GEORGIE RIZZO – ONLY ME

Until the end of the last year there was some kind of second hand store just around the corner of my house. The shop mostly cared for furniture, books or clothes but offers also some boxes of records. I went in nearly every day and over the 12 months the shop was around i found some amazing stuff, in the likes of The Times “Go With The Times“ to “Demonstration Tapes“ by Dolly Mixture. Beside this i picked up some rare funk and soul lps on regular basis, not to forget about some nice goth records as well.
It should be around may or june the last year when i walked in with my brother to show him some german 70's radio drama vinyl which looked unfamiliar to me. Between those stuff he picked up an LP by an guy called Georgie Rizzo. Both of us never saw this piece of vinyl before so i asked him to let it to me. I payed an euro and back at home i didn't played the album for a couple of days and i nearly forgot about it. Gladly one week later i finally gave it a spin. From the start i was more than inspired and did not listening to anything else over the next days. Until now i'm still not so sure how i should describe Georgie's music, maybe it's folk, ? I'm not sure and tell you what, for me it doesn't matter, it's just sounds like an perfect pop album! “Only Me“ was released in 1971 on (as it seems) private GWP label which was based in New York. The sleeve's back let us know that Georgie grew up as the youngest in a family of fourteen children. To my surprise, the internet did not list many infos about Georgie, there might be one 7“ single, released the same year. Apart from it the album get some praise on a couple of japanese webpages, that's nearly all i could locate about him. “Only Me“ did contains at least four tracks which are real classics, from the fantastic opener “Scarlet Lace“ over “Fly“ up to his absolute masterpiece “Next Summer“. All those songs contain some of the most finest acoustic guitar lines i've ever heard, beside this Georgie's voice sounds amazing to me.
While listening again to “Only Me“ i have to think on the album by pre Dream Academy outfit Alfalpha which was released some years later. I was never that much into 70's music but those two albums makes me very curious into more. Someone out there who can recommend similar stuff or who has any further infos about our Georgie?

FST 083 THE SOULBOY COLLECTIVE – CASINO ACTION

YEAH, welcome to sound of young Kornwestheim. Once announced for the year 2013, it's finally here!!!
“Casino Action“ will be co-released by our friends from Fastcut Records in Japan, with the band's debut album, “Clique Tragedy“ to follow in january 2010. And tell you what, they're sooo special, a pure popdream!!! “Casino Action“ sounds like nothing else in the world and contains some of the best lyrics ever written, while the 7“ flip is an amazing affair between Northern Soul Records and Belle And Sebastian's “Woman's Realm“. What more can i say? They make my life from the first time i was listening to them! There will be only a handfull of copies available from the Firestation shop's website, so be quick and don't tell me later on that i have not let you know about it in advance!!!


Casino Action

Three buttons in a row that meant the world to me
The weekend’s just beginning and I long to see
My only friend
This old Casino
 
I used to park my GS just outside the shed
I gave up drinking, smoking
Taking pills instead
My only friend
This old Casino
I’d like to dance there
Once again till eight A.M.

Pontification Plus Four out next Monday

FST 086, the re- release of our top- selling album Pontification by The Desert Wolves is in the pressing plant. From Monday the 16th of November on it's directly available from Firestation Records, within the next two weeks from every good mailorder- service.
The previously unreleased "Skin Deep" you can hear here.

Another great night...

... was the last night at the Ex'n'Pop in Berlin-Schöneberg with the Firestation- Bands MAZY FIELDS, THE GROOVY CELLAR and the DJ FISHERMAN


FIRE!


Yesterday was Halloween


Strictly 7inches


The ultimate Pop-Hit this week

Firestation Records Night

FST 084 - DER ENGLISCHE GARTEN

Finally – after two singles we will release the debut CD of Munichs finest at Firestation Records. Since their 7” “Eine neue Welt” we love the sound of the nine Munich lads. By the way was it the fastest selling single at our catalogue. We have only left a few copies of the “Junge Leute” 7”, too. Time for their self- titled CD- album .
The album will be opened with a new version of “Junge Leute”, followed by ten new tracks who let you think and dream of new Jim Jiminee or Dexys songs. The disco-like “2 Minuten 45”, the early Merricks sound-a-like “Heizdecke Am Strand” or the groovy “Bitte Bleib Mal” – forced by the horn section these are HITS. And the lyrics from singer Axel Koch ( C.l.a.r.k.) about resistance and revolution – class struggle can be fun!
And what a sensational live- band they are…glorious!
“Der Englische Garten” will be out in November.

TRACKLIST:

Junge Leute
Der Geist Der Straße
2 Minuten 45
Baden gehen
Eiffelturm
Unter Dem Wasserfall,
Regentag
Heizdecke Am Strand
Dein Taschenmesser
Irgendwoanders Hin
Bitte Bleib Mal

OUT NOW

THE OGDENS - HELLISH MAD RUSH

The Ogdens were formed in 1986 by Jon Fagg, Andrew Milton, John Phillips and Vince Woodward. Vince left Britain to live in the US and John Devenney (JD) joined in 1987. Karen Andrews was with the band for a year or so on trumpet.

The band released three singles, the first of which was Single of the Week in the NME in 1988. John Peel regularly played the band’s songs on his show and his special selection for the BBC World Service. Their third single “She Made Everything Groovy” was produced by Pete Overend Watts of Mott the Hoople. Over the years, the band played tours across the country in venues such as the ICA (on the same bill as the Stone Roses), the Marquee and The Mean Fiddler.

The group have never formally disbanded and their records and memorabilia still turn up regularly on ebay.

After almost 20 years here finally comes their debut-album on Firestation Records with 22 great songs, including all singles, never released tracks, some demos and live recordings. You can buy HELLISH MAD RUSH direct on our website, on ebay and other onlineshops or at your local record dealer (distribution in Germany/ Austria/ Switzerland by ALIVE).

FST 086 THE DESERT WOLVES – PONTIFICATION PLUS

We first released "Pontification" in the summer of the year 2000. Can't remember exactly what keep's the ball rolling back then. Maybe it was Peter who was going in contact with Martin King of the band a couple of years earlier. What i remember is that i met with Guy Lovelady of Ugly Man Records on an rather cold spring day in the year 2000. We had some great conversations in a bar nearby the Kurfürstendamm. Beside the master CD he passed me over the first recordings by the Vermont Sugar House. What a lovely day it was !
“Pontification“ became a big fan-favourite, 1500 copies of the album were pressed, another 500 vinyl copies were done exclusively for Vinyl Japan. Most of the cds were sold abroad. In the early days of Firestation Records we worked shortime with an german distribution company which name i have forgotten a long time ago. We passed them over 200 copies of the album with the result that we never ever received any payment from them. The company broke down a year later, so somewhere in germany there still should be some boxes of the original “Pontification“ release, as we never received the cds back from them. We run out of copies of the album in 2001. Over the years many new fans came by and asked for it. Gladly a couple of years ago Martin and his mates found some unreleased songs. So what to do which such brilliant material ? On the first there was the plan to release a two track 7“ single with both unreleased songs. After a longtime discussion at Firestation head quarter we decided to make some kind of “Deluxe Edition“ of an long out of stock album. Without a doubt, it's more than worth to do !
Now we have “Pontification Plus“ an new edition of this classic album with an brand new artwork and four bonustracks, three of them unreleased elsewhere !
“Skin Deep“ would have made a classic third single for the band, so we're more than proud to present it to you here on this special release !

Thanks to Guy, Martin and Kevin for great cooperation over all these years !!!!


tracklist:

Skin deep
Mexico
Love scattered lives
Stopped in my tracks
Desolation sunday morning
Passion in the afternoon
Speak to me, rochelle
Besotted
November
The gunmetal jaguar
La Petite Rochelle
She wore my sweater
Passion in the afternoon (version)

ZAZ TURNED BLUE

As promised before here we have some more obscure stuff from the demo-tape collection i bought a while ago. I have to say honest that i never heard about ZAZ TURNED BLUE before but this 6 track tape makes me very curious about them. I checked google for them but the only thing i could found out was that there once was a song by Was (Not Was) recorded in 1983 named that. Not sure if our ZAZ TURNED BLUE named themself after this song but i will make sure to give this number a listen in the near future. Unfortunately the tape's sleeve did not contain any infos apart from the bandname and the songtitles. The first four songs were recorded live while the last two tracks were recorded at home. The home-demos are very rough and rather keyboard-based, what really kicks me are those four live-cuts. “Speak Your Mind“ brings back memories of early Aztec Camera live-recordings and i have to think on “Just Like Gold“ while listening to this number. Maybe it's the singer's voice or those wonderful jazzy guitars. I'm not sure but can let you know that this number became very special to me over the last couple of months. Next up we have “The Night Is As Loud As Thunder“, another fine tune. “Observations“ is pure North Of Cornwallis, believe it or not ! How great ! I can't stop listening to it. They close with “If I Choose“ which contains more jangly guitars and an great refrain. I really wonder if someone out has any infos about them. So many questions to ask. When were they around ? Did they released any records ? Where they came from ? The list seems to be endless. Come on, don't let me spend another month keep searching in the dark !

FST 087 THE OGDENS – HELLISH MAD RUSH

After a break we will return in october with three new releases. We will kick off with an retrospective by alltime-faves The Ogdens. “Hellish Mad Rush“ will contain no less than 22 tracks ! Formed in 1986 the band released three wonderful singles, all of them are still in the hearts of indiepop-lovers all around the world. I bought “It's A Beautiful Day“, the band's debut 7“ single, sometimes back in 1990 only to found out soon after that there were two other records by them already out. It took me a while to locate them both finally in 1991.
Full of jangly guitars and some of the finest melodies ever heard, songs as “Patricia“, “Train To London Bridge“ or “Rachel Put Your Arms About Me“ makes my day for many many years. Still friends today the band never called it the day but went separate ways back in the early 90's. I played their records on regular basis over the years and looked out for them on google twice the month. Time went by and i nearly gave up. I became an lucky man earlier this year when i found out that they finally appeared on myspace. Now we have “Hellish Mad Rush“ an compilation CD full of hits which contains all tracks from the band's regular releases plus lot's of unreleased recordings. As a bonus there will be even some 4 track demos plus a couple of live tracks !
As yet unreleased songs as “Yeah Yeah Yeah“ or “From One Extreme To A Broken Dream“ will make your day, more than sure ! So let them into your heart !!!
Thanks a lot to Andrew for the great conversation over the last couple of months !!!

the tracklist will look as follows:




Yeah Yeah Yeah
Sticky Licky Apples
From One Extreme To A Broken Dream
It's A Beautiful Day
Shades Of Green
Bad State Of Mind
Rachel Put Your Arms About Me
Train To London Bridge
The Prettiest Girl In Carmarthenshire
Deep
I Want To Know Everything
She Made Everything Groovy
Walk In The Country
Patricia
All About Steve
Bring Me The Head Of The National Theatre
Dizziness
Boeing Boeing Bomb!
Slip Of A Lad
Funny What A Moon Can Do
From One Extreme To A Broken Dream
Goodbye Yuppy Scum