Lou Rawls -- Live!

  Smooth as silk Jazzy Bluesman Lou Rawls's Live performance is filled with classy classic numbers.  Not only is the music great, but Rawls's hipster ramblings between tracks make the album even better; my personal favorite rant is part of the closing song, it's about a small time crook, who's hustler rags are thrift store specials, and he's about to enter a World Of Trouble.

Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs -- The Best Of....

  Southern Souled Garage Rock outfit Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs are primarily known for the goofball mega hit Wolly Bully, but their other numbers are just as good if not better than their chart topper.  Sam himself was a Navy man, then studied Classical music in college, he eventually ran out of money, dropped out and decided to give his Rock 'n' Roll combo a real go ... a black hearse touring van, a couple of turbans and a couple of number one hits later, I'm sure Sam realized he made the right choice. One Two Unos Dos Tres Quatro ... behm bahm behm behm behm ..........

The Mindbenders -- A Groovy Kind Of Love

  A surprisingly not bad album by The Mindbenders ... don't be fooled by the cheese ball mega hit, A Groovy Kind Of Love, these Machester British Invaders actually have some pretty good chops; especially shown is the Bluesy Seventh Son and trippy Little Nightingale.  They may not be on my top list of British Beat groups, but their lush Zombies-esque sound keeps this album around.

The Sex Pistols -- Never Mind The Bollocks Here's ...

  Not exactly the first Punk Rock record ever made, although some may say it is, clearly they're wrong ... but the Sex Pistols are one, if not the most, publicly notorious band of all time.  Their main mission statement, other than rattling the cage of politics, was to destroy, kill, maim, abolish Rock 'n' Roll music ... why ... because the music had become a pretentious bloated old fart who needed to die, and they were just the ones to do it.  Bodies is probably the most offensive song ever written, with the exception of GG Allin's entire catalog.  All that aside the album is good old Rock 'n' Roll, a healthy mix of the Who and Alice Cooper; a bit over produced, way too polished for Punk Rock but all in all a good record that hardly lives up the hype of the anti-everything band.

The Faces -- A Nod Is As Good As A Wink ... To A Blind Horse

  Not to be too rude but my impression of The Faces is like a poor man's Rolling Stones, there is hardly a difference, not that The Faces aren't good, but you can see why Ron Wood eventually went to the Stones, he finally got to be in his favorite band.  That aside A Nod is a great piece of Rock 'n' Roll, even if it is a copy cat, it's a good one.  My favorite tune, and their best, Love Lives Here, has their typical Stonesy sound, but it's got some Skynard-ish Americana tossed in there too.

Santana -- S/T

  I wouldn't call myself a real Santana fan, for the most part I find their music kinda cheesy, but their debut Latino-Psychedelic-Soul'd-Jam album is great, and check out that cover ... do I really need to say any more ... I don't think so ...

The Creeps -- Enjoy The Creeps

   These Creeps have got the look, the sound, the attitude of 1965 Garage Rock.  What I found surprising about the band is everything they did after this album, they changed their tune, got fun boy outfits, and started to play 80's-Eurotrashed-Funkytime.  I thought they were an entirely different band, but with the same name.  It's just hard to picture what used to be a group of 60's purest, throwing in the towel to become a bunch of party boys.  Although I did read that they won a Swedish Grammy in the 90's for the crap they were playing, which might make them feel like they made the right choice.  What erks me the most, even though I still like this record, is that you really can't believe this music to be honest, it may have been smoke and mirrors, but they do end up living up to their name, a bunch of Euro-Trash fun boy Creeps!