The Brotherhood of Lizards - Lizardland (1989)

1. It Could Have Been Cheryl
2. The World Strikes One
3. The Dandelion Marine
4. Rusty Iron Sun
5. The Happening Guy
6. Clockwork Train
7. The Day After Yesterday
8. Market Day
9. Dear Anya
10. Love The Anglian Way
11. Sand Dragon
12. She Dreamed She Could Fly
13. Carmosine

If you enjoy "jangly" pop songs, you'll love this rare and hard to find album.

Artist Biography by Richie Unterberger (All Music):
When "Cleaners from Venus" were winding down toward the end of the 1980s, chief Cleaner Martin Newell started a similar project, the Brotherhood of Lizards, with bassist Nelson (no last name). The personnel may have been different, but the music was essentially the same: ringing guitars, droll English lyrics, inventive production quirks. There were only a couple of releases before Nelson left to join "New Model Army"; Newell began a solo career that was also essentially similar to his Cleaners from Venus output.

Bio from Newell's official site:
At the age of 19, Martin Newell joined an Essex glam-rock band The Mighty Plod as a singer and gigged in rough clubs, pubs and colleges for the next two years. In his early twenties he joined a hard rock /.prog band from Ispwich called Gypp and gigged in the UK as well as touring northern Germany several times. In 1979, he won his first record contract and shortly afterwards his first single Young Jobless / Sylvie In Toytown was released, first on an indie label and then with Liberty Records. Much Radio 1 airplay and the record briefly charted but then sank after trouble of various sorts.

In the 1980s he formed the anarchic and wacky Cleaners from Venus, who after much defiance of music biz convention, signed to a London record company and began making proper records which were well reviewed and well-received. He began co-writing songs with Captain Sensible in 1986, a relationship which endures to some extent to this day. In 1989 he and his friend Nelson, now of New Model Army formed The Brotherhood of Lizards, were signed to make an album and proceeded to promote it, touring the record by bicycle. This led to many TV appearances and some notoriety and amusement in the media. In 1993, with XTC's Andy Partridge in the producer's chair Martin made what was to become his most successful album The Greatest Living Englishman. This has been followed over the years by several other solo albums. Now in middle years, still held in some regard as a great English songwriter and sometimes compared to Syd Barrett and Ray Davies, it is said that he never got the commercial success he deserved. While this may or may not be true he continues to make and sell good pop records with a degree of international acclaim.

Links:
Martin Newell Official Site
Martin Newall Wikipedia
Rocker Music - has several videos of Martin performing live
Mutant sounds Blog

Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes CD artwork including booklet and tray liner. In Zip format.

Download: Lizardland

The Cryan' Shames - Synthesis (Sundazed)

1. Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones
2. Baltimore Oriole
3. It's All Right
4. Your Love
5. A Master's Fool
6. First Train To California
7. The Painter
8. Sweet Girl Of Mine
9. 20th Song
10. Let's Get Together
11. Symphony Of The Wind
12. A Master's Fool (Single Version)
13. First Train To California (Single Version)
14. Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones (Single Version)
15. Your Love (Single Version)
16. 20th Song (Single Version)
17. Let's Get Together (Mono Version)
18. Bits And Pieces
19. Rainmaker

This is not a rip of the original vinyl album, but instead it comes from the CD released by Sundazed. It does not appear to be available from them anymore, so I've decided to make it available to all Cryan' Shames fans out there! Synthesis is the 3rd album from the Chicago based, 60's band, that had a national hit with the song "Sugar & Spice".

Taken from a review by "Boomertunes" on Amazon:
In the mid to late 1960's, Chicago was a boom town for bands that broke nationally-The Buckinghams, Spanky and Our Gang, The New Colony Six, The Ides Of March, The American Breed, and The Shadows Of Knight.

Although their national success didn't quite match those groups, the Cryan' Shames were hugely popular in the Chicago area and the upper Midwest and received lots of airplay on local radio. Their three Columbia LP releases were essential records of the time if you lived in the area.

Their last album, "Synthesis", is part of the Sundazed reissue series of the group's catalog. It features the original eleven song line-up (along with six single or mono versions of those tracks) and two songs previously unavailable on album.

It's always been a mystery why leader James Fairs' final contribution to the group, "First Train To California", wasn't a monster hit single. It featured an exciting vocal performance by the group and interesting production. Other highlights include the hard edged "Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones"; the percussive "20th Song"; a country styled "Your Mother Should Know"/Beatle homage entitled "It's All Right"; the moody "Baltimore Oriole"; a vocal workout on "Let's Get Together"; and Lenny Kerley's ultra romantic "Your Love". The two special bonus tracks are a Poco flavored "Bits and Pieces" and a cover of Nilsson's "The Rainmaker".

As was always true with the Shames' work, the vocal work and musicianship is top notch.


Band Memebers
Lenny Kerley - vocals, guitar and bass
Dave (Grape) Purple - vocals, guitar
Tom (Toad) Doody - vocals
Issac Guillory - vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards
Alan Dawson - vocals, drums
Jim (Hooke) Pilster - vocals, percussion

Links:
Wikipedia
Original Synthesis album on Wikipedia

Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes all artwork including booklet and tray liner pictures. Zip format.

Download: Synthesis

Tommy Keene - Based On Happy Times (1989)

1. Nothing Can Change You (3:19)
2. Light of Love (3:00)
3. This Could Be Fiction (3:24)
4. Based on Happy Times (3:47)
5. When Our Vows Break (3:20) (Keene/Shear)
6. The Biggest Conflict (3:42)
7. Highwire Days (3:37)
8. Our Car Club (3:22) (Brian Wilson, Mike Love)
9. If We Run Away (4:06) (Keene/Shear)
10. Hanging on to Yesterday (3:53)
11. Where Have All Your Friends Gone (2:25)
12. Pictures (3:34)
13. A Way Out (4:09)


If you've never heard Tommy Keene, you've been missing out. Tommy Keene has been around for a while, and has released over 10 albums. Recently, I read that the Gin Blossoms had asked Keene, their hero, to go out on tour with them. Keene has always been one of my favorite musicians since I first heard him on vinyl back in the 80's. One of my favorite songs of all time is "Places That Are Gone" from his The Real Underground album. I've never heard a guy with so many hooks in his songs. He is definitely a musician's musician.

Based On Happy Times was released in 1989 on Geffin. What make this disc special, is his collaboration with one of my favorite song writers, Jules Shear. Jules co-wrote two of the songs and plays (sings) on the album as well. I've never heard a bad song come out of Keene. My least favorite song on this album is Our Car Club, which is actually a Beach Boys song, so I guess it doesn't count against him. I hope you enjoy Tommy Keen as much as I do. This CD is no longer available.

A Google search turned up this review...

Tommy Keene is one of those guys who should be much better known, though he is highly regarded by critics and a small group of fans (for example, a used copy of this out-of-print cd is currently selling for $99 on amazon.com). I’d always heard good things about him, and major music fan (with a particular interest in ‘60s and ‘70s music), historian, collector of high end rock memorabilia, and all around good guy Steve Potocin was kind enough to furnish me with a copy of this album for this review (thanks again, Steve!). Right away I was surprised, as the album is more straight rock ‘n’ roll than the “power pop” I expected, though the jangly guitars commonly associated with that sub genre do appear on stellar songs such as “When Our Vows Break,” “Highwire Days,” and “If We Run Away.” Elsewhere, harder rocking songs such as “Nothing Can Change You,” “Light Of Love,” and “Our Car Club” (a rather obnoxious Beach Boys cover) recall bands such as The Replacements and Soul Asylum, while Keene’s not particularly pretty yet effective nasal vocals (which bring Tom Petty to mind) are especially affecting on mellow, moodier songs such as “Based On Happy Times” and “A Way Out.” Keene isn’t above unleashing a guitar solo if it serves the song, and most of these tracks are memorable and catchy (if not immediately so), with intelligent relationship-based lyrics that veer towards the bittersweet (example: “all you’ve got to say is hanging on to yesterday”). Perhaps Keene wouldn’t win many points for originality, and there are a few merely solid songs on side 2 (“Our Car Club,” “Where Have All Your Friends Gone,” “Pictures”), but overall this is a really good rock ‘n’ roll record that makes me want to hear more from Tommy Keene.

I also found this information on Wikipedia.

Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes all CD artwork (14 page booklet), with pictures and lyrics to all songs. Zip format.

Favorite songs: Based On Happy Times, When Our Vows Break and If We Run Away.

Download: Based on Happy Times

Cotton Mather - The Big Picture (2001)

02 - Marathon Man
03 - Baby Freeze Queen
04 - 40 Watt Solution
05 - Glory Eyes
06 - Monterrey Honey
07 - AMPs Of Sugarland
08 - Panama Slides
09 - Pine Box Builder
10 - Story Of Anna
11 - Condo Lights
12 - Ramon Finds Waterfalls
13 - Waterfalls
14 - Running Coyote Advances


Label: Rainbow Quartz/Laughing Outlaw

The following was borrowed from a review at http://home.iprimus.com.au/laurapalmer/cotton.htm There putting strange things in the water supply down Austin, Texas way if Cotton Mather's second release in anything to go by. From the word go on "Last of the Mohicans", with a rip of feedback and a wailing FX-box, Cotton Mather's psychotic acid rock raises a pretty yet raucous kind of hell. But it's singer Robert Harrison's voice which draws the most attention. Somehow he's channelled John Lennon's spirit and reprocessed it through a Texan sneer, attitude, regret and anxiety wielded as one with hummable harmonies to boot.

There's only so far you can ride on nostalgia though, and thankfully Cotton Mather mix it up enough to avoid falling into the precipice where Oasis have dived before. "Monterray Honey" sees the band expanding from the traditional four piece, using a succulent harmonium rift that drifts across the tune like a blast of nitrous oxide. This is dreamy pop, celebratory yet thoughtful, and sometimes, like in "Pine Box Builder", down right scary, dark undertones rising to the surface.

There is something vaguely unsettling about hearing a band come so close to sounding like a contemporary Beatles, and it may hinder Cotton Mather's progress in the future. For now though it's enough to let this album wash over you. Some records are for thought and depth; others like The Big Picture, you have to just sit back and enjoy the harmonies.

Links:
Pop News
Trouser Press


Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes CD artwork.

Download: The Big Picture

Cotton Mather - Kontiki (1997)

02 - Homefront Cameo
03 - Spin My Wheels
04 - My Before And After
05 - Private Ruth
06 - Vegetable Row
07 - Aurora Bori Alice
08 - Church Of Wilson
09 - Lily Dreams On
10 - Password
11 - Animal Show Drinking Song
12 - Prophecy For The Golden Age
13 - She's Only Cool
14 - Autumn's Birds


Kontiki is Cotton Mather's 2nd album. If you liked the Austin, Texas power pop bands first album Cotton is King, wait until you hear this one! Some of these songs sound like the missing Revolver sessions. Right down to the backward guitar and vocals. Some of the songs are much more experimental than King, but all the "hooks" and great melodies are still waiting for you. Cotton Mather was formed 1991, named of course after the famous 17th century Puritan preacher and author. They disbanded in 2003.

From TrouserPress.com:
Harrison and Williams recorded Kontiki with some friends and brought the tapes to producer Brad Jones (Jill Sobule, Steve Earle), who helped them chisel out a record. The swirling opening chords of "Camp Hill Rail Operator" sound as though they are being piped in from Venus; tape splices and sound collages punctuate standouts like "Homefront Cameo," "Password" and "My Before and After" ("Cracked the code on the Rosetta Stone / Said the word for 'alone' is 'alone'"), Revolver-shaped nuggets so catchy that surgery may be required to extract them from your brain. The inevitable Beatles comparisons are rendered irrelevant by the quality of the songs and the imaginative recording techniques; Kontiki is an innovative power-pop gem that stands up, and stands out, on its own merits.

Links:
Wikipedia
Robert Harrison information
Trouser Press
Future Clouds & Radars - Robert Harrison's new Band

Favorite songs: Camp Hill Rail Operator, My Before and After, Spin My Wheels, and Lily Dreams On.

Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes CD artwork.

Download: Kontiki

Cotton Mather - Cotton Is King (1994)

01 - Lost My Motto
02 - Mr. Should
03 - Cross the Rubicon
04 - Payday
05 - Miss Information
06 - Ivanhoe
07 - April's Fool
08 - The World's Boutique
09 - Saving Myself
10 - The New King of Trash
11 - The Words of Shaman Roger
12 - The End of the Line


Cotton Mather is a powerpop band from Austin, Texas formed in 1991. With their strong vocal harmonies and accessible melodies, they have drawn comparisons to the Beatles, Squeeze, and Guided By Voices. This CD is out of print and hard to find. These guys are really good, I recommend them highly!

Band:
Whit Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Greg Thibeaux - Drums, Percussion, Guitar, Vocals
Matt Hovis - Bass Guitar
Robert Harrison - Vocals, Guitar, Piano


Favorite Songs: April's Fool, Cross the Rubicon.

Links:
Wikipedia
April's Fool Music Video on YouTube
trouser press
Biography at Rainbow Quartz Records


Encoded at 320K from CD. Includes all CD artwork and 12 page booklet.

Download: Cotton Is Kink