Dead Can Dance - Toward The Within - Live Santa Monica 1993

 Dead Can Dance - Toward The Within - Part 1

 

 Dead Can Dance - Toward The Within - Part 2

 

There are few voices in popular music like that of Dead Can Dance's Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. Perry's is rich and earthy, whereas Gerrard's multi-octave instrument is, at times, downright unearthly. Toward the Within, the audiovisual version of a 1993 concert at Santa Monica's Mayfair Theatre--chosen, no doubt, for its excellent acoustics--is a fine showcase for their unique talents. Joined by five musicians on keyboards, strings, and percussion, Mark Magidson (Baraka) has filmed the proceedings in a straightforward manner, but the music is intricate and exotic enough that no special effects or fancy camera moves are necessary. The songs, which incorporate pop, folk, and world-music influences, are interspersed with interview clips, turning the release into a hybrid between a concert video and a documentary. Highlights include the hypnotic "Rakim" and soaring "American Dreaming." Toward the Within was also issued on CD, sans the interview and video clips.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Can-Dance-Toward-Within/dp/B0001JXOOE 

 

Lykantropi - Kom Ta Mig Ut

Over the past year, vintage rock phenomenon Lykantropi — based in the Värmland woods of Sweden — has re-released both their self-titled debut album and sophomore full-length, Spirituosa, in a new collaboration with Despotz Records. This November sees the release of their third album, Tales To Be Told, a collection of timeless fairy tales that together form a distillate of the band’s whole essence, both musically and personally.
Where the previous two albums largely consisted of material that has been written and composed over decades, Tales To Be Told contains almost exclusively newly written material, which the whole band has been involved in the creation process. Vocalist/guitarist Martin Östlund elaborates, “This time we’ve done everything together. We have come up with our own ideas and then arranged together. It is new for us to work in that way, but it has given us the best album we have ever made, with high quality both musically and lyrically.”
A band characterized by the occultism of the ’60s and ’70s, Lykantropi‘s music is both spiritual and dynamic. Occultism clearly shines through on the title track which is inspired by the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive. Östlund notes, “Ever since I was little, I have watched horror movies. I recorded them on VHS when they were on TV and watched them almost too many times afterwards. One summer, black and white classics were broadcasted with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. I still like horror movies very much; Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula from the ’90s is still a favorite.”
Adds bassist Tomas Eriksson, “The song ‘Kom Ta Mig Ut’ is so damn good and sweet. I love that it has several different parts that blend together. I also really like ‘Världen Går Vidare.’ The two are seven minutes each, ending Sides A and B and are in some way a mainstay for the rest of the album. ‘Världen Går Vidare’ is about life and everything in nature that wants to grow… that darkness wants to dispel and life wants more life. Everything must have arisen from nothing from the beginning. Consequently, we should be able to suspect that even nothing strives to become something…” As the two continue, it quickly becomes clear that many of the lyrics on the new album are deeply personal, including the single “Axis Of Margaret” where Eriksson tells of how he found his mother deceased.
“Loneliness has been a companion throughout my life through my upbringing and adolescence,” Östlund picks up, describing the song “Life On Hold,” “I was an odd bird and quite a bit of a thinker, but music was always my thing. During the special kind of isolation that the pandemic has entailed, however, much becomes extra clear. It gets quite personal. I feel confident in what I want out of my life.”  From: https://www.earsplitcompound.com/lykantropi-new-noise-magazine-debuts-new-video-from-swedish-psychedelic-folk-rock-collective-tales-to-be-told-full-length-to-see-release-november-6th-via-despotz-records/ 

La Chica - Oasis

Almost two years ago, La Chica (real name Sophie Fustec) gave us “Oasis”, which is certainly among the most beautiful songs we’ve heard in the recent years. “Oasis” smoothly switched between inconspicuous piano ballad and an almost James Blake-y bass-infused electronic hymn, keeping you glued to the speaker until the last sound. The song was accompanied by an equally captivating video clip directed – and heavily processed – by Noamir. The combination of such suggestive audio and video elements resulted in an unforgettable overall experience, which deserved even more YouTube views than it has received to date.
In 2017, La Chica finally gave us her first EP, also titled “Oasis”. Over the five tracks recorded in Paris – she lives in France – La Chica further demonstrated how easily she can switch between styles, sounds, instruments, moods – and even languages. In just about 20 minutes, she compressed enough ideas to possibly make a full-length album. The release of this first EP, which came out at the beginning of this year, was once again accompanied by a very special video, this time created by Temple Caché for an English-Spanish song “Be Able”. As the title of the single suggests, it is a straightforward call to get up and do, be, live – in the real meanings of these words. Let’s hope La Chica keeps doing exactly that, and helps us follow her lead.  From: https://beehy.pe/la-chica-oasis-ep-france-venezuela/

Good NightOwl - Schrödinger’s Profit

Good NightOwl is a project that has been going on for quite a while. This is their 15th (!!) full length album, the first of which came out in 2011.  There are questions to be had as to whether each album listed is actually an album in the traditional sense or just a glorified experimental demo, but it’s an extremely impressive output nonetheless. It’s safe to say that Daniel Cupps is an experienced songwriter at this point. I dug into some of his older works: The first dozen or so albums seem to be progressive rock with a quirky experimental and psychedelic edge, starting out as instrumental, and adding vocals around 2015. Around 2019, he started pushing in an increasingly math pop direction with less and less psychedelic and conventional progressive rock elements, to the point where you’d barely recognize that this was the same “band” anymore compared to the earlier sound. And thus we land on Capital, his poppiest album yet.
I say poppy, but this record is by no means straightforward or easy to digest. The music of Good NightOwl is chock full with layers, polyrhythms, time signature changes, and other proggy nuggets that keep you intellectually engaged with the music. What I find most notable about Daniel’s approach is how rhythmic everything is. We have polyrhythms on the drums, a capella vocal layering, synths and guitars accentuating different parts of the rhythms; it’s a pretty mesmerizing combination, simultaneously catchy and complex as it throws you off balance with its rhythms. I’ve never heard anything quite like this. At best, I can point to The Dear Hunter for some superficial comparisons like vocal timbre and genres used, but this is far more bright and playful.  From: https://theprogressivesubway.com/2023/08/28/review-good-nightowl-capital/  

Sinéad O'Connor - Mandinka

Based on the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, “Mandinka” is about slavery and Sinéad O’Connor’s connection to the civil rights movement. The 1977 miniseries adaptation inspired O’Connor to write the song. The opening verse references the Dance of the Seven Veils, popularized by Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play Salome. Wilde’s interpretation of the biblical story—inspired by earlier French writers—transforms Salome into a figure of lust. She dances for her uncle at King Herod Antipas’ birthday celebration. In return, he offers her a reward. Salome receives John the Baptist’s head on a platter.  
O’Connor explained the emotional response to Roots in her 2021 memoir Rememberings. According to O’Connor, she lived in a theocracy in Ireland and faced severe oppression at her home, finding solidarity with the Mandinka people in West Africa.
O’Connor dedicated her life to fighting oppression, and the public didn’t always receive her well. She’d received criticism for tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992, a statement against sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
At a New York concert the year before, she chose not to have the national anthem performed. Frank Sinatra threatened O’Connor with violence, and rapper MC Hammer offered to fly her back to Ireland. For her supposed crimes, stars like Joe Pesci egged on the public backlash when he appeared on SNL and imagined himself slapping O’Connor. The crowd didn’t react in horror—they cheered.
Released in 1987, O’Connor’s critically acclaimed début, The Lion and the Cobra, introduced a powerful new voice. “Mandinka” appeared as the second single, becoming a hit in the UK. She told Mojo in 2005 about her reluctance to perform songs from The Lion and the Cobra, due partly to outgrowing things written by a “little girl.”
The songs, to O’Connor, are therapy, and she didn’t want to revisit the same place emotionally. But if The Lion and the Cobra introduced O’Connor, the young artist, her following album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, put in motion the force of her.  
O’Connor’s emotional cover of Prince’s song “Nothing Compares 2 U” became a defining moment in pop history. The close-up video of her face, cycling through anger and sadness, is iconic for more than the powerful image. You see freedom coming through her pain.  
Not Waiting on the World to Change
O’Connor’s commercial career diminished, and her struggles, including a public custody battle over her daughter, often grabbed more headlines than her music. But she didn’t lament the dwindling success, saying how much her hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” had spoiled her career. She saw its success as more damaging than the criticism she’d received.
But the world finally caught up to O’Connor. Players took a knee during the national anthem in the NFL, and the Catholic Church’s horrific handling of child abuse stubbornly came to light.
Even the Grammy Awards evolved decades after she’d performed “Mandinka” at the ceremony with Public Enemy’s logo painted on her head. At the time, the Best Rap Performance category was awarded off-screen. Subjugation comes in many forms, even inside supposedly open systems like the United States or the music industry. O’Connor received backlash, not because she was wrong. She was inconvenient. But there she stood on stage alone, beautifully defiant and bold. Amidst the tumult of her life, O’Connor unapologetically used anguish to tear down regimes of suppression and replace them with communal empathy.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/the-meaning-behind-mandinka-by-sinead-oconnor-and-the-tv-miniseries-that-inspired-it/ 

Sacred Shrines - Hung Up On Your Wall

I jumped at the chance to review an album by a Brisbane band: “Hey, I wonder what’s going on in Brisvegas music these days?” Not because it’s the sweltering subtropical sprawl that gave birth to a handful of internationally revered underground bands. Not because it’s the historically arch-conservative backwater that spawned some of my favourite punk bands. Simply because it’s the land from which I myself sprang, and where I began my lifelong infatuation with independent music.
So here we have Sacred Shrines, and it’s a pleasant surprise to hear such an accomplished chunk of retro-flavoured garage/psych from my old town. I’ve got some catching up to do, to the tune of a previous album, an EP, and a smattering of singles.
As for the current release; my overall impression of Enter The Woods is that it skews towards the poppy end of the psych spectrum; sometimes breezier, sometimes more melancholy; definitely no 10-minute improvised freakouts. In order to say something semi-intelligent about this release, I find myself thinking first about what this doesn’t sound like; it’s not quite like the droning tension of The Black Angels, or the down-tuned stoner-psych rumble of bands like The Well. It’s definitely not the hazy doomy occult sounds of Moon Coven, or the manic R&B freak-outs of Banshee (who I reviewed last year).
Obviously ‘what it isn’t’ only gets us so far – as for what it is; I’m thinking The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn as a starting point, with lashings of grimy ‘90s or ‘00s Dandy Warhols-esque grunge-pop and bombast layered on top. And although I’m characterising this album as generally pop-oriented, there’s enough darkness and gloomy flavours (that sometimes feel a little like goth rock, and occasionally even the earliest proto-punk ala The Sonics) to keep it interesting.
This is good stuff – there’s tough, driving rhythms, shimmering, hazy textures, and plenty of pop hooks, with a bit of grunt. The lead vocals vary from moaning to howling and are often deftly balanced with sweet harmony vocals. You could listen to this as the background to your mundane activities, or you could equally crank up the volume and immerse yourself in a rich and syrupy slab of psych-rock-pop.  From: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/sacred-shrines-enter-the-woods/

Joan Osborne - Right Hand Man

Right Hand Man by Joan Osborne: The music is based on a Captain Beefheart song called "Clear Spot." Osborne is a Beefheart fan, and played the song for Rob Hyman, Eric Bazilian and Rick Chertoff, who were working on the album with her. They played around with the beat and put it in 7/8 time to create an unusual rhythm. Beefheart got a composer credit on this.
 Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian are founding members of The Hooters, and along with producer Rich Chertoff, they worked on Cyndi Lauper's album She's So Unusual. After Hyman saw Osborne perform, he brought her to Chertoff's attention, who helped her get a record deal. On this album, they wrote most of the songs with Osborne, although Bazilian wrote her hit "One Of Us" on his own. For this song, Osborne came up with the title and wrote most of the lyrics.    
Joan Osborne did do a song about masturbation. But it's Match Struck Twice; find it on her Early Recordings album. This awesome, hard-rocking song, though, is just about screwing enthusiastically, happily, and unashamedly all night. Starting on the guy's floor, til she really needs a chair. On a chair til she needs the sofa, and on the sofa til she's saying, where's your bedroom? He's good with his hand as well... at keeping the proceedings going. End of the night she hasn't slept, is wired and tired, and heads home on a supposed walk of shame about which she is not ashamed.

From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/joan-osborne/right-hand-man


Nine Inch Nails - The Great Destroyer

It usually takes over half a decade for a new NIN album to surface. Not this time. May 2005 saw the release of With Teeth, the long-awaited follow-up to 1999’s The Fragile, the latter the sound of helplessness and despair of drug addiction committed to tape. Now, both clean and sober, Reznor is on a roll. Having woken up from a deep dependency, he has found that the creative juices are still flowing, and in under two years, With Teeth’s successor is here.
Two years ago when Hammer spoke to the newly drug-free Trent, he was in good health, but his manner still painted a picture of an anxious sociophobe. Conversation came uneasily with little eye-contact. Today the classically-trained musician is the relaxed and sunny antithesis of his former self. Explaining when and how he started this new album, Trent admits that it had a lot to do with boredom. That while “it’s fun to play the show,’ the rest of the day is just waiting around. So he started working with the “limitation” that all he had was a laptop, and so, “some cool stuff started happening.”
After the With Teeth tour, he decided against taking a break. He started expanding the ideas he’d created using only his laptop, and the lyrical concept was born. Trent had just moved to Los Angeles – an incongruous choice for the renowned antisocial – from where he’d previously moved to isolate himself, New Orleans.
“I didn’t go to LA for the culture,” he says smiling a wry smile. “I moved there to be around my peers. The fake tits and celebrity bullshit is all there, but it’s not all that’s there. You don’t see me out, or see pictures of me shopping – I’m repulsed by it to be quite frank – but I needed to be around people who do what I do, to make the whole Year Zero thing happen.”
With everything going so swimmingly, Trent moved from his new home to a remote and “creepy” house in the Californian hills to write and build lyrics out of his concept. Disappearing into the woodwork for a while, the isolation allowed him to escape the usual urban distractions, and Trent centered himself. After three months on the far side of nowhere, all that remained was the odd nip and tuck, and Year Zero was road-ready. The new record was not to be simply another album of gloomy introspection, but the first of two albums: a big picture political narrative about a dystopian very near future in which a selfish people abuse their world and have to suffer the consequences, and an elusive force called, The Presence.
“Oh hey, we can talk about that”, Trent says before addressing the label person charged with keeping his schedule running on time. “Give me five more minutes, OK?” Reaching the end of our allotted interview time, we mention something that he’s keen to talk about, and he extends our interview. Shocked that the socially anxious recluse would want to spend more time being probed, we sit down again. He explains that the main purpose of the record was to call attention to the totalitarian political climate and how we are destroying ourselves and our planet.
“It was an epiphany of sorts,” he says. “And it revolves around sobriety. When you’re an addict you feel like your problems are the biggest problems in the world. I’m not saying I can change the world, but now I feel like it’s my duty as a human to do try and do something.” Trent has admitted that when he quit drugs he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to write again, but that With Teeth proved he could. Does his lyrical choice of a fictional concept suggest he no longer has personal demons to confront? “I was writing fiction for the first time,” he says before quickly reassuring us that: “it’s clearly fiction. I couldn’t write another Downward Spiral because that would be lying.” So is ‘the concept’ a substitute for personal exorcism? Or are you really just tapping into emotions that are fast fading into the rear-view mirror?
“This is a good question because…” He stops for a few seconds and averts his eyes. “Let me just think about this for a sec.” Again he pauses. The silence is uncomfortable. “I’ll just keep my mouth shut.” About what? “I know you’re baiting me,” he says, smiling warmly. “When the day comes that I have to hire the flavour of the day to write my records for me so I can sound like what my records used to sound like so I can make money… just stick a fork in me. Honestly. I don’t mean to sound like I’m on a high horse here but when it gets to that state, that’s absolutely not what I’m about. From principle. I’ll walk the highway before I start doing that shit.”
Trent becomes animated as he asserts that whether or not you like Nine Inch Nails, loved or hated this or that record, he made them all for the right reasons. “Because it means more to me than anything else in my life. I can sleep well at night – when I can sleep – knowing that I have always kept that pure.”  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/nine-inch-nails-year-zero-interview-2007

Cecile Corbel - La Fille Damnee

Cécile Corbel is a French singer-songwriter and harpist whose whimsical melodies and ethereal vocals have captured the hearts of fans worldwide. With a knack for blending Celtic influences with modern indie pop sensibilities, Corbel has carved out a unique niche for herself in the music industry.
Her music is like a breath of fresh air, transporting listeners to a world filled with enchanting melodies and haunting harmonies. With a voice that is as delicate as a fairy's whisper, Corbel weaves intricate tales of love, loss, and everything in between.
Corbel first gained attention with her enchanting soundtrack for the animated film "Arrietty," which earned her critical acclaim and a loyal following. Since then, she has released several albums that showcase her extraordinary talent as both a singer and a musician.
With a style that is both nostalgic and contemporary, Corbel continues to push the boundaries of traditional folk music, creating a sound that is uniquely her own. Whether she is strumming her harp or singing a heartfelt ballad, Corbel's passion for music shines through in every note.  From: https://vinylcastle.com/collections/cecile-corbel?srsltid=AfmBOoo_XIPDJGyOg-9nuivW3Xfmz3XzpEkFzC4EoOWDpsynERSbdojK

The Seldom Scene - Live Washington D.C. 1973

1. Last Train From Poor Valley 
2. My Grandfather's Clock 
3. Sweet Baby James 
4. House of the Rising Sun > Walk Don’t Run 
5. Fox on the Run 
6. Raised by the Railroad Line 
7. Hello Mary Lou 
8. Hit Parade of Love 
9. Are You Lost in Sin? 
10. It’s All Over Now Baby Blue 
11. Keep Me From Blowing Away 
12. City Of New Orleans 
13. Muleskinner Blues 
14. Dueling Banjos 
15. What Am I Doing Hanging Around 

The following conversation occurred after The Seldom Scene had finished their evening concert at the Red Fox restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. It’s their story—it’s told the way they want to tell it in the hope that the reader may gain a valuable insight into what makes for a successful and viable group. I began the conversation with a view toward developing a story on their non-musical professions, since each of them are employed full-time in other careers.

John Starling: (Lead singer and guitar) When you talk about this “second career” thing, I’d like to play that down—to this degree. We are in to music full-time, psychologically. We don’t want anybody to think we’re not trying. We’re trying to do the best we can and we want to try to compete on an equal footing with everybody else. The one thing about us is that we don’t play as much as other bands and the advantage that might have is that when we do play, we’re a little fresher maybe.

Ben Eldridge: (Banjo) It’s more fun. 

John Starling: But that’s something we don’t plan. For instance, if you have fifty songs and you do them five times a week-on the fifth time it becomes a drag.

John Duffey: (Mandolin, tenor and lead singer) Even the third time!

Pat: It would appear that monotony or boredom would set in, however well you performed.

Tom Gray: (Bass-occasionally lead singer but mainly bass on quartets) That’s true. I know ten years ago when I played with the Country Gentlemen, we had gotten to a point where I was getting tired of playing as many shows as we did—and in those days we weren’t as busy as they are now. I think that if you don’t have to play—if you don’t have to always go out and do your best show to a different crowd every night, I think you will enjoy it more because you feel like you’re creating something. Like with us, I think we’re in a perfect situation to develop ourselves musically because we only play one night a week at the Red Fox. The crowd knows that and they appreciate us for what we do there. 

Ben Eldridge: It kind of takes the pressure off, really. I think that is one of the neat things about the group.

John Starling: Although I think it’s interesting that we do something else, I would rather be accepted on the basis of our music. I’d rather be judged on what we do rather than on what we don’t do. 

Mike Auldridge: (Dobro and baritone singer) Yes, it’s kind of embarrassing when people say, “You guys are really good—it’s hard to believe that this is just your hobby!” The thing is that we probably work as hard at it as any full-time band.

Pat Mahoney: John, what got you into the music instrument repair area? Did something of yours break and you figured you would repair it?

John Duffey: That’s a good question, I really don’t know. One time, years ago, the post office had their annual auction of lost-in-the-mail, unclaimed items which were undeliverable, etc. I bought a box of stuff (which was about three feet tall) of broken instruments. That’s how I got my first mandolin. There was a Kalamazoo in there, and it had only one crack in it. I took those things home and I decided I would try to put them together like my father used to do. In high school there was like fifteen guitar players and one bass player, which made a rather rotten band, not much variation. The bass player’s parents had this mandolin which I borrowed.

Pat Mahoney: What instrument did you start with? Did you start playing mandolin before you played guitar?

John Duffey: No, I was one of the fifteen guitar players!

Pat Mahoney: Did anyone not start with a guitar?

John Duffey: Actually, I started with a banjo.

Tom Gray: I started with an accordian. 

Ben Eldridge: I started with a Gene Autry “Melody Ranch” guitar from Sears & Roebuck. There was a fellow across the street from me named Nicky Valdrigi. He was about two and a half years older than me. He was kind of my idol, and I used to follow him around in my neighborhood. He taught me how to play baseball, etc. He played the accordian. That’s what I wanted to play because Nicky played the accordion. My folks just couldn’t afford the $120 for an accordian. They could afford about a tenth of that and I wound up with a $12 Gene Autry guitar but I always liked country music, so everything worked out O.K.

Pat Mahoney: When you mentioned a banjo John, did you mean a tenor or a 5-string?

John Duffey: 5-string, but I just couldn’t seem to get anything out of it.

Mike Auldridge: I’m really lucky because I’m doing exactly what I’ve always wanted to do. I have always been interested in art, and I’m an artist for the newspaper, (Star-News in Washington, DC) and music. The only other interests I have is antique cars. I’m an old car enthusiast. I like old cars but right now I don’t have a garage to house them in. I’m planning to get something soon. I’m like John (Starling) in giving up golf. I haven’t painted anything recently. Of course working in art all day, I really don’t feel like coming home and painting. That’s like if I were playing music all day; I don’t think I would come home and pick.

Ben Eldridge: Mike did the cover for our second album.

Mike Auldridge: Yes, the cover for ACT II was a thing I did in school, a lithograph print.

John Starling: Ebo Walker picked it out! 

Mike Auldridge: He did. I gave it to John Starling and he hung it in his house. Ebo Walker saw it and said, “Hey man, that would make a neat album cover.” I grew up with the big band sound. My older brother was a nut on Benny Goodman, etc. The first person I remember being interested in musically was Gene Krupa. You were talking a while ago about the first instrument you started playing—the first instrument I started with was a guitar, but the first instrument I bought was a banjo. I didn’t know the difference (about banjos)—so I went to a pawn shop and bought a four string banjo trying to figure out how to play bluegrass on it! The first instrument I really played was a guitar. 

Pat Mahoney: What brought you to the Dobro?

Mike Auldridge: I guess the thing that really caught me was-like, my uncle used to play Dobro and I used to hear him a little bit here and there.

Pat Mahoney: Did he play professionally?

Mike Auldridge: Yes, he played with Jimmy Rodgers. He wrote “Treasures Untold” and “Dear Old Sunny South by the Sea”. Doc Watson put it on one of his albums. My uncle was the first person I ever saw who played Dobro. He played an old-timey style. I heard Buck Graves when he was with Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper. That’s when I got interested. 

Pat Mahoney: What part of the country are each of you from?

John Duffey: Born in Washington, DC. 

Ben Eldridge: Richmond, Virginia.

Tom Gray: I was born in Chicago, but I was reared here in the Washington area. 

John Starling: Lexington, Virginia. 

Mike Auldridge: Washington, DC.

Pat Mahoney: There’s a certain style you have as a group. How important is it? 

Ben Eldridge: I think it’s an accident. 

Mike Auldridge: Yes, I think it’s a function of the guys who are in the band. I think a lot of what we have that the early Country Gentlemen had is because of John Duffey. Part of our sound is John Starling’s influence with the selection of the material.

John Duffey: Background taste has a lot to do with Mike personally. I say this because I listened to Dick Cerri play one of the “side by sides” on radio the other day. He played “Heaven”—which Flatt and Scruggs did. Then he played our recording of it. We were listening to the background; both records have Dobro on them. On Flatt and Scruggs’ version (and with no offense to anybody) it had a lot of “hot” licks, that’s the easiest way I can think to describe it—in a song that really doesn’t call for “hot” licks. And in Mike’s background, you know, there was the right thing at the right time.

Mike Auldridge: My head’s gonna swell because Eddie Adcock said something to me one time that made a lot of sense. He said, “The next best thing to having taste is not being too good!” You know? It’s better to have a guy that plays what he knows well, and at the right time. He might not know a lot of variations, etc.

Pat Mahoney: Not to interrupt the train of thought, but did you or have you listened a lot to Pete Kirby’s Dobro? 

Mike Auldridge: No, I’ve paid more attention to Buck Graves.

John Starling: I object to the idea I’ve just been sitting here thinking about it—I object that I’m the one responsible for the material. Because that’s just not true. It might seem that way in a lot of ways because I’m the one who has to learn the words to a lot of things. For example, on the last album, Ben said,“Go learn ‘Muddy Waters’.” Tom was the one that got us into doing “Paradise.”

Ben Eldridge: I don’t want to lay claim to the Redskin song!

John Duffey: I’ll lay claim into irritating you into doing that.

Mike Auldridge: The reason I said that a while ago, was because of the five of us, you (John Starling) are more influenced by the other kinds of music. My musical tastes are really narrow, compared to yours. I would never have found say “Rider” because I never have listened that much to rock music.

John Starling: To keep from getting paranoid, you know. I’m not a super picker, all these other guys are. I feel like in order to contribute my part (and I enjoy it too) I enjoy going out and trying to find material. I don’t always find it. Like right now I’m at a big zero.

Ben Eldridge: But you are at a very enthusiastic stage right now, you know, when you come home from work you start thinking about music, playing records, etc. I may just be speaking for myself, but I don’t do that much anymore.

John Duffey: He (John Starling) does what I used to do fifteen years ago because nobody else did it. I enjoy having somebody else do it.

Ben Eldridge: That’s why you have influence in picking material because you listen and spend a lot more time with music.

Mike Auldridge: I think it’s a combination of John Starling’s attitude toward contemporary material and John Duffey and Tom Gray’s attitude toward the older, traditional material. It’s kind of a mixture Ben and I are along for the ride as far as material goes.

John Starling: I’d like to experiment with different rhythms with Tom Gray if I could get the lick right on the guitar. There shouldn’t be any type of material that we would be afraid to try. Basically that’s what keeps a band growing, you know. People sometimes say “Hey man, this is a great song. It just fits you all perfectly.” Well I may not be too interested in hearing it if it “fits us perfectly”.

Pat Mahoney: Why not?

John Starling: Well I would rather hear a good song and decide for myself if we can do it. If you’ve been together for three years, you tend to know the kind of song you can do well and the kind of song you won’t do well.

Ben Eldridge: John Starling and I see each other a lot and we listen to the same kind of songs, etc. Maybe we will hear something that we both like but I don’t think any of us listen to a song with the idea of,“How can we adapt the song to fit us, but rather—is it a good song? That’s the way I felt about “Muddy Waters”—I heard the song and I thought, “Wow, that’s a nifty tune.” The same way with “(Raised by the) Railroad Line”.

John Duffey: Or wouldn’t it be fun to do. 

Pat Mahoney: Alright then, what we are saying is that there’s a universality in music, isn’t there? Or is there?

Mike Auldridge: On our Dobro album we are getting ready to cut, I’m hoping to do “Killing Me Softly” which is the last thing you would think of putting on a bluegrass album.

Tom Gray: It’s good overall music done with bluegrass instruments which is what our style is all about.

John Starling: A guy wrote a review in the Washington Post and he said it better. It’s what we’re into really. He said we are using bluegrass more as a method, rather than a fixed tradition—which in the long run, is what all bluegrass bands do except (Bill)Monroe and (Ralph)Stanley, as far as I’m concerned. It’s just a matter of degree. 

Ben Eldridge to John Starling: I don’t agree with you. There aren’t that many bluegrass bands that do that.

John Starling: The Dillards do, the New Grass Revival.

Ben Eldridge: Yes, you can name a half a dozen bands, but a half a dozen out of a hundred.

Mike Auldridge: That’s right, most are traditional bluegrass bands.

From: https://bluegrassunlimited.com/article/the-seldom-scene-as-heard/

The Rails - Save the Planet

There’s something different about The Rails on their brilliant third album. It’s not just the sound of the record, which is harder, tougher and rockier than ever before. Cancel The Sun (out August 16 on Thirty Tigers) is melodic and immediate, a record that brings together the musical pasts of Kami Thompson and James Walbourne – her family heritage, as the daughter of Linda and Richard Thompson, and sister of Teddy; his as guitarist for Son Volt, The Pogues and The Pretenders – in a record that sounds like a pure version of themselves. You could spend hours casting around for a term to describe it, but maybe the best one would be pinched from an Eliza Carthy album title: Anglicana – music that might originate in America, but is clearly and resolutely English. “It’s a distillation of influences,” Thompson says. “In an English still.”
Where 2014’s Fair Warning was a gorgeous revival of the classic English folk-rock sound (issued on Island’s pink label for full attention to period detail), and 2017’s Other People found Walbourne turning more to electric guitar, Cancel the Sun is a kaleidoscopic offering. Twisting it’s way through decades of sounds often conventionally siloed from one another, Cancel The Sun is colored in hues of 90’s alternative guitar pop, 60’s English baroque, gorgeous country balladry, and, still, an undying folk influence. Cancel The Sun is perhaps most indebted to fellow north Londoners, the Kinks, not in sound but in its spirit and the band’s desire to cast far and wide to make the music they want, without sacrificing their individuality.
Recorded in London in the spring of 2019, the album was helmed by producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, The Cranberries, Blur), who helped The Rails connect with their musical lineage, highlighting the strength of Walbourne’s guitar playing. As a result, Cancel The Sun sounds both classic and timeless – a rare and genuine offering in an age of easy imitations, equally satisfying for guitar lovers and anyone looking for a fresh, summer road trip soundtrack.
Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of “Save the Planet”, one of the standout tracks on the album and also one of the most vocal in terms of the statement it makes about the state of the world. With shimmering, passionate harmonies, the song is fuses dreamy indie rock with tongue in cheek activist folk. While the chorus is up for interpretation, one might perceive it as a message aimed at a certain abomination of a president currently in office. However, a deeper dive finds useful advice on how to generally live a more sustainable, earth-friendly life. Perhaps both of these interpretations are correct, but the ambiguity of the lyrics yet directness of the messaging makes for a fascinating nugget of folk-rock. The artists add to this sentiment with their own statement: “Recycle; go electric; eat raw; ditch plastic; walk to work; adopt a whale; give up; sleep in; lose hope; sod the planet; save yourself.”  From: https://glidemagazine.com/229546/song-premiere-the-rails-offer-strangely-fascinating-advice-with-dreamy-folk-rock-tune-save-the-planet/

Pure Prairie League - Falling in and out of Love / Amie

The Pure Prairie League song “Amie”— recorded in 1972 — took three years to turn into a hit, but has since endured for decades. The band's Craig Fuller told the story of "Amie" to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Let’s take it back. Pure Prairie League is a band out of Ohio. You’ve done it the hard way; you’ve played the clubs, been on the road for years. In 1971 you finally attract the attention of RCA.

CF: RCA New York. They came to see us play a festival in Cleveland... I think they brought the (A&R) fellow back with the power to sign. Then we played on the front porch of our house and they said, “Oh, that’s good, let’s do that.”

So you recorded the album "Bustin’ Out." In terms of musicianship, it’s still one of my favorite records ever. It still actually sells CDs. And RCA signed you, but then they drop you. But “Amie” gets some airplay on country stations and airplay on pop stations and college stations and AOR stations. ... So in 1975 they re-sign the band and put the single out.

CF: Well, when we recorded it in that mecca of country music Toronto, Canada, it was longer, and I think they edited it for radio and got it shorter. I guess you’re right. It kept bubbling there along and they decided to give it another shot promotion-wise.

Who is Amie?

CF: Just a song I wrote. Just an exercise in song craftsmanship.

Boy, people really dissect that song — about what it’s about. I’ll give you my take on it: The guy may have waited too long. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

CF: That’s just as fair as my take on it, because all I was doing was stringing words and music together.

There’s some genius to it. You fell into one, Craig, I’m telling you.

CF: I think the track on that song had a lot to do with it. We were up there luxuriating with a large budget for back then. We were in Toronto all summer right across from Maple Leaf Gardens. It took us all summer to record that record. It wasn’t even mixed yet and at that time Gordon Lightfoot came in. We had the whole studio blocked out in the days and Gordon Lightfoot would come in and record in the evening. He did a record in two weeks. Stompin’ Tom Connors, who was a guy from Canada, country kind of guy, he did a record in two nights. So we were just up there having a good time.

So tell me about the resilience of that song. Through the decades you’ve played it around the world. That’s one that everybody recognizes. So the lead singer of Evanescence, Amy Lee, apparently was named after that song, even though she spells it with a Y. I told you we were just in D.C. lobbying for songwriters two or three weeks ago and ran into another Amie that allegedly was named after that song. You’ve got to hear that a lot.

CF: I’ve had mothers come up and say, “I named my daughter Amie — and she named her daughter Amie."

Wow. That means it’s been a while, right?

CF: Exactly. That was the joke.

So one last question, Craig. In your mind’s eye, did you get back with Amie?

CF: Amie is just a song so I get along with Amie really well.

Yeah, but did you get back with her? Have you ever thought about that?

CF: Does the character?

Yeah, does the character get back with her? Do they end up happily ever after or is it a hard lesson learned for him for the rest of his life?

CF: I suppose the protagonist of the song is just laying it out and then it’s up to her.

I love that version. 

From: https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/12/02/story-behind-song-aime/94619736/

Glass Hammer - Wolf 359

No, it’s not the latest Doctor Who (although singer Susie does have a passing resemblance to the new Doctor), but the latest concept album Chronomonaut from Tennessee’s prog rock icons Glass Hammer.  This veteran band has racked up an astounding number of albums in their 25+ years together, and built itself quite a reputation in the prog world. Listen in as we chat with Steve Babb, one half of Glass Hammer’s creative genius about everything from dead rock stars to death metal.

Hi Steve, Would you call the new album a sequel to Chronometree, or more of a revisitation? Why go back to that storyline in particular? 

Steve: Chronomonaut is Part Two of Chronometree, but it also works as a standalone album. Musically, the two albums are nothing alike. The character Tom really resonated with proggers back in 2000 when we released it. Tom was a quirky teenager at the time of that story, but at the core, Tom was a prog fan. Everyone could see a little of Tom in themselves. Not so long ago when some of my prog and pop heroes began to, well, to die…that’s what got me thinking about Part Two. Squire, Emerson, Lake, Wetton, Bowie…the list goes on. It really hit me as it did everyone. So I reasoned that our character Tom might also be deeply moved. He’s grown up now and reached middle age. I thought about how age and the passing of heroes might affect or trigger him.

You mentioned Emerson and Lake’s passing. An older friend got me hooked on ELP and I got to see them the night before I left for bootcamp, about when Glass Hammer was getting started. I’m thoroughly a metalhead, but I have to admit Carl Palmer has to be the best drummer I’ve ever seen. Who brings gongs on tour so heavy that they break the stage? All 3 of those guys were just over the top.

Steve: Yep….I’ve always loved ELP. They aren’t universally loved in the prog world, which I find strange. I got to meet Carl Palmer and have done 2-3 shows where he was on the bill with us. Tarkus and Trilogy are my faves.

Truthfully, you want to do concept albums that people can relate to. We’re all growing older. If our fans could relate to Tom as a teenager, they can certainly relate to Tom as an adult prog-rocker who still takes his music way too seriously.

You and Fred Schendel have been the core of Glass Hammer for 25+ years now. Is the use of the time machine a neat way to go back and revisit some of your own band history?

Steve: It’s a neat way to go back for sure. But it’s also an excuse to musically go back in time and do some things we haven’t done in a while, or in some cases things we never did. Some of the album deals with the 80s and we had some fun dabbling in synth-wave tracks on Chronomonaut. There’s a psychedelic vibe to a few tunes as well.

You’ve taken this band for the long haul, you’ve played some really interesting gigs like ProgPower. Is there anything left on your bucket list for GH to do yet? Places to play, maybe bands to play with?

Steve: We’d love to go to the UK and perform and to be perfectly honest, we’d love to be paid for the performance! We just do not travel anywhere to perform if the band members can’t be paid for their work. That’s why, more often than not, we don’t tour. It doesn’t make sense. The shows you hear about us performing pay great; travel, food, lodging, etc. They treat us like kings. We could book our own tour, of course, and hope for the best. But I’m not a gambler and neither is Fred. We’ve had a great year, with shows in Quebec, Italy, Jersey and Cruise To The Edge. We’re mainly interested in staying in the studio for now. Still, the UK beckons.

You’ve been much more of a studio band than a touring band. Is there a certain magic that’s lost when you can’t play live, or is that the only way to live two lives (making a living outside music)?

Steve: There’s a reason why there has been a Glass Hammer for twenty-five years and there’s a reason we have been able to put so many albums out. Well, there’s probably several reasons, but one of the big ones is that we only play key shows at key times. It’s just way too much stress on us and our families to try to live like we did in our twenties – on the road. That’s what I did for around 5 years. I didn’t even like it then! Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE to perform and I absolutely love to meet our fans. But it is no small feat to rehearse a prog band and recreate these studio albums. Fred and I are full time musicians, whether with Glass Hammer or by producing other artists. In that, we are truly blessed. Our time is usually split between Glass Hammer projects and other studio projects. It’s worked so far.

The band is down to a foursome now. How does that free up or hinder the creativity vs. times when you’ve had more band members?

Steve: Nothing against former bandmates, but to quote Fred in a recent conversation, “This was the best thing that could have happened to us.” Fred and I were suddenly left to ourselves and began to rely on each other again without feeling the need to consult another creative band member on every decision that we made. That was never required of us of course, but we tried really hard to make our former guitarist (and all the others members too) a big part of the creative process. It worked for a while. Now we’re back where we started; two guys writing everything and being helped along by some incredible singers and musicians. Aaron and Susie are 100% Glass Hammer band mates for sure. But they are content to let Fred and me set the course for the band.

Who inspires you as a bassist?

Steve: I still love the early recordings of Geddy Lee (Rush) and Chris Squire (Yes) and will probably always sound like a mix of the two. There are other players I admire for different reasons, but I play like I play, and I owe it all to those two guys.

Prog rock has passed the half century mark now and bands like Yes and King Crimson have been rocking that vibe the whole time. The scene has ebbed and flowed a bit over the years. Where do you see prog music going in the future?

Steve: I literally have no idea. I don’t hear the magic of those original acts being replicated. Musically copied, yes. But the magic? I don’t hear it too often. I hope the scene stays healthy though as I hope to be recording prog-rock albums well into the future. My finger isn’t on the pulse anymore, if it ever was. We just do what we do and keep plugging along, hoping our fans will come along for the ride.

From: https://heavensmetalmagazine.com/index.php/2018/09/27/glass-hammer-for-now-we-see-through-the-glass-hammer-but-darkly-d74/

Dr. Cyclops - Eileen O'Flaherty

Locked into a solid 70’s groove with healthy doses of jazz, 80’s metal, blues and prog, Doctor Cyclops add just enough of their own contemporary flavor to the vintage sound to build an unholy beast all their own.  Deranged Sabbath worship, gnarly distorted guitars croaking and belching above swirling muted synth and organ sections, floating in the ether between the thundering of the bass and rattle of the machine gun precision drums, Doctor Cyclops are capable of meating out masterful doses of equal parts jazz, funk and metal all at the same time, tunes turning on themselves like cannibalistic snakes devouring their own tales.  There’s a proud, majestic rabble to the music all their own, a self-confidence and intelligence that can’t be learned or taught, that has to be innate and intuitive. 
While there might be a lot going on in the music as far as influences go, the band is a single-minded unit, operating in tandem through seamless genre changes, breaks, tempo changes and seemingly effortless pitfall stops.  Joining forces with the world-famous World In Sound Records Doctor Cyclops has released two full-length nuggets of amazing on the world in the form of 2012’s Borgofondo and 2014’s Oscuropasso, the latter being one of the coolest albums I’ve heard in a good while simultaneously summoning equal parts Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Dust.  With so many people obsessed with sounding like they just fell out of 1969 it’s refreshing to hear a band that truly takes whatever they want from the bountiful musical heritage that we’ve collectively inherited and move on, make something interesting, unique and completely their own.  Doctor Cyclops sounds free.  Free from classification, free from genres and labels, free to do what they do best, make good music.  From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/07/doctor-cyclops-interview-with-christian.html 

Clannad - Sirius

To me, there are three distinct ‘eras’ of Clannad’s music. There’s the early traditional folk years (Clannad to Fuaim), the Celtic pop/rock years (Magical Ring to Sirius), and the Celtic ‘New Age’ (or perhaps World) years (Anam to Landmarks). The common thread through all of their music is its foundation in the band’s Irish roots, and that indefinable ‘Clannad sound’. It’s just something about the combination of Moya Brennan’s voice with their lovely melodies. You simply can’t describe it – you have to hear it.
It might seem strange for me to pick Sirius to post about. When it was first released in 1987 the music press branded the album ‘too American,’ ‘too polished,’ ‘too bland’ – some reviews went as far as saying Clannad had ‘sold out.’ Why all the hate? It probably stems from the fact that, yeah, Sirius is much more ‘produced’ than their previous work. The songs are slick and polished – but not to the detriment of the music. Sirius is simply another facet of the ‘Clannad sound.’  For: https://deannalikespop.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/clannad-sirius-1987/

Dada - Time Is Your Friend

The band emerged in the midst of what you could call the explosion of ’90s alternative. Were there influences, as far as perhaps bands that were already successful and stuff like that, that helped to shape where you wanted to take dada as a group?

Well, I don’t know if we were so much listening to a lot of stuff that was on the radio at the time. I remember that Nirvana came out right before our record actually came out and I remember listening to Nirvana and it was just so much different than what we were doing. And the nation hadn’t really heard of Nirvana [at that time] and so I just went ”holy shit, that is awesome – that is going to be huge” and [bassist/vocalist] Joie [Calio] goes ”you think so?
Our sound to me kind of came from not following [what anybody else was doing]. Joie and I got together and we were writing all of the time and it was like ”what the hell are we doing wrong?” A lot of our friends were getting signed and we had confidence that we were good. And we were just like ”you know what, we have to stop following anything.” We have to do what we’re best at.
And at that time, it was just Joie and I on acoustic guitars – we had gotten rid of an old drummer and we were trying to go electric. And it was like ”let’s just get together,” because we lived a couple of blocks away from each other in Hollywood. I learned about the propinquity effect at UCLA, where I was a psych major and it’s like, the closer you are to somebody, the more time you will spend with them.
I think the Rolling Stones used to live together in an apartment, you know? We lived really close, so we just started writing everyday. We made a commitment –  let’s just make good music and let’s not try to pick a style. And what we found that we were really good at was harmony and our lyrics were I thought, fairly original. They didn’t sound like the standard lyrics of all of the pop and rock songs that had come before.
So we just started playing coffeehouses and we would just try to write the best songs that we could with two acoustic guitars. That old maxim that if it sounds good with one guy on an acoustic guitar, it’s probably a good song – that was kind of our motto. We stuck to that for a while and said ”let’s write a bunch of good songs, not worrying about how cool we are or what kind of sound we have – let’s just write and sing.” And we did, all of the time and it was really cool because we gave each other confidence.
We also edited each other and hopefully edited out the lame shit. Lots of times we’d be writing and it’s like ”is that any good” and Joie goes ”that’s fucking amazing” and then I’d play something I really liked and he’d go ”ummm, I think this might be a little light – it doesn’t fit.” So in that way, we helped each other out as writers and then we opened up for this really popular group called Mary’s Danish in L.A.
Our buddy was in that band and he said ”why don’t you open up for us” and we were like ”what? you guys are like a punk/funk band!” We opened up for them and we had like six songs that we played and people really liked it and I remember Joie as we were getting off stage, he said ”we have to remember this – the response that we just got and that it can work.” So that’s where we started from.
As far as the bands that I liked, I used to listen to KROQ out here and just any band that came on, like the Screaming Trees had this song that I loved and it was like ”wow, that’s a cool song – I love the Screaming Trees now.” But Joie and I, I think our roots are really planted in the 70s, the most. There’s lots of bands in the 80s that I liked too, like R.E.M. and the Pretenders and there’s a lot of other great bands [from that decade].
But really, our harmony style kind of developed out of a Simon & Garfunkel acoustic thing where we tried not to do the normal third background vocal or three stacked on top of one – we tried to do like Simon & Garfunkel, they have a lot of really interesting harmonies and you can tell that they put thought into that. Joie and I said that ”if we’re going to sing harmonies, we’ve got to try to do it a little bit differently.”
Eventually we started playing electrically again with the acoustic in the middle and then when we got Phil [Leavitt] in the band – thank God, we finally found a drummer after about eight tries – it just kind of all clicked. It was like we’ll use our writing that we did on acoustics with the harmonies and then we’ll beef it up with this trio sound, which naturally formed in the rehearsal room one day when the three of us played for the first time.

From: https://popdose.com/the-popdose-interview-michael-gurley-of-dada/ 

Boygenius - $20

Every great supergroup needs an origin story, and who better to tell it than the girls in the band? Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus phoned in from Pasadena, Nashville, and Charlottesville, respectively, to describe how Boygenius came to be, how to answer that “women in rock” question, and how they feel about playing in Brooklyn on midterms night:

The definition of a “boygenius”:

Bridgers: Men are taught to be entitled to space and that their ideas should be heard because they’re great ideas and women are taught the opposite. That they should listen instead of speak and all that stuff. So a “boygenius” is someone who their whole life has been told that their ideas are genius. I also think genius is a weird, toxic word to use for anybody because it’s unattainable or it comes with, a lot of the time, abusive tendencies.

How Boygenius happened, and who introduced who:

Dacus: I’ve known Julien well for years now. We opened for her in D.C., before any of our music came out and we just kept in touch over email, constantly recommending books to each other, seeking each other’s wisdom, and she has always told me about Phoebe. So Phoebe and I only met this year and it was very quick friendship. The three of us have only ever been in the same space for recording, you know, like we’re all independently so busy touring all the time. Recording, writing, trying to get in time with our loved ones. So yeah, we’ve only been in the same room for five days in June.

Baker: We were all going to tour together so it seemed obvious that we would perform together. We would do something to make it special. Phoebe and Lucy, both the artists they tour with, they engage with them pretty heavily.

Bridgers: The tour came first and then we were like, why not record like a seven inch for tour promotion? It’d be so fun and it would be fun to sing together. And then like as stuff started happening we’re kind of like, “Oh shit, it would actually be so fun to be in a real band” and you know, we haven’t like talked about like a second record or anything. But that was totally not even on the table before we all met each other or before we all started working together and now we all literally think about it as like another band, which is pretty special. But it was kind of an accident. It was just like, “Oh, we’ll do a cover song and maybe one original song for this thing.” And then it turned into like, “Oh shit, our dynamic is so sweet together.”

On the recording and songwriting process:

Baker: While our music is very different stylistically, I think we all have similar emotions to end quandaries that we’re trying to get at and with different literal vocabulary and musical vocabulary. It was easy to get on the same page, but we didn’t necessarily approach it with a thesis.

Dacus: Not only do we bring what we’re able to bring the equation, we can call upon the favorite parts of each other, you know, like we’re familiar enough with each other’s work, so we bring our own style and then we have access to the tools of the other two people. Julien is really an amazing instrumentalist and she has an incredible ear for tone and arrangement, and Phoebe is a super-creative idea machine. Both of them are incredible lyricists. We’re all sensitive in similar ways. It’s been so much easier than I even thought it would be. I can’t really explain why that is. Like maybe it was just the right time, right place.

Baker: We each sent a handful of songs to our email chains and we listened to each other’s songs, and then had a sort of workshop thing once we were all together in one place.

Bridgers: We were all surprised to feel a real, true, unfettered creative energy. And a safe space, for lack of a better term, to fully flesh out our ideas and even if they weren’t the best ideas, we did not feel like if something we tried didn’t work, it wasn’t like embarrassing or a failure. I think it was like the easiest recording experience of my fucking life.

Baker: It was really great. I think it was very spontaneous, which is challenging for me as a very meticulous, calculated person. But something that I also crave in a sort of, I guess contradictory way.

About that girl-group thing:

Baker: I guess that fits within the larger phenomenon of people referring to music as female-fronted, acting as if someone’s gender can sort of categorize them as a genre and then sort of erasing the rest of their stylistic qualities. That’s the thing that happens. So I’m always trying to find, between how much do I resist categorization, categorization based on my identity, intentionally, as a protest of the idea that those things are somehow out of the ordinary or that they should be remarkable or that they’re awful in some way. And the other side of that, which is choosing to draw attention to those very characteristics of my identity because visibility and representation are so crucial to model, that this is a possibility for a younger generation of people.

Bridgers: Nobody thinks twice about five dudes starting a band, but as soon as three fucking women start a band they’re like “girl band!” or like “girl project!” On my Spotify, my related artists are 100 percent women and that’s great. Like, totally check out another woman after listening to me, but like go to fucking Dave Grohl’s thing and I guarantee you there’s like two women, if that. People treat it like it’s fucking separate. But also gender is not an unimportant part of our band. We very much thought about that. We’re all friends. We wanted to do it. But as soon as we got in the room together it was like, “Oh, we’re like a girl supergroup. How do we toe this line?”

https://www.vogue.com/article/boygenius-oral-history-lucy-dacus-phoebe-bridgers-julien-baker

Humble Pie - I Don't Need No Doctor

Frustrated with a number of things but mostly his image as a teen idol, Steve Marriott finally had enough. It was New Year’s Eve, 1969, when he threw down his guitar and walked off the stage at London’s Alexandra Palace, quitting his band, Small Faces. Marriott was a talented musician and vocalist who wanted to be taken seriously for his music, not his looks.
After quitting, Steve Marriott called two friends – one was Peter Frampton – another frustrated teen idol who had recently quit his band, Herd – and the other was 17-year-old drummer Jerry Shirley. Marriott asked his friends if he could join the band they were forming and, to sweeten the pot, said he’d bring with him Greg Ridley, a well-respected bass player from the band Spooky Tooth, who was also looking to make a change. Well, of course, Frampton and Shirley couldn’t turn down an offer like that and so the newest “supergroup” (as the press called them) was created. The guys in the band hated being called a supergroup … they were worried about expectations being set too high and dooming them to failure. In retaliation they chose a name they were more comfortable with: Humble Pie.
Their debut album, “As Safe As Yesterday Is”, was released in August 1969, along with the single, “Natural Born Bugie”. “As Safe As Yesterday Is” was one of the first albums to be described by the term “heavy metal” in a 1970 review in Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1971 Humble Pie released their most successful record to date, “Rock On“, as well as a live album recorded at the Fillmore East in New York entitled “Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore”. Culled from four sets recorded on May 28 and 29, 1971 (the original LP was essentially a sampler of songs from several raucous shows), “Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore” was released that November as a double album set. Humble Pie was second on the bill, after Fanny and before headliner Lee Michaels, a fact hardly anyone seems to remember. I will testify to that because I was in the audience at the Fillmore East on May 28, 1971 and the only group I remember seeing was Humble Pie. That was just one month before the legendary Fillmore closed its doors - the end of an era in the history of rock.
Peter Frampton’s final recording with Humble Pie in 1971 was, by some irony, the band’s most successful, and is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential live albums of the decade. Humble Pie produced 11 studio albums and 2 live albums.
“I Don’t Need No Doctor” from “Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore” was an R&B song written by Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson and Jo Armstead, first released by Ashford in August 1966; it went nowhere. The song has been recorded by Ray Charles, John Mayer, rock bands New Riders of the Purple Sage, Great White and Styx, metal band W.A.S.P. and others. Humble Pie’s version became an FM radio standard in the US.  From: https://theelephantstrunk.org/2024/04/25/let-them-eat-pie/

Aman Aman - El Rey Nimrod

Aman Aman are a group of skilled world musicians and ethnomusicologists who came together to explore the traditional music of the Sephardi, the Jewish people of Spain. This mixture of Jewish heritage with Spanish language, customs, and music created a fascinating culture that is seldom recognized. Aman Aman formed as something of a L'Ham de Foc splinter group, drawing on many of the popular band's members. Aman Aman are comprised of Mara Aranda (voice/bender), Efrén López (oud, santur, lavta, etc.), Matthieu Saglio (cello), Diego López (bender, darbukah, riq, etc.), Aziz Sansaoui (qanun), Hristos Barbas (ney, kaval), and Eleni Kallimopoulou (politili lyra, bender). With a wealth of knowledge between them (many of the bandmembers teach music at the university level), the ensemble reproduces music from many Mediterranean countries, including Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and Spain. The ensemble's premier recording was completed in 2007, and released by L'Ham de Foc's longtime label, Galileo Records. The release, entitled Musica i Cants Sefardis d'Orient i Occident, experienced much more success than expected for a disc that could be filed under "period music." The album spent three months in World Music Europe's Top 20. The group's niche character and large number of musicians prevented major touring. Nonetheless, Aman Aman made a number of appearances in places like Alacant, Carcaixent, and El Puig in the summer of 2007 in support of their debut release.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/aman-aman-mn0001533419#biography  

The Monkees - Love Is Only Sleeping

One of the Monkees' finest album tracks ever, "Love Is Only Sleeping" was written by the great Brill Building songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It's a testament to their craftsmanship that they were able to come up with a fabulous piece of pop psychedelia. A great descending guitar riff is the hook here, before moving into a series of minor-key melodic shifts. The rhythmic dynamics of the song -- complete with a folksy bridge -- are almost on a par with some of the Beatles' better efforts of the period, and that's saying something. One of Michael Nesmith's finest vocal performances and a trippy arrangement highlight the recording, again one of the band's greatest and most obscure.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/song/love-is-only-sleeping-mt0010609997#review