Top Five 7" Vinyl Singles of the Year.

Whilst I agonise and ponder over my album of the year list, honestly, it is a nightmare, I only feature bands I really like on my blog, I thought it might be fun to have a 7" Vinyl single of the year, I haven't received that many, so almost everyone will make it into the top 5, well, about 50% of those I have recieved.  Obviously it is still difficult to place them because they all have their own qualities and individuality about them and the fact that I love them all makes them all number one in my mind anyway, but here goes anyway.

5

"My Love" reminds me of The Yardbirds early offerings but with the professionalism and talent of their later recordings, this is a fantastic sounding single and the B'side "Chuck's Blues" is a an exciting Hammond driven instrumental that is sure to get your feet moving, just tapping or full out dancing, but your feet will move!

Contact, befriend, like and love The Above here: Facebook 

The bands official website where you can buy the single and that fantastic self titled album can be found here: The Above Official 

4

This one only arrived this week and I knew the track from Lannie's latest album, "New Songs - Old Stories."  An absolutely epic album that will no doubt be residing in many end of year lists, collectors of 7" vinyl shouldn't be without this sort of master class in their Power Pop collections.

Contact, befriend, like and love Lannie Flowers here: Facebook

Lannie Flowers: Myspace Reverbnation

Check out everthing, buy the album, stream the album buy a fantastic Lannie flowers underground T shirt at Lannie Flowers official site here: http://www.lannieflowers.com/index.html

3

The three tracks on this EP are sung entirely in Spanish, but don't let that put you off, you will be singing along fluently whilst riding the crest of the wave that the bands music creates....Rock 'N' Roll indeed!

Contact, follow, befriend, like and love Hula Baby here: Facebook

Order your EP here: KOTJ RECORDS

(If you have any problems with the language, drop them an e-mail and they will help you out)

Find more by Hula Baby here: Bandcamp

2

With two great single behind them now, we wait with baited breath for the album from this mod 3 piece from norther Spain, Mieres Bridge is a classic slice of revival mod that would sit comfortably among the peers of the revival classicists of that period.

Listen to and buy the single here:  Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, like and love Stanley Road here: Facebook

Ok, now this totally goes against the grain of end of year lists, but it is my blog and I can do what I want, so, there are 2 singles that sit together in the top slot, both of which have been absolute favourites, not just for me, but everyone that I have played them to.

First up is The Sensibles, from Italy, with their limited pressing (which I believe may have become slightly less limited due to demand) "7" S/T" this Power Pop Punk nugget really blew my socks off!

Download, stream and buy the latest sing and the free demo here: Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, like and love The Sensibles here: Facebook

Sharing the top spot with The Sensibles is a Spanish band that first caught my attention with this very single, once again, it has received such a great interest from everyone that has heard it and I just can't stop playing it at least once a day, it is of course BANG 74 and their cover of The Now's "Can You Fix Me Up With Her" which is possibly the best cover I have heard and actually blows the original away!

Contact, follow, befriend, like and love Bang 74 here: Facebook

Downloads available to purchase here: CDBABY and here: Bandcamp

Physical copies of the EP available here: Rumble Records

Congratulations to all the bands featured and thank you for sending me your 7" vinyl and allowing me to share your music with the world.

All the bands can be found on the blog by sing the search facility in the top left hand corner, so if you like what you have heard, please check them out and let's keep vinyl recordings alive, it is, in my humble opinion, the ultimate format to listen to music on!

Now, I am off to agonise a little more over my album of the year!

The Maladaptive Solution - Heal

The Maladaptive Solution is an international music collective which is a great concept for making music with other musicians from around the globe and turning out some brilliant tunes that would not otherwise exist and it can all be done online too!

I have heard a few of these and one band that springs to mind that does it rather successfully is The Jac who I featured on the blog recently.  The Maladaptive Solution who also make a fantastic job of it as the 5 tracks that they have up on Bandcamp testifies, go check them out!

With influences of Big Star, The Monkees, Teenage Fanclub and Velvet Crush, you instinctively know this is right and right it is!

The Maladaptive Solution are:  Brad Beard,Micheal Carpenter, Jimmy Haber With:  Kylie Whitney and Mike Giblin 

Check out and buy all the songs here: Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love The Maladaptive Solution here: Facebook

The Buttshakers - Wicked Woman

I love to hear great Soul music, delivered with real passion and errr.....soul and The Buttshakers certainly do that and they deliver it with power too, singer Ciara, from St Louis makes sure of that!

Ciara is more than supported by 5 guys from Lyon who play like their lives depend on it, this really is top quality soul that is played by a band that are so aptly named, shake your butt, because this band are going to kick it anyway!

A rhythm n’ blues vibe, dose of garage, and a high part of sex-appeal make their songs a blast of powerful hits, turning their shows into furious dance action. Formed in early 2007, and quickly joined by Ciara, gospel diva from St. Louis (Missouri), The Buttshakers immediately imposed their soul energy well beyond the local scene. As early as first concerts, the group distilled soul music to the four corners of France and beyond: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, with over an hundred dates behind on the last two years.

Within this vibes they recorded their first two vinyl singles for copaseDisques in 2008 & 2009 followed by the album "Headaches and Heartaches" in early 2010 for a french label. Unfortunately the label called it a day shortly after the album release.
Coming back to Germany in 2012 for a short live-tour the band ended up in a recording studio in Hamburg to lay down some brandnew songs for our tiny copaseDisques label.
These songs gonna see their release on a 6-track 10” sized piece of vinyl!! (plus digital download via ITunes, Amazon, Musicload, Finetunes and many more....)

You know you gonna need this to bring back the Soul to your heart! 

Contact, befriend, follow, listen to some songs, like and love The Buttshakers here: Facebook

Pre order the vinyl here: Copasetic

Downloads will be available at itunes Amazon etc.

Attention - Tattered Youth (Name Your Price)

Attention from Minneapolis MN deliver a great album with some great Power Pop/Rock, once again, I am not able to tell you too much about this band but I can encourage you to check out the music which talks in volumes.  You can find the bands official website here: http://attentionrock.tumblr.com

Download the album for a "Name Your Price" fee, could be a billion quid or it could be nothing, but the band want you to have the music any which way, please try to make some donation though however small.

Get it here: Bandcamp

Contact, follow, like and love Attention here: Facebook

The Sharks, 7 EP's for FREE DOWNLOAD.

Let's see if we can't make Monday a little more palatable with seven EP's from The Sharks for Free Download.   I don't know an awful lot about the band other than that they come from Brixton, London and have some pretty up beat melodic, punky, power pop which ticks all the right boxes, oh and their interests include, breaking strings, Scrumpy Jack (cider), Puppetry and beards!

The more I have played through these tracks whilst putting this short feature of the band together, the more I love them and I was pretty smitten on the first listen already.  Each and every track here has its own picture cover with some excellent imagery on them, ranging from a traffic warden for the track "Sixty Five Quid" to some Pop Art for the track "On and On."   Why this band are giving their music away for free when so much time and effort obviously goes into the package, offering both excellent audible and visual experiences, is beyond me, but thanks guys......thanks very much!

The Sharks are:

DAVEY CANE - Vocals, Guitar, Puppetry

PAUL HARVEY - Vocals, Guitar, String Breaking

ROBBIE BUTCHER - Bass, Beards, Scrumpy Jack

WILL UDALL - Drums, Vocals, Beards

The band are embarking on a monthly gig from January next year, LIKE their facebook page to keep up with all the information regarding this.

Download all 7 EP's FREE here: Bandcamp

(Navigate your way through the EP's in the column on the right hand side.)

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love The Sharks here: Facebook

Press Contact: info@thesharks.co

The Mergers - Monkey See, Monkey Do. OUT DECEMBER 16th

The Mergers play "Beat!" Beat with a capital "B" and they do an excellent job of it too!

The band from Nuremburg are just about to release their fantastic debut album, "Monkey See, Monkey Do," upon the world.  Listening to the album, you will almost definately get a sense of time travel and find yourself back in 1966, bobbing your head, tapping your feet and discover a fear and loathing to go back to the present with its dirge of faux RnB singers from "Some shit holes got talent" type programme.  

This is real music as it was meant to be, abundant in melodies, harmonies and jangly guitars and even a bit of rocking piano.  There are several moments on the album that bring to mind The Beatles stint in Hamburg when they were raw, ready and exciting, maybe this is where the title of the bands album derives from?  

From album opener "All I Can Do" to the twelth track "We'll All Be Stars" the listener is treated to gem after gem, if you love your 60's beat music, like myself, then this album is definately for you.

THE MERGERS suddenly emerged on a disgustingly rainy day in Germany in 2011. 

Actually country-bred from an ancient beat community that was founded in 1966 in consequence of musical taste’s negative development.

THE MERGERS luckily were kept away from all upcoming musical influences. 

Aspiring music manager Annie Goldfinger discovered this kind of a new world (that surprisingly looked very similar to an old one) by accident and brought this incredible new band for their first time in life to the continent. Unfortunately they had no entry permit so they were forced to leave subsequently, but only a few months later they were finally ready and allowed to hit the stage.
But what’s the catch? Immigration department insisted on taking up residence in Nuremberg (once voted Germany’s most boring metropolis), for lightening up the dull & bored people’s lifes.
But these 4 young men are well known for meeting tough issues head-on.

The Mergers are:

Jerry Coma (Vocals, Guitars)                                           Henry Florence Jr.(Vocals,Bass)                                              Jay Le Saux (Vocals, Guitars)                                                 Winston McCloud (Drums)

The album is due for release on the 16th of December and will be avaialble from itunes, Amazon, at the bands shows and at soundflat.de.

Catch the band live here: Live Dates Dec 2012/Jan 2013

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love The Mergers here:  Facebook

Grand Prix- Lejos & Hogar albums. NAME YOUR PRICE

This band from Buenos Aires, as their name suggests, owe a little debt to Teenage Fanclub with their sound, these albums contain some cracking songs, I have had both albums for many years now and still love them.  Some track are recorded in English and some in the band native Spanish.

I can't find out too much about them, so if you know anything, please enlighten us in the comments section.  Thanks.

Download both albums, "Name Your Price" here: Bandcamp