Garmarna - Live Festival Mediaval 2013

 Garmarna - Live Festival Mediaval 2013 - Part 1

 

 Garmarna - Live Festival Mediaval 2013 - Part 2

 

Swedish band Garmarna creates contemporary folk firmly rooted in Nordic folk music traditions. They have developed their own sound, influenced by the rock tradition they’ve all grown up with. Garmarna ignores the unwritten laws of how traditional music should be performed; the musicians know no boundaries. The music is half new – and newly-written – and half traditional with ancient instrumentation next to sampled drum-loops, suggestive mouth harps, tender violins and distorted guitars.
Garmarna started in January 1990, just a week after a performance of Hamlet that featured very strong, old Swedish music. Stefan, Gotte, and Rickard were inspired by the show, and they began searching for old tunes and instruments. After a year of playing together, just before their appearance at Sweden’s biggest rock festival, Jens Höglin joined the band on drums.
In autumn 1992, the band recorded an EP. They realized that female vocals would provide a light contrast to the naturally dark moods of the music. Emma Härdelin (a longtime friend of the band) guested on that record, then joined the band in early 1993, completing the lineup. The debut EP sold well in Sweden, and helped the band tour in Scandinavia.
The following year, the band decided to add samples and sequencers to the mix, giving the old tunes a modern musical foundation. Still, the heart of the music remains the harsh Swedish harmonies created by acoustic instruments, topped off by Emma’s intense vocals. The album Vittrad (“crumbling away”) was immediately hailed by the press, calling Garmarna “probably the best folkmusic band in Scandinavia.” In the deep winter of 1994, Omnium released Vittrad in the US, with full English translations of the dark old songs and an extra track Kleveberg’s Fire, pointing the way towards a new style of retro-futurist folk music (including samples from prehistoric Scandinavia.) The band made the cover of Billboard and the CMJ World chart.
1996 started with a long German tour closely followed by the album Gods Musicians / Guds Spelemän (named after a poem by Swedish poet Nils Ferlin.) The Swedish press went wild over it, the album made it to the Swedish sales charts, and it was released by Omnium in September 1996. Again, the band appeared on the cover of Billboard with rave reviews in Wired and Playboy.
Garmarna did a series of concerts in churches in the North of Sweden presenting their interpretation of the medieval works of 12th century German abbess Hildegard von Bingen, together with actress Felicia Konrad. It was Garmarna’s interpretation of her work placed in a 21st century environment. The reviews were great, the shows sold out and the audience was very enthusiastic.  From: https://worldmusiccentral.org/artist-profiles-garmarna/

 

The Mighty Orchid King - Symbiomedome

I’ve run across a lot of quirky genre descriptions on Bandcamp. Mellow Beast bill themselves as “wizard rock;” Louison’s latest album was described as “cyberprog;” and That 1 Guy has called his music “experimental ‘earthshaking future funk’ from the future maybe.” Despite their oddness, I could vaguely imagine what those might sound like. The UK-based quintet The Mighty Orchid King, on the other hand, dubs their music “mushroom-prog.”
Reading the phrase “mushroom-prog,” my mind immediately went to psilocybin and psychedelics–a not-unreasonable leap, if you ask me. However, reading the band’s description of this album, they intended that phrase much more literally. This album tells the story of a mushroom king and the spirits of the dead things he has consumed. It’s quite a clever concept which explicitly draws inspiration from John Milton’s Paradise Lost and carries a strong environmentalist message.
The band says they aimed to create “an entangled musical ecology,” and Mycelium Music Volume I is a veritable clonal colony of amazing music. The album has an impressive degree of sonic cohesion and continuity, and the individual songs flow together in brilliant, creative ways.  From: https://theeliteextremophile.com/2022/10/10/album-review-the-mighty-orchid-king-mycelium-music-volume-i-pinedemonium-awakes/

Church Of The Sea - Eva

For a tripartite arrangement, Church of the Sea manages to fashion admirably vast and enchanting soundscapes with an appreciable variance in both dynamics and energy. The prevailing elements of dulcet keys, downplayed percussion, and lush vocals create a deeply dreamlike ambiance to Eva that further polishes the sound cultivated in the Odalisque debut in 2022. The dreamwork varies in mood, though. A song like “The Siren’s Choice” is something of a fitful sleep; its warm, saturated guitar takes a leaf out of The Grime and Glow-era Chelsea Wolfe, while its lead synths fills the upper register as the bass synths and guitar growl and gurgle in the low-mids. The mood trends downwards in songs like “Widow,” which is more doom-laced and gothic – droning, heavy, but melodic. Finally, “Churchyard” is more wistful for its atmospheric synths until the balladic chorus detonates with absolutely fuzzy, fat, crunched out guitar – all melodically simple, yet absolutely fitting. All in all, Eva is a somber but beautiful creation; blending the best of dark ambient with the best of doom, it may just be your gateway drug into the realm of either.  From: https://regenmag.com/reviews/review-church-of-the-sea-eva/ 

The Babe Rainbow - Like Cleopatra

Australian psych-rock trio Babe Rainbow has dropped their latest single, “Like Cleopatra,” a sun-drenched, funk-infused pop track. This release comes ahead of their newly announced album, Slipper imp and shakaerator, set to release on April 4th via King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s p(doom) Records.
“Like Cleopatra” pairs 80s-inspired grooves with ethereal backing vocals by Camille Jansen, capturing the band’s signature blend of laid-back energy and psychedelic charm. Reflecting on the track, the band shared that it was inspired by dreamy recording sessions near a natural spring, paying homage to their idyllic Gold Coast origins.
The forthcoming album promises to be their most “homegrown” yet, recorded in a warehouse on a banana farm with producer Timon Martin. Rooted in free-flowing jams and vibrant experimentation, the project embodies the relaxed, colorful essence of Babe Rainbow.  From: https://www.beyondthewatch.com/blog/2025/1/15/listen-to-like-cleopatra-by-babe-rainbow

Carmanah - Nightmare

Q: Your music has been described – quite appropriately, I think – as ‘West Coast Soul.’  I was really intrigued by the mix of folk music with very soulful horn and vocal arrangements… what musical influences have shaped your sound?

A: One of the questions that musicians are asked most often is “what genre is your music?” When our producer, Gus Van Go, described our genre as West Coast Soul, I think we had a moment of relief knowing that we finally had a satisfying answer to this frequently asked question. We enjoy mixing a variety of styles and influences into our music. Individually, each band member offers their own touch to the arrangements and to the production of our music. To name a few personal influences, I’ve been inspired by the guitar work of Bahamas, the unique artistry of Feist, and the vocal power of Roy Orbison.

“Nightmare” has been stuck in my head since I first started listening to the album – it’s a really addictive sonic mix of soul and Britpop (to my ears, anyway).  What inspired this particular song?

Nightmare is about choosing to open your eyes and observing what is going on around you, versus living with eyes closed in short-term blissful ignorance. In our modern world, it is easy to turn a blind eye to the many atrocities and issues that need to be addressed. Specifically, Nightmare’s lyrics dive into the threat that logging has on the remaining old growth forests of Vancouver Island. These are rainforests that have never been logged, so the trees are ancient and massive and the ecosystems are irreplaceable.

Gus Van Go has worked with some fantastic Canadian artists (The Arkells, Terra Lightfoot, Whitehorse, just to name a few)… what was the experience of working with him like?

Working with Gus, and his production partner Werner F., was totally amazing. While in studio Pat (bandmate, vocalist, lead guitarist) commented that every day we spent with these guys was like going to university. Gus and Werner took us and our music under their wings and helped us become our very best. They also got a huge kick out of our apparently Canadian “accents.” It was a fun, rewarding and eye-opening month in Vancouver’s Warehouse Studio. The experience continues to inspire us to hone our craft, develop our music and work towards the next album.

If I read correctly, this is your first album (commercial, at least); you released it about a month ago… what has the experience of launching an album been like for you all?

Yep, Speak in Rhythms is our first professionally produced album and we poured our hearts into it. Releasing the album has definitely been a turning point for us in our musical endeavours. It’s been exciting to see the album create a bit of a buzz. On March 9th we celebrated our hometown album release in Victoria, BC at the Capital Ballroom. Hearing people singing along to our new music shortly after the album was released made us so happy. Now we are touring the album throughout Canada and hearing our songs on different stations, having interviews and meeting folks in far places that are thrilled with the album. The sense of community and support from all over is super heart-warming.

You mention on your website that you fuel your tour vehicle with used vegetable oil, and you’ve talked in various interviews about being a conservationist – in addition to lessening your carbon footprint, what are other ways in which your ecological principles impact your work as musicians?

Haha running on vegetable oil is a hot topic for us, and it often leads to further discussions with people about the environment and the need to lessen our individual and collective ecological footprints on the planet. We have found, more and more, that people are receptive to talking about the issues at hand and are often excited to share what they are doing in their own lives to be part of change for the better. On the road, we are learning to be as “waste-less” as possible, using our own mugs and utensils, refusing plastics, eating vegetarian food and supporting local businesses. We take it a step further with our Jellyfish Project presentations at schools all over. These presentations intend to educate youth on ocean acidification, climate change, overfishing and plastic pollution, and inspire conversation and action regarding treating our planet better.

You’ve been touring parts of Ontario; does the music scene in the east differ markedly from British Columbia’s scene? 

It’s March 17th and I’m currently writing this while on the road with the band in Ontario! We are three gigs in at this point (Toronto, Burnstown and London) and it’s been a hoot so far. The venues (the Rivoli, Neat Cafe and the Aeolian) have treated us so well and the audiences have been warm and wonderful. People are good all over and music unites. We see this on the west coast as well, but we’ve definitely been noting and appreciating the concentration of musicianship and skill level found in Ontario’s music scene including PR, promotions, venue managers and sound/lighting techs to name a few. Maybe due to population, maybe deep roots and a driven commercial infrastructure. Either way it’s stimulating.

From: https://greatdarkwonder.com/speak-in-rhythms-interview-with-carmanah/

 

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lookin' Out My Back Door

Lookin' Out My Back Door was partly written for John Fogerty's son Josh, who at the time was three years old. Fogerty said: "I knew he would love it if he heard me on the radio singing - doot doot doo, lookin' out my back door." In the song lyrics there is a reference to a parade passing by which John says was inspired by a Dr. Seuss book that he read as a kid titled To Think (That) I Saw It On Mulberry Street. >>
Much like The Beatles "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," many people thought this was about drugs when it was really an innocent song inspired by a child. According to the drug theory, the "Flying Spoon" was a cocaine spoon, and the crazy animal images were an acid trip. This was even less plausible than the Beatles misinterpretation, since Creedence Clearwater Revival was never into psychedelic drugs.
The album cover shows Creedence Clearwater Revival's rehearsal space, which is not their original digs: they started rehearsing in a shed in the backyard of their drummer Doug Clifford's house. Clifford once said it was "better than working in a factory," so their rehearsal rooms became known as "The Factory." Clifford's nickname was Cosmo, so this space was known as "Cosmo's Factory."
John Fogerty played a bit of dobro on this track. He's seen holding the instrument on the cover of the 1969 album Green River, but "Lookin' Out My Back Door" is the only time he played it on a Creedence song. In 1993, he bought a dobro at a vintage guitar show and set out to master the instrument, playing it for hours on end and using it on his 1997 solo album Blue Moon Swamp. He got some help along the way from Jerry Douglas, a preeminent dobro player who was part of Alison Krauss' band Union Station.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/creedence-clearwater-revival/lookin-out-my-back-door 

tUnE-yArDs - Real Live Flesh

Though she's released only one full-length and a short four-song companion, Merrill Garbus is has already demonstrated some serious range with her tUnE-yArDs project. BiRd-BrAiNs veered from haunting to folk to singer-songwriter pop to loop-driven tracks infused with R&B, and "Real Live Flesh", one of the songs found on last month's BiRd-DrOpPiNgS EP, does a terrific job of combining all of these elements. The layering of her voice is more prominent here than anything on BiRd-BrAiNs: Wordless syllables are used to sketch out the chords, versions of her purring in her higher register sort of curl around each other like wafts of smoke, and there's almost no instrumentation other than minimal percussion and swirls of cut-up sound. She cuts the ethereal prettiness and ratchets up the intensity with a few gutbucket yowls, hitting on a phrase ("Been away so long/ You love me only in your dreams") that continues a theme explored several times on the LP: what happens to desire when it can't find an outlet? Add reports of an impressive live show, currently on display during her tour with Dirty Projectors, and tUnE-yArDs becomes the sort of project where you can't wait to hear what happens next.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11670-real-live-flesh/ 

Pterodactyl - School Glue

When did your newest album come out?

All: April.

It's your first full-length, right?

Joe: It is. But the oldest song on there is five years old.

Matt: Which one is that?

J: Safe Like a Train.

M: That was on our first seven inch. We recorded the album with these guys called The Brothers (they're brothers) in Greenpoint. They recently started a recording studio. We gave them a sampler of songs that we wrote, but they really liked that old song off the seven inch. Then…

J: We had a recording of it sped up. We said, isn't this novel?

Sped up? Like from 33 to 45?

M: Not that perceivably, but...

J: The old one goes like this. (strums guitar) Then the new one is more like this. (strums guitar) - higher pitched, faster tempo It makes it into a hoppy…

Kurt: Like its trying to get somewhere.

J: Exactly. It's churning along, like a train.

When I listen to your songs, I have these visions of y'all jumping around, wherever you happen to be at that moment performing the songs.

Joe: Or maybe when you play the record, we start jumping around wherever we are.

Is the record hardwired with special radio frequencies inside that relay to a special collar in your neck that makes you jump around? That's the next generation of performance art.

Matt: Luckily not too many people listen to our record at the same time. We have a hidden motivation in not becoming too popular.

What do you do to accomplish that goal?

J: Make music that is difficult to listen to.

M: Make music with no bass frequencies that hurt people's ears

J: In the past it has seemed like a really exciting thing, to make music that shreds people's ears apart. I think it does it less so on the record than at the shows. People say “Man, I like those songs but you are hard to listen to. There is so much of that stuff that hurts you.”

M: “I love your Myspace page.”

J: It's a difficult question; whether to shred people's ears or make them pleased to listen to your music.

Do you desire to shred people's ears, or is it…

M: It used to be. We started playing in college in the basement. We were thinking that the music has to sound really tough. Then we realized that we are all pansies.

Will having Kurt in Berkeley influence the way that your sound develops?

J: This tour has been an attempt to try to play the music that we made with Kurt on the newest record.

M: In practice there's not that much difference between what we've done with Zach in Brooklyn, but besides a couple of new songs that we wrote with him that we haven't been playing on this tour, I think the general idea is doing what we know how to do together the best we can.

Which is perhaps shredding people's ears.

M: We do that with Zach too.

J: That's the funny thing. We do that very naturally. I think some of it has to do with the fact that our ears are damaged in that frequency range already, because we've been playing there a long time. Even when things are shredding other people's ears, we think 'Aw, that's not ear-shredding enough.'

M: And we're wearing ear plugs.

K: Yeah. I think that's the thing with our show, and when we write songs. We're writing songs with ear plugs in, and then we listen to stuff on the recordings, and its not turned up nearly as loud as when we play, so we're kind of shielding ourselves from exactly the frequencies that destroy everyone's ears.

M: And the writing kind of necessitates the volume, or at least we make it so that it does. If we try to turn down a lot, it doesn't sound the same. For Joe and Kurt it's a volume issue, and for me it's an energy issue. I feel the way I'm inclined to play the drums is in a sweaty and emphatic way. I'm trying to improve on a more dynamic range and subtlety, so I'm not always blowing it out. It's a constant struggle.

J: Constant struggle.

Where do you think your desire to play loud music comes from?

J: Emotional insecurities. My mother did not hold me enough when I was a child, so I'm afraid to put myself at risk in performance. So I hide behind the noise.

From: https://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/pterodactyl 

Dikanda - O Mama

Founded in Szczecin, Poland, in 1997, the seven-piece band, Dikanda, has long stood out in a music scene dominated by standard-issue pop. Vocalist Anna Witczak and guitarist Piotr Rejdak teamed up as students to finance a hitchhiking venture to Western Europe by busking. Before they knew it, one jam session and lucky encounter led to another, and Dikanda was born. They became not just a band, but a tight-knit family, and their bond with one another is evident when one sits in a room with them. People of Bangladesh will have their first taste of Dikanda's lively intensity, when the group performs at the Dhaka International Folk Fest 2018, which opens today. The band talks about their musical journey, their expectations from the festival and more.

How would you describe the musical style of Dikanda?

We have termed our style "Dikandish". Of course, our music has its roots in Poland, but over the years, it has become a fusion of classical, jazz, folk and any other kind of music that interests us. Everyone in our band can pitch in their individual takes for a musical piece. Our music is fiery, honest and played straight from the heart.

What compelled you to take part in the Dhaka International Folk Fest?

We have a really long tour this November and we happened to find five free days between our shows in Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Poland. Performing in Bangladesh sounded like an exotic opportunity, as we have never been here before. Also, at the moment, it is really cold in Poland (laughs); so, we are pleased to be invited here.

From all the places that you have toured, which have been your most memorable concerts?

Couple years ago, we played in Morocco and we were uncertain of how people there will react to our music. But, thankfully, the audience was blown away by our energy on stage. Moreover, we had really intimate meetings and jamming sessions with people in the Sahara Desert. That experience was inspiring for us.

Since as a band, you are immensely inspired by different kinds of music, would you be open to collaborating with Bangladeshi musicians?

Absolutely. But, to be frank, we do not have any agenda to look for musicians to collaborate with here. If we come across people we have the right chemistry with, we will be more than happy to make music with them.

From: https://www.thedailystar.net/arts-entertainment/interview/news/dikanda-love-poland-1660543 

Agony Aunts - Mother Make Sleep

It’s been too long, but the Bay Area supergroup returns after 2010’s Greater Miranda, with even more harmony-laden psych-pop.  The band is basically The Corner Laughers; KC Bowman, Karla Kane , Khoi Huynh, and Charlie Crabtree. Add to this many guest stars including Gil Ray (The Loud Family), Anton Barbeau and Allen Clapp (The Orange Peels). So can all those cooks spoil this brew? Not likely.
Opening with the kaleidoscopic “Twenty-four Mergansers” it’s a lot like the Laughers with a bit more Magical Mystery Tour thrown in. Then it follows up seamlessly with “Family Drugs,” the lyrics repeating over with crisp harmonies on the “bottle it up” backing chorus. The psychedelic sheen on everything is comparable to The Pillbugs on the title track. And if you ever wondered what a modern day Mamas and Papas would sound like, listen to “Back To Back Bills.”
The second half is more rock oriented, those dual tracked guitars stand out on the perfect “We Got The Jekyll.”  Raspberries fans will flip for the intro on “Uranium My Love,” a riff heavy melody full of hooks about science. Its not predictable either, “You’re So Vague” is like a combo of Todd Rundgren and The Explorers Club. It ends with the mysterious story behind “Cool Fresh Nights” and Barbeau’s quirky country “Trouble Was Born.” Not trace of filler to be found, production is clean and sounds great through headphones, so its hard to not love this album.  From: https://www.powerpopaholic.com/2013/11/agony-aunts-big-cinammon.html

Natalie Merchant - Jealousy / Wonder

 Natalie Merchant - Jealousy

 

 Natalie Merchant - Wonder

 

When she was a teenager, Natalie Merchant worked at a day camp for special needs children, many of whom had been institutionalized since infancy and abandoned by their parents. This song was inspired by that experience.
She explained on a VH1 Storytellers appearance: "When I was 13 years old, we're talking 1976, I spent my summer working as a volunteer for a bunch of hippies, basically, that got a seed grant from the Carter administration, which had a lot of really wonderful programs for the arts. These people started a day camp for handicapped children, and I worked for them the whole summer. A lot of these children were institutionalized - their parents had left the scene a long time ago. They didn't function so well in a conventional sense, but it seems that a lot of the children had developed like a private language or new senses so they could navigate through the world, especially the blind and the deaf children that we worked with.
From an early age, I had that contact with children who had special needs. I had lost my fear of intimacy with them - especially with Down syndrome kids, they could be really unpredictable and up to that point I had been a little frightened of them. I maintained some of the friendships with those kids and I was always open to meeting children with special needs. So when I wrote the song 'Wonder,' I wrote the song about a woman who was born with handicaps that seemed insurmountable, but she did overcome them, greatly because she had a loving family, especially her adoptive mother - she had been given up to an institution at birth."
This is a very meaningful song to many people who grew up with special needs and their caretakers. The song views these people as "wonders," with doctors having no explanation for their condition, but seeing the work of God in the creation.
"I've met a lot of people through this song, and they've told me that they've taken it on as their song, that it describes them," Merchant said. "It describes their strengths in spite of what others would see as deficiencies."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/natalie-merchant/wonder

 

Rusted Root - Woodstock '99

 Rusted Root - Woodstock '99 - Part 1

 

 Rusted Root - Woodstock '99 - Part 2

 

Rusted Root gave us "Send Me On My Way," one of the most joyful and uplifting songs of our time. It is the ideal musical accompaniment for a hopeful journey, and it relates to a theme of Rusted Root mainman Michael Glabicki's songwriting: the Earth.
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Michael was a committed activist. He used the 1987 version of social media - infiltrating schools to speak out about the atrocities of US imperialism - to rally students for a trip to Nicaragua, where the American government was supporting the Contra rebels in a clandestine war. It was there where he made a connection to the Earth and developed the framework for political songs like "Ecstasy".
Michael sings and does most of the songwriting in Rusted Root, whose mainstays include percussionists Liz Berlin and Jim Donovan, and bass player Patrick Norman. They formed in 1990, releasing their self-titled debut album in 1992. That one held the original version of "Send Me On My Way," which was reworked for their second album, When I Woke, in 1994. This is the version that took off, earning the band spots on tours with Santana and the Dave Matthews Band.
In 2012, Rusted Root released The Movement, which puts their polyrhythms to songs about taking back a world that is becoming spiritually disconnected.

Carl Wiser (Songfacts): I talked to a woman who wrote with Earth, Wind & Fire, and she said that before she was allowed to go in the room and write with them, Maurice White made her read a book called The Greatest Salesman in the World, which outlined his spiritual beliefs. Is there anything like that that influences your songwriting?

Michael Glabicki: No. Not really. If there's anything close to it, it would be Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. That's a pretty solid book in my life. But nothing that influences the songwriting like you're describing that story to be. It's more about life and experience and sort of learning through the spiritual that way.

Songfacts: What's one of those life experiences that was a big influence on some of your songs?

Glabicki: Let's see. I would say it started early on. I had a car accident when I was two and a half. I was run over by a car. And that whole experience woke me up to a lot of outer guides and a whole sort of realization as to why I was here. But I think I came into the world with that, that kind of knowing. And it kind of set it in stone for me.

Songfacts: I'm surprised that you even remember something from being two and a half. That's remarkable.

Glabicki: Well, I remember mostly waking up from it and the feelings that occurred right after I woke up.

Songfacts: What religion were you raised in?

Glabicki: Catholic.

Songfacts: And then how did that transform once you had this accident and these things happened to you?

Glabicki: I never totally bought into the whole religion in church thing. I guess growing up I was very aloof and living more in those outer realms as opposed to in the very concrete world. And I think I just went through the religion growing up. We weren't too religious as a family. But I took little bits and pieces and just put it into my life experience what I felt I needed or wanted.

Songfacts: In a lot of your songs you sing very reverently about the earth, and the sun comes up a lot. Is that at all related to that accident you were describing when you were young and how that transformed you?

Glabicki: Yeah. I don't know if it was the accident or if I was just born that way. But I could always sense earth energy and either my connection to it or people's connection to it or lack of connection to it. And it always really affected me both negatively and positively. If things didn't make sense, I would be very troubled by it. So I would say it was more that I just came into this world with that awareness. Yeah.

Songfacts: Can you give me an example of where something like that shows up in some of your songs in either the lyrics or the music?

Glabicki: Let's see. I would say most of the early music had at least touches of it, if not overt drawings from it. "Martyr" was more from a trip that I took in Nicaragua and the earth energy down there. The people's connection to the earth was very strong, yet they were very challenged by poverty. And so a lot of the problems that were occurring down there were through poverty and people needing to use the earth to survive as opposed to being in harmony with it. I think that was part of the anger that I drew from for those songs. And also, the country that I came from had really started the wars down there, and it didn't make sense to me. So "Ecstasy" and "Martyr," in those songs it definitely comes in and plays a part.
"Back to the Earth," that was from a strong connection that I was having within the band that we would take a lot of trips out to the woods and just be very sensitive to the earth and the environment. We would really feel it out there. And through our very quietly spoken conversations that song came about. So a lot of the early stuff had veins of it running through it.  

From: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/michael-glabicki-of-rusted-root

 

The Who - Beat-Club - Tommy Special 1969

At long last, Tommy is with us. Pete Townshend‘s been talking about doing his opera for years. And now we have a double album set that’s probably the most important milestone in pop since Beatlemania. For the first time, a rock group has come up with a full-length cohesive work that could be compared to the classics.
The central character is Tommy himself. Born during the First World War, he becomes blind, deaf and dumb after seeing a murder by his parents in a mirror, becomes a pinball champion, reaches a state of grace, regains his senses and starts his own religion, is eventually discarded by his disciples somewhere in the far distant future, finds himself as isolated as he was in the beginning. The opera is, apart from being some of the best rock yet, a statement of Townshend’s philosophy. “It’s about life,” he says.
Pete has often spoken of his opera in the past. Pieces from a projected bigger work appeared on A Quick One and The Who Sell Out, but Tommy, which took two years to complete, owes little to these. The germ of the opera in fact came from a single, “Glow Girl,” which was never released.
“Glow Girl,” explains Pete, “led me to the idea of ‘It’s A Boy,’ ‘Mrs Walker’ (the first song on the album). But that would have been too blunt an opening, so I did the “Overture.” This clues you in to a lot of the themes and gives a continuity to the individual tracks – you think you’ve heard them before because they’ve been stated in the overture. It gives more of a flow and strengthens the whole thing.”
One of the central themes of Tommy is the play between self and illusory self. It’s expressed by Tommy (the real self) who can see nothing but his reflection (illusory self) in the mirror – “There had to be a loophole so I could show this. The boy has closed himself up completely as a result of the murder and his parents’ pressures, and the only thing he can see is his reflection in the mirror. This reflection – his illusory self – turns out to be his eventual salvation.
“In general terms, man is regarded as living in an unreal world of illusory values that he’s imposed on himself. He’s feeling his way by evolution back to God – realisation and the illusion is broken away, bit by bit. You need the illusions until you reach very pure saintly states. When you lose all contact with your illusory state, you become totally dead – but totally aware. You’ve died for the last time. You don’t incarnate again; you don’t do anything again – you just blend. It’s the realisation of what we all intellectually know – universal consciousness – but it’s no good to know until you can actually realise it.
“Tommy’s real self represents the aim – God – and the illusory self is the teacher; life, the way, the path and all this. The coming together of these are what make him aware. They make him see and hear and speak so he becomes a saint who everybody flocks to.
“The boy’s life starts to represent the whole nature of humanity – we all have this self-imposed deaf, dumb and blindness – but this isn’t something I’m over heavy on,” says Pete. “I’m more concerned about what actually happens in his life.”
Having lost most of his senses, Tommy feels everything simply as rhythms and vibration. Everything reaches him as music.
“He gets everything in a very pure, filtered, unadulterated, unfucked-up manner. Like when his uncle rapes him – he is incredibly elated, not disgusted, at being homosexually raped. He takes it as a move of total affection, not feeling the reasons why. Lust is a lower form of love, like atomic attraction is a lower form of love. He gets an incredible spiritual push from it where most people would get a spiritual retardment, constantly thinking about this terrible thing that’s happened to them.
“In Tommy’s mind, everything is incredible, meaningless beauty.”
The songs in the opera, then, have to convey an amazing amount. It’s possible that all that’s in Townshend’s mind won’t come across by simply sitting down and listening to the album. There’s too much, on too many levels, for a casual listener. But on the simplest level, the songs are magnificent, simply as rock.
“You see, each song has to capsule an event in the boy’s life, and also the feeling, what has ensued, and cover and knit-up all the possibilities in all the other fields of action that are suggested. All these things had to be tied up in advance and then referred back to. I can tell you it was quite difficult.”
Touch is the one sense that Tommy still has in the early part of the album. McLuhan says that touch is a combination of all the senses at once: “Yea, I read that. I went into McLuhan quite deeply once. For someone that can see, sight has an absurdly high percentage over the other senses in terms of mental concentration. But if you can’t see or hear, touch must come totally alive. The most excruciating thing known to man isn’t blazing light – it’s pain. The heights of pleasure are felt through touch – at least on a physical level – and the early part of the opera is on physical level.”
All but three of the songs were written by Pete – one by Keith Moon and two being by John Entwistle, “Fiddle About” and “Cousin Kevin.” Says Pete: “I didn’t want to do them. I didn’t think I could be cruel enough. They’re ruthlessly brilliant songs because they are just as cruel as people can be. I wanted to show that the boy was being dealt with very cruelly and it was because he was being dismissed as a freak.”
One of the lines is: “There’s a lot I can do with a freak.” Pete explains, “I would have avoided that, but it’s nice to have it in.”
This leads to the general subject of freakishness, and Tiny Tim is brought into the conversation: “Seeing through the shit to the talent is the answer. Practically every talented person spends most of his time hiding his talent – or freakiness. This fascinates me. Some hide it behind the aura of being a superstar in glittering show business. The reason is the remoteness it creates – the more remote they become, the more powerful they are as star figures. Rock is built on it. I mean, I speak to Mick Jagger on the telephone all the time, and I still can’t be normal with him – well, because he’s him.“
Does Townshend consider himself a freak? “I suppose so. I don’t know. I did very much so when we first started. But I don’t really want to talk about me and my freakiness.”
A recurring theme in Tommy is the boy’s repeated outburst: “Feel me, touch me.”
“We can’t play it on stage for laughing now, but when I first wrote it, it brought tears to my eyes. It’s meant to be extremely serious and plaintive; but words fail so miserably to represent emotions unless you skirt around the outside, and I didn’t do it enough there. You can circumscribe an emotion with a lyric – by telling of an event and leaving out one important chunk – and that can contain an emotion and put it across. This one fails because it actually comes out and says it. But there’s so much circumscribing in Tommy that I wanted to get to the crunch a number of times.”  From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/townshend-on-tommy-behind-the-whos-rock-opera-99396/

 

The Clancy Brothers - The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone - Full album

01 - Bold O'Donahue
02 - I'll Tell my Ma
03 - Will ye Go, Lassie Go
04 - Rothsea-O
05 - Marie's Wedding
06 - Singin' Bird
07 - Holy Ground
08 - South Australia
09 - As I Roved Out
10 - McPherson's Lament
11 - The Wild Colonial Boy
12 - Shoals of Herring
13 - I Know Who is Sick
14 - Old Woman from Wexford

The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone is a collection of mostly traditional Irish folk songs performed by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. It also includes several songs from other countries, such as the Scottish folk song, "Marie's Wedding". It was their third album for Columbia Records and was released in 1962. It was also their first studio album for the label. Its title is taken from the song, "I'll Tell My Ma". The original LP featured liner notes by Tom Clancy.
A review in Variety praised the group's "bounce and drive" and the "listening excitement" that they created on the album. The article suggested that The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone had enough novelty and variety to provide folk music fans with something different.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_Won%27t_Leave_the_Girls_Alone 

Floating Nest - Circus

Floating Nest is a relatively new band, and their debut album is Blow Off Steam, which unsurprisingly they do very well. The four band members are mostly Spanish, with one German in the group, but they were founded in Sweden in 2019 by Sara Gaspar (vocals, compositions) and Victor Conde (drums, compositions); other members are guitarist Quique Villalba and bassist Matthias Rauch. Let me just say in beginning that their music and presentation is just as wild, raw, and epic as the cover art on the album, unpredictable and structurally unconventional, their sound seems to bridge the gaps between metal, progressive rock, and experimental, with Conde and Rauch driving a heavy and busy rhythm section, while Gaspar’s voice is powerful, theatrical, and aggressive; the lyrics are in English, and there is a male voice that accompanies Gaspar on tracks like “Circus” and “Stasis,” and others, but no clues are given as to who that voice might belong to (although photos on the band’s website show a mic stand in front of Rauch). Villalba is an adept and versatile guitarist, supplying some aggressive rhythms and masterful solos, as well as some unconventional effects that take the place of the missing keyboards as on the dramatic opening to “Re-Connection” or on the set closer “Absolute Zero.” If they slow things down, it’s usually not long before everything revs up again, like on the beautifully psychedelic “Selfdeception” or “The Clock,” the latter almost flying into space-rock territory. This album is so intense on all levels that it’s almost scary — every member is firing on all cylinders. With this kind of opening salvo, it will be interesting where Floating Nest goes next; meanwhile, Blow Off Steam should satisfy those listeners who like powerful female-fronted progressive rock informed by metal that’s always teetering on the edge out of control.  From: http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/floating-nest-blow-off-steam-3.html 

Chercán - La Culpa

From the serpentine beauty of Chile comes this impressive sonic surprise, already gathering rave reviews from the global prog community (which seemingly enjoys sharing the latest buzz) and surely destined to a most successful future. Why, may you ask? At first listen, this veteran prog musicologist rarely gets to sit back in amazement and wonder in silence at first and later out loud, what the hell is this? I am never prone to cussing or even occasionally shaking my head in bewilderment, but Chercan has certainly qualified to bowl me over! Led by a merciless drummer /percussionist in Rodrigo Gonzalez Mera and a robust bass guitar held by Simon Catalan, while top- notch guitarist Roberto Faundez (My nickname would be 'Frippo') and Matias Bahamondes wielding a wonderfully neurotic saxophone, both add all the fiery molten lava soloing one could dream of in the best of nightmares. Vocalist Martin Pena sings like a man possessed and provides added guitar mania. Guests include a string trio.
Exploding like the Chaiten volcano in the Southern Andes, "La Culpa" is a monstrous slap in the face, a hysterically magnificent torrent of Magma-esque fury (not necessarily the band but the molten fire) that settles into sudden introspection, where the fervent glow of Martin's voice soothes the scalding pyre of sound. But it's only a brief reprieve, as the bulldozer guitar barrage reignites into turbo charged vehemence. It's entirely the band's fault, tectonic and strategic as they are wanting to disturb, shock and perhaps even provoke. Martin screams as if the devil was chasing his tail.
Will our chilenos quiet down now, well it's hard to predict, as the speed at which they shuffle from vigor to smoothness on "Caen Las Hojas Blancas" is unpredictably dizzying, 'Frippo' Faundez manhandles his fretboard with impunity verging on hysteria, as if barking at Matias's brass reptile. Hints of experimental (mostly mental) King Crimson definitely come to mind, the Mel Collins-era in particular, the saxophone utterly devastating! I need to check my heart rate as I feel like a F1 engine overheating. Perhaps a week's rest in Vina del Mar might help. "Kalimba" kindly keeps the pace a tad more sedate but only a tease, for as soon as that nasty twitching guitar starts throttling up, the tempo increases once again, egged on by Martin's pleading vocals that exude pain, suffering and revolt. "Desolacion" is where the string trio settles the sorrow factor with a serene moment of reflection on the previous devastation.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=90724

Transister - Look Who's Perfect Now

Transister was a British-American alternative rock band formed in late 1995 in Los Angeles. Despite only having released one album to moderate sales, their work has been featured on a number of film soundtracks. The band was fronted by Keely Hawkes, the sister of English musician Chesney Hawkes and daughter of Len 'Chip' Hawkes, a member of the English beat group the Tremeloes.
Transister's formation was the culmination of various collaborations between songwriter Eric Pressly, former Danny Wilson frontman Gary Clark, and vocalist Keely Hawkes. Hawkes first made use of Pressly's songwriting on her 1993 solo debut for EMI, while Pressly and Clark first worked together in the band King L, releasing the album Great Day for Gravity in 1995. The three were encouraged by the results of their early songwriting attempts, and decided to release a six-song EP on their record label.
Transister began to attract major label attention after KCRW DJ Christopher Douridas played a few of the self-recorded tracks on Morning Becomes Eclectic in early 1996. Interscope Records released Transister's self-titled debut in the US in 1997; UK and international distribution was handled by Virgin Records. Tracks from the album were featured on a number of film soundtracks, including Nightwatch (1997), Wild Things (1998), Jawbreaker (1999), Never Been Kissed (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000) and Cheaters (2000). Although members of the band have since gone on to other projects, Hawkes and Pressly maintained a relationship and were married on January 8, 2005.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transister

Shred Kelly - Archipelago

British Columbia five-piece Shred Kelly are releasing their newest record this Friday.  Archipelago is out on 19 October via German record label DevilDuck Records and is all the modern folk goodness you need to make your day better.
The collaborative songwriting of Tim Newton, Sage McBride, Jordan Vlasschaert and Ty West pulled inspiration through individual experiences and musical influences. The result is a dynamic and cohesive collection of dreamy, yet explosively exciting songs dipped in themes of relationships and the world in the modern age. Using traditional instrumentation at the base of the songwriting, the album explodes into a symphony of sounds incorporating banjos, ukuleles, synthesizers, guitar hooks, harmonies and pulsing beats.
Kicking off with the record’s title track, Archipelago gives you that modern folk feel while still being mainstream friendly and avoiding the Mumford-&-Sons-esque pretentiousness (no offense to M&S, by the way). Archipelago feels real and honest with hints of banjos but mainly lots of clean drums, feather-like vocals and killer melodies.  From: https://highfivesnstagedives.com/2018/10/18/album-review-shred-kelly-archipelago/

Sky Picnic - Hide & Seek

Sky Picnic is a psychedelic rock band from Brooklyn/New York that surrounds the listener in a mystical and fairy tale like world of psychedelia, taking you to the edge of the universe and the unknown regions of the mind. They have been described as 'dark and eerie layered psychedelia' and 'highly textured psychedelic space-rock', while drawing comparisons to styles as diverse as Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and early Slowdive.
Their live performances each stand out as a one-of-a-kind musical trip that blurs the lines between music and art, with experimental instrumental breaks full of feedback, echoes and endless exploratory possibilities. The band was founded by Chris Sherman (lead guitar, vocals) and Leah Cinnamon (bass, vocals) in 2007 and by December 2008, they self-released their debut EP, entitled 'Synesthesia', which received national radio play. A pair of digital-only singles followed, 2009's 'Hide & Seek' and 2010's 'Lost Is Found'.
With the new decade comes Sky Picnic's first full-length, 'Farther In This Fairy Tale'. Featuring drummer Pete Meriwether it resurrects the lost art of the concept album, telling the tale of a loss of innocence and an introspective journey through life. The story starts off with the single 'Hide and Seek', which recalls the joys of childhood and the innocence of a bygone era, while the LP's centerpiece is the 11 minute epic 'The Universal Mind Decoder'. This is the band's first release for independent label Nasoni Records of Germany.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6688

Jethro Tull - Mother Goose / Singing All Day / Just Trying To Be / Life Is A Long Song

Jethro Tull usually performs “Mother Goose” and “Cheap Day Return” in sequence live in concert as it was on the album. Both songs were frequently part of their setlist over the decades. As Ian Anderson told The Telegraph in 2021, even he doesn’t remember where he got the idea for a few names he mentions, like for example “Johnny Scarecrow”.
“Mother Goose was really predicated on some of those summer walks around Hampstead Heath. (Which is) a public park around north of London where in the summer you’d find all kinds of people from the dying days of the hippie times through to those just out exercising, having a good time.”
“People would kind of dress up and be endowed with the blessings of the summer sun. I remember it as being a pageantry of color, people were wearing lots of colorful clothes. It is indeed a kind of slightly surreal but interesting pastiche of topics. People probably scratched their heads listening to it, thinking, who is Johnny Scarecrow? Why is he doing his rounds? For the life of me I can’t remember,” Ian Anderson said.
The track is pointed as one of the first ones written for the groundbreaking album “Aqualung”. Besides singing, Anderson also played the flute, acoustic guitar and percussion. Also were part of the recording Martin Barre (Percussion, acoustic and electric rhythm guitar), Jeffrey Hammond (Alto recorder, backing vocals), Clive Bunker (Percussion) and John Evan (Mellotron).  From: https://rockandrollgarage.com/the-meaning-of-the-jethro-tull-song-mother-goose/