1970

This is a great album. It came out in 1970 and was Tull's 3rd album, the previous album was titled Stand Up..... But Benefit has stand ups of the band on the cover..... Eh, who knows? To cry you a song is worth the click alone.

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Tejas

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Fandango

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Tres Hombres

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Rio Grande Mud

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ZZ Top's First Album

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ZZ Top

2008 was a real rough year for me. Losing jobs and family members enduring constant changes in my living situation, I felt I had little refuge. One of the few perks that got me through was that a gentleman who goes by Aesop, runs a awesome blogspot known as cosmic hearse. On said blog he did mankind a major solid and uploaded the vinyl rips of the first 5 ZZ Top albums... Now a couple of years ago I scored ZZ Top's first album and Tres Hombres at our local used cd store. Upon listening I realized something was horribly wrong..... These were ZZ Top songs but they were being done by the Fabulous Thunderbirds!!!.... So I thought... No it was ZZ Top and it sounded like shit. Apparently some A & R convinced the band to apply the afterburner effect to their to their golden past upon conversion to compact disc. I was given 4 out of 5 of these records in my early teens by my father during one of his "now thats how you play guitar" speeches and realized he was totally right, and to hear soapy versions of shaking your tree and precious and grace was appalling. The most wonderful thing about these rips was I could listen to them while driving which strengthen my already massive bond to this music. ZZ Top + operating vehicle= pure logic. ZZ is the perfect band in my eyes and here are 5 reasons why, one for each album.

1) They are the only band ever to be musically influenced by jalapeno peppers.

2) They always sang about driving slow, I drive slow it saves lives.

3) Frank Beard was the only guy in the band without a beard... He didn't wanna be "that guy" and this was before PCU came out.

4) They use terms like"Boogie Woogie" and it makes sense.

5) Come on boys, lets drive that old Chrysler to Mexico!


Thanks Cosmic Hearse, and if anyone has a vinyl rip of Dugello please hit me up.

Wishbone Ash 1970

This is hands down the greatest recording from Wishbone Ash. Considered to be some of the earliest innovators of duel lead guitar harmonies, Wishbone Ash were the U.K.'s answer to everything going on musically in the world. They had hard rock chops the likes of Cream and The Yardbirds but heavier, teamed with a massive English Folk influence and beautiful, ghostly lead guitar work. The only other music I could really relate this to would be Early Martin Barre era Jethro Tull. And as much as I love Tull, this trumps their whole catalog.


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Monk Business

Oh so you think it's cheesy?...... Well you're not playing loud enough, the cover... That's the demon from the cover of Don't Break The Oath.... And you see what they did to him?...Ouch.

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Warning: smoking may cause soundscapes.

Hauntingly beautiful and very dynamic English progressive rock courtesy of Camel. 1973's Mirage was the second album from the original line-up of these heavy hitters of the Canterbury scene...... I don't know anything about the Canterbury scene or what it was, but damn it sounds smart. Imagine if the Alan Parsons project were good.... Thats what this album is to me.



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Life after... Scorps!

For some reason Uli Jon Roth wanted to front his own band. The best worst idea ever. Uli proved in his work with the Scorpions that he was the absolute god of guitar gods. The quintessential proto-shredder. He played like a hybid of Ritchie Blackmore and Goro from Mortal Kombat. Under a tasteful dose of Hendrix esque noise, his whammy bar usage sounded like angels conversing with
god and his flange waves (guitar effect that sounds like a plane landing) are the waves that carry our deceased realitives to the afterlife. But on the other side of the coin, these are the worst most terrible vocals you will ever hear... I'm not kidding, his voice is terrible, it makes him come of as an savant... There not even unique, just plain bad. But the vocals certainly take a back seat to the pure majesty of his playing. These two albums are 1979's EARTHQUAKE and 1980's Firewind. And I promise all of his Scorpions work will find it's way here in the near future.

EARTHQUAKE

Firewind

Tastes Pretty Good!

Many Purple fans shun this album to this day......That almost sounds like a mad lib...Oh yeah lost my train of thought.1975's "Come Taste The Band" was the first album without Ritchie Blackmore, which turned a lot of folks off to the chance of a fair listen.Plus the album title isn't very alluring, I mean look at those dudes they would most likely taste like ash trey and bong water, mix that in a glass of merlot...No thanks I'll take Rainbow. That has been my stance up until the past few months. But my recent fascination with the mysterious guitarist Tommy Bolin promted me to check out this album. Blackmore's absence gave the band a little room to breathe, and new guitarist Bolin some space to lay down some of the finest guitar works of the era.The result was a more mature and refined Deep Purple, the kind that sips wine and takes ski trips and sits by warm fireplaces while reading fine literature.Driving, blusey and progressive, perfect for their last true album, and easily their most unique...I like to think of DP as a house.Ritchie Blackmore was the father, Ian Gillian was the first wife, David Coverdale the second and Jon Lord was the weird uncle who lived in the basement smoked dope and showed the kids(Roger Glover and co.) porno mags when they were too young to see such.Ritchie, tired of home life left the house to pursue gander horizons, and David, Jealous, and heart broken hooked up with the younger Tommy.Things were fine until Tommy O.D.'d and the family fell apart and sold the old house to the Dixie Dregs......Sad Story.


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Wicked Lester

Wicked Lester was an early incarnation of Kiss..... The picture probably gave that one away. The best way I can describe this is Peter, Paul and.... Gene trying their hand at some AM solid gold. Kinda sounds like old Doobie Brothers but better, sometimes folky and sometimes garage-y, the arrangements here are based on a more advanced but less straight foward formula than Kiss. It's not great but it's definitely enjoyable. Summertime lemonade drinkin' type stuff. These songs are some demos recorded in 1971 and feature some songs that later found their way into the Kiss repertoire.


Enjoy

PRUNK???

This is a compilation of the first years of Cardiacs, one of the very few bands to fuse prog and punk successfully. The influences heard here span from the likes of Zappa and Yes to Wire and The Wipers. The results sound similar to what I imagine Devo and Elp's hateful love child would have sounded like if Devo had'nt a' pulled out and whipped it on Greg Lakes face...Hmmm... I'm aroused. These songs were recorded between 77' and 79' and are quite adventureous for that time frame.


check it

Here is some live Budgie. Early NWOBHM goodness in it's purist form. These guys pretty much sound like Rush if they riffed like Sabbath. I never cared super much for their studio work, but thats probably because this was my formal introduction to the band. Check out "Hot as a Docker's Armpit"...... Crushing.


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Rent is coming due and I've got the blues!

This should have been called Led Zeppelin zero. A savage young Jimmy Page destroying everything in his path while an established and mature Keith Relf wallows in the joy of fully understanding how big of a pussy Eric Clapton was (and is). This is a rare example of blues rock done exactly right. Their version of the standard jam "Shape of Things" is hands down the best take on that song period and the track "I'm Confused" is a zygotic performance of what later became "Dazed and Confused".... You can actually hear Alister Crowley's influence on Page's playing...WTF????


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A good friend recently asked me "when do you kick Blue Oyster Cult out of bed?"..... Well this album is certainly the orgasm. The last great B.O.C album, after this it was a slow spiral of hit and miss with album covers that make one think they are in for a ride, when actually the drugs were wearing off and the adult contemporary roller coaster was climbing the first bland hill. 1976's Agents of Fortune is in my sometimes well respected opinion the absolute definitive cult album.... A literal cult classic. This album is like getting a blow job while reading R.L. Stine by blacklight. Beautiful mystique, tongue and cheek misoginism and a bleak, dark atmosphere on top of a tried and true hard rock palette. Songs like Tenderloin, Tattoo Vampire and Sinful Love are a few of my favorite cult gems... And Eric Bloom is the coolest looking dude ever. Plus this remaster comes with 4 bonus tracks.... Lucky us.


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This was the debut album of one of the strangest and most overlooked bands to ever come out of the south. Backwoodsy hoo-doo inspired southern rock with major prog leanings. Country boys flirting with Satanism, Eastern philosophy, Christianity and massive amounts of psychedelics.... And they all have nicknames toboot. Jim "Dandy" Mangrum on vocals, Wayne "Squeezebox" Evans on drums, Ricky "Ricochet" Reynolds on rhythm, Harvey "Burley" Jett on lead, Stanley "Goober" Knight on organ and second lead and of course Pat "Dirty" daugherty on bass. Damn... I explained this one quite well, it's in your hands now, bro.


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