Rush: Rush Through Time (Mercury/1982)

Rush have always been a very divisive band amongst music fans and musicians alike. Aside from their most accessible singles, I have never really been much of a fan of this band's extensive catalog. The band, as musicians, are very capable and have no problem reminding the listener of this fact. Their drummer Neil Peart, who also serves as the bands' primary lyricist, does not subscribe to the less-is-more philosophy. He is a great drummer, but his tendency to overplay undercuts any notion of feel or soulfulness. Bassist Geddy Lee is the front man and lead vocalist. His voice has always been something of an acquired taste, or rather when he raises his voice to a high-pitch (ala Robert Plant) it can become unpleasant. Otherwise, he's fine. Guitarist Alex Lifeson is a fairly traditional bluesy, hard rock player and is capable of many nice lead runs. The "progressive" tag seems to exist more for the tricky chord progressions than the overall oeuvre of the majority of their back catalog. Like Cream or Led Zeppelin - two of the bands' bigger initial influences - the bands' greatest strength is their interaction musically.

Rush Through Time was first released without the band's knowledge or consent, as a picture disc in 1979 for the German market. It was then reissued in a traditional sleeve in 1982 in Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico and New Zealand. It contains selections from the Fly By Night, Caress Of Steel, 2112 and A Farewell To Kings albums. Standout tracks include "Fly By Night", "Closer To The Heart", "The Twilight Zone" and "Bastille Day". If you're a fan of Rush, this piece of vinyl would make for a nice little addition to your collection. Otherwise, it's something of an okay, if randomly representative collection that, if you're a Rush fan, perhaps doesn't amount to anything more than just product.

Here's the video review:

The Clash: Black Market Clash EP (Epic/1980)

The Clash have been dubbed "The Only Band That Matters". Coming from the original UK punk scene, The Clash were an important band, both genuinely and superficially. I often wonder what a modern audience would make of the Clash now. They were as impassioned as they were insufferable and they cared as much about "the message" as they did their well-groomed image. They have always been one of my favorite bands, but I've always been able see both sides of them. Their documentary Westway To The World was as riveting as it was revisionist (the band curiously failed to even mention the last three years of its' history). The band released twenty singles and six albums in only eight years time.

Black Market Clash was a 10" EP released as part of Epic's Nu Disk series. Nu Disk was a brief series of 10" EP's released in 1980 (other notable acts to be part of the series are Cheap Trick and Gary Glitter). It's a collections of singles, B-sides, dubs and outtakes. "Capital Radio" and "Bankrobber" were both single A-Sides (the latter in an extended dub-form), "Cheat" is from the UK version of their self-titled debut album, "Time is Tight" is a cover of a Booker T & The MGs song and the remaining tracks were UK-only B-Sides.

 Black Market Clash was released right before the triple-album Sandinista!. All of these tracks were assembled on CD as Super Black Market Clash in the mid 90's.I personally like 10" vinyl records so I'll go out on a limb and say, sure, why not, buy it. It's a nice little fill-the-gaps release.

Here's The Video Review:

The Big Sounds Of The Drags! (Capitol Records/1963)

In the early 1960's drag racing/hot rodding was wildly popular in Southern California. Also wildly culturally popular was Surf Rock. Eventually out of Surf Music, grew Hot Rod music (i.e. Dick Dale & His Deltones, The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, etc.). That is, surf rock with lyrics pertaining to Hot Rods and Hot Rod culture. The Big Sounds Of The Drags! is not Hot Rod music per se. It is a spoken word album with a narrator who introduces the album followed by the sounds of drag racers, drag-racing and, for authenticity purposes, a race announcer off in the distance.

Released in October of 1963, The Big Sound Of The Drags! was produced by Jim Economidies (responsible for plenty of early/mid 60's surf rock records). It was the first in a series of five in Captiol's "Big Sound Series" (the other four being The Big Sounds Of The Sports Cars, The Big Sounds Of The Drag Boats, The Big Sounds Of The Go Karts! and The Big Sounds Of The Drags Volume Two). The Drags was the most successful selling over 100,000 copies (in just six months).

The sounds of revving car engines is oddly therapeutic/soothing. And I can imagine one falling asleep soundly to the long-droning sounds. The album is about twenty-eight minutes long. It's really a strange little 1960's pop culture artifact. If you're a fan of hod rod/racing or spoken word albums you'll most-likely love this slab of vinyl. Otherwise I'm not sure who to recommend this to. I personally enjoyed it in all its proto-ambient charming drone-glory..

Here's the video review:

The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations: Best Of The Beach Boys (Reprise/1975)

The Beach Boys are one of the greatest American bands to emerge from the second-half of the 20th Century. Brian Wilson is one of the most important modern-day American pop composers. His productions ushered in Baroque pop, Sunshine pop and Psychedelic Pop. However, to your average low-information consumer, they are primarily known only for recording a handful of well-crafted, but perhaps over-saturated early hits (i.e. "Surfin' U.S.A.", "Fun, Fun, Fun", "I Get Around", "Help Me Rhonda" and "California Girls"). Hits that have been heard in commercials, movies and all-over oldies radio, for quite some time now.

However some of their best material (bona fide hits or minor hits) come from their lesser-known-to-the-public-at-large era of 1966-1973. Some songs that are very well-known ("Good Vibrations") and have similar, near companion songs that are not as well-known ("Heroes And Villains"). Good Vibrations: Best Of The Beach Boys was the first time all of the baroque-pop period of The Beach Boys was compiled in one place. However it's release was not exactly of purest intentions. Endless Summer (Capitol/1974) and Spirit Of America (Capitol/1975) were compilation albums released of the bands' earlier material by Capitol after the band had been on Reprise for a few years. They were blockbuster albums peaking at numbers 1 and 8, respectively on Billboard. They single-handedly put The Beach Boys back in the general public's commercial consciousness again after years of releasing artistically-successful albums, but dwindling returns. Reprise had the rights to the bands Capitol catalog from 1966-1969 and the bands' own Reprise material (from 1970 onward).

Good Vibrations: Best Of The Beach Boys succeeds in (albeit modestly - it charted at 25) cashing-in on the band they seemingly could never sell in the same way that Capitol had, despite first-class material. Song-for-song it's basically a perfect album. "Good Vibrations", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Heroes And Villains", "Friends", "Add Some Music To Your Day", "God Only Knows", "Sloop John B", "Surf's Up", "Caroline, No", "Darlin'", "Do It Again" and "Sail On Sailor" are the songs on the album.  If there was to be a CD release for a complete 1966-1973 best-of, these are the tracks I'd include: "I Can Hear Music", "Cottonfields" (single version),  Bluebirds Over The Mountain", "Wild Honey", "Long Promised Road", "Till I Die", "Marcella", "Cabinessence", "California Saga: California" (single version) "Busy Doin' Nothin'", "This Whole World" and "You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone". But you could always make a compilation CD of all of this I suppose.

I cannot recommend the vinyl platter highly enough.

Here's the video review:

Alex Chilton: Dusted In Memphis (And Elsewhere 75-80) (Bangkok Productions/1980)

Alex Chilton had been a teen idol in the mid-late 1960's with blue-eyed soul band The Box Tops. He'd then been a power pop innovator in the early 1970's with Big Star. He then embarked on a long and sometimes controversial (amongst fans) solo career. The first release from his post-Big Star period was the Singer Not The Song EP released in 1977 on Ork Records. This was recorded in Memphis and was produced by rock critic Jon Tiven in 1975, and was released in its' entirety in 1981 as Bach's Bottom (a play on "Box Top"). But these recordings aren't really representative of the first true solo music Alex made with his first solo band.

Alex moved to New York City in February of 1977 and formed a band with Chris Stamey on bass (later of The dB's) and Lloyd Fonoroff on drums. Shortly thereafter Fran Kowalski joined the band on keyboards and they became known as Alex Chilton & The Cossacks. They regularly performed at CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and The Lower Manhattan Ocean Club. They were approached and courted by Elektra Records' Karin Berg, whom Alex had known for some time. Elektra funded recording sessions that were engineered by John Klett at Trod Nossel Studios in Wallingford, Connecticut with the hopes of signing the band.

These sessions yielded unique and interesting recordings of "She Might Look My Way" (which Alex had co-written with Tommy Hoehn), "Shakin' The World", "My Rival", "Windows Hotel", "A Little Fishy", "All Of The Time" and a cover of The Seeds' "Can't Seem To Make You Mine". Sadly, Elektra passed on these recordings deeming them "too uncommercial". This is a great shame as it is an excellent document of where Alex was at during this stage of his career (he wooed the critics during his time in NY, but not the major labels). Two recordings that were in fact released that Alex had recorded with Chris Stamey at Trod Nossel - the fantastically produced "The Summer Sun" b/w '"Where The Fun Is", released as a Chris Stamey single (produced by Alex, he also plays guitar, drums, percussion and shares vocal duties with Chris).

The Dusted In Memphis bootleg contains six of the seven Cossacks songs (omitting "All Of The Time"). Other songs included are a rough mix of "Lovely Day" (an outtake from Big Star's Third which eventually came out on the Keep An Eye On The Sky box set), "Baron Of Love Part Two" which appeared on the Peabody Records version of Like Flies On Sherbert in 1979 and "Take Me Home And Make Me Like It" & "The Walking Dead" (both later appeared on the Razor & Tie version of Bach's Bottom, the latter in an edited form). The Cossacks material (excepting "Little Fishy") later appeared in digital form on (also a bootleg) Beale Street Green.

"My Rival" was re-recorded in a drastically different arrangement and released on Like Flies On Sherbert and "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" was re-recorded an released on the B-Side of Alex's "Bangkok" single in 1978. A live version of "A Little Fishy" came out on the Japanese-only release One Day In New York. "She Might Look My Way" came out of Tommy Hoehn's Losing You To Sleep album.

Allegedly, the only copy of these recordings that anyone associated with band had was lost in the house fire that claimed Alex Chilton's mother's life. If this is true, and the masters have been lost, it is truly a great, great shame as these are possibly the best post-Big Star recordings of Alex's long solo career.

If you find this release, I high recommend you pick it up.

Here's the video review:

Special Thanks to: Ardent Records, Stephanie Chernikowski, Michael O'Brien & Allan Tannenbaum

Jerry Cole & His Spacemen: Surf Age (Capitol/1963 & Sundazed Music/2008)

Jerry Cole was one of the most sought-after session guitarists of the 1960's Los Angeles scene. He was a member of The Wrecking Crew and regularly appeared albums by The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Paul Revere & The Raiders and Little Richard. He also had a little band of his own known as The Spacemen. Jerry Cole & The Spacemen released three albums which were all released on Capitol Records. The second of these, Surf Age, has been reissued by the fantastic Sundazed Music (along with Hot Rod Dance Party) in a limited pressing of 1,000 copies on colored vinyl.

Surf Age is an instrumental surf rock album with your standard guitar, bass, drums arrangement. Songs are occasionally ornamented with organs, sometimes saxophones and lots of percussion. The album was produced by Jim Economides (who also wrote about half of the material) and it's a nicely recorded/produced album. The material is sometimes danceable in an old-school way. It's definitely a wonderful relic of its' time. I personally like the bass saxophones but I could do with out the sax solos - they're the one thing on the entire recording that "date" it, oddly enough. Whereas the standard guitar-bass-drums surf rock set-up is fairly timeless. The riffs are great but the material as a whole is somewhat on the forgettable-side.

However, these releases are a guilty-pleasure of mine as I'm way into this period of music (especially surf rock from the West Coast) so I'd recommend this to other like-minded fans as well. 

Here's the video review:

Too Much Joy: Dr. Seuss Is Dead EP (1994/Joybuzzer)

Too Much Joy was a punky power pop quartet with a sense of humor. Lead singer Tim Quirk wrote wonderfully witty lyrics and was able to touch upon young adulthood as well as the best in the field. The band had the unique ability to sound loose while in fact being a rather tight outfit thanks to the crack rhythm section of bassist Sandy Smallens and drummer Tommy Vinton.  They had an-almost MTV hit with "That's A Lie" (a rap-to-rock cover of the LL Cool J song) and a few hit singles on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in "Donna Everywhere" and "Crush Story" (the latter of which deserved to be significantly more well-known than it ultimately became). 

                                    TMJ relaxing on the set of the "That's A Lie" music video


Too Much Joy was dropped by Giant in the Autumn of 1993 after the Forever In Your Face Tour and this was released during the big dry-period following the 1992 album Mutiny and preceding ...finally in 1996. This was issued by the official TMJ fanclub newsletter Joybuzzer in the Summer of 1994. It was offered to both new-subscribers and renewing-members, which was a pretty sweet deal. Joybuzzer was run by Clive Young and was all-around excellent zine.
 
"Just Around The Bend" sounds like a great lost early 90's TMJ single. "Never Work" is good but isn't done much justice by the soundcheck recording. "Hey Merlin" has cool would-be psychedelic lyrics but suffers from a clumsy arrangement (or perhaps that was just the performance). "Outtakes" for this EP are "Death Ray Machine" (later on Gods & Sods) and the great "Sunroof" (a Gods & Sods download-only bonus track via eMusic).

This blue 7" vinyl EP (at 33 1/3RPM) is pretty rare. It was a limited pressing of 500 or 1,000 copies. It was mastered directly from DAT to vinyl. Only "Hey Merlin" has since appeared in a digital format on Gods & Sods, but all three-tracks are available for a very inexpensive download from toomuchjoy.com. If you can find this nifty release, by all means, pick it up.


Here's the video review:

 Special thanks to: Clive Young of Pro Sound News and Joybuzzer Zine.

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