The Normals: Almost Ready

I know very little about The Normals...just that they came out of New Orleans in the late 1970's...and not many bands can say that. Not many punk bands anyway.

This song is a classic along the lines of the second song I ever posted on this blog, (Television Addict) a great guitar intro and high energy! The singer sounds like he has some non specific accent (New Orlinan?) but that makes it cooler.

Thanks to the terrific Killed By Death site for this audio!

enjoy


Almost Ready

The Banned "Him Or Me"

This single happened to be out on my stacks of CDs, and it is great...so I have posted it.

A nice slice of 1978 punk/power pop, a cover of Paul Revere & the Raider's "Him or Me".

From Tooting (!) England, one of several bands that made a moderately successful single and then vanished. This is NOT their moderately successful single - it is the follow up, which I like better. Besides their moderately successful single was a less interesting cover (Little Girl by Syndicate of Sound.)

enjoy!

http://www.the-banned.com/

Him Or Me

The Incredible Kidda Band

Formed in 1977 The Incredible Kidda Band released a couple singles in the late 70's but seemed to have recorded a lot of music. A CD only compilation of 29 of their songs came out and apparently sold out.

Thanks to the great blog Powerpop Overdose for turning me on to this group.

This is straight out of the time of skinny ties and feathered hair but it is pop at its best, good guitar riffs and classic melodies and songs... rough production is kind of endearing to me, the whole reissue cd is fabulous.

Here are two tracks from that CD.

Radio Caroline

Fighting My Way Back

New to me...

The Keys released a few singles and one LP in 1979 every time i see them mentioned there seems to be the obligatory mention that Joe Jackson produced their LP. This seems, to me, more of a sign of the quality of the record that any resemblance to Joe Jackson's sound.

I learned about this band here on the terrific blog called "PVAc to 44.1 kHz". A lot of the power pop bloggers I read know a bout this record but it was new to me. I really like the classic 80's vibe that this has without out sounding too cheesy. There is a kind of annoying slight tinny sound to the mp3s but I'll take it rather than never having heard them.

They sound like a 80's movie soundtrack band with better songs.

These are the first and last tracks from their one and only LP called: The Keys Album.

Hello, Hello

World Ain't Turning

Elvis to the power of 10

That would be Elvis Costello to you. I am indirectly dedicating this post to Mr. Costello by bringing you two artists that were/are obviously influenced by the real Elvis.

The first one was a contemporary of his, even signed to the same label after Elvis went on to the major labels. England's Any Trouble were fronted by Clive Gregson a terrific songwriter in his own, but sounding so much like Elvis had to have taken it's toll on the bands acceptance. He even looks a bit like Elvis: see if you can guess which one is him-


Their debut Lp came out around 1980 although I've read that the band started up in the mid 70's but sped up a bit in response to the punk scene and acts like Elvis Costello. Good thing their music is so good. I really can't believe I never heard of this band until a couple years ago. Nothing wrong with being influenced by Elvis if you can do it this well.
Any Trouble "(Get You Off) The Hook"

The second artist is a current (sort of) artist that put out a criminally overlooked CD in 2004. Eugene Edwards' debut LP is an incredible mixture of possible influences - most noticeably Elvis Costello. I do hear other possible influences, like Squeeze or Marshall Crenshaw (any one remember him). In doing a bit of research for this post I am finding out that some of his music was sent out with Dell computers a few years ago so people may know him from that but that still doesn't make not having a Mac excusable.

Even a moderate Elvis Costello fan can hear the influence and will surely see the play on words at the beginning of this track as a nod to that influence:
Eugene Edwards: It Doesn't Get Better Than This"

Edwards has put out one song since 2004 and I can't imagine why, this album is so good and so solid all the way through I can't imagine he is out of good material. His website seems to never be updated and he doesn't seem to play shows...unless he only operates on myspace rather than his own website... if that is the case - shame on him.

To the Nines!

First post to be labeled "Songs the Blogosphere Taught Me"

My records are probably my prize possession in terms of material things, but I don't have the biggest collection in the world, somewhere between 1100 and 1200 records. In a better economy I could cash them in and put a down payment on a house. I know that there are others out there with bigger collections and the internet is a great place to discover those people.

I have expanded my musical taste greatly in the last few years by diving full on into the blogosphere. There have been more than a few musical gems discovered since i started. Some bands I never even heard of and some I just never listened to before.

The song for this post is from a 70's band called Granicus who were (as described by Wapedia):

"Granicus was a short-lived band from the early 1970s who played a style of hard rock similar to Led Zeppelin.

Granicus hailed from Cleveland, Ohio, and were signed to RCA in 1973. They released a single, self-titled album before calling it quits. There are rumors that the band recorded a second album that was never released."

Not really my cup of tea musically but entertaining enough to post for its local history here in Cleveland.
Granicus - Cleveland, Ohio