J.J. CALE - BREEZIN' AT THE CAFE 2013.
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Thursday, December 23, 2021
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THE AMERICAN BREED - BEND ME SHAPE ME 1968.
The story
The American Breed was a late 1960s rock band from Cicero, Illinois that became famous during the late 1960s. They are best known for the 1967 smash, "Bend Me, Shape Me," a beloved oldies classic that kicks off with a short catchy drum solo followed by a soulful brassy fanfare.
Formed in 1958 and first known as Gary & The Nite Lites, the original lineup consisted of Al Ciner (guitar, vocals), Charles "Chuck" Colbert, Jr. (bass, vocals), Jim Michalak (drums), and lead singer/guitarist Gary Loizzo (August 16, 1945 - January 16, 2016). Michalak was later replaced by Lee Graziano (drums, vocals, trumpet).
After The American Breed split in 1970, Al Ciner and other band members went on to form Rufus. Gary Loizzo founded Pumpkin Recording Studios and became a highly successful producer and recording engineer. A two-time Grammy nominee, he worked with such top acts as Liza Minnelli, Bad Company, Slash, Survivor, REO Speedwagon, and Styx. Ciner, Loizzo, Colbert, and Graziano reunited in 1986 as The American Breed and recorded the album, "Once Again," featuring a new version of "Bend Me, Shape Me."
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Friday, October 8, 2021
Saturday, September 18, 2021
The Lemon Drops
Profile:
Psychedelic pop band from Chicago, Illinois, USA, that formed in 1966.
The band, originally established by high school students, produced one single in their heyday that reached regional success, but also recorded several other unreleased material that garnered the group's re-interest in the 1980s. During their existence, the band was an essential piece in the development of psychedelic pop in Illinois.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Saturday, July 31, 2021
COMPILATION OF 60's Bands - CLASS OF 66 .
Real teen innocence at its finest!! Crude Sound of 18 Mid-60's Bands. No Fuzz!!!
Ltd. edition 300 copies, issued in 1995. Discogs.
Saturday, May 15, 2021
THE FIVE AMERICANS - PROGRESSIONS 1967 re.2006.
Every region probably could claim one. Dallas’, via southeastern Oklahoma, the Five Americans could be thought of as a real life Wonders, not in being “one hit wonders” but in the wake of the Beatles being scooped up by a regional record man looking for some of that action.
They actually had four tunes that made it into the Top 40, the others being the marching Garage-Rocker with roughhewn vocals I See The Light and the attempt to recapture the W.U. magic Zip Code, which has its own catchy charm and much smoother, mellifluous vocals.
The recordings here cover a period from 1965 to 1969 and were produced by Dale Hawkins, of Susie-Q fame, for the Abnak organisation, mostly done in Texas. But the earliest number, the heavily, early Beatles influenced Show Me was recorded in Nashville and released via the ABC-Paramount label.
By the first of what would be off and on sessions starting in the last quarter of ‘66 and continuing into the Spring of ‘67 for what would mostly make up the second album, Western Union/Sound Of Love, the band’s sound had become much cleaner and purer, particularly their vocal harmonies, i.e. the title tracks and the lovely, once again Beatlesque, cantering rocker If I Could.
As they went on things got prettier. From the Fall of ‘67 is the beautifully wistful, Folk-Rock influenced Stop Light (with, funnily enough, verses with a passing melodic similarity to Leaving On A Jet not to be heard for two more years), and the orchestrated Pop — and now ‘67-period Beatles influenced — of 7:30 Guided Tour.
From Popdiggers.com
THE FIRE ESCAPE - PSYCHOTIC REACTION 1967.
The Fire Escape’s only release on GNP-Crescendo (1967) is still being regarded as a pretty collectable item, being a kind of a precursor to the Nuggets-and-related concepts, no less than five years before Lenny Kaye’s own “comprehension” of the whole thing.
the album is a kind of a “psychotic reaction” to the pioneering garage-punk sounds of the day, while they were still being called just (not exactly) plain pop, or at it’s most outrageous, r’n’b, with the identity of the actual (studio) band being mysteriously hidden from the public eye.
Among such future genre-defining classics as Talk Talk (The Music Machine), 96 Tears (? Mark & The Mysterians), Trip Maker, Pictures And Designs (The Seeds), Fortune Teller (take your own pick) or the title song (The Count V) itself.
As well as the not so classic but just as representative pair of Love Special Delivery (Thee Midniters) and a re-recording of Kim Fowley’s own The Trip, there are two band “originals”, both sharing the songwriting credits of Goldberg/Levine, with Blood Beat being a spooky psychedelicate instrumental, while Journey’s End actually happens to be the most conventionally sounding piece of a folk rocking jangler at it’s best.
With most of the mystery surrounding the album being revealed quite a while ago, the supposed involvement of Sky Saxon and Mars Bonfire is what still remains a rumour.
From Popdiggers.com
Saturday, March 20, 2021
TIM BOGERT.
Tim Bogert, a legendary bassist best known as part of the bands Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and the trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, has died. He was 76.
After Tim left high school, he was in and out of a number of bands in the NYC area. In 1965, he went on a lounge tour of the Eastern Seaboard with Rick Martin and the Showmen, where he met Mark Stein, the keyboardist and vocalist. The two of them hit it off, and they soon left to join with drummer Joey Brennan and guitarist Vince Martell to form their own band, The Pigeons. After recording an album called "While the World was Eating", they replaced drummer Joe Brennan with Carmine Appice and changed the name of the band to Vanilla Fudge.
R.I.P Dear Tim.
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