genre: brass
country: us
quality: lossless (flac, cue, log, scans)
time: 46'39" size: 291 mb
misc.: 2003
Fuzz Acid & Flowers:
The great commercial success as a top notch horn-rock outfit and Peterik's subsequent career as soloist and front-man of Survivor, have meant that the early period of this Chicago outfit has been overlooked, so here's a brief rundown on the pre-Warner Bros releases.
Originally known as Shon Dels Unlimited, and briefly The Shondels, they quickly became one of Chicago's top teen bands. Nearly all their material was group originals written by Peterik. Their style for this period was a vibrant blend of Invasion-influenced beat and mod sounds, brimming with melodic hooks, ringing guitars and commercial appeal but with strong vocals and harmonies and a tough edge - the result is some classic mid-60s garagey pop.
The next 45 brings early signs of change - Give Your Mind Wings is a smooth beat-ballad and My Foolish Pride has the first influx of brass (though it's still good pop). Hole In My Soul is upbeat brassy pop but Girls Don't Grow On Trees returns to form - a fine'Raiders-cum-Monkees style pop-punker. The transitionary Kapp 45 features the soft ballad Nobody Loves Me, that would not be outta place on an Association album, even with the brass. The flipside Strawberry Sunday is more interesting - their sole attempt at a heavy psych-pop sound with distorted guitar, which comes off okay. ~ (Max Waller / Tom Truszkowski)
The Ides of March's second album was a more wide-ranging yet less consistent affair than their debut LP. On some of the tracks, they were obviously sticking to the Blood, Sweat & Tears-like format that had yielded their 1970 smash hit, "Vehicle." Jim Peterik has even admitted that "Superman," initially released as the follow-up single to "Vehicle" almost a year before Common Bond came out, was an attempt to rewrite "Vehicle," as per Warner Bros.' wishes (though they managed to quote the riff to Jimi Hendrix's arrangement of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" in that track as well). Yet the album also contained the accurate Crosby, Stills & Nash imitation "L.A. Goodbye," which although it missed the Top 40 was a huge hit in Chicago. Bombastic MOR pop balladeering also got a nod with "Hymn for Her," CSN were again aped in "We Are Pillows," and the eleven-minute epic "Tie-Dye Princess" was the band's most progressive endeavor, kicking off with the timelessly dated couplet "Hail hail to the tie-dye princess, hail hail to the tie-dye queen!" All of the tracks from the LP have been reissued on the Rhino Handmade compilation Friendly Strangers: The Warner Bros. Recordings, which also has everything from their debut album (1970's Vehicle) and a few non-LP singles from the period. ~ Richie Unterberger
01. "Friends Of Feeling" 3:42
02. "Ogre" 4:07
03. "L.A. Goodbye" 2:45
04. "Hymn For Her" 3:57
05. "Mrs. Grayson's Farm" 5:10
06. "Superman" 2:56
07. "We Are Pillows" 3:13
08. "Prelude To Freedom" 0:28
09. "Freedom Sweet" 3:26
10. "Tie-Dye Princess" 11:26
bonus
11. "Superman (single version)" 2:53
12. "Melody" 2:36
Larry Millas — Vocals and Guitar
Jim Peterik—Vocals and Guitar
Bob Bergland — Vocals and Bass
Mike Borch — Vocals and Drums
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