The Aerovons - Resurrection 1969 (2003 RPM) Flac

 HISTORY:
The Aerovons' story sounds like a fairytale, and in most respects it was a fairytale come true, except for the anticlimactic and grim ending. It was probably the dream of millions of teenage American boys to meet the Beatles and record at Abbey Road Studios in the late '60s. The Aerovons, unlike virtually every other such band, did so. Personnel instability intervened, however, and the group only got to issue a couple of rare singles before splitting up. They did record an entire album of promising material heavily influenced by the late-'60s Beatles, which finally saw release on CD in 2003.
The Aerovons were formed in 1966 in St. Louis, and in late 1967, guitarist/pianist Tom Hartman recorded a demo of his composition "A World of You" at the instigation of his mother. The demo was heard by a representative of Capitol Records, and though he offered the group a session in Los Angeles, Hartman's mother told him the band wanted to record in London. In early 1968, the still-young Aerovons -- Hartman was 16 -- flew to London to play their demo for EMI. EMI was impressed enough to sign them when Hartman and his mother returned to London in August 1968, and the Aerovons even got another offer at the time with Decca. The whole band came back to London in March 1969 to record.

Over the next few months the group cut about an album's worth of material at Abbey Road. Unsurprisingly considering the surroundings, and considering that the Beatles were the group's heroes anyway, the material sounded much like the Beatles did circa 1967-1969, though on the lighter side of what the Beatles themselves came up with. More surprisingly, the album was produced by Hartman himself, who also wrote most of the songs laid down in the studio. Though the sessions were quite well-produced and well-arranged, with some of the settings also reminiscent of the late-'60s Bee Gees or (more distantly) Hollies, the songs were still too derivative to have stood much chance of making a big mark had everything been issued at the time.

In a perfect world, perhaps such a young group should have been given some more time to hone a more original sound. It was and is an imperfect world, however, and before an album could even be released, fate intervened to end the Aerovons' brief career. The sessions had themselves been done as a three-piece, although they'd come over to London as a quartet, when guitarist Phil Edholm left before recording began. Shortly after returning to St. Louis in mid-1969, drummer Mike Lombardo left. EMI, concerned about the personnel shifts, canceled the album, and the band split up shortly afterward, though a couple of rare singles were issued on Parlophone in 1969. Hartman did a single for Bell in 1970 before abandoning the record business to go to college, though he later got into writing music for television, radio, and film. The Aerovons' canceled album was issued on CD by RPM in 2003, with both tracks from a non-LP single, a demo, and an unreleased song added as bonus cuts.

THE ALBUM:
The dozen songs that would have been on the Aerovons' album had it come out (though a couple of the songs did come out on a 1969 single) form the core of this release, Resurrection,the U.K. bonus edition also tacks on four bonus tracks. The Aerovons' unusual story -- a band from the American Midwest recording in Abbey Road in 1969, led and produced by their 17-year-old singer-songwriter -- might be the main reason there was interest in excavating these sessions, but this CD is not a mere curio. It's quite respectable late-'60s Beatles-style pop/rock, if a little green around the edges and pretty derivative. In fact, in a couple of spots it's downright imitative, with "Say Georgia" taking licks from "Oh! Darling," and "Resurrection" itself lifting from "Across the Universe." (Neither of those songs had yet been released by the Beatles at the time of the sessions, but the group heard them by virtue of working in Abbey Road.) Fortunately, those are the only blatant cops, though Beatles comparisons abound throughout, particularly in the Paul McCartney-esque piano-playing. Songs like "With Her" and "The Years" recall the acoustic outings of both John Lennon and Paul McCartney on The White Album, while "Bessie Goodheart" uses McCartney's more vaudevillian Sgt. Pepper-era outings as an obvious launching pad, and "Something of Yours" brings to mind "Michelle." To this list you could also add the very Lennon-esque echo on the vocal of "The Children." The Aerovons leaned more toward wistful and sadness-tinged moods than the Beatles did, though. One of the best tracks, "World of You," brings out that quality very well, recalling the better late-'60s orchestrated Bee Gees opuses. The bonus tracks include both sides of a non-LP 1969 single ("The Train," their poppiest number, which echoes both the Hollies and the Bee Gees), the outtake "Here" (very much like McCartney's piano ballads), and a demo of "World of You." (Richie Unterberger allmusic.com)

If you love the Beatles mid- to late 60's than you maybe will love this (like me) or you will hate it because you think this is nothing more than a rip-off or plagiarism. But this is really well done and the songs themself are quite good. I like this record very much. Hope you like it and have fun
Frank
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To Jangle Around With Sixteen Baroque Tambourines - More from ''The Three O'Clock'' in Flac

Sixteen Tambourines/Baroque Hoedown both on one disc!

Like i said a few days ago i post some more of the band today. It's the ep ''Baroque Hoedown'' and the album ''Sixteen Tambourines''.
The band recorded ''Baroque Hoedown'' in August '82 and released it in December on ''Frontier Records''. It was a big success for the band and the ep sold very well. The word was they sold around 15000 copies then. Anyway, for the album ''Sixteen Tambourines'' Gutierrez and Quercio did the most songwriting and the whole band arranged the songs together.
''Sixteen Tambourines'' is a great album with a giant pop quality and the psychedelic sound aspect never feels old or retro. That's just my two cents.

Hope you have fun with this post,
cheers
          Frank

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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
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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)
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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
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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