Due to popular demand here’s re-up of Eva records collection of singles by two 60’s garage groups. THE LITTLE BOY BLUES from Chicago started with couple of folk rock tunes but soon switched to Garage/Blues treatment of Willy Dixon/Muddy Waters standards, Donovan and YEAH! great fuzzed-out cover of 60’s punk classic “I Can Only Give You Everything” [Pebbles vol.2]. They scored an album ”In the Woodland of Weir” in ’68. but for my money their best recordings are these four 7″-ers from ’65-’67.
Inanothercorner we got fun, upbeat Garage/Pop crew from New Mexico, fronted by Lindy Blaskey [aka Lindy Blaschke].
“While they never broke big on the national charts, Lindy Blaskey and his band the Lavells were one of the most popular bands in the Southwest during the mid-’60s garage rock explosion. The band’s frantic and dance-friendly rock made them the kings of the Albuquerque, NM, teen scene, and their popularity extended across the state. Blaskey sang and played rhythm guitar with the group, while Steve Maase played lead guitar, Art Flores handled keyboards, Carl Silva was on harmonica, Danny Valdez held down the bass, and Chuck Buckley was the drummer. Blaskey also released the band’s recordings through his own record label, and their 1966 single “You Ain’t Tuff” has surfaced on a number of anthologies of rare and classic garage rock sides.” [Mark Deming]
“Alsatian-Born Mark Wirtz began his music career while studying art at London’s Fairfield College of Arts and Sciences, and drama at the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts, when his college Rock-band, ‘The Beatcrackers,’ were signed to a recording contract in 1963 as ‘Mark Rogers and the Marksmen’ by EMI producer Norman Newell.
By 1965 Mark had started his first independent production company, releasing records that have since become enduring classics, including Mood Mosaic’s, “A Touch Of Velvet, A Sting Of Brass,” for EMI’s Parlophone Records, and his own Mark Wirtz Orchestra album, “Latin A Go-Go,” for Ember Records.
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In 1967, Mark accepted EMI veteran producer/A&R chief Norrie Paramor’s offer to join EMI Records as in-house producer. Working at Abbey Road Studios alongside the Beatles and Pink Floyd (the latter whom he was instrumental in signing to the company), Mark wrote and produced landmark recordings by artists such as Keith West, Tomorrow, and Kippington Lodge. Most notably, he reached global success with his production of excerpts from the first ever Rock Opera, “A Teenage Opera.” Though never allowed to be completed or released as an entire work, the opera’s excerpts “Grocer Jack,””Sam””Weatherman” and “Theme” became legendary trail-blazers, which have not only captivated several generations of music fans, but influenced and inspired artists and musicians world-wide..” [wiki]
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German wunderkind and Abbey Road staff producer [kinda like “Euro Phil Spector” for Easy listening/Lounge/Pop], composer and singer Mark Wirtz collection of recordings made between 1965-1969, mostly from ’67″Mood Mosaic” LP.
“Ultra Cheesy” take on pop/rock classics as Yeh Yeh, Comin’ Home Baby, Don’t Do It Baby, Monday, Monday, Sunny, I Can Hear Music, Dizzy… Sounds like Mike Myer’s “Austin Powers” imaginary alternative soundtrack. More sounds of “Swingin’ London”… Say Yeh Yeh, Dig!
This double-CD set, with 44 songs recorded by the early to mid ’60s British pop/rock star Heinz, may seem like overkill, but as it turns out, it’s not. Heinz, or Heinz Burt as he was known in the Tornados, was not only a prodigious talent, but a highly consistent recording artist. From the first two tracks here, dating from 1962, to the last one — a live recording of “I Got a Woman” done in 1965 from the Cavern Club — the recordings are exciting and interesting, and memorable. Heinz’ producer on these sides was the legendary Joe Meek, and his signature attributes — flashy keyboards and guitar, all very compressed — can be found on much of it, but unlike a lot of other extended bodies of Meek’s recordings, this body of music is highly listenable, track after track. Heinz was a better singer than he usually got credit for being, and he cut superb versions of “Summertime Blues” and “Twenty Flight Rock,” and was just as good doing songs that came out of Meek’s stable of composers, including Geoff Goddard’s “Hush-a-Bye,” and his singing makes even lackluster songs such as “(Sorry) I Ran All the Way Home” more interesting than they should be. [AMG]
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German-born gayish lookin’ UK Pop/Rock answer to Eddie Cochran, produced by famous JOE “Telstar” MEEK. Just Like Eddie!
The girl group’s last gasp of 1968. The Goodees enjoyed brief popularity in the late 1960s. Formed in Memphis, Tennessee, the group is best known for the minor hit “Condition Red”, a teen melodrama that bore a striking resemblance to the Shangri-Las hit “Leader of the Pack”. This here is their sole Stax slab + non Lp singles and unissued stuff. Includes cool take on The Swingin’ Medallions'”Double Shot (of My Baby’s Love)”. Sooooo Good-ees,Dig!
A notch or two above The Grass Roots and The Mamas and Papas, and more than a few steps below The Byrds, the early Beau Brummels took the indulgently blissful sound of ’60s San Fancisco rock into a folkier, borderline country direction (and would in fact later play solid country rock). Led by guitarist/writer Ron Elliott, the Brummels made a virtue of innocence and joyful bounce, and benefited from Sly Stone’s energetic production. Hits include “Laugh, Laugh,””Sad Little Girl,” and a pleasant take on Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings.” There may not be much substance or invention here, but 30 years later, the Brummels still sound catchy. [Roy Francis Kasten]
Vinyl Rip of this ’86 Rhino Rec. compilation, a fine overview of one of the first US answer to Brit Invasion. Folk/Pop/Baroque garage produced by early Sly Stone in 3D Surfadelic rip. Dig!
Multi-instrumentalist Paul Buff created Pal Recording Studio in December 1957 with a simple two-track Viking recorder. The demand for stereo recording led Buff to create a homemade, five-track recording studio when the industry standard was still mono or two-track stereo recording.
Buff’s studio creativity and complete openness in recording musicians of all backgrounds and styles naturally resulted in studio bookings by many local artists. Pal Recording Studio quickly became a place where musicians could record their rehearsals and repertoire and leave with high quality recordings. One of those groups of musicians was The Surfaris, who recorded “Wipe Out” at Pal in late 1962. This surf standard is the best known Pal recording.
“Paul Buff Presents Highlights From The Pal And Original Sound Studio Archives” has many in-demand rarities and unreleased tracks drawn from Paul Buff’s mixdown tapes and reference discs. Original releases of the records represented in this box set literally cost hundreds of dollars apiece, reflecting the impressive historical and musical value of Crossfire’s set.
Pal functioned as the recording home for Buff’s record labels (Pal, Emmy, Yukon, Plaza and Vigah!) and for The Pal Studio Band, a group of musicians revolving around Paul Buff, guitarist Dave Aerni and young guitarist/drummer Frank Zappa. Buff taught Zappa the art of recording studio operation as The Pal Studio Band created a large body of work. On many occasions, this group succeeded in licensing their tracks to larger record labels. When these recordings could not find a home, in-house labels by Buff or Dave Aerni (Daytone, Ador, Daani) released them.
Emmy’s releases featured three singles by The Masters, cut by Buff and guitarist Ronnie Williams. The B-side of the second Masters single, “Breaktime,” featured overdubbed guitar leads by Zappa. Other early singles that spotlighted Frank Zappa were by The Penguins, The Hollywood Persuaders, The Tornadoes, Buddy And The Crickets, Ron Roman, Baby Ray And The Ferns, Brian Lord And The Midnighters, Mr. Clean, The Heartbreakers, Ned & Nelda, Bob Guy, Conrad And The Hurricane Strings, The Cordells, The Rhythm Surfers, The Woody Waggers, The Decades, and Johnny Barakat And The Vestells. Many Pal Studio Band tracks with Zappa involvement make their CD debuts in this box set, including some with original Mothers Of Invention vocalist Ray Collins.
While still at Pal, Paul Buff started working with Art Laboe, owner of Original Sound Records. Laboe asked Buff to create a new recording studio for Original Sound artists, and in 1964, Paul finished creating his own ten-track recording gear. Buff was already in place as Original Sound’s studio engineer when he sold Pal Recording Studio to Frank Zappa on August 1, 1964. Many Original Sound artists were engineered by Paul Buff, who had started making his own recordings at the studio the previous year.
Paul Buff’s Original Sound output was credited to his own name as well as many other artists. Tracks recorded with Dave Aerni were released as by The Bongo Teens and The Rotations. One-man-band recordings issued as The Hollywood Persuaders include the well known “Tijuana” and “Drums A-Go-Go.” Paul also recorded with his first wife Allison as The Catalinas, Lori Allison, The Buff Organization and with vocalist Ricky Dean. The Friendly Torpedoes featured Buff with The Music Machine‘s Sean Bonniwell. Nearly the entire output of the All-American label (known for Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense And Peppermints”) was engineered by Buff, as was Sugarloaf’s “Green-Eyed Lady” for Liberty.
Buff was a self-taught pioneer in the field of independent record production in the early 1960’s, developing his skills through the necessity of low budgets and creating unique techniques, recording equipment and sounds that would elevate such groups as The Surfaris and The Chantays into the limelight. Unsung genius of the recording world, the crazy guy built a 5-track machine when 3-track was the standard in the early 60’s, and a 10-track machine in the mid-60’s when 4-track was the standard. Frank Zappa later bought the studio from Buff, and changed its name to Studio Z.
Gadzooks! A bit of an overkill 156 tracks compilation (58early masters with Frank Zappa contributions as performer, writer and/or producer) of 60’s recordings from Pal and Original Sound Studio. Here you got to deal with hodgepodge of cool surfin’, garage, psych, r-billy, pop and some lame stuff. Anyways, overall, it’s an interesting trip so you gotta dig real hard!
A gold mine for the devoted followers of Lee Hazlewood, and a good set compiling chart-minded pop of all stripes, Califia: The Songs of Lee Hazlewood spans the mid-’50s breakthrough of pop/rock that Hazlewood helped spark with his Duane Eddy productions all the way to the early ’70s — a mere dozen years in chronology, but an epoch in popular music. Hazlewood was one of the first and best producers of the rock age, a man whose innovative sounds on Eddy brought a young Phil Spector to Arizona in the late ’50s to learn at his feet. Fans of Lee Hazlewood have ensured that nearly all of his solo recordings have been reissued at least once, but his flood of songwriting and production for various labels and artists between the mid-’50s and early ’70s has never been surveyed like this. Although his only number one hit is not included here (Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'”), the material is uniformly good. Granted, since Hazlewood was usually aiming for the charts with these productions (as opposed to his solo material), it leans toward the pedestrian, but for those who’ve spent a lot of time listening to pop music of the ’60s, it’s easy to hear how the innovative productions elevate these songs and performances above the mediocre and to a higher level. The emphasis is on the range of artists he produced, so associated acts like Nancy Sinatra, Sanford Clark (who recorded the only big hit here, 1956’s “The Fool”), Duane Eddy, Suzi Jane Hokom, and the Shacklefords are given only two tracks each at the most, with more time accorded for one-shots from artists both famous (Ann-Margret, Dusty Springfield, B.B. King) and not so much (the Darlenes, the Wildcats, Don Cole, and studio-drummer extraordinaire Hal Blaine). [John Bush]
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[Special Tanx goes to Mattia, a friend from Italy, who sent me this super-nice collection]
