it's All Meat!!! - Garage,Psych,Punk

It’s All Meat were a late 60s/early 70s band that hailed from Toronto and released this excellent album in 1970 (Columbia).  Prior to that, It’s All Meat had been known as The Underworld.  The Underworld released a superb, crude garage single (“Go Away”/”Bound” – the label is Regency) in 1968 and also recorded some fine unreleased material captured on acetate.  As mentioned before, some of the members of The Underworld would form It’s All Meat.  In 1969 this new group would release their debut 45, “Feel It” coupled with “I Need Some Kind of Definitive Commitment.”  The A-side combined MC5 energy with New York Dolls-style swagger and features plenty of feedback and great guitar breaks.  It’s one of the great proto-punkers. 

Their album was released the following year and feartured 8 fresh original numbers written by drummer Rick McKIM and keyboard player/lead vocalist Jed MacKAY.  There are a bunch of good, solid stonesy garage rockers that form the axis of this lp: “Make Some Use Of Your Friends,” “Roll My Own,” “You Brought Me Back To My Senses,” and “You Don’t Know The Time You Waste.”  The latter track would be released as the group’s second and final single but “Roll My Own” and “Make Some Use Of Your Friends” were just as good, featuring fine psychedelic guitar work and raw vocals.  Other note worthy tracks flirted with blues (“Self-Confessed Lover”) and folk-rock (“If Only”) but the lp’s brightest moments were its two 9-minute marathon compositions.  “Crying Into A Deep Lake” was full-blown Doors psychedelia with spacey keyboards and spooky Jim Morrison influenced vocals.  The other lengthy track, “Sunday Love,” sounds like a strange Lou Reed/John Cale concoction with lots a great psychedelic guitar noise and soft folk-like passages sprinkled with light garage keyboards.   So while these last two tracks are very long, they never wear out their welcome and are required listening for both garage and psych fans.  The album’s production teeters between a primitive recording sound and the typical major label gloss, making it just right.

It’s All Meat is a fine, consistent trip all the way thru.  It’s one of the best late period (really late) garage rock albums I know of.  The album’s hard rock and proto-punk sounds give it a nice,  visceral edge.  It’s All Meat was reissued in 2000 by Hallucinations though originals are not hard to come by either. (http://therisingstorm.net/its-all-meat-its-all-meat/)

It's All Meat (1970)

Keith Christmas - Folk Rock

Keith Christmas (born Keith Peter Christmas, 13 October 1946, Wivenhoe, near Colchester, Essex) is an English singer and songwriter. In 1969 his first album Stimulus was released. Christmas played acoustic guitar on David Bowie's Space Oddity album, and appeared at the first Glastonbury Festival in 1970. Through the 1970s he released four more albums, Fable Of The Wings, Pigmy, Brighter Day and Stories From The Human Zoo, while touring with and supporting bands like The Who, King Crimson, Ten Years After, Frank Zappa, Roxy Music, Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart and The Kinks. Among the musicians who contributed to his recordings were Mighty Baby, Pat Donaldson, Keith Tippett, Gerry Conway, Shelagh McDonald, Rod Argent, Peter Sinfield, Greg Lake, Mel Collins, Cat Stevens and Michael Boshears. In 1972 he was voted one of six favourite international artists by writers of Sounds magazine.

In 1976 he came back to England and after a few years stopped playing. He formed the blues band 'Weatherman' in 1991 with some friends and an album of the same name was released in 1992. In 1996 he suddenly started to write a different kind of acoustic material which almost immediately led to the release of a new album 'Love Beyond Deals' on HTD records. In January 2003 Keith released an instrumental CD, ‘Acoustica’. It got excellent worldwide reviews - ‘absolutely brilliant’, ‘this is a quite exceptional piece of work’, ‘lavish and overwhelming’, ‘a beautiful album’, and the opening track was used on the BBC documentary 'Hidden Gardens'. In 2006 he recorded and produced his first ever solo CD called 'Light of the Dawn'. The magazine fRoots reviewed it “…the sound is fantastic and grabs the attention: the confident, gutsy guitar, picked or slide, has immediacy and intimacy in equal measure; and Christmas's urgent, hoarse vocals can't help but involve the listener in the moods and stories of the songs…a fine timeless album” In 2011 Keith released a 5-track solo acoustic EP called 'Fat Cat Big Fish' and in 2012 released his first live CD 'Live at the Pump'

Keith Christmas - Fable Of The Wings (1970)

Personnel:

- Keith Christmas - vocals, guitar

- Jan Whiteman - piano, electric piano, organ, mellotron

- Keith Tippett - piano

- Mike Evans, Pat Donaldson - bass

- Gerry Conway, Roger Powell - drums

- Bob Stewart - autoharp

- Shelagh McDonald - vocals (02)

- Sandy Roberton - producer

Pepper Tree - Canada Rock

Comprised of Chris Brockway,Jim White,Bob Quinn and Tim Garagon,Pepper Tree was signed by Capitol in 1970.You're My People (1971) featured the Canadian hit "Mr. Pride." Several singles followed in the early '70s,but Pepper Tree never duplicated their early success.Pepper Tree hailed from Nova Scotia and was formed in 1967.After a few years of saturating the club scene in Canada,the band finally landed a contract with Capitol Records in 1969.Producer,Jack Richardson,was drafted to produce a single which saw the band charting in their native country.Lineup changes ensued over the next year,until "You're My People" hit store shelves in 1971.The album was a solid mix of folk,pop,prog and organ driven hard rock.By 1973,the band was belly up and members went on to such bands as Rhinegold, Molly Oliver,Hanover Fist,Wrabit,Lee Aaron,Chilliwack and Headpins.Many of them are still active in both performing and producing music.

Pepper Tree - 1971 - You're My People (CAN)

Spiders From Mars

The Spiders from Mars group had its origins in Bowie's earlier backing outfit The Hype, which featured Ronson and Woodmansey, but Tony Visconti on bass. They were briefly signed as a band on its own, known as Ronno. With Bolder taking over bass, they were subsequently named via the landmark 1972 Bowie concept album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and were billed as such on the accompanying large-scale Ziggy Stardust Tour. They were present again on Bowie's 1973 album Aladdin Sane. Another leg of the tour followed that year, with the final show captured in the film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The group joined Bowie in the theatrical style of the material's presentation. Ronson's guitar and arranging during the Spiders from Mars era not only fit into this style, but also provided much of the underpinning for later punk rock musicians. In 1975 Bolder and Woodmansey reformed the band without Ronson, and were joined in this lineup by Mike Garson, Dave Black, Pete McDonald. Their self-titled album, released in 1976, was their only album before the group disbanded. The name came from the famous UFO sighting where a stadium crowd thought they had witnessed Martian spacecraft which turned out to be migrating spiders and not from the Martian areographic features often labelled as 'spiders' and 'baby spiders.' In 1976 the Spiders From Mars album was released. In 1975 the Spiders From Mars had been reformed by Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey but without Mick Ronson and with no contribution or connection to David Bowie.

Spiders From Mars (1976)

Kedama - Suíça

Kedama biography

Swiss band KEDAMA was formed in 1971 by Christian Linder (guitars, keyboards) and Richard Rothenberger (keyboards), and the band as such was finalized when drummer Peter Suter hooked up with them in 1972. In 1973 the band won a rock band contest giving them free studio time, which were used in between gigs to create and record their 1976 debut album "Live At Sunrise Studios" - a live in the studio recording where the trio played quirky instrumental numbers with references to the likes of Gentle Giant and King Crimson. Only two years later the career of Kedama hit full brakes though. Debts were accumulating, and the changing musical climate lead to fewer people wanting to see the band perform live. After a concert with an audience of just 30 people in 1978 the band decided to call it quits. After several years of a steadily building interest in their first album a CD reissue saw the light of day in 1999. The popularity of this second release of the album spurned a partial reunion of the band. Linder and Rothenberger got together and recorded new material, which surfaced as the self-titled CD "Kedama" in 2002. Kedama has since recorded at least one more full length album, "Hope Is...", which have yet to see the light of day. Furthermore, material enough to fill 3 more CDs have been recorded as well, but has since been scrapped over the years as the creative duo after consideration felt that this material didn't fulfill their ambitions. Time will have to tell whether or not any more of the material from this Swiss act will see the light of day sometime.

Kedama official website

Kedama - Live At Sunrise Studios (1976)

Kalevala - Finlândia

Kalevala biography

KALEVALA was formed in 1969 by Juha Salonen (bass), Remu Aaltonen (drums/vocals) and Albert Järvinen (guitar). Their first name was VIETNAM, but they had to change it in order to get concerts. This first line-up played straightforward rock'n'roll, and they were a popular live act in Finland. There were no studio recordings from this line-up, but the Finnish broadcasting company recorded their performance from 1970 "Ruisrock" festival. After this the line-up changed. Remu founded HURRIGANES, which Albert also joined later. Now KALEVALA's musical direction was changed to more progressive direction. The new musicians on their second line-up were Markku Luukkanen on drums, Matti Kurkinen on Guitar and Harri Saksala doing singing. They recorded one album, "People No Names" (1972) which was released by Finnlevy. They had some guest musicians helping on doing it: pianist Olli Ahvenlahti, Raimo Wallen playing flute and on acoustic guitar Ile Kallio, who was playing on HURRIGANES during that time. The result was quite unique, you can form your own opinion of it by listening the sample mp3 presented on this page. The band was very unstable, as they had again changes in their line-up. Now they had Zape "Limousine" Leppänen on vocals, who has worked with many respected Finnish artists. The band recorded an album "Boogie Jungle" (1975), which is again more basic rock music. They had Jim Pembroke doing their lyrics plus backing vocals, and Jukka Gustavson playing keyboards on one track. Shortly after this band faced a sudden catastrophy, as Matti Kurkinen got in to a fatal car accident. Their name was defined as KALEVALA ORCHESTRA for their next album "Abraham's Blue Refrain" (1977). After this they toured Europe with ANGE, but they faced financial problems, and the musicians disbanded KALEVALA went to different directions.Some members of the band rejoined in studio 1995, but they couldn't get a record deal. These new tracks are available on "Anthology" (2004), which has some live recordings and before unreleased material on it.

: : : Eetu Pellonpää, FINLAND : : :

Kalevala official website

Kalevala - People No Names (1972)

The Plastic People of the Universe - Czech Rock

The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) is a Czech rock band from Prague. It was the foremost representative of Prague's underground culture (1968–1989), which had gone against the grain of Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Due to their non-conformism, members of the band often suffered serious repercussions such as arrests. The group continues to perform despite the death of its founder, main composer and bassist, Milan "Mejla" Hlavsa in 2001.

Egon Bondy' s Happy Hearts Club Banned (1978) 

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Mandrake Memorial - Psychedelic Progressive Rock and Acid Folk

The Mandrake Memorial biography ( Progarchives.com):

THE MANDRAKE MEMORIAL, formed by Craig Anderton (guitar, sitar, electronics), Michael Kac (keyboards), John Kevin Lally (drums) and Randy Monaco (bass, lead vocals) in 1967, were one of renowned Philadelphia-based rock bands along with THE NAZZ during the late 1960s. They got started performances mainly in The Trauma, produced by Manny Rubin as a new club located in the middle of Samson Street, where they eventually could attract notice of Poppy Records, an affiliated label of MGM. In the fall of 1967 they signed with Poppy Records and released three albums - 'The Mandrake Memorial' (1968), 'Medium' (1969), and 'Puzzle' (1970). THE MANDRAKE MEMORIAL were a short-lived outfit disbanded by Michael's withdrawal shortly before the last album 'Puzzle' released, but much influenced by 60s psychedelic rock or folk rock, and moreover blended with their unique originality such as Craig's epochmaking electronics or Michael's Rock-Si-Chord, their soundscape was worth calling a pioneer of Psychedelic Progressive Rock and Acid Folk.

The Mandrake Memorial - Puzzle

ENJOY!!!!

One - Psychedelic Folk Rock

Um sonzinho bem agradável, com uma batera bem marcante e uma gaitinha animal. 

"A little-known album whose participants were better known for session work. Brent Forbes, who was in  Locust in the mid-seventies, also worked for Bob Pegg and  The Surprise Sisters; Norman Leppard played with  Aynsley Dunbar and Alan Marshall, who was in  Zebra in the mid-seventies, played for  Pete Bardens. Conrad Isadore was most prolific of all - cropping up on several other artists albums. Soul influenced prog rock, with a few funk moves, and featuring long, improv driven tracks with soulish vocals, some brass, organ, flute, some strings, and a mix of light and heavy"

ONE

Tracks:

01. Don't Listen To Me (Richie Havens) - 6:59

02. Cautiously (Maurey Hayden) - 8:41

03. Stop Pulling And Pushing Me (Richie Havens) - 7:53

04. Near The Bone (Alan Marshall, Bobby Sass) - 3:59

05. Run, Shaker Life (Richie Havens) - 17:37

Personnel:

- Alan Marshall - vocals, harp, congas, talking drum, tambourine, guitar, arranger, producer

- Bobby Sass (Bobby Tench) - organ, piano, guitar, arranger, producer

- Norman Leppard - flute, tenor saxophone

- Kevin Fogerty - guitar

- Brent Forbes - bass

- Conrad Isidore - drums

+

- Nicky Harrison - strings arrangements

- Adrian De Rovere - brass arrangements

- Roger Burrow - producer

ENJOY!!!!!

Eric Clapton & More Good Friends

Agora o palco fica pesado... Eric Clapton convida  Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Derek Trucks e Don White, para homenagear seu ídolo, J.J. Cale. Nada melhor para finalizar esta série de postagens de parcerias do Sir .Eric Clapton. 

Eric Clapton & Friends -The Breeze

An Appreciation of JJ Cale

ENJOY!!!!

Eric Clapton & Very Good Friends!!!!

Eric Clapton matando as saudades do Cream, com Jack Bruce e Ginger Baker, além de dar uma duelada com Jimmy Page. Sonzeira.

Eric Clapton & Friends - The Album

ENJOY!!!!

Eric Clapton & Otis Rush

Agora o Dr. Otis Rush sobe aos palcos para dedilhar sua guitarra com o Sr. Clapton. Otis Rush (Filadélfia, 29 de abril de 1934) é um cantor e guitarrista de blues americado. Foi considerado o 53º melhor guitarrista de todos os tempos pela revista norte-americana Rolling Stone. Rush é canhoto e usa a guitarra para destros simplesmente virada ao contrário, sem trocar o encordoamento. Com isso, a corda mais fina (E) fica em cima, e os bends têm que ser realizados para baixo, contribuindo para seu som distinto. Outros guitarristas que utilizam o instrumento dessa maneira são Albert King, Dick Dale e Edgard Scandurra. Dois shows muito bons registrados em CD...

Eric Clapton & Otis Rush - 1986 - Montreux ´86

09 July 1986 - Le Casino, Montreux, Switzerland (20-30)

10 July 1986 - Le Casino, Montreux, Switzerland (1-19)

Bass – Fred Barnes (tracks: 3-1 to 3-11)

Bass, Backing Vocals – Nathan East (tracks: 1-1 to 2-9)

Drums – Eddie Turner (3) (tracks: 3-1 to 3-11)

Drums, Vocals – Phil Collins (tracks: 1-1 to 2-9)

Guitar – Anthony Palmer (tracks: 3-1 to 3-11)

Keyboards, Vocals – Greg Phillinganes (tracks: 1-1 to 2-9)

Lead Vocals, Guitar – Eric Clapton (tracks: 1-1 to 2-9), Otis Rush (tracks: 3-1 to 3-11)

Vocals, Keyboards – Professor Eddie Lusk (tracks: 3-1 to 3-11)

Eric Clapton & Otis Rush - 1986 - The Professor Blues Review

Live In Montreux, Switzerland on July 10, 1986 

Bass – Fred Burns

Drums  – Eddie Turner

Guitar – Anthony Parker

Guitar, Vocals – Eric Clapton, Otis Rush

Keyboards  – Prof. Eddie Lask

ENJOY!!!!

Eric Clapton & Sheryl Crow

Depois de passar anos como backing vocal de artistas como Don Henley, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton e Michael Jackson, e de dar aulas de música para crianças deficientes, Sheryl Crow gravou seu primeiro disco em 1993, no qual estourou com a música "All I Wanna Do". Já fez duetos com diversos artistas, teve canções em várias trilhas sonoras de filmes; cantou com Luciano Pavarotti, Elton John, Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, U2, The Corrs e vários outros grandes artistas. Em 1997, ela compôs a trilha sonora para o filme de James Bond, 007 - O Amanhã Nunca Morre, com a música Tomorrow Never Dies. Já namorou o cantor e guitarrista Eric Clapton, o ator Owen Wilson e o famoso ciclista norte-americano Lance Armstrong, de quem se separou em fevereiro de 2006. Nada mais justo que gravar um sonzaço com o antigo namorado...

Eric Clapton & Sheryl Crow - 1996 - The Armani Party

New York City, New York - September 12, 1996

O Sr. Clapton tem muito bom gosto...