No comments about Superstar Hits.

4 comments about Pebbles, Vol. 9: Southern California 2.

1. Someday You'll Cry is the name of tract four sung by the Standells and the reason I bought this CD. It is a good thing I liked at least this one sung prior to buying it because after listening to the rest of the CD, today was the day I cried. This is a collection of amateurish attempts at equaling the established stars of the day. If anything, it taxed my patience to listen to it. If you're a fan of (really) raw garage punk, perhaps you might find more here then I did; but if your looking for some hidden nugget of musical gold, I don't believe you will find it here. Try Texas Battle of the Bands featuring the Bad Seeds.



2. Even though its not quite as good as its predecessor, the second volume of the Pebbles series to focus on ultra-obscure sixties garage rock from Southern California is still a smokin' collection of tunes, stuffed with mean fuzz guitars and primal vocals, courtesy of a whole buncha bands that just never managed to make it big. A few songs that make this disc a blast o' joy are Ty Wagner's "I'm a No Count," a nasty two-chord outcast anthem that bristles with teenage agression, as well as Thee In Set's stomping caveman frat pounder, "They Say." There's also "Someday You'll Cry," a snotty garage-pop tune from the pre-"Dirty Water" Standells, and the Care Takers' funky soul-shakin' cover of Bob Seger's "East Side Story" (shut up, Bob Seger rules!), not to mention the Velvet Illusions' menacing "Velvet Illusions" (gotta love bands with their own theme songs). The Children of the Mushroom's "August Madamoiselle" is a psychedelic tune that manages to pull of the neat trick of being both dark and whimsical. Great stuff. The David's "I'm Not Alone" is a fuzzy, flailing, organ-propelled fuzz thumper and the Second Helping's "Let Me In" is just plain wonderfully creepy. There are plenty of other highlights (don't even get me started on the W.C. Fields Memorial String Band!), but this set falls a bit short of the five star rating, thanks to the inclusion of a few tunes that are little more than by-the-book garage rock (I'm lookin' at you, "Won't Come Down!"). Still, this is an excellent disc, a really good addition to the Pebbles series, and it deserves to belong in every garage fan's collection.



3. The follow-up to PEBBLES VOL. 8: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA isn't as jam-packed with classic garage soul-smashers as its predecessor, but still has several good songs I'm glad have been released somewhere! Highlights you'll find yourself loving: Ty Wagner's "I'm a No Count", The Caretakers' "East Side Story", The Standells' "Someday You'll Cry", The Magic Mushrooms' "I'm Gone" (yeah, believe it or not, they recorded something else after "It's A-Happening"!), Fenwyck's "IYE", The The Good Feelins' "Shattered", The Gypsy Trips' "Ain't It Hard" (the Electric Prunes' version is better, though), The Nervous Breakdowns' "I Dig Your Mind", The W.C. Fields' Memorial Electric String Band's "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone" (better than The Monkees' more popular version!), The Velvet Illusions' "Velvet Illusions", Children of the Mushrooms' "August Mademoiselle", The Crumpets' "Mama Baby" (which sounds uncannily like The Chocolate Watchband's "Sweet Young Thing"), The Sounds Unreal's "Scene of the Crime", and The Starfires' "Cry for Freedom" (taken from the only surviving acetate!).

   There are too many disposable singles here, unfortunately, but don't hesitate to add this to your garage rock collection. It's often better than previous PEBBLES installments in spots, and despite the inclusion of too much psychedelic pap, it's still essential listening.




4. I think this was the first Pebbles volume I found (on vinyl)at a record show. It's still my favorite; I also own #'s 1,3,8 & 13.Great tunes especially "I'm Not Trying To Hurt You","Pretty Girl","Show Me The Way" (no not Frampton!!!), and "The Girl I Threw Away".

3 comments about Rock Classics Of The 60s.

1. ROCK CLASSICS OF THE 60s is a small but better-than-average collection of original recordings. Full-length versions of "Spinning Wheel" and "Time Has Come Today" are pluses. Sound quality of this SONY/COLUMBIA archives product is excellent. Recommended.



2. ROCK CLASSICS OF THE 60s is a small but better-than-average collection of original recordings. Full-length versions of "Spinning Wheel" and "Time Has Come Today" are pluses. Sound quality of this SONY/COLUMBIA archives product is excellent. Recommended.



3. I recently took a rock and roll history class at school and as I listened to this cd, I remembered the discussions we had about psychedelics and garage bands of the 60s. This brought back a lot of good youthful memories for me!

1 comments about Feel the Buzz: No Pain.

1. I have to admit that I haven't purchased the CD, but I own most of them on the original albums (yes, LP's!). I really like the selection. When you go from Canned Heat to the Airplane, Grateful Dead, Bad Company, etc., you really can have a good cross section, and best of all, they are not the ones you heard 47 times last month on the Golden Oldies station. A bargain if you don't have all the old LP's (could that really be a bargain?) or simply could not find all the recordings at all! So go ahead and get it! It will be worth your hard-earned money.

1 comments about Roots Rock Reggae.

1. THIS IS A GREAT ALBUM.
   
   YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH AN EXCLUSIVE NEW TRACK BY JACK JOHNSON!
   but it also has killer stuff by Chris Murray, Pepper, Go Jimmy Go and so much more.
   
   Buy it, you'll like it!
   and it's a fundraiser for Jack Johnson's Kokua Hawaii Foundation.
   
   jackjohnsonmusic.com <<< news section.

1 comments about Rockin' 70's, Vol. 1.

1. Of the two volumes in the "Rockin' 70's" series I have checked out to date Volume 1 is the better of the pair. You will find a lot of the same artists on both volumes, with Three Dog Night ("Joy to the World"), Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Sweet Home Alabama"), and the Four Tops ("Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)"). But the edge goes to this one because it has more hits from the Seventies that you might want to add to your music collection such as Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way," Brian Hyland's "Gypsy Woman," and Dobie Gray's "Drift Away." With songs by Jerry Jeff Walker, Stephen Bishop, and Poco the album is geared more towards the decade and less towards holdovers from the Sixties (i.e., the Grass Roots). Once you get past Three Dog Night and Lynyrd Skynner you could well find the requisite five tracks, especially if you graduated high school in the last half of the decade. There is also more of an emphasis on rock and pop on this one without a touch of the disco madness,

5 comments about Inside the Music - Classic Rock (DVD Audio).

1. A variety of songs that do partial justice to the DVD-A format.There are better DVD audio discs and there are much worse so if you like the songs,I would recommend buying this disc.



2. Take a look at the liner notes on this release. There are several different engineers remastering these songs into 5.1 channels. The results are uneven at best and really bad at worst. It is an unsettling experience to hear some tracks really rock in all six channels, then the next track might have very little high end (Bad to the Bone), then the next track might have only ambient sound in the surrounds whereas other tracks place instruments in them. If you get this DVD-Audio release (and you still ought to), DON'T listen to it all the way through...partial out the songs, listen to a couple at a time. If not, you may leave this one on the shelf for a long time as the wide varying mastering techniques tend to fatigue the listener...you simply cannot get into a groove.



3. DVD-Audio kicks! I've been reading alot about this new media. At first, I thought that this was a lot of hype. A means by which the big heartless record companies could jerk out more money to make people pay for their sins with Napster. This new media cost about 18 to 25 dollars a pop. Intriged by the multi-channel aspect, and encouraged by the fact that it would run on my existing DVD setup, I purchased three DVD-A's. The Corrs, The Blue Man Group and a classic rock compilation. Woooow! Believe me, you have not heard music at home before! What really floored me was the classic rock. You hear things in familiar songs that you've never heard before. The depth...the impact...the details. It's undescribable! So often I've heard how sound from a C.D. sounded sterile or brassy or lacking life or warmth. I've never understood that until now. If any one runs across about 800 bucks that they don't know what to do with...I would like to make a recomdation.



4. This DVD-Audio disc is a collection of rock music from the EMI/Capitol/Chrysalis collections. It includes 11 tracks, such as George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone", J. Geils Band's "Centerfold" and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell". 5.1 channel mixes are presented in 96kHz 24-bit PPCM, DTS and Dolby Digital. The 96kHz mix can be automagically mixed-down to stereo on most DVD-Audio players.

   I wish I could say this is a excellent mix. Unfortunately, the first three tracks ("Bad to the Bone", "Rebel Yell" and to a lesser extent "Green-Eyed Lady") suffer from a loss of high-end treble and extra LFE/SB. Compared to Warner Music DVD-Audio discs, the LFE channel levels are extremely high.

   On the plus side, once track 4 starts, this is a very listenable disc. The mixes are consistent even though they were done by five engineers. Surprisingly, the 1960's "Time Won't Let Me" by The Outsiders sounds very good given the source material. The cheesy organ music sounds like, well, very clean cheesy organ music.

   The highlights from a mix standpoint may be "Centerfold" and "On the Road Again" by Canned Heat (never thought I'd write that!).

   The disc has the usual DVD-Audio problems - long time skipping between tracks. On early DVD-Audio players, you'll see (but thankfully not hear) the Silverline promo before the music. The Pioneer Elite DV-38A plays the music before any promo and without the need for menu selections (no video required).

   The disc does contain still photos of the various bands. These photos will sequence as the music plays. Quite frankly, I just want to hear the music and don't really care about the "video extras".

   In any event, if the first three tracks were mixed properly, this would be a five. With the lousy mixes included, particularly "Bad to the Bone", it's really a three and a half - closer to a four. Let's hope they did better on the recently released "Inside the Music : New Wave".




5. Volume #1 in Silverline's DVD Audio 96Khz 5.1 surround - plus DTS and Dolby Digital tracks in 5.1 - collection of classic rock tracks from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. This collection ranges from Canned Heat's On the Road Again (1968) through Sugarloaf's Green Eyed Lady and Billy Idol's Rebel Yell to John Waite's Change from 1985. The 11 tracks are supported by photos of the artists as a Back Ground Video option as their song is playing. The remastering to 5.1 is excellant as everything is sourced from multi-track masters - The stand-out tracks (in my opion) being: Centerfold - J. Geils Band; Heartbreaker - Pat Benatar, and the Canned Heat track, which is superb!

No comments about Legends of Rock: '70s Classic Rockers.

No comments about Rock On 1970: In the Summertime.

3 comments about Feel the Buzz: Spacin'.

1. FEEL THE BUZZ-SPACIN': If you'll pardon the pun, this is a clever "pot-pourri" put out by Polygram (one of several, actually) concerning America's fave pastime, and I don't mean hittin' the horsehide. Such classic psychedelic fare as Donovan's MELLOW YELLOW (and, by way of Vanilla Fudge, his SEASON OF THE WITCH), Love's frenzied freak-out 7 AND 7 IS, the single length edit of Iron Butterfly's IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA, and one shot garage band Count Five's PSYCHOTIC REACTION are just some of the "hits" here. You also get to ingest Hoyt Axton's anti-drug anthem THE PUSHER from Steppenwolf, the smokey haze of Commander Cody's SEEDS AND STEMS (AGAIN), and John Prine's tongue (and maybe something else) in cheek ILLEGAL SMILE. This is high grade stuff. Indulge thyself. RATING: FIVE TOKES



2. This cd really sucks. My hillbilly junkie uncle Kevin Padgett of Heber Spring's Arkansas would love it though.



3. The Dead and Iron Butterfly work very well together unlike the disappointing team of Dyan and the dead. This CD is sweet and I think you should give it a try