Solstice - Live at The Stables 2023

 Solstice - Live at The Stables 2023 - Part 1

 

 Solstice - Live at The Stables 2023 - Part 2

 

 Solstice - Live at The Stables 2023 - Part 3

 

On September 2nd, 2023, Solstice sold out the iconic venue built by jazz legends Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine in 1970, something they view as a career highlight. The night was recorded and is now available as a full concert film (plus photo gallery) or as audio, and it is this which I am now playing. The band are the same as the previous two studio albums, namely founder Andy Glass (guitar), Jess Holland (vocals), Jenny Newman (fiddle), Peter Hemsley (drums), Robin Phillips (bass), Steven McDaniel (keyboards) plus two additional singers in Ebony Buckle and Gwen Taylor. Apart from the three singers, this line-up has been together for some years, having released 'Spirit' in 2010.
It is now 40 years since 'Silent Dance' came out, although I must admit to not hearing it until 10 years later, after I had already reviewed 'New Life'. Solstice are included on ProgArchives as Neo due to where they have come from, but if they were up for inclusion now I can see there being a battle with Crossover, as the band has in many ways moved from what they were and created a sound quite unlike any others in the scene. The fiddle has always been an important part of the music, and Jenny knows when to take the lead or when to take a break, the keyboards are often a backdrop as opposed to a driving force, while the same can be said for Andy who is more than happy to take a back seat at times, riffing hard at others. The whole band is designed to keep the female vocals front and centre, bringing in prog, pop, rock, folk and other influences to produce a highly polished performance. Jess is a real find, being a real performer as well as singer, and having two others with her to provide vocal harmonies in a live setting allows for more passion and depth.
We have been fortunate enough to have two studio albums, from the same line-up no less (which is somewhat unusual for the band) and given the way they are playing some high-profile gigs let us hope they have enough time to record another one soon. This is a wonderful demonstration of great prog from a band who for some strange reason have never really been given the acclaim they so richly deserve.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=85168

 

 

Agam - The Ascension

In July 2011, I stood in a serpentine queue outside Hard Rock Café on Bengaluru’s M.G. Road. Inside, there was barely any space to move, as the crowd pushed and shoved through the room to find an inch to stand. But as lofty keys built anticipation and Carnatic vocal melodies made way for the first guitar riffs to cut through the air, everyone began craning their neck towards the elevated stage with mesmerized focus. We had all jostled to watch Agam unleash their take on traditional South Indian songs, a set infused with hints of Sufi and a tribute to master composer A.R. Rahman, an early supporter of the band. It was the first time I got to experience the full force of the band that has been steadily building their legacy since 2003 — taking the familiarity of Carnatic compositions and Malayalam folk songs and preserving their spiritual essence while also slamming on percussive power, towering prog guitars, sublime vocals and even violins.  
At the time, Carnatic progressive rock — a fusion that Agam continue to champion even today — did not really exist. Even the band was still trying to find their footing and do justice to the tag. Sure, the likes of Motherjane’s Baiju Dharmajan were leading the way, but Agam leaned into it completely — interpreting ragas and compositions by poet-saint Thyagaraja, while also nodding to prog greats like Dream Theater, and peppering it with a bit of South Indian folk.  
“I think our behavior as a band was also shaped by how the scene shaped us,” vocalist Harish Sivaramakrishnan says when we speak over a video call. “Like, if the scene remained as awkwardly disjointed as what it used to be, then it would have been a very different story. But I think the whole purpose of playing music got solidified because we got a great audience.”  
From then to now, if there’s anything that’s constant, it’s that Agam have drawn audiences from across demographics, from ages 8 to 80. From the open-minded Carnatic music followers who count thalams on their fingers to prog rock and metal fans who want to headbang and behold the intricate and heavy rhythmic shifts — you’ll see them all at Agam’s shows.  
Formed in Bengaluru between 2003 and 2007, just as they were transitioning from college to work life, vocalist (and back then, violinist) Harish Sivaramakrishnan and drummer Ganesh Ram Nagarajan had just begun jobs in the city’s software industry (naturally). Keyboardist Swamy Seetharaman had a few more years of work experience (“He was the only one that had money,” Sivaramakrishnan jokes) and guitarist T. Praveen Kumar had just landed a tech internship. Seetharaman was not just a band manager and catalyst for Agam (Sivaramakrishnan likens him to the manager and confidante character of Mangalam in the 2003 coming-of-age Tamil film Boys, essayed by the late great Tamil comedian Vivek), but also remains a key songwriter in the band to this day.  
Seetharaman recalls lucidly how, in May 2005 in Bengaluru, they met at a South Indian restaurant in Indiranagar’s 12th Main. “I still remember that I crossed the signal, I met Harish and we went to a studio,” he says. A digital audio workstation called Paris was at their disposal and Agam first began recording music through “analog recording” and jamming. “I would say I’m a firm believer in energies and how you sort of resonate with people. When I met Harish and Ganesh, it was just that energy that was carrying forward,” he adds.  
With a lineup that included bassist Vignesh Lakshminarayanan and percussionist Sivakumar Nagarajan at the time, they recorded songs like “Lakshiya Paadhai” and “Mystical Aabheri.” Seetharaman says that it was around then that they decided to go “all in.” It led to them winning the 2007 televised music competition Ooh La La La, where they were discovered by A.R. Rahman. In a retrospective to mark the release of Arrival of the Ethereal, Rahman said in a video message, “Very few bands have a belief in an identity, and that too from India. I find Agam one of those—a very strong identity […] They make their sound an experience.”  
For Sivaramakrishnan, being part of Ooh La La La — the project that launched Agam into regional acclaim in South India, and even caught some national attention thanks to Rahman — was almost like getting the whole nine yards treatment that independent bands rarely got. “There would be a backline that you could rig your gear to, proper amps and a decent P.A. That was a big premium at that point in time,” the vocalist says. And, they got to play their own songs, a limited opportunity at a time when independent music festivals and platforms were far and few. “An added value was that potentially, A.R. Rahman would come and listen to you,” he points out. For Seetharaman, it was a watershed moment to believe he could make music, especially bolstered by the likes of Rahman, who appreciated his lyrics. He says emotionally, “[It was about] making people believe in themselves and giving that little nudge, saying, ‘Hey, I see something in you.’”  
Agam went on to cinch bigger wins and gain wider exposure. And, although their day jobs took much of their focus for a few years, they also began chipping away at what would become their seminal debut album The Inner Self Awakens, which came out in 2012.  
There’s no band quite like Agam. Yet, their story is stitched together with moments that reflect Indian independent music history’s enduring willingness to adapt. Guitarist T. Praveen Kumar, for example, was originally a keyboardist during the Ooh La La La phase.  But during a 2008 gig in Chennai, he picked up the guitar, inspired by bassist, college senior and music club regular Aditya Kasyap. Before Kasyap was playing in the band, bassist Vignesh Lakshminarayanan had a guitar that he lent to Kumar just before this Chennai gig, and their then-drummer Nagarajan asked him to “fill the sound” on stage.  
“I think I was learning the guitar even as the band was playing live,” Kumar admits, looking back. “If you go back and look at some of the early videos, [there are] a lot of bum notes on the Carnatic scale of playing. I think the entire band was patient. But I should say I picked up the guitar with the band and continue to [grow] as much as possible throughout the journey.” From prog riffs to Carnatic guitar fretwork, Kumar and Kasyap on bass now comprise the riff machine that you can hear on songs like “Over The Horizon,” “The Silence That Remains,” “The Celestial Nymph” and more, a sound they built together with then-guitarist Jagadish Natarajan.  From: https://rollingstoneindia.com/agam-band-journey-cover-story/

Fränder - Svarta Sparvens Sorg (The Sorrow of the Black Sparrow)

Pastoral themes and Nordic lifeways have long been intertwined in the global consciousness. Whether or not such associations are entirely accurate is debatable–there are certainly critiques to be had surrounding the relationships between aesthetics and romantic nationalism in such cultural imaginaries–but whatever the effects, folk music revival has undoubtedly played a major role in their perpetuation. There is, though, no shortage of groups who approach such connections with a sense of play.
Based in Sweden, Fränder are an excellent example of one of the newer acts to join this more globally-minded Northern European folk contingent. On their second album, Fränder II, they bring a kaleidoscopic perspective to the scene by braiding together Scandinavian and Baltic traditions with substantial global folk-rock in contemporary arrangements that are, if not entirely unprecedented, heartfelt and fresh.
Fränder’s core quartet is all family: siblings Gabbi Dluzewski (låtmandola and percussion), Daniel Dluzewski (double bass), and Natasja Dluzewska (lead vocals and fiddle) and Gabbi’s wife Säde Tatar (flute, bagpipe, Jew’s harp). Joining them here on additional percussion are Andreas Berglund, Valter Kinbom, and founding Hedningarna member Björn Tollin, whose enthusiasm for the band lends them some extra intergenerational credibility in addition to the harder rock edge that has always been key to Hedningarna’s success in bashing folk boundaries. Kinbom, meanwhile, is nimble on both aludu (“Tid att komma hem”) and darbuka (“En sommarkväll”). It makes for an ensemble with a sturdy, low-end and high collective energy.
With the exception of an intricately rearranged Estonian folk song (“Õhtu õrna”, where Fränder’s vocal harmonies fully come together), the texts here are all original works on familiar themes of love, longing, heartbreak, and home, with rich nature imagery. Wind, rain, and sun represent anguish on the whirlwind opening track, “Evigt regn”, while a moonlit lake sets the scene for a triumph of patience on the blissful closer, “Under ditt hjärta”. Passion reigns across the record. Album highlight “En sommerkväll” builds slowly, lust boiling over into bittersweet swirls of flute and fiddle as Gabbi strums his låtmandola with growing resolve. The two-part suite “Kom till mig, jäg väntar” is thick with it, the hazy, bass-laced desire of the first part shifting into a frenzy for the second. 
While Fränder II draws on many of the same topics and textures as acoustic Nordic roots revival music has for decades, Fränder lead rather than follow, setting them apart from more conservative folk groups. From the near-psychedelic eddies of instrumental “Rabatud” to the lonesome ferocity of “Svarta sparvens sorg” and the intricate choreography of “Kung Björns polska”, Fränder bring acoustic fire to their work on II. This is folk music at its most boundless, following in the footsteps of innovators like Fairport Convention, the Incredible String Band, and Nordic folk-rockers like Hedningarna, Garmarna, and Gjallarhorn. 
As they always do, though, comparisons fall short. Fränder are a group of skillful and vital artists whose musical interests begin in the past but always face forward. In keeping with that orientation, Fränder II wastes no time on nostalgia. Instead, they unleash timeless, elemental forces in gripping sonic permutations, moving them ahead by leaps and bounds into an exciting new phase of their music.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/frandar-ii-nordic-folk-review 

Boogarins - Dislexia Ou Transe / Passeio

The Brazilian psych band transition from the oft-playful homage and stage-ready jams of previous releases to a serious attempt at tight, kaleidoscopic grooves.
The word psychedelia originates from the Greek “the animating principle of the universe”— or whatever one calls that metaphysical sum greater than the total of its parts. Boogarins, hugely popular in their native Brazil, are one of several modern torch-bearers of psych music, playing a strain that sounds of tropicália and musicians who unselfconsciously noodle. On their latest album Sombrou Dùvida, they transition from the oft-playful homage and stage-ready jams of previous releases to a serious attempt at tight, kaleidoscopic grooves, and the results are akin to a pleasant, cerebral trip—a little more potent than the edibles sold from wagons in Dolores Park, but nothing quite Leary-caliber.
Lyrically, many of the songs (translated here from Portuguese) reference subversion, engulfment, and trance, coupling with seamless, driving instrumentation that mimics a hallucinogenic trip. “There is a dazzle of the fools/Fake and splendid/It is that which already engulfs you/I am suspect of the habits/I only trust the avidly living,” sings Dino Almeida at the end of the title track, whose name means “shadow or doubt.” These liminal spaces—shadows, doubts, and states of mind—are the record’s main concern, and its instrumentation is often an interplay between sunny, jangling melodies and synths that border the abrasive. This toggle between poles also extends to the band’s sensibilities, and at its best, Sombrou Dùvida toes the line between accessible pop and sonic experimentation, gussying up standout tracks like “Dislexia ou Transe” with wobbly distortion and a menagerie of interwoven riffs.
But where “Dislexia ou Transe’s” ratcheting build and oddball flourishes deliver on the promise of a trance, tracks like “A Tradição” travel at a sleepier pace. It covers well-tread psychedelic terrain without much novelty, and if anything, it dilutes the impact of the songs that bookend it, driving as they are. “Nós,” which immediately follows, is a clinic in layered sounds, a pastiche of discord that flirts with outright noise but rests just inside the confines of a brooding pop song.
Boogarins aren’t reinventing the genre, but like 2013’s As Plantas Que Curam or 2017’s home-recorded Lá Vem a Morte (which translates to “here comes death,” more straightforward than shadowy), this album expresses the group’s devotion to this particular wall of sound, pioneered by fellow countrymen Tom Zé, Os Mutantes, and others embroiled in Brazil’s late-’60s political tumult. On standout tracks, like “Passeio” and “Dislexia ou Transe,” they’re modernizing this quintessential 20th-century style with contemporary embroideries that feels distinctly in the spirit of their musical forebears. Played outrageously loud, as it ought to be, with the windows open and a joint rolled, Sombrou Dùvida is transportive, even if the only place you’re going is to an appreciation of a righteous shred under dissolving synths.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/boogarins-sombrou-duvida/

Magic Fig - Flammarion

Magic Fig share “Flammarion” music video. Just the prog pop that the week called for. RSTB faves Magic Fig stunned on a debut EP last year, and they follow it quickly with the full length for Exploding In Sound. The first single showcased the band’s love of baroque folk, but here they let the Canterbury impulses creep a little closer to the forefront, opening up with a wave of keys that underpin the song’s immersion into the world of French astronomer Camille Flammarion’s metaphysical realms. Featuring a lineup that would’ve hinted at indie pop expectations (feat mems, of The Umbrellas, Whitney’s Playland, Healing Potpourri, and Almond Joy) the band’s Radiophonic revue has come as a welcome surprise over the last couple of years. “Flammarion” surfs the Broadcast to Bundles-era Soft Machine pipeline, a kaleidoscope of colors that’s as supple as it is psychedelic. The new single comes complete with a fizzing green screen vid courtesy of Michael Cruz that embraces the song’s lycergic flicker. The new single opens up the band’s debut LP, Valerian Tea, out November 21st from Exploding In Sound.  From: https://www.explodinginsoundrecords.com/news/posts/30897-magic-fig-share-flammarion-music-video

The Warlocks - It's A Fucked-Up World

You have a brand new album ready! ‘The Chain’ was released April 3, via Cleopatra Records. This ambitious album tells a story of two lovers who commit a bank heist together. Would you like to talk a bit about the background of making ‘The Chain’?

Bobby Hecksher: After ‘Pale Eclipse’ and ‘Mean Machine Music’ I really wasn’t sure what to do with The Warlocks anymore. ‘Pale Eclipse’ is like the last bits and pieces of anything decent I had left and never got around to recording. ‘Mean Machine Music’ is a failed experiment but interesting collector’s item and there are some cool sounds on there. I’m glad this stuff came out, but it really wasn’t moving pieces of work to me like ‘Rise & Fall’, ‘Phoenix’, ‘Surgery’, ‘Heavy Deavy Skull Lover’, etc. Anyways I started playing with Matt Hollywood & The Bad Feelings for a few years. Just kind of taking a break and leaving The Warlocks as touring entity. I was having fun just playing bass which is my first instrument. During that time, I started listen and watching lots of shows about our criminal system. Fictional and non-fictional – just anything and everything I can get my hands on. Ear Hustle, Criminal, Snap Judgment, Orange Is The New Black, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Evil Genius, Amanda Knox, for example. I really started to get effected by all these stories I was hearing and so I started jotting down themes. Ideas for songs. After two years or so I had a collection of what could be a little story in song form. A few loose songs on Justice. What is right and wrong, is it fair or is it just money and connections that get justice? Does the sentence fit the crime? Since that topic can be kind of heavy, and I’m no expert or anything, I decided to make it more fantasy / fictional with real life topics, situations and heavy themes.

So it’s a conceptual album? Is this something that The Warlocks have been practising before on previous releases? Can you share some further details how your latest album was recorded?

I like to emphasize loose because there no way nor am, I smart enough to make a “concept” album in basically two weeks. Everyone (was) just so busy and recording can get expensive fast. That’s just all the time I had with them. So, there was NO rehearsal at all. I was just really prepared and had all my music and shit together. I taught them the songs and in about 20 minutes per song it was done, just like that. I had known Rob Campanella (BJM, Committee To Keep Music Evil) for nearly 15 odd years but we never worked together before. I came in to listen to another band’s music and I just loved the drum sound he was getting and decided to record with Rob. In recording (to me) the drum is the hardest thing to get down. You get that you’ve got a good head start. Turned out to be one of the best recording experiences in some time. We were having lots of fun smashing burritos and making this thing. I was so happy going to record. The last few were difficult for me. It just felt like the best of times. Plucky’s drumming was solid and powerful. JC just right on point with the vibe. Chris just “The Rock” bass sound. power and style. Earl was going through a lot (his dad passed away) and so he was a mess mentally but focused musically if that makes sense. It’s like he was going through a lot and it really help to have this outlet to grieve. I really tried to give him space and be super patient. His solos are some of the best in recent memory. They are just beautiful. Ceaser is our newest member on synths, keys etc. I wasn’t planning on adding another member but life happens, and we just got on really good. I could roughly explain what I was looking for sonically speaking and he would work that and get the sound.
A few songs are older songs that are “close enough” to fit with the story: This couple rob a bank (“Dear Song”, “The Robbery”) the law throws the book at one (“Mr. Boogeyman”) we find out the other has wealth and connections and gets off (“Double Life”). Money is everything in this world (“We Don’t Need Money” – older song) loose fit here. Your idiot for committing this crime now deal with it! (“You Stooge You”) so you shout back at the law (“Sucking Out Your Soul”). Regret, forgiveness, help (“Have Mercy”) but now I’m dead inside (“Feel No Pain”). Time served and with all this time lost, can one make amends and things right with broken friend ships? (“I’m Not Good Enough” / “Party Like We Used To”). If all that’s too heavy just enjoy the music!

How do you usually approach music making?

I get asked this almost every interview. My answer is always “follow that little voice” there is no set way to make music. Could be a bass line, a cord change, some solid lyrics even just a “sound” you are hearing. Drop everything and be disciplined about getting it down. You can even just use your phone or whatever is around. Sometimes the idea would come I wouldn’t have anything with me. So, I’ll hum it out, go home flush it out more and save it. Something like that! Ha- it really is all over the place!

The sound of the album is dense with layered guitar, keyboards and reinforced with powerful bass and percussion grooves! How would you describe your sound?

Dreamy and serious. It has some Gun Club moments. A very LA sound that I like. Rock and Roll but dark. That was the cool thing about working with Rob Campanella and The Warlocks on this. I could say “I want this solo to sound like breaking glass” JC would dial in his sound. Rob with add the right mic and effects or whatever it needed to get that.

What kind of equipment did you use and who was the producer? How many hours did you spend in the studio?

About two weeks to record. Maybe a month to mix. Rob and and I both shared the producing. When I couldn’t communicate to the band I would explain the sound to Rob and he would go in and work with them and get it. Like I said it was a fantastic experience.

What kind of process do you have at mastering material for the release?

Cleopatra takes care of all that.

How would you compare your latest album to your previous releases?

More focused. Back to form. Back to song.

Who is behind the artwork for your latest release?

I drew all that stuff. That is the story in art. I can’t draw or anything, but I don’t care. It just seemed right so there you go.

What would you say influenced you the most? Have influences changed during the years?

Changes all the time. Today is Swans, Rufus Wainwright, Towns Van Zandt, Cocteau Twins, Loop and Can.

Is there an album that has profoundly affected you more than others?

It changes all the time. Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Neu, Hawkwind, all life changing records for me off the top of my head.

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2020/04/the-warlocks-interview.html 

Counting Crows - Angels of the Silences - Live TV 1997

Adam Duritz wrote the song that would save his second album in two hours, between four and six in the morning, in the bedroom of a rented house at the top of a Hollywood hill, having walked out of the studio at 2am after another long day visiting a friend in intensive care. The song was "A Long December". The friend was Jennifer, who had been hit by a car earlier that month and spent most of January 1996 in hospital. Counting Crows had just begun recording the follow-up to August and Everything After, an album that had gone seven times platinum in the United States and put Duritz on the cover of Rolling Stone with the headline "The Biggest New Band In America". The pressure was enormous. The singer was, by his own account, in pieces.
Recovering the Satellites is the record he and his band made out of that pressure. Released by DGC/Geffen on 15 October 1996 and produced by the English studio veteran Gil Norton, it is louder, angrier and lonelier than the debut, an album about the cost of getting what you asked for. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, sold two million copies in the United States alone, and produced in "A Long December" the band's biggest international hit. It also ended the easy mythology that Counting Crows were a sunny roots-rock revival act in the manner of Van Morrison or The Band. By the time the credits rolled on its cover photograph, a green-tinted snapshot of a child's drawing of a star, the group had a different reputation, one that would carry them through the rest of the decade.
The autumn of 1996 was a strange place to release a moody, piano-led, second album. The American charts were still working through the long tail of grunge and the early swell of pop-punk; Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill remained inescapable a full year after its release; Beck's Odelay had won the kind of critical adoration the Crows had been awarded only two years earlier. Hip-hop was rising fast, with the Fugees' The Score and 2Pac's All Eyez on Me dominating cultural conversation. The week Recovering the Satellites debuted at number one, it knocked Tracy Chapman's New Beginning off the top after eight non-consecutive weeks and held off Toni Braxton's Secrets and a fresh release from R.E.M.
The world the album walked into was also, briefly, a place where a guitar band could still go straight to number one. The Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was a year old and still selling; the Wallflowers' Bringing Down the Horse was about to become unavoidable; Pearl Jam's No Code arrived a few weeks earlier as a deliberately difficult successor to Vitalogy. Counting Crows' decision to follow a feel-good debut with a darker, harder record fit the broader mood: nineties guitar acts, having got everything they asked for, were increasingly suspicious of it.
Counting Crows had formed in Berkeley, California in 1991 around Duritz, a former Himalayans frontman, and producer-guitarist David Bryson. By the time they were signed to Geffen by Gary Gersh in 1992 the deal was so generous the music press nicknamed them Accounting Crows. August and Everything After arrived in September 1993, produced by T-Bone Burnett, and was carried first by "Mr. Jones" and then by "Round Here" into a level of success the band had not expected and were not prepared for. They filled in for Van Morrison at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1993, played Saturday Night Live a year later, opened for the Rolling Stones, the Cranberries, Bob Dylan and Midnight Oil, and watched the debut sell more than seven million copies in the United States alone. The Chicago Sun-Times later observed that, at the time, it was the fastest-selling record since Nirvana's Nevermind.
It also broke their singer. Duritz had a widely reported nervous breakdown in 1994. Drummer Steve Bowman was fired towards the end of that year and replaced by Ben Mize. The touring band added a second guitarist in Dan Vickrey. By the time everyone got off the road in 1994, the lineup that would record the second album was new in two key positions and exhausted in every other.
Duritz spent most of 1995 not on tour, an unusual luxury at the height of an album cycle and a deliberate one. The band played only two shows the entire year. The intention was to give the singer time to write, and he did, in hotel rooms during the previous tour and then more seriously at home. The songs that emerged were drawn directly from the experience of becoming famous: lines such as "These days I feel like I'm fading away / Like sometimes when I hear myself on the radio" from "Have You Seen Me Lately?", and a title track that openly weighed the idea of starting again from scratch.
Duritz wrote the bulk of the album alone at the piano, with several of the more aggressive tracks built up by the full band in the room. Two songs that he later said he simply could not figure out how to sequence into the running order were cut: "Chelsea" and "Good Luck", both of which featured horns played by friends from New Orleans' Soul Rebels Brass Band. "Chelsea" eventually surfaced as a bonus track on the 1998 live album Across a Wire: Live in New York City. "Good Luck" was thought lost for years and was assumed destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire, before turning up in the early 2020s when Geffen dug through its vault for the HBO documentary on the band.
Working titles for tracks have largely vanished from the public record, but the early shape of the record was clearly heavier than what had come before. Where August and Everything After had been built around acoustic guitar, mandolin and Hammond organ, the demos for the second album were full-band rock arrangements. The band wanted to capture what they sounded like on stage, not what they could orchestrate in a studio.  From: https://riffology.co/posts/the-making-of-recovering-the-satellites-by-counting-crows/

Rocket - Another Second Chance

The languid 90s alt-rock sound has been surging back recently and I’m here for it. Rocket are one of the best examples of the revival with the puzzle pieces of their debut album, R Is For Rocket, coming together and looking like something rather special. The last-lap bell for the album is their new single, ‘Another Second Chance’. The crunchy guitars and doubled-up snare point squarely at the alt-rock and Britpop zone, with the song whipping out a big chorus to equal the great swing of the verse.
The mid-point breakdown is a wonderful showcase of the drums as things build into a dreamy middle-eight that then consumes the whole second-half of the song. The sentiment matches the sound, with the song described as an ode to never feeling good enough by singer and bassist Alithea Tuttle.  From: https://www.phonotonal.com/2025/09/rocket-another-second-chance/

Joe Cocker - She Came in Through the Bathroom Window - French TV 1969

Paul McCartney wrote "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" about a fan who broke into his house. Diane Ashley claims it was her. "We found a ladder in his garden and stuck it up the bathroom window which he'd left slightly open," she told Songfacts. "I was the one who climbed up and got in."
Now married with four children, Diane keeps a framed photo of herself with Paul on her kitchen shelf and looks back on her days as an Apple Scruff with affection: "I don't regret any of it. I had a great time, a really great time."
Landis Kearnon (known at the time as Susie Landis) gave us the following account:
Here, all this time I thought this song was written about me and my friend Judy. What a surprise to learn there was someone named Diane Ashley who put a ladder up to Paul's house and climbed in through the bathroom window. This and the bit about "quit the police department" being inspired by an ex-cop taxi driver in NYC tells me something I already know about songwriting, which is that many songs are composites. This one obviously was because Diane wasn't the only person having a profound effect on Paul McCartney by crawling in a bathroom window in 1967 (maybe '68 in her case). Judy and I were paid $1500 by Greene & Stone, a couple of sleazy artist managers driving around the Sunset Strip in a Chinchilla-lined caddy limo, to "borrow" the quarter-inch master of "A Day In The Life" off of David Crosby's reel-to-reel, drive it to Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood where Greene & Stone duped it, then put it back where we found it at Crosby's Beverly Glen Canyon pad. Crosby was playing with the Byrds that day in Venice so we knew his house was empty. This was the day after a major rainstorm so the back of his house was one big mudslide. We climbed up it, leaving 8-inch deep footprints and, you guessed it, gained access via the bathroom window, leaving behind footprints and a veritable goldmine of forensic matter. We were really nervous and did not make clear mental notes of how the master reel was on the player, but did have the sense to leave Crosby's front door unlocked while we drove across town and back. After the tape was back on the machine (badly) we changed out of our muddy shoes, drove to the Cheetah in Venice, and hung out with the Byrds into the evening, thinking we were awfully clever and cute. We did not know why Greene & Stone would pay so much money for a copy of a Beatles song, other than the fact that is was a groundbreaking and mind-blowing piece, but found out the next day when we heard "A Day In The Life" on KHJ, I think it was. Greene & Stone had used it as payola to get one of their groups, The Cake, singing "Yes We Have No Bananas," on the air. Which they did, and it sucked, but oh well. By the following day "A Day In The Life" was no longer on the air. And just a day or two after that there was a front page blurb in the LA Times about "A Day In The Life" getting aired one month prior to the release date of the single and the Sgt. Pepper LP, which apparently cost the Beatles plenty and they were suing Capitol or Columbia, whichever the label was, for $2 million... and McCartney was flying in from London to deal with the mess. Oops. Judy and I nearly sank through the floor. Though we were active "dancers" in the various nightclubs on the Sunset Strip, we lay low for a while, not knowing what to expect. In fact, other than a song being written and a GREAT cover by Joe Cocker, nothing happened. We got our money, spent it on groovy clothes, of course (what else was there?) and never heard a word about it.
"I knew what I could not say" and "protected by a silver spoon" seemed to explain why there were no repercussions. My dad was a TV director who had already threatened to bust and ruin David Crosby for smoking pot with and deflowering his daughter; he had clout and David was afraid of him. Judy was from money and influence too. I feel that David knew exactly who had broken in and borrowed the tape but couldn't press charges. He probably wasn't supposed to be playing the master for all his friends and hangers-on, so there must have been hell to pay for him. I always felt bad for the cred it must have cost him with his friend Paul McCartney.
Oh, the bit about "Sunday's on the phone to Monday, Tuesday's on the phone to me" - that was somebody named Sunday, maybe a detective, I can't remember now, calling the producer Billy Monday about the break-in and song leak. Billy Monday, knowing she was a friend of McCartney's, called Tuesday Weld, and it was she who called Paul in London and told him the news. Well, I guess I didn't make this very short after all. But you can't tell me that this incident didn't feed into the overall inspiration for the song. I'm just glad it turned out so cool and hope it made a heap for them in compensation for the publicity costs at the outset.
The Beatles gave this to Joe Cocker, who released it in 1969 a few months after The Beatles released theirs. Cocker's version was used on the soundtrack to the movie All This and World War II, released in 1976. A strange mix of World War II documentary footage set to the music of The Beatles, the movie bombed and has barely been heard of since. Others who covered The Beatles on the soundtrack include Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Tina Turner, Leo Sayer, Frankie Laine and the Bee Gees.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-beatles/she-came-in-through-the-bathroom-window 

Holly Herndon & Jlin - Godmother

Holly Herndon knows that every aspect of today’s technological dystopia really is deeply human at its core. On her 2015 album Platform, the Berlin-based composer fed haunting chorale vocals into custom software tools (like her “net-concrete” Max/MSP patches) to create a dynamic portrait of the human body in flux; with Skype samples, Greek yogurt ads, and eerie ASMR therapy for our Silicon Valley elites, the album proved prophetic in its focus on the infrastructural limits of contemporary humanism, recognizing the dynamic intimacies of YouTube as just another form of care work, and the unsettling elegance of the influencer economy as really just a new face for some of capitalism’s oldest dynamics.
It maybe makes sense then that Herndon would be drawn to current developments in artificial intelligence, and on her new single “Godmother,” the composer has reunited with midwestern footwork futurist Jlin to create a song based completely on machine learning tools. Describing the software as another collaborator in its own right, Herndon says that the song was the result of an AI named Spawn “listening to the artworks of her godmother Jlin” and attempting to translate what it heard into a new approximation of Herndon’s own voice. “This piece of music was generated from silence with no samples, edits, or overdubs, and trained with the guidance of Spawn’s godfather Jules LaPlace,” Herndon’s statement continues.
Despite its conceptual origins, the track itself sounds a lot like human beatboxing, with Spawn immediately imitating the rapid-fire triplets of Black Origami tracks like “Kyanite” and “Nyakinyua Rise.” Stuttering clicks and whizzing white-noise filters collide with pitched vocal approximations as the song cycles through some strange mathematical approximation of a Jlin track.  From: https://www.spin.com/2018/12/holly-herndon-jlin-godmother-review/

Vibravoid - Colour Your Mind

German band Vibravoid have been around for more than a decade by now, and probably well deserve the description often given them as Germany's leading progressive rock band. They have recorded their fair share of material for UK label Fruits de Mer Records over the years, and their most recent take for this vinyl specialist label is this three track single.
The A side is taken up by Colour Your Mind, originally made by a band called Tyrnaround, and in Vibravoid's take on it this one alternates between a sickly organ and guitar motif supported by sparse but effective bass and drums with a more majestic but still sickly sounding organ and dark toned guitar riff arrangement, with two nice runs of psych dripping guitar solo sequences and a concluding freaked out psych-dripping finale.
The B side kicks off with La Poupee Qui Fait Non, originally by Michel Polnareff. This one isn't quite as compelling, but a nice enough albeit somewhat monotone affair with distant, lightly effects treated vocals, careful surging effects and a dominant light toned organ combining in a 60's sounding, naive psychedelic rock oriented direction.
The second track on the B side is more impressive however. Optical Sounds, originally by Human Expression, is a much more tension filled affair. Echoing, reverberating dark toned twisted sounds that may or may not be produced by guitars in a triple layer with plucked guitar details and a psych dripping light toned guitar solo for the additional layers, with spoken like vocals and effective rhythms backdrop. A compelling arrangement that produce a suitably haunting atmosphere, with recurring instrumental inserts that sports a richer and overall more intense atmosphere further enriching the experience. A brilliant track showcasing Vibravoid at their best as far as I'm concerned, and easily the most striking piece of music on this single.
If you tend to enjoy intense psychedelic rock with a vintage sound Vibravoid is probably known to you already. If not then this single is a suitable introduction to their turf in the psychedelic rock universe, and if you like them already I suspect that this single easily merits a should buy notification.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=43254

Euzen - The Great Escape

It’s always a distinct pleasure for me to review Nordic music and although I’m – as those who know me know (too) well – all for Iceland and its culture, I have a special place in my heart for music from Denmark, as I lived there for half a year back in the days.
Make no mistake, that was not a description of why ‘Sequel’ by Euzen might get good marks here. There’s not so good music everywhere in the world, it’s just that Danish seem to be exceptionally resonant for modernizing their culture and musical traditions. Hell, I dare to say that quality folktronica hails from somewhere around there. (Just think about the work of Sorten Muld or Valravn.)
Euzen is somewhat in that lot as their music is what the ancient Nordic people would’ve made if they had had the instruments and digital magic to work with. The rhythms and the harmonics are in many cases indeed based on traditional music. But even at first sight, without having heard anything by Euzen (having a knowledge of the scene), the band has something promising about its membership: Christopher Juul. He is the sound-sculptor, programmer, keys-player from Valravn and Euzen has been his pet-side project with Maria Franz from Norway. As they write in their blog, Euzen was founded in Iceland by Juul and Franz after a long friendship. Since then they have released one album, ‘Eudaimonia’ in 2009 and during the recording process, the lineup was expanded with Harald Juul (guitars and strings), Jon Pold (bass) and Kristian Uhre (drums, percussion).
2011 found the band releasing their sophomore, the aptly titled ‘Sequel’ and if you ask me how things stand, it is the definitely a ‘2nd-album-situation’ in case of a promising effort: more coherent and consistent sound, as clever instrumentals as ever, a clear conception and direction to move forward. Euzen stayed with what they do best but in some cases they definitely peaked out of their comfort zone.
It’s always difficult to write about ‘general characteristics that make up a band’s sound’ and not let the readers think that the work in question is NOT anything repetitive but since Euzen is one of the most unique electronica bands today and the artwork looks like a cover for a viking metal band, some general features should be welcomed. Maria Franz has a really interesting, synchopated way of singing, she has a lush and general high-pitched voice which is flawlessly countered by the creative and dynamic work of the rhythm section as well as Christopher Juul’s soundscapes. All in all, the sound is laid back with sometimes playful beats and the character of the music is somewhat comparable to some sort of a blissful battle between alternative pop and folk-based electronica. But Euzen managed to become much more than that on ‘Sequel’ with songs like ‘Judged By’ with a simple but sonically deep and vastly enjoyable guitar work by Harald Juul (this song was cleverly chosen to be the first single off ‘Sequel’, see the beautifully thought-out video below), ‘Coherence’ or the suite-like ‘Sequel’.
Anyone who wants to experience an organic balance among contemporary electronic music, classical piano-work and arrangements, traditional but modernized elements of Nordic music and a pinch of progressive rock, do not hesitate to dive into “Euzeniverse” as the band call their own world.  From: https://soundarkive.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/review-euzen-sequel/ 

The Guess Who - Undun

Most red-blooded Canuck-rock fans over 40 have memories of their favourite Guess Who tune. Some prefer the riff-driven bluesiness and sneering attitude of “American Woman”; others are more drawn to the celebratory, peace-and-togetherness vibe of “Share the Land”.
There may even be a few sad sacks out there who rate the band’s final Top 10 hit, “Clap for the Wolfman”, as number one. But I’ll take “Undun” any day. To me, that 1969 gem—with its jazz-inflected chords, percolating bass runs, and tasty flute solo—is the Guess Who’s shining moment. When I reach original guitarist Randy Bachman by phone at his home near Victoria, he explains that he feels that way sometimes himself.
“A lotta times people ask me what my favourite song is,” he relates, “and when I’m in the mood I’ll say ‘Undun’, because it’s so different than anything else. It’s not a standard pop song; it doesn’t have a big chorus that you’d sing along with. And in its day it was even more weird. I remember the joy of hearing that on the radio, figuring ‘Wow, a song with more than three chords,’ you know, ‘with lyrics that don’t rhyme.’ ”
The lyrical seed for “Undun”—which was originally released as the B-side of the single “Laughing”—was planted at a Vancouver party that the band attended in 1967. Bachman, who was soon to embrace the Mormon faith, wasn’t too impressed when the era’s drug of choice made an appearance at the bash. “I was very frightened at this party when the acid came out,” he recalls, “so I just left.”
But one unfortunate young woman took the drug, freaked out, and was taken away in an ambulance. When Bachman heard that she wound up in a coma, he had the inspiration for “Undun”, but it took a lyrical nudge from Bob Dylan for the song to reach full bloom. Bachman recalls that he was staying at the Sands Hotel on Davie in ’67, listening to the Flower Power Hour on the then-new CKLG-FM, when Dylan’s “Ballad in Plain D” came on the air. The verse-heavy number seemed to go on forever.
“I got sick of it,” he says, “and was just about to lean over and turn the radio off when I heard Dylan say ‘She’s come undone.’ I went ‘Wow!’, ’cause for years I had had this light little melody and a chord progression, but neither Burton [Cummings] nor I could think of any lyrics.
“So I scribbled down ‘She’s come undone,’ and then just wrote the whole song out. I ran next door to show Burton, and he said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve written this song alone; I can’t add anything to it. It’s weird, but it’s perfect.’ ”  From: https://earofnewt.com/2014/12/13/randy-bachman-recalls-how-dylan-lyrics-and-vancouver-acid-inspired-the-guess-whos-undun/

The Rattles - Devil's on the Loose

1970 saw The Rattles undergo another set of personnel changes with drummer Peter Beckerlead replaced by Herbert Bornhold.  Vocalist Henner Hoier also left, opting for a solo career.  Bass player Kurt Lüngen and lead guitarist Frank Mille turned to an unlikely choice for Hoier's replacement in the form of singer Edna Bejarano.   Prior to joining The Rattles Bejarano had recorded a couple of obscure folky German solo sides, but never really enjoyed much recognition.
Given her musical background Bejarano certainly seemed an odd choice for a band that had never had a female member. Technically she wasn't the most polished singer you'd ever heard, though she certainly had some belting power.  Imagine a German version of Shocking Blue's Mariska Veres and you wouldn't be that far off the mark.  For what it was worth, like Veres, some of her performances (particularly ballads like 'I Will') were heavily accented.  That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, rather just took a little getting use to.  Musically the set was also quite different from their earlier releases, with tracks like 'You Can't Have Sunshine Every Day' and 'Where Is the Friend' marking a distinctive move towards a more commercial, hard rock sound.
1972's self-produced "Tonight the Rattles Starring Edna" has always been a curiosity to me.  This time out Philips seemed interested in making lead singer Edna Beharano the band's focal point.  As on 1970's "The Witch" she handled most of the lead vocals and was allocated space for  two of her own songs ('You've Got To Get Another Girl' and 'Be My Man').  Looking at the cover art, the packaging was also clearly focused on her.  Judging by the back cover, Philips marketing didn't mind showcasing the fact Bejarano had a pair of legs that simply didn't quit.  With guitarist Frank Mille and new keyboardist Lude Lafayette (shown as Jochen Peters on the writing credits) responsible for the majority of the nine tracks, the album found the band opting for a slightly more mainstream rock direction. From: http://badcatrecords.com/RATTLES.htm 

Beaulieu Porch - Keep on Screaming

In the middle of last year I stumbled across a video by a band called Beaulieu Porch. The track, Love 80, instantly blew me away with its Beatley melody and especially its Hey Jude type coda at the end. At first I thought it was bit of a Nick Nicely one off, but as I explored the band’s videos and online pages I discovered that they had already recorded quite a few great songs in a Strawberry Fields Brit Psych vein.
Eventually I hooked up with Simon Berry, who basically is Beaulieu Porch, around the time that his self-titled debut album emerged. If you love psychedelia then there is so much on the album that you will cherish
It sounds a like it was recorded in Berry’s attic, but its lo-fi nature doesn’t detract from the exhilarating psych burn outs of Keep On Screaming and the opener Laminations Are Loaded. ‘Navy Blue’ and The Colour 55 shows that Berry is also a master of dreamy ballads. If anyone deserves access to Abbey Road’s Studio Two with a thirty piece orchestra and as many mellotrons as he can handle it’s Simon Berry.
Weirdly though for recordings that that are so steeped in the 60s I can’t help but notice an 80s influence or two sneaking in. Hilly Fields 1892 or even Sowing The Seeds Of Love. So when I got the chance I asked Simon about the influence of the 80s on his project.

‘There was a fair bit of good stuff hidden away in the 80’s, and the the Dukes were definitely an influence, I was working in a record shop when their first lp came out and I had no idea that it was XTC, I was convinced it was a lost 60’s classic !That’s where I discovered a lot of other psych stuff of the time that really hit a chord with me…The Rain Parade, The Three O’clock etc, all very influential. Sowing The Seeds was an eye opener too, a bit of an anomaly at the time, but bang on !’

I also asked Simon why he chose psychedelia as a genre. Surely for a one man band a folk career might have been a more practical option.

‘I got into psych through an unquenchable passion and curiosity about all music – from cheesy pop to pompous classical – and the beautiful, soaring sounds and melodies of the music I love, and vaguely attempt to replicate in my own songs, encapsulates and embodies for me everything about my life and how I live it.’

Simon has in fact been playing in bands since the 80s. However his new stuff sounds a great deal more personal, and in many ways is more English sounding and more psychedelic than previous outings.
Most recently the second Beaulieu Porch album snuck out. A kind of Hatful of Hollow (there’s an acoustic version of the debut’s highlight Laminations Are Loaded included), to The Smiths debut, In Touch With The Infinite is ironically every bit as good as its predecessor. It is perhaps a little noisier, stroppier and less together than its the first album, but Simon has also widened his musical horizons a little to include tracks that hint at glam, punk and prog.
For me the absolute highlight is Anno Domini, which begins innocently enough with a sugary sweet dreamy melody but descends into a noisy guitar-driven freak out with military-esque drums, Rick Wright Piper era keyboards and weird background vocals.
What shines through though is the way in which the band can merge a floaty verse with a killer singalong chorus and wrap it all in the type of arrangement that Macca and Martin specialised in all those years ago. Simon has some big plans for the future

'I’m itching to get on with new stuff, but at the moment I’m mostly ‘beating my luminous wings in the void’ trying, single-handedly, to promote the current album so that I can make enough money to hire a band and an orchestra and go out and play live ! I’m also working on songs for a new band called Astrabella with my wife, Hannah, doing quirky, low key folk/psych stuff which I’m really excited about.'

From: https://popjunkielondon.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/beaulieu-porch-on-80s-psych-playing-with-an-orchestra-and-releasing-two-albums-in-one-year/ 

Dead Sara - Weatherman

A band that’s on the verge of blowing up, Los Angeles-based Dead Sara got a break when Muse drummer Dominic Howard talked about how much he liked the band’s hard-driving single “The Weatherman” during a radio interview. Dead Sara singer Emily Armstrong and guitarist Siouxsie Medley heard the interview and immediately called their management who then coaxed Muse into taking the group on its U.S. tour. While the band’s hard-rock approach might not seem like it would go over that well with Muse fans, the band’s album features a diverse array of songs that alternately evoke Hole and Fleetwood Mac. Guitarist Siouxsie Medley recently phoned in to talk about the upcoming tour.

When did you adopt the name Siouxsie and was it in homage to Siouxsie and the Banshees?

It’s not. I started spelling my name like that when I was probably 8 or 9. I have a small amount of Indian in me. I remember learning about the Sioux Indians and I thought it was cool and it’s a tribute to my heritage. Later, I found out about Siouxsie and the Banshees and I thought they were awesome, so it worked out well in the end.

You played a few Warped Tour dates last summer. Who was your favorite band on the tour?

Personally, the band called Bangups from Grand Rapids, Michigan. They ‘re awesome. They’re a two-piece blues band. They’re awesome guys and I love them.

You play really aggressive hard rock, but The Airport Sessions, which came out in 2008, is much mellower. Talk about what made you want to change musical directions.

The Airport Sessions were professional demos we were doing. At the time, we had label interest. We weren’t even a whole band. It was just Emily and me and we had hired some drummers and bassists to record for us. Those were just the songs we had. We were still discovering our sound and just writing a lot and got thrown into this crazy industry world. They wanted us to do demos and all this stuff. We recorded them and were trying to find out what we wanted. That was it. We figured we’d put ’em up on iTunes so we did that. It wasn’t anything we were too solid about. Every once in a while, we’ll break out one of them for those fans who have been around sine that time. “Sorry For It All” was on that record and made it to the album.

I know your singer has cited Stevie Nicks as an inspiration. Would Stevie still like the band now that it’s so heavy?

I think she could appreciate it. She did that whole Sound City project with Dave Grohl. I think she has some heaviness in her soul.

Is “Weatherman” about a serial killer?

No. It’s really about predicting your future. What you do today has consequences for tomorrow. The chorus is “go for it” and “go for the kill.” There’s some political things in there throughout the song. That was the first song we wrote when the guys joined the band. Emily just started singing “I’m the Weatherman” over and over. At first she wanted to change the lyric. We were told her “no” because it sounded so cool. It just kind of stuck. She had to get creative and write around that concept.

Emily’s vocal performance on that song is incredible. Doesn’t it make her hoarse?

Honestly, it hasn’t been bad at all. She’s self-taught. She taught herself how to sing. She’s had lessons since but her range is incredible. She goes on vocal rest when she needs to. She’s never been unable to sing. I don’t know understand how that’s possible. She’s an alien. She’s incredible. She was writing songs before I knew her. She started writing songs when she was like 12. I met her when I was 15 and we instantly started writing together. We have a plethora of songs.

The album is heavy but not all heavy.

It’s really diverse. We have many different influences, from Refused to Fleetwood Mac. We just write whatever moves us at the moment.

Some tunes remind me of Hole. Were you a fan of that band?

I love the early records and Emily was a fan early on.

I read there’s a feature-length film being made about the band. Is that true?

We have a friend who has been documenting a lot of our early performances and everything that happened to help us break as a band. We just want to record everything and have as much footage as we can.

Who would be your favorite guitarist of all time?

I have so many. I love different styles. I love Tom Morello and Lindsey Buckingham and Prince. I love blues guys like Bukka White and Robert Johnson and Charley Patton and Sly. I’m all over the place and draw inspiration from many different guitar players.

Any favorite female guitarists?

My old nanny who taught me how to play guitar when I was 8. There’s not too many out there.

From: https://whopperjaw.net/dead-sara/