From Nebraska of all places came this little-known 70's act, debuting as a power trio in 1976 with A Ninth Alive and following that up two years later with Kiss Heaven Goodbye, by which time they'd recruited a new vocalist to expand their sound. By most accounts the first album is a bit of an ordinary hard rock album and it's Kiss that often gets the long-lost-classic accolades, and that's the album reviewed here.
On their second "Kiss Heaven Goodbye" released in 1978, their main characteristic is the singer which has a unique voice, The record is quite heavy for its time and this is obvious judging from cover and songtitles however don't forget it's still hard rock. There are songs (e.g "Respected man") that contain Sabbath elements, in general these guys were more hard rock oriented. Songs like "Prince Of The Southern Ice" would be right at home on any early NWOBHM album, and that movement was still a year away from taking hold. Like many a band over the years, the breaks didn't go their way and they disbanded. Granmax is indeed one of those gone-but-not-quite-forgotten bands that 70's fans should track down.
Tracks
1. Take You Away - 4:45
2. U.S. Is Coming Around - 3:56
3. Crumbling Towers - 2:43
4. Bankers Bar - 4:31
5. Find A New Day - 3:24
6. Out On The Tide - 3:58
7. Ceiling Wall - 4:37
8. Glitter Boots Boogie - 3:50
9. Let Me Know - 3:22
10.Letters To Myself - 4:47
11.Mistress Of Eternity - 4:24
12.Dream Woman - 2:47
13.Daughter Of Hell - 4:43
14.It's Worth The Wait - 3:11
15.Prince Of The Southern Ice - 4:31
16.This Life's For Me - 3:58
17.Respected Man - 3:35
18.Travels Of Tim - 3:34
All songs by Steve Myers, Tim McCorkle, Louis McCorkle, plus Nick Christopher for tracks 11-18
Surprize were a 1970's psychedelic rock band from Philadelphia. After being together for eight months, the band recorded their one and only, album "Keep On truckin'" in one of Philadelphia’s finest recording studios. Upon release the band started to get TV and radio airplay as well as being booked for larger concerts. The band had great success and growing more and more popular every day. A few years later Surprize were approached by a larger and more well-known record label. They wanted to promote and produce the second album and give it a release on their own label which meant the chance of national distribution.
Shortly after this approach whilst performing out of town, band leader Peter Accardi had a supernatural occurence, which would change the bands. The next morning Peter Accardi, called for a special meeting. At this meeting Peter shared how something supernatural had happened to him, and how he knew he was going to heaven. His life was changed and he tried to share how we all needed the same thing in our lives. Much to everyone's shock, Peter walked away from his career as the lead singer of the band and decided to go to Bible College in order to become a Preacher. A few weeks later keyboard player joined Accardi in his new calling and followed him on his journey to become a Preacher. Not long after the band decided to call it a day. As for Accardi and Bissel both now serve the Lord at the Elkdale Baptist Church, West Clifford, Pennsylvania. Peter Accardi is the church Evangelist and Frank Bissel serves as the Pastor of the church.
Tracks
1. Earth Odyssey (Pete Accardi, Mark Shapiro, Fred Kieffer, Rick Martin, Franck Bissel) - 6:45
2. Sweet Love4:18
3. Keep On Truckin'5:10
4. Ev'ry Day5:15
5. See The Light6:29
6. Try A Little More
All songs by Howard Stein, Tony Roccia except track #1
The Tweeds where from Massachusetts and issued a small string of singles and EPs from 1977 – 1981, the most famous of which is probably 1980’s Perfect Fit which contains their most lasting tracks “I Need That Record” and “The Girl Who Said No”
Pretty much all of their output is included here, even including an alternate recording of “Underwater Girl” from its inclusion on an ’81 b-side that saw it rerecorded for the release and added an intro. The band apparently included Kenny Gorelick (aka Kenny G, the band of your elevator existence) on keys at one point but its unclear how much of the material he may have played on. In general the band has a lot of delightful, but not especially hard hitting power pop and its safe to say this may be the most definitive release of their music that you’d ever need.
The aforementioned “Underwater Girl” might be the best surprise, as its not included on many compilations and its a solid runner of a power pop jam and gives the band a bit of a harder edge. The rest is probably for the true power pop diggers but I’ve always been a sucker for the fringes of the genre. Not holding my breath for a vinyl issue of this but it would be nice to have a bit more background from the label on this one. Barring that, I’ll just cross my fingers that the Buttons series might start back up (please, please, please), it was promising but I’m sure it sorely undersold those soul comps. One can only hope this might be an indication of turning their gaze back towards power pop.
by Andy (Raven Sings The Blues)
Tracks
1. If I Could Only Dance (Marc McHugh, Paulson) - 2:21
2. I'm Thru (Marc McHugh, Paulson) - 1:56
3. Shortwave (Marc McHugh, Paulson) - 2:25
4. Teen Love (Marc McHugh, Paulson) - 2:35
5. Ode To A Glicknick (The Larry Glick Song) - 1:39
6. Underwater Girl (Marc McHugh) - 3:10
7. My Memories (Charles Blackwell, Françoise Hardy, Jacques Datin) - 2:44
8. Postcard (Marc McHugh) - 3:01
9. I Need That Record (Marc McHugh, Jeff Mezzrow) - 3:19
10.Hey Baby (Marc McHugh, Jeff Mezzrow) - 3:50
11.Later Tonight (Marc McHugh, Jeff Mezzrow) - 2:53
12.She's The Girl (Who Said No) (Marc McHugh) - 3:09
13.I've Got Rock In My Heart (Marc McHugh, Jeff Mezzrow, George Godding) - 3:39
14.We Ran Ourselves (Marc McHugh, Jeff Mezzrow, Paulson) - 3:45
15.Away From You (Marc McHugh, Jeff Mezzrow, Paulson) - 4:11
16.Underwater Girl (Eat Records Version) (Marc McHugh) - 3:51
Hard fuzz trio featuring the blazing leads of Zippy Caplan (ex-Litter). The band was less garagy and more pounding hardrock than the Litter. "Under the Screaming Double Eagle" collects studio tracks from 1969. White Lightning was a slang term for LSD at the time (and bootleg whiskey prior to that). The group added two new members and shortened their name to Lightning. They continued in the hardrock mode but now with dual leads. "Lightning" is another excellent effort, just missing the certain magic they possessed as a power trio.
"White Lightning" was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1968 by ex-"Litter" guitarist "Zippy" Caplan and bassist Woody Woodrich. The two musicians had been jamming together for close to a year before they decided to become a group.
The name "White Lightning" was picked by "Zip" Caplan and Woody Woodrich during their drive back from the "Litter's" filming of "Medium Cool" because it was another name for acid. "White Lightning's" original drummer, Garr Johnson, quit the group after only a months rehearsals because he didn't believe a three-piece act could make it in Minneapolis. Mick Stanhope was immediately brought in from Chicago by Ronn Roberts to fill the empty drummer's chair.
In the late 1960s and early '70s, the British budget label Saga recorded numerous albums designed to cash in on U.K. pop/rock-psychedelic trends. The LPs were quickie exploitation jobs, but as is often the case with such productions, some reasonably genuine stuff couldn't help sneaking through and finding status among serious '60s collectors decades later. This quite unusual compilation gathers 25 tracks that were scattered across numerous Saga releases, the common denominator being that all of them were plugged into British mod rock and psychedelia to some degree. It almost goes without saying that none of these songs were hits, and that very few of them are known even to veteran British '60s collectors, though some might be familiar with the Five Day Week Straw People, the Magic Mixture, and the Blackbirds (the last actually a German group whose material Saga managed to issue for the U.K. market).
A few recognizable musicians do pop up here and there, even if the culprits most likely wouldn't mind having these relics buried deep within their résumés, including Mungo Jerry's Ray Dorset (here part of Good Earth), future Fairport Convention bassist Dave Pegg (as part of the Dave Peace Quartet), and original Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning (as part of Five's Company). As you also might expect, the actual music's not nearly as interesting as it is rare, since much of it's either heavily derivative and/or obviously trying to latch on to fashionable Swinging London-type grooves and the lighter side of psychedelia. Approached with the right level of expectations, however, that doesn't mean there aren't some fun or at least amusing moments along the way, if you're a fan of those genres and have at least a little irreverent humor about the styles' excesses and naïveté.
A good number of the tracks are fairly groovy in different and sometimes off-the-wall ways. Those cuts would include the Blackbirds' downright creepy "She," with its horror movie organ and Dracula-like vocals; the Dave Moses Group's cool, Latin-tinged, organ-based go-go lounge instrumental, "Quite Fast"; Linda & Noel's quite accomplished slice of toy town psych pop, "Mr. Bantam's Fair"; New World's strange heavy psych adaptation of "Scheherezade"; Shake 26's hard-charging instrumental "Underground Set," which bisects mod rock and heavy psychedelia; Five Day Week Straw People's ridiculously echo-smothered "Sunday Morning" (not the Velvet Underground song!); and Magical Mixture's dreamy "Moon Beams," perhaps the one cut on the CD that can hold its own as a legitimate first-rate piece of U.K. psychedelic buried treasure. Others are just OK, or generic or even subpar, though sometimes in a manner that lovers of kitsch might appreciate. Stefan Granados' lengthy liner notes dig up more information about these obscure budget releases than anyone would have thought possible.
by Richie Unterberger
Artist - Track - Composer
1. First Impression - Swingin' London Scene (John Britten) - 2:06
2. Five Day Week Straw People - Five Day Week Straw People (David Montague, Guy Mascolo) - 3:27
3. The Magical Mixture - I'm So Sad (Terry Thomas) - 4:13
4. Katch 22 - There Ain't No Use In Hanging On (Junior Campbell, Thomas McAleese) - 2:10
5. Good Earth - That's The Life (Colin Earl, Dave Hutchins, Ray Bowerman, Ray Dorset) - 2:40
Beckett Vocalist Terry Wilson-Slesser, a native of Newcastle upon Tyne, was to figure in ex-Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's solo outfit Back Street Crawler and was later hook up with Charlie. The vocalist was also known to be in contention during 1980 for the AC/DC frontman vacancy following Bon Scott's death.
Wilson-Slesser had replaced original Beckett singer Rob Turner, the previous frontman having been killed in an auto accident. Soon after this appointment guitarist Les Tones quit. The group's first major performance was supporting UFO at Newcastle's City Hall. Beckett carved out a live reputation by performing residencies at the infamous Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. Beckett, having scored the financial backing of Island Publishing, then underwent a major line-up change.
The band's 'My Lady' single was a clear flexi-disc given away free at gigs in 1974, the same year the band released their eponymously titled album, produced by Family's Roger Chapman, on the Raft label subsidiary of Warner Bros. On the live front Beckett supported the likes of Wizzard, Slade, Free, Ten Years After, Thin Lizzy and The Faces. The band performed at the 1974 Reading Festival, after which they switched labels to CBS Records. For a period Wilson-Slesser was rehearsing with Mott The Hoople musicians following Ian Hunter's exit.
The Beckett concerts with Free would ultimately lead to an eventual union between Terry Wilson-Slesser and guitarist Paul Kossoff in Back Street Crawler. Slesser was known to be in contention for the AC/DC frontman position during 1980 after Bon Scott's death. The singer also acted as backing vocalist on Def Leppard's 'Pyromania' album. The Beckett song 'A Rainbow's Gold' was covered by Iron Maiden as a B side on their 1984 hit single '2 Minutes To Midnight'. That same year Wilson-Slesser acted as an offstage singer for the Michael Schenker Group, performing on a European and Japanese tour.
Originating out of Richmond California, a tough shipyard town across the bay from San Francisco, influenced by British bands such as Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and The Yardbirds, it's not surprising the Savage Resurrection have a nice hard edged sound. They have played on both sides of the Bay, including The Fillmore, The Avalon, The Red Devil Lounge with Blue Cheer, and 19 Broadway, in Fairfax.
The Savage Resurrection was one of the youngest bands to be signed to a major record deal, signing with Mercury Records in 1967. They soon released their self-titled record 'The Savage Resurrection' which is widely considered to be one of the best albums of 1968 and is played all around the world today. The single also released at that time, "Thing in 'E", is on the recent Grammy nominated 'Love Is The Song We Sing SF Nuggets '65-'70'.
The Savage Resurrection
On their only album, the Savage Resurrection mined a psychedelic sound that was not as heavy and metallic as Blue Cheer (also produced by Abe "Voco" Kesh), but at the same time more garagey in feel than that of the average Bay Area psychedelic band. Sometimes it's pedestrian blues-rock with overlong riffing, as on the accurately titled "Jammin.'" At its best, it has the spacier, folkier, and more melodic feel that was characteristic of much '60s Californian psychedelic music, as on "Someone's Changing."
More dissonant and Middle Eastern influences make themselves known on "Every Little Song" and "Tahitian Melody," and the backup vocals on "Remlap's Cave, Pt. 2" indicate that they did their share of listening to the Who's "A Quick One, While He's Away." Randy Hammon and John Palmer create an intense and thick dual-guitar sound throughout (separated so that Hammon's playing is on the left channel, and Palmer's on the right).
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Thing In "E" (John Palmer) - 3:06
2. Every Little Song (Randy Hammon) - 1:51
3. Talking To You (John Palmer, Bill Harper) - 2:45
4. Tahitian Melody (John Palmer) - 3:45
5. Jammin' (John Palmer, Randy Hammon) - 8:07
6. Fox Is Sick (John Palmer) - 2:42
7. Someone's Changing (John Palmer, Randy Hammon) - 2:35
8. Remlap's Cave (Part II) (John Palmer) - 2:55
9. Appeal To The Happy (John Palmer, Bill Harper) - 4:20
10.Expectations (John Palmer) - 4:59
11.Thing In "E" (John Palmer) - 3:30
12.Tahitian Melody (John Palmer) - 3:39
13.River Deep Mountain High (Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich) - 3:29
Wallace Collection founded from the ashes of a band called "Sylvester's Team". Three of the original members (Sylvain Vanholme, Freddy Nieuland and Marc Hérouet) went on to form the band 16th Century, together with bass-player Christian Janssens and the classical musicians Raymond Vincent and Jacques Namotte. These two were members of the Belgian National Philharmonic Orchestra, but had been flirting with popular music already in a band called Stradivarius.
The group was launched from Britain, and a new name was found in a museum next to the EMI-headquarters : The Wallace Collection. The Australian David Mckay did the production of the first record of the band "Laughing Cavalier" They had an instant success due to the single "Daydream". It became a hit in over 20 countries and sold millions of copies.
Sylvain Vanholme recalls how this breakthrough was also responsible for the downfall of the band in "Wit-Lof from Belgium" : "There was chaos. One day we would be playing in the North of Holland, the next day in Spain. We didn't have time to rehearse or write new material. Between two concerts, they booked us a studio and said : quickly record a song like "Daydream". The quality of the singles that followed went steadily downward. "Love" and "Serenade" at least made it to the Belgian Top 30.
In 1971 the band decided to split. Freddy Nieuland however has continued to record under the name Wallace Collection. Raymond Vincent later on formed a band called Esperanto (with German and British strings, Italian keyboards, with singers from Hawaï, Papoea and Australia. After four records the band was dumped by A&M label in 1975. Marc Hérouet, the organ-player of the band, enjoyed some success with his group Salix Alba.
The most succesful career in the years to come had Sylvain Vanholme, who has had huge hits with Two Man Sound and has produced a large number of Belgian records since (e.g. Octopus, Salix Alba, The Machines, Gorky, Jo Lemaire and Flouze, The Kids ... ).
The drummer Freddy Nieuland passed away on January 10th 2008, Raymond Vincent the violinist died 5th November 2018, and cellist Jacques Namotte died 13th December 2012.
This was the second (and final) album recorded by the US singer songwriter who spent the sixties based in London, it's comparable to someDonovan, although slightly more psychedelic, with eerie effects and a ghostly other-wordly feel. Also includes contributions from fellow psychedelic traveller Tim Hollier with Fairport Convention's Dave Pegg on bass duties.
Tracks
1. Evolution (Amory Kane, Rick Cuff) - 6:48
2. Llanstephan Hill (Amory Kane, Rick Cuff, Tim Hollier) - 4:18
3. Four Ravens (Amory Kane) - 4:10
4. Golden Laces (Amory Kane, Rick Cuff) - 7:57
5. Get Together (Dino Valente) - 4:41
6. After Vytas Leaves (Amory Kane, Larsen, Phillippet) - 3:15
In the liner notes to Sundazed's reissue of Roger McGuinn & Band, the former Byrds leader says, "A band should be a benevolent dictatorship," adding, "Democracy is a great form of government, but it doesn't work in rock & roll." Whether you agree with that statement or not, Roger McGuinn & Band is one album that supports McGuinn's argument pretty well; in 1975, after his first two solo albums were greeted with lackluster commercial and critical response, Columbia Records assigned producer John Boylan to McGuinn's next project, and Boylan brought along a band. While the players turned out to be a solid rhythm section who brought a tight, energetic groove to the sessions, McGuinn decided to let them contribute songs to the album in the name of esprit de corps, and let the record show that none of these guys had ever written a great song for one of America's benchmark rock bands.
Consequently, Roger McGuinn & Band is knee-deep in filler, though not all the blame can be pointed at Roger's bandmates, since "Easy Does It" and "Lisa" don't exactly loom large in his catalog. And while Boylan's production isn't especially intrusive, the results have a bit more gloss than this music needs, and the country-rock and boogie accents don't leave much room for the folk touches that have always been McGuinn's strong suit. Still, "Born to Rock and Roll" and "Lover of the Bayou" are solid McGuinn compositions that deserve wider circulation, and while this isn't one of his better albums, at least it finds him in sharp and passionate form with a good band behind him. He just shouldn't have let them write half of the album, that's all.
by Mark Deming
Tracks
1. Somebody Loves You (Allen Kemp, Stephen A. Love) - 3:16
2. Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan) - 3:20
3. Bull Dog (Richard Bowden) - 1:59
4. Painted Lady (David Lovelace, Greg Attaway) - 3:08
5. Lover Of The Bayou (Jacques Levy, Roger McGuinn) - 3:25
6. Lisa (Roger McGuinn) - 1:59
7. Circle Song (David Lovelace) - 3:04
8. So Long (Richard Bowden) - 3:13
9. Easy Does It (Roger McGuinn) - 2:41
10.Born To Rock And Roll (Roger McGuinn) - 3:21
11.Wasn't Born To Follow (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) - 2:02
12.Chestnut Mare (Jacques Levy, Roger McGuinn) - 5:50
Bonus Tracks Live 11-12
Personnel
Roger McGuinn - Guitar, Vocals, Bass
Steve Love - Bass
David Lovelace - Keyboards
Greg Attaway - Drums
Richard Bowden - Guitar
