Psychedelic Pop of the '60s: Nirvana- All Of Us 1968 (2003 Island Universal) Flac

Nirvana's second album was dainty period British pop-psychedelia, falling on the lightest shade of that category that could be imagined. For some adventurous pop fans, few higher recommendations could be concocted. For most 1960s collectors, though, it's fair to say that it's too precious and insubstantial to qualify as a major work. Their most well-known song, "Rainbow Chaser," leads off, with its prominent phasing effects; "Tiny Goddess," one of their best ballads, comes next.

The rest of the album doesn't measure up to those two tracks, with pretty but not compelling melodies (sometimes reminiscent of, but not in the same class as, Paul McCartney) and orchestration that, like the songs themselves, seem to tiptoe for fear of being too forceful. The overall result is too saccharine, and occasionally even childish.

That's an Mr Unterberger review again. Nothing more to say.

If you like it enjoy it...if not Macca would sing..let it be...
Enjoy
          SB1  Flac1
                   Link2
You need both!!!

Psychedelic Pop: Bit 'A Sweet - Hypnotic 1 (1968) (2011) Flac

Bit a Sweet was reportedly a top draw at the big discotheques in New York City. Their only album, Hypnotic -- released by ABC in 1968 -- is a rare, and often over-looked, high-concept pop-psych album of the first degree. Today it is highly praised by collectors who are interested in psych-pop production values (phased vocals, electric sitar, strings, fuzz guitar). Bit a Sweet was produced by the multi-talented Steve Duboff, who also wrote most of the group's material, including both sides of their heavily edited "2086"/"Second Time" single.

Duboff's sometime songwriting partner on this album, incidentally, was Artie Kornfeld, who -- during this time -- was producing the Cowsills for Mercury; their "How Can I Make You See" also appears here. Another highlights include Bit a Sweet's version of the George Harrison-penned Beatle track "If I Needed Someone." (Incidentally, Kornfeld and Duboff also recorded under the moniker Changin' Times). In February 1967, a year prior to the release of this album, Bit a Sweet covered the Steve Duboff-Dave Morris-penned "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," which was released on MGM (cover versions were also waxed by the Marauders and Limey & the Yanks).

This song -- which unfortunately isn't featured on their debut -- is probably the group's best-known song. If you're curious, you can see it performed, along with one other selection, during the first few minutes of the sexploitation flick Blonde on a Bum Trip, and can also be found on several psychedelic compilations . Drummer Russell Leslie later recorded with a band called Neon (produced by Tommy James) and became a session drummer.(allusic.com)

Very good psychedelic pop here. Good songs and well produced this is one of the better pop psychedelia of the times then back.
Have fun
               SB1     Flac1   Flac2          You need both links!

Andwella's Dream - Love And Poetry (1969) 2004 Japan Flac

Andwellas Dream released one album, Love and Poetry, on CBS in the UK in the late 1960s that is highly regarded by some psychedelic collectors. It is an eclectic but unmemorable affair that touches upon a number of approaches--heavy progressive rock-tinged psychedelia with keyboards, fruity pop-psych with strings and fairytale-type lyrics, folk- and blues-informed material bridging psych and prog--common to British rock of the period. The group changed their name to Andwella and subsequently released a couple of albums under that name.(allmusic.com)

Although Andwella's Dream were a versatile psychedelic group, they were nonetheless generic no matter what angle they were taking. On Love & Poetry, you get sustained guitar that walks the line between freakbeat and heaviness, some swirling organ and husky vocals that betray the influence of Traffic and Procol Harum, pastoral acoustic folky tunes in the Donovan style, airy-fairy dabs of phased guitars and storybook lyrics, etc. Eclecticism is to be commended, and since late-'60s British psychedelia is an interesting genre in and of itself, generic music in the subgenre is more interesting than some other generic music in other styles. Still, generic music is generic music, and being able to do a bunch of different things in an unexceptional manner does not make you exceptional. The fairly tuneful folk-rocker "Midday Sun" is the best cut; it's also interesting to hear a song about "Cocaine" in 1969, before the drug was too well known even in the counterculture.(allmusic.com)

Very nice psychedelic prog pop album. If you don't know it give it a try.
Cheers
           SB1    Flac1  You need...yes, both links!   Flac2

The End Box (4Discs) From Beginning to the End...- Part Four - The Last Word (1969 - 1970) Flac & complete art

 Part Four - The Last Word (1969 - 1970) Flac & complete artwork.

I hope you will enjoy this fantastic box by a band of the british psychedelia.
Have fun
               SB1    Flac1
                          Flac2

The End Box (4Discs) From Beginning to the End...- Part 3 Retrospection (1968 - 1969) Flac

  The End Box (4Discs) From Beginning to the End...- Part 3 Retrospection (1968 - 1969)

I will post the complete artwork with the last part.
Enjoy
         SB1   Flac 1   You need both...   Flac 2

The End Box (4Discs) From Beginning to the End...- Part Two The End - Introspection (1968-69) Flac

Here is part two of the box by The End. Introspection, The most well known album by The End.

Enjoy
           SB1  Flac 1    You need both links!    Flac 2

The End Box (4Discs) From Beginning to the End...- Part One In The Beginning 1964 - '67

The End - From Beginning To End- In The Beginning (1964 - 67) Disc 1 Flac

This is the 2015 Edsel 4 Disc Box by The End with a lot of real nice art and lot of interesting information about the whole career till the day they changed into Tucky Buzzard. No, here is nothing in the box by Tucky Buzzard. That's another chapter. I think you will love it because the box is really affectionately compiled. I post the box in four parts in flac. And possibly the art in a further post. At the moment i don't know if i post all four discs and the artwork all today because i want also post some other things. You can buy the box here.

This is a review from Mike Segretto of psychobubble200 blog. Thanks for that.

Review: The End's 'From Beginning to End...'

Like most of the Stones (and their fans and their critics), Bill Wyman never had much nice to say about his band’s psychedelic period, yet the archetypal rhythm and blues bassist enjoyed his most distinguished role during the acid era. That was when he wrote and sang his only composition to be included on a Rolling Stones album and released as a single in the U.S. and masterminded the delightfully trippy LP Introspection by UK combo The End.

Unlike Their Satanic Majesties Request, a bizarre record that tends to get lambasted because it strayed so far from the Stones’ usual rock and blues formula (though not by your adoring writer, which should already be known by regular Psychobabble readers), Introspection is a highly approachable album with tight pop structures, big hooks, and sweet harmonies. Like Satanic, it is a splendid showcase for the magical Mellotron.  Unfortunately, noncommittal management kept this record so perfectly tuned into psychedelia’s too brief reign from being released until 1969. During that year, when getting “back to the roots” was rock’s chief cry (aided and abetted by the Stones’ own Beggars Banquet), Introspection surely sounded out-of-touch and flopped, but to my psychedelia-leaning ears, it knocks out a lot of the classics of that era. Personally, I prefer to spin enchanting tracks like “Cardboard Watch”, “What Does It Feel Like?”, “Shades of Orange”, and “Under the Rainbow” to admittedly great LPs like Led Zeppelin, The Velvet Underground, and Five Leaves Left, and that’s saying a hell of a lot.

While none of these discs are as successful as Introspection, they each reveal something interesting about the band. In the Beginning… finds The End trying out various approaches in search of a sound: Unit 4 + 2-style mainstream pop, bubblegum soul, and more driving rock-soul in the Who/Small Faces mode. Not surprisingly, the latter approach is the best, though Wyman even produces the cheesier tracks with the wall-of-noise overdrive of a Shel Talmy record. The use of saxophone and the surprising number of original compositions shows that The End were determined to stand out.

A more consistent listen is Retrospection, though it’s clear why a lot of these songs didn’t make the cut. Too many sound too much like other tracks already on Introspection, while poor vocals torpedo a nice Procol Harum-esque tune called “Tears Will Be the Only Answer”. An attempt to turn Los Bravos’ “Black Is Black” into an acid rock dirge is a failure, but “Mister Man” is really good, and would have been a preferable replacement for the cornball version of Larry Williams’s “She Said Yeah” that is the only total misfire on Introspection. This disc also includes four bonus tracks that weren’t on the Tenth Planet record. They are mostly slight, though the lyrically stunted but spectacularly titled “Stones in My Banana” prevails with ass-shaking rhythm and mind-melting feedback.

The Last Word finds The End transitioning from the cuddly pop-psych of Introspection toward the grander seventies rock of Tucky Buzzard with much more purpose than they displayed on that sub-Vanilla Fudge version of “Black Is Black”. The material is very good, if not quite on the Introspection level. Though the generic instrumental “Smarty Pants” is disposable, there are no “She Said Yeah” style embarrassments. It’s a shame this stuff had to sit in the vaults for 25 years plus another 20 before reaching a audience beyond Ugly Things-reading vinyl cultists, but I guess the fact that it’s all available now on From Beginning to End… takes care of that. 

 

Hope you will enjoy

Cheers

            SB1     Flac1     You need both links!    Flac2

 

 

Eric Burdon & The Animals - Wind Of Change 1967 (2003 Repertoire) Flac

Winds of Change opened the psychedelic era in the history of Eric Burdon & the Animals -- although Burdon's drug experiences had taken a great leap forward months earlier with his first acid trip, and he and the group had generated some startlingly fresh-sounding singles in the intervening time, it was Winds of Change that plunged the group headfirst into the new music. The record was more or less divided into two distinctly different sides, the first more conceptual and ambitious psychedelic mood pieces and the second comprised of more conventionally structured songs, although even these were hard, mostly bluesy and blues-based rock, their jumping-off point closer to Jimi Hendrix than Sonny Boy Williamson. The band's new era opened with waves washing over the title track, which included sitar and electric violin, while Burdon's voice, awash in reverb, calmly recited a lyric that dropped a lot of major names from blues, jazz, and rock. "Poem by the Sea" was a recitation by Burdon, amid a swirl of echo-drenched instruments, and it led into one of the group's handful of memorable covers from this period, "Paint It Black" -- driven by John Weider's electric violin and Vic Briggs' guitar, and featuring an extended vocal improvisation by Burdon, their approach to the song was good enough to make it part of the group's set at the Monterey International Pop Festival that June, and also to get a spot in the documentary movie that followed.

"The Black Plague" opens with a Gregorian chant structure that recalls "Still I'm Sad" by the Yardbirds, and was another vehicle for Burdon's surreal spoken contributions. There were also, as with most of the group's work from this period, a few easily accessible tracks that could make good singles, in this instance "Good Times" and "San Franciscan Nights," a Top Ten record in various countries around the world in the last quarter of 1967, although, as Alan Clayson points out in his notes, the latter song was overlooked in England for nearly 12 months after its release elsewhere, and then appeared as the B-side to the relatively straightforward, brooding, moody rocker "Anywhere." Burdon was so inspired by Jimi Hendrix's music that he wrote one of the psychedelic era's rare "answer" songs, "Yes I Am Experienced," as an homage to the guitarist; the latter's influence could also be heard in "It's All Meat," the LP's closing track, and a song that calls to mind an aspect of this band that a lot of scholars in earlier years overlooked -- the fact that Briggs, Weider, et al. had the skills to make music in that style that was convincing and that worked on record, on their terms.

Eric Burdon & The Animals's Wind Of Change was released nearly at the height of the psychedelic wave late 1967. To me it's a pretty intensily album in many parts. Paint It Black, an favourite song of Burdon here in a version that later would excelled by himself with the band War on the Black Man's Burdon album. If you are on psychedelic stuff and i don't mean ''sugared psychedelic'', here are some good songs on it. But also pop Burdon hadn't forgotten. Good Times, San Franciscan Nights were hits in the charts back then. Anything is a very nice song that i like. But listen yourself. The Repertoire edition have a very very good artwork here.

Enjoy
         SB1  Flac 1 You need both links!  Flac 2   

Pop/Psychedelic Pop: Tommy James & The Shondells - Anthology (Rhino 1989) Flac

Another great example of what Rhino does so well, Anthology brings together no less than 27 of Tommy James and the Shondells' nuggets on one disc. Along with good liner notes from Parke Puterbaugh, who interviewed James extensively (James himself contributes a slew of fun and informative anecdotes about many of the songs) and the usual skilled remastering job, it makes for one heck of a collection.

James himself sums up his own appeal best of all: "We were really having fun, and you can hear it in the grooves." "Hanky Panky" understandably kicks things off, but the collection really doesn't take off until the just-plain-irresistible "I Think We're Alone Now," notably (and some would argue memorably) covered by Tiffany in the late '80s. The original is barely two minutes long, but packs in everything from a killer opening bassline and dramatic pauses to a totally killer chorus, James and company transforming Ritchie Cordell's song into a glistening gem. The fact that so many of his hits were beneficiaries of later remakes -- "Mony Mony" by Billy Idol, "Crimson and Clover" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, "Draggin' the Line" by R.E.M. -- is even better testimony to their appeal, and hearing the originals all in place confirms why they were smashes.

If a number of selections are paler shadows of some of these greats, the arrangements are rarely less than anything but pure pop fun -- the almost delirious addition of swirling strings, flutes, and even harp to many songs gives them even more cheery flair.

The fact that they were able to make woozy, psych-influenced delights like "Crimson and Clover" and still maintain their status as major hit artists on the charts is testament enough to their appeal.(allmusic.com)

Really good review. Nothing more must said about these pop heroes and the songs who James and the Shondells had done.
Viiiiiiel Spass
                       SB1              New link:  Flac

Power Pop! Gary Ritchie - Hum, Sing, ...Repeat (2011) mp3

Gary's "real" instrument would be drums. But, he is a full, fledged Pop guy. Plays most of the instruments & vocals on his albums. A former Chicagoan now living in Austin, Texas. Loves a melody with a Big-Beat behind it. With 4 full length solo cd's behind him, he's loving the freedom of recording what and when he wants. So enjoy!(bandcamp liner notes)


What was originally a download-only digital five-track record (in 2008) has evolved into an eighteen-song download album by Gary Ritchie who effortlessly (re-)creates Merseybeat (power)pop as if the 1960's had never ceased to be.
2001's 'Pop! Radio' was a fantastic offering and 'Hum, Sing...Repeat' confirms Gary Ritchie's talent.(rateyourmusic, reader popphil)


The album was released by Fancy Two/ Tone Records, Wimberley, TX. You can buy it here
You can it also buy as a digital download at Bandcamp.
This is power pop with a lot influences of the sixties and i love it.
Enjoy
          SB1    mp3@320

Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather 2007 Flac

Fountains of Wayne finally managed to score that big hit single their fans always knew they had in them when "Stacy's Mom" became a fluke hit a few months after the release of their third album, 2003's Welcome Interstate Mangers. Anybody worried that success had spoiled the power pop quartet shouldn't find their long-awaited fourth album, Traffic and Weather -- its title song a nifty ploy to get drive-time radio plugs, but also fitting right into the Jersey roadside themes of the titles -- a disappointment, nor should it offer much in way of surprises. Perhaps the slight traces of a disco-rock beat on the opening track/lead single, "Someone to Love," shows some evidence of copping to modern trends, but Fountains of Wayne still remain devotees of classic pop -- usually guitar-driven power pop, but they'll spike that with some Bacharach horns or country-rock if the mood strikes them. If the sound is unabashedly, even defiantly classicist, that's balanced by Adam Schlesinger's obsession with chronicling the weird incidental byroads of modern America in his lyrics. He packs odd, telling details into each of his songs, whether it's how the disaffected, lonely photo retoucher in "Someone to Love" spends her Thursdays watching King of Queens or how the jealous narrator in "This Better Be Good" notices the light blue Dockers on the guy who is holding the hand of his girlfriend.

Even if they're often used in the service of joke setups or punch lines, such details give the songs weight and help Fountains of Wayne seem contemporary when their music is grounded in the '60s and '70s and could have been released anytime in the last 20 years; the dance beats underpinning the title song sound like new wave, while the synths and phased vocals on the quite wonderful on-the-run-from-loan-sharks tale "Strapped for Cash" brings to mind early-'80s AOR (a fact underscored by the "heart attack-ack-ack-ack" reference to Billy Joel's "Movin' Out"). Such lyrical and musical flourishes keep Traffic and Weather from sounding too similar to previous FOW platters, but there is something missing here: a truly knockout single, along the lines of "Radiation Vibe," "Stacey's Mom," or even "Maureen" from their B-sides comp, Out of State Plates (or for that matter, "Pop Goes My Heart," the Schlesinger-written Wham! homage for Music and Lyrics that was on the charts at the time of the release of Traffic and Weather). It's sturdy, well-written power pop, but it falls prey to some of the faults of craftsmanlike pop -- mainly, it's possible to hear the craft behind the pop instead of just getting sucked into the sugar rush of the melodies. Even so, Traffic and Weather is hardly a bad record, and should satisfy anyone who has loved Fountains of Wayne
before, even if it doesn't quite excite them.(allmusic.com)

Whatever any critics write they can't stop my obsession for the music of FOW. Somewhere in the past the band infected me with her music (and lyrics). And the same with Traffic And Weather. Great Power pop/rock.
Enjoy
         SB1  Flac1 You need both    links!  Flac2

Fountains Of Wayne - Fountains Of Wayne 1996 - Flac

Every so often, a band comes along that digs back into what pop music is all about -- good, fun tunes. Fountains of Wayne is one such band. The wonderful thing about the duo (singer Chris Collingwood and bassist Adam Schlesinger of Ivy) is that they manage not to be overtly retro -- the album is a wholly modern production. The only non-modern aspect of it is the fact that the songwriting is so straightforward and wonderful; nearly every song is a pop gem. The result is an album that's almost innovative, when you really think about it -- very few albums released in the '90s have been this pleasant, charming, and all-around likeable. The obvious reference points would be Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, and the Posies, but even these don't quite capture the duo's sound. Think of some of They Might Be Giants' best pop tunes and scrape away every trace of silliness, and you'll be a little closer.(allmusic)

 Although Fountains of Wayne didn't enjoy mainstream attention until the release of "Stacy's Mom" in 2003, the band had already established itself as one of America's strongest power pop acts. Based in New Jersey, the group first appeared in 1996 with a mix of British-influenced pop songs, lo-fi production, and wry lyrics about dead-end jobs and biker boyfriends. Fountains of Wayne expanded their lineup and polished up their sound during the following years, eventually hitting gold with 2003's Welcome Interstate Managers. While that album proved to be something of a fluke success, the band continued releasing well-crafted records throughout the subsequent years. Meanwhile, co-founder Adam Schlesinger enjoyed a separate career as a producer and ghostwriter for other artists.
Schlesinger first crossed paths with Chris Collingwood in 1986, while both were studying at Massachusetts' Williams College. Sharing a mutual affection for melodic British pop, the two formed a series of short-lived bands before recording an LP under the name Pinwheel. The duo split up after legal hassles blocked the album's release, with Schlesinger resurfacing as part of the indie pop band Ivy and Collingwood joining a Boston-based country group named the Mercy Buckets. The two musicians eventually reunited in 1996 as Fountains of Wayne, christening their band after a lawn ornament store in Wayne, NJ. Atlantic Records released the duo's self-titled LP that same year, and Schlesinger helped create some more buzz by authoring the title song to the movie That Thing You Do!

Schlesinger's contributions to the film's soundtrack garnered a Grammy nomination and an RIAA gold certification in 1997. Fountains of Wayne's own album only enjoyed a sliver of that success, though, selling roughly 125,000 copies in America. Despite a lack of mainstream attention, the band toured the world alongside the Lemonheads and the Smashing Pumpkins. The addition of two touring musicians -- guitarist Jody Porter and former Posies drummer Brian Young -- helped round out the band's sound, and both became official members during the recording of Utopia Parkway. Released in 1999, the album expanded the band's catalog with slicker production, beefier harmonies, and Porter's muscled guitar work. Despite the popularity of "Denise" at college radio, Utopia Parkway sold poorly. Frustrations grew between Fountains of Wayne and Atlantic Records, who neglected to promote the song "Trouble Times" as a single, and the band was dropped from Atlantic's roster in late 1999. A long hiatus followed, during which Schlesinger co-wrote several songs for the Josie and the Pussycats film, released a third album with Ivy, and produced albums for the Verve Pipe, David Mead, and They Might Be Giants. The musicians reconvened four years later, funneling their own money into the creation of Welcome Interstate Managers. Released in 2003 on the newly minted S-Curve label, the album gave Fountains of Wayne its first taste of Billboard-certified success with "Stacy's Mom," a hit across several charts and the band's first Top 40 entry. The accompanying music video featured Rachel Hunter as the song's voluptuous title character; perhaps predictably so, it became a staple at MTV. The subsequent singles "Mexican Wine" and "Hey Julie" fared less well, but Welcome Interstate Managers nevertheless went gold, whetting the public's appetite for future Fountains of Wayne releases.

The double-disc compilation album Out-of-State Plates arrived in 2005, sporting two new songs (including the single "Maureen"), several live cuts, and a wealth of rarities. Fountains of Wayne launched a limited tour before returning home, where Schlesinger kept up his songwriting chops by penning four tracks for the soundtrack to the 2007 film Music & Lyrics.

That same year also saw the release of another FOW album, Traffic and Weather, which continued the band's tradition of fusing power pop with lyrics about travel, relationships, and workplace boredom. While working on a follow-up album, Schlesinger found time to play alongside Taylor Hanson, James Iha, and Bun E. Carlos in the pop supergroup Tinted Windows, whose debut album appeared in 2009. Later that year, Schlesinger joined Fountains of Wayne on a full-band acoustic tour, using the opportunity to play a handful of new songs in front of a live audience. Most of the new material found its way onto the band's next album, Sky Full of Holes, which doubled as their first release for Yep Roc in 2011.(allmusic)

One of the great bands of the last 20 years in Power Pop. Hat off  to their musical works and skills. They sound to me as if nothing is missing in the song. All sounds one hundred percent perfect on an emotional flat to me. But enough Bla.
Have fun
               SB1   Flac 1  You need both links!  Flac 2