Re-Upped VIII

How do you top excellence? Shake Some Action died after this, perhaps recognizing that by number eight, even nigh-on perfect volumes were going to seem merely like treading water. If they feared running out of what they call "aural artifacts" there's no evidence here; it's mostly highlights,with just a few fun throwaways to fake you out. The Keys, "Just a Camera" is singalong whose lyrics seem to be a wistful narrative about drugs and pornography.The Elevator's "Your I's are Too Close Together" has a kinetic chorus that juxtaposes an art-punk intro with a pure-pop finish. DJ and bandleader Mike Read gets two bubble-punk songs, "Are You Ready" as a solo act and "High Rise Living"as the lead singer of the excellently-named Trainspotters. B.T.P Folders (their singer, Neil Shaw, left a comment on this post that the initials stand for Blue Transparent Polyurethane) rip through "All of a Sudden" - and it's only the the b-side (!) of their hyper-pop single. The Valves say goodbye to the series with their surf-punk masterstroke, "Ain't No Surf in Portobello.
Say a prayer (or a curse) for Alan Fleagle or whoever the hell it was that strung all these addictive hits together.

Download Vol. 8

In case the first link fails, the entire BTP Folders single is now HERE

Re-Upped VII

Shake Some Action Vol. 7 offers another American assortment. While no stone-classic, like "Teenline", "Let Me Take Your Photo' or "A.M." emerges, it's still an excellent approximation of what American radio might have been in 1979 in a revised and better past. So we have more wussy-pop (like Quincy and the Leopards), Some Beatles business (the Boys) and some bands that had their ear turned to the NME (Tweeds, Dirty Looks and Cris Moffa and the Competition). Of course there's the band who tries to combine these different threads and call themselves the Beatles Costello but, unfortunately, it sounds as graceful as it reads. Finally, a strain of garage rock pops up in the Nightmares and the Blackjacks that shows the key American source of the British New Wave.

Download Vol. 7

Re-Upped VI

Shake Some Action Vol. 6 takes on the whole wide world and, of course, comes up short. Lots of Northern Europe, a bit of Australia/New Zealand, a touch of Spain and France plus an entry each from Japan and Brazil pretty much covers it. No Canada - no Bureaucrats, no Pointed Sticks, no the Fuse, no Young Canadians. Well, maybe that was gonna be volume nine! It's still a great sampler of what the liner notes call "world music" - check out the sterling "Gotta Have Pop" by the Moderns, the erroneous pop-prophecy of "Ice Age" by Babijar and the head-bopping "Manen" by the Mops. It maybe the least appreciated album of the series but it proves that "la-la-la" and "whoa-oh-oh" are part of some universal language.

Download Vol. 6

Re-Upped V

Shake Some Action 5 returns to the UK and it swings like a pendulum do. This volume, quite feasibly the series' highlight, just has no weak tracks, though a few do suffer in comparison - bicker amongst yourselves about which ones. This set sounds like of those "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits" compilations might have, if, instead of being bogged down with gimmicky synth-pop, each track had bristled with jagged guitars, pounding rhythm sections and killer verse-chorus-verse structures. While, overall, power-pop dominates, this album has depth. "Audio, Audio" by the Classics is a Blondie-like update of the Spector Sound, Andy Arthurs gives a hell of a pop kick to the New Wave quirk of "I Can Detect You For 1.00.0o0 Miles", "Love Letter" by the the Step goes for a Northern Soul groove, the Jolt attack "I Can't Wait" like a '77 take on the Small Faces and White Heat's "Nervous Breakdown" explodes like a fully-executed punk anthem should.

Someone once claimed that, "no one hums albums"; but you will now.


Download V. 5

Re-Upped IV

When Shake Some Action Vol. 4 returns us to the 'good 'ole U.S. of A., the wuss factor spikes. (Listen to David Finnerty's "Hold On", which threatens to blow away with a slight breeze, while the Monroe's manage to make such wussiness a virtue in "What Do All the People Know"). Then there's more post-Knack chart-grasping such as the Continentals, Four Eyes and, what is no doubt the worst song in the series, The Now's "I Like Girls". Despite all that softness, a couple of bands, like the Jumpers and The Penetrators, adopt a charming faux-punk sneer, while D.L Byron and Code Blue each add a ripping rocker. Attention must be paid to the Shades, "Hello Mr. Johnson", which slipped under my consciousness and exploded. Repeated listening revealed it's punk-rock Dylan-isms ("I was born premature - I'm still ahead of my time") that can match Elvis Costello's, it's weirdly wonderful bridge and the ratcheted up tension of that final chorus - "Hello Mr. Johnson - meet your audience". Most importantly, there's the Speedies who, with their deliriously snotty pop song, "Let Me Take Your Photo", proved (via its appearance in an HP ad) that so many of the songs herein really coulda been contenders.

Boomp3.com

Download V. 4

Re-Uploaded III

Volume Three gets us back in the UK, where instead of soft rock (in the Kansas-Boston-Chicago) the kids of the late 70's recycled glam rock in the Gary Glitter/Sweet/Mott the Hoople mode and that Small-Faces/Who/Action mod sound of '65. Another crucial distinction was that while in America only a few highly-produced young power-pop bands made it onto US radio while many of these UK bands had real shot at chart domination. And it shows. Listening to Protex,The Stillettos, The Strangeways or the Newhearts and you're baffled; This wasn't a monster hit? Perhaps a glut of "The" bands with kicky tunes and punchy choruses overwhelmed the United Kingdom to the point that only now, thirty tears later, are we prepared to exhume their discarded treasures. Even the weak tracks are a joy, so dig in.



Download V. 3

Re-Uploaded II

Volume two shifts to the USA, which in the late 70’s, deep in the thrall of Jimmy Carter, John Travolta and cheap cocaine, often lacked the lean edge of desperation which propels the best power-pop. However, the SSA team expertly juxtaposes the different facets of America’s Me Decade Pop Underground. We certainly get our share of nonthreatening low-power-pop (like Gary Charlson), which at its worst sinks to the Boston-on-a-budget AOR sound of Arlis! (and their annoying exclamation mark). Then there's a slew of Beatles worshippers, like Revolver, The Pop and the Boys (who may not be the bands you think they are) which help connect America and England on some mondo-retro level. Also on the Anglophillic side of things, we have the more sneering, propulsive Elvis Costello-like bands like the Reaction Formation, the Puppet Rulers and the Re-Runs. Best of all, representing a kind of power-jangle, Anglo-American fusion, are bands like Shivvers who kick off this comp with Teenline, which builds to a full-throttle crescedo and The Marshals who somehow managed (despite little else to recommend them) to write the most soaring attack on dead-air radio ever, in the magnificent pop song, A.M. Check out Teenline, followed by A.M. in the players below and then enjoy the whole deal, even if you have to cut through the flabby stuff.






Download V. 2

P.S. Fans of American Power-pop are hereby advised to check out the Ascenders

P.P.S. The songs I upload to DivShare do not play on my computer but do when I check from other computers. Can everyone else listen to the songs? Please let me know.

Re-upped

Talk show hosts, journalists and sociology profs hunting for a thesis love to prattle on about the addictive qualities of the Internet. “It’s the crack cocaine of sex addiction”, “It’s human communication stripped of nuance” and of course ‘blah-blah-Foucault-blah-blah-Derrida-blah-blah”. Now sex and disaster keep the media in business, so it’s understandable that they ignore the real problem: musicoholism (I sense a thesis on the make – musicism might work better but it doesn’t sound as…well…sexy!)

I’ve got six hundred CD’s, three hundred records and as many tapes. Plus my computer (and it’s little bitch, the iPod) is crammed with thousands and thousands of mp3's. I own more music than I can possibly appreciate. Why? Because the idea that there is one great song that I haven’t heard (and cannot access in a heartbeat) is unbearable to me – like ignoring a ringing phone.

I started out on Audiogalaxy. For an inveterate taper, a cherry-picker of the good songs, this was a direct bulls-eye in the pleasure centre. (The beautifully-maintained Mod-Punk Archives added to the damage done exponentially by showing me that there were 100,000 brilliant unrecognized bands from the late 70’s and early 80’s to be scored). Withdrawal would be a euphemism for my pain when Audiogalxy got busted by the RIAA, even though P2P only made me buy more albums. I sampled Bearsahre, Kazaa and Winmx (only warming to bit torrents recently) till I found the Harder Stuff, Soulseek. Between Soulseek, and now Google Reader for mp3 blogs, I've become the Johnny Thunders of this particular affliction.

So, as Archie Andrews had to pass on his compulsion to say, “Molly on a trolley/Found a seat by golly" to someone far away, so I’ll spread the addiction to you. From Japan to New Zealand to Norway to South Africa MRML has already become a few people’s local supply. Damn you, pusherman. To make a bad thing worse, I offer you the purest of product: Shake Some Action. These ex-pen-sive boots are, indubitably, amongst the greatest compilations ever (sorry Nuggets, Killed By Death, D.I.Y., Songs We Taught Duran Duran etc. ).

Maybe Rhino will call me up to release my own punk-mod-power-pop comps called...Shrapnel (Or is that merely the delirium tremens of a musicoholic…)

Volume One covers the UK from 1979-1986 and is bursting with rushing guitars and big hooks. Highlights include the anthemic "Don't Let Go" by Seventeen (who later became the Alarm), The Keys jangle-punk monster "I Don't Wanna Cry" (album here), the pop-perfect "Don't Go" by the Donkeys ( album available here) and the belligerent but infectious "Ignore Me" by The Gas (more to come). A few imperfect songs, like the rote mod-isms of "There Must be Thousands" by The Quads, only make you let your guard down for 2:42 seconds or so till the next hit hits.

Download V. 1