Top notch Power Pop from LATVIAN RADIO - For Love & Spite 2014 (CD Baby) Flac & mp3

LATVIAN RADIO has spent a full decade now crafting their own brand of lyrically charged and sonically intelligent indie-power-pop. Amplifier Magazine labeled their songs as “Music as both entertainment and art. Truly the best variety.”

“Heartfelt, clever lyrics and sonically intelligent, the boisterous LATVIAN RADIO relishes an underground garage sound with the feel of sunshine pop.”  Amplifer Magazine

 Latvian Radio has been a mainstay on college radio since their 2006 release “Happiness Above A Hardwood Floor”. San Francisco based “Bagel Radio” had them in the top 5 for three straight weeks and “Saturday Left Her On The Floor” made their list of top 50 songs of 2006 at number 32. Their second album “Seven Layers Of Self Defense” made the CMJ top 200 chart for five straight weeks. Absolute Power Pop had it on their best records of the year list in 2009, and then again in 2014 when “For love & spite” made it into the top 10. Powerpopaholic wrote: “Overall a terrific album without a wasted track”.

"Power pop at it's very best, intelligent and well crafted by musicians at the height of their imagination and creativity." -The Ringmaster Review

 There is plenty to love here, from the jangle pop of "To Find You There" and "On Display" to more reflective numbers like "North Of The Keys" and "Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors". And with the uptempo melodies of the title track and "Oh No", For Love & Spite is like an instant party you can attend whenever you put on the album".
- Absolute Powerpop

The press has linked LATVIAN RADIO to Elvis Costello & the Attractions, the Replacements, Brendan Benson, Big Star, early REM, The Shins and the Decemberists.

All the things the press wrote (and write) about the band is true and songs like these from the For Love & Spite album deserve press reviews like these you can read here.
Very good power pop and if you don't know the band give it a try you will not disappointed.
Enjoy
         Frank       Flac link1   &   Flac link2
                                                                          mp3@320

Sorry no artwork :-( 

Baroque Pop/Sunshine Pop by MC Squared - Tantalizing Colours-The Reprise Recordings 1967 - (Now Sounds 2012) Flac & mp3

 MC SQUARED's Tantalizing Colours: The Reprise Recordings.

• A LOST SUNSHINE/PSYCH POP MASTERPIECE UNLEASHED!
• THEIR ENTIRE REPRISE RECORDINGS (1967-1968)!
• COLLECTED TOGETHER FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!
• 20 TRACKS FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES!

MC SQUARED (also known as MC2), featured folk renegades LINDA CAREY, MICHAEL CLOUGH, and MICHAEL CROWLEY from The Back Porch Majority, as well as legendary studio musicians JIM KELTNER and RANDY STERLING.
Sounding like a unique hybrid of The Mamas and The Papas and Jefferson Airplane, the Los Angeles-based quintet’s singles have been cherished by fans for years. Criminally, however, their long-lost 1968 album has been hidden deep in the vaults for over 40 years...UNTIL NOW!
The CD collects their four Reprise singles—two of which were produced by LENNY WARONKER (Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Beau Brummels)—and all of the material that was to comprise their debut LP, all sourced from the original master tapes! Filled with brilliant harmonies and psychedelically experimental left turns, MC SQUARED will appeal to fans of Curt Boettcher, Eternity’s Children, and The Millennium.( Steve Hoffman Music Forums)

This is an album, a few years ago as i heard it for the first time, i needed some spins before i began to like the album and some further spins until i began to keep it in my heart. This album is real great and will get you. Listen to it and hear what happens. Six stars out of six stars!
Enjoy it
             Frank       Flac part 1   &  Flac part 2
                                               mp3@320

Kinky Machine - Bent 1994 Flac & mp3

The band was formed in West London in late 1991 by Louis Eliot (vocals, guitar) and Julian Fenton (drums), adding Johnny Bull (guitar), and Malcolm Pardon (bass guitar). After signing to the Lemon label and releasing two singles in 1992, both hits on the UK Independent Chart, third single "Supernatural Giver" was a minor hit, and they were signed to MCA Records offshoot Oxygen. Further minor hits followed with "Shockaholic", which preceded their eponymous debut album, "Going Out With God", by which time Pardon had been replaced by Nick Powell, and "10 Second Bionic Man", before their second album, Bent, was released in 1994. They toured with Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Manic Street Preachers, and drew comparisons with Pulp and Mott the Hoople,with Allmusic identifying influences from glam rock, punk rock, and  Sergeant Pepper-era Beatles, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music author Colin Larkin also comparing the band to The Only Ones.

They moved on to East West Records for a final single, "London Crawling", before splitting up in 1995 after Fenton had joined The Lightning Seeds, to be briefly replaced by Anthony Christmas. They had become disillusioned with the Britpop sound, with several of the bands that had supported them in the past (including Supergrass and Elastica) overtaking them and becoming prime movers in the scene, Eliot explaining "When we started, we were delving into British pop music for influences, from the Kinks and the Jam and Clash to the Beatles. All that Britpop became very boring." Eliot and Bull re-emerged in 1996 with Rialto, with Eliot later recording with a new band, the Embers.(wiki)

Bent is a very very good album with strong songs and the band had always good melodies. Like a lot of the early nineties bands who are influenced by glam rock the band musically cited David Bowie in his early seventies glam efforts. The band was one of the better british glam poprock bands and deserved a better fate.
Enjoy
        Frank       Flac 1  &  Flac 2
                       You need both Flac links!               mp3@320

Psychedelic Pop from 1968 by The Collage - The Collage 1968 (2011 Now Sounds) Flac & mp3

Part of the idea behind the formation of the Collage was to emulate the Mamas & the Papas' lineup with a two-man, two-woman quartet of harmonizing singers. The group's sole self-titled album does indeed resemble the Mamas & the Papas in some ways, but has a yet more pronounced sunshine pop feel, as well as yet lusher production (even using some of the same Wrecking Crew musicians heard on records by the Mamas & the Papas and so many other Hollywood pop/rock sessions of the period, with Wrecking Crew saxophonist Steve Douglas producing).

The songs have a sweeter tone, almost as if elements of the Mamas & the Papas and the 5th Dimension have been layered with production and songwriting a little more oriented toward an adult pop/variety entertainment audience. While four of the ten songs were written by the male half of the Collage (Ron Joelson and Jerry Careaga), there are also covers of compositions by notable figures on the Los Angeles pop/rock scene (Kenny Edwards and Bob Kimmel of the Stone Poneys, Roger Nichols, Tony Asher, Curt Boettcher, the Addrisi Brothers), though none of those tunes count among their more outstanding efforts.

There are some mild psychedelic touches, but also some hammy vaudevillian ones, and as Careaga himself writes in his excellent lengthy liner notes to Now Sounds' expanded CD reissue, the Collage's original songs had showtune-style melodies. He also admits that the album wasn't "commercial or radio-friendly," and while that in and of itself isn't a knock against the LP, the songs aren't quite high-caliber enough to make this a top-flight record (though the psych-pop-circus feel of "Any Day's a Sunday Afternoon" might have made for the best attempt at a hit single).

Overall, it's a bit above average for the sunshine pop genre; however, owing to the imaginative (if sometimes overly ornate) arrangements (by Perry Botkin, Jr., of early Nilsson fame) and strong, full harmonies. [The 2011 CD reissue on Now Sounds enhances the original album substantially with ten bonus tracks, including mono 45 versions of four songs from the LP and a half-dozen outtakes that generally have a slightly earthier bittersweet folk-pop/rock grounding, including a cover of Harry Nilsson's "Story of Rock and Roll."](allmusic.com)

A very good popsike/sunshine pop album of its time. Stronger than a lot albums of contemporarys who worked in the same genre. There is no need to talk about the craftsmanship of the musicians. We all know the Wrecking Crew. Here are a lot different songs where everyone will find his favourites. To me the album is more than just a bit above average. 5 stars out of six for a wonderful sunshiney album.

Enjoy
          Frank           Flac link 1  &  Flac link 2
                              mp3 link 1  &  mp3 link 2

You need both Flac and/or both mp3 links!

Lulu - The ATCO Sessions 69 - 72 (2 CD) Rhino 2007 Flac & mp3

Dusty Springfield thrived when she traveled to Memphis and recorded with producers Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin and a bunch of Muscle Shoals pros, cutting music that was soulful and successful, so it made sense for Atco/Atlantic to put Lulu, another British pop-soul singer, through the same drill.

At least it did on paper, but as Rhino UK's The Atco Sessions: 1969-1972 -- a deluxe double-disc reissue of the 1970 albums New Routes and Melody Fair, buttressed with almost a full album's worth of unreleased material cut with Dowd in 1970, the 1972 single "It Takes a Real Man (To Bring Out the Woman in Me)"/"You Ain't Wrong You Just Ain't Right," some alternate takes and other stray tracks -- the results weren't nearly as compelling as the classic Dusty southern sessions, even if almost every element from those records was replicated here.

Lulu is supported by a cast of all-stars -- the Dixie Flyers featuring Jim Dickinson, the Memphis Horns, the Sweet Inspirations do backing vocals, Felix Cavaliere lays down percussion, even Duane Allman shows up on New Routes -- the production is sharp and soulful, and she sings with
considerable spunk and sass...and that may be the problem, actually.

Whereas Springfield was a nuanced deep soul singer, Lulu's appeal almost always relied on her energy, and while she leans hard on that here, it's not enough to give these records some spark because the setting is too smooth and soulful to be swayed by her relentless good cheer.

Even if these recordings are strangely, slightly off, with Lulu's strengths not fitting well with that of the pros, this is hardly bad music: Lulu gives it her all and the productions are impeccable, even if they're not quite engaging, so this is worth a listen for those who value either the singer or the players here.(Allmusic)

Ha ha sometimes i can't believe what i read... Okay Folks, wish you a lot of fun with this fine Rhino release. Included are the complete New Routes and Melody Fair albums, all ATCO and Atlantic singles and never before heard (then in 2007) unreleased songs.
Cheers
           Frank        mp3 link 1   &   mp3 link 2
                            You know you need both...                       Flac

Power Pop by Doug Powell - Curiouser 1998 Flac & mp3

Power pop is fundamentally music written for the radio that nowadays plays nowhere near the radio. The talented Doug Powell handles multiple instruments and technical aspects, but more importantly writes simple pop songs. For Curiouser, Powell recorded "flaws and warts" onto an eight track and released the raw product in an attempt to emulate the freshness and excitement of spontaneity and creation. Surprisingly, Curiouser is not raucous or noisy, but a solid pop record. The sound is fine and the songs are well-structured enough to avoid that demo rip-off feeling. If the liner notes didn't indicate the rudiments of this experiment, none would be the wiser. Of course the project reeks of evil-genius Todd Rundgren, but the tunes are unmistakably Powell's. "Just Like Montgomery Cliff" shares a strange celebrity fascination with the Clash. Powell's former Nashville neighbor, Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson, helps out on "When She Awoke" (later laid down with the rest of Swag). The great piece "Torn" also graces the excellent Nashpop collection. "Cross My Heart" exudes pure obsessive romanticism: paralyzing and fascinating. Sometimes Powell's forlorn feeling recalls Freedy Johnston, but with better vocals. Curiouser actually gets better as it rolls. Don't see Doug Powell shooting up the charts, and of course he deserves much more credit than he'll ever get, but, in a perfect world, he rides the top of the pops.(allmusic.com)

This guy makes his own kind of Power Pop with different influences (not only the Fab Four) and that's what i like in his music. The songs always mediates a particular feeling. And that's something i can't assort of every Power Pop musician (and i am a real BIG fan of PP). On this album are some damn good songs and for me it's a little masterpiece and i hope you will have fun, too!
Cheers
           Frank         Flac part 1   &  Flac part 2   &  Flac part 3
                             You need all three Flac parts!
                                                                                               mp3@320

The Smoke - Sugarman: Best of the Smoke (Repertoire Records) Flac & mp3

 The Smoke were a psychedelic pop/mod/british psychedelia band who was known best for her hit 'My Friend Jack'. But they have a lot of really great popsongs done from around '67 until into the seventies. This is a fine compilation by Repertoire Records with all in all 28 songs.And the swelection is well done in my opinion.

Have fun
              Frank          Flac link 1  &  Flac link 2
                                 You need both Flac links!        mp3@320

Here are the promised mp3 files for ''Steve & Stevie, Tin Tin - The Legend Of Steve Kipner And Steve Groves 1968-1973 (2013)''

Hello Folks and Friends, here are the mp3 files i promised you the day before yesterday. Sorry but i was too busy yesterday.
I put the links in the flac post of ''Steve & Stevie, Tin Tin - The Legend Of Steve Kipner And Steve Groves 1968-1973 (2013)''. You find two mp3 links there and as always...you know what's coming, lol...you need both links.
Have fun and i will try to post some more today. Have a nice day all out there!
Cheers
           Frank

Steve & Stevie, Tin Tin - The Legend Of Steve Kipner And Steve Groves 1968-1973 (2013)

 Steve Kipner and Steve Groves legacy from the late sixties to the early seventies are three great pop albums who all are here assembled. If you love sunny pop melodies with fine orchestration and great vocals from that time you are right here.
I will post the mp3 files tomorrow because i am too lazy at the moment. Hope you can understand it :-).

 ''Steve & Stevie'' originally released in 1968 on Toast 
• ''Tin Tin'' originally released in February 1970 on Polydor (and Atco in the US). Recorded May to July 1969 at IBC Studios, London
• Tracks 2-2 and 2-6 recorded 26 August 1970 at IBC Studios, London, released on the single Come On Over Again in November 1970 on Polydor ‎2058 076
• Track 2-7 recorded 6 August 1969 at IBC Studios, London, released 7 March 1970 on Beacon Records
• Track 2-19 recorded August 1970 at IBC Studios, London, released as a single in 1972 on Polydor

• ''Astral Taxi'' (second Tin Tin album) originally released 1971 on Polydor (and Atco in the US). Recorded 1971 at IBC Studios, London

The double disc was released by Magic Records in 2013.
Enjoy
         Frank          Flac link
                                                  mp3 link 1
                                                 mp3 link 2 

Finest British Pop By The Sterns! ''Sinners Stick Together'' (2007) Flac & mp3

British pop and politics have long been intertwined, but the rise of AOR in the '60s created a split in the States, with AM's pop rarely moving beyond candy fluff for the mind, while rock-orientated FM delved into more serious subjects. The Sterns, however, are determined to bridge that gap once and for all. Sinners Stick Together, the quintet's second album, is awash in bright and breezy pop music, and drenched in infectious, hook-laden choruses, effervescent melodies, chirpy harmonies, and bouncy rhythms.

Like all the best pop bands, the Sterns' songs sound immediately familiar, yet never to the point of suggesting rip-off. The group's music echoes the past, it glistens like the '60s, but for every nod to the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Kinks, there's an equal bow to their '70s and '80s equivalents -- the Buzzcocks, the Clash, the Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, and briefly, on "Supreme Girl," Madness. This is power pop for a new now generation. And for this generation politics is back with a vengeance, intruding everywhere. And so the Sterns confront it head on, but with great wit or an unexpected twist. "Supreme Girl" is a grand example, the Harriet Myers' Supreme Court debacle as seen from George Bush's selfish viewpoint. Nigerian internet entrepreneurs, all suspiciously related to fallen dictators, seem a tad less predatory when seen through the eyes of one of their small children. Be it the abortion battles, the Iraq War ("All Saints", composed pre-invasion), Republicans' insistence on painting dissent as treason, or religion, the Sterns tackle all the topics of the moment.

However, if all that's a little too hard to handle, you can always take to your bed and pull the covers over your head "Twenty-Three Hours" a day, or just listen to the clutch of apolitical numbers that celebrate strong women, dismiss (college) degree driven lives, and dive into the autobiographical. A pop masterpiece whose music is as enticing as its themes are thought-provoking.(allmusic.com)

Wonderful british Power Pop/Pop Rock at its best. Great pop songs and catchy as hell. Highly recommend for pop/power pop lovers without fear of not common pop lyrics.

Enjoy
         Frank        Flac 1   &   Flac 2
                        You need both Flac links!             mp3@320

Great Power Pop from the end of the seventies! The Sweat - No More Running (1978-80), 2007 (FLAC & mp3)

Here's another real great Power Pop effort of the end seventies. For me a real cult album with not one weak song. Don't miss it! The album is a contribution by Javier, a friend of the blog and a very nice pal. Thanks man!
I use the review of spavid of the wonderful 'Wilfully Obscure' blog. If you don't know the blog look here

Clive Culbertson was the driving force behind Ireland's The Sweat, but if you don't recognize either of those names you're hardly alone, especially if you find yourself Stateside.  For that matter, given the bent of No More Running's reissue liner notes, you'd get the impression they didn't make a dent in the British Isles either, due to a poor distribution effort on the part of The Sweat's label, Double D.  Furthermore, this is one record that really deserved an entry in John Borack's Top 200 power pop albums roster in the 2007 Shake Some Action book.  No More Running is sincerely that white-hot of a contender, entailing such deftly crafted, melodious salvos as "You Gotta Lotta Nerve," "How Much Longer" and "Isn't Anything Sacred Anymore."  Culbertson's aptitude often borders the same hallowed turf as Shoes, Jesus of Cool-era Nick Lowe, and the Nerves (yes, that Nerves).  When you place this high a premium on hooks the results are bound to be good, and in this case they're veritably off the charts.
Sonically, the fidelity on No More Running dangles towards the "lo" end of the spectrum, oozing warm, analogue hues that couldn't be replicated in this day and age no matter how much effort was put forth to do so.  In short, this is power pop as it used to be made, and Culbertson happens to be an immensely unheralded practitioner of the medium.  The 2007 reissue on the Japanese 1977 imprint includes seven bonus cuts, including four from Clive's precursor act No Sweat.  Additional material from this era was also committed to tape under his own name, and is available on a separate release that I can hopefully attend to later (and you shouldn't have to wait a whole 'nother year to partake in it).(by Spavid, Dec, 2016)

This is great fun,
cheers
          SB1          Flac part 1  &   Flac part 2   &   Flac part 3
                          You need all three parts!
                                                                        mp3@320

New links and a very rare Mark Wirtz!

Hello again Folks, i hope everything is running well for all of you and you will enjoy the coming weekend.

I have tried to renew all the links people ask me in the last few days. For the most i found only today time. And i hope that i haven't forgot any link. Please look all of you who asked for a new link if it's up. If not please remember me again (...i am an old man... :-) ) I have still a lot of work here in the new house and today was a really bad day for me. So i stopped the work in the house and have done a little nice work here for the blog.

My first new post in my new home is a very rare one .

''Mark Wirtz and the Teenage Opera - The Fantastic Story Of Mark Wirtz And The Teenage Opera'' RPM 2001 (Flac)
(This time no mp3 files. Please don't ask in this case for it.)

The title might be taken by some to imply that this double CD is producer Wirtz's never-issued-in-completed-form Teenage Opera (excerpted on Keith West's hit single "Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera'"). Actually, it's really a collection of Wirtz's more ambitious and enduring productions from 1964 to 1972 (with one Wirtz recording from 1996), sometimes featuring Wirtz himself as the artist, though some of the songs would have been used had the opera taken final shape. It's a wildly inconsistent collection that doesn't quite make the case for Wirtz as a genius on the order of Phil Spector, or even Joe Meek. Still, there's interesting British pop and rock here, traversing quite a gamut of styles, from British psychedelia (with Tomorrow) and relatively straight pop to Gene Pitney-esque balladeers, go-go background music (sometimes played by a young Steve Howe), and American-style arrangements for female vocalists and pseudo-Spector-ian sides.

Unlike, say, Meek or Spector, Wirtz didn't have immediately identifiable signature sounds, other than being prone to lush, sometimes orchestral density that sometimes bore similarities to Californian sunshine pop. Some of these songs are superficial trifles or unmemorable pop tunes, yet others are good matches of offbeat, melodic pop/rock with imaginative production.

Elmer Hockett's contemporary calypso of "Love Is Happening to Me," the very early David Bowie-ism of Mike Sedgewick's "The Good Guys in the White Hats," the Abbey Road-on-sugar textures of Philwit & Pegasus, even the early-'70s ambitious Muzak of Wirtz's early-'70s tracks: All have something to recommend them.

Keith West's two singles from the Teenage Opera concept, "Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera'" and "Sam," are both here too, though they've been reissued elsewhere.(Richie Unterberger)

Most of you know that it's quite rare that i have the same or similar opinion about a musical work and (you guess it) it's in this case again a very different position. But i confess it's maybe because i am a giant fan of Mark Wirtz :-)

Hope you will enjoy
Cheers
          SB1     Link Flac