Belly - Gepetto

 #Belly #Tanya Donelly #alternative rock #dream pop #jangle pop #indie rock #1990s #music video #ex-Throwing Muses #ex-The Breeders

The year was 1993 and a boy said to me, “You know, you kinda look like Tanya Donelly.” I interpreted this as a pick-up line although it migh have been simply a (generous) observation, but at the time there was no higher compliment paid in my estimation. Even the boy from 1993 knew that Tanya Donelly was much more than just indie-rock cutie pie. As a founding member of Throwing Muses and the Breeders, she was rocking the cradle during the infancy of the alternative music movement. These collaborations resulted in a measured amount of critical success (particularly the Breeders’1990 LP Pod) but Donelly shifted focus in 1992 to form her own band, Belly.
Star, one of Belly’s only two albums, listens like the dangerous part of a fairy tale; tucked into bed at one turn only to be climbing out a midnight window at another. The first track, “Someone to Die For,” is a gentle, dreamy introduction to the album. On most releases, that crucial opening song is so often the pull of a ripcord but here, it’s the letting go of a balloon. The flotation ends quickly as the following two tracks, “Angel” and “Dusted” deliver a shot in the arm of swirling rhythm guitars and runaway beats. Donelly uses dynamics to emphasize her narrative, opening her throat wide and crescendoing as the drama gains momentum.
The pop triad of songs on Star – “Feed the Tree,” “Gepetto” and “Slow Dog” – saw frequent play on college radio and landed rotation in the that hallmark of alternative music credibility, MTV’s “120 Minutes.” Although “Feed the Tree” was Belly’s most commercially successful single, “Slow Dog” is the highlight of the album, a punchy little pop song that is anthemic in its simplicity. Similarly, “Witch,” the eerie lullaby of the collection, offers up the flip side of “Slow Dog”‘s emotional dissonance. The soothing introduction of major chord arpeggios on slide guitar is followed with Donelly’s breathy warning: “It’s not safe/ In this house/ In some witch’s bed/ You know the one/ She lies all lit up.” It’s this emotional juxtaposition of imagery and sound – nursery stories turned nightmare – that makes Donelly’s songwriting so compelling.
Star winds down with the lullaby sounds of “Untogether,” “Star” and “Stay,” interrupted only by “Sad Dress,” the most technically interesting effort of the album. Swinging in a 3/2 time signature, “Sad Dress” waltzes dizzily through heavy backbeats and bass riffs that are ratty like an unfinished hem. “Untogether,” an acoustic and bare offering, is the only track that features back-up vocals. Chick Graning, member of the short-lived alt-rock band Scarce, lends just an echo of a male voice in this elegy for an incompatible love.
Indeed, the beauty of Star is that Tanya Donelly’s voice and vision alone drive the album’s conceptual integrity. Her sound, luminous and evocative, was a departure from the disc(h)ord of the riot-grrrl bands that were building steam and fan bases in the mid-90’s. This is not to say that her pipes have no power. Airy and feminine for sure, Donelly can just as quickly tower a hundred stories high when the songwriting insists on it. She plays with notions of vulnerability and invincibility in her vocals, using inflection and even pronunciation to elicit emotional connections.
Donelly’s lyrics are peculiar and specific, conjuring images that are nature-oriented, childlike and vaguely occult. They are the remnants of your baby sister’s bad dream. One of the most memorable lines from “Angel” confesses, “I had bad dreams/ So bad I threw my pillow away.” The songs of Star are subliminal sense impressions, free associations in a way that intuitively clicks. When recalling snapshots of this album rapid fire, my list was “sister doll moon dress witch” – and yeah, that’s about right. Thematically, it’s somewhat of a curious bookend to Hole’s Live Through This. Where Courtney wails wounded about doll parts and witches’ heads, Tanya murmurs dream-like about beheaded dolls and witches’ beds. Both artists identify the trauma, artifice and stigmata that accompany a postmodern womanhood, reaching that place across very different access points. Courtney Love once remarked retrospectively, “I don’t think if I had been Tanya Donelly and put out Live Through This anybody would’ve cared” – and to be fair to Donelly, the reverse might also be true, insofar as only you can sing your own songs. Whether or not Love and Donelly viewed each other as feminist contemporaries, there are disarming lyrical parallels between the two works.
From:  https://spectrumculture.com/2010/06/21/revisit-belly-star/

Kula Shaker - Temple of Everlasting Light

#Kula Shaker #psychedelic rock #neo-psychedelia #raga rock #post-Britpop #psychedelic revival #world music #1990s

Kula Shaker are a British rock band who emerged from the post-britpop era. Named after the ninth century emperor of the same name, their 1996 debut album ‘K’ showcased a different approach than their contemporaries, with a sound inspired by 1960s psychedelic rock and world music and lyrics influenced by Hindu spiritualism. After a brief hiatus from 1999 to 2006, they reformed and are still active today.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/KulaShaker

In Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?!, we quiz an artist on their own career to see how much they can remember – and find out if the booze, loud music and/or tour sweeties has knocked the knowledge out of them. This week: Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills takes the ultimate test

Which band codenamed their seventh album “Kula Shaker demos” to prevent it from leaking?
“The Arsewipes?”
WRONG. It was Radiohead. According to bassist Colin Greenwood, to stop their 2007 record ‘In Rainbows’ being stolen, on the master they’d “write a name which probably nobody would listen to if we lost it; ‘Eagles: Greatest Hits’, ‘Kula Shaker demos’, ‘Phil Collins hip-hop covers”…
“Radiohead are the most overrated band in the universe. I think those guys believe their own myth, and that’s why their albums are so dull and self-important. That’s not me being offended – I genuinely think they’re boring.”
Did you cross paths much with Radiohead?
“We would never cross paths with the gods – we’re just mere mortals! [Laughs] They played opposite us when we played Glastonbury [in 1997], so all The Guardian readers were at Radiohead and then everyone else was at our gig, so it felt a bit more real. But my answer was right: it was The Arsewipes!”

You wrote and directed the 2018 comedy horror film Slaughterhouse Rulez. What is the school’s motto in the film?
“Per Caedes Ad Astra – Through Slaughter to Immortality.”
CORRECT. “The movie ‘If’ was a massive influence on Slaughterhouse Rulez and that was filmed at Charterhouse, a posh public school in the 1960s. A famous Indian saint said around that time that all formal education was like an abattoir for the mind, and you were sending your children to the slaughterhouse because there was no spiritual knowledge in schools. It was a powerful statement that stayed with me all those years until we came to pick the name for the public school.”
You hail from a filmmaking dynasty – you’re the son of actor Hayley Mills and director John Boulting. Were you ever starstruck by any big names as a child?
“The first time I met Harrison Ford he was dressed as Indiana Jones. My mum had worked with Steven Spielberg and was friends with his first wife Amy Irving, and surprised me by taking me to the set of The Last Crusade. I was frozen – all I could do was stare at his boots!”

In 2018, whose psychedelic-influenced album did Liam Gallagher brand as “shit Kula Shaker”?
“No idea. Who was it?”
WRONG. He said of his brother Noel’s High Flying Birds record, ‘Who Built the Moon?’: “It sounds like a shit Kula Shaker.”
“[Laughs] That’s very funny!”
Noel Gallagher used to champion Kula Shaker in the 1990s and you even played Oasis’ blockbuster 1996 Knebworth gigs…
“Being part of Knebworth was like being part of an event rather than a great concert. You can’t see anybody, but you get to say I was there. We didn’t really hang out with Oasis. There was definitely a sense of competition, and they saw us coming and Noel’s approach was probably: ‘Keep your enemies close’. We were rivals and they were at the top. They had the crown and were measuring themselves against the people making waves.”

In 2016, a reformed Kula Shaker made a return to playing live in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, under which pseudonym?
“Was it The Garcons?”
CORRECT. “On the blackboard outside the pub, it said: ‘Live tonight – Kula Shaker. All the pizza you can eat!’ [Laughs] It was a very auspicious return! But it was great because we gave up trying to play the game, nobody in the industry gave a shit when we reformed, and we spent years making records and building it up again ourselves. It was a total reset that had to be done for our spiritual core.”

What time does the watch on the single cover of Kula Shaker’s ‘Govinda’ say?
“It’s 10 to 10.”
CORRECT. “One of the greatest experiences of being in Kula Shaker is singing ‘Govinda’ because it’s a magical chant that exists outside of space and time. It’s a sacred mantra. When you see our audience – a mass of humanity – engaged in transcendental congregational chanting, it’s overwhelming. That’s why I’d much rather be in Kula Shaker than The Arsewipes [Laughs].”

From: https://www.nme.com/features/music-interviews/kula-shaker-crispian-mills-robbie-williams-radiohead-90s-3252289

Sam Phillips - Black Sky

 #Sam Phillips #alternative rock #indie rock #singer-songwriter #T-Bone Burnett #1990s

With Martinis & Bikinis, Sam Phillips has revitalized the "Beatlesque" category with some substantial songwriting and a woman's voice, which turns the whole sound upside down. The Beatles hardly exhausted the possibilities of their late-'60s sound, and Phillips has the hooks and aphorisms to give that sound a second lease on life. Phillips has rewritten two old Beatles songs into "Strawberry Road" and "Same Rain"; she has even recorded a John Lennon composition, "Gimme Some Truth." Phillips's husband, T-Bone Burnett, cowrote two of the songs and produced all 13, and he adds the Lennon-esque touches of guitars recorded backward and sweet harmonized vocals pitted against distorted guitars. But none of this would matter if the songs weren't so good.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Martinis-Bikinis-Sam-Phillips/dp/B000000W50  

Speaking of her 1994 record, "Martinis and Bikinis," Los Angeles singer-songwriter Sam Phillips recently recalled an anecdote associated with one of the songs from that album--a track called "Baby I Can't Please You." It involved one of the musicians who played on the record, bassist Colin Moulding of the British alternative rock band XTC.
"I remember Colin Moulding coming in from England," she tells CBSNews.com. "We were at Jackson Browne's studio in Santa Monica recording. And I remember when he heard "Baby I Can't Please You," he had this big smile on his face and he said, 'We should do a Bollywood duet, you and me.' At the time I thought, 'Uh, maybe not.' But now I regret that. I think that would have been a wonderful idea and maybe someday we'll get to do that duet."
Still, Phillips did have a chance to rework some of the songs from the record that now appear as bonus tracks on a new reissue of "Martinis and Bikinis," which came out Tuesday. Produced by her then-husband T-Bone Burnett (whose production credits include Counting Crows, Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, and the Wallflowers), "Martinis and Bikinis" is generally well-regarded by the critics and perhaps her most accessible work.
"Martinis and Bikinis" Omnivore Recordings
"It actually came from my publishers at Notable Music," Phillips said about the idea behind the reissue. "They've been talking to this company Omnivore -  they started reissuing these vinyl projects. "It's been quite a while since ["Martinis and Bikinis"] has been released, and also because it's never been on vinyl, they were very excited to be involved."
Released at a time when alternative rock was the rage, "Martinis and Bikinis" was Phillips' third album for her then-label Virgin Records - the others being "The Indescribable Wow" and "Cruel Inventions." One thing she recalls about the record was T-Bone Burnett playing a lot of the guitars on it. "But I also remember that of the three records for Virgin," she adds, "it was the culmination of the other two records that the process that we had started when we first did "The Indescribable Wow." I felt like they were all connected and that "Martinis and Bikinis" was we finally got to the place that we wanted to get after a lot of work. I remember months in the studio for all three of those records."
In addition to Burnett, "Martinis and Bikinis" featured musicians such as Colin Moulding, Marc Ribot, Mickey Curry and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. And while the album was dominated by Phillips' vocals, melodic hooks, and pristine production, "Martinis and Bikinis" contained soul-searching lyrics that addressed political, personal and social themes.
"Writing melodic songs were going against the grain at that time," says Phillips, "and also going against the grain in terms of what the lyrics were saying. A friend of mine who was very wealthy once brought up the idea that he knew of a man who was a refugee and everything that he had that was of value he held in his heart. I was very struck by that, so I put that verbatim in "Same Rain." There were a lot of different ideas. "Fighting with Fire" was about having to deal with art and commerce and trying to make sense of that, trying to make a life when corporations dictate how you make art and dictate how you get paid and we're still dealing with that today. It was a very serious record."
From: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sam-phillips-revisits-martinis-and-bikinis/

The Allman Brothers Band - Revival

 #The Allman Brothers Band #Southern rock #blues rock #country rock #jam band #1970s

If you're going to listen to the Allman Brothers, make sure you have the first four records. The band made The Allman Brothers Band, Idlewild South, At Fillmore East, and three-fourths of Eat a Peach with its original lineup, before Duane Allman's fatal motorcycle accident in 1971. The Tom Dowd-produced Idlewild South, their second album, comes off with a little less ferocity than their debut -- which is perhaps the result of reaching for new sounds the second time around. "Revival," the album's opener, introduces Dickey Betts as a composer. The countrified flavor of his songs gives an indication of where the band will head in the post-Duane era. Betts' other contribution to Idlewild South is the instrumental "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," a centerpiece of the Fillmore East recordings. Gregg's "Please Call Home" and "Midnight Rider" are built around piano and acoustic guitar, respectively, and have a different feel than the band's usual twin Les Paul-and-Hammond sound. That sound is showcased in the balance of Gregg's tunes, however: the funky blues of "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" and "Leave My Blues at Home." The album is also notable for the rollicking version of Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man," with the only vocal bassist Berry Oakley (who died in a motorcycle accident one year after Duane) ever recorded with the group. Though overall it packs less punch than The Allman Brothers Band, Idlewild South is all the more impressive for its mixture of chunky grooves and sophisticated textures.  https://www.allmusic.com/album/idlewild-south-mw0000196446

Stolen Babies - Push Button

 #Stolen Babies #progressive metal #avant-garde metal #gothic rock #alternative metal #experimental rock #dance rock #performance rock

Stolen Babies are an American experimental rock band consisting of vocalist/accordionist Dominique Lenore Persi, bassist/guitarist Rani Sharone, and drummer Gil Sharone. Stolen Babies formed from a 12+ member high school performance troupe named The Fratellis; the band takes its name from one of the skits performed by the group during this period (written by Dominique Persi and her older brother, animator Raymond S. Persi). Stolen Babies released their first demo CD through their own label, No Comment Records.
Among the band's many musical influences are groups such as Oingo Boingo, Mr. Bungle, Cop Shoot Cop, and Fishbone (with whom Gil Sharone has performed). Stolen Babies are known for their unclassifiable odd rock and heavy, energetic performances. Except for the earliest demo, each album has featured artwork by indie comic artist Crab Scrambly.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Babies

Edwin Starr - War

#Edwin Starr #Norman Whitfield #Motown #soul #R&B #protest #1960s

An anti-war anthem deemed a little too forthright for one of Motown’s biggest acts hit the top of the charts for one of its finest soul singers in August 1970. Edwin Starr, who arrived at Motown with a fine track record but had never quite dined at Tamla’s top table, had the USA’s hottest single as “War” started its three-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by Barrett Strong and producer Norman Whitfield, who recorded the first version of it with the Temptations. But even though that creative combination was producing some real cutting-edge social commentary, Motown felt that to release their version as a single would alienate their more conservative fan base. Many politically engaged students lobbied the label to release the Temptations’ recording, but Motown decided on a different tactic. Whitfield recorded a new version with Starr, the soul man born Charles Hatcher in Nashville in 1942 and raised in Cleveland. He’d made his name at Detroit label Ric-Tic in the mid-1960s with such gems as “Agent Double-O-Soul” and “Stop Her On Sight (S.O.S.),” before transferring to the Gordy label when Motown bought Ric-Tic outright. The result of the new interpretation was a soul classic, with a lyric that was clearly anti-Vietnam but has remained sadly relevant throughout the world ever since. Starr’s powerful vocal delivery brought a real sense of anger and frustration to the recording.  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/edwin-starr-war-song/

Ruby the Hatchet - Black Tongue

 #Ruby the Hatchet #psychedelic metal #doom metal #psychedelic rock #occult rock #heavy psych #music video

Forming after a series of basement practices in New Jersey circa 2010 before relocating to Philadelphia, psychedelic quintet Ruby the Hatchet brings together doomy, evil hard rock with occult-flavored psychedelia for a witchy brew of dazzled and ominous wild rock sounds. The band features guitarist Johnny Scarps, drummer Owen Stewart, bassist Mike Parise, and keyboard player Sean Hur, and is trademarked by the howling, dynamic vocals of Jillian Taylor. To date the band has released three studio albums among a handful of EPs and have toured throughout North America and Europe.  From: https://riffipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Ruby_The_Hatchet

Ruby The Hatchet have been around since 2011 representing the Doom scene with seductive tones and a mystique. Ruby doesn’t perform the laborious plodding down-tuned dirge but embraces a callback to psychedelic and classic rock. Jillian Taylor, lead vocalist, projects her engaging voice while the band adds the deep rhythms of Owen Stewart (drums) and Lake Muir (bass) and John Scarperia’s chugging riffs. The attraction also emanates from Sean Kan Hur leaning heavy on the Hammond. As the past exhibits, these five create a masterful blend of captivating rock. We can look back to their label debut album, Valley of the Snake, and then their follow up, 2017’s Planetary Space Child. Ruby targeted their brand of mysticism via a space theme (related to astrology) which lends itself just as equally to exploration and isolation. Now, in 2022, they return hypnotizing any audience as a Wizards wicked spell would. Fear Is A Cruel Master is out on Magnetic Eye records October 21st. Ruby defines the Rock ‘n’ Roll ethos. Not just with their sonic declarations, but in addition to being on J Mascis’ (Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr, Witch, live guest of Negative Approach) prestigious label, Tee Pee, the band has self-released their debut LP, Ouroboros, and two EPs. Independence, rebellion, and defiance are apparent attributes of these five redeemers of the riff.  From: https://newnoisemagazine.com/reviews/album-review-ruby-the-hatchet-fear-is-a-cruel-master/

The Beatles - Revolution

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

‘Revolution’ was John Lennon’s response to the popular calls for uprising in the US and Europe. It was a revision of a version already recorded for the White Album, and became the b-side of the ‘Hey Jude’ single. Although taped after ‘Revolution 1’, this faster, louder version was the first to be released. The song was written in India while The Beatles were studying meditation in Rishikesh.
John Lennon: “I wanted to put out what I felt about revolution. I thought it was time we fucking spoke about it, the same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnamese war when we were on tour with Brian Epstein and had to tell him, ‘We’re going to talk about the war this time, and we’re not going to just waffle.’ I wanted to say what I thought about revolution. I had been thinking about it up in the hills in India. I still had this ‘God will save us’ feeling about it, that it’s going to be all right. That’s why I did it: I wanted to talk, I wanted to say my piece about revolution.’”
While ‘Revolution 1’ found Lennon uncertain about whether to join the struggle, on the faster ‘Revolution’ he emphatically demanded to be excluded. The urgency of the new arrangement was a result of Paul McCartney’s resistance to Lennon’s hopes of ‘Revolution 1’ being The Beatles’ next single after ‘Lady Madonna’. With the backing of George Harrison, McCartney argued that the recording was too slow, inspiring Lennon to re-record it in an up-tempo, distorted and spontaneous outburst of anti-revolutionary fervor. After two years lost in an LSD haze, and newly energized in his love for Yoko Ono, Lennon gladly rose to the challenge he perceived.
John: “We recorded the song twice. The Beatles were getting real tense with each other. I did the slow version and I wanted it out as a single: as a statement of The Beatles’ position on Vietnam and The Beatles’ position on revolution. For years, on The Beatles’ tours, Brian Epstein had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war. And he wouldn’t allow questions about it. But on one of the last tours, I said, ‘I am going to answer about the war. We can’t ignore it.’ I absolutely wanted The Beatles to say something about the war.” ‘Revolution’ featured the most distortion on any Beatles recording, particularly in the twin fuzz-toned guitars plugged directly into the Abbey Road desk and deliberately played loud to overload the meters.
George Martin: “We got into distortion on that, which we had a lot of complaints from the technical people about. But that was the idea: it was John’s song and the idea was to push it right to the limit. Well, we went to the limit and beyond.”  From: https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/revolution/

Drain S.T.H. - I Don't Mind

 #Drain S.T.H. #heavy metal #grunge #alternative metal #hard rock #nu metal #Swedish #1990s

The all-female hard rock/heavy metal band Drain S.T.H. was formed in 1993 in Stockholm, Sweden (hence the S.T.H., added to avoid confusion with a similarly named American band), and featured singer Maria Sjöholm, guitarist Flavia Canel, bassist Anna Kjellberg, and drummer/vocalist Martina Axén. Displaying an unabashed worship of Alice in Chains, their independent 1996 debut, Horror Wrestling, was dominated by uncompromising grinds of slow, down-tuned guitars, which were then topped with Sjöholm and Axén's beautifully chilling vocal harmonies. Coupled with the band's impressive live performances and supermodel looks, this soon drew the attention of Mercury Records subsidiary The Enclave, which repackaged and re-released the album worldwide two years later with an additional three tracks. The far more accessible follow-up, 1999's Freaks of Nature, shed much of the band's excessive Alice in Chains influences of old and flirted with traces of programmed percussion and even rap, thereby forging a more distinctive sonic identity. But despite extensive touring both in Europe and America (including a lengthy jaunt with that year's Ozzfest) and attaining decent radio airplay in support, Drain S.T.H. never managed to break out of the metal underground, perhaps because they were simply too drop-dead gorgeous to be taken seriously by the notoriously chauvinistic metal masses.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/drain-sth-mn0000806089/biography

Richard Thompson - Beeswing

 #Richard Thompson #British folk rock #contemporary folk #singer-songwriter #acoustic #ex-Fairport Convention

In 1976, Richard Thompson’s glory days looked long behind him. The guitarist who had electrified folk music with Fairport Convention and then made a series of bleak albums with his wife Linda was living in a tiny cottage in Suffolk with her and their children, selling their chickens’ eggs to the village shop. “This old tramp used to come round every three to six months,” Thompson recalled to me many years later in a London pub, “and he’d stay with us. He was a great old boy. He had amazing stories.”
Ted, the tramp, dreamt of settling down in a caravan and putting down roots; he never did. “But also, in the Sixties, the thing was ‘getting your head together in the country’: there were these mythological women, like [folk singers] Vashti Bunyan or Annie Briggs, who would disappear for years in caravans, go off to Ireland or live on a farm and you’d never see them again.”
Years passed. The Thompsons divorced. Richard returned to music, making a series of solo albums through the 1980s to (slightly) diminishing returns. Then, he drew for inspiration on Ted and on Annie Briggs and that “rural underclass landscape”, and wrote “Beeswing”.
In the summer of love, the song’s narrator comes to Dundee and falls in love with a laundry worker, as “fine as a bee’s wing”. They go on the road, busking and fruit picking and tinkering. He wants to settle down and have a family; she refuses. “As long as there’s no price on love I’ll stay.” After a drunken quarrel she leaves. Now he hears only rumors of her, sleeping rough; once marrying but finding “even a gypsy caravan was too much settling down”. Free-spiritedness shades into solipsism. And yet he remains obsessed.
The song’s parent album, 1994’s Mirror Blue, was not well received, and the delicate “Beeswing” was lost amid its general clatter. But the song persisted. When he played it on tour that year, usually straight after the rambunctious “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”, with Pete Zorn’s pennywhistle solo hinting at the voice of the beloved, audiences hushed. It became one of the highlights of his songbook, and lent the title to his 2021 autobiography. At his 70th birthday concert in 2019, he played it as a duet with Alistair Anderson on squeezebox, the two of them lit as if by moonlight, a moment of stillness in a celebratory night.  From: https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/beeswing.html

Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story

 #Rod Stewart #Faces #hard rock #blue-eyed soul #blues rock #folk rock #1970s

Though it’s a truth that’s now largely forgotten, at least among the young and the terminally hip, Rod Stewart was once a pretty righteous cat — foremost among interpretive singers and endowed with gangbuster rock and roll bonafides primarily, perhaps, from his role as frontman for the Faces, as gloriously disheveled, shambolic, and spirited a rock and roll band as has ever existed. The Faces’ greatness never quite gelled into a straight-up killer LP  -  not unless you care to count their peerless and essential Rhino box from 2004  -  but their ragged spirit, careening from bawdy bar-band rock to nakedly emotional acoustic numbers, made them epochal. That spirit was in large part carried over to Every Picture Tells a Story, the solo album that made Rod Stewart a genuine pop star, but with one key difference: With Every Picture, Stewart actually made a top-to-bottom dynamite LP, as big-hearted and gloriously rough-around-the-edges as any Faces album but more unified, more conceptual, and simply better. Surely its emotional candor — its embrace of earnestness, its absence of affectation — are key to its success. You can hear the album as a celebration of what it is to be a young man, swaggering through the prime of his physical, sexual, and creative life, and there’s plenty of evidence to support such a reading, not least the uproariously crude travelogue of an album opener, where the narrator globe-trots from one romantic and geographic misadventure to the next; of course there’s also the big single, “Maggie May,” that made Rod a star, and remains a richer and more sophisticated song than it’s ever given credit for being, a writerly showcase for Stewart’s pop instincts. Rod and his band pound through a rowdy take on the Elvis Presley gem “That’s All Right,” as well, but the track’s Saturday night revelry gives way to a Sunday morning comedown in the form of a yearning “Amazing Grace,” which is maybe the best tip-off here to the record’s emotional complexity. Indeed, it’s as reflective as often as it is jubilant, on covers as well as originals. In the case of the former, there are no less than two songs that ache over time, distance, separation, and desire: A soulful, rolling “Seems Like a Long Time” and then a definitive reading of Dylan’s “Tomorrow Is Such a Long Time,” which offers proof enough that Rod is the second-best singer of the Dylan songbook, bested only by Bob himself. Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe” is present, too, at once big-hearted and emotionally conflicted. It’s the album’s ringing send-off. But its high point is Rod’s own “Mandolin Wind,” an achingly earnest, aww-shucks kind of love song that soars from a tentative whisper to a bold declaration. Throughout the album, Stewart blurs the line separating hard rock and folk music, and seems almost to bend time itself: “That’s All Right” was an oldie even then but it kicks with garage rock immediacy; “Tomorrow Is Such a Long Time” is so earthy and haunted, it sounds like a folk song old as the hills. It’s a celebration of youth, this record, but more than that it’s a celebration of the very art of song — and maybe that’s what makes it ageless.  From: https://inreviewonline.com/2015/01/09/every-picture-tells-a-story/

Vodun - Mawu

 #Vodun #heavy metal #hard rock #psychedelic metal #stoner metal #ritualistic doom metal #occult rock #traditional West African music #afrobeat #music video

Amidst the rushing screams of Mother Earth; the pounding drums of Ouidah; the markets of Lomé and the open heart of Erzulie, there exists Vodun. Born of only three comes the embodiment of crushing noise intertwined with enrapturing harmonies... heavy, weird, soulful... yes, we are expectant of the abnormal and so should you be.  From: https://vodun.bandcamp.com/

From Kiss’s hard rock kabuki to Slipknot’s masks, metal has always loved a gimmick. Factor in bands like Alestrom (pirates), Battlelore (Hobbits) and Gwar (hell knows) and it can often feel as if no schtick has been left unexplored. In 2016, the latest band to go high concept is Vôdûn. A UK-based trio who play lucid thrash spiked with tribal drums while daubed in warpaint, they’re primarily inspired by west African vodou.
“It’s about taking on the spirits we embody, that warrior element, and helping us to be truly in the moment,” explains frontwoman Chantal Brown, formerly of cowl-sporting arkestra Chrome Hoof and, before that, oddball nine-piece Do Me Bad Things. “It’s about entertainment value, too, but our interest in vodou runs deeper than that.”
Brown discovered the religion through fellow Hoof singer Lola Olafisoye. “She’s a spiritual practitioner, and she’d share all these books she had on west African history,” says Brown. It proved a powerful inspiration to a group wanting to write heavy music steeped in spirituality and feminism. “It had feminist undertones: a lot of the gods and priests were female,” Brown continues. “People have tried to demonize it for centuries. It was the culture of a people who have been oppressed, killed off and enslaved. There’s more to it than sticking pins in dolls.”
Vôdûn’s aesthetic could easily be seen as contrived but it undeniably sets Vôdûn apart from other heavy British bands. Musically, they cut through the current trend for floppy-fringed emo-metal in the vein of Bring Me The Horizon. By contrast, Vôdûn’s debut album, Possession, sounds like Slayer doing Black Box’s Ride On Time and their shows are more like acid raves than metal gigs. A similarly rave-y sense of abandon is key to their music, and Brown sees links with her own musical heritage: “I come from a gospel background; being possessed is like catching the holy ghost, or speaking in tongues.”  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/15/west-african-vodou-meets-hard-rock-in-metal-trio-vodun

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Third Stone From The Sun

 #The Jimi Hendrix Experience #hard rock #psychedelic rock #blues rock #R&B #heavy metal #British psychedelia #acid rock #1960s #power trio #Mitch Mitchell #Noel Redding

Strange beautiful grass of green
With your majestic silver seas
Your mysterious mountains I'd wish to see closer
May I land my kinky machine?

Although your world wonders me
With your majestic and superior cackling hen
Your people I do not understand
So to you I shall put an end
Then you'll never hear surf music again

Little Feat - Rock and Roll Doctor

 #Little Feat #Lowell George #blues rock #country rock #Southern rock #roots rock #1970s

By 1974, when Little Feat’s Feats Don’t Fail Me Now was released, tensions within the band were starting to surface. The band’s leader Lowell George had begun collaborating with non-band member Martin Kibbee (credited as Fred Martin) and the pair penned the album’s lead cut, “Rock And Roll Doctor.” George and Kibbee, who had attended Hollywood High School in Los Angeles together, had also co-written “Dixie Chicken” for Little Feat’s 1973 album of the same name. After high school, they formed a garage-punk outfit called The Factory, penning goofy songs like “Lightning Rod Man,” equal parts zany-Zappa and fast-and-loose Stones. On “Rock And Roll Doctor,” George and Kibbee employ a similar technique as the trucker anthem “Willin’,” name-dropping cities like Mobile, Moline, Nagodoches and New Orleans in the song’s verse. As to the musical side of the song, in an interview last year with American Songwriter at MerleFest, Little Feat member Paul Barrere discussed how George often used tape splicing in the studio as a compositional tool, a trick he learned from Frank Zappa. “Lowell used to do this thing with cassette tapes where he would take the tape and cut and splice it together, not knowing what was going to happen,” recalled Barrere. “[On ‘Rock And Roll Doctor’] there was like a couple of measures that were 3 1/2 beats instead of 4 beats and he would hand the tape to [keyboardist] Billy [Payne] and say, ‘Normalize this.’ I think within the framework of the verse there’s a 6/4 measure, which is probably why we didn’t get a whole lot of airplay on jukeboxes. If people try to dance to it, it’s like they’re on the wrong foot!” Sadly, arguments over the direction of Little Feat eventually led to the band’s demise in 1978, and George died in 1979. “He was fantastic, an incredible songwriter. A wonderful singer, great player. And, just an enigma of a man,” recalled Barrere. “It was always this sort of love-hate relationship going on, mood swings that I attribute to the times, and what we were doing in those times.”  From: https://americansongwriter.com/little-feat-rock-and-roll-doctor/

Though they had all the trappings of a Southern-fried blues band, Little Feat were hardly conventional. Led by songwriter/guitarist Lowell George, Little Feat were a wildly eclectic band, bringing together strains of blues, R&B, country, and rock & roll. The band members were exceptionally gifted technically and their polished professionalism sat well with the slick sounds coming out of Southern California during the '70s. However, Little Feat were hardly slick - they had a surreal sensibility, as evidenced by George's idiosyncratic songwriting, which helped them earn a cult following among critics and musicians. Though the band earned some success on album-oriented radio, the group was derailed after George's death in 1979. Little Feat re-formed in the late '80s, and while they were playing as well as ever, they lacked the skewed sensibility that made them cult favorites. Nevertheless, their albums and tours were successful, especially among American blues-rock fans.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/little-feat-mn0000313284/biography

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mellowship Slinky in B Major

 #Red Hot Chili Peppers #alternative rock #funk rock #funk metal #hard rock #nu metal #rap rock #1990s

The Riverside Ballroom, Green Bay, Wisconsin. November 26, 1989: the Red Hot Chili Peppers stroll quietly into the ballroom and sneak a look around. The crowd is fairly small, strangely restless, buzzing and hurting for relief from the sexual frustrations of a Midwestern farm town winter. Perfect. For the first time on the Mother’s Milk tour, the Chilis decide to give them the sock. Backstage, tour manager Mark Johnson produces a fresh pack of white tube socks. The Chilis rush from the cold dressing room into the friendly, swarming heat of the auditorium wearing tennis shoes, hats and the socks stretched over their cocks - a costume they save these days for stifled places like Green Bay. The Chilis rear back and launch into “Out in L.A,” the traditional show-opener of a band thick with rituals. The crowd erupts in an ass-grabbing frenzy. Too-sexy, 19-year-old guitarist John Frusciante lays back, stretching his washboard stomach, his shoulders hunched, the Jimmy Page smirk on his lips. Singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea are simply a blur, a pair of martial arts contenders gone mad, Flea’s eyes glowing green and his tightly-wrapped skull shining. Given the intensity of the onstage fray, the Chili Peppers are only tempting fate. Eventually, one of those socks has to fly off. Well into the set, jazz horn virtuoso and childhood homeboy Keith Chapman Barry - known only as Tree - joins the Peppers onstage. During his sax solo Tree’s sock almost immediately falls off - but, a true Chili, he “rocks out with his cock out” and finishes the song. There is no way to salvage the crowd. Boys are doffing their shirts. Virgins are crying. Guitar roadie and backup singer Robbie Allen darts onstage and “does a helicopter with his dick” right in the spotlight. We have, indeed, come a long way since Jim Morrison.  From: https://www.spin.com/featured/red-hot-chili-peppers-mothers-milk-1990-cover-story-physical-graffiti/

Rush - Xanadu

 #Rush #progressive rock #hard rock #heavy metal #art rock #blues rock #progressive metal #1970s

"Xanadu" is a song by the Canadian progressive rock band Rush from their 1977 album A Farewell to Kings. It is approximately eleven minutes long, beginning with a five-minute-long instrumental section before transitioning to a narrative written by Neil Peart, which in turn was inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Kubla Khan. In Peart's lyrics, the narrator describes searching for a place called "Xanadu" that will grant him immortality. After succeeding in this quest, a thousand years pass, and the narrator is left "waiting for the world to end", describing himself as "a mad immortal man". The song is based on the poem Kubla Khan written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Although the song does not explicitly state where "Xanadu" is, references to Kubla Khan imply that it is a mythical place based on Shangdu, the historical summer capital of the Mongol Empire.
"Xanadu" is the first Rush song in which synthesizers play an integral part. Unlike the previous albums, 2112 and Caress of Steel, "Xanadu" uses both guitar and synthesizer effects. "Xanadu" requires each band member to utilize an array of instruments to affect the performance. Alex Lifeson used a double-necked Gibson electric guitar (one twelve-string, the other six-string) as well as synthesizer pedals; Geddy Lee made use of a double-necked Rickenbacker 4080/12 guitar (bass and twelve-string guitar), as well as extensive synthesizer arrangements (through both pedals and keyboards) in addition to singing; and Peart took on various percussion instruments (temple blocks, tubular bells, bell tree, glockenspiel, and wind chimes) in addition to his drum kit.
Despite its complexity and length, Xanadu is a rare "one take wonder" song. Guitarist Alex Lifeson said, "Xanadu was well rehearsed before going to Rockfield (Studios), I remember that. On the day we recorded it, Pat Moran, the resident engineer, set all the mics up and we ran the song down, partially to get balances and tones. Because it was a long song, we didn't need to complete that test run. "We then played it a second time from top to bottom and that's what you hear on the album. Needless to say, Pat was shocked that we ran an 11-minute song down in one complete take. Practice doesn't always make perfect, but it sure helps!"  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanadu_(Rush_song)

The New Respects - Trigger

 #The New Respects #alternative rock #indie rock #blues rock #soul #R&B #funk #folk rock

The New Respects are a high-energy throwback rock and soul quartet comprising siblings Alexandria, Alexis, and Darius Fitzgerald, and their cousin Jasmine Mullen. The children of a Nashville preacher, twins Alexandria (guitar) and Alexis (bass) and their brother Darius (drums) grew up on gospel music, and while Mullen (vocals) heard a wider range of influences in the house, her parents were both songwriters in the Christian music industry, with her mom, Nicole C. Mullen, having established herself as a prominent recording artist in the early 2000s. Forming in high school as the John Hancock Band, the quartet was initially based around more of an indie folk sound. As they became more established, the influences of early rock, R&B, blues, and soul began to inform their sound, and their music became more dynamic. By 2016, they'd signed with Capitol CMG and changed their name to the New Respects. Following a pair of singles later that year, they made their debut in early 2017 with the Here Comes Trouble EP.  From: https://www.isrbx.me/3137661009-the-new-respects-before-the-sun-goes-down-2018.html

Richard & Linda Thompson - Hokey Pokey

#Richard & Linda Thompson #folk rock #British folk rock #contemporary folk #singer-songwriter #ex-Fairport Convention #1970s

From 1973 to 1982, British folk legend Richard Thompson (having quit Fairport Convention in 1971) recorded as a duo with his wife Linda Thompson. This period saw a great amount of critical praise for Richard’s songwriting and Linda’s voice, though not much popular success. Following their divorce, both pursued solo careers.
The Thompsons recorded three albums: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974), Hokey Pokey (1975) and Pour Down Like Silver (1975) before they decided to leave the music business and moved to a Sufi commune in East Anglia. Songwriting was by Richard throughout, lead vocals generally by Linda, and backing by a consistent core band of English folk-rock stalwarts
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight showed a clear development from Richard Thompson’s first solo effort Henry The Human Fly with Linda’s vocals adding grace, as well as the opportunity for Richard to write from a female perspective. Although Thompson’s trademark gloom is already evident, the lightness and beauty of the arrangements counterbalances this to produce moments of great beauty. The use of brass, from the renowned CWS silver band in particular takes forward Thompson’s continuing crusade to find a more contemporary and ordinary expression of Englishness in music (as opposed to, say, the forays into the Morris form of his Fairport contemporary Ashley Hutchings; solo and with The Albion Band). The next year’s release, Hokey Pokey, to some extent repeats the formula, although it is improved in production values, and is stylistically more adventurous still. A Heart Needs a Home is a minor miracle of songwriting, expressing the longing for love without cynicism and has a standout multi-tracked vocal from Linda.  From: https://thevogue.com/artists/richard-linda-thompson/#bio

Beth Orton - She Cries Your Name

 #Beth Orton #folktronica #folk rock #trip-hop #contemporary folk rock #electronica #singer-songwriter

Beth Orton is the rare vocalist who exists between disparate worlds; she is a singer with a folkie soul who is as comfortable accompanied by an acoustic guitar as by electronic rhythms. Indeed, most people first heard her on William Orbit's Hinterland album and on the Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust. Likewise, her slightly askance vocal style seems to betray naiveté, while lyrically there is a world-weary depth that the latest spate of tough-talking Lolitas cannot muster. Each song's closely observed details create small ripples that grow to substantial emotional waves by album's end; this very promising debut (Trailer Park) should be the harbinger of great things to come from Orton, with or without the help of a Lilith Fair or anything beyond the integrity of her songs and the wise lilt of her voice.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Park-Beth-Orton/dp/B000003RSF

As if being the poster girl for a convoluted sub-genre like folktronica weren’t bad enough, Beth Orton of Norfolk, England has also tried to live down (so far unsuccessfully) a phenomenal debut that was evidently a case of sheer timing — and quite possibly a baldfaced fluke. Her world-weary yet somehow still ingenuous voice — a seamless patchwork of the best Carole King and Rickie Lee Jones have to offer — has continued to be a pleasure.
Orton entered the scene through the agency of artist-producer William Orbit, a man able to make even Madonna sound cool. Calling themselves Spill, the duo put out a single in ’92 (a cover of cult guitarist John Martyn’s “Don’t Wanna Know ‘Bout Evil”), with plans for a full-length album that evolved into Beth’s SuperPinkyMandy. A limited release for the Japanese market, the album collects ten Orbit-influenced soundscapes, including the Spill single and the first version of Orton’s signature tune, “She Cries Your Name” (which would resurface in different form on Orbit’s Strange Cargo series). After Spill was spent, she continued working with Orbit, and added memorably to tracks by the Chemical Brothers and Red Snapper, undertakings that made her something of a traveling big beat/acid jazz diva.
In ’96 she slowed down her guest-spot rotations to put out the introductory She Cries Your Name EP (re-released the following year with different songs) and the remarkable Trailer Park. Despite the sun-drenched cover shot, this is music for cloudy days. A unifying tone — as strong as any concept album around — makes even pretty ear candy like “Don’t Need a Reason” and “Sugar Boy” sound as perfectly sad as the mandolin-trimmed “Whenever” and the simple retelling of the Ronettes’ “I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine.” For those in line for the trip-hop Beth’s known for, you’ll have some time to kill: producer/DJ Andrew Weatherall (Primal Scream, the Orb) steps in for three tracks of lingering beats (“Galaxy of Emptiness” being the best), but it’s delicate pop like “Someone’s Daughter” that fills the gaps. A new take on “She Cries Your Name” is the album’s apex, a faultless blend of acoustic picking, lush strings and Red Snapper’s Ali Friend on double bass.
From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/beth-orton/

Jefferson Starship - I Want To See Another World

 #Jefferson Starship #Grace Slick #Paul Kantner #Marty Balin #folk rock #hard rock #psychedelic rock #progressive rock #album rock #1970s #ex-Jefferson Airplane

Spawned from the dissolution of Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship became one of the more successful arena rock draws of the 1970s and early '80s and enjoyed more commercial viability than its predecessor in large part due to the greater pop sensibilities of the new incarnation. Jefferson Airplane, a seminal psychedelic rock band popular for songs like "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", began to fragment when lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady delved further into their side project Hot Tuna, while the other creative half of the band, rhythm guitarist and singer Paul Kantner and singer Grace Slick became more isolated as a romantic couple who had their own musical interests and desires. In addition, Marty Balin, who originally founded the band, grew fed up with conflict and quit the band in 1970. With Airplane's breakup inevitable, Kantner focused his efforts on his solo concept album Blows Against the Empire, a record that saw the first use of the Jefferson Starship moniker, although the band that would later take on the name had yet to take a definable shape. Blows saw contributions from members of the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, as well as Grace Slick and Quicksilver Messenger Service's David Freiberg, both of whom would be fixtures of the Jefferson Starship's official formation. When it was clear to Kantner that Kaukonen and Casady were in no mood to continue on with Jefferson Airplane, he decided to create a permanent touring band that would become Jefferson Starship. Along with Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg the Starship lineup included Papa John Creach on violin, Kaukonen's brother Peter on bass, John Barbata on drums, and Craig Chaquico on lead guitar.  From: https://www.wolfgangs.com/jefferson-starship/