Les Fleur De Lys - Reflections

Les Fleur de Lys were a British band originally formed in late 1964, in Southampton, Hampshire, England. They recorded singles beginning in 1965 in the mod-psychedelic music genre, later known as freakbeat. Known for their varied line-ups, only drummer Keith Guster was a member throughout their history. They finally disbanded in 1969. Keyboardist Pete Sears went on to play with Jefferson Starship. Les Fleur de Lys were managed by Atlantic Records' Frank Fenter, who had also discovered Sharon Tandy, the first white artist to record for Stax Records. Together, they produced a string of near-chart hits which later became collectable discs. (wikipedia)

Sprawling 24-track comp of the rare recordings of this enigmatic band. Includes 14 songs issued under the Les Fleur de Lys name, singles that they issued under the Rupert's People, Chocolate Frog, and Shyster pseudonyms, and releases on which they backed Sharon Tandy, John Bromley, and Waygood Ellis. It goes without saying that such a manic hodgepodge is geared toward the hardcore collector market. But if you like mid-to-late '60s mod-psych, it's a decent item to have around, with some sparkling (occasionally crazed) guitar work, unusually constructed tunes that sometimes meld soul and psychedelia, and nice harmonies. "Circles" and "Mud in Your Eye" are first-rate pounding mod guitar tunes; "Gong With the Luminous Nose" is pop-psych at its silliest; "Reflections of Charlie Brown" is pop-psych at its most introspective; and Sharon Tandy's "Daughter of the Sun" is a lost near-classic with witchy vocals and sinister psychedelic guitar. [Allmusic.com]

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GARY WALKER AND THE RAIN - ALBUM No.1

Gary Walker was the catalyst in bringing the unrelated Walker Brothers to the UK in 1965 where, for a couple of years, they enjoyed commercial success. He had two minor UK hit singles while still a member of the group in 1966. The Walker Brothers split in May 1967 with all three members going solo.^[1]
In 1967 he founded Gary Walker and The Rain, which consisted of Joey Molland (guitar and vocals); Charles "Paul" Crane (lead vocals, guitar); and John Lawson (bass guitar). The band only released one album, "Album No.1" A Japanese only release.

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Johns Children - Smashed Blocked

John's Children were a 1960s pop art/mod rock band from Leatherhead, England that briefly featured future T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan. John's Children were known for their outrageous live performances and were booted off a tour with The Who in Germany in 1967 when they upstaged the headliners. Their 1967 single "Desdemona", a Bolan composition, was banned by the BBC because of the controversial lyric, "Lift up your skirt and fly". Their US record label delayed the release their album, Orgasm for four years from its recording date due to objections from Daughters of the American Revolution.
John's Children were active for less than two years and were not very successful commercially, having released only six singles and one album. But they had a big influence on punk rock and are seen by some as the precursors of glam rock. In retrospect the band has been praised for the impact they had, and their singles have become amongst the most sought-after British 1960s rock collectables. (Wiki)

 

A must not only for T. Rex archaeologists, but for anyone with a yearning to discover what the best of British freakbeat sounds like, Smashed Blocked! reprises the six months or so that Marc Bolan spent with mod psychedelics John's Children in 1967, adding the group's two earlier 45s (the U.S. hit title track included), and a random selection of rarities and acetates to what would otherwise appear a fairly standard track listing. Most of the titles here have already appeared on a myriad compilations. Did they really need to be released one more time? Appearances can be deceptive. Of the nine (out of 17) tracks that boast some kind of Bolan-ic intervention, only one has previously seen the light of day on official releases: the outtake "Hippy Gumbo." The singles "Midsummer Night's Scene" and "Remember Thomas A. Beckett," together with the post-Bolan "Come and Play With Me in the Garden" and "Jagged Time Lapse," are present as alternate takes with noticeable, if not precisely Earth-shattering differences; "Mustang Ford" and the backing track for "Sally Was an Angel" are familiar only from bootlegs; and the set comes to a shattering conclusion with four cuts from a 1967 BBC session, recorded shortly after drummer Chris Townson returned from a tour with the Who, where he sat in for a poorly Keith Moon. The reproduction is no better than the crunchy-sounding bootleg EP that appeared in the late '80s, and may even come from the same source. But at least it won't deteriorate any further. To this already mouthwatering selection can be added the original acetate pressing for "Smashed Blocked," still laboring beneath its working title of "The Love I Thought I'd Found," and the group's "lost" third Columbia label single, the fuzz-drenched "Not the Sort of Girl You'd Take to Bed." There's also a reprise of "Strange Affair," without the pointless backward tape effects found on the Orgasm album release, plus another chance to hear Jeff Beck's crucial solo in the B-side "But She's Mine." And while the John's Children catalog still cries out for a decent housekeeping job, but at least the component parts are now in place. Around the same time as this album was released, a copy of the original "Midsummer Night Scene" 45 sold in England for over 4,000 dollars. Smashed Blocked! grants the opportunity to hear what all that fuss is about for considerably less outlay than that. (AMG)

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The Singles - Better Than Before

The Singles are a well-dressed foursome of guys barely in their twenties who hail from garage rock central U.S.A., better known on the map as Detroit, MI. They don't have much in common with the others bands on the scene except for a lot of energy in their approach and a healthy respect for the past. Instead of looking to the Stooges or the blues for inspiration, the Singles look to classic pop sources like the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks, Buddy Holly, and the Flamin' Groovies (bass player Dave Lawson even resembles Groovie guitarist Cyril Jordan circa 1976) for their inspiration. Main Single Vince Frederick writes unswervingly snappy tunes and delivers the chirpy vocals with just the right amount of teenage angst. The tracks alternate hard-charging beat rockers like "No More Places (Left to Go)," the Buddy Holly-channeling "See You Again," and the tambourine-shaking "He Can Go, You Can Stay" with sensitive beat ballads like "Waited So Long" (which has a monster guitar solo by Will Yates), "Since You've Been Gone," and the lilting "There's Nothing Wrong When I'm With You." Better Than Before rushes past in a blur of melody, harmony, and energy without a single weak song, and thanks to Jim Diamond's clean but not sterile production the record sounds live and alive. While the Singles have a way to go before they match their idols, their debut record gets them off on the right foot. Fans of power pop, guitar pop, garage pop, and just plain pop should check these kids out. They may not be better than before, but they are better than a lot of today. -AMG

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KEN STRINGFELLOW - TOUCHED

Ken Stringfellow is something like power-pop royalty. Not only is he a great songwriter, responsible for half of the music of the Posies, but he's also kept his plate constantly full over the last decade, working with everyone from REM to Big Star to Scott McCaughey to Ringo Starr. The Posies are the hardest working defunct band in show business-- Stringfellow and fellow Posie John Auer have released more material since the band's breakup than most bands release in an entire career.
And in the midst of all this, Ken found time to start yet another band-- a group called Saltline that only managed to record one EP before splitting. This left Stringfellow with a bunch of songs just lying around doing nothing. So, he penned up a few more and put them all to work on his second solo album, Touched. True to form, it's not a bad batch of tunes.
Stringfellow allows the country tendencies that have always lurked in his songwriting to come to the fore on the opener "Down Like Me." Ron Preston's steel guitar swells in and out of the mix and drummer Eric Marshall keeps things moving at a quick clip as Stringfellow serves up one of the sticky melodies we've by now come to expect from him. Mitch Easter's production is clean and uncluttered, but it sometimes lacks the punch of the Posies' best efforts, like 1993's excellent Frosting on the Beater.
"This One's on You" pulls back the reins and turns back the clock to roughly the time when Bernie Leadon was still in the Eagles. One of the Posies' main strengths was always the harmonies of Auer and Stringfellow. Here, minus Auer, Stringfellow simply layers his own voice and while this works well enough, there's a certain balance that Auer's voice brought to the harmonies of the Posies that's lacking on Touched. On his own, Stringfellow's voice also has a somewhat alarming tendency to sound like Timothy B. Schmidt on the high notes, but this only happens rarely.
Stringfellow naturally includes a few of the power-pop gems that he does so well, like the Sloan-esque "Find Yourself Alone." At first glance, the song is catchy and well-performed, with a monster chorus, but a closer listen reveals several piano and Rhodes tracks filling out the background, adding immensely to the overall texture of the song. If only there were radio stations somewhere that would play this stuff.
"Uniforms" begins over a bed of cello and violin, but quickly segues into loping pop full of cleanly strummed guitars, harpsichord, and even a bit of distant clip-clop percussion nicked straight from Pet Sounds. Atmospheric synths gradually enter the mix, only to give way to a piano interlude that lays the groundwork for the last few verses. The rhythm pushes forward harder than before, and layers of synth wash underneath Stringfellow's multi-tracked voice. It's an impressive little opus that uses a keen sense of arrangement to its fullest advantage.
"Sparrow" is the best of an impressive quartet of classic power-pop songs with one of the album's finest melodies topping another inventive arrangement. Stringfellow makes use of his lowest range in the pre-chorus over fuzzed-out guitars and organs, and offers some impressive guitar and keyboard work in the instrumental bridge. The Hammond-soaked "Reveal Love" comes down a notch, eschewing guitar entirely in the verses, but still offering a massive chorus designed to rattle around your head for days afterward.
But while the more upbeat numbers on Touched are uniformly flawless, things get spotty when Stringfellow departs from that route. "One Morning" is a fine enough acoustic song, full of nicely layered vocals and a great melody, but it's followed by "Spanish Waltz," a song that feels somewhat labored. It veers between some forced distorted passages and vaguely psychedelic sections with odd little guitar parts battling with Stringfellow's otherwise good vocal melody. There's a bombast to the song that's simply unbecoming a songwriter like Stringfellow, whose primary strength is melody.
It's followed by "Fireflies," a quiet, pensive song where the guitar and drums are actually more prominent than the vocals. It works well as a mood piece or interlude, but little else. But it's on "The Lover's Hymn" where he really veers off course. The aforementioned Timothy B. Schmidt resemblance hinted at earlier is in a full bloom here, and the song practically sounds like an outtake from the sessions for "The Long Run." At more than five minutes, it's extremely overlong, and never really develops itself beyond the organ-coated verses, with the exception of some somewhat interesting instrumental bits presented in lieu of a chorus.
Thankfully, Stringfellow gets his bearings again for the closer, "Here's to the Future," and ending Touched in the same territory that Big Star's third album occupied 25 years ago. What begins as an acoustic song is shrouded in a blanket of analog synthesizer during the crescendos between verses, and Marshall punctuates it with orchestral percussion. It's a fitting close to a fine solo effort that's not afraid to take a few chances. No one really knows at this point what will become of the Posies, but as long as Stringfellow keeps putting out music in some form, the future of power-pop looks okay. (Pitchfork)

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MATTHEW SWEET - GIRLFRIEND

Matthew Sweet's third album is a remarkable artistic breakthrough. Grounded in the guitar pop of the Beatles, Big Star, Byrds, R.E.M., and Neil Young, Girlfriend melds all of Sweet's influences into one majestic, wrenching sound that encompasses both the gentle country-rock of "Winona" and the winding guitars of the title track and "Divine Intervention." Sweet's music might have recognizable roots, but Girlfriend never sounds derivative; thanks to his exceptional songwriting, the album is a fresh, original interpretation of a classic sound.

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WONDERMINTS - MIND IF WE MAKE LOVE TO YOU

“During 2000-2001, Wondermints cemented their already direct '60s influences by serving as the backing band for Brian Wilson's solo tours, documented on the concert albums Live at the Roxy Theater and Pet Sounds Live. Upon returning, they went into the studio and recorded Mind If We Make Love to You, a record that ably displays some steady gains in musicianship and expertise from playing some of the best pop music of all time in front of audiences all over the world. As on previous records, the band sparkles simply by playing up their influences instead of hiding them. Surprisingly, though, the Beach Boys inspiration apparently came from their early-'70s phase instead of their classic '60s era; "Ride," with backing vocals from Wilson himself, is immediately obvious, featuring a soulful vocal from the Carl Wilson playbook (first bluesy as on "The Trader," later heavenly as on "God Only Knows") and a progression of short "feels" instead of the usual verse-chorus-verse format.
Elsewhere, Wondermints again call on spirits of the past -- from the Association (for "Out of Mind," on which Curt Boettcher must surely be smiling) to the Zombies ("Shine on Me") to even the Grateful Dead ("Time Has You") -- but any hint of a stale sound is saved by gorgeous hooks, clean production, and an over-all beautiful construction. Occasionally the similarities are to fellow latter-day pop savants like Jason Falkner or even the Ocean Blue, but Wondermints ably display all they've learned during their nearly endless summer of touring with the golden boy of '60s pop.” (From AllMusicGuide).

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