Compilation (various artist)
And... without further ado... I believe this is what many of you fine folks have been waiting for. The Rock Box is finally here! As promised, 150 of the best tracks out of Los Angeles and SoCal from 1964-69. The entire L.A. rock music scene on five discs, sequenced in exacting chronological order so that you can see for yourself just how fast music was progressing during this halcyon era: from Johnny Rivers to CSN in under 5 years! Dance with go-go girls at the Whisky; check out The Byrds at Ciro's; hang out in the garage; get in a riot at Pandora's Box; drop some acid at the Griffith's Park Love-In; hitch a ride up to Monterey for the Pop Festival; get hassled by the fuzz; swim naked in Peter Tork's pool, and then go ride horses in Topanga when it all gets too heavy, man. The music will take you there.
We'd also like to take the opportunity to introduce our new L.A. Gemstones Blog. From now on, all L.A. in the sixties' content will be centered over there. I will be writing liners for both Gemstones sets (the notes for discs one and two are already up there-- go read 'em!), compiling a ton of great YouTube content and rare photos, and trying to get discussions going on all things L.A... We hope to have some very special guest contributors lined up soon as well.
Anyway, I'll save the long-winded comments for the new blog. Enjoy the set!
Also still available-- L.A. Gemstones: The Pop Box
Posts
Yes! Thank you! Before even hearing a note of it, I thank you.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy! And if you do, go out and buy some music by the original artists!
ReplyDeleteAs above, thanking you before I even hear a note of it
ReplyDeleteChristmas in July!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Just curious, are these mp3s of lossless???
ReplyDeleteOoops, I meant *or lossless.
ReplyDeleteHooray! I'm just 5 downloads away from '60s LA rock nirvana! Thanks much for all the effort. I can't wait to start diggin' the sounds!
ReplyDeleteGreetings from L.A. - can't wait - thanks a ton!
ReplyDelete320k mp3s for the most part. There were a small handful of tracks I could only get at 256, but those are mostly VBR and sound fine. On a project like this, it has more to do with the quality of the needledrops anyway.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words everybody! Don't forget to check out our new blog as well.
is ian ever coming back? *sniff*
ReplyDeleteoops got ahead of myself with the previous question. awesome collection thank you!
ReplyDeleteDelays were largely my fault. Between the POP BOX and this: my mother died, I entered nursing school and work 50 hour weeks on the floor of an Alzheimers unit. It left very little time to put together quality work.
ReplyDelete-Ian!
congratulations and thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis is so great!! Thanks for all your hard work.
ReplyDeletea great achievement. thanks for curating.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all you do, Ian!
ReplyDeleteGood things come to those who wait. Beautiful music. Thanks to everyone involved in this project, your hard work is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteyou beautiful motherfuckers, it's finally here
ReplyDeleteSo... Anyone had a chance to finally listen to any of it?
ReplyDeleteThank you for this! For posteritys sake..try to never ever use sendspace. Megaupload seems to last the longest!
ReplyDeleteI've got a paid account with SendSpace, so as long as I pay my bill I think we're good.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting to hear from anyone who's listened so far!
Nice work, must have taken you weeks to complete your project. I've not downloaded your set as I never bother downloading anything unless it's from Bosshoss over at G45.
ReplyDeleteIt's criminal that you're asking for feedback but that's the name of the game with the 'entitled generation', They just grab and run.
Last year I reviewed 50 records from Los Angeles. I recently commenced another list of 50 essentias that you'll be interested in. My site is 'Flower Bomb Songs'.....
EXPO67
Now that I've had time to devour this, my new favorites are...
ReplyDeleteJoe Byrd & The Field Hippies
Fraternity of Man
Sons Of Adam (My first thought was that this sounds like something Love would do...then saw who wrote it)
All of it is great, thanks for the time and love you guys obviously put into this.
anonymous: Thank you for your response. All three of the groups/ songs you mentioned are personal favorites of mine. Of the three, I know the Joe Byrd & the Field Hippies CD has been reissued on CD on the One Way label. The name of the album is THE AMERICAN METAPHYSICAL CIRCUS. I was forced to edit down the intro for time constraints, but the full version as found on the album is really something to behold. I would recommend tracking down a copy for yourself; the entire album is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteExpo67, i appreciate your comment! For What It's Worth: I'm well familiar with Flower Bomb Songs and find you guys to be an amazing resource. You've keyed me into the back stories of so many great bands, and turned me on to stuff I would have never heard of otherwise. I hope you reconsider and download this set at least. I would particularly love to hear your feedback. Mahalo-- Jason.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to say thanks for this great collection. I've listened to Disc One a few times now and I love sequencing as it morphs from garage stompers to jangle, ending with a glimpse of the strangeness to come with The Mothers.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to more in-depth commentary!
Jason - I will download your L.A. Gemstones project and I'll most definately be interested to hear what you've come up with.
ReplyDeleteI've also linked your site with mine (which I research and write myself by the way, there's no 'you guys') so perhaps we can have some cross pollination.
In the meantime if you send me your email address I'll add you to my Flower Bomb Songs 'Secret Hyde'......
EXPO67
AT LAST!! Bravo! Can't wait to dive into this eagerly-anticipated collection. LOVED the Pop Box (one of the finest compilations of the last decade, IMO) and feel sure that the Rock Box will educate, inspire and satisfy. Thanks!
ReplyDeletea "Tremendous Excursion" down memory lane.
ReplyDeleteMuch thanks for bringing back recollections of a
golden departed earlier time in music history.
I doubt if many of these cuts came from original vinyl record.
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious that 'Wake Up To My Voice' by The Lyrics was taken from the beat up copy compiled on Highs In The Mid Sixties.
At least you deserve credit for putting the project together....considering!
Considering...that I was more than a little disturbed when I noticed some of your other entries were about Prince, Hip Hop and modern rock......stuff I will always HATE and what I call unlistenable especially when I've been playing 60s garage and psychedelia for the past 30 odd years without exception.
Thank you for your feedback, Expo67. Yes, it is true that most tracks were not vinyl sourced, as we were aiming for digital copies from (or close to) the original masters whenever possible. For the rest, some songs were pulled off of comps, and for many others we scoured eBay for the original 45s and LPs and needle-dropped them ourselves. As for the other styles of music found here: while we aim for diversity, our devotion to sixties music is ardent.
ReplyDeleteAnd once again, thanks to all of you who took the time to post here! I will now be shifting gears back to the L.A. Gemstones blog to get things tightened up over there, so make sure you bookmark it and come check us out from time to time!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lagemstones.blogspot.com/
I'm four fifths of the way through the Pop Box and on the second disc of this one. A great mix of the unknown and the familiar but excellent. I'm more of a San Francisco kind of guy, but LA aquits itself superbly here. Thanks for two superb comps. These are making the audio portion of my summer great!
ReplyDeleteThis looks fantastic, but I have to say that Sendspace is a nightmare - I've been hung up on disc four for two days, with constantly failed downloads.
ReplyDeleteThat's odd, I haven't heard any other complaints regarding SendSpace. Hopefully you were able to download it by now. If not, send me an email and I can arrange for an alternate method of delivery.
ReplyDeleteI'm stuck at disc 4 - haven't been able to get a complete download in 2 days. Same w/disc 5. Don't know where to find yr e-mail, though.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Thank you. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteStill no luck w/discs 4 and 5 a week later. Can we still talk about that alternate method?
ReplyDeletep.s. (can we keep this private?) you can e-mail me at rjamcginnis@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteemail sent.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteHoly moly, this is an amazing track list. Excellent work and scholarship putting this together. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGot here through Willards place. This looks pretty good.
ReplyDeleteGreat post I really like these old sixties songs. And yes I'm that old.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much
I'm listening to disc 3, near the end..."Black Roses" right now from long time favourites Clear Light.
ReplyDeleteDisc 2 is by far the best, a very solid comp full of great stuff, well known and some more obscure like old Pebbles favourites...I'm interested in reading what you wrote on the other blog.
Good Work!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteBlogUpp! brought me here and I gotta say you have a very nice blog!
Perhaps you wanna visit Dear Silly Blog
Subscribe and I'll subscribe you back!
Best regards.
Ah wow! This is awesome! Thanks a lot!
ReplyDelete____
call Iran
thanks all! been looking forward to this! LOVED the pop set and am sure ill love this one as well!
ReplyDeleteI recently had the opportunity to listen to the entire box set in two separate listening sessions over the course of a weekend and... wow... I was blown away! I have nothing but superlatives to describe it. The entire set is so masterfully compiled and sequenced that it's impossible for me to single out individual tracks for praise. It's a well-chosen mix of gems from obscure groups and lesser-known tracks from familiar artists. There will never be a "legitimate" box set release of '60s LA rock that could even hold a candle to this one. This is as good as it gets. Well done! Thanks so much for sharing. This set will continue to satisfy fans of '60s music for years to come!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say thanks for all your hard work! Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteThank you for putting this together. So good!
ReplyDelete"I'm With You" is no different, just not as good. The first single has their usual melody and sound and it sets the stage for what most of the rest of the album sounds like, but not quite. I'm not going to get into each song specifically as the album sort of blends together and they don't differentiate too much. That is not a bad thing, but there is little that stands out on the album.
ReplyDeleteAmazing music. I truly love it and could listen to it all day long ...!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. The first four are awesome but I've been trying to download 5 for two days now to no avail. It keeps hanging up and the most I've gotten to is 40% and I get a message something like "unable to read the source file." Is there an alternate way to download this? I'd love to have the full set. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteNever mind the previous post! Just finally got it. Must've been Xmas eve magic :)
ReplyDelete