The B-52s - Revolution Earth

Kate Pierson is showing off the Pepto-Bismol pink cabinets in Suite No. 5. The retro furniture fits right in with the rest of the decor at Kate’s Lazy Meadow, the Hudson Valley, New York motel owned by the redhead from the B-52s and her wife Monica Coleman. There are suites dedicated to cowgirl Annie Oakley and Native American hero Sacagawea, and all of the rentals are filled with ’50s-style whimsy and a collection of B-movie VHS tapes with titles like The Incubus and G.I. Executioner. The kitschy getaway brings to mind the B-52s’ classic “Love Shack” video, where the band partied alongside a crowd of revelers—including a young RuPaul—inside of a tiny technicolor cabin. The mountain hideaway suits the 71-year-old’s eccentric onstage style, but her demeanor is more reserved than the loud decor of her motel or her hair (now magenta) lets on. For our interview, she’s dressed like a ski-bunny in black leggings and fur-lined boots, with pages of detailed notes about her favorite songs through the years, which she says took days of research to compile.
More than four decades ago, the B-52s began with a burst of spontaneity. In 1976, Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson and her older brother Ricky shared a flaming volcano drink at a Chinese restaurant in Athens, Georgia, headed home to jam—and never stopped. The band relied on improvisation from the start, combining the music they all loved—surf rock, Afrobeat, doo-wop—to become a vibrant fount of pure merriment. They’ve endured hardships, including Ricky’s passing from an AIDS-related illness in 1985, financial woes, and Cindy taking a brief sabbatical in the early ’90s, but the B-52s are the rare band that never broke up. In fact, the remaining founding members continue to play to sold-out crowds across the world.
Now the band is looking to celebrate their history with a documentary, a book, and a jukebox musical, all of which are in the early stages of development. This reminiscing has made Pierson excited to think about the band’s legacy. “The basic message we put out is inclusion,” she says, noting that people tell her all the time that the B-52s got them through high school or an illness. It’s the kind of music that makes a person feel less alone. “They can forget their troubles and they can dance,” she says. “That’s the greatest thing you can give someone.” Here, Pierson looks back at the music that served a similar purpose for her throughout her life.

Les Paul and Mary Ford: “Mockin’ Bird Hill”

Kate Pierson: My grandmother owned the house we lived in in Weehawken, New Jersey. She lived upstairs, and as soon as I woke up I would go up there, and she’d play the piano. She sang this song, “Tra-la-la, tweedlee dee dee, it gives me a thrill.” I don’t remember much from when I was 5, but I specifically remember her playing that. It’s almost like a vision of her, angelic, playing “Mockin’ Bird Hill.” She was singing dramatically, and that made me think, I want to be a singer.

Jerry Lee Lewis: “Great Balls of Fire”

When I heard this song on the radio in 1958, it just had this visceral effect on me. I had a laughing fit and I couldn’t stop—I started rolling around on the floor. My parents didn’t know what was the matter with me. It just hit me like a lightning bolt, and I was like, “OK, I guess I’m destined to rock and roll.” I had no idea at that age, but kids tore up auditoriums and threw chairs to this song. That’s why parents were like, “Rock and roll is the devil! It’s making kids crazy!” It did make me crazy, in a great way.

Bob Dylan: “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”

At this point I had my own folk protest band called the Sun Doughnuts, and I played this song for my other bandmates over and over, but they just couldn’t get it. Not only did Dylan’s voice grab me, but the meaning and the message made me realize that the words really matter. A lot of songs, even “Great Balls of Fire,” are kind of funny, but this song, wow—it really affected my life. I became aware of the civil rights movement through music by people like Dylan, Joan Baez, and Joni Mitchell. When I look back at my life, I wonder why I didn’t run away to Greenwich Village and become a folk singer.

Janis Joplin: “Ball and Chain”

This was 1968, and I wanted to look like Mary Travers and Joni Mitchell. I had long straight hair with a part in the middle, while all my classmates had these teased bouffants, which is so ironic now. I transferred to Boston University that year, and that summer, all the hippies moved from San Francisco to the Boston Common. I was like, “Wow, perfect timing.” I got into acid at that time. Of course, I was smoking pot, but LSD was my drug of choice. But it wasn’t like, “Oh, let’s have fun and drop acid!” It was like, “We are expanding our minds. We are going to trip.” So that’s the year I tuned in and turned on—but I didn’t drop out.
I became aware of psychedelic music, but the one singer that really got me was Janis Joplin. I listened to her sing “Ball and Chain” by Big Mama Thornton, and it blew me away. I could never sing like her—I mean, I can’t even try. I don’t know how she did it. She was so unique and seemed to be so free. She epitomized hippiedom, and she seemed like such a strong woman, even though she was singing about a man taking a piece of her heart. She took a piece of my heart, too.
At that time, a group of us stoners were like, “Some music sounds really good when you’re tripping and some sounds good when you’re stoned or when you’re drinking.” I never really got into alcohol, but we drank some really cheap wine and listened to Janis Joplin, and it was like, “That sounds great!” And then we took acid and listened to Janis Joplin—not so good. She wasn’t so psychedelic. She was more of a warm, visceral singer, like red wine flowing through your veins.

David Bowie: “Space Oddity”

I was in the White Panthers, which seems like a joke now, but I was supporting the Black Panthers, holding signs and protesting. After the Kent State shootings, I decided I’d had it with America and went to Europe. I left the summer of ’71 and came back in ’73. While I was there, I met my future ex-husband, Brian Cokayne, who was from Manchester, England. On the way back we went on this major cruise ship that was going one way for $99 in the middle of January. So I go to get on the boat, and who should be getting on right before me: David Bowie. He was dressed to the nines. He had on a really great jacket and these high red leather boots. Some of the crew yelled out “Faggot!” and I was like, “God, that’s David Bowie!” There was a hipster element on the boat, so someone invited what he perceived to be the hipsters to a party, where David Bowie sang “Space Oddity.” It was pretty amazing. It made me realize what an image, what a voice, what individuality he had. It was just like nothing else. It was this new brand of rock and roll that was forming who I wanted to be as a singer. I wish I had gotten to hang out with him, but I was seasick. Everyone was puking all over the place.

Patti Smith: “Horses”

It’s 1978, and this was when we started going back and forth between Athens and New York City. We played CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City, and we were the first band to play the Mudd Club. We weren’t living in New York so we’d go up and stay with friends. We stayed at Brian Eno’s place once, though he was away—I don’t even know if Brian Eno knew we were staying in his apartment. I saw the Ramones and Talking Heads and Blondie. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein were so nice, they took us to their apartment, and we had drinks over there. They were like the Patsy Cline to our Loretta Lynn.
But the artist I saw that just grabbed me was Patti Smith. She did “Horses” and, oh my god, the poetry at the end and the fact that she had this different voice and this gritty look. She was androgynous and tough and she commanded the stage. I’ve seen her perform many times, and she just takes the music by the throat. I don’t know how she has it in her to express such emotion and communicate that to the audience. It’s like a transfiguration—the wine to blood, the body of Christ. She really transforms the whole atmosphere of the room. She’s the shaman of rock and roll.

R.E.M.: “Stand”

I saw R.E.M. at one of their first concerts at this little hole in the wall in Athens, and we’ve been friends and fans of theirs ever since. But by 1988 we intersected again because they had quit their record company and wanted to sign with Warner Bros., which we signed with in 1979. Somehow we were at the Warner Bros. office at the same time, and Michael [Stipe] took me aside and said, “What do you think about them?” I said, “They never really tried to change us or tell us what to do.” That encouraged R.E.M. to sign with them. We were in the studio then, and R.E.M. came in, and we played “Love Shack” for them, and they were like, “This is a hit!”
Later that year, they were working on Green and doing the video for the song “Stand.” They came to Woodstock, and I was just tagging along and helping them location scout. While filming the video, [director] Katherine Dieckmann said, “We’ll just run into this field and try to do this shot really quick before anyone sees us.” And this guy came out with a gun and said, “Get off my land!”

The B-52s: “Revolution Earth”

We toured for a year on 1992’s Good Stuff, and I got a call from my mother to fly home when we were in Europe. She said, “Your father’s dying.” I knew he was sick, but we were on this big tour. I was devastated, of course, but also like, “I’ve got to fly home right away, but we have a show.” I felt so emotional. I sang “Revolution Earth” like my life depended on it—that song never meant so much to me as when I sang it that night. It was so sad but it also gave me this courage. It just felt like everything will be all right, I’ll get home OK and see my father. Thankfully my father lived another couple of weeks, and I got to be with him when he passed away on New Year’s Eve in 1992.

From: https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/the-b-52s-kate-pierson-on-the-music-that-made-her/

XTC - Making Plans for Nigel

"Making Plans for Nigel" is a song by English rock band XTC, released by Virgin Records as the lead single from their 1979 album Drums and Wires. It was written by Colin Moulding, the band's bassist. The lyrics are told from the point of view of overbearing parents who are certain that their son Nigel is "happy in his world", affirming that his future, to be spent working for British Steel, "is as good as sealed", and that he "likes to speak and loves to be spoken to". The single marked XTC's commercial breakthrough. It spent 11 weeks on the UK Singles Chart and peaked at No. 17. In 2016, the song was ranked number 143 on the Pitchfork website's list of the 200 best songs of the 1970s.  It was also ranked number 73 in NME list of 100 best songs of the 1970s.
Bassist Colin Moulding said of the song: I didn't know where it came from. That phrase popped into my head, and one line followed another. Before I knew it, I'd written three parts of the song, and the rest of it just kind of fell in line probably a day or two later. When I was about 16, my father wanted me to stay on in school. But by that time, I really didn't want to do anything other than music, I think. So, in a way, is it autobiographical? Well, a little bit. I knew somebody called Nigel at school. But I think that, when you write songs, it's a lot of things all wrapped up, like in your dreams. Your dreams are kind of bits and pieces of all the walks of life you've been in.
During this time, XTC typically rehearsed about two or three times a week, at which juncture Moulding would introduce his bandmates to whatever new songs he had been working on. He remembered that "Making Plans for Nigel" appeared to receive "a favourable response. But at that time, I didn't really have enough confidence in myself to know where I was going with the arrangement. The other guys helped me on that, I suppose."
In the XTC biography Chalkhills and Children, it is stated that the song's drum pattern was discovered by accident after a miscommunication between guitarist Andy Partridge and drummer Terry Chambers. Partridge said that the drum pattern was actually a deliberate attempt to invert drum tones and accents in the style of Devo's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction". He explained that Moulding introduced the song to the rest of the band on a nylon-string guitar at a slow tempo and did not have an idea of how the arrangement should be fleshed out, "so we said to Colin, 'Do you fancy trying something like Devo for this?" And Colin said, 'Yeah, give it a go.'"
In Chambers' recollection: "Because of the subject matter, I wanted to make the beat a bit more industrial. So instead of keeping the rhythm on the hi-hat, I played it on the floor tom and used the hi-hat for the accents. It was the opposite to what drummers usually do but it gave it a juddering, production-line feel. We used a keyboard to make a smashing sound, like an anvil in a foundry. Partridge said that once the drum pattern was established, the band decided that Moulding should duplicate the tom rhythm on his bass guitar. He continued:
Our second guitarist Dave Gregory began to chop away, doing a much more syncopated version of the basic chords, on electric guitar. Almost snare-drum-like, you know? And I thought, "Well, what the hell am I going to do?" So I locked on to that with this two-note, little oriental pattern. That's really how the whole feel of the song came about, because when Colin brought it up, at about half that tempo, on a nylon-string guitar, it was a case of, "Well, this is a great melody, and great subject matter, but it's going to go nowhere like that.
Among the idiosyncrasies of the song's arrangement is Partridge's high backing vocals. He commented: Literally, as soon as it came up, it was like, 'Jesus, this is annoying! But then again, that might be a good thing. That might click with people, if they find it as irritating as I do!' [laughs] It was just a little 'byoo-doop,' sung in a falsetto. We still loved those high-falsetto, Beach Boys-y answer things. You can hear them all over White Music and Go 2, and it only starts to get out of our system over the next few albums. I still love it."
Virgin Records immediately earmarked "Making Plans for Nigel" as the lead single off XTC's Drums and Wires, although the band did not expect that the single would be successful. Partridge later complained about the amount of time spent recording the song, remarking that "we spent a week doing Nigel and three weeks doing the rest of the album."  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Plans_for_Nigel

Marnie Stern - Believing Is Seeing

In the decade since her last LP, New York City lifer Marnie Stern stepped back from her solo career at the edge of math rock to focus on domestic life. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, she was at the forefront of the new millennium’s wave of noisy, kinetic rock acts, showing off a gymnast’s flexibility on a string of high-energy records. In a twist on a day job, Stern has spent much of the last 10 years playing guitar in Seth Meyers’ late-night backing band—a gig more conducive to raising kids than the interminable grind of touring. But, she says, she never lost sight of the guitar as a “blank canvas.”
Stern reclaims her place among the era’s most commanding guitarists on her polished fifth LP, The Comeback Kid, a densely packed showcase of her distinctive style. The latest set is noisy at the core and fuzzy at the edges, heavy on fingertapping and busy melodic displays that snap together elements of punk, grunge, and surf rock. Re-sharpening the rounded edges that shaped much of 2013’s The Chronicles of Marnia, Stern flaunts a reinvigorated spirit in searing songs that live up to the playfully celebratory mood she establishes in the album’s title. In press materials, Stern described making the new LP as an exercise in learning to “start being myself again.” Any time she wondered whether a choice was too strange, she’d remind herself that this was her project: “I’m allowed to do whatever I want!” In that spirit, “Plain Speak” opens the album with bright, bristly, major-key riffs that she tempers with layered vocal harmonies. “I can’t keep on moving backwards,” she barks, standing firm at the center of the song’s dizzying tilt-a-whirl spin.
She leans further into her idiosyncrasies on “Believing Is Seeing,” unleashing a creepy, almost cartoonish cry—“This place is cold! I can’t hear you!”—over icy ostinato guitar before stepping sideways into a series of riff-heavy passages. “What if I add this? And this?” she asks as she heaps layers of guitar onto the mix, playing up the self-referential humor. The churning energy of “The Natural” and the short bursts of “Oh Are They” both channel classic elements of ’80s and ’90s underground rock; her repeated yelps have the feeling of a rallying cry. Like the oaky notes of aged bourbon, the particulars of Stern’s technique have only gotten richer since The Chronicles of Marnia. Her dives feel more dramatic, as when she approaches power-metal poses in “Forward” or shreds up a storm in “Working Memory,” and she reaches piercing vocal highs that land between a ’70s psychedelic shriek and a winged mythical beast. Drummer Jeremy Hara is Stern’s reliable companion throughout, complementing her breakneck fretwork with powerful percussive blasts.
After the gleeful pirouettes of the A-side, the album’s back half becomes more reflective. Even when she pursues a more linear path, Stern moves with surprising intensity. She grapples with the blues in the striving “Get It Good,” and “Earth Eater” fizzes with nervous energy as Stern contemplates lingering pain. The ragged, grungy sound of “Til It’s Over” gives it an even darker cast. Hara’s drumming pushes the song relentlessly forward, as if hitting the gas on a long stretch of open road at night. The Comeback Kid blasts by in under half an hour, and Stern’s impulses to chase her weirdest muses serve her well throughout. She lands her adventurous leaps with breathless energy. Aglow with her triumphant shredding, Stern’s howling return is a neon-haloed song of herself.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/marnie-stern-the-comeback-kid/

The Besnard Lakes - Feuds With Guns

I think that it’s fair to say that, without The Besnard Lakes, this website would not exist. It was 2010 and I was getting to that stage of life when I was beginning to fall back on music from a former time, preferring the ease and safety of nostalgia over the challenge of the new. This was something that many of my peers had already done, Britpop somehow ossifying many of their musical tastes. However, with my wife and very young family unusually out of town, I decided to look through the gig listings for that week and alighted on what looked like an interesting double header of Sleepy Sun and The Besnard Lakes at the tremendous Brudenell Social Club in Leeds.
I had heard of neither band before but a quick listen of their music piqued my interest, and I decided to take the plunge… what followed was, for me, something of a revelation as the music of both bands just washed over me and filled those dehydrated musical pores… I was back and ready to explore new music again, and never really looked back. By the time I saw the bands again, both playing the 2014 Liverpool Psych Fest (The Besnard Lakes on Day 1, and Sleepy Sun on Day 2), fittingly the best couple of days I’ve had with live music, that sort of sealed the deal.
I will admit that I had sort of lost touch with The Besnard Lakes in the meantime and, while playing their first three albums regularly the next two did not really register with me. However, the release of their sixth long player seems to have caused something of a stir and so I decided to give it a listen, and from the off I was absolutely wowed by it. It’s interesting that a number of the reviews of this double album have stressed that this is not a set for the casual listener, that it requires some buy-in to really appreciate it. This for me is the minimum that you should afford an album to really get it, and it is certainly the case that an investment into these four sides of wax – each side of which has its own title: Near Death, Death, After Death and Life – is essential to really begin to understand what it is about.
This, then, is an record with big themes, and with it comes an overall feeling of music that is grand and panoramic - this feels like an album of vision: a grand narrative vision, and a psychedelic vision. This is case from the outset with ‘Blackstrap’ as the band play through an ominously sounding overture before the plaintiff cry of (half-of husband/ wife songwriting duo of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas) Lasek, hits you and gives you the first taste of the pain and mystery of him facing the death of his father - a life event which informs the whole of the this sprawling suite of songs, designed to be listened to in one sitting.
After the intensity of ‘Blackstrap’ there’s a real lightness to ‘Raindrops’, with a melody that is as stunning and it is silky. This beautiful track really reminds me of that first night I saw them back in 2010. It gives me the same feeling of deep joy and discovery - it is one of those tracks that feels simultaneously like it has always existed, and yet is so fresh. It feels to me like a song of hope within the darkness. There are also references to the death of Mark Hollis, a musician who I myself very much mourn here and it is, I will say it again, simply stunning.
The third, and final track, on the ‘Near Death’ side of the vinyl version is ‘Christmas Can Wait’, a deeply affecting meditation on absence and death which, when you focus on the lyrics, is a very moving paean to Lasek’s father, and gave me cause to also think about my own father who died ten years ago. For me this is such a powerful and heartfelt moment in the album, where you really feel the music holding those both playing and listening. After this comes ‘Death’, and the first track ‘Our Heads Our Hearts on Fire Again’; and while this may be a song about death, it ultimately feels like one of hope. The chorus here is so stoic, so joyous, that your cannot help but to feel defiant and emboldened - to feel the strength gained from the experience of tragedy. Again this is intense and yet just so beautiful to listen to - the sort of beauty that can only be hewn from the rock of experience.
’Feuds With Guns’ is a trippy song which, with ‘The Dark Side of Paradise’, provides us with a much more meditative atmosphere through which to think about the ultimate nature of life and death, and consider our place within the great cycle of existence - a thought that might feel somewhat grandiose for many records - but here is just feels right as the music of the latter track sweeps to a fading drone for the last few minutes of the side. That is a good place to pause, if you’re listening on vinyl you have to change the record anyway. but it’s also good to let those first six numbers sink in for a moment before embarking on the second half of the ‘suite’, which comprises of just three tracks, kicking off with ‘New Revolution’- a song of such joyous hope and optimism. You can feel the drive here - the feeling of having steered through the darkness and emerging on the other side to a new dawn.
After that the band play tribute to Prince. Using his original name of Jamie Starr, this is a fitting eulogy to a major musical influence, and, with the mantra of ‘with love there is no death’ another defiant and uplifting moment in which The Besnard Lakes find just the right balance between remembrance and belief - a companion to the Dead Skeletons mantra of “(s)he who fears death cannot enjoy life” on ‘Dead Mantra’. Which then brings us to the title track, an eighteen minute long opus that takes up the whole of the ‘Life’ side of the album. The lyrics seem somewhat bittersweet to me, combining a certain world-weariness with self-consolation - a sense of aloneness (as opposed to loneliness) but also a sense of realism to leave us with, and as the vocal finishes the music does too, abruptly. We are left with a slow and atmospheric drone which gradually pervades your consciousness as you sit with it and think about what you’ve heard. It is a wonderful way to finish the album, giving you a rare chance to just be.
This then, and I’m going to say it again, is an absolutely stunning album by The Besnard Lakes - a career high in my humble opinion, and one in which you can absolutely lose yourself. However this is not some directionless loss but one that is both focused and accessible for those who want to contemplate the profound themes being considered here. It is an album that I am sure I will be playing frequently, and will become part of the cannon of albums that mean an awful lot to me.  From: https://fragmentedflaneur.com/2021/03/05/album-appreciation-the-besnard-lakes-are-the-last-of-the-great-thunderstorm-warnings/comment-page-1/

Earth Tongue - Miraculous Death

Q: How do earthlings so young get into a style of music which is so old?

A: We’re influenced by so many different genres and eras, new and old, but in terms of our playing we’re both drawn to off-kilter time signatures and riffs that catch you off guard. We both come from music loving families, so naturally were brought up on 60s and 70s classic rock, and as we grew up we both went through different musical phases, but that psych/prog sound from the early 70s is what we always go back to. As well as the sound, we really love the artwork and aesthetic associated with that period so that makes it even more appealing.

What was your ‘journey’ of musical taste and discovery?

My journey was pretty typical for a small-town angsty kid from New Zealand. Age 10 I was into Snoop Dog, Nelly, and whatever else was fed to my vulnerable mind by commercial radio. I was also into Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine and Blink 182 at this time, thanks to my cool older brother. I remember watching Woodstock 99 footage on VHS and freaking out at how cool it was. At age 12 I started to learn guitar, and soon discovered Metallica and Pantera, which sent me down the metal spiral. I guess I discovered Queens of the Stone Age around this time too – their first 4 albums were all very important to me, and still are. Around age 14 I discovered Black Flag, Minor Threat, and punk rock in general. I then played in a punk band for years and got pretty deep into that. At 16 a family friend burned a copy of Black Sabbath’s first album onto a CD for me and that’s where my 70s proto-metal and psychedelic period began. Today my taste is really varied. I’m a bit of a crate digger – there’s no better feeling then finding obscure, forgotten psych, kraut and disco gems.

Is being a two piece for reasons of economy or because you just don’t need a third/fourth member?

When you want to play live as a two-piece you really have to get creative with the way you write songs. We both like the way this works. Simple riffs, complex time signatures, interesting melodies – it just works with our style. The financial side of it is a huge bonus too of course. We’re pretty ambitious with touring, and if we had more members this would simply be unachievable.

Do you read a lot of sci-fi fantasy books or graphic novels?

We’re both really into 70s and sci-fi films more than anything. Logan’s Run, Silent Running and Holy Mountain are some of our faves.

Favourite ever movie?

Favourite ever movie is tough! Recently I saw Repo Man and had a really good time! Also Rosemary’s Baby is a must.

Have you watched the classic old sci-fi movie Silent Running? (hope so) if ever there’s a remake you should do the soundtrack.

I seriously didn’t read this question before mentioning it in the answer above! Yes we’ve seen it. And yes we’d love to do the soundtrack but in all honesty, remakes are very rarely good!

What kinda movie would you like to soundtrack?

An animated version of Barberella. Animated by René Laloux.

How far out was I with the Black Sabbath meets Stereolab comparison?

We weren’t actually too familiar with Stereolab when we read your review. But we listened to them and we approve. Being compared to Black Sabbath is always a compliment, so thanks!

Is Primitive Prog a fair descriptor?

We usually go with the descriptor ‘Heavy Psych/Fuzz’ or similar. I feel like we’re not quite virtuosic enough to claim the ‘prog’ title – but we’ll take it! Thanks Ezra.  I picked a few video clips from YouTube to illustrate your  musical journey and influences and it makes a great selection,  Earth Tongue to me seem to be a band following their own path, irrespective of trends or fashion or hipness.  It’s a completely shit comparison but White Stripes conquered the world  so there is no reason Earth Tongue can’t do the same. And I just can’t wait for the animated Barbarella soundtrack! Earth Tongue are not just another girl and boy from another planet.  They are a band who are simply out on their own and out of this world.

From: https://louderthanwar.com/earth-tongue-interview-primitive-prog-rock-band/

Lost Crowns - Sound As Colour

Lost Crowns formed in London in 2018 and released their debut album in 2019. The are part of the Cardiacs related scene in London and are a genuine supergroup made up of members of Stars In Battledress, Knifeworld, North Sea Radio Orchestra, William D Drake band, Prescott, Scritti Politti. The leader of the band and writer of all the material is Richard Larcombe. They play psyche avant wonky pop songs with density, complexity and witticism.
"Lost Crowns assault the mind with the densely detailed songs of Richard Larcombe (Stars In Battledress). There isn't half a lot going on. Complex drum patterns, bass and guitar parts with a lot of notes and hardly any gaps, the keyboards have to play each other at times there's so much to do, with the clarinet, harmonium and voices weaving through the middle like a twisting country road that can't shift an inch left or right in case it strays onto someone else's territory BUT they play it and sing it with the relaxed air of a druggy jam. Will the head leave the body? It will if Lost Crowns have anything to do with it." - Band facebook bio.
"A rich, unfolding master-craftsman's confection, complex, artfully-meandering songs built from delightfully byzantine chords and arpeggios that cycle through ever-evolving patterns like palace clockwork; accompanied by rich, lazy clouds of hilarious, hyper-literate, wonderfully arcane lyrics; all sealed by an arch, out-of-time English manner which (in tone and timbre) falls into a never-was neverworld between Richard Sinclair, Stephen Fry, Noel Coward and a posh, Devonian Frank Zappa." - Misfit City.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=10736

Daisy House - Superman

I was turned on to three hit albums last week, all by a duo calling themselves Daisy House. I had forgotten what it was like, hearing track after track after track and thinking hit, hit, hit, hit as I listened. I kept expecting it to end, this string of songs, but they didn’t. One after another, the songs piled one on top of the other, all more than worthy of airplay on the AM radio in my head. Good songs. Wonderful songs. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, I was giddy with delight. I didn’t think I would experience it again, albums packed to the gills with musical delight. Maybe all of the tracks weren’t Top Ten, but they were chartable.
You hear it? The early Fairport Convention influence? The Judy Dyble/Sandy Denny-leaning voice? The layering of acoustic and electric guitars? As important, the choral background, especially at the end of the bridge? The twelve-string lead? This is not only good stuff, it is arranged to perfection. And there is more. It is not all psych-infused folk/pop. They bend genre to song but always with a melodic and harmonic edge. Indeed, the melodies and harmonies are what elevates them to hit status. What songs they record are pleasant to the ear with just enough edge to make them fresh.
I could nominate any one of their albums for a Grammy in a number of categories but if it had to be one (or two), it would have be production and arrangement. Some of the songs are simple and almost sparse by the albums standards while others are arrangement gems, the voices stacked, the guitars weaving in and out, the piano/harpsichord/organ placed precisely, and the crescendos well-placed and amazingly effective.  It’s almost over and I will bet you hardly felt it, the songs the perfect icebreaker to what could have been the drudgery of reading. I have done you a favor. I have switched out words for music— one video is worth ten thousand words. Now, if you will, head to the Daisy House Bandcamp page and download. Stream away and get comfortable for I will even allow you to download individual tracks. You are welcome.  From: https://www.nodepression.com/album-reviews/daisy-house-sounds-of-todays-real-hits/

Elephant Stone - Hollow World

Today sees the release of the new album from Montreal psych rockers Elephant Stone. Back Into The Dream, the band’s sixth full length project, dwells on the mysteries of dreams and capturing the cycle of sleep and wakefulness with a blend of power-pop, psychedelic rock and frontman Rishi Dhir’s trademark sitar. The record starts with three fantastic tracks: “Lost In A Dream”, “The Spark” and “Going Underground” are bursting with upbeat choruses and Byrds-esque harmonies. Amongst other highlights are “Godstar” which is a mystical instrumental while “Pilgrimage” is a sprawling epic with hints of Beatles and Pink Floyd mixed in. Rishi Dhir is the driving force behind Elephant Stone, writing all the tracks and providing vocals, guitars, synths and many other instruments. Rounding out the rich soundscape of Elephant Stone are stalwarts: Miles Dupire on drums, Jason Kent juggling keys and guitar, and Robbie MacArthur on guitar. We caught up with Rishi over Zoom in his home studio to talk about the new record and getting more sitar into his music.

Your new album Back Into The Dream comes out in a couple of weeks. I think I may have just seen it but where did you write and record it?

Yeah, this is it. My writing process is here, my demoing here, the recording, the mixing; it all happens in the studio. It’s a small room. This is the first full-length album since Hollow in 2020. I did like a French EP, I did a soundtrack and I’ve been slowly chipping away at this record.

You mentioned that the album has been ready for a while – what was the delay in releasing it?

I’m releasing the record on my own label, but I also partner up with the US label Little Cloud Records out of Portland and Fuzz Club in Europe. I also wanted to find an Australian label and I’m working with Cheersquad there. I guess the plan for this record was that we hadn’t released a full length in a while, so rather than just releasing the album, I wanted to put out some singles as like a waterfall release. It’s funny; when you release an album, a lot of songs just get lost. People focus on a few, and I just wanted to kind of present each song as its own thing. The song I find that people have been connecting with most is my favorite too, “Pilgrimage”. It’s our last single. It’s a really mellow saxophone one but that’s not a song you’d think for a single, though.

Which classic album cover art is your current mood?

I guess Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden. I’m just in a Talk Talk mood these days. Conceptually, I love the covers they had for The Color of Spring and Spirit of Eden.

With Hollow being released in 2020, I was wondering if Back Into The Dream is your COVID record?

The French record that I put out – that was my real COVID album! It was about the end of the world and this new one was kind of coming out of COVID.

You’re known for your sitar playing and there’s not a lot of sitar in modern music. When did you start learning to play?

I guess in February 1997. I’m Indian and I went to my cousin’s wedding in India with my parents. I was 19 at the time, in a band and I love the Beatles so I was like, “Oh, I’ll buy a sitar.” So I bought a sitar and brought it back with me. I didn’t have a teacher for a few years. I found my teacher who is a German fellow named Uwe Neumann. He looks a bit like Charles Manson and he studied in India for 10 years. And I took lessons pretty regularly for about 10 years. I had a band. I left that band. I started this (Elephant Stone) and I wanted to incorporate more sitar in the music I was making.

Listening to your albums, there always seems to be a sitar-heavy track (“Godstar” on the new album), almost like a mystical interlude, very reminiscent of late 60’s Beatles. You don’t hear that with many modern bands.

Well, CornerShop! When I Was Born For The Seventh Time and Teenage FanClub – Bandwagonesque were my albums when I was younger.

Back Into The Dream is the sixth full-length Elephant Stone record in fifteen years – how have you kept the project going?

Well, the band is just me but prior to Elephant Stone, I was in another band, The High Dials, for about 10 years. I was like a side man in that band. I didn’t write the songs, I was the bassist and I left that band because it wasn’t satisfying me artistically. I felt like I needed something else. I went on a big journey. My wife and I were trying to have a baby. We had a miscarriage and I think that was the catalyst for me to start writing music. It was my therapy – writing songs became my therapy. Our first record (2009’s The Seven Seas) was me going on a journey. We packed up, went to India for a few weeks, and I wrote a lot of songs there. So, this band is very much me.

You’ve worked with some amazing musicians outside of Elephant Stone – does working on other projects help keep things fresh?

Yeah, I guess it’s part of the journey. Along the way you meet so many amazing musicians and you’re inspired by them. I was in the Black Angels for a bit, I got to play with Beck, and moments like that, it just kind of makes you feel like, okay, what I do is of value to people and it is worth continuing.

What’s one piece of advice you would give the 2009 version of yourself if you could?

Relax a bit – things will come when they come.

We touched on some of your influences earlier but who were you listening to when you were growing up that made you go “I want to be a musician”?

I mean, the Jam or the Who. When I was like seven, it was The Who and The Beatles, and then in my teens, it was Teenage Fanclub and The Pixies. Then, as I got into my late teens, I got into the whole mod thing and I was all about Paul Weller. I had my scooter and everything was Small Faces. At every stage, there was always something that I was obsessed with.

If you could only listen to one record, what would it be?

Revolver. I mean, that’s just my easy answer because it’s the album I’ve listened to most in my life.

Where did the name Elephant Stone come from? Was from it The Stone Roses or somewhere else?

I wanted to name the band Elephants, because I had a sandstone statue of Ganesh, the Hindu god of new beginnings. So, when I started the band, I wanted to have some kind of Indian reference in it. I’d just gone on the travels through India, and I was thinking of “The Gandharvas” but there was already a band called that. And then elephant, and I was like Elephant Stone. I love that first record (The Stone Roses). It just made sense.

You’re going on tour in March – is there somewhere you’re really looking forward to playing or a favorite location that you’ve played before that you’re excited to play again?

The album comes out February 23rd, and then in March, April and May, we’re doing the US and then going to Europe. So it’s going to be a busy few months. Europe is always exciting – I think we’re playing Sweden for the first time, I’ve never toured there. We’re going back to Italy and haven’t been there in years with the band, so it’s gonna be nice.

What’s one thing you can’t do without when you’re on tour?

Good coffee!

What would go on your signature pizza and what would it be called?

Well, it’s funny because I make a pretty amazing pizza. My signature pizza that I’m known for is my “Pickle Pizza”. I make my own pesto. It’s basil, dill, oregano, garlic, olive oil. It’s a white pizza so some parmesan and mozzarella, and I slice up some naturally fermented pickles. And then garnish it with dill.

What else do you have planned for 2024?

Yeah, you mentioned that I play with a lot of other people; I have another band, Mien, which is me, Alex Maas from the Black Angels, Tom Furse from the Horrors, and Jon-Mark from The Hurleys. We put out our debut in 2018 and I’ve just finished mixing our new album which will come out in early 2025 after we finish the Elephant Stone tour.

From: https://idreamofvinyl.com/2024/02/24/i-just-wanted-to-kind-of-present-each-song-as-its-own-thing-an-interview-with-elephant-stone/

The Rattles - You Can't Have Sunshine Everyday

Edna Bejarano is an Israeli-born German singer. She was born in 1951 in Tel Aviv, the daughter of Esther Bejarano.The family moved to Germany in 1960. She was the lead singer of the German rock band The Rattles from 1970 until 1973 and sang on their biggest selling record, the 1970 song "The Witch", which sold over one million copies globally. She also performed in the 1980s with her mother Esther Béjarano, one of the last survivors of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, in the musical group Coincidence. They sang songs from the ghetto and in Hebrew as well as anti-fascist songs.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_B%C3%A9jarano

In December 1960, the Rattles were founded in Hamburg by Achim Reichel and Herbert Hildebrandt. On February 3, 1963, the band won a competition in the Hamburg Star Club and became the first German band to play in this club. In the autumn of the same year, they recorded their first single. The group then went on a six-week tour of England with Bo Diddley, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers and the then little-known Rolling Stones. After the release of the film Hurrah, the Rattles are Coming in early 1966, they appeared on stage with the Beatles in June of the same year and played as the opening act for the Bravo Beatles Blitz tour in Munich, Essen and Hamburg - to great acclaim.
Rattles records were released that were a regional success in England, and for a time they were celebrated in Liverpool as the "German Beatles". The group had a dozen hits in total, including titles such as La La La (1965), Come On and Sing (1966) and Cauliflower (1967). In 1965 they also recorded songs with Johnny Hallyday (Laß die Leute doch reden, It's Monkeytime), which appeared on the LP/CD Johnny Hallyday Meets The Rattles.
In 1970 the Rattles had an international hit with The Witch. The song was first released as the B-side of the 1969 single Geraldine. In June 1970, The Witch reached number 79 as the A-side in the USA, and in October it reached number 8 in the UK. The Rattles line-up at this time: Kurt "Zappo" Lüngen (bass), Rainer Degner (guitar), Peet Becker (drums) and Henner Hoier (vocals), who had moved from the Rivets. Because of its success, the Rattles recorded a new version of The Witch with Edna Bejarano as singer, which climbed to number 4 in the German charts in October 1970. The piece was composed by Herbert Hildebrandt. Henner Hoier, who had sung the original, left the band a year later and founded the Les Humphries Singers with Les Humphries. By this time, Achim Reichel had long since left the group. After his time in the Bundeswehr, he founded the group Wonderland in 1967 with the ex-Rattles Dicky Tarrach and Frank Dostal, as well as Helmut Franke and Les Humphries. The "new" 1970s Rattles with Edna Bejarano, Frank Mille, Borny Bornhold and Zappo Lüngen only had something to do with the original formation insofar as Herbert Hildebrandt continued to be the composer and producer of the group. Other singles, such as You Can't Have Sunshine Every Day and Devil's on the Loose (both 1971) were only minor hits in the Federal Republic of Germany.  Translated from: https://www.wikiwand.com/de/articles/The_Rattles

Green Seagull - It's Too Late

Ah psych-pop…Harpsichords, sitars, fuzz guitars, reverse recording, and Beach Boys harmonies married together with pop, culminating in gorgeous melodically ornate songs. Hailing from London’s underground neo-psych scene, the baroque honey-drenched Green Seagull return from the ether again bringing us a myriad of delights in their recently released album ‘Cloud Cover’.
Arriving in 2016, the 4-piece formed when Paul Nelson (New Electric Ride) approached Paul Milne (Hidden Masters/Magnetic Mind) to work on a project. With a shared predilection for late-60s baroque psychedelia and 12-string jangles shortly the songwriters united together, and to this day they’re still going strong with a dedicated UK and European cult following. Joined shortly after by Sarah Gonputh on keys and Elian Dalmasso on drums, the quartet quickly recorded a demo in their rehearsal room on an old cassette 4-track. Consequently, the lo-fi recordings produced found their way into the laps of Mega Dodo Records, who without hesitation signed the band for a record deal.
Experimenting with contrapuntal melodies and functional harmony patterns, ‘Cloud Cover’ is an ambitious and stylistically broad venture that follows their widely praised 2018 number ‘Scarlet Fever.’ Beginning with the buoyant rhythms of “Aerosol”, which framework being owed to drummer Elian Dalmasso also fuses the sound structures of The Kinks, Strawberry Alarm Clock and The Zombies to name a few. Green Seagull showcase their musical breadth and scope throughout with an enviable arsenal of 60s and 70s psych influences.  Here we have a cognoscenti with a forensic understanding of 60s pop construction that feels and sounds effortless, with both sharp and subtle chord changes alongside hauntingly euphoric and dreamscape lyricism.
“Made to be Loved” stands out here as a grooving catchy 12 string jangle with a late 60s New York Baroque sound, think The Magic Plants/Left Banke/Stories. They’re so authentic and embellished with vintage nuance, you’d hear this in a bar and think they were an obscure long-forgotten 1960s collective – and be very surprised when Shazam informs you their vinyl came out yesterday, and they’re only down the road. 
Their deeply entrenched love for 60s experimental eclecticism is clear as the playful psych adventure continues into the “Little Lady in the Amplifier”, a West Coast beachy melodic boardwalk with psychomimetics echoing the vocals of Brian Wilson. “This Wheel” is it’s darker counterpart that faces the listener with a ‘cold winters morning’ allowing the stinging nostalgic timbre of the moody keys to take centre stage. Pink Floyd, SuperTramp, 70s prog all tied up with a psych-power pop bow.
Quintessentially English and with such an acute sense of identity – they are evidently leaving behind less desirable tropes of retromania/pop-pastiche. We’re certain that Green Seagull will find themselves recognised among their contemporaries which is exactly where they need to be. Above the cloud cover, among the stars, propelled into the burgeoning London Psych scene’s stratosphere and beyond.  From: https://moofmag.com/2020/08/07/album-review-green-seagull-cloud-cover/

The Nields - Christmas Carol

The Nields have been called equal parts The Beatles, The Cranberries and Joni Mitchell but the comparisons hardly end there.The Cincinnati Enquirer said they’re “The Roches meet The Cranberries but with better songwriting and better harmonies.” The Chicago Tribune said they’re a mix of The Bangles, The Roches and Alanis Morrissette. Sing Out! said they’re like Natalie Merchant if Merchant “had a sister with an equally good voice singing perfect harmony.” But while almost every profile or review of folk-rock sisters compares them to other acts, perhaps the comment that puts it best came from a concertgoer quoted in a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, daily: “If you don’t like the Nields, you need to get your ears checked.”

OVERVIEW
Western Massachusetts-based sisters Nerissa and Katryna Nields started their singing careers as part of a trio that morphed into a quintet before becoming the duo that they are today. Nerissa is the tunesmith of the pair, penning meticulously crafted songs with lyrics that are as heartfelt as they are intelligent, the deep sensitivity of some belying the toned, muscular nature of the writing itself. Katryna handles lead vocals, adding both clarity and nuance that provide her sister’s thoughts with an organic magic that at times is positively breathtaking. With Nerissa singing back up, the result is overwhelming proof that there’s no harmony quite like blood harmony.
Known for their oft-hilarious on-stage banter and direct engagement with fans, they’ve opened for artists including James Taylor, The Band, Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco and 10,000 Maniacs and have recorded 21 albums over the past 30 years. Their latest is Circle of Days, released in June 2023.

MUSICAL BEGINNINGS
Nerissa (b.1967) and Katryna (b. 1969) were raised in Washington, DC, by folk-music loving parents and they remember singing together as preschoolers in the car during family trips. The elder sister wrote her first songs at age seven and the younger learned to sing from her father, spending innumerable hours practicing in the kitchen of their home. Both strengthened their singing skills by taking a class with John “Jack” Langstaff at The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. A highly respected vocal trainer, Langstaff was director of The Revels, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based group in the ‘70s that performed a wildly eclectic mix of medieval and modern music. Nerissa and Katryna sang together throughout high school before Nerissa left home for Yale, where she studied English, and Katrina went to Trinity College in Hartford, where she studied religion.

TRIO FORMATION
The first incarnation of what became the Nields came together in 1987 when Nerissa met David Jones, a Yale graduate student and accomplished guitarist who started playing gigs with Katryna occasionally as a duo. In 1990, Nerissa and David married and – in an example of a thoroughly modern relationship – he took her surname, becoming David Nields. In 1991, when Katryna graduated from Trinity, the Nields began performing as a trio in coffeehouses and other small venues in and around DC with Katryna singing lead, Nerissa on back-up vocals and rhythm guitar and David on lead guitar.

MOVE TO CONNECTICUT
In 1992, the three moved to Connecticut, where David had taken a job as an English teacher at the Loomis Chaffe School in Windsor. “What we didn’t realize was it was the absolutely perfect cradle to start a band,” Nerissa told Live Music News & Review in 2016 about Windsor at the time. “We were in this incredibly supportive, intellectually stimulating community, centrally located, and we definitely had a dream to get famous.” While living in the school’s dorms from 1991 to 1995, they tried out their new songs – a number of which wound up on their future albums – on the students at the school and asked for their honest feedback. “Being around teenagers kept us grounded in that youthful transition period,” Nerissa told Live Music News & Review.

66 HOXSEY STREET, LIVE FROM THE IRON HORSE MUSIC HALL
In 1992, the band recorded its first album, the self-released 66 Hoxsey Street, an 11-track collection of original material named for a house in Williamstown, Virginia, where Nerissa and Katryna had lived as kids. They gigged across New England, eager to build their reputation on the region’s folk scene. In 1993, they recorded a 15-track live album, Live at the Iron Horse Music Hall, recorded at the popular club in Northampton, Massachusetts. Later that year, Nerissa and Katryna contributed harmonies to Dar Williams’ The Honesty Room, and in 1996 they did the same on her LP Mortal City.

QUINTET FORMATION
In 1994, the band became a quintet with the additions of bassist Dave Chalfant, whom Katryna had met in college, and his friend, drummer Dave Hower. With a rock-solid rhythm section, David’s Pete Townshend and Adrian Belew-influenced guitar riffs and the sisters’ lilting harmonies, the five-piece was an acoustical force across the board. Spin magazine likened them to Alanis Morisette fronting Indigo Girls.

BOB ON THE CEILING, ABIGAIL, GOTTA GET OVER GRETA
The five-piece band self-released their first album in 1994, Bob on the Ceiling, and to nobody’s surprise it was infinitely more rocked out than anything the trio had ever done. The disc’s critical acclaim in the New England press boosted audience sizes so much that band members were able to quit their day jobs and become full-time musicians.
In 1995, they self-released the EP Abigail (named for Katryna and Nerissa’s sister) and landed a deal with independent label Razor & Tie. They recorded 1996’s Gotta Get Over Greta, produced by Kevin Moloney (U2, Sinéad O’Connor), which one critic described as “acoustic folk music meets pop, punk and country in a strong and daring shoot out.”
In 1997, The Nields signed their first and only major-label contract with Elektra sublabel Guardian (Joan Baez’s label at the time), which reissued Gotta Get Over Greta in 1997 with three bonus tracks. With a global label’s support, the future looked bright for The Nields but their dreams of major national fame were short lived; Elektra liquidated Guardian within six months of signing the band.

‘MOUSSE, “Jam for the Van,” PLAY
To add insult to injury, in 1997 the group’s aging tour van was in bad shape from near-constant use. Without enough cash on hand for repairs or a new ride, they self-released the album ‘Mousse (the nickname of Chalfant’s sister Andromache) and held a fundraising concert entitled “Jam for the Van.” As a result, the Nields were able to purchase brand new wheels.
In early 1998, they signed with Zoë, a division of Rounder Records. Their first release on the label was 1998’s Play, a 14-track collection. “There’s a sense of literary high-mindedness at work throughout this album that lifts the material to another level,” wrote critic Cub Koda. “Despite the sing-songiness of several of the songs, there are some deliciously dark moments in the lyrics that makes this a cut above your usual folkie rant album.”

IF YOU LIVED HERE YOU’D BE HOME NOW, LIVE FROM NORTHAMPTON
In 2000, the group recorded If You Lived Here You’d Be Home Now, yet another dense effort with 15 tracks. “This is elegant, appealing music that speaks to the varied concerns of contemporary women,” wrote AllMusic’s William Ruhlmann, noting the exceptional expressiveness of Katryna’s voice. In early 2001, the band self-released Live From Northampton (recorded at the Iron Horse Music Hall) but by the end of the year they had stopped performing together despite a strong local following. It turned out to be David’s final album with the band; later that year he and Nerissa divorced and he moved to North Carolina.

Duo Formation, LOVE AND CHINA, AMELIA, THIS TOWN IS WRONG
In 2002, Nerissa and Katryna started billing themselves by their first names occasionally, not always as The Nields, and recorded 2002’s Love and China (with bassist Chalfant and studio musicians), which Nerissa has called “basically a break-up album.” They followed up with an EP of children’s songs, Songs for Amelia, and the LP This Town is Wrong in 2004.

2006-2017 ALBUMS
Between 2006 and 2017, the Neild sisters were extremely busy in the studio, recording 12 self-released albums: All Together Singing In The Kitchen (2006); Sister Holler (2007); Rock All Day/Rock All Night (2008); Organic Farm (2010, live DVD); The Full Catastrophe (2012); XVII (2015) and  Joy to the World (2017). In 2016, Mercury House Productions issued Haven’t I Paid My Dues By Now – Greatest Hits 1991-2016.

NOVEMBER, CIRCLE OF DAYS
In 2020, they released their 20th album, November. Topical in nature, songs address subjects including the climate crisis (“Kids Always Get It”), disputes over immigration (“Goodbye, Mexico,” “Jesus Was a Refugee”) and democracy (“Tyrants Always Fall”). It also includes two standards, “America the Beautiful” and Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” on which Dar Williams, Chris Smither and others sing harmony alongside Nerissa and Katryna’s children and members of a local youth chorus. In June 2023, the Nields released their latest studio effort, Circle of Days. Each of the 11 tracks refers to an annual event such as the winter solstice (“Darkest Day of the Year”), Easter (“Death and Resurrection”) and Thanksgiving (“Comic Books and Movies”).

CURRENT ACTIVITY
Nerissa and Katryna live in western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley and still play shows together, mostly as a duo. When they appear with a full band, they’re backed by former bandmates Chalfant on guitar and Hower on drums, with the addition of Paul Kochanski on bass. They also lead a popular singing class for preschoolers called Hootenanny. Dave Hower plays drums with a variety of bands, including Winterpills, Spanish for Hitchhiking and The Fucking Sparklies. Dave Chalfant owns a recording studio and teaches instrumental music at the Academy of Charlemont in Charlemont, Massachusetts. David Nields was the theatre director for the Imperial Centre of Arts and Sciences in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and now he teaches theater at the State College of Florida.

COMMENTS ON SONGWRITING
Asked in a 2016 interview with Me & Thee Music if she has any advice for young songwriters, Nerissa said the important thing is to put in the work, even if you write some terrible songs.
“I think it’s great for songwriters to write songs, at least sometimes, just to work those songwriting muscles,” she said. “I have put in my 10,000 hours of practice. I have probably averaged one song a month since about 1988. That’s over 300 songs. And we’ve recorded around half of those. So I know how to write a song. Still, sometimes, when I am sitting with my guitar or at the piano, it’s as if I am a pure beginner again. That first phrase is the hardest.”
“One last thing I’ll say, and this goes for any kind of writing, too,” she added. “It helps to give yourself permission to write a really bad song. I like to do what Phillip Price [of the Winterpills] does: write five versions of one song. That takes the pressure off!”

From: https://www.mmone.org/the-nields/

Los Lobos - Wake Up Dolores

Richly textured, beautifully played, brilliantly produced, Los Lobos records sound fantastic. And that is before you get to the songwriting of Hidalgo and Perez, with its highly visual quality and classic Latino-Americana feel. The results are very organic. Best rock band in L.A. And, quite possibly, the US of A. The music streaming platforms claim to have music discovery solved, largely through data. That’s incorrect though. Music discovery isn’t really data driven - but it might be information driven.
I really discovered the music of East L.A. legends Los Lobos through David Hidalgo’s guitar work on Suzanne Vega’s 1992 album 99.9 F. His playing blew me away and that guitar sound was a key element to 99.9 F being such a change of direction for Vega, too. Once I’d checked the personnel on the CD sleeve notes (remember those) and clocked Hidalgo, I went over to the Los Lobos catalogue and saw their most recent release had been earlier that same year, entitled Kiko. I bought Kiko on CD, loved it (because it is a work of genius) and then left it there for many, many years. The next encounter was Tin Can Trust, released exactly 10 years later. I bought Tin Can Trust on the strength of a review and again, it proved to be a thoroughly excellent record.
I say really discovered here because of course, I had first come across ‘Lobos’ in 1987 when they popularised Latin pop with ‘La Bamba’ (preceding Luis Fonsi’s Despacito by 30 years no less). The song bugged me at the time, so much so that I would turn the radio off when it came on (I was a kid rocker). Funny that La Bamba turned out to be nothing like a true representation of Los Lobos, but over 30 years later has been the band’s only hit single, contributing to making them one of the most misunderstood rock bands of all time. At least outside of their native North America.
Back to information, the connection between Vega’s 99.9F° and Kiko is that they are both produced by Mitchell Froom (whom Suzanne later married of course). Froom was one half of the most innovative production team operating throughout the 90s, with engineer Tchad Blake being the other half (the two had a full-time partnership between ‘92 and 2002). My next musical adventure is to track down every other project those two worked on, but it’s a long and eminent list (perhaps a future playlist). Since both Froom and Blake are geniuses, the combined effect is worthy of note for anyone interested in music and how it’s made. However, Froom and Blake only ever joined a band as full members with David Hidalgo and Louie Perez of Los Lobos - together they formed the experimental roots collaboration Latin Playboys, largely because their work on Kiko and Colossal Head could not fully satiate their desire to experiment. Wow.
In preparation for the Art of Longevity podcast with Steve Berlin, I had spent three weeks listening to as much of the Los Lobos catalogue as time would allow. Effectively, this experience retrained my ears. Richly textured, beautifully played, brilliantly produced and engineered, Los Lobos records sound fantastic. And that is before you get to the songwriting of Hidalgo and Perez, with its highly visual quality (yes, cinematic) and classic Americana feel. The results are very organic and deeply immersive.
It’s mystifying in many ways the band are not much bigger than they are (circa. 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify when I last looked) and indeed the band has very occasionally intimated the same thing. In an interview with for Paul Zollo’s “Songwriters on Songwriting” Louis Perez said ‘I wish we sold more records’. But, when I asked Steve Berlin whether their lack of commercial respect bothers the band, he gave me short shrift: “Not at all. The main thing for us is longevity and being able to do what we do and to answer to nobody other than ourselves, we have such gratitude for that. We have no obligation other than to move forward with our music”.
I guess approaching 50 years of making music together and paying the bills from doing it is success enough. And we listeners get to benefit as well. Indeed, it’s pretty hard to adjust back to listening to a lot of modern records, which sound a bit ‘thin’ by comparison. Anyway, if you happen to be barreling along Sunset Boulevard, then head East for a change, and keep on going until you reach the suburbs of East L.A. and Phillipe’s “Famous French Sandwich” restaurant, and crank up this playlist. You might not get your sandwich free but you’ll get to experience Los Lobos in their element. Or, you can just listen and see it in those pictures in your head.  From: https://www.songsommelier.com/los-lobos-wolves-of-east-la

Paper Bird - To the Light

For Paper Bird, their new album marks a milestone. More importantly, it provides them with a new beginning, a new chapter in their trajectory that sees them redefining their direction, a change in their musical sensibility while maintaining their trademark upbeat attitude. The band’s self titled album, available September 9th on Thirty Tigers Records/ Sons of Thunder Records, introduces vocalist Carleigh Aikins to the line­up, whose previous credits include extended stints with the critically acclaimed bands Bahamas and Fox Jaws. Her addition to the band adds an extra edge, highlighting a clear sonic evolution. A shift in the band’s line­up has opened up new possibilities, swapping electric guitars and amped up instrumentation for the laid back, folk­flavored sound they favored in the past. “In truth this is an entirely new band,” bassist Caleb Summeril explains. “With Carleigh coming on board, we’ve literally made a fresh start.” Guitarist Paul DeHaven first met Aikins at a concert on Willie Nelson’s ranch during South by Southwest in 2012. The two hit it off, and before long Aikins and the rest of the band began collaborating long distance via email. “It was serendipitous that we could join forces so seamlessly,” says Aikins. “We created an instant bond and a new sound we can all stand proudly behind; which merges our respective influences from the Canadian and American music we were raised with. Everyone’s input is welcome here and everyone has their moment to shine, in the true democratic sense and tradition of a band." Paper Bird has always made a point of encouraging each of its members to share the spotlight. The group boasts three lead vocalists ­­ singer Sarah Anderson, singer and keyboard player Genevieve Patterson, and Aikins herself ­­ all of whom blend their voices in seamless three part harmonies. The instrumental duties are shared by Summeril, DeHaven, and drummer Mark Anderson. Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Paper Bird first emerged from the same environs that launched such outfits as Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and the Lumineers. The group has toured extensively throughout the U.S., sharing bills with the aforementioned bands, as well as Daryl Hall & John Oates, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Shakey Graves. On Paper Bird, the band collaborates with world-renowned musician, singer and songwriter John Oates, who co­produced the album with Aikins’ fellow Canadian David Kalmusky. The album was recorded and mixed at Addiction Sound Studios in Nashville, and for his part, Oates couldn’t be more delighted. “Paper Bird is a band that possesses a sound that’s more than the sum of its parts,” Oates effuses. “It’s the coming together of two perfect trinities. It has three distinctly unique female lead singers whose harmonies blend together as one...united with an inventive, cohesive rhythm section trio. I loved their sound from the first time I heard them and they just keep getting better. They are a true musical family united by a unique and pure artistic vision...a rare quality in this day and age of so much disposable and less than original music.” Paper Bird has a sound that blends the engaging vocal harmonies of Fleet Foxes and The Lone Bellow with the classic ‘70s stylings of bands like Heart and Fleetwood Mac without imitating or emulating any one of them in particular. Indeed, the new music is rugged, resilient and flush with enthusiasm. It conveys the essence of inspired Americana, while still staying true to its riveting rock regimen. The album starts with the soulful strut of “To The Light,” and heads into desire and yearning with the single “Don’t Want Half.” With its playful harmonies and rhythms, “I Don’t Mind” captures the ephemeral feelings of love, as “it’s not easy to be a dreamer, when you’re sleeping with the wind.” Paper Bird merge the musical past with the present on “Sunday,” conjuring up doo-wop, rock and groove sounds. “This is definitely the start of something exciting,” Summeril suggests. “We’re at a point in our career where we feel we’re ready to take on the world.”  From: https://livesessions.npr.org/artists/paper-bird

Dirty Sound Magnet - Organic Sacrifice

Q: When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

A: I’m different from my fellow band members who see things like you. To me it’s more about feelings and concepts. So when we talk about music with Marco (bass) and Maxime (drums), we can talk about the same ideas but we experience them differently. When we jam I tell them for example that it sounded like “a trip through a magic forest or a middle Eastern army marching in the snow” but I will not see that. It’s a thought and a concept. The others will literally see these things. Eyes open or eyes closed, when music touches me deeply, nothing can get between us.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I think that my skills have improved but the spark has not changed. It’s there or it’s not. To me being an artist means loving your art very deeply. It’s an expression of the sublime, something otherworldly, almost religious. Can you train that? I’m not sure. Some people are very skilled but are not artists because the spiritual element is absent. There is no harm in that.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

From age 13 until 15 I did not like music. Everybody at my school was listening to Hip-Hop and it did not appeal to me. There are things I like today but back then I did not like the fact that everybody was listening to the same music. I never liked mass movements where people don’t choose for themselves. Not listening to music was sort of a small rebellion in itself. And then a schoolmate showed me some punk music. I thought it was pretty cool and bought some records. My mom overheard that I was listening to guitar music. So she told me to sit down and listen. She said: “Let me show you a glimpse of the best”. She put on “Have a Cigar” by Pink Floyd, “Stairway to Heaven” and “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin. I was mesmerised. My life had taken a different turn in that very moment. I thought that it was music made by the gods. I was caught up in misty dreams. Nothing else mattered anymore. I started listening to music all the time and spent all my money on physical albums.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

Well actually, I was not only a music fan when I was 15 but also a failed preacher. Because I started walking around in my school with headphones and wanted to show people that rap music was not the only music. I wanted others to be able to feel the intense emotions that music is able to generate. It was not a very successful enterprise. I realised that trying to put headphones on people’s heads was not the best way to preach my newly found fate and that is when I naturally picked up a guitar. And this was a new illumination. From the first notes on, I started creating and writing music. I never really learned other songs. The new melodies just came to me. This was the right way to transmit my love of music. I was now able to write the music I wanted to hear. That’s perfect. I’m now 35 years old and my love for music has not changed. I love listening to music, I love writing new music and today I’m able to transmit that burning passion on stage. This is the basic drive. The key ideas are: authenticity, passion and keeping all doors open. With every new song an entire universe opens up. It would be too bad to impose limitations to the infinity before me.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I would like to quote the title track on our new album Dreaming in Dystopia which is an expression of my love of music and answers this question in the second verse:

“I can see life as it should be.
Follow the melody, deep into the sea.
Where there’s a magic song waiting to be freed.
And together we can make eternity.”

Music is infinite and writing great songs is simply unlocking a new hidden treasure chest. By diving deep within yourself, you can discover new melodies and new songs. Sometimes the melody just comes to me in my sleep. I just need to let it guide me and a new song is born. Again, the key to unlock these hidden treasures is intense burning passion.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I don’t really listen to our records. Here is the typical journey of a song I write. First, the musical idea comes to me. This puts me in a state of trance, fullness and happiness. Then I need to work on the idea to make it into a song. I write lyrics and from an early stage on, I work with the band so that everybody is able to put a part of themselves into the song. The song is not mine anymore, it’s ours. We then work countless hours on arrangements and finally we’re able to record it. Then there is a long process of mixing and mastering. After that, I think I honestly spend too much time working on the song order of an album. I become totally obsessed and try hundreds of combinations. By that time, I have listened to the song over a thousand times. When the song is released, I consider that it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to the audience and to whoever wants to listen to it. The song is dead to me in this form. But the beauty of death is resurrection and it’s on stage that the song continues to live and evolve. It takes on new shapes but the basic idea that once put me in a trance survives the process.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I think that the sounds found in nature are all beautiful and they guide our choices when we’re mixing music. We want music to be organic and natural. That is why we do not add frequencies that don’t feel natural. For example, it’s very rare to hear very low sub frequencies in nature. Most of the sounds we hear are in the mid frequencies. They are the ones that give character and texture to sound. It’s maybe an explanation why our music is mostly mid oriented. It feels more real and more magical. When I hear too many bass frequencies, I instantly think of a recording studio. And that is not something that allows evasion and freedom.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I love contrast. I like light and shade. I like variation. That is why I don’t like over compressed music because it’s in direct opposition with contrast. A boeing 747 makes a lot of noises but it’s constant noise. So you don’t feel the power. But if you are in a silent environment and all of a sudden there is an explosion, the effect is totally different. So yes extremes are important in music.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

The creative process can take multiple forms in our band. Every song has it’s story. Here are two examples that show how broad the possibilities are. The track “Lost my Mind” on the new record Dreaming in Dystopia came to me in a dream. I wrote it in one night. We worked on it with the band and in just a few session we were able to record the final studio version. On the other hand “Insomnia” (the track that comes right after this one on the record), has been on hold since the creation of the band. It was a long instrumental jam but we knew it had the potential to become a great song. Years passed but every time we tried something was missing. We didn’t do the idea justice. The idea got stored on our shelf of great ideas that should become songs one day. It was there, not really alive but still somewhere in our collective memory. One day I wrote a small ballad about insomnia, It was good as it was but the idea resurfaced from nowhere. What about combing that jam that is waiting on the shelve with this ballad to make it an epic track. We tried and it worked. We instantly knew that this was it. “Lost my Mind” was written in a few hours and recorded not long after that while “Insomnia” took 15 years. Both tracks feel complete and I like them equally. They just have a very different story.

Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

We do what feels right. We try to follow our instincts. Sometimes we experiment with sound, sometimes we feel that we don’t need to. We’re just trying to stay open and always do what will benefit music the most.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Music is an integral part of my life. Sometimes my own life doesn’t even matter. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing. My social life and love life greatly suffer from it. Because I’m able to express my emotions through music I don’t have much left in my daily life. Don’t get me wrong, I am a super happy person. I feel full and complete. I’m just not able to make the distinction between music and life. They are the same thing. I actually use sports to understand things about myself.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Music is the expression of the sublime. I haven’t found other ways to express this. Maybe through words but then it becomes music again.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

I have an artist that does that to me: Frank Zappa. I wouldn’t even say he’s my favorite artist (one of the favorites, yes). When I get into a Zappa phase, I can’t listen to anything else. Everything else seems without substance. The crazy thing is that Zappa’s music is not charged emotionally. And emotion is what touches me the most. Zappa’s music is charged intellectually and with moments of grace and music genius. It’s like he’s so smart that he’s over emotions. So yeah his music has a strange effect on me.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like more variety. I would like the music to become important again. For the future, I wish we would go back. Back to something less digital, more emotional and more human.

From: https://www.15questions.net/interview/fifteen-questions-interview-dirty-sound-magnet/page-1/

 

Carmanah - Roots

Carmanah embraces the energy of Canada’s beautiful west coast and chose its name to honour the ancient rainforest on Vancouver Island, the Carmanah Valley. Known for connecting with audiences of all ages and musical preferences, the band delivers an eclectic sound that incorporates elements of folk, funk, rock and reggae. Four-part harmonies, supported by a grooving rhythm second, fiddle playing, guitars and a lap-slide, all give Carmanah its unique and captivating sound.
According to Jonathan Williams, popular radio host on The Zone 91.3, Carmanah band members "curate music from the heart and perform it with such zest and passion each and every time. Put them in a small intimate venue and they'll have the hairs on the back of your neck stand. Put them on a Victoria Celebrates Canada Day main stage, with a fair few thousand looking on, and they'll still have the hair on the back of your neck stand."
Carmanah has shared the stage with Ziggy Marley, Said the Whale, Wake Owl, Clinton Fearon, Spirit of the West and Current Swell, among others. The band has played at numerous music festivals, including Toronto’s Canadian Music Week and Victoria’s Rifflandia Music Festival. In 2014 the band performed in Ottawa at the closing event for Canadian Olympian Clara Hughes’ cross-country bike ride in support of mental health awareness (Clara’s Big Ride).
This past spring Carmanah completed its own cross-Canada tour and while on the road released their third album, Roots. In keeping with the band’s commitment to sustainability, the journey was powered mostly by vegetable oil gathered from local restaurants along the way. The tour’s grand finale was performing for a home crowd of thousands at Victoria’s Canada Day Celebration.
Carmanah is a dedicated member of The Jellyfish Project, an environmental initiative that brings musicians and bands into schools across Canada. Through the power of music and live performance, students are drawn into the environmental conversation and encouraged to become active participants in the sustainability movement. Increasingly known for its original songwriting and energetic delivery, Carmanah is a growing presence in the Canadian music scene.  From: https://www.musicglue.com/carmanah/about

Acid Carousel - Kaleidoscope Symphony

Watching the seven-piece psych rock band Acid Carousel perform is like watching a pen full of well-dressed wolf pups wrestle with their favorite sticks. Frontmen and songwriters Gus Baldwin and John Kuzmick are young, at 18 and 21, respectively; there’s a lot of long hair; they have boundless energy; and the band is perfectly coordinated, partly due to their carefully styled ’60s thrift clothes. They’re in sync even as they thrash around, playing their instruments while flipping their heads to the beat of the music. The chaos is almost balletic. And their music, a throwback to the 1960s, is full of ebullient, catchy, get-stuck-in-your-head pop tunes like “American High” and “Everything I Am.” They’re the kind of songs that you can sing along to the first time you hear them.
The band popped on the scene about a year and a half ago. Baldwin, who is a student at Jesuit College Preparatory, and Kuzmick, who studies photography at University of North Texas, had already been working together in a project called Moon Waves, which just recently called it quits. Kuzmick recorded a six-song EP in the summer of 2015 and he showed it to Baldwin. “I was like, ‘This is our project now,’” Baldwin says. Kuzmick jumps in to correct him, “No, you were like, ‘I’m going to play bass for you,’ and then you lasted one show on bass, and we decided we wanted to play with more people so we’ve been evolving the lineup since then.” Like the Texas Gentlemen concept of a collective of players, yet not nearly as large, Acid Carousel plays with a full stage of seven band members who are frequently changing roles and instruments. For instance, Baldwin plays guitar, bass, drums, mandolin and ukulele, and Kuzmick plays guitar, bass and keys. And like the Gents, most of them are involved in side projects too.
At Club Dada last Thursday night, the guys stood five across on the stage: Kuzmick on bass, keys and guitar, and Baldwin on guitar, alongside Steve Gnash of the Steve Gnash Experience on guitar, Ian “Skinny” Salazar of Majik Taylor on bass, and Drew Wozniack, who just started playing keys for the band less than a month ago. They were backed by Fielder Whittington on drums. The lone woman is Ariel Hartley of Pearl Earl, who fills out vocals on some of the tracks. It’s a nice little outfit. That night the band played to a surprisingly full venue of mostly people under 25. Toward the end of the set, they brought excited participants on stage to dance, sing backup and play tambourine. It was an all-out party. The band knows more than a thing or two about showmanship and audience engagement. Having promised Kool-Aid jammers to anyone in the audience willing to dance, the guys regularly rewarded the crowd with flying packs of juice. They themselves like to get down, thrashing and hopping around while playing. In his signature move, Salazar pulled off his poncho and played the rest of the set bare-chested.
They’re not above using sex appeal or any of the other tricks of the trade to get noticed. And while their music is good enough to stand on its own, letting loose, touting their charming personalities and engaging with fans is no doubt part of the recipe for how they became successful at a young age. “Come to our shows, dance with us, be our friend,” Baldwin says. “We don’t want to be distant from the fans,” Kuzmick adds. “The more people we meet, the more friends we have, and the more connections we have the better. They can come find us on Instagram if they want to see us post a bunch of sexy pics of ourselves,” Baldwin says with a laugh.
In a move that any adoring fans would love to hear, Kuzmick offers, “If they’re ever up in Denton, they can hit me up and stay at my apartment.” Then he changes gears. “Ask us if we’re single. I’m single,” he responds before being asked. “I’m eligible,” Baldwin pipes in. Kuzmick and Baldwin excitedly step on each other’s words and banter like a pair of brothers, which makes sense considering they’ve been playing together since they were kids at Zound Sounds music school near White Rock Lake. Baldwin was 13 years old and Kuzmick 16 when they started their first band, the Psycho Sonics. “What the school did that really changed us, is that they put kids together in bands and had showcases here at Dada. That’s how we learned to play like that, and that’s where we met Skinny Salazar the bassist,” Baldwin says. The Psycho Sonics soon morphed into Moon Waves. Concert promoter Jeff Brown, owner-operator of King Camel, saw Moon Waves perform in 2014, which led to their real start in the Dallas scene. Both Moon Waves and Acid Carousel have recently played his resident Saturday night series, Locked and Loaded at Armoury D.E. "Their enthusiasm, talent and stage presence was not only beyond their years, but really top tier without considering age," Brown says. "I just saw a lot of talent that needed a few nudges in the right direction."
“We were gigging at the Door, Curtain Club, the Boiler Room,” Kuzmick says. “Eventually Jeff saw us at Boiler Room. He put us at Three Links. He was the first promoter who gave us a chance. That’s how we met everyone. From there I just started going to shows all the time and meeting people ... all of the other musicians in the scene who we’re friends with now.” Baldwin met the band Sealion that way, and he recently started playing drums for them. “Sealion was my favorite band when I was 16. I used to worship them and their early albums,” he says. Despite full schedules for all of the bandmates, Acid Carousel are hoping to tour this summer with Sealion, Pearl Earl and the Steve Gnash Experience. And in the meantime they’re sticking to a rigorous release schedule, putting out a record or an EP every three months. It’s ambitious, but so far, they’ve been on schedule. In 2016, they released a record in June, EPs in September and November, and they’re waiting on Dreamy Life Records to finish pressing the vinyl and cassettes for their next release, a double album. Surprisingly, quality doesn’t suffer at the hands of quantity; each release is cohesive and strong. The guys looked to their music inspirations like Brian Jonestown Massacre and Ty Segall on the release schedule. “We want to put out as many records as possible,” Baldwin says.
They started a record label called Get With It! Collective to make sure the releases happened on time. Besides taking guitar lessons at Zound Sounds, the guys are all self-taught — on their instruments, and in the recording studio — which speaks to how driven they were to make music, even as children. Baldwin says he’d originally wanted to play drums, but his parents pushed him into guitar to avoid having a drum set in the house, so he snuck into the drum room at the music school and taught himself. Kuzmick wanted to make music so he started writing songs on the fly with his brother, a drummer, and making videos. They say their work ethic is about more than achieving success. “I can’t not play music. If I don’t play music I get depressed in like five minutes,” Kuzmick says. Baldwin agrees. “If I don’t touch an instrument for like two days, I will get angry at everyone.” “Grumpy Gus isn’t fun Gus,” Kuzmick warns, and Baldwin confirms it. “When I don’t get to play music, I get grumpy. That’s why we joined a bunch of different bands. I just want to keep playing music and be able to support myself doing that.”  From: https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/young-seven-piece-acid-carousel-keeps-true-to-its-name-with-ebullient-rotating-lineup-9195200