I stumbled upon this album today looking for the Tom Petty Official Live 'Leg... This great blog with tons of albums to download on rapidshare came up, and it is ridiculously awesome....
It's got all kinds of borderline punk rock, power pop, and forgotten rock n roll, and I just picked an album at random to try out, one I hadn't ever heard of before... Just Water's album, The Riff, If I could find this on vinyl I'd be going to the record store tomorrow with what little cash I have left(after that shiny new, used guitar in my avy)...
The Riff was released in 1977, it was not very commercially successful, but it was one of the first almost "home recorded" albums, *they teamed up with Neal Steingart, who wanted to record music with the same "go for broke" enthusiasm as the band wanted to be recorded. Neal built Fly Studios on Kings Highway in Brooklyn. He built the mixing console, built the speakers, and assembled everything else from a Frankenstein chest of old machines and spare parts. In the end, Fly Studio was one fabulous 8-track studio, and Neal as great an engineer as anyone in the business. Legend has it that Neal couldn't afford the Fly Studio electric bill, so he crawled out the back window and tapped into the electricity that kept the meat frozen in the butcher shop downstairs.* The album was made for under 3000$
*copied from an outside source*
This album is really cool, raw rock n roll, and as make shift as it was made sounds pretty good(digitally, I'm sure even better on vinyl)
01. Mean And Rotten - reminds me a bit of the song "flowers In The Rain" by the Move mixed with anything by Television, it has a cool vibe, and a solid song
02. The Devil Woman - this songs reminds me of really early Talking Heads, its kind of creepy and weird, and a bit funky, it has a really big sounding guitar solo.. pretty cool song, a bit predictable, but cool
03. They Live By Night - The bass is really catching my attention in this one, the song sounds a bit different than the first two, its awesome, backing vocals and a bit more folky acousticy sounding
04. The Riff - The Riff lives up to it's title, this song starts off just straight up in your face rock n roll, and sort of transitions into a Beatles-y chorus, then back to in your face rock... not my favorite on the album, but it is done really well, the guitar is really tasteful in this one
05. Wayward Boys - This songs not as in your face as some of the others, it does sound really ahead of it's time though, it sounds like something released in the late 90's, not 20 years earlier, this song keeps you on your toes, I wasn't really sure where it was going on some parts, but it flows nicely, there are a lot of changes in the song
06. Drastic Change - another softer song, this one sounds really sixties, early Who influenced sounding, and the lead guitar is pretty cool, once agian showcasing the band's unique sound.. it has a cool little keys/synth fill
07. Play It Loud - This one sounds like they got really burned out writing, definitely a filler song, not bad, but nothing special
08. King Kong - just a weird tune... once again reminds me of Talking Heads, funky sounding and weird, the drums are really nice in this one too
09. Down In the Riverboat - This song starts off really slow and folky/acoustic-y again, but jumps into it and picks up a minute or so in, nice vocal harmonies and once again sounds way ahead of it's time, but it breaks into a really average sixties sounding part right after the chorus, so average that it sounds better than the creative ones lol, it gets a little chaotic around the end, but it mixes together really nicely
BTW here's the blog I found it on, its really cool, third coolest thing I've ever seen on the internet
http://powerpopcriminals.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
overall an awesome album, anyone who likes the Beatles, Knack, Who, Talking Heads, Television, or early Foghat should definitely be able to get into this, I don't think I'll be able to, but I'll sure as hell try to find it on vinyl
9/10 for me
It's got all kinds of borderline punk rock, power pop, and forgotten rock n roll, and I just picked an album at random to try out, one I hadn't ever heard of before... Just Water's album, The Riff, If I could find this on vinyl I'd be going to the record store tomorrow with what little cash I have left(after that shiny new, used guitar in my avy)...
The Riff was released in 1977, it was not very commercially successful, but it was one of the first almost "home recorded" albums, *they teamed up with Neal Steingart, who wanted to record music with the same "go for broke" enthusiasm as the band wanted to be recorded. Neal built Fly Studios on Kings Highway in Brooklyn. He built the mixing console, built the speakers, and assembled everything else from a Frankenstein chest of old machines and spare parts. In the end, Fly Studio was one fabulous 8-track studio, and Neal as great an engineer as anyone in the business. Legend has it that Neal couldn't afford the Fly Studio electric bill, so he crawled out the back window and tapped into the electricity that kept the meat frozen in the butcher shop downstairs.* The album was made for under 3000$
*copied from an outside source*
This album is really cool, raw rock n roll, and as make shift as it was made sounds pretty good(digitally, I'm sure even better on vinyl)
01. Mean And Rotten - reminds me a bit of the song "flowers In The Rain" by the Move mixed with anything by Television, it has a cool vibe, and a solid song
02. The Devil Woman - this songs reminds me of really early Talking Heads, its kind of creepy and weird, and a bit funky, it has a really big sounding guitar solo.. pretty cool song, a bit predictable, but cool
03. They Live By Night - The bass is really catching my attention in this one, the song sounds a bit different than the first two, its awesome, backing vocals and a bit more folky acousticy sounding
04. The Riff - The Riff lives up to it's title, this song starts off just straight up in your face rock n roll, and sort of transitions into a Beatles-y chorus, then back to in your face rock... not my favorite on the album, but it is done really well, the guitar is really tasteful in this one
05. Wayward Boys - This songs not as in your face as some of the others, it does sound really ahead of it's time though, it sounds like something released in the late 90's, not 20 years earlier, this song keeps you on your toes, I wasn't really sure where it was going on some parts, but it flows nicely, there are a lot of changes in the song
06. Drastic Change - another softer song, this one sounds really sixties, early Who influenced sounding, and the lead guitar is pretty cool, once agian showcasing the band's unique sound.. it has a cool little keys/synth fill
07. Play It Loud - This one sounds like they got really burned out writing, definitely a filler song, not bad, but nothing special
08. King Kong - just a weird tune... once again reminds me of Talking Heads, funky sounding and weird, the drums are really nice in this one too
09. Down In the Riverboat - This song starts off really slow and folky/acoustic-y again, but jumps into it and picks up a minute or so in, nice vocal harmonies and once again sounds way ahead of it's time, but it breaks into a really average sixties sounding part right after the chorus, so average that it sounds better than the creative ones lol, it gets a little chaotic around the end, but it mixes together really nicely
BTW here's the blog I found it on, its really cool, third coolest thing I've ever seen on the internet
http://powerpopcriminals.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
overall an awesome album, anyone who likes the Beatles, Knack, Who, Talking Heads, Television, or early Foghat should definitely be able to get into this, I don't think I'll be able to, but I'll sure as hell try to find it on vinyl
9/10 for me
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