The Amps

The Pretty Things - Get The Picture +6 (1965) {Victor Japan Mini LP VICP-63812 rel 2007}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 164 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 100 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 28 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1965, 2007 Victor Japan | VICP-63812 | British Beat Paper Sleeve Collection | K2HD
Rock / Blues Rock / Psychedelic Rock / British Invasion

The Pretty Things' second album, Get the Picture? (released December 1965), has not only been remastered from original session tapes so the group sounds like their amps are practically right in your lap, but it's also been expanded to 18 songs with the addition of tracks cut for singles and EP releases from the same sessions. That's enough to recommend it even to casual fans – this is now a record that's just a few notches short of Rolling Stones level in the charisma department, and pretty tough any way you want to look at it.

Since Jonny Lang began his career as a blues revivalist, it can sometimes be surprising how thoroughly he attempts to connect with the modern world on his albums. On 2013's Fight for My Soul, he dug deep into his interior world, but on its successor Lang looks outside of himself and attempts to sort through the ball of confusion that's 2017. All throughout Signs, he's looking at a world in chaos and attempting to find markers to lead him through. Some of these guideposts are indeed familiar. He remains a disciple of '70s blues-rock, especially Hendrix, and he does frequently crank up the amps and vamps, but he spends nearly as much time settling into soulful grooves.

Recording for International Artists Records, the crazed Texas label that brought the world such acid-damaged visionaries as the 13th Floor Elevators, the Red Krayola, Lost & Found, and Electric Rubayyat, the Bubble Puppy seemed by comparison to be a beacon of semisanity - a rather typical psychedelic band of the period who seemed more interested in having a good time and cranking up the amps than in reimagining the size and shape of the inner cosmos. But that's not to say they weren't a good psychedelic band - the band's best known tune, "Hot Smoke and Sassafras," was a charging guitar-heavy rocker that deservedly became a hit single, and its flip side, "Loney," was nearly as good…

Blind Melon is an American rock band formed in formed in Los Angeles, California by two musicians from Mississippi and one from Indiana. Best remembered for their 1993 single "No Rain", the group enjoyed critical and commercial success in the early 1990s with their neo-psychedelic take on alternative rock.

Irish hard rocker turned respected blues man Gary Moore may not be breaking new ground 15 years into his musical transformation, but he continues to churn out solid, energized albums that play to his considerable strengths. It may be his raw Peter Green-inspired guitar that draws fans in, but Moore's soulful vocals and stronger-than-necessary songwriting keeps them there. These 11 humdingers feature five originals interspersed between sharp, tough covers of Sonny Boy Williamson (two tracks), Chuck Berry, John Mayall, and even a closing, seven-minute acoustic version of Son House's "Sundown," a rare glimpse of Moore's unplugged abilities.

Brownsville Station - No BS (1970) {Wounded Bird Records WOU 1888 rel 2005}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 206 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 70 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 11 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1970, 2005 Palladium Records / Wounded Bird Records | WOU 1888
Rock / Boogie Rock / Hard Rock / Rock & Roll

I saw the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors (a lot), Country Joe and the Fish, Jefferson Airplane and many other groups too numerous to name in the '60's and '70's but when people ask me who put on the the most energetic, entertaining live show, it was Brownsville Station. Brownsville Station, led by Cubby Koda and Michael Lutz, with TJ Cronley and Tony Driggins played the grand venue of the Falls Church (Virginia) Community Center in the early 70's. What a show! They were Led Zeppelin playing loud "electric" high energy versions of fifties boogie rock! And they knew how to rock and roll.