KBC Band

Love this album! Basically JS without Grace, but I bought this again after years of missing these songs. Great Album!

Happy with the purchase.

Thanks. It is part of a different era called the 1980s. The United States was a different country back then, and music is not like that today. This wouldn't be played on American Top 40 now. The album was played on the now extinct Rock 101 KLOL and Z107.5 Classic Rock in Houston. Rest in peace Paul Kantner.

Don't care for the album, but the track called "America" stands on its own as a catchy (5 star) pop outing. Some of the references in the song are now out-dated, but who cares? Marty Balin delivers some great harmonies and high notes on this track. I heard it once or twice on MTV back in the 80's and it stuck in my head. A rare treat indeed!

This is really Jefferson Starship! Three of the members are here including Marty Balin and Paul Kantner. Why they used KBC is a mystery to me. I'm a die-hard fan of the Airplane/Starship from all of their incarnations. If you are as well, purchase this CD immediately!

This is basically the new Jefferson Starship, featuring Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Jack Cassidy, along with Slick Aguilar. This album is from 1986 when Kantner left the Jefferson Starship and took the name Jefferson with him, leaving only Starship. This first album is called KBC. 9 years later, Kantner would bring back Jefferson Starship with these 4 musicians and Grace Slick.This album was partially produced by John Boylan and Jim Gaines who between them produced a lot of 1980s pop/rock albums from artists like Huey Lewis and the News, Quarteflash, Dan Hill and the Chipmunks. This album is heavily influenced by this, with the typical sounding 1980s pop/rock keyboards, sax and guitar riffs.What is bad and perplexing about this CD is that only three of the songs are written by Kantner and Balin. The rest are mostly crappy songs by other writers. Kantner was one of the best and most profound American song writers and Balin also wrote some very good love songs. I don't know why they felt the need to release an album of other peoples songs produced by someone else.There are three songs on this that are fairly good. Two of them are Kantner/Balin compositions (I don't know why they couldn't write more songs for this).The mid 1980s was probably one the most dreadful periods in the history of rock and roll with corporate rock ruling. This album is part of that sound.

KBC BAND-KBC BAND: Legendary sixties outfit JEFFERSON STARSHIP triggered more than its share of spin-offs including the folky blues act HOT TUNA, various mutations of JEFFERSON STARSHIP and low key solo careers for lead singers GRACE SLICK and MARTY BALIN. THE KBC BAND was the shortest lived off-shoot, (the generic name probably didn't help matters), releasing one respectable self-titled album in the mid eighties. Close in style to the slick corporate pop rock of JEFFERSON STARSHIP, guitarist PAUL KANTNER, bassist JACK CASADY and soulful bleater MARTY BALIN managed to garner moderate airplay for IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S NOT ME and would be anthem AMERICA, which soared on the sax work of KEITH CROSSAN and combined earthy vocals of BALIN and KANTNER. Lead guitarist MARK AGUILAR added muscular tone to the mix, while the eternally underrated BALIN got to rock a little harder than he did on MIRACLES or even VOLUNTEERS. Like the majority of supergroups, KBC had a predictably short shelf life, unfortunately never following up on their solid debut before returning to the relative safety net of former projects.RATING: THREE TALENTS

The self-titled album by the KBC Band (meaning Kanter-Balin-Casady) is essentially a spin-off from the late 70s/early 80s Jefferson Starship, and it's an interesting spin-off at that. Main man here, of course, is awesome vocalist Marty Balin, so this album invites comparison with a similar such venture some years earlier,  Bodacious D F . In fact, these albums are very different.KBC kicks off with an interesting track, "Mariel", rocky, great tempo and collective vocals. Unfortunately, its lyrics are based on a political hang-up - it's about Chile - and this dates it. It's also, in places, silly - "If we don't care now/Chile could happen here"; well, sorry, it couldn't, and it didn't. Still, a nice track if you ignore the lyrics.We're on safer ground with "It's Not You, It's Not Me" - Marty's superlative vocals take control, and, if it's not quite "Miracles" (from  Red Octopus ), it's still a top-notch cut."Hold Me", a song about the prevalence of relationship breakdowns, is probably the best track on the album, driven by Marty's soulful vocals but beautifully backed by the band. If you're a Balin fan, this is a "must have" track."America" takes us back into protest territory, and I can't help feeling that this was done so, so much better by Starship on "Show Yourself" (on the stunning  Earth ). Nice enough track, pity about the lyrics, which now seem very dated.From here on, Marty pretty much takes over. "No More Heartaches" is a great track, rocky, effectively collective vocals, and we're spared the politics. "Wrecking Crew" is competent eighties rock without particular distinction."When Love Comes" is an uptempo Balin classic, and - with the superlative "Hold Me" - lifts this album from three stars to four. "Dream Motorcycle" is an unexceptionable song - I don't dislike it, but I don't reach for the repeat button.Then we're into "Sayonara", a beautiful Marty Balin romantic ballad.On the whole, KBC band doesn't live up the superlative standards of Jefferson Starship's awesome "Earth" (in fairness, nothing much does). I regard the album as a platform for some lovely Marty Balin songs. If you love the man's music as much as I do, you'll buy this.