Flamin' Groovies - 1976 - Shake Some Action

A lot had happened with the Flamin' Groovies in the nearly five years that separated the epochal Teenage Head album and their return to American record racks with Shake Some Action. The Groovies lost their record deal with Buddah, lead singer Roy Loney had quit the band leaving Cyril Jordan as uncontested leader, and they had spent a lot of time in Europe, building a significant following in the United Kingdom. As a result, the Flamin' Groovies on Shake Some Action almost sound like a different band, albeit one driven by a similar obsession with the utter coolness of pre-hippie rock & roll. (The fact that Jordan and bassist George Alexander were the only holdovers from the Teenage Head lineup probably had a lot to do with the different approach as well.) The rawer blues and rockabilly accents were gone from the Groovies' sound, with the guitar-fueled cool of the British Invasion era taking their place. While this version of the Flamin' Groovies didn't rock out with the same manic fervor as they did on Flamingo or Teenage Head, they could indeed rock when they felt so inclined, as demonstrated by the glorious "Please Please Girl," "I Can't Hide," and "Let the Boy Rock and Roll," while the Brit-flavored take on "St. Louis Blues" showed that some shades of the old band were still visible. And the title cut was a stunner -- a brilliant evocation of the adventurous side of British rock circa 1966, "Shake Some Action" was tough, moody, wounded, and gloriously melodic all at once, and by its lonesome served as a superb justification for the Groovies' new creative direction. If Shake Some Action was the first salvo from the new and improved Flamin' Groovies, it also demonstrated that this edition of the band had as much promise as the Loney-fronted group.

		1		Shake Some Action	Jordan, Wilson	4:34
		2		Sometimes		2:21
		3		Yes, It's True	Jordan, Wilson	2:29
		4		St. Louis Blues	Handy	2:39
		5		You Tore Me Down	Jordan, Wilson	2:49
		6		Please Please Girl	Jordan, Wilson	2:03
		7		Let the Boy Rock and Roll		2:18
		8		Don't You Lie to Me	Berry	2:27
		9		She Said Yeah		1:38
		10		I'll Cry Alone	Jordan, Wilson	2:15
		11		Misery	Lennon, McCartney	1:39
		12		I Saw Her	Hunter, Jordan	2:41
		13		Teenage Confidential	Jordan, Wilson	2:45
		14		I Can't Hide	Jordan, Wilson	3:12

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Frampton, Peter - 1976 - Frampton Comes Alive! (2CD)

At the time of its release, Frampton Comes Alive! was an anomaly, a multi-million-selling (mid-priced) double LP by an artist who had previously never burned up the charts with his long-players in any spectacular way. The biggest-selling live album of all time, it made Peter Frampton a household word and generated a monster hit single in "Show Me the Way." And the reason why is easy to hear: the Herd/Humble Pie graduate packed one hell of a punch on-stage — where he was obviously the most comfortable — and, in fact, the live versions of "Show Me the Way," "Do You Feel Like I Do," "Something's Happening," "Shine On," and other album rock staples are much more inspired, confident, and hard-hitting than the studio versions. [The 1999 reissue in A&M's "Remastered Classics" (31454-0930-2) series is a considerable improvement over the original double CD or double LP in terms of sound — the highs are significantly more lustrous, the guitars crunch and soar, and the bottom end really thunders, and so you get a genuine sense of the power of Frampton's live set, at least the heavier parts of his set, rather than the compressed and flat sonic profile of the old double-disc version. Frampton and the band sound significantly closer as well, even on the softer songs such as "Wind of Change," and the disc is impressive listening even a quarter century later. Of course, one must take this all with a grain of salt as a concert document — as was later revealed, there was considerable studio doctoring of the raw live tapes, a phenomenon that set the stage for such unofficial hybrid works as Bruce Springsteen's Live/1975-85 and countless others.]

		1		Introduction/Somethin's Happening	Frampton	5:56
		2		Doobie Wah	Frampton, Headley-Down ...	5:43
Composed by: Frampton, Headley-Down, Willis
		3		Lines on My Face	Frampton	6:59
		4		Show Me the Way	Frampton	4:32
		5		It's a Plain Shame	Frampton	4:03
		6		Wind of Change	Frampton	2:57
		7		Just the Time of Year	Frampton	4:21
		8		Penny for Your Thoughts	Frampton	1:34
		9		All I Wanna Be (Is by Your Side)	Frampton	3:08
		10		Baby, I Love Your Way	Frampton	4:41
		11		I Wanna Go to the Sun	Frampton	7:15
		12		Nowhere's Too Far (For My Baby)	Frampton	4:49
		13		(I'll Give You) Money	Frampton	5:46
		14		Do You Feel Like We Do	Frampton, Gallagher, Siomos ...	13:46
Composed by: Frampton, Gallagher, Siomos, Wills
		15		Shine On	Frampton	3:29
		16		White Sugar [#]	Frampton	4:43
		17		Jumpin' Jack Flash	Jagger, Richards	7:40
		18		Day's Dawning	Frampton	3:34

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Tangerine Dream - 1976 - 0627-Tangerine Tree 8-Live At The Berlin Philharmonic

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Modern Lovers - 1976 - The Modern Lovers

Compiled of demos the band recorded with John Cale in 1973, The Modern Lovers is one of the great proto-punk albums of all time, capturing an angst-ridden adolescent geekiness which is married to a stripped-down, minimalistic rock & roll derived from the art punk of the Velvet Underground. While the sound is in debt to the primal three-chord pounding of early Velvet Underground, the attitude of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers is a million miles away from Lou Reed's jaded urban nightmares. As he says in the classic two-chord anthem "Roadrunner," Richman is in love with the modern world and rock & roll. He's still a teenager at heart, which means he's not only in love with girls he can't have, but also radios, suburbs, and fast food, and it also means he'll crack jokes like "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole...not like you." "Pablo Picasso" is the classic sneer, but "She Cracked" and "I'm Straight" are just as nasty, made all the more edgy by the Modern Lovers' amateurish, minimalist drive. But beneath his adolescent posturing, Richman is also nakedly emotional, pleading for a lover on "Someone I Care About" and "Girl Friend," or romanticizing the future on "Dignified and Old." That combination of musical simplicity, driving rock & roll, and gawky emotional confessions makes The Modern Lovers one of the most startling proto-punk records -- it strips rock & roll to its core and establishes the rock tradition of the geeky, awkward social outcast venting his frustrations. More importantly, the music is just as raw and exciting now as when it was recorded in 1973, or when it was belatedly released in 1976.

		1		Roadrunner	Richman	4:05
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		2		Astral Plane	Richman	3:00
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		3		Old World	Richman	4:03
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		4		Pablo Picasso	Richman	4:21
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		5		I'm Straight	Richman	4:18
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		6		Dignified and Old	Richman	2:29
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		7		She Cracked	Richman	2:56
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		8		Hospital	Richman	5:35
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		9		Someone I Care About	Richman	3:39
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		10		Girl Friend	Richman	3:54
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		11		Modern World	Richman	3:43
Composed by: Richman Performed by: The Modern Lovers
		12		Government Center	Richman	2:03

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