rainbows"......however, it's NOT a "bad" album, in my book, as, actually, they haven't released a REAL clunker.

Because the final disc I have here is "Mindblowing Seeds and Disconnected Flowers", which is a fine set of the original 4 track demos that eventually would become "Baby Blows Your Mind".... interesting in its own way, music has come full circle, I guess, for Lorenzo Woodrose, a solo record, a trip format, and edging back towards solo-type work with band backup, this most recent release (that I know of) is an interesting take on the early days when it was just him.......

A good band, underappreciated......really have not made a bad one, they are all interesting, and all different, and you should not deprive yourself of any of these.....in my opinion only, one you are gonna love if you are unfamiliar!


BABY BLOWS YOUR MIND-01 No Way Out/02 Baby Blows Your Mind/03 What a Burn!/04 Caught in a Whirl/05 Pandora/06 Spinning Wheels of Fire/07 Living a Dream/08 Flaminica/09 Maya/10 D’ya Get What Ya Give?/11 Kara Lynn/12 Right to Get High/13 Mind and Soul/14 Nobody Spoil My Fun

MONEY FOR SOUL-01 Honeydripper/02 Disconnected/03 Pouring Water/04 Hippie Chick/05 Everything’s Gonna Be Alright/06 Carrie/07 Money For Soul/08 Never Coming Back/ 09 You Own It/10 You Better Run/11 Rollercoaster/12 Volcano

LIVE AT GUTTER ISLAND-01 My Baby Likes to Boogaloo/02 Living A Dream/03 Everything's Gonna Be Alright/04 Pandora/05 You Own It/06 Never Coming Back/07 Money For Soul/08 Rollercoaster

DROPOUT!-1.Can’t Explain (Love)/2.I Lost You in My Mind (The Painted Faces)/3.Who’s it Gonna Be (The Lollipop Shoppe)/4.I Don’t Ever Wanna Come Down (The 13th Floor Elevators)
/5.The World Ain’t Round, It’s Square (The Savages)/6.Dropout Boogie (Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band)/7.I’m Going Home (The Sonics)/8.This Perfect Day (The Saints)/9.Not Right (The Stooges)/10.A Child of a Few Hours (The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band)

LOVE COMES DOWN-01 What Ya Gonna Do?/02 Found My Way
Out/03 Kitty Galore/04 No Other Girl/05 Lights Are Changing/06 Growing Younger/07 All Over Now/08 Chemical Buzz/09 Christine/10 Do Right/11 Born to Lose/12 Roses/13 Nobody Knows/14 Love Comes Down

CHASING RAINBOWS-01 Someone To Love/02 I'm Gonna Make You Mine/03 Let Yourself Go/04 Twilight Princess/05 Lilith/06 In Your Life/07 Chasing Rainbows/08 No More Darkness/09 Dark Twin/10 Renegade Soul/11 Madness of Your Own Making

BABY WOODROSE-01 Fortune Teller/02 Take It/03 Open Up Your Heart/04 Emily/05 Laughing Stock/06 Countdown to Breakdown/07 Changes Everywhere/08 Hollow Grove/09 No Mas/10 Mikita/11 Scorpio/12 Secret of the Twisted Flower

MIND BLOWING SEEDS AND DISCONNECTED FLOWERS-01 Baby Blows/02 What A Burn/03 Caught In a Whirl/04 pandora/05 Spinning Wheels of Fire/06 Living a Dream/07 City of People/08 Gonna Get You Down/09 D'ya Get What You Give/10 Flaminica/11 Maya/12 Kara Lynn/13 Nobody Spoil My Fun/14 She's All Mine/15 Run Little Girl

Sunday, November 30, 2014

A bunch of presents from the great Dave Sez!

Of the several (HINT: I wish there were MORE OF THEM) guest posters that generously contribute
to the site, Dave Sez has probably contributed the most varied selection of things for our listening pleasure....he's recently sent me four such packages, and I'm going to round all four of them up today......haven't listened to any of them yet, so we will find out together. Please, I'm just passing them along to you....if you opt to sample all/any of them, please extend your gratitude to Dave Sez, with the hope that he will continue to contribute to the blog from his extensive collection. Also, if anyone else has ANYTHING they think would be of interest, PLEASE contribute it, tapes of your bar band, rarities, hell, a tape of your kid's choir or something. Tomorrow, we will get another segment of Greek Punk from Apantabapanta, as well as some stuff from Ruben Chandler's band that I said I'd put up a while back and forgot to.....but today, it's all about the generosity of Dave Sez, so let's see what he has for us in THIS delivery.

First up, we have a fine looking comp, "Fast Product-Mutant Pop 78-79 (1980), features mutlipel tracks from The Mekons, Scars, The Human League, 2-3, the Flowers, and Gang of Four....correcting what I said earlier, I DID listen to this one and it's cool, looked it up and it's a group of obscure 7"'s from Fast Product Records, the highlight for me being the alternate versions of "future" Gang of Four classics, "Anthrax", "Damaged Goods", and "Armalite Rifle"......also always love discovering a "new" act from that era, and I was, until now unfamiliar with 2-3, the Scars, and the Flowers, all of whom certainly merit a listen, I found the Scars especially appealing.

FAST PRODUCT-MUTANT POP 78-79-01 THE MEKONS-Never Been In a Riot/02 THE MEKONS-32 Weeks/03 THE MEKONS-Where You Been/04 THE SCARS-Adultery/05 THE SCARS-Horror Show/06 THE HUMAN LEAGUE-Being Boiled/07 HUMAN LEAGUE-Circus of Death/08 2-3-All Time Low/09 2-3-Where to Know/10 THE FLOWERS-After Dark/11 THE FLOWERS-Confessions/12 GANG OF FOUR-Love Like Anthrax/13 GAMG OF FOUR-Aramlite Rifle/14 GANG OF FOUR-Damaged Goods

See comment section for link.
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Next up we have a live set from Wilko Johnson, of which whom Dave Sez has shared some fine work
before.....if you don't know him, Johnson is a fine blues singer/guitarist who is best known for his work with Dr. Feelgood in the 70's.....always great fun to hear his rumbling guitar work, scanning the tracklist by eyeball, I see "Wooly Bully" makes an appearance, can't recall for sure hearing him take on that classic before, should be fun!

WILKO JOHNSON 1990.12.00 BELGRADE, K.S.T. CLUB-01 All Right/02 Title/03 Dr. Dupree/04 I Wanna Be Your Lover/05 You Got Me/06 Track 6/07 Sneakin Suspicion/08 When I'm Gone/09 Extasy/10 Wooly Bully/11 Don't Let Your Daddy Know, Part 1/12 Don't Let Your Daddy Know, part 2/13 Back in the Night/14 She Does It Right/15 Roxette/16 Bottle Up and Go/17 Audience/18 Bye Bye Johnny

See comment section for link
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Now, for something in the "anything goes" spirit in which I try to keep the blog, a spirit which Dave Sez understands completely...Rites of Strings, from whom I have never heard a note, taken from Chapiteau de Maricac, Jazz A Maricac, France, July 30 2007......the trip consists of Violinist Jean Luc Ponty, with whom we are likely all familiar and has created some tremendous sounds over the years, guitarist Al Di Meola, and double bassist Stanley Clarke.....I know about as much about jazz as I know about playing 3-D Chinese Scrabble, however, I do know this: I trust fully in Dave Sez' judgement, and, also, I have always enjoyed what I've heard of Ponty, who at times used to get some play on some of the free-est form rock stations back in those late great 70's.....I will be listening to this one within the hour, betting it's quality, and I'd like YOU to check into it as well......and let me and "provider" Dave Sez know your thoughts on it, and to everyone, I WELCOME CONTRIBUTIONS LIKE THIS, anythime......

RITE OF STRINGS-JAZZ MARCIAC 2007-01 Indigo/02 Memory Canyon/0 Song To John/04 Poema Valseado/05 Nostalgia/Desert Crossing/06 All About the Bass (parts 1 & 2)/07 Renaissance/08 Mediterranean Sundance

See comment section for link
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And, finally, from the generous Dave Sez, we unwrap the final of our Christmas gifts.... Well, this is
certainly of interest.... a (long) while back I posted a bunch of Police rarities..... "rarities" being a relative term when it comes to this package though..... first of all, Sting's first band, Last Exit, come through with a set of studio demos from between 1974-76... Last Exit were Keyboardist Gerry Richardson, bassist/vocalist Sting, drummer/vocalist Ronnie Pearson, and guitarist John Headly... see below for track listings, Tracks 1-4 are 1974 demos from Impulse Studio, Tracks 5-15 are also from Impulse, ca. 1976.

LAST EXIT-IMPULSE STUDIO DEMOS-01 Every Day's Just the Same/02 Carrion Prince (Ye of Little Hope) (Alternate Short Version)/03 Don't Let It Bring You Down/04 Whispering Voices (Alternate version)/05 Carrion Prince (Ye of Little Hope) (Alternate Long Version)/07 I Burn For You/08 Untitled Instrumental I/09 Fool In Love/10 I'm On This Train (Alternate Version)/11 Don't You Look At Me/12 Savage Beast (Alternate Version)/13 Untitled Instrumental II/14 Soul Music/15 Night In the Grand Hotel......

Next in this collection is a recording by the original Police from 1977, Dave Sez it's the only recording he knows of with Henry Padovani on guitar. Also a single from the same era.

THE POLICE-3/6/77 LONDON NASHVILLE-01 Landlord/02 Kids to Blame/03 Clouds In Venice/04 Night at the Grand Hotel/05 It's My Life/06 Dead End Job/07 Fall Out

THE POLICE 1977 single-01 Fall Out/02 Nothing Achieving
And finally, a single from a crew which called itself The Radio Actors, also from 1977

RADIO ACTORS-01 Nuclear Waste/02 Digital Love

Interesting lineup for this last single, bassist Mike Howlett, Drummer Steve Broughton, Guitarist Steve Hillage, Vocalist Sting, rhythm guitarist/vocalist harry Williamson, saxophonist/vocalist Nick Turner, vocalist Gilli Smyth.

Check it out and let the world know what you think.  See comment section for link!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Electric Wizard Part 2

Hope you got an earfull of quality stoner-doom yesterday from Electric Wizard, I know I enjoyed
dragging them out.....I know a few years ago I downloaded a huge Electric Wizard torrent that included all of the albums I put up yesterday (except the new one), which also had a bunch of live stuff, EP's, stuff like that which we will get to today.....forget who created it but a dandy torrent. this is some more fine, crushing doomy Sabbath/Sleep style drone-metal, help yourselves, I really have always enjoyed this band's crunshy style......

In chronological order, aside from the official albums from yesterday......the first thing I can come up with is a track entitled "Chrono Naut", which comes from a split single with Orange Goblin (did a full profile post on them once, worth looking into if the links are still active, Goblin is a little more "Stoney" and a bit less "Doomy" than are Wizard. anyway, the torrent from whence this track came did NOT include the whole disc, only the Wizard Single track.....I think the best thing to do might be scatter some of these singels and the like on a BigScott62 "Rarity" special, we will see....

In 1998 they released a perfectly great EP, "Supercoven", three tracks, all bombastic as hell, capped by a live ten minute version of their "theme song", "Electric Wizard", and also 30 minutes taken up by the aptly titled "Burnout" and also the title track. a good disc.

Our first live disc is "Philadelphia 2001", decent sound and long, droning versions of some of their best stuff..."Dopethrone", "Supercoven"......they sound like what I would imagine them to sound live, loud, slow, sludgy....
.
Another 2001 set, likely from the same tour comes from Iowa City, another long set with a very similar set list to the Philadelphia show, and also contains a track listed as "Unknown", I am, for some reason, already intrigued by that.....

From 2005 comes a live EP recorded for the BBC at Maida Vale, three songs, "Another Perfect Day",
"Dopethrone", and "We Live!".....sounds great, really.

Again, likely from the same tour/period of time comes a set from 2005, from Roadburn....five crushers on this one, including the then-current "Eko Eko Azarak" and "We Live!"...they had a really good sound live, not TOO sludgy, just sludgy enough, if ya get what I mean.

Next up comes an album of early rarities, "Pre-Electric Wizard", released in 2006....it features stuff from 1989-94, includes a cover of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", the "Choro-Naut" track from the earlier split, and lots of earlier Sabbath impersonations.

They released a split in 2008 with a band called Reverend Bizarre, of whom I am honestly unfamiliar, we DO get a track from each here, Wizard contributes "The House on the Borderland", as far as I know the only version, and Reverend Bizarre treats us to "The Gates of Nanna"......rare I assume, as I havae seen one nowhere else.

I have another single track, "Processian", which I am trying to track down, I assume something of a compilation track or something, I am trying to find out.Prior to thier lateest official release, we find a 7" entitled " Legalise Drugs and Murder" b/w  "Murder And Madness"....HA, found it, "Processian" is a special release one sided single....one would never be able to identify the band, it's an instrumental and somewhat keyboard driven. And, finally, when it comes to comp tracks, we get "Magical Chylde" from the "Fuck the RIAA" issue
.
OK, how to do this....I will let the live discs stand on their own, the "Pre-Wizard" album stand on it's
own, and bundle up the rest of the tracks, neat and clean on what we will call "BigScott62's Electric Wizard Rarities Disc".....best I can offer ya, I guess....

Good band.....listening to a bit today, sounds really good, enjoyed it.

Tomorrow, we have a real treat in that Dave Sez has checked in with a couple of more treats for us, which is always a fun thing......until then.....be well....

BIGSCOTT62sELECTRIC WIZARD RARITIES-01 Chrono Naut (from split w/Orange Goblin)/02 Supercoven/03 Burnout/04 Electric Wizard (Live) (tracks 2-3-4 from "Supercoven EP)/05 The House on the Borderland/06 The Gate of Nanna (Track 6 from Reverend Bizarre, tracks 5 and 6 are from split with same)/07 The Processean/08 Legalise Drugs and Murder/09 Murder and Madness/10 Magical Chylde

PHILADELPHIA 2001-01 Wizard In Black/02 Dopethrone/03 We hate You/04 Weird Tales/05 Supercoven/06 Return Trip

IOWA CITY 2001-01 Son Of Nothing/02 We hate
You/03 Dopethrone/04 Weird Tales/05 Unknown/06 Return Trip

LIVE BBC MAIDA VALE 2005-01 Another Perfect Day/02 Dopethrone/03 We Live

LIVE AT ROADBURN 2005-01 01 Eko Eko Azarak/02 We Live/03 Dopethrone/04 Return Trip/05 Supercoven

PRE ELECTRIC WIZARD-01 Magickal Childe/02 Electric Funeral/03 Lucifer's Children/04 Chrono-Naut/05 Swathed In Black/06 On Blackened Wings/07 Outro/08 Descent/09 Wings Over a Black Funeral/10 At the Cemetery Gates/11 Dark Prayers

Friday, November 28, 2014

Electric Wizard Part 1

OK, as i stated before, I'd offer up something which allows us to turn the amps to 11, as there have
been (imagine!) accusations of BigScott62 "mellowing out".....geeeeez.....OK, here we have stoner/sludge/metal/doom icons Electric Wizard, great fucking shit, closest, in comparison, I suppose, to Sleep, but the Black Sabbath influence can hardly be denied either.......this can be cranked loud and it will work out for ya, trust me, and they have a comprehensive volume of material for us to enjoy.
Electric Wizard were formed in the early 90's in Dorset England, guitarist/vocalist Jus Osborn being the focal point, along with bassist Tim Bigshaw,and drummer Mike Greenig.....over the years Osborn would remain the only constant, guitarist Liz Buckingham, bassist Rob Al-Issa, and drummer Shaun Rutter, among others, filling in the crucial times in the band's chronology.......basically it is Osborn's band.

OK, these lads have released I believe 8 "proper" albums, and of course I have a buncha live and rare for tomorrow......let us start, then, at the beginning.....the first album, of course, was 1995's self titled opus, it is a pretty fair album of hard doom-stoner rock, "Behemoth" and "Electric Wizard" are very cool quaalude-droners, and the rest of the album is not to be dismissed either.....probably unknown to you if you are not a fan of stoner/doom rock (as of course I am), but a fine starting point if you are wishing to get into the experience that is Electric Wizard.
Thier second full release, 1997's "Come My Fanatics....." is a GREAT one, you dabblers, this is the one.....one of the definitive doom/drone albums of the era. LOOOONG trippy numbers, "Return Trip" and "Wizard In Black" are highlights, but this is a stellar album in the genre.....it rocks out hard from beginning to end.

These dudes worked overtime, putting out various EP's and splits, which I will stick on Part 2 of this post, theire next "proper" release is the amazing "Dopethrone" (2000), which may or may not be thier masterwork, depending on how one feels about "Come My Fanatics"....."Dopethrone" is the definition of an album that ROCKS but does NOT ROLL, LOUD, SLOW, and geared towared the downer freak.....hey, downer freaks need a soundtrack to their lives also....."Dopethrone", for my money, is a solid 4-star album....the 15 minute "Weird Tales" trilogy being MY personal highlight, the 20 minute title track (reminiscent of Sleep's "Dopesmoker") is a winner as well, and this is a FINE FUCKING ALBUM, one of the best albums of the 2000's, not joking.....it pulls it off exactly as it INTENDS to pull it off, and that, kids, is the fucking IDEA!

So, a couple of years later, they released "Let Us Prey", something of a let-down but for me still a
fine album, the 10-minute, two part "Master of Alchemy" and the lengthy "Priestess of Mars" are more of the kind of thing you'd WANT to hear from Elecrtic Wizard, if you don't LIKE this stuff (there are many who don't), please check some of my previous posts, as heavy/doom/stoner rock is truly one of my absolute passions!

Album #5, "We Live" is the first album they released with the revised lineup, in particular guitarist Liz Buckingham who added a new complexity to the sound....the album is based around themes from various horror movies, and I think is nearly criminaly under-appreciated ("Dopethrone" and "Come My Fanatics" are generally considered their best work, I rank "We Live" on very nearly the same level.).....check this one out to take on Buckingham's inspired guitar work, it's a good and underrated one, trust me.

The next disc "Witchcult Today", was a step down for my money, perhaps the formula was wearing down a bit....Osborn's vocals are a bit more prominent than on the last few releases, although this one rocks heavilly as well, the highlight being "The Chosen Few" which clocks in at a bit over 8 minutes.

In 2010 they released "Black Masses"....I am not really crazy about the disc, to be honest......the idea/concept was wearing down, and the sound is dull and tired.....I mean, hey, I am a FAN of this particular sound, but things REALLY don't go on forever.....they attempted to be less "slick" on the album, returning to their "classic" sound, but as always, when a moment has passed, it has passed.....to be fair there are a couple decent numbers here, "Patterns of Evil" and "Turn Off Your Mind" are good sludgy rockers, but it just, to me, seemed the moment was over.

So, they plug on even today....as recently as this year they released "Time to Die", it's not awful, it's just time to, well, maybe move elsewhere...."Incense For the Damned" and "I Am Nothing" recall the classic Electric Wizard sound, but in my opinion, checking out the REAL classic albums they released would be advantageous to the listener.

OK, tomorrow.......a TON of live shit, unreleased, splits, EP's, what ever.......here are their eight studio albums, a few are great in the genre, a few are somewhat less than that, but someone asked me to turn up the volume a little, and Electric Wizard does that for certain......doom/sludge/stoner rock FOREVER!!!!!!!!

ELECTRIC WIZARD-01 Stone Magnet/02 Mourning Prayer/03 Mountains of Mars/04
Behemouth/05 Devil's Bride/06 Black Butterfly/07 Electric Wizard-Wooden Pipe

COME MY FANATICS-01 Return Trip/02 Wizard In Black/03 Doom-Mantra/04 Ivixor B-Phase Inducer/05 Son of Nothing/06 Solarian 13

DOPETHRONE-01 Vinium Sabbithi/02 Funerapolis/03 Wierd Tales/04 Barbarian/05 I The Witchfinder/06 The Hills Have Eyes/07 We Hate You/08 Dopethrone/09 Mind Transferal

LET US PREY-01 A Chosen Few/02 We, the Undead/03 Master of Alchemey/04 The Outsider/05
Night of the Shape/06 Priestess of Mars

WE LIVE!-01 Eko Eko Azarak/02 We Live/03 Flower of Evil AKA Malfiore/04 The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue/05 Another Perfect Day/06 The Sun Has Turned To Black/07 Saturn's Children

WITCHCULT TODAY-01 Witchcult Today/02 Dunwich/03 Satanic Rites of Drugula/04 Raptus/05 The Chosen Few/06 Torquemada 71/07 Black Magic Rituals and Perversions/08 Saturnine


BLACK MASSES-01 Black Mass/02 Venus In Furs/03 The Nightchild/04 Patterns of Evil/05 Satyr IX/06 Turn Off Your Mind/07 Scorpio Curse/08 Crypt of Drugula

TIME TO DIE-01 Insence For the Damned/02 Time To Die/03 I Am Nothing/04 Destroy Those Who Love God/05 Funeral of Your Mind/06 We Love the Dead/07 Sadiowitch/08 Lucifer's Slaves/09 Saturn Dethroned

Buncha shit here.....crank it up LOUD, cause I gotta BUNCH MORE of it I be gonna lay on yo ass tomorrow!






The Teardrop Explodes

As much as I often claim to dislike the music of the 1980's, I sure to find myself featuring enough of
it on here, maybe it's just that i disliked the "hair metal" and some of the other non-trends that gave the decadae it's bad rep. Teardrop Explodes were another good one, IMO from the early part of the decade, along with Echo & the Bunnymen and a couple others a part of a rather short-lived UK neo-psychedelic movement.

The music is significantly influenced byq960's west coast psych, notably the Doors and in particular Love (and even more sepcifically the enite "Forever Changes" album....as always a sucker for that stuff, new musics which incoprorate such elements are always worthwhile to me.
They had some successful UK singles prior ot the release of 1980's "Killimanjaro", one of the better efforts of that season. The band went through several lineup changes prior even to the debut's release, clearly it was the playground of singer/bassist Julian Cope, with help on this one from guitarist Mike Finkler, keyboardist David Balfe, and drummer Gary Dwyer (Alan Gill handles guitar on part of the album)....

The album was quite a success, just my opinion but sort of reminds me of the equation: ("Killimanjaro is to"Ten") as ("Crocodiles (Echo & the Bunnymen) is to "Nevermind")....just sort of the way I think of it, anyway the album is a good one....I'm going to include it in a couple forms, 2000's expanded edition in the original sequence (plus a few bonuses), as well as the 2010 three disc set which includes some other tracks taken from the comp "Piano", plus the highlight, Disc 3, a fine collection of BBC material. Anyway, it's like a time trip to the eightys with trippy, druggy stuff such as "Sleeping Gas", "Poppies in the Field", "Books", and the great single "Reward".....great album, and here it is sliced and diced any way you could want it.....damn fine album.

In another expanded edition, the follow up "Wilder" (1981) was also stretched out in 2000 with a bunch of bonus stuff. A much more experimental album than "Killaminjaro", Balfe's synth work steps more to the forefront, it's a very stripped down affair with some tracks featuring little/or no guitar work. Many hate it, I happen to enjoy its stark, dark, bleakness. "Passionate Friend" was the only single release, and remains the best known song today.

The band broke up during thier attempt at a third album, artistic differences seemingly the
problem.....they material was eventually scraped together and released as "Everybody Wants To Shag...The Teardrop Explodes"...the guitars have nearly disappeared by now,in favor of Cope's poppy ballads/strange lyrics and Balfe's synth-based dance music exercises. I do not care for this album, really, sounds like what it is" an aborted album on which no one was on the same page. An interesting artifact (couple decent tracks, such as "Serious Danger" and "Count To Ten and Run For Cover"), nothing much more than that really.

"Piano" was a singles/rarities/b-sides disc, which I think may or may not be rendered redundant by the three disc "Killaminjaro", I don't care enough to cross reference.....I just happen to have a copy of it laying here so why not......

Lots to explore and enjoy here......for dabblers, the three disc "Killaminjaro" may just do it, thier best work by far, and some fine BBC stuff.....but hell, there may be a hard-core fan of the band that's worked up over "Shag" or something.....let's see.....someone suggested that I need to turn the amps up to 11, that I've been mellowing it out a bit, so tomorrow something LOUD AND PROUD, not sure what yet but bring the earplugs for the kids!

KILLIMANJARO (2000 RE-ISSUE)-01 Ha Ha I'm Drowning/02 Sleeping Gas/03 Treason/04 Second Head/05 Poppies In the Field/06 Went Crazy/07 Brave Boys Keep Thier Promises/08 Bouncing Babies/09 Books/10 The Thief of Baghdad/11 When I Dream/12 Reward/13 Killimanjaro/14 Strange House in the Snow/15 use Me/16 Traison (C'est Juste Une Histoire)/17 Sleeping Gas (Live)

KILLIMANJARO (2010 RE-ISSUE, DISC 1)-01 Ha Ha I'm Drowning/02 Sleeping Gas/03 Treason/04 Second Head/05 Poppies/06 Went Crazy/07 Brave Boys Keep Thier Promises/08 Bouncing Babies/09 Books/10 Thief of Baghdad/11 When I Dream (Longer Version)

KILLIMANJARO (2010 RE-ISSUE, DISC 2, "BATES MOTEL")-01 Reward/02 Sleeping Gas (single Version)/03 Camera Camera (Goddamn Camera)/04 Kirby Workers Dream Fades/05 Bouncinf Babies (Single Version)/06 All I Am Is Loving You/07 Treason (Zoo Single version)/08 Read It In Books/09 Killimanjaro/10 Strange House In the Snow/11 Use Me/12 Traison (C'est Juste Une Histoire)/13 Sleeping Gas (Live Version)

KILLIMANJRO (2010 RE-ISSUE, DISC 3, BBC SESSIONS)-01 Brave Boys Keep Thier Promises
(Peel, 10/15/79)/02 Ha Ha I'm Drowning (Peel 10/15/79)/03 Went Crazy (Peel, 10/15/79)/04 Chance (Peel 10/15/79)/05 Thief of Baghdad  (Peel 4/24/80)/06 When I Dream (Peel 4/24/80)/07 Poppies In the Field (Peel 4/24/80)/08 REeward (Mike Read Session 10/27/80)/09 Suffocate (Mike Read Session 10/27/80/10 For Years (Mike Read Session 10/27/80/11 The Great Dominions (Mike Read Sessions 10/27/80

WILDER (2000 Re-ISSUE)-01 Bent Out of Shape/02 Colours Fly Away/03 Seven Views of Jerusalme/04 Pure Joy/05 Falling Down Around Me.06 The Culture Bunker/07 Passionate Friend/08 Tiny Children/09 Like Leila Lhaled Said/10...And the Fighting Takes Over/11 The Great Domions/12 Window Shopping For a New Crown of Thornes/13 East of the Equator/14 Rachael Built a Steamboat/15 You Disappear From View/16 Suffocate/17 Ouch Monkeys/18  Soft ENough For You/19 The In-Psychlopedia

EVERYODY WANTS TO SHAG THE TEARDROP EXPLODES-01 Ouch Monkeys/02 Serious Danger/03 Mentranil Vavin/04 Count to Ten and Run For Cover/05 In-Psycholpedia/06 Soft Enough For You/07 You Disappear From View/08 The Challenger/09 Not My Only Friend/10 Sex (Pussyface)/11 Terrorist/12 Strange House in the Snow

PIANO-01 Sleeping Gas/02 Camera Camera Goddamn Camera/03 Kirby Workers Dream Fades/04
Bouncing Babies/05 All I Am Is Loving You/06 Treason/07 Books/08 Take a Chance/09 When I Dream/10 Kwalo Klobinsky's Lullabye

Lemme know what ya think......gonna try to make the ear drums bleed tomorrow, we'll see!