Resilia - Anjou

John Benoit, founder of post-hardcore band Resilia, talks with Dying Scene about the band’s origins, influences, and what 2024 has in store for the band.

DS: Who is Resilia? How and when did Resilia form?

R: The band is me on guitar, Daisy Chamberlin on vocals, Ethan Cate on bass, Grant Dickerson on drums, and either Gray Trainer or Owen Robinson on guitar. Gray does a lot of work with pop artists writing and touring so we have Owen a lot of the time too and he also helps do a bit of writing so I consider him in the band.

I started writing/recording the first Resilia tunes right before moving out of Boston to LA in 2018. I sat on ’em for a while because I couldn’t find a singer, but then I recruited Gray and Ethan from my old band and put out the instrumentals for “Royal Flush” and “Gambit”. When the pandemic hit I put out feelers for guest vocals and discovered Daisy, who ended up singing on those tunes, and shortly after became a full member of the band. Grant came into the picture a little while later, I believe in early 2022 or late 2021 and we immediately knew he was the guy! I love everyone’s musical personality a ton and I’m super lucky to work with them through Resilia.

DS: What are some key musical influences that have shaped the band’s sound? Are there any specific artists or genres that have had a significant impact on your music?

R: I’m most influenced by Coheed and Cambria, The Fall of Troy and Van Halen. They all have so much personality in their music and playing which really speaks to me. I love all kinds of music though, stuff like Frank Zappa, Taylor Swift, video game music, etc. Pretty much anything can influence my writing. Jazz and even classic rock are definitely some big influences on the approach I try to take towards my guitar playing but at the end of the day it’s all filtered through Coheed and TFOT for me. The rest of the band also have really varied musical backgrounds too. Grant never really even played this kind of music before joining but has absolutely killed it. Daisy and Gray are both huge fans of The 1975, Ethan has a background in marching band bass and listens to everything imaginable, and Owen leans heavier and will someday maybe get us to sneak a blastbeat in there somewhere.

DS: Can you walk us through the band’s creative process for writing, composing, and recording Well Intentioned: The Name of the Game and more generally? How do you collaborate on creating songs?

R: The way it went for all the songs on the EP is I would write the entire instrumental on a music notation/guitar tab program called Guitar Pro. Most of the songs only have a handful of parts that I actually wrote on guitar first. Once I had drums, bass, and two guitar parts ready, I’d see what the band thinks and if we liked it we’d start working on the parts and everyone starts putting their own spin on things. We also had Brody Taylor Smith from Invent Animate and Satyr program the drums since we were already working on the album before Grant joined. Brody absolutely killed it and was a pleasure to work with.

DS: Tell us more about Well Intentioned: The Name Of The Game. What inspired it, and what can listeners expect in terms of themes or musical direction?

R: Musically I think it’s just grass-fed farm-to-table progressive post-hardcore. I wrote a lot of the music during the pandemic before most of the band fully came together and I was trying to blend a few things like classic rock in “Hey There Pretty Girl…”, the more Coheed approach in some parts of a few songs and other stuff into my general idea of what progressive post-hardcore is. As far as the title for the EP, that came from the demo title for “Bad Lemon/Anjou” and it doesn’t really mean much I just made it up when I was writing the song just to call it something, but I ended up getting attached to the title because I liked the sound of it and we eventually decided to make it the title for the EP.

DS: How do you approach the visual representation for your music? How did you settle on a Gator to serve as a symbol of the band?

R: All of our cover art has been made by one of my close friends from college, John Rego. I’ve always loved his art so I just reached out and asked him to do whatever he wanted and he came back with the gator art for “Royal Flush” and “Gambit”. We all loved the gator so much and they’re actually Daisy’s favorite animal so we wanted to keep him involved. Later on when we were looking for art for Well Intentioned it seemed natural to go back to him. We definitely want to continue working John as much as we can for future releases.

DS: What do you enjoy most about performing live? Are there any memorable or unique experiences from your live performances that have made a lasting impact? 

R: Performing live has pretty much always been my favorite part of playing music but we’ve unfortunately not done a ton of gigging just yet on account of the band being split up in a bunch of different places. In the two tours we’ve done so far the best part has been seeing people really enjoying our music and singing along to songs I wrote sitting alone in my bedroom in Boston unsure of what I was doing with them. Since we don’t get to do it super often it’s always really special to get to play with the whole band so I think that’d have to be my favorite part overall.

DS: If Resilia could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?

R: Some more “in genre” collaborations that would be a dream come true for me would be Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria, Thomas Erak from The Fall of Troy or Anthony Green from Circa Survive/Saosin. But, to be honest, my real dream is to get Yung Gravy to rap over a post-hardcore breakdown.

DS: What are Resilia’s plans for 2024? Can we expect any new music or tours?

R: I moved to Florida a few months ago so Daisy and I could write the next batch of tunes and we’ve got some stuff cooking! We’ll hopefully start recording some of it soon and start putting out singles at some point in 2024. We don’t have any concrete tour plans at the moment but we’re interested in trying to play some local shows in or around Orlando in 2024 too!

From: https://dyingscene.com/dying-scene-interview-resilia-on-their-new-ep-and-future/ 

 

Poco - And Settlin' Down / Ride the Country / Restrain

In a surprising move, Poco released their strongest country-rock album so far with A Good Feelin’ To Know. I write “surprising” because their last record, From The Inside, kind of sucked. I was prepared for more songs about railroads and cowboys, but this is the first Poco record where invoking the ghost of Buffalo Springfield is meant as a compliment.
Like that band, A Good Feelin’ To Know showcases three distinctively talented singers/songwriters in Richie Furay, Paul Cotton and Timothy Schmit. The record gets off to a rousing start with Furay’s “And Settlin’ Down,” also the album’s lead single, which makes good use of the band’s instrumental and vocal interplay. Cotton’s “Ride The Country” reminds me of Neil Young in the cranky vocals and slightly bittersweet taste; maybe it’s a minute too long, but so far this is the best one-two punch of any Poco album and a complete departure from their last album’s limp country opening. Schmit gets the spotlight next for the luminous “I Can See Everything,” featuring some exotic percussion from George Grantham. It’s a case of all three artists putting their best foot forward while inverting the country-rock formula to put the emphasis on rock this time.
You’d think things would slow down after that, but instead A Good Feelin’ To Know maintains the same high standards all the way through. Stephen Stills’ “Go And Say Goodbye” gets a twangier reading from Furay and Cotton delivers two more rockers, “Keeper of the Fire” (again suggesting Neil Young) and “Early Times.” Cotton is the biggest surprise on this album, since I had him pegged for a country boy on the last record and he seems to be itching to make a rock ‘n roll album this time out. Furay’s upbeat “A Good Feelin’ To Know” returns to the mood of the opening track, Schmit delivers the album’s sweetest harmonies on “Restrain” and Furay closes it all with the gospel-inspired “Sweet Lovin’” featuring Rusty Young’s protean pedal steel as an organ this time.
In an era when country-rock was in its commercial ascendancy and arriving as it did on the heels of Eagles’ first album, you would think A Good Feelin’ To Know would have got a better reception. Instead, the album stalled well shy of the Top 40, Poco apparently incapable of cashing in on a style they helped create. Or maybe the awful album cover was to blame. Their next album, Crazy Eyes, fared better and was likely the beneficiary of people who listened to, and liked, the “new” Poco.  From: https://progrography.com/poco/review-poco-a-good-feelin-to-know-1972/ 

Lovemongers - Papa Was A Rolling Stone (Temptations cover)

While the track was made famous by The Temptations, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” was originally written for the Motown band The Undisputed Truth. Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1971 for The Undisputed Truth, the track was released in 1972. But it was made into a legendary song—and an official No. 1 hit—by The Temptations later that year.
The Temptations’ version begins with an extended, heady instrumental that’s nearly four minutes long. It’s pensive, moody and lovely. A big bass line is heard amid cymbal strikes, hand claps, violin screeches, funky disco guitar and more. A solo trumpet rings out, played masterfully by the Funk Brothers’ Maurice Davis.
While shorter versions exist for radio play (that featured prominent bongos), the original song itself clocks in at about 12-minutes. It’s as much an acid trip as it is a piece of sonic entertainment. The vocals are mostly a group effort. The Temptations’ Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street (who often filled in for Paul Williams and was his eventual replacement), and Damon Harris (who had replaced Eddie Kendricks as the band’s falsetto vocalist) alternate lines like siblings asking their mother about their now-dead father.
Of the song’s meaning, Strong told the Wall Street Journal, “‘Rolling stone’ was a phrase used all the time in my neighborhood going back to the ’50s. It meant a guy who couldn’t settle down, even if he had a wife and kids. It was from the old proverb, ‘A rolling stone gathers no moss.’”  From: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-meaning-of-papa-was-a-rollin-stone-by-the-temptations/

Although Heart reconquered the charts during the mid- to late '80s, the band forfeited the organic sound of their early recordings in favor of pop gloss. By the early '90s, the Wilson sisters (vocalist Ann and guitarist Nancy) were ready to return to their roots, which they attempted to do in the form of a side band, the Lovemongers. The group (which saw the Wilsons joined by keyboardist Sue Ennis, guitarist Frank Cox, and drummer Ben Smith) debuted on the motion picture soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's 1992 film Singles, with a dead-on cover of the Led Zeppelin folk classic "The Battle of Evermore." The group issued a four-song EP a year later, The Battle of Evermore, which included the Zep cover once more, in addition to covers of Todd Rundgren, the Temptations, and even the early Heart classic "Crazy on You."  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lovemongers-mn0000052866#biography

Maplewood - Darlene

Once upon a time not so long ago the musical sub-genre variously known as alt-country / y’allternative / No Depression / cosmic country / cosmic American music was born (mostly in the Far West), and its practitioners were demigods who stalked the earth with a fusion of twang and psychedelic feedback in their wake. Call them Cosmic Americanus Rex: the Byrds, the Buffalo Springfield, the Dillards, the Gosdin Brothers, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco, Gene Clark, Gram Parsons, Michael Nesmith, Clarence White, Neil Young, J.D. Souther, Rick Nelson (and you know, where the hell is Ned Doheny?). These twang titans also sported fellow travelers for better (Little Feat, Jerry Garcia) and for worse (Parsons idolaters/body-snatchers the Eagles, the Rolling Stones). Somewhere amidst this first flowering of the dubiously named country rock, a more concise and pop-oriented version of what far out explorers such as Parsons and Nesmith were discovering sprouted up under the aegis of such ’70s FM radio stalwarts as America, Seals & Crofts, Loggins & Messina, and Bread. 
The Brooklynites in emergent countryish soft rock outfit Maplewood, who also do double-duty in such bands as Koester, Nada Surf, Champale and Winterville, pay not too slavish homage to both the acid-drenched pinnacles of cosmic Americana and the desert rock of America (RIP Ian Samwell). It’s definitely “twinkling Western sky music,” as Hendrix once said of their forebears Crosby, Stills & Nash. With the exception of “Sea Hero’s” bling-blip coda on disc, there is no electro or Theremin to make the compositions for their first long-player “modern”; “Desert Queen” shows the influence of “White Horses”, but this is generally hazy country, psych-pop which could potentially benefit from the full on Arthur Lee/Bruce Botnick orchestral treatment.
Different from Arizona’s Calexico in that there’s no immediate symbolism of sand nor mariachi, and from the Los Angelenos in Beachwood Sparks for purveying tighter, more focused and less solipsistic tunes that might actually crack radio, Maplewood are one toke away from the cosmos and harbingers of a movement already afoot. As when Keith Whitley sang “Buck”, a backlash against late New Country and the teen pop that dominates the airwaves is well underway. Immediately, the lilting, easy, three-part harmonies of Steve Koester, Mark Rozzo and Craig Schoen (co-founder Ira Elliott was on tour with Nada Surf) draw the line in the sand between them and Orlando’s synchronized singing boy bands. If they don’t quite attain the heights of the Beach Boys’ supposed harmonic perfection nor that of those ’70s masters Maurice White and Phillip Bailey — and there were two spots at the band’s recent Knitting Factory show where the vocal blend went flat — Maplewood nevertheless are prime contenders for the mantle yet to be bestowed by the giants: Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, David Crosby, Chris Hillman and the ghosts of Gene Clark and Parsons on high. 
The central problem with the Beachwood Sparks (woodsy theme a-go go here in these group monikers, no?) is that Chris Gunst’s voice is not strong enough to support their musical ambitions and Brent Rademaker, who is better, never sings lead. Maplewood’s Koester and Rozzo display no such weakness. This fact, combined with the gorgeous accessibility of their songs, especially the sublime “Indian Summer”, should see them poised to penetrate the mass in a way other “Return Of Country Rock” standard bearers like the Sparks, the mighty Bobby Bare Jr., and assorted idolaters of the post-Flyte, post-Sweetheart Of The Rodeo Byrds have not managed to do. At the Knit, the sole whiff of angst came from the fragile and virtually chamber rock “Bright Eyes”, and somewhat from “Santa Fe” and the Sparks-esque “Sea Hero”. Otherwise, reflecting their slogan “Maplewood feels good”, the band effectively conveyed a hay cartload of peaceful easy feelings. 
Their music evokes a mythic (alternative) American pastoral of pleasant valley Sundays replete with a potential fiddle-heavy jam, sweet tea or lemonade sweating in a blown-glass pitcher, lazy dogs snoring on the wraparound porch and Mayan hammocks swinging ‘neath the flowering trees. Makes you want to hit the highway and fly on the ground past the outer limits. This was made literal during “Be My Friend” as its melody echoed the Byrds’ “Wasn’t Born To Follow”, thus rolling the post-commune skinny-dipping scene from Easy Rider behind one’s eyelids. Even as Maplewood make plans to release their debut toward the end of the year, and they are more than primed for deserved adulation, their current minor tragedy is that they are not out in some place like the Jemez hot springs, but bound to Gotham. And for all that this metropolis possesses its own concrete canyons, peaks and valleys and the odd eagle gargoyle, this is music that belongs to the wider open spaces of The Farm in Tennessee, Joshua Tree and Topanga.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/maplewood-030408-2496083539.html  

Richard & Linda Thompson - Civilisation / Borrowed Time / Justice in the Streets

1978's First Light marked Richard & Linda Thompson's first time in a recording studio after three years away from music, and it suggested they were still getting warmed up as performers; a year later, Sunnyvista found them in much stronger form and a significantly more upbeat frame of mind. Sunnyvista is the wittiest and most joyous album Richard & Linda made together; while several of Richard Thompson's trademark meditations on romance at it's least successful are on hand, "Why Do You Turn Your Back" manages to generate an unusually soulful groove, "Lonely Hearts" captures the melancholy country feel that First Light never quite caught, and "Traces of My Love" finds a winning warmth in its sadness. Richard Thompson's satirical eye gets an airing on the darkly witty title cut, and he displays his rarely aired politically conscious streak on the rabble-rousing "Borrowed Time" and "Justice in the Streets." Linda Thompson's vocals are in superb form on "Sisters," a lovely duet with Anna McGarrigle. And you'd have to go back to Hokey Pokey to hear the Thompsons having as much fun as they do on the rollicking "Saturday Rolling Around" and the wildly passionate "You're Going to Need Somebody." With a big band of Fairport Convention and Albion Band associates and top UK session players on board, and Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Gerry Rafferty, and Glenn Tilbrook contributing vocals, Sunnyvista boasts the stylistic eclecticism of the Thompsons' best work, with a healthy dose of added enthusiasm. Anyone who thinks Richard & Linda Thompson's records are always depressing have obviously never heard Sunnyvista; if it isn't quite as resonant as I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and Pour Down Like Silver, it still boasts great songs, great singing, and you can play it at a party.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/richard-linda-thompsons-sunnyvista-mw0000192175#review  

Moby Grape - Ain't That A Shame / If You Can't Learn From My Mistakes / Going Nowhere / Seeing

Moby Grape ’69 found the band rebounding after the double album Wow/Grape Jam debacle. Wow is still a great but flawed record that at times recalls Buffalo Springfield’s tension filled Last Time Around. After Wow was completed, Skip Spence exited the band in pursuit of a solo career, releasing the legendary Oar. Spence’s departure was a major blow but like other great American bands of the time who lost key members, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape was still brimming with talent and enthusiasm.
While ’69 is not on par with Moby Grape’s self-titled debut, it’s still a great back to basics country rock record. The album only enhances the group’s legend though, including Skip Spence’s final contribution to the band, Seeing. ‘Seeing’ is undoubtedly their finest moment as a band and one of the best pieces of San Fransisco psychedelia ever waxed!
It starts out with Spence’s plaintive, apologetic vocals which give way to a hard rocking bridge with great spiraling acid leads. It’s as deranged as Syd Barrett’s swansong, Jugband Blues, and mandatory listening for anyone interested in 60’s rock. The band also rock hard with successful results on Trucking Man, Hoochie, and Going Nowhere. Trucking Man is almost a sequel of sorts to Fall On You, with some great, fat slingshot guitar riffs that hit you hard. There are also some quiet, country rock moments on the album like the majestic I Am Not Willing and the classic It’s A Beautiful Day. It’s A Beautiful Day is Moby Grape’s Ripple (Grateful Dead), a sparkling, country folk-rock gem that shines with hippy optimism. Moby Grape ’69 proved that after all the debut related hype settled, the band was still making great music. Another late period Moby Grape title worth searching for is 20 Granite Creek which was released in 1971.  From: https://therisingstorm.net/moby-grape-69/ 

I’m With Her - Find My Way to You

I have approximately the time it takes for I’m With Her to pile into a sprinter van backstage at Colorado’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival and drive to their late-night show at the nearby Sheridan Opera House to conduct a fast-paced interview. But, in truth, three and a half minutes of listening to songs like “Ancient Light,” “Year After Year,” or “Mother Eagle (Sing Me Alive)” is all you need to grasp the appeal of the supergroup trio. Their innate gifts for harmony, melody, and songwriting make their songs, especially those on the new album Wild and Clear and Blue, all but irresistible. “We’ve just lived so much life together, much more life together than we had on our first record,” the band’s Sarah Jarosz tells Rolling Stone. “This [album], we know what our sound is, and now what do we want to say?”
At 11:30 p.m., the group emerged behind a lone microphone at the intimate 1913 opera house on North Oak Street. The gorgeous “Year After Year” hushed the audience, focusing them squarely on members Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins. “Things will never be the same/as they were when we were young,” Watkins sang. “Let’s welcome the change/no song unsung.”
“I love singing with them so much,” Watkins says of her bandmates. “One of the main things I remember from that first meetup was just how easy it was to communicate.” The initial meetup occurred right around the corner from the opera house in nearby Elks Park. It was during the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival. The three musicians were each performing at the gathering with various projects and were asked to host a workshop in the park. “It just happened that the three of us were the ones who could work something up beforehand,” Jarosz recalls. “We met up behind the main stage earlier that day and that was the first time we sang together. That harmony was so magical.”
“The thing I like most about our band is that it’s not always the same blend. Who’s singing high? Who’s singing low? Who’s singing harmony?” O’Donovan says. “So, you end up having all these color combinations. It’s like we have this whole box of paints and we’re constantly thinking of new colors to make.”
The seamless blend of ancient tones and soaring voices is what elevates I’m With Her, and Wild and Clear and Blue, in the roots-music world. The members are well-aware of their chemistry. “There’s this ease of working together,” Watkins says. “It’s just a very natural working environment.” While I’m With Her may have some elements in common with other harmony-based bands, like Crosby, Stills & Nash, there’s none of the rock & roll baggage and expectations that plagued some of the greats.
“Once we decided to become a band, it’s kind of what we always hoped it could be,” Jarosz says. “This band we could return to when we wanted to, and not something we had to do. I think that’s why it’s so enjoyable, because it’s this bonus musical experience.”
The day before the opera house gig, O’Donovan is sitting in the lobby of the Camel’s Garden Hotel in downtown Telluride. Later that afternoon, the trio will hop onto the festival’s large main stage, their melodies radiating out into the towering box canyon surrounding the town. But, for now, O’Donovan is reflecting on the origins of the group. “We’d all been friends for many years,” O’Donovan says. “We sang through a couple of songs and it was so cool. And right after the workshop, Chris Thile texted.”
Thile, frontman for the Punch Brothers, asked the group if they wanted to open for him at the opera house that night. It was the Sunday evening sendoff for the festival, a tradition Thile and his bandmates have held for several years. (To note, Watkins is part of Nickel Creek with Thile, and O’Donovan and Jarosz were regular performers on Thile’s radio variety show Live From Here.)
“We didn’t have any repertoire,” O’Donovan chuckles. “We got to the gig early. We went into the bathroom and worked up a bunch of songs.” Among them, Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and Watkin’s “Long Hot Summer Days.”
“It was electric,” O’Donovan says. “The next day, Sara Watkins texted, ‘I feel like this should be a thing.’” The group released their debut album, See You Around, in 2018. They won the Grammy Award for Best American Roots Song for “Call My Name” in 2020. All the while, they played strings of rapturous gigs.
“I’m constantly surprised by how it still feels so creative,” O’Donovan says. “And we’re still thinking of new ways to change up older songs, play with dynamics, add little sections, little fills here and there.” Back in the lobby, O’Donovan’s cell phone vibrates. Jarosz and Watkins are in front of the hotel, ready to go for a quick hike together before their set. Exiting the hotel, the group disappears down San Juan Avenue toward the mountains cradling the community. “People have passed on. New lives have come into this world. Families have grown,” Jarosz says. “And we’ve all kind of experienced that together. That richness of life and grief and all of the above — all of that fed these songs.”  From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/im-with-her-wild-and-clear-and-blue-1235379011/

Sly & The Family Stone - Stand / You Can Make It If You Try / Sing A Simple Song

At approximately 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 17, 1969 at the Woodstock Musical Festival, Sly and The Family Stone took it to the stage. These days, I can’t imagine doing much of anything coherent at 3:30 a.m., but here, during the smallest of the small hours, the members of the seminal soul/funk/rock group got up and rocked a crowd of approximately 400,000 people.
Sounding fresh and sharp as they would ever sound on stage, Sly and The Family Stone gave one of the best performances of the three-day festival and one of their greatest live performances as a band. At one point, they famously got the absolutely massive crowd chanting “HIGHER!” while throwing up the peace sign. Even listening to the audio, the electricity is palpable. 
Countless historians and musicologists have written millions of words about the Woodstock concert and the associated sociological conditions that made it what it was, but I like to think those 50 minutes on stage by Sly and The Family Stone could be considered the high water mark of the high water mark of the late ’60s. During an event that’s become synonymous with music serving as the vessel of peace, love, and togetherness, Sly and the Family Stone radiated all three. 
Part of what brought the collective to that moment in time was Stand!, the group’s fourth album, released 50 years ago. The San Francisco-based assemblage of musical pioneers had been releasing albums since the mid-1960s. The gathering of musical minds became proprietors of psychedelic soul in 1966, led by former DJ and overall genius multi-instrumentalist Sylvester Stewart a.k.a. Sly Stone. One of the first notable bi-racial bands that also featured men and women, their ranks included uber-talented bassist Larry Graham, as well as Stone brother and lead guitarist Freddie, and Stone sister Rose, as a vocalist and keyboard player. The line-up also included drummer Greg Errico, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, and saxophonist Jerry Martini. 
Prior to the release of Stand!, the group was best known for rollicking soul and rock jams like “Dance to the Music.” Though they had earned commercial and critical success, the band was coming off the release of their somewhat disappointing third album Life, which had hit shelves in July of 1968. Life was a solid, reasonably light album that was fun but didn’t really break any new ground or sell nearly as many copies as Dance to the Music.  
Stand! was Sly and The Family Stone’s best and most commercially successful album of their career. It went platinum in less than a year, eventually selling three million copies and spawning  the #1 chart-topping “Everyday People.” The album is one of the defining pieces of musical work of the late 1960s. Whereas the group had dabbled in themes of unity and peace on Life, these subjects became the super-text of Stand!
I was not alive when Stand! became a musical and cultural force. I learned about this album and Sly and The Family Stone from my father, who played it pretty frequently when I was growing up. Over the years, as I’ve come to learn about and listen to the music produced from that era, Stand! endures over all. Even within a year that featured as many great, important albums as 1969, Stand! remains at the top of the heap.
We live in deeply cynical times. We trade in sarcasm and skepticism as easily as we breathe oxygen. So it’s easy to perceive genuine sentiments expressed on Stand! with a jaundiced eye. But the album’s absolute sincerity is refreshing. Stand! is inspiring without ever being didactic, simplistic, or preachy.
Stand! crystallized the spirit of the late ’60s like few other albums have done. It’s a tribute to love, unity, optimism, and equality. Sly and The Family Stone express a deeply held belief that things could and would get better, that Black and white populations could love together in harmony. That you could stand up to the Goliaths in the government and make a difference. That people could make a difference in turning the world into a better place for everyone.
This worldview is typified in the album’s title track. The song leans hard into its message of empowerment, evoking imagery of little people standing tall and giants about to fall, all while encouraging people to remember that they’re free if they want to be. “Stand” is often remembered for its frenzied final third, where Stone decides to shift that tone of the song, recording a thrilling gospel-inspiration coda, with chanting vocals, blaring horns, and pulsing organs.
“You Can Make It If You Try” is another stirring call to action, designed to encourage the audience to work to fight against oppression in its many forms. The simple poetry of  “Time’s still creeping, especially when you're sleeping / Wake up and go for what you know” is really hard to top. The song is also one of the most musically interesting compositions, with its plucky guitar, rugged horns, and energetic organ breakdown about halfway through the song.  From: https://albumism.com/features/sly-and-the-family-stone-stand-album-anniversary

The Nields - Georgia O / Friday at the Circle K / Jennifer Falling Down

In the front, the Pit kids ruled. In the back, the grandparents huddled. And sandwiched between both were the rest of the diverse crowd-swingers and students, artists and bankers, all belting out the lyrics to The Nields' much acclaimed new album Play.
The Nields, made up of Katryna and Nerissa Nields, Nerissa's husband David Nields (he took her last name when they were married), drummer Dave Hower and guitarist Dave Chalant, are inspired by folk-rock and alternative music. They misleadingly call themselves a rock band their songs reveal a vibrancy and eccentricity missing from modern rock.
The quintet stormed the Paradise and led a show that ran on Jolt soda for fuel. Opening with "Friday at the Circle K," raven-haired lead singer Katryna dominated the show with her powerful vocals, and jigged and twisted through the show, not stopping until the last of the two-song encore. Guitarist Dave Chalfant and Dave Nields leapt and hopped to match. The band threw out chocolates between sets, described the inspiration behind their rich lyrics and urged the audience to use their own lingo ("dolphin friendly" for over the top politically correct). The band had an effervescence in personality to match the energy of their music.
The band draws in fans with its catchy beats and quirky vocals. Well-crafted lyrics make their fans feel warm and fuzzy, nostalgic and disturbed, while avoiding the sickly tone of most pop music. Despite class, age and style differences, all of the fans were mesmerized.
The punkster kids screamed, the swingers and students shuffled, and the geriatrics in the back tapped their feet. But everybody danced-awkwardly at first, heartily in the high-powered middle, frantically at the passionate encore. When the chaos was over, the sisters performed a silky version of the Hank William Sr.'s classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." With the departure of the Nields from the stage, the tie holding the crowd together loosened, and the audience separated again into their different categories.
The audience loves the Nields because they reveal themselves to the audience in a candid way that everyone can understand. This is one group that loves its small but growing fan base-they have a mailing list of over 25,000 fans-and they crave success as much as any other "rock" band. And, in this age of formulaic talent and paper-thin lyrics, they are the ones who deserve it the most.  From: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/3/5/playing-the-nields-pin-the-front/ 

Wolfmother - Colossal

Pledging allegiance to thick, throttling fuzz guitars, primal psychedelia, and thundering rhythms, the 21st century rock revivalists Wolfmother split the difference between the classic sludge of Black Sabbath and the retro-garage rock of the White Stripes. Led by guitarist/vocalist Andrew Stockdale, the power trio came storming out of Sydney, Australia in 2006 with a self-titled debut that generated international hits in the form of "Woman" and "Joker & the Thief." Although they had some stumbles following up this initial success -- bandmembers came and went, leaving Stockdale the sole original member -- subsequent albums like 2009's Cosmic Egg and 2021's Rock Out played to a cult devoted to their heavy, riff-oriented rock.
Stockdale formed Wolfmother with drummer Myles Heskett, who then brought in bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross. A few years of woodshedding followed but things started to move quickly after their first concert in April 2004. Four months later, the trio inked a deal with Modular Records, knocking out a self-titled EP at Detroit's Ghetto Studios with producer Jim Diamond (not coincidentally, Diamond helmed early White Stripes records). The EP wound up charting on the Australian singles chart and the group kept touring before signing to Universal Records and heading to Los Angeles to cut a full-length debut with producer David Sardy. Wolfmother, the album, came out in Australia that October, where it turned into a big hit; it would eventually be certified quintuple platinum in their homeland. Other territories followed in early 2006 and the album performed well in each of them thanks to the singles "White Unicorn," "Woman," and "Joker & the Thief," along with a host of film, television, and video game placements, not to mention constant touring with a focus on festivals.
 Following this heavy promotion for Wolfmother, fractures started appearing in the band. In August 2008, Universal announced the departure of Heskett and Ross. Stockdale expanded Wolfmother to a quartet, adding guitarist Aidan Nemeth, bassist/keyboardist Ian Peres, and drummer Dave Atkins, debuting this lineup early in 2009 under the pseudonym White Feather. Around this time, this incarnation began recording a second Wolfmother album. Entitled Cosmic Egg, it appeared in the fall of 2009, debuting high in many countries but it failed to generate the same excitement as the debut. Wolfmother continued to tour the album into 2011, with Will Rockwell-Scott replacing drummer Atkins in 2010. Then, they turned their attention to recording a third album but things in the band continued to be unstable. Nemeth and Rockwell-Scott both departed in 2012, replaced by guitarist Vin Steele and drummer Hamish Rosser, and a new keyboardist called Elliott Hammond also joined as the group continued to record a third album. As it turned out, Stockdale decided to retire the name Wolfmother and release the record as a solo album called Keep Moving in the summer of 2013. Keep Moving didn't do much on the charts and by the end of the year, Stockdale announced that Wolfmother was once again an active concern (albeit without Hammond, who turned out to be a short-timer). Steele moved over to drums and Wolfmother were once again a trio; this is the version that released a surprise album called New Crown in the spring of 2014. A year later their debut was re-released as as deluxe, two-disc edition in celebration of Wolfmother's tenth anniversary.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/wolfmother-mn0000086250#biography

The Shee - Lady Margaret

Chris Belson: It is said that whenever a group of the beautiful and otherworldly Shee appear to us mortals, there is a strange sound like the humming of thousands of bees, or  a whirlwind or shee-gaoithe. I’m not suggesting that this band are in fact descendants of such magical beings but in their own way The Shee do personify this myth.  They appear to us with a new album, Decadence – a really beautifully crafted and brilliantly played folk record. Songs like Sugar and Pie have a hint of The Unthanks to it, only with slightly more biting and contemporary lyrics. Although mostly very traditional, In some songs there’s a very apparent influence by more mainstream pop-music which, if anything, makes this album accessible to people not familiar with traditional folk. The stand out songs for me are Meltdown – which has an almost Shooglenifty-like sense of energy, and Room to Breathe – which I had on repeat whilst writing this review.

Ian Parker: Listening to The Shee takes me back to the likes of Nickelcreek, as they too are trying to add a new twist to traditional sounds, using an array of fiddles, accordians and flutes to tackle a mix of old standards and covers of artists like Abigail Washburn and Liz Carroll. There is, as Nickelcreek before found, a novelty value to this sort of thing and you do wonder how long it will sustain, particularly when – as in the Shee’s case – they do not have their own material, but for now they are doing their thing well.

From: https://www.forfolkssake.com/new-bands-panel/7769/the-shee 

Elton John - Teacher I Need You / Blues for Baby and Me / Texan Love Song / High Flying Bird

If you’re a longtime Elton John fan, you certainly have a favorite album or two, or three. During the 1970s, Elton had an incredible run of amazing records. Standouts include Tumbleweed Connection, Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy, and Madman Across The Water. I’ve always appreciated Elton as an “album” artist, though he’s had huge success with his singles as well. One of the discs that sometimes gets slightly lost in the shuffle is the 1973 release Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, which came out between Honky Chateau and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It’s a fantastic effort that features a number of excellent songs. At the time of its original release, it spawned a couple of massive hit singles in “Daniel” and “Crocodile Rock.”
The record was made at Château d’Hérouville in France, where the band had recorded Honky Chateau. Don’t Shoot Me finds Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin continuing their creative hot streak. Bernie’s vivid imagery and Elton’s tuneful music are the perfect match. Kicking off with the classic ballad “Daniel,” the album features an eclectic mix of tunes, including the rollicking, Stones-esque “Midnight Creeper” and the powerful “Have Mercy On The Criminal,” featuring strings arranged by Paul Buckmaster who had collaborated with Elton on some of his previous albums. There’s also a tribute to Elton’s friend Marc Bolan of T-Rex on “I’m Going To Be A Teenage Idol.” Of course, the supremely talented band consisting of Davey Johnstone on guitar, Dee Murray on bass, and Nigel Olsson on drums, backs Elton on the album, and they rocked, as they always did when backing Elton, whether it was live or in studio.
Other notable tracks include the rocking “Elderberry Wine” and the bouncy “Teacher I Need You.” Of course, it wouldn’t be an Elton record without some slower-paced, ballad-style numbers and the beautiful “Blues For My Baby and Me” and the tender “High Flying Bird” are also standouts. Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player is probably Elton’s most straightforward pop album up to that point in his career, and it’s a very well-crafted record, impeccably produced by Gus Dudgeon. In re-listening to it, I’ve realized it truly stands up alongside some of his best work.  From: https://www.culturesonar.com/elton-john-dont-shoot-me/ 

Heavy Vegetable - Cotton Swab

The off-kilter indie pop band Heavy Vegetable was the inaugural vehicle of Rob Crow, a prolific singer, guitarist, and songwriter who went on to form a dizzying array of alternate projects. Crow was a longtime devotee of rock eccentrics ranging back to Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, as well as Can, the Residents, and Devo, among others. In practice, Heavy Vegetable's music sounded more punkish, with a fractured pop aesthetic that brought the likes of Guided by Voices or the Archers of Loaf to the minds of some critics; early on, their music also bore the unmistakable influence of prog-punk outfits like Slint and Drive Like Jehu. Crow's surrealist lyrics and fragmented melodic gifts earned Heavy Vegetable an enthusiastic cult following in the mid-‘90s. However, in the first indication of the creative restlessness that would mark his career, he soon chose to move on, fronting a succession of bands that more or less followed the Heavy Vegetable aesthetic.
Heavy Vegetable was formed in Encinitas, California (near San Diego) by guitarist/singer Crow, lead singer Eléa Tenuta, bassist Travis Nelson, and drummer Manolo Turner. After a few split singles and compilation appearances, the band debuted in 1993 with the four-song EP A Bunch of Stuff by Heavy Vegetable, released by The Way Out Sound. Their style truly blossomed on their first full-length album, 1994's The Amazing Undersea Adventures of Aqua Kitty and Friends (on Headhunter/Cargo), whose brief, catchy songs wedded progressive, even jazzy musicianship (odd time signatures, complex harmonies, etc.) to geeky lyrics reminiscent of They Might Be Giants. The follow-up, Frisbie, appeared in 1995 and consolidated the strengths of its predecessor while moving farther away from the band's punk roots. Frisbie in particular won the band considerable critical acclaim, but unfortunately, they split up during the supporting tour.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/heavy-vegetable-mn0000952646#biography  

Pom Poko - Live at Paste Studio Austin 2022

Winter in New York City can feel more brutal at times than in other parts of the world, which is pointed out by Pom Poko midway through their set at Baby’s All Right on Tuesday night as guitarist Martin Tonne and drummer Ola Djupvik sought out some warmer layers. This surprised me, considering the band hails from Oslo—a city 19 degrees of latitude north of NYC. Tonne must’ve sensed my confusion because he quickly followed up by telling us that they ‘are from Norway but [they’re] not very tough.” This didn’t stop the venue from filling up for Pom Poko’s first show in New York since they played New Colossus Festival in 2022 and their first New York date as part of their debut North American tour.
Much like their music, Pom Poko’s show felt like we were dynamically weaving through big musical breaks and complicated, intimate vocal-driven moments. To guide us through this weave, lead vocalist Ragnhild Fangel plays the role of a conductor as she sings—using intricate hand and arm gestures to shape the quieter moments. As the music got bigger, she threw herself into the noise, jumping and dancing alongside her bandmates.
The crowd was more than ready to jump, dance, and mosh alongside Pom Poko, especially after Nashville-based Big Bill kicked off the night with a blistering set. Their high-energy performance set the tone for the evening as they leaped into the crowd multiple times, crowd-surfed, and spent the final song balancing on the side railing of the venue. I worked up a sweat just trying to keep up.
After taking us through different songs from their discography—with the focus of the night being on their newly-released album Champion—Fangel ended the night with a crowd surf during “If U Want Me 2 Stay.” This was Pom Poko’s last show of the first part of their North American tour before returning to Europe, where they will continue touring across the EU and UK.  From: https://northerntransmissions.com/review-pom-poko-live-in-new-york-city/

 

Umbilicus - Gates Of Neptune

The debut album of Umbilicus was released in September. Can you introduce the band a little bit more?

Paul Mazurkiewicz: Yeah, I was extremely excited that we were closing it with the release date on September 30th. The band consists of myself on drums, Vernon Blake on bass guitar, Taylor Nordberg on guitar and Brian Stephenson is our vocalist. The three of us, Taylor, Vernon and me live in Florida – we're all from the same Tampa area and Brian Stephenson is from Ottawa, Canada. It makes things a little more challenging at this point right now where we're able to possibly do some shows or debut, ironically enough we've never even jammed together as a full band because of the whole pandemic thing here. With technology of course you're luckily able to record things like that and you don't have to be in the same room these days. We started jamming together in 2020 probably around May or June after Cannibal Corpse was done recording the album "Violence Unimagined". I talked to my buddy Vernon and we actually had a project about 20 years ago. It was myself, Vernon on bass and Jack Owen, one of the original guitar players in Cannibal Corpse. It was around 2000 we started a rock project. It was a kind of break-up to death metal and all that kind of stuff and to play the style of music that I really love which is 70s rock which is Umbilicus pretty much. Jack Owen had the same kind of taste that I did so we decided to start this project. We ended up playing two shows in Tampa around that time in 2000 in a smaller bar. We wrote all originals and we had maybe about 15 songs written and we could just never procure a proper singer that we were looking for. The band unfortunately I guess fell apart and nothing ever became of the songs we wrote. We made some demos but nothing of any quality to one will be released. I always like to say fast forward twenty years and when this opportunity arose like I was saying with the pandemic in '20 and me actually having more time again, not knowing what was gonna happen with touring and all with Cannibal Corpse, I talked to Vernon and asked him if he wanted to get that project and the band back together. He was all for it and the thing was that Jack doesn't live in Florida any more. He is living in Illinois now and we really didn't think he wanted to be part of it anyway. So what happened was that Vernon and I started playing actually some of the old songs because we had to start somewhere and we really like the songs that we wrote back for the original project which was called "Path Of Man" by the way. We learned some of the old songs and just him and I played bass and drums and then we figured out that we needed a new guitar player. We needed to kinda start fresh in this project and that's when Taylor came into the fold. We had some mutual friends that suggested we try him out. So we did and the first practice we had was just magical. Taylor learned one of the old songs that we had from the other project and he jammed it with us and we just started somewhere. It was awesome and it was a lot of fun and we gelled right off the bat and he was totally interested in wanting to move this forward as well. What we ended up doing though is we were considering using some of those old songs but the fact that Jack really had a good hand in pretty much writing most all those we said to start fresh. Taylor is a great creative force, a great artist and somebody in so many different capacities and a great songwriter so he ended up writing the bulk of this material pretty much all of it. The last piece of the puzzle was getting a vocalist. We toyed with the idea that it would be nice to have somebody local just to be able to play and to be able to be together all the time. We didn't want to admit ourselves at the same time because maybe the right guys weren't gonna be here and Taylor suggested Brian. Taylor is in another band with him and we said why not, we'll give it a shot! We sent a couple of songs to Brian and when we heard back after he only had one or two songs for a couple of days and he just slapped something together it was just like "wow, this is unbelievable!". He was the missing piece. We know he is in Canada but he is such a great vocalist and we'll make it work. So Brian was brought in at the end there and all the music was already finished actually. We had all the songs completed and they were actually recorded. It was just a matter of what we gonna do here – Taylor was gonna try to sing there a little bit first but we figured if we get somebody that is gonna be mind-blowing, somebody that's a vocalist – Taylor would give it a shot, he has a great voice but he never sang in a band before like this. So it made sense to bring Brian in. I mean the songs are incredible, you've heard the three that we already had out, and he took the songs to the next level. That's where we stand right now. It's been a couple of years in the making and we're ready to release the whole record and we're very excited for everything that's happening with us right now.

From: https://metalbite.com/interviews/1622/umbilicus-with-paul-mazurkiewicz-drums

 

Traffic - Paper Sun / Smiling Phases

 Traffic - Paper Sun

 

 Traffic - Smiling Phases

 

Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi wrote Paper Sun in March 1967 when Winwood was in the Spencer Davis Group and Capaldi was a member of Deep Feeling. The bands were on tour together, and after a show in Newcastle, the two convened in a hotel room and put the song together. "I got the title from a newspaper in a boarding house in Newcastle," Capaldi explained. "I was half-asleep, lying there writing this lyric in my head at about 3:30 in the morning. I woke up Steve with this idea and then we went into the living room where there was a little upright piano and finished the song." When Winwood and Capaldi formed Traffic a short time later with Dave Mason and Chris Wood, they recorded "Paper Sun" and released it as their first single.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/traffic/paper-sun

 

Since Traffic's debut album, Mr. Fantasy, has been issued in different configurations over the years, a history of those differences is in order. In 1967, the British record industry considered albums and singles separate entities; thus, Mr. Fantasy did not contain the group's three previous Top Ten U.K. hits. Just as the album was being released in the U.K., Traffic split from Dave Mason. The album was changed drastically for U.S. release, both because American custom was that singles ought to appear on albums, and because the group sought to diminish Mason's presence; on the first pressing only, the title was changed to Heaven Is in Your Mind. In 2000, Island reissued Mr. Fantasy in its mono mix with the U.K. song list and five mono singles sides as bonus tracks; it also released Heaven Is in Your Mind, the American lineup in stereo with four bonus tracks. Naturally, the mono sound is punchier and more compressed, but it isn't ideal for the album, because Traffic was fashioned as an unusual rock band. Steve Winwood's primary instrument was organ, though he also played guitar; Chris Wood was a reed player, spending most of his time on flute; Mason played guitar, but he was also known to pick up the sitar, among other instruments. As such a mixture suggests, the band's musical approach was eclectic, combining their background in British pop with a taste for the comic and dance hall styles of Sgt. Pepper, Indian music, and blues-rock jamming. Songs in the last category have proven the most distinctive and long-lasting, but Mason's more pop-oriented contributions remain winning, as do more light-hearted efforts.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/mr-fantasy-mw0000193815#review 

 

 

Zola Jesus - The Fall

Having recently announced her new album Arkhon is now due to be released on the 24th of June via Sacred Bones Records, Zola Jesus has shared the third single and video from the album, entitled “The Fall“. Nika Roza Danilova comments on latest cut “The Fall” saying: “I wrote The Fall for myself. It was an exercise in using music as a tool for the sake of my own inner catharsis. I had a lot of turmoil and complicated emotions that I couldn’t process in any other way. I suppose some feelings require you to write a pop song in order to fully understand them. For that reason, this song is very precious to me.”
Speaking on the track’s accompanying video, she adds: “Working with Jenni Hensler as a director was such a soul-feeding experience. She’s someone I’ve been collaborating with for ten years, and a dear friend to me. I value her own artistic perspective so much that at some point I realized there was no one else I could trust with my vision. We connected on an emotional and spiritual level regarding the intent of the song, and then I handed it over and let her make her magic. I’ve never felt so freed by a collaboration. And working with choreographer Sigrid Lauren was such an empowering experience. She was able to interpret and support my idiosyncratic movements in a way that allowed me to feel free in the moment.”
Director Jenni Hensler comments: “When we fall, we have the inner strength to pick ourselves up again. We sometimes have to struggle to find that strength, but it is there within all of us. The journey Nika goes through within the video, including confronting her reflection, removing her mask and the symbolic choreographed dance that follows are my way of expressing that.
I’ve debated whether to write a heartfelt statement speaking of the long-standing collaboration and friendship I’ve had over the years with Nika, about how she has touched my life and how we have both grown. Or to only speak about the meaning of this current collaboration. The two are connected, intertwined. This video is about the feeling of being stuck in a position or way of thinking about yourself and of the world around you, including the pressures to conform to a certain way of expression. It’s about the mask we wear, and the ways artists are forced to comply in order to succeed. This oftentimes makes us forget that creating art is one of the most transcendent forms of expression and that fully feeling, being in the present and enjoying the process while creating is at the core of who we are and the art we create. It is about change and coming into the power of our creativity. We need to wholly feel and release the magic within. When we make ourselves vulnerable and find the strength to do that, the art has a deeper meaning. The unspoken feeling when we truly feel connected and in the present moment of ecstatic joy or pain as we create is palpable. When Nika and I spoke about the vision for the song, we discussed a yearning for something better, a breakthrough of creative potential, and learning along the way. And then a sort of enlightenment when you realize that you are in control and do not need to conform to external standards. There is power and magic in knowing that. There is power in the desire for something better, the feeling within that desire including the drive and excitement it brings. There is strength in the feeling of expressing the sensuality simultaneously brewing and fully releasing that inner fire. This is an expression of all of that and reflects the journey of our collaboration and metamorphosis over many years.”  From: https://musicandriots.com/zola-jesus-shares-new-single-video-the-fall/

Unwoman - Long Long Shadows

Unwoman is a San Fransisco-based cellist and multi-talent that have been active since 2001, releasing a wide array of about seven albums and one EP. Her real name is Erica Mulkey and she also frequently plays and visits goth, steampunk and science fiction-events. With praise from Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls) and collaborations with various acts such as Voltaire, Abney Park, Rasputina, Jill Tracy and many more – she’s gotten a wide range of perspective, influence and musicianship. Nowadays she also performs solo with the drummer Felix Mcnee as Heavy Sugar Duo. Besides that, she also does guest appearances in other bands. I got the opportunity to ask Erica about her collaborations, how she depicts the “dark cabaret”-genre and what’s in store for the future of Unwoman – and much, much more.

You’ve worked with many known acts within the dark cabaret-scene, if you’d get to choose one ultimate collaboration that you haven’t done yet, what and who would it be with?

– It would be pretty sweet to play with Amanda Palmer. I have seen her live many times but never met her, though we’ve communicated online.

I think it’s pretty cool that you’ve self-produced four full-length albums, could you tell me what goes into that process?

– Writing songs, recording material, polishing mixes (I could talk for days about how I actually produce songs but I suspect this isn’t the right place for that), package design, having material mastered, and communicating with pressing plants. I’ve actually self-produced six full-length albums if you count my remix album Unremembered and my covers album Uncovered – seven if you count Infinitesimal, my very first album which was unreleased until Feb 20, 2012.

Does it give you more artistic freedom if you self-release it?

– I have complete freedom and from what I gather I would not if I were beholden to a label, so yes, of course.

What do you think about the genre dark cabaret in general?

– It’s interesting in its communication style –- it brings back the tradition of songwriters speaking directly to the audience rather than being overwhelmed by intricate musical trickery, yet it’s open to visual glamour and seduction that coffeehouse singer-songwriters don’t generally employ. (For the record I don’t consider myself dark cabaret; my recorded music is too electronic.)

How many projects do you have going at the same time right now, as we speak?

– It depends how you count things. I have my documentary project, which I hope to have to press in March, I have this first album rerelease (Feb 20) for which I scanned a lot of old original lyrics notes, I have my next album (to come out Summer 2012) for which I have 13 songs written… I always have little collaborations happening here and there, too.

What do you think about Siouxsie and the Banshees, more than them influencing you musically?

– Oh yes, they were very influential. I think it was extremely important that post-punk/goth music had a strong female voice and Siouxsie was wonderful for that. I love all of their albums but my favorite may be Juju.

I’ve lately heard something that reminded me a lot about Siouxsie, her name is Zola Jesus, have you heard her music?

– Yes! In fact, her song “Night” is an important one between myself and my boyfriend, as we have to spend a lot of time apart because of my touring schedule. One time at Death Guild (San Francisco goth club, where he does lights and live visuals) we danced to “Night” – not touching, – but our eyes locked through the entire song.

It seems like you have quite dedicated fans, how do you feel about them?

– I seriously love them. They are smart, loyal, forgiving, and supportive, and I do my best to give back what they give me.

Amanda Palmer seems to help you a lot, have you collaborated with her in any shape or form, or do you want to?

– She has helped me a lot – but it was all in one day, when she found my ustream and tweeted about me, and got me at least a hundred new dedicated fans. I know I could double sales of any of my albums if she tweeted about those, but I don’t want to bother her. (Heh, I answered the 2nd question already) I have never actually met her – the last three times she’s performed in San Francisco I’ve had a gig out of town.

Where would you say that you’ve found inspiration for your aesthetics?

– Visual aesthetics: silent films, art nouveau paintings, steampunks, street goths on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley, Victorian dolls, post-apocalyptic fashion tumblrs, witches, burlesque performers, tribal fusion bellydancers…

Have you also drawn influences from Lene Lovich and Toyah?

– Not consciously.

You seem to have quite a lot going at the same time, does it ever become tiresome for you?

– I wouldn’t say tiresome, because my life is thrilling and beautiful, but it can be overwhelming. I had recently been saying yes to everything that came my way, and getting lots of people inquiring about shows, and saying yes to all of those, but I think I need to slow that down for a bit so I can make sure my head is above water and I’m not letting too many things fall through the cracks. The main difficulty is rapidly shifting gears between traveling for shows vs being at home editing music or video. I absolutely love both of those things but I need balancing skills that I haven’t fully developed yet – I’ve only been a full-time musician for two years now.

What do you believe that the future holds for you, and will you be releasing something new this year?

– Lots of convention appearances (steampunk, scifi, goth, etc) in the US. I will be releasing my next original album this Summer. Based on what’s been happening over the last two years, my fanbase will continue to grow slowly and steadily; I’ll never be a household name but I’m able to support myself and live by my own rules, so that’s just fine with me.

Will you be touring in Sweden someday or have you done that already?

– I hope someday to have a big enough fanbase globally to justify it, but right now I don’t think I could make it work. I played in the UK a year ago and the shows themselves were really fun, but being in a foreign country, even one where I spoke the language, where I didn’t have any close friends, was really difficult for me – I’ve only just recently gotten comfortable touring in the US and it makes the most sense to focus on playing here.

What would be your last words of wisdom to your Swedish fans?

– I recently expressed this to a young fellow musician but it really applies to every creative person: You will never get permission to rock to your fullest awesomeness. Do it anyway.

From: https://invisibleguy.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/interview-with-unwoman/

The Orange Kyte - Distractions

Steeped in psychedelic garage rock sensibilities, The Orange Kyte’s Stevie Moonboots has become a beloved voice in Vancouver’s diverse music scene since leaving his hometown of Dublin behind in 2012. For the Orange Kyte’s new album, Masquerade, Moonboots has drawn inspiration through reflective observation of Vancouver, unearthing his curious take on the duality of the human experience.
“I’m very interested in psychology and sociology,” says Moonboots. “I’m just interested in what lurks beneath the façade of everyday life. You know when you’re having a bad day and you see somebody who looks like they haven’t got a care in the world, but you know they’re looking at you thinking the same. The masks we wear and how we present ourselves from a societal point of view has always fascinated me.” 
The Orange Kyte’s songwriting process conjures cascading kaleidoscopic visions of orange hues, and dreamy rock psychedelia that hits the aesthetic core of what Moonboots refers to as a growing —most certainly an orange coloured and hallucinogenic patterned — “umbrella” of genres.
“I try to keep a theme in my head then join the dots and make it cohesive. I’m very standoffish when it comes to dictating parts to everyone in the band. One of us starts playing and then we all join in. The focus is on creating the best possible songs I can write. We never limit ourselves and our sound is an ever-expanding umbrella of musical influences.” The lenses in which the band got its name is multifaceted, being an interesting homage to the past, with a surprisingly potent metaphor of rocks subversive power. 
“I didn’t have a name for the band before I released the first single so I asked my girlfriend at the time what her favourite colour was, and it just happened to be Orange,” Moonboots says with a laugh. “Kyte is prison slang for contraband communication. People think I’m doing a playful version of kite but that’s actually not the case. Contraband communication you can relate that to music, and sometimes rock and roll can be that.” Avoiding any form of contrivance has been one of The Orange Kyte’s most cherished values. Comfortability as an artist can lead to a weakening of the messages found in the songs, losing its “humanity.”   
According to Moonboots this is something many artists of the past have strived to avoid as it can dampen originality. Aware of this trap, this new offering feels truly vital and informed coming from a place of exciting inventiveness. Impressive for a genre of music that has existed for many decades. 
“You want to create a body of work, like Guided by Voices for example, that leaves a legacy. Contentment is the death of your art. David Bowie said to never let your feet touch the bottom of the pool,” Moonboots says.  From: https://beatroutemedia.com/the-orange-kyte-masquerade-album/  

 

The Sugarcubes - Birthday / Motorcrash

 The Sugarcubes - Birthday

 

 The Sugarcubes - Motorcrash

 

“We loved each other with a premature love, marked by a fierceness that so often destroys adult lives.” This is a statement likely to rouse popular affinity because its sentiment is widely relatable. Many of us, have at one point or another, been victim to love’s vampiric seduction and bear concealed scars that we relish fondly in the dim light of our private moments. The human tendency to seek and find love is essential to how we fashion our identities. It acts as the shaky foundation on which we build the fragile idea of self.  The instinct to connect runs deep in our species, and the way that we successfully build relationships with others informs a lot of who we are and why. 
But suppose I told you that the quote above belongs to Humbert Humbert, the predacious and reprehensible protagonist in Nabokov’s eyebrow-raising classic Lolita. In that case, your reaction might be, not surprisingly, less commiserative.  This scandalous exemplar of late modernist literature is, after all, one in a short list of modern classics whose lurid content and racy premise belong in the collective cultural unconscious. You don’t need to have read the novel to know that its plotline details the improper love affair between a middle-aged English professor and his prepubescent ward. Nor do you need to be a heavy-handed moralist to understand the unsavory implications of that relationship. Even when it comes to love and the heart, some things are just plain wrong. 
But even as the notion of inappropriate and illicit intergenerational romance makes us grimace in disapproval, especially when it involves a minor, Nabokov’s use of it as the vehicle with which to probe our fundamental desires is still remarkable. You don’t have to approve or sanction Humbert’s nefarious behavior to recognize that there’s something much more complex at work. As a skilled observer of the human condition, Nabokov is aware of our latent impulse to keep looking when everything around us tells us not to. It’s this curiosity, capable of pulling us out of our emotional comfort zone, that feeds our appetite for material that’s incompatible with any personal or collective moral standards. There’s a reason why sex, violence, shock, and horror sell as well as they do. 
In this context, we can better grasp the book’s appeal and its beneath-the-surface subject matter. It’s also under this light that we can appreciate similarly provocative artistic statements.  Enter “Birthday,” Icelandic band The Sugarcubes’ ground-breaking 1987 hit-single from their debut album Life’s Too Good. A four-minute-long, upbeat ballad that features an eclectic range of parts including Einar Benediktsson’s equable trumpet; Sigtryggur Baldursson’s syncopated percussion; Bragi Olafsson’s warm and stolid bass work; Þór Eldon’s new-wave-influenced shrill tone; and Bjork’s clunky and rattling keyboards, this old-MTV favorite served as the Reykjavic-native’s introduction into the American consciousness. Characterized by a fresh ‘80s-forward sound, the song quickly became famous for its odd and cryptic lyrical content about a five-year-old girl with some unusual habits:

She lives in this house over there
Has her world outside it
Scrabbles in the earth with her fingers and her mouth…
Threads worms on a string
Keeps spiders in her pocket
Collects fly wings in a jar
Scrubs horse flies
And pinches them on a line

That is a curious way to introduce a character that is, without a doubt, enigmatic. There isn’t much that we know about this girl other than “she’s five years old” and that whatever interests define her, they do not exist at home. Her life is spent outside, engaged in several strange and seemingly nonsensical hobbies.  What’s interesting is Bjork’s decision to tell the story from a third-person perspective, making it feel as if she is looking out her window, able to see this child go on about her baffling business. It’s hard not to feel like she’s extending an invitation for us to come and observe with her, to watch this perplexing set of events as they unfold. And here, we come across that same “curiosity” principle. Curiosity, as we find out, doesn’t just keep us looking and listening. It also moves the plot along:

She has one friend, he lives next door
They’re listening to the weather 
He knows how many freckles she’s got
She scratches his beard
She’s painting huge books
And glues them together
They saw a big raven
It glided down the sky
She touched it

By the third stanza, Bjork lets us know that the girl has a friend who lives in the house next door, which is not an uncommon thing for a child that age, particularly for one who spends most of her time playing outside. What’s strange, though, is that this “friend” is an adult man. What’s disturbing is the degree of familiarity he has with the child, particularly with her body. The fact that he’s aware of specific details about her physical appearance, like the number of freckles on her face, suggests a closeness that’s hard to bear. This sudden revulsion is reinforced by how at ease the child feels with this man. She doesn’t perceive his interest in her as perverse. On the contrary, she sees him as someone whose presence and affection feed her interests and curiosity and allow her to discover the world around her. Her interest in all of these odd and eccentric activities, in a sense, mirrors a profound and fundamental interest in him. 
It’s important to point out that at no point in the song do we get a clear explanation of what happens. Instead, Bjork concludes each stanza with a guttural cry that heightens the song’s emotional tension as it intensifies our desire for a resolution. The song concludes with Bjork telling us that it’s the girl’s birthday, an occasion she celebrates with her adult playmate:

They’re smoking cigars
He’s got a chain of flowers
And sews a bird in her knickers
As if this tale couldn’t get any more objectionable, she concludes with:
They’re smoking cigars
They lie in the bathtub
A chain of flowers

Criticized and questioned when it first came out, the song’s intent isn’t different from Lolita’s, and it’s hard to argue the latter’s influence on the former. In a quote from Martin Aston’s biography on the singer, Bjorkgraphy, she explains that she set out to explore the way that not only “huge men, about 50 years old”, but also “material, a tree, anything,” can have a profoundly erotic effect on someone even when “nothing happens.” 
In other words, nothing physical or concrete needs to happen for someone to be emotionally affected by a person or thing. Our mere interest in them, which Bjork and Nabokov contend are based on the innate desire in all of us to be both the object and subject of discovery, is enough to shape the way that we perceive our world. In coming to terms with the limits of what we’re allowed to experience, Bjork says, we can ultimately find the spiritual and emotional fulfillment we so anxiously crave.

From: https://twostorymelody.com/retrospective-review-the-sugarcubes-birthday/

According to Björk, the song is about a little girl who is out biking and sees "a motor crash, and no police has arrived yet, and there is a car with parents in the front and children in the back and they're all wounded. And she wants to help them - so it's a really nice song." The girl in the song then sneaks the mother in the motorcrash into her house and nurses the woman's wounds there. When the mother is healed, she and the girl disguise themselves and take a taxi to the woman's home. When the woman's husband opens the door, she and the girl pull off their disguises.
"But the husband gets very angry," Björk explained, "and says, 'Where have you been all this time?' And then the song is over." Lyrics about motorcrashes (or as Americans call them, car accidents), are not typically paired with jaunty music as heard here, but The Sugarcubes were not a typical band. The subject matter turned off some major record labels, including Polydor, which pulled plans to sign Sugarcubes because of the perceived offensiveness of "Motorcrash." Björk explained that labels' reactions were absurd because the song wasn't about anything mildly offensive. The Icelandic director Óskar Jónasson was behind the lens for the video, which starred the band members as the characters described in the song. Their keyboard player, Magga Örnólfsdóttir, is the girl on the bike.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-sugarcubes/motorcrash

 

Rockfour - Oranges

It is not easy to make a record in 2000 with a heavy mid-to late-1960s feel that doesn't strike jaded ears as pointless revivalism. Rockfour manage to largely succeed in doing so, to their considerable credit. The harmonies are very much in the late-1960s vein of the Beatles and Pink Floyd, while the melodies and slight sense of whimsy are likewise much in the late-1960s British psych pop mold, and the guitars often carry a Byrdsian ring ("Oranges" being the outstanding example). "Superman" gets into a bit of a (very early) David Bowie mold, not least due to its title. Certainly the creative use of Mellotron in particular is vital to the convincing dreamy psychedelic feel, as are ventures with the stylophone and wind organ. Of course, many bands draw inspiration from these musical giants of decade past, but Rockfour stands out from that pack in their superior sense of melodics, an unforced ease with the approach, and a diverse lyrical palette that encompasses frustration with government and the media, poetic spaciness, and (on "Oranges") paisley alternate-world dreaminess. Any attention this draws in the U.S. and U.K. may be partially due to the novelty of an Israeli alternative rock band, but, in fact, this would be worthy of notice regardless of its regional origin.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/supermarket-mw0000323786#review