"john C. Raven"

Produced by John Hill, "Raven” (1969) was one of those album’s that took awhile to grow. Their sound was buried in blues-rock, with an occasional jazzy interlude, but with an intense, raw edge, that made them somewhat un-commercial. Not that being un-commercial was necessarily bad. Galla had an outstanding voice; gruff and rugged and near perfect for the genre, but like a lot of singers, his natural reaction was to try to power his way out of corners, which occasionally turned things screechy ("Feelin’ Good").

Grooveyard Records is proud to announce the release of the Bandolier Kings "Time To Remember" (A Tribute To Budgie - Volume 2) disc, the excellent follow-up to our first "Budgie Tribute" disc entitled "Welcome To The Zoom Club". On that disc we focused on the 70s era "Chapter 1" songs from the musical book of Budgie featuring Tony Bourge on guitar and on "Time To Remember" we pay tribute to the "Chapter 2" era of Budgie featuring John Thomas on guitar. We are deeply saddened by the loss of Burke Shelley on January 10th, 2022, and the passing of John Thomas in 2016. The Bandolier Kings - "Time To Remember" disc is dedicated in honor and memory of Burke Shelley & John Thomas whose music is celebrated on this musical document.

Mega-Awesome Budgie Tribute disc featuring Janne Stark (Mountain Of Power) on guitar & Tony Spinner (Toto) on lead vocals & guitar. Both outstanding, seasoned hard rockers who land kick-ass authentic with true admiration & respect to re-create and shine a bright modern day musical light on the brilliant, classic retro-70s, heavy rock excellence of Budgie. The Bandolier Kings: "Welcome To The Zoom Club" disc is an amazing, outstanding musical document with an excellent group of killer special guests including original Budgie band members Tony Bourge & Steve Williams and also featuring a cast of bad-ass rockers from around the world who land on the mighty "Zoom Club". Prepare to dig deep and rock your ass off with the Bandolier Kings at this essential, brain-damaging, killer Grooveyard Records heavy guitar rock disc that celebrates the awesome music of Budgie.

Most reviewers of this well-packaged, 57-track, three-disc set can’t help but comment on the overwrought essay by clinton walker who starts with superlatives, then works up to a screech. He sets up the customary and needless rock-crit comparisons (vu more street-damaged than the beatles. So?) To advance the case that the velvets were the most important band ever in rock – maybe even, like, in the cosmos. It’s hysterical stuff for the most part (although it levels out into an insightful essay after he runs out of hyperbole and huff) and would be hysterically funny if it wasn’t almost true.

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar initially conceived of Have We Met as a Y2K album. He was already active during the era but not heard overhead in a cafe or salon, which is perhaps what the idea of the Y2K sound evokes nearly two decades later. Bejar assigned frequent producer and bandmate John Collins the role of layering synth and rhythm sections over demos with the period-specific Björk, Air, and Massive Attack in mind, but he soon realized the sonic template was too removed from Destroyer’s own, and the idea of a concept was silly anyway. So he abandoned it and gave Collins the most timeless instruction of all: “Make it sound cool.”