The Rolling Stones - "Main Street Revisited, Mickboy Remasters" (Torn & Frayed - 1999) plus...

Much talking lately 'bout the legendary "Exile On Main St." reissue/remastered edition. As a true sucker i am, i tweak on this and if there's one word to describe the whole project, that is 'disappointment'! Don't know the exact technical clauses, but this shit's for sure "cleaned-up", "louder" and somehow "weak"... I'm no purist (really) and i don't consider myself a huge Stones fanatic (in a way that you must got all albums, even the crappy ones, you know, everything they produced  after "Goat's Head Soup"- yes, I DON'T LIKE "Some Girls"...) but the most important element on why "Exile" still is the MOST MYTHICAL ROCK & ROLL RECORD EVER MADE, was this muddy,druggy,sloppy, loose and filthy sound - atmosphere. And that's gone for sure...
What lurks behind the original mix and production, courtesy of Jimmy Miller of course, is that human and at the same time, out of this world sounding. I'm a person who loves much new creations and technologies and i make my living as a computer engineer, but sometimes 'high definition' cannot create the feelings captured on a 'first take', even if this take is muddy as hell or full of merits! On the review Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote for allmusic.com, says : "it’s possible to hear what most individual instruments are doing on each track, which may lead for a greater appreciation of the Stones' monumental musicianship, but it’s somewhat at the expense of the album’s mystique". Yeah, truth's sometimes so CRUDE!

 Anyway, if you wanna buy it, do it. But if you really want to hear this masterpiece in its full decadent glory i got some goodies for ya. The "Main Street Revisited" is one of the many Mickboy remasters on the Stones works. Who is Mickboy? Don't know, but i thank him for what he did on these swats! I think this guy re-mixed everything he did from original (probably vinyl) pressings or even some Japanese audiophiles, and guess what, the results are simply SUPERB! His most notably work it's on the "Goat's Head Soup" but "Exile" and "Sticky" are again brilliant! These house works, give bootlegs a good name! Excellent sound, fabulous mixes, keen artworks and marvelous liners! If you wanna get them, try on Rolling Stones collectors sites, but on eBay too and from time to time make an appearance. If you're regular there, I'm sure you'll crash them. Be prepared though to fly off from your wallet many bucks. At the end, if there's one 'remastered' edition must own, that's "Main Street Revisited". 

PS: I got on CD also a mid 90s decent "Exile" edition but believe me there's nothing like the original vinyl pressing. Just recently, i discover a fantastic rip of this plastic made by PBTHAL. And here are the good things of technology... Sure this guy got magnificent equipment and knows how to use it! Sometimes i wonder why the Stones not tried to found fans for doing justice on their monuments and instead of this, they used !$%^&* like Don Was or for worse Babyface...? Keef should have killed Jagger a long time ago. Now he's dragged to greedy dollars hell too.

"Hey let him follow you down, /Way underground wind and he's bound. /Bound to follow you down,/Just a dead beat right off the street. /Bound to follow you down./ Well the ballrooms and smelly bordellos /And dressing rooms filled with parasites. /On stage the band has got problems, /They're a bag of nerves on first nights. /He ain't tied down to no home town, /Yeah, and he thought he was wreckless. /You think he's bad, he thinks you're mad, Yeah, and the guitar player gets restless...And his coat is torn and frayed"

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The Count Bishops - "Speedball + 11" (Chiswick/Ace - 1996)

I was a huge punk fanatic in my teens. Basically i still am. I was trying then to catch or listen to whatever band sacked under this term. That was in the early 90s, so you must take notice that at least in Greece, was a period of time without internet. I have bought (naturally) many crap records in those days (Exploited, GBH etc...) and it took me much time and money to finally see clearly what was 'PUNK'. Through the pass of time, exploring by hearing many long plays or CDs, i came to 2 basic conclusions:

1st. Actually PUNK, wasn't a British discovery (I know you know it). PUNK existed and before the 70s of course (I know you know it too!). Bands like the Velvets,Televison or Patti Smith Group never was musically at least in those fields! If i must be honest, PUNK was just one band. The Sonics! OK, i can compromise here and add the Stooges too, but that was it!

2nd. There's a lie when you read in magazines that "77 punk wave", saved rock n' roll from the Prog Rock's tyrants. In the 70s, rock n' roll being saved by PUB bands. Period!

I copied here a piece from allmusic.com that says it all:

"In the year or so before punk finally emerged on the London scene, the Count Bishops were the kind of band you wished everyone could sound like - without ever guessing that very soon, they would. A mere handful of other groups shared the Bishops' eye for tanked up, dressed down, dirty-ass R&B - Eddie & The Hot Rods, Little Bob Story, Dr Feelgood and the Hammersmith Gorillas were the closest, and it was a sign of those prime movers' versatility that each of them brought something fresh to the party.

In the Bishops' case, it was a laconic sneer, a greaseball grind and one of the hottest guitarists of the age, Zenon DeFleur. As both writer and performer, he nails even the trickiest riff down flat, for the rest of the band to steamroller. Give him a dumb one and he flattens it himself."

Fuck yeah! All these aforementioned bands belong to this day to my favorites' pantheon! And the Count Bishops are on the top of that list! Filthy strollers, leather drenched vagabonds, ripped jeans and sneakers wearing bums even before the Ramones! Dirty ass R&B the way (it) should be played. I read many times that this record is actually a "speed-ed up version of the Rolling Stones debut"...Hell yes it's true! 

The original 'Speedball EP' featured just four tracks. This record started Chiswick label, home at first by bands such as Motorhead or the Damned and parent label of a very important re-issue company, Ace Records. The recording process of "Speedball" EP (whatta name!) thankfully had nine more dynamites in the same vein and energy! Ace re-issued this mofo back in 1996 in its full greasy and anti-hippie glory, and even though it's still in print (is it?), you can't find it easily at the record stores. It's Bo and Chuck basically via the British Boom adaption of the Stones and the Pretties! I fuckin' adore the Flamin' Groovies but sorry lads, never even came close to these heights of energy! Not even the Bishops themselves.The after "Speedball" period found the Bishops changing line ups for a few times and even if they're not "mellowed" their sound, they'll never again be in the state of this vitriolically high excitement. Their US native singer, Mike Spenser left the band and established the (mighty trashers) Cannibals, but that's another chapter that we probably explore through this space in the near future. Till then... Be Speedballed!

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"TWO MINUTE BISHOPS - COUNT THEM AND SEE!
- Excerpt from Sounds, January 1976, Written by Phil Sutcliffe

"There was a time when the Swinging Blue Jeans moseyed into a studio, played the Hippy Hippy Shake for somewhat less than two minutes, decided that was alright and moseyed back out again - with a number one single.
That sort of carelessness (or should it be called spontanity) has been put to scorn by epic single makers from the Beach Boys to Queen but now a cosmopolitan bunch of roustabout pub rockers called the Count Bishops have loudly and proudly put the clock back.
Their current EP 'Speedball' (it ain't no soddin' maxi-single mates) is culled from 13 tracks of hot R&B laid down in five hours. I know this means they were tainted by modernism enough to take maybe half an hour on some tracks but you will agree that basically the statistics suggest all the doubts and hesitations of an express train.
The Count Bishops are Johnny Guitar (American on you-guessed), Zenon De Fleur (Polish/English on guitar, if you get the pun in his name, quite frequently the floor), Steve Lewins (proper English on bass) and Paul Balbi (Maltese/Australian on drums). The singer on 'Speedball' Mike Spencer, a New York buddy of Mr. Guitar, has already 'moved on'.
The band's French manager Larry Debray lamented: "Mike is a good mover, all the ingredients to be a good singer but his attitude was so unprofessional"
So Johnny and Zen are taking the vocals with a gentleman called Laurie, lately of the Michigan Flyers (who? ah well now...), temporarily on mouth-harp while they seek out a new front man.
Johnny, whose versatility extends to writing their intriguing Press handouts, said: "When we got together we rehearsed night and day for a couple of weeks" (a couple of weeks? te-he) "And then we went into Pathway Studios in Islington with the idea of getting down as many tracks as possible. It was 'We'll bring the amps, you guys bring the beer.'
"After eight or nine tracks we'd stopped and were listening to the playbacks and everyone was so enthusiastic we unpacked all the gear again and recorded four more including 'Route 66' and 'Teenage Letter' which we put on 'Speedball'."
Debray: "We captured the live sound which is very tight. The beginnings of a band. The accent was on energy level rather than refined recording."
There is certainly no danger of anyone describing the result as 'refined' but that raw, old sound (acknowledged Bishops' heroes are the early Stones and Yardbirds) is just what made them kick in the crypt. You have to laugh - and bop.
Debray is dubious about such praise though: "We think people aree too 'oooked on the nostalgia. This is R&B alive today! It's not just a matter of getting dusty records down off the shelf. The band is writing its own songs now it's got used to playing as a unit."
They have so far sold out the 2,500 initial pressing of 'Speedball' (Chiswick Records) and plan further recordings on the Franco-Dutch Skydog label for which Debray happens to be the UK agent. Another year and could R&B be back, could the Count Bishops be feeling good?"

- The above piece taken from http://chiswickrecords.blogspot.com

Various Artists - The Northern Soul Of Sue (Soul World - 1998)

A frequently overlooked but no less important label, SUE Records located in New York and ran business from 1957 to 1970. Big Apple's contribution to Soul music to this day remains in shadow in comparison with other US cities scenes (most people put down on NYC for Doo-Wop), like Detroit's, Memphis', Chicago's or Philadelphia's and that's a damn shame! Sue got known more for its rock & roll or rhythm & blues gems but in association with other labels like Eastern, Symbol, Crackerjack or Broadway got also on its roster many brilliant soul artists!
Derek Martin, Sandra Phillips, Ike & Tina Turner, Jimmy Helms or the Soul Sisters were few of the label's cream. SUE got a very interesting story particularly when on the image came Guy Stevens from England and the label's UK part started to overlap original US part, but that needs from your side a little google search...
What we got here is a cool 26 song CD, focusing on the (Northern) Soul creations of the label and of course is HOT as hell, destinated only to dissolve your shoes soles!
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the Northern Soul of SUE

Various Artists - Northwest Grease (Norton - 2004)

I have said in the past that I'll try not to post many things by labels like Norton or Crypt or Ace or any other like these on the sidebar of the site (check my links for more), but sometimes i just can't help it! I do believe that blogs make the best advertise on labels or releases like this one and i just hope the guys behind them see this prospect from the same view...Anyway, there must be something unique about Billy & Miriam. They're my heroes! They taught me what real rock & roll is and sound like and after all these years still amaze me with every single new release by Norton. I mean, where in the hell these guys found and discovered all these tunes? How do they know so many facts about artists no one else seem to know? One thing's for sure, at least for me are American Music Folklore Scientists and some international organization must pay them (at least RESPECT) for what these people unearthed, saved and gave to worldwide culture. Cause Rock & Roll is culture and Chuck and Bo are equals of  Moliere, Aristophanes and Shakespeare. The 7inch i decided this time to post is a raunchy document of where people like the Sonics or the Wailers drew their influences. Northwest Grease indeed! Don't know shit about these cats on it but Billy Miller surely knows! So, here are what Shadow Norton inked on the back of this fine piece o' vinyl:

"Dig this crazy feast of NORTHWEST GREASE!

The Mighty El Dukes serve up the chilling doo wop original "Walking Beside You" plus a hip take of the Hollywood Flames' "Frankenstein's Den".  Both unreleased chants are taken from a cool Rex Recording Company acetate out of Portland Oregon.

Tacoma, Washington rock n' roll icons Clayton Watson and the Silhouettes first scored in 1958 with the Lavender label waxing "Everybody's Boppin'".  They howled again the following year under the name Lord Dent and his Invaders (so dubbed for Watson's numerous car wrecks) with "Wolf Call" on the Shelley subsidiary of Golden Crest Records.  Here we spin out with "The Greaser", the sleazy flip of their Shelley single.

Joe Boot's boozy 1958 R&B wobbler "Rock And Roll Radio" was released on Seattle's Celestial label and features curiously inaudible vocal group support from the Fabulous Winds as well as backing by Floyd Standifer's jazz ork.  Standifer recalls Boot downing a full bottle of whiskey during the recording.  It might not be a bad idea to follow suit if you're playing along at home.

The cool '56 vintage cover snamp of Tacoma's unrecorded Cool Breezes (with Paul Smith, later of Imperial label stars the Barons) caps off this swank little party package."

Buy it from here!

Git it here!

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Various Artists - Jump and Shout! (J&S Records - 200?)

That's one of my very-very fave compilations. A hot-shit gathering of  greasy R&B and early Soul ass movers like few still around! A flame thrower in the shape of a record (or a compact disc pick what you want). From start to finish a "never let you sit down" grunt, tailor made for go go girls in tight & tiny mini skirts and long & shinny plastic boots! The sloppy feeling at its finest! The ebony sexual-ism at its best! Gems like Baby Jean's "If You Wanna",  Danny Ware's "The Zombie Stomp", Eddie Kirk's "The Grunt" or Larry Bright's "Way Down Home" could have been hits and smashes, if this shitty world ever had any slice of taste! If you're smart for just one time here, prefer the CD version. It has 8 sweaty bonuses in comparison with the LP and guess what, this jerk behind the keyboard bought the vinyl (I'm pretty sure Norton or Crypt mail-orders still got copies, just mail them)...But don't worry, some good lad ripped the CD and saved a lot of my day-by-day less time cause otherwise I had to do it by myself from the long play... Go figure! Anyway, if you ever mate crash with this site, please mail me to give you the credit you really deserve. I found it on an old HD back up drive and posted at all his 224Kbps body movin' glory!

Jump & Shout!