A really cool concept album from the Chicago scene of the late 60s – a set that has dreamy sunshine pop harmonies blended with some darker psychedelic elements – all at a level that resonates strongly with the Dunwich production the whole thing received! There's almost a UK late 60s vibe to the whole thing, although the harmonies are pure US sunshine too – served up by a variation of The Castaways, who you'll know from earlier catchy classics! Guitar lines – both acoustic and electric – and other production elements provide a nicely sinister core – and the whole thing is a lost gem really worth rediscovering. Titles include "Recess With Mrs Grim", "Death & The Reality", "Time Marches On", "Theme From House Of Leather", "Sarah's On Her Knees", "She Lives With Me", and "There Is Love In The Country". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing solo work from ex-Zombie Colin Blunstone – his first album after parting ways with his former group – and one of our favorite albums of all time! Blunstone's vocals were already amazing in The Zombies – especially near the end – but this set takes things even further, by blending his sublime lyrics with spare arrangements that often just feature simple string passages and warm piano parts – subtle accompaniment that leaves Colin strongly in the lead! The songs are wonderful – penned to recall the changes and issues of the year after the parting of the group – with plenty of help from old buddies Rod Argent and Chris White too. There's never been another record like this again, and there never will be – one of the true treasures of the greatest generation of music! Titles include "Let Me Come Closer To You", "I Can't Live Without You", "Smokey Day", and "Say You Don't Mind" – plus a fantastic cover of "Misty Roses", and the more rocking "She Loves The Way They Love Her". This amazing 50th anniversary edition adds in 14 more tracks to a wonderful package – rare material that mostly features Blustone solo – with titles that include "Sing Your Own Song", "Let Me Come Closer To You", "You Really Were A Surprise", "I Won't Let You Down", "Too Much Too Soon", "I'd Like To Get To Know You", and "Are You Ready". CD

The first-ever full length set of work from Howard Bomar – a singer who only issued a few rare 45s back in the 60s, yet kept on making music for years! From the very first tune, you'll hear that Bomar has a fantastic voice – that sort of searching, searing style that you'd hear from some of the best of the 60s – almost with a Stax Records level of production at times, but also varied a bit more over the course of the record, especially on some of the few later tracks! Howard's definitely in the deepest side of the deep soul spectrum – even as the instrumentation gets a bit more modern – and titles include "Let It Be Me", "I'll Be There", "Best Of Luck To You", "I'm Gonna Love You", "Set Down Fo I Fall Down", "She's A 911", "What Love Has Joined Together", and a remake of "Purple Rain". LP, Vinyl record album

The first-ever full length set of work from Howard Bomar – a singer who only issued a few rare 45s back in the 60s, yet kept on making music for years! From the very first tune, you'll hear that Bomar has a fantastic voice – that sort of searching, searing style that you'd hear from some of the best of the 60s – almost with a Stax Records level of production at times, but also varied a bit more over the course of the record, especially on some of the few later tracks! Howard's definitely in the deepest side of the deep soul spectrum – even as the instrumentation gets a bit more modern – and titles include "Let It Be Me", "I'll Be There", "Best Of Luck To You", "I'm Gonna Love You", "Set Down Fo I Fall Down", "She's A 911", "What Love Has Joined Together", and a remake of "Purple Rain". CD features bonus tracks – "Down Home Georgia Girl", "Something Beautiful", "I'd Like To Be", "Crazy Bout You Baby", and "Just Let Me Love You". CD

Take a trip through hell with the CA Quintet – an obscure late 60s combo from the Twin Cities – and one who've got more than enough psychedelic power to live up to the Cali promise of their name! The album's got a pretty amazing cover – nude models dancing in a satanic landscape – and the sounds within are even more incredible – way more eerie and offbeat than other records of this nature, with a true undercurrent of evil that really comes through in both the darkness of the instrumentation, and the creepy way the vocals are put across. Titles include "Trip Thru Hell" – in two parts – plus "Sleepy Hollow Lane", "Smooth As Silk", "Cold Spider", and "Colorado Mourning". LP, Vinyl record album

The last album that Crow would ever give the world, and a great capper to their short by strong run of records in the early 70s! Like so many of the harder-edged American rock groups of the time, these guys have moved completely past the blues that inspired their initial sounds – working out plenty of their own inflections on guitar and organ, at a level that's never slavish at all to the roots – and which instead really serves to provide the perfect polish for the nicely sinister vocals on the set! Titles include "Easy Street", "Sky Is Crying", "Watch That Cat", "Watching Can Waste Up The Time", "Yellow Dawg", "Satisfied", and "Let's Not Say Goodbye" – the prophetic last song on the record. LP, Vinyl record album

A lost second chapter in the career of Mimi Roman – a singer best known for her groundbreaking country and rockabilly material for Decca in the 50s, but one who had a much greater range than most knew at the time! The material here features Mimi as Kitty Ford – a playful female vocalist running through a groovy blend of jazz, pop, and rockish styles from the early 60s – material that was mostly unissued at the time, but which is all pretty darn great! There's a real Brill Building feel to most of these tracks – and although much of the material comes from Kitty/Mimi's own archives, it got top shelf treatment at the time – demos recorded with good production and instrumentation, at a level that makes this whole package feel like discovering a whole pile of lost girl pop singles from the 60s! Titles include "Sisal Twine", "Pachanga", "Pussycat", "Think", "Blue Diamond Ring", "Gee Mom", "I Can't Run Away", "Sad Sad September", "Big Shot Nothin Bringer", "When You Hurt Me I Cry", and "My Feelings For Charlie Changed". CD

A lost second chapter in the career of Mimi Roman – a singer best known for her groundbreaking country and rockabilly material for Decca in the 50s, but one who had a much greater range than most knew at the time! The material here features Mimi as Kitty Ford – a playful female vocalist running through a groovy blend of jazz, pop, and rockish styles from the early 60s – material that was mostly unissued at the time, but which is all pretty darn great! There's a real Brill Building feel to most of these tracks – and although much of the material comes from Kitty/Mimi's own archives, it got top shelf treatment at the time – demos recorded with good production and instrumentation, at a level that makes this whole package feel like discovering a whole pile of lost girl pop singles from the 60s! Titles include "Sisal Twine", "Pachanga", "Pussycat", "Think", "Blue Diamond Ring", "Gee Mom", "I Can't Run Away", "Sad Sad September", "Big Shot Nothin Bringer", "When You Hurt Me I Cry", and "My Feelings For Charlie Changed". LP, Vinyl record album

One of those really unusual, almost unlikely albums that were issued by the ABC label at the end of the 60s – the kind of record that shouldn't have gotten such exposure on such a big label, which meant that it was promptly ignored in terms of promotion – yet somehow went on to become the stuff of underground legend as the years went by! Graffiti are a group who follow a similar path of some of their contemporaries – initially a more garagey outfit, but here able to not only play the hell out of their instruments, but also create a more complex sound that's stepping towards prog modes to come, yet with a down to earth vibe that has some nice Sunshine Pop touches around the vocals! The blend is wonderful, and makes for a really unique record – clearly the product of some great freedom allowed the young group in the studio, on titles that include "Father Protector", "New Life", "Girl On Fire", "Cold Water", "Love In Spite", "Ugly Mascara", "Jingle Jangle Woman", and "The Capture Of Me". CD

The fantastic debut of Gypsy – a group who blend wonderful harmonies with really well-crafted inspiration – very much in the jazz-inspired jamming of some of the headier California groups, like Spirit or Santana at their best! The group use a swirling blend of organ and guitar next to their really beautiful vocals – warm and sweet at some of the best moments, but never in a way that ever feels like soft rock – given the intensity of the instrumentation! The album was issued on the Metromedia label, and never got the attention it would have deserved had it hit the racks from a company like Columbia or Warner – but it's every bit as great as some of their giants from the time, with titles that include "Last December", "Man Of Reason", "Third Eye", "Tomorrow Is The Last To Be Heard", "Here In My Loneliness", "Dead & Gone", "Dream If You Can", "Decisions", and "Gypsy Queen". LP, Vinyl record album

The fantastic lost legacy of The Harlots Of 42nd Street – a cross-dressing group who were Manhattan contemporaries of the New York Dolls, but who never got their best shot at fame! If anything, the group's lyrics are grittier than the Dolls – more in the streetwise/street scene mode of early solo Lou Reed, with plenty of tales from the gutter on up – and although their sound may be a little less punkish, their overall approach is still nice and raw, and completely unique! The group only issued one single back in the day, and this set is the first full-length document of their music – with titles that include "S&M", "Refuse To Be Misused", "Cool Dude & Foxy Lady", "Mother Nature", "Polyethylena Purebred", "Spray Paint Bandit", and "Double Bubble Bustin Baby". CD

The fantastic lost legacy of The Harlots Of 42nd Street – a cross-dressing group who were Manhattan contemporaries of the New York Dolls, but who never got their best shot at fame! If anything, the group's lyrics are grittier than the Dolls – more in the streetwise/street scene mode of early solo Lou Reed, with plenty of tales from the gutter on up – and although their sound may be a little less punkish, their overall approach is still nice and raw, and completely unique! The group only issued one single back in the day, and this set is the first full-length document of their music – with titles that include "S&M", "Refuse To Be Misused", "Cool Dude & Foxy Lady", "Mother Nature", "Polyethylena Purebred", "Spray Paint Bandit", and "Double Bubble Bustin Baby". LP, Vinyl record album

The title of this one might be very well-put – as the record was almost too heavy to be issued at the time of its recording – finally seeing the light of day after way too many years in the vault! The set's a tremendous bit of American hard rock recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami – almost with a bit of a vibe that reminds us of the freakier, fuzzier side of the Capricorn Records scene – as do the great way the group have of using harmonies at all the right moments – a soaring style that really fits the well-crafted heavy fuzz of their guitars! The Fat Albert productions team really helped ensure that the whole thing came out beautifully during recording – and the whole set is hardly a half-baked set of demos or raw tapes – but instead a top-shelf record that would have been right at home in the major record racks of the time. Titles include "Memories Never Cease", "Buffalo Girl", "Chance", "Something New", "Heading Home", "Take Me Back", and "Bird In Hand". CD

Dreamy pop from Dotti Holmberg – Curt Bottecher's partner in the GoldeBriars vocal group, working here on her own, with a number of tracks produced by Curt himself! The set's got a definite California sunshine pop sound to it – sweet arrangements mixed with Dotti's great vocals – and as the tracks progress across the collection, things get a bit darker, as Dotti takes over more of the writing and production on her own, mixing in some rootsy elements with really wonderful effects. Most of the material got top-shelf production in the Columbia studios, handled by Bottecher or Holmberg – and this expanded version of the original set features a number of rare demo tracks too. Titles include "Let You Know", "Sea Of Tears", "Foolish Times", "I Sing My Song", "The Essence", "Love Is", and "It's Not Worth It At All". LP, Vinyl record album

Seminal early country rock from Gram Parsons and the International Submarine Band – cut soon before Gram jumped ship to the Byrds for the legendary Sweetheart Of The Rodeo LP! The one-and-only International Submarine Band LP is the first official full length album from Gram Parsons, and probably the record in which GP's deep love of soulful 60s honky tonk is worn most proudly on his sleeve. He covers Merle Haggard's "I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known" and Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues", and overall the album sounds a little bit more Bakersfield than San Francisco. Notoriously produced by Lee Hazlewood's gal Suzi Jane Hokem. Essential! Tracks include "Blue Eyes", "A Satisfied Mind", "Folsom Prison Blues/That's Alright", "Miller's Cave", "Luxury Liner", and "Strong Boy". CD features 13 previously unissued bonus tracks – "lonesome" versions of tracks on the album, plus a few more songs too! CD

Fantastic pop from The Matchmakers – a group who only went by that name on some of their records – as they were more of a studio project from UK producers Mark Wirtz and Kris Ife, and also issued work as The Guards, Fickle Finger, Krimson Kake, Happy Confusion, Cellophane Mop, Father's Brown, and Astronaut Alan & The Planets! Yet despite all those many names – which all appear here in the credits for the songs – the group had a unified sound in their unabashed love of a good hook, and the genius production they received on their tunes – often in that groundbreaking style you'll know from other Wirtz work of the 60s, with a compressed quality that's a strong precursor to the direction UK rock production would take in the 70s – peppered with just a touch of the American bubble gum pop sound of the time. Titles include "Fantastic Fair", "Turn Me On"," Two Timing Man", "Wooly Wooly Watsgong", "Tell Me A Secret", "Goody Goody Goody", "Cellophane Mary Jane", and "This Time It Must Be Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic harmony soul LP with great Chicago soul production by Gene Chandler, and singing from Mel & Tim that will blow your mind! The tracks are a fantastic example of the sort of psychedelic soul sound that was coming out of Chicago at the time – with tight catchy hooks in the songs, soaring soulful harmonies, and excellent instrumentation that has some good fuzzy bits and nice hard drums. Every track's a winner, but our faves are the title cut, plus "I've Got Purdee", "Caught You In The Act", "Mail Call Time", the heavy "Feeling Bad", and "Ain't Love Wonderful". Also includes some bonus tracks, not on the LP, and their big hit "Backfield In Motion". CD

Morning Reign were a fantastic group from the Northwest scene of the 60s – one who got their start in the same cover-heavy, party-rocking style of their more famous contemporaries – but who also really were able to let loose on some great original material of their own – presented here at a level that really shows the sophisticated potential of a group who never fully got their due! A few of the cuts here were issued as singles by Garland Records, but the set also features a fair bit of never-issued tracks that were recorded at the same time, almost all original numbers that bristle with a fresh sense of songwriting, and a way of pushing garagey rock elements to much farther limits – doing a lot more with the organ lines, and really having the vocals reach out a bit too. Titles include "Show Me", "Lucille", "Love It Or Leave It", "Your Lady", "Just Like You", But It's Alright", "Some Of Us", "Wish I", "Any Way That You Want Me", and "Feelin All The Things". One further note: This set features different material than the previous collection of work by the group on Perfect Toy Records. LP, Vinyl record album

Morning Reign were a fantastic group from the Northwest scene of the 60s – one who got their start in the same cover-heavy, party-rocking style of their more famous contemporaries – but who also really were able to let loose on some great original material of their own – presented here at a level that really shows the sophisticated potential of a group who never fully got their due! A few of the cuts here were issued as singles by Garland Records, but the set also features a fair bit of never-issued tracks that were recorded at the same time, almost all original numbers that bristle with a fresh sense of songwriting, and a way of pushing garagey rock elements to much farther limits – doing a lot more with the organ lines, and really having the vocals reach out a bit too. Titles include "Show Me", "Lucille", "Love It Or Leave It", "Your Lady", "Just Like You", But It's Alright", "Some Of Us", "Wish I", "Any Way That You Want Me", and "Feelin All The Things". One further note: This set features different material than the previous collection of work by the group on Perfect Toy Records. CD features the bonus tracks "Something Special" and "If I Were A Soldier". CD

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Titles include "Mr Tambourine Man", "All I Really Want To Do", "It's No Use", "The Bells Of Rhymney", "Spanish Harlem Incident", and "We'll Meet Again". LP, Vinyl record album

A very cool Elektra compilation – with rare non-Buddah work by the Lovin Spoonful, plus material by Al Kooper, Tom Rush, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Eric Clapton & The Powerhouse. LP, Vinyl record album

One of the finest rock moments to ever come from the Windy City – a raw, nasty little record that perfectly sums up the Dunwich ethos! Titles include their classic "Gloria" – plus "I Just Want To Make Love To You", "Bad Little Woman", "Hey Joe", "Spoonful", and "Tomorrow's Going To Be Another Day". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the more unusual albums issued on the legendary Chess Records label in the 60s – not the usual jazz, blues, or soul the imprint was known for – but a full length set by a pretty raw combo from the Milwaukee scene! The Baroques are maybe more garagey than their name might imply – with a searing, gritty sound that verges into psych at times – but which still keeps things tight, short, and nicely focused. The group does feature some electric harpsichord in a few spots – although not as much as The Left Banke – and titles include "Mary Jane", "Iowa A Girl's Name", "In Silver Light", "Purple Day", "Boop", "Love In A Circle", "Bicycle", "There's Nothing Left To Do But Cry", and the pretty great-titled "Musical Tribute To The Oscar Mayer Weiner Wagon". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic early album, titled after their big early single – with production from Terry Melcher, and the version of the group with Gene Clark and David Crosby in the lineup! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the more heavily brooding albums ever cut by Leonard Cohen – and also one of the best – the iconic Songs Of Love And Hate from 1971! Cohen's aptly titled third LP, with the nice spare approach to production that most of his early work had, even more stripped down, with voice and acoustic guitar the focus, and some tasteful, more lush texture when the mood strikes – and oh so incredible wordplay and phrasing from the iconic maverick poet/songwriter. Classic bummers including "Avalanche", "Last Year's Man", "Dress Rehearsal Rag", "Diamonds In The Mine", "Love Calls You By Your Name", "Famous Blue Raincoat", "Sing Another Song, Boys" and "Joan Of Arc". LP, Vinyl record album

A stunning second album from Love – a set that's still without the fuller orchestrations and baroque touches of Forever Changes – but which already shows the group moving in that direction! The rough, gritty edge of the group is very firmly intact – but they've already got a really fresh way of putting over a song – by complicating the rhythms a bit, going for unusual tonal colors, and furthering the really imaginative songwriting of Arthur Lee. Side one features some incredibly haunting shorter tunes that point the way towards Forever Changes – including the insanely wonderful "She Comes In Colors", the Latin-tinged "Que Vida", and the cuts "Stephanie Knows Who", "The Castle", and "Seven & Seven Is". Side two is a total freak-out – an 18 minute bluesy guitar jam, very over the top stuff – and quite unusual in length for a rock album in 1966! LP, Vinyl record album

The second album of Brit Invasion greatness from The Hollies – the reworked US version of their album Hollies that came out in the UK – armed with more original material than their earlier LP, but the group's skillful way with songs penned by others – including Curtis Mayfield & Roy Orbison as great as any of their peers! From raw rockers with impeccable harmonies, to very well done R&B styled numbers, it all sounds great! Titles include "I'm Alive", "Very Last Day", "Down The Line", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", "Too Many People" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The US mono version of the debut album from The Hollies – a vital mid 60s record that's been unavailable for decades! The harmonie are great and there's something of a rawer edge to the music that sounds just great after all this time – Brit Invasion stuff that still sounds completely incredible – in mono and on vinyl, the way it's meant to be heard! Includes "Just One Look", "Talkin' Bout You", "Rockin' Robin", "Do You Love Me?", "Lucille", "It's Only Make Believe" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Pretty wild stuff from Annette Peacock – almost a "no wave" record at times, with lots of quirky art rock overtones next to the jazz vocal stylings that are more of her typical bag. The album's got lots of heavy guitars from rockers that include Mick Ronson, Chris Spedding, Bill Bruford, and Brian Godding – but it's also got a kind of cool approach to the music that goes for some nice faux-soulful takes on a few tracks, creating funk where we wouldn't expect it – and going for some warmer moments that soften Annette in ways that sound very nice. Our favorites are the cuts "This Feel Within", "Real & Defined Androgens", and "Questions" – and other titles include "Don't Be Cruel", "Dear Bela", and "My Mama Never Taught Me How To Cook". LP, Vinyl record album