Yes - Yours Is No Disgrace

 #Yes #Jon Anderson #Steve Howe #Bill Bruford #Chris Squire #progressive rock #art rock #symphonic prog #hard rock #heavy prog #German TV #Beat-Club #1970s

Nowadays, the progressive rock band Yes doesn't need an introduction, but at the end of the sixties, when this great band made their first TV-appearances outside the UK, many people were not aware of Yes. In November 1969, Yes performed at the legendary German TV-show Beat Club. At the time nobody would have believed that their progressive rock sound should become that famous a couple of years later. The band did two more live sessions for Beat Club. The clips of Yours Is No Disgrace and I've Seen All Good People are the most famous ones. Some of the German footage was released on various DVD's, but as far as I know never on one disc. In 2009, the DVD The Lost Broadcasts was released for the first time, one year later followed by the second release.
The disc starts with the aforementioned Beat Club footage of November 1969 shot in black and white. Yes start with a rearranged version of the Richie Havens' song No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed from their second album Time And A Word which wasn't released at the time of this performance. This song was already a live favourite and became the opening piece for that album. The song is followed by two tracks from their eponymous debut album. The footage of Looking Around and Survival were previously unseen actually. Initially, they were not included for only one Yes song could be seen on TV. The next clip was shot at February 23, 1970 and features the title track from the second album in full-colour this time because the live show accorded with the available standards at the time. It's obvious to see that this is a playback performance. This footage shows Peter Banks on the electric guitar, but probably for the last time as he left the band just before the release of Time And A Word because of continuing tensions between Jon Anderson, Chris Squire and himself.
The final four tracks were all filmed at April 19, 1971. It starts with the second take of Yours Is No Disgrace. This take wasn't used for the TV-show because it was a bit faster than the version performed for the first take. In this clip Yes used the head and the chair we can also see on the cover of The Yes Album. This album was the debut for guitarist Steve Howe who plays a rather freaky solo on this long version of Yours Is No Disgrace with Jon Anderson on a keyboard. Tony Kaye, the band's main keyboardist, is almost unrecognizable since he's wearing a beard. The other three tracks are different versions of I've Seen All Good People. Three takes were needed before the band members were satisfied with the result. The first take is a mixture of two shots. First we see Bill Bruford playing the drums and then we see him clapping along with the music. The info on this DVD doesn't tell us which take was used for the actual broadcast on April 24, 1971. However, that really doesn't matter after watching this footage. The most important thing is that we can enjoy Yes in their early days. Most band members were still inexperienced and they hardly ever played in front of a TV-camera
From: https://www.backgroundmagazine.nl/DVDreviews/YesBroadcasts.html

Yes didn't invent progressive rock, but they helped bring it to mainstream audiences, steering the development and definition of the genre. Once their classic lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, and Bill Bruford locked into place for 1971's Fragile, the band crystallized all of the sonic and visual signifiers that eventually became synonymous with prog rock. Yes shifted between complicated time signatures, spliced pastoral folk, and Baroque classical in their muscular rock & roll, structured their songs as mini-suites, and wrapped the entire package in fantastical artwork by Roger Dean.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/yes-mn0000685647/biography

Live - Pillar Of Davidson

 #Live #Ed Kowalczyk #alternative rock #post-grunge #hard rock #funk rock #heavy pop rock #1990s #Throwing Copper Art by Peter Howson

This song is about the plight of poorly compensated factory workers who are treated like machines that only exist to make money. The band grew up in York, Pennsylvania, a working-class town which is home to the Harley Davidson motorcycle factory and other industrial plants that provided inspiration for the song. Kowalczyk credits the band for helping him escape a similar fate. "Most of the kids in our situation don't get fair shots because of the sheltered quality of life in a small town like York," he told The Washington Post in 1995. "Thank God for this band, because it was our ticket to see the world." York is also the subject of another unflattering ode on the album: "Shit Towne." In 1997, an Australian radio interviewer asked Kowalczyk if Michael Stipe of R.E.M. sang backing vocals at the end of the song. He replied, "No, that's just me trying as hard as I can to sound like Michael Stipe!"  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/live/pillar-of-davidson

The rock band Live got its start in 1985, when four teenage friends in York, Pennsylvania - vocalist Ed Kowalczyk, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer, drummer Chad Gracey, and guitarist Chad Taylor - began playing shows in their hometown area under the name Public Affection. Although the band name would change, the original lineup remained intact until 2011. The group gained more visibility and began touring more extensively after recording its self-released, cassette-only debut, "The Death of a Dictionary," in 1989. At the dawn of the 1990s, the band attracted interest from Radioactive Records, which signed the group, now known as Live, to a contract. "Mental Jewelry," the first album with the label, captured the band’s earnest hard rock sound that incorporated Eastern philosophy and unconventional rhythmic styles. As with many band’s debuts, "Mental Jewelry" revealed Live’s nascent talents but lacked a certain amount of confidence. The album didn’t have much impact on the mainstream rock audience, but “Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)” gained airplay, and the album eventually went on to sell well. It wasn’t until Live's second album, 1994’s "Throwing Copper," that the band exploded into the mainstream. Toning down the spiritual searching of Kowalczyk’s lyrics from "Mental Jewelry," Live looked to the sweeping musical energy of groups like Pearl Jam and U2 for inspiration. The result was an album that dominated the charts and launched five singles that spanned the gamut from the brooding “Lightning Crashes” to “I Alone,” which transitioned from a soft verse into an explosive chorus, a popular sonic style of the era's grunge artists. Rock critics accused Live of derivativeness, but audiences warmly embraced the band.  From: https://www.liveabout.com/live-biography-and-profile-2898029

Fifty Foot Hose - Cauldron

 #Fifty Foot Hose #underground rock #experimental rock #avant garde #noise rock #electronic #psychedelic rock #1960s

Fifty Foot Hose is an American underground rock band that formed in San Francisco in the late 1960s and reformed in the 1990s. They were one of the first bands to fuse rock and experimental music. Like a few other acts of the time, they consciously tried to combine the contemporary sounds of rock with electronic instruments and avant-garde compositional ideas. The original group comprised three core members: founder and bassist Louis "Cork" Marcheschi, guitarist David Blossom, and vocalist Nancy Blossom, augmented by Kim Kimsey (drums) and Larry Evans (guitar).
Cork Marcheschi (born 1945) grew up in Burlingame, California. In his teens, he performed with the Ethix, who played R&B music in clubs around San Francisco and in Las Vegas, and released one experimental and wildly atonal single, "Bad Trip", in 1967, with the intention that the record could be played at any speed. Interested in the ideas of experimental composers like Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Terry Riley, and George Antheil, he constructed his own custom-made electronic instrument from a combination of elements like theremins, fuzzboxes, a cardboard tube, and a speaker from a World War II bomber.
David and Nancy Blossom brought both psychedelic and jazz influences to the band. Together, the trio recorded a demo which led to a deal with Limelight Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records. They released one album, Cauldron, in December 1967. It contained eleven songs, including "Fantasy", "Red the Sign Post" and "God Bless the Child", a cover of a Billie Holiday number. It was an intriguing mix of jazzy psychedelic rock tunes with fierce and advanced electronic sound effects. "I don't know if they are immature or premature", said critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The record sold few copies at the time, although the group had a small but intense following in San Francisco and also toured with other acts including Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry and Fairport Convention, when the band was augmented by Robert Goldbeck (bass). They broke up in late 1969, when most of its members joined the musical Hair, Nancy Blossom becoming the lead in the San Francisco production and later singing in Godspell.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Foot_Hose

The Beatles - Rain

 #The Beatles #John Lennon #Paul McCartney #George Harrison #British invasion #pop rock #psychedelic rock #blues rock #classic rock #folk rock #1960s

Released on the ‘Paperback Writer’ single, ‘Rain’ is considered by many Beatles fans to be their finest b-side. Much like Revolver’s ‘I’m Only Sleeping’, ‘Rain’ found The Beatles exploring LSD-influenced feelings of detachment from the real world, and the belief that heightened consciousness can be found within the self. The song is generally credited to John Lennon, although Paul McCartney claimed it was co-written.
The Beatles had discovered during the ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ sessions that slowing down the speed of their recordings revealed hidden depths. They recorded the rhythm track of ‘Rain’ at a fast tempo, then slowed the tape down so the song was a tone lower. Ringo Starr’s drums, locked in to McCartney’s high bass guitar notes, were a key feature of the song.
Paul said, “The drums became a giant drum kit. We got a big, ponderous, thunderous backing and then we worked on top of that as normal, so that it didn’t sound like a slowed-down thing, it just had a big ominous noise to it. It was nice, I really enjoyed that one.” Ringo Starr later said ‘Rain’ was among his favourite performances on a Beatles recording. “I feel as though that was someone else playing – I was possessed!”
The other key feature of ‘Rain’ was John Lennon’s backwards vocals, heard during the coda at the song’s end. Lennon claimed that the discovery was the result of a stoned accident, when he threaded his rough mix tape of the song into his reel-to-reel player the wrong way round. John said, “I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I’d recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, ‘I know what to do with it, I know - Listen to this!’ So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the gutars going backwards. [Singing backwards] Sharethsmnowthsmeaness [Laughter] That one was the gift of God, of Ja, actually, the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one.” Lennon’s version of events was backed up by George Harrison and studio engineer Geoff Emerick. Producer George Martin, meanwhile, recalled the discovery as being his. He said, “I was always playing around with tapes and I thought it might be fun to do something extra with John’s voice. So I lifted a bit of his main vocal off the four-track, put it onto another spool, turned it around and then slid it back and forth until it fitted. John was out at the time but when he came back he was amazed. Again, it was backwards forever after that.”  From: https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/rain/

tUnE-yArDs - Water Fountain

 #tUnE-yArDs #Merill Garbus #art pop #alternative rock #pop rock #worldbeat #indie pop #lo-fi #electronic #animated music video #puppetry

tUnE-yArDs, the duo of Merill Garbus and Nate Brenner, combine soulful vocals, unusual percussion, and trenchant social commentary into uniquely vibrant music. Starting with the raw collages of 2009's self-released BiRd-BrAiNs, the project immediately attracted attention for its impassioned sound and viewpoint. Though Garbus and Brenner polished their music slightly on albums such as 2014's Nikki Nack, the combination of their explorations of complex issues like race, gender, and privilege with bold song forms indebted to playground chants, work songs, and non-Western musical traditions remained as distinctive and acclaimed as ever. The duo took a more reflective, electronic-based approach on 2017's I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life. 2021's Sketchy, saw Brenner and Garbus combining more personal songwriting with the anthemic, kinetic style of tUnE-yArDs' earlier work.
Born in New York City and raised there and in Connecticut, Garbus had an eclectic creative background. She spent some time as a puppeteer at Vermont's Sandglass Theater and also played ukulele in the Montreal-based band Sister Suvi. She began writing and performing under the tUnE-yArDs moniker in 2006, using a digital voice recorder and shareware mixing software to assemble her first songs. It took Garbus two years to craft her debut album, BiRd-BrAiNs, which she offered on cassette and as a pay-what-you-want download on the tUnE-yArDs website. Thanks to frequent touring with artists like Thao and positive buzz from music blogs, the album became a cult favorite. In June 2009, Marriage Records released the album on cassette; that August, 4AD Records reissued it in a special screen-printed version before distributing a CD version of BiRd-BrAiNs in November that coincided with a tour opening for the Dirty Projectors.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tune-yards-mn0002144063/biography

Mountain - Mississippi Queen

 #Mountain #Leslie West #Felix Pappalardi #hard rock #blues rock #heavy metal #heavy blues rock #heavy psych #animated music video

Bob Dylan once said that the ‘60s reminded him of a flying saucer landing – everybody heard about it, but only a handful ever saw it. Out of that handful who saw the decade up close, few had the view of the musicians who played the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The festival, long since pinned like a museum butterfly under history’s glass, misfired for some and cemented the reputations of others. The performance of Crosby, Stills & Nash marked only their second public appearance. Other bands such as The Grateful Dead still talk about how dissatisfied they were with their performance, while the great Alvin Lee and Ten Years After enjoyed, particularly after the concert film’s release, a considerable boost in popularity. Most famously, Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” filled more pages in the guitar great’s growing legend and lingers in public consciousness as the event’s defining moment.
Treading the boards in Max Yasgur’s field transformed Mountain’s career as well. The band’s close to classic lineup, sans soon-to-be-enlisted drummer Corky Laing, ripped through a set largely culled from guitarist Leslie West’s recently released solo album entitled “Mountain.” The wide-eyed, expressive and impressively built West manned center stage as if the fates conspired to place him there at that moment and time, while former Cream producer Felix Pappalardi stood semi-shadowed to his right unleashing furious bass runs in accompaniment. It is little stretch to say the massive crowd heard nothing quite like this before.
It wasn’t the overpowering bluster or blues histrionics of West’s guitar. By 1969, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience spawned a host of imitators and influenced countless others to carry on their groundbreaking work to its logical conclusion. However, the public had yet to hear a guitarist capable of uniting accessibility, melody, power, fluent vibrato, and strong rhythm playing into one package. His imposing frame juxtaposed against the small size of his Les Paul Junior along with his surprisingly soulful and muscular vocals completed the picture. His torrid performances on “Beside the Sea” and “Southbound Train” impressed many and didn’t go unnoticed by record executives.
Mountain formed, in significant part, as a vehicle to highlight West’s talents. The July, 1969 release of his first solo album laid down a rough template of the band’s sound, but transitioning from a solo act into a band necessitated changes. Pappalardi, sensitive to musical similarities between Cream and the new band, recruited keyboardist Steve Knight over West’s objections to play organ and fill out their sound. West, an enormous admirer of Clapton’s stint with Cream, shrugged off potential comparisons. Such maneuvers, however, certainly insulated the band from such charges and provided a textural counterpoint for West’s guitar that recalled other emerging bands such as Vanilla Fudge and Deep Purple far more. Knight’s formal approach and reluctant musical improvisation further rankled West’s attitude towards the keyboardist, but the jazz devotee brought considerable chops to bear that few then-prominent keyboardists could claim.
Switching drummers didn’t impede their ascent. West and Pappalardi grew quickly disenchanted with drummer N.D. Smart’s musical suitability and Pappalardi recommended Canadian-born New York City transplant Laing as his replacement. The new drummer came to Pappalardi’s notice after the latter produced the debut for Laing’s then-current band Energy. The addition of Laing brought Mountain a versatile and physical percussionist unafraid to expand his style. And, perhaps even more crucially, Laing proved to be another songwriter to add to the mix.
One of the earliest dividends from Laing’s membership, “Mississippi Queen,” is arguably the band’s defining work. The story about its genesis has long since passed into rock ‘n’ roll lore, but the track’s gloriously electrified raunch and West’s revival preacher vocals has long obscured its cultural significance. “Mississippi Queen” occupies a significant place in the Great American Songbook for a few reasons, but one of the most important is how it illustrates the breathtaking pace of musical and cross-cultural assimilation underway in the late 1960s. It’s nothing short of indelibly American that a professionally trained musician, composer and University of Michigan graduate, teamed with a gifted, but raw and self-taught, New York City rock ‘n’ roller, a Canadian drummer with a potpourri of musical influences, and a jazz pianist playing keyboards, to record a song that, stripped of its modern gloss and volume, sounds straight out of a Clarksdale juke joint on a Saturday night.  From: https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/story-band-mountain   

Robin & Linda Williams (1975) - Side 1 (vinyl rip)

 #Robin & Linda Williams #folk #Americana #traditional #country #contemporary folk #alt-country #acoustic #bluegrass

In a musical career spanning more than four decades, iconic American musicians Robin and Linda Williams have made it their mission to perform the music that they love—a robust blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time, and acoustic country that combines wryly observant lyrics with a wide-ranging melodicism.Robin and Linda met and fell for each other in 1971 on a visit to Myrtle Beach, SC, while Linda was teaching school and Robin was a full-time musician on a national coffeehouse circuit. It wasn’t long before they discovered additional magic when they combined their voices in harmony. Their career took off initially in the Minneapolis folk scene, where Robin had made many friends and connections as a solo artist. They recorded their first album there in 1975 and the following year made their first appearance on a new public radio show—A Prairie Home Companion. They have continued their rich relationship with the program for 40 years.
Over the decades they have issued 23 albums and crisscrossed the country many times, thrilling audiences with their songs and harmonies. In the late 1980s they began touring with a backup band, Their Fine Group, and their big sound grew even bigger. That association lasted for 25 years, but now Robin and Linda are most often heard as a duo, going back to the roots that brought them together 40 years ago. They marked 40 years on stage in 2013 with their CD “Back 40,” a studio album featuring fresh treatments of their early classics, many from albums long out of print, and favorites by other writers. While as live performers they are second to none, it is as gifted songwriters that they have earned a rarer honor, the devotion and deep respect of their musical peers. The list of artists who have covered their original songs includes some of the greats of country music such as Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, George Hamilton IV, Tim & Mollie O;Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, and The Seldom Scene.  From: https://folkmama.wordpress.com/category/robin-and-linda-williams/

The sounds of rural America are explored through the warm vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar-driven arrangements of Virginia-based husband-and-wife duo Robin & Linda Williams. Accompanied by the appropriately named Their Fine Group, featuring Dobro ace Kevin Maul and ex-Red Clay Ramblers bassist Jim Watson, the Williams blend a mixture of bluegrass, folk, and acoustic country music. As semi-regular performers on Garrison Keillor's nationally broadcast radio show A Prairie Home Companion, the duo and their band developed a solid international following. In addition to being featured on the duo's 12 albums, the Williams' songs have been covered by many artists including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, the Seldom Scene, Boiled in Lead, and Holly Near.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robin-linda-williams-mn0000296010/biography

October Project - Be My Hero

 #October Project #Mary Fahl #folk rock #alternative rock #alternative folk rock #adult alternative #classical rock #progressive pop #1990s

October Project's music is dominated by distinctive and powerful female lead vocals (nothing to do with waif-like, breathy whisperings). Indeed, Mary Fahl's deep voice has an earthy sensuality that looms larger than life on the band's two albums, both filled with superb chorus hooks and haunting melodies. October Project also features keyboardist/vocalist Marina Belica, guitarist David Sabatino, keyboardist Emil Adler (piano, keyboards and harmonium) as well as his wife Julie Flanders who, although not a musician per se, writes the band's lyrics. They released two fine albums in the mid '90's before getting dumped by their record company in 1996, at which point they simply broke off. Like an afterthought, some of the band members later resurfaced as the November Project but reverted back to their former name and released a self-produced E.P. in 2003. Deemed more pop than prog, the music of October Project is perhaps best described as 'vocal-dominated symphonic prog', something akin to Renaissance for the orchestral textures, although Mary Fahl does not sound at all like Annie Haslam. The band's first two albums, which focus primarily on her rich, sultry vocals, feature intense melancholy ballads that ride on a combination of lush keyboards, strings and guitars. Keyboards and acoustic guitar are emphasized on the eponymous "October Project" whereas on "Falling Farther In", an album of slightly more linear compositions with pared-down arrangements, the electric guitar is more prominent. The E.P. "Different Eyes", which features the late reunion of some of the band members (sans Mary Fahl), showcases some reworked material from the band's early days.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2190

Tori Amos - A Sorta Fairytale

  #Tori Amos #alternative rock #piano rock #art rock #pop rock #chamber pop #baroque pop #electronic #singer-songwriter #music video

A Sorta Fairytale is the first single from Tori Amos' 2002 album Scarlet's Walk, a concept album in which Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos, travels across post-9/11 America. In A Sorta Fairytale, Amos refers to how relationships with other people, whether long or short, are part of who you are, which means that you are never completely alone. The music video features Amos as a head attached to a disembodied leg and Adrian Brody as a head attached to a disembodied arm. The pair meet and fall in love, but Brody laughs at Amos' crooked fifth toe; she runs away to a beach, where Brody find her and they share a kiss. In response, their bodies emerge from their disembodied parts, making them into whole people through their love.
Notes for Parents: The lyrics of this song are suitable for all ages, but they are poetic and metaphorical and may require some explaining for younger girls. The tone of the lyrics seems very bittersweet, focusing on the loss of relationships, but the video shows a more optimistic view, with the lovers made whole by each other. The video images are strange, and some younger children may find them disturbing; there is also a scene revealing the emerging bodies of the pair. Nevertheless, the video is fascinating and provides an excellent illustration of the idea that the right person will love you despite what others consider flaws.  From: https://www.amightygirl.com/a-sorta-fairytale

Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. Her music walks the fine line between baroque pop and straightforward alternative rock. She has ventured off into other territories, like electronic (From the Choirgirl Hotel, To Venus and Back, Abnormally Attracted to Sin), funk/soul/gospel (The Beekeeper), big band ("Pink and Glitter"), adult contemporary (Scarlet's Walk, certain songs on The Beekeeper), country ("Not Dying Today", "Drive All Night") and even folk ("Wedding Day"). She has written about many topics, including rape, masturbation, war, religion, feminine sexuality, homosexuality (and related topics), betrayal, and... other things. Richard Croft said it best about the public's perception of her: "The image of Tori Amos most widely known in pop culture is sort of like an American Björk, a modern Kate Bush, a feminist icon, a screeching, red-haired banshee who flails wildly at the piano and sings all sorts of man-hating anthems for her throngs of similarly screeching, red-haired fans." Note that this description was tongue-in-cheek; she is not misandric, and her fans have a variety of hair colors.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/ToriAmos

Arabs in Aspic - Syndenes Magi

 #Arabs in Aspic #progressive rock #psychedelic rock #stoner rock #heavy prog #hard rock #retro prog #Norway

Arabs in Aspic is a heavy progressive rock band from Trondheim, Norway, with their musical roots planted firmly in the golden era of rock. Their sound is a sweet mixture of loud, heavy guitars and drums, 12 string acoustics, funky bass and percussion, screaming hammond organs, soft Rhodes, mellotrons and 70's synths, topped with a bucket of vocal harmonies.
Arabs in Aspic emerged in 1997 from Norway led by guitarist and vocalist Jostein Smeby and rythm guitarist & Theremin player, Tommy Ingebrigtsen. Since they met through their common love for 1970s heavy rock music, especially Black Sabbath, they've been playing together with different personnel, each playing different kinds of heavy music until Arabs in Aspic surged. They said goodbye to playing covers and the band was ready with Hammond organ player Magnar Krutvik, drummer Eskil Nyhus and his brother, bass player Terje Nyhus. The quartet was later joined by Stig Arve Jorgenson on backing vocals and Hammond organ, as Magnar changed to playing acoustic guitar and synth. After a few years and two releases (Progeria EP and Far Out in Aradabia CD) the band was put on hold due to various reasons. In 2006 Jostein, Eskil and Stig hooked up with bass player Erik Paulsen and formed what was known as Arabs in Aspic II. The new spirit and musicianship led to some serious songwriting, and numerous demos were recorded during the following years. In 2009 the band entered legendary TNT guitarist Ronni LeTekro's studio and recorded the critically aclaimed "Strange Frame of Mind", which was mastered by Tommy Hansen in Jailhouse Studios, Denmark. Before the vinyl release of "Strange Frame" in 2012 they decided to cut the "II" in the band name and go back to just Arabs in Aspic.  From: https://www.arabsinaspic.org/bio--info.html

Cream - Tales of Brave Ulysses

 #Cream #Eric Clapton #Jack Bruce #Ginger Baker #blues rock #psychedelic rock #acid rock #hard rock #British psychedelic rock #psychedelic blues rock #classic rock #1960s

Cream switched to a more psychedelic sound for their second album Disraeli Gears, which was helmed by producer Felix Pappalardi, who pushed them in this direction. Their first album, Fresh Cream, was produced by Robert Stigwood and was filled with Blues material. "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" is one of the trippiest songs on the album, thanks in part to the wah-wah pedal Eric Clapton used on his guitar. According to Pappalardi, their first attempts to record the song fell flat. Taking a break, he and Clapton went to Manny's Music store, where they found some wah-wah pedals - Clapton only agreed to use them because he heard Jimi Hendrix was experimenting with one (he was - Hendrix used one on his song "The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp"). This guitar effect became a distinguishing feature of the song. An Australian painter named Martin Sharp helped Clapton write this. Sharp painted the album cover of Disraeli Gears. Clapton was in his phase where he was experimenting with distortion devices on his guitar. He used a fuzz-box and wah-wah pedal on this, as well as some echo. This was Eric Clapton's first use of the wah-wah pedal. He used it again for background effects and an extended solo on "White Room."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/cream/tales-of-brave-ulysses

The Velvet Underground - Heroin

 #The Velvet Underground #Lou Reed #John Cale #Nico #experimental rock #art rock #avant-garde #proto-punk #Andy Warhol #1960s

The Velvet Underground was easily one of the most important rock bands of all time pushing the boundaries of acceptable music. They were far beyond their time, taking rock music to a whole other level; they never went on to become part of the mainstream but were critical in the forming of other bands. Their legacy has continued to last after their short run as an active band shaping the works of Patti Smith, David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, U2, R.E.M., Roxy Music, Sonic Youth and many others. They were more progressive than other rock bands during the era of flower power by writing about social taboos such as sexual deviancy in the song "Venus in furs" and drug addiction in the song "Heroin" and "White Light/White Heat". They also wrote about paranoia, social alienation, violence, hopelessness and urban demimonde in several other songs. Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker, John Cale, and Lou Reed played their first show together in 1965. Just a few months after that, in a little Cafe in Greenwich Village in New York City the pop artist Andy Warhol saw them perform and took the group under his wing and they soon became the house band at his infamous studio the Factory. He made them the centerpiece for his "Exploding Plastic Inevitable,” a series of multimedia events that included screenings of Warhol's films and musical performances from the band, as well as dancing and other performances. Their debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico (featuring the German singer/actress Nico) dwindled in record-label red tape for a year before finally being released in 1966. The album's tracks proved to be one of the most cutting edge of it’s time. The group and Warhol had a falling out after they performed in Boston without Nico and the rest of the Inevitable cast, who arrived later. They were then forced to take on Steve Sesnick as their manager and without Warhol's connections and publicity they soon faded away. Empty theaters and unsuccessful album launches plagued the rest of the Velvets career, yet their extreme versatility showed that they were a force to be reckoned with.  From: https://sites.google.com/site/mississippijohnhurtproject/home/the-velvet-underground  

The Dead Weather - I Cut Like a Buffalo

 #The Dead Weather #Jack White #Alison Mosshart #blues rock #garage rock #psychedelic rock #alternative rock #supergroup #ex-The Kills #ex-The Raconteurs #music video

A more compelling and accomplished effort than what most ostensible supergroups come up with, the Dead Weather’s Horehound is a thick, skuzzy record that sounds slathered in boot-blacking and axle grease. Given the band’s roster (the Kills’s Alison Mosshart, the Raconteurs’s Jack Lawrence, Queens of the Stone Age’s Dean Fertita, and Jack White), it’s no surprise that Horehound is steeped in blues formalism, but the extent to which the band has embraced the seedy “Devil’s music” underbelly of the blues genre makes for a far darker, more aggressive record than any of its members’ day-job bands have recorded. From the Oedipal dare of “Treat Me Like Your Mother” to a gender-swapping take on Bob Dylan’s “New Pony,” the content of the songs plays into this aesthetic, but it’s the instrumentation and arrangements that do the heavy lifting. Fertita uses the same metal-flecked guitar techniques White employed on the White Stripes’s “Seven Nation Army” and “Icky Thump” but are taken to a far more severe degree, while White, for his part, bangs out drumlines that remain purposefully off-balance. When the band takes risks with this aesthetic (as on the arrhythmic opener “60 Feet Tall” and the phenomenal “I Cut Like a Buffalo,” on which White half-raps with a surprising swagger), the album works. But there are moments, such as on dirge-like lead single “Hang You from the Heavens” and the nearly identical “No Hassle Night,” when the thickness of their sound becomes turgid. It doesn’t help that Mosshart, though a capable frontwoman, is often more effective as a Shirley Manson-style vamp than a PJ Harvey-style belter: Her voice simply doesn’t have the heft to project the necessary menace. Despite these occasional missteps, though, Horehound establishes the Dead Weather as a fully realized band with a sufficiently distinctive point of view that deserves serious consideration as more than just a one-off side project.  From: https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/the-dead-weather-horehound/

The Pentangle - Wedding Dress

 #The Pentangle #John Renbourn #Bert Jansch #Jacqui McShee #traditional folk #folk rock #British folk #British folk rock #baroque folk #folk jazz #acoustic #1960s

Were The Pentangle a folk group, a folk-rock group, or something that resists classification? They could hardly be called a rock & roll act; they didn't use electric instruments often, and were built around two virtuoso guitarists, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who were already well-established on the folk circuit before the group formed. Yet their hunger for eclectic experimentation fit into the milieu of late-'60s progressive rock and psychedelia well, and much of their audience came from the rock and pop worlds, rather than the folk crowd. With Jacqui McShee on vocals and a rhythm section of Danny Thompson (bass) and Terry Cox (drums), the group mastered a breathtaking repertoire that encompassed traditional ballads, blues, jazz, pop, and reworkings of rock oldies, often blending different genres in the same piece. Their prodigious individual talents perhaps ensured a brief lifespan, but at their peak they melded their distinct and immense skills to egg each other on to heights they couldn't have achieved on their own, in the manner of great rock combos like the Beatles and Buffalo Springfield.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pentangle-mn0000838559/biography

By 1971, the strain of working together and of working in the music business in general, was starting to take its toll on members of Pentangle. The atmosphere between the band and their record label was souring rapidly and alcohol was playing an ever increasing part in the creative process. On the plus side, this album was recorded on state of the art 16 track equipment, improving the sound quality of the finished product enormously. After the entirely traditional "Cruel sister", here the band revert to a mixture of band compositions and traditional material, the 11 minute feature (title) track being one of those written by the band.
The opening "Wedding dress" has a real bluegrass feel, Jackie McShee sounding a little like Emmylou Harris (the song is similar to Harris' "Deeper well"). "Omie Wise" returns us to the Atlantic's eastern shores, John Renbourn delivering this traditional folk song without great embellishment. "Will the circle be unbroken" is undoubtedly the best known of the traditional numbers here. The song was first made famous by the Carter Family, but has since been covered by almost as many artists as "Yesterday"! McShee's pure voice is perfect for this pleasantly mournful piece which inevitably invites audience participation on the infectious chorus. "When I get home" is the first of the band compositions. The song has the feel of one of Fairport Convention's early Bob Dylan covers, but to these ears sounds decidedly ordinary among its peers. On the other hand, "Rain and snow" is a personal favourite, this light traditional air offering McShee an opportunity to do her best Joni Mitchell impersonation.
The second side (of the original LP) is altogether more reflective. "Helping hand" is a drifting, downbeat affair with a west coat feel. "So clear" continues in a similar vein, perhaps with hints of Simon and Garfunkel. The lengthy title track takes us towards prog folk territories, the sparse violin and acoustic guitar conversation which opens the track eventually giving way to a fine multi-tracked vocal performance by McShee. The track however gradually settles down into a more orthodox soft folk number. In all, an enjoyable if rather understated album from this fine band. Those who enjoyed their previous works are sure to find this to their liking too.
From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=9925 

Haight-Ashbury - Blow Your Mind

 #Haight-Ashbury #psychedelic rock #psychedelic folk #folk rock #acid folk #neo-psychedelia #retro-1960s  #Scottish

The Glasgow trio Haight-Ashbury has quite possibly never sniffed a single whiff of proper incense-scented San Francisco air. But my, have they imbibed the spirit! Theirs is a huge wall of sound, consisting of twanging tablas and rattling tambourines, the ethereal twin vocals of Jennifer Ashbury and Kirsty Heather Ashbury (possibly not their real names) and a serious addiction to Jesus & Mary Chain-type guitar textures. Huge fun.  From: https://julietippex.com/roster/haight-ashbury

 Haight-Ashbury are a trio, like Peter Paul and Mary, Crosby Stills and Nash and Motorhead (when they were good). Haight-Ashbury don't necessarily sound like any of them, though. They play beautiful West Coast sunshine pop, full of the sort of close harmonies and sweeping melodies that, when it all comes together, make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Listening to their borderline-kosmische neo-hippie pop, you may imagine that they formed when the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars, with the intention to herald the Age of Aquarius. That isn't necessarily untrue. What definitely did happen was that best friends Kirsty and Jen were in bands together from their late teens. One night they had a gig at Glasgow University and the rest of the musicians couldn't make it, so Kirsty’s brother, Scott sat in on guitar while the girls sang. It was a great show. They formed a band.
“We did a Bangles cover. My favourite guitarist was Stephen Stills and that's what I wanted to sound like, nice open tunings, close harmonies,” says Scott. Scott had travelled that summer with a friend in America. “We spent a while specifically in San Francisco. I knew that a few of the bands I liked had roots there. I bought the first Jefferson Airplane album, and The Grateful Dead's records. When we came back wearing Haight Ashbury t-shirts, it was just one of the names in our heads. We didn't choose it because that was our sound, though our sound eventually came to be that. As we developed, we fell into that mold easier than we thought we would.”  From: https://www.a38.hu/en/artist/haight-ashbury

Sonic Youth - 100%

 #Sonic Youth #noise rock #alternative rock #experimental rock #indie rock #post-punk #avant-garde #no-wave #1980s #1990s

Sonic Youth emerged from the experimental no-wave art and music scene in New York before evolving into a more conventional rock band and becoming a prominent member of the American noise rock scene. Sonic Youth have been praised for having "redefined what rock guitar could do,” using a wide variety of unorthodox guitar tunings while preparing guitars with objects like drum sticks and screwdrivers to alter the instruments' timbre. The band was a pivotal influence on the alternative and indie rock movements. After gaining a large underground following and critical praise through releases with SST Records in the late 1980s, the band experienced mainstream success throughout the 1990s and 2000s after signing to major label DGC in 1990 and headlining the 1995 Lollapalooza festival. In 2011, following the separation and subsequent divorce of vocalist bassist Kim Gordon and vocalist guitarist Thurston Moore, the band played its final shows in Brazil.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Youth

100%: This is a mournful song with a creepy undercurrent, made sadder and more tender by the way the lyrics address a dead friend in the present tense. This present tense isn’t in denial — maybe there is the tiniest glimmer of denial in “I been waiting for you just to say the zaftig girl is mine” but beyond that the lyrics more consistently acknowledge that this charming friend who “[rocked] the girls” was “shot dead,” that they’re “blasting the underworld,” that they are undeniably and irrefutably dead. Instead, to me (a person very much prone to projecting) that present tense feels like a natural progression for a friendship that’s been suddenly impacted by tragedy. That tragedy is violent — a shooting — but there’s also a dark little predatory feeling throughout the song. Musically, it’s both driving and alluring. The song is the musical incarnation of a violent eighties horror in which some cool zombies pursue their victims. A stark contrast to the lyrics! But fitting when you consider how the song mourns these friends’ pursuit of girls, which isn’t necessarily predatory, but does feel decisively prowling. The most mournful lyrics are still aggressive. The lyrics consider revenge, and sure that is violent, but capturing pain by saying “I stick a knife in my head thinking about your eyes” is such a very specific, physical, disturbing manifestation of grief. Not dishonest at all! But rarely articulated.  From: https://medium.com/@pkeene27/capsule-reviewed-dirty-by-sonic-youth-a1986ef54850

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

 #Black Sabbath #Ozzy Osbourne #heavy metal #hard rock #classic rock #heavy blues rock #British blues rock #doom metal #1970s #Fantasia #Night on Bald Mountain #animated music video

Listening to Black Sabbath’s self-titled 1970 album is a lesson in heavy metal history. Though bands such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple influenced the formation of the genre, Black Sabbath is often considered the first true heavy metal band, perhaps because they were the first to devote their focus to the darker themes that became an often controversial element of metal. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin also has been quoted as saying he thought Black Sabbath was the first true heavy metal band. Living in an impoverished English town where career choices for most were limited to factory worker or criminal, the boys of Black Sabbath could not relate to the idealistic hippie music that was popular when the band formed in 1968, considering themselves a blues band. Guitarist Tony Iommi, observed the lines that formed at the local movie theater whenever it showed horror films and remarked that if people were so willing to pay to be scared, perhaps they should try playing evil-sounding music. With that in mind, they took their name from a Boris Karloff film.
The title track exemplified Sabbath’s goal of capturing horror in music. It began with atmospheric sounds of heavy rain, thunder, and a single, tolling bell. Then Iomi played a slow, ominous riff based on the “devil’s tritone,” an interval notoriously avoided in medieval music because its dissonance evoked a sense of evil - perfect for Sabbath’s purposes. Though speedy, seemingly effortless shredding has become nearly synonymous with heavy metal, the slogging pace of this formative song was truly heavy, creating a feeling of immense weight and pressure intensified by the dread-soaked vocals of Ozzy Osbourne in his prime. The story of being dragged to hell by a figure in black was not conveyed so much by the lyrics as by the despair in Osbourne’s voice when he moaned, “Oh no, no, please God help me.” The song was haunting in a way that most listeners in 1970 had no idea how to process. This dire sound eventually became the primary influence of the doom metal subgenre in the early 1980s.  From: https://www.classicrockhistory.com/black-sabbath-album-review/

Dead Pirates - UGO

 #Dead Pirates #McBess #psychedelic rock #garage rock #art rock #heavy psych #animated music video

Dead Pirates roared into existence in 2009 as the “band” behind “Wood (Dirty Melody),” an infectious slice of garage punk that soundtracked an animated music video by the French illustrator Matthieu Bessudo — better known as McBess. At the time, the “band” was just McBess himself, a chance for him to stretch his creative muscles beyond the Max Fleischer-inspired artwork and videos for which he’s become known. McBess created the video for “Wood” during his day job at Oscar-winning VFX studio The Mill. “What I wanted to do was make music,” he says. “It didn’t really matter if I became famous or anything like that. It just started to get bigger and bigger.”
It happened quickly; after the release of “Wood (Dirty Melody),” a friend asked Mcbess to play a private Christmas party, so he put together a rudimentary group, including his younger brother, Tristan, flown in from Berlin, on guitar. In 2010, a Dead Pirates 7” was recorded to accompany a McBess-penned comic book entitled Malevolent Melody. Two more EPs followed in 2011 and 2014, along with shows in London and Europe, and a tour to South America in 2015. “It was strange,” says McBess, explaining how his band ended up playing to a crowd of 500 people in Buenos Aires. “I went to South America to do an exhibition, and a friend of mine there was into some good music and said it would be easy to set up a tour. He landed us like six or seven dates.”
Now, Dead Pirates are gearing up to release their debut LP, “Highmare,”a collection of ultra-heavy psychedelic jammers as indebted to ‘70s classics as McBess’ artwork is to Betty Boop. And they’ve had no trouble finding an audience — the first pressing of Highmare is almost completely sold out on Bandcamp. McBess is ready for the attention. “Before this I was never 100% certain of what we were doing, he says. “But this one is different. Nobody is taking it lightly.”  From: https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/dead-pirates-interview

Maria McKee - Absolutely Barking Stars

 #Maria McKee #alternative rock #alt-country #folk rock #roots rock #singer-songwriter #1990s #ex-Lone Justice

I am mystified by my obsession with Maria McKee’s Life Is Sweet. I tried several years ago to explain what it is about the album that touches me so, but I don’t think I did a good job. This album went almost unnoticed; McKee, best known as the lead singer for the alt-country band Lone Justice, took a total 180-degree turn from her previous albums and released a raw, powerful collection of songs that hit at the core of my being. Or as McKee says in “Absolutely Barking Stars,” “She plays Pandora with my soul.” It’s as if she is trying to purge some demons from her mind while welcoming angels at the same time, not knowing who was coming or going. But in the process she releases every emotion imaginable. Aside from a few phrases such as the one above, I have no idea what the third cut, “Absolutely Barking Stars,” is about. The lyrics are pretty abstruse (e.g., “Her apron strings are trailing out like sparks / Her comet tail is whipping, slicing up the dark”). But the song is a microcosm of the entire album: sometimes soothing, sometimes angry, but mostly glorious. The song begins with an electric guitar, and Maria McKee’s voice is almost whispering. But the chords change from major to minor in the second measure – something you don’t hear too often that early in a song. She doesn’t stop there, though: In the pre-chorus, the chord progression hits three minor chords in a row, building in tension as her voice, which was earlier almost whispering, is now sounding more anxious and louder. Then the chorus, the majestic chorus, resolves back to the main key, and McKee’s voice, now double-tracked, cracks in jubilation as strings join in the angelic chorus. Her voice splits into melody and harmony later as she sings with herself, like she’s battling her alter ego. Soon the chorus gives way to a powerful, feedback-laden guitar sequence, and then it’s back to McKee to ramp it up again. “Absolutely Barking Stars” leaves me breathless each time I hear it. You may get it, you may not. But listen for the changes in chords, the change in tension and volume, the different textures involved in each part of the song. And appreciate how Maria McKee can go from a whisper to a glorious diva in a matter of measures.  From: https://hooksandharmony.com/absolutely-barking-stars-maria-mckee/

After making her name as the gritty, soulful lead singer of roots rockers Lone Justice, Maria McKee embarked on a solo career that often reflected the country and blues accents of that band's work while also taking on a more eclectic and personal outlook, both in lyrics and music. After the sophisticated pop of her self-titled 1989 solo debut, McKee dove deep into expressive Americana on 1993's critically celebrated You Gotta Sin to Get Saved, next picking up an electric guitar and exploring more experimental paths on 1996's Life Is Sweet. After breaking ties with the major labels, McKee was able to follow her muse without compromise with the sophisticated and impassioned pop/rock of 2003's High Dive and 2007's Late December. After a long layoff from recording, McKee returned in 2020 with the deeply introspective and poetic La Vita Nuova.  From: https://www.shazam.com/artist/maria-mckee/114205

Infant Annihilator - Blasphemian

 #Infant Annihilator #deathcore #technical death metal #heavy metal #brutal deathcore #extreme metal #animated music video

For anyone who's been indoctrinated into the heavier side of metal, grindcore sweethearts and one-time boy band Infant Annihilator may be a familiar name to you. For those of you who just looked up the name in order to prove you already know them, welcome to the shit show. No hipster bullshit here. Infant Annihilator was formed in 2012 by drummer Aaron Kitcher and guitarist Eddie Pickard. Since then, they’ve released three albums and a few loose singles. That’s all you’re getting, look the rest up on Wikipedia. Now, on to the butt-fuckery. Infant Annihilator is a band full of dudes who like taking the piss in a traditional post-modern way on the surface, but once you’ve looked past the superficial you learn very quickly that these boys are incredibly talented in such a way that it actually frustrates you that they don’t seem to take it all that seriously.
In the early days, vocalist Dan Watson set the tone for the brutality with an impressive array of grunt-styles to really set the tone for the pounding you’re meant to take. Coupled with the near machine-like drumming of Kitcher and the impressive and sometimes soulful solos of Pickard, you’d almost think they’re an incredibly talented Grindcore band that only improves on the pre-established legacy. Then you watch a video and holy shit, these dudes really just don’t give a fuck and go all in. Decapitation Fornication (2012) tells a Cannibal Corpse-style story of a deranged person viciously murdering their victim and then disposing of the body. The video, on the other hand, showcases the band’s love for one another, in sometimes graphic detail, complete with thrusting and black box action. Not my kind of good time, but hey, metal is a judgment-free zone.  From: https://sinneth.com/do-you-know-infant-annihilator/