sundazed Archive
22 Jun 2018
Album Review: The Shadows of Knight — Alive in ’65
Sundazed and its affiliated imprints have been doing yeoman work of late, providing an astounding service to the history of rock. The label has unearthed live tapes of fabled garage-rock bands (and I use that term loosely) of the 1960s, allowing modern-day listeners a glimpse of what these groups “really sounded like.” The bands’ studio
04 May 2018
Album Review: The Rising Storm — Calm Before…
A bunch of prep school boys put together a rock band in 1965. Big deal, right? American teens (mostly but not exclusively males) did that all over the USA in the mid sixties. The influences of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds was widespread, and American affluence (for some, at least) meant that
17 Dec 2017
Hundred-word Reviews for December 2017: Reissues/Compilations
Today I take quick looks – in the form of 100-word reviews – at ten newly-reissued and/or compiled releases. There’s something for everyone – and lots for me – in this stack of discs. Chris Bell – I Am the Cosmos (Omnivore Recordings) In one sense, it’s beyond bizarre that the work of Chris Bell
15 May 2017
Album Reviews: Three Standells Reissues
From one point of view, The Standells were opportunists. As that story goes, they got their start as a smiling, suited pop group, only changing their sound and collective demeanor once they took a new reading as to which way the pop culture winds were blowing. Moreover, that argument goes, they weren’t even from Boston,
17 Apr 2017
Album Review: Ultimate Spinach — Behold & See (Mono)
At the time of its 1968 release, Ultimate Spinach‘s Behold & See suffered from critical backlash. Those brickbats were directed primarily at the ill-advised “Bosstown Sound” marketing hype that surrounded the group. Considered on its own, Behold & See is a worthwhile and oft-overlooked artifact of its era. Yet the flow of Behold & See
26 Dec 2016
Best Music of 2016: Reissue/archival Releases
I love new music, but I’m also attuned to keeping up with the latest in reissues and archival releases. Sometimes those feature some of my favorite artists; other times they turn me on to music of the past that I’ve never even heard. In 2016 I’ve been able to select my Top Ten reissue and/or
10 Jul 2015
Album Review: The Standells — Live on Tour 1966!
The Standells – considered a quintessential protopunk band of the 1960s – got their start as a matching-suited, club band playing frat-rock and covers of the day. The pride of Boston thanks to their name-checking 1966 hit, “Dirty Water,” The Standells weren’t even from Massachusetts; they were a Los Angeles group. But with the passing
09 Jul 2015
Album Review: The Shadows of Knight — Live 1966
In their heyday – a period that began in 1966 and ended, well, in 1966 – Chicago’s Shadows of Knight embodied what we now look back upon as the garage rock aesthetic. A group of suburban teens inspired – like countless other groups of teens in those days – by the British Invasion, the Shadows