The Early Hours - Evolution 1998

The Early Hours second album, Evolution, is a more refined and polished record than their debut , with more prominence given to the lead and backing vocals. However, the album still manages to retain a live and garagey feel thanks to the simple recording and production. Songs like She's Where It's At, I Wonder If You'll Ever Be Mine, Christianne and an infectious re-recording of The Girl I Haven't Met are all the sixties inspired pop songs that the Early Hours are renowned for. Elsewhere, Step Back In Time, Hard Feelings and Adult Attraction have a darker, more garage punk sound while Happening Kid Today and Soon Be Back have an upbeat, rocking beat. The highlight of the album though is the heartbreaking, Lonely With You. Clocking in at exactly 30 minutes, The Early Hours prove with Evolution that when it comes to pop and beat music, quite often less is indeed more.(tripod.com)
After the quite calm power pop sounds of today here comes something for your dancin' shoes. Garage power pop at its best.

Bio
 
The Early Hours began in January 1995 when brothers Kirk and Chet Pohl decided to join forces with school friends Matt Davis and Sean Carthew and form a garage band with the express purposes of writing and recording their favourite style of 60’s influenced pop. The band never intended to perform live and in fact recorded their first album with Tom Thorpe at Bonsai Studio’s before they had ever played a gig together. They were influenced by The Sunnyboys, The Hoodoo Guru’s, Redd Kross, The Stems, The Plimsouls, and The Barracudas.
After pressing 500 copies of their self titled debut album, the band decided that gigging was necessary in order to sell and promote their music. Kirk and Chet were working in the mines in Kalgoorlie Western Australia while Sean and Matt were studying and living in Perth some 350 miles away. The band began alternating gigs between Perth and Kalgoorlie and rehearsing whenever Kirk and Chet could make it to Perth.
The band sent some copies of their album to Spinning Top Records who solicited the album to their contacts in Europe. After a good response from many pop labels in that region of the world, a deal was struck with the Berlin label ‘Twang’ who released the album on vinyl as The Early Hours Greatest Hits Volume 1.
This limited release has become a sought after collectable through out the world and is actually selling second hand at a higher market driven price than it was new.
Just prior to signing the deal with Twang, The Early Hours were unearthed in Kalgoorlie by Radio Station Triple J. This lead the band to some high rotation airplay and a much higher profile in Perth and the east coast. All of a sudden they had gig offers coming in from everywhere but Twang had invited them to tour Europe so they set their sights in that direction rather than the east coast.
The Early Hours set out to play 16 shows in Spain, Germany and France but this snowballed to 31 when they arrived. Gigs varied from playing to 800 people with The Bluetones at the loft in Berlin, (where signatures from Nirvana, the Hoodoo Guru’s, Pearl Jam and Lenny Kravitz were seen back stage), to an underground club in Spain called Kristall, with no PA one power point and a crowd of 20, in a room no bigger than the average Australian lounge room.
After returning from Europe the band was extremely tight, but emotionally and financially drained. They took about two weeks off to ponder did they want to keep playing. The chance of a You Am I support came up and after that gig moral was high and supports for The Hoodoo Guru’s, Powderfinger, and The Stems reunion show followed. By this time the band had recorded a new album again with Tom Thorpe and began taking to Phantom Music about the possibilities of releasing and developing the band. The Early Hours are now signed to Phantom Music and released their second full length CD, tilted 'Evolution', on the West Australian sub label Rocket, and a vinyl version on Melbourne’s Corduroy label. They head back to Europe in October 1998 with over 40 gigs confirmed, a limited edition double vinyl release in France and a strong following in the region. The band is also beginning to establish a strong following on the East coast of Australia and have toured there twice.
So far, so good. And now...put on your dancin' shoes
Cheers
         Frank
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p.s.: it's mp3 320

The Electric Soft Parade - Idiots 2013

It’s a beautifully sunny, unashamedly melodic tour de force which pitches up somewhere between a fevered Beatles obsession and a well-loved pile of Go-Betweens records. Just as Teenage Fanclub possess the rare knack of sweetening their songs without making them sickly, ESP happily go through the gears every time, throwing out key changes and layered harmonies like they've got an expiry date.

Lyrically, the themes are well worn; but you have to wonder if this is part of the conscious aping of those who have inspired them. “The sun never shined on me until you came around,” may not be a new sentiment, but played out at the heart of a glistening chorus it can subdue the most miserly cynic.
Some records make you think, some records redefine whole genres. And some, like ‘IDIOTS’, just make you very happy.
9/10 (Gareth James)

Wonderful band and i hope you feelin' fine with this album.
Cheers
           Frank 
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Baby Scream - Greatest Failures

 Baby Scream is a project of argentinian musician Juan Pablo Mazzola.

Back in January, Juan Pablo Mazzola(the man behind B.S.) told me: "I'm a huge ELO/Beatles fan, and what I do is basically classic Power Pop!" and his new compilation "Greatest Failures" really is a tremendous showcase of the Baby Scream decade long recording career, basically from 2002 up until 2013. Fifteen great songs are squeezed into less than 45 minutes as this swift overview showcases an artiste who I summarised previously as being the result of crossing "... T.Rex with David Bowie and [throwing] in a little Tom Petty".

From the lyrically shocking opening of the first lines of "Slut" [a song of remorse written around the death of his father] through to the most recent track "Aching Eyes", Juan Pablo Mazzola writes and performs near perfect Power Pop gems which please upon hearing and will appeal to any T.Rex, Bowie, Dylan, Petty, Van Morrison and Jeff Lynne fan. There are no weak tracks included in this compilation with the Bowiesque "Mars" impressing as well as the raucous "Every Day [I Die A Little Bit]", the sublime "Morning Light", the string-laden ELO influenced "Nicole", the anthemic "Jekyll & Hyde" with the Van Morrison inspired "Secret Place" bringing up the rear with the superb Bolanesque "Aching Eyes".

"Greatest Failures" - ironically - is of tremendous credit and testimony to the talent of Juan Pablo Mazzola. There is a great range of tempo and style within this release to quickly impress the listener and it makes for a worthy addition to the collection of any Power Pop addict. (k.j.sinclair,elobeatlesforever)

                                                                                           You can buy it here: Bandcamp
 Enjoy!
           Frank
mp3 320
 

Dwight Twilley - Rarities (7 discs)

He's dipped into the vaults to present this series of totally awesome, high quality, career-spanning studio and live recordings that every hardcore Twilley fan will want to own! (amazon.com)

Hmm...there is not a lot to find about this ''Twilley rarities''. And i can't remember from where i get this copy. Anyway, this is for sure a fine collection of songs on seven discs. I guess there are around 100 songs in this package (haven't count). The quality is mp3@vbr~200 average value. But it sounds really good in my opinion. If anybody of you have a better copy please send me a pm and i will post  it here. Hope you will enjoy it.
Cheers
          Frank

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Australia Power Pop The Richies - Forever And Today 2003 (FLAC)

The Richies are a fine little pop underground band from down under. A smooth mix of Teenage Fanclub's laid-back melodicism, Matthew Sweet's classic songwriting, and too many groups too mention's love of '60s pop, the band's Forever and Today should be a hit with fans of the bands just mentioned along with anyone who likes intelligent, melodic, and sweet guitar pop. If you like surprises you might be out of luck. If you want your pop delivered as predictably as the U.S. mail, then you are in luck. You also have to imagine that the mail has no bills in it, only postcards from loved ones and dividend checks. There was more sweat in that last line then there is on all of Forever and Today. Charley Davis delivers the lyrics in a gentle croon backed by the rest of the band's sweet harmonies and their smooth and simple mix of ringing guitars, tambourines, and Ringo-solid drums.

There are no weak tracks, no standouts really either. Listening to the record is like hanging out with really mellow friends, just shooting the breeze on a summer night. So much of the current power pop revival scene is slavish to a fault and therefore barely worth listening to. For that reason, hearing a record that is derivative for sure but also imbued with a sense of the band's personality and charm can only be described a breath of fresh air. Forever and Today may not be the kind of record that you would go to extremes to hunt down, but if you run across it, it's certainly worth investigating.(allmusic.com)

Michael Carpenter is the producer of this record and maybe you have a little idea how the record sounds. But i think that's only the half truth. The band sounds very Beatles influenced but more in a way ''before Sgt.Pepper''(here and there just a little reference). Surely this is not the ''invention of the wheel'' in Power Pop but it's  a record full of songs on a really high level. Good songwriting and tasteful arrangements with  a production which let the record sounds all of a piece. Real good power pop music.
Aaawright, that's just my two cents. Take yourself a listen and enjoy.
Greetz
           Frank
Flac

The Lovin Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic 1965 CD (FLAC)

The Album:
"Do You Believe in Magic" was the first hit for the Lovin' Spoonful, reaching the Top Ten in 1965. Not only did that establish them as one of the first and most important folk-rock groups, but the song itself has also lasted as one of the very best rock songs to celebrate rock'n'roll itself. Although it, and the Lovin' Spoonful, have been classified as folk-rock, "Do You Believe in Magic" also owed a lot to pop, soul, and the British Invasion in its magical blend. The folk elements, perhaps, were in the jug band sense of fun that was a Lovin' Spoonful specialty, as well as singer and composer John Sebastian's autoharp, an instrument mostly associated with folk music.

The autoharp could be heard on the catchy opening series of chords, which owed something to the British Invasion in its cheery mix of cheery major and minor chords. Sebastian has said, though, that the chord progressions of the song were largely based on some of the ones being used by Motown in the mid-1960s. It was a catchy tune, as many mid-1960s hits were, but it was different from much else in the hit parade in its veneration of rock'n'roll as an almost spiritual healing force. This reflected, of course, the joy of dancing to rock'n'roll experienced by the teenagers that were the group's primary fan base. But it also, if only indirectly, also reflected the joy that folkies such as those in the Lovin' Spoonful were discovering when they were led back to rock'n'roll by the Beatles and other British groups. That's not to diminish the quality of the music itself, highlighted by almost countryish flecks of electric guitar responding to the lyrics throughout; a brief but memorable low, almost growling guitar solo; and hauntingly bittersweet backup harmonies by the group during the last parts of the verses.

Biography
 
Right on the tails of the Beau Brummels and the Byrds, the Lovin' Spoonful were among the first American groups to challenge the domination of the British Invasion bands in the mid-'60s. Between mid-1965 and the end of 1967, the group was astonishingly successful, issuing one classic hit single after another, including "Do You Believe in Magic?," "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," "Daydream," "Summer in the City," "Rain on the Roof," "Nashville Cats," and "Six O'Clock."
Like most of the folk-rockers, the Lovin' Spoonful were more pop and rock than folk, which didn't detract from their music at all. Much more than the Byrds, and even more than the Mamas & the Papas, the Spoonful exhibited a brand of unabashedly melodic, cheery, and good-time music, though their best single, "Summer in the City," was uncharacteristically riff-driven and hard-driving. More influenced by blues and jug bands than other folk-rock acts, their albums were spotty and their covers at times downright weak. As glorious as their singles were, they lacked the depth and innovation of the Byrds, their chief competitors for the crown of best folk-rock band, and their legacy hasn't been canonized with nearly as much reverence as their West Coast counterparts.
Leader and principal songwriter John Sebastian was a young veteran of the Greenwich Village folk scene when he formed the band in 1965 with Zal Yanovsky, who'd already played primitive folk-rock of a sort with future members of the Mamas & the Papas in the Mugwumps. Sebastian already had some recording experience under his belt, playing harmonica (his father was a virtuoso classical harmonica player) on sessions by folkies like Tom Rush and Fred Neil. The Spoonful were rounded out by Steve Boone on bass and Joe Butler on drums. After some tentative interest from Phil Spector (who considered producing them), they ended up signing with Kama Sutra. Sebastian's autoharp (which would also decorate several subsequent tracks) helped propel "Do You Believe in Magic?" into the Top Ten in late 1965.
The Lovin' Spoonful were torn asunder by a drug bust in 1967. Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in California for marijuana possession, and evidently got out of trouble by turning in their source. This didn't sit well with the burgeoning counterculture, which called for a boycott of Spoonful product, although the effect on their sales may have been overestimated; most of the people who bought Spoonful records were average teenage Americans, not hippies. Yanovsky left the band in mid-1967, to be replaced by Jerry Yester, former producer of the Association. (allmusic.com, Richie Unterberger)

I will loosely post this five disc box in the next time between other posts. They are all in flac.This just for information. The first Spoonful album in my opinion is a real 60's classic and they had more. Okay hope you like it and...
Cheers!
            Frank
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Dear Blog Readers!!! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, for not published all of your comments.

I am the biggest nimrod which ever walked the earth. Today i received a pm from Mr Qwerty and he asked me why i don't publish comments. And i was surprised about that because i never see a comment coming in (I'm a DUMB-ASS). I think about it and then the light goes on. Something must be wrong with my settings. WOW... i feeled like Albert Einstein when i found the comments in my blog settings and a second later like a nimrod. How i could overseen this? Anyway, maybe too old to rock'n'roll...
I hope it work well now with the comments in the future and please folks, forgive me for that.I really love it when people comment the music and the things that happen on the blog. All of the comments are really appreciated. Thanks for every individual contribution in the comments and please keep it up.
I believe that's all what i can say about it and THANKS!!!

Cheers
           Frank

My express request...

URGENT...

 Hello folks, all of you friends and lovers of music. My concern is the urgent request not to post links from this blog to other sites or blogs. I love to share music and you can do with the music i post naturally whatever you want, but i want to ask you not using the links from here. If you want share it, feel free but if you do use your own links please. That's all i want to ask. I hope you all can give me your sympathy. Okay that's it. Wish you all a nice sunday/sunday evening

Greetings
                Frank

Bob Segarini - Gotta Have Pop 1978 (1996)

While Bob Segarini has often been called "the Canadian Nick Lowe," in many respects he seems more like the Great White North's answer to Don Dixon. Like Dixon, he has a soul man's voice but also possesses a wicked sense of humor, and though he likes tough, hooky rockin' pop tunes served straight up, the former Wackers man goes for a more elaborate production approach than Lowe, and the eclecticism of his first solo album, Gotta Have Pop! recalls Lowe's superb debut, Pure Pop for Now People (not to mention Dixon's Most of the Girls Like to Dance but Only Some of the Boys Do). Gotta Have Pop! boasts ten great songs ranging from the purposefully smarmy "Don't Believe a Word I Say" and the punky "Dressed in the Dark" to the melodramatic "Hide Away" and the twisted high school lament "Steady Eddie," and at every turn Segarini hits a bullseye as a songwriter and vocalist wherever he aims. Segarini can sound honest and sincere on "I Don't Want to Lose You" and transform himself into the ultimate sleazeball a few moments later on "Don't Believe a Word I Say" with equal skill, and while he gets a polished, widescreen sound out of his band on these sessions, the album is admirably free of clutter, with a limited number of instruments going a long, long way. And perhaps the only Beatles fan to sing about the Fab Four's breakup with the same care and intelligence as Segarini manages on "Love Story" was one Ringo Starr, on his B-side "Early 1970." It's hard to imagine anyone who likes rock & roll not finding something to love on Gotta Have Pop! It's a tribute to the dear old days when hooks ruled the airwaves and evokes a number of lost eras without sinking into nostalgia, sounding as vital as anything recorded last week. This guy is a cult hero because he's smart, funny and talented, but in a better world, his cult wouldn't be the only ones paying attention.(allmusic.com)

I will show more music from Bob Segarini and his projects here in the near future because he's just great. Imho Nick Lowe is ''the british Bob Segarini'' but that's my point of view. Hope you will like this album as well.

Greetings
               Frank

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Seven Long Years - Always Two Steps Ahead Of The Heartbreak (ep) 2014

Here is a six song ep of ''Seven Long Years'' from 2014. Great 60's retro pop garage as always from this belgium crew. All songs written by Eric Knox. Produced by Sonic Spaceboy.

mp3@320.
Viel Spass beim hören!
                                     Frank

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Seven Long Years - Chained To Your Love (2012) mp3

Seven Long Years is a 60's pop garage project from Belgium. Try it!
Okay, i have to go to the cinema now with my beauty. Wish you a nice Friday evening.
Cheers
          Frank
p.s.: I try another hoster and hope it works :-)

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Orgone Box - Centaur

Orgone Box's classic debut album retweaked and perfected for 2014 - a Beatlesque psych pop classic.

Recommended if you like: The Beatles, Cotton Mather, XTC, Beaulieu Porch - (The Active Listener)


"there is a pretty strong case for arguing that it is the definitive psych-ish power pop album of that, or indeed any decade..." ' Popjunkie London


This is the pristine album from 1996, which in 2001 became the selftitled ''The Orgone Box''.

''The Active Listener'' wrote this:

 The Active Listener published this review of the vinyl release before we were offered the digital rights:

The convoluted and frustrating path that led to the recording and release of 2001's self titled "Orgone Box" album (actually recorded in 1996) makes a fascinating read, and the resulting album is an acknowledged lost classic - heard by few, but cherished by that small number.
So when Sugarbush Records boss Markus Holler decided it was time that the world had another chance to digest this exquisite psychedelic pop treat, Orgone Box mainman Rick Corcoran took the opportunity to give things a bit of a tweak, resequencing, remixing and re-recording (vocals mostly I gather) to make an album that I initially thought was untouchable even better.
Strictly speaking this isn't exactly the "Orgone Box" album. The sequencing is completely new, a few tracks have departed, and there's a new one in it's place.
It is however the definitive statement of what the Orgone Box was, and promisingly enough appears to still be about - Beatley pop tunes with cleverly subversive verses and gloriously soaring choruses. And while the original mixes of these songs sound very much like psychedelia as remembered in the nineties (think a more psychedelicized Cotton Mather), with the clean and occasionally sterile sheen that comes from a mostly home-recorded affair, these new mixes sound both startlingly contemporary and far more authentically vintage sixties at the same time. The overall effect is that what was once a slightly-delic power-pop album of fantastically well observed Beatlesque pop moments, is now a kitchen-sink psychedelic baroque pop extravaganza. Regular readers of this rag will have found themselves instructed often to investigate the recorded works of Beaulieu Porch - anyone who has investigated that catalogue and been impressed should follow up immediately with "Centaur" sight unseen. You'll love it.
"Mirrorball (When I Want To Feel)" is a personal favorite, with a chugging "I am the Walrus" cello section, chiming Harrisonesque guitar arpeggios and effects laden vocals and guitar parts sweeping through on a solar breeze. The anthemic "Judy Over The Rainbow" benefits similarly from it's retweaking with a slightly slower tempo and added chorus harmonies finally realizing its full regal splendour.
In Corcoran's own words: "Centaur is very important to me now not just as an artist, but emotionally, and I think it's self-defining now. There was a disconnect before in many ways, but now I think that collection of songs have caught up - to the best we could do anyway without re-recording the whole thing, which would have been a disaster! That story is now complete as far as I'm concerned and it's time to move on.

For me this is a really great album and one of my ''Top 200'' (and that means a lot) . Okay enjoy this masterpiece and i hope you have the same fun like i feel if i listen.
Cheers
           Frank

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