SCOTT MORGAN'S POWERTRANE - Ann Arbor Revival Meeting [USA rock 2002] Real O Mind Records ROM006

The title of this blazing live document comes from a between-song quip from guest artist Deniz Tek, and it's certainly fitting -- the show captured here brings together some truly legendary figures from the Michigan college town that became a home to the likes of the Stooges and the MC5 back in the day. In the 1960s, Scott Morgan was the lead singer and guitarist with Detroit's finest blue-eyed R&B act, the Rationals, and later he teamed with Fred "Sonic" Smith to form the brilliant (and woefully underappreciated) Sonic's Rendezvous Band. While Morgan has a remarkable résumé, he's also still making great high-energy rock & roll in the new millennium with his band Powertrane, and for a handful of special shows at Ann Arbor's Blind Pig, they were joined by Tek, an Ann Arbor émigré and close friend of Morgan's who formed one of Australia's most iconic rock outfits, Radio Birdman. Tek, Morgan, and Powertrane lead guitarist Robert Gillespie (who has played with Rob Tyner and Mitch Ryder) make for a truly devastating guitar combination here, and things only get hotter when Ron Asheton shows up for a show-closing mini-set of Stooges classics. But as good as "TV Eye," "No Fun," and "1969" sound in this context, the songs that really astound are Morgan's stellar originals (especially "R.I.P. R&R," "Runaway Slaves," and "Dangerous") and some lesser-known tunes from Tek's solo career, in particular "Blood from a Stone" and a simply blistering run through "Outside"." Cult Heroes belter Hiawatha Bailey sounds great taking vocals on several of the Stooges' numbers, and it's high praise to bassist Chris "Box" Taylor and drummer Andrew Frost that they don't just keep up with the frontline talent, but push them gloriously into the red zone. The best rock & roll live albums are the ones that leave you saying, "Man, I would have loved to have seen that," and anyone who digs high-energy Detroit-style rock & roll will listen with slack-jawed glee to Ann Arbor Revival Meeting, imagining they'd been at the Blind Pig this particular evening. Thankfully, a good recording engineer was on hand to capture the fury for the folks who couldn't make it, and the results are 66 minutes of heavily amplified bliss.
Morgan

THE MULTICOLOURED SHADES - Sundome City Exit [GER psychedelic 1987] ABC ABC LP 14

Best known for the 1987 single "Teen Sex Transfusion," Multicoloured Shades spent the mid- to late '80s purveying organ-heavy psychedelic rock. Formed in Marl, Germany in 1984, the band originally featured vocalist Pete Barany, guitarist Eddie Wagner, bassist Michael Doering, keyboardist Detlev "Det Bizarre" Bizer, and drummer Martin Heimes. Multicoloured Shades made their debut that year with a self-titled mini-album released on Last Chance Records, which they soon followed with 1985's full-length House of Wax. Wagner and Heimes left the group that year and were replaced, respectively, by Heinz-Werner Maleike and Bernd Gremm. This incarnation of Multicoloured Shades recorded 1987's Sundome City Exit, which featured "Teen Sex Transfusion." The lineup changes continued: Maleike left in 1988 and Wagner returned, while Doering also left that year and was replaced by Hansi Gralke. Multicoloured Shades released their third album, Ranchero!, and the single "Live My Life" in 1989, the same year keyboardist Peter Sauermann replaced founding member Bizer. The group disbanded in 1990 and briefly reunited in 2002, but Barany's death that year meant the end of Multicoloured Shades. The band's posthumous releases included 2015's Live in Berlin, which documented a 1987 show, and 2016's Lost Tapes EP. 


CD version 1987 Virgin 258320-222

THE FERRETS - Angry Young Ferrets [USA rock 1987] Jargon Records - JAR 12-102L

This is THE FERRETS Angry Young Ferrets LP, tough to find release pressed on the Jargon Records label out of New York.

The Ferrets

THE USERS - Secondary Modern 1976-1979 [UK punk rock] 2008 Bin Liner Records RUBBISHCD009

Secondary Modern: 1976-1979 has the original singles + B-sides, with 4 later songs from aborted recording sessions and a live track (with Robyn Hitchcock on bass). Debut single Sick of You, a John Peel favourite, is still riveting. Phil Burkill, the Users singer, does his best to out-sneer Iggy, but it is the scuzzy cranked-up guitar that leaps out of the speakers ("sounds like it was recorded in a bucket of vomit" said Melody Maker at the time). No other record sounds quite like this. Chris Free was a guitar hero in the Pete Townshend mould. Second single Kicks in Style has a restless speedfreak riff and glitterstomp handclaps.

For a brief time in 1979, The Users `went Mod', calling themselves The Persuasions. The first four songs on the CD could have been the foundation for a classic power pop album. Their cover of The Who's It's Not True is better than the original. Listen and Now That It's Over have an infectious swagger and some great lyrics (Like a Peckinpah film / I won't give up without a fight; I'm waiting by the telephone / chewing paracetamol.

Hearing these songs again after 30 years is like greeting a long-lost friend. This band were as good as we thought they were back in '77. They were the real deal - and here's the evidence. The cover, design, photos and text to Secondary Modern are superb. The Users should have been massive.

The Users

PAUL MARCANO AND LIGHTDREAMS - 10001 Dreams [CAN space rock psych 1982] 2016 Got Kinda Lost

A year after LightDreams' 1981 debut private press LP Islands in Space came and went without a trace, Canadian songwriter Paul Marcano and his collaborating musicians quietly released an even more sprawling opus titled 10,001 Dreams. The album was only available on home-dubbed 90-minute cassettes; its 2016 reissue was credited to both Marcano and LightDreams. It continues with the previous album's themes of deep introspection and space colonization, even returning to the phrase "islands in space" during the lyrics of the opening title track as well as the concluding "Building Islands in Space (Reprise)." Essentially, the sound hasn't changed -- the songs are still made up of multi-layered, occasionally backwards guitars, lush synthesizers, wizard-like vocals, and no drums. It's still inspired by psychedelia and prog rock, but with an airy, weightless feeling akin to ambient and new age music. Even if it sounds similar, it's more ambitious, stretching some of the compositions out into lengthy epics. Some of the selections on 10,001 Dreams were previously written and recorded by Marcano on a few of his many unreleased cassettes dating back to the early '70s (one of which, 1973's Valley Flutes, was eventually released in 2015, and bears eerie similarities to Brian Eno's Discreet Music, which appeared in 1975). Others, particularly on the second half, were co-written by fellow LightDreamers Andre Martin and Cory Rhyon (both of whom, sadly, did not live to see the album's reissue). The album is actually at its best during the longer tracks, where the musicians ponder existence for extended periods of time. Mega-trippy, revelatory "Visual Breakfast" alternates between wayward drifting, sunny pop, and darker ruminations. Much of the album's second half is taken up by a suite which begins with Martin's isolated, trembling "Being Here," which questions one's singular place in the universe but reassures that "it happens to the best of us every now and then, and that's OK!" From there, the group segue into several alien dreamscapes which are far more experimental and otherworldly than the usual LightDreams songs. Given that the suite lasted almost 37 minutes on the original cassette, it was split into two sides for the vinyl reissue, and edited down for the CD release. Following this is "Maj Moorhsum," which couldn't possibly be anything but a guitar improvisation played in reverse, so that's exactly what it is. Islands in Space is definitely a more focused statement, but any fans of that album ready for a much deeper exploration will find 10,001 Dreams to be absolutely immersive.

Paul

THE ACTION - Complete Punk Recordings 1977-1978 [USA punk rock 1977-78] 2009 Sudden Death Records SDR-0084

2009 compilation from one of Canada's first Punk bands, who formed in Ottawa in 1977. Their style combined early American and English Punk like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and the Vibrators with Rock influences such as the Rolling Stones' guitar attack and the Allman Brothers' dual-guitar and slide-guitar leads, which, combined with provocative lyrics and an untouchable stage show, made the Action a musician's band.

The Action