Friday, March 19, 2010

Wisconsin Rocks Volume 2 Various Artists





















More rare Wisconsin bands and singles which may never see the
light of day, if it wasn't for people making their own compilations
like these. Again, this compilation has most bands hailing from
the Milwaukee area,with the exception of Robin and The
Three Hoods,who are from Madison. Volume two also has some
rare things never to make it to disc before,and were just vinyl
singles that were impossibly out of print since they were issued!
This batch is from the years 1966-1967,and features The Shag,
The Baroques, (who I featured on an earlier post),The Robbs,
The Ricochettes, Junior & The Classics, The Next Five,
The Skunks, Harvey Scales & The Seven Sounds,
and more. The labels represented are some of the best from
Wisconsin: Fan Jr., Magic Touch, Destination, Dynamic Sound,
Pentagon, Champs,even Quill Records from Chicago,
and some are the the first or second release on that very label.
There's only a few featured on major labels like Chess-the
label from Chicago took a chance with The Baroques and
The Shaprels. Odd for a mostly blues label!
There's rock, soul,psychedelic and garage music featured on
this volume,some light pop too with The Robbs,who made it all
the way on Mercury Records, and the wonderful Shag,who
were great enough to be on Capitol Records,the Beatle label!
Stop & Listen is their only single to do that well... and it's here!
More of these soon, Please check these out! They're special!

Wisconsin Rocks Volume 2

Wisconsin Rocks Volume 1 Various Artists







































This is a series of discs that are home-made,and therefore,
much cooler than most records labels could possibly put together.
Each disc has nearly 25-31 tracks or so, and features all music
made,recorded in Wisconsin. All carefully compiled from singles,
albums,you name it. I didn't make these,but think they're worth
sharing here. A lot of work went into these,as they are from some
pretty rare singles. And most tracks have never appeared on disc
for reissue. I wish certain record labels would take these and put
them out,just make the recordings sound the same volume,and
fix the tracks slightly,maybe find better copies on cleaner
vinyl or go back to the master tapes if they even exist anymore.
If the master tapes are no longer available, then I guess this will
have to do...Well, enough of that. Volume 1 features
The Noblemen-"Dirty Robber"
one of my favorites, and the b-side as well! Thunder Wagon.
Other special treats are: The Fendermen with
"Mule Skinner Blues",
the one that was re-recorded on Soma Records,The Citations
doing a super rare song called 'Moon Race". Moon Race is one
of those singles that charted locally, and made a small splash
in Milwaukee radio,I understand kids phoned into the radio
stations,and requested the song over and over until the song
actually made the local charts. Back then,those things could happen
well before record labels controlled the charts,and things like
that could happen. Another cool single here is "Lariat" by the
very popular Milwaukee band The Legends. A great little record
from 1962. This disc also includes their follow up single
"Bopalena" another treat! See Wisconsin music does not suck!
The rest of the CD has some pretty light hearted rock,
and instrumentals, nothing earth-shaking,it just proves
Wisconsin was a pretty busy state of music and bands.
This disc features bands from:Waukesha,mostly Milwaukee,
Stoughton, Oshkosh and features labels like: Soma, Ermine,
Sara,Groove, Raynard, Cinch, Cuca, Cite, and many more.
The music is from 1958-1965. Enjoy!
Wisconsin Rocks Volume 1