Whippersnapper - Lizzie Wan

 #Whippersnapper #Dave Swarbrick #British folk #British folk rock #contemporary folk #acoustic #folk supergroup #ex-Fairport Convention

Whippersnapper were a four-piece acoustic band formed by Dave Swarbrick, Chris Leslie, Kevin Dempsey, and Martin Jenkins in Northamptonshire during 1983. Although none of the others could quite compare with Swarbrick's long experience or near-legendary status, each of the others brought something substantial to the table at the outset of the group's history - Chris Leslie was a musical instrument maker as well as an experienced violinist (who had Swarbrick's playing as a model); guitarist, singer, and percussionist Kevin Dempsey had played in Dando Shaft, and had experience with Latin music as well as Celtic and English folk repertory; and multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins had played with Matthews Southern Comfort and was also an ex-member of Dando Shaft, as well as a Bert Jansch alumnus. As a result, the group's work was highly anticipated by folk enthusiasts, as a unique all-acoustic supergroup. The group made its debut in January of 1984 at the Burnt Post in Coventry and subsequently played the Cambridge Folk Festival, a performance that was captured on video as well.
Their music was a deceptively complex brand of progressive folk, driven by the presence of four full-fledged virtuoso players. Whippersnapper spent most of their first year honing their sound and repertory, which started out fully formed, drawing on the song-bags of all four members. As a result, their debut album, when it came time to do it - recorded for their own Whippersnapper label - came together very quickly. The Promises long-player was recorded in December of 1984 and in stores just about eight weeks later, and well received by fans and critics. A second LP, Tsubo, didn't appear until 1987, and it was similar in form and structure to the first. A third studio album was intended, but in the interim the quartet issued These Foolish Strings, a compilation of four years' worth of live recordings. The fourth album, Fortune, was released in early 1990, and also marked the end of Swarbrick's involvement with the group. The group continued as a trio of Leslie, Dempsey, and Jenkins, and Leslie and Dempsey recorded the LP Always with You, released in 1996. Dempsey eventually teamed up with Swarbrick anew, while Leslie joined one of the latter-day lineups of Fairport Convention.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/whippersnapper-mn0000247625

Shooting Daggers - Manic Pixie Dream Girl

 #Shooting Daggers #hardcore punk #riot grrrl #metalcore #feminist punk #post-hardcore #thrash metal #queercore #European

‘We are queer, and we’re gonna live!’ roars Shooting Daggers’ singer Sal Salgado Pellegrin, on We Will Live, the penultimate call-to-arms on the band’s fearless new EP, Athames. It’s a lyric that sums up the steely eyed attitude behind the band’s brutal, yet triumphant, hardcore punk. Heavy music is a place where people can find a home, when they feel they don’t belong anywhere else. But for a community that prides itself on inclusivity, metal and hardcore can still be unwelcoming spaces for women, the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. It’s those intolerances that the trio - made up of French vocalist and guitarist Sal, Italian bassist Bea Simion and Spanish drummer Raquel J Alves - are determined to eradicate. Inspired by the riot grrrl movement, G.L.O.S.S and Black Flag, alongside queercore peers Sharptooth and Pupil Slicer, they’re fiercely and noisily taking their own space in metal’s traditionally white, cis-het male scene.
“We’re vegan, we’re feminist, we’re women, we’re queer, we’re political, so we’ve got a lot to say,” says Sal. “Our music shares our perspective on our place in the scene, and in the world. I feel like you still have to prove you’re worth something and you’re not a poser when you’re a woman in the scene. Sometimes people come to us, and they say, ‘When I saw you going onstage, I didn’t expect you to be that hardcore, that heavy,’” adds Bea, arching an eyebrow. “And I’m always like, ‘Why wouldn’t you expect us to be heavy?’”
Sal and Bea formed the band in London in 2019, releasing their debut demo EP that October with a different drummer. After a line-up change, Raquel, a long-time London resident and band booker on the local scene, joined the ranks in November. “I’ve noticed people are more open to booking different bands,” says Raquel of the progression she’s noted since she started working at shows 15 years ago. “At least you have some representation on the stage. It’s changing, really slowly, but now there are a lot of bands speaking up with their views. When I was younger, you wouldn’t see a black metal band that was anti-fascist, or a queer doom band like Vile Creature.”
“But even though hardcore is a safe space for us, there is still a lot of work to do,” Bea cuts in. “It’s still very white. It’s still very misogynistic. A lot of girl and queer bands still don’t have a space. You still need to have male respect: when men respect and like you, that’s when other people like you too. Men for sure still own the scene and they decide who is cool and who is not.”   From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/shooting-daggers-the-politically-charged-hardcore-band-who-will-not-be-silenced

Needshes - One Day

 #Needshes #Otabek Salamov #alternative rock #indie rock #pop rock #soul #blues rock #funk #singer-songwriter #multi-instrumentalist #Uzbekistan #animated music video 

The Central Asian country of Uzbekistan is the homeland of Otabek Salamov (Bek), songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder of the alternative rock/indie-pop band Needshes. Currently based in Moscow, the band – rounded out by Ivan Petukhov (guitar) and Alexey Manakhov (drums) – continues to expand their eclectic style rooted in David Bowie, Queen, and James Brown in 2020. Bek started his musical journey in early childhood. He attended the music academy in his hometown, Tashkent, where he was awarded the first national prize for his precision on clarinet at the age of 13. As a teen, his interests varied, and he was drawn to compose and perform metalcore in night clubs with cross paint on his face. At that time, Bek was working as an assistant audio engineer in local studios, so he quickly adapted to recording and producing his own music. One day he decided to dilute it with melodic undertones. In the process of creating this transition, he realized that the switch was something that gravitated to his liking. In 2013 he founded a melodic rock project, Needshes, and moved to Moscow. His biggest influences stemmed from The Killers, Jack White, James Brown, David Bowie, Queen, RHCP, U2, a-ha, Coldplay, and Nirvana. Otabek gathered a full traditional formation around his brainchild with the intent to create authentic rock music. In 2016 after several line-up changes, Ivan (guitar) and Alexey (drums) joined him and made it possible for the sound created in the studio to fully sound live.  From: http://syncsummit.com/needshes/

Sheryl Crow - Maybe Angels

 #Sheryl Crow #country rock #folk rock #blues rock #alternative rock #heartland rock #roots rock #singer-songwriter #1990s

Hiring noted roots experimentalists Tchad Blake and Mitchell Froom as engineer and consultant, respectively, Sheryl Crow took a cue from their Latin Playboys project for her second album - she kept her roots rock foundation and added all sorts of noises, weird instruments, percussion loops, and off-balance production to give the eponymous “Sheryl Crow” a distinctly modern flavor. And, even with the Stones-y grind of "Sweet Rosalyn" or hippie spirits of "Love Is a Good Thing," it is an album that couldn't have been made any other time than the 1990s. As strange as it may sound, “Sheryl Crow” is a postmodern masterpiece of sorts - albeit a mainstream, post-alternative, postmodern masterpiece. It may not be as hip or innovative as, say, the Beastie Boys' “Paul's Boutique,” but it is as self-referential, pop culture obsessed, and musically eclectic. Throughout the record, Crow spins out wild, nearly incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness lyrics, dropping celebrity names and products every chance she gets ("drinking Falstaff beer/Mercedes Ruehl and a rented Leer"). Often, these litanies don't necessarily add up to anything specific, but they're a perfect match for the mess of rock, blues, alt-rock, country, folk, and lite hip-hop loops that dominate the record. At her core, she remains a traditionalist - the songcraft behind the infectious "Change Would Do You Good," the bubbly "Everyday Is a Winding Road," and the weary "If It Makes You Happy" helped get the singles on the radio - but the production and lyrics are often at odds with those instincts, creating for a fascinating and compelling listen and one of the most individual albums of its era.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/sheryl-crow-mw0000075511

Donovan - Wear Your Love Like Heaven

 #Donovan #folk rock #psychedelic folk #psychedelic rock #acid folk #British psychedelia #singer-songwriter #1960s

Rock music's first two-LP box set, Donovan’s A Gift from a Flower to a Garden overcomes its original shortcomings and stands out as a prime artifact of the flower-power era that produced it. The music still seems a bit fey, and overall more spacy than the average Moody Blues album of this era, but the sheer range of subjects and influences make this a surprisingly rewarding work. Essentially two albums recorded simultaneously in the summer of 1967, the electric tracks include Jack Bruce among the session players. The acoustic tracks represent an attempt by Donovan to get back to his old sound and depart from the heavily electric singles ("Sunshine Superman," etc.) and albums he'd been doing - it is folkier and bluesier (in an English folk sense) than much of his recent work.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-gift-from-a-flower-to-a-garden-mw0000691015

This very psychedelic song is a nod to the divine, conjuring up images of nature's colors and invoking both God and Allah. Heavy stuff. In our interview with Donovan, we asked how he came up with the vibrant images that appear in the lyric. Lines like:

Color sky Havana lake
Color sky rose carmethene
Alizarian crimson

Donovan explained that like many great songwriters - Joni Mitchell, John Lennon, Bob Dylan among them - he dabbled in art and thought in terms of paintings. This song is an example of translating images on a canvas into words. "'Wear Your Love Like Heaven' was really a paint-ily song - watching a sunset go down," he said.

From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/donovan/wear-your-love-like-heaven

Ian Matthews - Old Man at the Mill

 #Ian Matthews #country rock #folk rock #British folk rock #Americana #singer-songwriter #1970s

A vital figure in the history of British folk, Ian Matthews was a founding member of the pioneering U.K. folk-rock band Fairport Convention before he went on to found his own group, Matthews' Southern Comfort, and later moved on to a solo career. Matthews possesses a warm and expressive tenor voice and a talent for songwriting. While he drew from British folk traditions in his work, his greatest inspiration came from American country, folk, and roots music, and he blended their timeless themes with a hippie-fied pastoral feel that was warm and sweet or sorrowful, depending on the song. Though he would dabble in soft rock, power pop, and synth pop in the late '70s and early '80s, he always returned to the sun-dappled sound of the country-folk hybrid that was his trademark.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ian-matthews-mn0000768231/biography

“Old Man At the Mill“ is a traditional folk tune with many variations and slightly different titles and you can search for its history on google. Some of them delve into all these meanings of the circle of life and death as the turning of the mill and it’s certainly a good discussion among folk scholars of the 1960s when this song seems to have been recorded the most. But I’m a clawhammer banjoist who has played and danced at many old time dances. When I learned the words last year so I could record it on my baritone banjo, it became apparent to me that many of the lyrics were old square dance calls.   “First to the left and then to the right”  “Ladies Step Forward and the gents fall back” Also I’m going to guess that “one hand in the hopper and the other in the sack” is some dance direction lost to the last century or longer.  Also “Mill turns around of its own free will“ sounds much like some sort of circling movement.  Although much of this tune seems to be dance calls embedded in an earlier folk song, the last verse seems the most curious to me and I guess it may have been added at a later date? “My old man’s from Kalamazoo” which is a Michigan city famous for making Gibson banjos. No wonder banjoists love to play and sing this tune. And I’m no exception — I looked inside my old Gibson RB250 mastertone and sure enough it says “made in Kalamazoo, MI”.  From: https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/351543

Bjork - Wanderlust

 #Bjork #art rock #avant-garde #experimental #electronica #alternative rock #glitch pop #psychedelia #trip-hop #neo-classical #singer-songwriter #ex-Sugarcubes #Icelandic #animated music video

Video production team Encyclopedia Pictura created the mind-boggling 3D video for Bjork's new single "Wanderlust".

Dazed Digital: What is Encyclopedia Pictura?
Isaiah Saxon: Right now Encyclopedia Pictura is Sean Hellfritsch and me, working together to make movies, often in collaboration with artists Daren Rabinovitch and Vanessa Waring. Soon it will be more people, working not just on movies, but on augmented reality applications and practical magic.

DD: How was it working with Bjork?
IS: Bjork is very tapped in. She assumed a position of support and generosity with us rather than a position of creative oversight. Her energy and focus were so strong that it pushed us to take this project on with a tremendous amount of mythological weight and tunnel vision enthusiasm.

DD: What's the basic concept of the video?
IS: Bjork is an archetypal nomad, shepherding giant yaks through the Mountains. She does hydromancy to decide whether to take them down a river or not. A second self, the Painbody Backpack, sprouts from her like a growth and then engages her in an action play which displays their relationship. The force which compelled Bjork to go down river begins to manifest itself in Bjork's head and in the physical world. This character, the Rivergod, is a transcendental attractor which pulls her into the future.

DD: How long did the video take to create? What was the hardest aspect?
IS: The video took nine months from concept art to us being pulled - kicking and screaming - from our computers. Sean had to become a 3D expert and build a 3D camera system and playback box and pioneer lots of DIY processes. For me the hardest aspect was trying to achieve an immersive, complete, and very specific aesthetic - because the only thing in the video that isn't hand crafted is bjork's face, hands, and feet. I used my own hands everyday but also worked with over 50 key artists to achieve the forms and textures of this world. We tried to lodge ideas into the forms and use the patterns and textures of these forms to transmit meaning to the viewer.

DD: What made you want to work with 3D in the age of YouTube?
IS: Well, firstly let me get out the news that 3D doesn't work on YouTube because of heavy color compression, which is what anaglyph 3D glasses rely on for decoding the 3D properly. A lot of people watch 3D on YouTube without knowing that they are actually looking at something that is way screwed up, or 'ghosted' in stereoscopic jargon. Secondly, why 3D? Because we see the ultimate transcendental function of art as "expanding the realms of direct experience." 3D allows a film to be more like direct experience and less detached and seperate from how we organically percieve. Right now technology is still trying to create better home viewing solutions (anaglyph sucks), but theatrically it’s already there. Because we are trying to touch people the best we can, we don't take into consideration the unfortunate current quality standards set by PooTube (or more accurately, the bandwidth limitations of today), but this will all be changing very soon.

From: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/296/1/creating-bjorks-wanderlust-video

Black Sabbitch - War Pigs

 #Black Sabbitch #Black Sabbath tribute band #heavy metal #ex-Betty Blowtorch #music video

It’s not often that a band is born out of a name, but that was the case with Black Sabbitch. “We were just goofing around one night and someone said the name ‘Black Sabbitch,’ and we just thought, Maybe we should do that,” Black Sabbitch drummer Angie Scarpa explained. “I’m a freak for Sabbath - a complete and utter lunatic about Black Sabbath. So I said if you guys want to do this, why don’t we get together and play?” The band’s initial core was Scarpa and Betty Blowtorch guitarist Blare N. Bitch. They soon recruited Scarpa’s Art of Safecracking bandmate Melanie Makaiwi to play bass, and eventually found a vocalist in an actual Ozzfest vet - Aimee Echo from the Human Waste Project. This “all-female Black Sabbath” (don’t call them a tribute!) prides itself on the players’ roots in original bands. They don’t get together once or twice a year, practice a 45-minute set and play it the next week. Scarpa’s goal was to nail the experience to the extent that she felt like a member of Sabbath. “For me, since I am such a huge fan of the band, I didn’t want to do it unless it was going to be spot-on, but not in a boring ‘We sound like their record way.’ More in a ‘This is what it would have been like to see Black Sabbath in 1972. I really wanted to be able to have that experience for myself,” Scarpa said. Evidence of their quality lies in the fact that Ozzy asked the band to open a show for him last year.  From: https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/nov/23/blurt-dont-call-black-sabbitch-tribute/

The Jerry Garcia Band - Rubin And Cherise

 #The Jerry Garcia Band #Grateful Dead spinoff #John Kahn #Keith and Donna Godchaux #folk rock #blues rock #classic rock #1970s

If you took a listen already to Day Of The Dead, the mammoth Grateful Dead tribute collection which was curated by the members of The National and includes many of the most celebrated artists of today covering the band’s music, you might be at a loss to explain the inclusion of “Rubin And Cherise,” a story song done by Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Friends. You have to widen your search beyond the Dead’s catalog to find it; it was done by the Jerry Garcia Band on their lone studio album, 1978’s Cats Under The Stars.
The album was a huge commercial disappointment, but it was nonetheless one that Garcia maintained was a favorite of his in later interviews. “Ruben And Cherise” opens up the album with a bit of funky intrigue. The music pulses with life thanks to bold keyboards and Garcia’s guitar, which, filtered in such a way to sand off all its hard edges, flows through the song like liquid gold. Meanwhile the lyrics of longtime Grateful Dead collaborator Robert Hunter are engaging yet elusive, challenging the listener to make sense of this modern musical myth.
Set at Carnival in New Orleans, the song features three main characters: Rubin, the mandolin-playing axis of a love triangle, whose music is so magical “the breeze would stop to listen in/Before going its way again”; Cherise, whose love for Rubin invokes suspicion that manifests itself in visions of death; and Ruby Claire, who shows up later in the song and seems at first to be the other woman of the story who has coaxed Rubin away from Cherise, at least until the layers of Hunter’s tale unfurl and make us second-guess that setup entirely. It ends with Cherise being carried away in Rubin’s arms, apparently lifeless (and most likely the victim of Ruby’s jealousy), the hair that she once combed so assiduously now hanging limp.
If you focus too hard on the story, you might find yourself getting a bit tangled up and missing out on the nuance in Garcia’s performance, as he taps into the innate sagacity of his voice. Hunter’s lyrics also hit home when you’re not worrying about wondering about who did what to whom. His descriptions put us right into the scene: “Masquerade began when nightfall finally broke/ Like waves against the bandstand dancers broke.” And all of the machinations of the characters pale next to the wisdom of the narrator’s summation: “The truth of love an unsung song must tell/ The course of love must follow blind/ Without a look behind.”
That last line seems to suggest that those in the throes of love don’t have time for regrets or ruminations due to the straightforward, relentless track of their ardor. But it actually paves the way for the final verses of Hunter’s complete lyrics, which went unrecorded by Garcia and show Rubin travelling to the underworld to retrieve Cherise, a la the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. As Hunter told Rolling Stone in 2015, Garcia’s reluctance to mess with a finished product led to the exclusion.
“One thing Jerry wouldn’t do is go back over and redo parts of songs,” Hunter remembered. “I’d written that extra verse for ‘Friend Of The Devil’ and he said, ‘Why the hell don’t you give me these things before I record them?’ And also the same thing with ‘Rubin And Cherise.’ I had some ending Orpheus and Eurydice stuff in there to complete the story. He liked it but he said, ‘I’ve already recorded it and can’t go back and do it again.’”
Hunter’s version may spell out the story a bit more clearly, but there’s something compelling about the unfinished nature of Garcia’s take. Besides, his lustrous playing in the song’s closing moments tells us all we need to know about both the irresistibility and impossibility of love. So if you’ve just discovered “Rubin And Cherise,” go back and check out the original by the Jerry Garcia Band and get lost in the wondrous mystery of it all.  
From: https://americansongwriter.com/jerry-garcia-band-ruben-cherise/

Cats Under the Stars is the only studio album by the American rock band the Jerry Garcia Band. Released in 1978 on Arista Records, the album was the first release by the group, which was a long-running side project of Grateful Dead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia. While the band continued until 1995, they were primarily a live concert act following the release of Cats Under the Stars and never recorded another studio effort. Grateful Dead members Keith and Donna Godchaux, who were at the time also part of the Garcia Band, contributed to the album.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_Under_the_Stars

Orb - General Electric

 #Orb #psychedelic rock #hard rock #heavy metal #fuzz rock #neo-psychedelia #Australian #1970s retro

Playing dark, sonically massive guitar-based rock that's heavy without sounding excessively metallic, ORB (not to be confused with the influential electronic group the Orb) hail from Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The group was founded by three members of the Australian band the Frowning Clouds after that band broke up: guitarist and lead singer Zak Olsen, guitarist and bassist Daff Gravolin, and drummer Jamie Harmer. The three musicians lived not far from one another, and with some extra time on their hands, they began jamming regularly. Inspired by their youthful enthusiasm for hard rock and early metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult, they started writing tunes that drew tongue-in-cheek inspiration from doom rock and psychedelia as well as hard rock. The longer they crafted heavy jams, the more they came to appreciate the style, and the less they approached the music with a smirk. In January 2015, ORB released their debut recording, a five-song cassette titled Womb. Within a few months, the group had earned a solid reputation among Australian heavy rock fans, and they struck a record deal with Flightless Records, the label founded by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/orb-mn0003515658/biography

Dutar - Gelem, Gelem/Kis Kece Lanyom

#Dutar #Hungarian folk #world music #Gypsy folk #traditional

Hungary’s traditional music is as tricky a mix of East and West, of secular and religious, and of ancient and modern as Hungary is itself. While some theorists trace the earliest Hungarian music, and the Magyar people, back to Siberia, at the heart of the most widespread Hungarian musical tradition is Italian Catholic plainsong, a type of religious chanting that consists of one unaccompanied melody line. When the Turks arrived in the 15th century and conquered part of Hungary they brought sounds from the East, as well as Roma people who came with their own unique music. While “elite” Hungarians developed classical forms generally identified with the West, Turkish and Romani music infused Hungarian village with an Eastern flair. Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, two noted early 19th century Hungarian ethnomusicologists, educators and composers, traveled into these villages to record Hungarian “peasant” music. They documented Hungary’s folk music traditions just in time, because after World War II music became the official domain of the ruling Communists. The regime established folk choirs and orchestras and only allowed music to played in public that was fully sanctioned (and fully sanitized) by the Song Committee. An underground folk music scene rose in opposition; people gathered in the táncház (dance hall) and revived traditional dances like the csárdás as a form of cultural protest. When the Soviets crumbled, Hungarian traditional music left the táncház and flourished once again. Today urban Hungarian bands like the Roma folk/folk and the Besh o Drom and the “speed-folk” Transylvanians have revived Hungarian traditional music, bringing it into the modern age, making it relevant for a new generation.  From: https://www.allaroundthisworld.com/learn/eastern-europe-2/hungary/hungary-music/#.Y611g-LMJq8

The Youngbloods - All My Dreams Blue

 #The Youngbloods #Jesse Colin Young #folk rock #psychedelic rock #roots rock #blues rock #West coast psychedelia #1960s

The Youngbloods' sophomore release Earth Music is an uncommonly solid follow-up, expanding upon the musical directions introduced on their debut LP. The infectious "Sugar Babe" (also featured in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point) is one of the group's most popular tunes, while such numbers as "All My Dreams Blue," "Dreamer's Dream" and "Fool Me" demonstrate the strength of the band members' songwriting skills and customized covers of Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe," the Holy Modal Rounders' "Euphoria" and Chuck Berry's "Monkey Business" demonstrate the Youngbloods' talent for seamlessly integrating a broad array of influences.  From: https://www.roughtrade.com/us/product/the-youngbloods/earth-music

The Youngbloods' second long-player built on the strength of their self-titled debut by once again creating a blend of captivating songwriting with an infectiously fun delivery. Although the album failed to produce a definitive single - as "Get Together" had done on their previous effort - there are a handful of equally definitive sides scattered throughout Earth Music (1967). Featuring Jesse Colin Young (guitar/bass/vocals), Jerry Corbitt (lead guitar), Joe Bauer (drums), and Lowell "Banana" Levinger III (piano/guitar), the Youngbloods recall the uptempo good-time sound of their East Coast contemporaries, the Lovin' Spoonful, on the opening cover of the Holy Modal Rounders' "Euphoria." The first of several stellar compositions from Young follows with the laid-back "All My Dreams Blue." In addition to the affective songcrafting, Banana's upfront piano fills provide a jazzy counterpoint to the interlocking Bauer/Young rhythm section. This refined power trio would become the mainstay of their later post-Corbitt recordings. "Dreamer's Dream" highlights Corbitt's inimitable contributions to the band with a highly affective melody as well as his unencumbered vocals, which effortlessly intertwine with Young. The countrified interpretation of the traditional "Sugar Babe" is a precursor to the direction that the band's sound would take after their relocation to the West Coast. The track became an international hit no doubt due to its inclusion in the Michelangelo Antonioni film Zabriskie Point (1970). Other standout tracks include the high-steppin' "Wine Song" and one of the better revisitations of Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe."  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/earth-music-mw0000074392

Dir En Grey - Obscure

 #Dir En Grey #avant-garde metal #progressive metal #alternative metal #death metal #gothic metal #nu metal #metalcore #Japanese #visual kei #music video

Dir en Grey is the first Japanese metal band to break through in the West. Initially associated with visual kei (a Japanese musicians' movement that employed aesthetic tenets drawn from Western glam metal, including heavy make-up, elaborate hair styles, flamboyant costumes, and an androgynous look), they were arguably the most successful non-English speaking rock act since Rammstein. The band made its U.S. debut with 2007's The Marrow of a Bone, and played the festival circuit internationally as their sound began leaning on influences from goth rock and death metal to the theatrical metal of Korn and Slipknot. 2015's Arche - widely considered their masterpiece - added vanguard and technical death metal to the mix. In 2018 they revealed a more thrash-oriented sound with the controversial The Insulated World. They reappeared in 2022 with the decidedly more progressive Phalaris.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dir-en-grey-mn0000937315/biography

The term "visual kei" was derived from one of Japanese rock band X Japan's slogans, "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock", seen on the cover of their second studio album Blue Blood (1989). This derivation is credited as being coined by Seiichi Hoshiko, the founding editor of Shoxx magazine, which was founded in 1990 as the first publication devoted to the subject. However, he explained in a 2018 interview with JRock News that visual kei was technically coined, or at least inspired by, X Japan's lead guitarist Hide. Hoshiko also said that at the time they were called 'Okeshou Kei' ("Makeup Style"), "but it simply felt... too cheap. Even though X Japan was a big band and people used the term 'Okeshou kei' to describe them, the term was still lacking substance. I didn't like the term at all! Because of this, I tried to remind all the writers to not use this term as 'They are not okeshou kei, they are visual-shock kei'. From there, it went from 'Visual-shock kei' to 'Visual-kei' to 'V-kei'. After we spread the word, fans naturally abbreviated it to 'V-kei'. The Japanese love to abbreviate everything as a matter of fact." Hoshiko considers visual kei a distinctive Japanese music genre and defined it "as the music itself along with all the visual aspects of it."  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei 

XTC - Respectable Street

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop #orchestral pop #1980s #1990s

The 1980 release Black Sea represents the last stand of the punchy, angular new wave that had won XTC strong critical and college radio support. Still arranging with an ear toward the stage they'd soon retire from, they continued working in the Drums and Wires style that had christened their previous release. Black Sea brims with XTC trademarks: engaging guitar hooks, cleverly rendered lyrics, and frenetic, creative melodicism. The material represents the pinnacle of XTC's early incarnation - a counterpoint to contemporary punk imbued with style, rhythmic punch, and melodic charm.  From: https://www.roughtrade.com/us/product/xtc/black-sea-1/vinyl-lp

Respectable Street

Andy Partridge: “Actually inspired by my neighbour who spends half her life banging on the wall should I so much as sneeze. Not knocking people who have ‘respectable’ ideals (I know I must have a few), more of a song of people with double or hypocritical values. You know the sort, blind drunk one night, church the next. Or the mother who urges her daughter to go out and have fun dear, isn't abortion wonderful. If their daughter got pregnant they would beat her senseless.”

Andy: “The BBC felt the lyrics on the song on Black Sea would upset people. They asked if I could rewrite it and, being a good boy, I did. Contraception became ‘child prevention’ and abortion became ‘absorption’. Still they wouldn't play it. Here's that old peoples, pre-chewed version.”

Andy: “The A&R man decided the BBC wouldn't play this with words like ‘abortion’ and ‘contraception’, so he took out all the words he didn't like. It wasn't a big hit, though, because the BBC still didn't play it. A couple of bands have covered it, and they always get the chords wrong. The second one's a seventh, formed from the E-string up. They always miss it.”
Dave Gregory: “It's not really a guitarist's chord, that one.”
Andy: “Nope, but it's a Partsy one.”

From: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_RespectableStreet.html

Blind Faith - Sea of Joy

  #Blind Faith #Eric Clapton #Steve Winwood #Ginger Baker #blues rock #hard rock #psychedelic rock #supergroup #1960s

Not long after Cream broke up late in 1968, Eric Clapton had started to jam frequently with Steve Winwood, formerly of Traffic (who disbanded shortly after Cream), and soon the thought of forming their very own band was tempting. Somehow former Cream drummer Ginger Baker caught notice of this and was eager to be involved. In short, he joins the band, they invite Ric Grech to become the bassist, and the group is officially formed. Rumors of this 'supergroup' start to spread like wildfire (to the point of them actually being called a 'Super Cream'), and thus this group of lads (unnamed at first; the name Blind Faith allegedly comes from the cautious optimism Clapton felt about the band) are now usually recognized as the first act to be christened with the tag of 'supergroup'. An album is quickly written and recorded (these guys liked to jam more than actually make crafted songs, even though the songs on the album are quite good), and they make their debut at Hyde Park in June 1969 (well received). A quick tour of Scandinavia follows, as a 'warm up' for the bigger gigs to come in the US. By the time their US tour finished up in August 1969, Blind Faith as a band were no more. Like any normal supergroup, they simply collapsed under the pressure that most supergroups succumb to.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/blind-faith/blind-faith/

The Zombies - She's Coming Home

 #The Zombies #Rod Argent #Colin Blunstone #psychedelic rock #blues rock #pop rock #baroque pop #psychedelic pop #British invasion #1960s

Q: Since the Zombies were formed so early on in the ’60s, do you think that allowed you to form a more distinct sound that was not as heavily influenced by other British Invasion bands?
Colin Blunstone: Well, in 1961, we were 15 years old. You know, we weren’t professional musicians at that time, but that’s when the band first got together. The very first rehearsal, I was the rhythm guitarist and Rod Argent was the lead singer, but we swapped ’round very early on. I heard him playing piano, and even at 15, he was sensational as a keyboard player, and I said to him, “You have to play keyboards in the band.” And then he heard me singing a Ricky Nelson song and said, “Well, okay, I’ll play keyboards if you’ll be lead singer.” So right from the beginning, we were a keyboard-based band, which was quite unusual in those days, when you think of it. It was a time of three-guitar bands, but we had a keyboard-based band. And also, we always tried to include harmonies in everything that we did, which again, was quite unusual for bands, and that was from the time we were 15.
We were very aware of the Beatles and thought they were absolutely fantastic, but up until our first recording session, we played the same thing: rhythm and blues classics. In fact, the Zombies were at one time called the Zombies R&B. But just before the first session, which was at Decker Studios in West Hampstead in London, our producer, who’s called Ken James, he was having a chat with us and just said, “You could always write something for the session if you wanted,” and then went on and talked about other things. It wasn’t a big speech. Quite frankly, I’d forgotten he even said it. But Rod just went away and wrote “She’s Not There” and came back about two days later and said, “Guys, I’ve got a song. Listen to this.” And I think we all knew that it was special as soon as we heard it. And Chris White wrote the B-side, “You Make Me Feel Good.” I didn’t know either of them could write songs. I was in deep, deep shock when they came back with these songs written. And so, from then on really, we sort of trod our own path because, up until then, we’d been using the same influences that most of the other bands of the British Invasion were using. The Beatles, the Stones, the Yardbirds, the Animals: they were all using rhythm and blues classics as the basis of their songs, and we were doing the same thing, but in a very amateurish way. We were still very young. But as soon as Rod and Chris started writing, that really was our musical identity. Whether you like the Zombies or not, we weren’t like anybody else because we had these two prolific and quite sophisticated writers in the band, and we followed their songs.  From: http://www.rebeatmag.com/colin-blunstone-and-the-odessey-of-the-zombies-part-two/

Folknery - Vyplyvalo Utenia

 #Folknery #Ukrainian folk #dark folk #world music #folk rock #roots music #neofolk #ethno #Ukrainian folk rock

Folknery describe themselves as 'Ukrainian free folk,' which sounds as if the band from Kiev, Ukraine, are about to blow your head off Albert Ayler-style. On Folknery's album Useful Things, the band does expand the palette of Ukrainian folk music: there's plenty of structure to their music, but a gleeful kitchen-sink abandon so that experimentation and genre-clash unite in soulful grooves. The story of Folknery mirrors the music's off-kilter approach: this is a band whose name emerged as a mash-up between William Faulkner and folk music, the idea for which came straight out of a dream. Volodymyr Muliar and Yaryna Kvitka founded Folknery in 2009. Muliar was fresh out of his experiences drumming for various Ukrainian rock bands, and he was delving into folk singing with another Ukrainian group called "Rozhanytsia." The two enjoyed not only music, but also bicycling – and in fact, they continue to conduct wide-ranging cycling trips that have evolved into excursions across Ukraine, and other countries, in order to find folk music and record living singers. Augmented by another member of Rozhanytsia, vocalist Yulia Sovershenna, the group continued to incorporate world music influences and diverse instrumentation. Together with percussionist Roman Sharkevych and guitarist Dmytro Sorokin, Folknery also utilizes accordions, African djembe, field-recorded sound effects, and hurdy-gurdy.  From: https://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/folknery-16.shtml

Andy Shauf - The Magician

 #Andy Shauf #folk rock #baroque pop #indie rock #jazz rock #indie folk #chamber pop #singer-songwriter #Canadian #animated music video

Hailed as “a gifted storyteller” (NPR Music) for 2016’s 'The Party' and 2020’s 'The Neon Skyline', Andy Shauf writes albums that unfold like short fiction, full of colorful characters, fine details and a rich emotional depth. With 'Norm', however, Shauf has slyly deconstructed and reshaped the style for which he’s been celebrated, elevating his songwriting with intricate layers and perspectives, challenging himself to find a new direction. Under the guise of an intoxicating collection of jazz-inflected romantic ballads, his storytelling has become decidedly more oblique, hinting at ominous situations and dark motivations.
Shauf had planned to be touring around 'The Neon Skyline' but, like many of us in the early days of the pandemic, he spent a lot of time alone instead. He sequestered himself in his garage studio, self-producing and playing every instrument on 'Norm', a collection of more conventional songs written predominantly on guitar, piano and synths. The latter was essential to creating the more spacious and tactile sounds he sought. Shauf’s goals were uncomplicated: create something melody-driven rather than chord-driven, and make it modern. Shauf recruited Neal Pogue (Tyler, the Creator, Janelle Monae, Outkast), a prodigious shaper of genre-and-time-defying tracks, to mix the album, further building on the gently levitating, synth-laden atmospherics.
During this period, he was captivated by David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’, which seemed to validate Shauf’s instinct to mix perspectives and tinker with shadowy narratives. He even rewrote all of the album’s original lyrics, recreating the story, and enlisting Nicholas Olson as a story editor - it was only after writing the title track that Shauf decided to build a narrative around the character Norm. "The character of Norm is introduced in a really nice way," Shauf says of the pleasant songs that precede the album's centerpiece. "But the closer you pay attention to the record, the more you're going to realize that it's sinister."  From: https://www.anti.com/artists/andy-shauf/  

Vanilla Fudge - You Keep Me Hangin' On

 #Vanilla Fudge #psychedelic rock #heavy psych #acid rock #hard rock #proto-metal #Supremes cover #1960s

It's fair to say nobody had heard anything quite like Vanilla Fudge when the band burst onto the scene in August 1967 with their cover of The Supremes’ hit You Keep Me Hangin’ On. In contrast to The Supremes’ sparkling, syncopated rhythms propelling the song at a gallop, the Fudge version begins with a single organ note that appears to be struggling to hold its pitch against unseen forces. Gradually, the note is joined by other notes – it would be stretching things to call it a chord - which are also being buffeted by the elements. Just as you’re beginning to wonder whether it may be some musical code trying to tell you something - a bit like that sequence in Close Encounters - what sounds like the noise of a drumstick splintering against a hi-hat jolts your senses, and suddenly you’re engulfed in a clattering musical cacophony that finally erupts into the classic You Keep Me Hangin’ On riff. Except that it’s played at a quarter of the speed and with a fearsome, heavyweight, pile-driving intensity. The vocals come in at the same crawling tempo, and the singer is clearly desperate to keep hangin’ on. Indeed when he gets to that throwaway line in the original "And there ain’t nothing I can do about it", he sounds like he’s in the throes of a full-scale nervous breakdown. After he’s finished pleading for release - “Set me free why don’t you babe" - the instrumental introduction is repeated, except this time the riff gets a bludgeoning quality that threatens grievous aural harm, before a sweeping organ cadence brings sudden, and merciful, relief.  From: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/5067836177008380097/612365453995572163

Conspiracy of Owls - Raving Mad

 #Conspiracy of Owls #psychedelic rock #pop rock #baroque pop #space rock #alternative rock #indie rock #retro-1960s

Conspiracy of Owls is actually the side project of the legendary underground Detroit garage heroes The Go. After letting some psychedelia seep into a few of their previous albums, the band decided to indulge in the sound completely, and formed Conspiracy of Owls as a way to deliver it. And by psychedelia, I don't mean a reinterpretation of the '60s style a la garage filter like Ty Segall or The Fresh and Onlys. No, this album is a complete recreation of the stuff that was pouring out of a car's stereo set on AM radio in the '70s. In fact, if this music came on randomly somewhere, you would be asking who turned on the classic rock station.  From: http://thecreativeintersection.blogspot.com/2010/12/album-review-conspiracy-of-owls-st.html