Badfinger solo: Mike Gibbins - A Place In Time 1997 Flac

As the drummer for Badfinger (and its predecessor band, the Iveys), Mike Gibbins demonstrated that he was a slightly above average drummer who seemed to owe more to the Keith Moon school of drumming than Ringo Starr, to whom he was more often compared. Also, with Badfinger, Gibbons was able to demonstrate a mellower side, writing some of their most beautiful tracks (check out "My Heart Goes Out" from 1974's Badfinger, and "Cowboy" from Ass). On this, his debut solo offering, Gibbons attempts to put the ballads on the back burner and rock out.

The main problem with this CD is that it's a standard mid-'70s rock album, unfortunately not all that well written or played. The album is full of elementary rhymes ("Sue Me" is a main culprit) and standard love songs ("Time In," "Overdue," "Please Please") that aren't so much bad, just boring and indistinguishable from each other. The highlight is the beautiful ballad "Picture of You," which brings to mind Badfinger's glory days, and also shows what Gibbons is capable of writing. This is very much a solo project, with Gibbons handling the majority of instruments (assisted by Rick Warsing, who is able to make some of the songs interesting with his guitar solos), writing, and production. Perhaps outside input may have been helpful. Overall, a disappointing affair, but fans may enjoy hearing this outing. Perhaps Gibbons is better served as a member of a band, where he can contribute the odd song of two. On this release, it is clear he is not able to maintain an entire album on his own. (allmusic.com)

This is the first solo album by Mike Gibbins as far as i know. I think this album is for Badfinger fans in first line. To me it is a disappointing effort all in all. I think it was no good idea do all the things alone (except guitars and harp). I post it here for fans (like me) who want it in her digital collection. This link is limited until 20 Feb 2017
Cheers
          Frank   (link expired)

Forever Amber - The Love Cycle (1969) mp3@320

Forever Amber must have worn out the grooves on their copy of the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle. Their rare 1969 LP, The Love Cycle, emulated the late-period Zombies rather well with its classically influenced melodies and careful harmonies. Although the material isn't quite as good, and the production and execution not as accomplished, it is a good record. It was reissued on CD in the '90s, although the re-releases are themselves hard to find in the U.S.(allmusic.com)

Enjoy
         SB1  mp3@320

Fingerprintz - Distinguishing Marks (1980) Vinyl mp3@320

Now sadly relegated to footnote status, England's Fingerprintz were one of the few bands that lent credibility to the marketing-inspired expression "new wave." Formed by Scottish-born singer/guitarist Jimmie O'Neill in 1978, the 'Printz slowed down punk's careening guitar rock, adding clever, rhythmic twists and turns, and offering up deftly written stories about lust, angst, and urban desolation. The problem was finding an audience; the music was certainly spot-on, but one can only guess as to what kept hordes of people away. Certainly it wasn't the quality of their recorded work, which, despite occasional concessions to slick production, is mostly smart and insightful. Perhaps it was simply a matter of being out of step with the zeitgeist or simply not getting a break. O'Neill decided to call it a day after the third and final 'Printz record, Beat Noir, in 1981. However, the story has a sort of happy ending: O'Neill and fellow 'Printz guitarist Cha Burns formed the Silencers in 1987, a band that reaped much greater commercial success than did the 'Printz. Ironically, the Silencers' records weren't nearly as good as that of Fingerprintz. All three Fingerprintz records are long out of print, which is a thinly veiled recommendation for someone to compile a CD anthology.(allmusic.com)

 With producer Nick Garvey (ex-Ducks Deluxe and Motors) leading the way, Distinguishing Marks has all the rough edges smoothed away, but not so much as to have a negative impact on the music. O'Neill's songs are still loaded with dark emotional undercurrents and melodramatic narratives, but they aren't self-pitying, narcissistic exercises. In fact, this LP marked a maturational process that continued with their third and last record. Still, no record better sums up the excellence of Fingerprintz better than this one.(allmusic.com)

I just stumbled over this in my chaos and thought it's nice to post it. Haven't heard it for a long time. I think this have more new wave and post punk style. Enjoy it.
Gruezi
          Frank  mp3@320

Fotomaker - Fotomaker (1978) 2005 mp3

Fotomaker had a pretty impressive pedigree. Guitarist/vocalist Wally Bryson came from power pop gods the Raspberries, and bassist Gene Cornish and drummer Dino Danelli were founding members of the Rascals. The other two bandmembers, guitarist/vocalist Lex Marchesi and keyboardist/vocalist Frankie Vinci, were no slouches either, as the two of them were responsible for most of the songwriting and singing on the band's fine 1978 debut. The record is very much in the power pop vein with walls of guitars, Beatlesque vocal harmonies, and big hooks. Unsurprisingly, they sound very much like the Raspberries, lacking that band's grandeur but replacing it with an easygoing charm.
Their classic song, "Where Have You Been All My Life," is easily a match for the Raspberries' best. It is the kind of song that guitars were invented for, and will be going around your head for hours after you hear it. The rest of the album can't match it but there are some fine songs, like "Can I Please Have Some More," the very Todd Rundgren-sounding "Two Can Make It Work," the power ballad "All These Years," and "Pain." There is a subtle soft rock undercurrent to many of the tunes that may put off rockers who prefer a harder edge, but it actually gives the record some texture. Fotomaker may not be the lost classic that one might hope for, but it is a fine pop record with a fair amount of power and some very fine songs.

Very nice pop record by Fotomaker. The names of the members guaranteed for big pop. Fotomaker had to further albums but this is her finest effort. Have fun!
Cheers
           Frank  mp3@vbr~280

Radio Stars - Somewhere There's A Place for Us (2005) mp3

With two albums and a boatload of deleted 45s to their name, Radio Stars always merited far more consideration from the archivists than the earlier Two Minutes Mr. Smith collection allowed them -- and Somewhere There's a Place for Us delivers in fine style. The 29 tracks include each of the band's 45s, a clutch of their better B-sides, and no less than seven unreleased cuts, including one ("Dear Prudence") that dates from the last days of their earlier incarnation as Jet, and two ("My Mother Said" and "The Ghost of Desperate Dan") that hail from an early-'80s reunion of founding members Andy Ellison and Martin Gordon. The remainder of the album, however, is nothing if not unpredictable. The vast majority of the Songs for Swinging Lovers debut album is here, together with enough of the sophomore Holiday Album to make one regret never having held onto the original vinyl, while the highlights that scream out of nowhere include so many all-time punky-playtime masterpieces that even the most familiar titles ("No Russians in Russia," "Dirty Pictures," "Beast of Barnsley," "Nervous Wreck") pale in the face of "From a Rabbit" -- essential listening for every body-building hulk who's ever kicked sand in your face -- and "Johnny Mekon," the story of the greatest rock star you've ever felt desperately sorry for. Add entertainingly voluminous liner notes from the bandmembers themselves, and the distinct possibility that at least half of this album will be stuck in your head for weeks to come, and Radio Stars emerge from the mists of time as memorably as the Greek restaurant whose poorly translated menu inspired "Macaroni and Mice." Bowels stuffed with spleen notwithstanding, of course. (allmusic.com)

Radio Stars was a punk/power pop band from the mid to the late '70. Andy Ellison played in the sixties together with Marc Bolan in the folk-psych-pop band John's Children. This is a fine collection of the Radio Stars work from 1977 - 1979. Viel Spass!
Cheers
           Frank  mp3@320

The mp3 Beatles! Love mp3@320

Hello Folks and all friends of the mp3 format, like i yesterday said here is the mp3@320 post of the ''Love'' album. Have fun and enjoy!
Kind regards
                    Frank  mp3@320

The Beatles - Love (2006) Flac

If boiled down to a simple synopsis, the Beatles' LOVE sounds radical: assisted by his father, the legendary Beatles producer George, Giles Martin has assembled a remix album where familiar Fab Four tunes aren't just refurbished, they're given the mash-up treatment, meaning different versions of different songs are pasted together to create a new track. Ever since the turn of the century, mash-ups were in vogue in the underground, as such cut-n-paste jobs as Freelance Hellraiser's "Stroke of Genius" -- which paired up the Strokes' "Last Night" with Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" -- circulated on the net, but no major group issued their own mash-up mastermix until LOVE in November 2006. Put in those terms, it seems like LOVE is a grand experiment, a piece of art for art's sake, but that's hardly the case. Its genesis lies with the Beatles agreeing to collaborate with performance dance troupe Cirque du Soleil on a project that evolved into the Las Vegas stage show LOVE, an extravaganza that cost well over 100 million dollars and was designed to generate revenue far exceeding that.
During pre-production, all involved realized that the original Beatles tapes needed to be remastered in order to sound impressive by modern standards when pumped through the huge new theater -- the theater made just with this dance revue in mind -- and since they needed to be tweaked, they might as well use the opportunity to do something different with the familiar music, too: to remix and re-imagine it, to make LOVE be something unique to both the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil.
Keep in mind the Cirque du Soleil portion of the equation: George and Giles Martin may have been given free reign to recontextualize the Beatles' catalog, but given that this was for a project that cost hundreds of millions of dollars this wasn't quite the second coming of The Grey Album, where Danger Mouse surreptitiously mashed up The White Album with Jay-Z's The Black Album. This isn't an art project and it isn't underground, either: it's a big, splashy commercial endeavor, one that needs to surprise millions of Beatles fans without alienating them, since the mission is to please fans whether they're hearing this in the theater or at home. And so, the curious LOVE, a purported re-imagining of the most familiar catalog in pop music, winds up being less interesting or surprising than its description would suggest.

Neither an embarrassment or a revelation, LOVE is at first mildly odd but its novelty soon recedes, revealing that these are the same songs that know you by heart, only with louder drums and occasionally with a few parts in different places. Often, what's presented here isn't far afield from the original recording: strip "Because" down to its vocals and it still sounds very much like the "Because" on Abbey Road -- and that arrangement is actually one of the more drastic here. Whether they're songs as spare and stark as "Eleanor Rigby" or "Yesterday," as trippy as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" or as basic as "Get Back," the songs remain the same, as do most of the arrangements, right down to the laughter and sound effects sprinkled throughout "I Am the Walrus." There's only one cut that has the thrilling unpredictability of a genuine mash-up and that's a cut that blends together "Drive My Car," "The Word" and "What You're Doing," punctuated with horns from "Savoy Truffle"; a chorus from one song flows into the verse from another, as keyboards and percussion from all three, plus more, come together to make something that's giddy, inventive and fresh. But that's the exception to the rule, since most of this delivers juxtapositions that seem obvious based on the concept of the project itself: it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to set the melody of "Within You Without You" to the backing track of "Tomorrow Never Knows," since both derive from the same psychedelic era and share similar themes.

Throughout LOVE, songs are augmented by samples from roughly the same phase in the Beatles career, so "Strawberry Fields Forever" is enhanced by "Penny Lane," "Hello Goodbye," "Piggies" and "In My Life," but not "There's a Place," "It Won't Be Long," or "I Feel Fine," selections that could have been truly startling. It also would have been startling if those snippets of "Penny Lane" and "Hello Goodbye" were threaded within "Strawberry Fields," in a fashion similar to "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing," but they're added to the end of the song, a move that's typical of the Martins' work here. With a few exceptions scattered throughout the record, all the mash-ups are saved for the very end of the song, which has the effect of preserving the feel of the original song while drawing attention to the showiest parts of the Martins' new mixes, giving the illusion that they've changed things around more than they actually have.
Not that the Martins simply add things to the original recordings; that may be the bulk of their work here, but they do subtly change things on occasion. Most notably, they structure "Strawberry Fields" as a progression from the original demo to the finished single version (a move that is, admittedly, borrowed from Anthology 2) and they've used an alternate demo take of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," to which George Martin has written a sympathetic new string arrangement. It also has to be said that the craft behind LOVE is impeccable: it flows as elegantly as the second side of Abbey Road, which is an achievement of no small measure. But there lies the rub: even if LOVE elicits a certain admiration for how Giles and George have crafted their mash-ups, it elicits a greater admiration for the original productions and arrangements, which display far more imagination and audacity than the mixes here. Take a song as seemingly straightforward as "Lady Madonna," a Fats Domino tribute so good the man himself recorded it. This mix highlights weird flourishes like the carnival-esque vocal harmonies of the bridge -- things that were so densely interwoven into the original single mix that they didn't stand out -- but by isolating them here and inserting them at the front of the song, the Martins lessen the dramatic impact of these harmonies, just like how the gut-level force of McCartney's heavy, heavy bass here is tamed by how it's buried in the mix. The original has an arrangement that builds where this gets to the good part immediately, then stays there, a problem that plagues all of LOVE.

Here, the arrangements have everything pushed up toward the front, creating a Wall of Sound upon which certain individual parts or samples can stand out in how they contrast to the rest. This means that LOVE can indeed sound good -- particularly in a 5.1 surround mix as elements swirl between the front and back speakers, but these are all window-dressing on songs that retain all their identifiable elements from the original recordings. And that's the frustrating thing about this entire project: far from being a bold reinvention, a Beatles album for the 21st century, the Martins didn't go far enough in their mash-ups, creating new music out of old, turning it into something mind-blowing. But when there's a multi-multi-million dollar production at stake, creating something truly mind-blowing is not really the goal: offering the familiar dressed up as something new is, and that's what LOVE delivers with big-budget style and flair, and more than a touch of Vegas gaudiness. It's an extravaganza, bright and colorful and relentless in its quest to entertain but beneath all the bluster, LOVE isn't much more than nostalgia masquerading as something new.(S.T.Erlewine allmusic.com)

At first Strokes/Aguilera and White Album/JayZ Black Album from Dangermouse is a completely diffferent thing to this. Here is one act and not two different acts with a third party in the studio. I say one act because George Martin worked on all albums with the Beatles as long as they were together. And the work of the Beatles would definitely sound in another way without Martin. Next thing is: Did this artists/producers roll the dice which should mash up? I see absolutely no relations between the named artists and Mr allmusic i see no relations between that things and the Beatles/Martin/Martin work. So much for that. Nearly! Have you really expected a new piece of musical art with additions which are nearly 40 and maybe more years old? LOL! I think no one had ever think about things like that. You write as if you are the man on the board and you know how far the Martins must had go to create ''new'' music. ...'' LOVE can indeed sound good...swirl between the front and back speakers'' Hahaha. But what makes me really angry is-quote- ''masquerading as something new''. George Martin never needed things like this. He had created things in his musical life you will ever dream of. I better stop here. Okay just a few thoughts of mine. Sorry folks but it makes me sick if i read things like this.
Sorry again folks. I hope you will nevertheless enjoy LOVE. Nice artwork inside. I will post it tomorrow in mp3, too.
Kind regards
                    Frank  Flac

The King Of Power Pop - Feel The Noise (2014) Flac

Paul Collins - Feel The Noise
After decades of making music that veered into roots music and low-key pop, Paul Collins' 2010's King of Power Pop! was an invigorating return to form that proved he was still the master of the sort of upbeat, hooky rock & roll he played with the Nerves and the Beat. 2014's Feel the Noise isn't quite as strong, but it comes close enough to confirm Collins is back on track and still capable of writing, singing, and playing grade-A rock & roll that will sound great on the AM radio in your mind. Like King of Power Pop!, Feel the Noise was recorded in Detroit with a handful of local notables helping out -- Nikki Corvette contributes backing vocals on "Baby I Want You," David Shettler of the Sights and SSM plays the drums, Sights leader Eddie Baranek also contributes some guitar leads, and producer Jim Diamond handles the bass and some more guitar. The production recalls the tight, immediate sound of the classic debut album from the Beat, and Collins is writing songs that play to his strengths as a rock & roller while displaying the lyrical viewpoint of a grown man -- "Walk Away" speaks of heartbreak from the perspective of someone who has dealt with it more than once, "Don't Know How to Treat a Lady" offers some valuable advice on romance, and a tough rockin' cover of the Four Tops' "Reach Out I'll Be There" speaks of the strength and determination that comes with experience. But if you're just looking for a good time, don't fret -- "I Need My Rock 'n' Roll," "Little Suzy," and the title cut are full of fire and good energy, and show this man's power pop credentials are absolutely up to date. Feel the Noise suggests Paul Collins is in the midst of an unexpected career renaissance, and folks who love smart pop and rock & roll with hooks and heart have been waiting for this, even if they don't know it. (almusic.com)

It's the latest album of Mr ''King Of Power Pop''. To me the album sounds influenced by Twilley, The Who, Buddy Holly, the Kinks and what to me makes the difference to other Power Pop releases of today is it sounds refreshing like real R'n'R.
Viel Spaß
               Frank  Flac

The Bangles - All Over The Place 1984 Flac

While the Bangles would later embrace a radio-friendly pop production style (and enjoy attendant commercial success) that separated them from their early peers, they were the only figures from the L.A. paisley underground scene who would go on to become genuine multi-platinum rock stars, and while their first full-length album, 1984's All Over the Place, showed that some of their rough edges were already being buffed away, of their major-label output it's the record that most openly embraces the folk-rock and garage rock influences that fueled their earliest music. Vicki Peterson's lead guitar and the band's stellar harmonies are the vehicles that drive these 11 songs, and if producer David Kahne was already pushing the group in a more commercially ambitious direction, there's no disguising the psychedelic guitar figures on "Dover Beach" or the Byrds-meets-Raiders jangle of "Tell Me," and the choice of the Merry-Go-Round's "Live" as a cover is especially telling. All Over the Place is also the Bangles' most unified full-length album; Susanna Hoffs hadn't yet been singled out as the star of the show, and the round-robin lead vocals, stellar harmonies, and tight, concise arrangements make them sound like a real-deal rock band, and the set's gentle but insistent sway from British Invasion-styled rock and West Coast pop feels natural, unforced, and effective. And when drummer Debbie Peterson and bassist Michael Steele feel like rocking out, the Bangles generate a lot more heat than they're usually given credit for, most notably on "Silent Treatment." The Bangles' second full album, Different Light, would sell a lot more copies, but All Over the Place is easily their best and most satisfying LP.(allmusic.com)

Definitely their best effort imho. The Bangles are a prime example for what a price is to pay often for superstardom. The albums of the band became more weak the higher they climb. More and more outside musicians and songwriter came in. On this album the band shows how great songs they have. Like i said before as a whole this is their strongest album.
Have fun
               SB1 Flac

The Turtles - Rhino's 20 Greatest Hits (Rhino Records 1982) (199?) Flac

Rhino's 20 Greatest Hits stands as the finest Turtles collection yet assembled, featuring not only all of their hits, but also providing a good insight to why certain '60s fans believe the group to be one of the most underrated pop groups of their time. The very nature of this kind of collection downplays the group's idiosyncratic nature and warped sense of humor -- it's hard to tell that they're responsible for such a delightful detour as their Battle of the Bands album, where they assumed a different persona for each cut -- but it does bring their music to the forefront. And while some of these songs, such as "Happy Together," may be overly familiar, the music still retains a bright freshness whether its through folky melodies, exuberant sunshine pop, or dreamy psych-pop. It's a dynamite summation of a fine band.(allmusic.com)

Here is a further review by allmusic but that's more about the release by Flo & Eddie - All The Singles (2 disc box, 48 tracks) from 2016 which i also have. If there is any interest i will post the double disc in the next days, too. But i would post it in mp3 than.


 The Turtles have been anthologized many times over the years -- Rhino released a near-definitive single-disc set in 1984 called The Turtles' Greatest Hits, which they later expanded into the double-disc Solid Zinc: The Turtles Anthology in 2002; once those fell out of print, Shout! Factory followed through with 2004's Happy Together: The Very Best of the Turtles -- but Flo & Eddie's own 2016 compilation All the Singles may be the best of the batch. What makes this set so appealing is that it marches through the discography of this singles-oriented band a 7" at a time, an approach that highlights their diversity and progression. Sometimes, the group indulged in excesses -- it's hard to tell whether "Rugs of Woods and Flowers" is a sendup of prog rock or an attempt to ride its coattails -- but part of the charm of the Turtles is how they were so willing to try anything, to twist trends to their favor and push the mainstream forward. More than anything, All the Singles highlights the idiosyncrasies of the Turtles, how they became emboldened by success to send up the idea of a mainstream pop band without ever losing sight of delivering the goods. Happy Together covers nearly the same ground -- and there's considerable overlap between the two compilations -- but All the Singles is preferable due to its focus on 45s, letting the story unfold a 45 at a time, accentuating how the band existed just above the fray of pop; they belonged to the Top 40 but also commented on the proceedings. The hits start to slow on the second disc -- the biggest are "Elenore" and "You Showed Me" -- but the craft heightens, with the results sounding richer than the insistent folk-rock on the first disc. Either way, All the Singles showcases a band that wasn't like any other in the '60s: a sharp, sophisticated outfit who recognized the shenanigans of the charts, but always wanted to send it up from within.(S.T. Erlewine, allmusic.com)

Okidoki, just give me a comment if you want the double disc.
Cheers    
           Frank   Rhino's 20 in Flac

The Rembrandts - L.P. (1995) mp3

The Rembrandts - L.P. (1995)

Most of the merits of the Rembrandts' third album, LP, were overshadowed by the massive success of "I'll Be There for You," the infectious theme from the hit Generation X sitcom Friends. Included on LP at the last minute -- the first pressings didn't list the song on the album cover -- "I'll Be There for You" received saturation radio airplay, topping the adult contemporary charts, yet it was never released as a single, forcing fans to buy the entire album to own the song.

While the Monkees guitar riffs and layered harmonies are not entirely representative of the Rembrandts -- it makes them out to be a bubblegum band -- the record is filled with smart, hook-laden guitar pop that won't disappoint old Rembrandts fans or listeners attracted by the hit.

I believe the guys...or girls...:-) of Allmusic seems to be big fans of the soap opera Friends. You can't nothing read about the Rembrandts without reading nearly more about Friends. Anyway you all know the Rembrandts and this is a fine album in the tradition of the Rembrandts.
Enjoy it
             SB1  mp3@320 

Magic Christian - Evolver (2009) mp3

Hello friends, here comes a band you know very well. Maybe some of you scratch their heads and have a ''?'' in her eyes. Cyril Jordan, Clem Burke, Eddie Munoz and Paul Kopf. Prairie Prince is a guy who played in an earlier version of the band. All this names are very important in the history of Rock and Pop music. Cyril Jordan of the Flamin' Groovies fame, Eddie Munoz,guitarist of the wonderful Plimsouls and Clem Burke, a member of the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame, but more important he's the man behind the drumkit of seventies legendary band Blondie. Prairie Prince was an earlier member of the band and he was known as drummer of the Tubes.What you want more? No i don't forget Paul Kopf. He is a musician from San Francisco and he created and promoted the great ''Bay Pop'' music festival in San Francisco If you want to know more of the band go here. You also can purchase the music of the band here.

The band plays a fine mixture of R'n'R and Power Pop. and naturally it remembers also to the Groovies.

Hope you will enjoy the guys and you can give them a try here lol.
Bis bald
             Frank