One of the greatest debuts in the history of rock, Mr. Tambourine Man was nothing less than a significant step in the evolution of rock & roll itself, demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded to compelling electric guitar riffs and a solid backbeat. It was also the album that was most responsible for establishing folk-rock as a popular phenomenon, its most alluring traits being Roger McGuinn's immediately distinctive 12-string Rickenbacker jangle and the band's beautiful harmonies. The material was uniformly strong, whether they were interpreting Bob Dylan (on the title cut and three other songs, including the hit single "All I Really Want to Do"), Pete Seeger ("The Bells of Rhymney"), or Jackie DeShannon ("Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe"). The originals were lyrically less challenging, but equally powerful musically, especially Gene Clark's "I Knew I'd Want You," "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better," and "Here Without You"; "It's No Use" showed a tougher, harder-rocking side and a guitar solo with hints of psychedelia.
Tyler - Vocals/Guitar
Corsh- Bass/Vocals
Nick - Guitar/Vocals
Ryan - Piano/Vocals
Michael - Drums
Hailing from the midwest USA, The Van Buren Boys offer up a heady concoction of Power Pop Punk infused Rock 'N' Roll with their new Long Player "Up All Night"
The 10 track album keeps the pace racing along from opening track "Turn it up loud" right through to the closing track "Up all night" and that kind of sums up what these guys are doing, turning it up loud and playing all night long, this is a great little album, full of energy and life and it sounds like the band are having a great time playing it.......check them out!!!
The Van Buren Boys play live:
Prima Donna with Van Buren Boys
Brauer House Lombard, IL
Sat, March 24, 2012 9:00 PM
$7.00
18 and Over
Unlike the vintage '60s imagery that's dressed up the covers of the Gurus' previous albums, 2010's Closing Circles is adorned with a photo of a man falling from the sky to the ground -- while the back cover features a subtle but inescapable image of the same man after he's met the pavement. It's almost as if the Gurus are trying to tell us something is over and done, and though this group still clearly loves classic folk-rock and psychedelia, they're obviously less interested in replicating the sounds of the past, aiming for a more subdued feel and subtler textures on this set. By easing back on their shtick, the Gurus make a better case for their talents on Closing Circles; rather than suggesting they're trying to re-create some lost recording of another age, here they concentrate on writing good songs and bringing them to life in the studio, and they do it quite well. Psychedelic textures still play a significant role on this album, but the Gurus focus on atmosphere and mood rather than obvious trippiness, and the open, sun-dappled sound of "Strange Believer" and "Lunatic Lover" is all the more effective for avoiding the usual clichés. And there's no getting past the retro influences of "I Don't Care About It," "I Put a Spell on You" (an original, not the Screamin' Jay Hawkins' classic), "The Trip," and "Necromonicon," but the Gurus have effectively blended them into their style rather than letting them rise to the top like an oil slick, and the confidence of Emilio Ramirez's guitar, Sergio Bartel's bass, and Josep Pons' drumming goes a long way toward making this music click. With Closing Circles, the Gurus have finally crossed the border from being a group of '60s revivalists to a contemporary band who use elements of '60s pop to make their music work, and that's opened them up to make one of the most satisfying albums of their career.AMG
A pairing of Ride's first two EPs, Smile is a batch of eight muddy, shambling wrecks that run dangerously close to obscuring great pop songs. In fact, much of Smile makes My Bloody Valentine's blurry Isn't Anything sound as polished as a Steely Dan record. What makes the tunes remarkable is the spirit of the band, along with a complementary mix. The band probably knew exactly what they were doing, but wanted to sound clueless. It's the sound of four art students losing themselves in their record collections, wanting to sound naïve and fresh but well-studied. Mark Gardener sounds like he couldn't sing to save his life on "Chelsea Girl," but it's no matter. The relentless rush of Loz Colbert's drums and distorted guitars of Gardener and Andy Bell carry the song, topped off by a nifty wah-wah climax. Though the mid-tempo, chugging "Drive Blind" could be taken literally, it could double as a metaphor for throwing oneself headlong into a relationship -- closing your eyes and not caring if a brick wall or cliff is up a mile ahead. The remainder is filled out with sticky riffs and melodies which avoid sounding like the standard pop fair. It sounds a bit amateurish, and Gardener and Bell hadn't quite found their footing vocally. Nonetheless, Smile brought something new to the table, and the U.K. audience and more adventurous U.S. fans clutched onto the sound for dear life. Rightfully so. [Oddly, Smile's mastering comes from the vinyl versions of the EPs. If you can track down the CD versions of the EPs separately, you'll notice a difference in quality. Also, the disc was remastered and reissued by Ignition in the U.K. in 2001; unlike the other releases in the campaign, the new version has no bonuses.]
My Saturday mornings as a child would not have been the same without The Monkees and following the death of Davy Jones yesterday, it seemed rather fitting to post a Monkees album today. Enjoy!
Davy Jones, 1945-2012
"Hey hey, we are the Monkees/You know we love to please/A manufactured image/With no philosophies." In 1968, the Monkees addressed their own reputation in the song "Ditty Diego (War Chant)," which summed up the bad rap they'd received in the music press since they first emerged in the summer of 1966. The Monkees were talented singers, musicians, and songwriters who made a handful of the finest pop singles of their day (as well as a few first-rate albums) and delivered exciting, entertaining live shows. But at a time when rock music was becoming more self-conscious and "serious," the hipper echelons of the music press often lambasted the Monkees, largely because they didn't come together organically but through the casting process for a television series, and they initially didn't write the bulk of their own material or play all the instruments on their records. The fact they later took creative control of their music was often overlooked, and the quality of their music, which featured the work of some of the finest session players and songwriters of the 1960s, often seemed to be beside the point. Time has ultimately vindicated the Monkees, and their music still sounds fresh and engaging decades after it was recorded, but in some circles they never fully shook being branded as "the Pre-Fab Four," no matter how far they moved from the circumstances that brought them together.
The Monkees story began in the fall of 1965, when Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, a pair of producers whose Raybert Productions had a deal with Columbia Pictures and their TV branch Screen Gems, came up with an idea for a television series about a rock group. Inspired by Richard Lester's groundbreaking comedies with the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night and Help!, Rafelson and Schneider imagined a situation comedy in which a four-piece band had wacky adventures every week and occasionally burst into song. The NBC television network liked the idea, and production began on The Monkees in early 1966. Don Kirshner, a music business veteran who was a top executive at Colgems Records (a label affiliated with Columbia/Screen Gems), was appointed music coordinator for the series, and Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, a producing and songwriting team, signed on to handle much of the day-to-day chores of creating music for the show's fictive band. A casting call went out for four young men to play the members of the group, and Rafelson and Schneider's choices for the roles were truly inspired. Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were musicians with solid performing and recording experience who also had a flair for playing comedy, while Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones were primarily actors but had also dabbled in pop music and had strong vocal abilities. As the show went before the camera, Kirshner had Boyce and Hart take the four leads into the studio to begin recording the songs that would be featured on the show each week. While initially the cast was only going to provide vocals for material Boyce and Hart had already recorded, the producers were impressed enough with Nesmith's songwriting skills that they chose to use a few of his tunes and let him produce them. With this, the Monkees took their first step toward evolving into a proper, self-sufficient rock band. AMG
Five Live Yardbirds was the first important -- indeed, essential -- live album to come out of the 1960s British rock & roll boom. In terms of the performance captured and the recording quality, it was also the best such live record of the entire middle of the decade. Cut at a Marquee Club show in 1964 , Five Live Yardbirds was a popular album, especially once Eric Clapton's fame began to spread after leaving the band. Although the album didn't appear officially in the United States until its CD release by Rhino in the late 1980s, four of its tracks -- "Smokestack Lightning," "Respectable," "I'm a Man," and "Here 'Tis" -- made up one side of their classic U.S. album Having a Rave Up, and the British EMI LP became a very popular import during the early 1970s as a showcase for both the band and the playing of Eric Clapton. That album had astonishingly good sound, which was not the case with any of the reissues that followed, on vinyl or CD -- even Rhino's compact disc suffered from blurry textures and noise, though it was an improvement over any release since the original EMI LP. The 1999 Repertoire Records reissue is the first CD that matches the clarity and sharpness of the original LP, and along with that improvement, their original concert has been very sensibly expanded with a half-dozen live cuts from roughly the same period, recorded at the Crawdaddy Club. Among them is a killer live version of the Billy Boy Arnold classic "I Wish You Would."There's also a pair of live tracks from German television in 1967 -- "I'm a Man" and "Shapes of Things"; the two, in a flash, make up for what they lack in perfect fidelity. AMG
Some live dates for this most excellent band, if you are near any of the venues, do yourself a favour and go and have a great night out!!!!
Billeracy Football Club - 9th march
Scala , Kings Cross - DJ Set from Wombats - 24 march
Southend, The Riga Bar with The Most - 14 april
Islington O2 - 18 april
Ally club, Cambridge - 12 may
Fleece - Bristol 22 june
Help for heroes mod rally - Birmingham 9 june
Clapham - Granf 13 july
Fiddlers Elbow - 28 july
