Rockers Unit

Cold Chisel opened the '80s with their most widely accepted and artfully constructed album, East. Following it up was a tall order for the Aussie quintet, but they did the trick admirably with Circus Animals. (A live album, Swingshift, was released in the period between the two studio discs.) A ten-song stew of the band's signature guitar-and-piano-driven ballads and rockers, it further confirmed Chisel's depth and breadth as a creative unit. From the outset of Circus Animals, the boys come crashing in through the window like a bunch of rowdies with hell-raising on their minds, cranking out the guitar rock rottweiler "You Got Nothing I Want." Singer Jimmy Barnes' wrote the song about the frustration of a recently completed U.S. tour that had imploded ingloriously. As he belts out the number, Barnes' voice sounds like a buzz saw blade that's flown loose and ripped through a bunch of parked cars.

Spock's Beard began in 1992 when brothers Neal (lead vocals) and Al Morse (guitar) teamed up with drummer Nick D'Virgilio. After self-financing their first album, bassist Dave Meros joined, and The Light was recorded in 1994. Consisting of four lengthy songs, this debut album was well received by progressive rock fans, but received little public acclaim…

Ozric Tentacles are simply put, legends of the UK underground. Inspired by a myriad of musical genres and musicians from Kraut-rockers Kraan to guitar maestro Steve VAI, from ethnic Arabic to electronic techno, from Hendrix to Hillage. Ozric Tentacles' music is a fusion of sounds, styles and genres that cannot be categorized nor plagiarized, such is its complexity. The essence of the Ozric Tentacles remains essentially a free-willed musical unit oblivious to fashion trends and intent on exploring instrumental experimental music with an obsessive zeal. Formed in the early eighties, the Ozrics began life as a free-form psychedelic vehicle for jamming, attracting a dedicated fan-base at grassroots level by playing at all the free festivals to fans of space-rock, dub, psychedelia, and later on when the festivals had developed into raves, to fans of house and techno…

The Mascots had a reputation for doing some of the best faux British beat-style music to come out of Europe during the 1960s, but one can't fully appreciate how good they were at it until one hears this album. Issued in 1966 and intended to appeal to the English-speaking market, it includes a few single sides intermixed with tracks done especially for 12" release, and the results are kind of eerie, mostly because they are done so well in a British beat mode by musicians who are obviously coming to the music from the outside. The fuzz-laden rockers such as "I Close Your Eyes" could have passed muster as proper British freakbeat circa 1965-1966, like a more commercial version of the Creation's sound, while folkie-based pieces such as "The Proud Crowd" come off as a variant of the folk-rock sound embraced by John Lennon on "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," except the inspiration is less Bob Dylan than, maybe…

John Hiatt's talents as a singer and songwriter have never been a matter of question, but for the longest time neither Hiatt nor his various record labels seemed to know what to do with him. Epic Records thought he was some sort of a folky, while MCA figured, since his songs were often cranky and angular, he could be sold as a skinny-tie new wave guy. Neither idea made much of a dent in the marketplace, and by the time Hiatt cut his second album for Geffen, Riding with the King, someone had come to the reasonable conclusion that Hiatt was a roots-rocker at heart – but what kind of roots-rocker?

Guitar virtuoso Nuno Bettencourt made his name with the eclectic pop-metal outfit Extreme during the height of the guitar-shredder era, and embarked on a solo career after the band's breakup. As a soloist, Bettencourt's most immediately recognizable influence was Eddie Van Halen, but as a songwriter, he might draw from Queen, the Beatles, Prince, and anything in between. The youngest of ten children in a musical family, Bettencourt was born Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt in the town of Praia da Vitoria, on the island of Terceira in the Azores (an archipelago governed by Portugal) on September 20, 1966.

The show captured on King Biscuit Flower Hour (In Concert) (1996) was recorded circa Greg Lake's 1981 self-titled debut, and features Lake (guitar/bass/vocals) leading an impressive backing combo with Gary Moore (guitar), Ted McKenna (drums), Tommy Eyre (keyboards), and Tristian Margetts (bass). The set originated as a King Biscuit Flower Hour broadcast from the Hammersmith Odeon in London on November 5, 1981. During this time, Lake was on an extended hiatus from Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP), and issued a pair of solo efforts.