Ben Folds Five - One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces

Lugging a baby grand piano onto a punk club stage in the ’90s was about conspicuous as bringing a baby elephant—and twice as inconvenient. But any patrons who feared that they were about to endure a Gershwin recital were soon set straight by Ben Folds, frontman and primary songwriter of Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Ben Folds Five. 
Flanked by an explosive rhythm section in the form of stickman Darren Jessee and bassist Robert Sledge, Folds earned a reputation as the Jimi Hendrix of the piano—a violent virtuoso who punished all 88 keys like they stole his girlfriend and his favorite black t-shirt. After unleashing an onslaught of energetically-uptempo-yet-unerringly-tuneful numbers, he’d throw in a tricky riff from “Rhapsody in Blue” just to show you that he could. 
Folds, with a mix of trademark self-deprecation and accuracy, later dubbed the act “punk rock for sissies,” yet the melodies were far more sophisticated, the harmonies tighter, and the wise-ass lyrics way more cutting than your average three-chord jam. Ben Folds Five’s 1995 self-titled debut allowed them to broaden their sonic range, but their follow up, 1997’s Whatever and Ever Amen, would be their breakthrough. 
Ironically, the song that took them out of the clubs and into the global charts was not one of their hard driving, ivory bashing anthems or skewered caricatures of whatever sap managed to get on Folds’ bad side. Instead it was “Brick,” a mournful, deeply personal ballad stemming from his experience accompanying a high school girlfriend to have an abortion. Hinting at Folds’ vulnerability, the song resonated with millions and became a Top 20 hit around the world. 
The reputation of “Brick” ran the risk of overshadowing the rest of the songs on the exceedingly strong album, which threw in unusual jazz time signatures, heavy metal distortion, vocal arrangements worthy of Brian Wilson, and a rowdy eastern European Klezmer section—and make it look easy. Even 20 years later, it represents pop music craftsmanship at its finest. 
Folds, a passionate photographer—he recently served as a guest editor for National Geographic‘s Your Shots web community—is similarly adept with his lyrics, creating portraits of friends (and enemies), and evocative scenes drawn from his life, the lives of others, or his imagination. In honor of Whatever and Ever Amen‘s 20th anniversary, the maestro offered People verbal snapshots detailing the production of each track on Ben Folds Five’s beloved classic. 

1. “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces” 
“I had a scenario in mind, and the scenario was a guy had made a shit-ton of money, become famous and successful in some way, and used that to summon all of his enemies to his basement. He’s got his enemies in the basement and he’s going past them one at a time. I imagined him sort of pacing and they’re all tied up like a gimp. 
That’s what I had in mind, and I realized how ambitious that was. I had only written a couple hundred songs in my life at that point and was still trying to rein in certain things. I remember playing it for a friend and my friend saying, ‘You told me that song was this, and I don’t get that from what you’re saying.’ I remember the frustration of that and I worked on it ‘til I got closer.” 

From: https://people.com/music/ben-folds-five-whatever-and-ever-amen-20th-anniversary-track-commentary/

OOIOO - Gold and Green

 OOIOO - Gold and Green - Part 1

 

 OOIOO - Gold and Green - Part 2

 

01. Moss Trumpeter
02. Tekuteku Tune
03. Grow Sound Tree
04. Mountain Book
05. I'm a Song
06. Fossil
07. Ina Hukuno Mori
08. Unu
09. Idbi
10. Ki6ressya
11. Emeraldragonfly
12. Return to NOW!!!

 

It took something like this to get me out of the doldrums and get back into the swing of listening and writing about music I dig. I've been playing this thing like crazy and it just gets better every time I throw it on. It's playful, mischievous and wild...kind of like that cute but crazy girl that wriggles her way into some slacker dude's mopey life to add spark in so many indie flicks and Korean comedies. And what a band name; I'll be honest in that I'm not too familiar with The Boredoms (in which Yoshimi is their drummer), and that the reason I got into this group in the first place was in fact their funky looking band name. Whatever works I guess, because this album will not be leaving any of my top lists anytime soon.
Avant prog isn't the easiest prog-pill to swallow, but once it's down the hatch the benefits will be felt. Gold And Green mesmerizes by swirling together serene sonic vistas with tribal drumming complementing a playful paganistic wink while sometimes soaring into frantic krautrock psychedelic madness. And some of this stuff grooves like one mean mutha! Damn I need a new pair of shades.
"Moss Trumpeter" sets the mood with its peaceful yet majestic trumpet melody punctuated by some heavy rhythmic percussion, catchy enough to entice yet different enough to wonder what the hell the next tune is going to sound like. I love nutty playful albums like this. The album's heart and soul reveals itself with three mini epics in a row, "Grow Sound Tree", "Mountain Book" and "I'm A Song". "Grow Sound Tree" starts off by a woodwind based loop, although played in organic and wistful fashion. Then the drums kick in. Yoshico is some kind of monster behind the kit, punching out these kickin' beats I get so immersed in that I don't even realize how bizarre and absurd this would sound to some random chump passing by. "Mountain Book" opens as this open air pastoral soundscape overlain with a real sweet vocal melody that repeats itself throughout as the music builds in crescendo to dizzying heights with some insane drumwork. "I'm A Song" has this funky vibe that comes across like a krautrock take on Japanese pop while evolving through occasional tempo changes. You can hear the band having a blast playing this utterly fun yet progressive number.
That ain't all she wrote though; this whole album is essential to my ears these days, although a tune like "Fossil" took a bit of getting used to with its odd chants that eventually won me over after a few plays of the entire album. "Ki No Rukujou Ressha" is flat-out greatness, an instant winner with a driving rhythm, great bass and guitar playing and an energetic playful atmosphere. "Emeraldragonfly" boasts some memorable vocals and one stellar change of pace boosted by strong instrumental skills. These gals can PLAY. And there's "Idbi". Where would my life be without this song? I don't want to know. It's like a little kitten, puppy and bunny morphed into one cute but weirdly enigmatic critter. It's fun to whistle along with too. OOIOO has a few other strong efforts out there, with Taiga being in particular noteworthy, but Gold And Green is my jam, and what a glow-in-the-dark wild gold and green colored jam it is!  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=12683  

 

 

Van Halen - S/T - Side 1

01. Runnin' with the Devil
02. Eruption
03. You Really Got Me
04. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
05. I'm the One

It didn’t sound at first listen like something to change the course of rock music. When Van Halen’s self-titled debut came to market on February 10, 1978, it received substantial media attention, earned reviews that ranged from enthused to ennui-filled, and sold well behind a solid push from Warner Bros. Records. Its landing was substantial, but didn’t seem as momentous as it would later prove to be. The four-piece California band didn’t spawn a procession of imitators (as a full enterprise, that is; one member’s innovations have been pilfered virtually non-stop for a generation), nor change the course of how rock music was made, but its debut marked a turning point, one achieved by the considerably more difficult trick of changing the audience itself.
Van Halen broadened hard rock’s audience with music that appealed to the mainstream without putting off purists. Over the course of its six-album original-lineup run, the band opened the door for hard rock on the pop charts, and made an ever-increasing number of Top 40 listeners receptive to music previously limited to AOR stations. Even then, the group retained substantial credibility as a rock enterprise for the simplest of reasons—no one would ever have dared call guitarist Eddie Van Halen a pretender.
The younger of the two Van Halen brothers who gave the band its ultimate name (it had been Mammoth until 1974), Eddie drove the group’s signature sound with guitar riffs built on explosive virtuosity much more digestible than the average blowout interlude. Combined with the loopy charm of vocalist David Lee Roth, the band sported two unique appeals, a combination of musical proficiency and party-animal joie de vivre not easily duplicated.
On its debut, those qualities were in place, though at a smaller scale than would manifest on later records. Eddie Van Halen would later express regret that the band’s first single was a cover tune, yet the group’s take on “You Really Got Me” is an ideal introduction. Reimagining the Kinks’ classic with substantial heft, the track finds Roth chomping on scenery, punctuating lyrics with charismatic howls and sharp wails, while rhythmic electric guitar prods its pace before breaking into a decorative and memorable fill. Oozing broad personality and lively energy, the song reached as high as #36 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and fueled the collection reaching as high as #19 on Billboard’s album chart, a harbinger of things to come.
Though its path hadn’t been meteoric, Van Halen was always on someone’s radar. A fixture on the Southern California music scene once it locked in its classic lineup of Roth, Eddie Van Halen, his drummer brother Alex and bass player Michael Anthony, the quartet saw little result from 1976 demos financed by Gene Simmons. The following year, Warners’ Ted Templeman and Mo Ostin attended a performance at Hollywood’s Starwood, and signed them soon after. By fall, the band was at Sunset Sound with producer Templeman, who shepherded a three-week recording process.
The direction of their collaboration is audible from the opening of the album’s first track (and second single), “Runnin’ With the Devil.” An approaching train (could be an aggressive car) horn decelerates as it nears, Anthony’s mechanical bass throbs from its remains, and a drizzle of piano cues drums and swatches of gritty electric guitar that aren’t at all showy. Roth jumps in with a caterwaul, then plays with the lyric. It’s nice enough, but hardly distinguished. Then, just under its two-minute mark, Eddie jumps in with a sizzling guitar fill that’s just 10 seconds long, but punctuates the entire enterprise and unveils the tonal quality that would be as much a signature of his work as its technique. It’s a meshing of pop and rock that doesn’t surrender its edge, a thunderous heralding of the group’s strongest appeals in nascent forms.  From: https://bestclassicbands.com/van-halen-debut-album-review-8-20-18/ 

Mary's Danish - Julie's Blanket / 7 Deadly Sins / Hellflower

“I’m caught between hideous and forgotten,” bemoan Mary’s Danish in one of the finer tunes from the lamentably forgotten band’s far-from-hideous and impossibly eclectic catalog — a catalog whose eclecticism is especially notable considering its relatively small volume. Mary’s Danish, which came together in Los Angeles in the late ’80s, was itself a diverse lot — in personality and background — that served up funk, pop, punk and country. The blending of the last two genres clearly betrays the influence of X, from whom lead singers Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter also inherited intricately woven harmony vocals. They were joined in Mary’s Danish by bassist Chris “Wag” Wagner, drummer James Bradley Jr., guitarist David A. King and second guitarist Louis Gutierrez, who had played in the Three O’Clock. All were accomplished musicians with an uncanny pliability, but their secret weapon was frequent sax sideman Michael Barbera, who added jazz and R&B flavor to the mix. Mary’s Danish were as varied thematically as they were sonically, with religion, domestic violence, social criticism and biting self-analysis all receiving narrative attention.
There Goes the Wondertruck ably introduces the band’s offbeat stylistic fusion. The bizarre narrative of “Mary Had a Bar” does not seem to be a band theme song, and “What to Do” is not a Stones cover. It’s not revealed what “BVD” stands for, but “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry” does just that. The catchy college rock favorite “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight” impressed some in the West Coast music biz, including Peter Asher, who became the band’s manager.
Five of the six live tracks on Experience are more fully realized versions of songs from There Goes the Wondertruck, particularly a frenzied, beefier “Blue Stockings” and the high lonesome croon of “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry.” The disc’s studio track, a riotous take on Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady,” slyly recasts the classic rock staple with a letter-perfect Led Zeppelin quote inserted into the bridge.
With funding from pseudo-indie Morgan’s Creek, Mary’s Danish beefed up the production values to adequately match their expanded palette of musical ideas. A veritable omnibus of musical styles, Circa encircles just about every genre imaginable. The metallic crunch of “Mr. Floosack” leads into the introspective back-porch southern rock of “Hoof.” The folky instrumental jam “Down” begets the Devo dada of “These Are All the Shapes Nevada Could Have Been.” It’s easy to get lost within the stylistic shifts of Circa, where “Julie’s Blanket (pigsheadsnakeface)” is the only straight-ahead rocker. As few of the 17 tunes exceed three minutes, the five-minute “7 Deadly Sins” seems positively epic. Despite its attention deficit, the presence of songs as clever as “Beat Me Up” and “Cover Your Face” helped make this label debut a promise of big things to come.  From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/marys-danish/

Matthews' Southern Comfort - And Me / Tell Me Why / My Lady / And When She Smiles

Joni Mitchell’s version of the song “Woodstock” was released on “Ladies Of The Canyon” in April 1970. Two months later, Matthews Southern Comfort recorded a set of songs for a Radio 1 session. They were told that they needed one more song and Ian Matthews, having bought “Ladies Of The Canyon” a week before, decided to record “Woodstock”. Listener response was so positive that the band were encouraged to release the song as a single and the record company put pressure on the band to include it on their forthcoming album, “Later That Same Year”, which was to be released in November 1970. The single stayed at Number One on the U.K. Charts for three weeks in October/November 1970. Their version is slower than CSN&Y’s and more deadpan than Joni Mitchell’s. The musical style is “country-rock” and it’s too easy to dismiss their version as dull. To me, it’s sad, melancholic and resigned. Their version makes it sound like a song sung by someone leading a humdrum life, not in touch with their emotions, wandering directionless through the world. The way that Ian Matthews sings “I have come here to lose the smog and I feel just like a cog in something turning” is desperately sad and yet, simultaneously heartwarming. Here’s my confession. Ian Matthews resisted the record company pressure to include “Woodstock” on “Later That Same Year” although it was included on the American version and is a bonus track on the CD re-issue. So I’ve been writing about a song that’s not, officially, on the album.
Ian Matthews MacDonald changed his name to Ian Matthews to avoid confusion with Ian MacDonald, the multi-instrumentalist for King Crimson. He joined Fairport Convention and sung lead vocals on their first two albums with Judy Dyble (whose boyfriend was Ian MacDonald) and Sandy Denny. When Fairport Convention changed direction to explore English folk music, he left the band and formed Matthews Southern Comfort who released an eponymous album in 1969, “Second Spring” in 1970 and later that same year, “Later That Same Year”. The pressure of a hit single was too much for Ian Matthews who left the band (who continued to record as Southern Comfort) to release two solo albums in 1971, before forming Plainsong. Moving to the USA, he has had a prolific career, releasing over 40 solo albums. A note for the pedant – he changed his name, again, to Iain Matthews in 1989.
I’ve written a lot about a song that doesn’t appear on the official release of this album. However, over the last few days, after Peter suggested that I listen to it, I have listened to the U.S. version of the album non-stop. It’s absolutely wonderful. Whereas, many acts over the last 20 years have adopted the label “Americana” to produce music that is faithful to the concept of music emanating from the country heartland of the USA, none have captured a sound so pure, effortless, relaxing, timeless and beautiful as Ian Matthews managed 52 years ago. “And Me” features gorgeous harmonies and sensational acoustic guitar playing. “Tell Me Why” is the opening track from “After The Goldrush”, released in September 1970, at the same time that “Later That Same Year” was recorded. “Brand New Tennessee Waltz” is a cover of a wonderful song by Jesse Winchester from his eponymous first album, released at around the same time as “After The Goldrush”. Best of all is “For Melanie“, a seven minute song that reminds me of Trees’ “On The Shore“, with a stunning instrumental coda.  From: https://addsomemusictoyourdayblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/23/later-that-same-year-by-matthews-southern-comfort/

Rickie Lee Jones - A Lucky Guy

From the jaunty tilt of her scarlet beret to her languid drawl, Rickie Lee Jones was the epitome of effortless cool in 1979. That winter, pop radio and the Billboard Top 100 was a hodgepodge: Rod Stewart rasping about his sexy quotient, the sleek glitter-ball grooves of disco, and the softballs of what's now kindly dubbed yacht rock.
On the more outer fringes of fanzines, downtown record stores, and adventurous FM, the choices were boundless, whether the insolent thrash of punk, the jagged riffs of Talking Heads, or the Sugar Hill Gang's seeds of hip hop. But Jones's jazzy shuffles, embroidering blithe, bluesy and savage tales of streetwise souls, strolled into all worlds: mainstream radio latched onto "Chuck E.'s in Love" (written for her L.A. compadre, the singer and songwriter Chuck E. Weiss) while everyone else swiftly picked up on tracks like "Young Blood," "Weasel and the White Boys Cool," and "Danny's All-Star Joint." The album's wistful jewel, "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963," even showed up on the soundtrack to 1980's "Little Darlings." (And improbably, "Chuck E.'s in Love" even made an appearance in a 2014 blind audition for NBC's "The Voice.")
The songs on Rickie Lee Jones, which turns 40 at this writing, were not so much sung as viscerally lived by Jones. There's an vibrant immediacy to the record that still feels fresh today, whether the elegiac "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963" or the street hustle of "Young Blood," with its sassy after-midnight strut. The desolate "The Last Chance Texaco" is a hundred Edward Hopper paintings tucked inside of a single song; never has anything that lonely sounded more beautiful.
When Jones appeared on "Saturday Night Live" in April 1979, singing "Chuck E.'s in Love" and the rueful, hushed "Coolsville," the aftermath was as seismic as Kate Bush's ethereal performance on the show a handful of months earlier. Each musician cast light on her unicorn-like uniqueness, unapologetically nonconformist and forthright in their femininity.
Jones's wild child mystery was both her superpower and her fortress in her early twenties. She won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1980, the only woman nominated in an ocean of testosterone (her fellow nominees were Dire Straits, Robin Williams, the Knack, and the Blues Brothers), but she remained skittish with her sudden surge of fame. In early interviews, she longed for her artistic authenticity to be acknowledged — she was not a schtick, beret be damned — and sometimes expressed her frustration with other musicians, like Joni Mitchell, who she felt didn't understand jazz or rough living as Jones did. In retrospect, it's curious to read the mystified description of Jones offered by her ex-lover Tom Waits in Rolling Stone, published the summer her debut album blew up on the charts.
”I love her madly in my own way — you’ll gather that our relationship wasn’t exactly like Mike Todd and Elizabeth Taylor — but she scares me to death," said Waits to writer Timothy White. "She is much older than I am in terms of street wisdom; sometimes she seems as ancient as dirt, and yet other times she’s so like a little girl.”
When asked about Waits's quote years later by The Guardian, and why she might have scared her then-boyfriend, Jones replied, "Well gee, I dunno. I know he loved me… but I probably wasn't the safest of personalities, you know? And I was a pirate."
Perhaps Jones's feral instinct, that pirate's bravado, saved her, enabling her to survive that jarring trampoline bounce to fame. While girlish insouciance flashes through some of Jones's songs on 1981's Pirates, her astonishing second album, it's a brilliantly mature work for such a young musician. Jones and producers Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman (who had also produced her debut) knew they likely couldn't match the runaway success of Rickie Lee Jones, so they freely experimented, restructuring the shape, terrain, and space of her songs and the nuances of her labile voice. Jones's lyrics not only excavated the pain of her breakup with Waits, but immortalized drug buddies and bad habits, as she explained to NPR back in 2017. "It's not possible to walk the footsteps I walked back then," she said.
Pirates opens not with a punch, but a full-throated plea via three songs of infinite contemplation: "We Belong Together," "Living it Up," and "Skeletons." Jones revels in her vocal versatility, track by track, relishing the brash scatting of "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" and surrending to gossamer gasps that barely hold "The Returns" together, before the song dissipates like morning mist.
If anything, Rickie Lee Jones and Pirates gave Jones the determination to be herself, a proud originality that followed on releases like the winding romantic vexation of the 1984's The Magazine and the exquisite dreamscape Flying Cowboys, produced by Walter Becker, which followed five years later. Jones smartly gathered dozens of like-minded collaborators along the way, like her longtime friend Sal Bernardi, Leo Kottke, Syd Straw, Dr. John, David Hildago, Alison Krauss, and Lyle Lovett. (Lovett and Jones's 1992 duet, "North Dakota," from Lovett's Joshua Judges Ruth, might be one of the prettiest songs ever recorded).  From: https://wfuv.org/content/rickie-lee-jones-3

The Four Tops - Bernadette

Today’s classic Motown song of the day is “Bernadette” by the Four Tops. It was released in February of 1967 and peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. “Bernadette” was a ground-breaking tune, especially for bass players. Motown legend James Jamerson played bass and showed all the other players out there what could be done on the instrument. 
Here’s what I’m talking about, in the form of Jamerson’s isolated bass line for “Bernadette.” Just listen to how he’s all over the fretboard, It’s not a normal root and fifth bass part, it’s full of passing tones, chromatics, and much, much more. This one song redefined the role of the bass player in rock and soul music. Every single bass part you liked from 1967 on started with James Jamerson on “Bernadette.” It is thrilling. 
James Jamerson was the bass player for the Motown sound. He played on all the big hits from Smokey Robinson’s “Way Over There” in 1959 through Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” in 1971. In all that time he never changed his bass strings (La Bella heavy-gauge flatwound), saying that “The dirt keeps the funk.” He played all those notes with a single index finger he called “The Hook.” His main instrument was a Fender Precision Bass, although he sometimes played upright bass. 
“Bernadette” was written and produced by the legendary team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. It’s one of their more dramatic compositions, with the band dropping out for lead singer Levi Stubbs to passionately exclaim, for all to hear, “Bernadette!” The secret to a lot of Four Tops songs, especially during the H-D-H era, was to put the melody right at the top of Levi Stubbs’ range. That caused him to almost shout out the lines, making the vocals more powerful. As fellow Top Duke Fakir recalls:
“Eddie [Holland] realized that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there. Levi complained, but we knew he loved it. Every time they thought he was at the top, he would reach a little further until you could hear the tears in his voice.” With Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops, it was all about power and raw emotion. Nobody did it better.  From: https://classicsongoftheday.com/bernadette-the-four-tops/

 

 

Mary Jane - Eve

Mary Jane were formed in late autumn 1993 from a group of Southampton University students, mostly novice musicians whose prior experience consisted of short-lived The Magic Cat and scattered other appearances. Despite several lineup changes the group managed a record deal with the German label September Gurls on the strength of demos consisting of the traditional tune "She Moved Thro' the Fair", "Lagan Love" and the original "The Snow", penned by a friend of the band.
Founding member Peter Miln's departure led to an unplanned hiatus for the band, during which Jo Quinn and Paul Alan Taylor recorded a studio album under the name Zaney Janey and briefly joined the heavy blues-rock band Ultimate Blue Day, though Mary Jane continued to perform live and eventually released the EP 'Isle of Wight' and LP 'The Gates of Silent Memory' with yet another lineup. Nick Davies from their Ultimate Blue Day period returned in time to record with the band on their third studio album 'Tacit'. Three more albums followed in the ensuing years with continued personnel changes including an ongoing relationship with Arlen vocalist Lucy Rutherford. The band's most recent releases include the studio album 'Eve' in 2010 and a compilation titled 'Brigit's Daughter', both on the Talking Elephants label. The band also continues to perform live, primarily around the Southampton and Portsmouth areas.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7245 

Figueroa - Weather Girl

Amon Tobin announced a new electronic folk project called Figueroa, and will be releasing his debut album, The World As We Know It on July 31. The album will be released via Nomark Records, and will showcase Tobin’s shift in sound. Tobin worked with producer Sylvia Massy, who’s portfolio includes Tool, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more, on the album. Tobin had been working on the project for the past 10 years, going through periods of self-isolation in the northern California woods. For nearly a decade, he left the tracks to sit, unsure of what he wanted to do with them. Tobin utilized his electronic production expertise for the album, creating sounds of a guitar without playing one. He changes from his typical electronic sound to a psycho folk one, describing each song to be an experiment. Tobin frequently changes monikers for several projects, releasing several songs as Cujo, which had been his original moniker, last year. As Tobin, he recently teamed up with Thys, a member of the electronic group Noisia, to release the Ghostcards EP. His last album, Long Stories, was released last October. Tobin, who hails from Brazil, began working with production and electronic music in the mid-’90s. Tobin has also produced music scores for various motion pictures, including The Italian Job and 21.  From: https://music.mxdwn.com/2020/06/25/news/amon-tobin-has-a-new-electronic-folk-project-called-figueroa-announces-debut-album-for-july-2020-release/

Josie & The Pussycats (Kay Hanley) - Money (That's What I Want)

Usually a film soundtrack becomes a big seller for one of two reasons: because the disc features music that played an indelible role in a hit movie, or because it includes one or more hit singles. But then there’s the curious case of Josie and the Pussycats, a 2001 film whose box office totaled just $14 million and which featured no charting songs, yet whose soundtrack reached Number 16 on the Billboard album chart and sold well over half a million copies. So, what could possibly explain this anomaly, this rupture in the cinema-soundtrack continuum? Was it baby-boomer nostalgia at the prospect of hearing once more the theme from the animated Josie series of the early 1970s? Doubt it. Did the film’s trailer for some reason send viewers running for the record store rather than the movie theater? Probably not.
Perhaps untold thousands of record buyers discovered it the same way I did — on a listening post at a Virgin Megastore — and wound up making an impulse purchase of an album whose accompanying film they had no intention of seeing. Whatever else may have been going on, it certainly didn’t hurt that the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack rocks. It features 11 girl-power-pop classics, leavened with a couple of nifty parodies of the boy-band dreck that dominated the Hot 100 at the time of the film’s release. It was pulled together by executive-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, with songwriting contributions from Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz, the Gigolo Aunts’ Dave Gibbs and Steve Hurley, once-and-future-Go-Go Jane Wiedlin, and Fountains of Wayne/”That Thing You Do!” tunesmith Adam Schlesinger.
But the key to Josie‘s success was Josie herself. Kay Hanley brought to the fictional band’s lead vocals the same balls-out propulsiveness that she gave Letters to Cleo’s hits during the 1990s, and her fiery delivery of such terrific tunes as “3 Small Words” and Duritz’s “Spin Around” lend them a credibility that the film itself sorely lacks. Hanley also provided on-set guidance to the film’s Pussycats, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson and Tara Reid, leading a “band camp” with the actresses and working with Cook in front of a mirror to help her figure out how to lip-sync and mime playing a guitar. Ironically, Hanley was brought onto the project to sing not as Josie, but as the Pussycats. “They already had a Josie when I signed on,” she says, “but by the time I got to L.A. they had let the original Josie go — not because she sucked, but because she was too good. Kenny had chosen somebody from his world, and it was like a woman’s voice coming out of Rachael Leigh Cook’s mouth. It just didn’t work.
“That left me in a position to swoop in and get the gig, but it didn’t happen immediately. They kept me hanging around for awhile, and to make a long, protracted story short, I eventually heard they were flying in Tracy Bonham to sing Josie’s part. So I quit! But Kenny brought me back, and it wound up being a very good thing that he did.”
Hanley’s husband, former Cleo guitarist Michael Eisenstein, wound up playing guitars and bass on the soundtrack’s songs. Meanwhile, Edmonds was helping Hanley overcome her insecurities. “This was my first gun-for-hire gig,” she says, “and there was a lot of trepidation going in. I had never considered myself much of a singer — I saw myself as a one-trick pony, and not a very good one at that. So to be asked to work on a project like this, specifically because of my qualities as a singer, was definitely weird for me.
“The songs had been written already [though Hanley and Eisenstein contributed the track “Shapeshifter”], and fortunately most of them were in a style I was at least vaguely comfortable with. But when they played me the demo for the ballad “You Don’t See Me,’ I said, “I can’t sing that!’ Kenny said, “Yes, you can,’ and he worked really patiently to boost my confidence. To this day, I can’t listen to that track without thinking, Wow, I can’t believe I did that.”
While Hanley, Edmonds and their colleagues conspired to create a soundtrack that could stand impressively on its own merits, the Josie film itself was a mess. Its ingredients were enticing enough — a trio of teen-comedy starlets as the Pussycats, indie-cinema darlings Parker Posey and Alan Cumming as a pair of loony-yet-conniving record-label execs, and a nice comic subplot involving teen consumerism, subliminal messages and mind control. Unfortunately, director/screenwriters Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan (also the purveyors of Can’t Hardly Wait and Made of Honor, among other non-classics) mashed those elements together in a jumble of spark-free dialogue and over-the-top sets and costumes that proved difficult to watch. “It’s a shame, because Harry and Deborah were really funny,” Hanley recalls. “I thought it was going to be a great film, but it ended up not being executed as well as anybody had hoped.”
Still, the music did manage to escape the shadow of the film’s failure, and Hanley wound up parleying the soundtrack’s success into a post-Cleo career encompassing a wide range of Hollywood projects as well as a series of terrific solo albums. “That [Josie] record was such a lucky break, in a lot of ways,” she says. “It sold more than all the Cleo records combined, and the money allowed us to create some savings for the first time in our lives, allowed us to buy a house in Boston and then another one in L.A. when we decided to move here. When I really think back on it, we turned that Josie money into our life. I’ll always be grateful for that.”  From: https://popdose.com/jesus-of-cool-kay-hanley-the-pussycats/

 

Kay Hanley

Cambrian Explosion - The Sun

They call themselves the cosmic sorcerers from Portland. Nori Lockhart, Ben Dorothy, Derrin Twiford and Archie Heald together form Cambrian Explosion and play a cool mix of stoner and psychedelic rock. After they released a brilliant debut EP called The Sun in 2013, The Moon EP is the logical second, but with it’s almost 40 minutes in length, The Moon is closer to a full length than the The Sun. In between the two they did a split with the band Foxy Lemon which was released in February last year. With the release of The Moon living up to the high expectations after The Sun, the band has really turned some heads in their direction, including mine.
Nori Lockhart seems to be the creative mind behind this masterpiece. He is the lead guitarist and singer of the band, but also the artist behind the beautiful cover art. His heavy riffs create a solid stoner rock sound while the clean, psychedelic melodies create a sound that has its roots closer to the 60’s. His guitar playing, but also the vocals and the percussion have oriental influences which make their sound unique and interesting. A roaring organ adds the extra layer to really rock out in some of the heavier parts and complement the fuzzy guitar riffs. All merged together with a groovy bass, tight drums, droning effects and hums, and you have the beautiful mix of sounds which can be called The Moon.  From: https://morefuzz.net/reviews/cambrian-explosion-the-moon-ep/

 

Hair - The Original Broadway Cast - White Boys

The saga of Hair, the self-proclaimed American tribal rock love musical, began at Joe Papp’s Shakespeare Festival off Broadway, then moved to a midtown club called Cheetah for a short spell, before opening with great fanfare and fracas on April 29, 1968 at the Biltmore Theatre, in the middle of the theatre district. The work of two “hippies,” James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and a staid Canadian composer, Galt MacDermot, the loosely constructed show benefited from the psychedelic vision of director Tom O’Horgan who organized the action, centering around one of the tribe’s members, Claude, being drafted into the Army and going to Vietnam, and who turned the musical into a media event. The catchy rock score yielded several hit songs including “Aquarius,” “Good Morning, Starshine,” and “Let The Sunshine In,” among them, which further added to the popularity of the show and ensured it would have a long run of 1,742 performances.  From: https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/music/hair-original-broadway-cast-recording-1968/ 

BoDeans - Something's Telling Me

The BoDeans made their best album since their debut by returning to the basic folk and rock elements that had always worked best for them. On their most acoustic outing, they also rediscovered themselves as songwriters, pursuing subjects unusually close at hand, whether sex, suicide, or the frustrations of the music business. No matter what the topic, they sounded like they meant it, and for once their eclecticism worked for them, providing them with a bagful of styles to evoke without overdoing it. Go Slow Down may have been the statement of a band that had been through a lot and reached a point of emotional exhaustion, but the BoDeans used their experience to craft their most deeply felt and satisfying music. Two-and-a-half years after the album's release, its leadoff track, "Closer to Free," became a hit after being made the theme song of the Party of Five TV series.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/go-slow-down-mw0000105733#review 

Danefae - Eden

Danefae formed in 2019 out of a common love for rock with a heavier edge during the members' studies at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium, the music conservatory in Aalborg, Denmark. Growing up in small towns in peripheral areas of Denmark, they share a common cultural background relying on communal singing and praise of historical roots that can be traced in their music often evolving from phrases from old Danish singalongs, folk songs and hymns.
Main composer and vocalist Anne Olesen, drummer Jonas Agerskov, bassist Carl Emil Tofte Jensen and guitarist, co-composer Anders Mogensen comprise the four-piece band sometimes augmented by an outside pianist. Their debut album "Tro" released October 7, 2022 showcases Olesen's eerie singing in Danish intersected by Mogensen's Meshuggah-like guitar riffs (he admits being inspired by Dream Theater and Haken) accompanied by the often dark setting provided by Agerskov and Jensen. In addition to the metal influences, prog folk and drops of post-rock and neo-prog find their way into the music.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=12335

Blood, Sweat & Tears - I Can't Quit Her

“I Can’t Quit Her” is a song from the 1968 album Child Is Father To The Man, the debut of the “rock with horns” band Blood Sweat & Tears. After the band The Blues Project disbanded, Al Kooper had this idea that he got from Chicago’s The Buckinghams, who had made a name for themselves by adding horns to their songs, such as “Kind Of A Drag,” “Susan,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” and “Don’t You Care.” He got with guitarist Steve Katz, who had been with Al in The Blues Project, and drummer Bobby Colomby, and gradually built an octet with a four-member horn section. “I Can’t Quit Her”, released in May 1968, was written by Kooper and Irwin Levine, who also wrote “Knock Three Times” and “Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Ole Oak Tree” for Tony Orlando and Dawn.  From: https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com/2025/05/04/song-lyric-sunday-blood-sweat-tears-i-cant-quit-her/

Another fabulous Curtis Mayfield-influenced ballad from the pen of Al Kooper, "I Can't Quit Her" was the pilot single from Blood, Sweat & Tears in early 1968. Although not a huge chart success, the song encapsulated the band's melting pot of soul, jazz, and rock perfectly. Led by a sterling upright piano riff from Kooper, the song quickly mutates into a Stan Kenton-influenced big band showcase for the BS&T horn section, along with their powerful, hard rock leanings. The lyrics are certainly derived from an old blues ballad but are brought into the late-'60s sensibility with class and an artless style.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/song/i-cant-quit-her-mt0011277056#review  

Xenia Rubinos - Live on KEXP 2013 / Rosslyn Jazz Festival 2017

 Xenia Rubinos - Live on KEXP 2013

 

Xenia Rubinos - Rosslyn Jazz Festival 2017 - Part 1

 

 Xenia Rubinos - Rosslyn Jazz Festival 2017 - Part 2

 

When Xenia Rubinos took the stage at Brooklyn’s Public Records last week, she was moving through performance elements that only a true diva could channel. Arms flailing high above her frilly white dress, Rubinos sang “Ay Hombre,” a high drama anthem from her genre-defying album Una Rosa, with such conviction, it reverberated throughout the room. Minutes earlier, Puerto Rican drag queen Vena Cava had posed as Rubinos, performing her own rendition of songs from Una Rosa with a similarly urgent fervor. Cava, like the artifacts on display at the event, was among the album’s many inspirations.
A day before the show, Rubinos spoke about her recent obsession with high femme figures like drag queens and Ranchera singers. “Do you see that bra hanging up?” she asked over Zoom from her Brooklyn apartment, nodding to a white bra enshrined on the wall behind her. “I’m playing with a lot of movement and costume right now.” This sort of lively exploration is all over Una Rosa. A departure from Rubinos’ jazz and funk-infused albums, the album embeds ’90s R&B, bolero, and Caribbean rhythms like rumba and salsa within synth-heavy arrangements kissed with Auto-Tuned vocals, creating a richly textured soundscape. Whether it’s the rewriting of José Martí’s “Yo Soy Un Hombre Sincero” on “Who Shot Ya?” or the reimagining of traditional Puerto Rican Christmas songs on “Sacude,” these collage-like moments tell a multilayered tale about identity, memory, and loss.
Writing and recording Una Rosa was a kind of spiritual reckoning for Rubinos. After the critical success and touring behind 2016’s Black Terry Cat, many of the demons she had long pushed aside finally resurfaced. She was burned out and still processing her father’s passing, entering into what she called the deepest depression of her life. In early 2020, she reluctantly returned to the studio with her partner and longtime collaborator Marco Buccelli, disillusioned at first. “I was like a ghost, I was not there,” she said. That initial disconnection fueled her experimental side, and Rubinos eventually found her way back to music. “When I finished the takes on ‘Did My Best,’ the hairs on my arms and legs stood up,” she said. “And it just hit me like a flood, like, whoa! This is healing.”
Una Rosa was inspired initially by the images and sounds that have stuck with Rubinos throughout her life. She refers to her memory as a “magic box of things that changes throughout time,” and using these objects as a springboard, she mapped out the album’s narrative focus. The first half is rich and vibrant, while the latter is more introspective and lithe. Rubinos’ raw vocal cuts and sharp lyricism enliven characters like la diva tragica (tragic diva) on “Ay Hombre” and the working-class woman on “Working All the Time.” In this way, Una Rosa isn’t just about Rubinos but also strives to capture the complexities of the Latinx experience through a format reminiscent of a novela.  From: https://pitchfork.com/features/moodboard/xenia-rubinos-una-rosa-interview/

 

Salyu X Salyu - I Want to Talk to You

S(o)un(d)beams is one of the greatest albums you never heard from 2011: a collaboration between mainstream(ish) J-Pop singer Salyu – noted for her extraordinarily powerful upper register and her Quentin Tarantino connection – and avant-garde Japanese pop icon Cornelius. 
It’s a fun and imaginative investigation into the human voice: sampling, layering and looping Salyu’s voice and keyboards (mainly). At times, it recalls early 80s close harmony vocal trio The Roches, obscure noise minimalists Miu Mau and Ode To Joy (the Muppets version).
Surrounded by the colour and detritus of Goma’s Future Beauty Japanese fashion season, Cornelius (guitar) and Salyu (keys, vocals) – backed by a light jazz-pop troupe that includes Yumiko Ohno of Grand Royal act Buffalo Daughter – bring S(o)un(d)beams into glorious, vivid life.
It hardly matters half the crowd don’t understand the language: these songs are structured around vowel sounds and dissonant consonants, not words. The vocal acrobatica is skillfully played out in front of our disbelieving ears. The dissonance is offset by the beauty. The jazz licks merge with traditional Japanese wind chimes and a well-placed finger snaps
The opening song S(o)un(d)beams is six minutes of glorious ebb and flow: three voices, the left, right and centre channels switching and double backing upon one another with adroit confusion, drums and bass a low throb. Likewise, the more upbeat and mischievous YouTube cult hit Just Friends welcomed in by a metronomic pulse, taken over by handclaps and vocals.
There’s something almost childish in the pleasure that salyu x salyu derive from the constant interaction of voices, nicely offseting more solemn moments like Sailing Days – think slowly drifting spring landscapes – and the clearly clinical (yet often spontaneous) execution of songs like first encore, the ballad Hostile To Me. Let's Dance in Rain Boots is haunting and beautifully spaced, as is the unexpected and totally wonderful Roches cover (Robert Fripp’s guitar parts expertly covered by Cornelius).
Towards the end, the band step it up a pace and layer the funk on with the sound collage, with Slave and Mirror Neurotic. Cornelius cuts loose on the joyful and fat psychedelic guitar – sparking off the evening’s only serious bout of dancing from a couple of hardy souls down the front. A most extraordinary and invigorating evening. Shame she didn’t play her take on Heroes And Villains – she’d have totally brought the house down. Magical, nonetheless.  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/02/cornelius-presents-salyu-x-salyu-review

Yes - America (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

Wouldn’t it be strange if you discovered that back in early 1970s, Genesis had covered Bob Dylan? Or if Emerson, Lake & Palmer had recorded a Buffalo Springfield song? Progressive rock and folk rock may not seem like natural musical partners, but the English prog-rock outfit Yes had other ideas. Just six months after they released their biggest single to date, “Roundabout” in January 1972, they issued a single of their cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s 1968 song “America.” If you’ve ever heard Yes’ majestic, meandering take on this classic and been confused as to how it came to be, the reasons are actually straightforward. They may still be surprising to many of the band’s fans nonetheless.
Right around the same time that Yes was forming in London, Simon & Garfunkel released their fourth studio album Bookends. The duo had already established themselves as a marquee recording act, and the popularity of some of their songs, such as “Homeward Bound” and “I Am a Rock,” extended into the UK and continental Europe. The fourth single from Bookends, “Mrs. Robinson,” was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. and Simon & Garfunkel’s biggest hit to date in the UK, reaching No. 4.
Simon & Garfunkel’s trademark harmonies were an important part of the duo’s appeal, and they were a key factor in bringing the initial lineup of Yes together. Early in their work together, lead vocalist Jon Anderson and the late bassist Chris Squire bonded over their love of Simon & Garfunkel’s harmonizing. Simon & Garfunkel’s approach informed Yes’ vocal arrangements in their early years, as well as in the decades that followed.
It should hardly be surprising, then, that Yes featured “America” frequently in their early setlists. They were playing the song live before they released it as a standalone single in 1972, and they continued to include it in their live shows afterwards. As a result, “America” ranks as Yes’ 19th most-played song in live performances, according to setlist.fm, and it has been their most frequently performed cover song by a wide margin.
In a 2014 interview with Songfacts, Squire indicated he didn’t think there was anything strange or surprising about Yes doing their version of “America.” He said, “When Yes first formed, Simon & Garfunkel were very prevalent hitmakers at the time and both myself and Jon Anderson were big fans of them. That’s why we covered the song ‘America.’”
To be sure, Yes’ version has a distinctly different arrangement and feel than the original. Squire noted there was a strategic element to the band covering a familiar song and putting its own stamp on it. He told Songfacts, ”I always thought that was quite a good clue for audiences when we were starting: If you took somebody else’s material, and then put your own treatment to it, then the audience would recognize more what you did; what the style of the band was because they were already familiar with the tune from the original artist.” Part of what makes a song recognizably Yes are varied tempos and styles and longer run times. Whereas the original runs three-and-a-half minutes, the full version of Yes’ cover expands to 10-and-a-half minutes. Even the single edit clocks in at 4:12.
While their cover of “America” should have given Yes’ fans a strong hint they liked Simon & Garfunkel, a close listen also reveals that at least one member was also a big fan of a classic Broadway musical. At the 1:44 mark of Yes’ long version of “America,” Squire plays the melody from the chorus of the song “America” from West Side Story on his bass. At minimum, it’s a clever mashup of two well-known songs with the same name, but there may be more to Squires’ bass lick than just that. Yes recorded a cover of “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story and released it as a single in the Netherlands in 1972.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/the-story-behind-yes-remake-of-simon-garfunkels-late-1960s-classic-america/

Rosalie Cunningham - Strawberry Fields Forever (Beatles cover)

Rosalie Cunningham - Strawberry Fields Forever. Fun facts: this was something she did with her dad (you see them together in the cafe near the end). He’s a professional (folk?) musician and huge Beatles fan. He plays drums and made the vid (with lots of childhood footage of Rosalie), and she played essentially every other instrument and mixed it herself.  From: https://www.reddit.com/r/psychedelicrock/comments/yshs9o/rosalie_cunningham_strawberry_fields_forever/ 

Rosalie Cunningham’s intriguing career story began at the age of just 12 when she first picked up a guitar with serious intent. “Even before then,” she says, “I was picking out melodies on the piano and writing little songs, but developing a real interest in the guitar was the catalyst to forming my first band at school, Suzie’s Lip, when I reached 13.”
The eldest child of a musician/journalist father and yoga teacher mother, Rosalie grew up with her three siblings in an environment where music was constantly in the air. Fascinated by The Beatles, Slade, Syd-era Pink Floyd, Bowie, Small Faces, Genesis and Black Sabbath, her creativity first reached the wider public in 2007 when she founded her first professional band, the all-female, Gothic-psychedelic outfit Ipso Facto, releasing three singles and a mini album, supporting Magazine and The Last Shadow Puppets on tour, and becoming the new darlings of the UK and European festival circuit.
After Ipso Facto’s split, Cunningham immersed herself in the session world, guesting with numerous bands and artists, and appearing on TV programmes including ‘Later… With Jools Holland’, ‘BBC Electric Proms’ and NBC’s ‘Jay Leno Show’ in the USA, however, the burning urge to cultivate her own music was never far away.
In 2011, wearing her psychedelic influences even more proudly, her next move was to launch the internationally acclaimed band Purson. Purson frequently toured the UK, Europe and North America – with the likes of Kiss, Ghost and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats – and featured regularly on BBC 6 Music. 
After writing what became Purson’s posthumous single, ‘Chocolate Money’, Cunningham recorded and issued a 50th anniversary cover of The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ as a YouTube exclusive, with her father, Mark, and then entered a self-imposed “musical hibernation” before re-emerging with her eponymous album like the visionary solo artist she always was.  From: https://www.highresaudio.com/en/artist/view/b782dd28-2da1-4071-aaa5-932286b615d3/rosalie-cunningham

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A-side single with "Penny Lane". It represented a departure from the group's previous singles and a novel listening experience for the contemporary pop audience. While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group's fans, it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre. Its accompanying promotional film is similarly recognised as a pioneering work in the medium of music video.
Lennon based the song on his childhood memories of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home in Liverpool. Starting in November 1966, the band spent 45 hours in the studio, spread over five weeks, creating three versions of the track. The final recording combined two of those versions, which were entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. It features reverse-recorded instrumentation, Mellotron flute sounds, an Indian swarmandal, and a fade-out/fade-in coda, as well as a cello and brass arrangement by producer George Martin. For the promotional film, the band used experimental techniques such as reverse effects, jump-cuts and superimposition.
The song was the first track the Beatles recorded after completing Revolver and was intended for inclusion on their forthcoming (as yet untitled) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Instead, under pressure from their record company and management for new product, the group were forced to issue it as a single and they followed their usual practice of not including previously released singles on their albums.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Fields_Forever  

Hack-Poets Guild - Hemp & Flax

Hack-Poets Guild are a trio, but not in the traditional ‘folk’ sense. These three singers and creative minds have used their individual and unique knowledge of music and balladry to create a new experience in the British folk song canon. Teaming up with producer and musician Gerry Driver, they have created the 12-song album, Blackletter Garland, “twelve fascinating interpretations and original compositions that tell intricate tales of birth, love, conflict and death”, as their website boasts, consisting mainly of re-worked broadside ballads from the 17th and 19th century (plus a few very fitting originals). 
The trio could be considered a supergroup. Lisa Knapp has been popular since her highly esteemed debut, Wild & Undaunted, released in 2007. Having since performed with some of the biggest names in British folk, Lisa has achieved that pedestal herself and continued to release a mixture of original and reinterpreted traditional songs, often using modern production techniques to enhance some of the more esoteric material. 
Nathaniel Mann is a proper renaissance man in every sense of the term, his work spanning multimedia and genres. With experience in film, broadcast, research, production and curation, his most reminiscent work to that of Hack-Poets Guild is his group Dead Rat Orchestra, who perform traditional-style songs with custom-made resonant meat cleavers. Well worth checking out. 
Finally, Marry Waterson needs scant introduction. The daughter of Lal Waterson and co-creator of landmark albums, The Days That Shaped Me and Hidden, she has the sensibilities of folk singing coursing through her, and the ability to deliver sincerity and sharpness to anything she sings – traditional or original.
It’s not uncommon for albums by folk musicians to contain a variety of original and traditional material, however, the Hack-Poets Guild have found a perfectly balanced mix between the two, including songs with lyrics loosely based on the themes of the original texts, in some cases even blending both original and traditional lyrics in one song. With this approach, the different sources blend without friction and keep the album fresh and inviting with every progressive track.  From: https://tradfolk.co/music/reviews/blackletter-garland-hack-poets-guild/ 

Polly Panic - Losing Form

If you are here then you have at least some interest in Polly Panic's strain of cello art Rock. To introduce you a little more... I am Polly Panic, my normal name is Jenette Mackie, my Alter Ego is Polly Panic. She can say things that I can't, and she most certainly can do things that I can't. I have done Polly Panic on and off for 15 years. There was a period of about 2 years when I kind of gave up pursuing Polly Panic as a career and way of life. I was too overwhelmed and discouraged to keep going. What I thought was meant to be, was not panning out the way that I dreamed. The other part of it was that I had a hard road to travel in recovery from Alcoholism. It did paint the early years of Polly Panic... shows that I would not remember having played the next day, shows cancelled because I was too drunk to play. Unfortunately during this time I was not healthy, and I did not attract healthy people to be a part of Polly Panic either. Makes sense right? I was pretty sure that I could not do the laundry without alcohol, not to mention play shows and travel. Turns out shows are better when you are not blacked out!! Who would have thought? I finally quit drinking (It has been 11 years). Then you just have the problem of how to live without alcohol. I have spent quite a bit of time battling depression, in all its swampy fury. I am sad to think of how many years I lost to that deep sadness and inability to function. After I quit drinking and thought I had quit music, I moved to South America, thinking that I could find my real life in another place, with another way of life. Turns out life is life no matter where you are. BUT. I found myself dragging my cello around with me from bar to bar in Cotacachi, Ecuador, singing my heart out. The audience would always be completely involved, this gringa playing an instrument they did not know, singing in a language they didn't know either. I had some painful and deeply personal things happen, so I returned to the U.S. again... lost. But I keep playing and slowly built Polly Panic back up. Regardless of the results, THIS is what I am good at. It is what I do. I still get overwhelmed and mentally defeated at times. I do my best to battle it and take it easy on myself. And enjoy the actual act and art of music making. EVERY SINGLE person that listens to Polly Panic is precious to me. I try to be as honest and open as I am able, because I believe that is what is so needed in art and in life(especially now).  From: https://www.pollypanic.net/ 

 

Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom

Elton John: “In America, I’ve got ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ going up the charts again. I wish the bloody thing would piss off. I can see why people get sick and tired of me. In America, I get sick and tired of hearing myself on AM radio. It’s embarrassing.”
Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to most of Elton John’s songs, but Elton would occasionally suggest titles. Elton requested a song with the title “Philadelphia Freedom” in honor of his friend, the tennis player Billie Jean King. At the time, there was a professional tennis league in America called World Team Tennis, and in 1974 King coached a team called the Philadelphia Freedoms, becoming one of the first women ever to coach men. Taupin had no obligation to write lyrics about King, and he didn’t – the song was inspired by the Philadelphia Soul sound of groups like The O’Jays and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, and also the American bicentennial; in 1976 the US celebrated 200 years of independence.
Elton John and Billie Jean King became good friends after meeting at a party. Elton tried to attend as many of her matches as he could, and he promised King a song after she gave him a customized track suit. Elton and Billie Jean King would become icons of the gay and lesbian community, but at the time, they were both still in the closet, since athletes and entertainers faced a backlash if they revealed their homosexuality. Elton was often answering questions about why he hadn’t settled down with a girl, and King avoided the subject as best she could, but was forced to come out in 1981 when a former lover sued her for palimony. King was married to a man up until her outing, and Elton was married to a woman from 1984-1988. On the single, it said this song was dedicated to “B.J.K.” (Billie Jean King) and “The Soulful Sounds Of Philadelphia.”
This song was a huge hit in America, following up another #1 single from Elton John, his cover of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.” Elton dominated the charts at this time, but it didn’t always make him happy, as he felt he was being overexposed. Running 5:21, this was one of the longest dance hits of the ’70s. A few months earlier, a national radio programmer declared that he would no longer play any Elton John song over 4 minutes long because they were screwing up his playlists (Program directors liked short songs because they could play more of them. Elton’s opuses like “Daniel” and “Funeral For A Friend” had a way of screwing up the “14 Hits In A Row” format). Elton knew this would be a hit, and was happy to screw the programmer by making it long, knowing he would have to play it anyway. Elton said this was “one of the only times I tried to deliberately write a hit single.”
On May 17, 1975, Elton become one of the first white performers to appear on the TV show Soul Train, which was an honor for him. He performed this song and “Bennie And The Jets.” Depending on where he was performing, Elton would sometimes alter the lyrics of the song, swapping “Philadelphia” for his present location. He would only do it if he could make it fit, so “Cincinnati Freedom” was a go, but Cleveland didn’t get customized.  From: https://powerpop.blog/2020/03/26/elton-john-philadelphia-freedom/

Far From Alaska - About Knives

Following their 2012 EP Stereochrome, Brazilian band Far From Alaska have released a first studio album, modeHuman. The band are made up of experienced names from the music scene in Natal (north-east Brazil) and although they have been together for only a couple years, they have already played at the Planeta Terra Festival in São Paulo and the FIFA Fanfest for the 2014 World Cup. Their music is a punky hybrid of grunge, stoner rock and garage rock with vocals in English by Emmily Barreto, and no Samba to be found.
The album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, produced by Pedro Garcia (former drummer of the rap-rock musical group Planet Hemp) and mastered in Seattle by Chris Hanzsek, who has previously worked with Soundgarden. Although funk music is blossoming in the favelas, modeHuman is a slab of approachable and energetic hard rock. “Politiks”, for example, has some scorching guitar playing (Rafael Brasil) and an interesting use of technology. Possibly what differentiates Far From Alaska from lots of other heavy rock bands is their willingness to experiment: “About Knives” and “The New Heal” have some surprising synth work; “Dino vs. Dino” has a frightening electro break about halfway through; and “modeHuman, Pt 1” and “Monochrome” use electronics to broadly consider machine humanisation.
The band are also definitively versatile, with lap steel (Cris Botarelli) on “Rolling Dice”, and “Mama” even tries out some Wurlitzer piano. “Rainbows” suddenly transforms itself from hard rock into pop. At times they sound like a female-fronted metal version of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, so perhaps funk is a distant influence after all — in particular, “Communication” has some distinctive bass (Edu Filgueira). Far From Alaska clearly appreciate rocking out with abandon, and it seems likely that the band excel in live performance. “Tiny Eyes” and the excitable “Deadman” have some great drumming courtesy of Lauro Kirsch, “Another Round” builds its own mayhem around a very feminine vocal, and “Thievery” has a determined, catchy chorus. This is an ambitious and interesting debut.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/189445-far-from-alaska-modehuman-2495573852.html