MelodicRock Classics is thrilled to finally announce the long-awaited release date of the one and only BRINKER album, resurrected from its original (and limited) cassette only release back in 1985.
Considerable time has gone into making sure this is the complete story of Brinker.
Drummer and namesake Ray Brinker unearthed the original reel to reel masters, which were sent to Nashville to be baked and digitized, then sent to MRC HQ in Australia, where the digitized files were sent to JK Northrup for him to work his remastering magic.
Even better – the original tapes contained not only the full 12 track original album, but an additional 6 bonus tracks, which are included in this Deluxe Edition CD ‘Alloy Rock’.
Brinker’s members include guitarist Andy Timmons – known to everyone for his role in Danger Danger as well as his own solo releases. Drummer Ray Brinker went on to be one of Los Angeles’ most in demand session hires, with credits including Cinderella, Pat Benatar, Jon Butcher Axis, David Lee Roth, Steve Morse, Frank Gambale, Joe Cocker, Ray Charles and many more.
Bassist Steve Bailey toured and recorded with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Willie Nelson, Jethro Tull, Paquito D’rivera, Larry Carlton, and the Rippingtons and all points in between. For 30 years he has partnered with fellow bassist Victor Wooten in Bass Extremes.
Powerhouse vocalist Mark Pyburn left the music business but recently found his way back, venturing back into leading music in houses of worship in his 40s and 50s.
MelodicRock Classics will release BRINKER ‘Alloy Rock’ (Deluxe Edition) on November 24.
Track Listing:
01. Your Love
02. Just Missing You Tonight
03. Dreams & Yesterday
04. Feelin'
05. The Storm
06. Forget It
07. Give It All Away
08. Love Is Too Good For Me
09. Can't Go On
10. World Bathed In Red
11. Don't Hold Back
12. Can't Stop It
Bonus Tracks:
13. Let Me Out To Play
14. Tell Me Why
15. Carry Me Back
16. Runaway Girl
17. Fight
18. Winner
Brinker is:
Mark Pyburn – Vocals
Andy Timmons – Guitar
Ray Brinker – Drums
Steve Bailey – Bass
Produced by: Brinker and David Rosenblad
Assisted by: Chuck Chiles
Executive Producer: Ray Schiding
About BRINKER:
Roaring out of North Texas in 1985, BRINKER was an amalgamation of the major rock influences of the fertile 1980’s music scene, created by four master musicians who would go on the establish themselves as some of the most successful players of today’s rock, jazz and studio disciplines.
Guitar god Andy Timmons’ crushing guitar power chords and soaring melodic lines are perfectly balanced by the stratospheric vocals of Mark Pyburn, while Steve Bailey’s iconic fretted and fretless bass lines and Ray Brinker’s thunderous and relentless drumming hold down the bottom end. These original tracks pay homage to the band’s musical heroes, from Journey and Peter Gabriel to AC/DC and The Scorpions, while establishing the unique and individual voice of BRINKER.
Drummer Ray Brinker and bassist Steve Bailey met in 1978 as freshmen in North Texas State University’s Jazz Studies program. Kindred musical spirits, they played together throughout school, and toured the world together with various artists, including jazz trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson and Dixie Dregs veterans T Lavitz and Steve Morse. Despite their jazz roots, they shared a desire to form their ultimate vision of a rock band.
In 1984, with the financial backing of executive producer Ray Schiding, the seeds of BRINKER were born, and Ray and Steve began their search for like-minded band-mates. That search led them to Miami, Florida to recruit guitar virtuoso Andy Timmons from the University of Miami’s Jazz Studies program. Three months later, the trio relocated to Denton, TX to continue writing and begin production of the recording. Texas vocalist extraordinaire Mark Pyburn, with his signature stratospheric range, was discovered, and the band BRINKER was officially born.
Living together in a band house for a year enabled the group to write and rehearse daily, and recording began in 1985 with engineer David Rosenblat.
BRINKER ‘Alloy Rock’ was never officially released, and only a handful of cassettes remain in circulation.
The four members of BRINKER went on to experience successful solo careers with extensive playing credits, while the original master tapes lived in storage in Ray’s garage for nearly 4 decades. Now digitized from original master tapes and remastered, BRINKER ‘Alloy Rock’ is re-born. Welcome to 1985! We hope you enjoy BRINKER.
MelodicRock Classics is thrilled to announce a new partnership with acclaimed British melodic rock band RIO for the first ever official release on CD of their classic catalogue, which will also feature a third unreleased album!
Starting with the band’s debut album ‘Borderland’, the freshly remastered release (thanks to JK Northrup) features an additional 4 bonus tracks.
The band’s Steve Rodford had this to say about the long-awaited release: “We recorded this album in 1984 as part of our first major record deal, self-produced and recorded at home, then finished off and mixed in London. We’ve been amazed at how it has become a bit of a cult classic over the years and are delighted to be able to present Borderland, in partnership with MelodicRock Classics, featuring exclusive bonus material. It’s so good to be able to present original ‘band’ mixes of “I Don’t Wanna Be The Fool” and “State Of Emergency” as they are closer to the original sound and vision we had for the record. It was a real labour of love recording this album, and it’s so great there’s still interest in it all these years later and would be wonderful to think some new people might discover it.
A very big thank you to Marcus Mason, Jamie and Matt at Sunfish and Andrew McNeice at MelodicRock Classics.”
Track Listing:
01. I Don't Wanna Be The Fool (Original Mix)
02. Straight To The Heart
03. Tommy Can't Help It
04. Better This Time
05. State Of Emergency
06. Shy Girl
07. She's A Virgin
08. Close To You
09. Borderland
Bonus Tracks:
10. I Don't Wanna Be The Fool (Single Mix)
11. Casualty (Previously Unreleased)
12. State Of Emergency (Band Mix)
13. I Don't Wanna Be The Fool (Band Mix)
Pre-orders for RIO and PINK ROSE available Tuesday Sept 12.
MelodicRock Classics has something a little different for fans come September 29.
The label is not only delivering a 1986 cult classic hard rock album on CD for the first time ever, but also delivering a brand-new re-recording of the same album, all in the one package.
The band is French rockers PINK ROSE, the album is ‘Just What You Needed’. Originally released on LP back in 1986, the album features Marc Quee on vocals; Fabrice Fourgeaud on guitar; Thierry Gaulme on drums; and Pierre Bremond on bass.
Formed out of the ashes of Attentat Rock, PINK ROSE only recorded the one album, but following an Attentat Rock reunion in 2009, the 4 members of Pink Rose started talks about re-recording the album. Now almost 15 years later (37 since the release of Just What You Needed), the new cathartic recording is completed and is aptly titled Just What We Needed.
‘Just What We Needed’ will be Disc 1 of a 2-Disc set, with the original remastered album Just What You Needed being the second disc.
About PINK ROSE:
When Attentat Rock went into the Studio Maunoir in Geneva in January 1986, their intention was to record the bands 4th album, which was going to be called "Pink Rose”.
A few months before, Herve Raynal, who was the bands main composer, left the band and was replaced by Stéphane Bonneau (Satan Jokers). After the first week of the recordings, Stephane decided to leave the band, which left the band as a quartet.
Instead of bringing in a new lead guitarist the band opted to add keyboards to the songs (played by Thierry Fervant, owner of Studio Maunoir). This - and the fact that the new compositions were different to what had been the style of Attentat Rock – caused the band to decide to take a completely different path, changing their name to Pink Rose.
The band was never happy with the production, which they felt didn't give justice to the songs and after a few months after the release of the album they split up. Until now.
MRC will release the 2CD Set Just What We Needed on September 29.
I think most are aware of this by now, but most of my time over the last 3-4 months have been spent opening and running a used music store here in Tasmania.
An opportunity fell into my lap to buy out a large used CD market stall and convert it into a retail outlet.
I now have a better understanding of the work and time involved plus the knowledge of whether the idea is going to work.
Seems it will, as the enthusiasm, support and patronage from locals has been amazing. The leasehold company love the shop and want me to sign on for a two year lease, which I’m inclined to do as the shop has already overtaken MelodicRock Classics as an income source and I’m having great fun doing it.
I will continue developing the label and working on new titles - the September announcement isn’t far away. Some cool new projects are underway and a couple of surprises too.
However, the one thing I’m having a major issue with is (as usual) REVIEWS!
After recommitting to adding more reviews recently, the store then came into play forcing another change in plans.
I’m listening to everything as always and quite simply, I want to share my views on what’s good, fresh and original and what’s tired old claptrap.
The easiest way to share my views - in as few or as many words as needed - is via Facebook. I know some hate the platform and it’s not ideal by any means. But when I’m listening and have thoughts to share, under current circumstances the best way to do that is a post on my FB page and let folks share and comment from there. And let’s face it, the majority of people now sit on their FB feed and wait for things to come to them. Information based websites are a second thought these days.
I’m upgrading the integration of Twitter and Facebook feeds to appear on the MelodicRock frontpage (down right side) so everyone can still visit the site and find everything (and fresh MelodicRock Classics news) as usual. And I will continue to add archived reviews from the past, to the growing A-Z database.
I will add bigger reviews to the site as normal when time permits. But for now - breaking news, reviews and comments on new and upcoming (and even old releases), will all be on my FB feed.
Hope folks understand that - it is basically all about making the best choice to share views, as there is just so much music and information to wade through these days and I want people to learn which are the best releases available and not get sidetracked by the more run of the mill titles that clog up our scene.
Thanks as always for reading. Comments most welcome.
Brian Bart’s resume now goes back 40 years. He has been a stalwart of the Minneapolis rock scene since the start of the 80s – as a guitarist, songwriter, producer, engineer just for starters.
In recent years Brian has been the owner, engineer and producer at Logic Studios & Logic Recordings. He has recorded over 300 albums, played multiple instruments on over 100 records, including ten of his own.
Best known as founding member of Dare Force, Brain’s solo debut ‘Future Vision’ came in 1987 and features a wild set of songs spanning hard rock, pomp, melodic anthems, fusion and some inspired instrumentals that show an artist in full command of his craft. The album features some fine displays of shredding and riffing, intelligent song arrangements and a guitar tone and sound that rivals the great Boston.
Unfortunately for fans of 80s melodic rock, the album remains largely a mystery – it was only ever released independently on cassette. Until now. Brian Bart has re-arranged the cassette running order to better suit the flow of a CD and the material has been remastered once again by JK Northrup.
‘Future Vision’ can now be heard in all its glory on a Limited Edition 500 Series CD release from MelodicRock Classics on August 25.
There’s nothing more satisfying than delving deep into the archives of rock music history in order to breathe new life into an old band. And sometimes the more obscure bands deliver the best surprises.
Canada’s Izod is one of those bands. Their name comes from the ‘Izod Impact Test’, a test used to measure a metal’s resistance to impact. These guys literally have metal in their name.
Izod was formed in 1978 when Mike Mayer brought together Paul Gayne and Gary Green as the foundation for a new heavy rock band. The three band mates were heavily influenced by the sound and style of British Heavy metal pioneers, Judas Priest. It wasn’t long before they added Greg Roxworth and Luke Moretti and began playing regularly as a Judas Priest cover band.
After a few years of playing, making demos and other recordings of their own songs, it was time to take the next step. Roxworth and Moretti left the group and were replaced by Steve Lewis and Max Fodero. Izod had truly formed.
The newly formed group began playing complete sets of their own music across Canada. They started to get the attention of record companies before winning the Q107 Homegrown contest in 1984, and soon caught the attention of WEA producer Gary Furniss. After many months of writing and pre-production, Furniss produced the Overdrive EP which was released in early 1987.
Izod began touring across Canada while promoting the EP and continued to be a very popular live act. Their shows did not disappoint, featuring plenty of fireworks and pyrotechnics.
The expanded and remastered release for ‘Overdrive’ consists of the original 1987 EP, plus an unreleased track from the sessions called ‘Rock This Town’; the single from the Q107 ‘Homegrown’ contest titled ‘Heavy Metal Madman’ and 3 additional tracks from the early 1983 demo sessions ‘Lost In The Night’, ‘High And Mighty’ and ‘Rechmachine’.
All tracks have been carefully restored and remastered by JK Northrup, giving the material a new punch.
MelodicRock Classics will release Izod – Overdrive (Expanded and Remastered) August 25 as part of the 500 Series of releases – strictly limited to 500 units only.
Izod is:
Steve Lewis - Lead Vocals
Gary Green - Lead Guitar and Backing Vocals
Mike Mayer - Bass guitar and Backing Vocals
L. Paul Gayne - Drums and Backing Vocals
Max Fodero - Guitar and Backing Vocals
Additional Lead Vocals - Mike Jacob, Greg Roxworth
I continue to struggle with many of the Frontiers formulaic AOR by numbers releases that plague our scene.
Thankfully we still have bands like DEGREED who blow me away each and every time. These guys present everything I love about modern music - pure melodic bliss, with a contemporary edge - so well produced and with every member of the band contributing to the sound. Killer guitars and a thumping rhythm section, plus continued unique use of the keyboards throughout.
And the vocals...just superb.
RUN to get this killer album and check out the ballad of the years 'Don't Be A Stranger'.
MelodicRock Classics is thrilled to partner with classic 80s pomp/AOR act MPG to bring fans the first ever official CD release of the band’s 1981 debut album, originally released by A&M Records.
This special Deluxe Edition expands the original album with 4 early demos, but then on a second disc, jumps forward into work recorded for a never released second studio album, plus other tracks demoed over the years since. The guys have always stayed in touch and this culminates with the addition of a brand-new song – “Stop The World” - recorded last year and mixed only a month ago.
JK Northrup has mastered the new song as well as remastering the original album and all bonus tracks.
The band has delivered some liner notes about the album and the extra tracks, plus a range of exclusive never before seen photos, all included in the accompanying booklet.
MPG is:
STEVE CAREY - Keyboards and Lead Vocals
KIM SMITH - Guitar and Vocals
DAVID MIKEAL - Guitar and Vocals
MICHAEL BOLT - Drums and Vocals
STEVE LOCKLIN - Bass and Vocals
Album Produced By Tom Knox And Steve Carey
MPGDeluxe edition will be released July 28 by MRC
MPG was originally a well known group circa late 1970’s in the Atlanta Georgia area called The Miles Brothers. They were headed by Steve Carey on Lead Vocals and Keyboards. He wrote most all of the original music and was supported by Michael Bolt on Drums, Steve Locklin on Bass and Kim Smith on Guitar. The Miles Brothers management thought that the group possibly needed a little more rock influence and a lead guitarist that could possibly sing. So soon after David Mikeal was added to the lineup. The group continued to be called The Miles Brothers and kept their strong R&B roots clearly evident in their rhythm section. A lot of new material was written and record labels were showing up regularly to watch the group. A&M Records ended up being the label that signed The Miles Brothers in 1980. That’s when the record label told the band they would have to change their name The group looked over a lot of names and decided they would like to keep Miles in the name somehow. That’s how MPG (Miles Per Gallon) was picked as the new name.
The second disc contains a lot of the songs that didn’t make the official A&M Records release. It also contains some of the songs that were demos for the 2nd A&M album release that never happened. The recordings range from state of the art to 4 track demos at home studios. The vast majority of these songs were again written by Steve Carey along with 2 new additions from David Mikeal (Front Page News, Number One) Some of these tunes were the bands favorites but didn’t make the cut.
Some extra side notes: Worn Out Shoes, Number One and That’s Easy were recorded at a weekend band reunion in the summer of 1999 at Steve Carey’s home in Atlanta minus Kim Smith. Then extra guitar tracks were added by David Mikeal at his studio in Central Florida soon after. Stop The World was recorded recently in May 2022 with the same 4 members at Daphne Street Studios in Mobile Alabama during another 2 day short reunion.
Steve Carey: “I wrote “Stop The World” in the 90’s, sort of a companion piece to “Goodbye Cruel World” from our 1st album. Both songs reflected my sadness that despite amazing advances in communication, technology, etc. people seemed to be drifting apart and less tolerant of each other.”
David Mikeal: “Some of the early days demo songs contained on this CD set were recorded at the bungalow and with recording equipment you would now need to carbon date to ascertain the year made.”
Track Listing:
Disc 1: The 1981 Album
01. Too Many Questions 3:55
02. Workin' Overtime 3:22
03. Best Thing I Never Had 4:07
04. Goodbye Cruel World 4:02
05. Why Me 2:58
06. Get Yours Tonight 4:42
07. Hurt Me 3:02
08. Can I Come Over Tonight 3:33
09. Always Something 4:06
Miles Bros. Early Muscle Shoals Versions:
10. Too Many Questions 4:51
11. Goodbye Cruel World (4 Track Demo) 5:07
12. Hurt Me 4:06
13. Always Something (4 Track Demo) 4:20
Disc 2: Unreleased Work
01. Stop The World (New Song 2022) 6:43
02. Worn Out Shoes 5:05
03. That's Easy 4:35
04. Life In The Arena 3:01
05. Toys For Boys 3:28
06. Front Page News 3:23
07. Can't Miss Love 3:57
08. Feels So Good4:18
09. Number One 3:31
10. Nobody There 4:17
11. Somebody Somewhere 5:31
12. Bedtime Story 3:37
13. Worn Out Shoes (8 Track Demo) 4:46
14. High School Confidential (Miles Bros. Early 4 Track Version) 5:32
15. Saved My Life (Miles Bros. Live 1979 Bistro Club (2 Track) 04:45
16. Some Other Time (Miles Bros. Live 1979 Bistro Club Atlanta (2 Track) 5:14
For the 5th release in MelodicRock Classic’s 500 Series, we turn once again to Canada for another fine slice of Canuck melodic rock.
Total Stranger shouldn’t be too unfamiliar – the band released a self-titled album in Japan in 1997, reissued later as part of a double disc version of their 2002 album ‘Obsession’.
But before both of those record came the band’s initial recordings in the form of a 1990 cassette only release and a 1996 EP released on vinyl only.
Now in 2023, with remastering as per usual by the great JK Northrup, Total Stranger’s original output has found its way onto CD for the very first time.
This limited edition 500 unit only release, titled ‘Mean Season’ is due out on MRC July 28.
Total Stranger is:
Al Langlade (Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Rhythm Guitars)
Rolly Saulnier (Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Peter Martin (Drums, Percussion)
Andre Pelletier (Lead Guitar, Spanish Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Steve ‘Pineapple’ McPhail (Guitars and Lead Vocals) 1986 Bonus Material
Jon Sampson (Drums) 1986 Bonus Material
Produced by: Jake Giacomelli and Total Stranger
The Remastered and Expanded Edition is Co-Produced by: Marcus Mason
Remastered by: JK Northrup
The new reworked cover art is from designer Arnaud Leger
Track Listing:
‘Mean Season’ (1990)
01. Mean Season
02. All Or Nothing
03. Soap Box
04. Easy In The Nite
05. Chance On Us
06. Take Me
07. Are You Alone
08. Experience
09. On The Outside
10. By Chance
‘Total Stranger’ EP (1986)
11. On The Outside
12. By Chance
13. Total Stranger
14. One Nite Stand
15. Things You’re Missin’
16. Reason Why
