ModPopPowerPopRock? The Queen Annes - Released! (2016 Green Monkey Records) Flac & mp3@320

Mod Pop: Queen Annes Released!

From the late 70’s right through to the mid 90’s, some of the greatest bands in power pop history were from Seattle. Bands such as Exploding Hearts, Super Deluxe, Sparkler and the greatest Seattle power pop band of all time, The Heats.
Not to be overlooked in the power pop craze at the time, Mod Pop counterparts The Queen Annes released a cassette in the early 80’s entitled Something Quick. I recall really enjoying their sound, one that had all the drive and unbridled energy of The Who. The way I understand it, they tried to follow up on the release in 1997 with a full length LP entitled Revenge. However, like so many worthwhile recordings of that time, the project was shelved.
Until Now.
Thanks to the folks at Green Monkey Records, Revenge has been unveiled in all its splendor… but re-titled as Released!. With Released!, The Queen Annes offer up a variety of styles and influences that prove to be broader in scope and so much more entertaining than their earliest work. It’s a shame that it didn’t find it’s way to the marketplace back in ’97.

The Who influence is still there of course, as on “Circus Train”, the opening track. This song has jangle to spare and the horns in the beginning are a nice touch. “She Swims Sideways” is an interesting psych-pop number and sounds almost as if it could be a Jeff Kelly composition. “What’s It All About” is another favorite and has the lyrical feel and DIY treatment of a good dBs song.
Other highlights include “It’s Not My Life” with its sideways Motown feel and well placed horns, “Kiss Me I’m Dead” (another psych-pop song that reminds me of The Green Pajamas a little bit – just a little bit). There’s a couple of great cover tunes too. The Bee Gees’ “Harry Braff” and the Brian Wilson composition “This Whole World” are great covers, the latter showing us that these guys could have been a really good harmony group if they had wanted to.

Finally, “Lady of the Waves” is a very pleasant acoustic track that offers another new texture to a very diverse, engaging record.
Whether you remember The Queen Annes or not, Released! should not be missed.(powerpopnews.com)

I needed two or three spins and than the album kicked me ....
Give it a try
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Classic Power Pop by The Posies - Dear 23 (1990 Geffen Records) Flac & mp3@320

Ken Stringfellow and Jonathan Auer, the leaders of the Posies, expressed genuine big-league pop ambitions with minor-league budgets on their early releases, so it's not especially surprising that their first album for a major label, Dear 23, found them laying on all the baroque textures that they couldn't afford on their own dime. Sounding a bit like a modernized version of the Hollies with a studio sound that crossed The White Album with Big Star 3rd, Dear 23 kicks off with two pleasing slices of glossy power pop, "My Big Mouth" and "Golden Blunders" (the latter of which was covered by an actual Beatle, Ringo Starr, doubtless a major thrill for these guys).

But by the time track four rolls around ("Any Other Way"), power has taken a cigarette break, and the album drifts into a mid-tempo dreamland where everything is either pretty and contemplative or pretty and a bit morose. (Though in all fairness, the rocking "Help Yourself" does pop up in the later innings to punch things up). Dear 23 is packed with too much good stuff to escape the notice of any true pop obsessive -- Auer and Stringfellow write great songs, their harmonies are nothing short of superb, and the arrangements and production (by the band in collaboration with John Leckie) are imaginative and flawlessly executed.

However, for all the craft, there isn't a lot of passion or heart in this music; the long hours in the studio getting the sounds right seem to have squeezed out the soul of the music. Dear 23 offers all the proof you could ask for that the Posies were major talents. However, it also made them sound like they weren't especially fun to be around or compelling to hear from, and that ultimately sinks the album.(allmusic)

I can't believe it is 27 years ago since the Posies released this album. I know it like today as i saw the cover for the first time. I buyed it immediately and since that day the album is a part of me.
Have fun
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Brix gone solo! Adult Net - The Honey Tangle 1989 (Fontana) Flac & mp3@320

This 60s revivalist pop band from the UK was fronted by Laura Elise (aka ‘Brix’) Smith (b. California, USA), performing a dual role after she relocated to England, when she was also a member of husband Mark E. Smith’s band, the Fall. The Adult Net was inaugurated in 1985 when Brix, who was brought up in Hollywood, took the phrase from a line in ‘Stephen’s Song’, from the Fall’s The Wonderful And Frightening World Of. She had previously worked in Rage and Burden Of Proof. In contrast to the Fall, whom many noted she pushed in a more commercial direction, Adult Net concentrated on vocal harmony and bubblegum pop which harked back to Smith’s Californian roots, and the Beach Boys in particular. Her accomplices at one time included three ex-members of the Smiths; Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce and Craig Gannon, the line-up that saw the band make their live debut.

Hastily arranged in order to impress Geffen Records, the band nevertheless acquired a contract from Fontana Records. ‘Incense And Peppermints’ (Strawberry Alarm Clock) and ‘Edie’, a tribute to the Andy Warhol protégé, attracted plenty of press attention but few record sales. A cover version of the Grass Roots’ ‘Where Were You’ preceded The Honey Tangle, an album of seamless and occasionally sickly pop. The line-up had transformed to include Clem Burke (ex-Blondie) and James Eller (ex-The The), while Gannon was retained from the earlier formation. A previous album, recorded in 1987 for Beggars Banquet Records and titled Spin This Web, remained unreleased. As Honey Tangle, named after a racehorse, was released, the personal and professional split between Brix and Mark E. Smith became public. Subsequently a version of Donovan’s ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’, featuring new boyfriend Nigel Kennedy on violin, was shelved when Fontana dropped the band in October 1990.

Smith laid low for a while before tentatively rehearsing with Hole as replacement bass player. In 1995 she returned to the Fall to guest on that year’s Cerebral Caustic, having temporarily made up with one-time husband Mark E. Smith.

Something must Brix have fascinated to the name ''Smith''. But the ex members of the Smiths had gone and Mark, too. But this very fine effort still sounds great.

Have fun
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Earth Quake - Two Years In A Padded Cell (1979 Vinyl Beserkley)

Most listeners who remember them think of Earth Quake as a mid-'70s band, but the group's roots go back a decade earlier. Indeed, the band started out as part of the mid-'60s band scene in San Francisco, where -- originally known as Purple Earthquake -- they were more than a little bit unusual. The most visible groups working in the city at the time tended to put a combined druggy/folkie spin on electric music, but Earth Quake, consisting of John Doukas (vocals), Robbie Dunbar (guitar, piano, vocals), Stan Miller (bass, vocals), and Steve Nelson (percussion, vocals), were more of a power-pop-cum-hard-rock outfit. They were much closer in spirit to the Flamin' Groovies or the Chocolate Watchband than, say, to the Grateful Dead. They were good enough to attract the attention of Matthew King Kaufman, an aspiring manager who hoped to carry them to national fame and, toward that end, landed them a contract with A&M Records in 1970. At the time, A&M, which had specialized mostly in MOR pop and light jazz releases, was signing some acts with harder and more diverse sounds (it was around the same time that Tarantula was added to their roster), and Earth Quake was among the first hard rock bands on the label. Unfortunately, the label never knew how to market them, and a pair of albums -- a self-titled debut and Why Don't You Try Me? -- failed to ignite any interest from the public. They left the label in 1972, frustrated with their lack of success, though there was one fortuitous event during this period that enabled both the band and their manager to move past this experience in short order -- for reasons that are not exactly clear, the makers of the movie The Getaway (1972), a high-profile, big-budget (and highly successful) thriller starring Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw, used some of the band's music without getting all of the necessary clearances from the parties involved. When the smoke cleared, this accident proved profitable for the band and, even more so, for their manager.

Kaufman used a portion of the settlement money to set up his own record label, Beserkley Records, in 1973. And Earth Quake, along with Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers, the Rubinos, and Greg Kihn, comprised the core of the company's roster. Their debut album for the new label, Rockin' the World, was assembled from live performances and captured the group -- now a five-piece with the addition of Gary Phillips (late of Copperhead) on guitar and vocals -- in some pretty inspired moments, and got them more notice than either of their A&M LPs had. They became something of the house band at Beserkley, playing behind Richman on his signature tune, "Roadrunner" (a song that, as much as any other, defined what he and the label were about). Their later records for the label also included backing vocals by Greg Kihn. The group's final album, Two Years in a Padded Cell, showed up in 1979, and the band finally called it quits a couple of years later. In 2003, two decades after that breakup, a pair of compilations -- Purple: The A&M Recordings (Acadia), assembling their two A&M albums, and Sittin' in the Middle of Madness (Castle), covering the Beserkley recordings -- were released, showcasing the two halves of their history.(allmusic)

My first impression as i heard the album was that i thought where the hell they want to go? Real good pop songs here and also harder songs. Maybe they never reached the top because of the different directions they played on their albums. Is it power pop? In some songs definitely but here is like i said before harder 70's stuff on the album, too. Try it by yourself.
Enjoy
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Various Artists - Love Is The Song We Sing - San Francisco Nuggets 1965 - 1970 4 Disc Box (2007 Rhino Records) Flac & mp3

As the fourth Nuggets box from Rhino -- following the Children of Nuggets set, which may not count for some listeners as a true entry in the series as it documents the reverberations of Nuggets instead of the original big bang -- Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970 is easily the most specific and idiosyncratic yet, a set devoted to a time and a place: namely the Bay Area that sowed the seeds of the Summer of Love in 1967. Released in conjunction with that 40th anniversary (although sadly missing the summer of nostalgia in 2007, reaching the stores that fall), Love Is the Song We Sing is surely a time capsule, but it may not be as much interest to those who lived through it as those who pine for the glory days of free love, hippies, and psychedelia.

No less of an authority than legendary rock critic Greil Marcus noted in his Interview magazine review that many of these bands are obscure to him -- and he lived through the time, in the Bay Area, so he should know. If Marcus has a gripe, chances are the average listener looking for a heavy dose of nostalgia will also find Love Is the Song We Sing rather overwhelming in its reliance on momentary sensations and obscurities, but that's kind of the point of all the Nuggets set: to dig way deeper than the surface and find the best of its chosen subculture.

Fans of Nuggets -- whether in its original double-LP Lenny Kaye incarnation or in the subsequent box sets -- know this, and that's who Love Is the Song We Sing is truly aimed at, but the odd thing is that they may not be entirely satisfied with this set either, as it deviates from the Nuggets formula in a couple of crucial ways. First, there are some genuinely huge songs by genuinely huge bands -- like Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," Country Joe & the Fish's "I Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag," Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues," and Santana's "Evil Ways" -- a few more marquee names than normal (including the Grateful Dead, Steve Miller Band, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, and Moby Grape), and bands are occasionally repeated, but the biggest musical difference is that this is a decided shift away from the wild, wooly guitar rock of the previous Nuggets, lacking both the raw garage and hard, swirling psychedelia that has been the hallmark of the series. Instead, Love Is the Song We Sing is firmly within the camp of the hippies, documenting their rise, their peak, and softly disguising their fall by ending the set in 1970, when the Summer of Love was still echoing strongly but just beginning to fade.

This set takes its time to get to 1967, as that legendary summer doesn't roll around until disc three, but the pace never seems leisurely, as the first two discs document how that summer came to be, beginning with Dino Valenti's "Let's Get Together" (which provides the chorus to the Youngbloods' "Get Together," the '60s standard that closes the set), then winds its way through a lot of folk-rock before tougher, bluesier, trippier sounds work their way into the mix toward the beginning of the second disc. Just like the hippies, Love never really abandons these folkie beginnings and that communal vibe is always present even as soul, jazz, bluegrass, blues, and avant-garde bubble toward the surface.

Ultimately, it's best to view this box set as a document of the era of the hippies, a piece of pop culture anthropology that might not be perfect -- it's always possible to quibble over the featured tracks by the biggest names, or notice a missing act that should have been here (most notably the Sir Douglas Quintet, setting up shop in San Francisco while in exile from Austin) -- but there is no comparable compilation to this, no other set that has the same scope or ambition. And few other box sets succeed so well at capturing a specific moment in time, or explaining how that moment in time happened, as those first two discs do a terrific job in pulling together the disparate strands that added up to hippie culture. If there are a bunch of little-known names here, that only helps illustrate how far-reaching the movement was -- after all, if it was a limited phenomenon, could it have spawned so many bands that were forgotten? Plus, these forgotten gems are the reason why Nuggets exist, and in its CD incarnation, there has been no better psychedelic or garage series that serves the passionate record collector who nevertheless isn't quite dedicated enough to sort through all the hard-to-find reissues of quasi-legality to find the good stuff.

Fortunately, the compilers of Nuggets, here led by producer Alec Palao (who also contributes excellent notes here, along with Ben Fong-Torres and Gene Sculatti), sift through these pebbles to get the gems, and then present them in logical yet loving fashion, so listening to the box is both illuminating and entertaining. It's possible to argue that this hippie-dippy music -- and make no mistake, this confirms hippie stereotypes as much as it explodes them with its far-ranging musical reach -- is the opposite of the nasty noise of the first Nuggets and perhaps there will be some unrepentant garage rockers who will sneer at this set, but it will be their loss because Love Is the Song We Sing is a remarkable historical document filled with as much great music as Nuggets, Vol. 2. And when all is said and done, it is a set that is for fans of those first three boxes, the kind of rock & roll fan who loves an exceptional guided tour through the past, instead of listeners looking for a quick dose of nostalgia.(allmusic)

Hello Folks, since a few days i have problems with my internet connection. The provider just sucks. Nearly all thirty minutes the router starts new. That's the reason why it takes more time to post. Anyhow, here is the fourth of the Rhino Nuggets series and it's a very well done compilation. After in the Nuggets releases before the most stuff came from british bands of the time then (the sixties :-) )
herenow the wonderful american artists. I don't need a collection of music as history book, that's not really important to me, for me it is the music that counts the most. If i want to know something about the movement and how that all began, i think there are better sources than a music collection. Sure, the booklet it's nice done by Rhino, and to me it made a lot of fun to read it and maybe i must correct my opinion about ''... better sources...blah... history...blahblah'', lol and music collections are still the better history books :-).
Musically this is a real top notch collection about the american music that happened in the sixties.

Enjoy it
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