Black Sabbath - Sabotage (Classic Album UK 1975, Highly Rated)

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Sabotage is the sixth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released in July 1975. It was recorded in the midst of litigation with their former manager Patrick Meehan and the stress that resulted from the band's ongoing legal woes infiltrated the recording process, inspiring the album's title. It was co-produced by guitarist Tony Iommi and Mike Butcher.

Black Sabbath began work on their sixth album in February 1975, again in England at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London. The title Sabotage was chosen because the band were at the time being sued by their former management and felt they were being "sabotaged all the way along the line and getting punched from all sides", according to Iommi. Iommi credits those legal troubles for the album's angry, heavier sound. 

In 2001, bassist Geezer Butler explained to Dan Epstein, "Around the time of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, we found out that we were being ripped off by our management and our record company. So, much of the time, when we weren't onstage or in the studio, we were in lawyer's offices trying to get out of all our contracts. 

We were literally in the studio, trying to record, and we'd be signing all these affidavits and everything. That's why it's called Sabotage – because we felt that the whole process was just being totally sabotaged by all these people ripping us off." In his autobiography I Am Ozzy, singer Ozzy Osbourne confirms that "writs were being delivered to us at the mixing desk" and that drummer Bill Ward "was manning the phones." In the liner notes to the 1998 live album Reunion, Butler claimed the band suffered through 10 months of legal cases and admitted, "music became irrelevant to me. It was a relief just to write a song."

Tony Iommi later reflected, "We could've continued and gone on and on, getting more technical, using orchestras and everything else which we didn't particularly want to. We took a look at ourselves, and we wanted to do a rock album – Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath wasn't a rock album, really." According to the book How Black Was Our Sabbath, "The recording sessions would usually carry on into the middle of the night. Tony Iommi was working really hard on the production side of things with the band's co-producer Mike Butcher, and he was spending a lot of time working out his guitar sounds. Bill, too, was experimenting with the drums, especially favouring the 'backwards cymbal' effect." Osbourne, however, was growing more frustrated with how long Sabbath albums were now taking to record, writing in his autobiography that "Sabotage took about four thousand years."

Sabotage is a mix of heavy, powerful songs and softer experimental tunes, such as "Supertzar" and "Am I Going Insane (Radio)". In 2013 Mojo observed, "Opener 'Hole in the Sky' and the crunching 'Symptom of the Universe' illustrate that, for all their problems, Sabbath's power remained undimmed on what was what many consider one of their finest offerings." In the article "Thrash Metal - An Introduction" in University Times Magazine, Vladimir Rakhmanin cites "Symptom of the Universe" as one of the earliest examples of thrash metal, a heavy metal subgenre which emerged in the early 1980s. 

Tony Iommi describes the song's dynamics in his autobiography Iron Man: "It starts with an acoustic bit. Then it goes into the up-tempo stuff to give it that dynamic, and it does have a lot of changes to it, including the jam at the end." The final part of "Symptom of the Universe" evolved from an in-studio improvisation, created very spontaneously in a single day and the decision was made to use it in that song. 

The London Philharmonic Choir was brought in to perform on the song "Supertzar". When vocalist Ozzy Osbourne arrived at the studio and saw them, he thought he was in the wrong studio and left. The title of the pop-leaning "Am I Going Insane (Radio)" caused some confusion due to the "(Radio)" part, which led people to believe the song was a radio cut or radio version. However, this is the only version of the song: the term "radio-rental" is rhyming slang for "mental".

"The Writ" is one of only a handful of Black Sabbath songs to feature lyrics composed by vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, who typically relied on bassist Geezer Butler for lyrics. The song was inspired by the frustrations Osbourne felt at the time, as Black Sabbath's former manager Patrick Meehan was suing the band after having been fired. The song viciously attacks the music business in general and is a savage diatribe directed towards Meehan specifically ("Are you Satan? Are you a man?"), with Osbourne revealing in his memoir, "I wrote most of the lyrics myself, which felt a bit like seeing a shrink. All the anger I felt towards Meehan came pouring out." During this period, the band began to question if there was any point to recording albums and touring endlessly "just to pay the lawyers".

The brief instrumental "Don't Start (Too Late)" is an acoustic guitar showpiece for Iommi, titled for tape operator David Harris who often despaired at Sabbath being prone to start playing before he was ready.

Sabotage was released on 27 June 1975 and peaked at number 7 in the United Kingdom and at number 28 in the United States. It was certified Silver (60,000 units sold) in the UK by the BPI on 1 December 1975 and Gold in the US on 16 June 1997, but was the band's first release not to achieve platinum status in the US. For the second time, a Black Sabbath album initially saw favourable reviews, with Rolling Stone stating "Sabotage is not only Black Sabbath's best record since Paranoid, it might be their best ever", although later reviewers such as Allmusic noted that "the magical chemistry that made such albums as Paranoid and Volume 4 so special was beginning to disintegrate". Guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen told Nick Bowcott of Guitar Player in 2008 that the riff to "Symptom of the Universe" was the first Tony Iommi riff he ever heard and that "Tony's use of the flat fifth would have got him burned at the stake a couple hundred years ago."

The band toured the US in support of Sabotage in 1975, which included a filmed appearance for the prestigious series Don Kirshner's Rock Concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Sabbath played "Killing Yourself To Live", "Hole In The Sky", "Snowblind", "War Pigs" and "Paranoid". During Iommi's guitar solo during "Snowblind", plastic snowflakes were dropped from above on the audience and the band, a gimmick used during the band's live shows during this period. According to the book How Black Was Our Sabbath, "The audience was limited to just a couple thousand fans, and it seemed like the whole of LA got wind of it." Due to the band's expanding use of orchestras and other new sounds in the studio, the tour in support of Sabotage was the first in which Black Sabbath used a full-time keyboardist onstage, Gerald "Jezz" Woodroffe. Black Sabbath toured with openers Kiss, but were forced to cut the tour short in November 1975, after vocalist Osbourne was injured in a motorcycle accident. "Allmusic Rating: ★★★★ +Half ★

The Band:
♦ Ozzy Osbourne – lead vocals
♦ Tony Iommi – all guitar, piano, synthesizer, organ, harp
♦ Terry "Geezer" Butler – bass guitar
♦ Bill Ward – drums, percussion (piano and backing vocals on "Blow on a Jug")

01. "Hole in the Sky"  04:00
02. "Don't Start (Too Late)" (Instrumental)  00:49
03. "Symptom of the Universe"  06:29
04. "Megalomania"  09:46
05. "The Thrill of It All"  05:56
06. "Supertzar" (Instrumental with vocalising choir)  03:44
07. "Am I Going Insane (Radio)"  04:17
08. "The Writ"  08:46

Some versions of Sabotage contain a short hidden track entitled "Blow on a Jug" at the end of "The Writ", recorded at very low volume.

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The Blues Project - Live at The CAFE AU GO GO 1966 (2CD) (Mono/Stereo) (SHM-CD)

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Live at The Cafe Au Go Go is the debut album by the American band The Blues Project, recorded live during the Blues Bag four-day concert on the evenings of November 24-27, 1965 at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City. The band scaled down their usual lengthy arrangements for the album due to time constrictions and record label wariness.

Although Tommy Flanders (who'd already left the band by the time this debut hit the streets) is credited as sole vocalist, four of the then-sextet's members sang; in fact, Danny Kalb handles as many leads as Flanders (four each), Steve Katz takes center stage on Donovan's "Catch the Wind," and Al Kooper is featured on "I Want to Be Your Driver." The band could be lowdown when appropriate (Kalb's reading of "Jelly, Jelly"), high energy (Muddy Waters' "Goin' Down Louisiana" sounds closer to Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley), and unabashedly eclectic (tossing in Donovan or Eric Andersen with no apologies). Kalb's moody take on "Alberta" is transcendent, and the uptempo arrangement of "Spoonful" is surprisingly effective. 

One of the first album-oriented, "underground" groups in the United States, the Blues Project offered an electric brew of rock, blues, folk, pop, and even some jazz, classical, and psychedelia during their brief heyday in the mid-'60s. It's not quite accurate to categorize them as a blues-rock group, although they did plenty of that kind of material; they were more like a Jewish-American equivalent to British bands like the Yardbirds, who used a blues and R&B base to explore any music that interested them. Erratic songwriting talent and a lack of a truly outstanding vocalist prevented them from rising to the front line of '60s bands, but they recorded plenty of interesting material over the course of their first three albums, before the departure of their most creative members took its toll.

The Blues Project was formed in Greenwich Village in the mid-'60s by guitarist Danny Kalb (who had played sessions for various Elektra folk and folk-rock albums), Steve Katz (a guitarist with Elektra's Even Dozen Jug Band), flutist / bassist Andy Kulberg, drummer Roy Blumenfeld, and singer Tommy Flanders. Al Kooper, in his early twenties a seasoned vet of rock sessions, joined after sitting in on the band's Columbia Records audition, although they ended up signing to Verve, an MGM subsidiary. Early member Artie Traum (guitar) dropped out during early rehearsals; Flanders would leave after their first LP, Live at the Cafe Au-Go-Go (1966).

The eclectic résumés of the musicians, who came from folk, jazz, blues, and rock backgrounds, was reflected in their choice of material. Blues by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry tunes ran alongside covers of contemporary folk-rock songs by Eric Anderson and Patrick Sky, as well as the group's own originals. These were usually penned by Kooper, who had already built songwriting credentials as the co-writer of Gary Lewis' huge smash "This Diamond Ring," and established a reputation as a major folk-rock shaker with his contributions to Dylan's mid-'60s records. Kooper also provided the band's instrumental highlights with his glowing organ riffs.

France EP 1966

The live debut sounds rather tame and derivative; the group truly hit their stride on Projections (late 1966), which was, disappointingly, their only full-length studio recording. While they went through straight blues numbers with respectable energy, they really shone best on the folk and jazz-influenced tracks, like "Fly Away," Katz's lilting "Steve's Song," Kooper's jazz instrumental "Flute Thing" (an underground radio standard that's probably their most famous track), and Kooper's fierce adaptation of an old Blind Willie Johnson number, "I Can't Keep from Crying." A non-LP single from this era, the pop-psychedelic "No Time Like the Right Time," was their greatest achievement and one of the best "great hit singles that never were" of the decade.

The band's very eclecticism didn't augur well for their long-term stability, and in 1967 Kooper left in a dispute over musical direction (he has recalled that Kalb opposed his wishes to add a horn section). Then Kalb mysteriously disappeared for months after a bad acid trip, which effectively finished the original incarnation of the band. A third album, Live at Town Hall, was a particularly half-assed project given the band's stature, pasted together from live tapes and studio outtakes, some of which were overdubbed with applause to give the impression that they had been recorded in concert.

Kooper got to fulfill his ambitions for soulful horn rock as the leader of the original Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he left that band after their first album; BS&T also included Katz (who stayed onboard for a long time). Blumenfeld and Kulberg kept the Blues Project going for a fourth album before forming Seatrain, and the group re-formed in the early '70s with various lineups, Kooper rejoining for a live 1973 album, Reunion in Central Park. 

The Cafe au Go Go:
The Cafe au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of 152 Bleecker Street. The club featured many well known musical groups, folksingers and comedy acts between the opening in February 1964 until closing in October 1969. Originally owned by Howard Solomon who sold the club in June 1969, to Moses Baruch who closed the club in October 1969. Howard Solomon became the manager of singer Fred Neil.

The club was the first New York venue for the Grateful Dead. Richie Havens and the Blues Project were weekly regulars, and the Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt played frequently. Jimi Hendrix sat in with blues harp player James Cotton there in 1968. Van Morrison, Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Oscar Brown, Jr., the Youngbloods, the Siegel-Schwall Blues Band, John Hammond, Jr., The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Michael Bloomfield, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, The Chambers Brothers, Canned Heat, The Fugs, Odetta, Country Joe and the Fish, all played there. Blues legends Lightnin' Hopkins, Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, and Big Joe Williams performed at the club after being "rediscovered" in the '60s. Before many rock groups began performing there, the au Go Go was an oasis for jazz (Bill Evans, Stan Getz), comedy, and folk music.

Comedian Lenny Bruce and the club's owner, Howard Solomon, were arrested there on obscenity charges in 1964. In April 1964, Bruce appeared twice at the Cafe Au Go Go with undercover police detectives in the audience. On both occasions, he was arrested after leaving the stage, the complaints pertaining to his use of various obscenities, club owner Howard Solomon was arrested too.

A three-judge panel presided over his widely publicized six-month trial, with Bruce and club owner Howard Solomon both found guilty of obscenity on November 4, 1964. The conviction was announced despite positive testimony and petitions of support from Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Jules Feiffer, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and James Baldwin – among other artists, writers and educators, and from Manhattan journalist and television personality Dorothy Kilgallen and sociologist Herbert Gans. Bruce was sentenced, on December 21, 1964, to four months in the workhouse; he was set free on bail during the appeals process and died before the appeal was decided. Solomon later saw his conviction overturned; Bruce, who died before the decision, never had his conviction stricken in his lifetime.

On December 23, 2003, 37 years after his death, Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction by New York Governor George Pataki,[10] following a petition filed by Ronald Collins and David Skover with Robert Corn-Revere as counsel, the petition having been signed by several stars such as Robin Williams. It was the first posthumous pardon in the state's history. Pataki said his act was "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."

In 1964, Solomon brought in a large group of singers and musicians from an off-Broadway show and christened them the Au Go Go Singers, to rival the Bitter End Singers across the street at The Bitter End Cafe. Solomon managed the group until their breakup in late 1965.

The Au Go Go Singers included Kathy King (who later toured with Bobby Vinton and appeared in the Broadway show, Oh Calcutta and currently works as Kathrin King Segal), Jean Gurney, Michael Scott (who later performed with the Highwaymen and the Serendipity Singers), Rick (Frederic) Geiger (who eventually was accepted into a light opera company in California), Roy Michaels (who later performed with Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys and toured with Jimi Hendrix), Nels Gustafson, Bob Harmelink, and soloists Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. (Gustafson and Harmelink had been in an earlier trio with Furay, but quit show business after the demise of the Au Go Go Singers.)

It was also at the Cafe Au Go Go that a new folk/rock group, The Company, was formed from some remnants of the Au Go Go Singers: Geiger, Michaels, Scott & Gurney (who together before the Au Go Go Singers performed as the Bay Singers, a popular group in Boston & New York City), and Stills. Immediately after the Au Go Go Singers breakup, the Rollins and Joffe Talent Agency - managers of Dick Cavett, Woody Allen, and other notables - heard a reunion of the Bay Singers at the Cafe Au Go Go and offered the group a six-week Canadian tour. Rollins and Joffe did not originally include Stills on the tour, but Stills made it known to the Bay Singers that he wanted to join their group and the tour. 

Very comfortable in performing their arrangements and songs they perfected on their radio show and performances before joining the Au Go Go Singers, and knowing that Jack Rollins and Charlie Joffe offered the tour based on the Singers' performance, most of the Bay Singers were hesitant to add another member, but ultimately gave in to Stills. 

The new quintet switched to amplified instruments, took about a week to learn new material (some under the direction of the former Au Go Go Singers arranger, Jim Friedman), named their new group The Company, and then headed for Ontario. While on tour the group first met local boy Neil Young, who was performing with the Squires, as the opening act for The Company. After leaving Canada The Company played at Mr. Kelly's in Chicago where Woody Allen was headlining. In less than a year after the group broke up, Stills, Young, Richie Furay, and two others formed the Buffalo Springfield.

Howard Solomon not only had The Au Go Go Singers, but had also booked comedians such as George Carlin and Lenny Bruce, who had regular stints at Cafe Au Go Go that would last either from one or two days to three weeks. Lenny Bruce's performances at the Go Go were controversial. On more than one occasion the Cafe Au Go Go was raided by the police because of the obscenities that had been used during his performances. 

By 1966, the police and the courts had managed to silence Lenny Bruce and taught him a lesson that he should not use "foul language" or disrespect the church and the law. Eventually bankrupting him just before his death that year. Though the police had managed to silence Lenny Bruce, George Carlin continued to do his controversial comedy. Carlin eventually went on to have his own trouble with the law. Controversy arose because of the use of obscenities in his counter-culture routine known at the "Seven Dirty Words". Both Lenny Bruce and George Carlin were two of the most influential stand-up comedians of their time and they along with many others had come out of the Cafe Au Go Go.

When the Cafe au Go Go finally locked its doors for good, the now-famous Stephen Stills was a featured performer at the gala closing.

Personnel
♣ Danny Kalb - Lead Guitar, Vocals
♣ Al Kooper - Organ
♣ Steve Katz - Rhythm Guitar
♣ Roy Blumenfeld - Drums
♣ Andy Kulberg - Bass
♣ Tommy Flanders - Vocals
♣ Val Valentin - engineer

Disc 1 (Stereo)
01. "Goin' Down Louisiana" (Muddy Waters)
02. "You Go, I'll Go With You" (Willie Dixon)
03. "Catch the Wind" (Donovan)
04. "I Want to Be Your Driver" (Chuck Berry)
05. "Alberta" (Traditional)
06. "The Way My Baby Walks" (Andy Kulberg)
07. "Violets of Dawn" (Eric Andersen)
08. "Back Door Man" (Willie Dixon, Chester Burnett)
09. "Jelly Jelly Blues" (Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines)
10. "Spoonful" (Willie Dixon)
11. "Who Do You Love" (Ellas McDaniel)

Bonus Tracks
12. "Hoochie Coochie Man"
13. "Parchman Farm"
14. "Have You Ever Had The Blues"
15. "Alberta" (Alternate Version)

Disc 2 (Mono)
01. "Goin' Down Louisiana" (Muddy Waters)
02. "You Go, I'll Go With You" (Willie Dixon)
03. "Catch the Wind" (Donovan)
04. "I Want to Be Your Driver" (Chuck Berry)
05. "Alberta" (Traditional)
06. "The Way My Baby Walks" (Andy Kulberg)
07. "Violets of Dawn" (Eric Andersen)
08. "Back Door Man" (Willie Dixon, Chester Burnett)
09. "Jelly Jelly Blues" (Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines)
10. "Spoonful" (Willie Dixon)
11. "Who Do You Love" (Ellas McDaniel)

Bonus Tracks
12. "Bright Lights, Big City"
13. "Who Do You Love" (Alternate Vesrion)
14. "Violets of Dawn" (Studio Version)
15. "Back Door Man" (Studio Version)

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Stevie Wonder - Where I'm Coming From (US 1971)

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Bitrate: 256
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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Where I'm Coming From is a 1971 album by Stevie Wonder. The album was released by Motown Records on April 12, 1971 and debuted on the Billboard Pop Albums at #62, and on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart at #10. 

All nine songs were written by Wonder and Motown singer-songwriter Syreeta Wright, his first wife. It was the last album produced under his first contract with Motown Records. Including live albums, this is Stevie Wonder's fifteenth album overall, and thirteenth studio album.

Motown's founder Berry Gordy had maintained tight control over his company's productions, but as the artists' careers progressed, they began to feel the need for the allowance of social consciousness and artistic freedom in their recordings. 

Stevie Wonder was one of the Motown artists, along with Marvin Gaye, who wanted to expand with new styles and musical techniques, some of which became more apparent in the earlier album For Once In My Life.

Although Wonder had begun producing his own recordings, Motown still retained control over the content of his albums. Tensions increased as Wonder approached his twenty-first birthday; his contract had a clause which allowed Wonder to void it upon becoming a legal adult. 

When the president of Motown approached Wonder about renegotiating his contract, Wonder refused and asked for his contract to be voided.

Anticipating this event, Wonder took advantage of the fact that Motown would be forced to accept whatever he gave to them, and was able to produce Where I'm Coming From without any outside interference from the company. In particular, the song "I Wanna Talk To You", which portrayed a racially-charged dialog between a black man and an old southern white man (Wonder portrayed both characters) is also a covert reference to his breakaway from Gordy and Motown (particularly apparent in the ad-libbed line "I'm gonna take my share...!")

Where I'm Coming From, which departed drastically from the Motown Sound employed in previous Stevie Wonder albums, yielded the U.S. number-eight hit single, "If You Really Love Me". 

The soft ballad "Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer" (a predecessor to the later recording "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You?)") was also successful. Much of the rest of the album was social commentary and war-themed songs.

The album foreshadows Wonder's "classic period" albums with its production approach and range of material. Wonder further developed the use of the Hohner clavinet that was to be fully explored on the classic period albums. Like Wonder's earlier albums, several tracks on Where I'm Coming From use Motown studio musicians the Funk Brothers, and also make use of string orchestras.

Released at around the same time as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album, with similar ambitions and themes, they have been compared; in a contemporary review by Vince Aletti in Rolling Stone, Gaye's album was seen as successful, while Wonder's album was seen as failing due to "self-indulgent and cluttered" production, "undistinguished" and "pretentious" lyrics, and an overall lack of unity and flow.

01. "Look Around" – 2:45
02. "Do Yourself a Favor" – 6:10
03. "Think of Me as Your Soldier" – 3:37
04. "Something Out of the Blue" – 2:59
05. "If You Really Love Me" – 3:00
06. "I Wanna Talk to You" – 5:18
07. "Take Up a Course in Happiness" – 3:11
08. "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" – 2:53
09. "Sunshine in Their Eyes" – 6:58

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Gin Blossoms - Live at Canyon Club 2003 (Bootleg)

Size: 205 MB
Bitrate: 320
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"Gin Blossoms" is an American rock band formed in 1987 in Tempe, Arizona. They first came to notice with the song "Hey Jealousy" from their first major label album, ''New Miserable Experience'' (1992), but this achievement was coupled with the firing and eventual suicide of the song's author and band co-founder Doug Hopkins, prompting the title of their follow-up album, ''Congratulations I'm Sorry'' (1996). After a series of charting singles, the band broke up in 1997. They reunited in 2002 and released a fourth album, ''Major Lodge Victory'', in 2006, and a fifth, ''No Chocolate Cake'', in 2010.

In late 80’s Gin Blossoms started to grow a huge following as the #1 local music draw in Phoenix and certainly were the hometown hero’s of their favorite hang, Tempe, Arizona. Gin Blossoms indelible jangle-pop sound was evolving during radio’s diverse mix of hair bands and grunge music superstars like Nirvana. After the Phoenix New Times chose them the cities best rock band, they qualified to play at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin Texas in 1989. That same year, College Music Journal dubbed them the “Best Unsigned Band in America” and added an invitation to perform on MTV’s New Music Awards in New York City.

Taking their name from a caption on a W.C. Fields photo, Gin Blossoms signed a record deal with A&M and recorded their first EP “Up And Crumbling” in 1991. But, it was not until their breakout record “New Miserable Experience” in 1992 that their rise to fame began. “New Miserable Experience” kept the band on the charts for almost 3 years with singles “Hey Jealousy,” “Allison Road,” “Until I Fall Away,” “Mrs Rita,” and “Found Out About You.” The album took the airwaves by siege and held MTV hostage with multi cross-over hits in 4 different radio formats. It was this record that rocketed the band into the mainstream going on to sell over 4 million copies making the band a 90’s radio mainstay. In 1995, Robin Wilson, Jesse Valenzuela and veteran composer Marshall Crenshaw wrote the bands 4th of 9 sound track inclusions; “Til I Hear It From You.” The smash hit was released as a Gin Blossoms single and it appeared on the platinum sound track for the film Empire Records.

1996 saw the final record of the decade for Gin Blossoms “Congratulations I’m Sorry.” The album brought two more hits; "Follow You Down" which spent ten weeks in the Top Ten and "As Long As It Matters" which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Duo or Group. “It was pretty cool to lose a Grammy to the Beatles. 

Who else would you want to lose out to” say’s Jesse. The album rocketed into Billboard's Top Ten and a year of touring helped push the record past 1,500,000 in sales. In 5 years, the band released 2 EP’s, two LP’s and over 12 singles that fueled record sales to over 7 million. Their blend of Pop & Rock, now known as Jangle-Pop, became a musical force that helped define the sound of 90’s radio. 

In 1997, while at peak success and after numerous appearances on late night TV such as Letterman, Leno, Arsenio Hall, Saturday Night Live, The Grammy’s, and endless touring, the group disbanded and began a four year hiatus. It was not until a 2001 New Years Eve performance in Tempe that the members reformed and began touring and recording again. “Since 2001, we have been performing over 120 shows a year. This is what we most enjoy doing” say’s Wilson. “It’s our job and I know all of us are really grateful that we can earn a living making records and entertaining people on the road. We’re doing something we really love! I don’t know many people that can say that when they go to work everyday.” 

In 2005, former A&M president Al Cafaro resigned the band and partnered to record their 3rd full length album in over 10 years. “Major Lodge Victory” landed on Billboards 200 and was the # 10 Indie album of the year. Released on August 8th, 2006, it included hits “Learning The Hard Way” and the appropriately titled “Long Time Gone.” Billboard magazine called this gem “an effortless triumph of melodic perfection.” 

“This was a really fun record to make” say’s Scotty. “We assembled some of the old team together and recorded at Ardent Studios with John Hampton again. Ardent is a legendary studio, and were comfortable there – it was a lot of fun.” Back in chart bloom, Entertainment Weekly reviewed “Major Lodge Victory” by saying; “Hardly a half-hearted cash-in, this comeback LP marks a solid addendum to Gin Blossoms multi-platinum peak output.” 

Their most recent album, 2010’s “No Chocolate Cake”, lands Gin’s back on the singles chart again with “Miss Disarray” and the album shot straight to # 1 on Amazon, hitting Billboard’s top 200 at # 73 and the Indie chart at #14. Because the band members no longer live in the same city—Wilson divides his time between Tempe and New York, Valenzuela is in Los Angeles. Putting the sonic pieces of No Chocolate Cake together presented an exciting new challenge for the band. While Wilson contributed a handful of songs, the bulk of the material chosen for the 11 track set was written by Valenzuela either solo or with different collaborators, including Danny Wilde of The Rembrandts (the Blossoms guitarist first worked with Wilde on The Rembrandts’ song “Long Walk Home”). 

“In the old days, we used to joke that there was something for everybody in this band,” says Wilson. “There’s just something about the way we play and sound together, but in the end, it’s really about the quality of the songs. If you’re a band and want to sustain a career, no matter what you look like or how you play, you’ve got to have great songs. So it’s those songs and the sound we make…my voice, the guitars, tempos, that add up to something indefinable.” 

Over the years, Gin Blossoms have toured over 25 different Countries including a five city tour of Iraq in 2010. “It was so much fun to entertain our troops. It’s really insightful to see first hand how our troops live in a combat zone. It really helped to broaden my understanding on the sacrifices they make to protect us at home and abroad. I hope all Americans understand how important it is for us to extend our thanks” says Robin. 

Gin Blossoms are currently writing a brand new record and hope to finish in time for a 2013 release. “We never rush the writing of a new record” says Jesse. “There’s something to be said for having a level of experience where you instinctively know what works. The best ones are those that feel like they’ve already been there, as if they are just waiting to naturally emerge. I think it’s the quality of the songs we have and Robin’s voice. It’s also a matter of trust. I know when I bring in a song that Robin will know how to sing it, Scotty will know how to play it and Bill will know the groove. I wouldn’t work with guys I had to tell what to do. The key is to not try so hard.” 

2013 will bring the band to over 100 cities, a 5 Artist rock cruise, international shows and perhaps a brand new album – stay tuned!

Gin Blossoms 
Live at Canyon Club 2003 

Disc 1
01. Follow You Down
02. Mrs. Rita
03. Hands Are Tied
04. Competition Smile
05. Seeing Stars
06. Cajun Song
07. Idiot Summer
08. Day Job
09. As Long As It Matters
10. Just South of Nowhere

Disc 2
01. Lost Horizons
02. Pieces of the Night
03. Found Out About You
04. Hold Me Down
05. Until I Fall Away
06. Til I Hear It From You
07. Allison Road
08. Hey Jealousy

Encore:
09. Rocket Man
10. I Need To Know (Cut)

Part 1: Gin Blossoms
Part 2: Gin Blossoms
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Part 1: Gin Blossoms
Part 2: Gin Blossoms
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Part 1: Gin Blossoms
Part 2: Gin Blossoms

Ron Asheton's New Order - Victim of Circumstance (US 1978)

Size: 82.3 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

The New Order was an American hard rock and protopunk band. The band was based in Los Angeles and existed from early 1975 to October 1976.

After The Stooges imploded in 1974, former Stooges lead guitarist Ron Asheton formed a new band, ultimately acquiring drummer Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson, bass player Jimmy Recca and keyboardist Scott Thurston. For a while, the new band shared rehearsal space at a house owned by Ray Manzarek, during his collaboration with Stooges' lead singer Iggy Pop.

When The New Order's first singer Jeff Spry was forced to quit the band (due to jail time incurred from a drinking/quaalude related DUI coupled with failure to perform community service), The New Order's first drummer, K.J. Knight, recommended Dave Gilbert as a replacement. K.J. and Gilbert had both been veterans of the 1971/1972 incarnations of Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes. After keyboardist Scott Thurston quit, his position was filled by a second guitarist, Ray Gunn, another Detroit veteran who was recommended by Dennis Thompson.

Leading up to the making of The New Order's first demo tapes, long time Blue Öyster Cult producer, Sandy Pearlman, was approached to produce the band but ultimately this didn't come together. The back cover of the Declaration Of War album bears the inscription: "This album is dedicated to the CULT", furthering the links with the Blue Öyster Cult.

A projected collaboration with '60s and '70s Rock impresario, Kim Fowley, was also talked about, but never came to fruition.

The New Order had at least one classic, the song Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers, later covered by The Hitmen and more recently covered by The Hellacopters. One of the lyrics from the song, the infamous battle-cry "The War Against The Jive", is used as the heading to the liner-notes of Radio Birdman's 2001 release, The Essential Radio Birdman (1974 - 1978). The exact heading is: "Total Victory: Radio Birdman's War Against The Jive".

After the similarly bitter ending of Radio Birdman, the two groups (Radio Birdman and The New Order), merged and become New Race, featuring Ron Asheton and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson, with Radio Birdman's lead singer Rob Younger, lead guitarist Deniz Tek and bass player Warwick Gilbert. This band started and ended in 1981, with no studio material recorded, but three live albums released, with two of the three first released on Revenge Records, then re-released recently on Vivid Sound Corporation.

Tommy Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Fred Sonic Smith, Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton

Some years after leaving The New Order, singer Jeff Spry and his guitarist brother, Joe Spry, formed the new wave band, Felony, which had a much played 1983 hit song ("The Fanatic") on the influential Los Angeles radio station, KROQ-FM. The song was featured on the soundtrack to the 1983 movie, Valley Girl. A video was made from "The Fanatic" "The Fanatic" video was shot in Hollywood, California in 1983 and aired on MTV. The Fanatic video includes a cameo of Jeffrey Spry with his first wife, SAG actress, Lucrecia Sarita Russo. On March 9, 1991, Jeff Spry shot himself, leaving behind his second wife, Tamara and daughters, Desirae & Natasha. His real name was Jeffrey Scott Spirelli.

Following The New Order's split in the fall of 1976, Dave Gilbert eventually joined The Rockets, a straight ahead rock band formed in 1972 that evolved out of the famous Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. The Rockets made six albums, on three major labels, from 1977 to 1983. Dave Gilbert died in 2001 from cancer of the liver after a lifetime struggle with drugs and alcohol addictions, although he had embraced sobriety sometime before being diagnosed with cancer and was survived by his wife, Dee Gilbert.

In 1989, Victim of Circumstance was released on vinyl and CD on the Revenge Records label. This release consisted of eight unreleased rehearsal recordings, with side one of the original vinyl release presented as four bonus tracks on the CD version. In April 2008, the CD was re-released on the Japanese import label, Vivid Sound Corporation. This new release has the same title and track listing as Victim of Circumstance, but has the same cover art as the original 1977 vinyl release - although "The New Order" logo's font has been revamped and changed. Vivid Sound Corporation also re-released the second and third live albums by the related Ron Asheton/Dennis Thompson band, New Race.

01. Victim of Circumstance 
02. Sold for Cash Girl 
03. Sex Drive 
04. 1975 No Taboos 
05. Never Be the Same Again 
06. Can't Quit Ya 
07. Sidewinder 
08. Hit and Run 
09. Lucky Strike 
10. Declaration of War 
11. Hollywood Holidays 
12. Sidewinder 

1. New Order 1978
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