The Magpie Salute - High Water

Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson on ‘Limitless’ New Band the Magpie Salute.
Around the time Rich Robinson released his last solo album, 2016’s Flux, the former Black Crowes guitarist journeyed to Applehead Studios in Woodstock, New York, to perform and record with his band in front of a live audience as part of the ongoing Woodstock Sessions. Robinson had taken part in the series once before, in 2014, and so this time he decided to try something a little different.
“I reached out to Marc Ford,” Robinson says, naming his one-time Black Crowes co-guitarist, who played on classic efforts like 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and 1994’s Amorica. Ford, with whom Robinson hadn’t spoken in more than a decade, said he was in. The next call Robinson made was to former Black Crowes keyboardist Eddie Harsch. “And Ed said, ‘I’m there,'” he recalls. The two joined Robinson and his band (which also includes latter-years Crowes bassist Sven Pipien), as well as various other musicians, in Woodstock, and over the course of three days laid down an assortment of covers from the likes of Delaney & Bonnie (“Comin’ Home”), Pink Floyd (“Fearless”), the Faces (“Glad and Sorry”) and Bobby Hutcherson (“Goin’ Down South”), among others, as well as extended, jammy run-throughs of Crowes nuggets like “What is Home” and the Amorica standout “Wiser Time.”
While the musicians were playing at Applehead, Robinson recalls, “I thought it was just gonna be, ‘Hey, here’s some more solo material for the band. …'” But the recordings wound up serving as the foundation for an entirely new outfit, the Magpie Salute, which will release its 10-track self-titled debut on June 9th. Today, Rolling Stone is premiering the album’s explosive opener, “Omission,” which is also the new band’s sole original composition. “Symbolically, it’s something that is just ours,” Robinson says of “Omission,” which features John Hogg, who had previously played with the guitarist in another project, Hookah Brown, on vocals. “It just was one of those things that was so organic, and it turned out great.”
The Magpie Salute is currently gearing up for a full-scale U.S. and European tour this summer. As for what people can expect to hear at these shows? That remains to be seen. “We’re going to be changing set lists every night,” Robinson says. “We’re learning about 100 songs to start with. There’ll be a lot of Crowes material, a lot of solo material, different covers, maybe new songs. It’s just something that’s going to keep growing and changing as we move along.”
This past January, the Magpie Salute made its live debut at New York’s Gramercy Theatre. Due to overwhelming ticket demand, what was initially scheduled to be one show quickly swelled to four consecutive-night sold-out performances, a fact that speaks to the intense fan base that still exists for the music Robinson made with his brother, vocalist Chris Robinson, in the Black Crowes. But given the siblings’ well-documented contentious relationship, and their seeming estrangement – at least musically – since that band called it quits for a second time in 2015, it appears that for anyone still jonesing for a Black Crowes fix, the Magpie Salute, with three former Crowes in tow (sadly, Harsch passed away on November 4th at the age of 59), is as close to it as they’re likely to get.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Robinson confirms. “This is basically it. That band won’t be together again.” On the other hand, he adds, the future looks bright for the Magpie Salute. “I’m happy to be where I am now,” Robinson says. “I think this band is great – this is an evolution, and this is where we’re heading. The potential for us is limitless.”

The Magpie Salute seemed to spring from that first call you made to your former Black Crowes bandmate Marc Ford. Why did you reach out to him specifically?

Marc and I have always had this really deep musical connection. And, you know, he was always my favorite guitar player in the Crowes. I mean, everyone who’s played in the Crowes has been great. But Marc and I have this thing that’s really deep. And so I called him. I hadn’t talked to him directly since probably ’06. But I just thought, “Well, let’s see if Marc wants to come and play.”

After Marc said yes, why was Eddie Harsch the next call you made?

I love Ed. He was a great person and we always kept in touch. And once Ed was in, we showed up to play and it was like we never left each other. The musical chemistry between the three of us is undeniable. And then you start thinking about the amount of time you spent with one another on tour. I mean, Eddie and I had spent over a decade on a bus. Marc and I, the same thing. And the three of us together. But, you know, originally Marc was more kind of brought in to the Black Crowes by Chris, my brother. So although Marc and I had this deep musical connection, a lot of times on a personal level there was kind of a line that almost had to be drawn. So I don’t feel like I was able to get to know Marc personally as much as I would have liked to.

So what happened once Marc and Eddie convened with you at Applehead?

Once we got to Woodstock and we were able to start working and playing it was, “Hey, man, let’s play these songs and see what happens.” There’s never too much planning going on. It just felt right. We had a lot of fun, it was three days and then I continued on my solo tour. But I was thinking, “How can we do this more? I love those guys and I really want to play with them more. And I love these guys that are in my band and I really want to play with them more.” So I thought about it for a couple weeks. And just through time I kind of came up with this concept for the Magpie Salute. Like, “Let’s do this and see what happens.”

The Magpie Salute is a big band. What do you find appealing about that?

There’s something that’s really cool about having a bunch of people onstage playing, but where it sounds like it’s not a bunch of people onstage playing, if that makes any sense. Like Delaney & Bonnie, one of my favorite bands. Or Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen. You have these people onstage and everyone is so musically proficient that it just works. There’s a discipline there and there’s these constant moving parts, but there’s this thing and it’s amazing. And originally Marc and I were going to sing the majority of the songs, but then I was like, “Well, look, let’s bring in my friend John Hogg.” He was in a band called Moke, and then he played with me in my first non-Crowes band called Hookah Brown. He’s an amazing singer and I’m a huge fan of his. So I said, “Let’s do this. Let’s open up the Crowes catalog. Let’s play more of our songs, let’s play covers, let’s see what happens.” Not unlike when you have Phil Lesh or Bob Weir going out, doing Furthur and those types of things. The Other Ones. I was like, “This could be really cool.”

Can you talk about the music we’re hearing on The Magpie Salute?

The record came from Woodstock. All of us were there making this recording. We had two great singers, we had my whole band, and we had Marc and Ed. The only one who was missing was John Hogg. And we had all this material. Everyone loved it. Then we brought John in and he overdubbed some cool vocals and we had a Magpie record.

This was not the first recording you’ve done for Woodstock Sessions, and the final Black Crowes album, Before the Frost … Until the Freeze, was also recorded live in the studio in front of an audience. What do you like about that process?

When you play in front of people, there’s an energy there. It’s almost like a wagon wheel with the spokes. The hub is what everyone’s there for, but everyone has a different angle, a different spoke going in a different way, for being there. And everyone’s experience is different. It’s personal. It’s intimate. But there’s also a group experience. So we’re experiencing the audience, they’re experiencing us, and we’re all experiencing this music. The energy that brings is really good fuel for doing something creative. Also, the way I like to record is to go in there and just sort of wing it. Just see what happens. In the days of unlimited recording budgets, there wasn’t any urgency to that. Whereas these days I’m interested in the gut reaction. What’s the first thing you’re going to play? Because that first thing is not filtered. The first thing is going to really come more from your heart. And that’s what’s exciting to me. So we went in, it was a finite amount of time, three days, and we were done. And it was great.

How did you choose the covers to perform?

These are just ones that I’ve been playing with my band, like Bobby Hutcherson’s “Goin’ Down South.” “Fearless” was one Marc had done in the past, and I used to sing it in the Crowes. So it was a hybrid of things we had done before. Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Time Will Tell,” we had done that on The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, and I was like, “This could be kind of cool.” And “Wiser Time,” I really like the way John and I sing it together. So it was just about picking songs that everyone would sound good on and where we could bring different elements of what we do into it. And I think we did 70 or 80 songs at Woodstock. And we did 80 songs in New York at the Gramercy Theatre shows. Pretty much every set was different in New York. The songs on the record, I thought it’d be a cool snapshot and would show a broad spectrum of what sort of musical ground we covered in Woodstock.

From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/black-crowes-rich-robinson-on-limitless-new-band-the-magpie-salute-119136/

Strawbs - Tears And Pavan

Strawbs - Bursting at the Seams. Release date: Feb 1973 (ads appeared in music papers dated 10 Feb 1973 saying album released "this week"). Had been scheduled for 26 Jan 1973 but was delayed by production difficulties. With Dave Lambert replacing Tony Hooper and bringing a new rock-based dynamic to the band, the Strawbs scored an instant chart hit with "Lay Down", followed by their number 2 UK hit single, "Part Of The Union". The band courted pop success with several apearances on Top Of The Pops and flirted with the current glam-rock trend wearing make-up and flamboyant stage clothes. Letters to Melody Maker accused Strawbs of "selling out", vehemently denied by Dave Cousins.
The album, which carried on the musical journey towards rock, also reached number 2 in the UK album charts, including some all-time Strawbs classics such as "Down By The Sea", "The River", "Stormy Down" and "Tears And Pavan", as well as Dave Lambert's splendid "The Winter And The Summer" and Hud and John's "Lady Fuschia". A 52 date tour of the UK in early 1973 saw them reaching a newer, younger audience. The stage show included some comedy material - Lambert's "Bovver Blues" and a camped up impersonation of Little Jimmy Osmond by Hud - which eventually grated on Cousins, who made his feelings known in uncompromising fashion, singing the bitter "A Song For Me" at the band's April London showcase at the Rainbow. Afterwards, they embarked upon a gruelling second US tour, and the album title proved prophetic with the group splitting asunder after things came to a head in Los Angeles.  From: https://www.strawbsweb.co.uk/albtrack/bats/bats.asp

Bursting at the Seams by Strawbs: With Tony Hooper departed, and Dave Lambert on board, the last of the Strawbs traditional folk influences (excepting Cousins of course) had gone. This was the album which broke the Strawbs to the masses, containing as it did, two hit singles. "Lay down" is a good burst of Dave Cousins at his most commercial, a light but enjoyable sing along. The less said about the pop song "Part of the union" the better. It was admittedly a massive hit single, but it misrepresented what the Strawbs were all about, the band were I trust embarrassed all the way to the bank! In defense of Dave Cousins, the song was really a Hudson-Ford track, the rest of the band appearing to have little to do with it performance wise. Lyrically the track was quite satirical, taking a swipe at the power of the trade unions in the UK. It was completely misunderstood by many union activists, who adopted it as their anthem (a bit like the way Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" was completely misunderstood by some).
These two tracks aside, there is a lot of excellent stuff on the album. The opening two tracks, "Flying" and "Lady Fuschia" are both melodic and well structured, "Flying" having several contrasting sections. "Down by the sea" is as close as the band came to symphonic prog, complete with an infectious chiming guitar theme, with an orchestral backing. The following track, "The river" features one of Cousins occasional divergences into "adult" themes, which he always seems to approach with schoolboy fascination, great track though. When performed live, the band always reverse the order of these tracks, the climax to "The river" giving way to the wonderful guitar theme of "Down by the sea". In doing so, the tracks effectively become a wonderful 10 minute two part piece.
"Tears and Pavan" is two distinct songs, which merge into a single piece rather beautifully. The echoed vocal refrain on the first section and mellotron backing make for a pleasantly emotional feel, while "Pavan" provides an Elizabethan harpsichord link to a slightly more upbeat latter half. Whether this line up with Lambert or the previous one with Hooper which recorded "Grave New World" (or indeed the one with Rick Wakeman which made "From the Witchwood") represents the "classic" Strawbs line up, will always be a source of debate. We should therefore satisfy ourselves with the thought that though band members came and went, the Strawbs made many classic albums.   From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=2895

Swinging Popsicle - Joy Of Living

Swinging Popsicle was formed in 1995 when singer Mineko Fujishima and guitarist Osamu Shimada joined bassist Hironobu Hirata through a newspaper ad. The band’s first effort was the Sunny Silent Park EP. In 1998, their first self-titled full-length album Swinging Popsicle debuted from Sony Music Entertainment at Number 1 in the New Artists category, producing the hit singles “Joy of Living,” “I Love Your Smile,” and “Parade.” After extensive touring, the band returned to the studio for their second album Fennec! (2000).
After starting strong with multiple Sony-label releases, Swinging Popsicle continued to build their international fan base with their independent releases of Change and Orange. Four solid years of writing and performing live throughout Japan produced their most mature and powerful CD titled Transit (2004), featuring signature song “I Just Wanna Kiss You.” In 2005, the band embarked on their first tour to Korea.
2006 marked their United States debut at Fanime MusicFest in San Jose, CA. The same year their song “Clash” was included in a compilation CD with the Korean manga “Cracker.” Performing to regular sold-out one-man live shows in Japan, (some running as long as 3 hours) the band continued to develop new material for their full-length album Go on (2007), which featured “rainbounds,” “Clash,” and “Chocolate Soul Music.” In June 2007, they returned to America to perform at Anime Mid Atlantic in Richmond, VA, and New York Anime Festival at NYC’s Knitting Factory.
Swinging Popsicle has also contributed music to the Nitroplus PC games Star Mine Girl, Axanael, Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo to Koi, and various songs for the Nitroplus mascot Super Sonico’s band, Daiichi Uchuu Sokudo (First Astronomical Velocity). In 2009, the band released the CD Loud Cut, collecting their soundtrack work and remastered versions of some of the member’s favorite early tracks including “Afterglow” and “Let Me Fly”.
Swinging Popsicle members have kept busy in recent years with various solo projects. Guitarist Osamu Shimada formed his own shoegaze band The Caraway and lends support to Seikama II’s Ace Shimizu Project, Face to Ace, Korean pop vocalist Taru, and popular J-Pop artist Fujii Fumiya. Vocalist Mineko Fujishima has performed backing vocals with top-selling J-Pop R&B artist Kusuo and formed the jazz-rock band alma-grafe in 2017.  From: http://resonance-mms.com/artist-profiles/swinging-popsicle/

Cold Water Flat - Swollen Sonnet

 Cold Water Flat was an alternative rock band formed in 1990 in Amherst, Massachusetts as a trio comprising Paul Janovitz (vocals, guitar), Ted Silva (bass), and Paul Harding (drums). Formed at the University of Massachusetts, they carved a niche for themselves in Boston's vibrant music scene, akin to Buffalo Tom, led by Paul's brother Bill Janovitz.
Initially, Cold Water Flat's music was rooted in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s, reflecting a blend of alternative pop/rock and indie rock influences. Their style was marked by angst-laden lyrics and gritty guitar play, typical of the era's grunge-influenced sound.

"Listen" (1993): The first album, "Listen," released in 1993, was a significant debut for the band. It saw its release in Europe under the Bitter Sweet label and in the United States under Sonic Bubblegum. The album was recorded and mixed at Fort Apache, a renowned studio in Cambridge, known for its role in the alternative rock movement. This setting provided a fitting backdrop for the band's creative process. The production of "Listen" was a collaborative effort between Paul Janovitz and Tim O'Heir, adding depth and texture to the album's sound. Contributing to the distinctiveness of the album were Bill Janovitz, who lent his skills on the slide and lead guitar, and George Lanides on guitar and acoustic bass. The visual aspects of the album, including its design and photography, were handled by John Egan and Theresa Kelliher, with additional contributions from Paul Janovitz himself.

"Cold Water Flat" (1995): Their self-titled album, "Cold Water Flat," released in 1995, continued to showcase the band's evolution in the music scene. This album was recorded at the same Fort Apache studio in Cambridge, MA, which by then had become a hallmark of quality in the alternative music space. Embracing the pop/rock genre, the album leaned towards alternative pop/rock and alternative/indie rock styles, reflecting the band's versatility and adaptability within the broader spectrum of rock music.

From: https://digmeout.substack.com/p/cold-water-flat-history-of-the-band

Messa - Rubedo

On March 11th, the Post-Metal world will and should be watching when Italy’s most elegant combination of Jazz and Post-Metal releases their third full-length onto a waiting world. Well, the VoS-lers surely can’t wait for Messa’s new record Close! And as we like to keep you on the edge of your seats we give you a detailed interview with the band conducted by our living library Knut who has gotten a lot of really good answers, mostly from singer Sara but also from her bandmates on several questions. Maybe this will make you as excited as Knut and us about this release because it is really a great release and another proof that elegance and force are not at all at opposite ends of the musical spectre but really combinable!

Congratulations on your new album! You have really developed your music further! After the two releases Belfry and Feast for Water, you now name your album Close. The cover of the first album has a picture of the famous bell tower in Lake Reschen, the cover of the second one is connected to water and now on this new one dancing women, I assume they are performing the Nakh dance from the video for the song “Pilgrim”. The covers on the previous album had clear connotations with the titles. So, what is the reasons behind the title Close that you have chosen for this new album?

The term “Close” has a lot of meanings. Actually, each of us in the band looks at it through different perspectives. We like to think that “Close” is a direct emanation of our yearning to escape. The main goal was transporting ourselves and the listener on a journey. We wanted to stand by the concept which lies behind the title of the record by creating and recording it while being physically in the same room. It is not a concept album but we always want to have that fil rouge, that thin red thread that ties the songs together, just like we did on our past albums. We came to read about Nakh once we found this 1930s picture by E. M. Schutz. The picture conveyed the sensations we wanted to express through the albums, so we decided to use that photo on the cover of Close.

So, about the dance that is a traditional dance performed by women in Algeria/Tunisia and the distinct Eastern Mediterranean musical influences on this album. At the end of the second song, the heavy, fast and doom-laden music incorporates some sonics from traditional Eastern music, and the next song start with a Duduk, also connected to the Eastern music, the instrument spread through the Eastern part of the Mediterranean all through Armenia. And you incorporate Oud and Dulcimer in the sonics. And the name of the song “Orphalese” is connected to the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran. These Eastern musical elements are extremely well incorporated in your way of playing doom metal throughout the album. How did these inspirations find their way into your music on this album?

As previously stated, the whole idea behind Close is the journey. We did not want to repeat ourselves, so we looked for new sounds and instruments that are not typical within the metal genre. It was natural for us to search for inspiration in the musical heritage that we have as Mediterraneans. Arabian music is very evocative as it can transport the listener to a different place. Alberto had to learn how to play the Oud - which has 11 strings and is a fretless instrument, which allows you to play microtones – and it was not easy for him. Another challenge we had to face was incorporating these different acoustic instruments while keeping Close a metal album.

Let us go back in time for some background. Six years ago, I found Belfry on Bandcamp, and it happened to me as with so many others; it blew me away. I tried to find other releases by Messa but discovered the jaw dropping thing that this exquisitely performed album in fact was a debut album, full-length even. So where did you come from, musically when forming Messa in 2014? What background of musical styles were fused into what became Messa? What did each of you contribute?

We have very different musical backgrounds and they all ended up straight into Messa’s cauldron. Alberto mostly played Prog, Rocco had many Black Metal bands, Marco played in a Dark Rock band and Sara played bass in Punk/Death Metal/Grind projects. In fact Messa is the first band Sara ever sang in. We all befriended many years before Messa started, though. In early 2014 Marco and Sara started developing some ideas, and soon Alberto and Rocco joined. None of us had played Doom before and we were curious to approach a genre that sounded new to us as musicians. Our songs are the result of our sensibilities mixed together. There are many personal elements that we introduce when we create music. Some examples could be blast beats or jazzy solos.

Metal related music is not for everyone, but when one breaks the code one never leaves this kind music. What was the first album you remember that got you into metal music? What inspired you guys to compose and play metal related music?

Probably the fascination with music derives from our parents and families. All of us came in contact with more extreme metal thanks to suggestions from friends in our early teen years.

Sara: I vividly remember crate digging through my parents’ vinyls when I was a kid and being fascinated by the cover of Born Again by Sabbath.

Marco: I think for me it was Judas Priest’s album Painkiller.

Rocco: The three first metal records for me were Reign In Blood by Slayer, Arise by Sepultura and Sound Of Perseverance by Death. I was 12 at the time I made these discoveries.

Alberto: When I was like 8 or 9, just before picking up the guitar with the idea of learning how to play it, I had a small compilation (on cassette) I made myself ripping old vinyls my uncle had in the basement. The very first track was ”Gipsy” by Uriah Heep. I was obsessed with that song. I was really fascinated by the atmosphere and the sounds that guitar and organ had in it. It’s also one of the first songs I later learned to play, so I guess that was the beginning for me.

The band name Messa is connected to mass and by that has some connotation to rituals and ceremonies, just as Amenra evokes with their album names and other things. In addition, you also have this fascinating term scarlet doom to describe your music. Scarlet is an important color in the Catholic Church and as such the color is associated with religion, devotion and sacrifice. At the same time like with other red-spectrum colors it is associated with courage, passion, fire and joy. And you even have the song “Rubedo”, which is associated with redness (blood) in alchemy, and also to Jungian psychology where it represents the “self-archetype” in the archetypical schema. So, where do we place the themes and lyrics of your music in this kind of multitude of connotations?

Nothing is random in our records, we like to have a ‘fil rouge’ binding all our material together. We spend hours doing research on all the sides involved in creating a record. There are various layers of complexity in what we create, from the songs to the graphic design. Loosely quoting The Big Lebowski, we aim for the carpet that ties the room together.

When I put on a new album by Messa I always expect the unexpected perfectly performed. And once again this happened with Close. It might be the most diverse thing you have released so far. This album is composed, rehearsed and recorded during the pandemic which has affected us all. How must we envision this process during the pandemic? Do you have a main composer or is it the collective effort as you write “All songs were written and arranged by Messa”?

Thank you. We tried to play together as much as we could, but sometimes it was nearly impossible due to the situation. Some ideas for this album were developed on our own at home but we always work on songs together in the deconsecrated church we use as a rehearsal room. The songwriting is a collaborative effort 100%.

When entering the studio – how clear-cut is your vision of what will come out in the end? Do you plan any space for improvisation ahead of or during the recording process?

Let’s say we always have strong ideas already, but we like to leave some empty room for experimentation. We spend countless hours rehearsing in order to give the album a steady foundation. Some studio casualties or coincidences happen though, and often create something that unexpectedly works great.

We have to ask Sara about her vocals because they are as outstanding on this new release as on the previous releases. On this record your performance is even more versatile than on the others. When did you discover your wide vocal range and had you or have you taken lessons to develop your voice? And who is your inspirational role models when you use and develop your vocals?

Thank you very much. I never took any singing lessons to be honest, it was just trial and error. On a merely methodical aspect a central thing is the awareness of how your body works and feels. Learning how to use your diaphragm or understanding the capacity of your lungs, for example. But the primal aspect of singing is what fascinates me the most. Channeling blood and fire, allowing them to go through you… resulting in you becoming the fire itself. It’s not a matter of technique, it’s a matter of guts. This is basically how I personally experience art in general. I could never sing about stuff I don’t care about. Some of the singers that had a toll on Close are Billie Holiday, Yma Sumac, Lisa Gerrard.

Rocco, you really lay the foundations for the music. As the music is so diverse, you have to follow and it seems sometimes to lead with your drumming. It is impressive how the whole band thunders against the end of “If You Want Her to Be Taken” and the drumming just picks up pace and throws the music into a tumultuous speed punk with screams in the short “Leffotrak”. Who are your inspirational role models for developing your drumming skills?

Rocco: Thanks, I appreciate your kind words. I am inspired by so many different styles of music and drumming. The first time I heard Led Zeppelin, when I was a kid, I was shocked to hear Bonzo. He was the first inspiration and still one of my biggest ones to this day. I also really like Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Frost (Satyricon, 1349) for playing effortlessly precise in faster music tempos. Some jazz drummers like Buddy Rich or Jojo Mayer (the latter I consider the best living drummer) also had an impact on me, especially for their fantasy. I appreciate it when drums ‘serve’ the riffs making a solid foundation for a song. One of the characteristics that I think the previously quoted drummers have in common is their creativity: they create non obvious fills that at the beginning feel odd but then turn out to be great. All of them have a drumming style that is very personal, unbiased. And Lombardo is the gold medal of metal drumming to me, but that is my personal view.

Marco and Alberto, the two guitarists, who lay out the doom Sara can soar over, and Rocco can build a foundation for, what are your sources of inspiration and musical role-models? I mean, on this album, you almost dip into every genre, jazz, classical and not at least creating the heavy melodic riffs that more than once evoke the giants of the genre.

Marco: My way of playing is based on Lemmy’s approach with Motörhead. Simple riffs, full power chords, Marshall 100 watts Plexi head with hot tubes and a big cabinet. Once this base is laid down, I mix these elements with other sounds and experimentation. I also play guitar on some songs at concerts and I use this setup with two cabinets instead.

Alberto: I have a really ‘70s approach to playing guitar. At the beginning I really thought there were no such things as pedals and effects, I really didn’t know or care about any of those little boxes. Just the guitar and the amp, all the stuff I needed were controls for tone and volume on the guitar and the amp. My heroes were (and still are) the great British rock blues guitarists, such as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher and so on. I pretty much learned everything by ear listening to the records. That had a huge role on developing my ability to improvise and compose. At some point I was really into Blues (Derek Trucks, Robben Ford) and Jazz (Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian) so I studied Jazz Guitar at the Conservatory of Vicenza and got my degree. During that period I went on a vacation in southern Spain and totally fell in love with the Flamenco guitar. I think, as a guitar player, after hearing Paco De Lucia or Vicente Amigo for the first time you’re not the same person anymore. I’m still trying to figure out the nightmare (in a good way) of playing real flamenco guitar, it’s VERY hard. In the end I guess it’s all of the above and none of them at the same time. I think you really have to play what’s best for the song, and that might not include what you like the most or not playing at all.

We understand that Sara writes the lyrics for the albums. “Pilgrim” has the lines “Pilgrim/ Your breath blows away/ All my thoughts” and “Dark Horse” features the lines “I only see with my eyes closed/ You are just buying a dark horse”. Lines that let our imagination run wild with the music to support. What are the lyrical themes throughout the album? What comes first, the riffs/melody or the lyrics?

There is no main topic for the lyrics in Close, but for sure there is a whole spectrum of emotions inside of them. Guilt, sadness, anxiety… Confronting yourself and what you feel is inevitable. Regarding the order of creation we always write riffs first. Vocal lines come after, yet sometimes lyrics were created before the music was born and were adapted to fit a certain song later on. I don’t have a step-by-step procedure for writing words, they just come when and where they want. Due to this, I have pens and scraps of paper with me all the time.

Your graphical expression throughout covers, the hard copies of the albums and the videos are very elaborate. We understand that some band members have some background/education in photography, graphics and more. Do you make all your material yourselves or do you collaborate? And: Who came up with the band logo?

We care a lot about the visual outcome of Messa, we like to work on the imagery of our music and often have clear ideas on how to represent it. Marco is the one who takes care of all the art direction of the visual project regarding Messa. Marco and I then do part of the process on their own (photography, graphic design etc.) when it’s possible to do it “in house”, but we also collaborate with other professionals to bring our ideas to reality. The physical formats of Close will feature a special booklet with film pictures taken by photographer Federico Floriani. He spent hours with us in the recording studio, documenting the sessions. Another person we collaborated with since the beginning is director Laura Sans. She shot all of our videos so far, including the one for “Pilgrim”. Her help was fundamental throughout these years. The band logo was created by Marco himself back in 2014.
 
From: https://veilofsound.com/2022/03/02/Interview_with_Messa.html

Le Grand Sbam - Dins O Sbam

Another grand slam (aka grand sbam) of the year 2019, and at the same time one of fantastic, fanatical debut opuses in avant garde-progressive scene. Le Grand Sbam’s debut album "Vaisseau Monde", much-awaited by every avant garde-progressive rock fan, has been launched in the last month of 2019, and surprisingly appreciated for only a month. No more expression needed because lots of Lyon-oriented avantgarde warriors like ni., PoiL, Chromb!, and so on. And of course, massive energetic, powerful sound connotation you can hear all through this creation.
Plenty of sound approaches and technical appearances come up to your ears. The first shot "Dins O Sbam" is a killer. Sarcastic, deeply heavy, incredibly complicated melodic / rhythmic movements with female voice / shout madness should absorb your brain and inner mind without breath. Oh God. Not only guitar heaviness nor dissected percussion / drumming salad, but also Japanese shakuhachi (amazing) or quirky synthesizer dances will invade deeply in. Quite enjoyable is a chase of female voices and heavy fuzzy guitar sounds in "Kouia" ... in such a melodic confusion, you would find something methodical and methodological. Weird really.
And imho my favourite is the fourth turf "Woubit" featuring hippy spacey ghostly Kraut-y psychedelia. Reminds me like Fille Qui Mousse meet Mahogany Brain. Always feel I would drive myself deeply beneath the sea of the track. In the last one "Vishnu Foutr'line" addictive combination of beautiful lines and adherent complexity can be received here and there. But hey as their sound compilation this track can be felt, methinks. In conclusion, cannot call this creation as diverse nor colourful easily but for every avant-prog or Zeuhl fan this opus should be of much pleasure. And let me say thanks to Dur et Doux for recommending such a fine production.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=64351

Bryan Scary & The Shredding Tears - Cable Through Your Heart

I have learned many interesting things about people through lively music discussion. One would be the form of desperation individuals often find themselves in, looking up random artists on Wikipedia and presenting baseless knowledge in order to impress a colleague or a romantic interest. Another would be the form of music elitism people present in order to gain some sort of fictional rank or form of self-admiration. “Have you heard the new Strokes album?” an average music fan asks. “Anyone who listens to music like that without comprehension of the genre’s history and origins is useless,” the elitist replies. “My taste in music represents the absolute (unwritten) law that all other fans should abide by.” Yeah, right. Even while the individuals who commit these acts are often harmless and easy to humor, should we really blame them for their snobbery? After all, the desire for attention is human nature. From a baby crying in a crib to an elderly man attempting to relive his past dangerously, most of us experience points in our lives where other’s impressions of us are depicted as more essential than they should be.
Placing any contemporary album in the same sentence with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is liable for a head-bashing from any of these so-called elitists. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that it is arguably the greatest pop album of all-time. And of course, I also agree that no artist will ever produce another form of innovation unheard to the decade that the Beatles did with Sgt. Pepper in the 60s. However, with that in mind, I certainly do not turn red in dismay when I hear that a contemporary album has been compared to an untouchable classic. Unless someone clarifies that the new release is of better overall quality than its preceding influence, I will not bother arguing with personal opinion. Finding two people in this world with the exact same artistic taste is impossible regardless of how you look at it. So, I am going to go the full distance on this one and call Bryan Scary‘s debut album, The Shredding Tears, the Sgt. Pepper of 2006. Yes, it was released last year and, for whatever reason, has received barely any recognition. So, what makes a Sgt. Pepper, you ask? Simple. When reminiscing about the classic Beatles album, most of us think of a pop album enshrined in flawless production, irresistible melodies, conceptual themes, and melodies that render most contemporaries untouchable, containing not one song that is lacking in quality or effort. Have we heard music in the mold of Bryan Scary before? Of course we have, thousands and thousands of times before. Any fan of the Beatles, The Kinks, Queen, or Squeeze can tell you that easily. In fact, Scary’s vocals are often comparable to Brian Wilson or Glen Tilbrook, two pop artists who could easily make a successful song using their vocal harmonics alone. In fact, judging from the impeccable piano-led melodies accompanied by the charmingly inviting vocals, some may even mistake Bryan Scary for a collaboration between Tilbrook and Paul McCartney.
While it is true that Scary’s stylistic approach, both instrumentally and vocally, is comparable to a vast number of classic pop artists, this obstacle in becoming a notable innovator is merely a component that should be overlooked to get the most out of The Shredding Tears. Those who expect complete innovation in every modern release are of a foolish nature. Music is an art that has lasted thousands of years and with each passing year it becomes more difficult to push creativity to a new level without being labeled as outdated. Despite the unavoidable comparisons, the most impressive aspect about Scary that causes him to stand apart from the generic mold is, simply, his natural ability to write a memorable pop song. Apart from the drums, Scary writes, sings, and plays all the instruments in every song on The Shredding Tears. Personally, he is one of the most talented musicians I have stumbled across in the past few years. While his multi-instrumental ability is extremely impressive, it is his songwriting that shines with the most brilliance. The majority of the tracks contained on the album implement a similar approach with an emphasis on unavoidable hooks, mostly dragged on by vocal melodies and piano-laden key changes. Scary’s most attributable instrument is the piano, also the one that he has clearly mastered to the most significant degree. Incorporating a variety of electric guitars and keys is the norm throughout The Shredding Tears. Solos on both fronts are supplemented by a variety of production effects, whether it be the throwback shrill organ in “Mrs. Gracy’s Revenge!” or the contemporary usage of synths in “Misery Loves Company”. It appears safe to say that Scary is a knowledgeable student of successful pop music. He flawlessly incorporates the techniques of past artists like The Beatles and Queen into his own creative approach, resulting in an album that pushes the limits of present-day virtuosity and musical aptitude.
The Shredding Tears, as the name eludes to, is considered to be a concept album by Bryan Scary himself. He appears to be taking a cue from Mr. Bowie himself, chronicling the day-to-day life of a rising rock band, meeting fascinating characters and adopting exotic lifestyles along the way. Of course, like all concept albums, my interpretation is solely personal. If someone has the time and effort to sort out Scary’s clever remarks into one cohesive storyline, please do so in the comments below. I am just as curious as most of you. There is most likely some stunning message behind this melodiously inducing album, though it is difficult to care when wrapped up in the pure irresistibility of the songs as a whole. Scary reaches near pop perfection in both “The Ceiling On The Wall” and “The Little Engine Who Couldn’t (Think Straight)”, both representing an expressive outburst in both the verse and chorus. Typically, the casual artist saves his hooks in time for a predictably drawing chorus. Scary implements this tactic while making the verses just as engaging. The structure remains unpredictable the first few rounds through, the verses picking up pace after each bridge is presented with the usual passion and invigoration. Scary’s unconventionalism does not stop there. Oddly enough, the most impressive tracks are those that appear later on the album, with the first three tracks being the weakest on the album and lacking the quality of latter gems like “The Bottom Of The Grave” or “The Bloodclub”. However, from “The Ceiling On The Wall” onwards, this is an outstanding album. It is a shame that I found this album after I completed my top albums of ’06. It would have certainly competed for a spot in the top five.  From: https://www.obscuresound.com/2007/06/bryan-scary-and-the-shredding-tears/

Crawlers - Better If I Just Pretend

Based in Liverpool, raging rockers Crawlers have spent the last couple of years building a loyal and committed fan base, and have now shared their long awaited debut EP – a diverse collection of emotion-strewn anthems. From the raging, politically-charged energy of ‘Statues’ to the sparkling melancholic splendour of ‘Come Over (again’), each track oozes the band’s trademark impassioned drive and swirling raw charisma. We caught up with Crawlers to find out more about them and their mission as a band…

Hi Crawlers, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about the band?

Hiya Get In Her Ears! Crawlers are a four-piece band based in North-West England (half of us from Warrington and the other Liverpool), we formed in late 2018 and like playing around with the sound of rock in any way we can, but most of all we’re four best mates who love creating music.

How did you initially all get together and start creating music?

Amy (guitarist) and Liv (bass) played together in a few bands in their high school and ended up splitting up when both went to different sixth forms. Holly (vocals) and Liv then went to LIPA Sixth Form in Liverpool, and were into very similar music and decided after dabbling in a few projects to create a band with Amy. We met Harry just after we released our third ever single as he wrote a review of the song for a magazine, and once we said we needed a new drummer he was the perfect fit!

Your new EP Crawlers is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about? Are there any themes running throughout the EP?

The EP has many themes, however it definitely has an overarching theme of struggles. The first single ‘Statues’ is about the corruption of the American police system, and its institutionalised racism. The second ‘Breathe’ is about my (Holly) existential crisis about the development of social media and technology. The penultimate ‘Monroe’ explores the beauty standards specifically for women in media, and the unfair treatment of Britney Spears. And finally ‘Come Over (again)’, the final track, is about our own personal woes, grief of relationships and family, and most of all, the people who cause such feelings.

You’ve been compared to the likes of Nova Twins and Yungblood, but who would you say are your main musical influences?

We’re very lucky to be compared to both artists as they’re both individually extremely talented! We as a band definitely are inspired by the likes of Nirvana, The Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age, Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins… However, individually we all love very different types of music which allows us to delve into many different types of genres. Holly loves artists such as Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers and Black Country New Road, whilst Liv is a huge metal fan, inspired by bands such as Metalica and Tool. Harry loves Gorillaz and Rage Against the Machine, and Amy is the biggest Fleetwood Mac and Abba fan possibly ever!  

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?

Liverpool is a wonderful scene currently, exploding with some of the UK’s biggest talents of many alternative genres. Everybody knows everybody and word spreads fast of a new band on the scene and it’s absolutely crazy to start becoming mutual friends with artists and bands we have loved and respected since we first started out in the scene.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?

As we have grown as artists, we have definitely also grown as performers. For some reason I (Holly) used to pretend to be badass on stage, when in reality I’m a bit of a joker. We focus on creating a safe space for all kinds of supporters, as I have sensory issues. I try to ensure when our heavier songs are played that everyone is aware of their space, as well as those around them and their actions, so that everyone can have a good time! I know there’s been a lot of times at heavier gigs when I have personally felt extremely overwhelmed because of the environment, and we wanna let people enjoy heavy music no matter how they like to enjoy it. Not gonna lie, sometimes I do treat a gig like a bit of a comedy show – I have a funny rapport with the audience and a giggle with the band. I feel like that makes it a lot more personal, and when our emotional songs are performed, it feels like we go through every single emotion at our gigs.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?

Our current favourites from our scene are definitely Torture and the Desert Spiders, Stone, Gadzooks and Zuzu! All you should definitely check out! Generally I would recommend Witch Fever, Vial, Lowertown, Tash and Charles and the Big Boys too.

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?

It’s a hard one. Social media has definitely made it easier for artists to get noticed, however it has also meant major labels have even more power to control, and has meant the over saturation of artists has made it difficult to stand out. A good time to play around in the live scene, now it is all back and about, and a good time to build a platform!

Finally, what does 2022 have in store for Crawlers?

A lot. We’re going to be going on our first ever tour, and hopefully showing you guys even more of our now very diverse catalogue, hehe. We’re just so lucky for so early in our career to have such amazing supporters and fanbase – and we can’t wait to grow our craft and share it with the world!

From: https://getinherears.com/2021/12/08/introducing-interview-Crawlers/

Portishead - Live Roseland, NYC 1998

 Portishead - Live Roseland, NYC 1998 - Part 1

 Portishead - Live Roseland, NYC 1998 - Part 2

 

About a year ago, I had a chance to see Portishead when they performed in Chicago on their too-brief U.S. tour. Being the prudent one, I decided to forgo seeing them in lieu of “dead week” (that last-ditch effort professors take to increase your study load before finals week). In hindsight, I could’ve gone and not missed anything. In a way, this album is a purgatory of sorts. It reminds me of what I might have experienced had I thrown caution to the wind and embarked to the Windy City. In case you were living in a cave, Portishead released one of the best albums of 1997 with their self-titled sophomore effort. Delving with great relish into their world of noir beats, spy movie soundtracks, and femme fatale chanteuses, Portishead made everyone who had used the label “trip-hop” eat their words. It was a chilling effort that gave you goosebumps and made your spine shiver at the same time.
Live: Roseland NYC reveals a band that not only puts out great albums, but puts on one heckuva live show. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that they’re backed up by a full orchestra, adding a certain elegance and swank to their gloomy textures. It also reveals a band that, if there was any justice in this world, would have been written a James Bond theme by now (but I guess that would be a little too perfect). Beth Gibbons has been one of my favorite vocalists, and Live: Roseland NYC shows her at her peak. Although her voice falters here and there, she pulls off a stunning performance, especially on the sneering “All Mine” and haunting, tender “Roads.” All of the performances are spot on, especially on material from their debut Dummy. Earlier material is reworked and redone, to quite a nice effect. Geoff Barrow (the main man behind the music) puts his turntable skills to nice use, spinning samples that the band themselves wrote just for use as source material and adding a gritty urban edge.
The entire band gives a solid performance throughout the album, and truly shows that this concert was one to be at. Buy the album and see why Portishead is so critically-acclaimed (especially by this “critic”). Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in the other room kicking myself for not going to Chicago. Note: While you’re buying this album, try and get the video as well. It features some tracks not on the album. The intro, a video montage of driving to the English town of Portishead with all of the songs mixed and spun together, is quite a nice treat.  From: https://opus.ing/reviews/live-roseland-nyc-portishead-1998-go-beat-london-records

 

Santana - Live Tanglewood 1970

 Santana - Live Tanglewood 1970 - Part 1

 Santana - Live Tanglewood 1970 - Part 2

 

Sometimes I have a specific topic in mind when I start writing a post for this blog. Other times. . . well, not so much. I had just finished reading “Live At The Fillmore East and West” by John Glatt which told the story of Bill Graham’s Fillmore East And West through the careers of Graham, Janis Joplin, The Jefferson Airplane and Carlos Santana. The book talked about the series of concerts that Bill Graham presented at Tanglewood, the classical music venue located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts and the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Then I realized that the last of these shows occurred forty six years ago today. Presto! New post topic!
At the time, the idea of presenting rock music in a classical venue was a radical idea. The idea that rock music was anything but “low brow” was new and the thought that rock music had any artistic component was far from the accepted norm. Tanglewood had just begun to experiment with staging contemporary concerts on their grounds. Staging a rock concert in a classical venue had yet to be done, so of course the concept of doing so excited Graham. Graham was also very aware of the plans for the upcoming Woodstock festival which he did not think very highly of, as well as feeling it could be a threat to his business interests. So only a few days before the Woodstock Festival, Graham staged the first of several concerts billed as “The Fillmore at Tanglewood.”  He brought the full-scale Fillmore East production team in, including the Joshua Light Show, and booked a great lineup. This first concert featured B.B King, Jefferson Airplane and The Who, and drew the largest crowd that Tanglewood had ever seen by far. Buoyed by the event’s success, Tanglewood and Graham agreed to stage three similar dates in 1970. It was the last of these shows, with Santana headlining a bill with The Voices of East Harlem and the legendary Miles Davis, that happened forty six years ago today.
It was just about one year after their career making performance at Woodstock. They were enjoying the success of their debut album with three hit songs, had a new Top 10 hit with a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” and were about to release their second album, Abraxas. This is the classic lineup of Santana, before a young Neal Schon joined the band and shows them in what I consider to be their prime.  From: https://roymusicusa.com/2016/08/18/it-was-forty-six-years-ago-today-santana-at-tanglewood-ma-1970-08-18/

 

 

Eurythmics - Live From Heaven

 Eurythmics - Live From Heaven - Part 1

 

 Eurythmics - Live From Heaven - Part 2

 

The story of Eurythmics—the British musical duo of Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox—is a rarity in pop music when it comes to personal relationships. Having been in the band the Tourists during the late 1970s, Stewart and Lennox had been a romantic couple but then split up as Eurythmics were emerging. Yet rather than going in opposite directions, they continued to work on music together–a professional partnership that resulted in hit albums and singles and memorable live performances.
“I suppose Sonny and Cher did it in reverse: they became really famous and then broke up,” says Stewart, 70, recently. “Well, Annie and I were a couple who lived together, broke up and then became strapped to a rocket. And we remained very respectful. Most couples who break up would find it hard working together. I'm not saying that all of it was easy. One thing that's amazing about Annie and I is that we never fought through 45 years. We never argued. We've had disagreements: one person wants to do this one thing, and the other person doesn't want to do it. When you imagine couples or people suddenly having screaming arguments or sniping matches–we've never had that. We just agree to disagree.”
A byproduct of the duo’s friendship and undeniable musical chemistry is Eurythmics' second studio album, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). Originally released 40 years ago today, the record catapulted Eurythmics to fame thanks to the iconic title track (which went to number one on Billboard) and its eye-catching music video. Both the song and the album properly kicked off a legendary career for Lennox and Stewart that earned them a place in the Rock Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
“When somebody says ‘“Sweet Dreams” is 40 years old,’ you go, ‘Blimey,’” Stewart recalled about the song from an earlier interview last year. “So much fun, so little time. And if I get in a car, somehow every third car ride, Eurythmics comes on the radio. Or I'm in a coffee shop or wherever, it's around all the time 40 years later. I think it has a lot to do with the person, the duo or the band, but I really do believe it's the power of the song...The song is king, really.”
Success for Eurythmics didn't happen overnight. Following the less-than-stellar showing of their 1981 debut record In the Garden, Stewart and Lennox employed a do-it-yourself approach in making the Sweet Dreams album. First, they got a bank loan to finance the project. Stewart remembers: “Annie was sort of a bit trepidatious about it: ‘I don't think the bank would take us seriously because we looked kind of odd.’ We were going to ask them for something that's quite oblique for a bank manager to understand. I was talking about, ‘We need to buy this kind of desk, this 8-track tape machine, and this synthesizer, we need this we need that.’ And he listened to it all. He was like, 'Oh, I see.'”
When they secured the loan, the duo set up their own eight-track recording studio in a warehouse space above a picture-framing factory in London's Chalk Hill district (the sessions later moved to the Church studios in North London). In contrast to In the Garden, which featured a cast of guest players, Sweet Dreams mainly consisted of just Lennox and Stewart. “There was a chap [Adam Williams], a bass player from the band called the Selecter,” Stewart recalls. “He knew the things we needed to get and also how to put it together. So he was really helpful and he co-produced some of the tracks on there.
“Once I understood how the whole thing worked, I was like a demon,” Stewart continues. “I was up all night and I'd be on my own sometimes. It was spooky because it was above a picture framing factory...I just got so obsessed with the art of producing and recording, that I would do experiments with other people totally unknown–it could’ve been a busker or anybody. I’d be there until 2 in the morning making strange electronic sounds.”
Using what was state-of-the-art technology at the time in recording their second album, Eurythmics created synthpop music that showcased Stewart's impeccable production, Lennox's signature soulful singing, and the duo's songwriting. “It was really the beginning of the DIY in your bedroom,” Stewart once said. “You had something that could record eight tracks and drum machines were starting to become something that you could use as a tool. We thought, 'Oh, we can make everything with the two of us.’ Fortunately, Annie and I covered a lot of areas from classical music all the way through to R&B to psychedelic music. We experimented and came up with an interesting thing.”
Stewart mentions an audio effects unit called the Space Echo when talking about the recording sessions for the album. “If you listen to a lot of dub music or reggae music that's been remixed with lots of delays–I was doing that but on pop music,” he explains. “So like the song “I've Got an Angel,” the drums got delays (imitates noises), and then Annie comes, “I've got an angel…” – that really is what you're talking about: weird pop music experimental strangeness. “The Walk,” for instance, is kind of like a soul song—it has a synthesizer bass line of 'boom boom boom, boom boom boom.' It sets up something that would almost be like “I Heard It On the Grapevine,” but it's got these weird synthesizer chords. And then the chorus—we had real brass players—jumbled up with synthesizers. So it was a mixture of organic sounds and technology.”
Also out of that experimentation came the classic title track, a cynical and bittersweet song that seemed to perfectly encapsulate the mindset of the 1980s. Stewart recalls the creation of “Sweet Dreams” the song: “It was at a point where Annie was getting sort of exasperated, and also we had broken up as a couple. So there was a melancholy kind of mood. Annie was lying down on the floor in the studio, and I was messing with this weird drum computer [MkI Movement Systems MCS]. Adam and I had been on the floor at the place of the guy who was building it. It wasn't like any drum computer at the time. And I got that thing going on, that sort of drum beat–boom!
“And where I got the drum on the first beat, it was like a tom-tom that I tuned all the way down to almost the point of the bass drum but still got that tone in it. Then I was playing this other little thing called an SH-01, a monophonic synthesizer. It would make this weird amazing sound that was very loud—Annie sort of leapt up and started playing another synthesizer and just switched it on. We were both going, ‘Bloody hell, this sounds amazing!’ It was only on three tracks.
“Then Annie started to sing ‘Sweet dreams are made of this…,’” he continues. “Fifteen minutes later it was done, apart from there wasn't a middle. It was going round and round and that's when I said, 'Hang on, there should be a section.' It's kind of a dystopian song, and [I said], 'Why don’t you sing 'Hold your head up, keep your head up'— like a not-the-end-of-the-world kind of thing?'”
Other highlights from the Sweet Dreams recording sessions included an electropop cover of Sam and Dave's classic “Wrap It Up,” the haunting-sounding “Jennifer,” and the hypnotic “Love Is a Stranger,” which, like “Sweet Dreams,” became another hit in Eurythmics’ song catalog. “That was released before “Sweet Dreams” in Britain,” Stewart says of that track. ““Love Is a Stranger” is a very weird mixture of sounds because it sounds like synthesizers but a lot of it was me on the guitar going through very strange pedals. One was called a tremodillo—it's a bit like a tremolo but weirder.”
The Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) album came out on January 4, 1983, via RCA Records; its first three singles—“This Is the House,” “The Walk” and “Love Is a Stranger”—didn't burn up the U.K. chart. But it was the release of the title track as the fourth single that opened, in Stewart's words, “the floodgates.” “England was different from America. Sometimes the tracks got released at different times. We had tracks like “This Is the House” and “Love Is a Stranger” and that was all being put out in Britain and building up to “Sweet Dreams.” Whereas in America, “Sweet Dreams,” because some radio DJ was playing it, it suddenly was blowing up without us even knowing.”
The popularity of Eurythmics and the “Sweet Dreams” single was further cemented by the song’s famous music video that showed Lennox sporting a memorable androgynous look and Stewart playing on a keyboard surrounded by a cow. '''What's going on? These are very weird people,’” Stewart conjectures today about what viewers probably thought when they first saw the clip in 1983. “We knew what we were doing in interpreting stuff visually as well as musically. I think that caught the attention of a lot of people—that we weren't just, ‘Here's our song, so we'll be filmed playing it for a video.’ We were like, 'Alright, how do we interpret this not literally but in a very surrealistic kind of way?'”
“And then MTV came along and put “Sweet Dreams” on their playlist,” he also says. “All of a sudden, it was everywhere. So when we arrived to tour in America—I think it was the Touch tour—it was just everywhere that we went—they were just blasting “Sweet Dreams.”” The emergence of Eurythmics and “Sweet Dreams” coincided with the British synthpop explosion that would briefly overtake America and resulted in a productive period for the duo before they disbanded in the early 1990s. “After the Sweet Dreams album, all the songs just came tumbling out: “Here Comes the Rain Again,” “Would I Lie to You,” “Missionary Man,” “Thorn in My Side”—it was like one after the other. At the time, you're going so fast in making records in three weeks or whatever, then you go on tour, and then you do this and you do that.”  From: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2023/01/04/eurythmics-dave-stewart-on-sweet-dreams-the-album-and-song-turning-40/

 

Miss Lava - Another Beast Is Born

Portugal's Premier Stoner Rock/Metal Band - Miss Lava - will be releasing their stunning new album Doom Machine on January 15th via Small Stone Recordings and Kozmik Artifactz. This will be the bands 4th album and sees the band playing a more personal style of music compared to their previous records. The band went through some tough times before making this album and you can feel that when listening to the album. I wanted to interview Miss Lava for a very long time and I finally had the chance to speak to Johnny (Vocals) and Raffah (Guitars) about the making of the album and the evolution of the band itself. Read on for a cool interview from a truly great band.

Hi Miss Lava. Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you today.

Johnny - We’re doing fine amidst all of this, thanks. Everyone’s healthy and still has their jobs.
 
For people not in the know. Can you give a brief history of how the band came together and where it is today.

Johnny - I guess you can call us a heavy rock stoner outfit from Lisbon, Portugal. We started in 2005, just jamming and making songs. Then, from 2007 onwards we just played as many shows as we could. Since then, we’ve been at festivals like Desert Fest London, Stoned From The Underground, Ressurrection Fest, Stonefest, Moledo, Super Bock Super Rock, Rock In Rio Lisboa, Reverence Valada, Vagos Open Air, Barroselas Metal Fest and Faro Bike Meeting.

The band have gone slightly heavier for this record especially compared to the last record. Was that the original idea and intent for this record.

Raffah - It’s funny you mention that, I have many friends who say we did the opposite! But what I can say is that it was not intended. Before we start making this record, we talked about doing things in a different manner. We were promoting our previous record and each one of us had babies coming up in different times, so we were always on and off rehearsals in periods of time. So, Ricardo came up with idea of just going in rehearsal and start jamming whatever we felt like. We recorded lots of jams. Nothing was subject to “we need to do this type of thing” or that… it was just what our hearts needed to put out. I guess the jams that we liked the most turned to be the music that is on the record. It was like a natural selection of sorts – some stuff evolved into songs, some did not. And when it came to lay it down in the studio, we decided to record it live. We had never done this before. And it was great. We used our own gear and just banged it out like we do in a rehearsal or a show. I guess all of this creates the overall vibe for the record.

The PR blurb that I received for the album advised that “The record is loosely focused on the tragic death of guitarist K. Raffah’s baby son and the other members’ children born during the creative process.” Rafa – Firstly, I’m sorry to hear about the loss of your son. I hope you and your family are doing well. How was the overall experience for you when recording the album for yourself personally. Was this the hardest record you’ve ever been involved with.

Raffah - Thanks for your words Steve. We must say that we are doing very well. I am fortunate to have the strongest woman by my side and three awesome girls, Antonio’s sisters. It is very difficult to talk about it, of course, but very therapeutic as well. The experience of recording the album was actually gratifying and very light. I guess that, for me, it was a homage to my son. And when I feel him, I feel warmth and love. I channelled him as much as I could during the process. And now, when I hear the record I honestly can hear and feel him each time. And this feels so good to me. But this was the experience of recording the album. Making the album was different. Garcia had been a dad again right after Sonic Debris came out (my beautiful god-daughter Carolina). Besides the shows, his time was more limited during that period. Johnny started traveling more and more to Africa for his creative work. So whenever we could get together, we would jam and jam but with no specific goal in mind. Then Antonio was born and he was in the hospital for a month and a half. In the next month, Ricardo’s second baby girl was born in the same hospital as Antonio.  It was great and awkward at the same time being in the hospital at 11pm with Antonio and Ricardo going in with his girlfriend to have a beautiful healthy baby girl. We texted and got together for a coffee at the hospital while he waited. And then I went back to my kid. Two days after they were out of the hospital. And we were still there. Anyway, when he died, as anyone can imagine, it was shocking to everyone around us. Me and my family… we just had to take our time, center on ourselves and forget the world. Then, there was a time, I can’t recall exactly when, when I felt the need to be with them in the rehearsal room and create music together. It all felt natural. We got back to some of the jams we had developed earlier, we invented new stuff and then sometime in the beginning of 2019 we felt it was time to record. Going to back to the process of recording the album – we went for something new, recording the instrumental parts live, me, Garcia and Ricardo in the same room. What a vibe. Just like when we jammed at rehearsals and when we jam live. I believe that, in the production of this record, I have the best memories from any of our records. As for the other guys, I can’t imagine the impact it all had and still has on their relation with the record. They were all there in his last days at the hospital with me. They were all there when we buried him. These experiences are so complex and so intense that I can’t even understand them still or make any sense on how it reflects on our relationship or their relationship with me and the band.

For the other members – Your experience was perhaps quite different to Rafa’s. What did you all experience from this making his album.

Johnny - It’s not easy for me to talk about it, but looking back, for me it was the ultimate proof that love is the most important thing in life and it is what makes us Human. The way Raffah’s family carry Antonio on their hearts humbles me everyday, and still makes me try to value the good things in life. And with that in mind, the lyrics on Doom Machine are in a way to remind us what we’re doing with our lives.

The new album – Doom Machine – is perhaps you best album to date. Well in my humble opinion. Why did you call the album Doom Machine and what can people expect from the record compared to your previous releases.

Johnny – Wow, thanks! We decided to call it Doom Machine because I think we’re all part of a big machine of self-destruction, where hate, ego, greed and profit are the main fuel for that engine. I know it’s a cliché but I think we all know where we’re heading. We’re still making the same choices and the same mistakes and our planet and our humanity are threatened like never before. We’re out of control, we’re driving ourselves at full speed to our doomsday or to end life as we know it.

Comparing this record with the previous releases, I think is a more mature album, with more diversity. All songs are very different.

We explore new song structures, we add some interludes, that allows us to breathe and relax between some intense songs and because we recorded it live, it has a different vibe and reflects more accurately what we are as a Live band.

I ultimately enjoyed the new aspects of music you’ve written for this album. It’s heavier which I’ve said earlier but it’s more soulful and quite progressive in places. Did you want to try something different for your 4th album.

Raffah - We always set out to try something different in each record. This time around it was the jamming process for the creation of the songs. In that type of approach, we try not to have any borders or to pre-conceive any structure. I guess we were able to channel a more raw and dense emotional realm this time. Not only because of everything that happened in our lives but also because of the jamming process. That’s where I think the “more soulful and quite progressive” comes from. The music naturally developed that way in the jams.

Has it surprised you the amount of praise your music has received from the Doom/Stoner Rock community. Or do you not take much notice of things like that.

Raffah - It is great to feel like we’re part of the community in the first place. Then, it is obviously very rewarding when we release an album, read a review and think “wow, this journalist really understood what we’re doing here”. But it really really feels great when we play a live show and people come to talk to us, drink a beer and talk about music or life in general. We have made many friends on the road. And this is the best thing in being part of the community.

What comes first for you when recording new music. Lyrics or Music.

Johnny - Usually Music. But there are songs in which the opposite happened, such as “I’m the asteroid” on Sonic Debris.

You’ve signed to Small Stone Recordings for this album again. How did you hook-up with that great label.

Johnny - I believe they’re always with their antennas on wherever you are in the world. We released our first record and sent it them. I believe they started following us at that time. When we put out “Red Supergiant” (it came out first through Raging Planet Records in Portugal) they wrote to us saying they’d like to put it out with a new mix and master. And we started our relationship there.

Now you have Kozmik Artifactz handling Vinyl Duties. Same question again. How did this collaboration came about.

Johnny - The collaboration came together between labels. They seem to make a good team and it will be great to have an European support from a label that is very into the stoner scene and that values the record as a work of art.

The album cover for the upcoming new album is excellent. Who designed the cover and how much input did you have into the overall design of the cover.

Raffah - http://josemendes.me/ has designed our cover art since the first EP! He’s a very dear friend and I believe he is like our fifth element when we finish our recording process. We talk about the concept of the album, what our creative process was like and he interprets everything through his unique approach. I won’t get into specifics, but I can see the rise of a doom machine and its’ overwhelming transformation when I look at the cover. His first inspiration came from the French artist Philippe Caza. And then I think that all those colours and overall movement really represent the energy of the record.

You guys are from Lisbon, Portugal. Before Covid-19 hit. What was the local scene like for you guys. Was it easy to get gigs and on a regular basis.

Raffah - There are some clubs around Lisbon where we can play on a more regular basis. But many of the clubs that welcome our style had been closing even before Covid. In the last years, we have been playing mainly small local festivals around the country. Let’s see how we all come back after this. Right now, the club owners are some of the people who have been hit the most hard. Many won’t open their establishments again.

Can you advise any other great bands to checkout from your home-town that our readers may not be aware of.

Johnny - You must check out The Quartet of Woah!, Dollar Llama and Earth Drive from Lisbon. And Black Bombaim and The Black Wizards from the north of Portugal.

From: https://outlawsofthesun.blogspot.com/2021/01/an-interview-with-miss-lava.html

Steeleye Span - London

Rocket Cottage is the ninth studio album by British folk rock band Steeleye Span. It was released in 1976 by Chrysalis Records. Produced by Mike Batt, it was hoped that the album would cement the band's popular and commercial success, building on their breakthrough into the UK Top 10 with their previous album All Around My Hat and its title track, which reached #5 on the UK singles chart. By the time it was released, the sudden explosion of the British Punk scene saw audience tastes in the UK rapidly shift away from formerly popular genres like folk rock and progressive rock, and groups that had previously been critical favourites, like Steeleye Span and Yes, soon found themselves being derided as "dinosaurs". Rocket Cottage did not reach the Top 40, and it was the last album recorded by the "classic" mid-seventies lineup of the group, with Peter Knight and Bob Johnson both subsequently leaving the group.
The album is perhaps the band's most rock-influenced album, with very prominent guitars and a strong rhythm section. Some fans consider this one of the band's best efforts, pointing to strong tracks like "London", "Fighting for Strangers", "Sir James the Rose", and "Orfeo/Nathan's Reel", the first three of which became classics of the band and fan favorites. Others, however, find the album erratic, complaining that the band's rhythm section tends to overwhelm the vocals, particularly on "Orfeo", "The Twelve Witches", and (to a lesser extent) "The Brown Girl". Oddly for an instrumental piece, "Nathan's Reel" simply fades out. The most peculiar decision was the inclusion of an unrehearsed version of "Camptown Races"; years later Maddy Prior remarked, "I can't think what we were thinking of with that." This was the band's ninth album in five years, and many feel that their exhaustion is evident.
Peter Knight has said that the band was being pressured to write and adapt music for the commercial market, which led to considerable dissatisfaction among the band members. Both he and Bob Johnson were seriously considering leaving the band, particularly because they wanted to work on a musical version of The King of Elfland's Daughter, Chrysalis Records agreed to allow them to record that album if they agreed to record 'Rocket'. Lacking any interest in the album that Knight and Johnson produced, Chrysalis made little effort to promote the album, and Knight and Johnson chose to depart the band after 'Rocket' was released.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Cottage  

 

Leda - Marocco Speed

I had discovered the group Leda with guilty delay, but for them it was love at first sight, or rather, at first listen. The technical times for an "official" review were now exceeded but I still felt the need to dedicate some space to them on my personal blog, where music often reigns supreme. After all, in an era in which the adage seems to be something like: "there is a lack of guitars, rock groups", they were keen to demonstrate the opposite, creating powerful, evocative songs, with a strong rock imprint, of nineties origin, but with a very current sound system.
In their music it seemed to flow the blood of bands that I love viscerally, starting with Scisma and Marlene Kuntz, but everything grafted into a personal formula, with the combination of words/sounds that especially in some tracks was perfect. Since then I have not lost sight of them and I admit that I was very curious to listen to their sophomore, who had the task of not only confirming the excellent intuitions of the debut "Memorie dal futuro" but possibly of expanding their artistic baggage.
With a lineup now established with the entry of Giorgio Baioni on bass, Leda lays its foundations on the talent and personality of its frontwoman Serena Abrami, on the undoubted technical qualities of guitarist Enrico Vitali and on the expressive power of drummer Fabrizio Baioni (who with Giorgio creates a strong and engaging rhythm section), and it is known that when all the ingredients know how to blend in the best way, something exciting can result. With these premises, the wait to listen to the new work had been felt and it must be admitted that the sensations aroused by the evocative single of the same name had already been good, being a song that is musically solid and evocative in the right way in terms of imagery.
The musical structure reiterates certain rock coordinates but the addition of spice is given by a use, never invasive but certainly more prominent, of electronics, which pervades the album at an atmospheric level, connoting it with dark-wave implications, thus putting darkness in the foreground more than colors. However, we should not interpret this album as pessimistic or negative, because the energy is always notable, as is the propulsive thrust of the opening track "Il politicante". The lyrics are perhaps the most direct ever produced by Abrami and at the same time moves a pressing music, where each instrument prepares the ground for the explosive refrain in a sort of emotional climax.
The mood changes considerably as we continue in the tracklist, and it is a very pleasant surprise that we encounter at the height of "Niente è lo medesimo": the pressing spoken/recited by Serena, accompanied by the rhythmic pace causes a sensation of total envelopment. We could venture an unusual comparison with Massimo Volume but everything then explodes, after the initial storm, in an immediate chorus full of pathos.
The third track is a bit disconcerting for its unprecedented initial power, with a grunge flavour, while it glides into apparently softer territories with “Insonnia”, whose messages actually seem cryptic, not to say sinister. It is here that dark electronics come into play more, and it is natural to also include Depeche Mode among the influences of the quartet from the Marche. We continue without a hitch until the end, happily also coming across a real gem, which sees the singer-songwriter Paolo Benvegnù as the protagonist together with our guys, almost as if to underline the affinities – found especially in the debut album – with his Scisma.
“Tu mi bruci” has a mysterious aura, it exudes charm and intrigues with its refined musical solutions, as if to make us understand that in the strings of Leda, in the background of its protagonists, there is also room for authorial music. A further clue in this sense comes to our aid with the poignant “Quasi ombra” which closes the album relying on soft and dreamy tones. The test of the second album is therefore passed with flying colors, with a formula that has consolidated by inserting different elements.
Musically, the group, if we want, appears more cohesive, even though in reality it has shown more versatility and heterogeneity, while on the voice, what else is there to add? I think Abrami's is one of the most beautiful around in terms of expressiveness, intonation and ability to capture you from the first notes. And his writing is also particularly interesting, very evocative, which translates into incisive lyrics but without disdaining some poetic touches, strong in a metric that can recall the style dear to a certain Giovanni Lindo Ferretti.
Italian rock seems to be able to look to the future with renewed confidence, and if a new renaissance is really possible we will owe it to those new bands that have been able to bring it back into fashion, taking example from the greats of the past but at the same time proposing a new mix. And in this sense, alongside the often (rightly) mentioned names of Gomma and Post Nebbia, from now on it will also be necessary to add that of Leda.  Translated from: https://www.indieforbunnies.com/2022/06/22/leda-marocco-speed/  

Hawkins & Moulay - Knots - Gentle Giant Cover

All in all each man in all men
All men in each man.
He can see she can't, she can see she can
See whatever, whatever.

You may know what I don't know, but not that
I don't know it and I can't tell you
So you will.
To tell me all man in all men
All men in each man.
He can see she can't, she can see she can
See whatever, whatever.

You may know what I don't know, but not that
I don't know it and I can't tell you
So you will have to tell me all.

It hurts him to think that she is
Hurting her by him being hurt to think
That she thinks he is hurt by making her
Feel guilty at hurting him by her thinking
She wants him to want her. Her wants her to
Want him to get him to want him to get
Him to want her she pretends.

He tries to make her afraid by not
Being afraid. (permutations)
You may know what I don't know, but not
That I don't know it and I can't
Tell you so you will have to tell
Me all.

I get what I deserve.
I deserve what I get.
I have it so I deserve it.
I deserve it for I have it.
I get what I deserve.
What I deserve, what I deserve what I get.

I have it so I deserve.
He tries to make her afraid by not
Being afraid.