The Stands - All Years Leaving

 

U.K. quartet the Stands traffic in gentle jangle pop rooted in the Byrds and the '60s West Coast sound, the mid-'60s Beatles, country Dylan, and in their missing and missed countrymen the La's. Their debut album, All Years Leaving, is coated in honey-sweet vocal harmonies, rollicking tempos, gently strummed guitars, and a general sense of easy nostalgia. Many, many bands have treaded this leaf-strewn, autumnal path and the Stands don't do much to distance themselves from the pack, nor do they stumble significantly. Middle of the packers then and that's not so bad. In fact, it is unfailingly pleasant. The tunes tend to blend together in a sepia-toned wave of gentle melancholia, but there are worse ways to spend 40 minutes. There are even a few that you will want to throw on mixtapes, like the dreamy opener, "I've Waited So Long"; "The Love You Give," which has a languid beat, slow-motion guitar plucking, and fine la-la-la backing vocals; and the album's crown jewel, "Here She Comes Again." It's definitely a cousin to the La's' "There She Goes," with a lovingly similar melody (and an almost direct lift from the Cars' "My Best Friend's Girl"), but it adds some Byrds-y 12-string and an emotion-packed bridge that does what a bridge should and jumps the song's intensity up a notch. It's the kind of song that you will want to listen to about five times in a row every time you hear it, the kind of song that would make you want this album even if the rest stunk. If they can come up with a couple more like it on their next record, they might take a giant step to the front of the pack. Until then, All Years Leaving is a fine, solid debut. -All music guide

Listen: HERE

 
 

The Best Of The Northern Soul Story

 

Disc 1

01. Bob Brady And The Con Chords – Everybody’s Goin’ To The Love-In

02. Major Lance – It’s The Beat

03. Johnny Johnson – Breakin’ Down The Walls Of Heartache

04. The Spellbinders – Help Me (Get Myself Back Together Again)

05. Major Lance – Ain’t No Soul (In These Old Shoes)

06. Peaches And Herb – I Need Your Love So Desperately

07. Larry Williams And Johnny Watson – Too Late

08. Little Richard – I Don’t Want To Discuss It

09. The Vibrations – Gonna Get Along Without You Now

10. Shirley Ellis – Soul Time

11. Phillip Mitchell – Free For All (Winner Takes All)

12. Bobbi Lynn – Earthquake

13. Billy Butler – Right Track

14. Major Lance – Investigate

15. Roy Hamilton – Crackin’ Up Over You

16. The Exciters – Blowin’ Up My Mind

17. The Sweet Things – I’m In A World Of Trouble

18. Johnny Moore – Walk Like A Man

19. Willie Kendrick – Change Your Ways

20. The Glories – I Worship You Baby

21. The Cavaliers – Hold On To My Baby

22. Herb Ward – Honest To Goodness

23. Lorraine Chandler – I Can’t Hold on

CD 1 

Disc 2

01. Majoe Lance – You Don’t Want Me No More

02. The Charmaines – Eternally

03. Lou Courtney – Trying To Find My Woman

04. Susan Barrett – What’s it Gonna Be

05. Lee David – Temptation Is Call My Name

06. Dana Valery – You Don’t Know Where Your Interest Lies

07. Reperta And The Delrons – Panic

08. Morris Chestnut – Too Darn Soulful

09. Laura Greene – Moonlight Music And You

10. Spiral Staircase – More Today Than Yesterday

11. Shane Martin – I Need You

12. Lou Ragland – I Travel Alone

13. Beverley Ann – You’ve Got Your Mind On Other Things

14. Nancy Ames – I Don’t Want To Talk About It

15. Tony Middleton – Paris Blues

16. The M.V.P.’s – Turnin’ My Heartbeat Up

17. Paul Anka – I Can’t Help Lovin’ You

18. Lorraine Chandler – I Can’t Change

19. Dean Courtney – I’ll Always Need You

20. Bernie Williams – Ever Again

21. The Trammps – Hold Back The Night

22. Tobi Legend – Time Will Pass You By

CD 2 

Dot Dash - Spark>Flame>Ember>Ash

 

Dot Dash are:

Terry Banks - guitar, voice;
Bill Crandall - guitar;
Hunter Bennett - bass;
Danny Ingram - drums

Guitarist/singer Terry Banks and bassist Hunter Bennett were in punky power poppers Julie Ocean. Before that, Terry was in a bunch of jangly guitar bands, including The Saturday People, Tree Fort Angst, Glo-Worm and St. Christopher, Guitarist Bill Crandall was in the mod/pop band Modest Proposal. Drummer Danny Ingram began musical life in Dischord-label punks Youth Brigade before moving on to Strange Boutique and later, U.K. guitar-wranglers Swervedriver.

Dot Dash cite their influences as The Jam, Joy Division and The Byrds with an appreciation for the Creation, Postcards and Whaam record labels and you can certainly hear the influence of The Jam on album opener "The Colour and the Sound" that has a riff very similar to "All mod cons."

The 14 songs on the debut album are very well crafted with intelligent lyrics and some catchy guitar riffs and impressively recorded in just 3 afternoons.

You can hear many influences on the album, both in the songs and in Terry's vocal styles, there is a nod to the source of the bands name on track 3, "Learn how to fly" which starts of very much like a Wire song but is then dressed with the bands own stylings.

Overall, the album is really good, maybe missing out on some angst and the kick of distortion here and there, but I think that Dot Dash will certainly be flying high in the future if this debut is the first stepping stone.

Check out the band's Facebook . 

The album can be purchased from The Beautiful Music, Amazon or iTunes.

Len Price 3 LIVE DATES

If you have not seen this exciting, energetic band live and any of these dates are near you, go along and check them out.  Len Price 3 are going to be a band to watch this year!

 

 

 

The Frank and Walters - Greenwich Mean Time.

The Frank and Walters are one of the most recognizable alternative rock bands hailing from Cork, Ireland in the past 2 decades. The band: Paul Linehan (Lead vocal & bass), Ashley Keating- (Drums) Rory Murphy (lead Guitar) Cian Corbett (Keyboards) took the band name in honour of two eccentric Cork characters. Two decades on from the release of their very first record, and the Franks continue to defy expectations. With Indie hits such as ‘Fashion Crisis Hits New York’ & ‘After All’ (which reached the top twenty in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at 11. The group also appeared on Top of the Pops in support of the single; it went as high as 5 in the Irish charts). Their music today is as relevant as any of the new pretenders on the block and only a handful of bands anywhere in the world can lay claim to such longevity of popularity. Each year, the Frank and Walters perform sell out venues across the UK, Europe, and the US and their records, both new and classic, continue to sell across the world.

My first experience of the Franks, as we called them back then, was at the Escape club in Brighton on their first tour, these guys walked on stage in orange boiler suits and started playing some great poppy indie tunes with big smiles on their faces, almost tongue in cheek.
 Obviously they didn't take themselves too seriously which was refreshing in amongst the flocks of "too cool for school" bands that were treading the boards back then, I mean the orange boiler suits and the bowl haircut that Paul Linehan was sporting back then kind of suggested that, but that combined with the songs endeared them to the audience almost immediately, the in-between song banter from the band was almost impossible to understand with their broad Irish accents, this didn't matter, I loved them, the crowd loved them and during the last song, there were more people on the stage than there were in the audience, everyone was dancing and having a good time and the band seemed to enjoy it to, I spent half that song talking to the drummer, I couldn't understand him of course!
By the end of the evening my face was hurting from smiling, I imagine that was like many of the other peoples faces in the audience, great songs and a great fun band and the beauty of the Franks, is that they have never gone away, they have always been there like a light in a window that shows you the way home, when many of the other lights have been turned off.   Now they are back with another album of infectious, smile enticing gems, the orange boiler suits have been replaced with a more grown up orange tie and the bowl haircut has gone, but the great song smithery, the smiles and the fun remains.  Lets hope that the Franks will never go away and save the world one song at a time as they suggest and I believe they will!

The Frank and Walters new single.

Would you walk for miles and miles....you don't have to, they are probably coming to a town near you!

March 16th Leeds. The Northern Monkey

March 17th Liverpool. Zanzibar.

March 23rd Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms

March 24th London. Borderline.

March 30th Tullamore. The Thatch.

March 31st Dublin. Workman’s Club.

April 12th Cardiff. Buffalo Bar

April 14th Brighton Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar

April 20th Clonakilty, Co. Cork De Barra’s,

April 27th Galway, Roisin Dubh

April 28th Limerick,  Dolans Warehouse

 I believe there will be European dates added too! (Which is good because I am in Sweden now...hint hint!) 

The Frank and Walters FACEBOOK

New album now available to download iTunes  and soon available in stores and across the internet soon.

Supergrass - I Should Coco

 

Tearing by at a breakneck speed, I Should Coco is a spectacularly eclectic debut by Supergrass, a trio barely out of their teens. Sure, the unbridled energy of the album illustrates that the band is young, yet what really illustrates how young the bandmembers are is how they borrow from their predecessors. Supergrass treat the Buzzcocks, the Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, Blur, and Madness as if they were all the same thing -- they don't make any distinction between what is cool and what isn't, they just throw everything together. Consequently, the jittery "Caught by the Fuzz" slams next to the music hall rave-up "Mansize Rooster" and the trippy psychedelia of "Sofa of My Lethargy," or the heavy stomp of "Lenny" or the bona fide teen anthem "Alright." I Should Coco is the sound of adolescence, but performed with a surprising musical versatility that makes the record's exuberant energy all the more infectious. - AMG

 

Listen: HERE

The Jam - Sound Affects Deluxe Edition

Unhappy with the slicker approach of Setting Sons, the Jam got back to basics, using the direct, economic playing of All Mod Cons and "Going Underground," the simply brilliant single that preceded Sound Affects by a few months. Thematically, though, Paul Weller explored a more indirect path, leaving behind (for the most part) the story-song narratives in favor of more abstract dealings in spirituality and perception -- the approach stemming from his recent readings of Blake and Shelley (who was quoted on the sleeve), but more specifically Geoffrey Ashe, whose Camelot and the Vision of Albion made a strong impression. Musically, Weller drew upon Revolver-era Beatles as a primary source (the bassline on "Start," which comes directly from "Taxman," being the most obvious occurrence), incorporating the occasional odd sound and echoed vocal, which implied psychedelia without succumbing to its excesses. From beginning to end, the songs are pure, clever, infectious pop -- probably their catchiest -- with "That's Entertainment" and the should-have-been-a-single "Man in the Corner Shop" standing out.

Universal’s 2010 Deluxe Edition of Sound Affects contains a remastered version of the original album on the first disc and a wealth of bonus material on the second disc, much of which is absent on the complete box Direction Reaction Creation. The bonus disc begins with the single version of “Start!” and runs through the B-sides “Liza Radley” and “Dreams of Children” before getting into a host of demos and alternate takes, stopping on the occasional oddity like the fan club flexi-disc “Pop Art Poem.” Much of this previously saw the light of day either on the rarities comp Extras or Direction Reaction Creation, but there are a few items making their debut here: a demo with overdubs of “Pretty Green,” a demo of “Boy About Town,” a previously unreleased instrumental of “Scrape Away,” a demo of “Start!,” an alternate “Monday,” an instrumental demo, a “dub ending” of “Set the House Ablaze,” and finally a demo of “Waterloo Sunset."

Listen: HERE