power pop criminals: September 2015

Thursday, September 17

BRAM TCHAIKOVSKY (1978-1981)

As a request, re-up of the singles and albums

After the friendly split with The Motors, Bram Tchaikovsky formed a power trio with Micky Broadbent on bass and ex- Heavy Metal Kid Keith Boyce on drums. The original name of the band was Battle Axe, quickly changed to Bram Tchaikovsky. That's the reason why the very first 12" was called Battle Axe and released on Criminal Records before signing with Radar. Bram wanted The Motors to record "Sarah Smiles" on the Approved album but there was some kind of personal conflict with Andy McMaster, so Bram kept this gem of a powerpop classic for his own band.

Nick Garvey went to produce all of the Bram Tchaikovsky first recordings, including another 12" for Criminal Records plus the first and third Bram's albums. None of the original Criminal versions have been reissued on CD.

BATTLEAXE (12" Criminal EP BRAM 1)
Sarah Smiles / Turn On The Light / Bloodline

Lossy: ZS (29 mb)

Lossless: ZS (87 mb)

LULLABY OF BROADWAY (12" Criminal EP BRAM 5)
Lullaby Of Broadway / Rock 'n' Roll Cabaret / (Who Wants To Be A) Criminal

Lossy: ZS (21 mb)

Lossless: ZS (61 mb)

GIRL OF MY DREAMS (2 x 7" Radar ADA 28)
Girl Of My Dreams (single version) / Come Back / Robber (Live) / Whiskey & Wine (Live)

Lossy: ZS (40 mb)

Lossless: ZS (103 mb)

I'M THE ONE THAT'S LEAVING (7" Radar Single ADA 37)
I'm The One That's Leaving / Amelia

Lossy: ZS (32 mb)

Lossless: ZS (68 mb)

Bram Tchaikovsky signed to the new Radar label in 1978 along with Stiff expatriates Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. The band showed a great deal of promise with their first album, Strange Man Changed Man, fitting in nicely with the growing power pop movement. "Strange Man, Changed Man" remains Bram Tchaikovsky's finest moment. Produced by his former Motors bandmate Nick Garvey on a shoestring budget, the resulting thin sound only serves to enhance the songs which owe as much to '60s pop as they do to pub/punk rock. The pure pop of "Girl of My Dreams" (a minor hit in the U.S.) perfectly encapsulates late-'70s Brit-pop and stands as one of the classic singles of the era

STRANGE MAN, CHANGED MAN (1979, Reissue 2007)

Lossy: ZS (100 mb)

Lossless: ZS1 + ZS2 (310 mb)

"The Russians Are Coming" was released in 1980 with an added member. Dennis Forbes had been brought in to play guitar and The Rumour's Bob Andrews helped keyboards on the "Pressure" track. Due to the cold war of the time, the original title had to be changed to "Pressure" when it was released in the USA. The track list was also modified and a new artwork elaborated. Though not as brilliant as "Strange Man, Changed Man", this album had some fine songs (specially the great "Can't Give You Reasons"). The original british album was briefly reissued on CD in Japan, and is quite hard to find. "Pressure" was never reissued. This is the CD reissue

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING (1980, Reissue Japan 1998)

Lossy: ZS (100 mb)

Lossless: ZS1 + ZS2 (300 mb)

After the first two albums "Strange Man, Changed Man" bringing the unforgettable "Girl Of My Dreams", and "The Russians Are Coming" (retitled "Pressure" in the USA 'cause of the cold war), Micky Broadbent left the band due to personal conflict with Bram Tchaikovsky about the leadership. The band themselves left Radar and signed to Arista. Funland was produced by Nick Garvey and recorded at Rockfield studios in 1981 with a brand new line-up of Tchaikovsky, Forbes, Lord Richard Itchingham playing bass, and Derek Ballard playing drums. An old Motors B-side, "Soul Surrender," was recorded as an afterthought by Bram, Garvey and deputized drummer Hilly Michaels. It would be the last album by the band. Bram then retired from music business.

FUNLAND (1981) (Not available on CD)

Lossy: ZS (106 mb)

Lossless: ZS1 + ZS2 (255 mb)

Bram Tchaikovsky and his band toured the USA in 1979. The show was recorded at the Paradise Theatre in Boston, Ma on the 14th of October. It was aired on WNEW FM. The quality of the recording is quite excellent. Fifteen songs (12 well-known plus 2 covers such as Jimi Hendrix's Red House and Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock never offially recorded). The performance has never been officially released. I made a special artwork for the blog.

PARADISE THEATRE, BOSTON (1979) (Unofficial)

Lossy: ZS (147 mb)

Lossless: ZS1 + ZS2 + ZS3 (397 mb)

Original posts

Singles (13 May 2007)

Strange Man Changed Man (AWoS 2009)

The Russians Are Coming (9 June 2013)

Funland (13 May 2007)

Paradise Theatre, Boston (9 September 2007)

Sunday, September 13

MARBLES - MARBLES (2006)

The album available only in vinyl was a compilation of the Marbles recordings from the mid-to-late 70's.

The Marbles were taken under the wing of Alan Betrock, editor of Punk's local rival, New York Rocker, and thrown into a studio or two. You can snag one side of their debut, "Red Lights", on the essential ROIR compilation The Great New York Singles Scene. It is a stunning intro to what woulda-coulda-shoulda been a hit-bound future for the Marbles: ebullient, bright, catchy as all hell, with a characteristic and gorgeous four-part harmony bridge. The single even got them noticed by their punk brethren in London, eliciting a thumbs-up in one British magazine from that most commercially-minded member of the Clash, Mick Jones. The second and remaining Marbles release, "Forgive and Forget"/"Computer Cards", ups the Powerpop ante, both songs being as tuneful as the debut, yet more sophisticatedly arranged, thus more challenging. "Computer Cards" in particular, is a vocal tour-de-force, all four Marbles taking the listener from robotic unison to wondrous, enveloping rushes of Bowery-barbershop bliss.

There were even more Marbles tunes - now relegated to the occasional, hard-to-find bootleg tape - that ideally would have propelled them into the charts and hearts of American music fans, songs like the Left Banke - stately "She's In Movies", and the near-flawless melodic splendor of "Closing Me Down" (the band's contribution to A. Poe and I. Kral's flawed but definitive cinematic document of the period, The Blank Generation).

Needless to say, though, it didn't turn out that way, though they did manage to tour as far South as Washington D.C., playing at the turbulently ruled Atlantis (now 930) Club. In fact, therein lies a killer anecdote: the band was sightseeing earlier on their day in the Nation's Capitol, at one point finding themselves waiting on line for the tour of the Washington Monument. A fellow tourist clocked them, all Beatle hair and pre-Knack skinny ties, and asked who they were. When told that they were an honest-to-God rock band, they were then asked in so many words to prove it. The four Marbles then proceeded to present to all and sundry in proximity a spot-on, four-part accapella version of "Computer Cards". The reaction of the tourists is yet to be documented.

Special note: The album includes the usual set of custom artwork. The vinyl transfer was made last summer during vacation when my old mate Pierre came in my beautiful countryside with a pile of scarce LP's.

Lossy: ZS (102 mb)

Lossless: ZS1 + ZS2 (256 mb)

Songs
1 Leaving / 2 Free World / 3 Jailbait / 4 Red Lights / 5 She's Cool / 6 You Tomorrow / 7 She's In Movies / 8 Closing Me Down / 9 Listen To The Kid / 10 Computer Cards / 11 Fire And Smoke / 12 Forgive And Forget

Wednesday, September 9

LOLAS - ELECTRIC CANDLELIGHTS (2015)

(Odds & Sods)

The purpose of this fan-made PPC anthology has been to collect all of those japan bonus tracks and participations to various compilations. and tribute albums.

The Lolas are a rock'n'roll band with garage and bubblegum tendencies. The band formed around 1998, the brainchild of ex-Shame Idols Tim Boykin.

In the U.S, the band has released 4 albums, "Ballerina Breakout" (1999), "Silver Dollar Sunday" (2001), "Something You Oughta Know" (2004) and "Like The Sun" (2008).

There also were some abroad releases as the spanish collection "Silver & Gold" (2003) and "Doctor Apache" (2006) plus "Let's Rock, Rave And Shout With" (2006) which were released in Japan only. "Doctor Apache" was included 2 years later on "Like The Sun" minus one song "Nobodeh", three cuts from "Let's Rave" were also added.

The first three albums were also reissued in Japan with bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere even though some were remixed and included on "Like The Sun", and the fab Lolas were also featured on various compilations or tribute albums.

I made a complete set of artwork for this PPC compilation, it's available in both lossy and lossless formats.

Special note: The first reader to guess why this collection has been entitled "Electric Candlelights" will win nothing. It's just for the fun.

Lossy: ZS (167mb)
Lossless: ZS1 + ZS2 + ZS3 (510 mb)

Sunday, September 6

THE CLA$H

SOUNDS' BOARD GAME (1979)

As a request, another PPC exclusive

Here's the Clash' board game
featured in a december 1979 issue of Sounds
original post here (22 April 2011)

LINK (184mb)

Here are the elements featured:

1 Board Game (70cm x 56cm or 27" x 21")
+ 8 A4 parts ready to be printed
10 Cl*sh Cards
10 Street Credibility Cards
4 band members (Joe, Mick, Paul & Topper)