VA - Fuzz, Flaykes & Shakes Vol.3 - Stay Out Of My World (1999 Bacchus Archives) Flac & mp3@320

There are 18 more obscurities from the mid- to late '60s on the third volume of this garage rock series, falling squarely in the middle of the pack as far as worth and interest. For some that might qualify as a ringing recommendation. Others might be put off by the relatively unexceptional songwriting and the limited melodic and creative range, often sticking to brooding minor keys, topped off with some fuzz guitar and folk-rock trimmings. This isn't wonderful stuff, but there are some songs here and there that stick out. The Soul Survivors' "Can't Stand to Be in Love With You," which is like a mating of a Zombies-type tune with U.S. garage raunch, was a number one hit in Denver in late 1965 (and if you're wondering, they were not the Soul Survivors who had a huge hit with "Expressway to Your Heart," but an entirely different band). The Tikis' "Somebody's Son," a first-person tale of an abandoned orphan, is pretty strong stuff for a teen-oriented 1966 single. The Merseybeats USA's "Nobody Loves Me That Way" is more in the typical teen rock mold, but is one of the few cuts here to feature (somewhat) name performers, as Terry Adams and Steve Ferguson went on to NRBQ. The Camel Drivers' "The Grass Looks Greener" is another effective utilization of a Zombies-type sheen to the songwriting.(allmusic.com)

Here is part three of the Bacchus Archives series and i hope you like what you have heard till now by the first two volumes.

Have fun
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Ringo Starr - Goodnight Vienna 1974 (1992 Parlophone EMI) Flac & mp3@320

Goodnight Vienna was very much a follow-up to Ringo, on which Ringo Starr called upon his bevy of musical buddies. Most prominent among them was John Lennon, who again wrote the leadoff track, "(It's All Da-Da-Down To) Goodnight Vienna," and played on three songs; also included are Elton John, who wrote and played on "Snookeroo," Dr. John, Billy Preston, Robbie Robertson, and Harry Nilsson.

Richard Perry again produced, bringing his strong pop sensibility to the diverse material. The only real fall-off was in the songwriting; the album's Top Ten hits were "Only You," the old Platters song, and Hoyt Axton's novelty number "No No Song," which winked at intoxicants, but little else on the set stood out. Goodnight Vienna was another enjoyable Ringo record, but it lacked the star power and consistency of its predecessor. Still, compared to the rest of his '70s albums, it was a masterpiece.( allmusic.com)

Some really strong tracks here (Only You, Back Off Boogaloo, Six O'Clock and some more) but three weak songs as well in my opinion (Call me, No No Song, Easy For Me).All in all this is a good album and for sure one of his better '70s works. To speak of a masterpiece is completely overrated also in the named context.

Viel Spass
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Power Pop at its best! The Real Kids - Better Be Good 1977 - 1979 (1999 Norton Records) Flac & mp3

BETTER BE GOOD is an 18-track compilation of alternate takes and live versions of songs that showed up on various releases by the Real Kids and the Taxi Boys, who for all intents and purposes were the same band.

Leader John Felice, who was in the first, unrecorded lineup of the Modern Lovers with his next-door neighbor Jonathan Richman in the early '70s and later roadied for the Ramones, is a punk rock savant; the Real Kids were the first truly great Boston punk band, although they sounded much more like the Flamin Groovies than the Sex Pistols. These three-chord rockers, bracketed by two versions of the great "All Kindsa Girls," are tough, cool, and catchy. Complete novices should probably start with the original albums, but these alternate versions are much more than mere ephemera (allmusic.com)

 To all the ''complete novices'' i think you should take all you can get because these guys were always great. You can't go wrong. The album is contributed by Mark, a very nice guy who contributes to the blog from time to time. Thanks, man!

Have fun
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Psychedelic Folk Rock: Bill Quick - Maravillosa Gente 1972 (2007 Guerssen Records) Flac & mp3@320

"Mysterious Bill Quick..this guy was son of North-American dad and Venezuelan mum, and landed in Madrid in the early 70s, spending most of his time playing music and manufacturing leather belts and other stuff that he later sold at the popular Rastro flea market in Madrid, meeting point for all hippies of the time.

He somehow got in touch with famous producer Alain Milhaud, who got really impressed by his work and quickly offered him a deal for recording a long-play to be released in Milhauds own Explosion label. Then Bill recruited some of top studio musicians and foreign friends who were also living in Madrid at the time; the list of people who play on the recordings is impressive: Salvador Dominguez & Chema Pellico (ex-Cerebrum), Rafa Galvez (Vainica Doble), Frank Rojas (Sangre). Jess Lam (Jess & James).. and up to eleven musicians joined Bill in the recording studio.

As a result, "Maravillosa gente" (Beautiful people) was recorded. Ranging from beautiful, introspective, acoustic solo tracks like "Beautiful People", "Only the weather" or the acid-folk of "Winters gonna come" to full backing-band hard-edged ones like "Take me away", "Somebody" and the folk-rock sounding of "With you, Lord" or "I sing this song", the album is a real treat from start to finish.

It has an awesome sound and amazing production (it was recorded at one of the most advanced Spanish recording studios at the time), along with top musicianship and Bills amazing songwriting. A real big ticket that was absolutely ignored in Spain at the time, and even today remains unknown to most of folk-rock collectors and fans. Curious enough, the album got released in Brazil as well (with poor sales again) (Mutant-Sounds)

I haven't heard this for a long time. It's still a great effort in my ears. It's naturally not pop but i allow it, lol.

Have fun
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VA - Fuzz, Flaykes & Shakes Vol.2 - The Day Breaks at Dawn (1999 Bacchus Archives) Flac & mp3@320

Hello Folks, i hope all of you enjoy their free weekend. I'm on my way to visit a flea market in the neighbour town with my love. Hoping to find some good records or CDs. Sun is shining so it looks like a good idea for the afternoon.
Okay here is part 2 of the Bacchus Archives series from 1999 and i can tell you it's a very good second volume. I think you will like it, too. Likewise i post the complete artwork of the series. I don't know if there was a book because i don't owe the real discs, i found this in the web long time ago. All front and back covers are here. If there is somebody who own the booklet maybe you would contributr it here. Just send an email :-) . Thanks and now i hope you have fun folks.

Enjoy
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                                    Artwork 1-7

New Series: VA - Fuzz, Flaykes & Shakes Vol.1 (1999 Bacchus Archives Records) Flac & mp3@320

If anything, the second volume in Fuzz, Flaykes, & Shakes is superior to its predecessor on purely musical terms, emphasizing bands with harder, more frantic, soulful psychedelic sounds. Dave Travis Extreme's "Last Night, the Flowers Bloomed" is a lost artifact of the Sunset Strip riots that is a match for the Standells' classic on the same subject; the Chicago-based Traces of Time's "Oh Bob" is an even harder and better-paced piece of psych-punk, and it only gets better from there. John English & Lemon Drops ("Just Don't Complain") and Zorba & the Greeks ("One and Only Girl") are incredibly cool, frantic dance numbers with a hard psych edge, but the real revelation is track number five, "I Saw Her Yesterday" by the Sunrisers; these guys came from Whitestone, Queens (and nearby Little Neck), and they delivered up one of the smoothest, coolest, most well-played pieces of psychedelic rock ever to come out of New York City, period, with a great beat, memorable hooks, and mournfully frustrated teen vocals; this jewel from October of 1966 was, alas, their only recorded venture in the psych-punk vein. Soul Inc.'s "Stronger Than Dirt" is a funny psychedelic take on a pop-culture theme. Amoeba ("Lost Love") out of McAllen, TX, may well have gotten tarred and feathered for pushing a sound this punked out in 1965 -- even the 13th Floor Elevators had to blow relatively cosmopolitan Houston, after all -- and these guys were just as direct in their punk sensibilities. The Deepest Blue, the Last Chapter, the Graven Image ("Take a Bite of Life," with a Bo Diddley-beat), the Hackers ("Keep On Running, Girl"), the Tracers ("Who Do You Love," with a pumping organ in the mix), the Denims ("Salty Dog Man"), Flowers, Fruits & Pretty Things ("Take Me Away"), and the Search ("Mr. Custer") all acquit themselves well, but there are a handful of acts here that could easily have competed in the larger musical arena with the material or the talent they offer up here: the Druids with "Cool, Calm & Collected" (not the Rolling Stones song), and its catchy choruses and solid guitar hooks; the Other Four with "Searching for My Love," crunchy rhythm guitars (and one great lead player) and surging organ beneath an achingly beautiful melody, especially on the choruses; and the title track of this compilation by the Backgrounds, which is a great song handled by a lead singer who's trying just a little too hard to sound like Arthur Lee of Love. The sound on this CD is very slightly shakier than the quality of its predecessor, but the music is the purest, distilled psych-punk, with barely a mellow or reflective moment anywhere on this disc.(allmusic.com)

Hola Friends and Folks, here is the new series i promised to you earlier today. The series have seven volumes and i want to post again one per day. Tomorrow with Vol.2 i will post the complete artwork as well.
Hope you will enjoy this,

Viel Spass
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Ringo Starr - Y Not (Hip-O Records) 2010 Flac & mp3

Ringo Starr defined his solo career through his collaborations, scoring his first big hit with the assistance of his fellow Fabs and later sustaining himself through his All-Starr Band, so his decision to produce 2010’s Y Not on his own appears to be a big deal. Of course, those collaborators sharpened Ringo’s focus but never altered his amiable pop -- that friendly, shambling sound is Ringo, something Y Not proves without a shadow of a doubt by sounding virtually interchangeable with its immediate predecessors despite a production that inexplicably feels like a response to George Harrison’s 1987 comeback, Cloud Nine.

Since Ringo bathes himself in unrepentant nostalgia, this 20-year flashback is odd but appropriate because Starr is all about cheerful reminders of happy times filled with Peace Dreams and memories of “The Other Side of Liverpool.” Starr does have some famous friends to bolster his journey through the past -- Van Dyke Parks co-wrote “Walk with You” but his presence is obscured by a Paul McCartney harmony, Joe Walsh is partially responsible for the stiffly thumping “Fill in the Blanks,” Richard Marx keeps the '80s nostalgia flowing on “Mystery of the Night,” while Joss Stone valiantly tries to pull the proceedings into the present on the album-closing “Who’s Your Daddy,” a song where Ringo comfortably plays second banana -- but he has no overall collaborator; he’s steering this ship himself and has no desire to depart from his familiar course home.

Again, like there was on Liverpool 8, there is charm to Starr’s tried and true: exciting it is not but it’s as comforting as an old friend who doesn’t change, he just stays the same.(allmusic.com)

A record by Ringo Starr i don't know what i think about. Some songs have a real good songwriting and sounds good as well... but that's just a few. The most songs here to me sounds like a trip back in the eighties cause of the production. Why that? A song like Who's Your Daddy?, hell Ringo i have no words. To me after some good works in the 000 years this is a tired album. With good will a mediocre work. I go to sleep...
Different opinions? Please comment.
 

Have fun
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VA - Imaginations - Psychedelic Sounds From The Young Blood, Beacon & Mother Labels, 1969-1974 (2014 Guerssen Records) Flac & mp3@320

I couldn't find a review for this compilation of the spanish Guerssen label with tracks from 1969 till 1974. The reason for this is that i am to lazy for a search at the moment, lol.
First: This is a very very good compilation of quite different tracks by very different bands. Despite or maybe because of this the compilation presents great music.

Not all is really ''Psychedelic'' but like i said very good. To me here is just one weak track (Taiconderoga - Speakin' My Mind), all the other songs to me soungs good or great. Highlights to me for instance are Derek Paul - Drugtaker, both songs by The Damned (not the Punk rockers).

The first one is called ''Theta'' and uses synthesizer sounds very great and to me it sounds ahead of it's time then. The second one ''Morning Bird'' is the last track on the record and is fantastic in a completely different way, very glam style. Rubber Band and ''Moonwalker'' sounds like a glam pop song with a blues lick harmonica.

This is not the typical progressive compilation of the '70s. I find no better words cause of my not well english language speaking but the compilation is really worth a listen. A lot gems to discover.
Hope you have fun

Enjoy
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Nederbeat/Psychedelic Pop From 1968: Bojoura - Nightflight Nightsight (2010 Rev-Ola) Flac & mp3@320

Bojoura (the Bulgarian name for peony) was discovered by George Kooymans of Golden Earring in 1967. One of his songs (‘Everybody’s Day’) landed her on the local hit parade and made her an instant success: she has won the popularity polls ever since. During the 1967-68 season she became the hostess of the AVRO-TV programme “Vjoew” in which she interviewed The Supremes as well as Truman Capote.

In the summer of 1968 an invitation followed to represent the Netherlands at the “Festival Orphée d’Or” in Burgas, Bulgaria. In 1969, her version of “Frank Mills” from the musical Hair hit the top of the local bestsellers lists. As a result of this success she has been making personal appearances with the Thijs van Leer trio and scored a hit with ‘The Letter’.
Bojoura, in full Raina Gerardina Bojoura Cleuver van Melzen, was born at The Hague, Holland, on April 15, 1947. She is the daughter of Dany Zonewa, a well-known opera-singer and music-teacher of Bulgarian origin.

After her musical career, Bojoura married with Hans Cleuver, drummer of Focus who later became their manager. They got two daughters Laurie and Emilie and a son Jurriaan. Daughter Emilie is active at the drumming-school (like her father) at Scheveningen (The Hague). Bojoura studied several languages at master-level and ‘till today she is a teacher in foreign languages like English and Russian.(Discogs)

Very impressive voice and the songs are well orchestrated psychedelic pop. If you don't know the album give it a try.

Enjoy
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The 4th and last volume: Australia's & New Zealand's GaragePopModBeatRock Of The '60s: Various - Sixties Downunder 1988-2000 Vol 4 (2000 Raven Records) Flac & mp3@320

The Sixties Downunder series of Australian 1960s rock takes a downturn for its fourth volume, as series of this sort often do the deeper they get into the count. The reservations that apply to rock from this time and region to milder degrees on some other Australian '60s comps come more to the foreground here: too much imitative derivation of overseas rock trends, too many covers of overseas songs done better elsewhere, and too much of a bubblegummy pop vibe the further it gets into the psychedelic pop era.

That's not to say there isn't some good stuff here, and that it isn't at the least educational for North American and European listeners who have heard virtually nothing of '60s rock from this part of the world. There are a couple of singles from the one group on here that many people all over the globe will have heard before, the Easybeats, and Steve Wright and George Young of the Easybeats wrote one of the better remaining tracks, Johnny Young's decent 1966 British Invasion-like mover "Step Back."

The Loved Ones' 1966 single "Sad Dark Eyes" is an actual classic, a brooding R&B ballad that sounds like a missing link between Them and Nick Cave, with some of the longest held vocal note-howls you'll come across on a rock single. There's no buried treasure among the other couple dozen tracks, however, though there are some pleasing outings here and there, like Bev Harrell's perky cover of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri's "What Am I Doing Here With You?," Pastoral Symphony's phased pop-psych-soul "Love Machine," and Bobby & Laurie's reading of Roger Miller's "Hitchhiker."

A lot of the post-1967 portion of the disc is insubstantial, sweet, flower power bubblegum or bombastically orchestrated flower pop (the Virgil Brothers sound like a terribly overwrought Walker Brothers imitation), though the heavier hard rock-psychedelia of King Fox's "Unforgotten Dreams" ends the CD on a relatively up note.(allmusic.com)

Hello Folks, today the little downunder series ends but like all the other three before you get here a very fineload of great downunder pop music of the time back then. I hope you had and will have fun with these four discs. I will start later today a new series so stay tuned and i will surprise you with some fine stuff. Now have fun with vol four,

cheers
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The Chesterfield Kings - Where The Action Is! (1999 Sundazed) Flac & mp3

In 1999, the Chesterfield Kings were still doing pretty much the same thing they were 15-20 years earlier: an album comprised mostly of covers of '60s garage classics, with a few originals in the same style. In fact, just four of the 17 tracks here are group compositions, the covers spanning nuggets relatively obscure (the Spiders' "Don't Blow Your Mind," the Electric Prunes' "Ain't It Hard"), hits (by the Syndicate Sound, Blues Magoos, and Hollies), and kinda cultish cuts (the Yardbirds' "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," the Kinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," the Standells' "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White").

By this time, it should be clear to everybody that the CKs are not innovators but popularizers of the form, just as some contemporary blues band would be popularizing B.B. King and Muddy Waters on a mostly covers disc, or a Scottish folk singer would be popularizing reels and jigs. It might seem strange to think of '60s garage rock as an authentic folk form, but keep in mind that the style's heyday passed more than 30 years before this album was made. It is, of course, not nearly as good as hearing a mixtape of the original versions, not only because the original versions are better, but also because here all of the material is delivered by one singer (Greg Prevost), which makes the experience much less varied. Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders co-wrote, and adds guest vocals to, the too-aptly-named "Where Do We Go from Here."(R. Unterberger)

Well done cover work by TCK. I always liked the band because i never expected a lot more as...well done covers.
Enjoy
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Sunshine/Baroque/Psychedelic Pop: The Peppermint Trolley - Beautiful Sun 1965 - 1968 (2009 Now Sounds Records) Flac & mp3@320

The Peppermint Trolley Company are quintessentially '60s Southern Californian, capturing the soft fallout of folk-rock and psychedelia, all wrapped up in the studio gleam of Hollywood. Tinsel Town played a large role in the group's existence as they became best-known as the singers of the theme songs for the Brady Bunch and Love, American Style, gigs they received because they had a sweet commercial sound that should have hit the Top 40 even if it never did (the closest they came is with the minor hit "Baby You Come Rollin' 'Cross My Mind," a bubblegum spin on Glen Campbell).

The Peppermint Trolley Company's problem wasn't a lack of good collaborators -- on their eponymous 1968 debut, Chad Stuart of Chad & Jeremy, provided arrangements, Roger Nichols appears on his song "Trust" -- or a dearth of material but that they lacked a strong identity, too easily moving from lite psychedelia to gently rolling folk-pop to slightly tougher rock, always falling back on splashy Hollywood pop whenever things threatened to get too loud.

Their professional facility gave them a cheerful anonymity which may have hurt their career, but does make their recordings, collected here on a generous 27-track collection, a pleasing pop artifact of the late '60s, their anonymity letting the era shine through. This is even true of their earlier recordings dredged up by the compilers, who, including singles, the group recorded under the names the Mark Five, the C Minors, and the Intercoms, sides that find the group tackling all manners of mid-'60s pop/rock.

These earlier singles are generally livelier, recalling the Beau Brummels, the Beatles, the Byrds and the Monkees, but that only bolsters the impression that no matter what name they chose, the Peppermint Trolley Company were L.A. soft pop pros easily adapting to the times. But that's the paradox of the studio pop of this era -- the names of the group don't matter, the sounds do, and the Peppermint Trolley Company produced enough breezy, easy sounds to make Beautiful Sun more than worthwhile for aficionados of this style and sound.(allmusic.com)

Classic Sunshine/Baroque pop album by the Faragher brothers. The guys and all who are involved in the making of the album delivered top notch work. The disc have 16 bonus tracks with different pre Peppermint bands like The Mark V, The C-Minors, The Intercoms and songs who are not released on the album.
Don't miss it.

Enjoy
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