iNFiNiEN - Beyond the Veil

Having been on the scene since at least 2009, the Philadelphia based iNFiNiEN has taken its sweet time in crafting its musical amalgamations that create the playground for progressive rock, jazz, soul, various styles of ethnic folk music as well as classical into an eclectic conglomeration all their own. This band has remained the constant quartet of Chrissie Loftus (vocals, piano & keyboards), Matt Hollenberg (guitars, saz, oud, electric sitar), Jordan Berger (electric & upright basses, sitar) and Tom Cullen (drums & percussion) and has only released three albums, the latest titled Beyond The Veil.
With a challenging angular time signature prowess oft reserved for the world of avant-prog, iNFiNiEN prove to be masters of blending challenging prog complexities with the sensual warmth of vocal jazz and Middle Eastern scales and rhythms fronted by the divine feminine charm of Chrissie Loftus whose vocal style delivers a softening effect to an otherwise complex wealth of prog influences battling it out behind the scenes. Beyond The Veil also features three guest musicians contributing violins, cello and flute. The album with eight tracks at just under 54 minutes provides an outstanding example of how to be original in the modern crowded world of progressive rock / jazz-fusion.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=76434

 

Blind Melon - No Rain

"No Rain" is a song by American rock band Blind Melon. It was released in 1993 as the second single from the band's debut album Blind Melon. The song is well known for its accompanying music video, which features the "Bee Girl" character. The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, received heavy airplay on MTV at the time of its release.
Although the song is credited to the whole band, bassist Brad Smith wrote most of "No Rain". He said: "The song is about not being able to get out of bed and find excuses to face the day when you have really, in a way, nothing." At the time, Smith had been dating a depressed woman who slept through sunny days and complained when it did not rain. For a while, he told himself that he was writing the song from her perspective, and later realized that he was also writing it about himself.
The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, stars Heather DeLoach as the "Bee Girl", a young tap dancer wearing a homemade bee costume and large glasses, modeled after the Blind Melon album cover: a family picture of Georgia Graham, younger sister of drummer Glen Graham. The Bee Girl's story is intercut with footage of Blind Melon performing in a field against a clear blue sky. 
It opens on the girl's tap routine; the audience responds with mocking laughter, and the girl runs off-stage in tears. As the song plays, she wanders through Los Angeles, stopping to perform her dance for whoever will watch, but she still feels alone. Ultimately, at the point in the song where the word "escape" is repeated, she peeks through a gate, which elicits a look of astonishment on her face, then runs through it to join a group of "bee people" just like her, dancing joyfully in a green field. As a result of the video, DeLoach appeared on the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards doing her "Bee Girl" dance to close the show, and also appeared as the "Bee Girl" in the video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Bedrock Anthem”. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Rain

 

Kabbalah - Ceibas

If you’ve been keyed in to the doom-stoner scene in Spain, Kabbalah needs no introduction.   I suspect, however, there are many for which this is a new name.   The Pamplona threesome is the brainchild of Carmen (drums) and Marga (bass), formerly of local rock 'n’ rollers Las Culebras.   As fun as that collaboration was, the pair hungered to delve into darker realms of witchcraft and the forbidden arts.   Inspired by retro heavy psych, they released their eponymous debut in 2013.   Two years later, Alba joined the team, adding a new dimension of bad-ass with those wicked guitar licks.   Clearly, Kabbalah was evolving into something very special, already evident by their subsequent record, 'Primitive Stone’ (2015). 
But nothing could have prepared us for the punctuated equilibrium of a leap forward that led to 'Revelations’ (2016).   With a clever blend of seventies stoner rock, catchy sixties-inspired choruses, a dark, Sabbathian undertone, and hints of the traditional music of the region, Kabbalah etched out a distinctive sound that made me an immediate fan (the closest point of comparison I could think of was West Virginia’s Brimstone Coven, with notable differences).  From: https://doomedandstoned.com/post/159303473023/kabbalah

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor - She Makes a Great Parade / It's Good to be Alive

Since forming in 2005, the artists formerly known as SikSik Nation have built a homegrown following based on the strength of their trippy live shows. Now the band returns with a new LP of psychedelically seductive rock 'n' roll, complete with a gender-bending name change to go along with it. Rechristened Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, the new name (which perhaps fairly invokes fellow stoner rockers Queens of the Stone Age) coincides with their self-titled re-debut, recorded and mixed in the band's new home studio in Ypsilanti. Although it's garnished with plenty of studio effects and guitar noodling, the songs never abandon their organic quality; in other words, unlike most every other heavy-hitter in this genre, the material doesn't slip into some kind of super-spacey cosmic jamming. 
The band also never ceases to sound like a trio. Although they sound huge on songs like the opener "Lord Is My Gun," with its monster organ-riff and creepy background tremolo vocals, there remains a stripped-down quality to all these songs, led by frontman Sean Morrow's ragged, almost bluesy vocals. And while everything on the record shares the same dark, psychedelic elements, there's is dynamism: "Spaceman Blues" creeps up on the listener, building its sparse beginnings into a full-on freak-out, while "Victims of Momentum" immediately hits full force with a dancey bassline and hi-hat added to the mix. As a listening experience, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor should connect with the seemingly disparate crowds of both garage and the more technically inclined Guitar Center lurkers.  From: https://www.metrotimes.com/music/sisters-of-your-sunshine-vapor-2288334

 

Goat – Fill My Mouth

A reputation for fashioning heady, world music influenced rhythms and an innate effusion of fuzz-tinged riffs, making for practical infestations of earworms, has always prevailed – and in fact grown ever more feverish – with the mere whisper of psych deities Goat. However, their latest outdoes even that majestic reputation.
Taken from their upcoming career-wide compilation, taking in their obscurities and beloved standalone singles, Fill My Mouth is the second of two brand new Goat concoctions (after the excoriating psych-splendour of Queen of the Underground) on the album. Both tracks were recorded in 2020 – audial proof, if it were needed, that the band’s blazing creative onslaught continues to spread across the global musical sphere. Fill My Mouth buoys incredible folk, flute infusions with their immediately recognisable scuzzy, psych instrumentation.  From: https://www.backseatmafia.com/track-goat-follow-up-grand-return-with-fill-my-mouth-their-sleaziest-recording-yet/

Dr. John - Live Ultrasonic Recording Studios, Hampstead, NY 1973

01 Loop Garoo
02 Walk On Gilded Splinters
03 Danse Kalinda da Boom
04 Stag-O-Lee
05 Travelin' Mood
06 Junco Partner
07 Life
08 Put a Little Love in Your Heart
09 Tipitina
10 Mess Around
11 I've Been Hoodooed
12 Such a Night
13 Right Place, Wrong Time
14 Let the Good Times Roll
15 Wang Dang Doodle
16 Mama Roux
17 Qualified
18 Little Liza Jane
19 Mama Don't Allow No Dr John in Here

The discovery of a long-lost FM radio broadcast of the Doc and The Rampart Sympathy Orchestra caught in full effect by WLIR at an intimate venue in Hempstead, NY (Long Island) would be cause for celebration in those quarters where Mac Rebennack’s name is revered, but the quality of the performance and the breadth of material on offer make it doubly delightful.
Starting with night-tripping versions of Loop Garoo and I Walk On Gilded Splinters, Mac and a cast including John Boudreaux, future Crusader Robert Popplewell, Sugar Bear Welch and the horn tag-team of Darrell Leonard and Jerry Jummonville are perfectly equipped to branch into the contemporary pieces he was creating with Allen Toussaint. Life, Such A Night and the funked-up Right Place Wrong Time sound as crisp as they should – newly minted masterpieces. The return journey via Mama Roux and Qualified are pure groove from the depths of the Garden District. It’s all highlights, but the priceless moments include Rebennack strapping-up his guitar for Wang Dang Doodle and laying down a definitive (Come On) Let The Good Times Roll. This’ll make your black candles flicker.  From: https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/at-the-ultrasonic-studios-the-lost-broadcast-new-york-1973 

Melody's Echo Chamber - I Follow You

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I guess I usually feel the rush to create when there is an emotional overflow. For me, mostly, the tension of disenchantment triggers the mechanic as I try to re-enchant my own world. I feel like stimulating creativity gets the psyche flowing. It's like a breather in your brain. I love to use music to create unknown landscapes, other worlds I can go to wander. Like everyone else gently mad, I have millions of ideas flying by. And then only a couple get materialized, thank god!

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? 

I think it's all imprinted and dancing in your cells; the landscapes, the emotions, the poetry you've fed your mind and body with through the years. I feel like they naturally shape what you create. For Emotional Eternal, the process started in a cathartic momentum, a kind of spiritual experience. From there, I think, I did envision the clear idea of a simple and essential turn in the elaboration of this album. It was probably a counter-reaction to the previous album's delirium. I do have sonic visions for sure and then sometimes it happens or it doesn't Sometimes reality transcends the imaginary, like the strings on Alma - the Voyage for example, When Josephin Runsteen recorded the strings guided by Fredrik Swanh and Reine Fiske without me, it just surpassed my expectations, resembling something like felicity. 

What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I can say for sure that I always want to create space for chance to happen. But this time, only into very structured frames of time. It actually worked out being as inspiring if not more for us to have a sort of time guardrail. But we still worked madly to make it sound as natural as though it had come about by chance. We found an equilibrium on Emotional Eternal. 

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

Yes of course, I have been obsessing about my vocal sound settings from the debut album onward. I actually had to record all my vocals into the mac microphone to use that effect on my computer instead of using Swahn's great mics. He wasn't that happy about it but we always adapt to each other's oddities. In the studio it was coffee and a lot of smoking for me. Swahn makes his studio very cozy with all his Swedish tricks. Reine has his favorite music baths to get in the right moods. 

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own? 

I think for me it mostly comes from the rhythm and flow of the song. When it's a lot of words, syncopated, lyrics come easier from the French source. When it's a floaty melody, in English. But I love the mystery with languages. I think each language has its poetry and it's so strange that you still feel the emotion even if you don't get the lyrics. I get that feeling with Özdemir Erdoğan's songs in Turkish. I later read the translation and realized why they were resonating with me so much. 

From: https://15questions.net/interview/melodys-echo-chamber-shares-her-creative-process/page-1/ 

Thumpermonkey - Abyssopelagic

1) The last full length release was back in 2012, so what have you guys been up in the interim?

Working very, very slowly on a new album, though it is pretty much complete now. Additionally, a lot of the last year has been spent concentrating on making sure that we have a good strategy for its release. Sel Balamir of Amplifier is going to be putting out the album on his new ‘Rockosmos’ label, so we’re all super excited to finally share it. Rockosmos has also just put out a 4 track EP called ‘Electricity’.

2) Where did the inspiration for ‘Electricity’ come from?

We’d played the new songs to Sel that we wanted to release as an album, and while he was really into the vibe, he felt that he’d like us to produce an EP quickly to help consolidate the identity of the label and ease new fans into what we do. So the initial ‘inspiration’ was basically Sel saying ‘write a load of new songs!’ This was a totally different approach to how we’d written the upcoming album – it’s the fastest we’ve ever written new material.
A lot of inspiration came after we settled on the EP’s front cover image – I’d been trawling through the British Library archives looking for ideas, and the image of a pith-helmeted englishman getting blown up by his experiments, (in this instance, trying to use electricity to ‘transform babylon’), stood out. We already had the shells of songs by this point, but the image suggested new themes to me – ancient civilisations, colonial arrogance, religion – that kind of stuff. These ideas seemed to naturally worm their way into the lyrics.

3) How do you write and compose your songs? And are there any specific influences on your writing style?

It’s a very democratic process. What normally happens is that everyone produces scores and scores of demos that eventually get whittled down to a shortlist that everyone is happy to experiment further with. There’s very little jamming, really. One of us will end up taking a demo, mutating it into something else, and then if everybody is into it, we’ll start trying to learn it and refine it in a rehearsal space. We’re big fans of the Immersion Composition Technique – also known as the ‘20 song game’, where everyone in the band is forced to write 20 songs in one day, and then meet to see if there are any bits worth keeping. You can check out www.ics-hub.org for more information about this way of writing.

4) Since your last release the industry has moved apace, are you fans of streaming or do you prefer the physical release?

I think it’s not worth getting too attached to a particular delivery method – I think bands just need to canvas the opinion of their fan-base and see what they are into. What we have learned, (and I don’t know if this is specific to the genre of music we’re making), is that there’s certainly a desire for physical product not to disappear completely. We get a lot of requests to reprint old albums and EPs that have been only available digitally for the last few years, so we promise we’ll try and get round to that!

5) Is there a new album due soon?

Yes indeed – now that the EP is out of the way, the next few months are going to be about getting an album release date set – the album is called ‘Make Me Young, Etc’, and will be released in 2018.

6) In the digital age how important do you see the role of social media in promotion?

I know many bands are frustrated by having to engage in advertising on social media platforms, and it’s easy to focus on the negative, but it really is critical I think. While you are fighting against a certain amount of white noise due to the sheer volume of people competing for attention, it’s worth stopping and reflecting on how these platforms offer you the opportunity to connect with people who otherwise never would have heard your music.

7) any further live dates planned?

We’re playing at the ‘8 Years of Chaos’ all day-er on Feb 3rd at The Brewhouse, London – Chaos Theory is our favorite promoter, and it will be great to play alongside all the other excellent bands that Kunal has picked from nearly a decade of bonkers shows. We’re also looking at dates outside of London as well.

8) Who are your favourite artists/bands?

We don’t all agree on the same influences, but generally speaking we’ve got a lot of time for Shudder to Think, Magma, King Crimson, Deerhoof, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Scott Walker’s recent output.

9) Can you recommend any up and coming bands to us?

Most recently I’ve been really getting into Charlie Cawood’s lush instrumental solo album ‘The Divine Abstract’, (Charlie is the bass player for old label-mates Knifeworld, as well as being a multi instrumentalist in about 20 other bands). Here’s hoping he figures out how to perform it live I’ve also been enjoying recent releases by Yowie (“Synchromysticism”), and Strobes (“Brokespeak”).

10) What question would you like to be asked in an interview that you never have been? (And what would be your answer).

I’d like somebody to ask me about my constant inclusion of references to Aztec theology in Thumpermonkey song lyrics. My answer would be very long.

11) Vinyl. Yes or No and why?

Sure – why not! Our upcoming album is hopefully going to have a vinyl release. I’m not one to spend too much time engaging in discussions about the perceived positive or negative aspects of a specific format – a substantial amount of our fans have asked for vinyl version, and all I’m concerned about it that this sounds like a lot of fun. I’m personally looking forward to seeing the artwork in a larger format as well. If enough people demanded our album on a 90 min cassette, I’d be happy to consider it. Maybe not minidisc though. Or wax cylinder.

From: https://www.progradar.org/index.php/2018/01/09/interview-with-thumpermonkey-by-james-r-turner/ 

 

Marisa & The Moths - Get It Off My Chest

ReturnToSound: “A great show at The Green Door Store, though it all started off with a little bit of technical difficulties and you probably had to adapt. I think you had to go acoustic a little bit early in the set, didn't you?
 
Marisa Rodriguez: “Yeah, that's never happened before so that was an interesting one, so basically Myke Gray was stepping in for Alez (D’Elia). It was his first time doing it and he brought his amp and it just broke. It was working and then it broke a minute beforehand. It's annoying because we prep for so long, we make sure this stuff's working, but you just can't predict if something's gonna break that's of no age”.

RTS: “There was a period when everyone was trying to go wireless, but everyone's gone back to good old plug it in with dodgy cables because it's rock ‘n’ roll isn't it?”

MR: “I actually feel differently. I've had less issues since using wireless than when I had cables because I no longer trip over them and actually, we fit my pedal board - because there's quite a lot of pedals - into a flight case where our in-ear system is then no one touches it. All of the leads that connect it were custom-made, so it lives in the drawer, and nobody touches it. I've also had an amp die at a gig as well, but I was like fuck it, I’ll just do it with lead guitar, bass and drums, it's fine I just won't play - it's fine. The good thing about that experience was that I realised that I didn't have to play a guitar in every song and that's why we are doing what we're doing now. It's meant that we can elevate our live performance more. I feel like there's a silver lining when things go wrong sometimes”.

RTS: “That's the experience you pick up playing live on the road. Those scary moments test you and like you say something good may come out of it”.

MR: “Definitely. I mean there’s nothing scarier than everything going off on stage and everyone just looking at you like “dance monkey”. I actually found out recently that I have ADHD, which makes a lot of sense for how I think I react to certain life scenarios. When small things happen, I can freak out more than a normal person but when under severe pressure, or in a really bad situation I can be the calm one. I'm like, right, how are we gonna deal with this? So I think maybe that part of my personality comes in handy.”

RTS: “You've actually been diagnosed? Though I don't know how you test for conditions like ADHD to be honest, what did you go through if you don't mind me asking?”

MR: “It was a psychiatrist in the private NHS sector. I was basically struggling with a lot of things that other people didn't seem to be struggling with and I've been struggling since I was at school. I just thought that maybe I was stupid or something, so if I struggled, I just kept quiet about it. I've actually just realised that I've spent my whole life bullying myself for being me when there's nothing wrong with me, my brain just works differently and actually I think I excel at certain things that other people wouldn't because of my brain being the way it is. I think, if you have the knowledge, that knowledge is power and if you understand how you work, you can accept it. You can double down on the things that you're good at and try to work on the things that you're not, rather than just beating yourself up for it. They're talking about this a lot more now especially for women, because they're now calling women with ADHD the lost generation. It shows completely differently in women than guys, that's the reason why they couldn’t be tested for it before because when they were studying people with ADHD, they only studied boys, so it's only recently that they have done something about it. So, yeah, to be honest I just wanted to know that I wasn't mental (with a chuckle)”.

RTS: “Haha, yeah, I think as you get older, I'm not calling you older in any way, but you learn more about your personal qualities and your imperfections. That's part of growing up, I think when you're very young, as you say, you may get mixed up and it can be very hard. It has probably given you some sort of release to know?”

MR: “I just wish that I had done it sooner, but I believed that in my head it was like, well … that's just the naughty boys at school that didn't get good grades or try hard, because I had to try hard. I struggled but it was like I had to get good grades, and I had to do what it took to get the good grades. It's just different. I think they said that women tend to internalise it more and mask it better than boys do.”

RTS: Has this played into your lyrics and song writing?

MR: “I didn't actually find out about the ADHD until after our recent album releases. It’s totally given a different meaning to a bunch of my lyrics and makes me think… oh yeah, this all makes sense now.  Obviously, I write a lot about mental health and my experience of being in an abusive or toxic relationship. I think having undiagnosed ADHD may have affected my relationships and the choices of people I’ve been with. They weren't good choices, let's put it that way. They weren't very kind to me, but I think maybe I don't realise that I have a PP (people-pleasing) nature myself and maybe I could have gotten out of those situations more easily rather than just thinking there's something wrong with me all the time and thinking that I had to fix it because it was my responsibility, as it must be my fault.”

RTS: “It seems that you have come to a place where you can please yourself, you can now demonstrate to others who you are? Fate is taking you into the right place to be yourself in front of a band?”

MR: “Definitely yeah, everything happens for a reason, I really feel that. I’m still human, though, and have my bad days like everyone else. In Brighton I kind of touched on that fact, I was very open about the fact that I had a bad day. I know it sounds random maybe but part of me was like, oh no, did I bring this chaos with me BECAUSE I was having a bad day. I was just a bit overwhelmed. But it happens to us all, right?

RTS: “You have the band around you, they look like they back you both in musical and mental terms?”

MR: “Absolutely! We're all really good mates. We all have our strong points and our weaker points but, yeah, we're a really good team and we all get on and have a laugh.”

From: https://www.returntosound.co.uk/features-and-interviews/marisa-rodriguez-from-marisa-and-the-moths-explains-life-on-the-road-in-an-honest-interview

Poco - What If I Should Say I Love You

From the Inside is Poco's most unusual record, and one the band -- especially founder Richie Furay, whose songs were sort of pushed into the background -- finally didn't like all that much. But it was a very good one anyway, produced in Memphis by guitar legend Steve Cropper and featuring the group generating a leaner, more stripped-down, somewhat bluesier sound. The harmonies are less radiant and the guitars more subdued, and the spirits also a little more low-key than usual. But the sound they get is still appealing, the singing more reflective and a little bit closer to R&B than to the post-Byrds country-rock for which they were known -- the songs are pretty, and in listening terms George Grantham's drums and Timothy B. Schmit's bass are nice and upfront in the mix, and the guitars have a really close presence, even if they are turned down.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/from-the-inside-mw0000268643#review  

Laüsa - La-Baish A La Ribera

Laüsa [lahuzo] means in Gascon: “A glowing piece that moves away from a fire, or that springs from the friction of two units.” Laüsa is a musical journey through songs, which draws its identity from the Gascon musical tradition and takes a detour here and there. Their music is multifaceted, open and generous: we hear Mediterranean and Atlantic influences, as well as sounds borrowed from modern music. Rich texts and personal compositions, as well as a repertoire that is the result of carefully selected collections: Laüsa offers a fresh perspective on traditional music. Lolita Delmonteil Ayral: accordion, vocals Camille Raibaud: violin, mandolin, vocals Julien Estèves: bouzouki, tenor guitar, vocals Juliette Minvielle: vocals, percussion.  Translated from: https://www.balfolk.nl/bands/lausa-fr/ 

Led Zeppelin - Black Country Woman

When Led Zeppelin entered the studio in January 1974 to record what would become Physical Graffiti, they wound up with just over three sides of material for a four-sided double LP. They reached back into their archives for previously recorded but unreleased material. This is one of the main reasons why, even though Physical Graffiti has some serious moments of brilliance, as an album it is kind of disjointed.
One of the tracks they decided to use was Black Country Woman, which was originally recorded with a mobile unit in 1972 in the garden at Mick Jagger’s estate, Stargroves. The song was intended for Houses of the Holy and was originally titled Never Ending Doubting Woman Blues. Although never acknowledged by the band, one of the reasons the track was likely left off Houses of the Holy was the unfortunately timed flyby of a private airplane.  From: https://us.kef.com/blogs/news/did-you-hear-that-led-zeppelin-black-country-woman?srsltid=AfmBOooxNUYq98XVLQj_v-yUkBsSJbTwTbXw29bMBQdxxUiN6dc-KxV5

Lais - After the Goldrush (Neil Young cover)

Having seen Laïs live at the Tilburg International Folk Festival in January, I was in a way impressed: a group of three pretty girls with gorgeous voices, bringing with them in concert a folk rock band, but presenting themselves in a very professional and attractive way, comparable to rock/pop bands - a high potential for stardom. Still they find the time to start the whole set with a capella folk singing in front of big audiences. Maybe the music style they do is not really new but their appeal definitely: young, charming, yet the right appeal to attract the masses. Just the right stars to lead the folk music to new audiences and new grounds... 
So how did the Laïs success story start - and why with folk singing? All three of them had no background in traditional singing - "traditional singing does not exist in Belgium", as Jorunn says. Yet she has a family background in folk music, with her father playing the accordeon. Laïs started five years ago, in a small village near Brussels called Gooik, being famous for its folk music courses. "I have come to these courses since I was a little child. So I brought on Annelies once, in 1996. On the last evening, everyone started singing with each other; and we started singing and everyone was quiet and listening. That was the start. Among the listeners were some members of Kadril, and they said we had to go on and rehearse." 
The core of Laïs' repertoire are traditional Flemish songs; so if there is no traditional singing these days in Belgium, where are these songs from? "The texts are from old books. The melodies and the arrangements we make ourselves." It is not too difficult to find those books and songs; they have bought quite a few books in second hand bookshops: "There are a lot of texts that nobody ever used, so we have plenty of texts. These songs are usually not sung in Belgium these days." 
Laïs only sing a part of their songs in Flemish; they add to their repertoire French chansons from Brel, English pop songs by Sinead O'Connor, trad songs from Italy and Sweden. As Marc Bekaert of the Flemish Magazine T'Bourdonske puts it, "they seem to fit in a Pan European influenced movement. This generation grew up with lots of compact discs from all different styles and regions. There are only some vague Flemish roots, and the fact that the performers are Flemish people. But their international success did draw the attention to the growing Flemish scene."  From: http://www.folkworld.eu/14/e/lais.html 

Mu - Make A Joyful Noise

If you’re feeling lost, depressed or brought down by life’s humdrum reality, a good cure is to give Mu a listen. Much of the music on these pages carries a certain amount of — weight. Which is fine if you want to get out there on the perimeter. What Mu does, though, is like a warm gentle breeze blowing through your soul, a spiritual spring clean.
All the members of Mu had been in LA pop bands at some time during the early 60s, oriented towards surf with Beatles and Byrds influences. Fapardokly was an album collection of these early efforts released only in LA and copies used to change hands for up to $2000 among collectors, such was the aura surrounding it. Fankhauser was in the Surfaris, and I think it is his voice that can be heard laughing maniacally at the beginning of Wipeout. Cotton landed a gig in Beefheart’s Magic Band, playing on Strictly Personal and Trout Mask Replica. Many chapters have been written about the influence of this latter album on rock, one of the most surreal, jagged episodes ever in music, and Cotton was a key part of the creation process. 
So … surf meets Beefheart. They recorded a promising first album in LA, then decamped to Hawaii where they embraced a blissed-out lifestyle of vegetarianism, flying saucer watching, study of the lost Pacific continent of Mu and creating gentle, organic music. The CD reissue on Sundazed contains the first album, the second, only released locally at the time, plus singles.  From: https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/reviews/mu-end-of-an-era

Joan Osborne – Dracula Moon

 

Joan Osborne is a crazy chick. At least, this seems to be the consensual view in the more retro and retarded areas of rock culture, as in the latest issue of Q magazine, where she's listed in that category alongside musicians such as Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow. When she released her debut single earlier this year, One Of Us, "kooky" was the word applied to its lyric lines, "What if God was one of us/Just a slob like one of us?" Crazy? Kooky? That sure seems to be the way rock'n'roll now seeks to define, deny, reduce and potentially limit the latest breed of female singer songwriters, as happened roughly three years ago when a similar label was slapped on that other magnificent triumvirate Tori Amos, PJ Harvey and Bjork. But it ain't gonna work, boys.
Crazy? I might be slowly approaching that state, but I wasn't when we recorded that song!" Joan responds, speaking on the phone from Nevada. "But that kind of stuff has probably been, historically, a way to marginalise somebody who has a view that may be a little bit threatening. Yet I don't let it bother me too much. I don't think most people think I'm crazy."
Or if they do, clearly Joan Osborne is not alone. The mere fact that One of Us has spent the last three months in the Irish Top 30 would suggest that there are many people in this country who are tuning into her God/slob question at some intrinsic level, as though it tapped right into the core of some religious zeitgeist. That definitely seems to be the case in America, where this 33 year old "lapsed Catholic" has discovered that women, in particular, seem to cheer deliriously when she sings that line in concert, from a song she describes as "relatively light hearted" but "asking some pretty fundamental questions about what you believe in terms of God and the universe and all that".
Equally, Osborne's glorious, Grammy nominated album, Relish, reflects her own current obsession with what she calls the "concept of falling from grace" and even more sinfully, perhaps, relishing that descent, as in the song Dracula Moon where she sings "I'm naked in a hotel room/making out with my one true love/You say, come back home/I say I'm just falling from grace/I said, I like falling from grace.
"It's not that I'm subscribing to falling from grace as necessarily a way to self discovery it just seems that in religious fundamentalist culture there is this picture of a spiritual person as being something of a child, a sheep following orders and that this is the only way to get into heaven," she elaborates. "I rejected that a limited perspective. I believe you can be a really spiritual person and still be in touch with your own intellect, sexuality and free will all the things that make you a human being."  From: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/not-quite-saint-joan-1.58361

Country Joe & The Fish - Silver and Gold

How Country Joe & the Fish got their name: As their original guitarist/organist David Bennet Cohen tells it:
“Joe McDonald and E.D. [Eugene Denson, the band’s friend/manager] were sitting around E.D.’s cottage in Berkeley trying to think up a name for the group. As they both had revolutionary tendencies, they wanted a name reflecting their political position. Leafing through Chairman Mao Tse Tung’s ‘Little Red Book’ when E.D. found the phrase, ‘The revolutionary is a fish that swims in the sea of the people.’ From that came ‘Country Mao and the Fish.’ But Joe said it might cause confusion as America didn’t recognize Red China. So, E.D. suggested ‘Country Joe and the Fish, with ‘Joe’ being Josef Stalin.”
“Joe’s approach was…profoundly cerebral. His concept was basically to get a few people around and make something happen,” lead guitarist Barry “The Fish” Melton explains.
“None of us were professional musicians, except maybe for David, who came from New York. [Drummer Gary] Chicken Hirsh was somewhat professional, but only because he was a few years older than the rest of us.”
“When I got to California in 1965 I had been playing guitar, mostly folk songs,” Cohen said.
“I didn’t decide to buy an electric guitar until after seeing the Beatles’ movies. They finally got me to accept rock ‘n’ roll. I had been really opposed to it before that. I started hanging around the guitar shops and a few small local clubs called the Jabberwock and the Questing Beast, where we’d perform for $5 and food. The Jabberwock had an old beat-up piano and Barry went nuts over my boogie-woogie playing on songs like ‘St. Louis Blues.’ Country Joe wanted an organ player in the group after Highway 61 came out and Barry told him that I played.”
“Church organs were really big intimidating instruments, with all those pedals. I’d never played organ before, but I wanted the gig,” Cohen said with a laugh. “So, the band got me a Farfisa organ. I had no idea what I was doing. None of us did! We were just making up this music, creating a sound and then it became real. Later the reviews said I had ‘a unique style.’ But I was just copying my own guitar riffs!”
“We’d been a jug band but we didn’t play in a conventional way,” Melton said. “We were doing something new. We deliberately walked a different path. It wasn’t like we discussed it. We bridged folk and jazz with bluegrass, country and blues. It was an improvisational folk music, like what the Grateful Dead exploited commercially. When you’re creating something new you can’t be held to any standard of criticism.”
Just six weeks after the band formed they decided to record an EP comprised of three songs, and released it on the obscure Rag Baby label, as no record companies were pounding on their door…yet. The disc included three tracks that would soon appear on their debut album: “Section 43,” “Bass Strings,” and “Love.”
“We weren’t even sure we were going to remain a band for very long, but we wanted to make a record,” Cohen said. “The EP came out surprisingly good.” Soon after the band signed with Vanguard Records.  From: https://observer.com/2017/05/country-joe-the-fish-electric-music-for-the-mind-and-body-anniversary-review/

Aretha Franklin - Swing In - Germany 1968

It's frustrating how little well recorded live soul music there is from the 1960s and 1970s. Even for big names like Aretha Franklin, you're lucky if you get an official live album or two, usually short and flawed, and quality bootlegs are extremely rare. But this is one of those nice rare instances. Franklin became a big star in 1967, and arguably had an even bigger year in 1968. A lot of Europeans discovered American soul music in the late 1960s. When soul stars toured Europe then, they usually were surprised by the size and passion of the fans there. Franklin was so big in 1968 that she was given her own entire episode of a German TV show called "Swing In."
This show has its plusses and minuses. A minus is that there was a very talkative MC who spoke in German a lot. He also did a short interview with Franklin right in the middle of the show (with everything being painstakingly translated in German and English in real time). One other minus is that Franklin pretty much never says a word between songs. I'm guessing this is because she surmised the German audience wouldn't understand her, as well as the fact that she only had an hour for the concert and couldn't afford to waste any time.  
One minus is also a plus in the sense that the German audience was unusually polite and subdued for a soul music audience at the time. They were even subdued compared to other European audiences, because one can see video on YouTube of a much more lively Aretha Franklin concert in Amsterdam in 1968. But this is a plus because one can clearly hear the music instead of lots of screaming and cheering. Also, it's a big plus that the recording exists at all, since this sort of soul bootleg from the time is so rare.  From: http://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/04/aretha-franklin-swing-in-wdr-studio-l.html

Sweet Pill - Starchild EP (full album)

Philadelphia emo rockers Sweet Pill have readied their most recent EP, Starchild. Their debut for Hopeless Records will drop on March 15, 2024. The band's new four-track EP is a poignant and introspective exploration of battling anxieties, your inner voice, navigating life's transitions, and battling against a world that always seems to be against you. The band, consisting of vocalist Zayna Youssef, guitarists Jayce Williams and Sean McCall, bassist Ryan Cullen, and drummer Chris Kearney, delivers their most masterful and vulnerable work yet on Starchild.
The title track, "Starchild," opens up the effort and is a standout moment, serving as an ode to undervaluing oneself and the pressures of people-pleasing. Youssef's introspective lyrics and emotive delivery make this song a powerful and relatable anthem for anyone grappling with self-worth.
"Chewed Up," following "Starchild," takes a slightly more aggressive musical approach, mirroring the intrusive thoughts that plague the mind at night. It's a plea for assertiveness and self-advocacy, a call to break free from personal downfall and speak up for oneself. Whereas "Eternal" is a slower number showing the band's dynamic side. The music is slow and melodic, but every word Youssef sings cuts like a hot knife.
Throughout Starchild, Sweet Pill's musicianship shines, with dynamic instrumentals that perfectly complement Youssef's raw and emotive vocals that help her vocals soar. The EP's production is crisp, allowing each instrument to stand out while maintaining a cohesive sound from the start of "Starchild" all the way to the end of the closing number "Sympathy."
Overall, Starchild is a testament to Sweet Pill's growth and maturity as a band. It's a must-listen for fans, both old and new, showcasing the band's evolution and cementing their status as one of the most promising alternative acts of the moment.  From: https://www.crucialrhythm.com/sweet-pill-starchild-review

Temples - Shelter Song

British neo-psychedelic band Temples combine a trippily retro approach with classic pop craftsmanship, though they aren't afraid to stretch the fuzzy boundaries of their chosen sound. The group debuted a core style of chiming guitars, tight harmonies, and an easygoing T. Rex-inspired boogie on 2014's Sun Structures, an album that gained the band a following that expanded beyond neo-psych circles. Nonetheless, Temples found themselves at the forefront of a miniature psychedelic revival, along with fellow travelers King Gizzard and Tame Impala. Their guiding principles stayed firmly intact, even when exploring synth-heavy territory as they do on 2017's Volcano, or giving their sound a sonic glow up courtesy of a Dave Fridmann mix on 20223's Exotico.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/temples-mn0003051049#biography 

Royal Thunder - Fade

“I want to tell my story and I want to be honest,” Royal Thunder singer/bassist Mlny Parsons says after I offer her the opportunity to tell me if there’s anything she’d rather keep private from the hour-long conversation we have. “My father killed himself in 2017. He overdosed and I still haven’t dealt with it. I haven’t really touched that. I forgave. I get it – mental health, life falling apart, addiction.” Parsons shares this story, as well as revealing her own struggles with addiction and how she’s come through on the other side, in hopes that other people who are experiencing similar issues don’t feel so alone. While those addictions were present during the making of Royal Thunder’s fourth album, Rebuilding the Mountain, Parsons says she considers February 1, 2023 to be the start of a new, positive chapter in her life. As with most of us, the pandemic had some negative mental health side effects on Parsons and her bandmate, and ex-husband, guitarist Josh Weaver. The two had been slumbering along with fill-in drummers after Evan Diprima left suddenly while on tour in 2018 and, while battling their own demons, were reaching a crossroads in their musical career when they were hit with another blow – a global pandemic. If there’s a silver lining for Royal Thunder, it’s that Diprima came back to the band and the reunion inspired the trio to start working on new material. 

2020 happens and we’re all in a bad place – the country, the world, politics, Covid. Had you started working on new music?

MLNY: It’s weird how quick we are to punish ourselves when we lose something. I don’t know what’s in that. I went through a thing where I didn’t want to hear music. I didn’t care if there was something brand new that came out and everybody was like, “Have you heard it?” and I was like, “No, and I don’t care. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care about my favorite album that I’ve been listening to since 1992.” I didn’t enjoy anything. I was very suicidal, depressed, confused. I felt just naked as fuck and ugly inside and I didn’t have an outlet or anything. It was not a good time. I threw myself at self destruction. I was just like, “I’m going to fucking hide. I’m just going to bury my head and make this worse.” It felt so bad to not have it anymore. I wonder what’s in that? Maybe it’s an excuse to be like, “Everything’s fucked up and it’s gone.” And it was my excuse to be like, “I’m going to drink this whiskey at 9am because look what’s happening. Everything’s fucked, so fuck it.” It was just a good excuse to not give a shit and I really didn’t.

If this is not too personal of a question, how were you able to get out of that hole you were in?

MLNY: I barely made it out. I didn’t make it out until February 1 of this year. I was sober when we were making the album but that was a good behavior. Show up, do your job, be clear headed, be present. I didn’t really do it for me, I did it for Josh and Evan. But, really, all I was done was crawling out of my skin to get out of the studio as possible. I wanted to get fucked up. I was like, “Man, we’ve got two more weeks.” I was going to get an eight ball. I was going to fuck it all up. I was not in a good place until February 1 and what got me out of it was getting really sick from not drinking. I thought I had Covid or the flu. I thought I might be dying because I was throwing up everything I ate. I had constant heartburn. I was bleeding. Everything was just off. I was bloated. Actually, in “The Knife” video, and especially in the new video we did, “Fade,” it’s hard for me to watch because I can see it in my eyes and my face. I was just so sick. 
What got me out of it was getting sick and not being able to do it. Getting through that and then waking up and having a clear head after a few days and being like, “I have completely fucked over my bandmates. I have fucked myself over. And everybody in my life has been putting up with my bullshit.” It hurt. It broke me when I actually realized what I was doing to myself and to other people. That really broke something in me and I’m glad it did. It was not easy to realize that you’re kind of a piece of shit. You’re making really bad decisions. But I walked through it on February 1. I was like, “All right, I got do to this.” The first 30 days was not even about being sober. It was about my old self being like, “What the fuck?” I was at war with myself big time. 
And when we were making that album, I didn’t realize it until recently, it’s an internal warfare. It’s what was coming talking to what was. It’s me in a mirror, a two-sided mirror, just figuring it out and calling myself out and being like, “I know you’re really comfortable over here but it’s time to get uncomfortable and make some positive change.” I turned that corner. I cried so fucking much. I was like, “I didn’t know it was possible to cry as much as I was crying.” I was like, “Am I just that broken? Am I going to cry every day for the rest of my life?” 
I fucked up a lot of shit. It’s a little embarrassing but I pretty much almost killed myself accidentally. I got some cocaine and was playing Scrabble with my friend and my friend was like, “Dude, are you okay?” We were playing Scrabble at four in the morning, doing blow, and I’m drunk and I turn ghost white and start sweating and the room is just disappearing. I’m thinking, “You got to go.” I’m stumbling down my apartment complex parking garage and the cops are standing there and they’re like “Put your hands on the hood.” And I’m like, “Fuck.” They’re like, “What are you doing?” And I’m thinking, “Did I do all that coke or is it in my pocket?” Then I’m in the ambulance and then I’m being told I need to go to the hospital because I’m probably having a fentanyl overdose and I run out of the ambulance. All this to say, I’m blowing everything up. I’m blowing up my relationship. I’m losing my apartment. I’m getting talked to at work about how drunk and fucked up I am by other people who are drunk and fucked up. And I’m like, “Wow, I’m really blowing it.” 
I ended up moving in with Josh and his girlfriend. I live with them now. It’s just temporary but they were like, “Bring your two cats. We’ll put them in the basement.” We can’t have cats upstairs so they live in the basement. They’re happy. I made a cat cave. It was my crying cave for a long time and then it became a cat cave. I did a lot of healing down there. Things got really shitty but I’m thankful that they did because I came out of that and I wouldn’t trade how real life feels right now. I can’t fight myself anymore. I’m winning all the time. In my mind, I’m like, “I know what I need to do. I know how I feel. I know what’s next. I know what I want.” I wouldn’t trade that. I didn’t know for years who I was or what the hell I wanted. I thought I did. I thought the louder you are, the more confident you are. I found out that’s not so true.

From: https://bigtakeover.com/interviews/interview-royal-thunder