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Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Ike & Tina Turner - The Hunter (Great Soul'n Funk US 1969)


Size: 80.6 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster

Released just a few years after the epochal Phil Spector-produced River Deep Mountain High and close to six years before their breakup, Ike and Tina Turner's Hunter often gets lost in the duo's long and stormy existence. 


And while the album certainly is not on the same plane as the Spector album or later work like Workin' Together, Hunter still boasts several fine blues workouts in the inimitably electrifying Ike and Tina mode. The Stax sound figures prominently here, with producer Bob Krasnow (Captain Beefheart) keeping things nice and uncluttered to better frame Tina's intense vocal workouts.


The Hunter is an Ike & Tina studio album with a very strange cover art. The title track and the song I Know were released as singles - both with the song „Bold Soul Sister“ on the b-side. The duo  performed some songs live in their concerts, released on different live albums like Live In Paris from 1971.

Released originally in October 1969 from Blue Thumb Records in America and Harvest Records in Germany on vinyl, The Hunter reached #49 (R&B) and #176 (Pop) in America.

Billboard Magazine - October 18, 1969: Blue Thumb's "Outta Season" LP brought the much-recorded duo high and heavy on the charts, and their latest, featuring "l Know," should outrace all competitors for the lke & Tina Turner laurels. Bob Krasnow’s strong production sets the stage for this raucous rock 'n' blues session, as Tina rips up the vocals and lke provides the rhythm. "The Hunter" and "I Smell Trouble" should score.

A pretty sweet little album from Ike & Tina Turner – recording during a period when it seemed like they had contracts with just about every soul label on the market! This one's definitely got that hip "play it for the Fillmore crowd" sound that you'd expect from Blue Thumb – with less of the raw soul of earlier albums, and more of that "studio rootsy" feel that was sure to be big with the kids. 

There is a great little funk number, though – the incredible "Bold Soul Sister", which has great funky drumbeats, chicken scratch guitar, dipping basslines, and screaming vocals by Tina Turner that make the number sound like a lost little funky 45! Other tracks are more bluesy, and include "The Hunter", "Early In The Morning", "You're Still My Baby", "You Got Me Running", and "The Things I Used To Do".

01. The Hunter 6:37
02. You Don’t Love Me No More (Yes I Know) 3:02
03. You Got Me Running 3:04
04. Bold Soul Sister 2:38
05. I Smell Trouble 3:48
06. The Things I Used To Do 3:16
07. Early In The Morning 3:03
08. You’re Still My Baby 2:50
09. I Know (You Don’t Want Me No More) 2:34

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Sunday, October 28, 2018

ThumbsPlus 10.2.0.415 Professional


ThumbsPlus is a photo and graphics organizing and searching database and application for Microsoft Windows. It creates thumbnails and views images, vector files, fonts, videos, and metafiles. It also includes editing, batch editing and format conversion, searching and sorting by image similarity, image filters and processes, creating contact sheets, printing images and catalogs, displaying slide shows, changing wallpaper, launching external editors, installing and removing fonts, managing offline media, and automatically saving screen and window captures.

ThumbsPlus is the perfect solution for anyone with lots of photos, movies, metafiles, fonts, and other digital assets to organize, manage, and edit.

The professional and network editions support all common digital camera raw image formats, including Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Fuji, Ricoh, Minolta, Sony, Pentax, Leica, and Foveon. It also supports several scientific file formats.

ThumbsPlus is built around a relational database, which can be shared over a network. It directly supports Microsoft Access (default) and SQLite databases. True client/server databases are also supported in network configurations. Both SQLite3 and Client/Server databases can store as many thumbnails as you have disk space for! Even using a default Access JET (.tpdb8) database, you can store millions of thumbnails by moving the thumbnail data to external files.


File formats supported
ThumbsPlus can read and display over 100 file formats, including raster (image), metafile (vector), movies, and fonts. Many additional types are configurable using OLE or filter, including Adobe Photoshop import filters.

ThumbsPlus can write and convert to these image and metafile formats:

• JPEG (.jpg)
• JPEG 2000 (.jp2)
• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
• PNG (Portable Network Graphic)
• TIFF (.tif)
• PCX
• BMP (Microsoft Windows Bitmap)
• CMP LEADTOOLS compressed)
• ICO (Microsoft Windows Icon)
• WMF (Windows Metafile)


Image organization, management, and searching
ThumbsPlus stores its information in a relational database, allowing enormous flexibility in searching for files. Each tab on the Find window allows for searching for different kinds of information, and the Advanced tab allows you to enter SQL directly.


You can search for files in hundreds of different ways, combining any of the following:

• User Defined Fields
• Keywords
• Partial and full file names
• Duplicate and similar images
• Annotation contents

You can append advanced SQL to search by just about anything, including date ranges, file types, paths, galleries, and more.

Examples
• Searching for a partial filename and photographer (using a user defined field)
• Find all .CRW and .NEF files taken last month
• Finding images most similar to a specific image
• Find all images with all of the keywords beach, children,taken during 2016
• Find all .PSD files on network disks
• Find all files on local disks taken this month

Viewing and editing images
Most editing features can be done in a batch mode.


Batch processing is one of the most useful and powerful capabilities of ThumbsPlus. A "batch" is a group of files, and batch processing performs a set of operations on each file in the batch. Here are just a few examples of the numerous batch processes that you can do:

• Convert a group of files from one format to another.
• Convert several files of varying types, including metafiles, rasterizing to 800x800, sharpening a bit, cropping to 800x600, then resampling to 640x480  and saving as JPEG to a different folder.
• Create a bunch of thumbnail-sized JPG files for the Web (for complete Web page building, you can use the Web Page Wizard as well).
• Convert a group of GIF or LZW-compressed TIFF files to PNG.
• Rasterize several PICT or CGM files, with anti-aliasing, and storing as LZW-compressed TIFF.
• Convert a bunch of files to a 256-color common optimum palette ("Super palette") for use in a GIF or other animation.

You can save defined batch sets and reuse them later on different sets of files. You can even call a batch set from within another batch set! (This can be useful, for example, to write two files — for example, a GIF and a JPEG — from each input file.)

Image editing functions
■ Color adjustment (hue, saturation, lightness, brightness, contrast, gamma            curve)
■ Change color depth (1, 4, 8-bit indexed, 16 and 32 bit grayscale, RGB (24 and        48 bit), RGBA (32 and 64 bit)
■ Color balancing
■ Resize (downsample, bilinear, bicubic interpolation)
■ Rotate (.01 degree increments)
■ Rotate to match a drawn line horizontally or vertically
■ Assign and convert color profiles
■ Replace colors
■ Swap red and blue channels
■ Invert colors
■ Histogram equalization
■ Histogram stretching
■ Set image resolution (dpi, dpc)
■ Crop, including autocrop (remove solid borders)
■ Create alpha channel using selection (with feathering)
■ Remove or render alpha channel
■ Image stamping (overlay text or image)
■ Fading any prior operation
■ Rectangular, elliptical, and freehand selection
■ Cut, copy, paste
■ Combine images (add, subtract, multiply, divide, and, or, xor, etc.)
■ Image processes:
 ○ Auto Color Balance
 ○ Improve Video Capture
 ○ Fluorescent Lighting
 ○ General Enhancement
 ○ Contrast Enhancement
 ○ Cleanup Jpeg
 ○ Digital Camera Cleanup
 ○ Sepia Tone
 ○ Semi-Sepia Tone
 ○ Photo Negative
 ○ Equalize Channels
 ○ Stretch Channels
■ Image filters:
 ○ 6 Blur filters, including Gaussian blur
 ○ 11 Edge Detection, including morphological gradient
 ○ 11 Sharpen filters, including edge enhancement and unsharp mask
 ○ 22 Effects filters, including etch, drawing, oil posterize, mosaic, emboss, and      glowing edges
 ○ 9 Noise filters, including despeckle and edge-sensitive median
 ○ 6 Edge processing filters

Additional features:
Printing images and catalogs
Digital Contact sheets
Slide shows
Acquire scans using TWAIN, including multiple TWAIN acquire
Movie thumbnail and viewing options
Quick convert menu for converting multiple files
Computes image metrics for finding similar and duplicate images
OLE and Filter support for file formats not handled internally
Thumbnail creation for proprietary formats
Windows Still Image support
Web Page Wizard
Optimized palettes can be generated from multiple image files.
Extensive DDE commands
Extensive search capabilities with named search sets.
Folder operations (copy, move, and rename)
Many file sort options
Multiple customizable thumbnail views
Plugins are available for raw formats as well as EPS/PDF
Synchronized image scrolling, panning and zooming (for comparing images)
Image galleries for custom ordered slide shows and quick organization
Multiple monitor support
Photo printing options with print preview
Favorite locations for quick access to folders
Automatic file renaming (numbering)
Multiple background tasks are supported
Tagging images
Batch metadata Editor
Loupe Display (magnifier)
Metafile functions, including converting vector to true wmf files


The data input and search capabilities are professional and advanced while at the same time ThumbsPlus is very intuitive and easy to use for beginners in the graphic world.

1. ThumbsPlus
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2. ThumbsPlus
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3. ThumbsPlus


Fire Down Below - Hymn of the Cosmic Man (Belgium Heavy 2018)


Size: 103 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Some Artwork Included

Belgium desert rock band Fire Down Below will release its new album, Hymn of the Cosmic Man, on June 8 via Ripple Music (Mothership, BANG!). The surging quartet -- once hailed as "a stoner version of Tool" -- created the LP as an outer space concept album detailing "a single soul against an unnamed threat to mankind." Hymn of the Cosmic Man was mixed for maximum trajectory by Brad Boatright (Windhand, SUNN O))), Bell Witch) and is the follow up to Fire Down Below's 2016 debut, Viper, Vixen, Goddess, Saint. 


On Hymn of the Cosmic Man, Fire Down Below trades the hot desert winds of its debut for the cold desolation of outer space. "Saviour of Man", the first track released from the album, debuts in the form of a music video which builds on the album's cosmic concept. See and hear "Saviour of Man" at this location. 


"Rock n’ roll ain’t dead…stoner, classic, psyche, late 60s/early 70s style, etc., you just gotta look for the good stuff. Fire Down Below is pound for pound one of the best the style has to offer in current times."


Belgium's Fire Down Below refer to themselves as "amp-hugging, hard-hitting, fuzz-loving, ear-splitting, riff-worshipping rock 'n rollers", it is a bold claim but one the band, Sam Nuytens (drums)Jeroen Van Troyen (rhythm guitar and vocals), Kevin Gernaey (lead guitar) and Bert Wynsberghe (bass guitar), can more than back up, as can be witnessed by giving their latest release "Hymn of the Cosmic Man" (Ripple Music) a spin.


The word "cosmic" is well used in this albums title as the album has very much a space related theme running through its songs, titles like "Red Giant", "Ignition/Space Cruiser", "The Cosmic Pilgrim", "Nebula" and "Adrift in a Sea of Stars" are scattered liberally over the album length and even those songs with no reference to the vast Cosmos in their titles, " Saviour of Man" and "Ascension", are lyrically concerned with the great unknown and our place within it. 

What we all come to an album for however is the music and even if you have the most mind blowing concept for your album if the music does not match the integrity of your themes/concepts then you are more or less sunk before you have begun. Thankfully Fire Down Below's grooves are more than a match for their lofty conceptual aspirations and deliver both musically and lyrically within their spacial structures, the band rocking and vibrant on "Ignition/Space Cruiser", tranquil and trippy on "Nebula" and even a little prog(ish) and Tool like on the superb "Ascension". 

Fire Down Below:
♦♫♦ Bert Wynsberghe - bass 
♦♫♦ Jeroen Van Troyen - guitar, vocals 
♦♫♦ Kevin Gernaey - guitar
♦♫♦ Sam Nuytens - drums

01. Red Giant 02:10
02. Ignition-Space Cruiser 07:47
03. Saviour of Man 03:08
04. The Cosmic Pilgrim 09:16
05. Nebula 02:34
06. Ascension 07:46
07. Adrift in a Sea of Stars 11:08

1. Fire Down Below
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2. Fire Down Below
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3. Fire Down Below


I must show you one more from YouTube


Zurcaroh: Golden Buzzer Worthy Aerial Dance Group Impresses Tyra Banks - America's Got Talent 2018


Remember; The are amateurs, not professional.

//ChrisGoesRock

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Some Good YouTube Videos, Enjoy!

What Makes John Bonham Such a Good Drummer?



A Brief History of Electric Guitar Distortion



What Makes Jimi Hendrix Such a Good Guitarist



Top 10 Guitarists of All Time



//ChrisGoesRock

Monday, October 15, 2018

The Summer Rabbit - S/T (60's and 70's rock and roll, folk, blues, soul and psychedelic music) 2016


About
You want to know about us?

Well, we're a band. You probably knew that so I'll skip to the meat and potatoes. We're a pop-rock band from Sydney Nova Scotia that lives in the HRM. We tend to describe ourselves as a clean mix of the Beatles and the Band.


Front Cover
You know when you're driving around with your friends and THAT song comes on, and you all look at each other and start singing along and pretending to play the instruments? That's what we make people do.

​So you walk into a bar and you see this ecstatic guy singing these contagious lyrics, bouncing around and pounding away at his guitar; that's Blair Lucas. 


Blair writes 99% of our current material and he has been writing for years. You look to his left and see this slightly taller dude singing harmonies and playing what looks like a Hofner bass but it's actually just an Epiphone (You wouldn't believe how many people think it's a Hofner,) and he's wearing something probably stupid looking. That's Dan Taylor, what a weirdo. Last we have the rhythm keeper, the beat maker, the hoodie wearing specialist and all around A+ percussionist, Brett Chivari. 

​We've all known each other for awhile and we like to let that show in our interactions off and on stage. We've played a lot of typical bar shows, some festival related events like Action Week, some fundraisers like Run for the Cure and Children's Wish Foundation, and we managed to play the Savoy Theatre twice now. We've been climbing the gig ladder and are hoping to hop onto that nice shiny new ladder that hasn't been jumped on yet. We've had some air time on CKDU and a station in Germany which we think is pretty sweet- plus we had one of our singles on the Back Home NS Podcast. 

​Our debut album was released on October 1st 2016 and since then we've been working on tons of new material that we hope to get recorded for your listening pleasures soon! 

Check out our music page to hear us; and if you want us to come play a gig or event with you, send us an email- we'd love it.

​We're a pop-rock band from Sydney Nova Scotia that lives in the HRM. We tend to describe ourselves as a clean mix of the Beatles and the Band. 

You know when you're driving around with your friends and THAT song comes on, and you all look at each other and start singing along and pretending to play the instruments? That's what we make people do.
​
So you walk into a bar and you see this ecstatic guy singing these contagious lyrics, bouncing around and pounding away at his guitar; that's Blair Lucas. Blair writes 99% of our current material and he has been writing for years. 

You look to his left and see this slightly taller dude singing harmonies and playing what looks like a Hofner bass but it's actually just an Epiphone (You wouldn't believe how many people think it's a Hofner,) and he's wearing something probably stupid looking. 

That's Dan Taylor, what a weirdo. Last we have the rhythm keeper, the beat maker, the hoodie wearing specialist and all around A+ percussionist, Brett Chivari. 
​
We've all known each other for awhile and we like to let that show in our interactions off and on stage. 

We've played a lot of typical bar shows, some festival related events like Action Week, some fundraisers like Run for the Cure and Children's Wish Foundation, and we managed to play the Savoy Theatre twice now. 

We've been climbing the gig ladder and are hoping to hop onto that nice shiny new ladder that hasn't been jumped on yet.

We've had some air time on CKDU and a station in Germany which is pretty sweet, and had one of our singles on the Back Home NS Podcast. 
​
The Band: 
♫♪♪ Blair Lucas - Lead Vocals, Acoustic Rhythm guitar, percussion, harmonies, mellotron 
♫♪♪ Dan Taylor - Bass, Harmonies, Acoustic Rhythm guitars, 12 String Acoustic guitar 
♫♪♪ Brett Chivari - Drums, percussion 


Special thanks to our guests who appeared on our album and our new single: 
♫♪♪ Glen Bourgeios - Piano, Organ, Mellotron, Harmonies 
♫♪♪ Arthur Fox - Electric lead and rhythm guitars 
♫♪♪ Willie Moore - Electric Lead and rhythm guitars, Harmonies 
♫♪♪ Michael Sheldon: Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals (New Single)

Our Album:
01. Goddamn Musician Blues 03:17
02. Jimmy's a Lady Now 02:58
03. (This Is Not) Another Love Song 05:18
04. Livin' In a Zombie Town 04:34
05. Run Summer Rabbit 01:21
06. Lovely Little Yellow Sweden 04:39
07. Train Comin' Round 04:15
08. You're Gonna Miss Me 04:20
09. Farewell 04:57

Our links: Facebook
                   : YouTube
                   : Bandcamp


Sunday, October 14, 2018

Vanilla Fudge - The Return (Great Reunion Album 2002)


Size: 139 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped By: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included

Do you recognize the album cover or know the name of the band? Well, if you do you are older than I am. I was a little boy when these people were making a name for themselves. Vanilla Fudge was a band known for doing covers of popular songs by injecting their psychedelic blues-rock into every groove on a record. That was then and this is now. Has that much changed? 


Not really, they still kick ass and sound great. They serve notice they are back with a vengeance very quickly on the rockin' opener "Ain't That Peculiar" and renew their classic rendition of "You Keep Me Hangin'On" in their own unique way. They even do an out of character rap in Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," which by the way, rocks the house down. 


The only song on the CD that did not seem to fit was "I Want It That Way," it seemed as if they were trying to force their style of music on the song, and it did not work. Other than that, this is a great recording.

I can only hope I have the energy, soul, and emotion that this group has when I get into my fifties. We seem to be going through a rock 'n' roll renaissance lately with 60s and 70s bands reemerging and catching everyone by surprise with the great music that is being produced. They are that good, and much of what is recorded today is not worthy of your listening so it is a real treat to take this all in. 


There is not only the audience that they left behind in the 60s that will be thrilled to hear this, there will be excited new listeners wondering why they never heard of this group. I got a wakeup call with Vince Martell's solo album Endless High last year. I found out what a great guitarist and vocalist he was and wondered then if he would get the Fudge back together because he was having so much success. I am glad that he did. They have also stayed current with an attractive website with updates on all the group members. 


For all the hangers on and all of those that have been wondering what this band sounded like, here is your chance to hear them in present day. I encourage you to delve into their back catalog as well, it is excellent and well worth your time and hard-earned bucks. Review by Muzikman 

In 2001, three members of the VANILLA FUDGE got together and proved they can still rock & roll-- these guys sound terrific! THE RETURN features reworkings of eight of their classics-- all are excellent. "Season Of The Witch," for example, is vastly improved by the loss of Mark Stein's odd poetry break midway through ("Here we sit emerged in a liquid sea of love..." etc.), as well as a truncation of the intro. The new studio version of "Shotgun" is white-hot and most welcome.

Carmine Appice is still amazing-- the man hasn't lost a beat. Vocals on "Need Love" soar high, while the Fudge's jamming surpasses their original track. The four new songs on this set are quite good, too. This album's a joy-- if you're a Vanilla Fudge fan, you're gonna love it!

★ Vince Martell - guitar, vocals 
★ Bill Pascali - organ, vocals 
★ Tim Bogert - bass, vocals 
★ Carmine Appice - drums, vocals, producer

01. Ain't That Peculiar (6:10)
02. You Keep Me Hangin' On (6:45)
03. Tearin' Up My Heart (7:37) *
04. Shotgun (6:05)
05. People Get Ready (6:46)
06. Take Me For A Little While (4:15)
07. Good Good Livin' (4:42)
08. I Want It That Way (6:50) *
09. Need Love (4:49)
10. She's Not There (5:12)
11. Season Of The Witch (8:10)
12. Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (7:12) *

New recordings of previous songs and three new songs * (tracks #3,8,12)

1. Reunion 2002
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2. Reunion 2002
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3. Reunion 2002


Friday, October 12, 2018

Vanilla Fudge - The Complete Atco Singles 1967-70


Size: 207 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoersRock
Artwork Included

Vanilla Fudge was one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal. While the band did record original material, they were best-known for their loud, heavy, slowed-down arrangements of contemporary pop songs, blowing them up to epic proportions and bathing them in a trippy, distorted haze. Originally, Vanilla Fudge was a blue-eyed soul cover band called the Electric Pigeons, who formed in Long Island, New York, in 1965. Organist Mark Stein, bassist Tim Bogert, and drummer Joey Brennan soon shortened their name to the Pigeons and added guitarist Vince Martell. They built a following by gigging extensively up and down the East Coast, and earned extra money by providing freelance in-concert backing for girl groups. In early 1966, the group recorded a set of eight demos that were released several years later as While the Whole World Was Eating Vanilla Fudge, credited to Mark Stein & the Pigeons.


Inspired by the Vagrants, another band on the club circuit led by future Mountain guitarist Leslie West, the Pigeons began to put more effort into reimagining the arrangements of their cover songs. They got so elaborate that by the end of the year, drummer Brennan was replaced by the more technically skilled Carmine Appice. In early 1967, their manager convinced producer George "Shadow" Morton (who'd handled the girl group the Shangri-Las and had since moved into protest folk) to catch their live act. Impressed by their heavy, hard-rocking recasting of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On," Morton offered to record the song as a single; the results landed the group a deal with the Atlantic subsidiary Atco, which requested a name change. The band settled on Vanilla Fudge, after a favorite ice cream flavor. 

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" didn't perform as well as hoped, but the band toured extensively behind its covers-heavy, jam-oriented debut album Vanilla Fudge, which gradually expanded their fan base. Things started to pick up for the band in 1968: early in the year, they headlined the Fillmore West with the Steve Miller Band, performed "You Keep Me Hangin' On" on The Ed Sullivan Show, and released their second album, The Beat Goes On. Despite its somewhat arty, indulgent qualities, the LP was a hit, climbing into the Top 20. That summer, Atco reissued "You Keep Me Hangin' On," and the second time around it climbed into the Top Ten. It was followed by Renaissance, one of Vanilla Fudge's best albums, which also hit the Top 20. The band supported it by touring with Jimi Hendrix, opening several dates on Cream's farewell tour, and late in the year touring again with the fledgling Led Zeppelin as their opening act.


In 1969, the band kept touring and released their first album without Morton, the expansive, symphonic-tinged Near the Beginning. After part of the band recorded a radio commercial with guitarist Jeff Beck, the idea was hatched to form a Cream-styled power trio with plenty of individual solo spotlights. Exhausted by the constant touring, the band decided that their late-1969 European tour would be their last. 

Following the release of their final album, Rock & Roll, Vanilla Fudge played a few U.S. farewell dates and disbanded in early 1970. Bogert and Appice first formed the hard rock group Cactus, then later joined up with Jeff Beck in the aptly named Beck, Bogert & Appice. Appice went on to become an active session and touring musician, working with a variety of rock and hard rock artists. Vanilla Fudge reunited in 1984 for the poorly received Mystery album, and, over the course of the next two decades, Vanilla Fudge would regroup for tours. These reunions often had differing lineups, always anchored by Carmine Appice and usually Tim Bogert, although the latter opted out of an early-'90s incarnation.

At the turn of the millennium, the group -- featuring Appice, Bogert, keyboardist Bill Pascali, and guitarist Vince Martell -- launched a more serious comeback heralded by the 2002 album The Return. Several other minor switches in lineup followed in the next few years and, in 2007, they featured Mark Stein on vocals/keyboards instead of Pascali. That group released Out Through the In Door in 2007. More tours followed as did the revolving membership, with the most notable departure being Bogert in 2011. 

He was replaced by Pete Bremy, and Vanilla Fudge launched a "farewell tour" in 2011, a tour that continued for several years. A studio album, Spirit of '67, appeared in 2015; the band described as their heaviest work to date. Allmusic

Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band known predominantly for their extended rock arrangements of contemporary hit songs, most notably "You Keep Me Hangin' On".

The band's original lineup—vocalist and organist Mark Stein, bassist and vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer and vocalist Carmine Appice—recorded five albums during the years 1967–69, before disbanding in 1970. The band is currently touring with three of the four original members: Stein, Martell, and Appice with Pete Bremy on bass as Bogert retired in 2009.

The band has been cited as "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal." Vanilla Fudge also is known to have influenced other major bands such as The Nice, Deep Purple, Yes, Styx, Led Zeppelin, and Uriah Heep.

Stein and Bogert had played in a local band called Rick Martin & The Showmen. The pair were so impressed by the swinging, organ-heavy sound of The Rascals they decided to form their own band in 1965 with Martell and Rick Martin's drummer, Mark Dolfen, who was quickly replaced by Joey Brennan. Originally calling themselves The Electric Pigeons, they soon shortened the name to The Pigeons. 

Vanilla Fudge - US Single 1968
In December 1966 Brennan moved on to The Younger Brothers Band and Bogert became very impressed with a young drummer named Carmine Appice he'd heard playing at the Headliner Club on 43rd Street in a cover band called Thursday's Children. Appice was asked to join The Pigeons and in his 2016 autobiography, Stick It!, Carmine explained the name change to Vanilla Fudge: "In April 1967 the Pigeons got signed to Atlantic Records. But there was one drawback, however: Atlantic didn't want to sign a band called The Pigeons. "Ahmet Ertegun, the label's founder and president, didn't like that name and told us we had to change it. 

We didn't mind, in fact, I had always thought The Pigeons was a weird thing to be called but had just gone with it. We tried to think up a new name but were getting nowhere until we played a gig at the Page 2 club on Long Island and ended up talking to a chick named Dee Dee who worked there. She told us how her grandfather used to call her Vanilla Fudge. Then she looked at us and added 'Maybe you guys should call yourselves that—you're like white soul music'. We liked it. We told our manager, Phil Basile. He liked it. We told Atlantic and they liked it, too. So Vanilla Fudge it was". A recording of The Pigeons, "While The World Was Eating Vanilla Fudge", was released by Scepter/Wand in 1970.

Vanilla Fudge - Australian EP 1967
Vanilla Fudge was managed by the reputed Lucchese crime family member Phillip Basile, who operated several popular clubs in New York. Their first three albums (Vanilla Fudge, The Beat Goes On, and Renaissance) were produced by Shadow Morton, whom the band met through The Rascals. When Led Zeppelin first toured the United States in early 1969, they opened for Vanilla Fudge on some shows.

The band's biggest hit was its cover of "You Keep Me Hangin' On," a slowed-down, hard rocking version of a song originally recorded by The Supremes. This version featured Stein's psychedelic-baroque organ intro and Appice's energetic drumming. It was a Top 10 hit in Canada, the United States, and Australia and a Top 20 hit in the UK in 1967.

The members of Vanilla Fudge were great admirers of the Beatles, and covered several of their songs including "Ticket to Ride", "Eleanor Rigby" and "You Can't Do That". The self-titled debut album quotes "Strawberry Fields Forever" at the end, with the line "there's nothing to get hung about."

According to Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord, Vanilla Fudge's organ-heavy sound was a large influence on the British band Deep Purple, with Blackmore even stating that his band wanted to be a "Vanilla Fudge clone" in its early years.

Vanilla Fudge - Italy Single 1969
Vanilla Fudge played a farewell concert at the Phil Basile's Action House on March 14, 1970. After that, Bogert & Appice departed to form another group, Cactus, that they had been planning since late 1969. They left Cactus and formed Beck, Bogert & Appice with guitarist Jeff Beck in 1972. Stein, left on his own, tried to keep Vanilla Fudge afloat with two new players, Sal D'Nofrio (bass) and Jimmy Galluzi (drums) (both of whom had been members of a Poughkeepsie, New York, group known as 'The Dirty Elbows'). But when nothing came from this, Stein ended up forming a new group, Boomerang, with Galluzi.

Since the band's breakup in 1970, Vanilla Fudge has reunited several times. They reunited in support of the Atco Records release Best of Vanilla Fudge in 1982. This resulted in Mystery, another album of new material, released in 1984. Martell was not included in this initial reunion and Ron Mancuso played guitar on Mystery instead, along with Jeff Beck, who guested under the moniker "J. Toad". Two reunion tours followed in 1987/1988. with Paul Hanson on guitar. Lanny Cordola was guitarist when the band took the stage on May 14, 1988 for Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary celebration. After that, band members went their own ways once again to pursue separate projects.

In 1991 Appice revived the Vanilla Fudge name for a tour with Ted Nugent's former band members Derek St. Holmes (guitar, vocals), Martin Gerschwitz (keyboards, vocals), and Tom Croucier (bass, vocals), which resulted in the album The Best of Vanilla Fudge – Live. Wikipedia

01. You Keep Me Hangin On
02. Take Me For A Little While
03. Where Is My Mind
04. The Look Of Love
05. Come By Day Come By Night
06. Thoughts
07. Season Of The Witch Pt. 1
08. Season Of The Witch Pt. 2
09. Shotgun
10. Good Good Lovin'
11. Some Velvet Morning
12. People
13. Need Love
14. I Can't Make It Alone
15. Lord In The Country
16. The Windmills Of Your Mind
17. Mystery
18. The Stranger
19. Some Velvet Morning (DJ Promo Edit)

Part 1: Atco Singles
Part 2: Atco Singles
or
Part 1: Atco Singles
Part 2: Atco Singles
or
Part 1: Atco Singles
Part 2: Atco Singles

Vanilla Fudge Poster September 7, 1968