THE BANGLES: Ladies And Gentlemen…The Bangles!

The Bangles got together and personally picked out these songs, songs from the beginning of their career and remastered for optimal sound. These sixteen tracks are from their debut single, EP, demos, live tracks and compilations. A lot of these are on CD for the first time ever. These songs feature the original line-up of Susanna Hoffs, Debbi Peterson. Vicki Peterson, and original bassist Annette Zilinskas. Michael Steele, who replaced Zilinskas appears only on the live tracks.

I remember seeing their EP back when it first came out in 1982, and could only find it on cassette, so I picked it up and loved it so much. I played it all of the time and waited for new music from them. Of course we got new music a couple of years later and they started to blow up on video shows and radio. This is a great way for me, and those who liked them back them, as well as the curious to hear these great songs. You can hear the youthful energy and pure fun that they had during this period and it’s infectious. You get great covers of The Turtles “Outside Chance,” Paul Revere And The Raiders’ “Steppin’ Out,” and Love’s “7 And 7 Is.” The songs are pure pop that has a nice edge to them and shows that they had the chops to become big……and they sure proved that. It’s great that they have released these songs, and the remastered sound is fantastic too. The album is full of songs that should be classics, and to people who have followed them since the beginning, they are classics.

Yes, they were made in the early 80’s, and they had a 60’s sound to them, but the songs still hold up….good music is good music regardless of the era. Bands nowadays could take a page out of their songbook and realize that you need to do what you love and you will shine, even after all of these years, these songs shine like the sun.

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ALIEN SEX FIEND: Classic Albums Volume 2

Alien Sex Fiend is a combination of goth, new wave, and industrial that has been a going concern since 1982 and still continues now. The heart and soul of the band is Nik Fiend and Mrs Fiend who are like the Energizer bunny……..they keep going and going and going…….thankfully for us all. This is a remastered collection of four albums, and the second such collection of their music in this format. You get Here Cum Germs, Another Planet, Curse, and Open Head Surgery, which is their fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth albums. You also get remastered music, bonus tracks, a booklet, mini LP sleeves and a clam-shell box to store it in.

A fantastic collection of albums that showcase the band at the end of the 80’s and the early 90’s when they were getting a lot of interest in North America as well as the UK and Europe. It has them getting deeper into sampling and electronics and doing more experimental things, but still sounding like themselves. The albums have a great mix of cartoonish lyrics and manic music that mesh together perfectly. Here Cums Germs has a great continuation of their earlier albums, and a foreshadowing of the more electronic sounds coming on the next bunch of albums. Another Planet is just Mr and Mrs Fiend and they put together a great album of solid songs. From “Bun-Ho!” to the covers of “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine,” the album is a treat. Curse has the fantastic “Now I’m Feeling Zombiefied,” and a huge jump into techno, hip-hop style music that is strong on this album, but still retains the feel of the band. Open Head Surgery continues on from the previous album with a similar sound and has the band leaving the batcave/goth sound pretty much in the dust. The remastered sound gives the listener the opportunity to hear the little sounds that got lost on the previous recordings, and the cleaner sound makes for a better listening experience. The bonus tracks are a treat and the information in the booklet is interesting to read.

The band has gone through a lot of different styles and sounds throughout their career, but through it all, they still are Alien Sex Fiend. This band changes, but yet stays the same in a lot of ways………thankfully for us.

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SHUT UP SIDNEY: Death…And Crime…And The Rage Of A Beast

 

This band has been around for a while now and has kept up a standard of no misogyny, and no capitalism, and of course Dead Kennedys like punk rock. Ten more tracks of punk that will get you thinking and slamming at the same time.

The band has a Jello Biafra like singer who sings/shouts the venomous lyrics out like a foul flavor that is spat at the listener with energy to spare. The lyrics are thoughtful and insightful, which is a great thing with so much aimless garbage out there. The band is tight and plays with power and just on the cusp of total destruction of their instruments. The songs are great to sing along to, but also great to listen to as well. All of the songs are gripping and will sound amazing in a live setting, with the walls dripping with sweat and the crowd soaked too…just like the shows that I used to go to ears ago. The production isn’t crystal clear, it has a nice grit to it….it’s punk damn it! I hate the perfect little bands that clean it all up and suck all the guts out of the recording, these guys keep the grime in their to make sure you know that they are not a bunch of fakes. The punk is older sounding, more like the early 80’s and sounds great to these ears.My favorite tracks were “Welcome Home, Jesus(Sanitorium),””Wasting The World,” and “Consumer Culture.” Don’t think that the other songs weren’t good, they are, just that these three songs, all in a row, grabbed me the most.

An album for those who like to have something in their head as well as to play loud and slam along to. A great addition to their discography and to your music collection.

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https://shutupsidney.bandcamp.com/

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TED NUGENT: State Of Shock

 

Ted Nugent…..what more really needs to be said? A man who could slay with his guitar playing and crazy onstage antics, has pissed off a lot of his fans with his views, but this is just pure rock and roll. This album has been remastered, has an OBI strip and most cool of all…….is on green vinyl.

You get the Nuge still at his hungriest and most blistering playing on this album. Starting with the incredible “Paralyed,” you get an opener that has riffs aplenty and tight playing from the rest of the band that just jumps out at you from the grooves. “Take It Or Leave It” just carries on from the first song with more amazing guitar playing and is beyond catchy. “Alone” is a gentle ballad that shows the tender side of the Nuge and makes for a nice rest before getting back to the rockers. “It Don’t Matter” is one of those songs that should have been a hit song with the terrific playing and the infectious chorus. “Snake Charmer” is another song that should be played over and over again…such a fun song and great to sing along to. The only song that didn’t hit me and knock me over was “I Want To Tell You,” but that still gives you nine out of ten songs that will kick you in the ass. The remastered sound is amazing, you can hear the band’s playing better than ever, with the band’s emotions and energy coming through better than ever. Plus the vinyl looks awesome too, nothing like colored vinyl…lol.

An album that will not only sound great, but will look great being played, plus you don’t have to buy those scratched up used copies from second-hand stores to hear kick ass tunes. Whether you like the man’s ideas or not, this is an album that stands up there with all of his best and still sounds better than a ton of what’s out there now.

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THE RAVE-UPS: Town + Country

The Rave-Ups 1985 debut album Town + Country, has received a long-awaited reissue from Omnivore Records. As frontman Jimmer Podrasky noted on Facebook, “I wrote the liner notes for this reissue of a record that was an important part of my musical past. Hearing this stuff thirty years later is a real treat and I’m very thankful to Omnivore Recordings for making this possible.” The Rave-Ups formed in 1979 in Pittsburgh, PA and relocated to Los Angeles in the early ‘80s. The band released two albums on Epic Records before calling it quits around 1990. Town + Country, which has been out of circulation and almost impossible to find for decades, is the jewel of The Rave-Ups discography. This will be its first domestic release on CD.

If you were a fan of the movie Pretty In Pink, then you have heard two of the songs on here, the fantastic “Positively Lost Me” and “Rave-Up, Shut-Up” that were in the club scenes. With these two great songs, you would have thought that they would have been well-known, but that didn’t happen. The album is chock full of great songs with a touch of country edge, but not enough to make you two-step, just enough to give the songs a different sound than what everyone was playing at the time. A real highlight of the album is the great cover of The Byrds “You Ain’t Going Nowhere.””In My Gremlin,” “By the Way,” and the poignant “Better World” are songs that need to be heard. With the terrific remastering, you can hear every nuance in these songs and feel the raw emotion.

This reissue of Town + Country features the original ten songs, plus a whopping eleven previously unissued bonus tracks, including live radio performances recorded for Deirdre O’Donoghue’s influential Snap program on Los Angeles’ legendary KCRW-FM, as well as 1986 material produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and Mark Linett. A detailed historical essay from the band’s Jimmer Podrasky, complemented by numerous unseen photos from the sessions/era, make this not only a document of time + place, but one that helps document a moment in musical history.

This is an album that needs to be in your collection, one that cries out to be heard, one that you rears will thank you for. Get this and play it often and relive a time in the ’80s when music was in flux and bands were doing all kinds of experimenting with different genres.

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