The Cowsills - Global (1998) Flac

The real-life inspiration behind the hit television series The Partridge Family, the Cowsills -- comprised of teen siblings Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Susan, and Paul in tandem with mother Barbara -- were one of the biggest pop acts of the late '60s, scoring a series of hits including "The Rain, the Park and Other Things" and "Hair" with their angelic harmonies and sun-kissed melodies. The group's origins lie with Bill and Bob, who as children began their singing careers covering Everly Brothers hits. Given guitars by their father, Navy man William "Bud" Cowsill, the siblings soon recruited younger brothers Barry and John to play bass and drums, respectively, and as Beatlemania dawned, the teen foursome began performing live at school dances and church socials throughout their native Newport, RI. Soon, the Cowsills landed a regular weekend gig at the local club Bannisters Wharf, and in 1967 recorded the single "All I Really Wanta Be Is Me" for the Joda label. The record generated little response, however, and after an appearance on NBC's The Today Show, the group signed to Mercury Records, where they issued three more singles to negligible interest.

Mercury producer Artie Kornfeld remained convinced of the Cowsills' commercial appeal, however, and set up another recording date independent of the label. This time, however, he convinced their siblings' mother, Barbara, to contribute vocals to the session, which yielded the stunning "The Rain, the Park and Other Things." With their wholesome family image serving as a marketing godsend, Kornfeld sealed a deal with MGM, which issued the single in the fall of 1967; it eventually rose to number two on the national charts, selling over a million copies in the process. The Cowsills' self-titled debut LP soon followed, and with the title track from 1968's We Can Fly, the family scored their second hit, in the meantime adding two more siblings -- sister Susan and brother Paul -- to the lineup. "Indian Lake" reached the Top Ten later that year, and in 1969 the group scored its biggest chart entry with the title song from the rock musical Hair. Around that same time, Columbia Pictures' television division dispatched a group of screenwriters to observe the Cowsills' daily lives for a possible series based on their story. The show never panned out, but was later fictionalized as The Partridge Family. By the time The Partridge Family hit the airwaves in 1970, however, the Cowsills' career was on the decline, and in the wake of the 1971 LP On My Side, the group disbanded. That same year, Bill Cowsill (who was briefly considered to replace Brian Wilson in the Beach Boys' touring lineup) issued a solo LP, Nervous Breakthrough, but otherwise the siblings were musically inactive for much of the decade. In the late '70s, Bob, John, Susan, and Paul recorded a batch of original material with producer Chuck Plotkin, but the sessions were never unreleased. Barbara Cowsill died on January 31, 1985, and her children spent the '90s in regaining some of their former musical prominence. Barry mounted a solo career, Bill founded the country group the Blue Shadows, and Susan joined the Continental Drifters, an all-star New Orleans-via-Los Angeles combo also featuring her husband, ex-dB Peter Holsapple, and onetime Bangle Vicki Peterson. In 1994, the "core four" -- Bob, John, Susan, and Paul -- contributed a newly recorded Cowsills track, "Is It Any Wonder," to the Yellow Pills, Vol. 1 pop compilation. A new studio album, Global, followed in 1998.

 The Cowsills were the real world's Partridge Family. The talented Cowsills teens -- Bob, Bill, John, Barry, Paul, and Susan -- all siblings working along with their mother, Barbara, landed a number of hit songs during the '60s. Three decades later the renewed Cowsills, though smaller in number, began performing and recording music again. One of the group's later offerings is Global. This bubblegum pop album carries 11 tracks, including "What About Love," "You've Got No Time," "Cross That Line," and "Under the Gun." All of the songs were co-written by Bob Cowsill and his wife Mary. Though the major record label the group had worked with before didn't bite on this deal, the Cowsills found a label, Robin Records, and plenty of old and new fans waiting for more pop music harmonies.

 When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans on August 29, 2005, Susan and her family had already evacuated the area. However, brother Barry -- also a New Orleans resident at the time -- had not. Susan had received a phone call from Barry as late as September 1. The family searched for any sign of him for four months before his body was recovered and identified on December 28. Another death followed in 2006, when Bill passed away in February at the age of 58 after lingering health issues.allmusic.com
I always loved the band/family and the musical things the different siblings created. Continental Drifters, Blue Shadows, the whole sixties stuff all that was great. It's sad what happened to some of the members.
This is fine pop music and if you don't know it...try it.
Cheers
           Frank
New link

The Kinks - The 45' at Pye Records 1964-1978 (28 singles) mp3@320

Hello Folks and Friends,
hope you had a good start into the week and a fine weekend. Today i wanna share a collection of  ''Kinks'' singles. The 28 singles were released by Pye Records from 1964 until 1978. A lot of classics are gathered here. There is nice artwork included with the different singles covers from the different countries. If you like the ''Kinks'' take a listen and a look, it is a fine collection of the band and her singles work.

Hope you have fun
                              Frank   mp3@320

Price And Walsh - Temptation Eyes: Price & Walsh Songbook 2006

The title of RevOla's 2006 disc Temptation Eyes: Price & Walsh Songbook implies that this collection rounds up the original hit versions of songs they wrote but that were recorded by other artists, such as Bobby "Blue" Bland, Lulu, Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods, Cher and the Grass Roots, whose hit version of "Temptation Eyes" brought Michael Price (aka Harvey Price, as he was initially credited) and Dan Walsh into the consciousness of the music mainstream after years of toiling away behind the scenes. That's not the case. Temptation Eyes offers a chronicle of those days behind the scenes via a selection of 25 songs, almost all previously unreleased, recorded between 1966 and 1969.
The story begins here with a handful of demos Price and Walsh recorded after the disbandment of their first group the Motleys, music co-written with their collaborator Mitchell Bottler, that finds them firmly within the breezy, precious California sunshine pop sound, yet it was accomplished enough to earn the interest of record producer Gary Zekley, who had the trio pen a tune for the Visions ("Small Town Commotion," included here) before Price and Walsh embarked on a Sgt. Pepper-inspired album in 1967. This record was teased with a single -- "Love Is the Order of the Day" backed by "The House of Ilene Castle" -- but was never finished due to a falling-out between Zekley and the duo, with the surviving tracks finally seeing the light of day here. They are thoroughly ambitious, melodic psychedelic pop, clearly and proudly wearing the inspiration of McCartney's work for Sgt. Pepper, but presented through an L.A. filter so it has a studio polish and a commercial sensibility -- both evident beneath the somewhat shaky audio of the surviving recordings -- that made it akin to the sunny pop released on White Whale.

Following that aborted project, Price and Walsh parted ways with both Zekley and Bottler (the latter pair would later become a songwriting team) and after a year of work they wound up at Dunhill/ABC publishing, largely on the strength of their demo "The Publisher and the Poet," also heard here. While at Dunhill, they wrote for many artists on the label's roster, including Cass Elliot and eventually the Grass Roots, and the great majority of the rest of Temptation Eyes consists of their original, fully produced demos from this time. The Dunhill era begins with "Billy," a single released by Cotton Candy, and immediately it's clear that Price and Walsh had made a leap forward from their sunshine/pych pop. The precious layers have fallen away and their melodies, which have always been strong, are placed at the forefront, as they are for all their work on Dunhill. They still delved into this territory during the late '60s, but their work became more versatile and soulful, with even bubblegum-styled pop songs benefiting from propulsive rhythms and urgent melodies: the kind of music that became the backbone of AM pop as the '60s turned into the '70s, thanks to the likes of the Grass Roots and Three Dog Night.

This is undoubtedly commercial mainstream music -- it was designed as such, after all -- but Price and Walsh were experts at this music, which is why it retains its appeal years after it was recorded. The very fact that there is only one big tune here -- the title track, of course -- but that the entire second half of the album still feels as effervescent and energetic as the late-'60s and early-'70s standards speaks volumes to their strengths as writers: even when they didn't make the charts, they were writing with the charts in mind, and at their best they came up with music that felt like hits even if they never were. Nowhere is that talent better heard than on this pretty irresistible (and long overdue) collection of the duo's formative years.

These guys were fantastic pop songwriters and if i listen to this songbook i often can't believe why only a couple of people knows this guys. For people with love for commercial pop of the mid to late sixties a must. A lot of beautiful songs here. Pop music written on a top notch level.
Grab it
          Frank
Flac

The Toms - The Toms 1979 (2005 Not Lame) 2 CD edition Flac

This is a power pop classic from the late seventies, exactly 1979. ''The Toms'' was a project of Thomas Marolda. A project in that sense that he had some free time between the work for other artists in his studio (recording, playing, songwriting). I think he made the whole recordings ( playing, recording, producing, all by himself ) in three days what became ''The Toms''. And a power pop  legend was born. At the time he did the recordings he was already a well engaged musician with his skills and the recording studio. ''The Toms'' was for sure a good publicity for his further life as a successful musician. He worked on gold and platinum albums for many world known artists, soundtracks, TV specials and has written numerous award winning television commercials, radio jingles and other songs. He was nominated as writer and producer for best album of original score written for the motion picture ''Stayin' alive''. And there was and is a lot more. Just a great musician.

In 1997 ''Not Lame'' released the album on CD for the first time and 2005 once again with seven bonus tracks and twelve (then) unreleased songs ( and i think for making that possible we, who love this gem, owe also Bruce Brodeen a debt of gratitude).
Tom Marolda created a real power pop treasure with ''The Toms'' and everyone who loves this kind of pop music should hear it.

If you love what you hear you can buy ''The Toms'' and a lot more here

Wish you a lot of fun
                                 SB1(Frank)
 New Link Flac

The Three O'Clock - Arrive Without Travelling '85 & Ever After '87 (2002 EMI Records)Flac

The Three O'Clock were the quintessential L.A. Paisley Underground band. Lead singer and bassist

Michael Quercio in fact coined the term to describe the set of bands, including the Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red, and the Bangles, who incorporated the chiming guitars of the Byrds and the Beatles into their pop songs with a psychedelic bent, and the clothes to match. Beginning as the Salvation Army in 1982 as a three-piece and forsaking the name due to a conflict with the actual organization, the Three O'Clock originally included Quercio and guitarist Louis (formerly Gregg) Gutierrez. The band plied a garagey sound on its self-titled debut in 1982. When ex-Weirdos drummer Danny Benair and keyboardist Mickey Mariano joined for the follow-up EP Baroque Hoedown and the LP Sixteen Tambourines in 1983 (both released by Frontier Records), the band found a more polished, perfect pop sound.

In 1985 they released Arrive Without Travelling for I.R.S., followed by Ever After. Gutierrez departed in 1986. For their Warner Bros./Paisley Park debut (Prince was a fan), Vermillion, Jason Falkner was added on guitar. Sadly, it proved to be their undoing, as they never really fulfilled the label's expectations and Quercio refused to be pigeonholed as a pretty-boy pop star or spokesperson for the premature retro revival. Quercio continues to play in L.A. pop bands, while Gutierrez became a principal member of Mary's Danish, and Falkner is a solo recording artist. After years of turning down offers to reunite, the original lineup of the band (minus Mariano, who was replaced by Adam Merrin of the 88) re-formed to play the 2013 Coachella Festival. Soon after, Omnivore Records released The Hidden World Revealed, a collection of album tracks and rarities from the years with Frontier.

This is a release of E.M.I. records in 2002 with two albums on one disc. The first two releases for the band on a major label. For many critics ''Arrive Without Travelling'' is the most complete album of the band. For me personally the first three releases (Baroque Hoedown (ep), Sixteen Tambourines and Arrive...) are their best. But also later albums was quite good. A disappointment for sure was ''Vermillion'' from 1988. I think i will post later more from the band. Below is a review from allmusic.
I hope you enjoy the double album edition.

Cheers
           SB1

Review by allmusic.com:

The Three O'Clock's first major label album, after the superb Sixteen Tambourines and Baroque Hoedown, is a bit slicker and less specifically psychedelic than their earlier releases. Recorded in Berlin with British producer Mike Hedges, Arrive Without Travelling (the title, complete with U.K. spelling, comes from George Harrison's "The Inner Light") has a big, brash sound, from the blaring opener "Her Head's Revolving" to the multiply overdubbed choral vocals and hypnotic drum patterns of the droning closer "Spun Gold." The arrangements are slick, but they don't have the sterile, computerized feel of many mid-'80s pop records; Mike Mariano's keyboards are at the center of the sound, but Louis Gutierrez's guitar is prominent enough to recall the group's '60s roots. As always, Michael Quercio's inimitable voice and puckish lyrics are the album's love it or hate it factor, but song by song, this album probably features his strongest songwriting. "Her Head's Revolving" is a lost classic of a single, arguably the band's finest three minutes, and the gloriously hooky "Underwater" is nearly as good. "Mrs. Green," which shifts from a church organ-based verse to a swooning chorus, and the tenderly acoustic "The Girl With the Guitar (Says Oh Yeah)," co-written by Game Theory's Scott Miller, vary the otherwise power-poppy album. Later albums would continue Arrive Without Travelling's move away from the band's early paisley underground days with less impressive results, but this album rivals Sixteen Tambourines as the Three O'Clock's artistic peak.

FLAC
                          

Future Cloud And Radar (2007)

Masterminded in 2006 by former Cotton Mather frontman Robert Harrison, Future Clouds & Radar formulated a kind of eclectic, ecstatic indie pop sound that nodded to the psychedelic swirliness of XTC and the Beatles, the punchy soulfulness of Elvis Costello, and the good-natured brass and sparkle of the Starlight Mints. Rounded out by bassist Josh Gravelin, keyboardist Hollie Thomas, drummer Nina Singh, and vibraphonist/trumpeter Kullen Fuchs, the Austin-based group released its self-titled double-disc debut full-length in the spring of 2007. They followed it up with a more modest EP titled Peoria in the autumn of 2008.

 Since Cotton Mather released their third (and apparently final) album, The Big Picture, in 2001, not much has been heard from the group's leader and principal songwriter, Robert Harrison, but he's certainly making up for lost time with the first release from his new project, Future Clouds & Radar. A hefty two-disc set, Future Clouds & Radar features 27 tunes which demonstrate Harrison's gift for crafting gorgeous psychedelic-tinged pop songs has only grown stronger during his lay-off from recording, and his band of compatriots who helped him commit this to tape navigate his stylistic twists and turns with the élan of a Formula One racing team. While Harrison's voice splits the

difference between John Lennon and Glenn Tilbrook, melodically Future Clouds & Radar hops from one approach to another throughout its playing time, from the acid-drenched electronic meandering of "This Is Really a Book" and the stripped-bare blues figures of "Devil No More" to the high-spirited rock & roll of "Holy Janet Comes on Waves" and the bittersweet simplicity of "Christmas Day 1923," with plenty of solid hook-infused power pop and up-tempo rock along the way, all presented with just the right degree of polish and played with skill and spark throughout. It's telling that the more relaxed numbers such as "Build Havana" and "Green Mountain Clover" are as effective as the high-energy tunes, and Harrison can play goofy and sincere with equal impact. As strong as Cotton Mather's best work was, Future Clouds & Radar suggests Robert Harrison's best music still lies ahead of him, and this is an accomplished and thoroughly enjoyable calling card for his new enterprise that discerning fans of smart pop will want to hear.allmusic.com

Haven't heard for a long time, i listened today to the Cottons and thought i could post The ''Future Clouds And Radar''. So here it is. 27 songs of Pop/Power Pop from 2007. Have fun!
A quite tired
                   Frank
New mp3@320 link

Tinkerbells Fairydust - Tinkerbells Fairydust (1965-1969) 2009 Flac

The name of the band and the naked nymph on the cover marshal an appetite for sounds far more psychedelic than you actually get on Tinkerbell's Fairydust's self-titled album (realized in test-pressing form only by Decca in 1969, though issued on CD in 1998). The leadoff cut, "Twenty Ten," is also deceptive -- it's pretty respectable, atmospheric late-'60s British psych with a slightly classical feel and some cool wah-wah guitar and distorted organ. But not only does nothing else on the album match it, not much on the album even sounds like the work of the same band. Covers of the Brooklyn Bridge's "The Worst That Could Happen," the Association's "Never My Love," and Spanky & Our Gang's "Lazy Day" are not only psychedelic, they're not very good, sounding like attempts to closely cover American hits for the British market. Other tracks sound like similar British equivalents to the Happenings and the Tokens -- not exactly among the more exciting American '60s bands to begin with -- but not even doing harmony pop/rock as well as those groups did. "In My Garden" is a half-decent track a step above their other sunshine pop-oid songs. Yet it's not nearly enough to save a record that lurches to a close with a note-for-note cover of the Yardbirds' blues-rock instrumental "Jeff's Boogie," indicating that the group might have had some trouble deciding what kind of stuff they wanted to imitate.

The name of this late-'60s British band might unwittingly lead some collectors to believe they were another in the hordes of dainty U.K. psychedelic pop groups. However, though a few of their tracks did indeed fall into that category, for the most part they recorded equivalents to American sunshine pop. In fact, they filled out their repertoire with some close, unimaginative covers of late-'60s, lightweight, U.S. harmony pop/rock hits. The group's more psychedelic offerings attract the most interest, although there weren't too many of those to choose from since the band only issued three singles. All of them appeared on Decca in 1967-69, the highlight being the 1968, 45 rpm "Twenty Ten," a nice minor-keyed piece of harmony-laden light psych, with soft wah-wah guitars and foggy organ. The B-side of their first single, "In My Magic Garden," was slightly more middle-of-the-road psychedelia-influenced harmony pop, and not bad.
In 1969, a self-titled Tinkerbells Fairydust album was assembled at Decca, and included four of the six songs that had appeared on their singles, as well as nine other tracks. Although this got as far as the test pressing stage, it never did get released.

It did get issued on CD in the late 1990s, and though it does include "Twenty Ten" and "In My Magic Garden," the majority of it's a disappointment, emphasizing light harmony pop-psych numbers that make them out to be the British equivalent of American groups such as the Happenings.(Richie Unterberger)

Anyway, here is a collection of pop songs from the mid sixties to the late sixties. And what we have is psychedelic pop, sunshine pop, a little baroque pop, british psychedelia. And here are a lot of real good songs for a good collection. What's missing is a little of an ''album feel''. That's right. But the record got a bunch of great songs and that's enough for me. Lol, you see i'm a BIG fan of that sixties sound !
Hope you enjoy the band and three cheers for Mr.Unterberger
Best regards
                  Frank
Flac

 

World Of Oz - The World Of Oz 1969 (2007) Flac

The World of Oz were a British psychedelic pop band that enjoyed a short string of successful singles in Europe. Between those major charting records in Holland and a lot of good press at home, the release of an album was planned -- yet they managed to throw it all away with an unexplained split. All four original members -- Tony Clarkson (bass, vocals), David "Kubie" Kubinec (organ), Christopher Robin (guitar, piano, vocals), and David Reay (drums) -- hailed from Birmingham, and had been parts of that city's burgeoning pop/rock culture for varying amounts of time. Clarkson had several years' experience playing in various bands, and had also performed on the European continent. Kubinec had spent two years working mostly in Germany as a member of the Pieces of Mind, doing a mixture of R&B and soul. Reay and Robin (real name Christopher Evans) had played in a band called the Mayfair Set, working in Germany for a year before returning to Birmingham late in 1967, where they broke up. The pair decided to form a new band, and Kubinec and Clarkson were recruited through advertisements in musician magazines. In January of 1968 they formed the group, the "Oz" name and imagery fitting in with the trippy ambience of the late '60s.

They decided that while Birmingham's club scene could provide work, it didn't offer the kind of prospects for a recording career that they had in mind, and so they headed to London. Their songwriting ability got them snatched up by Sparta Music. And for a manager, they had no less a figure than Barry Class, who was best known for his most successful client, the Foundations (of "Build Me Up Buttercup" fame). Class lived up to his last name by setting the group up in a luxury apartment on Park Lane, in London's exclusive Mayfair district, long a fashionable locale for movie stars and theater performers seeking to put on a big front in their lives. It made for a fair amount of press access and good press, as well as impressing various record company executives, accustomed to dealing with up-and-coming bands living in near squalor. Between the quality of their songs, played at impromptu auditions or the gigs Class was able to get them, and the gimmick of their high-profile digs, the band received serious overtures from several record companies, including Pye. But in the spring of 1968 they signed with Deram Records, the progressive pop imprint of English Decca. Wayne Bickerton, who headed Deram, thought enough of them to personally produce this new act, and his enthusiasm was more than enough to seal the deal. He even approved and budgeted the use of a 33-piece orchestra accompanying them on one of Kubinec's songs, "Muffin Man," at their first recording session.

"Muffin Man" was issued as a single in England and on the Continent in May of 1968 (and a little later in the United States). A catchy tune with great hooks, instrumental as well as vocal, and a trippy, nursery-rhyme-like ambience, it somehow managed never to chart in England. According to Kubinec in an interview on the psychedelic site Marmalade Skies, things began coming apart when Class accompanied the Foundations on a tour of America and left the World of Oz in the hands of a deputy who immediately cut back on the promotion budget for the group and the single. In trying to save a few shillings, he cost them the momentum they'd been working for months to build up, and the single just lay there. The key moment, in his view, was missing a chance to do the single on Top of the Pops. However, the record did reach the Top Ten in Holland, sold reasonably well across Western Europe, and also managed to get some positive response in the form of radio play in the United States. Three months later came their second single, "King Croesus," which also made the Top Ten in Holland, and got to number 126 in the Cashbox charts late that fall in America. Additionally, despite the fact that they hadn't charted a single in England, the group's sound -- a light, harmony-based psychedelia similar to the Bee Gees and records like "Barker of the UFO" -- and Class' clout got them as much work as they could handle and more. The band lasted through two more rounds of recording sessions in 1968, through November of that year, and even got a third U.S. release, for "The Hum-Gum Tree" b/w "Mandy-Ann."
An album seemed a next easy step, but things weren't right within the band, and Kubinec and Reay were already gone -- for reasons no one has ever explained -- by that last set of recording sessions, replaced by Geoff Nicholls (guitar, organ) and Bob Moore (drums), respectively. The group soldiered on, under a rather awkward shadow -- Deram Records already had a finished album in the can and a February release date, and that record was coming out, despite the fact that it featured two key members who were already gone from the lineup. Meanwhile, the World of Oz had another modest hit in Holland, "Willow's Harp" b/w "Like a Tear," early in 1969. The new lineup made it as far as appearing on the televised rock & roll showcase Beat Club in Germany and other, similar programs in Holland, and on the cover of pop magazines in the Netherlands. Finally, another U.K. single, of "The Hum-Gum Tree," was due out, but then was canceled. That, apparently, was the final straw for the reconstituted band, which broke up in May of 1969, a year after the group's recording career had begun.

The World of Oz LP was released on schedule and disappeared without creating a ripple on the charts, on either side of the Atlantic. The album cover was a very strange one -- it featured visual representations of the last lineup of the group, which was understandable but also strange, as they were hardly heard on the record inside. The cover design was an especially ornate affair, utilizing characters from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz universe, which, according to Kubinec, also included representations of their manager, and even annotator Jonathan King, while the back cover had images of Bickerton and arranger Mike Vickers. As a psychedelic artifact, musical and visual, that LP and the cover were serious collectors' items for many years. It was bootlegged on CD sometime in the late '90s, before a legitimate re-release from Repertoire Records showed up in 2007, concurrent with a mini-LP-packaged CD in Japan.

Given relatively easy availability at last, the album reveals a prodigiously talented pop/rock band, nothing earth-shattering given what they and Class and Bickerton were aiming at, but with a lot of unrealized potential residing in those songs. And the singles "Muffin Man" and, better still, "Like a Tear" reflect a tuneful, trippy psychedelic pop sensibility, somewhat similar to the early Bee Gees -- in addition to appearing on The World of Oz, they have been anthologized on various psychedelic collections. In the years following the World of Oz's demise, David Kubinec did a solo album on A&M Records about a decade after the original group's signing, while Reay became a recording executive. Both Kubinec and Clarkson have since enjoyed long careers in music, right up to the present day. Nicholls, though a later member of the group, did rather better in music than any of the others in the band, however; after a stint with Quartz, he joined Black Sabbath for a long stint as their keyboard player.(allmusic.com, Bruce Eder)
This is a marvelous album of British Psychedelia, Psychedelic and Baroque pop. Don't miss it, imho it's a real gem.
Cheers
          Frank
Flac

Great Buildings Power Pop from early of the eighties!

GREAT BUILDINGS - Extra Epic Everything  (recorded  '80-'82) 2010

Bio:
Great Buildings were a power pop/new wave group formed in the early '80s by Danny Wilde (vocal/guitar), Richard Sanford (drums), Philip Solem (guitar/vocals), and Ian Ainsworth (bass/keyboard/vocals). They recorded one album for Columbia in 1981 before breaking up a short time later. Wilde went on to release one solo album in 1989 for Geffen before teaming up again with Solem to form the Rembrandts the following year. The Rembrandts released three albums between 1991 and 1995 and found moderate success with "Just the Way It Is, Baby" in 1990 and "I'll Be There for You" (the theme to the television show Friends) in 1995.

The Album:

Great Buildings only released one album, their debut, Apart from the Crowd, in 1981, but they did wind up recording a second album toward the end of that year, an LP that featured the slightly expanded band with keyboardist Mickey Mariano. This album, called Extra Epic Everything, lay unreleased for almost three decades before Wounded Bird finally released it in 2010, fulfilling the wishes of a small, dedicated legion of power poppers who loved Apart from the Crowd along with Danny Wilde and Philip Solem’s subsequent band the Rembrandts. Listening to Extra Epic Everything years later, it’s clear why this record developed something of a cult following, being bootlegged in various forms over the years, and why it wasn’t released at the time. In its favor, the album often crackles with coiled energy, with its best moments snapping with ‘60s guitar hooks and glassy new wave synths.

Counting against it is how it’s clear that the album was made knowing that it was a last-ditch effort for the band to make it, so there are times where it’s clear that the band’s eye was on a radio playlist, whether it’s pushing the synths and rhythms a little too hard (“Your Eyes” winds up in a nowhereland between AOR and new wave), dabbling in drippy ballads, or covering “Cherry Cherry.” All these little detours -- which are never bad, just misdirected -- paradoxically wind up diluting Extra Epic Everything enough to not be especially sellable by 1981-1982 standards, but the melodic strengths of the best material do endure, which is why it’s certainly worth hearing after all these years later…and hearing more than once, too.(S.T. Erlewine)

These guys deserved the success they got later with the Rembrandts. Hope you like it!
Cheers
          Frank
mp3@320

Dot Dash - 555 ep 2017 (Pop, Power pop, Indie)

Wow, the guys from Washington DC pay for a round of five song ep 555. Five songs out of five albums in a period of five years. And it's all for free. It's highly recommended! I think most of you guys and gals know the band so that is not required to introduce the band. I let it do the crew of allmusic.com (lol)

When Washington, D.C.'s punky power pop act Julie Ocean split up, guitarist/singer Terry Banks and bassist Hunter Bennett gathered together a cast of highly pedigreed area players to form Dot Dash. Enlisting Danny Ingram on drums (formerly of projects as varied as teenage hardcore upstarts Youth Brigade and guitar manipulators Swervedriver) and Bill Crandall (formerly with the mod-pop band Modest Proposal) on guitar, the band began working on songs and playing sporadically around the D.C. area in the summer of 2010. The band took its name from a Wire song, but rather than leaning toward Wire's jagged, art-damaged punk, Dot Dash bore more similarities to the jangly, mod-inflected sounds of unofficial ringleader Terry Banks' former groups Glo-Worm and the Saturday People. The group continued to play out regularly around D.C., opening shows for Urge Overkill, the Trash Can Sinatras, and Chameleons Vox. The summer of 2011 saw the release of the band's first full-length endeavor, Spark>Flame>Ember>Ash, a 14-song collection recorded in three afternoons. They followed in 2012 with second album Winter Garden Light, and in 2013 with Half-Remembered Dream, their sound edging more and more toward polished indie pop with each release. Crandall departed the band sometime after the album surfaced, to be replaced soon after by former Government Issue and onetime Minor Threat member Steve Hansgen. The new lineup traveled to North Carolina for the recording of fourth album Earthquakes & Tidal Waves, working with former R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter. Their next album introduced a heavier, almost metallic sound as the band stripped away some studio sheen in favor of a more insistent approach. Produced by Missy Thangs, who also worked with Ex Hex, Searchlights was released in mid-2016.(Fred Thomas)

Here is the link for the ep: mp3vbr 
Okay folks, all the albums without exception are just great. You can find them on bandcamp here: Dot Dash

Cheers
           Frank

Bubblegum With Sugar, Sugar And A Whole Lot More Sweet Candy Music!!!

 The Archies - Sugar, Sugar-The Complete Albums Collection (5 Disc Box)

BIOGRAPHY
Most '60s bubblegum groups were faceless studio concoctions, made up of hired professionals and given nominal group identities after the fact. The Archies made no pretense of being a real band in the first place -- their music, including the smash hit "Sugar, Sugar," was "performed" by the animated TV cartoon characters spun off from Archie comics. In reality, of course, they were a studio concoction made up of hired professionals (most notably lead singer Ron Dante), but in this case, they weren't technically faceless.
The Archies were created by promoter Don Kirshner, who was coming off a major success as the creator of the Monkees. In late 1967, Kirshner was hired as music supervisor for CBS' new Saturday morning cartoon The Archie Show, which was to feature a new original song every week. He immediately brought on producer Jeff Barry, who with Ellie Greenwich had formed one of the preeminent songwriting teams of the girl-group era (Greenwich also sang on several Archies records).

Kirshner's original choice for lead singer was Kenny Karen, but Barry brought in Ron Dante, an experienced session singer who'd fronted the Detergents' novelty parody "Leader of the Laundromat"; Dante had met Barry at a Neil Diamond session, and had previously cut promos for Kirshner. Dante won the job, and Barry hired Jeannie Thomas as the group's female vocalist. When the TV show debuted, it was a hit, and the first Archies single, "Bang Shang-a-Lang," nearly made the Top 20 in late 1968.
Shortly thereafter, Barry hired songwriter/backing vocalist Andy Kim, and replaced Thomas with Toni Wine. Barry and Kim co-wrote "Sugar, Sugar," which became a breakout smash in 1969; it topped the charts for four weeks, sold over three million copies in the U.S. alone, and wound up as Billboard's number one song of the year. Meanwhile, the TV show was expanded to a full hour, and Dante enjoyed a simultaneous Top Ten hit during "Sugar, Sugar"'s run, thanks to his lead vocal on the Cufflinks' "Tracy." The follow-up, "Jingle Jangle," reached the Top Ten, but from there the Archies' chart success tailed off quickly. Their last Top 40 hit came in the spring of 1970 with "Who's Your Baby?"; the same year, Donna Marie replaced Toni Wine.

However, by the end of 1970 Barry left the Archies to pursue other projects, and stories detailing the group's breakup named their primary personnel for the first time. Their final Barry-produced single was released in early 1971, although "A Summer Prayer for Peace" became a hit in South Africa later that summer.
Ron Dante embarked on a short-lived solo career before moving into record production, and found substantial success as Barry Manilow's producer throughout the '70s; he also returned to singing on commercial jingles. Andy Kim went on to score a substantial solo hit in 1974 with "Rock Me Gently."

In 2008, Ron Dante revived the Archies name, brought in two vocalists to play Betty and Veronica (Danielle van Zyl and Kelly-Lynn), and released The Archies Christmas Party album on the Fuel 2000 label. Right around that time, Dante, who by now owned the rights to the original recordings, oversaw the reissue on CD of all the band's original albums. In 2016, Goldenlane Records reissued all five Archies albums under the title Sugar, Sugar: The Complete Albums Collection.

THE BOX
 The Archies were perhaps the most popular animated band in the late '60s, with a cartoon that aired every Saturday morning and one chart-topping single, "Sugar, Sugar." With songs written by big shots like Jeff Barry and Andy Kim, the smooth vocals of Ron Dante, and a cadre of talented studio musicians helping guide the way, the Archies weren't only popular, they made a lot of good records too. While most of the albums are probably easy to find in thrift stores around the U.S., Goldentone did people who want all the albums in one handy place a favor with the release of 2016's Sugar, Sugar: The Complete Albums Collection. Housed in a heavy-duty box with the original album covers reproduced, there are none of the skips and smells associated with beat-up old albums. Just great bubblegum mixed with the occasional weird moment and even, as the decade wore on, a little bit of social commentary. Released in 1968, The Archies is the purest expression of the simple, fun sound Jeff Barry was aiming for, with songs about teen love, dancing, grooving, and having a good time. The following year's Everything's Archie contains "Sugar, Sugar," plus "Feelin' So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y.-D.O.O.)," a hard-to-type song, but one that is almost the equal of their big hit in the hooks department.

It's also where Barry and company really capture the balance of silly pop and insistent soul that drove the group's best songs that came after. Also arriving in 1969, Jingle Jangle is the strongest-sounding album of the bunch, with some gnarly distorted guitar, a real rhythmic punch, and great songs like "She's Putting Me Through Changes," the title track, and "Get on the Line." This album is where Ron Dante really comes into his own as a vocalist; he puts lots of soul into some really silly lyrics. Sunshine was released in 1970, and it suffers by comparison to the preceding Jingle Jangle. Featuring stilted songs about ecology and religion, it had no real hits, and the tough sound is cast aside in favor of an ultra-clipped, inoffensive approach. That album marked the end of Jeff Barry's involvement with the project, and Dante took over for 1971's This Is Love. The album features lots of good bubblegum, especially the title track, some almost country ballads, and more care given to the arrangements, not to mention the songs themselves. The increased effort didn't yield any hits, and no more albums were released under the Archies' name. While the packaging and sound could have been better -- a little remastering would have gone a long way -- the set is still a vital document of one of the most important bands of the '60s. Well, maybe not exactly important, but almost always fun and that's pretty important in its own way. allmusic.com)

Hello friends of pop music here is a project of bubblegum music and it had a lot of success then. But what more can i say...except maybe that here was extraordinary musicians at work and with the project/band The Archies (besides others like the monkees e.g.) they are responsible for a higher worldwide acceptance for bubblegum music and not only music for ten years old kids. But also naturally!lol
Listen to it, have a candy bar and enjoy!
Frank
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