Diamanda Galas - Fire in My Belly

There is a long history to David Wojnarowicz’s disputed film, A Fire in My Belly, as several versions have been created and circulated over the years. A 7-minute edit of A Fire in My Belly was created, featuring Diamanda Galas’ song, This is the Law of the Plague. The music comes from Galas’ controversial Plague Mass, a requiem for those dead and dying of AIDS, which she performed at Saint John the Divine cathedral in New York City in 1991. As for A Fire in My Belly, This is the Law of the Plague was condemned by the catholic Church (John Cardinal O’Connor at the time), who tried to prevent its performance.

Statement from Diamanda Galás December 2, 2010

I am the composer and librettist for This is the Law of the Plague, the work from my mass for PWA’s, performed at St. John the Divine's in 1991 against the wishes of John Cardinal O’Connor, who tried to prevent its performance. This is the Law of the Plague was composed in 1986. I will presume this is the music composition upon which David’s film A Fire in My Belly was based, or with which he felt a strong affinity, because I have been asked to defend our work, this collaboration. And I shall do so now.
I must begin, however, by making a behavioral and medical diagnosis of the rather shocking reaction of the Catholic League of Washington DC and particular members of the House of Representatives to this work. Their complaint is that the work “offends Christians,” or so I hear. I have heard many stories, but working off of this assumption and the Smithsonian’s own decision to either independently censor the work or cave in to these organizations, there are possibly three guilty parties here. What the Catholic League and certain members of the House presumably wish to remove from their consciousness is thirty years of death sentences handed down to their parishioners and citizenry, who were told not to wear condoms, and the mistreatment of those stigmatized as miscreants and sinners by their viral status and/or homosexuality and/or status as drug addicts. They wish to remove the unseparate church and state conduct throughout the epidemic, which this film articulately reflects. A Fire in My Belly is a holy film. It must be. And why is this?
The text that I chose in 1986 in London was from Leviticus, chapter 15, The Book of Laws, from the Old Testament – whose treatment of the unclean is proscribed therein by any church that employs this text, and by the many legislators who for years have wanted to separate the infected from the uninfected. My liturgical treatment of Leviticus is a march of the priests and lawmakers forcing the unclean from the gates of the City into warehouses out of town, and is very gently illustrated by David’s depiction of the crucified Christ covered with ants. Ants are only one of the many insects and animals that would cover a man removed from his village and deposited in a leper asylum. There would also be maggots and rats and crows. David was gentle, I must insist. I remember the doctors who told me they believed this was the way to go, and this was in 1993. There was Plum Island, after all, and other places where the contagious could be housed.
Here, Catholics and House of Representatives is YOUR OWN TEXT written so long ago and practiced in the USA to a brutal degree in this country for thirty years and to a much MORE brutal degree now in the countries of Africa and the Middle East, among others. Do not forget the punishment of Iraqi homosexuals with hum (anal glue), which glues the anus shut, and, in combination with the forced imbibing of laxatives, explodes the colon. Here, Protectors of the Public Good, is your text and a Merry Xmas to you!

Leviticus Chapter 15 from The Old Testament

When any man hath an issue out of his flesh.
Because of that issue he is unclean.
Every bed whereon he lieth is unclean
and everything whereon he sitteth, unclean.
And whosoever toucheth his bed shall be unclean,
And he that sitteth whereon he sat shall be unclean.
And he that toucheth
the flesh of the unclean
Becomes unclean.
And he that be spat on by him unclean
Becomes unclean.
And whosoever toucheth anything under him
shall be unclean.
And he that beareth any of those things
shall be unclean.
And what saddle soever he rideth upon is unclean
And the vessel of earth that he toucheth, unclean.
And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him,
he is unclean.
Every garment, every skin whereon is the seed, unclean.
And the woman with whom this man shall lie
shall be unclean.
And whosoever toucheth her will be unclean.
This is the Law of the Plague:
to teach when it is clean and when it is unclean.
And the priest shall look upon the plague
for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot.
And the priest shall shut up he that hath the plague.
He shall carry them forth to a place unclean.
He shall separate them in their uncleanness.
This is the Law of the Plague:
To teach when it is clean and when it is unclean.

I performed Plague Mass in Italy in 1989 at Pogio a Caiano and was called a heretic by the Christian Democrat Party, led by Rinaldo Innaco. I was not allowed to perform in the country for many years. I was shocked and very offended. As a Greek, Italy is the country that had always most welcomed me, and our cultures are very close. I was surprised at the massive amount of publicity, which questioned me as an enemy of Christ.
BUT CHRIST WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN! HE WAS A VISIONARY AND A FIGHTER WHO WISHED TO OPEN THE DOORS OF THE SANCTUARIES TO THE SICK, AND FOR THIS HE WAS MURDERED BY THE LAWMAKERS.
The word ‘sanctuary’ is based upon the Greek expression ithiateron thomation, which means ‘safe harbor, private room, a space of one’s own.’ It also is based upon the Greek expression ieros assilon, which means ‘holy asylum,’ an asylum from predators. To call the name of the exhibition Hide/See: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture and remove this work from it because it is too unpleasant strikes me as truly shocking. Is this film an insult to the spirit of Twinkletoes’ whitebread Christmas, to his Christmas tree and its friendly beacons of light which whisper “Good cheer, One and All!”?
The video was removed. The cross is a symbol of the Crucifixion, among the cruelest tortures in the world. This is the sentence of slow and horrific death in which the spinal column breaks and the organs rupture. This is the torture for the worst of outlaws – the man who protested that the sick and the poor were not allowed into the church for the crime of being perceived as UNCLEAN, rather than “pristine” and moneyed, for his advocacy that the church BE a sanctuary to the sick, rather than a citadel for the rich family man, who comes to exchange invitations for tea and other such serious matters with OTHER rich family men.
David Wojnarowicz was a great artist who died a terrible death in 1992. It was one of the worst times in this country for people with AIDS. My brother, Philip-Dimitri Galas, died six years before him in 1986 of the same disease in San Diego. THERE WAS NO HOPE WHATSOEVER THEN FOR THIS DISEASE. So what is so shocking about the truth now in 2010? Does it remind the clergy and the lawmakers of what the cross stands for: PUNISHMENT AND SAVAGE CRUELTY, and make ugly with the nice and friendly warm xmas spirit?  WHO in countries other than our own are dying horrific deaths of AIDS this Christmas? Christmas comes but once a year. AND YOUR LIFE? It comes to you but once.

From: http://diamandagalas.com/writings/david-wojnarowiczs-a-fire-in-my-belly/

Custard Flux - Equinox

US PSychedelic/Progressive Rock act Custard Flux published the official music video for the track “Equinox” taken from new album “Einsteinium Delirium” out on April 5, 2024.

This album is a little different than our first four albums. It’s no holds barred electric! The songs blend into each other on both sides of the LP to create one nuclear based relativity, with a conceptual narrative of our historical atomic madness in variable time signatures, rests and pieces. On top of that, our whole rhythm section is a Detroit gang. Let’s rock!
Einsteinium is a highly unstable element that was discovered in the debris after the first hydrogen bomb explosion. Using it in the title eventually compelled me to research and write about characters and events relating to atomic bombs, a thoroughly depressing subject. The infamous key scientist involved in developing the first atom bomb had deep spiritual interests and in some interviews had made references to the Bhagavad Gita, which I was able to use for more positive, psychedelic inspiration.
I tried to use the imagery I’d learned about in my research somewhat abstractly because I didn’t want the lyrics to be dark and depressing, or even obvious. It’s a factitious tale. My own version of our collective insanity. My hope is that it might inspire the listener to do some research of their own on the subject of nuclear bombs to see how many have been detonated already, which is staggering. Maybe read some eye witness accounts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, if you have the stomach for it, or learn about real false alarms that have had the world on the brink of nuclear war.  From: https://progrockjournal.com/news-custard-flux-published-the-official-music-video-for-the-track-equinox-taken-from-new-album/

Salyu X Salyu - s(o)un(d)beams (full album)

01. Tada no Tomodachi
02. muse'ic
03. Sailing Days
04. Kokoro
05. Utai Mashou
06. Dorei
07. Rainboots de Odori Mashou
08. s(o)un(d)beams
09. Mirror Neurotic
10. Hostile To Me
11. Tsuduki wo

S(o)un(d)beams is Salyu’s album, a celebration of everything great about her past work and a grand rebirth, like Lady Gaga hatching out of an egg if that actually resulted in something. To properly understand why this is, a little history lesson is in order.
Despite being the “mainstream” side of the project, Salyu never really has been an A-list J-Pop star. She first popped up not as Salyu but as Lily Chou-Chou, a fictional singer in a movie in 2000. Four years later she finally debuted as, well, herself. Her albums tend to chart well – sophomore effort Terminal remains her best-selling album having moved 87,000 units and climbing as high as number two on the Oricon album charts (the follow-up got to seven, while S(o)un(d)beams hit 12). Her singles chart all over the place though – at her peak she’s gotten as high as 10 by herself, usually following somewhere between 15 and 23 (before that, though, adjust to something like between 30 and 100). A collaboration with Bank Band titled “To U” remains her best known song, having reached the second spot on the singles chart. Salyu’s not an obscure artist, but she doesn’t demand attention like cornballs Koda Kumi or Aiko. 
Her strongest tool has always been her voice, a soaring sound capable of pushing upper registers without losing any power. Last year’s “Atarashi Yes” highlights everything great about Salyu – that voice, mostly, but also the way you don’t have to know a single word of Japanese or even what “yes” means to get the emotional oooomph of the single. She’s shown flashes of the same vocal power Bjork boasts. Yet Salyu’s never had a good album to her name…”Atarashi Yes” was among a pocket’s worth of good songs on her third album Maiden Voyage, a bloated affair weighed down by half-hearted stabs at mainstream balladry. Earlier releases Landmark and Terminal don’t fare much better. Salyu’s not a top-tier pop star, but whoever puts together her full-lengths desperately want her to be. Bjork carved out an identity while still in The Sugarcubes, whereas Salyu remains caught in J-Pop R&D. Up to now, she’s mostly been a case of “what if.”
Yet here, name doubled up, she’s set free to chase her “Muse’ic” without fear of censor. Cornelius hasn’t improved on Salyu’s voice, but rather crafted a sonic world wide open for her to do her thing from all sorts of angles. It’s not perfect – at this point, it should be acknowledged the album opens with a relative thunk via the annoying “Tada No Tomodachi,” a case of both Salyu and Cornelius relying too much on the gimmick of “a lot of voices at once!”…but what artistic re-emergence is? On S(o)un(d)beams she finds someone willing to let her experiment, and she dives headfirst into an opportunity that it seems like she has been waiting a long time for.
So…whereas in the hands of a more chart-obsessed person “Sailing Days” (the latest in a string of songs finding Salyu obsessed with boats) probably would have ended up a minor-key ballad, here it’s a little shanty that turns into a crescendo of Salyu’s crashing against the shore at a dizzying rate. Cornelius steps way to the background on “Kokoro” and just lets her sing hauntingly around minimal strings. “Dorei” and “Rain Boots De Odorimashou” find Salyu having some of the most fun she’s ever had on record, playing with the extremes of her voice on both (screech-iness on the prior, calmness on the latter). “Hostile To Me” doesn’t just feature a Bjork-like title, it finally finds Salyu making something resembling a Bjork-ish ballad. It all comes back to “Muse’ic,” where she emerges from a cocoon with big bright wings and like eight mouths just ready to sing the praises of art. 
It’s tempting to give Cornelius more credit than he deserves for how Salyu sounds here, since the draw of Salyu X Salyu has always been “Salyu’s voice all over the place!” He deserves a lot of praise – excellent placing of her various vocal tracks, not to mention creating the music that that allowed her to sound like this – but he’s just an arranger for the most part. Salyu is the one giving the vocal performance of her career, one that doesn’t feature anything resembling the big pay-off moments like “Atarashi Yes” but rather sees her exploring every corner of her sound.  From: https://makebelievemelodies.com/review-salyu-x-salyu-soundbeams/ 

The Doobie Brothers - Live KSAN FM 1972

01 - Jesus Is Just Alright.mp3
02 - Disciple.mp3
03 - Feelin' Down Farther.mp3
04 - Nobody.mp3
05 - Slippery St. Paul.mp3
06 - Greenwood Creek.mp3
07 - Road Angel.mp3
08 - Going Down.mp3

Live performance by the Doobie Brothers at Pacific High Recorders in San Francisco on 1/16/1972. This set contains several songs from their debut album in April 1971 along with Disciple and Jesus is Just Alright from their next album Toulouse Street, due for release in July 1972. This concert was broadcast on KSAN 95 FM in San Francisco CA. The Doobie Brothers: Tom Johnston - Guitar, Vocals; Pat Simmons - Guitar, Vocals; Tiran Porter - Bass; John Hartman - Drums; With Special Guests (tracks 16-18): Gregg Rolie (Santana) - Keyboards; Mike Wilhelm (The Charlatans) - Guitar.  From: https://archive.org/details/doobie-brothers-1972-pacific-high-sf-ksan

The Doobie Brothers got its start in 1969, when Moby Grape co-founder Skip Spence introduced drummer John Hartman to guitarist Tom Johnston. Hartman had come to California in the hopes of joining a band with Spence, but he hit it off with Johnston – and the duo formed the nucleus of a power trio they dubbed Pud.
Pud's pivotal turning point came with the introduction of guitarist and singer Patrick Simmons, whose fingerstyle playing complemented Johnston's R&B-influenced approach. With the addition of bassist Dave Shogren, the band's metamorphosis into the combo millions would one day know as the Doobie Brothers was more or less complete.
Setting a pattern they'd follow for essentially the duration of their career, the Doobies developed a local reputation as a hungry — and increasingly popular — live act, soon drawing a steady following among Bay Area bikers who heard their lifestyle tunefully reflected in the band's uptempo, guitar-based sound. Still, as tight as they might have been on stage, they didn't know much about the studio.
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"When we did the first album, we’d never really been together as a group at all," Simmons later told Sounds. "We were all old friends and we just got high in the studios. We hadn’t planned on making an album at all, but the demos came out so good that we decided to send them into Warner Bros. – and they liked them."
That innocence was reflected in The Doobie Brothers, which consisted largely of Johnston compositions, a handful of Simmons songs and a cover of Randy Newman's "Beehive State" thrown in for good measure. Like many debut offerings, the LP captures a band in the process of developing its sound. Looking back, it's easy to understand why Warner Bros. responded to the Doobie Brothers' demos — but it's also impossible not to hear all the ways in which the group would deepen and refine its technique over the years to follow.
Unfortunately for the Doobies at the time, few people heard The Doobie Brothers at all; the album failed to chart, and as they limped home from a sparsely attended tour, they wondered whether the record's lack of commercial success represented a first step or the end of the road. They'd face a further setback when Shogren quit the band after sessions started for their second LP. As they'd do so often over the course of their career, the Doobie Brothers simply adjusted course, replacing Shogren with Simmons' former bandmate Tiran Porter while adding second drummer Michael Hossack to play alongside Hartman. That season of change fed into 1972's Toulouse Street, the record that started the Doobies' rise to stardom.  From: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/doobie-brothers-debut/

Robin & Linda Williams - Turtle Dove / Rollin' And Ramblin'

“All we ever wanted when we started out was to have a career in music.” Robin Williams was on the line from the tiny hamlet of Middlebrook, out in the Shenandoah Valley where he lives with wife and music-mate Linda.“We didn’t have any goals of being on the radio or being household names. We just wanted to have a life in music. It’s such a gift to have, to be able to work on it every day. And then to make a living in it is just icing on the cake. Here we are, forty three years into it and still doing it.”
Robin and Linda Williams have “done it” in a way they probably could never have imagined when they first met in 1971. But in 1975, shortly after releasing their first album, they met a guy named Garrison Keillor who had a new little radio variety show in St. Paul, Minnesota, called A Prairie Home Companion. He liked their music the first time he heard them, and Robin & Linda Williams became an integral part of the PHC family, appearing often on the iconic public radio program over the next forty years.  From: http://www.jimnewsom.com/robin-linda-williams-a-life-in-music/

Traffic - Cryin' To Be Heard

The musical alchemy of Traffic was unlike any other of the 1960s. Rooted in blues and R&B, the group embraced classical, jazz, folk, African, rock, soul, Latin, and Indian genres then found ways of assimilating more than one at a time in song after song. In some ways, the band could easily be called rock’s first “getting it together in the country” by holing up in a rural cottage in the Berkshire Downs – light years away from Swinging London – to write and rehearse for several months prior to setting foot in the studio.
But how did it all begin? Well, let’s start with Steve Winwood, the prodigiously gifted young man from a musical family in Birmingham, who was equally adept at guitar and piano as a child, then fell under the spell of Ray Charles. As his voice began to break, the young Winwood incorporated Charles’ vocal depth and his phrasing even as he continued to explore music pioneers like Nina Simone, Jimmy Smith, Oscar Peterson, and Buddy Guy. Eventually, Winwood and his older brother Muff joined The Spencer Davis Group in 1964.
The SDG — who were sharing bills with The Graham Bond Organization, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, and The Yardbirds in 1965 — scored their first number one hit the following year with “Keep On Running” (which usurped The Beatles’ “Day Tripper”). It was during this period that Winwood bonded with Eric Clapton, who took him under his wing when Clapton moved to London and sympathized with this kindred artist who was not too happy about being a teen pop star six to ten years younger than all his bandmates. In short, Winwood was primed for change.
In Birmingham, Winwood was drawn to fellow musicians outside SDG: in particular, Chris Wood, a self-taught flautist (and later saxophonist) with a painterly approach who’d just been accepted by the Royal Academy; Jim Capaldi, a singer-songwriter/drummer whose previous bands included the marginally successful Deep Feeling; and Dave Mason who went to do some interesting work with Jimi Hendrix soon after.
When free from SDG responsibilities, Winwood and Wood, Capaldi, and Mason would jam at a local club called The Elbow Room, where touring musicians came to gamble, score hash, listen to Stax records, and of course play. Amid this scene, the four formed a communal mindset; and with support from Island Records’ chief Chris Blackwell, Traffic (as Capaldi named them) set up in a remote cottage in Berkshire, beginning in April 1967.
Since Winwood was still completing SDG obligations, including a final single “I’m A Man,” he invited Capaldi, Wood and Mason to the studio to overdub percussion and harmonies. What resulted was indescribable stardust layered on an already great track. You might say that “I’m A Man” is the first Traffic record in all but name.
Following their retreat, the group convened at Olympic Studios with producer Jimmy Miller. The first round of recording yielded the title track and two others for the film Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, also a holdover obligation from Winwood’s SDG days. Following this, they cut their official debut single, “Paper Sun b/w Giving to You” which landed in the UK’s Top 10. Looking back, the B-side is even better: a Cannonball Adderley-styled groove that gives all four musicians a chance to solo amid a wholly new brand of psychedelic jazz-rock.
The debut album, Mr. Fantasy, was cut throughout the summer of 1967. This landmark release captures all the funk and wonderment of the era. A freewheeling record, it’s grounded by the title track, in which Winwood’s electric guitar playing is easily on a par with Hendrix, Clapton or Beck and crests with “No Face, No Name, No Number,” an achingly beautiful pastoral of psychedelic folk. Bolstered by Dave Mason’s whimsical compositions, Traffic’s debut proved a truly exquisite start.
When Mason briefly left the band for his solo career, the remaining trio of Winwood, Wood and Capaldi began work on the second album, Traffic. The first song “40,000 Headmen” proved a wonderfully idiosyncratically folksy tune with a heavy soul chorus. Soon thereafter Mason returned with his own batch of fine songs: “You Can All Join In,” “Feelin’ Alright?” and “Cryin’ To Be Heard.” Other tracks such as “Pearly Queen,” “Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring” and “No Time To Live” remain some of the band’s finest work from this era.
Following Traffic’s release, the group actually looked set to disband completely at the close of 1968 but not before cutting their electrifying slice of soul-pop “Medicated Goo” — co-written with Miller. Cracking with bravado and sparkling like vintage Stevie Wonder, this song was packaged with a mix of B-sides and live material on Last Exit (1969) which may be one of the finest contractually obligated postscripts to any band’s mid-career.  From: https://www.culturesonar.com/traffic-steve-winwood/

The Hooters - One Way Home

The Hooters were formed as a five piece in 1980, with guitarist John Kuzma, bassist Bobby Woods and drummer David Uosikkinen joining Bazilian and Hyman. They took their name from the nickname for the melodica, a unique type of keyboard harmonica which originated in Germany. Starting on July 4, 1980 the band spent the next two years playing everything from clubs to high schools and appearing on local television shows around Philadelphia and other areas of the East Coast. During this time, the band recorded several tracks to be released as singles including “Man in the Street”, “Fightin’ on the Same Side”, “Rescue Me”, and “All You Zombies”, and started to receive significant airplay on prominent rock stations.
During this time, the band was managed by Hyman and his girlfriend. The climax of this early era of the band came on September 25, 1982, when The Hooters opened for rock legends The Who during one of their farewell tour shows at JFK Stadium. However, the group decided to separate in early 1983 as Hyman grew tired of managing in lieu of composing and the rest of the band began to burn out from constant touring.
Rick ChertoffThat same winter, Bazilian and Hyman were enlisted by another Penn classmate, producer Rick Chertoff as session players on an album he was producing for a young singer/songwriter named Cyndi Lauper. Bazilian played bass, saxophone, and added vocals to the album, which would become the Grammy winning album She’s So Unusual. Hyman played keyboards and co-wrote the international smash hit “Time After Time”, which was also nominated for a Grammy. Following this hugely successful project, Bazilian and Hyman decided to give The Hooters another try in late 1983.
Uosikkinen returned on drums but Kuzma and Woods had moved on to another band and were replaced by John Lilley on guitar and Rob Miller on bass. Club owner Steve Mountain was brought in as full-time manager, leaving Hyman and Bazilian free to concentrate on the music. The reformed band immediately started work on their first album.
Amore contains the original versions of several songs that were re-recorded for the band’s major label debut, 1985’s Nervous Night, such as “All You Zombies”, “Hanging On a Heartbeat”, and “Blood From a Stone”. These original versions have a pronounced ska bounce and the production is not overpowering, there is a distinct live show energy. Upbeat and danceable rock that used keyboard/synth sounds were all the rage in the early 80’s, but The Hooters surrounded them with guitar, mandolin, real drums (from a drummer who hits ’em really hard), and vocals from guys who can carry a tune but don’t have “perfect”, processed voices. These were the Hooters and their signature sound owned that term long before before it became synonymous with calendar girls in tight t-shirts serving chicken wings to drooling patrons adopted the same name.  From: https://modernrockreview.com/2012-the-hooters-1/ 

Steeleye Span - Royal Forester

John Strachan of Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, sang The Royal Forester on 16 July 1951 to Alan Lomax and Hamish Henderson. This recording was later released on the anthology The Child Ballads 2. Hamish Henderson and Ewan McVicar noted:

Rape presented as violent seduction occurs alarmingly often in the old ballads. Here the rapist knows that the king will give the girl justice against him and tries to fob her off with a foreign pronunciation of his name, but she knows how to name him in Scots. He rides away, but she reaches the king’s door before him. He is single and is obliged to marry her, but ironically she proves to be of higher parentage than him. The vigour and jollity of John’s refrain highlights the ballad’s lack of moral censure at the knight’s action and its respect for the girl’s determination.

Emily Sparkes sang this song as Sweet William in Rattlesden, Suffolk in 1958/59 and Charlie Carver sang it in the Gardeners’ Arms in Tostock in 1960. Both versions were included on the Veteran anthology of traditional music making from Mid-Suffolk Many a Good Horseman. John Howson noted in the album’s booklet:

This is a rare ballad usually known as The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter. It has been noted down in most corners of England and all over Scotland where it sometimes called The Forester or Lord or Earl Richard, Lithgow or Richmond. The story line is usually that a knight persuades a shepherd’s daughter to give up her maidenhead. She chases after him to the King’s court, she on foot and he on horseback, and demands marriage. He attempts to bribe her but is threatened with execution if he doesn’t marry her. Often the story then reveals that she is herself of higher status. Although both Emily Sparkes and Charlie Carver’s versions have slightly muddled story lines it is remarkable that these are the only traces of the song to have been collected in Suffolk. Furthermore there seems to be only one other actual recording of it from England; that made by Peter Kennedy of Louise Holmes from Herefordshire.

John Roberts and Tony Barrand sang The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter in 1971 on their first album, Spencer the Rover Is Alive and Well. They noted:

This ballad is the sole representative here of those which professor Child considered great enough to include in his collection. Our version escaped across the water to the Maritime Provinces of Canada, where it was collected by Helen Creighton as late as 1954. It lacks the “happy ending” often found in other variants, where the wronged maiden turns out to be a lady far richer than the knight who seduced her.

Steeleye Span recorded The Royal Forester in 1972 for their fourth LP Below the Salt, which was the first album of their longest-living “classic” line-up with Tim Hart, Bob Johnson, Rick Kemp, Peter Knight, and Maddy Prior. The sleeve notes commented cryptically:

Subtitled “The Aboriculturist Meets Superwoman”. From the singing of John Strachan. The first English text appeared in Anchovy Ram’s elementary drum tutor Half Way to Para-diddle, published in 1293. Although a faithful translation of the original Latin, there is still scholarly dispute as to the spelling of the name ‘Erwilian’ and over the use of the word ‘leylan’.

From: https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/theknightandtheshepherdsdaughter.html

As previously mentioned, there's a long tradition of folk songs where men deflower young maidens and then run. The Royal Forester falls into that category, but what makes it a cut above the norm is that, intead of just passively bemoaning her fate, she refuses to take it lying down. Um. So to speak. Instead, she chases him and CATCHES him. I love:

"She's belted up her petticoat
And followed with all her force."

Yeah! And also:

“The water, it's too deep, my love,
I'm afraid you cannot wade.”
But afore he'd ridden his horse well in
She was on the other side.

Bloody well right! It's just cool because of how it bucks the trend--there isn't much of a feminist tradition here. Can't say as I understand what's meant by “Erwilian, that's a Latin word, but Willy is your name,” though. Wuh?

As in all songs of this genre, the moral, if any, is inscrutable. Although our heroine does achieve what would at the time have been considered "satisfaction," it hardly seems satisfactory--that someone as high-powered as she is should have to marry this obvious loser. It's difficult to imagine that this is going to be a particularly happy union. And the fact that the song ENDS with "She's the Earl of Airlie's daughter, and he's the blacksmith's son" seems like it ought to be in some way significant. Is the idea supposed to be that she got a raw deal, being nobility but ending up married to a commoner? Or--after the manner of ancient Chinese miscellanies--is it just a matter of the song saying "this is what happened" without passing any judgment one way or the other? Am I projecting too much?

From: http://inchoatia.blogspot.com/2005/05/steeleye-span-royal-forester.html

Rainbow - Still I'm Sad (Yardbirds cover)

Probably one of the last great live albums of the 70's (the decade of the great live albums, by the way). Recorded with what now is regarded as the best ever Rainbow line up, this is a CD that is up to Ritchie Blackmore's best works, including Made In Japan. When it was released in Brazil it was reduced to a single LP, instead of the double album format elsewhere. It was a butcher's work that fans never forgave. I had to wait the arrival of the CD version of this masterpiece to finally have the complete recording. Things of the past, I Hope!
Although the set list is a bit confusing (Kill the King was still an unreleased song, while the recent Rising is represented here with only a short version of Starstruck, in the middle of a medley), the playing is absolute superb (with apologies to Sean Trane, I still think Tony Carey is a great keyboards player, even though his rumored problems with drugs and alcohol did some damage in concerts). I used to hear this record almost non stop after I got it.
Ok, the long versions may hint some self indulgence, but that's not the case. When you're dealing with such gifted and talented people like those ones, they really could extend the songs and make them sound even better than the studio counterparts. Rainbow was one of the last bands to actually have the chops to do such thing and come out unscathed. Highlights: Kill The King (they would later record this one in studio, but never matched this live rendition. Great Hammond organ and guitar interplay, while Cozy Powell shows why he was so legendary among his peers), the long Catch The Rainbow and the 11 minute version of Still I'm Sad.
If you think that heavy music could not be progressive (and if you doubt that some of its best musicians could not match your best prog heroes in terms of technique and creativeness) just hear this CD. You'll be surprised. I only wished they played more stuff from Rising, but nothing's perfect. A strong four stars rating, no less.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=13685

Patty Griffin - Forgiveness

“I started off by playing flute in the elementary school band,” remembered Patty Griffin with a little laugh during a telephone interview on Tuesday. “But it didn’t have a big enough voice for me. I wanted to change over to saxophone, but there weren’t any more available. So I eventually switched to singing because I needed a bigger, louder voice.” Griffin seems to have found that voice on her debut disc, “Living With Ghosts” (A&M), a voice compelling enough to stand alone without any more accompaniment than an acoustic guitar. The Bostonian-by-way-of-Maine will take her truly “solo” act to Lafayette College’s Kirby Field House tomorrow night when she opens for Central Pennsylvania’s Badlees (whose “River Songs” disc also on A&M).
“I’ve always done solo stuff, more often than not,” Griffin explained. But the stripped-down approach was not her first choice for the recording. “When I got the deal with A&M, I did a recording with a producer and a band, and the label didn’t like it very much. I think it had to do with my having trouble being comfortable with a band. I’m probably a better, or more relaxed, performer solo,” she said. “I lost some of the subtlety of the songs doing that band recording, so we asked if the label would release it this way, and they said, ‘OK.’ We were sort of surprised.” Her proficiency at what is a basically solitary craft might be a bit surprising as well, considering Griffin’s background.
“I actually grew up in a very large family, and got married almost right after that, so I’ve been surrounded by a lot of people most of my life,” she said. “But there certainly has been a feeling of loneliness, too, that probably has to do with not being able to express a lot of things I needed to express.” Griffin would discover a means of doing that in singing, which she picked up from hearing her mother sing around the house. “I loved music and I thought there was a peace in it, and a lot of movement of emotions and feelings,” she said.
Emotion is at the heart of “Living With Ghosts,” most of the songs coming from the period after her 1992 divorce, an experience that also spurred her to quit a waitressing job in Boston and pursue singing/songwriting in earnest. “A lot of fear of doing things goes away when you hit bottom like that. And it also opens up a lot of doors creatively as well, places you wouldn’t have gone before,” Griffin explained. While the mood of “Living With Ghosts” is decidedly somber, Griffin contends that it’s not a one-way street. “I don’t think it’s a total downer. I think I slipped some hope and joy in there too. I’m trying to find a way of expressing more positive feelings, though, without it sounding, I don’t know, lame or something. It’s not easy.”  From: https://www.mcall.com/1996/09/27/patty-griffins-solo-voice-comes-through-crystal-clear/

 

Lucifer in the Sky With Diamonds - Highlow World

The pun in the moniker of Moscow double-guitar four-piece Lucifer in the Sky with Diamonds probably doesn’t need to be pointed out. Featuring The Grand Astoria collaborator Igor Suvorov, Lucifer in the Sky with Diamonds pull together touches of psychedelic impulsiveness and classic heavy rock structures with the production clarity and catchy songwriting of mid-era Queens of the Stone Age. There’s a danger underscoring the boogie of “How to Fix Things” from the band’s self-released debut LP, The Shining One, that seems to find payoff later in the big-groove hook of “Highlow World,” which provides one of the album’s most satisfying listens before shifting into an airier dreamspace and fading into the noisier “Lords of the Damned,” reviving the largesse of riff prior to the closing title-track. An intriguing debut for an outfit loaded with potential, the fullness of their sound boding particularly well for their confidence in their sound and the precision of their execution.  From: https://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2014/09/12/the-obelisk-radio-bong-space-mushroom-fuzz-desert-lord-lucifer-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-plunger/ 

Patti Rothberg - Shadows of Me

Rew Starr: For those who don’t know, can you give us a bit of your story? 

Patti Rothberg: 1994 was one of the wildest times of my life! I lived on 23rd Street next to the Chelsea Hotel. A LOT of changes. It was my last year at Parsons School of design, and my major was Illustration. I had NO plan, just figured one thing would lead to another.
My friends were all street people: A slide player with white hair who claimed to be from Paul Butterfield’s band…”Andy” I think, Shah who would bum cigarettes, perched outside my apt. (I found out he was an ex con who killed someone and was out on parole) but to me he was my friend…I would flit around and hang out with homeless people and street characters all the time… my old guitarist then, Lukasz, lived a few blocks downtown…when he said, “I just hung out with Kid Rock. I need a name what do you think of “Dr. Luke”!!!!? 
I was meeting so many people that year and I invented an excuse to paint portraits which I liked to paint best: A book called “Math 4 Artists the Wonder of Genetics.” I went to Sidewalk Cafe (RIP) and waltzed right up to Lach (now famous for starting and running “Antifolk” for years) and showed him my portraits (manic much?) Asked him for a show. He gave it to me. 1994. My commute back and forth from Parsons was between the 1 and 9, F and L tunnel on 14th Street and 7th Ave (which was later shortened to “Between the One and the Nine. I incorporated many concepts…the artwork on the album is like a rubik’s cube with one oil painting in the middle and 8 surrounding making a 1 and 9.

Rew Starr: You got married in 2020. So was your husband a fan of your music?

Patti Rothberg: Another amazing story… 25 years ago, right after my record came out, Micah was working as the assistant manager of a record store, Sam Goody. He wasn’t even supposed to come in at all that day. A rep for EMI came in with my promo and asked if he would play my record ‘Between 1&9’….We’re pushing this girl.’ He asked ‘what does she sound like?’ and the rep dutifully replied ‘Alanis.’ Miraculously, he put on my CD in the store anyway.
Track after track, he says he was waiting for it to sound like Alanis and it never did. He ended up liking the CD, and even selling 40 or so copies! The rep returned 4 days later to follow up. ‘I listened to Patti Rothberg’ Micah said. ‘She’s pretty good!’ And he said, ‘Well she’s playing tonight, we have free tickets! Long story short, he asked his friend, Monique to accompany him to my show, and by his recount, judging from my underlit cover painting, he was expecting a “less than attractive troubadour”!
Micah was bored, facing the other way from where I entered, and someone exclaimed, “There’s Patti.” He turned around, and confused said, ‘Where? Behind the hot chick (meaning ME!) Micah ditched his date for who was to become his queen and bride.

From: https://rockmommy.com/2021/09/patti-rothberg-comes-clean-about-love-art-life-beyond-the-1-and-the-9-and-those-alanis-comparisons/

Gevende - Anonim

One can’t help but notice a colorful blend of geographies and cultures coursing through Gevende’s music. They deftly incorporate motifs, instruments, and languages from all over the map, constructing what might be called a multicultural tapestry. Their personal escapades across far-flung locales set the stage for this: while prepping their first album Ev, they traveled from Iran to India, immersing themselves in local jamming sessions. The encounters they had—particularly with lengthy ceremonies and ritual music—opened their minds to new ways of experiencing time and sound. Some see this as one reason behind their break from conventional track lengths and their comfort with slow-building compositions, as evidenced in Sen Balık Değilsin Ki (2011).
They also aren’t shy about drawing from different languages and ethnic motifs. In Sen Balık Değilsin Ki, for instance, “Beboyin Yerkı” nods to an Armenian folk tune and features guest guitarist Eivind Aarset from Norway. If you fancy a kaleidoscopic portrait of musical cross-pollination, there it is—Armenian melodic notions laced with a cool Scandinavian jazz vibe. Song titles range from Turkish (“Sanki,” “Sustum”) to English (“Vigeland”) to Armenian (“Beboyin Yerkı”), highlighting the band’s inclusive spirit. Beyond that, vocalist Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç often opts for meaningless syllables or an invented language, making the voice into a universal instrument rather than a vehicle for standard lyrical meaning. Let’s call it “post-linguistic,” if you will, and it all stems from the group’s fascination with transcending the confines of spoken language.
Their numerous cross-border collaborations have only expanded this multicultural dimension. Amsterdam-based bass clarinetist Tobias Klein and French guitarist Damien Cluzel figure among those who have jammed with Gevende, injecting European experimental jazz flavors into the ensemble’s evolving sound. Then there’s the aforementioned synergy with Balbazar, seamlessly weaving Turkish and French musical sensibilities. From the global scene, look no further than Tinariwen, who marry Tuareg melodies from the Sahara with Western rock and blues. They’ve garnered worldwide acclaim for this so-called “desert blues,” which parallels Gevende’s use of Anatolian inspirations within more contemporary frameworks. Similarly, the Netherlands-based Altın Gün reimagines Turkish folk songs within a funky, psychedelic rock context. Where Altın Gün revisits the 1970s Anatolian pop repertoire, Gevende composes original material that merges a swirl of local idioms and broader influences. (For the record, “gevende” in Kurdish means “wedding musician,” a little cultural nugget tying them again to the region.) All told, Gevende’s music often feels like a sumptuous world tour without the hassle of booking flights.  From: https://www.turquazz.com/anatolian-alchemy-how-gevende-turns-folk-dust-into-sonic-gold/

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - She

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but I’m of the opinion that the clichéd phrase “one-hit wonder” is an overused and easily abused phrase, one far too often assigned to artists who are undeserving of such a dubious qualifier. It’s also emblematic of the average music consumer’s (and more than a few journalists’) lazy complacency in seeking out the fuller breadth of artists’ discographies, beyond what they’ve been force-fed, spin after spin after spin, on the radio or, at least back in the day, MTV.
Unfortunately, too many artists’ recording careers haven’t received the recognition and appreciation they arguably deserve because of this one-hit-wonder engendered myopia. A prime example is Edie Brickell, who, with her Dallas-bred band New Bohemians, struck gold back in late 1988 with their lyrically and sonically unconventional debut single “What I Am.” The album from which it came, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, received plenty of critical applause on its way to reaching double-platinum commercial heights, largely as a result of its ubiquitous single’s warm reception.
However, three-and-a-half decades later, Brickell and her bandmates (drummer Brandon Aly, percussionist John Bush, bass guitarist Brad Houser—who passed away last month at the age of 62—and guitarist Kenny Withrow) are still rigidly associated with that one song by far too many folks. But for those of us who weren’t merely satisfied with “What I Am” and instead used it as fodder to dig deeper into the group’s debut album—and subsequent recordings including 1990’s excellent Ghost of a Dog and  2006’s Stranger Things, as well as Brickell’s solo fare (1994’s Picture Perfect Morning, 2003’s Volcano, and 2011’s eponymous Edie Brickell)—the rewards have been plentiful.  From: https://albumism.com/features/edie-brickell-and-new-bohemians-shooting-rubberbands-at-the-stars-album-anniversary

Federal Charm - Gotta Give It Up

Soulful, aggressive, yet direct and controlled – Federal Charm erupted onto the blues rock scene in 2011.  Originally a duo, when Nick Bowden and Paul Bowe hit the studio they expanded into a four-piece tour de force.  Relying heavily on thick, dirty guitar riffs and fast rhythms, the cathartic energy on Federal Charm’s self-titled debut feels uncontainable.
The four-piece sound like they learned at the knees of the likes of Led Zeppelin or Free, but with a modern sensibility that demands attention.  Nick Bowden’s vocals sound eerily like Owen Thomas of The Elms, having a certain a dynamic, young quality.  Some of Federal Charm’s best moments come from the way the vocal takes stand out against multiple guitar layers and pulsing, constant beat.  Nick Bowden and Paul Bowe’s guitar play almost battle each other at times, contrasting dirtier grunge-type guitar play with technical speed work.  Occasionally Bowe’s instrument lets loose with high-pitched squealing textures, making for an effect that sounds as though he’s channelling Joey Santiago.
The lead-off single, “There’s a Light,” captures southern rock in a frenzy of fast guitar riffs and quick, manic drumming, and the album opener “Gotta Give it Up” alternates a similar formula with a slower, body-rocking progression.  Anytime the speed-riff card is pulled, Federal Charm screams its allegiance to the blues and classic rock groups of the seventies.  The foursome can draw influence from their contemporaries as well.  Structurally, “Somebody Help Me” sounds not unlike something that could be found on a Black Keys or Cold War Kids record were it not for the ever-persistent pulse of Federal Charm’s explosive guitar work.
Amidst all the noise and energy, Federal Charm still takes time to show off their knack for traditional bluesman song construction on the slow jam cover “Reconsider” (perhaps Bowden’s most vocally demanding track), even if the track is periodically interrupted with heavier guitar riffs and on one occasion a time change.  If anything, this goes to highlight Federal Charm’s restlessness – the group toys with an idea briefly and, as though quickly growing bored of it, moves on to something new.  Nothing on Federal Charm has been given enough time to become old or cliché.  This is the type of record to keep in your car stereo on repeat.  From: https://bluesrockreview.com/2013/08/federal-charm-federal-charm-review.html

Echobelly - BellyAche

Even without having listened to any of the sound Echobelly produced, you could see this was not your everyday band. Formed in 1992 by Sonya Aurora Madan (vocals and main lyricist) and Glenn Johansson (guitars), the band was a rare multinational and multi-ethnic collective: Sonya Madan was born in Delhi, India, although she moved to the UK at the age of 2. Still, the Indian appearance is still somewhat there, which gave her a lot of extra attention in the media. Glenn Johansson, who briefly dated Sonya (they remained close friends after the break-up and were actually the core of Echobelly), is a native of Sweden. In Sweden he had the rather dodgy job of editing an adult magazine. Obviously tired of such career, he took his bags and took off to London with the hope of finding a band. Echobelly was totally formed with the addition of Alex Keyser on bass guitar and Andy Henderson on drums. However, the band took an even greater diversity with the addition of Debbie Smith on guitar from 1994 on. Debbie Smith, previously in a band called Curve, was a rarity in many ways in the rock scene those days: she was a female, black and lesbian guitar player. She has actually been named very often as a core role model for women in similar situations, and has become a local icon for those reasons. But above all, she was a quality guitar player. When Glenn had injured his hands, Debbie fill in for him and did so well that "de facto" she became a permanent member of the band.
Echobelly were always somewhat the different one when the Britpop scene was booming and female-fronted pop/rock bands were big. There was Elastica, there was Republica (remember the hits "Ready to go" and the extremely catchy "Drop dead gorgeous"?), there was Sleeper, … I am probably forgetting some more. However, Echobelly (who by the way seem to have invented the term as I cannot find it in any dictionary… the band explained the name as a metaphor for "Hunger for change" or "Desire for a change") were much more openly political than the other named bands who lyrically never went too far on thin ice. Echobelly never shunned politically outspoken lyrics, even when the band and lyricist Sonya Madan said that she didn’t want to be a politician or try to force her views on people. Nonetheless, the debut album "Everyone’s Got One" (1994) had some tracks with a clear society-critical undertone, tackling subjects such as feminism, alienation, boredom. The song "Insomniac" with its kitch-esque video (Sonya wearing a blonde wig and some others wearing Union Jack-shirts) became somewhat of a hit.
The band caught attention and a lot of praise, up to the point that even nobody less than former Smiths frontman Morrissey was impressed enough to personally invite Echobelly to open for him during a tour. Sonya’s vocal style has some slight similarities with Morrissey’s style of singing, leading to some press dubbing her the "female Morrissey".  From: https://thepathslesstravelled.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/gone-but-never-forgotten-echobelly/

Black Bonzo - Because I Love You

Can you catch the readers up a bit on your musical history?

That's a tough one, we have all played in a lot of different bands with lot of different sounds. Punk rock, heavy metal, death metal, plain pop, progressive metal, jazz, blues and stuff like that. No point in namedropping any of the bands as they didn't make any bigger impact. But the first time we all did play together as a band was in Gypsy Sons Of magic, a sort of 70's groove oriented rock outfit. We only recorded a couple of demos as Gypsy Sons of Magic, and it didn't sound anything like Black Bonzo.

Our new bass player Anthon Johansson did a record with a band called Moon Safari before he left his guitar duties with them and became a bass player in Black Bonzo. Our original bass player Patrick Leandersson decided to leave the band after Lady of the light due to personal reasons.

MSJ: I know artists are not crazy about having their music pigeon-holed, but how would you describe your sound?

It's not that we don't like it, it's just a little hard to be objective when you are talking about your own music, but i would say we play a sort of heavy rock with progressive influences.

MSJ: Who do you see as musical influences?

We are mainly influenced by bands such as Queen, King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Yes and The Beatles and many many bands from that particular era. And of course each other, when everyone within the band are quite a songwriting talent it's hard to ignore the fact that it becomes like a competition, where we always attempt to outdo each other songwriting-wise and musically, but in a friendly manner. So, i think that's what keeps us on edge.

MSJ: Where did the name for the band come from?

Despite what everyone thinks it got nothing to do with the late great drummer of Led Zeppelin. I just thought that The Bonzo Dog Do-Dah band was a really cool name so we lifted Bonzo out of there and added some color, and there you go - Black Bonzo was born.

MSJ: What's ahead for you?

We have a mini tour coming up in September. After that we are going to start recording our third album, which hopefully will be released May / June sometime next year. We've already written all the material and it's going to be a little different. Then we are going to Philadelphia to play The Rites of spring festival in March next year. That's gonna be our first visit to USA so we are really excited about that.

MSJ: Are there musicians you'd like to play with in the future?

I wouldn't mind playing some riffs with Brian May, or do some organ/guitar dueling with Ken Hensley.

MSJ: Do you think that downloading of music is a help or hindrance to the careers of musicians? It's been said by the major labels that it's essentially the heart of all the problems they are having in terms of lower sales - would you agree?

I think a little bit of both, I mean it's easier to get your music out there but it's harder for the record companies to actually make some money. But there's no point in whining about it, it was the same thing with cassette tapes. Maybe not in the same extent as it is with downloads. You just have to learn to get around the problem, which I think the musicians are doing but the record companies are not, they are stuck in their well oiled machine. They are making themselves obsolete when focusing only on the problem rather than, like the musicians, focusing on the solution. From where I'm standing, as a musician, the only real losers are the record labels that refuse to see the possibilities with the internet. The times change, you can't do anything about that, just try to keep up.

MSJ: In a related question how do you feel about fans recording shows and trading them?

It's fine by me, if they like the music that much to go through all the trouble of sneaking in recording equipment and what not, they deserve it. Even if they do it only for the money it's still fine because someone who likes the music will buy it or trade it in the end. We don’t do this for the money; it would be nice to make some money but the thing we want the most is that people listen to our music.

MSJ: What was the last CD you bought, or what have you been listening to lately?

Hmmm? I think the last albums I bought were Queen - Hot Space and Flash Gordon soundtrack on LP. Rarely buy CD's I have been listening a lot to Steve Marriott stuff like Humble Pie and Small Faces, a little Ten Years After and Riot's Narita and Fire Down Under. Robert Johnson have had quite a few spins on the turntable, too.

MSJ: What about the last concert you attended for your enjoyment?

Man! I can't remember, you don't really have time to attend concerts when you’re out on the road all the time. But I can tell you about one of the best concerts i ever attended was Saxon - '97 they played in a small club in Umea (a town in the northern part of Sweden) what a show - they played for 2.5 hours and since they have always been hard-rocking heroes of mine it was fantastic.

MSJ: What has been your biggest Spinal Tap moment?

I don't know where to begin, perhaps when we forgot half our gear and the PA system at home and didn't realize it until we were about to do the soundcheck. Or the time we couldn't find Stockholm (capitol of Sweden!) - we drove past it several times. I mean, how can you miss a whole city of that size. I even lived there for almost a year so I should be able to find it!

From: http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/interviews_display.cfm?id=100022

Ginger Baker's Air Force - Beat-Club 1970

 Ginger Baker's Air Force - Beat-Club 1970 - Part 1

 

 

 

Ginger Baker's Air Force - Beat-Club 1970 - Part 2

 

After Eric Clapton left Blind Faith in late 1969, Ginger Baker came up with the idea of forming a kind of big band that mixed African music with popular Western music. This innovative concept was ahead of its time and would later be called 'world music'. He brought together an all-star ensemble (Steve Winwood, Ric Grech, Chris Wood, Graham Bond, Denny Lane, etc.) and played two concerts at the Royal Alber Hall in London and the Town Hall in Birmingham. Shortly after the concerts, the live double LP 'Ginger Baker's Air Force' was released in Europe and America. It was a very idiosyncratic mix presented to fans accustomed to rock, but the critics praised this musical excursion and Ginger was surprised by the remarkable sales figures.
He decided to continue the project, recruiting new young musicians for his Air Force and entering the studio to record the follow-up album 'Air Force 2'. In October 1970, the band traveled to Germany with the current line-up to play some concerts and made a detour to the north to perform at the TV studio of Radio Bremen on the legendary music show Beat Club. Air Force also drew on Cream classics such as 'Sunshine Of Your Love', which was rearranged in an African big band sound and flowed seamlessly into 'Toady'. A 9-minute epic by the band with numerous solos and a Ginger Baker bursting with energy, drumming one of his best solos.  From: https://mvdshop.com/products/ginger-bakers-air-force-what-a-day-beatclub-1970-dvd-cd?srsltid=AfmBOoqiH8ircvFNX8li-k-uLBmRL1Gli6NZFBPqAi4C5FiokMr-GDDE 

 

Heavy Temple - Extreme Indifference to Life

With Garden of Heathens being Heavy Temple’s sophomore full-length release, how did the recording and songwriting process differ from your first full-length Lupi Amoris that came out during 2021?

For most of the songs on Lupi Amoris, I had already written them beforehand, so it was just a matter of getting us together to record it. This album was our first truly collaborative writing effort and I also think that this album is a lot more dynamic than the other one. I’d like to think that I’m a pretty good songwriter, but sometimes you need the checks and balances that writing with other people gives you that you don’t have when you’re writing by yourself.

That makes sense. Where did you end up recording Garden of Heathens?

Well, all of our other albums have been super DIY and we recorded Lupi Amoris ourselves. For this album, we went to The Animal Farm, which is a studio in New Jersey and it’s a super cool place. It’s a converted barn with a beautiful studio and the bottom half is a little Airbnb situation, so you can stay there while you’re recording.

That’s awesome.

Yeah, it was different, and it was nice. I’m sure that Baron [Lycan] was thrilled because he didn’t have to record himself this time. It was nice to have somebody else in charge and all we had to do was write, show up and play. John [Forrestal] is a great producer, and he has all of these extra instruments, so we were able to have a real studio experience where we had the freedom to sort of experiment.

It’s been said that this album has a more sophisticated and diverse approach while maintaining a heavy sound, so how did you go about achieving this balance?

Again, the collaboration is a huge part of that. I like to think of this album as sort of a monument to all things heavy. We each have different influences with Baron being more into extreme metal, I’m from a classical background while having an appreciation for heavy music and [Lord] Paisley is super into psych-rock. It’s a really nice blend of a bunch of things and that’s how we were able to really write this record while having such a diverse musical well to pull from.

Heavy Temple has been known for their extensive amount of touring ever since their start in 2012, so what would you say is the best way to keep from getting burnt out while being on the road for a few months?

The key for me, at least the last couple of tours that we’ve done, is plotting out where we’re going to be able to stay. I’m somewhat of a lodging expert, so I like to make sure that we get a nice place, especially if we have a day off or we have two shows within short distance of each other. For example, one time we had two shows in Tennessee, so we got a place in between both locations that had a pool and a slide. We had a little bit of R&R while not getting too dumb, drinking too many beers and all that. I’m not going to say that we eat healthy, but we try to pace ourselves while still trying to have a good time when we’re on the road. We’ll maybe go see the world’s largest frying pan or something like that to kind of break up the monotony. Definitely sleep, sleep is the best thing along with having clean underwear.

Both things are very crucial, I couldn’t agree more. Being a band from Philadelphia, what are your thoughts when it comes to performing in the Boston area like the show you have coming up at the Middle East?

To be fair, I think the last time we played in Boston proper was our first big tour, which was with Pilgrim. That must have been the last time we were up there, but we did play in Plymouth which was pretty fun. I’m excited to see what’s up, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Cambridge. I know there’s some record stores or whatever, but it’s been a long time so I’m excited to kick things off there.

From: https://medium.com/culture-beat/interview-heavy-temple-come-to-shred-the-middle-east-in-cambridge-fa07d4af2ffc 

The Innocence Mission - Wonder of Birds

Centered around the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Don Peris (vocals, guitar) and Karen Peris (vocals, guitar, piano), Lancaster, Pennsylvania natives the Innocence Mission crafted a tasteful, politically correct brand of collegiate folk-pop similar to Sarah McLachlan or 10,000 Maniacs (in fact, the Perises appeared on Natalie Merchant's 1998 album Ophelia). With a rhythm section composed of bassist Mike Bitts and drummer Steve Brown, the Innocence Mission released their eponymous debut album in 1989; Umbrella followed in 1991. Thanks to the advent of the adult alternative radio format, the Innocence Mission were able to break out to a wider audience with the release of their third album, 1995's Glow; material from the album appeared on the soundtrack of the film Empire Records and on the television show Party of Five.  From: http://www.alwaysontherun.net/theinnocencemission.htm