Dieser Blog wird nicht ergänzt. This blog will not be further completed.

Wegen technischer Schwierigkeiten wird dieser Blog (BIG BEAT AND POWER POP 2) nicht weitergeführt. Der alte Blog Big Beat and Power Pop ist dafür wieder aktiv. Dort ist alles bereits gepostete abgelegt und die weiteren Posts erscheinen dort: https://bigbeatandpowerpop.blogspot.com

Due to technical difficulties BIG BEAT AND POWER POP 2 will be shut down. My original blog Big Beat and Power Pop is online again: Everything posted so far has been moved to Big Beat and Power Pop and everything that is to come will be uploaded there: https://bigbeatandpowerpop.blogspot.com. Sorry for the inconvenience.

THE BUCKTHRUSTERS on Fresh Sounds from Middle America - psychedelic when you wouldn’t expect it

 

In 1981 the people from Fresh Sounds, a tape label based in Lawrence, Kansas, sent me a cassette-only release entitled “FRESH SOUNDS FROM MIDDLE AMERICA” featuring artists like The C. Lucas Experience, Monte Montclaire or Color Entertainment. They didn’t do much for me.  The band featured foremost on side 1 of the cassette was a 5-piece called THE BUCKTHRUSTERS, obviously from Kansas also. The were recorded at Skeels studio in Wichita, Kansas, and they were kind of a novelty unit then as their instrumentation was without guitar, but prominently featured an accordian alongside keyboards, synths and a bass’n’drums rhythm section. Mind, this was 1981 and not the time like today when a flute quartet would play Death Metal or a bunch of nosepipers would do the Grunge. The Buckthrusters were so out of line and unique, I couldn’t but fall in love with them. They were droning, they were intense, they were psychedelic in the true sense of the word, and they had the Rock beat. “The Drive” is passion galore, while “The Moment” swings along nicely. The Buckthrusters’ sound has remained exclusive and exceptional even 40 years later…      


01 THE BUCKTHRUSTERS  -  Blu Lite Special     02 THE BUCKTHRUSTERS  -  And It Is     03 THE BUCKTHRUSTERS  -  The Drive     04 THE BUCKTHRUSTERS  -  The Moment     05 THE BUCKTHRUSTERS  -  Ha! Ha!  

 

ROCKIN’ THE CAVE, MEN! Guitar Wailers – 60s Garage Beat, R&B and Psych

 

A compilation of 60s tunes - Garage, R & B, Instrumentals, Psychedelia, Merseybeat

Cool music, no doubt, and some very rare items.


01 THE MOONTREKKERS – Vampire     02 THE TARANTULAS – Tarantula     03 THE GUEST VILLAINS – Forbidden Feelings     04 THE SCARFS – The Jerk Is The Thing     05 CECIL GARRETT & THE FASCINATIONS – Bearcat     06 THE BELAIRS – Squad Car     07 THE NOBLEMEN – Thunder Wagon     08 THE EVERLY BROTHERS – You’re My Girl     09 THE CEDARS – For Your Information     10 THE BELAIRS – Bedlam     11 RON GRAY – Hold Back The Sunrise     12 GROUP 1850 – Little Fly     13 THE PARAGONS – Abba     14 THE DEL COUNTS – Bird Dog     15 EDDIE AND THE SHOWMEN – Squad Car     16 WE THE PEOPLE – My Brother The Man     17 THE SCOUTS – I Wonder Why     18 BOY AND HIS ROLLIN’ KIDS – Tabu     19 LITTLE BOB – I Got Loaded     20 THE NOVATONES – Mary Lee     21 STATUS QUO – Technicolour Dreams      22 THE LORDS – Death Bells At Dawn     23 BAG – Tripdream     24 MOM’S BOYS – Yellow Pill     25 GROUP 1850 – Steel Sings     26 LAST KNIGHT – Shadow Of Fear     27 CHILDREN OF THE WORLD – World Of Tears     28 LES GOTHS – Turn Over

 

Musical Beermats - Musikalische Bierdeckel

My friend U.N., also known as Ross Hunter, is sparing neither money nor effort to make outstanding Christmas gifts. In 2018 he gave his friends a set of beermats which I liked very much and which I want to share with you.

Mein Freund U.N. (auch bekannt als Ross Hunter) scheut keine Mühen und Ausgaben, um seinen Freunden ausgefallene  Weihnachtsgeschenke zu machen. 2018 gab es ein 5er-Set Bierdeckel, die mir gefielen und die ich hier mit euch teilen möchte.




And the backside always looked like this, only the background colour was that of the frontside.

Und die Rückseite war immer diese, nur die Hintergrundfarbe war die der Vorderseite.




THE CRUNCHER – Surfin’ Wattenmeer, Germany - homegrown Surf music

In the late seventies I bought some re-issues of Rock ’n’ Roll rarities on LPs issued by NPR records. I was living in Mülheim/Ruhr then, and one of my favourite shops was somewhere in the south of Düsseldorf at the arterial road direction Leverkusen, Kölner Landstraße. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the shop’s name, though I spent a decent amount of money there and the shopkeeper was a man of Rock ‘n’ Roll knowledge, Dieter Boeck. Anyway, the LPs were titled “The Real Rock And Surf Sound - Archive Series” and the address given for the label was 2945 Sande. I tried to make contact then, as I was publishing the Gorilla Beat fanzine then, but the guys did not respond. I most probably wanted to get free review copies and the NPR guys smelled the rat. Little did I know then that I would settle in the neighbouring town just a dozen or so years later. Yet, it was through these LPs that I would get to know the names of Hugh Barrett & The Victors (“Got The Bull By The Horns), Dick d’Agostini (“Nancy Lynn”), The Hollywood Vines (“When Johnny Comes Slidin’ Home”) and the likes. The NPR guys surely were among the pioneers of spreading the gospel.

 No, this isn't Boris Johnson on a surf board

And, after moving to where I am still living today, I didn’t know that the guys involved in the record label were making music also and ran an excellent Surf cover band called The Cruncher. They got it all right, and even acquired the apropriate equipment. Sande is just a few miles from the North Sea, so Surf music might be the natural choice, unfortunately the North Sea coast here is all mud and silt instead of sandy beaches, and the waves are rarely more than a ripple in the sea.

Anyway, Herbert Hooke, gtr, Klaus Brunner, gtr, Norbert Heinke, sax, org, Wolfgang Peters, b, and  Harald Zeidler, perc, had set their heart on a brand of music that was not especially popular in Germany and they were – like Jon and The Night Riders – forerunners in making Surf music part of the burgeoning Garage scene.

I have now compiled a kind of “Best Of” from their early LPs “go surfin’ with” and “Jupiter C” as well as CD compiling early recordings: “Schlicktao Surfer”. And please, bear in mind, they are no innovators but connoisseurs. 

                                     The Cruncher in the studio in the 80s, kings of the jolly trousers

 

01 THE CRUNCHER – Wild Weekend     02 THE CRUNCHER – Theme From Sheena     03 THE CRUNCHER – Midnight Run     04 THE CRUNCHER – The Wasp     05 THE CRUNCHER – Redondo Strand     06 THE CRUNCHER – Baja     07 THE CRUNCHER – Latinia     08 THE CRUNCHER - Jupiter C     09 THE CRUNCHER – Casbah     10 THE CRUNCHER – Surf Beat     11 THE CRUNCHER – The Bronze Surfer     12 THE CRUNCHER – El Aguila     13 THE CRUNCHER – Ventura     14 THE CRUNCHER – Honky Tonk