This compilation of late-'60s demos and alternate takes should not be viewed as being on the same level as Nazz's three albums. But when a cult band such as the Nazz only made three LPs, followers hunger for more, and this delivers the goods to satisfy the tastes and curiosities of specialists. A late 1967 demo of 'Hello It's Me,' close to the released version but less fully produced (particularly in regard to the backing vocals), is the highlight. Otherwise there's another song from the same late 1967 tape ('Crowded'), a mid-1968 demo of 'Lemming Song' (a different version of which appeared on their debut album), alternate versions of 'Kicks' and 'Some People,' radio commercials, a slightly different take of 'Open My Eyes' (no phase on the guitar), and some alternates of songs from their second and third albums…

A blip in the Byrds' discography that could easily be missed, as all of the songs from these pre-Mr. Tambourine Man sessions are also found on the much more widely available In the Beginning. Byrds fans really need to track this down, though, because six of the 11 cuts are actually entirely different versions than the ones that appear on In the Beginning, and in some cases the differences are substantial…

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of Speak Down the Wires, a re-mastered four-disc clamshell box set of the four albums issued by the Edgar Broughton Band / The Broughtons between 1975 and 1982: “Bandages”, “Live Hits Harder!”, “Parlez Vous English” and “Superchip: The Final Silicon Solution”. From the release of their debut album for EMI’s Harvest label in 1969, “Wasa Wasa”, the Edgar Broughton Band were trail blazers for the counterculture and rock music with a social conscience and could even be seen as godfathers and influencers of the later Punk movement. Hailing from Warwick and featuring EDGAR BROUGHTON (guitars, vocals), STEVE BROUGHTON (drums, vocals) and ARTHUR GRANT (bass, vocals), their hard hitting approach over a series of albums for the Harvest label earned them many loyal fans and several hit singles (including their anthem ‘Out Demons Out!’).

"Chér" is the eponymous 3d studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on September 1966 by Imperial. Cher collaborates again with Sonny Bono, with Harold Battiste and with Stan Ross. The album is by-and-large a covers album and contains only one song written by Bono. This album was a moderate commercial success, charted #59 on the Billboard Chart. "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" is the 7th studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released in September 1971 by Kapp Records. For this album, Cher left her husband Sonny Bono to produce the album, and for the first time she collaborated with Snuff Garrett and with Al Capps for the arrangements. The album was retitled after the success of the single of the same name. It received positive reviews from critics, and the RIAA certified it Gold on July 2, 1972. The album was her first and most successful album of the 70s. Two singles were released from the album, "The Way of Love" and "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves", both reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Three CDs. In 1973, Fancy came together around producer Mike Hurst - alongside guitarist Ray Fenwick and bassist Mo Foster - to record a glam rock cover version of The Troggs' hit 'Wild Thing'. Issued on Atlantic, the single was a U.S. hit, peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 (it also reached #31 in Australia).

Evolving from the line-up that had recorded the highly-regarded Ora LP in 1969, Byzantium recorded two early Seventies albums – 'Byzantium' and 'Seasons Changing', both featuring future Ian Dury MD Chaz Jankel - for the A&M label.
After leaving A&M, the band self-financed the 1974 'Live/Studio' album in an effort to attract new representation before splitting the following year.

The psychedelic rockers didn’t initially plan to make a pair of linked album. As frontman Stu Mackenzie explained in a statement, the original goal involved “the notes between the notes,” returning to the microtonal explorations they had first begun on 2017’s Flying Microtonal Banana. Then the quarantine compositions took on a life of their own.

The Misunderstood must rank as one of the greatest cult bands of the sixties psychedelia era. The band began forging their innovative sound in Riverside, California, where they were discovered by DJ John Peel (then working in the US as John Ravenscroft). Having cut a few recordings locally, the band relocated to the UK on Peel’s recommendation.

1st Live Recordings is a two-volume album series released by Pickwick Records in 1979 containing live performances by The Beatles. Adrian Barber, the stage manager at the Star Club, on the instructions by King Size Taylor, the leader of The Dominoes, another group from Liverpool, recorded this on a Grundig home tape recorder at 3​3⁄4 ips in December 1962, probably during three performances at Hamburg's Star Club on 25, 28 or 29 and 30 December…

The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band. The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jackson, David O'List and Ian Hague to back soul singer P. P. Arnold. After replacing Hague with Brian Davison, the group set out on their own, quickly developing a strong live following. The group's sound was centred on Emerson's Hammond organ showmanship and abuse of the instrument, and their radical rearrangements of classical music themes and Bob Dylan songs. The band achieved commercial success with an instrumental rearrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "America", following which O'List left the group. The remaining members carried on as a trio, releasing several albums, before Emerson decided to split the band in early 1970 in order to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The group briefly reformed in 2002 for a series of concerts.

Blue Jeans a'Swinging is the first UK studio album by British Merseybeat band the Swinging Blue Jeans, released in November 1964 on HMV…

A reissue of a rarity record; "Sister, Brother, Lover…." was the only album from Scottish band, Northwind, in 1971. In a Beatles type of story, Northwind started on the club scene before venturing to Germany, picking up some psychedelia and krautrock in Frankfurt. They recorded an album and went around supporting the big guns; Free, Hawkwind, Fleetwood Mac. However, without much support from the management and the label, they soon disbanded. This is an album of powerful rock which edges toward early prog and kraut whilst remaining it’s own, unique thing.

If one had to point to a single initial salvo that launched the garage rock revival movement in the 1970s and ‘80s, it would have to be the release of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 in 1972. Elektra Records had approached rock critic Lenny Kaye (not yet the guitarist with the Patti Smith Group) with the notion of compiling an album of great, overlooked rock tunes, but what Kaye came up with was something significantly different – an overview of the great, wild era when American bands, goaded by the British Invasion, began honing in on a tougher and more eclectic rock & roll sound, and kids were reawakened to the possibilities of two guitars, bass, and drum…

When we formed in 1994, there was a plan to record a concept album about Danish bog bodies. As children, we visited the museums of Moesgaard and Silkeborg, transfixed by the sight of the black bodies with orange hair. Shortly after, we discovered heavy metal. Funny how you can love a genre from the age of 7 and still never learn how to play it.

Woodwind-player Seppo "Paroni" Paakkunainen has had a long career as a session musician, band leader and arranger, with a stylistic spectrum encompassing rock, pop, jazz, folk and classical. On the progressive front he has been the driving force behind the progressive folk group Karelia, while his horns have graced the albums of, among others, Wigwam, Jukka Tolonen and Pekka Pohjola. His first bonafide solo album, "Plastic Maailma", is a kind of sweep through those many styles, progressive in the sense that styles are juxtaposed and explored with little prejudice. Four instrumentals join six vocal numbers where the gruff vocals of Harri Saksala alternate with the purer voice of pop-chanteuse Arja Saijonmaa, criticising consumerism, poking fun at contemporary sexual mores or singing praises to Nordic egalitarianism with the kind of sincerity that makes it hard to distinguish seriousness from levity…