Be not deceived by appearances. Looking at the cover, The Appletree Theatre looks fairly unremarkable, but it is a surprisingly compelling pop/psych album that is on par with other more celebrated studio group, concept album projects which emerged in the wake of “Pet Sounds” and “Sgt. Peppers,” such as October Country, The Smoke (Not “My Friend Jack,” the other one), The Holy Mackerel, and at times grazes the coattails of the likes of Sagittarius and even early Bee Gees.
The full-length album to accompany this Cleveland band’s biggest hit, the seminal garage rocker “Time Won’t Let Me” (it’s all about that 12-string, baby!). Though the other tracks never quite reach the same level as the hit single, which sold over a million copies, it’s an enjoyable garage-rock/pop album.
Whether you like acoustic Bob, electric Bob, Christian Bob, we can all agree that even when you find him underwhelming, Bob Dylan is still better than most. Check out the three music videos from this album and try to tell me Empire Burlesque is not one of his best albums of the 80s.
One of the great under the radar artists of the 70's (who is still around and INTACT) in my view is the Irish singing/songwriting piano playing sensation Gilbert O'Sullivan! Whenever I meet someone who is from Ireland my first question is not about Bono but about Gilbert. His debut album "Himself" is a treat and provides the kind of wit and humor only a cloth cap hat wearing Irishman could give us.
Tommy Roe’s music is perhaps the quintessence of bubblegum pop. Roe had a steady string of hits, beginning with 1962’s “Sheila” and culminating in the 1969 #1 smash “Dizzy.”
Ignored upon release amongst the deluge of psych albums of the late-60s, subsequently forgotten, rediscovered and reissued (mine is an original pressing) in the early-2000s by Elf Power's Andrew Rieger, “Elyse” to me is as good as other acclaimed folk rock albums of the era like “Liege and Lief” or “Five Leaves Left.”
No, this is not a lost Kurt Cobaine album, this is the *other* Nirvana. This is a really enjoyable baroque pop/symphonic psychedelic album, credited by many as the first narrative-story record (predating The Pretty Things’ “S.F. Sorrow,” The Kinks’ “Arthur”, etc).
It's true, and if any more proof were needed, our resident scientific advisor Mark Anthony Finch has interviewed the doctors who collected the evidence and turned this urban myth into a scientific fact.
It's Valentine's Day (again) and you know what that means! Our resident romantic and sexual deviant Mark Anthony Finch prepares us for the best and worst that love has to offer us with his latest digital mixtape The Tunnel Of Love, which you can read all about right here! Will you enter his Tunnel Of Love?
Monday is guest day, and my very special guest post this week is from the baroque pop group the Electric Looking Glass - check out their musical recommendation as well as their own music as they’re the real deal, not only in sound but in presentation as well. From the Electric Looking Glass...
When she emerged as a solo performer in the early-Sixties, Nancy was little more than girl with a famous daddy and singing hobby. Everything changed in 1966 when enigmatic producer Lee Hazelwood transformed Nancy from mediocre pop singer to swinging-Sixties, “Icon of Cool,” bad ass babe with “These Boots Are Made For Walking.”
Pretty scarce, private press acid folk-rock album by Mark LeVine from 1968. It’s clear that Levine fancied himself as something along the same lines as “Bringing It All Back Home” era Dylan, the Fairport Convention, Al Stewart and Peter Starstedt.
