Track Listing: 1. Sarah Smiles 2. Turn on the Light 3.Bloodline
This is Bram's earliest solo recording, done while he was still in the Motors. Theoretically, I should have covered this one earlier, but I just bought it last weekend and my time machines in the shop, so here we go...
I was digging through the used record bins at Eastside and saw a Bram Tchaikovsky album I didn't own and was like, "Fuck yea!" However, I took a quick look at the cover and noticed that I already had all of these songs on "Strange Man, Changed Man..." As a result, I was this close to passing this one up. But then I noticed the album was credited to "Bram Tchaikovsky's Battle Axe" which was such an overly bad-ass title for such a harmony-rich power-pop band that I was immediately sold...
And I'm glad I took the plunge on this...These are completely different recordings...More scrappy, spare and energetic than the versions on "Strange Man..." Although I always liked "Sarah Smiles," the song never fully popped for me until I heard this 12" version...My god, those harmonies jump right out of the speakers...The version of "Bloodlines" on here similarly tops the later re-recording...
"Turn On the Light" is neither an improvement or a disappointment...This type of throwback rockabilly rave-up is impervious to any and all recording approach....
Energetic enough for when you're in the mood for punk, fizzy enough for when you have a sweet tooth for pop and rootsy enough for when you're in a pub rock frame of mind...Good stuff all around...Pick it up, even if you have "Strange Man..."....
Here's "Sarah Smiles" by Bram Tchaikovsky...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Stand and Deliver 2.Shall We Dance? 3. Heart of Stone 4. Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache 5. Model Girl 6. Why Does Mother 'Phone Me? 7.
Used To Be My Used To Be 8. Soul Surrender 9. Together My Love 10. Miracle Cure 11. Egyptian Mummies
A sliiiight drop-off from the previous two albums, but still pretty damn stellar..I think the loss of Micky Broadbent and his ultra-slick harmonies might have impacted the band a little, but it's not a killer blow when you have Bram supplying his own back-up harmonies...
You can also hear a bit of softness slip in,with some blue eyed soul touches on "Together My Love" and "Soul Surrender" but mostly it's all hook-laden power-pop...Anyone who loved the first two albums would love this too..And a couple of my favorite Bram tracks appear here: Namely, "Stand and Deliver" which is just a perfectly crafted piece of understated pop...It escaped my attention the first time, but every subsequent play reveals a different facet of the hook catches my ear...
My other favorite is the completely bonkers "Why Does Mother 'Phone Me?" Built around a muted guitar riff and a pathetic-sounding Bram bemoaning the fact that his Mother calls just to remind him that she doesn't like him...He also wonders why he's the only happy person in the world and when it finally gets around to a triumphant mariachi trumpet solo you just can't help but marvel at what you're hearing...Do not miss this...
There's plenty of other highlights too...Like the light and rootsy "Used To Be My Used To Be" which reminds me of "Cowboy Outfit"-era Nick Lowe (which is always a good thing)...When I initially heard the verses of "Model Girl" I thought it was going to be a bum track. It kinda reminded me of a bizarre, stiff hybrid of "Baba O'Reilly" & "Addicted to Love" (although it predates the latter by many years) but suddenly the catchiest chorus ever starts pumping out of my speakers and I'm left with no choice but to declare it an album highlight...
Unfortunately, this was Bram's final album to date...He just stopped making records as far as I can tell (outside of Saxon's "Solid Ball of Rock" which I think I've covered in another post), which is the biggest damn shame I can possibly think of. How many more killer chorus could this guy have come up with?! I directly blame the record-buying audience of 1981 that decided to put Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" at the top of the charts instead of Bram Tchaikovsky who wrote some of the greatest, catchiest tracks ever committed to tape...And to add insult to injury, "Funland" was never even issued on Compact Disc...What?!?! Luckily, I don't think it's too difficult to find a copy on vinyl...I managed to find one, anyway...And I recommend you do too, although you might want to start with the first two albums, but if this is all you can find, this one's almost as good...
Here's "Stand and Deliver" by Bram Tchaikovsky...Happy Frizzledicks!
Track Listing: 1. Let's Dance 2. Heartache 3. Letter From The USA 4. Can't Give You Reasons 5. Pressure 6. The Russians Are Coming 7. Hollywood Nightmare 8. Missfortune 9. Jeux Sans Frontieres (Game With No Rules) 10. Mister President 11. New York Paranoia
"Pressure" is the U.S.version of Bram's second album, "The Russians Are Coming"...The title of the UK version is muuuuuch cooler, however, I have to give the edge to the US cover art, which continues the Russian Propaganda art theme, but does it with an attractive deep red. Much more striking than the British version which resembles the first album's color scheme a little too closely...
I've seen copies of the UK version at my local record store and the first couple of times it just scanned in my mind as the first album...Then I was confused when I turned it over and discovered it had the same songs as "Pressure" except they were just out of order. I actually don't really see the point in this shuffled track list, since this record is so consistent...Probably even more so than their first album, however there's not really a song on "Pressure" that tops "Girl of My Dreams," or "Strange Man, Changed Man"...But I don't view that as a real drawback when there's stuff like "Jeux Sans Frontieres (Game With No Rules)" and "Can't Give You Reasons" on here...Power pop fans will lose their shit when they lay their ears on these songs...So much chime and jangle topped with liquid chrome harmonies...
Come to think of it, barring "Hollywood Nightmare," the singing isn't quite as jagged as on the previous album...The harmonies are extra smooth and blend together seamlessly this time...That's probably the reason this album is usually seen as the slightly weaker follow-up to "Strange Man..." It doesn't quite have the same raw excitement that album had...Again, not a big problem for me...A degree of slickness is practically a given in this genre...
Trust me, if you like guitars and harmonies, you're gonna need this record...Sure, not every track is a hit single, I could probably live without the trudging "Mister President" and the tracks where they dabble in old-timey rock n' roll are a bit weaker...But then you run across the perfect pop of "Let's Dance" or the positively epic "The Russians Are Coming" and you have no choice but to kick yourself for not hearing them sooner...Bram's CD catalog is woefully out of print, but you can still find this on vinyl for a pretty reasonable price, so I say comb the used bins and pick up both this and "Strange Man..." for a great pop-rock double-feature for your Friday night record party...
Here's "Can't Give You Reasons" by Bram Tchaikovsky...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1.
Strange Man, Changed Man 2.
Lonely Dancer 3. Robber 4. Bloodline 5. I'm The One That's Leaving 6.
Girl Of My Dreams 7.
Nobody Knows 8.
Lady From The USA 9.
I'm A Believer 10. Turn On The Light
The first movement from famed classical Russian composer Bram Tchaikovsky, recorded with the world-renowned Novosibirsk Shortwave Symphony Orchestra. This spectacular program opens with Tchaikovsky's most-beloved piece "Violin Concerto in Asia Minor" which starts with an ominous cloud of woodwinds flitting about in the night sky...Then arrives the thunder of cellos! Of timpani!! A cowardly violin saws away quietly in a corner, sheltering from the storm...
...then the conductor points his pointy stick to the right and bunch of flutes toodley doo! Then he points it to the left and the tuba flatuates in holy terror! "NO! NOT THE POINTY STICK AGAIN!" it seems to say! "IS IT SHARP?!?!?!" It is not, but what do tubas know?
Then a different conductor emerges from behind the curtains! He too has a stick! No, wait! It's a magic wand!! He throws a handful of twinkly stars into the other conductors eyes! The crowd gasps in awe as they realize the conductor is not wearing pants! Finally, a flash of lightning! A crash of a cymbal, and the performance is over. The conductor is spent, embarrassed. He clutches a bottle of rye and slinks back to the dressing room, scowling..."Just another night at the Russian orchestra" he mumbles to himself as he drinks deep from the poisonous bottle...
Nah, I'm just kidding...Bram Tchaikovsky is a power-popper. He was the guitarist for the British act "The Motors," but he splintered away from that group and released a series of fine solo albums in the late 70's and early 80's before dropping out of the record biz...Although. I keep seeing his name pop up as the songwriter on Saxon's "Solid Ball of Rock"...
Is this true? Is it really the same guy? I can't find anything that specifically says it's the same guy, but can there really be two people out there named Bram Tchaikovsky? I don't know. But I remember every Saturday night I would listen to Metal Shop religiously on Z93 WKQZ...
I'm not going to go into it again, cos I know I've covered this before, but I used to tape the songs I liked from the show and just play them endlessly...A real staple of those tapes was Saxon's "Solid Ball of Rock." Sure it was cheesy, but when you're a 14 year old kid that type of thing seems to elude you...A song called "Solid Ball of Rock" isn't cheesy, wearing non-ripped jeans or hugging your Parents in public is...No, "Solid Ball of Rock"'s big, strutting, hard-rock groove was bad-assness personified...Anyway, I have a hard time reconciling this song with what's on display on "Strange Man, Changed Man"...
This album is one of the most airtight pop-rock albums ever created...Fans of bands like the Records, Shoes, Nick Lowe (or just the friendlier side of 70's punk rock, in general) have to have this...It features one of the Power Pop movement's best singles, "Girl of My Dreams"...
Big chime and jangle...Aural
magic with an effortless melody that would have sounded great playing on a
radio station in a long-forgotten teenage memory...Of course, I
doubt this was ever played on the radio much...Not on a radio station
anywhere near where I grew up anyway...Still. it hits me in that same
spot that treasures compressed harmonies flowing from a tinny boombox
speaker... Listen to it...Then listen to it again...
God, I loved this era. The whole 1979-1980 power-pop thing is probably one of the music movements closest to my heart...To me, this is really what it's all about...Nice harmonies, simple melodies, powerful playing...In the public's mind this genre started with the Knack's hugely successful first album and ended with the Knack's crash and fall on their second album...
...but us music fanatics know better...So many great forgotten singles
and albums were left behind in this short period of time, and such a
large amount of it was so classic..."Strange Man, Changed Man" was so much
more than an empty shell to house an ace single...By my count, there's at
least 5 or 6 single-worthy tracks here...Chief among them the title track which reminds me of the Jam attempting to groom themselves for American radio play...Which turns out to be a pretty glorious sound, really...Wiry energy, bellowed harmonies and cutting, trebly guitar. Actually every single song on side One is a knockout..."Robber"..."Bloodline"...They're all catchy as hell...
Side two is only slightly less successful...To be honest "Girl from the USA" is a bit soft for my tastes and the boogie-based cover of "I'm a Believer" is only serviceable...But we're going to forgive side two cos that's where "Girl of My Dreams" is...Luckily they go out with a bang on "Turn on the Lights" which nails that Dave Edmunds new-wave rockabilly thing...
You're probably going to pay a pretty penny if you try to find a CD of this album, since it's been out of print for quite awhile...But used vinyl copies still appear to be plentiful. I picked this up from Revolver Records in Tempe for $1.99 and it was worth every penny...Hell, I'd go as far as $10 for this one... Oh yea, on an unrelated note, here's a picture Jens found on his phone...I ripped this idea off from my friend Josh, who used to do this exact same thing whenever he'd see a copy of The Big F "Is"...
I spent a few minutes trying to figure out what the other Cd I was was holding in my other hand was...I think I've concluded it's a copy of "Aftershock" by Motorhead...
Here's "Strange Man, Changed Man" by Bram Tchaikovsky. Enjoy...
