PETER FRENCH - Ducks in Flight [UK rock, pop 1978] 2017 Repertoire Records REPUK 1306

 

Renowned for fronting both Leafhound and Atomic Rooster, with this 1978 solo album Peter French took the somewhat surprising step of eschewing the heavy underground trademarks of both these bands and going for a more commercial approach. And it worked.

There are influences from the likes of Bad Company, The Faces and Thin Lizzy here, on songs which are sharp with real melodic attitude. Moreover, French brought in a battery of highly proficient musicians to help out. From guitarists Brian Robertson and Micky Moody to drummers Henry Spinetti and Kenney Jones and keyboard player Tim Hinkley, the line-up gives the album a genuine feel of being a bunch of pals having fun, and in the process making a coherent sound.

From the funk-fuelled opener Slipped And Stumbled, almost everything here has an upbeat momentum, with Shame, Shame, Schoolday and Hold Me Take Me having a swagger that even Rod Stewart would envy. Only on the rather mundane Without You does the pace slacken. Otherwise this is a purposeful success. The pity is that it’s French’s sole solo album.

Peter

OSCAR & THE MAJESTICS - Rare & Unissued Cuts '64-'66 [USA garage 1964-66] 2019 BeatRocket BR 10-150

Blast off! Rescued from the energetic ether, this set of six largely unreleased tracks from Midwest mid-sixties garage heroes Oscar & the Majestics is loaded with heavy riffs, tasty guitar licks, pounding drums, and lots of fuzz. Included here is the hideously rare and ferocious take on a Kingsmen classic, an explosive adjustment to "Shake A Tail Feather," and even more unearthed gems in Oscar & the Majestics oeuvre!

Oscar

 

BLUES MAGOOS - The Mercury Singles (1966-1968) [USA garage psychedelic 1966-68] 2016 Sundazed Music SC 6328

 

Hailing from NYC, The Blues Magoos took the folk,blues soundtrack of their mid-sixties Greenwich Village contemporaries and forged it into a tough, garage,psych hybrid that attracted fans as quickly as it angered folk club owners, incensed by the band's volume and unhinged stage show! Signed by Mercury Records in 1966, their inaugural single for the label, a reading of John D. Loudermilk's "Tobacco Road," was a churning 4:30 minute(!) plunge into crazed guitar,organ,drum,bass pyrotechnics with vocals careening over the top. The release hailed the arrival of a new and wholly unique voice on the rock scene. It was also a signpost for a new genre. One of the first albums to use "psychedelic" in the title, it arrived right on time for a generation ready to expand their consciousness with the aid of their turntables. The album's next single, band-penned "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet," featured one of the all-time great riffs, an insistent bass run over which keyboards swirled and unison vocals chanted. An absolute smash, "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" zoomed to #5 on the national pop charts and made the band an exotic household name. In total, The Blues Magoos released three amazing albums and eight incredible singles on Mercury. Longtime fans, Sundazed has now gathered all sixteen A- and B-sides together on The Blues Magoos: Mercury Singles (1966-1968). Featuring the accurate, original mono single mixes from the Mercury masters, these songs have never sounded better!

Blues

KENNELMUS - Beyond Folkstone Prism - Featuring Bob Narloch [USA psychedelic rock 1970-72] 1993 RD Records 01

 

Limited edition 1995 album, with non released Kennelmus tracks from 1970-72, on RD Records.  With different tracks and sounds from the same group (Ken Walker, Chuck Hauke & Bob Narloch) that created the Garage/Psych classic "Folkstone Prism" album.  Several of these album tracks were released on various Phoenix International Records 45's by the band members.

Bob

CROW - The Best Of Crow [USA hard, blues, rock 1969-71] 2013 Sundazed Music SC 11231

 

A hard-charging blues-rock garage band out of Minneapolis led by the passionate singing of David Wagner, Crow had their big break when a track from the group's debut album for independent label Amaret Records, "Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games with Me)," became a big national radio hit in 1969. But there were a couple of problems. First, the album's producers had added an uptown R&B horn chart to the song against the band's wishes, which meant that when it became a hit, Crow, who had no horn players, had a tough time promoting it on the playing circuit, becoming essentially two different bands, the live one and the studio one. More seriously, Amaret was too small a label to support a big national hit, and fans of the band often ended up with no place to purchase the album. It was ultimately too much for Crow to overcome, and the band struggled through two more albums before folding in 1971. Crow probably deserved a better fate, because it was a solid band, the studio version sounding like a funky version of Blood, Sweat & Tears while the touring version sounded like a harder-edged Doobie Brothers crossed, say, with the Trashmen. This set collects essential tracks from that Amaret run, and includes "Evil Woman," which started it all, an extended version of the follow-up single, "Cottage Cheese," the should-have-been-a-classic "(Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the) King of Rock and Roll," and solid album tracks like "Watch That Cat" and "Keeps Me Running," as well as a previously unreleased demo version of the Beatles' "When I Get Home," which gives the song a wonderful and lightly funky shuffle rhythm. Crow should have been a big national act, and the proof of that is here, but the history of rock & roll is full of these kinds of stories, stories that have more could-haves and should-haves attached to them than history will allow.

Crow

THE ONLY ONES - Live In Chicago 1979 [UK rock, punk, new wave 1979] 2020 Alona's Dream Records, Regressive Films ADR CD 033, 003

 

This live release documents Chicago performances of the Only Ones as originally aired on Chicago punk DJ Terry Nelson’s Sunday Morning Nightmare radio show in 1979. This no nonsense set was recorded by legendary mobile recording guru Timothy Powell of Metro Mobile Recording. This previously unreleased show finds the Only Ones at the peak of their early career. The set features a solid list of future classics drawn from their first three studio albums, deep cuts and influential hit singles.

The Only Ones

DAEVID ALLEN & MOTHER GONG - The Owl And The Tree [Australia space, rock, psychedelic 1989] 2004 VoiceprintVP278CD

 

Mother Gong is basically the partnership of singer Gilli Smyth and multi-instrumentalist Harry Williamson along with various friends and family, including saxophonist Robert Calvert, who essays some lovely solos on "Unseen Ally" and "La Dea Madri." Their former Gong bandmate Daevid Allen, as the credits humorously suggest, is "a collection of sub-personalities held together by their friend"; the sub-personalities on display on his half of the split album The Owl and the Tree are that of the Incredible String Band-like psych-folk gnome (a word that he pronounces with the G in the charming "The Owly Song") and the blissed-out space rocker on the lovely 14-and-a-half-minute multi-part suite "I Am My Own Lover." Mother Gong's half of the record is equally fine, a combination of prettily meandering instrumentals and Smyth's familiar fairy tale recitations. The two halves don't really mesh as much as they occupy similar orbits, but with Mother Gong and Daevid Allen lacking the space to get too self-indulgent, they both deliver some of their most focused and enjoyable music.

Mother

 

SINISTER SMILES - THE LYRES - Demos 1987-88 [Australia garage, power pop 1987-88] 2020 self-released digital file

 

The Lyres: Con (guitar, vocals), John (guitar, vocals), Paul (bass) & Scott (drums) started gigging around southern Sydney from late 1986, playing a mix of our own songs and covers  of Sunnyboys, Beatles, Easybeats, and other 60s/mod/powerpop tunes. After playing for a year or so as The Lyres we tragically found at there was already an American band of that name (don’t judge us too harshly – this was years before a simple internet search for band names was possible). So after a name change to Sinister Smiles we continued on for another year or so. Never got to the point of releasing a single, but these are some collected demo recordings, lovingly remastered by Stephen Bruel and Rick O ‘Neil (thanks guys).

''Sinister Smiles - The Lyres"

ROKY ERICKSON - Reverend Of Karmic Youth [USA psychedelic rock 1979-85] 1990 Skyclad Records SIX 66 CD

 

Like Syd Barrett, a common point of reference, Roky Erickson rose to cult-hero status as much for his music as for his tragic personal life; in light of his legendary bouts with madness and mythic drug abuse, the influence exerted by his garage-bred psychedelia was often lost in the shuffle.

Erickson

MILES OVER MATTER - The Vagabonds Of Psychedelia (The Anthology 1980-1982) [UK freak beat, psychedelia 1980-82] 2015 Paisley Archive PA037

 

Between 1980 and 1983 M.O.M were the premier band in London's new Psychedelic scene. Their wild and wonderful reinvention of the 60's British Pop/Rock musical style wouldn't be echoed again until almost a decade later with the Manchester bands.

 

Something was happening and for those that were there it was powerful "...the excitement I felt back then when everything was ahead. When Miles Over Matter took to the stage and proclaimed: “Something’s Happening Here!” I believed them" Mark Nevin of Fairground Attraction.

 

Featuring 12 previously unreleased studio tracks as well as 6 live cuts, plus Something’s Happening Here and Park My Car (from the psychedelic compilation A Splash Of Colour, released in 1982).

Vagabonds

LOOSE GRAVEL featuring MIKE WILHELM - Thanks For The Memories [USA rock, country rock 1975-76] 1992 Bucketfull Of Brains BUCKET-1

 

Loose Gravel was formed in San Francisco, California, USA, in the early-70s by Mike Wilhelm (guitar/vocals; ex-Charlatans), Kenny Sreight (bass) and Gene Rymer (drums). The line-up also sometimes featured Chris Wilson, later of the Flamin’ Groovies. Several tracks they recorded between 1971 and 1972 were later released on Wilhelm’s self-titled debut, eventually issued in 1976. These included a searing version of ‘Styrofoam’, later popularised by pub-rockers Ducks DeLuxe. Michael Deryckx (bass) and Rol Gjano (drums) then joined Wilhelm and together they recorded two privately-pressed singles, ‘Frisco Band’ and ‘Gravel Rash’. However, Wilhelm folded the band in 1976 when he joined the Flamin’ Groovies. He remained in the line-up for seven years, after which he resumed a low-key solo career that included the album Mean Ol’ Frisco in the late 80s. Loose Gravel’s Thanks For The Memories meanwhile combines three studio tracks with a live set recorded at the Coffee House, Long Beach, California, in 1976.

Tracks 1-3 recorded at Kelly Quan's studio, San Francisco, 1975.

Tracks 4-12 recorded live at the Coffee Gallery, North Beach, San Francisco, 6th February 1976

Mike