Sunday, July 8, 2007

Blind Date, anyone?

Blind Date


I remember seeing this album and it's weird and colorful cover, a long time ago. 'Produced by Jeff Glixman' got my attention, and the band looked cool enough. Looking back at it now, playing it, I guess there's people that would call it powerpop, a genre that at that time didn't exist, but it certainly is heavy on the guitars. And that bass sound! I've never since heard a Glixman production with this much focus on the bass. Glixman played in a number of bands, including the pre-Kansas band, Cocky Fox. His first production was the 1974 Kansas release Song for America (and three more releases by that band in the '70s), and later a wide range of bands, Clapton, Gary Moore, Magnum, Yngwie 'unleashed-the-fury-raving-maniac' Malmsteen, Allman Brothers, E.L.O, Mother's Finest, Black Sabbath, Illusion, Heart, Saxon, Georgia Satellites, Cinderella, waaay too many to mention them all. But at that moment, it was his work on the Paul Stanley solo album one year earlier, that impressed me most, the huge Kiss fan I was back then. I must have bought every release by every involved name on those early Kiss releases. But strangely enough, in most cases I rarely got disappointed.


I like this album a lot. I guess it can be described as rock with a pop touch. From the opener 'Boys Will Be Boys' which make me think about Cheap Trick & New England's first album (produced by Paul Stanley, an obviously yet thin link there), and the instrumental hard rocking 'Twin Engine', that gives me associations both of Starz 'Colliseum Rock', and Michael Schenker Group's 'Into The Arena'. But as I said, mostly good rockin' pop songs with enough guitars to satisfy most of you, I think. And the band? Don't know much 'bout them. Released this album only, of sweet catchy
heavy-on-the-4-and-6-strings pop rock. Enjoy it!


Dane Bramage - Vocals, bass, keyboards
Arnie Badde - Vocals, guitars
Brad Billion - Vocals, guitars
Pinky Chablis - Drums



Blind Date - Blind Date. 1979.
Produced by Jeff Glixman.
Own vinyl rip. BitRate 192.

1. Boys Will Be Boys
2. Baby Goodbye
3. Do You Love Me
4. All of You
5. Twin Engines
6. I'll Take You Anywhere
7. Hollywood Girl
8. Trouble Maker
9. Midnight Imagination


Link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/41691629/BlindDate-BlindDate.rar

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, thank you thank you!!!
Ages after this record and... here it is. Wondeful blog!

Do you have any of the following?

Bluebeard - Bad Dream (1978)
Bandit - Partners In crime (1978)
Easy Street - Under The glass (1977)
Duke Jupiter - Band In Blue (1981) & Taste the night (1979)
Boulder - Boulder (1980)
Canis Major - Butterfly Queen (1980)
Carillo - both albums (1978-79)
Couchois - Couchois (1979) & Nasty Hardware (1980)

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

never heard of this band
gotta give it a try
thanks!

Anonymous said...

Blind Date was recently featured over at www.glory-daze.com. Brad Billions is in fact Brad Wilson, who can be found at www.bradwilsonlive.com.

Anonymous said...

just sent your blog over to brad wilson

Alocacoc said...

Thanks all.

Yeah, great album.
And thanks for the info & link. I really didn't know 'bout this. I'm glad to see they/he have a carrere even now, and looking & sounding GREAT! Awesome.

And...
kelkhellrazer, thanks. Without knowing your intentions, it's cool you did. I want the makers of such good music 25-30 years ago to know that they were appreciated then, and even appreciated now, from all over the world.

Brad, if you see this: Thanks for the music & contributing to my growing up with great music! Goddammit I've played that album & Twin Engines LOUD a couple of hundred times partying! I guess Boys Will Be Boys... ;)
(by the way, how 'bout a net-interview about some details of the good old times? Just drop a message here, and I'll contact you.)

Rock forever!!!

Anonymous said...

Bluebeard are back together and just released a new album!!!!

Anonymous said...

Bluebeard, Bandit and Couchois can be found here:
robotsforronnie.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I love this album! Mine skips all over the place, so it was nice to hear it complete with no skips. Thanks so much, we love you here in California!

Anonymous said...

Hi Brad Wilson here AKA Brad Billion
What a surpise to find this review and the cool comments posted about my first record I made long ago. I enjoyed reading everything and just seeing the cover brings back thoughts of that fun time in my life. I just did an interview with Kelv H. talking about the past 20 years of playing in bands. I have worked steady and have a web site www.bradwilsonlive with my current gigs and music. Send me an email at bw3guitar@aol.com Thank you for posting this review and thank you to the music fans for posting their supportive comments. It was a lot of fun to find this!
All the best,

Brad Wilson / Brad Billion
www.bradwilsonlive.com

Anonymous said...

Just discovered this rip here: you're the best! 'Twin Engines' is one of my all time favorite pieces of music!!!!

Boomland said...

Many thanks to ALOCACOC for introducing me to this great album. I just found a mint vinyl copy and I can't believe how amazing it sounds! It's a shame that Blind Date has a second album in the vaults that never got released. Power Pop doesn't get any better than this!

Anonymous said...

Well… It’s about freaking time! Especially in this day-n-age of Pop Idol winners and lip-syncing Britney Spears clones… A rock band that actually play their instruments and write their own songs! And people are starting to notice them! Cool… Even if it’s 30 years later…Wow!

Blind Date – stand up and take a bow…

My brother and I (as well as a neighborhood of others!) were hooked on this hard rock band and their powerpop songs back when it was originally released… What a cool band… Catchy songs? Yes! Guitars crankin’? Yes! The only problem? Never saw them live… Never heard another album… Couldn’t find much press on them either… Or even pictures or bio other than what was on the album… Still… The songs were solid… I must admit I still listen to them to this day… Wouldn’t they be surprised to know that a bunch of kids from Michigan (ok, grown-up kids) are still big fans – wanting to hear more… And still wanting to know more about the band… Release that second album!

It’s nice to see that there are others that are aware of this band… That we are not alone… To those that have not listened yet: sit down and turn it up! Enjoy!

Always wanted to hear the arena announcer say: Please welcome – Windsong recording artists – BLIND DATE!

Oh yeah… The album cover was cool too!


chptrk_2007@yahoo.com

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