Paula Cole - Happy Home / I Am So Ordinary / Watch The Woman's Hands / Bethlehem / Garden Of Eden

Paula Cole's 1994 debut album seems largely forgotten these days (many seem to be under the impression that This Fire was her debut), but it is one of the finest singer-songwriter albums of the period. Paula had toured successfully with Peter Gabriel and brought her unique and beautiful vocals to his live Secret World show. She wasn't just a backing singer, but a featured performer in his show getting her moment to shine on the 'Don't Give Up' duet. Her performance on that tour was stunning and a great taste of what was to come. 
On Harbinger, she shows that she wasn't just an exceptionally gifted singer with amazing nuance and control in her voice. She was a great writer too. The songs on this album are emblematic of the sensitivity and sincerity of the women's movement of the '90s--a musical movement more dear to me than any other. On songs like I Am So Ordinary and Bethlehem, Paula writes with vivid detail, bringing the lives of young women into focus. For young women (like myself when I first began listening to her), this music is incredibly emotional, relatable and invigorating. It isn't just that she understands what it is to be a young woman. It is that she is so gifted at communicating that, with both poetic nuance and almost journalistic integrity and honesty.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/paula-cole/harbinger/ 

The Trews - The Bloody Light

Three words we’d use to describe us are… Meaty, beaty, big and bouncy  (sorry, i could only do it in four)

The story/meaning behind our name The Trews is… When we started in high school as a cover band playing dance halls and variety shows we went under the, admittedly immature, moniker One I’d Trouser. A few years went by before we dropped the front end and simply went by Trouser. On the eve of the release of our first EP we got a cease and desist order from another band out of Mississauga going by that name. With very little time to make the decision on a new name someone threw out the idea of  the Trews which means roughly the same thing. Trews are traditional Scottish pants. We thought it sounded cool and went with it… it stuck. Russell Brand recently stole the name for his “True News” (tr-ews, get it?) wedcast. NOT cool Russell.

We met each other… I met my brother Colin when I was born. Jack has been a friend since early childhood. We’ve had a revolving cast of drummer (don’t all bands?) But things really took shape for us when my cousin Sean Dalton joined the band in 2001 and we started our recording career.

We’re currently listening to… I’ve been doing a lot of producing on the side so I’m gonna throw in a plug for some bands that I’ve worked with. Check out the Glorious Sons, Autumns Cannon, Molly Thomason and Time Giant.

We find inspiration from… Everyday life. Our relationships, our loved ones, the music we listen to and the things we see on our travels… There’s always plenty to write about if you’re paying attention…

Or latest record, The Trews, is different from our previous releases because… It’s self titled! JK. It’s not all that different to be honest. We try to put our best songs forward and deliver them in a fresh and energetic way every time out.

Our craziest or most memorable gig was… For me it’s a toss up between opening for the Rolling Stones at a small venue in Toronto and opening for Bruce Springsteen at Magentic Hill in New Brunswick where he brought us up to play with him during his encore. Both insanely epic moments in the history of our band.

From: https://kryptonitemusic.com/2015/03/29/the-trews/

Light In Babylon - Si Verias a la Rana

I read that you were once described as ‘ambassadors of peace’. How do compliments like that sit with you?

To be called ‘ambassadors of peace’ it is indeed a big compliment for us, I believe it is even describing one of the reason we do music and the way we observe people and the world.
We have fans from all kind of countries, from different religious and cultures, many time people are asking us, how is it even possible..?  But for us it is very clear, we always call our music , world music , we see our-self as the people of the world , and our message is that before all nationally, culture , religion, language. We are all first of all humans, when we will remember that we will remember to respect each other. 

Your first stage as, described by you, was the street, busking to the eclectic masses of Istanbul. It’s quite an apprenticeship to have started with. What do you recall most about those early days? Do you have any fond memories?

We performed in Istiklal street in our first years as a band, I must say that Istiklal street is not just a street, not like any street but a very special place. In that time (2012) it was a place where people who passed by there where searching for something. Something to happen, some music or art. It was a place of diversity, different people, different cultures, religion, and opinions, all passing there and listening to our music and feeling something.  The reaction of the people was amazing, they wanted to get close, they cry, or smile, or dance. To put something like our music in the middle of someone day, just like that, live with no boundaries, create a strong impact and touch deeply the listeners, but not only them, also us, we learn a lot from it, how to understand people, how to respect people, and how to be modest and humble, now that we become more famous and we play in all kind of big stages. We still remember what we learned from our time in Istiklal street.
 
Do you still love playing for passersby in Istanbul?

Of course we do not play anymore in Istiklal (or any) street, we did it for some time and it gave us so much but since then we moved forward to the next step. Just passing by Istiklal street today takes lots of attention from peoples who ask photos (which we always happy to meet). Having a performance there will be a mess and also in general many things changes in this place since our time performing there, we were hoping to inspire new young group to continue this culture and go out there and share their music.

What is the mood like when you play at International festivals across Europe? Are people still quite welcoming?

Yes! We must say that we feel ourselves very lucky to have such an amazing people listening to our music. After each of our concert we always give time and invite the audience to meet us for some photos, signatures and cd’s and it gives us the time to see our audience in the eyes, even if it is crowded and takes long time , we always stay till the last person because for me it is the best part of the concert. It gives me lots of hope to meet so many people with open heart and open mind, people who still believe in people and have hope and spark in the eyes like me. It doesn’t matter if it in Europe or in other place, people who listen to our music always react the same and the warm part of them comes out. 

What is it about your music that people find so infectious?

We believe that music is not only entertainment, not only for pass the time, music has a meaning and impact on our life. Light in Babylon brings not only music but also emotion, in a world where peoples need more and more to hide their emotion, where television become more cynical and the pop music more artificial. People are hungry for something real, they want not only to hear music but also to feel it! The music we make say something, there is something honest in it, full of hope. 

Listening to your music has made me realise how much I have come to appreciate music from around the world. What I’d like to know Michal is who influenced you and why did you choose to make your ‘brand’ of music?

Many things influenced me, not necessary one specific type of music but a mix of music, cultures and ideas. I grow up in a home that women power is something very important and I think you can feel this in my way of singing and voice. I come from a Persian home (both of my parent were born and grow up in Iran) so the culture and the music from home affected me as well. Our band was formed in Istanbul, Istanbul is a very special place for us, and always will be, it is a city with a lot of intense feelings, there is something old with something new, some sadness with a beauty within, some joy with energy and people and lots of movement, in a way, we can describe our music like we just described Istanbul. 

You once said that although your band is made up of different members from different regions, who all speak different languages, the thing that unites you all is your shared existence and love of music. That’s quite beautiful and poetic. What else can we all learn about music and its universal appeal?

Yes, music can do many thing and can connect many people but I believe that music carries within some energy and it is very important where the music come from, for what purpose. When you open the radio and hear a commercial there is also music in the commercial, it can be very nice music, but the purpose of that one is to manipulate you to buy something. When we all met each other in the band, music connected us all but for this to be happening we had to have something clean inside, something naïve, we needed to want to be connected and to communicate. Only because of it we could create something like our music that will help others connect and feel too. 

Your music covers a range of issues, which include love, loss, life and death, and in some sense existential themes. The world we live in today has undoubtedly shaped who you are. Is that a fair assessment?

Yes, our music reflect the way we see the world and the way we change with the world according to the places and the people we meet, and according to the thing that happened in our lives and our dreams. We always say we are a dreamers ( we even did our own version for the song “Imagine” of John Lennon) , in our music there are many messages but we are not telling people what to do or how to live but we are sharing our own story and dreams and we let them to travel among many people far beyond us. For example, I am Israeli, I write my songs mostly in Hebrew. I have an Israeli passport so there are many countries I am not allowed to enter (Tunisia, Bangladesh, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Malesia, Saudi Arabia and more.) my physical body cannot be there, but my voice… my voice fly far away to every place, people listening to our music and writing me from many country I cannot visit, writing me how much power it gave them, that our music helped them to come through difficult time, or helped them to understand many things. Music can travel, music has no borders.

From: https://the-rearview-mirror.com/2018/03/07/music-can-travel-music-has-no-borders-interview-with-michal-elia-kamal-of-light-in-babylon/ 

Nebula Sun - Master Healer

Could you tell us how the band formed and how you developed your unique sound that combines Heavy Rock, Jazz, and Psychedelic influences?

“The band was formed in 2014 by brothers Tommy (vocals and guitar) and Azzy (drums) when they met Dave (sax) and started jamming together with their first bassist Alex. Paul joined later when Alex moved away. At this point the band was called King Kiwanda and was very afrobeat influenced but with a mix of jazz, folk and dub. The band as it is today was completed in late 2017 when they met Rob who had moved back to Norwich after having studied jazz in London. He added a second sax to create an unusual two-tenor horn section and brought more jazz influence to the band. We changed our name shortly afterwards because no one could spell King Kiwanda and became Nebula Sun. If anyone is interested they can hear how we sounded around then on our first EP, Through the Surface. We sort of stumbled into the psychedelic aspect – as Tommy started using pedals more we started adding a few psychedelic sections into some tracks, for example at the end of our single The Start of Time, and realised we really enjoyed that sound.“

Your upcoming album, Breathe Into Form, features seven very diverse tracks. How did you work on creating cohesion across the album, and what message do you want to convey through this collection?

“Although the tracks may be diverse they represent various aspects of a collective sound that we arrived at over many years, and so hopefully whatever genre we approach there is some kind of indefinable band sound that ties it to everything else.“

“Master Healer” opens the album with Psychedelic and Jazz sounds. How did you decide to blend these different genres into a single track?

“Having our two saxophonists coming from a jazz oriented background, there has always been that influence and is kind of inherent in the sound. However this song was more influenced by gnawa music from north southern and western morocco. Music from that region has a strong psychedelic aspect to it so it just felt completely natural bringing these genres together.“

In “Into Form,” you explore a more delicate and refined sound with soulful influences and rich saxophone textures. What were the inspirations behind this track?

“During the early years of the band we were strongly influenced by neo-soul and world-jazz bands like Nubiyan Twist and Ezra Collective. Although we eventually moved away from these styles and got a lot heavier, an occasional song emerges that carries aspects from that period. I think this was one of them.“

“Oceans” has a more Indie/Alternative Rock atmosphere with subtle Grunge hints. How did you approach this style, and what does this song represent for you?

“This song represents not forgetting where you came from. Oceans was one of the songs that followed lockdown. We were reunited and keen to expand on the sprinkles of the heavier sound which had begun pre covid. We have a love for heavier music from our own formative musical tastes and bands so it felt natural to play. We approached the writing in a fairly
typical way with saxes layering over the established groove. It’s a while ago now but I don’t recall us aiming for an alt rock or grunge feel. I remember the snare was turned off and quite loose initially which perhaps put us in that 90s slacker vibe and the big guitars were something we were becoming interested in using more. It felt right so we didn’t question it
any more than that. The grunge with sax tag is funny and came after we began playing it live and with the extra edge that you get from the live performance.“

“Reflections” showcases a more complex and Avant-Prog side of the band. Can you talk about the challenges involved in composing such intricate pieces?

“Over the years one of the most consistently challenging and interesting parts of the writing process has been finding ways to write structurally complex music which has a coherence and flow to it. That’s one reason we write very slowly – every song brings new challenges and we really have to listen to our instincts and find what works. Reflections is unusual in that most of it was written by Azzy apart from the final section, which we jammed out together and then Rob came up with the bebop-inspired fast horn line. “Sonar” seamlessly blends jazz and Psychedelic Rock with references to the ’70s era.“

How do you manage to bring vintage atmospheres into a modern context?

“This is probably down to the fact that music never really leaves you. If you’re a musician and you really love something, especially if it’s music that was played to you by your parents when you were growing up, it’s always going to be a part of you. Many times people have told us that we remind them of bands from this era and mostly I’d say that it’s not intentional. As a band we play what comes naturally to us from the styles we love (new and old). It’s taken a long time to develop our song writing process in a way that allows us to blend together everything we enjoy in music, but after countless jams, many disagreements and now lots of success in writing songs we love love, this happens much more spontaneously.“

From: https://progrockjournal.com/interview-exclusive-interview-with-uk-progressive-rock-band-nebula-sun/ 

 

Letters To Cleo - Big Star / I See / Here & Now

Letters to Cleo‘s first full-length CD leaves you distracted. A little confused. And yet, it remains comfortable, accessible. Hanley’s vocals travel from innocent, child-like tenderness to raw rage and back again without missing a beat. And then there’s the hard-hitting, rapid-fire delivery of “Here and Now” and “I See.”
Somehow, the ten songs on Aurora Gory Alice flow through the ever-changing vocal elements as well as variations between serious funk, folk, a poppy dance groove, psychedelia, Nirvanaesque distortion, and even a sort of twangy hoedown thang. And lately, they’ve mixed in a heavier, border-line metal sound, which is on display most notably in the song “Rim Shak.” Through it all – all the style changes, all the overlapping – LTC maintains a rare sort of anti-commercial grace. “It’s the mix of the band,” Eisenstein has said. “There is not a preconceived sound; it’s different.”
It’s this distinct sound that transcends categorization by incorporating so many different styles at once that has made LTC such a popular live act over the past year or so. It’s this and Hanley’s supremely confident stage presence, which, once again, is rife with juxtaposition. She romps around stages with a nonchalant air that suggests she’s not quite sure just how she got there, and meanwhile, delivers the most honest and heartfelt lyrics in a voice technically superior to most in Boston. In addition, the appealing contradictory nature of LTC isn’t hurt by the fact that a petite, and yet immensely powerful woman, is fronting an otherwise all male band.  From: https://lollipopmagazine.com/1993/12/letters-to-cleo-aurora-gory-alice-review/

BoDeans - Paradise / Any Given Day / Do I Do

Despite the critical success and cult following generated by their first three albums, the band had yet to score a high-charting single and was prompted by their record label to work with a more mainstream producer. After taking a more stripped-down approach to Home, the band was ready to try a new direction and recruited David Z., best known for his work with Prince and Fine Young Cannibals, to produce their next record. In 1990, they traveled to Prince's Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, MN to begin tracking live on the soundstage. Rafael "Danny" Gayol, their session drummer on the Home tour, provided drums on the album and subsequently became a full member of the band. The resulting album was more synthesized and accessible than their previous releases, though it did not chart as high as expected. Nonetheless, it received mostly positive reviews and "Good Things", "True Devotion", "Paradise", and "Naked" all became staples in their live set. At the time of its release, "Good Things" received significant radio airplay and remains one of their most popular songs.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_White_(BoDeans_album) 

Ibeyi - Oya

If you can’t imagine an Elysian future where multiple cultures, diverse ideas, and a myriad of human and celestial energies have found harmony, then take some time to listen to the music of Ibeyi. Born and raised in Paris, with stints in Cuba, Ibeyi is 23-year-old fraternal twins Lisa Kaindé and Naomi Diaz. In Santeria, the Afro-Cuban, Yoruban religion they practice, Ibeyi are divine twins who bring joy to their followers. The word comes from the Lacumí pidgin dialect of the West African Yoruba language that arrived in Cuba with the slave trade starting in the 16th century. It is a name reflective of not only their literal reality, but also the importance of tradition, spiritual belief, and family that runs deep through their musical history.
These sisters weave musical traditions of Europe, West Africa, Latin America, and the US into a sacred blanket of sounds that is spiritual and danceable. We spoke with the twins through email about their goals for their sound: “We want our music to be 100 percent us,” they emphasized. “When we’re making and recording our songs, we live in between two cultures and four languages. We have family all over the world, and we both listen to different things. So, Ibeyi is a mix of all our influences. It’s about finding the balance between electronic sounds and organic sounds; the old Yoruban chants and the music we love today. Between Europe and the Caribbean. Between both our desires and inspirations.”
The drums are to thank for this musical pair. At age 18 their mother, Maya Dagnino, a French-Venezuelan singer and composer, began to study conga and learn the batá chants of Yoruban music prevalent in Cuba. This musical path led Dagnino from France to Cuba and thus to the man who would become the father of her children. He was the late Miguel “Angá” Diaz, a world-renowned, Grammy-winning, Cuban percussionist who gained huge recognition as part of the Buena Vista Social Club. “Our earliest memories of the drums are of the batás and congas that our father had at home,” they reminisce. “There are pictures of us around those drums throughout our early years. Everybody thinks the drumming and the love for Yoruba chants were only inherited from our father, but it was actually because of [our parents] that we got in touch with that part of our Afro-Cuban culture.”
Both sisters began studying music at the conservatory at age seven. “Lisa was studying classical piano, and I was studying classical percussion, marimba, and snare drums,” says Naomi. “My sister, mother, and grandmother told me that the day after my father died, at some point, I sat on one of his cajones [at age 11], and for the first time in my life, I started playing it. They told me that nobody moved and [they just] stared at me for a while. They felt it seemed as if our dad had been there with me. But sadly, I don’t remember anything.”
Meanwhile at age 14, Lisa’s first song came to her through the advice of their mother. “I felt miserable, because Naomi was at a party, and I was not invited,” Lisa explains. “I did many things I would usually do, like finishing my homework, reading, making rings and necklaces with beads. Luckily, I had no computer at the time, because after doing all that, I still went to see my mom to tell her I was really bored and frustrated. She answered that I should write a song. I discovered then that finding melodies and eventually putting words on top of these melodies made me very happy. It became my way to create some beauty out of anything that I felt, witnessed, or thought. It became my way to feel alive and useful. Nothing compares to the joy of making a song.”
With the encouragement of their mother, Lisa would continue to write songs throughout her teenage years. At 17, the twins started talking about making a band. “I met my teacher, the great Peruvian cajon master, Miguel Ballumbrosio,” says Naomi. “I started to love the cajon as my own instrument. When Lisa was asked to do an EP, I told her she couldn’t possibly do it without me.”
When a YouTube video of the duo performing their song “Mama Says” came to the attention of Richard Russell, head of label XL Recordings, he quickly sought them out and brought them to London to record. Around this same time, Ibeyi faced another tragedy when their older sister Yanira passed away due to a brain aneurysm. The culmination of this artistic success mixed with personal loss resulted in the career-launching sounds and lyrics that made up their eponymous debut LP. Upon their arrival at SXSW 2015, they were one of the most buzzed about groups of the festival where they not only lived up to but surpassed all of the hype surrounding them.  From: https://tomtommag.com/2018/09/ibeyi_issue33/

Alice Cooper - Public Animal #9 / My Stars / Generation Landslide / Muscle Of Love

The Alice Cooper band was the originator of the highly theatrical “shock-rock” of the 1970’s. The group’s use of simulated executions and the chopping up of baby dolls on stage was very controversial at the time. The central figure of the show was singer Vincent Furnier, the son of a conservative Protestant minister. At the age of eleven, Vincent’s family moved from his birthplace in Detroit to Phoenix, Arizona. It was there that he met the band’s other original members (Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith) on his high school track team and on the staff of the school newspaper.
The band first called themselves the Earwigs, then the Spiders, and finally the Nazz. They recorded a number of singles and played mostly covers of the Yardbirds and the Rolling Stones. After becoming local attractions, the band moved to Los Angeles to pursue stardom. The group achieved only limited success but did manage to open shows for both the Doors and the Yardbirds. 
Exactly how Vincent Furnier changed into Alice Cooper is the subject of several stories. One claims that the name was spelled out on the Ouija board during a reading in L.A. From that incident, the band concocted a story that Vincent was the reincarnation of a young woman of the same name who had been burned alive at the stake hundreds of years ago for being a witch.
Furnier then legally changed his name to Alice Cooper, and the group adopted it as their new stage name as well. The band was eventually signed to Frank Zappa’s Straight Records in 1969 and recorded two unsuccessful albums, “Pretties For You” and “Easy Action”. Alice himself recalled, “We were the most hated group in Los Angeles”.
Three events helped to turn things around for Alice Cooper. The first was the band’s appearance at the 1969 Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival. During the group’s performance, a fan threw a live chicken on stage. When Alice hurled it back into the audience, the chicken was torn to pieces by the fans. The disgusting story was carried by newspapers around the world and gave Alice Cooper lots of negative but valuable publicity. The second was moving the band to Detroit. The Motor City was known for its hard rock bands such as the Amboy Dukes, the MC5, Grand Funk Railroad, and the Stooges. As a result, Alice’s hometown embraced the heavy guitar sound of the Alice Cooper band. The third was meeting producer Bob Ezrin.
Ezrin worked with Alice Cooper on the band’s third album, “Love It To Death”. He also helped the group tighten up its sound. This was demonstrated by their first hit single, “Eighteen”. The guitar-driven song, which was written by the entire band, addresses the awkwardness and loneliness of teenagers during the period when they are changing from kids into adults. Ezrin’s production of the song helped make “Eighteen” a Top 40 single, and the hit album “Love It To Death” established Alice Cooper as a major concert attraction. As their record and ticket sales increased, more of the band’s money was spent on their elaborate stage shows. 
The group and Ezrin then recorded their 2nd consecutive hit album, “Killer”, near the end of 1971. The album contained two singles, “Under My Wheels” and “Be My Lover” that were big hits in Michigan and also charted nationally.
By the time Alice Cooper released their next album, “School’s Out”, in the summer of 1972, the band was a national sensation. The title track became Alice Cooper’s biggest single reaching # 7 on the Billboard charts. The “School’s Out” album cover was cleverly designed to look like an old wooden school desk with the album’s title and each band member’s name carved into the top of it. In addition, the record inside was wrapped in a pair of paper panties.
The # 1 album, “Billion Dollar Babies”, followed in 1973. Designed to look like a snakeskin wallet, the album contained four charting singles; “Elected”, “Hello Hooray”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, and the title cut. The subsequent controversial tour became one of biggest moneymakers in rock history with its gruesome stage acts that included Alice being beheaded by a guillotine and tortured by a demented dentist with an enormous drill. 
Alice had understandably become the main focus of attention rather than the band, and when the “Muscle Of Love” album was a somewhat disappointing follow-up to “Billion Dollar Babies”, he disbanded the original group to go solo.  From: https://michiganrockandrolllegends.com/hall-of-fame/artists/277-alice-cooper

Freedom North - Ordinary Man

Freedom North. Only released in Canada, although they did release a single from the LP in the US and UK under the name "Freedom of Choice". A tough album to pigeonhole, since the band goes through styles like Paris Hilton goes through dogs, although the high points here are worthy examples of heavy acid psych. And thankfully, the band likes fuzz guitar as much as we do, and lace each song liberally with the stuff. "Lonely Man" is one of the few songs with that title that actually manages to recreate the feeling musically - this is truly desolate, lonely, mysterious psychedelia. The echoey piano riff sounds sad and suicidal, and it also sounds like David Bowie lifted it for "We Are the Dead" too. Echoed-out female vocals cry mournfully, while the metronome percussion counts down the time, and as this tragic tale ends, the echo FX get louder and louder until it sounds like it's being played in a deep well of despair. Harrowing stuff.  From: https://citizenfreak.com/artists/95349-freedom-north 

Uriah Heep - Live Japan 1973

 Uriah Heep - Live Japan 1973 - Part 1

 

 Uriah Heep - Live Japan 1973 - Part 2

 

By early 1973, Uriah Heep had released five studio albums and had already made a name for themselves, with a sound all of their own, fusing elements of progressive rock and hard rock. They were one of the most unique bands of their era, and remain revered by fans of the genre all these decades later.
The next thing on the radar for the band was a live record, which fans got in the form of Uriah Heep Live in the spring of 1973. Featuring the legendary lineup of vocalist David Byron, guitarist Mick Box, keyboardist Ken Hensley, bassist Gary Thain, and drummer Lee Kerslake, the double album was recorded in January of 1973 in Birmingham. 
You are not going to see Uriah Heep Live mentioned on the lists of great 70s live albums like Kiss’ Alive! Or Deep Purple’s Made in Japan. Does this release belong on such lists, or is it a rightfully forgotten release that pales in comparison to the group’s already excellent studio records?
Uriah Heep Live might just be the best moment of the band’s classic 70s era, with their ultimate lineup in fine form. Why this record does not get more recognition from classic hard rock fans all these years later is complete and utter blasphemy; the record shows off just how great these guys were on a live stage back in their prime. Essentially, this is the greatest lineup the band ever had, showing off their musical prowess in a high energy setting, pulling out all the stops for the fans. This is the way the band was meant to be remembered, captured on album. 
This is not simply a “greatest hits live” album, nor are the cuts here copycats of the studio versions either. The group plays a wide assortment of tracks covering most of their first five records, including the well-known cuts and deeper gems alike. Each member of the band gets more than a few chances to shine; Ken Hensley’s organ never sounded better than it does on this release, and the late, great David Byron gives a vocal performance for the ages. The classic “Gypsy” gets the “extended” treatment, turned into a 13 minute plus jam here! The wide variety of tracks keeps things interesting throughout; even with the extended jam versions of many of the songs, there are no dull moments in sight. The “Rock and Roll Medley” shows off the band’s more humorous side while at the same time paying homage to their early rock and roll heroes, and it makes for a comical yet appropriate finish to it all.  From: https://zrockr.com/2016/06/02/uriah-heep-live/

 

Juleah - Sommertraum

Tonight I have the pleasure of sitting down with Julia Hummer, who’s adopted the project name of Juleah, a fine neo-psych bluesy artist from Austria.

Jenell: Are you a classically trained musician? Do you come from a musical family?

Julia: If you mean classically trained in the sense of an academic music degree then no. But I had lessons in classical guitar from age 8 to 19. Yes, there are a lot of musically talented people in my family. Almost everyone did learn an instrument at some point.

Jenell: Your sound is far more than layered, instruments weave in and out of each other. Does your ability to play more than one instrument lend itself to this concept? And to that end, are you considering wrapping a full-time band around yourself, or do you enjoy the freedom that comes from picking musicians in reference to specific projects?

Julia: I see every instrument as being equally important in a song. Of course, as listeners we first notice the vocals and maybe the guitars, but this is due to the way our perception works. Yet on a more subconscious level and for the feeling in our body, bass and drums are equally important creating a good song as a whole. Over the years I had different ideas of how Juleah might work by including other musicians. I know now that it only works for me when the creative part stays with me and the band helps me to play the songs live. With Henry, Alex and David I found musicians who are happy with that concept. I am very thankful for this, otherwise there wouldn’t be Juleah-live concerts, as I wouldn’t have the courage to go on stage alone.
As far as picking musicians for specific projects, I can well imagine them helping me play parts on the recordings, for example, my friend Constantin Du Closel plays on the new record, holding down the drums on ‘Black Vanilla’.

Jenell: Some artists delight in making the music, while others seem to delight in playing live … do you discover new aspects of your songs developing in front of an audience?

Julia: Both things are great, but if I were forced to decide between these two, I’d pick the ‘creating’ part, both in the studio and at home. The adrenaline rush on stage is wonderful, though I find it more satisfactory to have something finished to enjoy over and over again. I love being able to express ideas via packing them into the sound of a 3 or 4 minute song. These things would be so difficult to express in other ways. It’s also liberating, cathartic … and very satisfying. Even more when you can hold a CD or vinyl in your hands.
Yes, the songs really come to life in a whole new dimension when we play live, and there’s always this magic point in rehearsal when all of the parts start to flow harmonically together. Every band member brings their own style of playing which makes it very exciting to see how the song will turn out, which song works better and which one not so well. If something is uncomfortable for my band members to play, we search ways it could work in order that everyone enjoys playing the song.

Jenell: You have a rather large body of work to draw from for live settings, are you surprised when fans ask to hear older numbers?

Julia: To be honest, this has never happened until now. Only one time I was told me after a gig that he missed ‘Strom Aus Licht’. However, several members of my live band asked why we don’t play ‘Anticipation’, with the reason being that we’d need an organ an acoustic guitar and two electric guitars to do it properly, otherwise the song won’t really work live.

Jenell: Have other women influenced you, artists such as Sue Foley? And please, take a moment to talk about music that’s had an effect on your sound.

Julia: I want to start with the second part of the question. I started to become a really big music fan in 1997 with the Oasis album ‘Be Here Now’. From then on I started to build out a strong attraction to the British rock music of the early 90’s. I loved Madchester, Britpop and also some Shoegaze. So I would say that these are my main influence. The fascination for psychedelic music started later, in the early 2000’s with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and then later The Black Angels. I also got into 60’s psych bands like The Doors at that time.
Regarding the first part of the question, for the initial influences, I have to say no, and actually when I think about it, this is really sad. I thought a lot about the reason for this, where I could give a really loooong feminist answer, but I’ll keep it short and just say that I hope that female musicians will start to rely more and more on themselves, draw their self-esteem out of their talents and not so much out of their looks, and by so doing the problem will be erased automatically. In the meantime there are some woman that I admire, for example the two female drummers of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Black Angels, I love them both so much.

Jenell: Who’s on your turntable right now? And what is your most prized record?

Julia: At the moment it’s International Music with their album ‘Die Besten Jahre’ … I can sincerely recommend that one.
Prized, in a material way, it’s a limited red vinyl edition of ‘Specter At The Feast’ by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club , I grabbed that one on Discogs. On a personal level I’d say ‘Here Eye Go’ by Golden Animals, ‘New Candys As Medicine’ by New Candys, and ‘Fortune, Shelter, Love and Cure’ by Suns Of Thyme. The reason I’ve chosen these is because I’ve had amazing concert experiences associated with these records.

Jenell: Your vocals don’t stand in juxtaposition to the music, they’re not simply laid over top, but seem to be enveloped by the music, as if the mere sound of your voice is integral to every other note.

Julia: That’s cool that you perceive it like this because that’s how it was intended. I think that’s common in psych music anyway and probably the reason why my Aunt Hildegard is forever complaining about the concerts, saying “I couldn’t hear your voice”.
To be fair, it’s not easy to get so much done correctly live. Of course the vocals should be clearly hearable, but not too much. I think this is one of our main challenges in the future for live performances. And to that end we now have someone to help us with this aspect.

Jenell: Your voice floats in a low-keyed manner with a bit of swagger to it, when considering your other releases, those vocals seem to have gotten more intimate and more refined. Have you been working on your vocal presence?

Julia: Yes, I took some vocal and singing lessons over the last few years, I very happy with the results … my vocal strength is much improved. The only thing I did deliberately on the new record is shaping the vocal sound into a more megaphone-like direction, cutting most of the really high frequencies off, making things a little more lo-fi. When there are too many bright frequencies, the music begins to sounds too pop-ish for me, meaning my voice would be too front and center.

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2019/02/juleah-interview.html 

Moon Tooth - Little Witch / Manic Depression (Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)

 Moon Tooth - Little Witch

 

 Moon Tooth - Manic Depression

 

Chromaparagon has an incredible number of musical ideas stuffed into every corner. How do you guys decide where to take a song—and do you ever draw the line or say “no” to an idea?

I don’t think we’ve ever said “no” to a stylistic curveball. This record was written by myself and our drummer, Ray Marte, who is also a killer guitarist. We’d each show up with half-finished riffs or song ideas and then suss them out together. Neither of us ever says “that’s too this or that’s too that.” Previously we’d been in a three-piece together, and the third guy had a problem with a lot of the very heavy things we’d bring in. But Ray and I listen to a lot of death metal and heavier stuff, and that’s an important part of our respective musical identities. This band is very much a reaction to our experience of not being able to express that within our last group. We operate with no boundaries on purpose, and it’s fun!

How do you characterize Moon Tooth’s music to the uninitiated?

The phrase we’ve been using is “aggressive progressive,” but that’s really just because saying you’re in a rock ’n’ roll band doesn’t quite get the point across these days. We’re not trying to be a prog band, really. We totally get that there’s an element of prog in what we do, but to me we’re just a rock band in the purest sense of that term—we just happen to push the envelope of what we can do musically and push each other to do crazier shit.

But there’s still a lot of classic prog in your music, especially on an instrumental like “Bats in the Attic”—which sounds like you’re quoting a bit of Yes.

Oh yeah, the “Heart of the Sunrise” riff. That was totally subconscious, but we laugh about it all the time because we listen to that Yes record a lot and always go, “Oh shit, we kind of stole that riff!” But it just happened that way—we absolutely didn’t write it as an homage or anything.
That said, we don’t operate the way a lot of contemporary prog bands work, and there’s never been an effort to write something specifically to impress other musicians. Ray and I have been playing together for so many years at this point that we’ve developed this friendly competition of who can come up with the crazier riff, but I want to write stuff that is memorable, rather than just impressive.

The album has some very dramatic dynamic shifts, including some surprising death-metal-tinged passages.

Yeah, we love blast beats. Ray and I grew up on Cryptopsy and Cannibal Corpse, and we still listen to a ton of that shit! I primarily listen to music that’s far heavier than what Moon Tooth does, but this band is a product of all of our influences and I think that shows. Pantera was a very big deal for me and Ray, especially things like how tight they could lock in live. We really aspire to pull off that kind of pocket and groove within our own thing.

Tell us a bit about where you come from as a guitarist.

My dad is a huge Black Sabbath and Motörhead fan, and I always had hard rock playing in the house. My parents’ friends and my aunts and uncles always had cover bands, so I was always surrounded by it. I heard Metallica for the first time when I was 6 and that changed everything. The darkness of it really hit me hard, and I just wanted to be James Hetfield when I was a kid. Once that started, I had the typical adventure and search through heavy metal. I discovered Dimebag and Pantera next, and eventually I got into Brent Hinds from Mastodon. His style, with the hybrid picking stuff, really opened up my musical world. I got into Chet Atkins and Leo Kottke through Brent Hinds’ playing—he changed the game for me a lot. The hybrid-picking and pull-off style of lead playing that comes from country music has become a big part of what I do. I really like to steal the best parts of country guitar playing and infuse my riffs with it.
I don’t really write simple songs naturally—most of it’s pretty physically demanding on me and I like that. For me, playing music is a very therapeutic, cathartic thing. I’m always trying to force some evil out onto the guitar, so the riffs I write tend to be very physical and busy as a byproduct of that. I’m also really into building a basic groundwork for riffs and expanding on that as a writing tool. A lot of the stuff I write for Moon Tooth begins as something simple in its infancy, and then I’ll add fills and ideas until it evolves into something unique.

You play like someone with a serious musical education.

I studied for 10 years under Mike Flyntz, who is best known as the guitarist for the band Riot—a classic New York metal band that has been around since the late ’70s, and which I also play in these days. Mike taught me everything I know. I took music theory in high school for a few years and I did a semester at college as a performance major, but I hated it at the time. I’d probably feel different about it now, but when I was 18 I didn’t want the guitar to be homework. So I’m educated enough to express what I want to, but I’m not like a deep theory head or anything, and I don’t consider it that much when I write.

How does Moon Tooth go about structuring songs and making these wild changes flow so well?

It’s pretty natural, honestly. A lot of those things just come together on their own, but a lot of the time we just add a little flair between the changes. It’s mostly organic.

There are a ton of guitar tracks on Chromaparagon, but you’re the sole axe-man live. How do you approach recreating all that sound onstage?

I use a lot of pedals, and live I run a ’74 Hiwatt. It’s loud as fuck, so I’m never worried about being loud enough or making all the noise I need to. For certain things, like the harmonies and double-tracked stuff, we just accept that it’s a different animal live, although I do use a lot of octaves and delays to fill things in sonically. We’re also very physical onstage—we do a lot of running around and climbing things, and we try really hard to put on a show beyond just the sonic experience.

From: https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/snake-rider-moon-tooths-nick-lee

Veruca Salt - Volcano Girls

Veruca Salt are an Alternative Rock band from Chicago, formed in 1993. Named after a character from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the band had some initial success in The '90s before fading out of view. The first and most famous incarnation of the band coalesced around Louise Post and Nina Gordon, who both played guitars, sang, and wrote almost all the band's songs (barring some covers and a co-write). Soon enough, they filled out the band with bassist Steve Lack and Nina's brother Jim Shapiro on drums, and gained a record deal with Minty Fresh Records. Their first album, American Thighs, boasted their trademark The Pixies influenced Power Pop and became reasonably successful, chiefly due to Gordon's "Seether" being released as a single and Brad Wood's Grungey production helping it appeal to the alt-rock audience.
After buying time with a noisier, harsher EP called Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt, the band moved to Geffen Records and began working on their next album with Bob Rock, apparently because they were impressed by his production for Metallica's Self-Titled Album. The result was Eight Arms to Hold You, which once again became successful due to a Gordon lead single, namely "Volcano Girls" (the Colbert Bump it got from being in the credits of Jawbreaker may have helped). However, the band failed to sustain its momentum as subsequent singles from the album tanked on the charts and Shapiro left after the album was released, being replaced with Stacy Jones for the supporting tour.
The band acrimoniously collapsed only a year later as Gordon left with Lack after arguments with Post. Post re-organised the band, bringing in new members to an almost Revolving Door Band-like degree, and recorded two more albums: Resolver, which got a lukewarm reception due to its unfocused nature and Author Tract-like tendency to throw potshots at Gordon and various other targets, and IV.
Then the unthinkable happened, in March 2013 an announcement was made on the band's official Facebook saying "hatchets buried, axes exhumed"—officially Putting the Band Back Together. Fan's patience was finally rewarded with the release of a new song "The Museum of Broken Relationships" in April 2014 followed by the band embarking on a US tour. A second new song "It's Holy" was released during the tour. A brand new album, Ghost Notes, followed in 2015 cementing the band's return.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/VerucaSalt 

The Dukes of Stratosphear - My Love Explodes / Your Gold Dress

 The Dukes of Stratosphear - My Love Explodes

 

 The Dukes of Stratosphear - Your Gold Dress

 

Time flies when your having fun and in 1985 XTC were having plenty of it - recording this mini-album homage to pyschedelia in just two weeks flat. Legend has it - and this being XTC there are plenty of legendary tales to take your pick from - that the origins behind the sessions came about when Andy Partridge's production job with Mary Margaret O'Hara fell through.
The resulting vacant fortnight gave the ever-hyperactive Partridge the opportunity to tick off a long held ambition to recreate the 1960s that he'd seen and heard in his head and get it all down on tape.
Adopting the collective personna of The Dukes of Stratosphear (a name that he'd considered for the band before finally settling for XTC) the band time-warped themselves across a series of brilliantly witty psych pastiches.
You'd need a trainspotter's notebook to chronicle all the musical references anthologised within, but a kaleidoscope of cameos would include The Beatles (What In The World and the exquisite Mole In The Ministry), The Electric Prunes (25 O'Clock), The Yardbirds (My Love Explodes), Pink Floyd and The Move (Bike Ride To The Moon).
Sometimes these kind of in-jokes are better on paper than they are in reality. Not in this case though. 25 O'Clock bristles with enthusiasm and energy, positively exuding good, and let's be honest here, wacky vibes. Released on April Fool's Day 1985 under the Dukes' pseudonym, it actually outsold their last album proper, The Big Express. Indeed, its influence can clearly be heard on straighter albums such as Tears For Fears' 1989 work, The Seeds Of Love.
The band enjoyed their break from the day job of being XTC so much that they repeated the exercise successfully with Psonic Psunspot in 1987, which has also been just been reissued alongside this one, complete with a clutch of demo tracks which are just as entertaining as the final versions.
If, as they say, there's a thin line between being a genius and being mad, Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory are clearly experts at walking that particular tightrope.  From: https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qm63/

 

 

The Innocence Mission - Bright As Yellow

Empire Records the movie may not be a favourite of mine, but I have still have pretty strong memories of seeing it in college as my brother had bought the soundtrack, and knowing the tunes before I saw the film seemed to help it lodge in my memory. Likely he bought it because Edwyn Collins’s A Girl Like You was on it, but apart from that it also featured a decent cover of The Ballad of El Goodo by Evan Dando, the Gin Blossoms’ lovely Til I Hear it from You (co-written with power-pop pioneer Marshall Crenshaw) and the Innocence Mission’s equally lovely Bright as Yellow.
My first thought on hearing the Innocence Mission was that they had to have been opportunistic second stringers that the soundtrack supervisor settled for after not being able to secure a first choice. In the early 1990s, the Sundays, Mazzy Star, Belly and Juliana Hatfield were all indie favourites, and Innocence Mission singer Karen Peris seemed to owe something to all of them.
But, I think now, that was very unfair. By the time Empire Records came out in 1995 and the Innocence Mission got the closest thing they ever had to a mainstream moment, all of the above artists had seen their commercial waves crest and recede. Whatever you did to try to get big in 1995, it sure as hell wasn’t rip off the Sundays. In fact, the Innocence Mission had been going for as long as any of those artists whose sounds theirs resembled. Furthermore, they were a Christian band from a completely different milieu to those groups, and on close listening, I can’t help but feel their sonic similarity to other acts that had enjoyed recent critical and/or commercial success just had to be a coincidence. I don’t hear Karen Peris as capable of that kind of cynicism.
Bright as Yellow takes its time, builds slowly and may not sound like much initially, but each time that chorus comes around, it lands with greater force, and that middle-eight section (repeated twice) in which her singing becomes increasingly urgent and staccato is a wonderful bit of writing.  From: https://songsfromsodeep.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/bright-as-yellow-the-innocence-mission/

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)

Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark) is a song created by the musical band Unknown Mortal Orchestra (UMO). The video provided to accompany the song was directed and designed by Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling, creators of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.
A man uses binoculars to gawk at a woman while she is in the nude and masturbate to the sight while in the safety of his home. However, the woman catches at him in the act, and now he now feels ashamed and decides to go to a therapist for help.
At the end a calendar is shown with June 19 encircled as a birthday and contains a picture of tree balloons in the colors red, yellow and green, the same colors as the main characters. (the palette also contains the three colors red, yellow and green.) The balloons and the birthday marked on the calendar play into the theme of parties, and the horse portraits and horses in general also frequently occur in both the web series and TV series of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (the horse puppet seen in the video was even reused as a statue for DHMIS.) The trees have a similar design as in Episode 3 and the portrait of the naked women bending over a tree looks very similar to a portrait of the same nature occurring in Episode 2 of the web series. Lastly, the diamond patterned wallpaper in the therapist's office is similar to the background in a portrait of Yellow Guy and Roy.  From: https://donthugme.fandom.com/wiki/Swim_and_Sleep_(Like_a_Shark)

Ever since it was released late last year with its disturbing image of a bleeding baby’s face, I’ve been bopping my head to Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s “Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)”, the single to their sophomore album, ‘II’, revolves around a very catchy guitar lick that is complemented by a driven drum – it’s a good listen. Well now the song has a video to accompany it, and it features masturbating puppets (yes, masturbating puppets). The self-pleasing puppets are only a small (but significant and totally memorable) part of the story of a character going through the motions of self discovery. The creative team did a fine job of making this puppet world come to life – colorful, animated, and detailed. I didn’t expect the group to couple “Swim and Sleep (Like  a Shark)” with puppets, and with it dealing with adult situations we’re treated to a twisted music video.  From: https://whiteboardjournal.com/blog/unknown-mortal-orchestra-swim-and-sleep-like-a-shark-music-video/

Iris DeMent - Sweet Is The Melody

Early morning, Corvallis, Oregon; Iris DeMent hunkers down at an economy motel after an unexpected scheduling change in her West Coast tour itinerary. The press interrupts her lazy morning with a call from the East Coast, which could conceivably annoy the road-weary singer-songwriter, were that her style — but she’s in a good mood, instead, happy that her motel has windows that open.
“Opening windows is the first thing I do when I can,” she explains over the prominent sound of a weed-eater being operated by an up-and-at-’em motel employee. “I can’t stand feeling cooped up in rooms where they don’t let you open the windows to get some fresh air in.”
DeMent’s songs are sorta like that too: they tell you something personal about her while evoking fresh air, long horizons and big spaces, where regular folks do regular things on a regular basis. Which fits, since DeMent has spent most of her life that way, growing up the youngest of fourteen kids in a religious, blue-collar household, marrying a firefighter who turned in his boots to manage his bride’s career, working in the down-home spaces between the folk and country communities. Of course, growing up as a regular girl, DeMent never imagined that she’d be in a place where folks would have any reason to call her up from the Coast while she watched the weed whacker.
“Music for me growing up was always in the context of the church,” she recalls. “So whatever dreams I had about music were wrapped up in that-and I never really thought of clubs or radio or anything else. Everybody around me sang: my family was the musical family of the church, so my sister would direct the choir and some of my brothers and sisters wrote special songs and then performed them. And I grew up admiring so many people who could put words together that I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything as good or meaningful.” Until desperation set in.
“I got really tired of doing things that I didn’t love and I realized that I was putting a lot of effort into things that didn’t matter to me,” DeMent continues. “I went to school, worked hard and got good grades for one semester, but that was not where my heart was. So I started thinking that if I put that energy into something I cared about, like music, then I could probably do well and have a little bit of happiness. And it all just opened up for me when I started thinking that way.”
But not immediately: it took three years worth of open mike shows before a Rounder Records representative spotted and signed DeMent, whose ear-opening 1992 Rounder debut, Infamous Angel, then won her a contract with Warner Bros. Her two major label releases, My Life (1994) and The Way I Should (1996), built on her reputation as one of the most important singers and songwriters to straddle the country-folk divide in this decade — and added to the anticipation for (and pressure associated with) her elusive next album.
“I’m not really trying to take my time with the next record,” DeMent concludes. “But that’s just how it is: I’m still looking for songs that say what I feel they need to say, songs that lift me up and say something to other people too. I’m trying to take a picture of my life experience and share it with other people . . . I feel a need to do that, although I don’t know why. Or, well, I guess I do: I just want to write songs and sing ’em for people ’cause that’s what makes me happy.”  From: https://jericsmith.com/1999/08/21/interview-with-iris-dement-1999/

The Beatles - I'm Only Sleeping

John Lennon wrote this as a tribute to staying in bed, which he liked to do even when he wasn't sleeping. The song is discussed in the DVD Composing the Beatles Songbook where they mention a theory that it's John's attack on "straight society," but conclude that the song IS about sleeping. John loved laying around in bed, sleeping, reading, watching telly or lovemaking. Didn't matter. He loved being in bed.
Maureen Cleave wrote of John Lennon: "He can sleep almost indefinitely, is probably the laziest person in England." She clarifies that she means physically lazy, not intellectually lazy.
The yawning effect is a guitar recorded backward. A few seconds before the yawn comes in, you can hear John Lennon say, "Yawn Paul."
Perhaps the greatest legacy to this song was the famous "bed-in" protests staged by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. They invented the term as a derivative of "sit-in" protests. Their first was in March of 1969, subsequent to their marriage, in which they invited the press into their motel room while they advocated for world peace. Others soon copied the motif. It does bring to mind the old quote (variously attributed) "All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone." Hey, if you stay in bed, you're not out fighting wars and making the world an uncool place, and if you've got someone with you, you're promoting more love in the world, right?
Musically, "I'm Only Sleeping" is known for its backwards guitar. It was conceived by George Harrison in a late-night session, inspired when a studio engineer accidentally flipped a tape and Harrison was amazed at the effect and decided to "do it for real." So he wrote down a solo and then played it twice, once forwards and once backwards, with fuzz effects on one track.
This song also marks the embracing of pure psychedelic music by The Beatles, as do the majority of tracks on the Revolver album. The lyric about "keeping an eye on the world going by my window" also gets called back later in Lennon's later solo hit "Watching The Wheels," which is also about passively being entertained by the busy goings-on of the world.
American audiences got to hear this first, as it was included on the Yesterday... And Today album in June 1966. When Revolver was issued in August, this song was left off American pressings. This was also the case with "Doctor Robert" and "And Your Bird Can Sing."
On November 2, 2022, The Beatles released an animated video for "I'm Only Sleeping" to coincide with the reissue of the Revolver album. It's suitably dreamy, comprised of 1300 oil paintings by the artist Em Cooper, who said it "explored the space between dreaming and wakefulness."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-beatles/im-only-sleeping

Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares For Me

"My Baby Just Cares for Me" is a jazz standard written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. Written for the film version of the musical comedy Whoopee! (1930), the song became a signature tune for Eddie Cantor who sang it in the movie. A stylized version of the song by American singer and songwriter Nina Simone, recorded in 1957, was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom after it was used in a 1987 perfume commercial and resulted in a renaissance for Simone.
Simone recorded the song in late 1957 for her debut album, Little Girl Blue, released in February 1959. The track remained relatively obscure until 1987, when it was used in a UK television commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume. To follow up this exposure, the track was released as a single by Charly Records. The Simone version of the song was featured on the soundtrack for the 1992 film Peter's Friends, the 1994 film Shallow Grave, and the 1996 film Stealing Beauty.
In 1987 a claymation music video was produced for "My Baby Just Cares for Me" by Aardman Animations and directed by Peter Lord. The video prominently features live action footage showing details of a piano, brushes on a snare drum, and a double bass as they play the song. The two focal characters are represented by a singing cat in a club and the cat who is in love with her.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Baby_Just_Cares_for_Me 

INXS - What You Need

Troubles in life? Michael Hutchence has got what you need. He doesn't give details, but he will take you where you want to be. Hutchence wrote the song with Andrew Farriss - they were the songwriting dynamic duo in INXS. The song has all the group's hallmarks: a big, catchy guitar riff; a prominent saxophone part (played by group member Kirk Pengilly); and an inspirational vocal from Hutchence.
The instrumental crash before the song starts up made it a great opener to the album Listen Like Thieves, the band's fifth. They were already huge in their native Australia, but the rest of the world was slower to catch on. "What You Need" was their first big American hit. Still, they had a long way to go: When they released their next album, Kick, the "Kick-off Tour" was a trek through college campuses in the US. Four massive hit singles from the album later, and INXS was an arena act.
This song was almost "the one that got away." Producer Chris Thomas told the band they needed one more guaranteed hit after they finished recording the Listen Like Thieves album. They thought it over that night, came in and literally finished the song in a day, in time for the album to cut and ship.
However, this isn't quite the magic trick it first appears; Andrew Farriss had already made a demo tape with a song whose working title was "Funk Song No. 13," which evolved into "What You Need." Chris Thomas listened to the demo for "Funk Song No. 13" and two other tapes, and picked this one because "it was great. I thought, 'I could listen to that groove for 10 minutes!' I said, 'Let's work with that groove.' So we went with that and in just two days it turned into the song that eventually broke them, 'What You Need.'"  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/inxs/what-you-need

Twisted Pine - Live Green River Festival 2021

RLR: While this is technically your debut full length record, you guys have recorded some material in the past and the band has undergone a few changes in the past couple of years. What is it about this collection of work that you guys are most excited about in terms of how it represents how far you have come as a quartet and shaped where you started to where you guys are right now?

TP: We self-recorded 2 EPs over the years. The first was this crazy overnight session that we got for free because Dan was interning at a recording studio, and the other was collected from several live performances. They were both great for us at the time, but this album is another level of planning and execution. It’s the first to feature entirely our own original music, which is something we’ve been focusing on for the past year. That creative process.

RLR: I think what is particularly special about you guys is the dynamic that the four of you have as individuals and how its really brought together in this beautiful way. Everyone is so solid on the instruments, but together you are all greater than the sum of your parts. Has it always been easy for you guys to hinge on that? Was the chemistry with the 4 of you immediate or did it take a long time?

TP: Thanks for saying that! That’s definitely something we try to be conscious of. We’ve always had great chemistry playing together; that’s what led us to form the band in the first place, but that dynamic has evolved a lot over several years of playing together and especially through the writing, arranging, and recording of this batch of songs. It’s to the point now where we all feel this freedom and responsibility to really bring more of our individual voices and personal musical sensibilities to every performance. At the same time, we’re very careful to always be serving the song and making the right musical choices to get the songs across. 

RLR: This one is specifically for Dan…you are one of the growing mandolinists that plays an A style…did you ever had scroll envy? (A style mando bros for life!)

Dan B: Never! Not even once!

RLR: You all are pretty deeply embedded in the Cambridge/Somerville and greater New England community. Have you found it especially supportive over the past few years as roots music really establishes itself as a constantly growing genre of music? Or is there competition in any way to play certain clubs, try and rise up above the noise and establish the band as one that is really doing something different and special?

TP: Luckily, we’ve found that mutual admiration seems to be the norm. The great thing about being a part of this greater traditional/roots/folk scene is that it’s kind of built to be a supportive, self-sustaining thing that grows organically. It’s all about hanging and learning and having a good time, and the deeper you get into it, the more you realize that we’re all in this thing together and that there’s room for everyone. Yeah, we may be working on our thing and trying to make it unique and special, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re competing with anyone else’s thing. Success is shared, not won. I guess you could approach it in a competitive way, but that hasn’t been the case so far in our experience.

RLR: When you guys were either writing for the record or in the studio tracking, what were your sonic inspirations? Any particular records you looked to for guidance or stuff you listened to in order to decompress from longs days in the studio?

TP: Good question! There were definitely artists/records that we looked to for aesthetic inspiration and as a reference for communicating ideas to each other, mostly in the initial writing stages. A lot of the acoustic music heavy hitters and what you would expect: Nickel Creek, Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, Joy Kills Sorrow.  But also stuff like Paul Simon, Elton John, Margaret Glaspy, Lake Street Dive, old-time fiddle music, funk jams, Jobim. Once the songs started to develop, they usually took on a life of their own and we would try to intuitively follow wherever they would lead us. Our engineer and co-producer Dan Cardinal probably had the biggest influence on the sound of the record. He’s worked on so many great albums coming out of Boston, and brought all of that knowledge/experience to the table.He’s an extremely musical person/engineer and he really invested and got deep into each song and got what we were going for. He also had this great ritual of playing us stuff he was currently working on with other bands at the end of the day. All of it.

RLR: How does the songwriting process work with the band when someone brings a new tune to the table? I am always interested to see the different ways that groups of people tackle this and how it develops from one members idea to the full arrangement we get to hear live on the album.

TP: It works every which way. Some songs are seeds of ideas that get fleshed out by all four of us. Some are more fully realized when they are brought in. 
Usually the songwriter or writers will bring a full song or even an unfinished song to the table. The group will take a listen, and try some grooves. Sometimes the songwriter is very specific with their Groove choice or have an exact idea of the arrangement, and that really helps us! It gets the skeleton of the song down and then we make it our own. We play it out at shows, if we play divey bars then we really like to let loose on the song. Add solos, extend bars at a time, switch up grooves. It’s like the human body, you can’t always move it in the same way, otherwise it gets tired and the mind gets bored. Same with the songs, we always try to play them down strong, but always adding a little bit of spice, or sparkle to keep the songs fresh.

RLR: So…that Vulfpeck/Bill Monroe mash up…will we get to see that live at Green River…cereal box and all?

TP: Shhh, we can’t tell you yet! But Kathleen did mention she bought a box of strawberry cereal for the next road trip…maybe there’ll be a bit of Special K from Special Kay?

From: https://www.redlineroots.com/2017/07/woods-interview-twisted-pine/