Mary's Danish - Hoof

 #Mary's Danish #alternative rock #power pop #indie rock #funk rock #pop punk #1980s #1990s

“I’m caught between hideous and forgotten,” bemoan Mary’s Danish in one of the finer tunes from the lamentably forgotten band’s far-from-hideous and impossibly eclectic catalog — a catalog whose eclecticism is especially notable considering its relatively small volume. Mary’s Danish, which came together in Los Angeles in the late ’80s, was itself a diverse lot — in personality and background — that served up funk, pop, punk and country. The blending of the last two genres clearly betrays the influence of X, from whom lead singers Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter also inherited intricately woven harmony vocals. They were joined in Mary’s Danish by bassist Chris “Wag” Wagner, drummer James Bradley Jr., guitarist David A. King and second guitarist Louis Gutierrez, who had played in the Three O’Clock. All were accomplished musicians with an uncanny pliability, but their secret weapon was frequent sax sideman Michael Barbera, who added jazz and R&B flavor to the mix. Mary’s Danish were as varied thematically as they were sonically, with religion, domestic violence, social criticism and biting self-analysis all receiving narrative attention.
'There Goes the Wondertruck' ably introduces the band’s offbeat stylistic fusion. The bizarre narrative of “Mary Had a Bar” does not seem to be a band theme song, and “What to Do” is not a Stones cover. It’s not revealed what “BVD” stands for, but “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry” does just that. The catchy college rock favorite “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight” impressed some in the West Coast music biz, including Peter Asher, who became the band’s manager.
Five of the six live tracks on 'Experience' are more fully realized versions of songs from There Goes the Wondertruck, particularly a frenzied, beefier “Blue Stockings” and the high lonesome croon of “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry.” The disc’s studio track, a riotous take on Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady,” slyly recasts the classic rock staple with a letter-perfect Led Zeppelin quote inserted into the bridge.
With funding from pseudo-indie Morgan’s Creek, Mary’s Danish beefed up the production values to adequately match their expanded palette of musical ideas. A veritable omnibus of musical styles, 'Circa' encircles just about every genre imaginable. The metallic crunch of “Mr. Floosack” leads into the introspective back-porch southern rock of “Hoof.” The folky instrumental jam “Down” begets the Devo dada of “These Are All the Shapes Nevada Could Have Been.” It’s easy to get lost within the stylistic shifts of Circa, where “Julie’s Blanket (pigsheadsnakeface)” is the only straight-ahead rocker. As few of the 17 tunes exceed three minutes, the five-minute “7 Deadly Sins” seems positively epic. Despite its attention deficit, the presence of songs as clever as “Beat Me Up” and “Cover Your Face” helped make this label debut a promise of big things to come.  From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/marys-danish/

Jethro Tull - Kissing Willie

 #Jethro Tull #Ian Anderson #progressive rock #folk rock #hard rock #blues rock #English folk rock #art rock #classic rock #progressive folk #music video

"Willie" is British slang for the penis, and this song is about oral sex. There are other sexual references throughout the song, something that is not typical of Jethro Tull. In spite of the apparent bawdy nature of the lyrics, Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson is no lecher. As he told us: "I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right. Well, indeed, unless the money's right." In fact, he turned down performing at Woodstock based on the likelihood of it being a scene involving naked women and hippies! (Check out the full Ian Anderson interview)

Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson isn't your typical Rock Star. He's never done drugs and has no use for the trappings of fame. So what does he have in common with the boys from Led Zeppelin? More than you might think.

Carl Wiser (Songfacts): Ian, I have four different statements about you that appeared in pretty notable publications. I was wondering if you could tell me if these are true or false. The first one is: you kept a urinal you used to clean as a souvenir.

Anderson: I wish I had. I don't have it anymore. It was one of the spare and probably cracked or slightly broken urinals that was in the store room of the Ritz Cinema in Luton in late 1967. My job was to clean the theatre, including the toilets, in the mornings, which took me half the day. And I thought, well, this old urinal is probably not going to get used, because it had a chip out of the side. So I managed to take it home. And I did keep it for a while with some idea of turning into perhaps a drinking fountain. But along the way it got abandoned, and the nearest I came to reliving the urinal moment was when we used to have a urinal bolted to the side of John Evan's Hammond organ onstage, and at some point during the performance around 1972 he would pretend to relieve himself into said urinal to the amusement – and horror, indeed – of some of the audience. But it was, in fact, just playacting. Because he did in fact relieve himself into a beer can backstage, but hopefully no one was looking during the drum solo. So, yes, partly true.

Songfacts: Okay, next one. You refused to play Woodstock because you thought it wasn't a big deal.

Anderson: No, I knew it was going to be a big deal. The reason I didn't want to play Woodstock is because I asked our manager, Terry Ellis, "Well, who else is going to be there?" And he listed a large number of groups who were reputedly going to play, and that it was going to be a hippie festival, and I said, "Will there be lots of naked ladies? And will there be taking drugs and drinking lots of beer, and fooling around in the mud?" Because rain was forecast. And he said, "Oh, yeah." So I said, "Right. I don't want to go.” Because I don't like hippies, and I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right. Well, indeed, unless the money's right.

Songfacts: Okay. Yet you toured with Led Zeppelin.

Anderson: We did, but happily, outside the orbit of their nightly shenanigans, although Jimmy Page used to show us Polaroids involving close-up blurred parts of young ladies' anatomy, often featuring soft fruit - that seemed to be in quite a lot of these photographs. Yeah, that's about it. We kind of heard the tales, but we were on the periphery of all that, didn't really experience it.

Songfacts: Was that the way it was for many of the bands that you toured with?

Anderson: That they stayed on the periphery? No. My impression was that the majority of bands were really enjoying and living up those moments when they were temporarily famous and about to have the good fortunes of young ladies' attentions thrust upon them on a nightly basis, which I could never have possibly kept up with the pressure to fulfill. So, yeah, that's my impression, everybody was at it. I mean, out of all the bands, and all the people I've known, really, I'm probably the only person I know for sure never did what we popularly called "drugs" during all of that period. It was just something everybody did. And I didn't really enjoy being around people who were doing drugs, so I just took myself often to read a book somewhere, and waited for it all to kind of evaporate from the rock and roll lifestyle. But of course it hasn't. These days people drop as often as they did back then, like flies, sadly, before their time. One or two get lucky and manage to control it or survive it, like Keith Richards, but he's one of the small number of people who seem to have emerged – not entirely unscathed – from the heady and demanding experiences of rock and roll.

Songfacts: I read where you said that Led Zeppelin "showed you the way." So you must have learned something from them.

Anderson: I think what they showed to all their peer group as musicians, was that there was, first of all, a very powerful and dramatic way to perform simple, direct rock music and also to introduce elements of more eclectic music. Because Zeppelin, near the beginning, there were a lot of elements of folk music, and Asian music, and African music that crept into their stuff. And if Zeppelin had carried on, I imagine we would have had at least one or two Led Zeppelin "unplugged" albums, and probably some rather more esoteric offerings along the way, where they did explore more thoroughly those more eclectic musical moments that they hinted at early on. Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin did share that same interest, even passion, for music that was not the normal stuff of rock and roll. And perhaps they, too, were influenced in some ways by what influenced me: Indian music, Mediterranean music, and British folk music. And we shared a chum, a fellow by the name of Roy Harper, who's one of the British folk musicians of the late '60s. And he was chummy with members of Pink Floyd and Zeppelin and with me. Not with the other members of Jethro Tull, who thought he was a bit weird and they didn't really like his music, I don't think. But he was someone who influenced me greatly right at the beginning, around '68 when I first came across him. And I think that rubbed off a little bit on Jimmy Page, too, as did some of the other British folkies, like Bert Jansch and Davey Graham, and I think that music must have infected the early Jimmy Page style with some of its innovative guitar work.

From: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull

Tartar Control - Diabolical

 #Tartar Control #punk #punk metal #comedy punk #TV pilot #music video

Robert, Sean and Robot are three fun time buddies who looove music. They're on a mission to bring rockin' good times (via the bowels) into your heart. Robert and Sean started their epic journey in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, Utah where they performed in The Tabernacle Choir, gave hugs to sweetly handicapped cancer-children, and lip-synced to Huey Lewis and The News. With the invention of their drummer/bassist Robot, they hit the road with their sights set on Los Angeles. Inspired by such bands as The Vandals, Left Over Crack, and Lawrence Welk, Tartar Control brings to you a musical experience that can only be described as a "loud hug." Today Tartar Control galavants all over the greater Los Angeles area giving sonic high-fives and handshakes to the masses.  From: http://www.tartarcontrolisyourfriend.com/about.html

Sean Hart and Robert Selander grew up in Salt Lake City, where they practiced Mormonism. Everything was swell, but something — a desire, a longing for more, or maybe just a mission call from Joseph Smith — told them they needed to head to Los Angeles. And there, they found their holy grail: punk rock music. This is, at least, the story they tell on stage. In reality, the duo are an Angeleno-bred set of comedians simply searching for a little more meaning through punk. Formerly an acoustic pair called The Smiths, performing hits by Stevie Wonder and Kenny Loggins, Hart and Selander knew punk rockin’ was their calling after learning about the likes of The Vandals and Leftover Crack. That’s when they formed Tartar Control.  “We were taken aback,” Selander said. “After that, it was one of those things where you see something once and you’re slightly revolted, then you think about it for a few days and you’re obsessed. We started playing around with different sounds and, after a while, we decided we wanted our own punk rockin’ band.” There was just one problem: they needed bass and percussion. With Hart on guitar and Selander on screaming vocals, the band was lacking a much-needed rhythm section. Luckily, they ran into a perverted, drunken robot uniquely named Robot, who filled the void (though he lacked the same morals as the bible-thumping Hart and Selander).
While Tartar Control has gained a following in the punk scene, they know their music won’t be accepted everywhere, especially in the Mormon church. “Mormonism and punk rock don’t blend together at all. Our church doesn’t know we’re in a band, and neither do our parents,” Selander said. “We’re going to assume the Mormon church is going to ignore the Long Beach Post. But you never know. They have tentacles everywhere.” Still, Tartar Control insists their lyrics, with titles like “Satanists are Fuckin’ Dicks,” “Brush Your Fuckin’ Teeth,” and “Cramps Don’t Mean You’re Pregnant,” are positive messages. “I feel like punk rock and metal of the harder core tend to get unfairly labeled,” Hart said. “For music, as long as you’re there speaking the truth, you have a voice. We’re certainly not fundamentalists in any sense of it. We’re not Amish. We’re not churning butter. I feel like music in general is something that people approach with a much more open mind.” They also said they like singing about things they know, like traffic on the way to Ralph’s, and things they enjoy, like Pokemon. Selander hopes to eventually incorporate Jigglypuff’s theme into their set to help audience members get sleep. “If I could lull an entire audience to sleep, I would think that would be a gift in itself and a mission accomplished,” he said. “Who doesn’t enjoy a good night’s sleep?”
With positive vibes like these, the group said the most vulgar piece of their performance is Robot, who goes out to party every night at 8PM but still manages to arrive to shows on time. But there’s a reason for this. Quoting Robot himself, he said he’s “just there for the bitches.” As Hart and Selander play sweet songs like “Jesus is Love” and “Fuzzy Bunnies,” Robot constantly interrupts the show by catcalling to women in the crowd while playing ’90s R&B from his speaker. “Robot will find his own road to recovery, for sure,” Hart said. “He seems to find a woman at every show and harass her. He’s kind of a womanizer. We don’t ask him a lot of questions about where he goes at night. He used to live in our garage, but he must still go through there because I’ve found so many Four Loko cans that look like they’ve all been opened with a can opener, so we know it’s him.” Hart added that several child support notices have showed up at their apartment for Robot. “I opened one and I think he’s the father to several children,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s physically possible, but somehow he’s in charge of someone’s child.” This odd blend of crudeness from Robot and angelic playfulness from Selander and Hart has garnered them a following that crowd funded a television pilot, which can be viewed on Tartar Control’s YouTube channel. The group hopes to release the second episode within the next year.
Tartar Control looks forward to spreading the good news of Jesus in Long Beach this weekend, but just has one request of audience members. “I would like people to know it’s okay to put on deodorant before they come to our shows,” Selander said. “It’s okay to be clean. You can wear your black clothes and put all the glue you want in your hair, but it’s okay to take a shower because the glue won’t wash out.”
From: https://lbpost.com/hi-lo/music/jesus-sodomy-and-peach-cobbler-tartar-control-bring-the-punk-love-to-long-beach-2/

Descartes a Kant - Apricot Dreams

 #Descartes a Kant #art rock #avant-garde #alternative rock #experimental #noise rock #electronic #avant-garde cabaret #theatrical #Mexican #music video

Equal parts Punk, Metal, Pop, Shoegaze and Cabaret, the critically-acclaimed underground sextet, Descartes a Kant (Guadalajara, Mexico) have made a real name for themselves as an otherworldly, unpredictable, theatrical live act. So much so that even the Wall Street Journal chimed in to say that “trying to describe their music is to do it a disservice. It’s loud, racy, incredibly imaginative, sophisticated, funny and wild; it’s as if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs fronted Albert Ayler with Frank Zappa conducting”. They’re considered one of the leading lights in the vibrant, ever-evolving Mexican experimental underground and are now poised to gain greater international acceptance. Led by strong female characters, their first two releases Paper Dolls (an intense and bipolar short song hardcore ode to multiple personality) and Il Visore Lunatique (a tribute on psychiatric disorders that goes from hip-hop to a bizarre broadway style musical) led them to perform and thrill both club and festival audiences all over the world, including Mexico, USA, Russia, and Brazil, and share bills with The Melvins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sonic Youth, Explosions in the Sky and Slayer.  From: https://swampbooking.com/descartes-a-kant-mexico/

Descartes a Kant is a Mexican rock, noise, and avant-garde group from Guadalajara, formed in 2001. They are characterized by their fused style of different musical rhythms and their performance presentations. They adopted their name by combining two figures they admire: Descartes and Kant, whose opposing philosophical works framed the principles of the modern era.
Descartes a Kant’s style is called by the band "bipolar-schizoid sound”, alternating sweet and melodic tones with loud and strident. Their music incorporates influences from noisegrind, noise rock, surf, electronic music, bossa nova and jazz. Their live presentations are usually theatrical performances, and the members of the group usually wear specific outfits for them.  Translated from: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes_a_Kant

David Bowie - Oh! You Pretty Things

 #David Bowie #glam rock #hard rock #art rock #classic rock #electronic #singer-songwriter #pop rock #album rock #proto-punk #experimental #1970s #Old Grey Whistle Test #music video

Wake up, you sleepy head
Put on some clothes, shake up your bed
Put another log on the fire for me
I've made some breakfast and coffee
Look out my window, what do I see
A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me
All the nightmares came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay

What are we coming to?
No room for me, no fun for you
I think about a world to come
Where the books were found by the golden ones
Written in pain, written in awe
By a puzzled man who questioned
What we were here for
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay

Look out at your children
See their faces in golden rays
Don't kid yourself, they belong to you
They're the start of the coming race
The earth is a bitch
We've finished our news
Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay

I firmly believe that to know what this song means you must be familiar with the philosophy of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and Nietzsche's superman. The "homo superior" is a euphemism for this superman, the most conspicuous quality of whom, according to "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," was his contempt of the common man's morality. A superman is somebody who doesn't take on society's morals as his own, but rather somebody who creates his own morality through his own inner strength and clarity of vision. An example of this clarity of vision? In Zarathustra, the seer proclaims that, though he loves peace, he is happy when he sees war. Why? Because the idiots who fight are killing themselves, which will ideally eventually result in a purified world where those who are left are peaceful and lack the destructive urge to dominate their fellow man. Now, compare this attitude to the attitude of the anti-war masses during Vietnam. Their position that all war is inexcusable was, and is, dreadfully simple-minded and untenable. Now, for Bowie, this "advancement" to being supermen might just mean sexual liberation, since this was his coming out/homosexual debut. Regardless, at least he knows his philosophy. Btw, the Nietzschean imagery is all over this album, and this is why it's one of my all time favorites.

I am nearly certain that he does mean a superior human when he speaks of "Homo Superior”. One must remember that at the time of writing Hunky Dory, Bowie was beginning to get involved in the occult, magick, brain-change etc. There are many groups out there that take the stance that we are entering a new age, and therefore a new set of humans will come about as well. He also talks in this song of "the coming race", but they are still your children, and you must see them in "golden rays" which is another bit of magickal symbolism. Even in the first verse there is a bit of a prophesy of an apocalypse. You can find a lot of Occult symbolism on Hunky Dory, actually.

To set the record "straight" - Bowie is not gay and never has been. He claimed to be "bisexual" for a time in the 60/70s when it was hip to be "sexually liberated", but it was mostly an act. Even in his interviews he admits this. Also most people get caught up in the theatrical aspect of his characters. A lot of dumb people equate makeup and women's clothing on men as homosexual, but there is quite a difference. You are only a homosexual if you exclusively have sex with only the same gender as yourself. This has never been the case with Bowie.

From: https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/42518/

Betty Davis - Nasty Gal

 #Betty Davis #funk #R&B #soul #funk rock #singer-songwriter #1970s

Picture yourself in a hot sweaty New York City nightclub in 1969, surrounded by the musical elite: Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone. The drums are pounding, an out-of-tune guitar is wailing. A beautiful woman crawls across the stage, growling into the microphone, her voice summoning fierce femininity and raw sexual energy, taking rock ‘n’ roll into a new era of sound — gritty, unbridled and raunchy. No, it’s not Janis Joplin or Tina Turner. Her name is Betty Davis. But no one would fault you if this wasn’t your first guess. When Betty Davis died on Feb. 9, the world lost a groundbreaking artist who created and inspired many of the famous sounds of the 1970s, and yet her name was omitted from the lexicon of musical history until recently. Obituaries are pouring forth, lauding her genius and contributions and lamenting her lack of commercial success. What very few of these official records of Davis’ life will state outright, however, is that her lack of recognition was a direct result of misogyny and racism.
Growing up in 1990s Berkeley, I had no clue Betty Davis existed. Bay Area rock was Santana, the Grateful Dead, Journey. Rock ‘n’ roll spoke to this 14-year-old Black girl’s alienation and frustration with the world, but also perpetuated those same feelings of alienation. I was the lone Black female face at every concert I went to. Local bands Green Day and Rancid were carrying on Berkeley’s rock legacy, yet that lineage was consistently represented as male and mostly white. I first learned about her by reading Miles Davis’ autobiography. By this point I was a professional background singer touring with local funk bands. Even as I performed with artists such as George Clinton or sang alongside members of Fishbone, I still thought my role in rock was to support a man musically. In his book, Miles described his second wife as an unparalleled performer. The woman who inspired his 1970 album “Bitches Brew.” The woman who changed his style and musical ear. It was an inspiring recollection of her. But Betty Davis remained a rock ‘n’ roll mirage. What happened to her? How had this larger-than-life woman been reduced to an anecdote in her ex-husband’s book?
In 1968, Betty Davis (then Betty Mabry) was a fixture of the New York club scene. She had built somewhat of a name for herself as a songwriter, most notably penning the Chambers Brothers’ hit “Uptown (to Harlem).” Known for her wild stage antics, flamboyant fashion and sexual magnetism, she was primed for stardom. She was friends with Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. She went from dating South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela to marrying American trumpeter Miles Davis in 1968. By the next year, she was recording her first album for Columbia Records with her husband at the helm. Betty Davis embodied punk rock and brought feminine sexuality to the fore, long before Madonna writhed in a wedding dress singing “Like a Virgin.” She created gritty punk/funk long before Rick James proclaimed it as his own. She bought Miles Davis his first wah-wah pedal, inspiring his foray into fusion with “Bitches Brew.” She was gestating the future of music but, even then, the record execs balked at her fierce rock ‘n’ roll. When her relationship with Miles dissolved, her recordings were shelved in a vault. Leaving New York behind, Betty migrated to San Francisco, finding communion within the Bay Area’s music community. Recorded at San Francisco’s renowned Wally Heider Studios, her debut album, “Betty Davis,” featured the region’s top musicians, including members of Sly & the Family Stone, Santana and the Pointer Sisters. It was a confident, alluring funk record, and it declared her prowess as both a woman and a rock star. She followed it up with “They Say I’m Different,” recorded at Sausalito’s Record Plant, and “Nasty Gal,” for which she went back to New York. Davis released these albums in a burst of creative energy, one each year from 1973 to 1975. Betty’s music should have fit right into the social climate of free love, feminism and civil rights in 1970s San Francisco. Instead, the public backlash was swift and crippling. The NAACP teamed up with conservative church groups to have her banned from radio for “indecency.” She was boycotted. Prevented from performing. Her album sales floundered. While white women were allowed to be sexually liberated in the free-love era, Black women were not. While Black men were allowed to gyrate onstage, Black women were not. The same sexual magnetism that made Robert Plant famous was indecent coming from Betty Davis. The American people couldn’t handle a fully empowered Black woman like Betty Davis making rock ‘n’ roll.
Eventually her music went out of print, and she went on to live a quiet private life far from her previous incarnation as a punk-funk queen. Then, as the decades passed, the tides began to change. In 2007, I opened a copy of The Chronicle with the headline “A funk queen steps out of the shadows,” written by acclaimed music critic Jeff Chang, about two of Betty Davis’ albums being rereleased. I clipped the article, ran to Amoeba Records and listened to her music. In the newspaper’s picture, I saw myself. In the music, I heard who I could be as a funk diva. With each Betty Davis rerelease, multitudes of young Black women have been able to see their embodied selves through her music. And thankfully, Betty, who died at 77, lived long enough to see it. Nearly 50 years after the release of her debut alum, Betty Davis has legions of disciples, each of us born from her vision of Black female empowerment. Amongst my local community of Black women in rock, I hear these sentiments echoed. “She showed me I could have raunchy, sex-kitten swag, and still be soft,” Oakland rock musician Femi Andrades told me. “Her music gave permission to express my rage, my sexuality, myself, unfiltered. Raw.” Berkeley singer-songwriter Viveca Hawkins said simply, “I’m grateful to know that it’s OK to be that bold.”
From: https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/how-betty-davis-paved-the-way-for-black-women-in-rock-and-funk

Psalteria - Nazad, Nazad, Mome, Kalino

 #Psalteria #medieval #world music #neo-medieval #folk #traditional #pre-BraAgas #Czech

Psalteria was a Czech medieval folk band consisting of four young women. The quartet advertised itself with the catchphrase "the medieval women's band". The group's repertoire consisted of traditional pieces from the Middle Ages, which the group interpreted in their own way. In addition to songs in German, Latin and French, most of the songs are in Spanish. Due to a high presence on German medieval markets, Psalteria was able to achieve high popularity here in the medieval scene. In January 2007, the group disbanded. The band members now play divided into the medieval groups BraAgas and Euphorica.  Translated from: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalteria

 ‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. Ahead is a thick forest, you can’t cross it.’
‘Then I’ll turn into a hawk. I’ll fly over the forest. I’ll be yours forever.’
‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. Ahead is a deep river, you can’t cross it.’
‘Then I’ll turn into a trout. I’ll swim across the river. I’ll be yours forever.’
‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. At home I have a beautiful wife and some children too.’
‘Then I’ll turn into the plague. I’ll kill your wife and take care of your children. I’ll be yours forever.’
From: https://londonbulgarianchoir.bandcamp.com/track/nazad-nazad-mome-kalino

XTC - Then She Appeared

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

XTC are one of those odd bands that defied convention and actually got better as time went on. Usually a band makes a big splash at the start of their career and continue to make continually less impressive albums as their career progresses. XTC did it the other way round: they started off as a reasonably good power-pop act and actually steadily improved over time. True, there was a slight stumble with Mummer and The Big Express, but they had reached incredible creative heights with Skylarking and by the time of Nonsuch they had reached a point where they had outlasted almost all of their peers and were still making music at least as good as what had been released before. Andy Partridge was still at his height as a songwriter, Colin Moulding was gaining confidence and penning gems like “Bungalow” and Dave Gregory’s guitar and keyboard work was giving the whole band a musical maturity which marked them as a band of rare quality.
Despite it equaling Oranges & Lemons’ chart success, Nonsuch has become increasingly overlooked as a key album in XTC’s career, as it wasn’t cited as an influence on the second wave of Brit-pop that reached its crescendo in the middle of the last decade, nor was it hailed by the more heavyweight music press in the same way that Skylarking, and to a lesser extent Oranges & Lemons were. For years the only copies of Nonsuch available in the UK were as a part of a substantial remaster and reissue programme by their former record label.
While Nonsuch has never enjoyed the sycophantic praise smothered over it by lesser acts as their early albums have, or enjoyed the press recognition of being a lost classic in the same way that Skylarking has, it remains one of XTC’s most well-rounded and broad albums. Over two decades on from its original release Nonsuch finally seems to be getting the recognition it deserves for being not only a great XTC album, but one of the finest British pop albums of the 90s. Oddly enough there seems to be a major reissue of it due in the not too distant future, as apparently Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame has been following his success of doing similar work for the likes of prog rock acts like King Crimson and Yes, by working on a full bells and whistles version of Nonsuch.
From: https://www.backseatmafia.com/not-forgotten-xtc-nonsuch/

Tracy Bonham - Jumping Bean

 #Tracy Bonham #alternative rock #post-grunge #singer-songwriter #1990s

Woman to Woman: Erin Harkes chats with Tracy Bonham
When offered the opportunity to interview Tracy Bonham, I jumped at the chance. As I struggled to teach myself how to play guitar in my college dorm room back in the 90s, this powerhouse musician of the Lilith Fair era was an inspiration to me. Thankfully, and not surprisingly, she was an absolute delight to talk with. She was also super patient with the technical difficulties and all the times throughout the discussion where I made it about me.
Me: Obviously you’re best known for “Mother, Mother,” a song I love. The first time I heard it I was in the car with my mother, so it was just perfect. She was like, “Oh, this is a nice song” with a hint of passive aggression. And then you started screaming at her and I thought, “Tracy and I are best friends now.”
Tracy: That’s an awesome story—really cool. No one has ever told me that.
Me: I’m sure you know how moms can be. They’re like, “Oh, maybe you should write a song like this for me.” Then it got to the chorus and I thought, Maybe I will…
Tracy:  That’s great. That’s awesome.
Me: But beyond that, which work would you say you’re most proud of?
Tracy: It’s gonna sound so stupid, but I’m really proud of my body of work. I can’t choose one song because they’re all a timestamp of who I was at that moment. When I look back, I see it as a kaleidoscope or a tapestry of who I am. And I like knowing that I have many albums out there—not as many as I should have in my almost 30 years of doing this—but at least I have a nice handful.
Me: I’m sure it’s hard to choose just one. I know that when you’re known for one particular thing, sometimes people tend to overlook your other labors of love.
Tracy: Yeah, that happens all the time.
Me: But I’m glad to hear that you’re proud of all your work because that’s not very common. Sometimes you have a couple of stinkers that you’d rather nobody ever heard.
Tracy: Oh, I went through that. I thought my second album, “Down Here,” was a stinker for a long time. Then it happened to come up on my playlist or my iTunes while I was driving and I forced myself to listen to the whole thing. I was like, Wait a minute. I actually LIKE this. I had to come around. I needed time away from that one.
Me: That makes sense. I also have a song I didn’t like that much, but then my friends would tell me “That’s my favorite song on the album!” Maybe that would be somebody else’s favorite, too.
Tracy: Yes, exactly. You have to give it up at some point. It’s like letting your kids go off to college. You have to let them go.
Me: And I do think of songs as my children, so it’s funny that you said that. When somebody asks me my favorite song, I ask them, “Do you have kids? Which one is your favorite?” Then they get it. Except once in a while, somebody says, “Kyle’s my favorite,” and I’m like, “Okay, you ruined the question.”
Tracy: That’s hilarious.
From: https://nippertown.com/2022/06/28/woman-to-woman-erin-harkes-interviews-tracy-bonham/

The Albion Country Band - I Was A Young Man

 #The Albion Country Band #Ashley Hutchings #Martin Carthy #John Kirkpatrick #British folk #folk rock #British folk rock #1970s #ex-Fairport Convention

The tangled vine that is the family tree of English folk-rock music has several long stems that wind through it, touching many other stems and branching wildly. One of these is Ashley Hutchings. As Ashley “Tyger” Hutchings, he was a founding member of Fairport Convention. Throughout his long career, he founded or influenced so many other bands and musicians that his status as a folk icon cannot be questioned. His insistence on exploring the pre-industrial folk music of England over more rock-based musical styles may have led to musical partings, as seen with Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, but this idealism is compelling. One of the bands Hutchings founded after leaving Fairport Convention (besides Steeleye Span) is The Albion Band.
The Albion Band grew out of a large backing band that played on Shirley Collins’s No Roses album in 1971. The Albion Band’s lineups changed regularly, to say the least, even before the first recording as “The Albion Band.” Before the recording of their first album, the band included Richard and Linda Thompson, among others. An exhaustive history of the band in all its various incarnations, not to mention its some twenty album releases, would be of book-length.
The Albion Band’s first album, Battle of the Field, recorded as The Albion Country Band, had Hutchings, Sue Harris, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Simon Nicol, and Roger Swallow as the band’s lineup. Ex-Fairport drummer Dave Mattacks plays on a cut as well, and four sackbuts are used to great effect on “Gallant Poacher.” The album, recorded in 1973, was not released until 1976. The feeling of the music overall is unsurprisingly reminiscent of Fairport Convention, given the musicians involved. Shortly after recording the album, this Albion Band disbanded, and Hutchings is said to have considered leaving music behind. After a break, though, he formed the all-acoustic Etchingham Steam Band, and then in 1975, restarted a new Albion Band, calling this incarnation The Albion Dance Band. In the mid to late 1970s the band concentrated on earlier music and dance music, with John Tams, Philip Pickett, Dave Mattacks, and Ric Sanders, among others, in the lineup.
From: https://agreenmanreview.com/music-2/albion-country-bands-battle-of-the-field-and-the-albion-bands-1990-happy-accident-and-songs-from-the-shows/

Fotheringay - Too Much Of Nothing

 #Fotheringay #Sandy Denny #Trevor Lucas #folk rock #British folk rock #singer-songwriter #ex-Fairport Convention #Bob Dylan cover #1970s #Beat-Club

Fotheringay was a short-lived British folk rock group, formed in 1970 by vocalist Sandy Denny on her departure from Fairport Convention. The band drew its name from Denny's 1968 composition "Fotheringay" about Fotheringhay Castle, in which Mary, Queen of Scots, had been imprisoned. The song originally appeared on the 1969 Fairport Convention album, What We Did on Our Holidays, Denny's first album with that group. The band expressed Denny's vision of the potential of folk rock to express complex meaning and deep personal emotion, using traditional ballad forms, but with the power of a rock band. Their self-titled first album was one of only two albums, as they broke up a year later, in January 1971, while working on their second (recently released). The rhythm section was formed by Gerry Conway and Pat Donaldson, lauded by Denny as the best in the business. In the absence of Richard Thompson - who was prepared to tour with her, and act as session musician, but wanted to follow his own career - lead guitar was taken by Jerry Donahue, whose transatlantic country roots and softer personality brought a different, less edgy feel to the music. However he was a skilled technician, with great feel, as he showed on their album, and later Fairport Convention records. The group was completed by rhythm guitarist and second lead vocalist Australian Trevor Lucas, whom Denny was to marry, and who also later accompanied her back into Fairport.  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Fotheringay/+wiki

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Animule Ball

 #Squirrel Nut Zippers #swing revival #retro-jazz #Americana #Harlem jazz #New Orleans jazz #jump blues #gypsy jazz #punk jazz #retro-1930s #retro-1940s #animated music video

The Squirrel Nut Zippers began their musical journey in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the mid 1990s, as a musician’s escape from the cookie cutter world of modern rock radio at the time. Jimbo Mathus along with wife Katherine Whalen and drummer Chris Phillips formed the band as a casual musical foray playing for friends and family around town. It wasn’t long before the band (which had grown in size) developed a reputation for pioneering a quirky mix of jazz chords, folk music, and punk rock leanings and attracted a national audience. Outside of the rollicking concerts which were rapidly growing in attendance, NPR was the first significant national media to take notice of the band followed by an appearance on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. With grunge and alternative rock in full swing back in 1995, the Squirrel Nut Zippers debut album ‘The Inevitable’ sounded like nothing happening musically at the time.  From: https://thevogue.com/events/squirrel-nut-zippers-november-8-2022/

Since 1995, the Squirrel Nut Zippers have sacked and plundered old, weird America then sailed off to further distant lands. They have used New Orleans as their hideout and base of operations. Jean-Lafitte-like, they hide on the lee side of Barrier Island, receiving goods and masking dark back channel deals, hiding in cellars or in plain view. On Sept. 25, fans will be able to gaze into the tea leaves that make up their brand new album, ‘Lost Songs of Doc Souchon’, to see if they can discern their own destiny. The first single from the album “Animule Ball” was originally recorded back in 1938 by Jelly Roll Morton.
“This new album was inspired by all of the mysterious characters from the history of New Orleans jazz music,” commented band leader Jimbo Mathus. “It speaks to the hidden roots of where our aesthetic, interests and philosophy comes from. It pulls on the hidden thread.” As mentioned above, the album’s first single is a cover that dates back to 1938. In keeping with that time period, the band turned to Fleischer Studios (home of Betty Boop) to use some of their historic animations for a brand new video for the track. “When I first started the Zippers, the Max and Dave Fleischer cartoons were a huge part of our inspiration. The look, the music, all of it,” Jimbo said. “So to have their blessing to use some of these characters and create something new with it is thrilling to me.”
“Fleischer Studios has a long history of bringing together the best in music and animation, so the opportunity to continue that great tradition with a band like the Squirrel Nut Zippers, nearly 100 years after debuting the first sound cartoon in 1926, is a wonderful honor, and one that would surely put a smile on Max Fleischer’s face,” commented playwright Jeni Mahoney, who serves on the Board of Directors for Fleischer Studios.
From: https://parklifedc.com/2020/08/10/song-of-the-day-animule-ball-by-squirrel-nut-zippers/ 

Tatran - Eyes

 #Tatran #progressive rock #electronic #experimental #post-rock #avant-garde #instrumental #Israeli #music video

Tatran (formed 2011, Israel) are an eclectic instrumental power trio, with musical influences that range from experimental jazz, rock, classical music, avant-garde, post-rock, experimental and electronic, combining to produce an ecstatic musical experience. Tatran's uncanny melodies, state of the art virtuosic playing and vivid sound, alongside their innovative relentless improvisations and their deep, near psychic on-stage communication, make them a mesmerizing live act. Tamuz Dekel’s versatile, almost omnipotent, psychedelic guitar with Offir Benjaminov’s thick, funkadelic yet-baroque bass combined with Dan Mayo’s diverse, supernatural futuristic groove-oriented drumming, reanimate a lucid dream to their listeners and spectators. Tatran's live act integrates breathtaking sounds with a hypnotizing atmosphere, both of which are considered by many of their fans to be Tatran’s hallmark, and although their show is completely instrumental, the strong feeling of intimacy and personal touch is unharmed and unrivaled.  From: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/3754101-tatran 

Jasmine Sandlas - Patt Lai Geya

 #Jasmine Sandlas #bhangra #Indian music #world music #Indian folk pop #Punjabi folk #music video

Born in Punjab and raised in California, Jasmine Sandlas has an East-meets-West heritage that’s helped her stand out among Punjabi playback's most beguiling singers. Born in Jalandhar, Sandlas was raised in a Sikh family and spent her formative years inspired by Punjabi folk singers. At age 13, she moved with her family to Stockton, California, adding the music of the US West Coast to her palette of influences. By 16, Sandlas was writing her own material, rooted in the style of her Punjabi inspirations but undoubtedly inflected with Western pop stylings. As a recording artist, Sandlas has spun many plates in her career to date, including prolific playback work across three languages as well as stylistically diverse solo pop albums and collaborations with the rapper Bohemia.  From: https://www.shazam.com/artist/jasmine-sandlas/377061445

Bhangra is a type of traditional folk dance of Punjab. It is done in the season of harvesting. Bhangra is especially associated with the vernal Vaisakhi festival. In a typical performance, several dancers execute vigorous kicks, leaps, and bends of the body - often with upraised, thrusting arm or shoulder movements - to the accompaniment of short songs called boliyan and, most significantly, to the beat of a dhol (double-headed drum). Struck with a heavy beater on one end and with a lighter stick on the other, the dhol imbues the music with a syncopated (accents on the weak beats), swinging rhythmic character that has generally remained the hallmark of bhangra music. An energetic Punjabi dance, bhangra originated with Punjab farmers as a cultural and communal celebration; its modern-day evolution has allowed bhangra to retain its traditional Punjabi roots, while broadening its reach to include integration into popular music and DJing, group-based competitions, and even exercise and dance programs in schools and studios.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhangra_(dance)

Mediaeval Baebes - Musa Venit Carmine

 #Mediaeval Baebes #medieval music #choral music #traditional #crossover #a capella #vocal ensemble #ex-Miranda Sex Garden  

The Mediaeval Baebes are a crossover vocal ensemble whose unique style features a deft mixture of medieval music, multi-language texts, modern arrangements, and both ancient and modern instrumentation. Their skillful and attractive arrangements, usually fashioned by member Katharine Blake, often have a dark, somber character while exhibiting contemporary rhythmic and sound features. Consisting of about six to twelve singers, Mediaeval Baebes are typically attired in long, sometimes provocative gowns or gothic-inspired costumes, and may wear, depending on the concert's theme, vampiric teeth, flowered headwear, or other exotic accoutrements. Song texts typically deal with such subjects as death, drunkenness, unrequited love, and religious and supernatural subjects. The ensemble's members often play an instrument during performance. Katharine Blake, Bee Lee Harling, and Jo Burke, for example, are violinists; Emily Ovenden and Blake play the recorder; and other members, Esther Dee, Clare Edmondson, and Tanya Jackson, play various instruments. Over the years the group has made use of accompanists like Frank Moon (oud, cittern, etc.) and Rebecca Dutton (medieval fiddle, psaltery, etc.). The range of languages in which the Mediaeval Baebes sing is vast and includes Latin, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Irish Gaelic, English, various older forms of English, and such archaic languages as Cornish and Welsh. The Mediaeval Baebes were formed in London in 1996. Founding members included Katharine Blake, who also serves as the ensemble's musical director, and Dorothy Carter, who played several medieval stringed instruments like the hurdy-gurdy and hammered dulcimer. Some of the earliest members were drawn from Blake's musical group Miranda Sex Garden. After early concert success, the Mediaeval Baebes were invited onto Thames Television in 1997 to sing the 14th century hymn Gaudete. Their first album, Salva Nos, was issued on Virgin Records the following year and it's success led to more prestigious concert venues and a string of popular recordings.  From: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1vQmLYgD92RwmsfHqTwjmQ 

Turn Me On Dead Man - Cyclops

 #Turn Me On Dead Man #psychedelic rock #heavy metal #psychedelic metal #stoner metal #space rock #retro-1960s #retro-1970s 

Turn Me On Dead Man are a ‘heavydelic’ space rock band from San Francisco. combining heavy metal and psychedelia to forge a music that is both transcending and unforgettable. The songwriting plunges listeners into the heavydelic landscapes of 60’s experimentalism and 70’s bombast, creating a sound that is enthralling, imaginative, hugely entertaining, and incredibly hard rocking! The group have been creating their unique brand of lysergic-soaked rock since their inception in 2000, gigging extensively throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and garnering praise from all over their home turf and the country, spurred on by heavy rotation at the influential WFMU station in New Jersey. Alternative Tentacles founder Jello Biafra was suitably impressed by the band’s spaced-out, glammed-up, turned-up brand of audio mayhem enough to re-release their first epic record, “God Bless the Electric Freak”.
Live, Turn Me On Dead Man is a spectacle of epic proportions; a visceral sonic boom that spans the spectrum from the meanest, most gorgeous anthems of rock to the exotic ragas of modern psych, creating an explosive and diverse stage performance as energetic as it is uncommon. Simply put, Turn Me On Dead Man plays Heavy Crush Bliss Rock breaking the sound barrier on their own private Lear Jet headed straight to Hell! The bands twin guitar harmonization, melodic rhythmic switchbacks and trippy apocalypto-mystical lyricism keep California’s psychedelic rock tradition alive. In their own words: “mind melt music for the sick and twisted, heavydelic super rock for the ultimate freak outs”.  From: https://maximumvolumemusic.com/featured-band-turn-dead-man/

In September 1969, as I began ninth grade, a rumor circulated that the Beatles' Paul McCartney was dead, killed in a 1966 automobile accident and replaced by a look-alike. The clues were there in the albums, if you knew where to look. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's "A Day in the Life," for one, recounts the accident: He blew his mind out in a car / He didn't notice that the lights had changed / A crowd of people stood and stared / They'd seen his face before / Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords. The cover of the Abbey Road album shows the Fab Four walking across a street in what looks like a funeral procession, with John in white as the preacher, Ringo in black as the pallbearer, a barefoot and out-of-step Paul as the corpse, and George in work clothes as the gravedigger. In the background is a Volkswagen Beetle whose license plate reads "28IF" - Paul's supposed age "if" he had not died. Spookiest of all were the clues embedded in songs played backward. On a cheap turntable, I moved the speed switch midway between 331/3 and 45 to disengage the motor drive, then manually turned the record backward and listened in wide-eared wonder. The eeriest is "Revolution 9" from the White Album, in which an ominously deep voice endlessly repeats: number nine ... number nine ... number nine.... Played backward you hear: turn me on, dead man ... turn me on, dead man ... turn me on, dead man.... In time, thousands of clues emerged as the rumor mill cranked up (type "Paul is dead" into Google for examples), despite John Lennon's 1970 statement to Rolling Stone that "the whole thing was made up." But made up by whom? Not the Beatles. Instead this was a fine example of the brain as a pattern-recognition machine that all too often finds nonexistent signals in the background noise of life.  From: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/turn-me-on-dead-man/

SpaceCream - Pterodactyl Sky

 #SpaceCream #Savannah Pope #progressive rock #glam rock #neo-prog #contemporary rock #theatrical #retro-1970s

If there is a hole in your soul that can only be filled with a large helping of highly imaginative, theatrical, cerebral, glitter-fueled, prog-tinged, sexually charged rock n’ roll, then you may not know it yet but SpaceCream are your new favourite band. Self-described as “an intellectually charged revival of stellar rock n’ roll, told from the point of view of a sex-positive feminist revolutionary,” Pterodactyl Sky is set to challenge every norm you never knew to be holding you back. David Bowie, Leigh Bowery, Rocky Horror; a little Queen, a little Yes and a soupçon of Morrissey: all are clear influences here, and yet Pterodactyl Sky is much more than a homage to a time and styles long since passed. One listen to the album’s title track, or the likes of “Nefarious Lothario” and “Feel The Light”, demonstrate that this is a group of consummate musicians delivering complex, erudite and scholarly, yet wholly accessible songs of existential depth, empowerment and unabashed joy. Where else would you find a lyric referencing the allegory of Plato’s Cave and a hair raising guitar solo in the space of five and a half minutes? As well as weaving tales of fearless warriors riding atop Brontosauruses to defeat invading alien hoards, “Pterodactyl Sky” sees SpaceCream visionary and vocalist Savannah Pope deliver a towering performance worthy of the very best rock singers. And nor is that empty hyperbole. We’re talking Ann Wilson, maybe. Or Cass Elliot. A slightly less gritty Joplin or Jett with the range of Mariah Carey. Maybe that sounds crazy, but damn this music works. In fact every single song here provides more than one Doc Brown-esque “Great Scott!” moment. The heavenly arrangement and celestial choir of the title track; the spine-tingling guitar and slow-burn build of “Feel The Light”; the positively sticky and otherworldly intercourse of “SpaceCream” (both band and, presumably, song being named after THAT scene in the Nicolas Roeg-directed, Bowie-starring The Man Who Fell To Earth, by the way); the electric sparkling funk of lead track “Killer.” This is a shiver-inducing collection in the very best sense of the word. And whilst it is the class and quality of the music that should – and does – make its mark here, SpaceCream’s philosophy of living your weird and embracing your strange permeates everything that they do. Just take a look at those album covers, or track down a video of one of the band’s live shows. These guys are the living and breathing embodiment of artists fiercely and fearlessly living their influences, passions and visions for the future.  From: https://skinbackalley.com/2016/01/20/album-review-spacecream-pterodactyl-sky/

Pink Floyd - Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict

 #Pink Floyd #David Gilmour #Roger Waters #psychedelic rock #British psychedelia #progressive rock #art rock #space rock #experimental rock #blues rock #1960s #1970s

Aye, an' a bit of mackerel, settler rack and down
Ran it down by the home, and I flew
Well, I slapped me and I flopped it down in the shade
And I cried, cried, cried.

The fear a fallen down had taken, never back to raise
And then cried Mary, an' took out wi' your Claymore,
Right outta a' pocket, I ran down, down the mountainside
Back on (Battlin'?) the fiery horde that was falling around the feet.

Never! He cried, never shall ye get me alive
Ye rotten hound of the burnie crew!
Well, I snatched fer the blade an' a Claymore cut and thrust,
And I fell doon before him round his feet. Aye!

A roar he cried!
Frae the bottom of his heart
That I would nay fall but as dead,
Dead as I can by a' feet, d'ya ken?

And the wind cried Mary.

Thank you.

One of the most interesting pieces Roger Waters ever produced, Several Species has been consistently underrated. While hardly melodic or even musical, the piece embodies the experimental era of the Floyd and other such bands through its imaginative uses of 'animal' sound effects (most of them done by Roger, then sped up or slowed down) to create a multi-layered chorus, functioning very effectively as a rhythm track. The animal section, lasting about three and a half minutes, supposedly contains hidden messages which are revealed when the record is played at different speeds, such as 16, 45 and 78 rpm. The 'Pict' section, lasting only a minute, is also fascinating. At first listen, Roger's rant makes no sense whatsoever. However, repeated listening reveals a discernible monologue, distorted by a heavily affected satiric Scots accent and some nonsensical words and phrases. Some sources have claimed that this monologue was improvised live in the studio, but it seems a little more coherent and linear than something that might be made up off the top of one's head. Based on the possibly incorrect assumption that the 'lyric' was written and actually means something, an analysis of its content follows.
First, a historical note: the Picts were composed of violent, raiding tribes of both Celtic and pre-Celtic peoples who held power in ancient Caledonia (now Scotland), most notably during the time period c.300-843 AD. After this point, they became united with (and in most minds, synonymous to) the Scots. This 'poem' if you will, which almost seems to parody the style of the renowned Scots poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), tells an interesting story. The transcription above converts the heavily accented words to standard English spelling in most cases (such as 'middin stain' to 'mountainside' and 'doon' to 'down'). The 'Pict' who tells the story starts by referring to the fact that his family settled down in this (apparently) coastal area, probably to fish for mackerel (a common industry in Scotland). But now, conflict and fighting has disrupted his life, all the more so because he is a coward, and has just fled from the battle that his brethren partake in, back to his home. He slaps himself for his cowardice, drops his sword in the shade, and weeps. He is afraid of the heavy blade causing him to fall down in battle — a mistake no-one survives ('never back to raise'). But then he gathers his courage, picking up what is probably his father's Claymore ('your Claymore') and rejoins the fray with a battle cry of Mary! (probably Mary, Queen of Scots, or else the Virgin Mary, a reference to his Catholicism). He sees his friends falling dead around the feet of a particularly ferocious enemy, who screams his defiance. Our young Scotsman grabs for his blade, but his worst fears are realized — it is too heavy, and the enemy's Claymore 'cut and thrust' and he falls at the enemy's feet. The enemy cries that he will not fall and live, and the young Scotsman meets his ignoble end, leaving only the wind to echo his battle cry ('and the wind cried Mary').
The poem seems to imply that it is Scotsman against Scotsman, a situation that did occur during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots in the mid-1500s, as the Catholic supporters of the Queen warred against the Protestant opposition. The above, is however, merely one interpretation of a piece which could mean any number of things — or nothing. What is particularly humorous about this section of Several Species is the elaborate poetic set-up used in order to end with a joking reference to a lyric already made popular by Jimi Hendrix a couple of years before ('the wind cried Mary') — and have it actually make sense. Someone who sounds a bit like Dave Gilmour says 'Thank you' in a normal accent at the end — perhaps Dave was in the recording booth?   From: http://floydlyrics.blogspot.com/2010/03/several-species-of-small-furry-animals.html

Emmylou Harris - Wayfaring Stranger

 #Emmylou Harris #folk #country #folk rock #country rock #Americana #progressive country #traditional #singer-songwriter #bluegrass

There have been many iconic pairings in country music and about half of them involve Emmylou Harris. Gram and Emmylou. Willie and Emmylou. Skaggs and Emmylou. Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou. The list could go on through a litany of country greats and each one would probably remember their collaboration with Harris as among the highlights of their career. One of the most powerful harmonizers in the genre, her delicate singing style had a thread of iron running through it, a strength that gave her mournful twang a heartrending power that made her contributions to ballads and breakup songs essential to the evolution of country as a whole. It’s a shame then, that her solo career should be, while overall consistent, somewhat of a letdown, with a string of minor classics early in her career followed by a slew of releases that never really lived up to everything she offered as a singer. There are, to my mind, two albums that fully live up to the enormous artistic talent Emmylou’s displayed over the years: the titanic comeback that was 1995’s Wrecking Ball, and Roses In the Snow, perhaps the most complete expression of Emmylou’s potential and the perfect closer for the early period of her career.
Roses In The Snow, for the most part, stays true to bluegrass convention, although the music occasionally tends toward gospel and her country roots, two styles which have always had significant overlap with bluegrass. Ranging from wellworn classics to new compositions, she effortlessly makes each piece her own, indelibly marking her takes on the old classics and claiming the new cuts as incontrovertibly her own. Her take on Wayfaring Stranger, one of the archetypal examples of traditional American song, instantly becomes the standard against which all other iterations of the song are measured, the doleful hymn to the hope of a better world beyond this one a clear highlight in Emmylou’s career. No less astonishing is her take on Simon and Garfunkel’s The Boxer, which, by staying largely faithful to the original within her bluegrass framework, she more than lives up to, although she can’t quite lay claim to the song like she can with Wayfaring Stranger.  From: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/78184/Emmylou-Harris-Roses-in-the-Snow/

Elephant Stone - Setting Sun

 #Elephant Stone #psychedelic rock #neo-psychedelia #Indian music #world music #ex-High Dials #Canadian #music video

Combining the influence of Indian classical music with the influence of British Invasion bands like the Kinks and the Beatles, Canadian neo-psychedelic outfit Elephant Stone is the brainchild of Rishi Dhir, formerly of the High Dials. The project's first album, 2009's The Seven Seas, demonstrated Dhir's knack for breezy melodies as well as his use of instruments like sitar, dilruba, and tabla in a Western rock context. Elephant Stone was operating as a trio by 2014's Three Poisons, and they made use of a children's choir on 2020's Hollow, the project's fifth album. The French-language EP Le Voyage de M. Lonely dans la Lune appeared in 2022.
Inspired by his own ongoing Indian classical music discovery, Dhir formed Elephant Stone in Montreal in 2008. With Dhir singing lead and handling nearly a dozen instruments, he recorded the project's debut album with help from several guests, including producer Jace Lasek. It arrived in May 2009 on Dhir's own Elephants on Parade label (with Fontana Distribution). The Glass Box EP followed in 2010 on Elephants on Parade and 360 Degree. The group then signed with Canada's Hidden Pony for 2013's Elephant Stone. Settling into a regular lineup of Dhir, Gabriel Lambert on guitar, and Miles Dupire-Gagnon on drums, Three Poisons arrived in 2014, also on Hidden Pony. They covered "L.A. Woman" for that year's “A Psych Tribute to the Doors.”  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/elephant-stone-mn0001606201/biography