CocoRosie - ARTE Concert 2025

 CocoRosie - ARTE Concert 2025 - Part 1

 

 CocoRosie - ARTE Concert 2025 - Part 2

 

Atwood Magazine: It's been five years since you released your last album, Put The Shine On. How do you feel like Little Death Wishes is a continuation of your previous work?

Sierra Casady: There’s a track on our new record, “Least I Have You.” That was kind of a transition from the two records.

Bianca Casady: We also encountered a few musicians when we were recording – they were recording next door. Texas based, really incredible musicians. They played a bit on the last record and it inspired us. I feel like we continued to go a little bit deeper into funk on this record, but it started with Put the Shine On. “Nothing But Garbage,” “Pushing Daisies” – specifically in the bass and the drums, we’re just finding our way into funk, and you know, it took twenty years for us to get to that point.
I know you've described the presence of the Bloody Sisters (a character duo you infuse into some of your songs) on some of your previous records. Do you feel like the Bloody Sisters are present on Little Death Wishes at all?

Bianca: We’re like the Junkie Sisters [on Little Death Wishes].

Sierra: The Junkie Twins. It’s a little different. The answer is yes – I think that that style of singing you can hear a little bit in the first track, [“Wait for Me”], but some of the goth has lifted, you know? And maybe in this record we reveal some emotional transformation of those characters. That’s there still, just in a different way.
So much of Little Death Wishes feels centered around the idea of a transformation. You describe the album as “an effort to turn pain into knowledge, sisterhood into polemic, trash into treasure, and recalcifying kitsch and cliché into fresh truths.” How did you land on this theme and why do you feel like it's poignant to CocoRosie now?

Sierra: I don’t want to dumb it down, but these things might have first spawned from our emotional state. We’re transforming our shit into better feelings, and talking about the bad things that happened to us, and just talking shit, talking trash, being nasty and with that–or in that process – maybe our hopes can grow. And so that might have been in our emotional state, and so I think maybe we fell into telling these stories.

You've described your work before as an observation of the world through a child's point of view. How do you balance that childlike perspective with the complex themes you integrate into your music?

Bianca: We use the child’s perspective more as a sort of license to be honest, to be brutal, and to be confused – it’s like a mirror. And so that perspective is just sort of an aspect of the way that we tell stories. I don’t feel like it’s a huge part of the storytelling of this record. It’s a little bit closer to our age, [Little Death Wishes]. We’re really enjoying our age in this record, and it’s kind of representing divorcees and mothers. Maybe you start having people pass away in your family and life gets deeper and deeper as you get older. But still, we feel really young, and the music itself is pretty young–but I think the themes are just getting to have more depth.

How would you say your creative process has transformed since the band’s inception, as sisters and as CocoRosie?

Sierra: In just looking at the art, we have played in incredible studios with incredible musicians. We were so excited about the adventure, being in beautiful places and beautiful studios. And in this last record, it was just Bianca and I in the bedroom, and it was better than ever. So it’s hard to say – I feel like it was this way in the beginning, too, where we were having a lot of fun because no one was watching. And we started to do that again [on this record], and we were remembering that.

You began making music together in a bathroom in Paris. How do you feel like making music in a quiet, simplistic space like a bedroom or bathroom affects your work?

Sierra: I think it’s a lot more focused when we’re in a smaller, less professional space. We get very maximalist and excited in big studios with a lot of gear. But, then we have all this material that we still have to boil down. It’s kind of rare that we just nail the song in a big studio. But “Pushing Daisies,” “Nothing But Garbage,” and our single, “Witch Hunt,” were practically all done on the same children’s keyboard, including bass lines and everything. Just getting a system down that’s so straightforward.
I feel like we’re not trying to prove anything with music; it’s just to get ourselves inspired. Sometimes we do a lot of songs until we get to that point, and we did the song “Nothing But Garbage” and we knew we found something different there. It became kind of the center of the record once we hit that point, but we were already a good year and a half into the process.

You mention playing on children's keyboards. How does that translate into your music?

Sierra: Well, we’re still currently in that phase of simplicity, but we’re starting to work with other musicians and make arrangements for string players and translate that kind of naïve, simple approach into something much more grand. We’re in the beginning stages of that transition. So often what we do with records is, we kind of collage them together, and then it’s a whole new process. But I think more and more, [CocoRosie] needs less in order to create songs.

A few reviewers have cited Put the Shine On as CocoRosie’s “return to maximalism.” How do you feel like Little Death Wishes answers to that?

Bianca: I don’t think Little Death Wishes is totally maximalist – it’s bombastic. Especially in the drums, it’s like…woah. It’s bold. It’s still pared down, and I think it’s boiled down to what’s more essential.

One part on the album that I really love is “Luckless.” Can you talk about that piece, and how that came to be?

Sierra: That was pretty spontaneous. We were in a studio, so it wasn’t one of those bedroom moments.

Bianca: But I don’t think that’s so relevant. That was a special moment. It was not random and improvised–not at all. It was something Bianca requested of me. Sometimes we play games like would you rather, or trade roles, or give each other different tasks in order to see what happens creatively. We were in that space, and I had played some really old-timey music on an old Mellotron, and that reminded [Bianca] of something, so she asked me to read this poem.
So it was like a challenge. But the next part of the story is that “Luckless” was archived and in some dusty folders. And our new label asked if they could have permission to go through those folders and they were like, we want this. I was like, oh, some dusty old poem? [They also chose] a couple songs that we didn’t think would make it onto the record, so it was kind of sweet.

From: https://atwoodmagazine.com/crldw-cocorosie-little-death-wishes-album-interview-music-feature/ 

 

Counting Crows - Butter Miracle Suite One

After a five-year break from songwriting, Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz experienced a surge of creativity not long ago, creating an ambitious group of songs that flowed into each other.
The result is the four-track Butter Miracle, Suite One, due May 21st, which will be the band’s first release since 2014’s Somewhere Under Wonderland. The first single, “Elevator Boots,” available now, is a melodic, wistful ode to life on tour, with a sound that somehow manages to bridge the gap between the Band and Mott the Hoople.
During his long creative hiatus, Duritz found a degree of personal contentment that long eluded him. “I’ve been quite happy,” he says. “I’ve been in a relationship for four or five years now — one that is very satisfying, and healthy. Most of my experiences in my life had been what it’s like to be alone and live alone. And that’s not the case anymore. That’s a big change for me, to really come to the idea that maybe something’s more important than writing songs.”
Despite a lifetime as a “city kid” — as an adult, he went from San Francisco to Los Angeles to his current home in New York City — he started spending a lot of time at a friend’s farm in the English countryside. While Duritz and his girlfriend were staying there in 2019, he suddenly shaved his head on a whim, removing his trademark dreadlocks. “I got rid of my beard, too,” he says. “I just wanted to see myself. I didn’t want to be hiding behind a beard or the dreads.” Not long afterward, he rented a piano and started writing music again.
The first song he wrote was the unusual, free-flowing track “Tall Grass,” which begins as a sort of dirge – recounting a real-life experience of hunting rabbits on that farm — before exploding into the Crows’ version of arena-rock, a la 1996’s Recovering the Satellites. That song flowed straight into “Elevator Boots,” which in turn led to “Angel of 14th Street,” a song about his experience of leaving Los Angeles for New York years ago, albeit told through a female narrator. “Get up out of your memories,” Duritz sings — a line with great personal significance.
“Everything we did makes us who we are,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean we have to drag it around like it’s a ball and chain. I made a lot of mistakes in my life. And you know, living with a mental illness, it just hampers a lot of shit.” (He’s been open about a diagnosis of dissociative disorder.) “But you can spend all your time thinking how you could have done it better, or you can try and live a different kind of life.”
The final song, “Bobby and the Rat-Kings,” is a companion to “Elevator Boots.” “They’re both about loving rock & roll,” he says. “One’s from the perspective of the guy playing and the other is kind of the perspective of a fan, both of which I’ve lived in my life.”
The song suite will eventually be the first half of a full Counting Crows album, with another suite filling the second half. “I’m writing the second one now,” Duritz says.
After scrapping touring plans along with the rest of the world last year, Counting Crows are tentatively eyeing this fall, if Duritz can be convinced it’s safe. But as usual, he’s wary of Nineties nostalgia: “At a certain point, are we just a legacy act that should go play greatest shows or not? I mean, to me, I have no interest in it. We still annoy the shit out of people by not doing it. We went on our 25th-anniversary tour and played obscure shit!”  From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/counting-crows-butter-miracle-suite-2021-new-album-1161414/

 

Xenia Rubinos - Cógelo Suave

Renowned for forging a sound that’s completely her own, with influences ranging from R&B to punk, you never know what you’re gonna get from Xenia Rubinos. The Brooklyn-based daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and a Cuban father uses her Berklee degree in jazz composition and early influences of classical music and opera to warp modern genres in unique yet timeless fashion. One of the handful of singles the past year, “Cógelo Suave,” is one of those left-field songs that only Rubinos could pull off so well.
“It’s a gibberish spaceship ride, high speed chase, birds and stars whirring around your head at the end of a cartoon fight,” Rubinos said in a statement about the song and, really, it’s the most apt description. Made up primarily of swirling scat sounds, the few phrases dictated in the English language are “Well, I don’t know” and “I’m doing fine.” Which makes sense, considering the song was born during the height of the pandemic, Spring 2020, when despair and paranoia were the overwhelming feelings of the moment.
“The more I think about it, the more I realize that the world was totally burning down around us while we were producing this track,” Rubinos shared on Twitter, “and in Cógelo Suave I guess I’m saying ‘I’m fine. THIS IS FINE.'” As the song whirls down from its psychedelic high, a vintage-sounding voice floats down from the heavens saying, “Penetrando los misterios del universo” - “Penetrating the mysteries of the universe” - which is part of a taped radio show that Rubinos found digging through her dad’s old cassettes. An appropriate addition considering when the present is so awful, it makes sense to turn to the past.  From: https://kexp.org/podcasts/song-of-the-day/2021/10/14/xenia-rubinos-cogelo-suave/

 

Magic Fig - PS1

A second single soars out from the upcoming Magic Fig record. Lead by Inna Showalter’s (Whitney’s Playland, Blades of Joy) gossamer vocals, and featuring members of other Bay Area indie-pop acolytes The Umbrellas, Almond Joy and Healing Potpourri, the band takes a surprising turn away from expectations and into prog-folk’s welcoming embrace. Just peeking out from under the shadow of Broadcast, “PS1” pretty fully embraces the ‘60s psych that moves through Trees and Pentagle and into the more synth-heavy side of the ‘70s, cribbing more sonically from ELP than the Canturbury crew they cite, but it all boils down to a simmering slab of psychedelic pop in the end. It’s nice to see the jazz-folk strains of the ’70s creeping back in this year, and Magic Fig are at the forefront of the new wave. The band embraces the excess with some medieval costuming in their latest video.  From: https://www.ravensingstheblues.com/magic-fig-ps1/ 

Jazmin Bean - You Know What You've Done

North London's pride and joy Jazmin Bean delivers their sweet revenge with the release of their latest single, "You Know What You've Done." The track is an unrelenting statement of independence that demands a significant other finally take responsibility for their actions.
Opening with beautiful, sweeping, synth-tinged strings, understated percussion, and warm guitar riffs, Bean's rich vocals and emotional delivery immediately grab your attention, investing you in the lore of a romance gone wrong. The song's lyrics see the rising star wishing the worst on an ex who mistreated them while still not wanting to waste their life eternally angry and seeking revenge. Instead, Bean hopes their guilt will consume them, and the payback will "take its course without lifting a finger." "This song is about feeling remorseful, revengeful and getting payback on a lover who didn't take accountability," shares Jazmin about the track.
The accompanying music video, co-directed by Zak Watson and Jazmin Bean, is a whimsical yet vibrant visual that sees Bean accompanied by their bandmates in a surrealistic indoor field of flowers. Armed with a flower microphone, Bean and Co. give an impassioned performance as it begins to rain inside, serving as a metaphor for the healing and growth that comes after even the worst storms.  From: https://www.onestowatch.com/en/blog/jazmin-bean-you-know-what-youve-done

 

Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name - PinkPop 1993

Killing In The Name was riven with meaning, written at a key moment in recent American history. The beating of black motorist Rodney King by four LAPD officers in March 1991, captured on CCTV footage, had enraged the nation after it was serially beamed across every news channel. 
It was an episode that fed directly into the wiring of Rage Against The Machine, a radical bunch of rap metal-heads who railed against all manner of societal and political ills. Formed in Orange County, California that year, they were led by singer Zack de la Rocha, son of a Chicano political artist and grandson of a Mexican revolutionary, and Morello, himself the scion of African insurrectionists.
The track, Rage Against The Machine’s first single, bit hard on several levels. A righteous slam-bam of punk, hardcore and hip-hop, Killing In The Name was heavy on venomous polemic, burning its gaze into what the band saw as endemic racism in US security agencies. De la Rocha’s repeated mantra ‘Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses’ alludes directly to the Ku Klux Klan.
“I was in LA when the whole Rodney King episode went down,” explains Garth Richardson, producer of the song and 1992’s self-titled parent album. “That was a big thing for the city. Zack and I had a long talk about the power of speech and how whatever he needed to say, he had to say it. Malcolm X was a major influence in Zack’s life, and this was not the time to back down.”
The track’s slamming guitar motif, which echoed the no-compromise ferocity of its message, was more serendipitous. “I was actually in the middle of playing bass in a guitar lesson,” Morello recalls, “and was teaching a student about the drop-D tuning when it came to me. I said to him: ‘Hold on one second’, and scribbled it down. Then we went into rehearsals that night and worked it out. It was part of the second wave of songs we ever wrote.”
Killing In The Name is particularly notorious for its final verse, in which de la Rocha, having built to something of a belligerent frenzy, hollers: ‘Fuck you! I won’t do what you tell me!’ no less than 16 times, topped off by: ‘Motherfucker! Uggh!’ It’s an extraordinary climax, made all the more primal by Richardson setting up the studio with a concert PA and recording the band as if it were a live show.
“My jaw hit the floor,” he recalls. “The song was a standout for an anthem and it knocked me off my feet. We all felt this was going to be big. I knew that Tom’s sound was going to change the way guitars were being heard.”
"Zack and I had a long talk about the power of speech and how whatever he needed to say, he had to say it. Malcolm X was a major influence in Zack’s life, and this was not the time to back down." However, the band did not instantly earmark it as a single.
“Heavens no!” Morello laughs. “We had a particular guy at the record company, Michael Goldstone, who was very sympathetic to what we were trying to say as a band. He was our ‘fifth Beatle’ for a while and very much high in our counsel. It was his suggestion that we release it as our first single. 
"It didn’t come from the band. So it was a case of, ‘Okay, let’s get this straight: it’s the record company who want our first record to be the one that goes, “Fuck you! I won’t do what you tell me!” 16 times, followed by a “motherfucker”?’ Sold! That wouldn’t have been my choice, but that’s how it worked.”
Goldstone may have been adamant about its release, but he nevertheless felt the track was too long. He asked Rage to remove two sections, but the band were having none of it. “Michael called me, and I was the go-between with the band,” Richardson says. “It went like this. Michael: ‘I want you to cut out those parts’. The band: ‘Tell him to fuck off’. Michael: ‘Tell them to fuck off’. Band: ‘Fuck you’. We all knew this song was a huge hit. It had so much power that the band and I were unwilling to let anybody change it.”
It drew even more potency by the time it was released on the album, in November 92. Rodney King’s police assailants had somehow been acquitted by a jury in court that April, a barely believable verdict that instantly triggered the LA riots. The whole affair did little to dispel the song’s claims of institutional racism in certain sections of American society.
Killing In The Name, unsurprisingly enough, was slapped with a radio ban across most US stations. The unedited video version was also censored on MTV  It was instead left to Europe to carry the flag, where the song enjoyed substantial airplay (albeit in ‘clean’ form, apart from one priceless moment when Radio 1 jock Bruno Brookes unwittingly played the original version in full on his Top 40 run-down) and made No.2. in the UK in February 93.
Bullet In The Head and Bulls On Parade were bigger UK hits for Rage in the 90s, but Killing In The Name remains their signifier. “Having a UK Christmas number one in 2009, after all that time was a thrill of a lifetime,” says Richardson. “It just shows how much power people have and what they can do when they work as a group. This band is like no other, what they stand for and what they’ve done. I don’t think anyone will be able to copy them. They changed the musical landscape forever.”  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/story-behind-the-song-killing-in-the-name-by-rage-against-the-machine

Charming Disaster - Radium Girls

Brooklyn-based musical duo Charming Disaster’s upcoming album, Our Lady of Radium, represents a departure from the occult themes the goth-folk duo have become known for on their past releases. On the new album, Charming Disaster’s Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris apply their playfully dark artistic sensibility to the life and discoveries of pioneering scientist Marie Curie, as well as the tragic story of the “Radium Girls” and other consequences of Curie’s work. 
Madame Curie, who was awarded two Nobel Prizes for her groundbreaking work in physics and chemistry, is an ongoing source of popular fascination, as evidenced by recent streaming series and films like Radioactive, but Charming Disaster’s concept album is the first of its kind. Our Lady of Radium includes nine songs exploring moments from Curie’s life and research: the ancient folklore of the mountains where radioactive ores were mined; the romance of equals between Marie and Pierre; the famous spirit medium whose séances they attended; Marie’s grief following Pierre’s tragic death; the physical characteristics of radium itself; and the personal scandal that almost destroyed her. The album also depicts the tragedy of the “Radium Girls,” who were poisoned in the course of their employment, painting watch dials with radium-based paint. In addition, Our Lady of Radium deals with duels, alchemy, dwarves, romance, Egyptian mythology, radioactive decay chains, and other secret histories.
This project began in 2017, when Bisker and Morris were awarded an artist residency by Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology in Bellaire, MI. The duo undertook extensive reading and research into Curie and her work and wrote a cycle of nine interwoven songs telling fragments Curie’s story. The songs then lay dormant while the band toured extensively and recorded another album (2019’s Spells + Rituals).
In early 2020, Charming Disaster were preparing to record their next studio album when the pandemic hit and put those plans on hold. Unable to record in the studio with a backing band, the duo decided to try a new approach, recording every instrument themselves at Ellia’s parents’ home, which was sitting vacant just outside NYC. Working
with just two microphones, the pair tracked ukuleles, guitars, vocals, glockenspiel, bass, pots and pans, breath sounds, a drum kit borrowed from Jeff’s brother, and the piano Ellia used to practice on as a child. They let the sounds of the house contribute too: the natural reverb of a long hallway, a ticking clock that became a percussion element, whistling that echoed in a tiled shower. The results are an extraordinary suite of songs that are haunted by the moments and characters they capture.
Charming Disaster was formed by Bisker and Morris in 2012, inspired by the gothic humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the Americana tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret. Together the duo write songs that tell stories, using two voices to explore dark narratives and characters with a playfully macabre sensibility.  From: https://glidemagazine.com/269060/video-premiere-charming-disaster-recount-historical-tragedy-with-gothic-americana-tune-radium-girls/

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - March On For Pax Romana

Perth natives, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, have not only established themselves as one of the best psych rock groups in Australia, but they're definitely one of the best groups in the world doing this stuff right now, keeping that rock and roll flame alive. Definitely inspired by groups like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Tame Impala, and I would say even other Australian peers like King Gizz.
On their seventh full-length LP Carpe Diem, Moonman, the Crumpets are absolutely proving themselves to be a much more dynamic band than they've been in the past. It's still infusing crazy good rock and roll riffs and the crashing bombastic energy that they're known for, but infusing a developing depth of melody and an insatiable desire to create the craziest riffs you've ever heard. Like I've said, their songs have an incredible knack for ripping, which will keep your head bobbing, but for as heavy as they are, they're digestible and they're catchy and they're memorable and their musicianship.
It's just there's layers upon layers in these songs. The more you go back to them, the more you hear things you missed the first time around. I was going back to these songs time after time after time and being like, Oh, there's some guitar sweeping happening there. Oh, there's a splash symbol that sounds like a hardcore song. This album reveals itself over and over and over again, which makes repeated listens amazing.
The first song on the record, "Another Reincarnation", literally falls into the album. It just starts. There's no lead up, there's no build up. It falls right in. It is a blistering amount of rock and roll guitar frenzy with more riffs than a Guitar Center on a Saturday afternoon. This one crashes and bashes and scratches all the itches. You get the catchy hooks, you get the tension building, you get a bridge that disguises itself as a hardcore song. Everything you want from rock and roll: groove, texture, melody, all combined into one absolutely pulsating track. Lyrically, I'm feeling this song is potentially about being abducted by aliens.
"March On for Pax Ramona" is probably one of my favorite songs they've ever done, let alone this year in terms of rock. But the talk-singing during the verses is the perfect choice to fill in the empty spaces. When it gets to that chorus, it's one of the most euphoric, explosive choruses I've heard in a rock song in a very long time. The riff itself sounds like it's ready for a fight. It sounds like it's about to take off or explode the whole time. Pax Ramona itself was a time of cultural revolution in ancient Rome, and it was where ideas flourished and books, literature and art and music and design, architecture, where all these things were flourishing during this really tiny period of time where this cultural significance, this era of peace, like they say in the song, "I got a good time if you want to march on for Pax Ramona." You're marching for peace. Let's keep this thing going.
Easily, one of one of the best rock songs of the year. If you're going to hear one song from this album, put on "March for Pax Ramona". It's going to shred your wig.  From: https://theneedledrop.com/album-reviews/psychedelic-crumpets-carpe-diem-moonman-album-review/

 

Mary Fahl - The Great Valerio (Richard & Linda Thompson cover)

When Mary Fahl fronted the October Project, she was the force behind the band. According to her contract, she was not allowed to write music or do anything besides singing. With these limitations, she used her hands to convey the power of the songs like an operatic diva. After the band broke up, she had to do things independently, including playing the guitar and writing songs. It is great to see such self-reliance, but I think she is at her most arresting when she sings, using her body language to amplify the heart and soul of the song. The Great Valerio is the first official music video from Can’t Get It Out Of My Head, the just-released album of her favorite songs. I had no idea she likes ELO, and this is a great surprise. 
So what’s the story behind her decision to cover this song? Here’s the little info: Directed and edited by Lisa Hancock, Mary Fahl reimagines this personal favorite by one of her greatest inspirations, Richard and Linda Thompson. She brings “The Great Valerio” to life utilizing archived footage of a tightrope walker to put a face to the name of this fictitious character made famous from the original recording off the album “I Want to See Bright Lights Tonight” originally released in 1974. Mary stays true to the beauty of the original recording while transforming this beloved cover into her own version with soaring chamberpop vocals and a unique, haunting arrangement.  From: https://spheremusic.wordpress.com/2022/08/06/mary-fahl-is-at-her-most-theatrical-with-the-great-valerio-official-music-video/

Jackson Cloud Odyssey - Monkey Mind

Monkey Mind by Jackson Cloud Odyssey delves into the relentless cycle of negative thoughts and the struggle to break free from them, using the metaphor of a 'monkey mind' to represent the chaotic and uncontrollable nature of these thoughts.  From: https://www.musixmatch.com/es/letras/Jackson-Cloud-Odyssey/Monkey-Mind  

Jex Thoth - When The Raven Calls

Emerging from the intriguingly named Slab City, California, are Jex Thoth, with their self-titled debut album which brings forth a different take on the classic Doom format well-trodden by many bands before. There is no hiding the fact that this band is all about its female singer of the same name whose husky voice is it's defining feature and leads a lot of the discussion about the band and its music.
Rather than following the classic Doom template to the word in the manner of Reverend Bizarre or The Gates Of Slumber, Jex Thoth come across as a Sabbath-influenced (obviously...) 70's sounding folky-psychedelic Doom band with Bjork on vocals. Infact their bass-heavy and keyboard-backed sound can be most closely compared to not one of the godfathers of Doom, but the 21st Century's own 1970s band: Witchcraft. The importance of the bass guitar permeates throughout, being far more noticeable at times that the guitar, which in the likes of "Equinox Suite, A) The Poison Pit" at times merely adds flourishing melodies or can be heard following the footsteps of the keyboard. Though the trippy spaced feel of classic Sabbath and Pentagram can be attained pretty much throughout, those bands legacies are mostly plundered for the softer and less 'angular' riffing more-often-than-not utilised by Jex Thoth. Just listening to "Equinox Suite, B) Thawing Magus" instantly sends this writer drifting off to the thoughts of bygone Sabbath classics such as "Planet Caravan" and "Orchid".
The speed of proceedings is somber throughout with the term 'Doom' being the only fit under the Metal spectrum but at times not even that applies - Jex Thoth are more than happy to deviate into moments of pure psychedelia ("Seperated at Birth", "When The Raven Calls"), helped immeasurably by a thoroughly un-modern recording sound. The importance of keyboards on the album is most felt in the Reverend Bizarre tinged "Equinox Suite, D) The Damned and Divine", where the mood reaches its lowest point for a bout of melancholic shoegazing. In the likes of "Obsidian Night" and "Warrior Woman" Jex Thoth ride a delicate balance of sounding disturbingly fragile at times whilst laying some of the heaviest riffs this side of Electric Wizard, thanks both to the superbly deep bass sound and Jex's haunting vocal melodies. Her best comparator, Bjork, highlights the fact there are no female vocalists within the boundaries of Metal who fill her territory, all being either basically pop singers (Nightwish, Within Temptation stand up) or men in disguise (Arch Enemy).  From: https://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Jex_Thoth/Jex_Thoth/187031/ 

 

Einsturzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch

Figured it’s about time I finally wrote about the band whose frontman’s name I’ve s̶t̶o̶l̶e̶n̶ borrowed, Einstürzende Neubauten, which translates roughly to Collapsing New Buildings, though most people just seem to call them Neubauten and everyone knows what they’re talking about. Neubauten are a German industrial band which takes the genre to the most literal extreme: most of their percussion is crafted from scrap metal, which more often than not results in some of the most inventive rhythms the genre has to offer. The band aren’t exactly without controversy; the band came into being during the time when Germany was bifurcated between Western Europe and the Iron Curtain, a time when architectural standards were substandard at the best of times. There were altbauten (old buildings), which were and are centuries old and either survived World War II or were reconstructed, and neubauten (new buildings), which had an unfortunate reputation for being cheaply built, shoddily designed, and less pretty than the altbauten which preceded them, and the band received unwanted attention when the Berlin Congress Hall collapsed and killed someone. To give North American readers an idea of how insensitive Germans might have thought the name to be, imagine if less than a day after 9/11 happened, some dipshits got together and formed a punk band called Carpet-Bomb Manhattan.
Now if you’re wondering how the hell this band is in the same scene as Throbbing Gristle, Coil, and Nurse with Wound, consider the meaning of the band’s name: it fits in perfectly with the classic industrial ethos of taking cultural landmarks of old and molding them into something new, and in that respect Neubauten’s music coincides nicely with the British industrial of the time. Up to this point, Neubauten made a name for themselves making anarchic but rhythmic anti-music, then came Halber Mensch, which, perhaps due to frontman Blixa Bargeld playing with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, saw their music become more structured, while still being some of the most literally industrial music there is.  From: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/82848/Einsturzende-Neubauten-Halber-Mensch/

Halber Mensch (also known as 1/2 Mensch) is a 1986 documentary film by Japanese director Gakuryū Ishii, then going by the name Sōgo Ishii, featuring German band Einstürzende Neubauten. It was originally released on VHS, and re-released on DVD in 2005. The film's title comes from the album of the same name. The one-hour film documents Einstürzende Neubauten's visit to Japan in 1985. It includes concert footage along with scenes of the band performing in an industrial building. Several songs from the "Halber Mensch" album are presented as music videos, some with accompanying Butoh dancers.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halber_Mensch_(film) 

 

The Beatles - Abbey Road Video Album

 The Beatles - Abbey Road Video Album - Part 1

 The Beatles - Abbey Road Video Album - Part 2

Side One

Come Together (4:19)
Something (3:02)
Maxwell's Silver Hammer (3:27)
Oh! Darling (3:27)
Octopus's Garden (2:51)
I Want You (She's So Heavy) (7:47)

Side Two

Here Comes the Sun (3:06)
Because (2:46)
You Never Give Me Your Money (4:03)
Sun King (2:26)
Mean Mr. Mustard (1:07)
Polythene Pam (1:13)
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window (1:59)
Golden Slumbers (1:32)
Carry That Weight (1:36)

The front cover image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an impostor, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Road's commercial success in the US.[140] Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by Booker T. & the M.G.'s McLemore Avenue (1970), Kanye West's Late Orchestration (2006) and by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?" Yesterday (2019) is about a musician who suddenly finds himself as the only person who remembers the Beatles and becomes famous for performing their songs. One of the film's posters depicts him walking on a similar zebra crossing, alone.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Road

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Abbey Road
1 George Harrison was sitting in the garden of Eric Clapton’s country house when he began writing “Here Comes The Sun.”
2 All four Beatles were together in the recording studio for the last time on August 20, 1969, when they finalized a mix of Abbey Road.
3 According to George Harrison, the guitar parts on “Sun King” were inspired by the sound of Fleetwood Mac’s big hit single, “Albatross.”
4 The word “pataphysical,” as heard in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” came from the French avant-garde writer Alfred Jarry, who died in 1907. Paul became interested in his writing and discovered “pataphysics” (defined by Jarry as the “science of imaginary solutions”) in one of the writer’s later works.
5 “Come Together” was banned by the BBC in 1969 because it mentions Coca-Cola and the company had a policy against product placement in songs broadcast on the radio.
6 “Octopus’s Garden,” written by Ringo Starr, was inspired while he was on board Peter Sellers’ yacht in the Mediterranean. The boat’s captain told Ringo how octopuses gather stones and shiny objects from the sea bed to build gardens.
7 According to John Lennon, he asked Yoko Ono to play the chords to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” backward to create “Because.” This is not entirely accurate, but it is very close to the overall sound of The Beatles’ song.
8 As Ringo explained, the idea of the Side Two medley was born out of necessity: “John and Paul had various bits, and so we recorded them and put them together. A lot of work went into it. That last section is, for me, one of the finest pieces we put together.” Paul embraced the idea enthusiastically. “It gave the second side a sort of operatic structure, which was quite nice because it got rid of all these songs in a good way.”
9 “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” was inspired by an incident when one of the Apple Scruffs (the girls who hung about outside The Beatles’ office) climbed in to McCartney’s house via the bathroom window. She then let in some of the other girls, who stole photos and clothes.
10 Some of the lyrics for “Golden Slumbers” are based on “Cradle Song,” a poem and lullaby from Thomas Dekker’s 1603 comedy, Patient Grissel. McCartney saw the sheet music, left by his stepsister Ruth, on the piano at his father’s home in Liverpool. 
From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/beatles-abbey-road-streets-ahead-time/

Black Sabbath - Never Say Die - Side 1

01 - Never Say Die
02 - Johnny Blade
03 - Junior’s Eyes
04 - A Hard Road

If ever an album title was proved false, it was this one. Following the sacking of Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Never Say Die! ended up being the last studio album made by the original Black Sabbath. And so it remains, given Bill Ward’s absence from the band’s comeback album 13. 
Having briefly quit Sabbath in 1977, Ozzy was by his own admission, rather worse for wear during the recording of Never Say Die! "Everybody was fucked up," he said. "But no matter how fucked up I was, I’d still be up early in the morning because I’ve always had this sleeping disorder. So I’d be up at 7 o’clock and out of my mind by 11, drinking and getting fucked up.
"The rest of Sabbath wouldn’t get up until late because they’d been doing their drugs, or whatever it was, all night. They’d turn up and jam, but by that time I’d lost the spark, you know? Even to this day I don’t know the details, but I assume – and I’m very likely wrong – that Tony wanted me out of the band."
But even when carrying their singer, Sabbath still produced flashes of brilliance on the album’s explosive title track, slow-rolling boogie A Hard Road, and the beautiful, jazz-influenced Air Dance, featuring Don Airey (Rainbow/Deep Purple) on piano. And amidst all the trauma, Never Say Die! may be one of Sabbath’s most underrated album.  From: https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/black-sabbath-never-say-die-album-of-the-week-club-review

 

Tommy James - Draggin' The Line

Draggin’ The Line was originally released on James’ second solo album, Christian Of The World. Draggin’ The Line wasn’t considered to be released as the single, and was ultimately was the B-side of the Church Street Soul Revival single. After DJs began playing the song, James went back into the studio to remix the record and add the horn charts.
Tommy James: “It’s almost like the bass guitar was speaking. And it just seemed to say ‘draggin’ the line’ to me. It’s weird. But we had the track before we had the song, and it was like the bass was speaking. The line of ‘hugging a tree’ in there became kind of a slang expression for people who are interested in the ecology. ‘Tree Hugger’ came from that song.”
From Songfacts: In our interview with Tommy James, he explained: “‘Draggin’ The Line’ I wrote up at my farm in 1970, and it was with Bob King. My farm was in upstate New York, I had a couple hundred acres. It was a song I probably couldn’t have written in the city. We just kind of toyed with it. We wrote it, and it was a very repetitious track, and a very sort of hypnotic track. We had the track before we had the song. We went into the studio and just laid down, I don’t know, eight or ten bars of track. We looped it and looped it and looped it, and created the hypnotic rhythm. Bob played bass, Russ Leslie from Neon played drums, and I played guitar. And so we just created loops of tape based on this little riff, and when we had three-plus minutes of it put together we stopped, and then we wrote the song around the track. Second time I had ever done that – first one was “Mony” actually. ‘Draggin’ the Line’ just meant working every day. Nothing really very mysterious about it.”
Regarding the lyrics, “My dog Sam eats purple flowers,” James says: “I did have a cat named Sam – not a dog named Sam. He was a white Persian cat. That was just finding words that fit together (laughing) on a very mellow night, if you get my drift.”
Like many famous songs, this was not considered a hit at first. Says James: “The interesting thing about ‘Draggin’ the Line’ is it was originally the B-side, it was the flip-side of a record called ‘Church Street Soul Revival’ that I had out in 1970. And we put the record out, and the B-side got as much airplay as the A-side, and then finally more airplay. And so we could tell that radio wanted to go with ‘Draggin’ The Line.’ So we went into the studio and threw horns on it, and remixed it with more emphasis on the groove, and re-released it then as an A-side in 1971.  From: https://powerpop.blog/2020/01/30/tommy-james-draggin-the-line/

Poeta Magica - Ederlezi

Poeta Magica was founded in 1992 and is one of the leading medieval folk and world music bands in Europe. Poeta Magica stands for a wide range of popular and independent music, expressive interpretations of traditional Scandinavian and Bretonic music, contemporary interpretations of medieval music from all over Europe and original compositions inspired by Nordic mythology, such as the Icelandic saga “Edda”.
The music of Poeta Magica incorporates archaic sounds of the North as well as playful melodies from the travelling musicians of the Middle Ages and a variety of intoxicating rhythms from Orient to Occident.
The exceptional selection of instruments played by Poeta Magica comprises among others hurdy-gurdy, Celtic harp, lute, shawn, nyckelharpa and various types of bagpipes and percussions. Poeta Magica performs live all over Europe and has published numerous CDs and contributed music to several tv productions.  From: https://soundcloud.com/poetamagica