VA - Only For Real Losers!

This wonderful compilation was originally posted by RYP over at the TWILIGHTZONE! Be sure to stop by and check out his blog if you haven't already.

If you dig those marvelous Diggin' For Gold LPs, get this platter before it's out of print (which sadly is probably the case as you read this). The focus is the same: transworld beat/pop/punk from the '64-68 era.

The acid-rocker "Midsummer Night" by Five Travellers is one of the best things I've heard coming out of Czechoslovakia (OK, not much of a competition here, but believe me, it's a great tune). "Delincuente" by Los Hitters is actually my fave song ever recorded in Mexico; it just doesn't sound like anything else - Latin beat punk at its best. I could use the same words to describe "That's All I Know" by The Avalons, but being from Sweden, their beat is way more Latin than themselves. Guy Darrell's version of "Evil Woman" is just plain evil - wild freakbeat sound mixed with a swinging mod-jazz vibe. And those are just some of the best moments of Side One.
Side Two opens with more mod/punk action thanks to Motivation (produced by Aussie Legend Johnny Rebb). On the insanity scale, The Brazilian Bitles rise fairly high, destroying "Wild Thing". Even sicker are Shades Of Blue Inc from Malaysia, at least recorded there ("It's been a hard day's night, as John Lennon might say. Then how could he know? He can't see through his hair"). Ballad lovers will enjoy Tony Ronald's "It Has Been Too Long", and I don't want to forget The Gentlemen and Los Mustang. But again, that side is strong through the whole groove.

And if you still ask for more, the sleeve glows in the dark! You'll find the only sour point in the notes: why did they have to bullshit us about "Gotta Get A Move On" by The Liverpool Five being their rarest song, only issued on a Tha‹ EP - it's on their second LP for Christ sake. I thank those guys for making this stuff available again, but I just couldn't let them get away with this. - Laurent Bigot (Originally published in Ugly Things #18, 2000)
(Year of Release: 1999)

Track List:
1. Los Yorks - Abrazame (Peru)
2. The Brains - Graduale (Italy)
3. The Needles - Where Can She Be (Finland)
4. Five Travellers - Midsummer Night (Czechoslovakia)
5. Os Baobas - Bye Bye My Darling (Brazil)
6. The Streams - Share My Loneliness (Holland)
7. The Avalons - That's All I Know (Sweden)
8. Los Hitters - Delincuente (Mexico)
9. Guy Darrell - Evil Woman (U.K.)
10. Motivation - Boy Meets Girl (Australia)
11. The Wizards - I Need Your Love (Norway)
12. The Brazilian Bitles - Tema Baseado Na Coisa (Brazil)
13. The Wild Ones - Aozora No Arukagiri (Japan)
14. Liverpool Five - Gotta Get A Move On (U.K.)
15. Tony Ronald & His Kroners - It Has Been Too Long (Holland)
16. The Gentlemen - It Feels So Good (Switzerland)
17. Los Mustang - No Vendras (Spain)
18. Shades Of Blue Inc. - I'm Gonna Lose You (Malaya)

Download: Various Artists - Only For Real Losers! (66.3MB)