Greer LP on CD!!! And Other News And Additions

I am entering the busiest week of an already busy summer with the day job. Still I have a bit of time on a Sunday morning for a couple of quick tweaks and additions to Comboland Radio.




With the Arrogance show coming up September 19th at the Cat's Cradle it is an odd bit of coincidence that I found the Greer album "Two Worlds"... ON CD! Michael Slawter posted a song from the LP on his "NC Music History" blog and there were a few comments but none mentioning the availability of this album on CD. So I can only assume that few know of this. Mike Greer was an original member of Arrogance, along with Don Dixon, Robert Kirkland, and Jim Glasgow. All perform on this album with Bobby Locke and David Niblock and future Arrogance member Marty Stout appearing as well. The CD version was released in 2008 on the UK label, Erebus Records". Their description of the CD is:

"Obscure artifact out of a local scene that produced cult music for a 15-year period; this is a powerful trip in a song-oriented 1970s British rock/hardrock style, with psych moves on the two long epics. Plenty of raw guitar, some piano and synth, heartfelt vocals, all wrapped in a consistent package that displays talent and self-confidence. May be too much of a '70s mainstream sound for some, and indeed it would have deserved to come out on a major label. Should appeal to fans of Felt on Nasco." --Acid Archives. As with all Erebus Records titles, this was remastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. It is presented here for the first time on CD."

Uh... some would dispute that "15 year period"! But the rest is an enthusiastic recommendation of a great lost LP. I found the CD while doing a search on eBay for missing pieces of Comboland music. I can't remember what prompted me to enter "Greer" into the search box. And there is nothing else related to Arrogance or Dixon, two regular searches, in the product description. I have found none for sale from US sellers, only from the UK. The quality of the CD is excellent! The only downside is the back cover artwork which is from the back cover of the LP as if it were shrunk down to CD size. The type was small to begin with but now is nearly impossible to read, especially with 52 year old eyes that were never that good to begin with! Still... that is the only downside to this release. Everything else is right on.





According to the new liner notes for the CD two of the tracks, "Night Of Dreams" and "Send Me Back" were originally recorded in 1971 and intended to be on the first Arrogance album. All of the tracks were produced by Don Dixon, who also did the cover photography, and sister Susan Dixon the illustration. Reflection Sound Studios owner Wayne Jernigan was the engineer.



I would be interested and any other information on this CD release... like how it came about... hopefully Mike is getting a percentage of the sales. If so I would get it from Erebus instead of used on eBay. Price with shipping would be about the same anyway. For you Arrogance/Dixon completest this is a must have item.

I am going to put a couple of cut from this into heavy rotation for a few weeks so be sure to listen to Comboland Radio for an hour or two everyday!

Also going in this week cuts from Mark Kano's band Athenaeum, from the first self titled CD (green cover) released in '95 and their second CD "Radiance" from '98. Tunes from Mark's new solo release are already playing on Comboland Radio.

Finally Don Dixon is not retiring even though many of us thought so after reading an earlier blog on his Myspace page. He recently played with the Cosmopolitans at their reunion, and will be with Arrogance on September 19th, The Jump Rabbits in Charlotte on October 24th. He is also hitting the road with wife Marti Jones for some gigs in October! It will be great to hear Marti again... and one of the gigs is in Norfolk, VA which is where us OBX'ers go for culture and better shopping. MUCH closer than Raleigh! Check Dixon's pages for a gig near you. And don't forget to check out his book!