The Day After The Sabbath 59: Too Much Of Nuthin'

Download from: [mf] or [mg]
password:  tdats

TDATS 59 is another various artist collection. We begin with Chicago's Winterhawk, a band I found during my southern rock searches and they kick-start the comp in full-throttle metal fashion. This is one of their earliest tracks taken from the demo collection "There and Back Again".

Track List:

01. Winterhawk - Too Much of Nothin' (1978)
02. Rog & Pip - War Lord / From A Window (1971)
03. Octopus - Restless Night (1971)
04. Home - The Old Man Dying (1973)
05. Pugsley Munion - Take My Soul (1970)
06. Green Bullfrog - Bullfrog (1971)
07. Warlord - Face Of The Sun (1975)
08. Blonde On Blonde - Happy Families (1971)
09. Strider - Searching The Clouds (1974)
10. Law - Ain't Been Here In A Long Time (1972)
11. Joshua - Open Your Mind (1969)
12. Goodthunder - Sentries (1972)
13. Ultra - Battery (1977)

Next up we have two tracks from "Rog & Pip", a duo that evolved from Coventry, UK's 60s beat group The Sorrows. They only made this single but both sides show an aptitude for awesome hard rock so it's a shame there was no more [EDIT: In 2014 Rise Above Relics released a full album of Rog & Pip recordings]. There is very little information to be found on Octopus, they recorded one album of melodic but somehow heavy pop/psych in 1971, I find this track Restless Night has a very addictive quality and would be perfect cover material for the stoner doom scene's new darlings, Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats!

The UK's Home produced 3 albums of fairly light prog in the early 70's, the third of which includes this track 'The Old Man Dying' with a great juxtaposition between sweet emotive acoustics and heavy riffing. They were also a springboard for AC/DC's Cliff Williams and Wishbone Ash's Laurie Wisefield no less. Fitchburg, MA's "Pugsley Munion" created a single album in 1970 and they did a great job of mixing garage psych, blues and hard rock. "Take My Soul" has an addictive groove. I have used Green Bullfrog once before, way back in the midst of time, but I had to stick this one in, some how not really catching on to it a couple of years ago, the track here is a hell for leather jam that actually manages to make the most of the not inconsiderable talent that got together for one day only to record this jam session album, including Procol Harum's Matthew Fisher, Albert Lee, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice and Jodo's Rod Alexander (just named "The Rev" on the record). EDIT in 2023: I interviewed Rod regarding Jodo after making this comp (link).

We head into NWOBHM territory with the UK's Warlord, they had a posthumous 2002 release of material that was reputedly recorded around 1975 and if so, it does show in places a kind of more modern metal sound. Newport, Wales' Blonde On Blonde are up next, I used the previously on the Welsh Vol56, among their proggy psych a few fine hard riffs emerged as in the quirky "Happy Families". London, UK's Strider made a couple of hard rock albums in the mid-70s and mastered a brash confident piano-laden sound, if not particularly original. "Searching The Clouds" is the heaviest cut from their 2nd album, 1974's 'Misunderstood'. Youngstown Ohio's Law evolved into a tight funk-rock unit through the 70s but their early material, which has been posthumously collected by guitarist Steve Acker in his "Law - First Session" collection, made available on his website, was pure driven hard rock, exemplified here by 1972's motoring "Ain't Been Here In A Long Time". Law links: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , Wiki , Discogs

Sacramento's Joshua reputedly only pressed 50 copies of their subtly-heavy west coast style psych album and the track 'Open Your Mind' has a satisfyingly deep bass riff. Next up is LA's Goodthunder, I used them previously on vol55 and think the album is good enough to warrant one more track, this time the short and grooving 'Sentries' which again is based upon a rock solid bass groove. This installment ends with a track taken from the Rockadrome re-issue of Ultra, reputedly a Texan band headed by Homer's guitarist Galen Niles, who dealt in some blistering late 70s twin-guitar hard rock, definitely one for Thin Lizzy fans. More can be read about Ultra on their archived website (link) or at their Facebook (link).



Thanks for listening! Rich

TDATS social links

BuyMeAcoffee | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube | Mixcloud | Twitter | RateYourMusic

 

Share via:

The Day After The Sabbath 56: Freedom Of Yore [Wales pt.1]

Download from: [mf] or [mg]
pass:  tdats

TDATS 56: Freedom of Yore [Welsh hard rock of the '70s] by Rich Aftersabbath on Mixcloud

TDATS 56 is a collection of bands from Wales, "the land of song". Expecting this to be hard, I was prepared for it take a long time to finish, like the Greek comp did for example. To my surprise it was not a hard task and I was able to wrap up the whole thing in a couple of days, I am very happy with the results! What I have found is that, although the relative number of old Welsh rock bands is low, the quality of them all is consistently great and I did not have the usual arduous task of running through & rejecting tens or hundreds of albums, as each one I discovered had at least one excellent track, in this respect I think it was the easiest regional comp to make so far...

Track List:
01. Man - Spunk Box (1969)
02. Ancient Grease - Eagle Song (1970)
03. Eyes Of Blue - 7 + 7 Is & Inspiration for a New Day (1968)
04. Love Sculpture - Nobody's Talking (1969)
05. Alkatraz - Nobody Like You (1976)
06. Fair Weather - I Hear You Knockin' (1970)
07. Brân - Y Gwylwyr (1975)
08. Quicksand - Overcome the Pattern / Flying (1973)
09. Kimla Taz - Tomorrow (1968)
10. Lone Star - The Ballad Of Crafty Jack (1977)
11. Blonde On Blonde - Ride With Captain Max (1969)
12. Sassafras - Electric Chair [Live @ The BBC] (1977)
13. The Neutrons - Snow Covered Eyes (1974)

We kick off with one of the more well-known bands on here, "Man", from South Wales' Merthyr Tydfil. Man evolved out of The Bystanders, a successful close harmony pop group. Many of their members went on to other important Welsh bands and this track is so good, sludgy and heavy with unique character. Ancient Grease (aka 'Strawberry Dust') were one of the bands here to share members with Man, including Phil Ryan and John Weathers. Their sole album 'Women And Children First' is one of my all-time favourites and they really do concoct a heavy swirling fug of groove through the whole album, along with awesome gritty vocals. I have made the entire album available (link) as I think it's one of the essentials, nuff said.

Eyes Of Blue evolved during the mid-sixties from covers and R&B band The Mustangs, based in Neath, and are one of the earliest and most important bands here. They also had later connections to Man and Ancient Grease. A good history (including many of the bands on this comp) can be found at the Man Band Archive (link) and their last recorded album was made under the alternative moniker "Big Sleep". Here they have two songs including an interesting version of Love's '7 + 7 Is', and they show their diverse mix of sounds, including 60s psych and bluesy riffs. Cardiff's Love Sculpture (1966-70) formed from the remnants of local band "The Human Beans", they played mainly straight-forward blues and released two albums, this track "Nobody's Talking" has a dragging doomy feeling that I love.

After his stint in The Neutrons (who also feature on this comp), Will Youatt joined up with his ex-Quicksand partner James Davies to found Alkatraz and I have used their blues-swaggering track "Nobody Like You". Fair Weather evolved from a split within Amen Corner, they recorded a couple of great albums, with a mix of big band/brass and hard rock, they briefly achieved success with a UK singles chart #6 hit, "Natural Sinner". Brân hailed from Bethesda in North Wales and are the only band here to record in the Welsh language (Cymraeg), their talents included ethereal vocals from Nest Howells, which lent a beautiful folky ambiance to tracks like "Y Gwylwyr". Quicksand created one album in 1973, a curious mix of heavy prog, folk and hard rock. I have joined two consecutive tracks here "Overcome the Pattern" & "Flying" to form a sprawling atmospheric trip.

Cardiff's Kimla Taz was noticed as one of the best local bands tipped by their home town heroes Love Sculpture. They later included guitarist Paul Chapman who also features on this comp in Lone Star. They play some catchy 60 style pop psych and never made an album, but have had an archival CD release in recent times. Lone Star (aka 'Iona') are up next and they undoubtedly had plenty of talent, with members who were or would be in Uriah Heep, (the Irish) Skid Row and Budgie to name a few, their vision of a hard rocking southern-tinged sci-fi based sound was a unique one! Newport's Blonde On Blonde moved to London to find their fortune and had some success with performances at festivals like the Isle Of Wight. On a side-note, guitarist Ralph Denyer went on to write the widely-selling 'The Guitar Handbook' which I have a copy of myself!

Cardiff's Sassafras, who featured one-time Love Sculpture drummer Congo Jones, were a hard working band who once held a world record of 332 live performances in one year, and they still occasionally ply their hard bluesrock to this day. The compilation ends with The Neutrons, another branch off from Man, they played early keyboard-heavy proto-prog and the track here 'Snow Covered Eyes' is backed by urgent acoustic guitar, slowly subduing into Rick Wright-style ad-libbing, as a fine lead out...

Thanks for listening! Rich

TDATS social links

BuyMeAcoffee | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube | Mixcloud | Twitter | RateYourMusic

 

Share via: