Garage/Psychedelic Pop: Whyte Horses - Pop Or Not 2016 (2016 CRC Records) Flac & mp3@320

As befitted one of the founders of the acclaimed crate-digging curios Finders Keepers label, Dom Thomas’ Whyte Horses were informed by a dizzying array of musical influences. This wide sonic palette of psychedelia, library music, acid-folk, Krautrock, Tropicália, yé-yé, and lounge was skillfully woven by "music-chronologist" Thomas into an accessible, hypnotic, dreamy psych-pop.

Whyte Horses’ first release was the single Snowfalls on the London-based label CRC in October 2014, followed by debut album Pop or Not in May 2016 (already released in a private pressing the previous year). Guesting on this brilliantly otherworldly debut was the Anglo-French vocalist Julie Margat (aka Lispector), who brought a healthy dose of Gallic cool to the proceedings. Thomas was also ably abetted on Pop or Not by the Doves’ Jez Williams, Ian Parton of the Go! Team, Belle & Sebastian’s Chris Geddes, and indie-psych maverick Jim Noir.(allmusic.com)

Very good debut by Whyte Horses with a lot of songs full of popsike candy...This is the 2016 release. Some songs are differently named as on the private 2015 release.

Enjoy
         Frank                            Flac part 1    &   Flac part 2        -  mp3@320

The Parlour Band - Is Your Friend? 1972 (2010 Esoteric by Cherry Red Records) Flac & mp3

Parlour Band's only LP is progressive rock-tinged mainstream early-'70s British album-oriented rock, competent but no more than that. Both keyboard and guitar parts take a strong role, and there's a bit of the multiple tempo changes and classical-tinged organ burble of bands like Yes in songs like "Forgotten Dreams." Some other songs steer well clear of art rock, though, "Pretty Haired Girl" coming across like prototypical early-'70s mellow California harmony rock. Even when it doesn't sound as Californian, though, the album's a pretty laid-back affair and, though it's agreeable, it's lacking in both power and first-rate songs.

"Little Goldie" sounds a good deal like the early-'70s work of Todd Rundgren in its bouncy pop optimism and relatively sophisticated keyboard-based arrangement, though it's not typical of the record. A bit, though no more than a crumb, of art rock pretension creeps into the final cut, the three-part, seven-minute mini-opus "Home."(Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com)

Pop prog !
Have  fun
                Frank                    Flac part 1  &  Flac part 2        mp3@320

Psychedelic Pop From Australia : Russell Morris - Retrospective '68-'72 1978 (2004 EMI) Flac &mp3

Russell Morris is one of Australia's most enduring singers. A major pop star in the late '60s, he went on to become one of the country's first singer/songwriters. Both ends of his career feature predominantly in the soundtrack to the movie The Dish.
Morris' career started in September 1966 with the formation of the Melbourne group Somebody's Image, which rose to prominence with a local hit version of the Joe South song "Hush." Morris was convinced to leave Somebody's Image for a solo career. His manager/producer, local music identity Ian Meldrum, spent unprecedented hours and money to create a seven-minute production extravaganza around a song called "The Real Thing." Once the result was released to shocked radio programmers who had never been asked to play such a long Australian single before, it was up to Morris' personality, singing, and performing talents to make the record work. It reached Australia's number one spot in June 1969. Without any promotional support from Morris, "The Real Thing" reached number one in Chicago, Houston, and New York.

The second single -- "Part Three Into Paper Walls" ("The Real Thing" revisited) and "The Girl That I Love" (a pop ballad more indicative of what was to come) -- became a double-sided number one hit, the first time an Australian artist had scored consecutive number ones with their first two singles. Morris, in the meantime, had traveled to the U.K. to help promote the release of "The Real Thing."
Morris had now decided to concentrate on his own songwriting and with the cream of Australian musicians, spent almost a year painstakingly recording and re-recording what became the Bloodstone album. It was one of the first Australian albums of its kind, the first from an Australian singer/songwriter, and a whole world away from the extravagant "The Real Thing." The hit single from Bloodstone was the resonant, romantic "Sweet Sweet Love." The following year, in 1972, Morris delivered the equally beautiful "Wings of an Eagle."
In 1973, Morris moved to London to record an album only to discover there was no record contract waiting for him. He relocated to New York and set to work on an album there, including new versions of both "Sweet Sweet Love" and "Wings of an Eagle" and the single "Let's Do It." A second American album appeared in 1976. It was two more years before Morris was granted his green card, enabling him to tour America. But by then, any chance of an American career had bolted. Instead, Morris returned to a very different Australia than the one he had left behind five years earlier.
During his solo career, Morris had done limited live performances without a band of his own. He then formed the Russell Morris Band and threw himself into a busy round of live performances, writing songs designed to be played live rather than chasing radio airplay, but scoring a couple of minor hits on the way. Eventually, the band played and recorded as Russell Morris & the Rubes.

In 1991, Morris released another solo album, A Thousand Suns, and he spent the subsequent years as part of a highly successful performing trio with fellow '60s heroes Ronnie Burns and Darryl Cotton of the Zoot, with a repertoire made up of their individual hits from yesterday, as well as new songs. In 2001, Jim Keays of the Masters Apprentices replaced Burns. Also in 2001, Morris' "The Real Thing" and "Wings of an Eagle" featured prominently in the Australian-made movie The Dish (centered around man's landing on the moon) and Midnight Oil released their version of "The Real Thing" as a one-off single, the first time this highly regarded band had chosen to record a cover.(allmusic.com)

This is a very fine collection of works by Russell Morris who was already in the sixties a star in Australia. This are truly fine psychedelic pop songs and i think you should give it a try.

Have fun
               Frank        Flac part 1  &  Flac part 2           mp3@320

At Request: Jerry Lee Lewis - Jerry Lee Lewis Live At The Star Club Hamburg 1964 (1989 Bear Family Records) Flac & mp3@320

Is there an early rock & roller who has a crazier reputation than the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis? His exploits as a piano-thumping, egocentric wild man with an unquenchable thirst for living have become the fodder for numerous biographies, film documentaries, and a full-length Hollywood movie. Certainly few other artists came to the party with more ego and talent than he and lived to tell the tale. And certainly even fewer could successfully channel that energy into their music and prosper doing it as well as Jerry Lee. When he broke on the national scene in 1957 with his classic "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," he was every parents' worst nightmare perfectly realized: a long, blonde-haired Southerner who played the piano and sang with uncontrolled fury and abandon, while simultaneously reveling in his own sexuality.

He was rock & roll's first great wild man and also rock & roll's first great eclectic. Ignoring all manner of musical boundaries is something that has not only allowed his music to have wide variety, but to survive the fads and fashions as well. Whether singing a melancholy country ballad, a lowdown blues, or a blazing rocker, Lewis' wholesale commitment to the moment brings forth performances that are totally grounded in his personality and all singularly of one piece. Like the recordings of Hank Williams, Louis Armstrong, and few others, Jerry Lee's early recorded work is one of the most amazing collections of American music in existence.
He was born to Elmo and Mamie Lewis on September 29, 1935. Though the family was dirt poor, there was enough money to be had to purchase a third-hand upright piano for the family's country shack in Ferriday, LA. Sharing piano lessons with his two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Lee Swaggart, a ten-year old Jerry Lee Lewis showed remarkable aptitude toward the instrument. A visit from piano-playing older cousin Carl McVoy unlocked the secrets to the boogie-woogie styles he was hearing on the radio and across the tracks at Haney's Big House, owned by his uncle, Lee Calhoun, and catering to blacks exclusively.

Lewis mixed that up with gospel and country and started coming up with his own style. He even mixed genres in the way he syncopated his rhythms on the piano; his left hand generally played a rock-solid boogie pattern while his right played the high keys with much flamboyant filigree and showiness, equal parts gospel fervor and Liberace showmanship. By the time he was 14, by all family accounts, he was as good as he was ever going to get. Lewis was already ready for prime time.
But his mother Mamie had other plans for the young family prodigy. Not wanting to squander Jerry Lee's gifts on the sordid world of show business, she enrolled him in a bible college in Waxahatchie, TX, secure in the knowledge that her son would now be exclusively singing his songs to the Lord. But legend has it that the Killer tore into a boogie-woogie rendition of "My God Is Real" at a church assembly that sent him packing the same night. The split personality of Lewis, torn between the sacred and the profane (rock & roll music), is something that has eaten away at him most of his adult life, causing untold aberrant personality changes over the years with no clear-cut answers to the problem. What is certain is that by the time a 21-year-old Jerry Lee showed up in Memphis on the doorstep of the Sun studios, he had been thrown out of bible college; been a complete failure as a sewing-machine salesman; been turned down by most Nashville-based record companies and the Louisiana Hayride; been married twice; in jail once; and burned with the passion that he truly was the next big thing.

Sam Phillips was on vacation when he arrived, but his assistant Jack Clement put Roland Janes on guitar and J.M. Van Eaton on drums behind Lewis, whose fluid left hand made a bass player superfluous. This little unit would become the core of Lewis' recording band for almost the entire seven years he recorded at Sun. The first single, a hopped-up rendition of Ralph Mooney's "Crazy Arms," sold in respectable enough quantities that Phillips kept bringing Lewis back in for more sessions, astounded by his prodigious memory for old songs and his penchant for rocking them up. A few days after his first single was released, Jerry Lee was in the Sun studios earning some Christmas money, playing backup piano on a Carl Perkins session that yielded the classics "Matchbox" and "Your True Love." At the tail-end of the recording, Elvis Presley showed up, Clement turned on the tape machine, and the impromptu Million Dollar Quartet jam session ensued, with Perkins, Presley, and Lewis all having the time of their lives.
With the release of his first single, the road beckoned and it was here that Lewis' lasting stage persona was developed. Discouraged because he couldn't dance around the stage strumming a guitar like Carl Perkins, he stood up in mid-song, kicked back the piano stool and, as Perkins has so saliently pointed out, "a new Jerry Lee Lewis was born." This newfound stage confidence was not lost on Sam Phillips. While he loved the music of Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, he saw neither artist as a true contender to Elvis' throne; with Lewis he thought he had a real shot. For the first time in his very parsimonious life, Sam Phillips threw every dime of promotional capital he had into Lewis' next single, and the gamble paid off a million times over. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" went to number one on the country and the R&B charts, and was only held out of the top spot on the pop charts by Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy."

Suddenly, Lewis was the hottest, newest, most exciting rock & roller out there. His television appearances and stage shows were legendary for their manic energy, and his competitive nature to outdo anyone else on the bill led to the story about how he once set his piano on fire at set's end to make it impossible for Chuck Berry to follow his act. Nobody messed with the Killer.
Jerry Lee's follow-up to "Shakin'" was another defining moment for his career, as well as for rock & roll. "Great Balls of Fire" featured only piano and drums, but sounded huge with Phillips' production behind it. It got him into a rock & roll movie (Jamboree) and his fame was spreading to such a degree that Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins left Sun to go to Columbia Records. His next single, "Breathless," had a promotional tie-in with Dick Clark's Saturday night Bandstand show, making it three hits in a row for the newcomer.
But Lewis was sowing the seeds of his own destruction in record time. He sneaked off and married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, the daughter of his bass-playing uncle, J.W. Brown. With the Killer insisting that she accompany him on a debut tour of England, the British press got wind of the marriage and proceeded to crucify him in the press. The tour was canceled and Lewis arrived back in the U.S. to find his career in absolute disarray. His records were banned nationwide by radio stations and his booking price went from $10,000 a night to $250 in any honky tonk that would still have him. Undeterred, he kept right on doing what he had been doing, head unbowed and determined to make it back to the bigs, Jerry Lee Lewis style. It took him almost a dozen years to pull it off, but finally, with a sympathetic producer and a new record company willing to exact a truce with country disc jockeys, the Killer found a new groove, cutting one hit after another for Smash Records throughout the late '60s and into the '70s.

Still playing rock & roll on-stage whenever the mood struck him (which was often), while keeping all his releases pure country, Lewis struck a creative bargain that suited him well into the mid-'70s.
But while his career was soaring again, his personal life was falling apart. The next decade-and-a-half saw several marriages fall apart (starting with his 13-year-long union with Myra), the deaths of his parents and oldest son, battles with the I.R.S., and bouts with alcohol and pills that frequently left him hospitalized. Suddenly, the Ferriday Fireball was nearing middle age and the raging fire seemed to be burned out.

But the mid-'80s saw another jump start to his career. A movie entitled Great Balls of Fire was about to be made of his life and Lewis was called in to sing the songs for the soundtrack. Showing everyone who the real Killer was, Lewis sounded energetic enough to make you believe it was 1957 all over again with the pilot light of inspiration still burning bright. He also got a boost back to major-label land with a one-song appearance on the soundtrack for Dick Tracy. In 2006, Lewis released Last Man Standing, which featured duets with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page, and others. He followed it up in 2010 with another album of duets, Mean Old Man, which saw him teaming with Eric Clapton, Merle Haggard, John Fogerty, and Kid Rock, among others. Four years later came Rock & Roll Time, another record co-produced by Steve Bing and Jim Keltner; it also had superstar cameos but generally they were musical, not vocal. Released alongside the album was Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, an as-told-to autobiography written by Rick Bragg. With box sets and compilations, documentaries, a bio flick, a memoir, and his induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame all celebrating his legacy, Lewis continued to record and tour, delivering work that vacillated from tepid to absolutely inspired. While his influence will continue to loom large until there's no one left to play rock & roll piano anymore, the plain truth is that there's only one Jerry Lee Lewis, and American music will never see another like him. (allmusic)

The marriage with his 13 year old cousine was too much for the middle class morality of that time then and it stopped the career of the rock'n'roll animal. I ask myself on the other side how it was actually possible that he could marriage a 13 year young child? What kind of judicial authority made that possible? However, to me this man is a rock'n'roll legend. The concerts in Hamburg happened one year after he gets a new recording deal with ''Smash''. The recordings here sounds truly great and it's a fantastic happening of rock'n'roll. Hope you like it.

Have fun
                Frank     Flac part1  &  Flac part2          mp3@320

More by Mickey Newbury! Mickey Newbury - Nights When I Am Sane (1994 Winter Harvest) Flac & mp3@320

Released by the tiny Nashville label Winter Harvest, Nights When I Am Sane was Newbury's first album in six years and his first live album since Live at Montezuma Hall 20 years earlier. Those decades may have deepened Newbury the singer's voice a bit, but it only made him a more powerful performer. As one would expect, Nights When I Am Sane is comprised of a batch of Newbury's most well-known songs, but the power these performances hold make them the definitive versions. With one guitar or at most one accompanist, Newbury has always been able to convey what most others would need an entire band to try to get to. Songs like "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" (bet you didn't know he wrote that, did ya?) come across with so much feeling, pathos, and depth that it's possible to see clear into the darkness in the soul of the man when he wrote it. When Newbury gets to his famous refrain on "Nights When I Am Sane," he's telling a hidden truth, one so obscured by legend and the grime of time and music-business bullsh*t that it almost slips though in its gentleness. "We would sweat and moan/Until the need in us was gone/In one another's arms all through the night," begins "What Will I Do Now," the track that ends this set. A song of a lover left to bear his grief in the darkness now that she's gone, Newbury's falsetto conveys the grief with so much empathy, it's hard to believe this isn't some man crying on his best friend's shoulder. Only Newbury would have the naked, unpretentious honesty to end a concert with a song like this, and only he could get away with it.

I know some of you might think why a singer/songwriter on this blog. It's easy to answer: I like Newbury and that's reason enough to me to make an ''exception''. And this guy is just great. Maybe you give it a try and take a listen to this very fine performance.

Frank                                    Flac part 1  &  Flac part 2      -  mp3@320

'60s Garage: The Chocolate Watchband - No Way Out...Plus 1967 (1993 Big Beat) Flac & mp3@320

The Chocolate Watchband's debut album, No Way Out was also their most heavily Rolling Stones-influenced album, but appreciating the album and what's on it (and what's not) requires some explanation. Released in September of 1967, No Way Out came at the end of the band's first 15 months of existence, a period that encompassed the recording and release of four singles of generally extraordinary quality, and as good as anything heard from any garage band anywhere during that period.

Just two of those single tracks, "Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In)" and "No Way Out," ended up on the original ten-track LP, but even they could (and should) have been the core of an immensely powerful LP. Instead, out of the remaining songs, only two -- the group's nicely cranked-up version of Chuck Berry's "Come On" and the psychedelic Bo Diddley-based "Gone and Passes By" -- were recorded by the entire group and released in the form intended.

The other six tracks included Watchband recordings, such as "Let's Talk About Girls," "In the Midnight Hour," and "Hot Dusty Road," on which lead singer David Aguilar's vocals had been replaced by those of session singer Don Bennett (co-author of the band's single "Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In)") and also embellished with extra instrumental overdubs; two instrumentals, "Expo 2000" and "Dark Side of the Mushroom," recorded by a group of studio musicians put together by engineer Richie Podolor; and, finally, the bizarre "Gossamer Wings," a psychedelic digression by Bennett and company that used the band's basic track from the 1966 single B-side "Loose Lip Sync Ship" as its jumping-off point.

So what's here is not really representative of the Chocolate Watchband that was seen in the movie Riot on Sunset Strip, or heard on those four killer singles in 1966 and early 1967. All of that said, No Way Out is still an extremely impressive and enduring album that nicely straddles the garage punk and psychedelic genres; the four tracks cut by the band themselves are all highly potent, slashing, exciting, clever pieces of music. "Gone and Passes By" and "No Way Out" are sharp works of psychedelic punk music, the former mixing sitar music with a shimmering Bo Diddley beat to superbly seductive effect, while the latter is built on a twisting, jagged blues- and raga-based lead guitar line that recalls the late-1966 vintage Jefferson Airplane's work.

And "Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In)" is a stirring, even threatening anthem to youthful defiance. Of the rest, "Let's Talk About Girls" is still a very good track and a killer opener for the album, despite the tampering by the producers, and "In the Midnight Hour" and "Hot Dusty Road" are not too far behind. As for the instrumentals, "Dark Side of the Mushroom" and "Expo 2000" are decent filler, even if they have nothing to do with the band. So the record, though flawed from day one of its release history, is still an essential '60s album in any collection.. 

Great sixties garage album.
Enjoy
          Frank           Flac  &  mp3@320

Various Artists - Nederbeat '63 - '69 Dutch Nuggets Vol.1 & Vol.2 (4Discs) (2003 Hunter/Universal) Flac & mp3@320

Okay Folks here we go. I found no real good review and i think it's not real important to get a review. First most people here know these fantastic collections of dutch pop, rock, psychedelic garage music by- naturally- dutch bands and musicians of the sixties.

This are two volumes with four discs full of very nice, great, interesting music. I post it as usual in both mp3@320 and Flac. The edition is with complete artwork and the complete booklet. I will post in the next days  (if there is interest) the ''Nederbeat '63-'69 - Singles The B-Sides'' 2 cds who belongs together with this release in my opinion.

You will find here a lot of not that well known names like from the nederbeat series 2016/17 who featured rather well known bands and artists from the nederbeat music scene. That means not this bands aren't that good like the big bands of the dutch music scene of that time back then. Here is a lot of great music and i think you will like it. Some of the bands are The Shane, The Nicol, The First Move, The Dukes, Group Gloria, The Mods and a lot more. Don't miss it.

Have fun
              Frank                mp3 part 1  -  mp3 part 2  - mp3 part 3  -  mp3 part 4 

                                     Flac part 1  &  Flac part 2  &  Flac part 3 &  Flac part 4

Ringo Starr - Ringo's Rotogravure 1976 (Atlantic Records) Flac & mp3

With songs written by his ex bandmates, always friends, the dramatic I'll Still Love You shines specially among them, but also Ringo's originals Cryin' and Lady Gaye are good reasons for buying this record. Most likely on LP(Walter S, allmusic user review)

The last excellent Ringo album. Ringo sounds like Ringo here with a nice relaxed low voice.(zapple 100, allmusic user review)

Hello Folks, after some days without posting Ringo Starr's discography today we jump back in the year 1976 to the follow-up album of Goodnight Vienna, his successful '74 abum. To my mind this is really a fine relaxed album (''You Don't Know me''- excellent here) and it is pretty balanced with the choice of the songs.This album shows quite good what Starr can do best with his music, to convey the listener a positive relaxed feeling. Well done, Mr Starr.

Enjoy
         Frank                                Flac part 1  &  Flac part 2          mp3@320

At Request: Sunshine Pop/AM Pop by Dino, Desi & Billy - The Rebel Kind (The Best Of) (1996 Sundazed) Flac & mp3@320

A Hollywood trio that were barely into their teens when they hit the charts in 1965, Dino, Desi & Billy anticipated the bubblegum fad with records that usually featured none of their own contributions, except their characterless vocals. That may be phrasing matters too kindly. The best bubblegum is far more distinctive and catchy than the lowest-common-denominator L.A. session pop/rock that they recorded. But they knew the right people, as they say in the business, which made them stars for a brief time, although they never had an ounce of credibility.

This mid-'60s trio were kind of a cross between the Monkees and Gary Lewis in a few key respects. Like Gary Lewis, their very opportunities to record came about primarily because of their distinguished Hollywood fathers. In the case of these guys, however, the nepotism was rather extreme: Dino was Dino Martin, son of singer/comedian Dean Martin, and Desi was the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Along with classmate Billy Hinsche, they began playing for fun. They'd barely gotten their equipment together when they auditioned for Dean Martin's buddy, Frank Sinatra -- who just happened to record for and run Martin's label, Reprise.

By the end of 1964, they'd released their first single for the label, although it was made clear to them that session musicians would handle the instruments.
Top producers and arrangers Lee Hazlewood, Billy Strange, and Jimmy Bowen would oversee the trio's recording dates over the next couple of years. "I'm a Fool" made the Top 20 in 1965; "Not the Lovin' Kind" got into the Top 30 a few months later. None of the group had reached the age of 15 yet, but there they were, playing to screaming crowds as a support act to a Beach Boys tour in 1965, and (for a few months) outselling Sinatra on his own label.

This despite (or because of?) the fact that their music was innocuously bland in the extreme, making the Monkees (who also used a pool of L.A. session players) sound positively innovative and hard-nosed in comparison.
Dino, Desi & Billy never got into the Top 40 after 1965, but they recorded singles and albums for years to come (perhaps it would have caused tensions among their families if they hadn't). They were the recipients of compositions by top pop/rock songwriters like Lee Hazlewood, David Gates, Boyce & Hart, Clint Ballard, Jr., and Bonner & Gordon.

But it seemed like these songsmiths took care not to give them anything too good, in the manner of Goffin-King's substandard leftovers for early-'60s teen idols.
Billy Hinsche's sister married Carl Wilson, which probably helped the band secure a Brian Wilson composition (which Hinsche helped finish off) for one of their final Reprise singles in 1970, "Lady Love." The group did start to get involved in their recording sessions, as players and composers, toward the end of the '60s. But the talent wasn't there, and in any case the results were much more pop than rock.

Perhaps it's being unduly touchy to come down on the band so hard; they had no aspirations towards anything but wholesome fun, apparently, and 98-percent of other kids their age would have taken advantage of the same connections given the same silver spoons. Keep in mind, though, that bands like Dino, Desi & Billy took away valuable air time and sales from much better groups that really needed it, in an era in which chart considerations were much more vital to ensure an ongoing career. And if you don't believe that, look at the nose dive experienced after the mid-'60s by the Kinks -- who, as it happened, were on Dino, Desi & Billy's U.S. label, and may have been competing for the same promotional budget.(allmusic.com)

Some guys have all the luck...maybe. Nice sunshine pop from the studio cracks of the sixties. However some really nice songs here and the collection is well done. Very good sound and the whole package by Sundazed is very well done.

Enjoy
          Frank                            New Flac part 1   &   New Link part 2         New mp3@320 link