All Righty!
Play the video above to get the full story and details on the latest bands talked about in LOST TREASURES.
After getting a chance to listen to some of the music on the links below, share your feelings and any additional information you may know about the bands discussed here.
This episode talks about two bands.
BAD BOY, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin
and
THE SECRETS*, from Kansas City, Missouri
Bad Boy played around on the Midwestern rock scene from the mid 70s until the mid 80s. Leader Steve Grimm still makes music today and links to purchase the two albums talked about in his episode are below.
The debut of Bad Boy, “The Band That Made Milwaukee Famous” came out in 1976, followed up by “Back To Back” in 1977. As I mention in the video above, there are about 2/3 of the songs that appear on these two albums that power pop fans are going to like quite a bit. They had a singer who has a voice that sounded like angel and tons of hooks and pop melodies that are appealing to the sensibilities of us.
A Note Of Caution: their recorded output after these two albums is not going to be of keen interest to most of you as they moved in a more hard-rock/AOR-ish sound in the vein of Survivor and Night Ranger. Good albums in this style of music but not connected to the reasons I am focusing on Bad Boy’s two albums, which is really cool finds for many power poppers.
The Secrets* are semi-legendary for old-school power poppers but few new fans to the genre have had the opportunity to hear much about the band. They released one album and a few singles on a local label called Quality in 1982 and their debut single “It’s Your Heart Tonight” b/w “Get Your Radio” was released by the legendary Titan Records label in 1979. The album was picked up by RCA and released on a short-lived subsidiary called Why-Fi in 1982.
This album has never been available on CD, sadly.
The mention of this band is timely and purposeful. Why? Well, talking about The Secrets* allows us the opportunity to hear about the upcoming 4 LP(vinyl!) release of the “It’s All Pop!” and the Numero Group label(whose name was buzzing on in the video – hmmm, that memory of mine is starting to concern me!).
In case you are not aware, Numero Group release some of the highest quality, best researched reissues…ever! Most in obscure sub-genres of music few have the balls to explore and invest in and the forgotten music they unearth is fascinating and will be appreciated by sophisticated music pantheist that so many of us are.
THE LINKS:
BAD BOY –
the main Bad Boy site – HERE
to buy the CD of “The Band Who Made Milwaukee Famous/Back To Back” – HERE (click on ‘CDs & Merchandise’ button)
“The Band That Made Milwaukee Famous” (1976) (samples below)
“Last Rock ‘n Roller” – here
“Shake It Up” – here
“Overture” – here (cool instrumental)
“Back To Back” (1977)
THE SECRETS –
to check out the “Titan Records – It’s all Pop!” 2 CD set – HERE
to pre-order the 4 LP vinyl set of “Titan Records – It’s All Pop!” (w/ bonus stuff) – HERE
The Secrets* on You Tube:
“Radio Heart” – http://youtu.be/zNOTlEwVFMU
“Photographs Of You” – http://youtu.be/RYM_8NaagpE
“I Can Dance Better” – http://youtu.be/VTbxeCVEtvQ
“Shy Around Girls” – http://youtu.be/9oqI8r7d0wM
“Uniform” – http://youtu.be/pSOD1jY-7e4
The other item mentioned in the video was “Pop Power” book by Emmett McAuliffe with Daniel Krasnegor.
As I mentioned, this 1990 book is incredibly rare! I bought mine in the early 90s and still have it(shown on the video). It may come up on Amazon, so keep an eye out but it’s a bona-fide rarity that is going to cost you north of $100. A bit of basic info on the book can be found at this link HERE and dig around on Google. I can talk about this book in more detail on a future episode of “Lost Treasures” if you want – just post below and let me know.
Nice to see mention of the long forgotten Bad Boy’s first two. Still run across used copies from time to time. A big following here in the upper Midwest back in the day…
Eric, DUUDEE! You know ’em?! That rocks! I truly LOVE these two albums(uh, obviously)….I’m quite serious when I say there is a lot on each of them that even the most picky power pop fanatic is going to be surprised by hearing(but there’s are some duds on each ’em, for sure…)
Yeah, those two albums don’t get mentioned much and you would think with the Cheap Trick connection (Xeno)- they should be better known.
Hey Bruce, pretty cool seeing you display a copy of Emmett McAuliffe’s ‘Pop Power! the other day on your video. It took me forever to track down a copy of this HUGELY rare resource after seeing it mentioned in John Borack’s late ’90s Goldmine feature of the top Power Pop albums. It’s a fascinating item which provides both ratings and brief comments on countless recordings. Another wonderful book which I have in my library which we don’t hear about too much these days is Ken Sharp & Doug Sulpy’s excellent 335!!! page book, ‘Power Pop! Conversations with the power pop Elite’…another very difficult item to track down, but one in which EVERY power pop fan should not be without. All of the big names are featured here: Badfinger, Emitt Rhodes, Shoes, the Rubinoos, the Hudson Brothers, etc. And lastly, the 1999 edition of Music Hound’s, ‘Rock – The Essential Album Guide’, is a fine tome which I find reviews a heck of a lot more power pop artists’ recordings than your average, run-of-the-mill music guides. Some of the well-known contributors to this book which come to mind include folks such as Jordan Oakes and Carl Cafarelli.
I”m a big fan of Ken Sharp’s books – all of them. Of course, his power pop book is a personal favorite – Not Lame sold it while it was in print, which was a very short time. Another rare one – not sure the print run it, but I think it was under 1,000. I have the Music HOund book, you mention – not looked at it in yrs though. Only so much time, alas….
Nice seeing Bad Boy getting some love on the ol’ interwebs. I would HIGHLY recommend their 3rd LP, “Private Party” for power pop lovers. That album is loaded with pop goodness that sounds very much like classic Cheap Trick, at least to these ears anyway. The first three are all sweet & if you’re into kitschy 80’s AOR, the final two have their own appeal too. Glad to see you getting the word out on such an overlooked band. Keep ’em coming, Bruce!