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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
-----
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