Fairport Convention - Polly On The Shore

Fairport Convention - Nine: This is actually one of Fairport's more "progressive" albums. The lineup included a really good singer, Trevor Lucas, whose mellow baritone is most suitable. The lineup also included American guitar whiz Jerry Donahue (later of the Hellecasters, not Hellacopters), who lays down some mind-blowing licks. Three tracks are proggy highlights: "Polly on the Shore", which contains a wicked wah wah violin solo, "Bring 'Em Down", a long original which has a very atmospheric extended middle section, and "To Althea From Prison" which is based on a historical letter and is a nice ballad which would not be out of place on any 70s prog album. The rest of the album contains the usual jiggy instrumentals, traditional songs, and an upbeat 50s-style rocker in "Possibly Parsons Green". Only "Big William" seems like a holdover from the horribly jaunty "Rosie" album. It's one of of the band's least folky albums, but one of their more stylistically experimental and definitely one of the best in a rather spotty, if always entertaining discography.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10094

Cocteau Twins - Lorelei

The former members of Cocteau Twins have been on their own longer than the prolific sixteen years they were together as a band. They went from being scrappy teenage runaways from small-town Scotland to heavy rotation on the BBC’s coveted John Peel Show in mere months. Within a few years they were among the most beloved post-punk indie bands in the UK, with a growing international following and a music press that couldn’t quite find the words, and really never did. The twist was they could barely pin it down themselves, much to the frustration of just about every journalist who tried to interview them. They never claimed to be waiting for a muse to inspire them, and disavowed any idea of a grand design, concept, or intention behind their music. Questions of relevance seemed lost on them, too. Relevance, as far as Cocteau Twins’ music goes, is truly in the ear of the beholder: It’s what the listener makes of it, whatever the time or place. In most ways, their music remains unmoored from such things — as if they’d lived sealed off from the rest of the world, sending out the occasional musical missive. They existed in a category by themselves — one they created.
Others have tried to reproduce or capture their sound, with limited success. The few artists who have succeeded sound mostly unlike them, but have managed to convey an essence: inspiration without imitation (think Beach House, Goldfrapp, Sigur Rós, or even M83). Cocteau Twins were a foundational influence for whole categories of music, notably dream-pop and shoegaze — forms that have themselves found new 21st-century audiences. Given their association with 4AD’s early crop of bands like The Birthday Party and Bauhaus (and the comparisons to Siouxsie & the Banshees), they also became and continue to be a staple of goth, though they mostly eschewed goth’s trappings.
Years later, in a world exploding with musical creativity, output, and listening sources, the Cocteaus’ music brings its own kind of relevance — again, if that means anything anymore — as they are rediscovered by people, mostly of a younger generation, yearning for something seminal or transcendent. (The song “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” played an important role in the novel and young adult film, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” as recently as 2012; in 2020 Heaven or Las Vegas was ranked among the most important albums of all time by more than one media outlet.) It is a testament to the timelessness of their sound and production quality that many new fans don’t even know that the story actually started in 1979, or that the trio formerly known as Cocteau Twins long ago moved on to new endeavours. Even now, younger fans enquire regularly about “the next album” or “upcoming live shows.”  From: https://cocteautwins.com/introduction.html

Wolf People - Night Witch

AD 2016 and England is in flux. This bastard island is divided, shot through with doubt and self-loathing, ruled by the feverish egos of passing power hungry dilettantes, two-bit aristocrats and smiling psychopaths. Swathes of the country have been sold off, paved over, neon-lit. England is at war with itself and this time the enemy is in the mirror. The people require a new narrative. A new soundtrack. They need to feel the pull of history and navigate a new path through the morass of misinformation. Emerging from the woodlands, river-banks and the dales like the grizzled ‘green men’ resistance fighters of the post-Norman invasions, the spirit-raising purveyors of pagan folk psyche prog Wolf People return to provide exactly just that.
Ruins is their new album, and its over-riding theme is that of nature reclaiming the land. The transcendence of life over politics, plants over people. It asks: where are we going and what comes next? If culture is history’s narration, then Wolf People are custodians and conduits; electrified sages, if you will. Through them runs a time-line of a nation rising from bloody glory to existentialist confusion. Yet within Ruins, their album proper, lies a spirit of hope too, it is a reminder that society is no match for the mighty power of music and nature working in perfect symbiosis. Wolf People are time travelers, their tools mythology, history, hauntology, big riffs, bigger beats, electricity.
“It’s not a concept album, but a lot of the songs consider what the world might be like without humans,” says singer/guitarist Jack Sharp. “The title refers to the ruins of civilisation. I suppose like many people – especially now – we’re constantly veering towards complete frustration with the human race one moment, and celebrating all the positive things about humanity the next. The aim was to try and portray that without sounding too trite or preachy.”
Lyrically Ruins imagines how the planet might appear when society has finally fallen to dust and ash, and the creeping vines and nettles have reclaimed the land. It is the product of letting go of conceit, contrivance and, indeed, a career plan. For following the release of 2013’s acclaimed Fain, and a tough year for all concerned, frontman Jack Sharp considered giving up. Out of this doubt came a wellspring of new ideas that could only be recorded by Wolf People. The universe had spoken. It was written in the runes.  From: https://jagjaguwar.com/artist/wolfpeople/ 

Jefferson Airplane - Wally Heider Studios 1970

Jefferson Airplane - Wally Heider Studios 1970 - Part 1

 

 Jefferson Airplane - Wally Heider Studios 1970 - Part 2

Today (October 30), marks the legendary Grace Slick’s 80th birthday. While she is best known for her work as a vocalist in the seminal San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, Grace got her start in Bay Area group The Great Society in 1965. Somewhat frustrated with the lack of direction in The Great Society, Slick would soon replace singer Signe Toly Anderson in Jefferson Airplane.
Jefferson Airplane would go on to score two Top 10 hits with songs that Slick originally penned while she was in The Great Society: “White Rabbit” and “Someone To Love.” These songs and others made Grace’s powerful mezzo-soprano voice iconic in rock history. Slick and the Airplane were also involved in the socio-political activism of the time and their 1969 album, Volunteers, showcased their revolutionary spirit.
Renowned sound engineer Wally Heider, who was integral in capturing the sound of a number of late ’60s San Francisco bands, recorded Volunteers at his state-of-the-art studio. Among guests appearing on the album are Jerry Garcia, Stephen Stills, David Crosby and famed session pianist Nicky Hopkins (The Rolling Stones).
After the album’s release in November of 1969, Airplane returned to Heider’s studio in early 1970 to capture a number of the songs from Volunteers live on film including “We Can Be Together,” the title track and the Paul Kantner/ Crosby/Stills co-write “Wooden Ships.” The live performance includes classics like “Somebody To Love,” “Plastic Fantastic Lover” and more. The band also chats about the heady times they found themselves in.  From: https://www.jambase.com/article/jefferson-airplane-wally-heiders-studio-1970

 

The Rolling Stones - Hide Your Love

Hide Your Love: Mick Jagger was playing piano between sessions when engineer Andy Johns encouraged him to record what he was working on, and that became the basic track. The Stones recorded the song in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at De Doelen, a concert hall rather than a studio proper. Jagger's voice bleeds through from when he was singing on the piano track. You can hear it with headphones. The album this song is from, Goat's Head Soup, is considered by some fans to be the very last album of the Stones' "golden age." While most critics liked it, the immortal Lester Bangs spoke of the sadness that hung about the Stones, coming from when you "measure not just one album, but the whole sense they're putting across now against what they once meant." It was also the first album the Stones had recorded with only all-new original material in six years.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-rolling-stones/hide-your-love

Kontiki Suite - Bring Our Empire Down

At a time when music is marketed as merely something to be consumed, like tins of beans, it seems that great songs, played and recorded with warmth and emotion are overlooked. So it is great to see the many very positive reviews, in the UK and internationally, that Kontiki Suite’s On Sunset Lake has gathered. My enjoyment of the CD led me to the bands website, where the experience is enhanced by the visual impact of the videos which impeccably reflect and enhance the songs.
I was determined to find out more about the Kontiki Suite and how they created this musical gem. Happily for me Craig [Craig Bright – keyboards & percussion] and Jonny [Jonny Singh – guitars, lap steel & backing vocals] from the band gave me some of their time to chat about the creation of the CD and how they achieved a warmth and clarity that is both vintage and modern. Something not often heard in contemporary recordings.

Firstly, I want to say how much I enjoyed the album.

Jonny: Thanks for the kind words. We’ve been absolutely blown away by the response we’ve had. It’s weird, we really never knew how folks would respond to it, but it really seems to have been embraced by like-minded music lovers.

My particular favourite song is Magic Carpet Ride, both the original and remix versions are great. It achieves that rare feat of being both familiar and new at the same time. There is some great guitar on Magic Carpet Ride. However, it is the longest track on the album. What was the reason for choosing it as the single? Hollywood, for example, struck me as being a more likely candidate for a single and may have wider appeal.

Jonny: We’ve been ending our live sets with Carpet Ride since, pretty much, the beginning and it quickly became a live favourite. It was usually the track that most people would be buzzing about after gigs. I think its crossover potential helped us out on occasion too if we were playing showcase type gigs to a varied audience. I think the track has got longer and longer over the years. I’m sure we’ve even clocked in a 20 minute version on occasion but managed to restrain ourselves to under 9 minutes for the album.
I don’t recall there ever being a discussion about singles, as I’m not really sure if we ever planned to release one as such. If there was then this was made easy for us anyway as Richard Norris had produced a great remix of it and kindly released it as a double A side on his 5D record label.

Craig: Jonny is right, in that there was no conscious decision to release a single, let alone for it to be Magic Carpet Ride. I guess I understood that in order to make any waves in a music world increasingly awash with all types of self-released music, good and bad, we had to make a statement from the get go. To do so, asking a well-respected DJ in Richard Norris to put his stamp on our 9 minute set closer was an obvious choice. As contrary to the norm as that is.
Richard, as one half of Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve with Erol Alkan, had given me some memorable nights at Glastonbury spinning their take on 60s psych and garage tunes as well as great re-edits of more recent folkier stuff by Midlake and Findlay Brown. The decision to release it as a double AA side 12″ was, again, the obvious thing to do because we wanted DJs out there to pick up on the ‘dancier’ mix by Richard and be able to play it at its best, on vinyl.

I felt that Magic Carpet Ride had a bit of a Madchester vibe going on. How did you come to write it?

Jonny: I wrote the track when I was living in Manchester and back when I was only really a part-time member of the band, if I recall correctly. I’d only recently finished producing the first Kontiki demos, so it must have been 2007. I think even from the moment of strumming the chords on the acoustic, I knew what sound I wanted from it. It came from an appreciation of what Ben [Ben Singh lead vocals and guitar] had already been writing for the band and our more obvious 60s influences. It also came from our, or really ‘my’, less obvious influences from early 90s shoegaze bands like Ride, Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine. I’d also been spinning Notorious Byrd Brothers heavily at the time, which all helped the trippy swirling grooves and harmonies of Carpet Ride just fall into place, even in the first demo I put together of it. In fact, that demo is probably more psychedelic than the proper version.

Where and how did you record the album? Was it a local studio and if so do you think familiar surroundings contributed to the warm feel of the album? The production is very supportive of the songs. Did you get involved or if a producer was used, were they known to you before recording? 
 
Jonny: We recorded the album ourselves between our rehearsal room and my basement studio, so really recording technique decisions were kind of made easy by what equipment I had. The number of available mics and inputs was usually the main factor. Having our own studio was a huge benefit to achieving the right sound. It allowed us to take our time to get it all just how we wanted it. Although, sometimes this luxury can lead to too much time being taken.

Did you record any of the songs as a band, with overdubs as required or did you all lay down your parts individually? I feel some of the warmth that comes through in the songs is not just the recording techniques but also to do with closeness of the band.

Jonny: Initial tracking was generally performed as a 3 or 4 piece to get the drums down at the right tempo and groove. Everything else was then tracked individually to get the best performances down. We are generally a well-rehearsed band anyway so I think that adds to capturing that “closeness” sound that you mention. A lot of recording techniques went into it too. I experimented with “vintage” mic’ing techniques, for want of a better description, such as only mic’ing up the kit in mono with 3 mics, which I think adds a lot to the sound of the album.

From: https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/kontiki-suite-the-north-west-coast-sound/

Snake River Conspiracy - Act Your Age

Every sound made by Tobey Torres, lead singer of Snake River Conspiracy captivates the essence of the powerful emotions boldly portrayed on this extremely impressive debut. The versatility of the band shines through as every track demonstrates a different aspect of their own personas and indeed, the music scene. From the aggressive metal tracks 'Vulcan' and 'Oh Well' to the sweet, nearing pop tune 'You and Your friend', Sonic Jihad covers many diverse musical genres, linking them together and trade-marking them with a heavy dose of very edgy industrial experimental sound, and an occasional mockery of American idealism.
The complex layers of digital effects pile sound upon sound until they have a thick wall of it, which, teamed with the sultry, sometimes irate sounding vocals of femme fatale Ms. Torres, makes for a very emotive musical explosion. With such a huge amount of emotional force and excitement, Sonic Jihad is evocative of a sea, whisking you into its mystifying world incorporating rage, lust and violence, with a pace varying from raging thunderstorms 'Breed' and 'Strangled', to nearing calm waters 'Act Your Age' and 'Causality' plus a few scattered somewhere in the middle to hold it all together. Throw in a few extremely credible covers by bands such as The Cure and The Smiths for good measure and Snake River Conspiracy are already nearing perfection. More than just a straight nu-metal collection, Sonic Jihad is a journey, lyrically and musically, through human emotions and represents, to me at least, the triumph of passion over technology... and no one told you that you had to see them live. It's not about their stage presence - it's about the music.  From: https://drownedinsound.com/releases/2792/reviews/2633-#:~:text=Every%20sound%20made%20by%20Tobey%20Torres%2C%20lead,boldly%20portrayed%20on%20this%20extremely%20impressive%20debut.

Bhopal's Flowers - I Feel Free (Cream cover)

Something has been nagging me about the various jangle pop bands growing in popularity today, and I think that I have finally put my finger on it. While these bands are enamored with the Rickenbacker sound — and who isn’t? — there is something lacking in the results. They have captured the 60s / 70s West Coast LA psych vibe, but not the essence. Back in that era there was an edge to the music: the Vietnam war was raging, and the anger felt by many young bands found its way into their music, augmented by hallucinogenic stimulants. There was an urgency to the music and lyrics, which were foremost. And that is what I find missing with contemporary jangle pop. The songs are mellow, all rounded corners, nothing that bites into you and grabs your attention. Now, having said all that, Canadian neo-psych group Bhopal’s Flowers straddles this gap. Bhopal’s Flowers first came to my attention via Fruits de Mer. Their song “H.I.G.H.W.A.Y.S.” appeared on The Half-Time Orange freebie compliation and their raga rock cover of Cream’s “I Feel Free” on FdM’s massive compilation A Band for All Seasons. I was impressed and eagerly awaited the release of their double vinyl LP Alstroemeria - A Journey on Earth & Beyond. The double album roughly follows a day in the life, with the first LP, subtitled Sunshine Pop, running from 5 AM to 6 PM, and the second LP, subtitled Moonlight Pop, running from 7 PM to 4 AM, completing the 24 hour cycle. When Bhopal’s Flowers blends Eastern and Western music, they excel. The combination of the signature Rickenbacker sound with sitar, tamboura, and tabla is magical. Following the 24 hour day, these magical moments occur in the wee hours of the morning on Sunshine Pop and the pre-dawn hours on Moonlight Pop: “Enjoy Your Life on Earth [5 am],” “Napoleon Candy Sweet [7 am],” “Hail to Her Sun! [9 am],” “A Night at the Devachan [1 am],” ‘“Moon - Earth - Jupiter [2 am],” “Eastern Star [3 am],” and “I Feel Free [4 am].” Sandwiched in between are a set of gentle neo-jangle pop songs that just don’t connect with me, except for perhaps “When the Sinner Becomes a Saint (Then the Devil Bleeds) [1 pm]” and “1221 Jasmin Street [3 pm].” My wish is that Bhopal’s Flowers would focus more on their unique blending of musical cultures, perhaps covering more late 60s tunes, rather than strictly psych pop.  From: http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/bhopals-flowers-alstromeria-a-journey-on-earth-beyond-6.html  

Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt - Going By

Old friends Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt, each with productive and storied solo careers, relish joining forces to make glorious music. Between them, they have over 30 fine recordings, but only three as a duo, most recently Evidence of Happiness in 2012. Radio stations across the country voted their 1987 collaboration, Closing the Distance, in the top 10 most popular albums of the year. Their separate home bases (Rogers in Connecticut, Schmidt in Minnesota) and full teaching, composing, and touring schedules make it challenging to converge. This Ithaca concert is a rare chance to hear them create magic together, with the synergy that comes from shared musicality and a gift for lyrics, instinctive harmonies, passion for social justice, education, and the environment, and radiant joy in the “Tree of Life.” These are energetic, powerful women who revitalize their audiences with a mix of humor, poignancy, and fire. Both drew attention decades back as regulars on A Prairie Home Companion, and have traveled far and wide since then.

Free-ranging and unclassifiable, Claudia Schmidt is fluent in folk, jazz, blues, and world music styles, a prolific composer and great wordsmith, and a soulful player of 12-string guitar and mountain dulcimer. In addition to taking the stage at festivals, big arenas, and house concerts across North America and Europe, she writes and performs in film, television, and theater. She’s an inimitable force. “When Claudia sings a song, it stays sung,” declares Garrison Keillor. A reviewer in the San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote, “Schmidt’s shows are a lot like falling in love. You never know what’s going to happen next, chances are it’s going to be wonderful, every moment is burned into your memory, and you know you’ll never be the same again.”

Sally Rogers is firmly grounded in traditional folk, old-timey, and children’s music, graced with a pure voice and accomplished playing of guitar, banjo, and dulcimer. In her hands, songs, whether original, contemporary, or hundreds of years old, have a timeless quality. Once heard, audiences remember them and take them home to sing in the kitchen, car, or at gatherings. As a born, and now professional, teacher, Sally Rogers’ successful mission is to set the world singing. When she’s not in a schoolroom, she’s likely to be touring across the States, Europe, or China, recording, creating books and videos for children, composing songs for Unitarian and Quaker hymnals, and quilting. She has won numerous awards, including Best Folk Album of 1982 (Circle of the Sun), Parents’ Choice Gold of 1990 (Piggyback Planet: Songs for a Whole Earth), Best Children’s Recording in 1993 (What Can One Little Person Do?) and in 1994 (At Quiet O’Clock). Her eagerly awaited recording for adults, We’ll Pass Them On, was recently released on Red House Records. She can tackle serious subjects in a way that uplifts rather than numbs. Writes Peggy Seeger, “Sally Rogers has a clear, fluid, and remarkably agile voice, a keen sense of drama, and a most refreshing sense of fun.”

From: http://canaaninstitute.org/mikesmusicblog/sally-rogers-and-claudia-schmidt-in-concert/

BoDeans - Stay On

Life throws you all kinds of curveballs. Case in point: Go Slow Down was a really strange album for the BoDeans to break through to the mainstream with. It would be a bit of a stretch to call this an album of love songs… more like an album of songs about love… or, in some cases, the act of love. Okay, let's face it -- in at least two instances, this disc sounds like an attempt to write a soundtrack album for The Joy Of Sex… not that there's anything wrong with that.
Ironically, this earthy, somewhat anti-commercial fifth disc from the Wisconson, roots-rocking band built around singer-songwriter duo Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas also contains their one smash hit single, the buoyant rocker "Closer To Free." In a twist of fate worthy of the Rembrandts, the producers of one-time uber-youth-soap  Party Of Five decided "CTF" sounded like great opening-credits music. Well, yeah. It cooks along like a born classic, fueled by Michael Ramos's soaring organ and accordion work and the heavy backbeat laid down by bassist Bob Griffin and guest drummer Kenny Aaronoff.
Truth be told, there are some very sweet and thoughtful tunes here, full of a kind of weary optimism, and decorated brightly with Llanas and Neumann's fine acoustic/electric guitar and mandolin work. "Idaho" is a (by turns) lyrical and philosophical little rocker about perspective. The upbeat "Save A Little" is equally appealing, and "Cold Winter's Day" is masterful in capturing a more somber mood, a vibrant mixture of nostalgia and camaraderie. Another number of note, "Stay On," is a kind of self-directed inspirational speech for struggling musicians.
But the title track… man, oh man. It's really funny to me what's considered obscene these days, because "Go Slow Down" and "Feed The Fire" are a thousand times sexier than anything you may or may not have seen on last year's Super Bowl halftime show, and there's not a parental advisory in sight. No expletives, nothing graphic -- just the essence of lusty sensuality, captured in words and music. Listen to these songs with someone you love.
Go Slow Down marked the commercial high-water mark of the BoDeans' career to date. Since the follow-up to Go Slow Down, 1996's fine Blend, they've recorded and toured intermittently. They're one of those low-profile bands who deserve more attention, but have never craved it enough to compromise their musical integrity. And Go Slow Down is an excellent album precisely because it's uncompromising -- honest, raw and beautiful, it's my pick for their best.  From: https://dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=2652

Gaate - Hamløypar

Even if Gåte dates back its inception to 1999, would you mind recalling to our readers how this musical adventure started?

It all started with my brother Sveinung and me singing and playing music together. We grew up with parents who were deeply interested in Norwegian folk music which became a natural part of our musical upbringing. Our parents taught us traditional fiddle playing, and gradually I started to learn to kvede (a traditional Norwegian way of singing.)
During his teens, Sveinung become interested in modern music and started to play with synthesizers and musical programming. One time the Swedish folk rock band Garmarna asked me to warm up for them, I brought Sveinung with me. And we had the first performance where we did a fusion of traditional folk songs, musical programming, and synth. That was a performance with some key people in the hall, who soon became very important for Gåte‘s future. Their presence would help Gåte become a band with a clear path. A band that would tour and rapidly grasp the attention of a broad audience.

Your EP “Til Nord” dates back to 2021; that followed the full-length “Nord” released in December via Indie Recordings. What can you share about the production of “Til Nord?” And which is the connection that the EP shares with “Nord?”

We never planned to do an entire album within this more acoustic soundscape. Our original plan was to set up a series of acoustic concerts featuring cleaner and simpler versions of some of our songs. With the full-scale Gåte, we need a big production around us to make the concerts possible. For this occasion, our idea was to scale things down. And make it easier for us to travel with small-scale production. By giving us the freedom to play more shows and deliver more intimate performances. We should have gone on tour with this setup in spring 2020. But we only managed to do one concert before the pandemic hit. We had to cancel the entire tour.
Luckily, this acoustic production was a corona-friendly concert; it allowed us to perform several gigs. Initially, it was intended as a small side-project. Then it got a life of its own with a much longer lifespan than we had ever planned. The project allowed us to delve further into and explore our acoustic possibilities. And we soon became happier and happier doing these concerts. The reception of our down-scaled version of Gåte was also positive, which motivated us to make a record. The exploring process of their live potential before recording them was also a very positive one. And I believe it has put it’s mark on the record.

Indeed, “Nord”‘s release was at the beginning of December. It concludes an era for the band; what do you mean by that and why?

As previously mentioned, “Nord” was meant just as a side-project for us and not the beginning of something new. However, when Nord was released, we felt the album release finalized the project and marked a natural end. But Nord being Nord, it keeps on living a life of its own. And our statement might not be as conclusive as we felt it back in December. Its acoustic soundscape made an impact, and it will continue to be part of Gåte in some way or another. In addition to all the other aspects of our music that we seek to explore and develop.

From what I recall, the last full-length “Svevn” dates back to 2017. If compared with “Nord”, what your previous album is different from?

Gåte is deeply rooted in folk music and folklore. It is in our DNA and has paved the way for all our musical outputs. We call ourselves folklorists and see ourselves as vanguards of folklore. Gåte‘s goal is to convey and further this often-forgotten folk tradition. And showcase the beauty and strength hidden in its stories, songs, ballads, legends, myths, etc. Our music has always been innovative, groundbreaking, and different. It is rooted in cultural heritage and our musical tradition, without following the traditional rules and formulas. With “Nord”, Gåte became a creator in this tradition.
Together with the acoustic expression and through a cleaner and simpler soundscape, we have tried to create something we hope seems even more authentic. And beckoning people to join us in this journey back to the very roots of the vast Nordic folk tradition. Through this approach, Gåte also opened new doors and helped us see the music from a different stance. We felt we got even closer to defining our musical DNA and dared to expose ourselves and our instruments. Gåte has always been a force – using all means possible, maximizing the esthetics, and exaggerating everything. For this occasion, we wanted to peel everything down to the core. And see what lay beneath all the extravagance: “Nord” is the result of this process.

Every record produced and released brings a lesson learned. Musically and personally, what is the most fundamental life lesson Gåte has gained from “Nord?”

It has been a great learning experience. We have learned that we can afford to be more open to the music and the directions it takes us. Our essence and DNA will prevail and shine through regardless of which path our music leads to. Or what genre we choose to explore.

One of Gåte‘s traditions is to lyrically dive into the vast traditional Norwegian musical repertoire by offering captivating and emotional recondition. What can you tell me about the lyrics featured on “Nord”?

Most of Gåte’s songs are our take on traditional Norwegian folk songs; this is also the case with “Nord”. The themes vary, but some of them we often find is the agony of forbidden and lost love, life and death, and old myths and legends. The album booklet also features a text about each song – a little gift to all our fans who buy physical products.

Despite the pandemic, what is in the pipeline? Which is the thing that you are looking forward to? And which are your plans?

We are hoping to do tours and concerts outside of Norway again. And looking forward to working with new music and towards a new album.

From: https://www.femmemetalwebzine.net/interviews/gate-an-interview-with-gunnhild-sundli/

2 Foot Yard - Seven Houses

The San Francisco-based trio 2 Foot Yard is known for its daring and pioneering way with classical sounds: when violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt, percussionist/guitarist Shahzad Ismaily, and cellist/vocalist Marika Hughes are not fusing them with visceral, pounding rock or energetic pop, they're exploring compositional boundaries by hitching e.e. cummings poems or other unorthodox works to their brief avant-garde pieces. Kihlstedt is the most visible member of the outfit for her prior collaborations with the equally fearless John Zorn and her part in another San Francisco outfit, the all-acoustic Tin Hat Trio. But the résumés of Hughes and Ismaily don't skimp on notable credits, either. Hughes plays in the art-funk trio Red Pocket and sings in the a cappella trio Charming Hostess, both of which have released discs on Zorn's respected Tzadik label, and Ismaily, an American of Pakistani descent, has composed for film and live theater and worked with Laurie Anderson. Together, their music in 2 Foot Yard -- the name is a nod to an organic gardening plot within city confines -- is swaggering and adventurous, artful but rarely inaccessible.  From: https://www.iheart.com/artist/2-foot-yard-41753932/

Planxty - Live Dublin 1972 / Come West Along the Road 1973 / Live on Aisling Ghael Special 1979

 Planxty - Live Dublin 1972

 

 Planxty - Come West Along the Road 1973

 

 Planxty - Live on Aisling Ghael Special 1979

 

Planxty’s rebirth was a dream come true for band and fans alike – and the good news is that there’s more to come. Earlier this year trad/folk legends Planxty reconvened for a series of sell-out concerts at Dublin’s Vicar Street. It was first time that the original line-up of Christy Moore, Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine and Liam O’Flynn had appeared on a stage together in over 20 years (apart from a low-key appearance in Ennis the previous October.) The success of the shows exceeded all expectations and then some, with over 10,000 people attending. For those lucky enough to be there it was an unforgettable musical experience and a long overdue reminder of the debt owed to Planxty for the current healthy state of Irish music For those who missed out on the shows, all is not lost as they were recorded and filmed and are now available on CD and DVD while more gigs are planned in December.

Three-quarters of the band are on-hand here to discuss the whole experience. So how does it really feel to be a going concern again after all these years?

Donal Lunny: “Unbelievable. It’s far better than any one of us had expected. Our main misgiving before we got back together was, ‘Will the spark be there like it used to be?’ It turned out it was. We met up for rehearsals last October and did that tiny gig in Clare but that was just a toe in water to see how things would work out. We didn’t realise just how good Vicar Street would be.

“We proved that we could still capture that energy which is so much a part of being in a young band,” says Liam O’Flynn. “Not once during the twelve gigs did it feel like we were going through the motions or on automatic pilot. What worried me initially was the thought that we might be playing to an audience of people of our own age because when you think about it, you’d need to be over 50 to have seen the band in their early days”, says Andy Irvine. “But it wasn’t like that at all. Leagues O’Toole’s documentary had put us in context for a younger generation so there was a good cross section of all ages at the shows.”

The band appeared to be extremely well rehearsed and stuck to a fairly rigid set-list for most of the shows. Clearly they had done a lot of preparation leading up to the gigs?

Donal Lunny: “Probably even more so than when we started. Christy complimented me on my punctuality, which wasn’t my best quality in the early days. Actually, if anybody drove the notion of us getting back together and doing it properly it was Christy.”

Andy Irvine: “We’d rehearsed quite a bit but you can rehearse until you’re blue in the face – when you get up on a stage it’s a different matter. The venue helped hugely – Vicar Street is the best gig of that size in town. I remember the first night before we went on and Christy was looking through the curtains at the audience and he said ‘Jaysus it’s like a big folk club out there.”

Liam O’Flynn: “It’s a lovely cross between a concert hall and a club. The welcome we got when we got out onstage just blew me away. It was unbelievable. I think it’s great that a band can play music and get an audience like that.”

The audience reaction was overwhelmingly positive, as was the press coverage. Were they surprised at how much they seemed to be missed by everyone?

Donal Lunny: “The thing is the early audiences spanned every generation – there were kids, old aged pensioners, hippies, rockers but they were all lovely to us. The new audience was the same with people of all ages out there.”

Liam O’Flynn: “I think I heard one woman saying she’d die happy. People had come from Australia, America, and all over Europe specifically for the shows. We certainly didn’t expect that.”

Andy Irvine: “I thought a lot of the reviews didn’t reflect the audience reaction – one journalist called us four grumpy old men. But there was a man who was encountered in the toilet who wiped his eyes and said ‘Jesus Christ I’ll have to emigrate again!”

Donal Lunny: “Davy Hammond, that great man from Belfast, said to me ‘You’re putting people back in touch with their lives’. Part of it is nostalgia. The times that we were in existence before are like islands to people and music is one of the things that evokes memories.

Was it always the intention to record and film the reunion shows for subsequent release?

Donal Lunny: “I don’t remember there being any great urgency about recording them in the early stages. It probably would’ve made us too nervous knowing that we were taping the shows. But it made sense in the end. And we knew we were in good hands with Philip King. When it comes to filming something like this he is the best there is. He just knows how to record music without disturbing what’s happening onstage. In fact we didn’t even notice the cameras in the venue. It was all set up and we just got out there and did the gig.”

Andy Irvine: “There were cameras there? I don’t remember seeing any cameras at all.”

Others have been involved in Planxty over the years, including people like Bill Whelan or Paul Brady. Was there any suggestion that they would join them onstage for some of the shows?

Donal Lunny: “No, that never came up. It was the simplest thing to do it with just the four of us. There were practicalities of us getting back together and we didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew. What made it easier was the fact that the four of us got together on a social basis once a year for the last six or seven years, just to meet up and have the craic. It was out of that, that the notion of doing something came together.”

Liam O’Flynn: “I feel that most people regard the original Planxty line-up as the best. I know I do myself.”

What about the future? Are there any more gigs planned and is there a chance Planxty might record some new material?

Donal Lunny: “We have time set aside at the end of the year and the door is open but we’re not going to put ourselves under pressure.”

Liam O’Flynn: “It’s so easy to find yourself under pressure. If you open the door it comes flying through and a lot of people want a piece of you. Then suddenly other things take over and that’s the end of it.”

Andy Irvine: “We’ve no plans for an album but we’re not totally dismissing it. The whole attitude of the band is to take one step at a time. December is the next step. And we’ve put in motion the rehearsal of new material by then. A couple of the pieces are from the Planxty repertoire – things we haven’t recorded and there might be something new – who knows?”

From: https://andyirvinenews.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/archive-2004-hotpress-interview-with-planxty/

 

i Häxa

i Häxa, taken from the Swedish term for “witch”, is a project comprised of vocalist Rebecca Need-Menear (Anavae) and producer/instrumentalist Peter Miles (highlights include producer for Architects and co-producer on Tesseract’s War of Being) and blends art rock, trip-hop, ambient, industrial, and dark folk influences together into one heady brew. Originally conceived as a single flowing suite, but released as four EPs, and now fused into a single album, there’s a few different ways to listen to the full i Häxa. Everything flows but there are recognisable song formations, distinct quarterings within that flow—at the same time, it makes little sense to listen to, for example, “The Well” without listening to “Fog of War” because the two are parts of a seamless whole.
Swollen layers of synths and pulsating backbeats, graceful piano and lamenting strings form the instrumental backbone of i Häxa with Need-Menear’s sinuous, high-toned voice—in timbre, a more powerful, just-going-through-a-phase sister to Magdalena Bay’s Mica Tenenbaum—sojourning from vulnerable (“Circle”) to threnodic (“The Well”) to boisterous (“Destroy Everything”). Around half the tracks feature spoken word recitations from Need-Menear—the dread monologue of “Fog of War”, the rhythmic poetry that drives “Inferno”, the venomous whispers on “Army”—and her deft ear for enunciation, her oratory range, and paganic lyricism keep the listener hanging on every word. Where spoken word in music all too often falls flat with ropey oration and lazy samples, for i Häxa it’s a vital and astonishingly successful texture.
I could wax lyrical about each track for a while, but suffice it to say that the flow and complexity of the arrangements is pleasing, playing with time signatures (I still can’t work out the beat on “Eight Eyes”), manipulated vocals (“Vessel”, “Sapling”), and reprises (“Circle” builds on a piano melody first explored in “Last at the Table” while repurposing lyrics first heard on “Sapling”). On a song-to-song basis, i Häxa consistently impress, but it’s the interweaving overall structure that sells it, the consistent quartering, the effortless flow, the reprisal of motifs—sometimes familiar, sometimes transformed—all coming together to form something holistic. Despite marrying analogue and digital, i Häxa ultimately feels strangely natural, as though this energy always existed somewhere and Need-Menear and Miles became conduits for its message. That might be a weird metaphor but it’s one of the highest compliments I can pay to music; something that feels less like it was created and more like it always existed in some form and has only just found articulation.  From: https://theprogressivesubway.com/2024/10/28/review-i-haxa-i-haxa/  

The Jayhawks - Waiting for the Sun - Live 1993

The liner notes to the Jayhawks' career-making 1992 album, Hollywood Town Hall, were written by friend-of-the-band Joe Henry, then a struggling musician himself (and now one of the most prolific producers around). In just a few short paragraphs, Henry evokes not so much the music made by the Minneapolis band, but presumably what the music was about: wayward drifters with sad histories who disappeared, hitting the road in search of better times. The Jayhawks were never so down on their luck as their characters, but they were drifters just the same, ostensibly headquartered in the Twin Cities but always traveling to the next show and the next show after that. In the late 1980s and early 90s, they stayed on the road almost constantly, paying their dues and gradually playing to larger and larger audiences. They were alt-country merely by coincidence, gestating in isolation and predating the movement by several years. The band incorporated a wide range of styles and influences into their stately Americana, not just country and certainly not punk, but classic rock, folk, power pop, and lots of feedback from Gary Louris fuzzbox-filtered guitar-- all seemingly absorbed with every mile of road traveled and every city played.
What the Jayhawks never drifted toward was success-- at least not the kind that they and their fans felt the music warranted. Even so, a full 25 years after forming, the Jayhawks don't come across as also-rans, which is itself a minor miracle. Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass still live and breathe, and these two new, long-awaited reissues sound like the logical conclusions of a legacy-shaping campaign that began with 2009's career retrospective, Music From the North Country. Neither of these albums was a hit, exactly, but they have endured to become something more impressive. They show the Jayhawks unmoored from any one particular trend or style, devising new ways to combine roots and rock without skimping on either.
Hollywood Town Hall is, appropriately, a good road-trip album, moving from pre-dawn departure ("Waiting for the Sun") to a hard-won destination ("Martin's Song", with its chorus, "I've been working all night, I go long into day"). Louris' guitar cuts elegant swathes through these songs, and the new remaster brings out the rich tones in the instruments themselves, especially Benmont Tench's organ on "Crowded in the Wings". The songs have a greater live feel, but Hollywood Town Hall remains primarily a vocal album, with the harmonies of Louris and Olson at the center. Their approach is based on old-time country sibling acts like the Louvin and Stanley Brothers, yet those tightly intertwined vocals are reset in a dusty, electrified setting, marking perhaps the Jayhawks' greatest innovation.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14940-hollywood-town-hall-expanded-edition-tomorrow-the-green-grass-legacy-edition/

Sarah McLachlan - Into the Fire - Live 1992

Fateful is how Sarah McLachlan describes the night of her first performance as a member of a high school rock band. On that night, she fell in love with the joy of making music for a happy, appreciative audience—and Mark Jowatt, soon to be head of Artists and Repertoire for Nettwerk Records, fell in love with young Sarah’s voice. She declined his offer to travel to Vancouver to record a demo, deciding (at her mum’s insistence) to complete high-school and pursue her dreams of attending art school; but Sarah’s unforgettable voice had made a lasting impression. Two years later, Nettwerk offered a five-record contract and at the age of 19, Sarah recorded her first album, Touch. Her second album, Solace, came in 1991. She completed a world tour in 1994 in support of her third highly acclaimed and best selling album, Fumbling Toward Ecstacy. In conversation, Sarah is as outspoken as she is introspective, and her personality is as down-to-earth as her singing voice is angelic. Muse spoke to Sarah for our premier issue cover story as she waited to catch a flight to Germany from the East Coast.

Was performing on stage and being in the spotlight something you once dreamed about?

I think when I was seventeen, the first time I was up on stage and I was singing and I looked down and people were smiling and dancing… that is probably one of the highlights of my life. I remember that so vividly. And so I do love being up onstage and I love that adulation. I do. (laughing) I’d be stupid to say I didn’t. But at the same time, typically I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want to be able to take that hat off when I walk off stage and just be me again. It doesn’t work like that, and that’s been the wildest thing and the hardest thing to deal with. The more people who know me, or know my music, the less time I have to myself.

When you first started writing songs, were you surprised and impressed at what you could do? Did you say to yourself, “Wow, that’s really good!”?

I think I was more impressed when other people liked them. Because I was still in the place of really needing to be told I was OK. The songs were a part of me, so if the songs were OK, then I was OK, and I needed that. I still do to a certain degree, although now I know much more whether they’re good or not on my own.

Do you practice your chops on the guitar?

Ahh, chops… I don’t really have any chops! (laughs) I have my favorite voicings that I tend to go back to all the time if you can call those chops. I don’t really practice, I just play all the time.

I guess that is practice. And songwriting is such a craft in itself.

Yeah, that’s pretty separate from it. Although— it is and it isn’t. For me, songwriting is just completely instinctual. I just pick up an instrument and go. I’ll play and hum and sing, and things either come out or they don’t.

The album Fumbling Toward Ecstacy is so confident. The songs are very conversational, as though you were talking to a friend or writing a letter.

Well, they’re definitely strong conversations with myself. I think the albums have progressed in the sense that I’ve gotten to know myself a lot better. I think the songs will become stronger because the songs are me. The songs are about me trying to figure out myself to a large degree. Even if it’s putting myself into someone else’s shoes to portray a character, if I’m talking about a situation completely outside of myself, it’s how do I see this emotionally or how does this affect me. Am I saying something really tragic or funny or whatever. You relate everything to your own life first and foremost and then as you’’re dissecting it, you’’re trying to figure it out and relate it to your own past knowledge and understanding or lack of understanding.

I think it’s ironic that the album is called “Fumbling” because there is a real noticeable sense of confidence in everything. Even in the quality of the melodies.

Well, for me the whole album was about losing control; by learning so much control that I could completely lose myself and not be afraid. A lot of the time making the record was spent talking about the head-space that we were in and discussing ideas and just trying to be really strong and happy. When something was bothering us, we’d work through that before we started writing or recording, because we recorded everything basically, whatever came out. Often the first things that came out were the things that ended up on the record, whether it’s the first try at electric guitar or first piano take or first vocal take. In many instances, it’s the first dummy track. So it’s a real learning process for me to let go of editing myself, to let go of pre-thinking what I was doing, or listening to something for the wrong reasons versus the right reasons, and questioning that. So for that, there were a lot of mistakes that were made, but the mistakes were what made it great. You know, I wasn’t being a perfectionist anymore. I think a lot of art is done that way. In photography or whatever… you did the wrong film stop or whatever and the most beautiful picture in the world comes out of that mistake that you thought would be a total disaster.

Is the song sequence on the album something that you talked over with your producer Pierre Marchand?

Yeah. We made a lot of tapes, and did a lot of sequencing experiments, and played through them all to see what fit best. With Pierre and me it’s quite a strong collaborative effort from the beginning. You know, I write the basics of the songs, but I go in with him and they take shape.

You ended the album Solace with “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” It’s such a bright uplifting note.

Yeah, that wasn’t my idea.

Really?

Well, actually, putting it on the end of the record was my idea. Arista wanted it somewhere smack in the middle of the record. I recorded it for another reason altogether as part of a Donovan compilation, but they thought the record needed something hopeful… (laughs) so we compromised and I put it at the end. But I don’t think it makes much sense on the record personally.

It does stand alone in a way.

Yeah, I didn’t like it for that reason, but that’s just my own personal thing of wanting the record to be “this is what it is.” Yeah, it’s depressing, a lot of it, but…

The brightest song on the new album, “Ice Cream,” certainly comes before some pretty heavy songs that leave you feeling a certain way.

Yeah, because “Hold On” is one of the heaviest in my mind, and I had to counterbalance it by putting “Ice Cream” in there. I figured, “Ah, I gotta ease up a little there momentarily”. (laughs) But even “Ice Cream” has its pensive chorus. Like, “this is really amazing, but if we fuck it up, there’s a lot of hell to pay.”

From: https://museinterviews.com/index.php/2018/08/21/sarah-mclachlan-1995/

Page & Plant - When the Levee Breaks

No Quarter is a live album by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released by Atlantic Records on 31 October 1994. The long-awaited reunion between Jimmy Page and Robert Plant occurred on a 90-minute "UnLedded" MTV project, recorded in Morocco, Wales and London.
The reunion event notably lacked the presence of bassist and keyboardist, John Paul Jones, thus deviating from a comprehensive band reunion. Jones remained uninformed of this reunion by his former bandmates. Subsequently, Jones conveyed his discontent regarding the decision of Plant and Page to christen the album after "No Quarter", a track predominantly attributed to his compositional prowess.
In addition to acoustic renditions, the album features a reworking of Led Zeppelin songs featuring a Moroccan string band and Egyptian orchestra supplementing a core group of rock and roll musicians, along with four Middle-Eastern and Moroccan-influenced songs: "City Don't Cry", "Yallah" (or "The Truth Explodes"), "Wonderful One", and "Wah Wah".
Several years later, Plant reflected on the collaboration very positively:
The will and the eagerness with Unledded were fantastic and [Page] was really creative. Jimmy and I went in a room and it was back. His riffs were spectacular. To take it as far as we did, and the tour we did – it's one of the most ambitious and mind-altering experiences.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Quarter:_Jimmy_Page_and_Robert_Plant_Unledded

Wolf Alice - Freazy

In the dozen years since Wolf Alice first formed in London, England, the quartet has become one of the most beloved bands in the alternative rock scene. Known for their fearless live performances and intense, emotive, and highly melodic songs, they’ve earned rave reviews for their three EPs and three studio albums. Along the way, they’ve won some of the most prestigious music awards (Mercury Prize, Brit Awards, NME Awards), and been nominated for many more. Their successful streak continued when their latest album, 2021’s Blue Weekend, hit the top spot on the U.K. Albums Chart and landed on many year-end “best of” lists. With pandemic restrictions easing, the band is kicking off an extensive North American tour this month. Calling from England, frontwoman Ellie Rowsell discusses what it’s like to hit the road again, how she feels about receiving so many accolades, and her theories about why Wolf Alice inspires such fervent fandom.

How are you feeling as you’re about to set off on such an extensive run of tour dates?

ELLIE ROWSELL: I feel like it’s exciting every time. It will be nice to travel after so long being in one place, and to see different places and different people and play lots of shows. I think we’re going to a lot of places that we’ve not been before. I mean, we don’t get to see the places that much – you get there and you play a show and you leave – but you do what you can, and it’s quite a nice way of doing it. We’re playing a set at the moment which feels really good. It’s mostly Blue Weekend, but it’s got stuff from the other two albums, as well. I think we’re having a lot of fun performing. In England, we’ve got a really good light show, but I don’t think we can afford to bring that over to America. That’s a shame, but I think it will be a real performance-based show, which I actually think is better, in a way.

You seem to have an especially enthusiastic fan base. Why do you think that is?

ELLIE ROWSELL: I think one of the things is that we’ve never tried to be too cool. In the sense of, if you were to see us play absolutely awfully – it’s there on YouTube. We didn’t wait until we were really good to start playing shows – we just went out and did it. You can see us with all our awful haircuts and making fools of ourselves. And in a way, that makes people know we’re pretty normal. Maybe it’s that we’ve played a lot of shows. That’s the best way to connect with people. If you are lucky enough to be able to do that, then it’s a good way of building a fan base. It’s quite an organic way.

You’ve gotten a lot of big awards– what did you think when that started happening?

ELLIE ROWSELL: I think life goes on as normal, no matter how successful you are or what your job is. We all have these main concerns, like, “Are my family okay? Do my friends like me? Do I look okay?” We all have the same concerns, and life goes on as normal. When [awards first] happened I didn’t really understand what it meant. I still don’t really understand, but I think when you’re in a band it’s different than when you’re a solo artist because you’re four egos, and you ground each other. I think when the music takes precedence over everything else, that is mainly what grounds you.

How’d you know you should be a musician in the first place?

ELLIE ROWSELL: Well, I enjoyed it, is the main thing. I just went to gigs. I enjoyed watching music, and when I tried my own hand at it, it felt good. You can only go on that, really. And hopefully have people around you that can encourage you.

Wolf Alice has a pretty distinctive sound – how did you create that?

ELLIE ROWSELL: That’s very nice of you to say. I don’t know if it’s true. I feel like a lot of people will tell you that we sound like this, we sound like that. But I think we are steered by songwriting rather than what kind of band we want to be in. I don’t know if that was intentional. But if I am feeling inspired by metal, I will try my hand at metal. And if I am feeling inspired by anti-folk, I will try my hand at anti-folk, even though I am not in an anti-folk band, nor am I in a metal band. I think you let yourself be inspired by whatever. You don’t fall into a pigeonhole, which can be hard to get out of. It doesn’t make us unique, necessarily. But it allows you the freedom to explore, which is fun and good for an artist. If I make a demo of a song, and I want to listen to it a lot after it’s made, then that is a sign that I should proceed with the song. Because if I’m not obsessed with it, why would anyone else be? That’s it, really. That’s the only rule that I abide by consistently. There are always things that confuse me and make me feel some type of way that isn’t black and white – those things you write about because you can’t make sense of something. The process of making sense of it is interesting.

From: https://bigtakeover.com/interviews/InterviewEllieRowsellofWolfAlice

Buffalo Springfield - Rock And Roll Woman - Live 1967

1969.  I’m 20 years old, a junior at a large university in the Midwest, living in a loft near campus and having a good time:  avoiding classes, immersed in film, poetry, and herbs, but mostly immersed in The Music. Those were heady days indeed. Someone came up with the idea of starting an Open University, where people who wanted to teach would meet with people who wanted to learn, without credit. Learning for the sake of learning, one of those revolutionary 1969 concepts. I was asked to give a course in ‘The History of Rock Music’, which became quite a hit. I’d dude myself up in a paisley shirt with a clashing paisley tie, fluff up my jewfro, slip into my cowboy boots and go pontificate weekly in front of 100 rapt Eds and co-Eds. Today you toss an iPod or whatever they’re using today in the air and it’ll probably fall on someone who knows more about Stu Sutcliffe than I did then or do now. But then, by default and/or opportunism and/or cloistered adolescence, I was the Musical Guru of Clifton Avenue.
One day I got a call from SA, the Assistant Dean of the very reputable College Conservatory of Music, asking me to stop into his office. Ok, what did I do wrong now? He turned out to be short, bald, and charming. “I need to learn about this music. They tell me you’re the guy. So what we’re going to do is you’re going to sign up for Music Appreciation 101” (NO!) “but instead of going to classes we’ll meet once a week just the two of us” (Not before noon, ok?) “and have a mutual tutorial. I’ll teach you the fundamentals of classical music, you’ll teach me rock music.” (I guess.) “And I’ll give you an A for the class.” (YES!) It was a ruse. He didn’t teach me bubkis about classical music, which I regret even today. Could well be he tried, I admit. But what he was really there for was to pump my weed-addled brain, such as it was, about that music.
Jeff: “Here’s this group Buffalo Springfield. Very uneven, but some great stuff. Their main talent is a guy named Stephen Stills. This is his ‘Rock and Roll Woman.’”
SA: “Ah, that’s really great. You do realize that he’s juxtaposing two different scales against each other? (Sings the ‘La-la-la-la-la-la’ refrain.)
Jeff: “Um……”
For 45 years I’ve regretted not paying attention to SA’s explanation. So I took advantage of preparing for this posting by calling OG, the brainiest and talented-est musician I know. He’s 40, and I had the pleasure of introducing him to Buffalo Springfield when he was but a mere tyke. I called him yesterday, out of the blue. “Hey, OG, what key is ‘R&R Woman in?” Without pausing, he starts singing for me the melody line using the notes’ names instead of the lyrics.
OG: “D minor with an augmented 6th.  You know, the Dorian mode? But then it shifts into D major.”
JM: “Um….”
OG: “You know, like ‘Scarborough Fair’.” [Sings, note names instead of lyrics.] If it were a regular minor scale it would be [sings, with the 6th a half-step lower.] It’s a standard blues thing, where you play in major and sing in minor.”
JM: “Um…., sure.”
So I guess I had to wait 45 years to get thoroughly convinced that my Pooh brain ain’t ever gonna master musical theory to that extent. In my next incarnation, I am resolved to study at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. That’s a promise. But in this go-round, I guess all I’m going to get to do is nostalgize a bit about great songs like ‘Rock and Roll Woman’.
Buffalo Springfield was a flimsy amalgam of superegos, Stephen Stills (Louisiana), Neil Young (Canada), Richie Furay (Ohio) and Jim Messina (Texas). Based in LA, they hung together for a mere two years (from 1966) and three albums. The first is utterly forgettable except for the Hippie anthem ‘For What It’s Worth’. The second is their piece de resistance, including masterpieces from Furay (‘A Child’s Claim to Fame’), Young (‘Mr Soul’), and especially Stills (‘Everydays’, ‘Bluebird’, and our Song of The Week, ‘Rock and Roll Woman’.) The third is a collection of cuts recorded by individual members, some of them very fine (Stills’ ‘Pretty Girl Why’, ‘Questions’; Young’s ‘On the Way Home’, ‘I Am a Child’; Furay’s ‘It’s So Hard to Wait’).
Buffalo Springfield (the name refers to a company that manufactured steamrollers) existed in a perpetual state of adolescent identity crisis. The members squabbled, the group never really decided who it was. One cut is all Grateful Dead, the next quasi-Association. It’s not a multifaceted smorgasbord; it’s a coreless mashup. Their discography is as messy as the infamous Stills-Young relationship, leaving behind as many outtakes, studio demos and live recordings as Ghengis Khan did offspring. But, oh, what music they made on the way to their dissolution.
1964-65 were the years of the British Invasion. American rock only began to become relevant in 1966, with The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield on the West Coast and slightly earlier The Lovin’ Spoonful in New York. All three, but especially Buffalo Springfield can be legitimately credited with introducing country music into rock (as well as rich, complex harmonies). Of course The Beatles had done it first (like everything else), starting with ‘What Goes On’ as a novelty in 1964, moving into ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’ and ‘I’m Looking Through You’ in the 1965 Rubber Soul period. The Byrds were exploring the same material as Buffalo Springfield at the same time, but Jim McGuinn’s dominant personality instilled a more cohesive vision in their recordings. The Lovin’ Spoonful were, like the Springfield, a patchy group, but Sebastian had his head screwed on more tightly, was much more careful a craftsman than the Springfields, and created a more significant body of work.
Late one night a month before the Buffalo breakup, Stills recorded on a whim the fascinating “Just Roll Tape” which surfaced recently. Then in 1968 he joined up with David Crosby (ex-Byrds) and Graham Nash (ex-Hollies) to form Crosby, Stills and Nash, revolutionizing the aesthetic of popular music. Young recorded two solo albums before joining CS&N in 1969, initially adding a ‘why?’ to the group. Furay and Messina founded Poco. Later Messina joined up with Kenny Loggins, and Furay with J.D. Souther and ex-Byrd Chris Hillman.
At their best, Buffalo Springfield was unsurpassed in creating groundbreaking music as singer-songwriter rocker musicians par exellence. ‘Rock and Roll Woman’ is them at their best, even if you don’t know the Dorian mode from a Vanilla Fudge sundae. The lyrics were supposedly inspired by Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick, that coolest of rock and roll women. According to Stills, the song “came from jamming with David Crosby at his house. We got hung up on the F to D change in D-modal, which is mountain minor tuning. We kept playing it over and over and over again.”  From: https://jmeshel.com/198-buffalo-springfield-rock-and-roll-woman/

Children of the Sün - Emmy

I can just about say I was a child of the 70s, having been born 10 days before the decade ended. But since childhood I was always told I had an old head on my shoulders, too. So I class myself fully as a child of the 70s, and am very partial to some throwback psychedelia from those sunshine times of Hippies, flares, and out-there thinking. Luckily, Sweden’s Children of the Sün feel the same, despite only being youngsters! They’ve clearly got the same old head as me, and have managed to transport their sound perfectly back to those good old days, with their latest album release, “Leaving Ground, Greet The End”.
Album opener, ‘Sugar (Shape of a Gun)’ instantly sets the tone for the album.  A slightly fuzzed out tremelo guitar, and upbeat rhythms and bass sit below the floating vocals of leading lady Josefina Berglund Ekholm, with a shit ton of flange and echo thrown at it, and 60s/70s style harmonies. It conjures images of the hallowed fields of Woodstock ‘69, full of people smoking, dancing, plaiting flowers in their hair, and just having a great time. Their latest single, ‘Lilium,’ follows. This is a slower ballad, and interestingly the harmonies and general feel in this track almost make me burst into Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’. It’s a beautiful song that ebbs and swells, with an acoustic section that has all the elements of a campfire rendition, with the setting sun in the backdrop. We also get treated to more incredible vocals as the song draws towards an end. It’s just beautiful.
And this is very much how the album continues. It’s beautiful songwriting done in a cabin in the woods with good old-fashioned pen and paper, according to the press release! I’m a huge fan of this, and if I ever get a chance to sit down at the piano to play or write, technology is left to one side, because a pencil and manuscript is all you need. Understated but perfect performances from all musicians, harmonies aplenty, catchy melodies, chilled out vibes, and skillful observations give this band a huge amount of authenticity. There’s even a bit in ‘Come With Us’ that to my geek brain sounds like they’re about to launch into the Red Dwarf theme music, which gives them an extra mark from me!
They even chuck in a slowed down, and hippied-up version of Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ – I didn’t even think it would be possible to make this song more synonymous of it’s time, but clearly I was wrong. It’s genius! The final track on the album ‘Gateway,’ is just stunning. And I can hear so many of the greats in their early days coming through in this. The harmonies are absolutely beautiful, the semi-tonal descending switching from major to minor. I could listen to Children of the Sün all day, every day, and never get bored, so this is going to be my first, and quite possibly easiest, 10/10 score for 2025.  From: https://www.ever-metal.com/2025/01/14/children-of-the-sun-leaving-ground-greet-the-end/