Broadfield Marchers Displayed In Reflections GREAT!!! $15
Broadfield Marchers are brothers Mark and Dustin Zdobylak from Louisville, Kentucky with longtime friend Justin Carter on drums. They create psychedelic power pop gems that recall the sibling harmonies and style of early Shoes. Their third release is again brimming with simple yet complex songwriting and succinct presentation, that also evokes "Murmur"-era R.E.M., early Lilys, with flourishes of the Beach Boys, and a fine resemblance to The Kinks and the Who. They successfully merge clipped-buzzsaw riffs of The Who and the Creation with the angelic harmonies of the Wilson brothers and Big Star. "If Syd Barrett and Robert Pollard got together to program an AM radio station, they'd have the 'Marchers in heavy rotation and playing live at every office party. Barrett's dead, of course, but for most people so is the kind of music that the Broadfield Marchers champion: Wispy power pop with a psychedelic heart." - The Courier Journal "Striking. The songs are sharp pieces that don't repeat themselves, but are definitely a great psychedelic trip because the album moves like being in an ever changing world with sharp turns and never knowing what's coming around the corner, but having Dustin's voice as a permanent tourguide. They've completely eschewed the '90s shoegazer type psychedelia for something much less refined and exciting, carrying melodic psychedelia with a raw, lo-fi sound, and a slower tempo. The combination of a minimalist approach with careful attention to the music itself is hard to come by, and they're a bit of a standout with the combination, using a good bag of psychedelic touches that are always original, exciting, and just odd enough
in their contrast to the rest of a song that show that they are well above doing anything formulaic. This is what psychedelic music should be like: raw, harmonic, but also never predictable and often, unsettling. However, the confrontational elements are never shocking, but some to come naturally as part of their talents." - The Paisley Umbrella
Deleted Waveform Gatherings “Ghost, She Said” GREAT!!! $15
On the third album from Trondheim, Norway's favorite sons, we are treated to a dozen more tunes by the prolific Oyvind Holm (the former Dipsomaniac who recently released the excellent Wonderwheel side project - check it out) - on what started out as an
EP that became a full-length! The band considers this record a lot more from the hip than "Baby Warfare". Recording began in a big Norwegian barn "to preserve the rough 60s garage feel" of some of the songs, with additional overdubs on their own mobile studio. The album is catchy, well-placed and tight, already having been described as "Nirvana meets The Beatles." The song "This House" has a Telepathic Butterflies-style chorus. "Shadow of Your Ego" ventures into a grunge guitar interlude, closing with an acoustic feel. "Don't Wanna Know" has the pop intensity of The Sweet/T.Rex. "What You Trying to Prove" sounds like R.E.M. backed by Television. ""Equal parts chiming power pop, heavy electric rock and ’60s-rooted psychedelia, they effortlessly meld
their influences. Glorious anthemic pop recalling the heyday of Guided by Voices mingles with early ’70s-derived rock, whether searing, piano-driven or soulful. An inescapable presence in Holm’s portfolio, the shadow of the solo Fabs lurks, but never pounces. At times the band’s palette darkens for smoldering ’60s-inspired psych, and other times reaches outside these parameters for the funky and Beck-drenched or the elegant and classical. The power and contrast of these styles never overshadow the gorgeous melodies at the core of their sound. Layered vocal harmonies abound. At the heart of it all lie the lyrical visions that bubble forth from Holm’s subconscious; not afterthoughts but components of the songs’ very fabric." - Amy Nyman
Grantura In Dreams and Other Stories + bonus disc GREAT!!! $18
WOW!!! By their own admission, they're heavily influenced by Teenage Fanclub, and it sure shows! "This comes as close to the sound of the Californian cosmic cowboys as any group from 'south-east London via the lowlands of Lincolnshire' has any right to get. There are echoes of the Byrds, the Dillards, the Clarks and the Burritos, but the best thing of all is that the whole thing manages to smell as much of real ale and cider as it does of whiskey sours!" - The Independent "You can hear the Byrds, The Lovin' Spoonful, and a lot of Crosby,Stills, & Nash in their compositions, but don't forget that Graham Nash is a very English guy and his sense of melody is the strongest influence for this sextet. This is a folk pop record from the classic 60's: you get a lot 12 string guitar and even a sitar makes an appearance!" - HereComesTheFloodBlog "Almost every song is rooted in the past. But don’t get the idea that it’s past any sell-by date because this is a timeless tunesmith’s treasure. Their blend of Americana and folk psychedelia could just as easily reside on the West Coast as West London, recalling CSNY. 'Forever September' is a sweetheart of Roger McGuinn’s rodeo. Elsewhere, 'Holly' is a lazily laid back delight musically related to Dylan’s 'You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere', and 'Lazarus' rises on a Beatley backbeat resurrected from the swinging 60s. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils haunt 'Sunshine', and 'House Of Cards' bizarrely blends Beach Boy harmony hooks with a Cossack-dancing Russian folk beat. Brian Wilsonski perhaps? A gorgeous set of the songs that will appeal to anyone who ever bought a Teenage Fan Club or Cosmic Rough Riders album!" - SundayMercury.net We certainly agree! EXCLUSIVE OFFER - COMES WITH A BONUS CDR CONTAINING THE NON-CD TRACK "THE LONG ROAD"!
Loaded Dice No Sweat GREAT!!! $17
EN ROUTE! AN AUSSIE POWER POP CLASSIC!! First time on CD comes this lost classic power pop rock album from 1979. Hailing from Perth, Australia, Loaded Dice take the basic rock formula, mixing in some power chords and some Beatlesque vocals and released this great album. They where a hard working rock power pop band that were touted as being the next big thing from the Western Australia. They were signed to WEA, but big things never happened. They had good songs and were very good at making the crowd rock in their home town but when they moved to Sydney it was hard to get the local crowds interested and it wasn’t long until they disbanded and returned home. They released a couple of singles and an album which had a lot of energy just like their live shows, but poor sales pushed this album into the sale bins. The fine folks at Zero Hour Records have cleaned off the dust and digitally restored this 10-song gem and have added 12 more never released bonus tracks as well! THE LABEL HAS ALREADY SOLD OUT OF THE FIRST PRESSING - WE'RE GETTING 10 COPIES AND WON'T HAVE ANY MORE UNTIL THE SECOND PRESSING!!!!!!
The Mother Hips Pacific Dust GREAT!!! $15
The Mother Hips have a certain pleasant and familiar quality which allows the potential for wide-ranging appeal. With a clear affection for vintage rock and roll and a gift for writing tuneful melodies (and layering resonant harmonies), earthy jam-band lovers, graying former hippies, and the average rock record buyer can all unite around their sound. Another of the band’s best qualities comes in their skill at mixing rough, ragged blues-oriented licks with their gliding melodies. The instrumental cohesion they display allows them to meander through instrumental passages and tempos when appropriate and tighten the screws when a song requires emotional build. "Early in their career, it appeared these San Francisco-based roots rockers were 'the horse to bet on,' so to speak, as they made fans out of the Black Crowes' Chris Robinson and super-producer Rick Rubin (who was so impressed with the group that he signed them to his American Records). While they have certainly carved a niche for themselves throughout a string of albums, they never managed to follow the likes of Wilco up the charts. They continue to soldier on with what appears to be a concept album of sorts that deals with music's many facets - first discovering it ('White Falcon Fuzz'), record company politics
('Third Floor Story'), etc. Musically, expect a lot of vintage guitar sounds, Don Henley-like vocals, and laid-back tempos, as heard on 'One Way Out,' and 'All in Favor.' For smartly assembled and played modern-day roots rock, they are probably one of the most underrated bands out there. This serves as further proof to that claim!" - All Music Guide "Criminally underrated as an Americana band, they have turned to spirited pop-rock. Instead of Burritos/Band/Beach Boy elements, we get Crazy Horse, Stones at their most American, Jayhawks at their most British!" - MOJO Yet another gratifying melodic gem in their catalog!
Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears Mad Valentines EP GREAT!!! $8
The latest effort from Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears is a fantastical and falsetto-filled journey, with bits of romanticism thrown in. Reteaming with a quartet of backing instrumentalists, the ensemble has issued its follow-up to 2008's "Flight of the Knife,", a gem that fused glam, psych rock, and theatrical 70s pop with science fiction narratives and elaborate children's stories. Though their music has been called “psychedelic,” “progressive,” “quirky,” and “strange,” the Brooklyn based band truly consider themselves first and foremost —a pop band. "I've stood pretty much alone in the power pop community as being a bit underwhelmed by Scary, feeling his music has been hyperkinetic for hyperkinesis' sake - Jellyfish with A.D.D., if you will. And after hearing the first track on this EP, 'Andromeda's Eyes', in which Scary revs it up to Ludicrous Speed, I began to think he was becoming a parody of himself. But then a funny thing happened with the rest of the EP. He dialed it back about 15%, and the remaining five tracks are the kind of effervescent, joyous Jellyfish-inspired pop that I knew he had in him. '(It's a) Gambler's Whirl' would have fit nicely on ELO's 'Discovery' record; 'The Garden Eleanor' sounds like Jeff Lynne producing Mika; 'Maria St. Claire' is the closest he gets to a ballad, and it's wonderful; and 'Bye Bye Babylon' and 'The Red Umbrella' find him in full bells-and-whistles mode, but in service of the song, not the sound." - AbsolutePowerPop.blogspot.com "From a stylistic standpoint Mad Valentines flirts with a variety of genres and never really settles down on any particular one. They manage to weave disparate influences into a cohesive and novel sound. The unifying element of the six songs on this record is a devotion to saccharine hooks and melodies recalling the best of 70s pop music: Queen, Bowie, Elton John, Abba, Wings, the Bee Gees, Stevie Wonder, the Bay City Rollers, P-Funk – it’s all there somewhere. Despite the stylistic shifts, each track fits in well with its neighbors and together they produce a distinctive sound that stands out in today’s musical landscape. As a collection of songs the EP succeeds in showing off the band’s songwriting and musical ability and certainly merits repeated listening." - Nick Fokas
Starry Eyed and Laughing At Their Best… GREAT!!! $19
Starry Eyed And Laughing were either 15 years ahead of their time or 10 years too late. Either way, in 1974 they were voted the Rickenbacker twangers most likely to succeed. Even before they signed to CBS, one paper observed: "By the end of '74 the group will be set fair. They'll emerge fully in '75 - how's that for crystal-gazing?" The critic concerned echoed the hopes of most pop pundits. The group were well-respected, loved even. They wrote their own songs - the sort you felt you'd known all your life - and played as if they'd just emerged from the grooves of The Byrds' "Fifth Dimension". Their devotion to Bob Dylan is apparent in their "Chimes of Freedom"-quoting name but the band's sound evoked another chime -- that of the Byrds, whose crystalline jangle could be heard all over the band's two albums, their 1974 self-titled debut, and 1975's "Thought Talk". This influence may have been apparent but they didn't merely copy the Byrds, sounding like a '60s covers band. "They were creatures of their time, products of the British pub rock movement of the mid-'70s, so they were capable of spirited country-rock and sweet power pop, with their debut leaning toward the former and "Thought Talk" the latter, partially due to the smooth production from Flo & Eddie. These are the differences between the group's two albums but they're subtle, so when highlights are paired together as they are here, they flow together as if they're from one album, particularly because there was no dip in quality between the two records (although pub purists might not like the shimmering soft rock gloss on later singles like 'Song on the Radio'). This makes this a great listen and a good summation of the band's career." - All Music Guide For those dedicated fans, this release is notable for the presence of three previously unreleased Dylan covers: a different version of "Chimes of Freedom" plus "He Was a Friend of Mine" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," both recorded at a radio session.
The Sun Start The Countdown GREAT!!! $14
The Sun were Iain Whitmore and Tony Poole from Starry Eyed And Laughing, together with songwriter and drummer Nick Trevisick, who'd played with The Kinks, The Tom Robinson Band and Moon. Although just the briefest of bright flickers in the 1980's musical landscape - they played some 50 gigs (we caught them at a wine bar in Shepherd's Bush, London in August of '83!), and released just one 7" single and one cassette EP in 1982-83. Poole's ever-chiming Rickenbacker 12-string, Whitmore's inventive bass playing, and the shimmering harmonies that were the hallmarks of Starry Eyed And Laughing, allied with Trevisick's intense drumming and stunning production instincts created a sound that continues to shine in the 21st century. The single and EP have now been re-mastered - together with several unreleased recordings - and collated into what would have very likely been their debut, 11-song album. "They are still the kings of melody, class, and folk-rock amalgams. This is relevant, smart, crisply arranged, written, and recorded. Poole's signature Rickenbacker electric 12-string guitar rings out and shimmers here with a clarity not heard since his days with Starry Eyed and Laughing. I absolutely love this album. Superb production (the major artform here) combines with jangling guitar work, majestic vocal harmonies and a well chosen bunch of song. If you listen to it more than a cursory once, and especially on a good stereo or better yet, through good headphones, you will realize what a spectacular album this is. Give it a chance and it will grow on you (if it doesn't instantly knock you out, like it did me)!" -Max Humphries While the recordings definitely have a bit of 80's "sheen" to them, their trademark wonderful harmonies, the jangly 12-string guitar, and melodic songwriting the boys were known for, are still firmly intact!
Various Artists Velvet Tinmine: 20 Junk Shop Glam Ravers GREAT!!! $18
Stunning 20 track “gold”mine of known and obscure 70’s UK glam rockers that is tons of fun. Features The Arrows, Hello, Stavely Makepeace, Tartan Horde (Nick Lowe in disguise), Flame + others! One of the coolest tracks on the disc is a previously unreleased gem from the legendary Plod featuring a young, glammed up Brit-pop god Martin Newell! "Glam and its sugary offshoot, glitter, were British pop phenomena and nobody does pop phenomena better than the Brits. Unlike some of the trends that swept through the UK, glam was proudly trashy and fleeting, particularly when it morphed with bubblegum to produce glitter, with only the titans of the genre weathering the test of time (as well as breaking the American market). Marc Bolan, David Bowie, and, to a lesser extent, Gary Glitter were the touchstones of the genre, setting the pace for all who followed, and while there were genuine bands in the glam idiom -- the rough'n'ready Mott the Hoople, the flamboyant Queen, American pretenders the New York Dolls, even the fizzy Sweet and wonderous dunderheads Slade - what cluttered the charts were outfits that were considerably less macho and rockist. To complain that this stuff is lightweight is missing the point, since these singles were designed to not last longer than a few weeks as they rocketed up and down the charts, and that's the beauty of this music: It proves that pop can be at its best and most magical when it is cheerfully, crassly commercial and transient, nothing more than a cheap record for kids. Each of the tracks here is a tawdry, shiny, junky gem, filled with sparkling hooks and big beats that are as addictive as the best bubblegum pop. Sure, it's easy to spot sound-alikes, but part of the fun is hearing how the Sisters' 'Kick Your Boots Off' sounds like Slade and Crunch's 'Let's Do It Again' is more nimble than Gary Glitter, how Ziggy Stardust becomes Bearded Lady's 'Rock Star' or how Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel is vamped up on the Andrew Loog Oldham-produced 'Va Va Va Voom' by Brett Smiley - and that's not even counting Tubthumper gleefully turning the MC5 into kiddie pop on 'Kick Out The Jams.' And that's just the beginning of the treasure here: There's also Iron Virgin's stomping, idiotic 'Rebels Rule'; Warwick's tremendous singalong 'Let's Get the Party Going'; Flame's 'Big Wheel Turning,' with its rampaging runaway chorus sounding like it was sung by a psychotic preteen; Ricky Wilde's 'I Wanna Go to a Disco,' which was actually sung by a sweet preteen; and the wonderful 'Love Machine' by Shakane. Each track sounds like a forgotten classic, the kind of record your gut tells you should have been a smash even when your mind tells you there's no way this ever was anything more than pop ephemera. Which is why this is a pure, unadulterated, flat-out delight for the crazed pop fan!" - All Music Guide Break out your glitter and platform shoes!
Thee Vicars Psychotic Beat! GREAT!! $15
Thee Vicars have progressed along the way, from hard-hitting but trashy 60's influenced punk rock of their fine debut towards a more melodic but still teen-garage sound on this, their second, album. They started out by wanting to stomp on all the crap music they heard week in, week out in their small little town. They believe that life is too short for boring music. They have self-belief and faith in what they are doing, and that the saviors of rock’n’roll have been born. They say they are “ready to, if it comes to it, to kick kung fu style all the shit bands into orbit! They will set the bullshit bands’ hair straighteners on fire, make them melt, and their hair go curly! Make them go out and buy a belt for their jeans! So they sit at the right height! Not with their arses hanging out!” The band’s manic energy is palpable, they hit you with a jolt, almost like receiving an electric shock. But then one would hope that would be the case if you were still aged aged just 18 and playing raw rock’n’roll that is shot through with a punk and garage band aesthetic, whilst visually resembling The Jam in 1978. Already they are coming on stage to Beatlemania type screams from teenage girls! "A brilliant and inspired album it is. Full of snarling vocals, stuttering bass and tight drum beats, it’s this century’s answer to The Mummies 'Never Been Caught'." - AltSounds.com "They have that snotty early Kinks swagger with tight crunchy power chords that contrasts them nicely to a lot of the looser jangly garage bands out today. It's no secret who their influences are and that's fine by me!" - Still Alive Magazine "Close scrutiny of their primal clatter reveals a unit in awe of original rock'n'roll and 60s R&B, garage and freakbeat – a genre to which they nod in the title of their second album. You can also hear echoes of the early Stones here, as well as of more contemporary outfits such as the Hives, and there is something in Mike Whittaker's snarling vocals that reminds us of Pete Shelley. Together they create a decent fuzzy racket, full of energy and heavy on the treble, with a low-end throb that does the job while summoning up the short, sharp shocks of the Seeds, the Sonics and the Stones!" - Guardian.co.uk