Hoodoo Gurus - Electric Soup- The Singles Collection(1992) Flac

Electric Soup is a 19-track Australian-only collection of the band's best singles. And although the Hoodoo Gurus made several fine albums, this collection shows the band in the best light, with their catchiest and best-loved songs. An excellent distillation and the best introduction to this sorely underrated brand of Aussie-pop.

This is the singles collection of the gurus from 1992 and all their finest songs until '92 are here gathered. You will have a lot of fun :-)!
 

Enjoy
          Frank  Flac

Nick Heyward - Rollerblade (A Hard Days' Nick Single) 4 Track single mp3

This is a wonderful Power Pop four track single by Nick Heyward from Haircut 100 fame.

Tracklist:
1 Rollerblade
2 If I Needed Someone
3 Nowhere Man
4 All My Lovin'

Viel Spass
                 Frank   mp3@320

Sheer Agony - Masterpiece (2015)

The Montreal trio Sheer Agony debuted in 2011 with a promising single, but unlike most bands who release every last note they've recorded, they declined to flood the market with recordings. Only a couple more releases surfaced before their debut album Masterpiece arrived in 2015. A track record like that suggests that the group may comprise slackers or perfectionists -- a spin through the album leads one to the opinion that they are definitely the latter. From the opening "Anthony Ivy," a wobbly chamber pop gem that would have fit easily on the Bee Gees' first album, through to the swooning ballad "A Flight," which ends the album in a fluffy cloud of ennui and second-hand smoke, they demonstrate complete mastery of the rock & roll form in its many guises. Whether bopping along merrily on power pop gems, digging deep into nocturnal balladry, kicking up some dust on scrappy rockers, or conjuring up the ghost of Mink DeVille or half the Stiff lineup (Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric), the boys never take a wrong step. The simple guitar-bass-drums lineup is augmented by the occasional keys and some production trickery (Joe Meek style, nothing modern), topped off by the note-perfect, sometime sneering, sometimes pleading vocals of Jackson MacIntosh. It's a template used by loads of bands, but most of them don't do it quite as well as Sheer Agony. Every song on Masterpiece is a finely honed example of how to do things the right way -- write lyrics that are funny and true, record your guitars with a minimum of fuss, leave some space for the tunes to breathe, mix up the tempos and moods to create a nice flow. Spoon are probably the best example of this in the modern age; Sheer Agony could get to that level if they keep making albums as tough, smart, and hooky as this. Even if they crap out before they do anything else at all, they will have left behind a record that very nearly lives up to its title.(allmusic.com)

Canada seems to be the country where very good pop musicians grows on trees. Sheer Agony is a further innovative pop band from the land of the maple leafs. This is no pop with too much sugar on it but with a lot of good ideas in the songs and the songwriting. Maybe here comes the next...
Enjoy
         Frank   Flac

Andy Kim - Andy Kim 1974 & 2 bonus tracks mp3@320

Andy Kim enjoyed major success on the pop charts as a singer, songwriter, and producer in the 1960s and '70s before experiencing a career resurgence in the new millennium. Born Andrew Youakim, he was the son of Lebanese expatriates who had settled in Montreal, Canada and run a grocery store. As a youngster, Youakim developed a passion for music, and when he turned 16, he left home with just $40 to his name, heading to New York City with a dream of breaking into the music business. He cut a few singles for several labels with no particular success before he met the noted songwriter and producer Jeff Barry who, with Ellie Greenwich, had penned several major hits for Phil Spector.
Barry was impressed enough with a song the young man had written, "How'd We Ever Get This Way," to sign him to Steed Records, a label run by Barry. Youakim streamlined his name to Andy Kim and "How'd We Ever Get This Way" became a Top 20 hit in the United States and Canada in 1968. That same year, Barry was one of the writers and producers brought in to make music for the Archies, a fictive rock group appearing in an animated television series based on the popular comic book series. With Barry, Kim co-wrote two of the Archies' biggest hits, "Sugar Sugar" and "Jingle Jangle," and he also sang on some of the Archies' sessions, though Ron Dante was the primary lead vocalist for the "group." In 1969, Kim scored another solo hit, "So Good Together," and the following year he hit the Top Ten with a cover of "Baby I Love You," which Barry had co-written for the Ronettes. In 1974,, Kim rose to the top of the Billboard charts with the single "Rock Me Gently," but despite this success, his brand of simple, well-scrubbed pop, influenced both by bubblegum and the Brill Building songwriters, was falling out of favor; this would prove to be his last major hit in the United States.

Believing his image and reputation were holding him back, Kim released an album in 1980 under the name Baron Longfellow; it was a modest success, and a second Longfellow album, Prisoner by Design, followed in 1984. However, it was in 1995, when Kim appeared at the Kumbaya Festival in Toronto (an annual fundraising event for AIDS charities) that he met Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies and discovered that a member of Canada's biggest group was a longtime Andy Kim fan. It was through Robertson that Kim learned he was held in high esteem by many noted Canadian musicians, and Kim found himself writing songs with Robertson and Ron Sexsmith, as well as appearing on-stage with Canadian indie rockers Broken Social Scene. In 2005, Kim, who has long been involved in charity work, launched the Andy Kim Christmas Show, an annual fundraising concert held at Toronto's Mod Club, in which Kim is joined on-stage by a number of Canadian pop stars ranging from Luke Doucet to Alex Lifeson of Rush, to perform seasonable material.

I always loved what Andy Kim have done. Archies stuff and all his works under his name are really good pop music. I remember the first time i heard his versions of ''Baby, I Love You'' and ''Be My Baby'' i was totally blown away. I put this two tracks as bonus in the post.
Have fun
              Frank     mp3

Teenage Fanclub ‎– A Catholic Education (1990) Flac

Hard to believe now, but Teenage Fanclub first attracted critical attention for a record far removed from the sparkling power pop on which their fame largely rests -- with its gloriously sloppy and sludgy sound, their debut album A Catholic Education instead prefigures the emergence of grunge, its viscous melodies and squalling guitars owing far more to Neil Young than Big Star.

With not one but two songs dubbed "Heavy Metal," it's pretty obvious where A Catholic Education is coming from; the title track (also here in duplicate) is a surprisingly snarky attack on the church (at least for a band not exactly renowned for its political agenda), while the great "Everybody's Fool" is a merciless scenester put-down without any of the gentle sarcasm that characterizes similarly themed efforts like Bandwagonesque's "Metal Baby." Regardless, for all its glaring differences in attitude and approach, there's no mistaking the effortless melodicism that remains the hallmark of all Teenage Fanclub records -- in particular, the opening "Everything Flows," for all its meandering abrasiveness, is still as good as anything the band ever recorded, and that's saying something.

 Teenage Fanclub in 1990. It's a long time ago and to me that year was no good year, personally...but time goes by and everything can change...everyday, right?! Puuuh... enjoy that record!

Cheers                                                                                                                                                                   Frank  New Flac link

John Pantry “The Upside Down World Of John Pantry” 1967-1970(2009 Wooden Hill) Psychedelic Pop (Flac)

John Pantry is one of those artists that deserves to be heard by more people, especially those who value melodic British pop.  He released one decent solo disc in the early 70s (which has not been reissued as of this date) before delving into the world of Christian music.  Prior to that, he had been a talented studio engineer for IBC Studios (working with Eddie Tre-Vett), producing for the likes of Donovan, The Small Faces, The Bee Gees, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream.  He was also a member of Peter & The Wolves, an accomplished mid 60s pop group from Leigh-on-Sea/Southend and had a major hand with many other IBC studio projects of the time: the Factory, Sounds Around, Wolfe, The Bunch and Norman Conquest.
In 2009, Wooden Hill released a double disc set of Pantry’s late 60s/early 70s work.  It includes singles/tracks from all the above groups plus numerous outtakes and demos.  If anything, this set (53 tracks!) illustrates the depth of Pantry’s talents.  Besides being a savy studio technician, Pantry was a gifted songwriter and vocalist and an accomplished musician (he played the keyboards).  The earlier tracks stem from one of Pantry’s first groups, Sounds Around.  These guys played straight pop with slight soul and psych influences – they released two singles in 1966-1967.  Peter & The Wolves came shortly after Sounds Around’s demise (they were essentially the same group).  This is the group with which Pantry is most associated, along with The Factory.  Peter & The Wolves released several singles and lasted into the early 70s.  This group’s most productive period was probably the years of 1967-1969, where they released a string of pop gems:  a good, upbeat blue-eyed soul number titled “Still”, the superb Emitt Rhodes like “Woman On My Mind” and several tuneful psych pop creations, “Lantern Light,” “Birthday,” and “Little Girl Lost And Found” being the best in this style.
It was around this time that John Pantry was asked to write two tracks for The Factory, a legendary psychedelic group who had previously released the classic “Path Through The Forest” 45.  Pantry wrote and sang lead on the two Factory standouts, “Try A Little Sunshine” and the more folk-like “Red Chalk Hill.”  “Try A Little Sunshine” is the heaviest song on this comp, a classic that mixes Who power with Moody Blues spaciness.

During this period Pantry took advantage of free studio time and recorded a slew of demos.  While the sound quality is slightly below par, the power of popsike gems like “Battle Of Trafalgar,” “Pitsea Pub,” “Wash Myself Away,” and “Mississippi Paddleboat” cannot be denied.   Most of the material spanning these two discs strongly recalls Paul McCartney, Emitt Rhodes/The Merry-Go-Round and a more cheerful, punchy Bee Gees.  Wooden Hill exercised quality control (no duff tracks to be found) and should be commended for reissuing this great anthology.

This is just fantastic. John Pantry was one of the great guys in psychedelic pop in the sixties. This double disc shows a significant view of his work. You will love it if you are a fan of psychedelic/sunshine pop of the sixties. WOW!!!
 Have fun
                Frank   Flac