· ROCKICKS - KEEP ON ROCKIN' (GYR175) ·


DISC ONE:
01. SHAKIN'
02. SWEET WEALTH
03. ROCK N' ROLL BAND
04. KEEP ON ROCKIN'
05. CONSIDERATION
06. BALLAD OF SAMMY LEE
07. SEXY STEPPIN'
08. HIGHWAY GYPSY
09. REACH FOR THE SKY
10. TAKING IT ALL THE WAY
11. LET IT ROLL
12. RATION YOUR LOVE
13. HOT AND COLD
14. TAKIN' MY TIME
15. SHE'S COMING SOON

DISC TWO:
01. DO OR DIE
02. FIRE IN THE HOLE
03. HERE'S TO THE FUTURE
04. TAKIN' MY TIME (ALTERNATE VERSION)
05. HIGH ON THE MOUNTAIN
06. HOT AND COLD (ALTERNATE VERSION)
07. HARD TO HANDLE
08. PAID MY DUES
09. BY YOUR SIDE
10. JESSE JAMES
11. GET THE LEAD OUT
12. BEST OF FRIENDS
13. CONSIDERATION (ALTERNATE VERSION)
14. RADIO AD-KMET-FM (1977)


FORMAT: Audio CD / 6 PANEL WALLET - DOUBLE DISC
GYR175 - $17.50

In celebration of our upcoming 20 year anniversary, Grooveyard Records is proud and honored to release the Rockicks "Keep On Rockin'" double disc retrospective anthology. An amazing "musical document" that includes 29 tracks of excellent, vintage, blues-based, heavy guitar rock music by this awesome band from the 70s. A deep and introspective musical glimpse into all the studio recordings by Rockicks.

Rockicks are pioneers of bad-ass heavy guitar rock riffage and solidify everything that Grooveyard Records stands for in terms of musical direction & vibe. The "Keep On Rockin'" disc is a legendary guitar rocker that makes a direct connection between the 70s and where we land today with our trademark motto of "Keep The Rock Alive."

Rockicks consists of dual guitar rock brothers: Jerry Zubal & Brian Naughton, both killer, blues-based, riff:masters who kick serious ass on the guitar. Both Zubal and Naughton also sing lead vocals with awesome 70s swagger & soul-power. Rockicks also features the excellent musical talents of Sammy Pate Jr. on bass & vocals and Rick Altschuler on drums to complete the ultimate Rockicks rhythm section. A true, memorable, classic hard rock band who lived for the music and were born to rock.

The Rockicks: "Keep On Rockin'" disc is a serious and important 70s guitar rocker that stands tall & lands solid at the Grooveyard Records: "Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame." An outstanding 70s heavy guitar rock band that captures the pure essence of timeless, classic hard rock that shines forever and defines true rock n’ roll passion & excellence.


MP3 Sample Clips

DISC ONE:
01. SHAKIN'
02. SWEET WEALTH
03. ROCK N' ROLL BAND
04. KEEP ON ROCKIN'
05. CONSIDERATION
06. BALLAD OF SAMMY LEE
07. SEXY STEPPIN'
08. HIGHWAY GYPSY
09. REACH FOR THE SKY
10. TAKING IT ALL THE WAY
11. LET IT ROLL
12. RATION YOUR LOVE
13. HOT AND COLD
14. TAKIN' MY TIME
15. SHE'S COMING SOON

DISC TWO:
01. DO OR DIE
02. FIRE IN THE HOLE
03. HERE'S TO THE FUTURE
04. TAKIN' MY TIME (ALTERNATE VERSION)
05. HIGH ON THE MOUNTAIN
06. HOT AND COLD (ALTERNATE VERSION)
07. HARD TO HANDLE
08. PAID MY DUES
09. BY YOUR SIDE
10. JESSE JAMES
11. GET THE LEAD OUT
12. BEST OF FRIENDS
13. CONSIDERATION (ALTERNATE VERSION)
14. RADIO AD-KMET-FM (1977)

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· VIDEO ·

 

Rockicks - "Keep On Rockin'" (Shakin') Promo Video

 

 

· reviews ·

It’s the ‘70s. Four men. Two Gibson guitars through Marshall half stacks. Fender Bass. Drums. Sharing the vocals. Sharing the vision. Living the dream. This is original heavy guitar rock from the Golden Age. This is Rockicks – a criminally overlooked band, now resurrected like a phoenix from the ashes of the second and most fertile decade of the greatest period in guitar rock music history. It’s hard to believe that, after such a long period of time, the tracks on “Keep On Rockin’”, this double CD retrospective anthology, are finally seeing the light of day after languishing in musical limbo for over 40 years. Before I dropped this CD in the player, I’d never even heard of these cats. Now I’ll never forget them.

Fame is a jealous whore; she’ll grant you an audience at a time and place of her choosing. Fate is fickle and timing and luck are, at times, more responsible for granting the keys to the kingdom than actual pure talent. The history of rock music is written by the winners, and it’s not so much that the rest are losers. It’s just that, at best, the rest end up as mere footnotes to the winner’s stories, their powerful postscripts relegated to the shadows of the memory hole, filed in the “coulda bin” or the “shoulda bin”. Rockicks is a textbook case of this sad but all too true dynamic in action.

Comprised of Jerry Zubal (guitar, vocals), Brian Naughton (guitar, vocals), Sammy Pate, Jr. (bass, vocals) and Rick Altschuler (drums), this lineup delivers the goods with incredibly tight band-driven arrangements. Jerry and Brian are most excellent players in their own right, but that’s just the beginning…when they inject their individual styles into the Rockicks synergy machine, their parts fit with a watchmakers’ precision and the drive of a runaway train. You can hear some Wishbone Ash, April Wine, Derringer and Thin Lizzy sprinkled throughout the kaleidoscopic twin guitar proceedings, but it’s all about Rockicks and their personal musical vision…and a sophisticated vision it is; there’s no one-dimensional retro rehashing at work here or simple, repetitive reflections of the sounds of that era. There’s a LOT going on in each tune; an amazing amount of effort and focus went into creating these pieces of music, and thanks to the modern-day mastering job, it sounds like it was recorded yesterday. It’s fantastic; I had to keep reminding myself that this stuff was, for the most part, recorded OVER 4 DECADES AGO!

Their music? Ass-kicking, mind-blowing, hot, hard and heavy. Totally first water legit/distilled essential essence stuff here. Urgent, inspired, meticulously crafted and diverse retro jams from a time when guitar jams ruled the world. The coolest thing for me was that each track has its own signature “pull out the stops” jam insert – some short, some extended, and all totally rip – that lends a, dare I say, monumentally epic sheen to the overall musical landscape. No noodling allowed – the structure and interplay of the guitars are rich and varied and simply wonderful to listen to, as on “Consideration” and “Ballad Of Sammy Lee” where the parts flow into one another like a shape-shifting, chameleonic cascade of sonic textures infused with energized solo work. Wow.

Listening to this is like a having that breakthrough revelation you never thought you’d have, akin to discovering a new musical element, and by doing so, increasing your awareness, appreciation and understanding of the musical reality you inhabit, and forever enlightened by the epiphany. If you think that statement’s heavy, you should hear the band!

As is the curse of time, original guitarist Brian Naughton and drummer Rick Altschuler are no longer with us to see this release bask in the light of awareness. May they rest in peace. My father had a saying: “The dead are dead; the living must live, and it is up to the living to give meaning to the lives that have gone before us.” Truer words were never spoken, and that said, a huge and honor-filled shout out must go out to Joe Romagnola, the resident musical archaeologist and sonic resurrector-in-chief of Grooveyard Records. His vision of the future is informed by his reverence to the past. Many thanks for digging deep and unearthing this gem from the lost city of time’s dark recesses. He’s enriching the music world with this – and all his other – Grooveyard releases, and we are the beneficiaries. In Joe’s own words, Rockicks – Keep On Rockin’ is “an outstanding ‘70s heavy guitar rock band that captures the pure essence of timeless, classic hard rock that shines forever and defines true rock n’ roll passion and excellence.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Jimmy Ryan / Guitar Rock Appreciation Society (January 2019)
 


Rockicks were a short lived, but highly respected outfit hailing from Los Angeles who released one album in 1977 titled Inside and then pretty much disappeared from whence they’d came. Evolving out of the band Rockits, who’d been formed by guitarist and vocalist Brian Naughton, the foursome who made up the initial line-up of the group had already paid their dues by the time their lone effort arrived. Naughton himself had previously formed and released an album with Rock Candy, before the guitarist joined Peanut Butter Conspiracy and then Grass Roots. With both of those outfits imploding not long after he was recruited, it was no surprise that the six-stringing singer was once again keen to start a band of his own.

Elsewhere, guitarist Jerry Zubal began his journey proper with Tea (alongside future Bob Seger tour manager Gary Gawinek), which then evolved into an outfit named 1776, who also released an album before the guitarist teamed up with Naughton. Prior to this, Rick Altschuler had previously met Zubal when the drummer’s then band leader Ruby Starr (of Black Oak Arkansas) shared a bill in Tolido with Tea. And bassist and singer Sammy Pate Jr. also befriended Naughton after the former moved to LA from Detroit, where he spent time with The Atlanta Rhythm Section - and with all four musicians now in place Rockits and then subsequently Rockicks was born.

Indeed arrived through the RSO label and landed squarely in the Southern, biker rock scene and along with every other recording the band laid down is now reissued through the guitar based label Grooveyard Records. Opening Inside cut, “Shakin’” spits out a fiery fret outburst with its Southern groove biting in deep as its rhythm burns brightly. It’s Pate behind the mic here, Rockicks one of those bands where the writer of the song sings it and it has to be said that combining with the backing vox from Zubal and Naughton, he’s mighty fine. Zubal leads from the front on the more countrified Captain Beyond like “Sweet Wealth”, the energy held within this band clear to hear, while it’s Naughton who takes vocal control on the rumble and slap of “Rock N’ Roll Band”, where the dirty bass work and gang vocals hint at what KISS might have sounded like if they’d bumped headlong into Aerosmith. The other five tracks from Inside maintain the standard, “Keep On Rockin’” a powerful riffed fuelled explosion, “Ballad Of Sammy Lee” an almost Skynyrd like strut that certainly isn’t as balladic as its name suggests, whereas “Highway Gypsy” has a slightly more swampy, stoner sting.

Having had and then lost the opening slot at a show at The Roxy which helped propel Blondie and their subsequent opening act and Rockicks’ replacements, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, to fame, the writing was on the wall for the band, Inside failing to get the push or notice it clearly deserved. RSO passed on a proposed sophomore effort from the band, while a three track demo garnered the interest of MCA but found Rockicks baulking at the subsequent offer when it transpired the label saw the band as a backing outfit for a more established artist. Those three tracks, I’m guessing, appear here, disc one of this two disc set rounded out by two 1977 sessions totalling a further seven songs. The triumvirate of “Reach For The Sky”, “Taking It All The Way” and “Let It Roll” possibly even more potent than what landed on the Inside album - a forceful Blackfoot like interplay in evidence and suiting the Rockicks sound perfectly. The further four of “Ration Of Love”, “Hot And Cold”, “Takin’ My Time” and “She’s Coming Soon” change tack ever so slightly, the first two infusing a stronger country flavour, while the latter pairing ease back and remind of a laid back Wishbone Ash in places.

From there I’m really not sure of the circumstances that brought about any of the thirteen recordings that make up disc two here. The opening nine were recorded in 1977, so you’d have to guess they were intended to be the Rockicks second album. Unexpectedly, considering all nine seem to have been recorded around the same time, drummer Rick Altschuler only appears on the final cut, “By Your Side”, which is a gritty rocker that builds a deep, deep groove. It’s Tom Cherry who appears on the rest, and with the likes of “Fire In The Hole” being a steam-train of riffs, “High On The Mountain” a more considered and country led piece of funk and “Paid My Dues” a dancing surge of guitar goodness, that these recordings remain unknown until now seems just plain wrong.

Track 10, “Jesse James”, however, jumps forward to 1991 and from what I can decipher, the latter day AOR-era Blackfoot slice of melodic rock, features Zubal, Naughton, Pate Jr and guitarist Phil Miserantino, with no drummer credited. Musically this and the 1992 recordings - the very Eliminator period ZZ Top like “Get The Lead Out” and the beefed up John Mellencamp of “Best Of Friends” - are a long way removed from the early output, but whatever the motivation behind these recordings, the results are excellent and it would have been good if something more had come of them. Leaving the 2005, ‘alternative version’ of “Consideration” (featuring Dan Crabtree on acoustic guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and backing vocals, while Jerry Zubal sings & plays guitar) to sit in a no man’s land between string laden, Moody Blues like 70s rock, Neil Young and something dangerously close to MOR. Again, this sounds like an entirely different band and even with a sumptuous Zubal guitar solo, in essence it is.

After Rockicks ended in 1978, the four went their separate ways, Zubal moving through a number of outfits - Catching Fire and Rock Anthem being the most recent. Pate Jr worked with Danny Spanos in the 80s, amongst others, while Rick Altschuler, who sadly died in 2004, left the music business entirely. Naughton too packed it in, turning to carpentry to earn a living in the film and television industry, where he was also a stagehand. However in 2004 he was back, this time with the Naughtones - flanked by his sons Corey and James,with the band winning industry awards for their first two albums, released in 2006 and 2008. Sadly, with things continuing to swing in the band’s favour, Naughton died of a heart attack in 2012, leaving a rather excellent musical legacy behind him.

This double CD collection, Keep On Rockin’ includes every recording Rockicks ever laid down and also features a 1977 radio ad from KMET-FM (Los Angeles) promoting one of the band’s shows in the area. With brief comment in the liner notes from Zubal, Pate Jr. and Grooveyard Records label guru Joe Romagnola, my only minor gripe here is that there is no real historical information contained in the packaging. And with Rockicks still to this day pretty much anonymous, it does leave things without any real context (most of the information I’ve detailed here coming from an online article by RD Francis called ‘Sometimes you’re Kiss… and sometimes you’re Rockicks: Phantoms from the Rock ’n’ Roll Oblivion. While it’s also worth mentioning that some of the recordings collected here come replete with tape-hiss, but then the majority of this excellent retrospective are demos from the mid 70s, so that’s to be expected.

The list of bands who coulda, woulda, shoulda is virtually endless, but, much though few of us have heard of them, Rockicks were undoubtedly one of their number who genuinely deserved so much more.

Steven Reid / Sea Of Tranquility (January 2019)
 


Celebrating a band who flourished briefly in late 1970s Los Angeles. The first disc is impressive, the band’s brand of southern rock purposeful and well executed. The second disc seems to be culled mainly from demos with several alternate versions and the sonic quality doesn’t really do the band justice. However, there’s plenty of evidence of the band’s quality, fast forwarding to 1991-1992 when ’Jesse James’ and ‘Get The Lead Out’ were recorded.

The band were originally signed to RSO and probably didn’t sit easily in that label’s roster (with the likes of Yvonne Ellman and Bee Gees). They released one album – Inside – in 1977 which is featured on Disc One in its entirety together with other tracks which may have been destined for a follow-up.

A slice of forty year old classic melodic hard rock that demanded – and still demands – a wider audience.

David Randall / Get Ready To Rock (February 2019)
 


ROCKICKS features dual axe swingers Jerry Zubal and Brian Naughton and "Keep on Rockin '" actually compiles everything that ever flowed from the pen of the two. Stylistically, the short-lived formation was always blues-heavy, but this retrospective also shows their praiseworthy flexibility with harder tones. Zubal founded ROCKICKS together with bassist Sam Pate in California after moving from Rochester, Michigan, and was spurred on by the bustling local scene to create a substantial repertoire of his own that defies the ravages of time.

Label boss Joe Romagnola loves ROCKICKS ("They embody the ethos of Grooveyard perfectly," he says), and this shows in the finished product. No studio recording was left out and still you cannot identify any rejects or outtakes from their original releases on "Keep on Rockin'." In particular, the hits "Let It Roll," "Ration Your Love" and "Consideration" showcase their blues/soul roots.

At the opposite end of the stylistic spectrum are the melancholic "Takin' My Time" which, like "Hot And Cold," is also featured in a slightly modified version on the second CD, as well as the slow ballad "Highway Gypsy" with the sweetest leads in the whole song program. Without exception, each track is at least catchy and ideally an instantly memorable tune.

"Jesse James" captivates particularly along with compelling up-tempo numbers like "Sweet Wealth" and the unprecedentedly euphoric title track, which should have been a chart topper for all time. So what was the chronic failure of the band? Probably nothing more than bad luck and bad managers.

CONCLUSION: Old school but still sounding fresh today, hard rock with excellent guitar work, some explosive songs and always a lot of 70s slingin', ROCKICKS are still worth a discovery, and this compilation of all studio recordings of the group is excellently suited. The feverish pounding "Ballad of Sammy Lee" is very representative of all the guitar fireworks that continue to torch the six string duo.

Andreas Schiffmann / MusikReviews-Germany (December 2018)
 


FINALLY!!!! G’daaaam! I’ve been waiting for this 70s classic to be released on CD since Moses was running around in shorts. Rockicks classic album “Inside” was released on RSO Records back in 1976 and I bought the LP back then. The band delivers a big chunk of southern influenced hard rock with dual guitars all over the place. There are heavy rockers like “Consideration”, rockers like “Rock N’ Roll Band”, powerful hard rockers like “Sweet Wealth” and “Keep On Rockin”. What was a huge surprise was that besides the 8 tracks from the original album there’s a SHITLOAD of previously unreleased bonus tracks here!! 7 tracks on the CD containing the album AND an extra CD with another 14 (!!) tracks!!! There’s a whole lot of killer stuff here! Damn, I wish they would have been given the opportunity to record a follow-up. Not that these tracks are badly recorded, but they could have been even better! 16 of the bonus tracks are from 1977! Damn! That’s even two albums (ok, there are a few alternate versions). There are also three really great tracks from 1991-1992. The quality of these tracks makes me wonder why there wasn’t another album there and then! The quality, both musically and soundwise is killer! The final track is a 2005 alternate version of “Consideration”, a sort of lounge version. Not bad at all, but I do prefer the heavy version. Unfortunately, two of the original members have passed, Rick Altschuler in 2004 and Brian Naughton in 2012, so I guess a Rockicks re-union is out of the question. Well, this double shot will at least give you the bands outstanding music in digital shape and form. A must!!

Janne Stark / Stark Music Reviews (January 2019)
 


Not many people get to live their dream, and even fewer get to see that dream revived more than 40 years later. For Jerry Zubal, being in a rock & roll band in the 1970s may have been a short-lived dream, but now an independent record label has picked up his former band’s – Rockicks – tracks and released a double CD, Keep On Rockin’. Zubal, who lives in Lake Orion, was on vacation in July with his wife when he got a Facebook message from Joe Romagnola, owner of Grooveyard Records in Rochester, New York, saying he would like to re-release the band’s songs.

At first Zubal was shocked that someone even tracked him down, but after back-and-forth communications with Romagnola he agreed. So did bass player Sammy Pate and the sons of guitar/vocalist Brian Naughton and drummer Rick Altschuler. “I’m thrilled, and so is Sammy. And so is Brian’s son and so is Rick’s son. The fact that it’s a reality now. It’s like, old has become new. It’s hard to believe that it’s actually happened,” Zubal said.

Rockicks double album was released on Nov. 23. The CD is available at Grooveyard Records’ website, grooveyardrecords.com, and Amazon, or digitally on Spotify , iTunes, CD Baby and Apple Music. “Grooveyard Records has international distribution, and we’re already getting sales from various countries,” Zubal said. A fan from Vienna, Austria even contacted him to say he bought the CD and “he loves it.”

A message on Grooveyard Records website about the album’s release praises the rock heritage of Rockicks: "Grooveyard Records is proud and honored to release the Rockicks “Keep On Rockin'” double disc retrospective anthology. An amazing ‘musical document’ that includes 29 tracks of excellent, vintage, blues-based, heavy guitar rock music by this awesome band from the 70s. A deep and introspective musical glimpse into all the studio recordings by Rockicks."

The origins of Rockicks began when Zubal, who grew up in Rochester, packed up and left Michigan back in the 70’s. “I went to California in 1974 and took a guitar with me,” Zubal said. “After playing with a couple other bands, I eventually met Sammy Pate. And he had met Brian Naughton and the three of us just started rehearsing together. We were working on cover songs and searching for the right drummer.” After trying out different drummers and playing in a clubs and bars, the trio found Rick Altschuler and the four young musicians formed Rockicks, a blues-inspired hard rock band, heavy on the guitar.

“We started working on original material. We became the house band at a club in Van Nuys called The Rock Corporation. A lot of groups played there, a lot of name groups, but we were the house band,” Zubal said. “In L.A., if you know anybody at all you eventually get a little bit of free recording time here and there and we did some recording and used some copies of that to start researching some (music) labels.” Eventually they met up with some producers – Zubal didn’t want to use any names – and recorded an album with eight songs. “And it was released by a well-known label. The album came out in 1977.” The record label, however, was making a lot of money on Disco and released Rockicks about a year-and-a-half later, Zubal said.

“We recorded a few more songs after that and did some searching and we did get some interest from a couple of labels. One in particular wanted us, but they wanted us to be a backup band for a singer they had on their label. We didn’t want to do that,” Zubal said. “We were rehearsing one day and said, ‘What are we doing? Why are we doing this?’ And we just quit.”

Zubal packed up and headed back to Michigan in 1978. Today, he still plays guitar and sings in the duo Catching Fire with John Heaton, including a regular gig at The C-Pub. He’s also been a guitar teacher and currently teaches at Limelight Music in Rochester Hills, where he grew up.

“It would be an impossibility to put the band back together because Brian and Rick are gone. It would be tough to put it together because they were both great musicians,” he said.

Jim Newell / The Lake Orion Review (December 2018)
 



 


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