Grapefruit second time: Grapefruit - Around Grapefruit 1968 (2005 Repertoire Records) mp320

Here is the debut album of the band. I posted the review by Richie Unterberger in my most recent post. The album is released in 1968. In my opinion a marvelous pop album of his time.

Here in the artwork you will find the ''liner notes'' of the original vinyl release, i mentioned also in my earlier Grapefruit post, written by a guy named Derek Taylor.
For me it is all a little bit curious. But maybe some of you know more about it.
Like i said before the music is real fine and i hope you have ........FUN!
Kind regards
                    Frank         mp3@320

What happened between Terry M and Grapefruit? Grapefruit - Around The BBC 1968/69 (Flac)

Like the fruit after it was named, Grapefruit's debut album was at times too sweet, but was on the whole a promising and worthy effort. Devoted almost wholly to songs written by leader George Alexander, the record featured tuneful, upbeat mid-tempo late-'60s British rock with good harmonies, creative ornate arrangements, and a very slight and very sunny psychedelic tinge. Certainly similarities to the Paul McCartney-penned tracks from the Beatles' own psych-pop era are evident, and if George Alexander's songs weren't in nearly the same league as McCartney's, well, no one working the style was in McCartney's league. Grapefruit was at their best on the occasional songs in which they reached into slightly darker and more melancholy territory, particularly when they made creative use of strings, organ, baroque keyboards, and Mellotron, as on "This Little Man" and "Dear Delilah" and the instrumental "Theme for Twiggy."

The latter tune sounds like something that could have been killer had words been devised; as it is, it seems like something that wasn't quite seen through to completion. There's also the Four Seasons cover "C'mon Marianne," which, although it wasn't one of their better tracks, was (along with "Dear Delilah") one of their two small U.K. hits. The CD reissue on Repertoire adds "Dead Boot," the non-LP B-side of "Dear Delilah."(allmusic.com R.U.)

As you read this is not the review for ''Around the BBC'' but for ''Around Grapefruit'' the debut album of the band which i post also in a few minutes. Please read the ''info'' which is included in this post. Sounds interesting together with the ''liner notes'' from the original vinyl which ''wrote'' by Derek Taylor from ''Around Grapefruit''.What happened then there between Terry Melcher and the band? Maybe anybody of you can help me wit this question?! Never read this kind of liner notes...or did i get some wrong because of my english speaking? Anyway here comes ''Around The BBC'' and a little later ''Around Grapefruit''.

Cheers
           Frank
Flac

Big Hello - Apples And Oranges 2001 ( 1st and 2nd album) m4a

After neo-power pop group the Elvis Brothers disbanded, drummer/songwriter Brad Elvis formed a new outfit in late 1994, which he dubbed Big Hello. Despite a rash of early personnel changes, the band built a following in its hometown of Chicago and around the Midwest through extensive touring. The remainder of the lineup eventually settled on vocalist Chloe Orwell, guitarist Johnny Million, and bassist Tom Atteberry. In addition to contributing to several power pop compilations, Big Hello gained increased exposure through hosting Chicago Pop Mondays, a highly

successful series of concerts at the Beat Kitchen. In December 1996, Big Hello released a limited-edition, cassette-only live recording entitled Live Via Satellite...Girl, which made a strong impression on local power pop fans. In early 1998, the Break-Up! label issued the group's Girl Versus Boy Verses EP, which in months was the best-selling release in the company's history; the full-length Apple Album followed on Parasol that same year.

This is the double disc edition of the first two albums. Inside is front/back of the single albums and the covers of the double disc edition. The files are in m4a format.
Bis bald
           Frank

m4a

Machine fixed! Here we go: Captain Sensible - The Universe Of Geoffrey Brown (1993) mp3

A Captain Sensible LP is a rare event. Since his first two albums appeared in 1981 and 1982 while he was still in the Damned, only 1989's Revolution Now and this new effort have been released. Not that it's completely his fault; this new work was completed over two years ago -- it stinks when a legend of this ability can't find someone willing to issue an already recorded album. Nonetheless, the good Captain doesn't fail us and never has. While not as strong as Revolution Now, all of his usual goofy, nostalgic neo-psychedelic guitar tricks and surprisingly crafted pop tunes are in place and sound 1993 despite his most retro prank yet: "Damned" if this isn't a concept album about one Geoffrey Brown, whose sedate corporate life is turned topsy-turvy when now-extinct aliens start leaving warning messages on his computer screen about our similar self-inflicted demise.

The concept is amusing, listening to Brown's wife, co-workers, and friends abandon him as a crackpot only for the government to recognize his value in the end. It combines two common Sensible themes: our own self-destructive impulses and the ostracizing of folks who go against accepted practices and actually dare to use their own brains; can there be any other truly lasting positive message from the supposedly (not really) nihilistic (actually really fun) punk days that loony-tunes like Sensible helped found? And such glitzy tunes as "Holiday in My Heart," "Street of Shame," and the title track claw their way into your affections in a few plays.

The man can write -- like his pal Robyn Hitchcock, only much more consistently and without the nonsense lyrics, Sensible loves a pop song, knows one when he hears one or writes one, and has 30 years of great pop song riffs and styles stored in his brain to compose his own. Ever since the Damned's masterful Strawberries revealed his prowess, he's been loved by those in the know: He's one-third ridiculous clown, one-third lovable English eccentric incapable of growing old, and one-third (barely noticed as a result) great artist. Sensible has made some of the happiest, most enjoyable tunes around ever by a musician so scoffed at, and this is another ambitious yet modest gem from a true personality original.(allmusic.com)

To me this is my favourite album of the Capt'n. A lot power pop inside, psychedelic pop also. If you don't know this album try it. This is completely another kind of pop than e.g. ''Women And Children First''.
Later more
                 Frank
mp3@320

Hello there...

Hello friends and folks, guys and gals. Hope you have a nice saturday morning and a tasty breakfast. My machine make problems and at the moment i try to fix it. I'm working on it nearly the whole morning and this is a real f... ..! Have to do some little things yet and hope it will work again without any problems. Sorry for that! Okay see you later with some good music ( i hope)
cheers
          Frank

Everybody wants? Everybody wants! The Struts - Everybody Wants (2014) Flac

Originally released in 2014, the debut long player from the Derbyshire-based rockers is an unapologetic blast of earworm-heavy, modern rock/punk-pop in a neo-glam wrapper, and as cocksure as it is calculated. Imagine a Slade-crazed, real life version of Russell Brand's Infant Sorrow (the band from Get Him to the Greek) fronted by a man who delivers each and every "R" with a brazen alveolar trill in a voice that's an amalgam of Freddie Mercury, Dee Snider, Noddy Holder, and David Johansen. Everybody Wants is not a subtle album. It's all pomp, circumstance, bluster, and nasty, sugary goodness; an 11-track set (13 on the 2016 U.S. reissue) of hook-laden, radio-ready party songs that embrace both sleaze and cheese. Luke Spiller is a born frontman. He's got the Jagger swagger, but where Mick's antics invoked the American south, Spiller is a purely East Midlands creation, and like the Darkness' Justin Hawkins, his flamboyant English delivery will likely be the barometer listeners use to gauge the duration of their stay.

The songs themselves are largely formulaic, but delivered with such gusto that it's easy to forgive the chicanery behind them. Bawdy, ballsy, silly, and sweet, standouts like "Could Have Been Me," "Roll Up," and "Kiss This," not to mention a couple of new gems on the 2016 reissue -- "These Times Are Changing" and "Ol' Switcheroo" -- will likely appeal to a wide range of pop enthusiasts. From the Buckcherry fan to the One Direction fan, there's a little bit of something for everyone on the aptly named Everybody Wants.

This record is just fun, fun, fun and paaaaaaaaarrrrty! A real good Glam'n'punk'n'popandroll'nglitterfunsoundz rrrecord. Highly recommend if your party need a shot of fun fun fun. Great Glam Pop!!!
Cheers
           Frank
rrrFlac

The Gordian Knot - The Gordian Knot 1968 (2007) Flac

Gordian Knot was a short-lived band from southern California by way of Mississippi. They released only one album, a terrific soft rock/harmony pop effort produced by Clark Burroughs of the Hi-Lo's. Original pressings are considered highly collectible and valuable. The group formed at the University of Mississippi and was led by ex-Mississippi all-American quarterback/guitarist/lead vocalist Jim Weatherly, a native of Pontotoc, MS. The group caught their biggest break after they appeared at a party thrown by Nancy Sinatra, who apparently liked them so much that she asked them to accompany her on a USO trip to Vietnam. According to their liner notes, they were "one of the few groups since the Beatles to possess genuine charm...not a phony show biz glucose charm, but the real thing." The bulk of the songs for their album were written by Weatherly, and have an edgier, husky country-rock vibe compared with those written by Leland Russell, whose beautiful tunes are comparatively similar to the Association's (Burroughs, it should be pointed out, was also a vocal arranger on the Association's Insight Out and Waterbeds in Trinidad! albums).

"One Way Street" is the band's lone obligatory jug band entry. The bandmembers also appeared as themselves in a 1968 MGM teensploitation flick called Young Runaways, performing an original entitled "Ophelia's Dream." A few years after the release of this album, Weatherly moved to Nashville and became a country singer/songwriter, penning a handful of hits. Weatherly's biggest success as a songsmith came in 1973, however, when he wrote five of the nine songs on Gladys Knight & the Pips' Top Ten album Imagination, including the soulful "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me" and "Midnight Train to Georgia" ("Midnight Plane to Houston" was the original title), a pop and R&B number one smash in September 1973. It scored two Grammy awards the following year. Weatherly recorded several albums for Buddah in the mid-'70s, and a few on ABC and Elektra. He has since co-written with younger country acts and provided Vince Gill, Bryan White, and others with hit songs.allmusic.com

Wonderful 60's psychedelic pop record and completely underrated. Hope you will like it and have fun. Greetings
                      Frank
Flac

Redd Kross - Phaseshifter (1993) Flac

On Phaseshifter, Redd Kross has stripped away many of the '60s and '70s pop-culture trappings that figured prominently on earlier recordings (covers of Brady Bunch and Charles Manson songs, for instance). As a result, the band (basically brothers Jeffrey and Steven McDonald) have brought their strong melodic sense, psychedelic punk/metal mix, and fine harmonies to the fore on standout tracks like "Lady in the Front Row" and "Monolith." The brothers' '70s-TV obsession certainly hasn't disappeared, though, as evidenced by songs like "After School Special" and the Partridge Family-inspired cut "Dumb Angel" (Susan Dey being replaced here by keyboardist Gere Fennelly); but they seem more bent on cutting straightforward and driving, power pop/rock anthems than going in for their '80s-style, HR Pufnstuf form of garage psychedelia, and even the paisley is conspicuously

missing, replaced by t-shirts and jeans. Is the shift due in part to the pervasive influence of grunge and Nirvana? Maybe. But one should remember that, as early as 1980, Redd Kross was incorporating the same Black Flag, hardcore stylings that Cobain and company were admittedly inspired by. It doesn't really matter, though, since this album stands on it own just fine, especially considering the inclusion of one of the band's best rockers ("Crazy World") and most rewarding pop tunes ("Pay for Love"). For some great Redd Kross music, get both Phaseshifter and the band's 1997 release, Show World. (Stephen Cook allmusic.com)

Heavy guitars, fine pop melodies and a real good songwriting are the ingredients for the success of the band. The audience of Redd Kross is full of different people with different music tastes.There are metalheadz, punks, popsters, Teenagers and Grandmas and Grandpas. Also my neighbour Mr ''John Q. Public'' is a fan of the band. Great! Maybe you also enjoy the band. Here they are...Flac

Cheers
           Frank

edit: appendix: Should anything wrong  with this post please comment it here. If it`s needed i can fix it. Thanks!

The Fourmyula - Inside The Hutt - New Zealand's Pop-Psych Kingpins 1968-1969 (2013)

The success of Fourmyula marked a major turning point in the development of New Zealand rock: to an industry long dependent on cover versions of international hits, this Hutt Valley-based quintet offered proof positive that native talent could reach the national charts on the strength of their own original material. Fourmyula evolved in early 1967 from the ranks of the Insect, a fixture of area high school dances and other social gatherings; comprising vocalist/guitarist Martin Hope, keyboardist Wayne Mason, bassist Alistair Richardson, and drummer Chris Parry, their popularity soared after they took home top honors in a "National Battle of the Sounds" competition, although the consensus was that they needed a stronger lead vocalist. Toward that aim, singer Carl Evensen was recruited from Kal-Q-Lated Risk, with Hope now focusing solely on guitar duties.

After buying an instructional book on songwriting, Mason and Richardson penned Fourmyula's first original composition, "Come with Me"; it was originally scheduled to appear as the B-side to their 1968 debut single, "Honey Child," a cover of a Martha & the Vandellas hit, but their label HMV took such a liking to the new song that "Come with Me" was instead promoted as the A-side. The single was a smash, reaching the number two spot on the Kiwi charts; overnight, Fourmyula became superstars, and Mason and Richardson quickly wrote a dozen new songs for release as their self-titled 1968 LP debut. Demand for the group was so high that HMV even issued two new singles, "Alice Is There" and "I Know Why," simultaneously; both rocketed into the Top Ten, and after quickly recording a sophomore album, Green B. Holiday, the band toured Britain, later recording the single "Lady Scorpio" at the famed Abbey Road studios.

Fourmyula spent four months overseas, catching live appearances from groups including Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Spooky Tooth; acknowledging that their mod aesthetic was out of touch with emerging trends, they grew their hair out and adopted a heavier, louder sound which they intended to introduce upon returning home. New Zealand audiences were baffled by the new, heavy metal-influenced Fourmyula, however, and after just one disastrous gig, they returned to their trademark four-part harmonies and softly psychedelic pop. Their third LP, Creation, appeared in late 1969, followed by the chart-topping single "Nature"; Mason was now the group's sole songwriter, and as the band returned to Europe to tour, his material again adopted a heavier approach. To avoid conflict with a similarly named group, Fourmyula rechristened themselves Pipp; after scoring a minor hit with the 1970 single "Otaki," their fortunes dwindled, and by the following year, they were no more. Parry later founded Fiction Records.
I like these guys very much. Enjoy it!
mp3@320

The Cowsills - The Cowsills 1967 (2009) mp3

Featuring "The Rain, the Park, and Other Things," this debut album by the Cowsills really isn't half-bad mainstream late-'60s pop, with a heavy Mamas & the Papas fixation. It's not nearly as good as the Mamas & the Papas, of course, and doesn't stand up to in-depth listening -- nor are they saying anything quite as profoundly refreshing and personal as what the Mamas & the Papas conveyed on their best records. But it is pleasant, and it's also easy to hear how doing Beatles tunes for four hours a night at clubs had a profound effect on whatever musical impulses the group had, and there were worse places than that to use as a jumping off point. Echoes of the prettier and less daring parts of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's abound in the best of the harmonizing here, and also in some of the brass and percussion, and the guitar flourishes on numbers like "Pennies" (which could easily have been a hit).

Everything is also decidedly middle-brow and middle class in its sensibilities, very family friendly even in the relatively safe trippiness that colors the mood of numbers like "River Blue" -- this was sort of sunshine pop for teens from stable middle-class homes. Musically, it all recalls the two Boyce & Hart LPs and, even more so, the Monkees' first two records -- it's not as smooth or accomplished as either of the latter, though the presence of a fair number of band originals and the lean sound of the core group give it a slightly less contrived feel than the Monkees' records. (allmusic.com)

Here is the debut album of the Cowsills from 1967. It peaked at 31 in the Billboard LP charts in early '68. I will later post more of the Cowsills . Have fun

Cheers
           Frank
mp3@320

The Fox - For Fox Sake 1970 (2003) Flac

 The Fox formed in Brighton in 1968 when veterans of several local bands teamed together. Hammond organist Alex Lane, drummer Tim Reeves, and percussionist-singer Nick Apostiledes had been in the mod-soul band the Alex Lane Group. Reeves had also been in the soul band Omega Plus, as had bassist-keyboardist Dave Windross. Songwriter and guitarist Steve Brayne, who had known Lane and Reeves since primary school, completed the first lineup, though Apostiledes was soon replaced by guitarist Winston Weatherill (formerly in Gary Farr & the T-Bones). The band made test recordings at a 12-hour session in Radio Luxembourg Studios, which worked out so well that most of them were issued as For Fox Sake, though a couple tracks were re-recorded. Management interest cooled off, however, and the Fox broke up soon after the album's release.

Although it's considered a desirable psychedelic rarity in some collecting circles, For Fox Sake is an also-ran British psychedelic pop album of the sort that was a year or two behind the times upon its 1970 release. The best thing the Fox have going for them on this record is the swirling, at times piercing Hammond organ of Alex Lane. The songs, however, are ordinary trendy U.K. psychedelic pop with some solid vocal harmonies and light shades of soul music from time to time. Certainly "Second Hand Love" and "Lovely Day" sound extremely close in spots to the sort of music the Spencer Davis Group made just after the departure of Stevie Winwood, with some of the late Zombies' Baroque melodic sense coloring parts of both "Lovely Day" and "As She Walks Away." Some curve balls arrive in the form of a pretty folky acoustic guitar ballad, "Butterfly," the dull good-time soul-rock of "Goodtime Music," the blunt sledgehammer anti-straight world rant of "Mr. Blank," and the epic-to-little-purpose "Madame Magical," whose nine minutes feature some extended jazzy psychedelic organ improv. [The 2003 CD reissue on RPM adds historical liner notes and two bonus tracks in the original demo versions of "Lovely Day" and "Mr. Blank."](excerpts from allmusic.com/Richie Unterberger.

For sure this album came two years late. For me it's a pretty good album. Also because here and there you can here the impact of american west coast sounds. As i said before the album was sixties psych pop two years late but not yet really seventies. Anyway it's 2017 so give it a try and enjoy!

Cheers
           Frank
Flac

Jeff Lynne - Long Wave (2012 SHM Japan in Flac)

Hello guys and gals, i want to post a solo album of Jeff Lynne today!!! Lol, i'm just kidding. Shure it is an official so-called ''Solo'' album but we also know Jeff is the producer, main musician, songwriter, chief and whatever makes a bandproject to a one-man band like the Electric Light Orchestra. So it's quite regardless how it's named. Except maybe for commercial aspects of the marketing. I'm a fan of Jeff Lynne and the most things, he was musically involved. For ''Long wave'' i needed a little more time before i falling in love with the songs. But, naturally, at last it happened. And i should have known better: If Jeff Lynne/ELO want you(me) he will get you(me). Marvelous pop record!


Here is the review Stephen Erlewine of Allmusic.com:

When Jeff Lynne was growing up, he listened to music on longwave radio, soaking up all the sounds coming through the big radio in the living room. His 2012 tribute to these days, appropriately called Long Wave, is a far-reaching salute to the glory days of pop in the years before the Beatles. It's too easy to peg this as a standards album, a designation that isn't quite accurate. Lynne may cover many show tunes along with '50s favorites of big-band vocalists but he spends nearly as much time with rock & roll, and not just the operatic pop of his fellow Traveling Wilbury Roy Orbison, either. He cranks through Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock," slides
into the silken harmonies of the Everly Brothers on "So Sad," and grooves through Don Covay's "Mercy, Mercy." These are the cuts that stick the closest to the original hit recordings. When Lynne tackles Rodgers & Hammerstein ("If I Loved You"), Rodgers & Hart ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"), Fain & Webster ("Love Is a Many Splendored Thing"), and Chaplin ("Smile"), he breaks the song down to its melodic basics then builds up candied, layered arrangements that are distinctly his own, suggesting the gorgeous cascades of sound that were the signature of prime ELO. Indeed, when these sweet reinterpretations are combined with the straight-ahead rockers, Long Wave adds up to a blueprint in reverse for Lynne; by going to back to his beginnings, he winds up figuring out why he went in the direction he did.

Hope you enjoy
                        Frank
Flac