Red Rockers: Good As Gold (1983) + Schizophrenic Circus (1984) [1995 Reissue]

Thus armed with no great expectations, Good as Gold came as something of a surprise, starting with the first track. Gone was the raging rhetoric, replaced by a startlingly pretty pop song, "China" filled with articulate, ringing guitars and John Griffith's newly smoothed-up vocals. With ex-Stiff Little Fingers drummer Jim Reilly in the lineup, Red Rockers switched to melodic pop-rock, much like 415 labelmates Translator but with more emphasis on electric drive and generally less-exceptional songwriting.
Good as Gold is consistently good and "China" deservedly became a hit single, but the band failed to really catch on commercially, and returned with an equally bewildering follow-up, Schizophrenic Circus. Seemingly an attempt to become America's Alarm, the LP — produced by Rick Chertoff — goes nouveau-country and encompasses both the anthemic, folky "Blood From a Stone" (covering the Hooters) and a totally unnecessary remake of "Eve of Destruction." Danger sign: too little original material of any significant quality.

Good As Gold + Schizophrenic Circus tracks:

China / Good as Gold / Dreams Fade Away / Change the World Around / Answers to the Questions / 'Til It All Falls Down / Running Away from You / Fanfare for Metropolis / (Come on into) My House / Home Is Where the War Is / Just Like You / Blood from a Stone / Shades of '45 / Another Day / Freedom Row / Good Thing I Know Her / Eve of Destruction / Both Hands in the Fire / Burning Bridges

Red Rockers - Good As Gold + Schizophrenic Circus
Password: PVAcblog

Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).

The Three O'Clock - 1983 - Live At The Concert Factory - Costa Mesta

Hi bloggers.
This is a live concert of this fantastic band that I found in the net years ago. It was recorded at The Concert Factory, Costa Mesta, California on March 5th, 1983.
It's based on the songs of their two first albums "Baroque Hoedown" and "Sixteen Tambourines", probably the best albums of the band.
The quality of the sound is good.
This is a very good moment to remember the live sound of one of the L.A. classic bands of the 80's.
Information sent by the original ripper:
"Actually this is not only the Concert Factory but 2 songs are from another concert (1982); the songs are "Marjorie Tells Me" and "It's All Too Much" and they were performed at Berkeley Square (1982).
I transferred this from a K7 some years ago making therefore a mix of the two concerts - the best of the two concerts being the Concert Factory, so it was the core of the rip. (Anonymous)"
Thank you very much.
Enjoy it!

Tracks:

With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend / Upside Down / Lucifer Sam / As Real As Real / Green Onions / All In A Good Time / Stupid Einstein / In Love In Too / Tomorrow / I Go Wild / She Turns To Flowers / Sorry / In My Own Time / It's All Too Much / Marjorie Tells Me / For Peter's Sake / Going Home / Feel A Whole Lot Better

The Three O'Clock - Live At The Concert Factory
Password: PVAcblog

Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).

The Three O'Clock: Ever After (1986) + Vernillion (1988)

Ever After saw Gutierrez exit the group (he's now in Louis and Clark), to be replaced by Steven Altenberg without any major changes in the group's sound or direction. Shortly after its release, the group parted ways with IRS, spent some time in legal limbo and then signed to Paisley Park. Apparently, Prince had heard and liked them (not too surprising, since Around the World in a Day draws on many of the same influences as Three O'Clock's records), though they'd never actually met. With Jason Falkner replacing Altenberg and Ian Ritchie producing, the group recorded Vermillion, their most interesting and varied album to date, which includes Prince's (sorry, Joey Coco's) "Neon Telephone" — just right for them — a lead vocal apiece by Falkner and keyboardist Mike Mariano (both great) and Quercio's six-minute ballad, "Through the Sleepy Town." Three O'Clock broke up later that year, with Quercio going on to form Permanent Green Light.

Ever After tracks:

Suzie's on the Ball Now / Look into Your Eyes / When We Can / The Penny Girls / Follow Him Around / Warm Aspirations / Step Out of Line / We Are One / If You Could See My Way / Songs and Gentle Words / Watching Pictures [bonus track]

Vermillion tracks:

Vermillion / Love Explosion / To Be Where You Are / When She Becomes My Girl /
World on Fire / Neon Telephone / On Paper / Ways of Magic / Time's Going Slower / Love Has No Heart / Through the Sleepy Town

The Three O'Clock - Ever After
The Three O'Clock - Vermillion

Password: PVAcblog

Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).

The Three O'Clock - 1985 - Arrive Without Travelling

Psychedelic rock & roll is here to stay – it's turning heads from Los Angeles to London, and even Prince has been tunneling backward to the mindbending sound of the lysergic Sixties. Among the leaders of the pack are the Three O'Clock, who look and sound like the Monkees and the Left Banke rolled up into one big paisley-pop package. Theirs are not the can't-find-my-mind acid agonies of the Blue Cheer and Hendrix axis, but rather the happy, helium-timbre choristering of Flower Power advocates high on groovy colors and good vibes.
Arrive without Travelling suggests, by its very title, that hallucinogens may make a comeback as a new mental mass-transit system. Certainly, the grooves within are saturated with music so sweetly bent that ordinary reality alone could not have inspired them. "Her Head's Revolving" starts out eight miles high and goes up from there, as distorted guitar riffs and fey harmonies mount around the syncopated 4/4 slam of the drums to a crescendoing frenzy not heard on record since the Yardbirds' "I'm Not Talking." "Knowing When You Smile," "Half the Way There" and "Another World" are equally wonderful, made up of gossamer vocal textures, a crisp, martial rhythmic attack and keyboard-laced pop melodies played with almost classical precision.
Some of the material borders on the predictable ("Simon in the Park," which bows to the East) or the precious ("Mrs. Green," an oversweet confection), and the music on Arrive without Travelling is more tributary than original. But when the Three O'Clock comes up with "Spun Gold," a song as magnificent as, say, the Left Banke's great lost single "Desiree," one can only be grateful for music like this in the Eighties. (Rolling Stone)

The line up was the same of the other albums.

Tracks:

Her Head's Revolving / Each And Every Lonely Heart / Underwater / Mrs. Green / Hand In Hand / Knowing When You Smile / Half The Way There / Simon In The Park / Another World / The Girl With The Guitar / Spun Gold

The Three O'Clock - Arrive Without Travelling (Repaired the corrupt file)
Password: PVAcblog

Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).

The Three O'Clock: Baroque Hoedown (1982) + Sixteen Tambourines (1983) [French Issues]

The songs on Baroque Hoedown have poppier vocals and equally engaging music. The addition of ex-Quick/Weirdos drummer Danny Benair also brought the quartet a harder edge. Don't miss their cover of the Easybeats' "Sorry."
Sixteen Tambourines is even better — an incredible full-length collection of chiming, memorable power pop tunes played and sung as if each track were likely to get played on every radio station coast-to-coast. Slick and inventive production by Earle Mankey delivers the songs (most co-written by guitarist Louis Gutierrez and bassist Michael Quercio) in utterly engaging style. Best numbers: "On My Own," "Jet Fighter," "And So We Run." Absolutely charming and remarkably memorable.

The band:

Michael Quercio - vocals, bass / Louis Gutierrez - guitar, vocals / Mike Mariano - keyboards, vocals / Danny Benair - drums

Baroque Hoedown tracks:

With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend / I Go Wild / Marjorie Tells Me / Sorry / As Real As Real / I Feel A Whole Lot Better / In Love In Too / Lucifer Sam

Sixteen Tambourines tracks:

Jet Fighter / Stupid Einstein / And So We Run / Fall To The Ground / A Day In Erotica / All In Good Time / Tomorrow / In My Own Time / On My Own / When Lightning Starts / Seeing Is Believing

The Three O'Clock - Baroque Hoedown
The Three O'Clock - Sixteen Tambourines

Password: PVAcblog

Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).

Befour Three O'Clock - 1992 - Happen Happened [reissue]

One of the brightest lights of new American pop psychedelia, LA's Salvation Army debuted with an album that was liable to inspire young bands all around the world to join in the fun. The trio's melodies have the ethereal quality of a young Syd Barrett; the music is a blend of all the most colorful '60s sounds, showing the influence of such groups as the Byrds, Move, Hollies, Music Machine and others.
Following legal action by the real Salvation Army (concerns over musical competition?), the group changed its name to the Three O'Clock. (Three years later, Frontier cleverly repackaged the original album as Befour Three O'Clock.)

The Salvation Army:

February 1981 - October 1981

Michael Quercio - vocals, bass / Johnny Blazing - guitar / Troy Howell - drums

November 1981 - July 1982

Michael Quercio - vocals, bass / Louis Gutierrez - guitar, vocals / Troy Howell - drums

July 1982 - August 1982

Michael Quercio - vocals, bass / Louis Gutierrez - guitar, vocals / Danny Benair - drums

Tracks:

Happen Happened #1 / For Hours / Fight Songs / Mind Gardens #1 / She Turns To Flowers #1 / Grimly Forming #1 / The Seventeen Forever #1 / Going Home #1 / Cellophane Nirvana / She Turns To Flowers #2 / Upside Down / The Seventeen Forever #2 / Mind Gardens #2 / Grimly Forming #2 / While We Were In Your Room Talking To Your Wall / Minuet / Happen Happened #2 / I Am Your Guru / Going Home #2

Befour Three O'Clock - Happen Happened
Password: PVAcblog
Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).

Racey - 1979 - Smash And Grab

The members of Racey came from all around. But when Racey was first formed in 1976 by singer RICHARD GOWER, they began their career by playing in pubs and clubs in the West of England. By the autumn of 1976 they performed their first professional shows and were booked to play a one-month residency at the night club JOMFRUBURET, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Jomfruburet meaning 'lady's bower' - while the place was quite the opposite).
After returning to the UK where they were spotted by famous record producer MICKIE MOST whilst playing a t the Three Queens Pub in Weston-Super-Mare.
Despite the fact that 1977 was the height of punk rock boom and clean-cut bands were considered unfashionable, Mickie Most was impressed by the bands live performance and original songs and signed them to his RAK label.
In November 1978, the bands second single LAY YOUR LOVE ON ME was released and became an enormous Christmas hit. Penned by hitmakers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman it sold over 950,000 copies in the UK alone to make it RAK Records biggest ever hit single. It went on to become a chart hit all over Europe and a No.1 hit in Australia and New Zealand.
In March 1979, Racey released their next single SOME GIRLS, also song written by Chinn/Chapman. They had originally written the song for Debbie Harry and Blondie but following the success of Lay Your Love on me decided to give it to Racey to record instead. The record became Racey’s biggest hit reaching No. 1 in 12 countries, eventually selling over 5,000,000 copies worldwide. Some Girls is still a favourite with radio Stations and club DJs and is guaranteed to fill dance floors around the world.
The bands first album SMASH AND GRAB sold over 1,000,000 copies reaching No. 1 in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and many other European countries. It reached the accolade of Treble Platinum status in Australia where it remains one of the best selling albums of all time. Racey eventually earned 35 Gold, Silver and Platinum sales awards.
In 1981 Tony Basil recorded the song KITTY taken from Racey’s album Smash and Grab which she renamed MICKEY and took the No.1 spot in the USA chart and most other countries.

The band:

RICHARD GOWER: Lead Vocalist, Guitar, Keyboards / MICHAEL HIGGINS: Bass Guitar, Vocals / GARRY WIDLAKE: Drums, Vocals / GARY COMBES: Keyboards, Vocals

Tracks:

Love's A Riot / Such A Night / There's A Party Going On / Lay Your Cards On The Table / She's A Winner / Some Girls / Lay Your Love On Me / Kitty / Rah State Way / Boy Oh Boy / We Are Racey

Racey - Smash And Grab
Password: PVAcblog

Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).

Jane Wiedlin: Selftitled (1985) + Fur (1988) + Tangled (1990)

Jane Wiedlin was part of the LA punk scene that spawned bands like X and The Dickies and went by the name "Jane Drano." As a member of The Go-Go's, she had a brief love affair with Specials and Fun Boy Three member Terry Hall. It was the ups and downs of this long-distance celebrity relationship with Hall that inspired the hit Go-Go's song "Our Lips Are Sealed". In 1983, Jane Wiedlin recorded "Cool Places" with the new wave band Sparks.
In 1984, Wiedlin was the first to leave the Go-Go's to pursue a solo career. She released four solo albums, Jane Wiedlin (1985), Fur (1988) which included the top 10 hit single "Rush Hour", Tangled (1990). Her first three efforts sold poorly and she was dropped from EMI Records. She formed a punk band, froSTed (the unusual orthography coming from the fact Wiedlin is a huge Star Trek fan), which released an album in 1995 to good reviews but poor sales. Kissproof World was released in 2000 on Painful Discs Records. In addition to "Rush Hour," notable singles include "Blue Kiss", "Inside a Dream" and "World on Fire", the latter of which sported a semi-controversial video.

Selftitled tracks:

Blue Kiss / Goodbye Cruel World / Sometimes You Really Get on My Nerves / East Meets West / Somebody's Going to Get Into This House / Forever / Modern Romance / I Will Wait for Youn / One Hundred Years of Solitude / Where We Can Go / My Traveling Heart

Fur tracks:

Inside a Dream / Rush Hour / One Heart One Way / Homeboy / The End of Love / Lover's Night / Fur / Give! / Song of the Factory / Whatever It Takes

Tangled tracks:

Rain on Me / At the End of the Day / Guardian Angel / Flowers on the Battlefield / Tangled / World on Fire / Paper Heart / Big Rock Candy Mountain / 99 Ways / Euphoria

Jane Wiedlin - Selftitled (Rapidshare: Part 1 / Part 2)
Jane Wiedlin - Fur
Jane Wiedlin - Tangled

Password: PVAcblog
Bitrate: 320

Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).