Scottish Pop of the seventies: Pilot - A's, B's & Rarities (2005 EMI Gold, EMI Records) Flac & mp3

It seems strange to see the output of Mickie Most's RAK label finally being taken seriously by record labels as well as collectors, 30-plus-years after the imprint established itself as the epitome of disposable pop tunes. Yet EMI's ongoing A's, B's & Rarities series offers nothing less than the same thorough treatment that any other, more hallowed, label could expect. The format is essentially the same throughout: a gathering up of every RAK single (A-sides and B-sides) released by a given band, with the remainder of the CD filled with choice outtakes and oddities. Sadly, whereas other entries in this series -- Mud, Arrows, CCS, Hot Chocolate, Suzi Quatro -- can effortlessly address that criteria, Pilot really should have been saved for some future "best-of the rest of" set. The fact is, despite the four U.K. hits they racked up in a year (including the Top Ten "Magic" and the chart-topping "January") they really weren't that great a band, the missing link between Smokie and 10cc, with a shot of Fox thrown in for good measure. Yet A's, B's & Rarities avoids many of the pitfalls that this set should have laid bare, by virtue of some genuinely cunning programming. The original (non-hit) version of "Just a Smile" is replaced by a remix; 1975's "Lady Luck" single makes its CD debut, alongside David Paton's scarcely known 1980 solo single "No Ties No Strings," while the sequence of flop 45's that led up to Pilot's departure for Arista are all brought together. And the stuff does grow on you, to the point where even "January" doesn't sound quite so annoying as it used to. This remains the weakest link in the A's, B's & Rarities series so far. But maybe it isn't as redundant as one originally thought.(allmusic.com)

 Note: This collection got 4 and a half stars by allmusic and the same by its readers.
Quote: ...they really weren't that great a band, the missing link between Smokie and 10cc, with a shot of Fox thrown in for good measure. End of quote! Hahahahahaha....

If you like pop music from the seventies on a top notch level you are right here.
Have fun
               Frank   Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3     - mp3@320

London Psychedelia from 1968: The Magic Mixture - This Is The Magic Mixture 1968 (2008 Sunbeam Records) Flac & mp3

The Magic Mixture were one of dozens of psychedelic bands making the rounds of London's rock clubs in 1968, though they were the only ones who recorded an album for Saga Records, a cut-rate classical label who were making a brief foray into pop music. The group's first and only album, This Is the Magic Mixture, is prized by collectors for its rarity, but as music it's fun and interesting without being especially remarkable.

The liner notes to Sunbeam Records' reissue of This Is the Magic Mixture reproduces a promotional flyer in which the band describes their music as "Cream-Hendrix Style," and while that formula isn't terribly far off, the comparisons don't quite flatter the Magic Mixture; lead guitarist Terry Thomas (later a member of Charlie) was a fine player, but he lacked Jimi's flash and vision, while the band couldn't muster the same sort of blues power that Cream generated on an off night. However, the group sounds admirably tight and well-focused, especially given the circumstances behind the recording of their sole album, which was essentially cut live in the studio in a single day.

 The songs are good if not great, especially the hard rock workout "You," the atmospheric "Moonbeams," and the trippy but propulsive "When I Was Young" (not the Animals hit, though not dissimilar). As castoffs of the British psychedelic era go, This Is the Magic Mixture is better than most and the album has its pearly moments, but those not already enamored of such things will probably find themselves immune to its charms.(allmusic.com)

A really charming psychedelic Pop/Rock album and in my ears the band sometimes sound a little like an american band. However it's a fine effort.
Enjoy
         Frank    Flac p1 & Flac p2       - mp3@320

Finest U.S. Power Pop : Deadbeat Poets - Circus Town '10 (2010 Popdetective) mp3@320

Frank Secich (born June 14, 1951 in Sharon, PA) is an American rock musician, songwriter, author and record producer. He was the bass player and founding member of the group Blue Ash from 1969–79 and guitarist and bassist for the Stiv Bators band from 1979 until 1981. He played in the Cleveland-based group Club Wow with Jimmy Zero of the Dead Boys from 1982–85 and produced the Ohio band the Infidels from 1985-1990. He is currently the rhythm guitarist for the Deadbeat Poets who were formed in 2006 in Youngstown, Ohio.(wiki)

Frank Secich, legendary musician and songwriter of the also legendary Power Pop band Blue Ash here with his now band Deadbeat Poets presents the 2010 album Circus Town.
Enjoy it
             Frank      mp3@320

If you like what you hear you can buy the album here

THAT Classic Power Pop album of the 90's: Cotton Mather - Kon Tiki 1997 Flac & mp3

Cotton Mather's first album, 1994's Cotton Is King, was fine guitar pop with a decided Squeeze influence, but it doesn't prepare one at all for the sonic onslaught of its 1997 follow-up. Kontiki is one can't-get-it-out-of-your-skull pop song after another, interspersed with bursts of tape collage and random studio noise. "Vegetable Row," for example, sounds like a hard-candy circa-'66 Dylan outtake before it ends with a few seconds' splice of a completely different song, which is rudely chopped off in time for the organ-driven "Aurora Bori Alice."

Variety is the watchword on Kontiki. The wildly overdriven feedback-fest "Church of Wilson" leads straight into the gently swirling keyboards and acoustic guitars of "Lily Dreams On," which immediately makes way for the classic harmony-filled jangle pop "Password." The amazing thing is that, despite the wild mood and style shifts, the album doesn't sound fragmentary in the least; the pieces all fall into place. Brad Jones' production features studio chatter, audible edits, remarkably loud clicks, and yet the overall sound is enormous, filled with amazing sonic depth.

Lo-fi this ain't. Song titles like "Camp Hill Rail Operator" or "Animal Show Drinking Song" might recall Guided By Voices, and the audio-verite "Prophecy for the Golden Age" wouldn't have sounded out of place on Pavement's Westing (By Musket and Sextant), but neither band could possibly come up with a song like the instant classic "My Before and After," three minutes worth of non-stop hooks grounded with a percussive low-register piano part that makes it sound like a lost outtake from Revolver. In an album's worth of non-stop pop delights, "My Before and After" is a clear masterpiece(allmusic.com)

5 Mushroom heads out of 4 possible Mushroom heads :-)

Enjoy
         Frank       Flac p1 & Flac p2       - mp3@320

Various Artists - Early Girls - Volume 5 (2008 Ace Records) Flac & mp3@320

Hello Folks, here comes Vol. 5 of the ace series and it's for the present the last one ( i don't know if ace project a Vol. 6 for the future). Everything have an end and i hope you will have a lot of fun with the girls here on the five discs. I plan to post a new series of women in pop, rock, jazz whatever in the next days.

Okay guys and girls here comes Vol.5.
Enjoy
         Frank       Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3       -  np3@320 p1  -  mp3@320 p2

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Midnight Ride With Paul Revere & The Raiders 1966 (2000 Sundazed)

Midnight Ride marked just about the pinnacle of Paul Revere & the Raiders' history as a source of great albums. Even more to their credit, most of the music on Midnight Ride was written by the bandmembers themselves, and not just Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere, but Phil Volk, Drake Levin, and Mike Smith getting a shared songwriting credit.

The irony is that this was the last album on which that egalitarian spirit was to dominate; alongside the tight, hard, eminently danceable rock & roll sounds that comprise about two-thirds of this album, there are signs of the softer, more introspective balladry that lead singer Mark Lindsay was starting to favor in his songwriting ("Little Girl in the Fourth Row," etc.). It was this stylistic break, coupled with disputes over which bandmembers were to get their songs represented on the group's albums, that led to Levin's departure following the release of this album, which helped precipitate a stylistic drift away from the sound that defined the group.

The Sundazed reissue, released in February 2000, has been remixed from the original three-track session masters, yet remains true to the band's original sound, and the album has been enhanced with the presence of three rocking bonus tracks (two of them car songs -- cool!). "Kicks" is still the coolest song here, but the Sundazed version rocks a lot harder with the extra tracks, and is a lot more fun.

There are also new notes by Volk and Levin, in which both look back with honesty yet a great deal of warmth and enjoyment for what they did, and what they were doing around the time of this album.(allmusic.com)

This is really are real good effort by the band and maybe their best.
It's a really fun album
Enjoy
         Frank    Flac p1  &  Flac p2        -  mp3@320

Pilot - Magic-A Golden Classic Edition (1974) (1997 Collectables) mp3 & Flac

Collectables' Magic is a retitled reissued of Pilot's eponymous debut album, boasting five bonus tracks: "Just Let Me Be," "January," "Do Me Good," "The Mover" and "Canada." With its swirling keyboards and falsetto vocals, "Magic" became one of the great one-shots of the '70s, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with one-hit wonders that Pilot's accompanying full-length isn't as good. Despite the lack of strong material, the album is hardly without merit. Pilot, along with producer Alan Parsons, crafted an album of light prog-rock and melodic soft pop-rock. All of the album sounds terrific, and there are some catchy melodies, but there aren't many great songs, just a lot of adequate ones. As a result, it's simply an artifact of its era, but it's an enjoyable one at that.(allmusic.com)

I can't agree in nothing what allmusic say here about the songs. I would love to see Mr Erlewine making music, writing songs, producing records, performing... i better stop here. :-)
There were not many better british pop albums 1974.

Have fun
               Frank   Flac p1  & Flac p2  & Flac p3          - mp3@320

PsychedelicPop/Rock by Glass Prism - Poe Through The Glass Prism 1969 (2012 Flawed Gems) Flac & mp3@320

The debut release from Pennsylvania quartet Glass Prism sets the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe to grandiose psychedelic arrangements -- the concept's more than a bit suspect, of course, but there's no denying the album's ambition or its execution.

Both Tom Varano and Augie Christiano are imaginative composers skilled at folding classical and jazz precepts into the hard rock idiom, and their nuanced arrangements (dominated by chiaroscuro shades of funereal organ) artfully convey the melancholy and macabre at the heart of Poe's verse. Equally impressive are Glass Prism's four-part harmonies, employed most effectively on songs like "El Dorado."(allmusic)

Psychedelic sounds from Pennsylvania.
Have fun

Cheers
           Frank     Flac p1  &  Flac p2  -   mp3@320     

Dogs - Too Much Class For The Neighbourhood 1982 (1992 Epic Records) Flac & mp3

Another great album from this "most forgotten" French band. There aren't a whole lot of "punk" bands that come to mind when one thinks of France in the 1970's, but the Dogs played plenty of gigs and proved that France could rock with the best of 'em. This isn't really a punk record, per se, but one that instead strongly leans toward a melodic, 60's pop/garage rock feel. If power pop's your thing, this will be right up your alley. They seem altogether more mellow on their third album over their more energetic debut Different.

You've got a few covers and classic tunes like "The Most Forgotten French Boy", "Too Much Class for the Neighbourhood", "Home Is Where I Want to Be", and the jangly "Lonesome Angie". A band with a very nice sound that shouldn't be neglected.(Vandaleyes, reader rate your music)

This is a very nice rock album with punk and pop.
And these french guys have done a lot of good music in the past.
Enjoy it
             Frank    Flac p1  & Flac p2       -  mp3@320

 

Various Artists - Early Girls - Volume 4 (2005 Ace Records) Flac & mp3@320

What can you say about a compilation that follows Rosemary Clooney with Little Eva, and LaVern Baker with Annette Funicello? You can say it is the fourth installment of Ace's entertaining Early Girls series. This volume focuses on chart hits between 1954 and 1964, and isn't afraid to include anyone though most of the artists are straight pop like Patience and Prudence, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and the McGuire Sisters.

There are also girl groups (the Cookies, the Essex), unknown R&B singers (Theola Kilgore, Annie Laurie), sweet teenagers (Marcy Jo, Jamie Horton), country crooners (Sue Thompson) and untamed forces of nature (Brenda Lee). The volume strikes a nice balance between well-known artists and obscurities, the highlights of the disc come from both camps.

 

From the former are Brenda Lee's knock-out novelty "Dum Dum," the Cookies candy kissed "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)," Nancy Wilson's " (You Don't Know) How Glad I Am," Patience and Prudence's perky "Gonna Get Along Without You Now"; from the latter are Tracey Dey's silly but fun "Teenage Cleopatra," Theola Kilgore's "The Love of My Man," the Toy Dolls' "Little Tin Soldier" and best of all from a woman who managed to be the paramour of both Ray Charles and Little Jimmy Scott, Mary Ann Fisher's absolutely fierce R&B howler "I Can't Take It.

" Overall the disc may lean a bit heavily on the orchestras and schmaltz but if you can stand it, Early Girls, Vol. 4 is a fun and sweet trip through an oft-ignored area of American pop.(allmusic)

Volume 4 of the Early Girls series by ace records.
Have fun and
enjoy it!
             Frank               Flac p1   &  Flac p2  &  mp3@320  -  mp3q320 p2

Davy Jones, Peter Noone & Bobby Sherman - Teen Idols Tour 1998 (Flac & mp3@320)

Bobby Sherman:
Sporting a winning smile and fashionably shaggy hair, Bobby Sherman was a genuine teen idol during the late '60s and early '70s. Sherman first surfaced as a regular on ABC-TV's mid-'60s rock spectacular Shindig!, then co-starred on the warmhearted program Here Come the Brides. He stormed the pop charts as a vocalist in 1969-70 with the well-produced "Little Woman," "La La La (If I Had You)," "Easy Come, Easy Go," and "Julie, Do Ya Love Me," all four songs credited as million sellers on the Metromedia label. The hits stopped abruptly in 1972, and today Sherman mostly works behind the scenes in television.(allmusic.com)

Peter Noone:
In a multi-dimensional career that garnered respect from his colleagues and millions of fans worldwide, Peter Noone was the professional's professional. As a child, he appeared on the British television shows Coronation Street, Knight Errant, and Family Solicitor, and went on to study acting at the Manchester School of Music and Drama.

Bobby Sherman 1998

In 1963, he joined a Manchester beat group, the Heartbeats, whose name was changed shortly thereafter to Herman & the Hermits and eventually shortened to Herman's Hermits. His career with that popular recording act sold well over 50 million records, at times eclipsing the Beatles themselves in sales. (excerpt bio allmusic.com)

Noone in the sixties

Davy Jones:
One year after the Monkees called it quits (for the first time), Davy Jones surfaced with his second solo outing (1965's pre-Monkees album David Jones was his debut). Jones has often said that he never viewed himself as a musician, but rather as an entertainer. This is evident with this album. Instead of trying to write a masterpiece, he relied on producer Jackie Mills to assemble a number of pop/rock songs and a tight band to go along with them.

...and in the seventies...

To that end, it is a success. The playing is more than adequate and this is a collection of pop songs. Jones has a pleasing voice, and the songs themselves are short enough so that none of them can become truly irritating. The music is very similar to the Monkees' 1970 album, Changes. Some of the songs are filler (such as "Take My Love"), while others are examples of great pop songs (such as the Top 40 single "Rainy Jane"). Jones did not set out to change the world with this album, but he did set out to put together a pleasing product. To that end, he succeeded. Monkees fans will love this album.

...end of nineties

These three guys were in their times of pop fame, then in the sixties, real great teenage popstars.
And these guys were GOOD.

Davy...

The recording here is from a US tour in 1998. It's a very very good recording and the music on it
is without any doubt first class pop music, delivered by three guys who was in '98 around 30 years on stage. And that you can here . Beautiful from the first tone to the last. Highly recommend!
A big big 'Thank You' to Marc, a reader from California  who provided the album for the blog. 

Okay Folks enjoy it,
                                 Frank   Flac p1 & Flac p2       - mp3@320

p.s.: If you want to buy the album i found it on amazon for nearly 60 bucks...  :-(