The Counters - This Doesn't Mean We're Friends

When I received this album with text mentioning Power Pop and Country, I have to admit I was somewhat dubious but as always, when anyone takes the time to send me anything, I listened to it and yes, it is country and yes it is power pop, not mixed but on seperate tracks!
Album opener, "When You Come round" is as perfect power pop as you could wish for as an opening track, this is followed hot on the heels by  "Please don't say" which is undeniably country but they sit next to each other in harmony and when you start to breakdown Power Pop, it has the roots of many music styles wrapped in melody and jangly guitars, so why not embrace the two on one album.  This works. ICM.

 This Doesn’t Mean We’re Friends is the debut album from The Counters, a London, Ontario group made up of local singer-songwriter Rupert Heath and 9 guest musicians. Half the album draws on the inspiration of classic powerpop-inflected bands like the Beatles, the Byrds and Big Star. The other half is under the spell of classic country, folk and singer-songwriters like Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Nick Drake and Richard Thompson. But The Counters are their own beast. This Doesn’t Mean We’re Friends is a long-player which takes sharp turns, uncovers a few new leaves, and bears little resemblance to anything else coming out of London (or anywhere else) this year. The album was recorded and mixed by London legend Andy Magoffin at the House of Miracles studio, and features some of the city’s best musicians including members of local live aces The Mongrels, ex B-Girl drummer Marcy Saddy and fiddle wizard Martin Horak (the latter mostly recently to be heard on London artist Graham Nicholas’s solo debut Bury Me Under The Dancefloor). Harris Newman mastered.

 Listen to and purchase the album with a name your price price tag at Bandcamp 

Follow and LIKE The Counters Facebook

Phenomenal Cat - UPDATE

Phenomenal Cat have informed me that the allotted 200 free downloads of "postcards From The British Empire" are nearly all out on their bandcamp page.
These songs are really great and if you haven't already downloaded them, go and get them now whilst there are still some free downloads left and remember to go to the facebook page and click on the "LIKE" button to keep up with the new release every month for the whole of the year, these will also be limited to 200 free downloads!!!!!!

 

Phenomenal Cat Facebook

Phenomenal Cat Bandcamp

The District Attorneys . Waiting on the Calm Down: The Basement Sessions. FREE DOWNLOAD

I don't know an awful lot about The District Attorneys other than what is on their bandcamp page, but I do know they make good music with some lovely vocal harmonies and they are giving two EP's away for free!!

Download both EP's here: BANDCAMP

Catch them live this Spring!

 Contact, like and follow on FACEBOOK

The Candy Strypers

 

Every now and then my inbox is graced with something sweet, almost familiar but somehow different.  

Today it was The Candy Strypers, the brainchild of Paul Hughes, a Manchester lad who passed through the same school as one Mr Ian Brown and one Mr John Squier, listening to a couple of riffs on this album, you can imagine they could have had the same music teacher?

Not only does the album have traces of the Roses in there but also present are The Byrds, and Big Star, but Paul, very nicely, puts his own stamp on the recordings making them all his with some beautiful vocal work to boot!

Listen and download 10 tracks here:

The Candy Strypers

Other tracks by The Candy Strypers are available here: iTunes

Contact, follow and like on FACEBOOK

Flamin' Groovies - Supersnazz 1969

 

The Flamin' Groovies' debut album went almost directly into the cut-out bins within a year or so of its 1969 release. Fortunately, the band survived the neglect heaped on that record, and has survived in one form or another into the 21st century. And in the ensuing years, Supersnazz has achieved an exalted reputation among not just Groovies fans, but lovers of rock & roll in general, having held up extraordinarily well across the decades and still able to make its own case for greatness as an astonishing document of straight-ahead rock & roll circa 1969 -- fully contemporary to its time (and, by extension, almost timeless), with none of the artificial period nostalgia (and parodying) that was already creeping into the "oldies" scene. But it's also a lot of fun; in fact, based on the evidence, Supersnazz may well have been the most fun record of 1969. Roy Loney, Cyril Jordan, Tim Lynch, George Alexander, and Danny Mihm run through a quirky mix of Loney and Loney/Jordan originals and standards, encompassing styles from proto-'70s punk (want to bet the Ramones wore out copies of this album?) to '50s New Orleans R&B, country music, and even ragtime, and while a small bit of it is compromised by the presence of some too-prominent clarinet and saxophone, the whole record is a rollicking good time, made even better by the sequencing, which offers a full range of surprises, even on the fourth or fifth listen -- one can never settle in with this record before something weirdly wonderful comes along to draw the listener in yet another direction. From the fiery, Brian Jones-era Stones-style, fuzztone-driven opener "Love Have Mercy," the band shows what it can do in everything from straight-ahead boogie to slow ballads ("A Part from That") and '50s rockers ("The Girl Can't Help It," "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu"), country ("Brushfire"), and R&B, all done with a unique array of stylistic flourishes that made this one of the most original long-players of 1969. By the ninth track, the pounding, punk-driven "Somethin' Else/Pistol Packin' Mama," the whole album achieves a kind of otherworldly continuum, like something out of a strange and wonderful corner of the universe that -- though none knew it at the time -- pointed the way to a coming decade of achievement by the likes of the Ramones, Jonathan Richman, et al, not to mention the Groovies themselves. The 1969 LP was wonderfully offbeat and perfect in its presentation, and recent CD reissues, incorporating the single mixes on four of the tracks, are also a bit of an insult. It seems almost like sacrilege to place anything after the catchy group singalong "Around the Corner."-AMG

Listen: HERE

The Frank and Walters - Greenwich Mean Time. VINYL AND CD's NOW AVAILABLE

 

Vinyl and CD Copies of the new Frank and Walters album Greenwich Mean Time are now available to order:

http://www.frankandwalters.net/forum/shop.php

Downloads available as always on ITunes 

Dropkick - Time Cuts the Ties. Plus 59 FREE previously unreleased songs for download.

 

“Time Cuts The Ties” is Dropkick’s 4^th release on Swedish label Sound Asleep Records. Coming less than 6 months after their 2010 Christmas EP “25^th December”, the album sees the band reverting back to their original line-up with the return of founding member Ian Grier after a 5 year break. “Time Cuts The Ties” is Dropkick’s most varied and accomplished collection of songs to date, demonstrating a new maturity in their songwriting and arrangements. The generous sprinkling of piano, organ and strings has added new textures and an extra dimension to their already well established alt-country powerpop sound.

 Dropkick’s profile has risen significantly since the release of their self-titled debut album in 2001. The band have now released a further 9 albums and 2 EPs, mainly on their own label Taylored Records label. Their 2008 album “Dot The i” was re-issued on Rock Indiana Records of Spain and was also made “album of the week” on BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal’s Rapal show. Since autumn 2008, Dropkick have released material on Sound Asleep Records of Sweden, including the critically acclaimed albums “Patchwork” and “Abelay Hotel”. 

 Dropkick have played hundreds of gigs (including several headline Scottish tours, the Darvel Festival, Tartan Heart Festival, International Pop Overthrow Festival and most recently, 4 sell-out headline shows in Spain) in the past 5 years. They have also had significant airplay over the same period, including BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland’s Tom Morton, Brand New Country, Get It On, Vic Galloway and Janice Forsyth shows. Many local UK radio stations also regularly play Dropkick’s music, as well as countless stations throughout the world, particularly in Spain where the popularity of the band’s music has increased dramatically thanks to the internet. Dropkick have performed 10 songs live on the Tom Morton Show on BBC Radio Scotland, firstly on an outside broadcast in July 2007 and then at the BBC studios in Nov 2007, the latter being part of a Children In Need special. They also played live on the same station’s ‘Highland Café’ show in July 2008 and again in July 2009. 

 In recent years Dropkick have shared the stage with acts such as Marc Olson, Seasick Steve, The Primary 5, Half Man Half Biscuit, Snow Patrol, Kit Clark (ex Danny Wilson), Nigel Clark (Dodgy), Sid Griffin, Roddy Hart and ‘Guitar George’ Borowski.

The album can be downloaded from the following sites:

iTunes
Amazon
eMusic
Napster

Physical copies can be purchased via Amazon on the bands site or through Sound asleep Records. 

 Dropkick recently made 59 previously unreleased recordings free to download from their website: HERE all of which are well worth downloading, but don't stop there, the bands previous recordings are all highly recommended.

 

info@dropkickmusic.co.uk

                                                         www.myspace.com/dropkickmusic

jerker@soundasleeprecords.com

or contact via

www.myspace.com/sounasleeprecord