The Small Faces - The Autumn Stone (Lp) (1969) Flac

The Autumn Stone was the only double LP in the history of Immediate Records, and it came out as the company was entering its death throes, a desperate effort to cash in on the library of tapes of the Small Faces. When lead singer Steve Marriott quit in the waning days of 1968, the group had been midway into recording a new album that would have been its third for the label and a follow-up to 1968's popular Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

Left high and dry by Marriott's departure, and with an uncertain future ahead for the group, the company elected to release the first anthology of the Small Faces' work. The result was The Autumn Stone, a mix of hit singles (going all the way back to their Decca Records years, with "Whatcha Gonna Do About It" and "All or Nothing") and up through their final 45, "The Universal," plus three songs recorded live at Newcastle Town Hall in early 1968, a bunch of album tracks, and some unissued tracks from the tail-end of their history, presumably intended for their third, never-finished Immediate LP. It was the first (and, for over 20 years, the best) overview of the group's work and history, depicting its transition from a white British Invasion-era soul band to a more laid-back and experimental psychedelic outfit.

I know a lot people think different about it, but in my opinion Steve Marriott's creative high time were in the Small Faces. Enjoy

Frank  Flac 

 

The Posies - Frosting On The Beater 1993 Flac

Frosting on the Beater opens with a thick wall of distorted guitars and booming drums kicking up a very melodic fuss behind Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer's creamy-smooth harmonies on the psych-tinged "Dream All Day," and the track's sweet-and-sour blend immediately announces this is going to be a very different affair than the Posies' major label debut, Dear 23. With noisy rock dude Don Fleming in the producer's chair, it came as no great surprise that Frosting on the Beater was a much harder sounding album than the introspective Dear 23, but surprisingly enough, Fleming also knew how to make the most of the band's expert pop songwriting; with the tempos and guitars turned, the tunes gained a needed physical impact that brought the melodies and hooks into the forefront, where they belonged. Just as importantly, the spot-on harmonies that were the highlight of Dear 23 were still very much in evidence, resting atop the piles of fuzzy guitar chords like a dollop of hot fudge poured over a big scoop of ice cream. And prior to this, who knew that Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer could rock out so hard (and so well) on guitars? One could argue that the big guitar attack of Frosting on the Beater was simply the Posies' way of trying to cash in on the grunge sweepstakes that briefly turned their hometown of Seattle into the center of the rock universe. But one listen also reveals that it transformed a smart but overly precious pop outfit into a hard-charging power pop band that gained a wealth of strength without giving up any of their smarts in the process -- not a bad bargain.(allmusic.com)

Power Pop at it's best. An absolute Power Pop classic from the Posies. Nothing more to say about it...or?...no lol. Have fun and
bis bald
            Frank   Flac

Birmingham Sunday - A Message From Birmingham Sunday (1968) 1998 Flac

Birmingham Sunday was a band from Nevada that consisted of Ward Johns, Debbie Parks, John Kvam, Jean Heim, Joe LaChew and Phil Gustafson. Although not much is known about the band and its members, A Message from Birmingham Sunday
was originally released as a test pressing in 1968 on the All American Record label. The band play a variety of styles but the music on this album is mainly a folk based psychedelic pop sound with strong vocal harmonies. The singers alternate between male and female vocal leads with a wall of sound background that contains guitars, wind instruments, swirling organ and synthesizer. The entire album only clocks in at just more than 27 minutes but it is an enjoyable piece of late 60's psychedelia. The CD itself is housed in an impressive digipack but the only drawback on packaging is the lack of detailed liner notes and information on the band. The overall sound quality is good but there seems to be some sound fading on a couple of songs perhaps due to the quality of the master tapes. Despite some minor drawbacks it is nice to see such a rare album finally receiving a legitimate release. (allmusic.com)

I stumbled over Birmingham Sunday at visiting a friend at his home. Since that day i love this album.

If you want to know more about the band search the internet. You can find a lot info about the band. I don't understand why allmusic writes that there is not much known of the band...? Anyway if you like sunshine pop with folk and a little rock influences, grab it.
Cheers
           Frank  Flac

oops...sorry i forgot the link! Hope it works now.

The Spongetones - Always Carry On The Best Of The Spongetones 1980-2005 (2008) mp3@320

It seems in some ways that the Spongetones have always been around, and while they're no Flamin' Groovies on the longevity front, this 26-track anthology covering their first 25 years as a power pop mainstay does make plain their talents. Unfortunately, it also exposes the limitations that have always kept them from attracting more than a small but devoted cult audience of hardcore power pop fetishists. The Spongetones, a quartet from Charlotte, NC who impressively have maintained the same lineup ever since guitarist and primary singer/songwriter Jamie Hoover joined a nascent version of the band in 1978, started out as unapologetic British Invasion fans in the style of the Sire Records-era Flamin' Groovies. The first eight tracks here, from the first two albums Beat Music and Torn Apart (since 1994 yoked together as the CD Beat & Torn), aren't "updated" or "revisionist" British Invasion-style tunes, they're the real thing two decades too late. That purist aesthetic was dropped with 1987's Where-Ever-Land, which introduced synths and all the bad production elements (too much reverb on the drums, that sort of thing) that marred so many albums in the latter half of the '80s, and shifted the Spongetones over into Marshall Crenshaw territory. Musically speaking, that's basically where they've remained ever since, so the last two-thirds of this compilation fall into a bit of a rut in terms of songwriting and performance. (In their favor, however, the production got a lot better after the misguided modernisms of Where-Ever-Land.) Hoover and his bandmates are undeniably talented at what they do, but listening to this lengthy summation of their first quarter century shows how little the band has progressed as songwriters during this period. Not in the sense that bands should necessarily get more complex or move away from the sounds that initially inspired them, mind, but in the sense that the Spongetones have got the power pop sound down cold but have never been first-rank songwriters on the level of, say, Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens or Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple of the dB's, to name two of their contemporaries. There's not a "Shake Some Action," a "Cynical Girl," or a "Places That Are Gone" in these 26 tracks, a crowning, singular achievement amongst all the clever songcraft. Of course, not everyone can be the Beatles, and as Always Carry On: The Best of the Spongetones 1980-2005 proves, there's something to be said for being the Dave Clark 5.(Stewart Mason allmusic.com)

Hello Folks, here come the Spongetones! A fine Power Pop band with a very strong sixties sound. And how Mason describes the first two records, they are no revisionists they are really the original...only (then) twenty years too late. But today it's 2016 and for me it's not interesting if the record is from the sixties or the eighties, i enjoy (or not) their music today in 2017. Mason write a lot of things that's true and i can second them...and i love the Spongetones for her music and that they are a fairly good Power Pop band. If you like Power Pop with 60's roots you're exactly right here.
Three cheers for 60's style Power Pop
                                                            Frank   mp3@320