I know many of you find it offputting when I hawk my wares or ask for donations, but the bottom line is, I could use the business. I am practically giving records away and sadly, too many remain unsold. So, I dropped prices again, a March Madness Sale, if you will.
Please take a look at my modest but potent inventory at this link. There's something for everyone. And if vinyl isn't your thing, please consider dropping a bit in the bucket. As I mentioned earlier, in order to keep the mixes coming here and over at Now Playing, I have to shell out monthly. If the record business was better, I wouldn't care. But a few people close to me, long time readers and supporters of this blog, encouraged me to ask. So I am asking.
Thanks for your indulgence, and apologies if I offended anyone.
About 25 years ago, NYCD had put together a modest but potent power pop and psych section in the shop. We were ordering from Not Lame, a label you might have heard of, on a regular basis, and we had a decent amount of customers who would take chances on relatively obscure CDs by bands like Wanderlust, Tubetop, and Rockfour, an Israeli rock and psych band, among many others.
I had not thought about Rockfour since their 2000 release "Supermarket," but thanks to my Todd Rundgren group, I was sent a copy of their new record, "Rockfour Playing Syd Barrett."
It's only March, but this record will be at the top of my list of year's best.
Two things:
It's not just a covers record. These are not note for note replicas.
And...
I don't believe you need to be a Syd Barrett fan to dig what's going on here. As a matter of fact, I believe if you're not a Syd Barrett fan, you will become one after one pass of this very exciting collection of tunes.
Here is a new single from Holly P, who happens to be the daughter of Andy Partridge.
I think this track is great fun. Holly wrote some great lyrics, which you should read as the song plays. She has a great delivery and many things about it remind me of something her dad's band might have recorded for "Drums & Wires."
Midwest powerpoppers The Legal Matters are back with album number four. It's called "Lost At Sea," and I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to this, as albums one through three had sadly eluded me. But while taking my morning scroll of the internet's good and bad, I noticed a quick blurb about the just released new record that intrigued me and so I went in. I am not disappointed.
There's more here than your usual power pop, a label that often gets under my skin. Actually, I don't mind the term "power pop" as much as I mind "the cult of power pop" and the relentless comparisons to Big Star, the Raspberries and Jellyfish in every press release. "Lost At Sea" sounds like none of that holy trinity. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't call this record "power pop" any more than I would call Crowded House or The Beach Boys or Cheap Trick or Andrew Gold power pop. Instead, "Lost At Sea" evokes the great lost days of brilliant record making. There are more hooks and goosebump inducing melodies to be found on "Lost At Sea" than in most bands' entire oeuvre.
From the ingenious chord changes of the opener "Everybody Knows" and the dreamy, Laurel Canyon harmonies on "Shake This Feeling," to the irresistible melody of "Stuck With Me" and the pure Brian Wilson bliss of "The Exit Signs," "Lost At Sea" continues to reward right into the deadwax of Side Two.
I don't want to deny the band their druthers if they want to be called power pop. Maybe the first three records owe more to Big Star and the Raspberries than the new one. I will find out soon, as I make my way backward. But I can now say, I am absolutely looking forward to hearing "Lost At Sea" again and again and again.
Something Strange Is Going On- Roddie Joy Comin' Home Baby- Dee Dee Sharp Tell It Like It Is- The Dirty Dozen Brass Band Little Herb Spliff- Visionaires Accidentally Like A Martyr- Warren Zevon Streets of Baltimore- Gram Parsons I Won't Do You No Dirt- William Bell
I had been putting together a mix of lesser known tracks by girl group acts but then got distracted. Roddie Joy and Dee Dee Sharp started things off before I quit.
The William Bell track is a demo that runs less than two minutes, but there's more grease in that 1:40 than most full length R&B albums.
Along with my Beatles and Beach Boys records were two records that my grandfather loved and played constantly, The Drifters' Golden Hits and Neil Sedaka's Greatest Hits. Dinner on a summer Sunday would be a din of screaming Italians, Phil Rizzuto calling the Yankees game on the living room television, and my grandfather's stereo turned up to eleven, years before Spinal Tap, blasting "Oh Carol" and "Run Samson Run" from his den.
The man could write a hit, that's for sure.
Neil was still very active on social media. Did not expect this. More good news.
