Taken from the forthcoming Omnivore Recordings release, Guitar Pickin’ Man.
Song Of The Day: Don Rich & The Buckaroos, “Guitar Pickin’ Man”
Dave & Sugar: Greatest Hits/New York Wine & Tennessee Shine (Morello Records)
This twofer offers up the best of the best from Dave & Sugar, who may be obscure now, but in their time were quite successful in making an enjoyable blend of country and pop.
Quiet World: The Road (Esoteric Recordings)
British progressive group Quiet World took a bold step and released a conceptual record for its debut album. The Road was a gamble that didn’t pay off; this reissue, however, shows that there was more to the story, and serves as a cautionary tale about being too audacious too soon in one’s career.
Song Of The Day: Melba Moore, “This Is It”
Taken from the SoulMusic Records release, Standing Right Here: The Anthology (The Buddha and Epic Years).
Zager & Evans: In The Year 2525: The RCA Masters 1969-1970 (Tune In)
Zager & Evans came out of nowhere with a smash single that offered up an eerily prophetic vision of the dystopian future-and then they went right back into oblivion. This collection compiles most of their recorded work–mostly lovely baroque pop songs by a band with a stylistic identity problem.
Song Of The Day: The Who, “My Generation”
Taken from the UMe release, My Generation: Super Deluxe Edition.
The Emerald Down: Scream The Sound (Saint Marie)
This reissue of the sole album by Columbus-based shoegazers The Emerald Down sends us back to our nascent zine-scribbler days, because, hey, what we said then is still true now–only thing that’s changed is that Scream The Sound is now lauded as a classic American shoegaze record.
Yoko Ono: Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band (Chimera Music)
Yoko Ono’s proper solo debut album, released in 1970 alongside John Lennon’s proper solo debut album, is a stunning work of experimental rock and roll, where pure emotion blends nicely with rock and roll groove and intense, uncompromising emotion.
Song Of The Day: Cluster, “Zum Wohl”
Taken from the Bureau B release, Kollektion 6: Cluster .
Odion Iruoje: Down To Earth (Soundway)
Nigerian producer and impresario Odion Iruoje will go down as one of the men who brought Fela Kuti to a wider audience, but his sole album, from 1983, is a blend of Western and African styles that sounds unlike anything that came before it–or anything that came after, for that matter.