Rock & Indie Vinyl 366 Items

A lecture in 60's psych pop (almost power pop with flashes of hard rock) with consistently solid melodical, up-tempo, organ driven songs, soaring vocal harmonies, anthemic choruses. Psyched, poppy & fun. Not an album that you would listen to regularly, but more like an old friend to go back when you are in that 60s mood.

The second offering from Traffic, October 1968 would be their self titled Album, achieving a strong balance between Dave Mason’s simple and straightforward folk-rock songs and Steve Winwood’s complex and often haunting rock jams would see the album peak in the UK charts at No’9 and No’16 in the US Billboard Chart. Re-Issued individually from the phenomenal 2019 Traffic – The Studio Albums 1967-74 Boxset. Remastered from the original tapes, pressed on 180g heavy weight vinyl and artwork caringly overseen and interpreted, this album is a must for any newcomer or indeed, seasoned Traffic fan.

After Steve Winwood jumped ship from chart toppers The Spencer Davis Group and quit the bright lights in favour of the countryside and jam sessions with Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason and Chris Wood, in wake of these events Traffic were formed, it was Birmingham, April ,1967. Traffic began as a psychedelic rock group and diversified their sound through the use of instruments such as keyboards like the Mellotron and harpsichord, sitar, and various reed instruments, and by incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques in their music. Soon after in December 1967 Traffic would release Mr. Fantasy their debut Album on Island records. Rolling Stone called the album “one of the best from any contemporary group” and has become a staple on almost any best album poll from the 20th and 21st centuries!

Re-Issued individually from the phenomenal 2019 Traffic – The Studio Albums 1967-74 Boxset. Remastered from the original tapes, pressed on 180g heavy weight vinyl and artwork caringly overseen and interpreted, this album is a must for any newcomer or indeed, seasoned Traffic fan.

Following recent super-deluxe editions and multi-format releases of classic Who albums – ‘My Generation’, ‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia’, and the success of ‘Live at Fillmore’, we follow with The Who Sell Out – this set shaping up to be the most superlative of all…!! Released in December 1967 – the album reflected a remarkable year in popular culture. As well as being forever immortalised as the moment when the counterculture and the ‘Love Generation’ went global, 1967 produced tremendous musical upheavals as “pop” metamorphosed to “rock”.

Originally planned by Pete Townshend and the band’s managers, as a loose concept album including jingles and commercials linking the songs styled as a Radio London broadcast – born out of necessity as the band’s managers wanted a new album and there weren’t enough songs.

The original plan was to sell advertising space on the album – Jaguar cars, Coca-Cola etc. The jingles pay tribute to the pirate radio stations and expose the myths of ‘pop-culture’ and mock consumer society – way ahead of their time…

The homage to pop-art is evident in both the advertising jingles and the iconic sleeve design – created by David King (art director at the Sunday Times) and Roger Law (who invented Spitting Image) producing four giant images for each band member – Odorono deodorant, Medac spot cream, Charles Atlas and Heinz baked beans (Roger apparently caught pneumonia from sitting in the cold beans for too long).

Photography by renowned portrait photographer David Montgomery (rare out-takes included)

The album is a bold depiction of the period in which it was made – the tail-end of the ‘swinging-60s’ meets pop-art mixed with psychedelia and straight-ahead pop craft. It’s glorious blend of classic powerful Who instrumentation, melodic harmonies, satirical lyrical imagery crystallised for what was only the group’s third album – the ambition and scope is unrivalled by the Who, or any others from that period.

Within the bold concept, were a batch of fabulous and diverse songs – I Can See for Miles (a Top Ten hit) is a Who classic, Rael, a Townshend ‘mini-opera’ with musical motifs that reappeared in Tommy and the psychedelic blast of Armenia City in the Sky and Relax are among the very best material of the 1960s.

One of the most extraordinary albums of any era – it’s The Who’s last ‘pop’ album. Two years later came Tommy – a double concept album about a deaf, dumb and blind kid…

“We were hoping to get free Jaguars. We got fifty tins of free Baked Beans”

Pete Townshend

First ever reissue of this bona fide “buried treasure” produced by Richard Perry and featuring Ry Cooder and the Wrecking Crew. Includes 4 page insert with notes by music historian Stephen J McParland and Vini Poncia, and many rare pictures and ephemera. Like the other more familiar and phenomenally successful duos Goffin/King, Barry/Greenwich or Mann/Weil, Peter Anders and Vini Poncia also graduated from the Brill Building era school of songwriting. Friends since high school, Anders and Poncia debuted as members of the Providence, Rhode Island vocal group The Videls whose second single Mister Lonely (written by Anders-Poncia) proved to be a moderate national hit (#73 on Cash Box and Billboard) in early 1960. It would be five more years before the duo’s pièce de résistance, The Trade Winds’ New York’s A Lonely Town, would appear on the legendary Red Bird label (started by George Goldner and songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1964). An East Coast (though California molded) surf music anthem, New York’s A Lonely Town had impressed both Phil Spector (with whom Anders and Poncia had enjoyed a brief working association, writing songs for The Ronettes, The Crystals or Darlene Love) and Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson. They also worked on an Elvis Presley film score – “Harum Scarum”. After releasing albums as The Trade Winds and The Innocence, as well writing and releasing a bunch of songs under various guises for Kama Sutra and Buddah Records, Anders & Poncia signed to Warner Bros in 1969. Produced by Richard Perry (Captain Beefheart, Fats Domino, Tiny Tim…), and featuring the Los Angeles A-Team of sessioneers (later known as “The Wrecking Crew”), their only album features ten original compositions and a version of Leiber & Stoller’s “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” (with some great bottleneck guitar by Ry Cooder). Reissued here for the first time these eleven brilliant and extraordinarily powerful tracks are ripe for rediscovery. As the liner notes state: “listen to Anders & Poncia … and you have found your poets.”

One album into their career in 1969, Mutantes showed few signs of musical burnout after turning in one of the oddest LPs released in the '60s. Similar to its predecessor, Mutantes relies on an atmosphere of experimentation and continual musical collisions, walking a fine line between innovation and pointless genre exercises. The lead track ("Dom Quixote") has the same focus on stylistic cut-and-paste as their debut LP's first track ("Panis et Circenses"). Among the band's musical contemporaries, Mutantes sounds similar only to songs like the Who's miniature suite "A Quick One While He's Away" -- though done in three minutes instead of nine, and much more confusing given the language barrier. The album highlights ("Nao Va Se Perder por Ai") and ("Dois Mil e Um") come with what sounds like a typically twisted take on roots music (both Brazilian and American), complete with banjo, accordion, and twangy vocals. Though there are several other enjoyable tracks, including "Magica" and a slap-happy stomp called "Rita Lee," there's a palpable sense that the experimentation here isn't serving much more than its own ends. If the first album's relentless eclecticism did in fact occasionally result in dry passages, it's especially true here

Before Uriah Heep there was Fat Toe, and before Fat Toe there was The Gods, who recorded this risqué hard prog album, Orgasm, as Head Machine. Singer/keyboardist/guitarist Ken Hensley takes centre stage under the alias Ken Leslie, his lyrics alluding to the undeniable allure of human coitus and aspects of its management, the climax eventually coming in audible groans, though the guitar really drives most of the songs forward, with stereo panning. Produced by David Paramour, who had worked with Garnett Mimms and The Nocturnes, it was recorded in late 1969 and released in small number by Major Minor; this reissue spins at 45 RPM for improved fidelity.

Limited to 2000 copies.

There is little doubt that John Lee Hooker was one of the most commercially successful blues artists that ever lived. He rose above his contemporaries with worldwide hit records and a particularly long series of albums, and a career that lasted for over sixty years. He was always prolific and attracted other artists to collaborate with him without ever losing his own highly distinctive style. One of the real and lasting strengths of "That's My Story" as an album is in its immediacy. Orrin Keepnews knew just how to use studio microphone placement to make the listener feel right in the middle of the session. Nothing extraneous is used to move John Lee away from you, making it evident that the producer's original intention with the album has certainly been fulfilled. No wonder that this laid-back work, so quickly recorded, has stood the test of time as one of John Lee Hooker's most revered records.

Reissue for the 1969 live album for Quicksilver Messenger Service, recorded live in 1968 at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Originally released in late 1968, La Conferencia Secreta del Toto’s Bar was Los Shaker’s psychedelic masterpiece. Inspired by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - a milestone that would change the face of pop music forever back in 1967 – Los Shakers created a fundamental album in the history of South American rock music, a seminal record for many artists to come, full of pleasant surprises, magic sounds and sense of humour. It offers a complex fusion of styles, with elements from both rock and jazz, plus the use of exotic instruments like the bandoneon–widely used in tango music but unprecedented until then in pop/rock adventures. It all makes the last album by Los Shakers an essential, innovative record for any collector and aficionado. Sounding as fresh and original today as it did back in the late sixties, here’s the first ever vinyl reissue.

Once The Shain´s had disbanded a new project was born, St Thomas Pepper Smelter. Recorded in 1969, with practically the same band members as The Shain´s, the band explored darker and psychedelic sounds with covers from Vanilla Fudge, Cream, Hendrix and Music Machine, as well as various amazing songs of their own. This album was to be the transition towards their new projects more progressive and 70s style than before and lead to Gerardo Manuel y Humo!

Wah Wah is proud to release the first ever legit vinyl reissue from master tape of New Zealand's legendary Underdogs' first LP from 1968. Lovers of John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers (note the Eric Clapton tribute paid on the sleeve of this album) will love this album. The Underdogs formed in 1964 and shared the scene with other greats from the country like The La De Da's, The Action (NZ band, not to be confused with the UK mod godfathers) and The Pleazers. They spread the rhythm and blues word from their native Auckland through several 45s on the Zodiac label and went through a series of line-up changes prior to the release of their fabulous first long player. The Underdogs Blues Band LP was recorded by Murray Grindlay on vocals, Lou Rawnsley on guitars, Neil Edwards on bass and Tony Walton on drums, and shows the group’s appreciation for Mayall's combo - just like The Bluesbreakers' Crusade LP the Underdogs open their album with a cover of Albert King's "Oh, Pretty Woman," one of three "Bluesbreakers" songs covered on the LP. On this first long player the band storm into a world of guitar led rave-ups a la Yardbirds, organ blues grinders and even give a sight to what's to come next with some incipient heavier sounds a la Cream.

This is a 500 copies only reissue, housed in its original artwork in a vintage styled backflaps sleeve and insert

Remastered

In 1969, Locksley Hall, a psychedelic band from Washington, recorded a full album at Audio Recorders in Seattle produced by Sonics Engineer Kearney Barton and long time Northwest guitarist Ned Neltner (Mark Five, Gas Company…).
Never released at the time, this is a great example of West Coast styled psychedelia / acid-rock, featuring female vocals, prominent organ, hard guitar, excellent songs…

The story of Japanese psychedelic band Apryl Fool and their eponymous debut album is simply extraordinary. It was the vehicle by which bassist Haroumi Hosono first came to prominence, years before he became known as the “Godfather of Japanese electronica” as the founding member and leader of Yellow Magic Orchestra, though this musical titan had work released prior to the group’s 1968 founding, such as the song “The Sea Of Summer Day,” recorded with Yuko Okuyama and released by King Records the year before. Drummer Takashi “Rei” Matsumoto was a Beatles maniac that had covered songs by Them and Sam & Dave in his earlier group, Burns, while pioneering prog-rock keyboardist Hiroyoshi Yanagida and guitarists Chu Kosaka and Eiji Kikuchi had all been part of a group called The Floral, formed in 1967 through the Japanese wing of the official fan club of The Monkees (whom they supported during a Japanese tour enacted in October 1968). In September 1969, Apryl Fool played behind musical theatre group Tokyo Kid Brothers, the recording issued in minute quantity as the Love & Banana EP, issued on Columbia Japan’s Musicolor subsidiary; Apryl Fool’s own LP, also issued on Musicolor that year, had extended spacey psychedelic freak jams in the form of “Tanger” and “Pledging My Time,” marathon blues-rock tracks such as “April Blues” and “Honky Tonk Jam,” with the employed English sounding fairly credible, though both parts of epic opus “The Last Mother Land” feature Japanese lyrics. Of course, the day that the LP was actually released is reportedly the day that Apryl Fool announced their termination, giving this scarce release another level of legend for connoisseurs.

The Wynder K. Frog story evolves around Mick Weaver. After he switched from piano to organ he joined a band named The Chapters that would soon be renamed Wynder K. Frog and perform material from James Brown's Flames, Booker T. and The MGs or even songs learned through Georgie Fame's recordings and Graham Bond's repertoire. Wynder K. Frog moved to London and became regulars in the city's R&B scene playing at Swingin' London's clubs like the Tiles or The Marquee. A contract with Island Records was secured and -under the wings of producers like Chris Blackwell, Guy Stevens, Jimmy Miller or Gus Dudgeon- Wynder K Frog, a name that would eventually be used as a pseudonym for Weaver more than a proper band name, did some some amazing Hammond organ-ized recordings and issued in three LPs and a bunch of cool 45s.

At the end of the 1960s, Weaver would quit the "band scene" to become one of the most in demand session musicians and throughout his career he'd be heard backing names such as Eric Burdon, Roger Chapman, Dave Gilmour, Keef Hartley, Alexis Korner, Ralph McTell, Taj Mahal or Otis Rush a.o, but his LPs as Wynder K Frog are classic Hammond sound from the 1960s UK and will appeal to those into Brian Auger, Graham Bond, The Artwoods, Zoot Money, Jimmy McGriff, Booker T. & The MGs and the likes.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN
Released at the end of the summer of 1968, and with a host of session musicians that included the brass section of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, producer Gus Dudgeon helped Weaver / Wynder K Frog to improve the results obtained on the debut LP and get one step closer to the live action. The formula was more or less the same, instrumental hammond a go go covers of hits from the era, including The Rolling Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash", a funked up version of the classic Tommy Tucker blues number "Hi Heel Sneakers", an exploding cover of "Tequila" or the standard "Green Door", but it also included the sensational Weaver-penned "Harpsichord Shuffle".

The Wynder K. Frog story evolves around Mick Weaver. After he switched from piano to organ he joined a band named The Chapters that would soon be renamed Wynder K. Frog and perform material from James Brown's Flames, Booker T. and The MGs or even songs learned through Georgie Fame's recordings and Graham Bond's repertoire. Wynder K. Frog moved to London and became regulars in the city's R&B scene playing at Swingin' London's clubs like the Tiles or The Marquee. A contract with Island Records was secured and -under the wings of producers like Chris Blackwell, Guy Stevens, Jimmy Miller or Gus Dudgeon- Wynder K Frog, a name that would eventually be used as a pseudonym for Weaver more than a proper band name, did some some amazing Hammond organ-ized recordings and issued in three LPs and a bunch of cool 45s.

At the end of the 1960s, Weaver would quit the "band scene" to become one of the most in demand session musicians and throughout his career he'd be heard backing names such as Eric Burdon, Roger Chapman, Dave Gilmour, Keef Hartley, Alexis Korner, Ralph McTell, Taj Mahal or Otis Rush a.o, but his LPs as Wynder K Frog are classic Hammond sound from the 1960s UK and will appeal to those into Brian Auger, Graham Bond, The Artwoods, Zoot Money, Jimmy McGriff, Booker T. & The MGs and the likes.

SUNSHINE SUPER FROG
Recorded mostly in 1966 and issued in 1967, Wynder K Frog's first LP came out of sessions produced by Chris Blackwell, Jimmy Miller and Syd Dale. Weaver was assuming more and more the identity of Wynder K Frog and was backed by session musicians rather than by his live band. It consisted in organ led instrumental covers of songs from the Island catalogue, some built over rejected backing tracks for other artists of the label like Jimmy Cliff, Jackie Edwards and Owen Gray and some new recordings of hits like Spencer Davis Group's "Somebody Help Me", plus some covers of american R&B hits by the likes of Sam & Dave, Willie Mitchell or Wilson Pickett. The end result gave an idea of the Wynder K Frog sound, resulting in a top mix of dance club go-go sounds, perfect for any allnighter at the Tiles or any Swingin' London venue of the 1960s. First ever vinyl reissue. Limited edition to 500 copies only. Bonus tracks not on the original LP. Remastered sound. Insert with liner notes by Nick Rossi and photos. Beautifully housed in three back-flapped 1960s UK style picture sleeve

The latest release in Now-Again’s Reserve Series is Hunger – Strictly From Hunger: the band’s preferred version of the album, unedited, fuzz-guitar heavy late 60s psych-rock, restored and remastered from a rare test press. Hunger arrived in L.A. from Portland in late 1967 as the Outcasts, a teenage cover band, but within a six months they had signed with a connected manager, played all over Los Angeles, embraced psychedelia and signed on to record an album of original music for the label their manager founded for them: Public! Records. They showed tremendous promise – and their producers invested heavily into a band that was going to be the next marquee act at the Whiskey A Go-Go, bringing in members of Strawberry Alarm Clock, including future Lynyrd Skynyrd star Ed King, to produce an album. But Hunger broke up before their album’s release and their entry in rock’s canon was shadowed for years. This is the definitive Reserve Edition reissue of a late ‘60s psych–rock classic, overseen by Hunger’s band members John Morton, Steve Hansen and Mike Lane: the band’s preferred, unedited, fuzz-guitar heavy version of the album, restored and remastered from a rare test press. This is the first time that band’s vision for the album has been issued in full on vinyl. Contains an extensive booklet by Jim Cherry, Eothen Alapatt and Clark Faville that corrects many factual inaccuracies told over the record’s celebrated past three decades as one of rock’s holy grails. The booklet is filled with never-published photos from lead guitarist John Morton’s archive. Here’s an example of what’s in store – the full version of “Open Your Eyes” featuring Ed King’s lead guitar lines – all but absent on the Public! Records issue – and nearly double the length of the issued version! Download card for WAV files and bonus tracks – including the full Public! Records version of the album and 7” single tracks – included.

Hits like "Let You Down" started success for NF in the States for two years and internationally. With over 180 million YouTube views the 26-year-old rapper from Michigan is also the first address for many, because he describes real problems - torn families, various traumas, abuse, addiction, overdose of the mother. His language so eloquent plain text talks like no other representative of his guild.

incl. 'flute thing' sampled by Beastie Boys for 'flute loop'

The release comes on 180g Vinyl.

Breezy Sunshine-Pop / Soft-Rock / Psych-Pop from California, 1970, featuring Peter Clark a.k.a Chet DeMilo.

Crystal clear recording, awesome vocal harmonies, superb musicianship, bossa & blue-eyed-soul-jazz touches,folk-rock moves…

In 1969 Chet Demilo was appearing at Donkin's Inn, Marina Del Rey, where he met Arnie Marcus and Ray Hames, who together were to become part of an incredible slice of history. Donkin's became the hottest and most famous destination in Southern California for the next seven years, and Chet was the magnet that started the new singles scene in Los Angeles with Marina Del Rey as ground zero.

Arnie sat in on bongos with Chet from time to time, and Ray, who was managing an apartment complex that housed 200 flight attendants, just happened to have a unit available!! Chet moved in, and he and Ray started working on songs together. Chet suggested forming a vocal group with Arnie and SST was born. For three months they practiced the intricate vocal harmonies and in early 1970 cut the album, "Soft Soul Transition". A thousand records were pressed, and an album release party was held at Donkins where SST gave their one and only performance that night!

There was interest in the project at Burt Bacharach's Blue Seas Music, but it was not to be and SST faded away...until more than 20 years later when the SST album was discovered by a new generation of DJs and collectors looking for cool and groovy sounds from the 60s-70s.