XTC - Beating of Hearts

Todd Bernhardt: Let's start off by talking about the history of this song. This is one of the last, if not the last, songs that Terry drummed on.

Andy Partridge: That's right. It was a pair that we did as a kind of audition for Steve Nye, the engineer, and also auditioning Genetic Studios, which belonged to Martin Rushent, the producer who produced "Are You Receiving Me?" He had his own studio complex, up in the woods in Reading. He must have bought these buildings off the army or something -- they were these weird bunkers up in the woods.
So, it was like, "Okay, let see what these studios are like -- it might be good to do the album there -- and we'll also do two tracks, because Virgin are talking about a double A-side single." That means they can't decide, and they don't want to upset the songwriters. [laughs]

TB: Talk a little bit about your relationship with Virgin at this time, because this was right after you'd said, "No more."

AP: It was not in a good place. It went very bad from '82 until the late '80s. It was going way down the slippery slopes, because we were getting ready, with the Mummer album, to make the album that would sell almost the least of our career, I think.

TB: Really? I thought The Big Express held that dubious distinction.

AP: I'm not sure. I think it's [laughs] kind of a photo finish! Or no, it wouldn't even be that fast, it'd be a linocut finish with these two poor-selling albums. I think they've sold a lot more since, but at the time, they probably sold about 30,000 or something each, and I think Virgin were very upset, because they wanted mega-millions.

TB: And you were poised for world domination after English Settlement...

AP: Well, we were certainly poised for English domination, because the English Settlement album had been Top 5, and the single was Number 10 -- that's the highest we've actually been in the English charts, disgraceful to say. Until Top of the Pops finished on television, I'd always watch it and see what was at Number 10, because that was supposedly culturally comparable to where we were! God, that's a shock -- some of the shit you've got to share your number in the charts with. So we were trying out Steve Nye, because we liked the sound of the Tin Drum album -- I didn't like the singing; I actually found it slightly comical, to be honest. It was sort of like somebody taking the piss out of Bryan Ferry. But I love the actual sound of the record -- it was beautifully recorded.

TB: So that's how you hooked up with him -- it was you being proactive?

AP: I think somebody at Virgin gave us the Tin Drum album. "Oh here, try this band, you might like them." Because you used to walk into their offices, and they'd give you stuff.

TB: Right. And then charge the artists for it.

AP: [laughs] Or charge us! We'd be looking for beer in the fridges of the A&R people, or something like that, and they'd be foisting these albums on us that we didn't particularly want. So they gave me this, and I kind of liked it song-wise, but I really, really liked the sound of it. So, it was a case of "Let's try the potential of a double A-side single, and let's try Steve Nye, and let's try Genetic Studios." It was kind of a gamble, which didn't start very well, because on the first day of the session, I think Steve Nye turned up about 4:00 in the afternoon, and I think we'd been there since about 10:00 in the morning. I did not feel kindly to him when he walked through the door, and was just like, "Alright lads?" It was a matter of, "Where have you been?" He'd failed test number one, which in my book is punctuality.

TB: The engineers, presumably, had been there?

AP: Well, the in-house person from Genetic Studios was racing around trying to get a load of microphones ready, not knowing which ones the Steve Nye would want to use...

TB: Oh, so it's not even like you were filling the time getting a sound or anything?

AP: No! I think we were just sort of jamming, and messing around and saying, "Where the fuck is he?" He arrived very late, and that was a bad start to me. And I think it was kind of an omen about his personality. He's a wonderful engineer, but he's possibly the grumpiest person we've ever worked with. We did choose to work with him. He did pass the audition purely on the beauty of his recorded sounds, but he was tricky to work with.

TB: I think that, for a 1980s album, Mummer has aged quite well, because of its overall sound.

AP: That's because, apart from rather subtle synthesizers, there's nothing too artificial on it. I mean there's probably more synthesizer on the Abbey Road album than there is on Mummer! But that's Steve Nye. When he records things, they are very subtle and they do have a quality. Even when he records fake things, synthetic things, they do seem to have an analog beauty, or almost a living, breathing kind of quality. That's an amazing talent, you know? But you'd work with him, and arrive at, say, 10 in the morning, and he'd be hunched over the mixing desk putting a mix together or getting some stuff ready, and it'd be hours before he'd talk to you! He wouldn't even say good morning. It might be two or three hours had passed before he'd say [grunts].

TB: When you've talked about the role of the producer, you've emphasized how important it is for them to have strong interpersonal skills.

AP: Oh, they're midwives! They have to have a great bedside manner, and if they don't, you're thinking, "Well, I don't want to pop my baby out for you to pull it! You're not going to put your hands around the head of my baby! Get me someone else." But Steve Nye is as grumpy and tricky an individual to get on with as he is marvelous as an engineer. His engineering is truly beautiful. Really platinum-quality recording. I mean, things like the drums on "Ladybird" are just totally three-dimensional. That's how to record a kit, you know?

TB: Even the drums on this song are quite focused and nice. Is there anything that you remember particularly about recording the part? The toms are very tuned.

AP: I think Terry was probably bullied by Steve Nye into tuning them up. I realize now the importance of well-tuned drums. I mean, after you've worked with people like Dave Mattacks and Chuck Sabo, people whose kits are so beautifully tuned that they sound musical when get played, and you think, "Oh, that's a delight to your ears!", you appreciate it. But Terry wasn't like that. I don't think he particularly tuned his drums. As long as they felt kind of tight enough, but there wasn't any particular thing he did. I don't remember his drums sounding particularly musical -- if anything, they sounded kind of box-like. They did sound musical when he played them, though. But the idea for the drums for "Beating of Hearts" was based on a kind of buoyant Indian rhythm. You know, [sings] boom-badap-bom, boom-badap-bom, boom. I don't think Terry actually plays it as buoyantly as I would have liked. He doesn't quite put those accents in the sort of micro-meter place that gives them the buoyancy that beat has when Indian drummers play it.

TB: You were talking about how this has kind of an Indian rhythm -- what prompted you do that? Was this the backbone that you built the song from?

AP: Well, I always wanted to do something with that buoyant, bobbing rhythm, but the whole song really came from the guitar tuning. I'd read somewhere that The Glitter Band had got the sound on their guitars by tuning every string to the same note, which they then played through a distortion pedal with a bottleneck. So, instead of chords, you had six notes [chuckles] sort of overdubbed simultaneously, if you see what I mean. I thought, "Well, that's a fantastic sound! I wonder what it's like to mess around with." So I just tried it -- I tried tuning every string to the note of E. I'd heard that they tuned to the note of A, but I thought I'd try it with E. So, I was dragging the plectrum across the strings, and it sort of made a rhythm as you played -- drrrr-lang, drrrr-lang. Because it was all the same note.

TB: Right, but slightly different timbres, because you have different weights of strings.

AP: Different weights and thicknesses of strings, yeah. And then you just throw your hand on, in a straight barre, and you're playing -- well, not quite chords, because at best they can only be octaves of each other. So, they're not chords, and they’re not single notes, what are they? They're something else. I was just moving my finger around in a straight barre on the guitar [sings "Beating of Hearts" guitar pattern], and very soon a song came out. That almost chime-like, or bell-like, guitar pattern suggested ethnic instruments to me -- certainly somewhere east of Dover, like India, or the Middle East, or maybe the Balkans or something. And I thought, "Well, if the song is growing the way it's coming out now, we'd have to make the drums fit with that as well." Then, in the studio, we had the Prophet imitate -- I don't think we knew about sampling at the time, and there was no way to play samples on a keyboard, I don't think -- a kind of orchestral bowed bass and/or cello thing, and we knocked up an accordion patch. I would actually do that -- I would take the Prophet 5 home, and sit there and build things I knew I might want in the future. It was like a hobby, you know? "Hey, let's see if I can make an accordion!" So, we fleshed out the east-of-Ipswitch [chuckles] sound, with our fake instruments, Terry doing his curry-flavored best on the drums, and Dave and I, with these jousting, six-stringed, one-note guitars.

TB: I remember reading that one of the ways you got the distinctive sound of the guitars on this song is that you played electric guitars but you mic'd them, and played them as if they were acoustic.

AP: That's right. We did that a lot -- the first time we did it was "Pulsing Pulsing", and I really liked it. I could hear it at home, because I'd have an open mic on a cassette machine or something, and would be just strumming an electric, and I thought, "I like the acoustic quality of when you get the mic near the guitar -- you get these super highs that don't go down the pickups." So, we did that from "Pulsing Pulsing," which was Drums and Wires time, onwards. It's all over English Settlement, and from then on, really. It's even on Wasp Star.

TB: But on most other songs you'd just use it as a type of sound reinforcement, right? Whereas on this one it's very prominent.

AP: It's prominent, yeah. Usually, we'd have the electric signal go out to the DI and/or an effect or amp somewhere, and then we'd put a mic about a half-inch away from the strings, so you had to sit very close and not move, you know? Then it would capture those super-highs, and you'd blend them in with however you'd process the electric side of the signal, and you either have that as one sound, or you split them across the stereo. You'd have, say, the acoustic side to the left, and the electric, treated side to the right. A great example of that is "I'm the Man Who Murdered Love." You listen to the rhythm guitar, and it's an electric guitar done in that way. It seems to play across your head, because you have the acoustic side of the electric on one side, and the treated side of the electric on the other. So, the guitars on "Beating of Hearts" -- Dave's playing a 12-string, I think...

TB: [chuckling] And all 12 were tuned to E?

AP: Tuned to E, yeah. He may contradict me, if you talk to him, but I think it was a 12-string. But we mic'd it up and blended it with the electric side of it, and the same with my guitar.

TB: You were playing the Ibanez on this?

AP: I think so. I'd say the acoustic side of it is heavier in the mix. Because it sounds very thin and brittle. But I love that sound, actually.

TB: Let's talk about the lyrics a little bit. When in the process did the lyrics come in?

AP: I can't remember how the musical side suggested the lyrical side. I'm guessing it would have been the kind of -- now, this is really corny, but I'm going to have to say it -- it's probably that, for me, the Indian-type sound equals 1967 or '68, which means love, and that led to the whole thing about the heart being the strongest rhythm -- the human heart being the most powerful thing. It really is one of those rather corny, "there's nothing greater than the power of the human heart"-type songs. So, like I was saying, it's kind of tricky for me to come up with anything to say about it, other than it's made up of descriptions of the power of emotion -- human emotion and love, good; war and war equipment, bad.

TB: Why did you build the lyrics around the whole concept of sound and loudness?

AP: I guess it's the thing of, however loud you can think of these loud war noises -- explosions, rifles, screaming war lords, tanks, bombers -- you know, the most awful sounds that man can make, probably topped off with an atom bomb -- sure, they can blow people to bits, but human emotion and the human heart makes a subtle, very quiet noise that is stronger than all of those.

TB: So, the difference is inside versus outside.

AP: It's inside versus outside, it's the beating of this little motor that keeps you alive, and helps you make decisions for good, and make decisions not to kill, and not to destroy. It's far more powerful. I guess I'm just a soppy old pacifist at heart.

TB: The lyrics are full of idealism, but the music is kind of dark.

AP: The music's dark, and some of the sentiments -- certainly those that describes some of the negative aspects of human behavior in there -- are rather dark...

TB: "Tanks on the highway" is a pretty grim image...

AP: Yeah, that, and "bombers in flight" -- that sort of thing.

TB: Let's talk about the vocals a bit.

AP: You know the bit that goes "buoya-dada, buoya-dada, buoya-dada"? The bit that sounds like a Popeye vinyl record stuck in a groove? That came from a TV program I saw, where I saw this Indian tabla player explain that they have to learn to sing all the patterns they play during the kind of classical regimen they go through to learn the instrument. You know, "dah-dah dikki-dah dikki-dah dikki-di dahdahdah." That sort of thing. So that was my intent on that part -- to sound like a tabla teacher. I don't think I pulled it off -- like I say, it's more like broken vinyl Popeye.

From: http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20080428.html 

The Nields - Jeremy Newborn Street

The Nields demonstrate that roots, like gold, are where you find them. More so than on previous albums, The Nields' roots are heard to burrow into the Seventies, with further tendrils extending to the bright sounds of Sixties bubblegum and the pop of the British Invasion, including some later Beatles. Such an explicit homage in no way obscures the signature Nields sensibility, upbeat even in life-story adversity, effacing the crisp sound of their twangy folk-rock abetted by guest musicians such as the Kennedys, or muting the often chilling vocal harmonies of the Nields sisters, Nerissa and Katryna.
"Jeremy Newborn Street" is energetic, bouncy, and coy, its recorder solo sounding enough like an ocarina to render some slightly Dixieland brass surprising. More mixed musical allusions await in "Wanting," including weepy strings and a "Free Bird" slide guitar, a song lyrically central to the album's theme of home; and what is home but roots? "This Town Is Wrong" approaches home more as place from which to flee, emotional lyrics and vocals depicting a young girl's strangulation by small-town expectations, lively rock advocating Barbie's escape from the dollhouse. Sometimes the world comes to you, as in "Mr. Right Now," a story of attraction and desire with lyrical directness and a trumpet fanfare that pushes it to breathlessness. There's country Nields, too, in a cover of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," with yodeling harmonies, high and lonesome but also hopeful. There's a fair amount of experimentation on If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Now, and most is successfully and enjoyably integrated with The Nields vocal and lyrical prowess.  From: https://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/neilds.html

The Rolling Stones - Loving Cup

I’m a latecomer to Exile on Main Street. I mean….I’ve owned it since I was a kid, and listened to it a bit over the years. But I didn’t quite get the hoopla. I was more about its predecessor, Sticky Fingers. I always thought that Sticky Fingers was the perfect balance of “fuck it all” attitude and listener accessibility all wrapped into one. It captures the best of what Jagger/Richards can accomplish with their hook-writing sensibilities, and also what the band as a unit can accomplish with its eloquently messy, boozy groove.  And it’s a short, exciting, manageable listen in one setting. Songs like “Brown Sugar” and “Bitch” are irresistible numbers that swing like mad and incorporate the best of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters while breaking new ground in the process. And “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?” is pretty much a master class in blues/rock lead guitar and saxophone playing, the likes of which has been seldom matched in both tone and execution. This is a safe place to mine for rock chops. So I always gravitated toward this album as the leaner, slicker Exile. But Exile was always there, ominous in its size and scope, bending from the pressure of critical acclaim. I didn’t buy the hype for a long time. Then I got addicted to “Loving Cup” about three days ago. The repeats have been incessant.
As a casual listener of Exile, I was always passively aware of “Loving Cup” as a laid back, medium tempo love song that really had no discernible chorus besides the two-line catch phrase that is somewhat repetitive of the pre-chorus. It has the same sound as much of the rest of the album: elegantly sloppy musical performance; vocals thin, dry, and half-buried; bad intonation on the bass; gritty, flailing electrics; ever-present chugging acoustic guitar; horns creeping up as the song progresses, etc. But with the recent remastered release of Exile, I’ve been checking it out a lot lately as a whole. The instruments have better separation, and the vocals are up in the mix. The guitars are more articulate. And “Loving Cup” has crept up on me as a result. But what ultimately got me hooked was Nicky Hopkins’ emotive piano intro. It’s as romantic and sweet as any rock piano intro gets, yet it has a majesty about it that gives the song an aura of stately importance that clashes sweetly with the subject matter. Lyrically it’s about a scoundrel with “a face full of mud” who plays “a bad guitar” and whose “car don’t start.” But he’s addicted to a hot girl; with one sip from her metaphorical cup, his imperfections and life troubles are instantly erased by the “beautiful buzz.” Vocally, Mick Jagger is at the apex of his range, which gives the song an exciting and dangerous edge. You think he won’t hit the high notes, every time you hear it. But of course he does. And he likes to do a slurring “yaaaaaa” after particularly challenging notes, as if to say “fuck you, I hit it.” All the while Richards is behind him, executing a drug-addled version of Everly Brothers high harmonies with surprisingly accurate phrasing.
That’s been the key to the Rolling Stones’ appeal for fifty years: it sounds like they’re not trying, like anyone could pick up that guitar and bang out those grooves. But they are trying, make no mistake. Even the history behind the making of this album makes one think that it was all just a big fun jam. Rock and roll legend, and lots of books and bios, tells us that tracks for Exile were recorded at a rented mansion in the south of France called Nellcote, with the likes of Gram Parsons hanging out and doing drugs with Keith all day. Yadda yadda. The reality is often less exciting. Just because tracks were recorded there doesn’t mean that the album was completed there. And the reality is that “Loving Cup” was recorded in its entirety at Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles, and it took several months to complete. No wonder it stands up to scrutiny and analysis. The substance here is deep. And this doesn’t come from throwing things together while wasted. These guys were intent on creating great music and myth all at once, and it worked in spades. It just takes a bit longer to find it on Exile because of the particularly ragged performances. On “Loving Cup,” Hopkins’ piano intro is an invitation into that process. The song features crafty writing, tight grooves, and an inspired vocal performance that in its imperfections contain the emotion that illuminates the spirit of the lyric perfectly.  From: https://chrisledrew.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/gimmie-little-drink-from-exile-loving-cup/ 

Sally Rogers - One I Love

Subject: RE: One I Love
From: Jean Ritchie

How/why written? A few years ago I was remembering listening to banjo-picking on Sunday afternoons - usually all boys & men sitting on a store-porch. No girls in our region played banjo then - it was considered unladylike! (Mom referred to it as a "low" instrument). One of the learnin' pieces was a simple ditty-tune that had only one chord change, hardly any melody to it, and the learner would play that little tune over and over and over, finally he or some of the other's would throw in a four-line verse, to keep him going and help set the rhythm:

Alla m'frins fl'out with me
Cause I kep y'r company,
Let'm all say what they will
Love my love with a free goodwill!

I got that fragment on my mind, and thought it was a very good bit of poetry, and kept humming it around, washing dishes, etc., and because it was such a nothing tune, I slowed it down and put my own tune onto it, and the singing of it became so satisfying I put some other verses on the make it longer and sort of tell a story. You're rightn- I did use lines and images from older songs; they seemed to work best with the tune, but other verses are my own words (at least I think so... sometimes there are things in the subconscious - there, but not really remembered). As far as I know, The "Over the mountains" verse and the "It's when I'm awake" one are completely new. Of course, all the other verses are mine also (with the exception of the first) - just using the older images and forms to string my thoughts together.

From: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=8182

Instant Flight - She Shines

Instant Flight are a London based multi-national (Italian-Czech-Brit) band hailing from the 1960s British Psychedelic counter culture movement. Their self titled EP came out in 2001, followed by the albums "Colours & Lights" in 2004, and "Endless Journey" in 2008. The band consists of Marco Magnani (guitars and vocals), Lucie Rejchrtova (keyboards, accordion and backing vocals), Andrew Browning (bass), James Ovens (drums), and Charles Bennett (keyboards). There is a special guest appearance on the debut from Arthur Brown, a genuine legend in his own right. It is a multi-national band as Marco Magnani comes from Bologna, Italy, Lucie Rejchrtova is from Czech Republic, and other members hail from London. 
Instant Flight began when Marco played solo sets in London clubs in 1997, and then in 1999 was joined by 2 guitarists, a bassist and drummer. In 2001 Marco met Lucie Rejchrtova in the "Electric Orange", a psychedelic club, and the DJ was drummer James Ovens. Bassist Andrew Browning would join the lineup last and then they formed officially as Instant Flight. A licensed busker in the underground, Lucia's keyboard style comes from the school of blues, boogie-woogie, modern jazz, rock and funk. Arthur Brown was impressed with Lucia's style and the EP, so he asked if the band would play at his gigs. Later he would sing on the album "Colours & Lights", on "Kites" and "Freeway".  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2240 

Indigo Girls - Chickenman / Nashville / Let It Be Me

Indigo Girls were one of a number of folk-rock groups taken on by major labels in the late 1980s and early 1990s following the success of the likes of Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega. What may have initially been viewed as a passing fad blossomed, and the ’90s arguably saw folk and crossover music being recognised in the mainstream to the greatest degree since the swinging ’60s. Indigo Girls not only flourished but thrived for three decades and are still performing and releasing new material. With appearances on major talk shows, iconic music videos and their relentless outspokenness, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers demanded from the beginning to be seen and heard.
And so they should be. Their music is at best excellent, and even the songs that don’t linger in the mind are well-crafted and feel honest. You get the distinct impression that Ray and Saliers are incapable of putting out a song they know is mediocre or filler — they just would not be able to bear it. This brings us to Rites of Passage. Released in 1992, it is their fourth album, but as their early records were released so closely together — pretty much annually — there is still the sense of a young, raw band.
The two members write almost totally separately, and a song will be known to fans as either “an Amy song” or “an Emily song”. However each usually lends her voice and guitar skills to the other’s tracks, producing gorgeous cacophonies of sound. Amy is generally the rocker, and Emily the jazzier, bluesy artist. In this album, however, both do some experimenting, with very positive results.
Amy’s Rites of Passage songs have a Celtic feel, especially ‘Three Hits’ and ‘Chickenman’. In ‘Cedar Tree’, she perhaps lays it on too thick: it’s cheesy but still pleasant on the ear. A hallmark of an accomplished artist is being able to create a parody of something that is actually also a brilliant example of the thing in question, and Amy demonstrates this with ‘Nashville’, a play on the distinctive style of country music that was popular in the titular city when Amy went to university there. She wasn’t happy and left, and the song conveys her frustration — yet she works in the harmonica, fiddle and accordion to create a piece of real beauty.
Amy’s main hit from this album was ‘Joking’, a jangly, angsty reflection of a more carefree time: “I was wide-eyed and laughing, we were dancing up to the bright side.” It is the rockiest and closest to her usual vibe, full of furious, rugged emotion. Finally, the low, intense ‘Jonas and Ezekial’ has some of her strongest writing, every line feeling important. “In the war over land where the world began, the prophecies say that’s where the world will end, but there’s a tremor growing in our own backyard…”
Emily really seems to grow on this album. In previous records she went for gentle ballads, which she handled well; here she embraces a faster pace and rhythmic style. ‘Galileo’ has a slightly bizarre premise based around reincarnation but is bouncy and moving and gave Indigo Girls one of their biggest hits. The video is brilliant. ‘Let It Be Me’ is a catchy protest song: “The darker the ages get, there’s a stronger beacon yet…”, and ‘Airplane’ is a great tune, but still it feels like it could have been more thoroughly developed.
When Emily does do ballads, she goes bigger and better: ‘Love Will Come To You’ is a ballad on an epic scale, building up into an explosion of harmonies, and ‘Virginia Woolf’ is similar. ‘Ghost’, a fan favourite, is orchestral and grand. The album’s one cover is ‘Romeo and Juliet’; while Indigo Girls have turned out better covers over the years, notably their take on Dylan’s ‘Tangled Up In Blue’, Amy’s take here on the Dire Straits classic is nonetheless striking, with a tenderness and a quiet passion.  From: https://mancunion.com/2017/01/30/record-reappraisal-indigo-girls-rites-of-passage/

Head East - Never Been Any Reason

"Never Been Any Reason" was written by Mike Somerville, who was the band's lead guitarist from 1973-1980, and again from 1994-2003. The song is about a guy who returns home - possibly from a tour - and has it out with his woman.
The band formed in southern Illinois in 1969 but went through a number of member changes before arriving at their core lineup in 1973. They honed their craft playing colleges and clubs in the midwest, which is where they developed "Never Been Any Reason." According to lead singer John Schlitt, they would sometimes introduce it as a song by Three Dog Night because club owners didn't want them playing original songs.
This song, along with the rest of Head East's debut album, was recorded at Golden Voice Recording, a tiny studio in Mike Somerville's hometown of South Pekin, Illinois. Instead of making a demo and pitching it to record companies, they just made the Flat As A Pancake album and released it independently on their own Pyramid Records label in 1974. They produced it themselves, keeping it simple and faithful to the arrangements they honed from playing the songs on the road.
When they were done recording, they had 2,000 vinyl copies pressed and sent one to every radio station and promoter in the area they thought might be interested. They ploy worked; "Never Been Any Reason" earned airplay on KSHE in St. Louis and Y-102 in Kansas City, leading to a deal with A&M Records, who signed the band and re-released the album in June 1975. 
Head East charted higher with their next single, "Love Me Tonight," but "Never Been Any Reason" is by far their most popular song, showing incredible endurance. Classic rock radio stations often pepper it into their playlists, as it's one of the few songs that listeners seem to love even if they've never heard it before. The band remained active in some form for decades, and the song was always their showstopper.
"Never Been Any Reason" was used in the 1993 movie Dazed and Confused, which takes place in 1976. Other films to use the song include J-Men Forever (1979), Sahara (2005) and The Education of Charlie Banks (2007).  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/head-east/never-been-any-reason

 

Front Country - I Don't Wanna Die Angry

“For our 2017 record Other Love Songs, we made the decision to record using only acoustic instruments and our voices with almost no additional production. That’s how we’d been playing live up until that point and we wanted to capture the sound we’d been working on as an acoustic unit. Soon after we found ourselves stepping outside the acoustic box and experimenting with the overall sonic picture of what we were presenting live. Roscoe (Adam Roszkiewicz) and I began using more effects pedals and started playing through amps. Melody began playing percussion and after the addition of the pandeiro (a handheld Brazilian percussion instrument that can sound very much like a small drum kit), “Front Country music,” as we like to call it, began to evolve.
“As we began writing and arranging for the album that would become Impossible World, we made the decision not to put any limitations on production in the studio and found a producer (Dan Knobler) who could help us realize the sonic vision we were working on. This was basically a 180 from our previous record and it was very exciting! However, when any band takes a big leap forward musically, I often wonder what were some of the musical influences that helped inspire this transformation. So here is a collection of music each of us was listening to during the process and how these tracks helped inspire what we all brought to this record. For anyone who’s been following us for a while or maybe had a different impression of the band before hearing this new music this will help answer the question: ‘How did they get there!?'” — Jacob Groopman, Front Country

Brandi Carlile – “The Joke”

One of the most undeniably heartrending songs of the last decade, this song encapsulates Carlile’s emotionally earnest yet epic songwriting style. The way she wears her heart on her sleeve and doesn’t mince words has really inspired me to try and cut to the core with my own songwriting in the past few years. — Melody

Peter Gabriel – “Sledgehammer”

This track actually came up several times while we were arranging the songs for the new album, for the neo-soul vibes, the approach to instrumental hooks and, you guessed it: counterpoint. — Adam

HAIM – “If I Could Change Your Mind”

This first album from HAIM is full of throwback ’80s pop perfection and super catchy songwriting. I think their approach to dense, multi-layered backing vocal parts really influenced the harmony arrangements I did for the poppier tunes on Impossible World. — Melody

King Crimson – “Three of a Perfect Pair”

Intertwining themes and counterpoint have always been a big part of the FroCo sound and that approach was directly influenced by King Crimson and this track in particular; also we covered it on our Mixtape EP in 2016. — Adam

Los Colognes – “Flying Apart”

I came across this album randomly right as we were about to start working on the music for Impossible World and fell in love with the ’80s-meets-modern vibe. The use of electric guitar on this track had direct influence on what I brought to the table for a few of the tracks on Impossible World, especially “Miracle.” — Jacob

Paul Simon – “She Moves On”

From Graceland‘s Brazilian-themed follow up album The Rhythm of the Saints, this track is smooth and spooky in its trance-inducing worship of the dark, sacred feminine. The verse vibe of the song “Mother Nature” was loosely inspired by this one. — Melody

Lau – “Toy Tigers”

Lau is a band from Scotland that has successfully melded electronic elements with Scottish folk music and the result is something truly mind-blowing. They have become one of my all-time favorite bands. — Jacob

Muna – “Never”

I was also listening to a lot of electro-pop and aside from Muna’s production being on point, the level of risk they take in the instrumental section of this track is excellent. — Adam


Tame Impala – “Yes I’m Changing”

Kind of an ironic title for the purpose of this article, but the Tame Impala album Currents from 2015 was a big influence on creating a big sonic landscape that still completely serves the song and doesn’t overshadow it. I’d like to think we achieved this on a few tracks on the record. — Jacob

Queen – “I Want To Break Free”

I grew up on Queen’s tight aesthetic and Freddie’s vocal virtuosity, and while this is may be their most compact pop track ever, it’s edited economy inspired our arrangement of our song, “Real Love Potion.” — Melody

Squarepusher – “Welcome to Europe”

Continuing with the counterpoint theme, I was listening to a ton of electronic music while we were making the new album and this track exemplifies how you can have multiple hooks supporting each other throughout a track. Also, I love big jumps between notes in my hooks and get a lot of inspiration from tracks like this. — Adam

Dawes – “Telescope”

After we recorded the first half of our record early in 2019 I found myself listening to the Dawes’ Passwords from 2018 a lot and particularly this track. I love how the song has this slow build and new musical elements are constantly introduced throughout to keep it moving forward. It could be something really tiny that has a big impact on how the song moves. — Jacob

From: https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/mixtape-front-country-how-did-we-get-here/

Black Sabbath - Wheels Of Confusion / Tomorrow’s Dream / Snowblind / Cornucopia

Having previously recorded exclusively in England with producer Rodger Bain, Black Sabbath opted to self-produce their fourth outing, recording it in sunny Los Angeles. If you’re guessing that their new locale exposed these four suddenly rich blue-collar kids from Birmingham to heretofore unprecedented Hollywood excess, you guessed right: By all accounts, the band consumed absolutely Olympian quantities of cocaine during Vol. 4’s recording, with guitarist Tony Iommi claiming to have had the stuff flown in on a private plane and bassist Geezer Butler recently joking (or is he?!?) that the coke bill exceeded the cost of actually, you know, recording the album.
You can glean all that information from interviews and behind-the-scenes accounts, or you can simply listen to “Snowblind,” the album’s centerpiece. (In fact, its riff is similar enough to album opener “Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener” that it almost serves as a reprise.) As Ozzy Osbourne lays down a blizzard of snowy metaphors for his drug of choice—at one point he whispers “cocaine,” in case the subject matter isn’t clear—Iommi and Butler serve up a riff that feels four feet deep, while Bill Ward’s drums skitter and thud in equal measure. (Ward’s unpredictability behind the kit has always been one aspect of Sabbath that their many heirs and imitators have failed to reproduce.) At times, the lyrics are so evocative (“Let the winter sun shine on/Let me feel the frost of dawn”) that they seem to anticipate the snowbound Viking saga of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter,” released a year later. At others, they depict the welcoming embrace of drug dependence with unexpected pathos: “This is where I feel I belong,” Ozzy sings in the song’s breakdown—a rough but relatable sentence for anyone who’s struggled with addiction, or loved someone who has.
Rejection of square society is the order of the day across several of the set’s songs. “Tomorrow’s Dream” is about leaving your problems behind by any available means, with the contrast between the grim present and glorious future encapsulated by the break between the verses’ steamrolling riff and the soaring guitars of the chorus. “Cornucopia” condescends to the normies, with their “matchbox cars and mortgaged joys…frozen food in a concrete maze.” For a band that has a bad rap for Satanic worship—you’ll find the devil all over the place in their body of work, but he’s invariably the bad guy—“Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes” sure is a blistering kiss-off to “Jesus freaks” and “preacher[s] telling me about the god in the sky.”
Two of Vol. 4’s ten tracks have found enduring second lives as storied covers by other acts. The rollicking, science-fictional “Supernaut”—like an inverse “Iron Man,” it’s about a voyager through space and time who’s actually enjoying the trip—received a thrashing industrial makeover at the hands of a dubiously named Ministry side project dubbed 1,000 Homo DJs by Jim Nash, the (gay) head of their record label WaxTrax!. (Hold out for the version with vocals by Trent Reznor, which wound up suppressed by his old record label for years.) On the other end of the sonic spectrum, the moving piano ballad “Changes” was converted into a gut-wrenching soul scorcher by singer Charles Bradley, who transmuted its lyrics about a dissolved romantic relationship into a lament for his late mother. Blessed with one of Iommi’s wickedest riffs and Osbourne’s most vulnerable vocal performances, respectively, the original versions of both songs can stand next to these excellent reinterpretations without being eclipsed; Ward’s carnival-like percussion breakdown in “Supernaut” in particular feels like finding a prize in the song’s otherwise thunderous Cracker Jack box.
And no, Sabbath isn’t afraid to show off their softer side. In addition to the untouchable “Changes,” there’s a perfectly lovely guitar instrumental inspired by the California coast in the form of Iommi’s “Laguna Sunrise” (admittedly a bit hard to take seriously once you’ve heard the poetic piss-take the Who’s Keith Moon recorded over it), while “St. Vitus Dance,” a race of a song that clocks in at under two minutes and thirty seconds, encourages a buddy to patch things up with his girl à la the Beatles’ “She Loves You,” an Osbourne favorite. The Sabbath may be Black indeed, but there’s room for both light and shade, and Vol. 4 is a masterful evocation of both by the band that did it better than anyone.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/black-sabbath-vol-4-super-deluxe/

 

Echo Tattoo - Refugee

Echo Tattoo is a Greek rock band that began its career in the Athenian scene in the early 1990s and is considered one of the most important and influential bands of the Greek Independent scene. Their sound betrays influences from bands of the 60s and 70s, and musical genres such as 60's Psychedelic, Soul, Pop, Progressive, Hard Rock, Power Pop, Electronica, Trip Hop, etc. History. The core of the band, singer (performer, composer/lyricist & producer of the band) Evi Hasapidou Watson and guitarist (composer/lyricist) Panos Kourtsounis, met when in 1988 Panos briefly became a member of No Man's Land, the first band of which Hasapidou was a founding member. Panos had come from Sparta, where he lived until he was 17 years old and where he had created his first band, Super Nova, with friends from school. Super Nova played psychedelic rock with a strong presence of the solo guitar, while the keyboards, clearly influenced by Gong, gave a special style to the overall result. A characteristic of the band, apart from their Space Rock music, was the fact that they rehearsed in the so-called "shack", a small old adobe house located in the wider area of an orange grove. The hut was a magnet for the band's friends, who spent hours amidst the group's endless improvisations, even though they shared the space with the vipers that were curled up in the inner lining of the ceiling. Several of Echo Tattoo's first rehearsals took place in this space, before they even settled on the name by which they became known.
In their 20-plus years of presence on the Greek independent scene, Echo Tattoo have gained a loyal following that has repeatedly witnessed the numerous member changes that have influenced the sound and the course of the band. The new, stable line-up of the band includes Alfonso Migdani (guitar), Giannis Karadima (bass) and Nikos Ghikas (drums).Hasapidou has been described by various music editors as the "Queen of the Greek Rock Scene" and "the leading singer of the domestic scene", while she is considered one of the most important female figures in the history of the Greek independent scene and guitarist Panos Kourtsounis one of the most peculiar and remarkable guitarists.  Translated from: https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_Tattoo 

Albaluna - Heptad

Hailing from Portugal, Albaluna are a sextet of talented musicians whose ethnic background is heavily-rooted within the region from which many of their musical influences emanate. Their vast degree of influence is derived from many ethnic sources such as Balkanese, North European, African and the Middle East but the predominating factor must surely be a strong blend of Iberian and tribal African rhythms.
The band consists of Ruben Monteiro (Afghani rubab, Turkish bağlama, Arab oud, hurdy-gurdy and vocals), Christian Marr (bass and vocals), Raquel Monteiro (violin, vielle, dilruba and vocals), Dinis Coelho (darbuka, riq, tombak, tablas, davul, bendir and daf, Carla Costa (Turkish ney, low whistle, bagpipes and dance) and Tiago Santos on drums.
Featuring a mesmerising array of instruments, the band exhibit some extraordinary dexterity, especially on the hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, vielle (medieval fiddle), bagpipes and tin whistle, in a way that leaves you in awe of the talent on board. Although not strictly a progressive rock band per se, Albaluna will certainly appeal to those whose appreciation extends towards the ethnic and world fusion ends of the musical spectrum. This does not detract at all from their unique and compelling sound but it is certainly enhanced by the inclusion of acoustic drums and electric bass guitar which help to underpin the rhythms and dynamism of their songs.
As is often the case, too many exceptionally gifted bands fall under the radar to the detriment of the music-buying public who never get to hear such talent. The band's latest album, Heptad, was completed in early 2021, yet it is only now that some momentum is being generated to spread the word. This is the band's sixth release since 2010 and I must confess to not having heard of the band or any of their previous releases until now.
The first song admittedly left me a little underwhelmed as it included many sections of spoken words rather than any true singing, but thankfully that issue quickly dissipated when the second track got underway. It is when the band fully utilise all the instruments at their disposal, that the full impact of their musical creations, really take on some significance. The swirling rhythms that form the backbone of the band's music is brought into the 21st century, as the ethnic components rub shoulders with some of the more recently created instruments to really propel the songs forward. This gives the music a very lively and holistic sound which enables the listener to enjoy more than just a smattering of ethically inspired motifs that don't go anywhere.
As it stands, the band have overcome that by utilising very emotive lyrics and singing, that while not being in a language I understand, does not create an impediment to the music's enjoyment. The remaining tracks thankfully exhibit sufficient energy and vitality to ensure the listener is kept fully engaged. I understand the band's live concerts are quite popular in parts of Europe, so would appeal to those who enjoy seeing what their ears are also experiencing.
The band credit their success to being able to meld their historical and cultural influences, and to blend these with the music of tomorrow. They have successfully played in many European countries together with Morocco, India and China. I could easily imagine the band headlining the roster at music events such as the Womadelaide Music festival held in South Australia in 2022, were they to undertake the journey down under.  From: https://www.dprp.net/reviews/2021/163

Styx - Live Winterland, San Francisco 1978

 Styx - Live Winterland, San Francisco 1978 - Part 1

 

Styx - Live Winterland, San Francisco 1978 - Part 2

 

It’s a strange world that we live in and in the world of Styx it was even weirder. AOR Magazine managed to speak with three of the band for this feature, and found it heart-warming to wallow in the respect and admiration all of them have for each other’s contributions to their music, even after many years of acrimony.
That’s not to say all is sweetness and light in the Styx camp but what is interesting is that, in the cold light of day, they all acknowledge that the sum of their parts made a truly great noise; a band where everyone played a positive part. Yes, it’s hard to believe that a band with so much success can so quickly become so unglued.
Former Styx front man Dennis DeYoung is on the line. Sounding larger than life and brandishing a supersonic fanfaronade of enthusiasm, he is keen to set some records straight…
“You see, the thing about Styx was that we were a very good-humoured band,” he reveals, much to our amazement. “And another misconception is that we went at each other hammer and tongs. I don’t even think there was any underlying anger or any passive-aggressive feelings. I really don’t believe that. If that were the case, then those with the biggest fists would be the only survivors. The original premise was to get together and create something collectively, so when I hear nonsensical accusations about fighting each other it doesn’t make sense. Sure, there were creative differences, but how can there not be? That fact that rock bands stay together for as long as they do is a miracle.”
James ‘JY’ Young is also philosophical about those years. “It’s said that great works of art come from creative tension, conflict or troubled times. The fact that Dennis, Tommy and I were headed in different directions worked well, leading to songs of an incredibly high standard. In hindsight, the spirit of that thing worked, and there was a magic about that collective of people at that point in our lives.”
For now, however, let’s ignore the finger-pointing and get stuck into a little prehistory – a recapitulation, if you will, of the early (but not necessarily dark) days.
You can trace the formation of Styx back to the early 1960s and its rhythm section, brothers Chuck (bass) and John (drums, who sadly died in 1996) Panozzo, two mad-keen music fans from the Chicago suburbs who started a garage band called The Tradewinds. With the addition of keyboardist Dennis DeYoung, they subsequently switched moniker to the more streamlined TW4, and later that decade added guitarists John Curulewski and James ‘JY’ Young.
Building a reputation as a hot live band, they signed to local Chicago label, Wooden Nickel Records, partly owned by renowned media mogul and concert promoter Jerry Weintraub. The label insisted on a new name and, following exhaustive discussion, they refashioned themselves as Styx, chosen only because none of them hated it.
In total they recorded four albums for Wooden Nickel, all broadly progressive rock with elements of hard rock and a few sappy ballads thrown in for good measure. Indeed, as a precursor to later recordings, 1973’s The Serpent Is Rising was thought to be vaguely conceptual, hinting at a style they would bring fully into focus further down the line. Incredibly, however, two years after its original release in 1973, the album Styx II featured a track titled Lady, which emerged as a regional and then national hit single, reaching the dizzy heights of No.6 on the Billboard chart.
It was this success after years of struggle that finally prompted the band to look for a more influential record label. Wooden Nickel was awash with problems; not least of all restrictive studio budgets and, perhaps most damning, a management clause in the contract. Despite an attempt by RCA (Wooden Nickel’s distribution company) to then secure the band’s signature, it was growing independent label A&M that eventually signed them. It was also A&M who introduced them to their new manager, Derek Sutton, an Englishman who had previously worked with a number of quality acts, including Robin Trower.
With a new label, money and freedom they set about recording Equinox, an album that would herald a more focussed and perhaps more commercial approach. Issued in 1975, and engineered by long term studio cohort Barry Mraz, the album was heralded as a fine statement of intent. It was also housed in one of the most striking album sleeves of the period: a flaming block of ice set in a surreal beach scene underneath an angry green sky.
This unique image somehow identified a few key elements of the emerging Styx sound, suggesting JY’s aspirations as a hard rocker (which later became his brand identity), ably demonstrated by the taut guitar riff of Midnight Ride, along with Dennis DeYoung’s adventurous prog rock ambitions, best exemplified by Suite Madame Blue and Lonely Child, a deceptive combination of ballad and brawn. To cap it all, the band scored another Top 30 US hit with Lorelei. But while they had everything to play for and nothing to lose, they suffered a setback when guitarist John Curulewski (who sadly passed away from a brain aneurysm in 1988) left the band almost immediately after the recording sessions, on the eve of an impending tour.
The hunt was on to find a suitable replacement; not an easy job considering the demanding skill set required, and the fact that a tour was looming. Fortunately, Styx soon found their man in Tommy Shaw, a seasoned but previously unknown guitarist/songwriter who had played in a local Chicago band with the unlikely handle of MSFunk. Although they recognised Tommy as a great guitarist/ vocalist and a dynamic performer, they weren’t aware of his song writing ability. But once this became apparent, the rest of the band felt like they had won the lottery.
Debuting on 1976’s wonderfully crafted Crystal Ball album, Tommy’s impact was felt immediately, having penned the title track and contributed to several other key moments. The album remains one of Styx’s most impressive statements, picking up the pomp rock baton from Equinox and crafting an even more concise and flamboyant opus.
At the heart of the process was their ability to fuse traditional British progressive rock with all-singing, all-dancing American razzle-dazzle. Again, JY was let loose, with the taut, straight-to-the-point shock rock of Nu Shooz, while Clair de Lune/Ballerina showcased Dennis DeYoung’s burgeoning theatricality and was, for many, the high water mark of the album. Tommy Shaw, meanwhile, scored a big coup: not only did he co-write and sing lead vocal on Mademoiselle, the album’s lead single, but it also became the album’s only hit, cementing his position in Styx.
Behind the scenes, however, Dennis DeYoung was – even at this early juncture – feeling the pressures of being part of an in-demand rock band. He began to feel that his life – and to a degree his destiny – was being ruled by Styx, and not the other way around. This wave of despondency would last for some time, but would also go on to fuel some of his, and the band’s, greatest work, their next two albums, starting with 1977’s The Grand Illusion.
“Effectively, I think the band really started to coalesce with the Equinox album,” confides Dennis. “Then, when Tommy came in, it really started to get interesting The Grand Illusion was just another step that found favour in a much bigger way.”
Dennis sings us some lyrics from the title track: “‘Someday soon we’ll stop to ponder what on Earth’s this spell we’re under/We made the grade and still we wonder who the hell we are.’ That is the theme that goes throughout my writing.” And it wasn’t just Dennis who was feeling a sense of unease with new found fame and wealth.
Tommy Shaw: “Much of The Grand Illusion album was to do with the disillusionment of finding out that the things we had all dreamed about weren’t quite what they were cut out to be.”
Recorded once again in Chicago at Paragon Studios, with Barry Mraz engineering, The Grand Illusion was a masterpiece of pomposity. It was, to that point, the culmination of Styx’s entire career, a record shoe-horned full of songs that have stood the test of time, propelling the band into the superstar league. Indeed, to this day fans feverishly debate whether The Grand Illusion or Pieces Of Eight is the group’s superior release, a topic dividing them into roughly equal constituencies.  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/styx-the-press-slaughtered-us-i-was-convinced-prog-rock-was-dead

 

Stolen Babies - Second Sleep

Experimental rock group Stolen Babies, who have been swiftly taking over the experimental and alternative rock and metal underground in the past few years, are pleased to be teaming up with Vice’s Noisey channel to unveil their eerie, yet beautifully mesmerizing new music video for the track ‘Second Sleep’. The video is directed by Ilan Sharone, well-known video director and brother of Rani and Gil, with visual FX and animation by Meats Meier. The track is cut from the band’s most recent full-length release, entitled Naught. 
“We wanted the video to feel dream-like and echo the vibe of the song. Something is always a little off but not in a way you can put your finger on,” states vocalist Dominique Lenore Persi. “When we’re underwater everything is more of a struggle, which adds to the feeling of being unable to control the situation. The video is directed by Ilan Sharone, with visual FX and animation by Meats Meier who has done vfx for Puscifer, Tool and Roger Waters.”  From: https://100percentrock.com/2013/06/stolen-babies-unveils-brand-new-mesmerising-music-video-for-second-sleep-today-exclusively-via-vices-noisey/

The Mars Volta - Inertiatic ESP

After the short opener “Son et Lumière”, this is the first full-length song on De-Loused In The Comatorium, one of the most powerful and adventurous rock albums of its era. There is no break or transition between “Son et Lumière” and “Inertiatic ESP”, and the two songs have often been performed live as a single item.
Based on a short story written by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and sound manipulation artist Jeremy Ward, the album tells the story of a man named Cerpin Taxt, lying in a comatose state and hallucinating from an overdose of morphine and rat poison.
The lyrics are opaque and filled with symbolism and drug-induced verbosity. Cedric has admitted that some of his lyrics simply come out in the moment; emotions he tried to capture in words in the recordings.  From: https://genius.com/The-mars-volta-inertiatic-esp-lyrics

At The Drive-In had already pushed post-hardcore in a more progressive direction on their final pre-reunion album, 2000’s immortal Relationship of Command, but when vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López started their next band The Mars Volta, they went full-on prog, and pretty much became the first post-hardcore band to do so this blatantly. The energy and volume of their previous band still informed the songwriting on The Mars Volta’s 2003 debut LP De-Loused in the Comatorium, but so did the mind-melting prog riffage of King Crimson and the psychedelic Latin jazz-rock freakouts of Santana. The Mars Volta almost singlehandedly introduced the influence of those bands into the contemporary punk scene, and they did them justice too. This wasn’t a case of imitation; De-Loused in the Comatorium felt as groundbreaking in 2003 as In the Court of the Crimson King and Abraxas did three decades earlier, and like those albums, it still sounds timeless today. Cedric had already honed his singing voice by Relationship of Command, but he was belting it on this album in a way you never would’ve guessed he could in the ATDI days. Likewise, Omar was fleshing Relationship of Command out with dizzying lead guitar, but on this album he’s a straight-up guitar hero. And matching the over-the-top prog of the instrumentation is the fact that it’s lyrically a concept album based on an accompanying short story about a man who overdoses and enters a coma. The whole thing is as excessive and flashy as ’70s rock ever get, but it still hits as hard as Cedric and Omar did in their previous lives as hardcore kids. The Mars Volta would get more progressive and less post-hardcore as their career went on, but De-Loused will always remain one of the first, best, and truest examples of 21st century progressive post-hardcore.  From: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/listen-to-the-mars-voltas-previously-unheard-early-version-of-inertiatic-esp/ 

Uncle Earl - The Last Goodbye

American string band Uncle Earl formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2000. Founded by singer/songwriters K.C. Groves and Jo Serrapere, the band's early years set the tradition of an all-female lineup that included Amanda Kowalski, Casey Henry, Sally Truitt, and Tahmineh Gueramy. This initial lineup yielded the 2002 independently released album She Went Upstairs. A winning mix of traditional folk, bluegrass, and old-timey string band music, Uncle Earl's music found favor among the folk and roots music circuit, though Groves' eventual relocation to Colorado led to the dissolution of the original group. By the end of 2003, however, Groves had put in place the group's best known and most successful lineup. With Groves on mandolin, guitar, and vocals, and new recruits Kristin Andreassen (guitar, fiddle, ukulele, harmonica, vocals, clogging), Rayna Gellert (fiddle, guitar, vocals), and Abigail Washburn (banjo, vocals), Uncle Earl established themselves nationally with a pair of self-released EPs and constant touring. A deal was struck with esteemed folk label Rounder Records and by 2005, the band had recorded their label debut, She Waits for the Night, with old-timey artist/producer Dirk Powell. While touring in support of the album, the band met roots music enthusiast and former Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, who came on board to produce their acclaimed 2007 follow-up, Waterloo, Tennessee. The group's most successful period followed with touring both overseas and across North America. Within a few years, each member had begun to pursue individual interests and careers. Throughout the early 2010s, Groves and Andreassen occasionally revived Uncle Earl with a different supporting lineup and in 2014, the core quartet reconvened for their first show in six years.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/uncle-earl-mn0000381974#biography 

Kansas - On the Other Side

Monolith is often pointed to as the beginning of the slide for Kansas, and in some ways it was. But the album as a whole is extremely well arranged, and considering it was the band’s first attempt at self-production in the studio, pretty well constructed overall.
There have been many reviews written stating that the clear distinction between the Steve Walsh and the Kerry Livgren penned tunes as well as the ongoing internal squabbles in the band were a result of Walsh’s impatience with Livgren’s insistence on cranking out Christianity-inspired lyrics. This is not quite right. In fact, Monolith released in May 1979, and was recorded largely between February and March of that year. Livgren has stated many times that he converted to Christianity during the 87-city tour supporting the Monolith release, not before (on July 29, 1979 to be exact – one month after Monolith was certified as a gold-selling album). In fact, most of the Livgren tunes on the album (as well as “No One Together”, which was written during this time but released on Audio-Visions) were written while Livgren was still an ardent supporter of the Urantia Book, a cosmically spiritual alter-Bible of sorts that surfaced in Chicago in the mid 20th century. The Christian lyrics would come with Audio-Visions and Livgren’s solo debut Seeds of Change in 1980. Livgren was, to be fair, pretty much always inclined to mystic lyrics and arrangements bordering on the spiritual though.
There were certainly divisions in the band, but they were more because of Walsh’s desire for the band to pursue a simpler, more rock-infused musical path and less of a spacey, progressive one (and also probably because of Walsh’s liquid-consumption-plus-short- temper problem during this period). In fact, Walsh had penned some tunes during this timeframe that were not included on Monolith for whatever reason, but did end up on his own solo debut Schemer-Dreamer in 1980. It is interesting to note that this is the first Kansas album that did not include any co-authored works between Livgren and Walsh.
Coming off three consecutive multi-platinum selling albums, Monolith was a bit of a letdown for the band, but the period of 1979-1980 was a watershed period for many progressive bands, what with the competing genres of punk, new wave, and disco. It’s worth noting that the #1 album in America the day Monolith went gold was Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls”. Still, the album went on to sell nearly 900,000 copies, and will more than likely still top the platinum mark at some point anyway.
The songs themselves are somewhat varied, but most of them are pretty good. “On the Other Side” is pure Kansas, with a lot of spacey moog, gorgeous violin work by frontman Robbie Steinhardt, and some great guitar work by Livgren and Rich Williams. This is just as good as pretty much anything Kansas had done previously, plus it features the timeless lyrics – “The answers are so simple and we all know where to look, But it’s easier just to avoid the question”. Amen.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=3207

Tardigrade Inferno - Arrival Of A Train

They say that music soothes the savage beast but in the case of Black cabaret Avant-Garde Metal quartet Tardigrade Inferno that should perhaps be altered to music cheers the unhinged clown. The Russian quartet hail from St. Petersburg and have been slicing and dicing since 2016’s set titled EP, following it with a full length album in 2019’s “Mastermind” that features a cover of a cut by The Doors as well as one from the hit children’s TV series Lazy Town… which probably tells you all you need to know, but perhaps you should never judge a book by its cover. 2021 saw EP “The Worst Of Me” and single “Spooky Scary Skeletons” drop before all went quiet on the Eastern front. Mixed and mastered by Vladimir Lehtinen (Grima, Neorhythm, Ultar) at Blastbear Sound, “Arrival of a Train” marks the groups return, with vocalist Darya Rorria, bassist Maxim Belekhov, drummer Andrew Drew and guitarist keyboard player Alexander Pavlovich looking they escaped from Arkham Asylum having somehow got free from their straight jackets.
The aesthetics of Tardigrade Inferno feel like they’re in a similar vein to Avatar with a macabre sense of unhinged fun written all over the band with each song elevated into more of a theatrical performance at a dark circus or grotesque carnival. This chapter in their story begins with the title track, a stomp-y Alternative Metal chugging as the band marches into town, Rorria using a variety of voices to deliver deranged vocals as if she’s suffering from a split personality. One moment she’s Sever from Canadian Alternative Metal act Sumo Cyco and the next she’s Tatiana Shmayluk from Ukrainian Progressive Death Metal act Jinjer – and everything in between. The metaphors flow thick and fast with a sense of gallows humour and yet it’s fearfully addictive and hilariously good fun at the same time, especially when the colossal breakdown hits. How can you not want to sing a long to lines like “The train is coming and everything you love will perish, I’m the last thing you will hear, chug, chug chug!“? The dance macabre continues with “Fire, Plague and Locust“, it’s off kilter groove and buried keys a master class in setting a mood, the intelligence of the lyrics and their delivery setting the band apart from the pack with verve and swagger. A stylish decadent black joke or bloodthirsty philosophical parable, Rorria is unstoppable as the ringmaster of this group of musicians and for her they have created a soundscape perfectly fitting.  From: https://metalnoise.net/2023/05/review-arrival-of-a-train-by-tardigrade-inferno

Emperor Penguin - Maserati

MFP: Where did it all begin? Where and how did you all meet?

JT: “I first met Rich countless years ago in a cellar and have been irritating him ever since. He introduced me to the others.

“Nigel: “Rich and I met age 14 at school and formed a covers band with his older brother. After graduation from university we shared flats in London. At this point Rich was in two bands – one with JT, and another with Neil. I was asked to join both.”

Neil: “Before the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. Barnsley with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Cudworth with its shadow-guarded tombs, Aberdeen, silver city of the frozen north, whose riders wore steel and furs and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was London, reigning supreme in the dreaming south. Hither came the Penguins, shaggy-haired, sullen-eyed, guitars in hand, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jewelled thrones of the Earth under their Doctor Martened feet.”

Rich: “I met Nigel at school in Yorkshire in 1977 through my brother, Vince Berkely, who knew him from the school production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. My brother’s mate had a drum kit but his mum wouldn’t allow drums at their house, so my brother got hold of them and made me play them.  We formed a band with Nigel, playing instrumental versions of chart hits. Few of the eight-year old schoolchildren present at our first ever gig at Stockingate Primary School would forget our version of ‘Rockin All Over The World’.
I met John from Devon in Oxford in 1981, when he joined a nerdy Wire-sort-of-band I was in (Agent Orange) that had advertised for a keyboard player. John said he didn’t have a keyboard but could play his guitar with a screwdriver, in the manner of Godley and Creme’s  Gizmo. John soon went off to found his own post-punk Magaziney/Echo and the Bunnymen-y-style band called Ears To The Ground but by the time I met him again in ’83, Ears To The Ground had developed a busking 50’s/60’s covers alter ego, called The Rockin Raja Brothers, who needed a snare drum. 
We moved to London in 84/5 and while John was kipping on a sofa in my lounge he met my flat-mate Nigel and we drafted him into the Rockin’ Rajas, as his mastery of all the Shadows hits would widen our repertoire considerably.
Meanwhile I’d met Neil at the ad agency where we both worked. He’d brought with him from the wilds of Aberdeen the remnants of a punk band called He’s Dead Jim but he had no drummer and a large bedroom with a drumkit-shaped space in it. Luckily I needed somewhere to keep my drums at the time, so in return for storage space, I joined his band called The Waltons – in our better moments a hybrid of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Crowded House and Lloyd Cole and The Commotions. As often happened, people noticed Nigel was quite a good guitarist, so we stole half of him from the Rockin Rajas and expanded The Waltons into a five-piece in 1987.
After 10 critically-acclaimed but commercially disastrous years, The Waltons (briefly The Treens) all got married and jacked it in. The Rockin’ Rajas continued to play 50s and 60s covers at weddings until even the parents of the happy couple were too old to remember any of the songs and they also ground to a halt.
In 2000, somebody had the idea of forming Emperor Penguin – a power-pop combo of Neil, Nigel, me and Adrian from the Rockin Rajas. Adrian’s brother was a tip top BBC sound engineer and snuck us into Maida Vale Studios to record several tracks which became product number 1: Crumhorn. The arrival of babies restricted Emperor Penguin’s live work to one gig at a rowdy ad agency party where the sound man was skunked to the eyeballs and I was likened by hecklers to the sitcom character Father Ted.  Adrian eventually left London for the West Country and Emperor Penguin went into hibernation, although of course penguins don’t do that, do they? Let’s say we sat on an egg.
Many years went by until someone suggested an idea which had been staring us all in the face for a long time – get John in. So in 2015, or was it 2016 we began rehearsing covers of bands we liked – Fountains of Wayne, BeBop DeLuxe, Dave Edmunds, and er The Beatles – until one day, Neil turned up with a song called Moth Meet Flame. All of a sudden no-one could stop writing great songs (except me – I don’t do that) and here we are, three albums later. A fine musical and geographical journey was had by all.”

MFP: What made you all start Emperor Penguin, and is there a story behind the name?

JT: “I always wanted to be in the band, but pride made me wait until they asked me – It only took 14 years.

Neil: “We noticed that there was a shocking shortage of groups composed of four middle-aged white men playing Beatles-inspired guitar pop and thought we’d fill the gap in the market. I don’t think there’s a story behind the name but many other names were considered and rejected, including: Fishy Wishy; Egg the Egg; Draw My Dog; Cheesequake; Roast.”

Nigel:“The current line up is an evolution of several earlier versions with different personnel. The name also; previous names being The Waltons, The Treens and Roast before (I seem to recall) we decided that everyone loves penguins, so let’s name ourselves after the grandest sounding one.”

MFP: Has Emperor Penguin continuously been active since the beginning, or was there ever a break in between?

Neil: “Emperor Penguin went into hibernation from about 2001 to 2016 after original member Adrian Long moved out of town. Like King Arthur’s knights, the remaining Penguins fell into a sleep under a mountain somewhere in Avalon, with our guitars by our sides, until the hour of Britain’s need (2017), when we returned to claim our kingdom.”

Nigel:“The initial activity began in the late 1990s with sessions that became ‘Crumhorn’. The original bassist then moved out of London, we became quite busy with our covers/function band ‘The Rajas’ and life got in the way until we picked it up again about 5 years ago.”

MFP: Do you remember when it all just clicked, and when you knew your chemistry was spot on?

Rich: “Rehearsing ‘Maid In Heaven’ and it not sounding at all bad”

JT: “When I heard the first mix of (The Theme From) Falling Tree with Nigel’s lead vocal”

Nigel: “For me it was the first time David Bash invited us to play The Cavern at the Liverpool IPO and the release of second album Rum Pop Engineer.”

MFP: Have any of you ever fought over a girl?

Nigel: “No but plenty of girls continue to fight over us. Shameful really but they’re only human.”

JT: “Not with each other.”

Neil: “I’m a lover not a fighter.”

From: https://mycholsfabulousplayground.wordpress.com/2021/02/12/emperor-penguin-behind-the-curtain/

Glass Hammer - Anthem To Andorath

Glass Hammer is a symphonic-progressive rock band from the United States. They formed in 1992 when multi-instrumentalists Steve Babb and Fred Schendel began to write and record Journey of the Dunadan, a concept album based on the story of Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. To their surprise, the album sold several thousand units via the Internet, The QVC Shop-At-Home Network and phone orders, leaving Babb and Schendel convinced that the band was a project worth continuing.
While many musicians have appeared on Glass Hammer albums over the years, Babb and Schendel have remained the core of the band. Both play a variety of instruments, but Babb mainly concentrates on bass guitar and keyboards while Schendel plays keyboards, various guitars and drums until the addition of live drummer Matt Mendians to the studio recording band in 2004. They also sing, although a number of other vocalists have also handled lead vocal duties including Michelle Young, Walter Moore, Carl Groves, Susie Bogdanowicz and Jon Davison. Worthy of mention, Yes vocalist Jon Anderson provided backup vocals on two songs from 2007's Culture of Ascent.
Lyrically, Glass Hammer is inspired mostly by their love of literature (most notably Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and John Krakauer) and Babb's love of Victorian prose and medieval mythology. 
Musically, they lean towards 70's driven symphonic rock, with strong keyboard orientation; specifically Hammond organs in the tradition of ELP. They have a superb melodic flow to the music they make, encapsulating real power and dynamics without ever becoming overpowering. Their most apparent influences are Yes, ELP, Genesis, and, to a less noticeable extent, Camel. While Glass Hammer have, for the most part, combined those influences into a characteristic style of their own, they made much more direct references to the aforementioned bands on their 2000 album Chronometree and the 2010 release If. Without a doubt, GH remain one of the most popular groups in the progressive rock genre. All the albums are very conceptual, and there is great musicianship overall.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=129 

Big Scenic Nowhere - LeDu

Culled from the same sessions that birthed the Lavender Blues EP in 2020, Big Scenic Nowhere’s second full-length expands the supergroup’s jammed out take on Desert Rock. However, The Long Morrow (Heavy Psych Sounds) sets itself apart from Vision Beyond Horizon by means of a more grounded approach. There aren’t as many songs as before and the album is about ten minutes shorter than its predecessor overall. The guest list also isn’t as loaded this time around, only featuring keyboardist Per Wilberg and The Cure/David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels on the colossal title track.
Fortunately, what could’ve been a letdown ends up being one of the album’s biggest strengths. The Long Morrow is a rather uniform listen compared to the last album’s more off-the-wall nature as the individual tracks often feel like segments of a greater whole. The dynamics may fluctuate with each song but there’s a loose flow that makes for an easygoing experience. I can get into the almost Soundgarden-esque swagger on ‘Murder Klipp’ and the calming psychedelia that comes halfway in has an even more ethereal effect on ‘Lavender Bleu.’ The title track is an inevitable standout with its twenty-minute runtime, largely revolving around fluid modifications of a meandering desert-friendly jam.
This attitude also reflects in the musicianship as the dynamic is loose and the playing is colorful without getting too self-indulgent. The rhythms are rock solid with the prominent bass often providing the most weight as the guitars generally waft off into abstract textures supplemented by gorgeous synth work. As much as I miss the multi-vocalist format that came with the last album, multi-instrumentalist Tony Reed does an excellent job of giving the somewhat sparser lines a little extra character with his robust howl.  From: https://ghostcultmag.com/album-review-big-scenic-nowhere-the-long-morrow-heavy-psych-sounds/