Leap The Little Hands Of Asphalt

Everybody know that novelty bands have a hard time growing up, but the Presidents of the United States of America made a large leap toward that during their re-formation of 2000, with Freaked Out and Small demonstrating a decrease in their stylized silliness mellowed into something more genuine. It wasn't that the band rocked less, but their humor seemed less forced, a development that continued on 2004's Love Everybody. Evolution continues to be the name of the game on their 2008 follow-up These Are the Good Times People, as the group replaces departing guitarist (and founding member) Dave Dederer with Andrew McKeag, while they bring Seattle underground mainstay Kurt Bloch in as producer, all elements that help make These Are the Good Times People perhaps their most eclectic album to date.

The score to Little Shop was written by Fred Katz. Katz, born in 1919, was a child prodigy on both piano and cello, but would become a well-known cellist in the Los Angeles music scene of the 1950s—the first really to take the cello into the jazz arena. He became part of the very unique Chico Hamilton Quintet and was both heard and seen in the film Sweet Smell Of Success. At some point in the late 1950s, Corman found Katz or Katz found Corman and the two collaborated on several films, including A Bucket Of Blood, The Wasp Woman, Ski Troop Attack, Little Shop, and Creature From The Haunted Sea. Katz’s score perfectly accompanies a film that is occasionally worthy of Ionesco in its surreal weirdness. In fact, Katz’s music is as much fun as the film—it’s funky, jazzy, beat, hipster music, with occasional horror touches, that will keep a smile on your face or conjure up wonderful memories of Seymour Krelboin, Gravis Mushnick, Audrey Fulquard, Burson Fouch, Wilbur Force, and, of course, the great Audrey Junior.

Little Boy Blues started as a mid-'60s garage rock band leaning toward Rolling Stones-ish blues rock, with a lesser degree of folk-rock. By the time their sole album came out in 1968, however, they were very much into period psychedelic heavy rock, with more of a soul color to some of the songs and the arrangements than the average such band. Comprised entirely of original material (from Little Boy Blue Ray Levin), In the Woodland of Weir is of fair but somewhat anonymous quality, stewing together psychedelic-influenced wordplay, blue-eyed soul, and fuzz guitar-and-organ-drenched harder rocking passages.

In the stillness of a midnight stable, a babe is born … In the stillness of an Oxford chapel on a winter’s afternoon, a girl’s voice sings. The newest star in Oxford’s – and Delphian’s – choral firmament, the girl choristers of Merton College have been singing services under the directorship of Benjamin Nicholas for less than five years: in their debut album recording, supported by the lower voices of the Chapel Choir, they tell once more in music from across the centuries the timeless Christmas story of light, hope and joy for a troubled world.

With more than 65 million albums sold worldwide and two prestigious Diamond Awards to their credit, DefLeppard with its current line-up –Joe Elliott (vocals), Phil Collen (guitar), Rick Savage (bass), Vivian Campbell (guitar) and Rick Allen (drums)— continue to be one of the most important forces in rock music. Over the course of their career, the band has produced a series of classic groundbreaking albums that set the sound for generations of music fans and artists. In The Many Faces of Def Leppard, we are going to dig deep into the lesser known work of their members, collaborations, side projects and their hit-filled catalog. Also featured are a list of who’s who on the NWOBHM movement. This fantastic collection features several tracks that haven’t been commercially available in physical format for decades. With fantastic artwork and remastered sound, The Many Faces of Def Leppard in an essential addition to the Many Faces collection. Also remember that the album is not available on streaming platforms!

The Pulse EPs gathers together some of the strongest tracks FSOL recorded before the release of Accelerator (1991). Originally pressed as four 12" EPs between 1991 and 1992, the record collects 16 pieces under the band's more well known aliases of Mental Cube, Indo Tribe, Yage and Smart Systems, plus the first ever Future Sound of London tracks (which, "Hardhead" in particular, are far removed from the layered, abstract work the name is most famous for). On that level, there is little here for those wanting another Lifeforms or Dead Cities, but any fans of Accelerator are urged to get ahold of this, and it works as a more singular and focussed effort than the similar Earthbeat compilation, which veers jarringly from vocal house to ambient breaks and acid house…

Schubert had only about a month to put together the incidental music for the Rosamunde play. As a result, he had to press some already written compositions into service and add them to those newly composed in order to complete the score in time for the first performance on Dec 20, 1823. As it was, the final numbers of the score were ready only two days before the performance, leaving little time for adequate rehearsal. That may be a reason, along with the convoluted nature of the play itself, why there were only two performances before the play was cancelled.

The only band to use the Beatles, Whitney Houston, Mission Impossible, Petula Clark, Doctor Who, ABBA, and the French national anthem as art statements. Circa 1987: Shag Times, one of the many deliberate cash-ins released in the wake of the Timelords, confirmed Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty's supremacy over every last imitator and pop stunt plagiarist.