Welcome to my first K-Tel Friday post of 2011. Someone did some serious Christmas shopping and came up with this goodie for homercat to unwrap. At this rate homercat is likely to amass the largest collection of K-Tel vinyl on the island. Near as I can tell Bright Side of Music probably came out sometime in 1973. Once again there isn't a date to be found anywhere on the album. They managed to cram 22 songs on this one. Whenever that happens you can be assured that [...]
Starting in 1971 with the single "Get Down Get With it," Slade touched off a string of classic singles and proceeded to become one of the most beloved party bands in the UK. Some with humorously misspelled song titles, such as "Coz I Luv You," "Look Wot You Dun," "Take Me Bak 'Ome," "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," "Gudbuy t'Jane," "Cum on Feel the Noize," and "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me." They never truly caught on with North American audiences and that has always puzzled me. With glam rock's demise and punk's emergence by the mid-'70s, the hits eventually [...]
In the mid 90's Jackyl were unfairly lumped into the hair metal category along with acts like Damn Yankees and Slaughter. Actually they were a Southern rock boogie band from Georgia that formed in 1990. They had a well crafted blend of hard rock, Southern boogie and power tools. The fivesome shared an enthusiasm for AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and other like-minded artists. Their self-titled debut, released in 1992, enjoyed several hit rock singles, but the most attention was drawn by "The Lumberjack," an ode to burly chain-saw wielders that featured a chainsaw solo by vocalist James Dupree. [...]
When Joe Perry left Aerosmith in 1979, he formed The Joe Perry Project with vocalist Ralph Mormon, bassist David Hull and drummer Ronnie Stewart. The quartet got off to a good start with the back-to-basics debut Let the Music Do the Talking , which is an excellent album reminiscent of the brash and trashy appeal of early Aerosmith. The album sold almost 250,000 copies and ended up charting at #47. The title track was aimed at all the in-press bickering that was going on at the time between Aerosmith and Perry, then six years later the reunited Aerosmith would [...]
Dire Straits I try and try to stick mostly to music here and keep the ranting to myself. This rant is music related and it has chapped my ass so I have to share my feelings on this one. I'm sure some will agree with me and others will want me drawn and quartered. Can I start off by saying that all this political correctness has gone way too far. I'm as sensitive of peoples feelings as the next guy but I am grown up enough to not let words [...]
Flex Lene Lovich (pronounced Lay-na Luv-itch) proud owner of a high-pitched, shrieky voice, spooky wide-eyed stare and general oddball appearance -- was born in Detroit in 1949 to a Yugoslav father and an English mother. She moved to England with her mother when she was 13, then ran away from home two years later. In 1979 Lene Lovich released the single Lucky Number on Stiff records and some say helped usher in the age of new wave music. This could be looked at as a good or [...]
David Wilcox is a brilliant song writer, a great singer, and one of the hottest guitar players from Canada. Not to be confused with the American folk musician and singer-songwriter with the same name. He first made his name as a wild showman, then across Canada as a Blues/Rock guitar wizard and onstage firecracker. Wilcox discovered Elvis at age six, started picking guitar a couple of years later, and played his first gig - to a room full of ex-convicts - at age fourteen. In the early '80s Wilcox became both a killer guitarist and [...]
Friendship Friendship was originally released in 1984, and is a series of duets that Ray Charles did with country artists. It was great then, and it is still terrific now. It was Ray's third album after signing with Columbia in the early 80's. He had long been a fan of duets, and this album gave him a chance to sing with some of the top country and western artists who were signed with Columbia and Epic Records at the time. The album was a [...]
Sailor's Delight Back in July I posted a couple of tracks from the debut album by Doug Fieger's first band Sky. Sky's second album, Sailor's Delight , came out in 1971 and was produced by Jimmy Miller with Andy Johns, who as you all should know worked with the Rolling Stones. In fact the same horn section that the Stones used appear on this album as well as pianist Ian Stewart. The album is a solid representation of Fieger's song compositions and pre-Knack efforts; "Let It Lie Low" is a nice bit of [...]
So I'm at work this morning and I hear on the radio that Alice Cooper is one of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame inductees for 2011. Or should I say the Alice Cooper Band, he isn't being inducted for his post 75 work yet. You know what? It's about damn time. For the last five years I have done many rants about the repeated, year after year snubbings that the voters have handed out to Alice, while other less deserving artists made it into the Hall. Finally this huge oversight has been rectified so I had [...]
Introducing Sparks Introducing Sparks is the seventh album by Sparks released in 1977. It was their final release for Columbia records and did not fare any better than their previous effort, Big Beat. This album is another one of those rarities that can be hard to find. Other than it's initial vinyl release, it has been out of print for years. Even though Columbia had released Big Beat on cd it never bothered with this release and for many years it [...]
These are the Good Times People These Are the Good Times People is the fifth album by The Presidents of the United States of America. It was released on March 11, 2008. I sorta touched on this album back in December of 2008 when I gave this album the #2 spot in my top ten albums of 2008. Two years later and it still has heavy rotation on my mp3 player. In fact I was listening to it again today and it urged me to revisit the album [...]
The Residents Felt a need to post something bizarre today what with the bizarre weather we're having on the island this week and the Residents truly fit that bill. These mysterious giant eyeball headed dudes are truly weird. Over the course of a recording career spanning several decades, the Residents have remained a riddle. The band's members have never identified themselves by name, always appearing in public in disguise -- usually tuxedos, top hats and giant eyeball masks -- and refusing to grant media interviews. The Residents , always ones to convert their [...]
Glass Houses From 1973 to 1993 Billy Joel was a pure d bonafide hit making machine. In that time frame he released 11 studio albums. Two of those went platinum and the other nine went multi platinum. Pretty impressive numbers. In 1980 Joel released Glass Houses , his seventh studio album, which went on to go 7 times platinum. The album was Joel's attempt to change the pop crooner image that the music press was trying to label him as at the [...]
Ba Fa Ba Fa is the fourth studio album by The Hudson Brothers released in 1975. I wrote an extensive piece on the brothers when I posted about their greatest hits album three years ago. If you missed it you can catch it here . I just mention that because I don't think I need to go over their history again since homercat has already been down that road . Perchance I may be one of the few who remembers and actually [...]
In the year after the mega success of Meat Loaf's debut album, Bat Out of Hell , the meatster totally lost his voice due to a combination of touring, drugs and exhaustion. That was 1978. That same year songwriter Jim Steinman started to work on Bad for Good, the album that was supposed to be the follow-up to 1977's Bat out of Hell. Without a singer, and pressured by the record company, Steinman decided that he should sing on Bad for Good himself. Meanwhile, after playing the role of Travis [...]
Can You say rare, hard to find and pretty darn good. That describes the 1979 album Elevator by The Rollers. Having replaced longtime lead singer Les McKeown with Duncan Faure, the Bay City Rollers shortened their name to simply The Rollers, and pursued a more rocking, power-pop sound than their previous work. Now if you look at the cover you can probably tell you're going to get something a little different than you were previously used to, judging by the big pill in the elevator. Yes the Bay [...]
Boney M. is a disco group created by German record producer Frank Farian. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group's official line-up were Jamaicans Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett, Maizie Williams from Montserrat and Bobby Farrell from Aruba. The group was formed in 1975 and achieved popularity during the disco era of the late 1970s. Of course the name Frank Farian may be familiar to some of you as he was the brainchild of the ill fated lip synching duo Milli Vanilli. It's funny that he [...]
Busted is the 11th studio album by Cheap Trick, which was released in 1990 and peaked at #44 on the US album charts. After the success of Lap of Luxury with the single The Flame, the tricksters were allowed more creative control and unlike Lap of Luxury, professional songwriters were only used on a couple of songs . Again a conundrum ensues, a much better album than the song factory writing of Lap of Luxury, especially with the single "Can't Stop Fallin' Into Love" peaking at #12 on the US charts. When the tricksters write their own material they [...]
Roadie Soundtrack Roadie is a 1980 film directed by Alan Rudolph about a truck driver who becomes a roadie for a traveling rock and roll show. The film stars Meat Loaf as Travis C Redfish, driver for Shiner beer who meets Lola falls for her even though she's a groupie who is on her way to give herself to Alice Cooper. Along the way it turns out that the Loaf is an awesome Roadie and a wiz at setting up stuff. There are cameo appearances by musicians such as Roy Orbison, Hank Williams [...]
Good Rockin' Tonight
the Weekender ::: New music from Catcall // the National // Summer Camp
KNIFE PARTY – RAGE VALLEY EP
Live: Among Bouquets & Florets. Girls, HMV Forum.
