Whatever Holiday you celebrate, or don't celebrate, at this time of year, I wish you and yours the very best!

Paris - Paris (1975)

After making 5 albums with Fleetwood Mac, where he was known for writing such schmaltzy songs as "Sentimental Lady", Bob Welch hooked up with bassist/keyboardist Glenn Cornick (ex Jethro Tull, Wild Turkey) and drummer Thom Mooney (ex The Nazz) to make an album that showed that Welch knew how to rock also. This is very much in the vein of Led Zeppelin, there were even rumors at the time that the album had been produced by Jimmy Page. The second and last Paris album, Big Towne, 2061, was made with different sidemen and lost the Led Zeppelin worship angle. Anyway this is some great 70's sleaze-rock, play loud!

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Ax Genrich - The Best Of Ax Genrich 1971-1996

As I'm sure everybody knows, Ax Genrich was the ex-Agitation Free guitarist who was a founding member of Guru Guru, and played on that group's first four albums. This really isn't a "Best Of" album - it has all eight tracks from Genrich's hard-to-find 1971 solo album "Highdelberg". The remaining four tracks consist of two unreleased Guru Guru recordings and two Ax Genrich recordings from the 90's. Great stuff.

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Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two (1969)

Spooky Two is far and away the best album Spooky Tooth ever made, a masterpiece of late 60's early 70's rock. This is the reissue with four bonus tracks, taken from singles. Awesome.

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Join In - Kentalope Island (1974)

Join In was a German band that enjoyed a long career, but left behind only this album, the CD has a bunch of bonus tracks from the mid 70's. During this phase (they started out as a hard rock outfit) they are playing primarily instrumental jazz-rock. The album was produced by EROC of Grobschnitt. Very nice.

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Stoneground - The Last Dance (1973)

Stoneground's last show ever, recorded at Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium in January 1973. Awesome sounding mono soundboard recording, what a party that must have been!

1. Alligator Man
2. Love's Made A Fool Of You
3. You Better Come Through
4. Ajax
5. Passion Flower
6. Medley: Black Sheep Boy/Highway 61 Revisited/Don't Make Promises
7. Bad News
8. Super Clown
9. Dancin'
10. Feel So Bad
11. Butterfly
12. Total Destruction To Your Mind
13. Queen Sweet Dreams

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FROM THE ARCHIVES:

The Monks - Black Monk Time (1966)

This may be the greatest rock album ever made! Or maybe the best punk album ever, 10 years before punk. The Monks weren't so much "ahead of their time" as they were "outside time" like they were from another universe or something. Recorded in the waning months of 1965, while the rest of the world was singing about love, the Monks were singing about how much they hated their girlfriends! Instead of growing their hair long and wearing beads and colorful clothes, they shaved tonsures on the tops of their heads and dressed all in dark colors, like medieval monks. This music was created in a vacuum - when this album was made there was absolutely nothing to compare it to. I mean you really have to hear it to get an understanding of how insane these guys were. What is it? Punk? Noise Rock? I remember reading somewhere that the Monks possibly influenced the pioneers of Krautrock (the Monks were American ex-G.I.'s in Germany)! This is the version with 19 tracks. It's Black Monk Time!

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Ram - Where? (In Conclusion) (1972)

"Ram is yet another band in those long line of nameless bands that made one awesome album and then vanished into smoke. Almost nothing is known about these guys. Presumably (from their name and album design) there is some preoccupation with the zodiac and astrology. The songs themselves are a blend of spacey psychedelia and hard-rock: with these guys it is not uncommon to blend saxophone or flute solos with power chords. The opening track, "The Want In You" is an excellent rock song moved along by a catchy sax riff. "Stoned Silence" has an almost siren-like vocal moved along by some funk riffs and a pretty decent guitar solo. "Odyssey" is a softer, more esoteric instrumental that features a nice flute workout. "The Mother's Day Song" is my favorite track. It's a wicked, down and dirty rock song: hard rock, blues and Hendrix (!) are all influences on this track. The last song, "Aza" is what pushes these guys over into progressive rock territory. It is a side-long suite about a spiritual journey for enlightenment. It begins with `Spiral Paths', very seductively with soft sax and flute solos intertwined around an almost whispery vocal beckoning the listener to venture out into the stars; then with `Bound' it practically leaps into a loud crashing bass and guitar duet; "Peril and Fearer" is the hard-rock section of the suite that features chaotic, almost Robert Fripp-like soloing while the same vocal-sax motif is repeated in the background; the final part, `Where? (In Conclusion)'-the title track-tries to evoke an out there feeling with some phased vocals, a disjointed sax solo, and another loud bass workout, and builds to a conclusion that wouldn't have sounded out of place had there been a Funkadelic/Sun-Ra collaboration album. In all, Where? is an album that is worth every bit the while to listen to. They just don't make good rock like this anymore." (devil doll, Amazon.com review)

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Second Coming - The Second Coming (1970)

Doinada from Norway sent this to me a while back, and he did a nice job of ripping the LP and photographing the cover. I never heard of this band, and the guy from "Fuzz, Acid & Flowers" really slagged it, calling it "below-par horn-rock". Whatever. It sounds pretty good to me, though there's not anything psych/prog about it. Horn rock in the vein of "The Ides of March" - both bands share Chicago as a home town. The Second Coming apparently migrated to San Francisco, where they were active in the 'Second Generation' scene. All in all, not the greatest album ever, but worth a download if you like horn rock. As far as I can tell this has never made it to CD, so thanks again to Doinada for this rarity.

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Country Lane - Substratum (1973)

Country Lane's only album was initially released in 1973. This Swiss band led by the keyboardist/guitarist/singer Raymond Amey, helped by keyboardist O.Maire, guitarist F.Von Kaenel, bass player G.Duella and drummer J.F. Donze, created an original rock music, mixing heavy influences like Deep Purple and progressive ones (like Nice and the others english progressive bands). Straight rock moments, dreamy atmospheres, nice vocals (in English) are the base of an excellent seventies album, full of freshness and sincerity. (Martin Pruckner)

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Mythos - Mythos (1971)

The debut album by Germany’s Mythos is a pure unadulterated classic space-prog album draped over 5 lush tracks. There are truly many cosmic charms to this space bracelet with some wild nubulas, space vibes and jams. Vocals are slightly distorted when used and somewhat modulated giving the listen a real outer worldly space feel. Mythos are clearly lost somewhere in the Cosmic Jokers / Ash Ra Temple camp with dreamy psych/folk/prog landscapes. Mythos manages to create some pretty heavenly space atmospheres with some fantastic synthesizer, flute, spacey guitar and mellotron work throughout. For me this album ranks as a complete album and one of my personal faves from the space-prog category. (Wonderful World Of Progressive Rock)

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OK then - Happy Holidays!!