Can a direct link be derived from power-pop progenitors
The Raspberries to all bands and singer/songwriters who subsequently took up the craft? On the face of it groups like the Rubinoos and even the Pezband have the Cleveland, OH legend's influence steeped all over them, whereas with Teenage Fanclub all the way up to more current practitioners Pugwash, the lines of inspirational genealogy are considerably more blurry.
Good thing for the quartet of
Eric Carmen,
Wally Bryson,
David Smalley and
Jim Bonfanti, their reputation is unequivocally and undisputedly sealed, whether they were the collective brainchildren of a musical movement or otherwise. They may not have been poster-boys for the pop charts, but with
four near-perfect albums to their credit the Raspberries legacy is still ripe for discovery for the yet-to-be-converted, and for continued exhalation for those already familiar with their music. They played in the mold of the Beatles at time when it was unambiguously uncool to trapise down that path, and a lot of listeners didn't really appreciate the 'berries until
both bands had long been put to pasture. Frustratingly, beyond their four LPs:
Raspberries (1972),
Fresh (1972),
Side 3 (1973) and
Starting Over (1974) the group left behind little to no aftertaste to savor, save for the typical allotment of best-of compilations. No glorified reissues with expanded bonus material, and nothing in the way of outtakes or live performances from the band's heyday have hit the market to my knowledge. From my vantage point there have been no rumblings about anything of the sort surfacing in the future. Even what I'm offering here may seem scant, but it's the best I was able to scrounge up. A big thanks in advance to the fans that made this material available in one guise or another.
This collection starts out appropriately enough with a pair of 1969 singles from two precursors to the Raspberries,
Cyrus Erie and
The Quick, both of whom featured Eric Carmen prominently in their lineups. The Cyrus Erie cuts exude a more than discernible Brit-invasion tincture, and though removed from the Raspberries I enjoy these songs tremendously. The Quick was the shorter lived of the two bands, but despite their lifespan, there's some development that bled over to Carmen's more renown successor band. A related band called
The Choir factors substantially into the Raspberries pre-history. Since I'm limited on time, please check out the hyperlinks at the beginning of this paragraph as well as
here and
here.
A piano-laded, but ultimately rejected commercial jingle (track five if you're playing along at home) leads into a cluster of four Raspberries demos that predate the band's debut. These were apparently sourced from vinyl, but the audio is fairly pristine. We're treated to subdued previews of "I Saw the Light" and "Come Around and See Me," along with two other songs that I don't believe cropped up on later records ("Of Tonight" is not the same piece as the band's soon-to-come anthem "Tonight").
A good chunk of this tracklist is taken from a myriad of live performances including the fabled Agora Theatre in the band's home turf of Cleveland. Granted, we aren't offered a cohesive set from one venue on one evening, but the fact is live Raspberries recordings are non-existent save for a couple
reunion concert albums, and the occasional live clip on YouTube. I'm not saying any of these in-concert renditions will make your hair stand on end, but you do get a bit of a rush hearing a vigorous run through "Play On" and "Ecstasy." Like any band worth their salt, the Raspberries in a live setting outpaced and out-energized their studio acumen. Needless to see these live tracks are the reason you're downloading this.
Towards the end of this smorgasbord are a couple of informally recorded Eric Carmen demos, tracked at the residence of Michael McBride, one of Carmen's former bandmates in Cyrus Erie. Both songs, "Starting Over" and "I Can Hardly Believe Your Mine" would be re-cut for the 'berries swan song,
Starting Over. These aren't mere rough sketches, so much as revealing alternate takes illustrating how they sounded outside the realm of the band. Pop craftsmanship to the hilt, even if Carmen is wont to channel Paul McCartney now and then.
This set concludes with a 1973 live medley of *sigh* two pop standards, "The Locomotion" and "Be My Baby." Forgivable, if only for the fact it's Raspberries covering them. A full tracklist with sources is below. There is a FLAC version, however some of the Cyrus Erie/Quick songs were only available on MP3. BTW, if you're looking for one stop shopping for the entire Raspberries catalog, check out this handy
mini box set with remastered versions of all four albums.
01.
Cyrus Erie - Sparrow (single a-side, 1969)
02.
Cyrus Erie - Get the Message (single b-side, 1969)
03.
The Quick - Ain't Nothing Gonna Stop Me (single a-side, 1969)
04.
The Quick - Southern Comfort (single b-side, 1969)
05. Lemon Go Lightly
06. I Saw the Light
07. Please Let Me Come Back Home
08. Oh Tonight
09. Come Around and See Me
10. Go All the Way
11. Nobody Knows
12. If You Can Change Your Mind
13. I Wanna Be With You
14. Let's Pretend
15. Last Dance
16. Tonight
17. Ecstacy
18. Play On
19. Cry
20. Overnight Sensation
21. I Don't Know What I Want
22. I Can Hardly Believe You're Mine
23. Starting Over
24. The Locomotion/Be My Baby
1 & 2 Cyrus Erie 7" (1969) - featuring Eric and Wally
3 & 4 The Quick 7" (1969, Epic) - featurng Eric
5. unreleased commerical jingle
6-9 1971 demos
10-12 recorded live for "Nightside," Germany 1973
13-15 live at the Agora, Cleveland, OH 11/13/73
16. from Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, 1973
17. live Panama City, FL 9/6/73
18-20 live at Sir Morgans Cove, Worcester, MA 6/29/74
21. live at The Joint in the Woods, Parsippany, NJ 10/18/74
22 & 23 Eric Carmen home demos recorded at Michael McBride's house, Willoughby, OH 1974
24. live medley from The Agora, Cleveland 11/18/73
MP3 or
FLAC
A two-fer featuring a 1983 album and ep from a group that practically wrote the playbook for the scene that celebrates itself.
Not to be confused withe the Boston band of the same (coincidentally featured here a few years ago) the Rods and Cones I'm sharing today were a more economical three-piece set up, situated in the less urban locale of Bloomington, IN. Guitar pop with varying dosages of power was their calling card and they played it capably, if perhaps half a step or two shy of the mainstream. Their approach was plenty accessible, but thankfully not as gaudily decked out as the drivel that say, Huey Lewis and his dudes were crapping out around the same time. The Rods thing was more in league with Tommy Tutone and later Knack. "Hypnotize Women" and "Useless Knowledge" were cheeky riff-rockers with ample bite, bearing enough commercial prowess to land on AOR playlists of the day...though I'm not sure if that scenario ever came to fruition. Rods and Cones winds things down with a novel acoustic reading of the Peanuts theme (lazily titled "Charlie Brown") before seguing into one last original. BTW, the band reunites every Christmas for a local performance. Visit the link above to be delivered to their Facebook page for evidence of this.
Something has always fascinated me about rural/small town indie rock, maybe because there seems to be so little of it. Signal Thirty, ostensibly hailing from Paducah, KY, could have conveniently chosen to season their ears on such mainstream purveyors of
the day as Def Leppard or John Cougar Mellencamp, but I tend to think
their collective tastes ran a little deeper than the Top-ten. Said to have
been recorded over the course of Memorial Day weekend in '87, Purpose sounds like a dandy way to have killed three days. Varying from twangy, albeit skewed roots rock, to jangly REM-isms, this trio never quite settles on a singular penchant here, yet manages to keep the entire affair structured. Purpose really gets cooking on side two, with brisk keepers like "Wild With Me," "(The Adventures of) Laritasm," and "Some Sweet Day" all exuding verve and zest, not to mention a homegrown aplomb that occasionally floats in the vicinity of what the Meat Puppets had up their sleeves around the same time. Solid stuff. The record ends in somewhat uncharacteristic fashion with a medley of the reverent country ballad "Wings of a Dove" and the theme to Petticoat Junction.
One of 2017's best. Hope to get something new from them in the coming year.
A must-hear masterwork from 1986. 
Crunchy and often shoegazer-y indie rock this way came from the presumably long defunct Starlight Conspiracy. Apparently hailing from New England (Mass or Vermont I wanna say) this co-ed quartet featured Jan Tofferi, largely dominating on vocals. Bearing a raw, mid-fi aptitude the Conspiracy had an unwieldy grip on dynamics and an even better handle on distortion. Downcast but never despondent the band's serious tenor was more substance than angsty theatrics. Silver Holler is Vaguely analogous to early Velocity Girl, especially on the more melodic bits like "She Waits," and "Just Heavier Words." Kind of wish they stuck around for another record or two.
Thought this would tie in well with recent events, not to mention what I posted a couple nights back. This was an easy sell for me back in '92. First and foremost because it was a Buzzcocks tribute, but almost as appealing was the inclusion of no less than five of my top-tier faves, Big Drill Car, The Doughboys, The Fluid, Didjits and Naked Raygun. Back then I would've purchased a compilation if it featured any one of them, even if this had been a Patsy Cline tribute. Overall, Something's Gone Wrong Again is a par for the course covers comp with a few really ill advised choices balancing out the smarter ones. Of the aforementioned participants, the Doughboys and Didjits take the cake, especially the latter, whose spin on "Sitting Round at Home" smoked the Gorilla Biscuits' rendition from just a few years before. Electric Love Hogs convey "Boredom" with a Melvins-y thrust, Alice Donut taking on "E.S.P." is a logical pairing, and Raygun do more than adequate justice to the Buzzcocks anthem that never quite became one, "Running Free." The Accüsed and Deadspot butcher their allotted slots disgracefully, and the Larry King soundbites on Porn Orchard's reading of "Why Can't I Touch It?" are nothing short of pathetic. Some other good candidates for this album might have been Superchunk, The Figgs, and perhaps even pre-stardom Green Day...but of course, I had no say in such matters. Fourteen tracks. Hope your favorite is here.
News none of us were quite expecting went out late last week announcing Pete Shelley, frontman for the Buzzcocks (and a solo artist in how own right circa the mid-80s) had died suddenly of a heart attack at 63. The Buzzcocks initial 1977-81 lifespan was superseded many, many times over since the band reconvened in 1989, and it seemed like they might have well gone on for another ten years or so. Whether they were the founders of "pop-punk," as it were, or not, they certainly had the biggest hand in stirring that much coveted and ultimately lucrative kettle. Arguably more influential than even the Sex Pistols, certainly hundreds of punters that followed in the Buzzcocks wake professed to be inspired by them, but how many genuinely sounded like Pete Shelley, Steve Diggle and Co.? Heck, I couldn't even name a Buzzcocks imitator if you put a gun to my head. Shelley had a singular voice, and a plaintive yet distinctive songwriting acumen to match. Utterly irreplaceable. Luckily, they toured so extensively most fans were at least able to catch a concert or two. Can't really say that about the Pistols, or even the Clash for that matter. 
For this Mystery Monday it's a Chanukah-worthy double CD of demos for this Scottish band's first three albums. And it's not Teenage Fanclub either. Will try to leave this up a tad longer than usual.
Ok, one last present to finish the holiday off, and a pretty substantial one at that from a band that needs no introduction - at least I would expect that to be the case. Can you believe it's been ELEVEN YEARS since I dedicated an entry to Material Issue? Maybe I just didn't want you to get burned out on them. Then again this is the trifecta to end all power pop trios we're talking about here - Ted Ansani, Mike Zelenko, and of course the late Jim Ellison. I guess there isn't much of a burnout factor there, eh?
Issues is nothing more than a fan-curated series of bootlegs compiling scarce, unreleased and live stuff from Chicago power-pop demigods, you guessed it, Material Issue. You'll no doubt notice the header states this is Vol 3. You might be asking, are there volumes one and two? Do subsequent chapters in the Issues serial exist? Yes, and yes. Currently I don't have all or even most of them, but I might try to work on that. Furthermore, from what I've been able to learn about these MI compilations, Vol. 3's emphasis is on studio material, that in one iteration or another isn't readily available for public consumption. It touches on songs from their debut, International Pop Overthrow, but the emphasis of this volume tends to zero in on their pre and post major label stint with Mercury Records. Best of all it includes some entirely unique and unreleased cuts that to my knowledge have never appeared on any official MI releases. Let me fill you in if I may.
I ponder a lot about about the late Jim Ellison and moreover what might have been if things had taken a different turn on June 20, 1996. If you're a fan you've probably gleaned the synopsis (or what little thereof was made public knowledge) of what played into his final act of desperation. He died a veritable martyr for his cause, but still a punishing excuse for the rest of us. And in light of what transpired that day, all Material Issue songs, even the most strident and jovial ones ache to one extent of another whenever I hear them. Even if he had never recorded another note, had he simply been able to persevere through his circumstances that would have been satisfaction enough for me. Jim, you were seemingly too misanthropic to be sentimental, but nonetheless we miss the hell out of you. Tracklist and links are below.
Every year or so I happen upon a phenomenal yesteryear release that I wasn't on my radar up until that point. Sometimes I'm a couple years late to the party, others I'm behind the curve by a good three decades, and that was the case with the item I'm debuting tonight. 
Well, I don't have a string of 7" vinyl queued up for this Chanukah, but how would three records in a slightly lengthier format grab you? It dawned on me as a I set to type this out that I don't think I've mentioned any of the three following acts on this site before, so you're truly getting something original for a change. Please make your acquaintance below.
Matt Barrett - The Ruse ep (1980, Moonlight)
Richard X. Heyman - Actual Size ep (1986, NR World Records) 
Home - Dirt ep (Homestijl, 1987)
I've never been much of a hardcore guy. Punk yes...but hardcore? I need way more than indiscriminate speed and shouted vocals, regardless of the righteous indignation and moral outrage that might inform that type of music. No, in order for me to enjoy anything remotely hardcore there has to be at least one other ingredient in the mix. With Bad Religion (at least in their second iteration starting in the late '80s) it was melody. Another exception for me might be The Germs, who offered some unique and indigenous tangents that I can't quite convey in the written word. And the Circle Jerks and Adolescents packed such an irresistible thrust and groove that even I was forced to let my guard down.
So, why haven't I dedicated more space to The Freshies before? Well, I don't have most of their recordings, and what little I have has been made available again. In fact the closest I've come to doing a Freshies piece is for frontman Chris Sievey's 1986 solo venture, Big Record. If you're looking for a quick but fairly thorough bio on the band, Pop Geek Heaven isn't a bad pit-stop, but please indulge me with a few morsels of personal insight. 
By the mid-80s, Chris Sievey had largely displaced the Freshies and music in general for a phenomenology more renown second act, as outlandish comic personality Frank Sidebottom. His character was synonymous with the large and cartoonish papier-mâché head he would invariably don. In 2014 a movie was made about his life. Sievey died prematurely in 2010 from cancer at the age of 54. From what I read at the time he passed away virtually penniless, and was given some type of charity funeral, as the British are kind enough to provide in situations such as this.
I can't tell you much about The Need, but they did evolve into a more visible entity, Divine Weeks later in the '80s. Functioning on the fringes of L.A.'s Paisley Underground scene, Divine Weeks got noticed when Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate approached them after a 1986 gig.
