A huge selection of work from the Outsiders – not the group who recorded famously for Capitol in the late 60s, but an early UK punk combo who features some fantastic vocals and guitar from the young Adrian Borland! The Outsiders definitely have a sound that's in the spirit of 1977 – short, sharp, and very tight – but Borland also has chops on the guitar that most of his contemporaries do not – which means that even in the small space of these cuts, you'll get some guitar solos that link the music both backwards towards some more expansive British work, and the sound of the American scene of the 80s – when early punk groups started to learn their instruments, and solo a bit more.
As they unwittingly proved with their overly ambitious concept album Future, the Seeds were at their best when they kept things simple and to the point, and in 1968, uncertain where to go next after Future tanked, the band decided it would be a good idea to document their energetic live show with a concert album. However, in order to best control the audio, they ended up cutting a live set in a studio rather than taping an actual concert, laying in the sounds of cheering fans after the fact. The results were released as Raw and Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box, even though it was recorded at Western Recorders studio in Hollywood rather than the folk-oriented coffee house namechecked in the title, and the incongruous-sounding cheers and applause, which rise and fall at unpredictable moments, give away the game that this is that curious artifact of the era, The Fake Live Album…
Veteran guitarist, singer, and songwriter Bill Perry was one of the most inventive storytellers in the modern blues idiom, yet sadly, he passed away from a heart attack in the summer of 2007. He was 50. He burst upon the national blues touring circuit in the mid-'90s with the short-lived Point Blank/Virgin Record label. Born and raised in Chester, NY, Perry got his first guitar at age five. He quickly learned the theme from "Batman" on it while growing up in a music-filled household. Perry's grandmother played organ in the church, but Perry was attracted to his father's Jimmy Smith albums, which featured jazz/blues guitarist Kenny Burrell. During his formative years, his favorite guitarists were Jimi Hendrix, Duane Allman, and Johnny Winter. He also loved Albert Collins, B.B. King, and Freddie King.