"Gonna Rock Tonite! The Complete Recordings 1969-1971" by FLAMIN GROOVIES (February 2019 UK Grapefruit Records 3CD Box Set) - A Review by Mark Barry...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gonna-Tonite-Complete-Recordings-1969-71/dp/B07LG1C9GB?crid=XOTDH99H9JQT&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.XP6S8Qfu4w0sUo9zPBu4mg.8JsXE5OLP6ZrudaDIxgpf1nKydX0trYgrZQhDRJwXPY&dib_tag=se&keywords=5013929185104&qid=1714293914&sprefix=5013929185104%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=mabasreofcdbl-21&linkId=d11a8f65d985c31c2f918db0bfd65d1e&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

RATING: *****

"...Pistol Packin' Mama..."

Like most fans of San Francisco's all-partying, all rocking, all greasy FLAMIN GROOVIES – I've had the 2009 Rev-Ola CD that offered up their kicking third and fourth albums on Kama Sutra Records - "Flamenco" from June 1970 and "Teenage Head" from March 1971. They've been snottily leaping around my mancave shuffle plays for years now. And before that - the double-album you used to pick up in secondhand record shops in the late 1970s that paired those two crackers together for our voracious vinyl consumption and my Dustbuster battered Garrard SP25 turntable.

Well reissue heroes ahoy but England's Grapefruit Records have gone and decided to expand into the album prior as well ("Supersnazz" from September 1969) and throw in a whopping seventeen bonuses too – all three albums and extras newly remastered in a cool and tactile pre Brexit mini box set. Why it’s enough to make me wanna rub jam all over my soggy doughnuts (while its still legal like). Here are the Super Snazzy details...

UK released 22 February 2019 (1 March 2019 in the USA) - "Gonna Rock Tonite! The Complete Recordings 1969-71" by FLAMIN GROOVIES on Grapefruit CRSEGBOX051 (Barcode 5013929185104) offers their second, third and fourth albums Remastered onto 3CDs in a Clamshell Box Set with Seventeen Bonus Tracks (Singles and Outtakes) that plays out as follows:

Disc 1 "Supersnazz" Album + Bonus Tracks (47:12 minutes):

1. Love Have Mercy [Side 1]

2. The Girl Can't Help It

3. Laurie Did It

4. Apart From That

5. Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu

6. The First One's Free [Side 2]

7. Pagan Rachel

8. Somethin' Else/Pistol Packin' Mama

9. Brushfire

10. Bam Balam

11. Around The Corner

Tracks 1 to 11 are their second studio album "Supersnazz" - released September 1969 in the USA on Epic Records BN 26487 in Stereo (no UK issue). Produced by STEVE GOLDMAN - it didn't chart.

BONUS TRACKS:

12. Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu (Single Mix) - 18 July 1969 US 7" single on Epic 5-10507, A-side

13. The First One's Free (Single Mix) - 18 July 1969 US 7" single on Epic 5-10507, B-side

14. Somethin' Else (Single Mix) - 31 December 1969 US 7" single on Epic 5-10564, A-side

15. Laurie Did It (Single Mix) - 31 December 1969 US 7" single on Epic 5-10564, B-side

FLAMIN GROOVIES for "Supersnazz" was:

CYRIL JORDAN - Lead Guitar, Vocals and Acoustic Guitar

TIM LYNCH - Lead Guitar, Cello, Vocals and Harmonica

MIKE LANG - Keyboards

GEORGE ALEXANDER - Bass, Vocals and Harmonica

DAVID MIMH - Drums and Percussion

Disc 2 "Flamingo" Album + Bonus Tracks (65:04 minutes):

1. Gonna Rock Tonite [Side 1]

2. Comin' After Me

3. Headin' For The Texas Border

4. Sweet Roll Me On Down

5. Keep A Knockin'

6. Second Cousin [Side 2]

7. Childhood's End

8. Jailbait

9. She's Falling Apart

10. Road House

Tracks 1 to 10 are their third studio album "Flamingo" - released June 1970 in the USA on Kama Sutra Records KSBS 2021 (no UK release, but see Note below).

BONUS TRACKS (Recorded Live in Studio A, 13 January 1971):

11. Shakin' All Over

12. That'll Be The Day

13. Louie Louie

14. My Girl Josephine

15. Around And Around

16. Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu

17. Going Out Theme (Version 1)

Tracks 11 to 16 first issued on the 1976 US-only vinyl compilation "Still Shakin" on Kama Sutra BDS 5683

Track 17 first issued as one of the six Bonus Tracks on the 1999 'Original Masters' CD Reissue of "Flamingo" on Buddah 74321 71691 2

Disc 3 "Teenage Head" Album + Bonus Tracks (52:07 minutes):

1. High Flyin' Baby [Side 1]

2. City Lights

3. Have You Seen My Baby?

4. Yesterday's Numbers

5. Teenage Head [Side 2]

6. 32-20

7. Evil Hearted Ada

8. Doctor Boogie

9. Whisky Woman

Tracks 1 to 9 are their fourth studio album "Teenage Head" - released March 1971 in the USA on Kama Sutra Records KSBS 2031 (no UK release, but see Note below).

BONUS TRACKS:

10. Scratch My Back

11. Carol

12. Rumble

13. Somethin' Else

14. Walking The Dog

15. Going Out Theme (Version 2)

Tracks 10, 11 and 15 first issued as three of the seven Bonus Tracks on the 1999 'Original Masters' CD Reissue of "Teenage Head" on Buddah 74321 71690 2 (Track 14 was also one of those bonuses)

Tracks 12 and 13 first issued as two of the six Bonus Tracks on the 1999 'Original Masters' CD Reissue of "Flamingo" on Buddah 74321 71691 2

Track 14 first issued on the 1976 US-only vinyl compilation "Still Shakin" on Kama Sutra BDS 5683

FLAMIN GROOVIES for "Flamingo" and "Teenage Head" was:

CYRIL JORDAN - Lead Guitar, Slide Guitar, Percussion and Vocals

TIM LYNCH - Lead Guitar, Cello, Percussion and Vocals

ROY LONEY – Guitar, Lead Vocals and Percussion

GEORGE ALEXANDER – Bass and Percussion

DAVID MIMH – Drums, Percussion, Piano and Organ

Guests:

Commander Cody plays Piano on three "Flamingo" album tracks - Comin' After Me, Keep A Knockin' and Second Cousin

Jim Dickinson plays Piano on three "Teenage Head" album tracks - High Flyin' Baby, City Lights and Have You Seen My Baby?

Note: In August 1971, Kama Sutra in the UK issued both the "Flamingo" and "Teenage Head" LPs for the first time as a belated British double-album package on Kama Sutra 2683 003, simply called "Flamin' Groovies" (it was also issued in Germany entitled "2 Original LP's" on Kama Sutra 2623 101). That 1971 British double album was again reissued in October 1976 (by Pye Records) as "Teenage Head", but in slightly different artwork on Kama Sutra KSMD 101.

DAVID WELLS provides the superb October 2018 liner notes in the new and chunky 24-page booklet. Even though its not part of the remit for this set - the notes explain how the band's self-made 1968 "Sneakers" debut on their own Snazz Records came about - a 7-Track 10" Mini LP of 4500 copies they sold themselves in Tower Records (pressed up in three batches of fifteen hundred). Its artwork (front and rear) is pictured on Page 5. There are trade adverts, a Billboard piece from November 1970, publicity and live photos, rare single artwork and a line of those Epic and Kama Sutra singles (including Promo copies). Interviews with band members Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan are included illuminating the hectic 1969 to 1971 period. Experienced and dedicated names like DAVID WELLS and JOHN REED collated and organised the Box while Remaster Engineer OLI HEMINGWAY of The Waxworks did the audio tweaking. Like the Rev-Ola CD - this baby sounds amazing – huge presence and all the muscle you would want without being over done...and I like the three single card sleeve repros...nice

Apart from the cover versions of Little Richard's Rock 'n' Roll masterpiece "The Girl Can't Help It", the barroom R'n'B of Huey Smith's "Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu" (which Kama Sutra issued as a US 45) and the Eddie Cochran twofer "Somethin' Else/Pistol Packin' Mama" - most of the "Supersnazz" album sees us bombarded with flashy originals from both Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan. "Love Have Mercy" and another single "The First One's Free" rip and roar while "Bam Balam" and "Around The Corner" round things off very nicely. And I have to admit that I've never heard the single mixes - very nice touch.

"...Ten head hunters...with a buzz saw...and they was comin' after me..." - the boys tell us in the raw and raunchy guitar-pop of "Comin' After Me" - ten state troopers chasin' close behind with meat hooks. But the Proto-Punk edginess really starts to come screaming in on "Headin' For The Texas Border" where the band is headed to New Orleans to get their mojo back. I love the rapid guitars and the transfer gives it serious wallop. It's 1970 for gawd sake but it could be 1976 - so damn sharp. They then cleverly switch to Acoustic Rock 'n' Roll with "Sweet Roll Me On Down" as they Buddy Holly 'ah-ha' through the chorus. I'm reminded of the British band Fumble who also did Little Richard's brilliant "Keep A Knockin'" in the same all out rocking way - letting the inner joy of this Fifties anthem rip. Roy Loney stumps up another rocker in the excellent "Second Cousin" - the lyrics straying dangerously into Jerry Lee Lewis lawsuit territory.

Things finally settle into a Hank Williams saunter with "Childhood's End" - a very witty childhood song from Ron Loney where he sounds amazingly like Mick Jagger circa "Exile On Main St." doing his best Hillbilly impression. "Jailbait" is a cool and snarly blues chugger where he pleads 'baby what you tryin to do!' to a mean guitar barrage. The fantastic "Gonna Rock Tonight" is the kind of out-and-out Rock 'n' Roll homage that Dave Edmunds would have loved when his regal Zonophone 'Rockpile' album was in play over in Blighty - ooh-wee baby indeed (and dig that huge grungy Bass solo too). The weird but utterly wonderful "She's falling Apart" follows - a song that feels wildly out of synch with the rest of the album but actually a song I return to most. It then blasts into a frantic Punk-rocking finish with the trashy "Road House" - rapid guitars a go-go.

For album number four we go Dr. Feelgood with the fabulous slide guitar intro to "High Flyin' Baby" – a superb little Ron Loney and Cyril Jordan rocker. We then return to "Exile On Main St." with the boozy swagger of the acoustic barroom "City Lights" and it’s hard to understand why this wickedly cool Acoustic Blues was slagged off at the time (still sounds so damn good to me). The hard-rocking and deliberately grungy "Have You Seen My Baby?" was probably too much Rock 'n' Roll for delicate minds back in the day - but I love it and "Yesterday's Numbers" that follows it which could have been Brinsley Schwarz or Help Yourself or even Free - stunning acoustic Rock that stays with you. Amidst the bonus stuff you’re clobbered with a fantastic loose cover of Link Wray’s guitar magnum opus – the album outtake of "Rumble". Jordan and the boys are clearly having riffage fun with the famous menace Link’s song exudes – a very cool bonus indeed that even includes giggles at the end from a band that would have worshipped at Wray’s feet in the blink of an eye.

Summing up - how cool is it to see these three storming platters in the one place and with so much excellent bonus material too (Sundazed issued the debut in 1996 as an Expanded CD should you want to check out their beginnings).

The New York Dolls, MC5 and especially The Stooges are constantly name-checked as keeping the wild snotty pure spirit of Rock 'n' Roll alive in the early Seventies - a time when Hard Rock and Prog Goliaths dominated the chart landscape and bedsits of the world threatening to swamp all three-minute blasts of proto-punk with hairy chests, tales of wizards and semi classical pomp. I loved them too (truth be told) - but spare a dime brother for the Bay's FLAMIN GROOVIES – fab, groovy and side burning into the Devilish bargain. Well done to all involved...

"Pushin' Too Hard: The Seeds - Original Soundtrack" by THE SEEDS (UK February 2019 Big Beat CD Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Try To Understand..."

Now here's a sweetie for fans of 60ts Garage and Psych (and even a bit of 50ts Blues) - "Pushin' Too Hard: The Seeds" – another Big Beat Records compilation - but this time offering an aural CD companion to the 2019 Neil Norman Directed/Alec Palao Produced Documentary Movie and Soundtrack of the same name celebrating the explosive career of THE SEEDS who took L.A. by storm in the latter half of that amazing decade.

You get twenty-one tracks that include an impressive thirteen previously unreleased – mouth-watering and saucy stuff indeed for such a sought after and influential group. In the words of the song - let’s try to understand - here are the skyward details…

UK released Wednesday, 27 February 2019 - "Pushin' Too Hard: The Seeds – Original Soundtrack" by THE SEEDS [and Other Artists] on Big Beat CDWIKD 342 (Barcode 029667093224) is a CD compilation that offers up 21 tracks (including unreleased) as follows (73:23 minutes):

1. Pushin' Too Hard

(November 1965 Debut US 7" single on GNP Crescendo GNP 364X, A-side originally credited as "You're Pushing Too Hard" by The Seeds Featuring Sky Saxon with "Out Of The Question" on the flipside - reissued July 1966 again as The Seeds Featuring Sky Saxon on GNP 372X as "Pushin' Too Hard" with "Try To Understand" on the B-side)

2. They Say by RITCHIE MARSH (1963 USA 7" single on Shepherd SR-2203, A-side)

3. No Escape (Take 3) (recorded 20 July 1965, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

4. Can't Seem To Make You Mine (February 1967 USA 7" single on GNP Crescendo GNP 354, A-side)

5. Try To Understand (Take 3) (recorded January 1966, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

6. Out Of The Question (Alternative Mix) (Take 8 recorded 14 Sep 1965, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

7. The Perfect Wave by NEIL NORMAN (from the 1982 US compilation LP "Bustin' Surfboards" on GNP Crescendo GNPS 2152)

8. Tripmaker (Live) (recorded 29 April 1967 at the Hollywood Bowl, intro by "Humble Harve" Miller, 2019 unreleased)

9. Evil Hoodoo (Full Length Stereo Mix) (from the April 2011 10" EP "Evil Hoodoo" on Big Beat LTDEP 101)

10. Mr. Farmer (Stereo Album Version) (from the 1966 "A Web Of Sound" US Stereo LP on GNP Crescendo GNPS 2033)

11. Up in Her Dream (Take 1, recorded 2 April 1968, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

12. Satisfy You (Version 3) (Take 6, recording details as per Track 11)

13. Night Time Girl (Take 8) (Take 8, recording details as per Track 11)

14. Baby Please Don't Go (Live) by MUDDY WATERS (1954 live recording performed for GNP's Gene Norman in Los Angeles - 2019 Previously Unreleased)

15. The Gardener (Take 1) (recorded 4 October 1966, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

16. A Faded Picture (Stereo Album Version) (from the 1966 "A Web Of Sound" US Stereo LP on GNP Crescendo GNPS 2033)

17. Fallin' Off the Edge Of My Mind (Take 12) (recorded 3 September 1968, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

18. The Wind Blows Your Hair (Version 3) (Take 6, recorded 10 August 1967, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

19. A Thousand Shadows (1993 Mix) (from the 1993 CD compilation "Travel With Your Mind" on GNP Crescendo GNPD 2218)

20. Ballad Of Sky Saxon by KIM FOWLEY (1:20 minute monologue recorded 2009, 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording)

21. YMCA Spot/ SKY Speaks (1:03 minute Radio Promo Advert) 2019 Previously Unreleased GNP Crescendo recording

Tracks 1 to 6, 8,14 and 21 are MONO - all others in STEREO

The three-way foldout card digipak sleeve features a festooned 24-page booklet inside rammed to the gills with period photos, trade adverts, mastertape boxes and even a fan's Fact Sheet on the back page from the September 1967 issue of Teen Set. Beneath the see-through CD tray is a repro photo of the second issue US single for "Pushin' Too Hard" on GNP Crescendo GNP 372. Alec's notes talk of the songs in recording order with additional notes on the stragglers - the Kim Fowley monologue and the 1954 Muddy Waters live recording (is that Little Walter warbling on the Harmonica). It's very tastefully done and the artwork gives it that Garage/Psych look too. Long-time Audio Engineer NICK ROBBINS has once again done the honours and even the rougher stuff sounds tickettyboo...

Historically accurate or not - the Ritchie March inclusion feels unnecessary and a tad lame (Sky Saxon’s real name). Not so the Neil Norman hey big bird frat surf of "The Perfect Wave" (so cool) and the live reasonably well recorded Muddy Waters cut of "Baby Please Don't Go" before the fabulous bluesy Take 1 of "The Gardener" are cleverly placed. Even better are the two superlative sounding Stereo cuts from the "Weed..." LP of 1966 - "Mr. Farmer" and "A Faded Picture" – those keyboards and guitars so fantastically clear (like a Them recording). The phased Kim Fowley vocals for "Ballad Of Sky Saxon" is backed by cool fuzzed-up boogie guitar while old Kim waffles on about leather jackets and Sky’s arrival on the West Coast. The flower children and colours and really groovy talk in the YMCA slot is a hoot – Sky telling the kids to drop wars and get down with the vibe of love.

For sure its not all brill, but there's more than enough in those unreleased versions to keep fans happy and the uninitiated understanding why the band was held in such affection then and still is now. Very cool indeed...

New Amsterdam (January 2019 TV Show, Season 1) - A Review by Mark Barry...

Happy Wappy E.R. Wannabe TV Show That Unfortunately 

Has Characters You Want To Scalpel (And Not In A Good Way)...

While "New Amsterdam" isn't quite the tripe some are saying it is (there is some good stuff in it) - unfortunately I can understand completely why so many are infuriated with it.

The scenarios are often laughably hammy, the punchline dialogue feels forced at almost every turn, the tangled relationships and faux tears, the Spanish dialogue that isn't subtitled so you can understand what's being said, and most of all, the staggeringly unhygienic scenes where people literally dance voodoo rituals as they cut a patient's skin and stick dirt in just before an open-heart procedure (because that's their cultural belief man). These things are completely at odds with the sterile environments of modern operating rooms (the doctor watches and is ok with a woman ranting like a banshee, smearing and spitting over the sedated patient – yeah right).

The sorry state that US medicine is in (dominated by money and nursing staff under siege from exploitive malpractice lawsuits) is addressed at times, as is the horrendous legally binding overmedication of most American youth - a health ticking time bomb if ever there was one. But it's always with a falsely upbeat outcome and never the reality of how the US government simply panders to big pharmaceutical cash cows while patients of all ages get hooked, damaged, destroyed and even get dead. Throw in a leading man that's a Matthew Fox wannabe dispensing hippy medicine and cures for broken internal hospital rules in his sneakers and perfectly sculpted morning stubble that never grows or changes - complete with a pregnant wife who always seems to have perfect hair after a labour emergency and a sloppy, rotund but loving therapist who looks like a friendly lion straight out Good Will Hunting goodness school – and you begin to get the level of cheese you're being ask to swallow.

In these days of too much darkness, I love hopeful (who doesn't) and "New Amsterdam" clearly seems to think it has something enlightening to show us at the centre of its saccharine-clogged aorta (positivity will cure everything including corporate greed), but IMO it just fails on too many fronts, offering up too many unrealistic set pieces to remain believable and therefore truly touch you.

What a shame. I've watched only two episodes and its already irritating me too much. And after Amazon's triumph with the stunning and award winning "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" across two whole seasons and the sheer energy and hutzpah of their "Sex and The City" meets "Girls" Indian take on young lives in "Four More Shots Please!" – that's a real disappointment. 

Give it a go for sure, but be warned, I have facial stubble and I will diagnose you with it...