Twisted Pine - Live Green River Festival 2021

RLR: While this is technically your debut full length record, you guys have recorded some material in the past and the band has undergone a few changes in the past couple of years. What is it about this collection of work that you guys are most excited about in terms of how it represents how far you have come as a quartet and shaped where you started to where you guys are right now?

TP: We self-recorded 2 EPs over the years. The first was this crazy overnight session that we got for free because Dan was interning at a recording studio, and the other was collected from several live performances. They were both great for us at the time, but this album is another level of planning and execution. It’s the first to feature entirely our own original music, which is something we’ve been focusing on for the past year. That creative process.

RLR: I think what is particularly special about you guys is the dynamic that the four of you have as individuals and how its really brought together in this beautiful way. Everyone is so solid on the instruments, but together you are all greater than the sum of your parts. Has it always been easy for you guys to hinge on that? Was the chemistry with the 4 of you immediate or did it take a long time?

TP: Thanks for saying that! That’s definitely something we try to be conscious of. We’ve always had great chemistry playing together; that’s what led us to form the band in the first place, but that dynamic has evolved a lot over several years of playing together and especially through the writing, arranging, and recording of this batch of songs. It’s to the point now where we all feel this freedom and responsibility to really bring more of our individual voices and personal musical sensibilities to every performance. At the same time, we’re very careful to always be serving the song and making the right musical choices to get the songs across. 

RLR: This one is specifically for Dan…you are one of the growing mandolinists that plays an A style…did you ever had scroll envy? (A style mando bros for life!)

Dan B: Never! Not even once!

RLR: You all are pretty deeply embedded in the Cambridge/Somerville and greater New England community. Have you found it especially supportive over the past few years as roots music really establishes itself as a constantly growing genre of music? Or is there competition in any way to play certain clubs, try and rise up above the noise and establish the band as one that is really doing something different and special?

TP: Luckily, we’ve found that mutual admiration seems to be the norm. The great thing about being a part of this greater traditional/roots/folk scene is that it’s kind of built to be a supportive, self-sustaining thing that grows organically. It’s all about hanging and learning and having a good time, and the deeper you get into it, the more you realize that we’re all in this thing together and that there’s room for everyone. Yeah, we may be working on our thing and trying to make it unique and special, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re competing with anyone else’s thing. Success is shared, not won. I guess you could approach it in a competitive way, but that hasn’t been the case so far in our experience.

RLR: When you guys were either writing for the record or in the studio tracking, what were your sonic inspirations? Any particular records you looked to for guidance or stuff you listened to in order to decompress from longs days in the studio?

TP: Good question! There were definitely artists/records that we looked to for aesthetic inspiration and as a reference for communicating ideas to each other, mostly in the initial writing stages. A lot of the acoustic music heavy hitters and what you would expect: Nickel Creek, Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, Joy Kills Sorrow.  But also stuff like Paul Simon, Elton John, Margaret Glaspy, Lake Street Dive, old-time fiddle music, funk jams, Jobim. Once the songs started to develop, they usually took on a life of their own and we would try to intuitively follow wherever they would lead us. Our engineer and co-producer Dan Cardinal probably had the biggest influence on the sound of the record. He’s worked on so many great albums coming out of Boston, and brought all of that knowledge/experience to the table.He’s an extremely musical person/engineer and he really invested and got deep into each song and got what we were going for. He also had this great ritual of playing us stuff he was currently working on with other bands at the end of the day. All of it.

RLR: How does the songwriting process work with the band when someone brings a new tune to the table? I am always interested to see the different ways that groups of people tackle this and how it develops from one members idea to the full arrangement we get to hear live on the album.

TP: It works every which way. Some songs are seeds of ideas that get fleshed out by all four of us. Some are more fully realized when they are brought in. 
Usually the songwriter or writers will bring a full song or even an unfinished song to the table. The group will take a listen, and try some grooves. Sometimes the songwriter is very specific with their Groove choice or have an exact idea of the arrangement, and that really helps us! It gets the skeleton of the song down and then we make it our own. We play it out at shows, if we play divey bars then we really like to let loose on the song. Add solos, extend bars at a time, switch up grooves. It’s like the human body, you can’t always move it in the same way, otherwise it gets tired and the mind gets bored. Same with the songs, we always try to play them down strong, but always adding a little bit of spice, or sparkle to keep the songs fresh.

RLR: So…that Vulfpeck/Bill Monroe mash up…will we get to see that live at Green River…cereal box and all?

TP: Shhh, we can’t tell you yet! But Kathleen did mention she bought a box of strawberry cereal for the next road trip…maybe there’ll be a bit of Special K from Special Kay?

From: https://www.redlineroots.com/2017/07/woods-interview-twisted-pine/

The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday - Side 1

1 So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star
2 Have You Seen Her Face
3 The Girl with No Name
4 Renaissance Fair
5 Time Between
6 Everybody's Been Burned 

Given the tumult surrounding the Byrds at the end of 1966, it’s a wonder the group created such a stellar album as Younger Than Yesterday. Yet hindsight of over a half-century is particularly revelatory, both in terms of how this iconic American band found new resources within itself even as the members struggled to rise above the growing discord in their ranks.
This fourth Byrds album is as remarkable for what it might have been—a work of invention comparable to the Beatles’ Revolver–as for what it actually is as originally released: a formidable transitional work. On this first album to be entirely recorded by the Byrds without Gene Clark’s participation, guitarists Roger McGuinn and David Crosby continued to hone their songwriting skills; they even co-wrote “Why”  in an attempt to fill the void left by that founding member and chief composer’s abrupt departure early in the year prior to the release of Younger Than Yesterday.
Yet the paucity of original ideas for self-composed material that would plague McGuinn’s solo career (and the latter days of the Byrds’ existence) also manifests itself here. “CTA 102” continues his fascination with science fiction as introduced with “Mr. Spaceman,” but hardly extends the stylistic reach of this record (or its predecessors): it might well have been excised altogether and replaced with “It Happens Each Day,” a radiant, fully-formed outtake written by Crosby. “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” however, is something else again, a wry commentary of pop celebrity set to an insistent rhythm from co-author Chris Hillman’s bass, over which South African Hugh Masekela plays a bracing trumpet.
It is the first use of brass on a Byrds recording but hardly the last. Such instrumentation is integral to a superb cut of David’s not appearing on the album, the exalting “Ladyfriend; ” indicative of the author’s fundamentally argumentative nature, he fought almost as vociferously for the inclusion of the extremely self-indulgent “Mind Gardens” as the aforementioned gem as a single. The recognition  sought and most righteously deserved by this future collaborator of Stills, Nash & Young would’ve otherwise been based on his other splendid contributions to the album, “Everybody’s Been Burned” and especially “Renaissance Fair,” which prominently feature the Byrds signature sounds of chiming guitars and soaring vocal harmonies.
Along similarly, readily-recognizable lines lies the most surprising development within the Byrds at this juncture: the emergence of  Hillman as both a lead vocalist and songwriter. Besides collaborating with McGuinn on the aforementioned swipe at ephemeral stardom, he also contributed  “Have You Seen Her Face,” thereby reinstating a tangible emotional quality largely missing from the  Byrds oeuvre since Clark’s departure. In addition, the former bluegrass musician proved prescient by contributing two-country rock-flavored songs, “Time Between” and “The Girl with No Name,” both of which feature session musician Clarence White’s innovative guitar playing via the B-Bender device (he and Gene Parsons invented ; both of the latter musicians would further distinguish themselves  as official members of the band in the years to follow, circa Untitled and The Ballad of Easy Rider (not to mention the long-shelved concert recordings on Live at Fillmore East eventually released in 2000).
Meanwhile, Chris’ “Thoughts and Words” is distinguished by its author’s plaintive vocal as much as the sitar-like sound of backwards guitar effects. Such imaginative arrangements, reminiscent of “Eight Miles High” and the title cut of the Fifth Dimension album, belie the lack of commercial response to this album, as well as the otherwise sterling cover of Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages;”  only moderately successful as a single, that track provides a deliciously tranquil closing to a uniformly impeccable track sequence offered by reprogramming the expanded CD of 1996.  From: https://glidemagazine.com/270003/55-years-later-revisiting-the-byrds-inventive-fourth-lp-younger-than-yesterday/

Utu - Happy To Be Sad

Not all love songs are about love. UTU’s “Love Collection: By the Ashes That Used to Be the Everlasting Fire” explores this paradox across ten tracks that refuse easy categorization. Through vocalist Petra Poutanen’s unflinching lyrics and the band’s genre-defying arrangements, what emerges is less a celebration of love than an autopsy of it.
“Reality Beats All Dreams” opens the collection with startling directness, examining love’s capacity for violence while blending dream pop textures with experimental edges. The juxtaposition between ethereal sounds and brutal imagery sets the tone for what’s to come.
“The Worst Is Yet to Come” continues this exploration through darker territory. The band’s diverse musical backgrounds shine here, with chamber pop arrangements providing deceptively beautiful settings for lyrics about secrets and inevitable revelations. The production maintains perfect tension between accessibility and experimentation.
“It Must Have Been Love at First Hit” emerges as one of the album’s most powerful statements. Playing with the familiar phrase “love at first sight,” UTU creates something both familiar and disturbing. The arrangement moves from indie pop sweetness to more challenging textures, mirroring love’s evolution from initial attraction to complex reality.
“In The Snow I Look Dead But I Just Pretend” provides one of the album’s most poetic moments, using the metaphor of a tree through seasons to explore cycles of love and hatred. The production here is particularly noteworthy, creating sonic spaces that feel both intimate and expansive.
The album’s middle section, including “All the Love” and “Happy to Be Sad,” demonstrates UTU’s gift for finding beauty in darkness. These tracks showcase how art pop can tackle complex emotional themes without losing its essential musicality. Poutanen’s lyrics here are particularly striking, finding fresh ways to examine familiar emotional territory.
“Waterfall” marks a shift in both tone and arrangement, introducing more electronic elements while maintaining the album’s thematic focus. The transformation metaphors in the lyrics find perfect companions in the music’s evolving textures.
“The Woman of My Dreams” stands as perhaps the album’s boldest statement, subverting expectations of a love song by turning the gaze inward. The arrangement builds from indie pop foundations into something more experimental, supporting lyrics that examine self-love without sentimentality.
“Money Into Love” explores transactional aspects of relationships with remarkable nuance. The band creates a sound that’s both dreamy and grounded, allowing Poutanen’s lyrics about desire and need to land with full impact.
The collection closes with “Oh, Sorrow,” a track that somehow manages to find hope without abandoning the album’s clear-eyed examination of love’s complexities. The full range of the band’s capabilities comes into play here, from chamber pop delicacy to experimental boldness.  From: https://bsideguys.com/2024/12/16/album-review-utu-love-collection-by-the-ashes-that-used-to-be-the-everlasting-fire/ 

Shamblemaths - Knucklecog

Shamblemaths is the new project by Norwegian duo Simen A. Ellingsen and Eirik M. Husum. This band is actually a direct contiuation of their first collaboration as a duo formed in their student days in 2004 under the name Fallen Fowl. That collaboration actually started as a side project to the band TiaC that was active in the early 2000s. The song "Stalker" from the new album is actually a TiaC song that was never recorded. A couple of demos and an EP were recorded under Fallen Fowl before a hiatus ensued when Ellingsen moved to London to complete his studies.
Now they've returned as Shamblemaths with an edgier sound and approach, adding more influences from Magma, Univers Zero and Egg. The band plays an eclectic mix of countless styles and the music is pretty much all over the place, exploring both melodic and quirky areas. Their self titled album was released in the spring of 2016 featuring guests musicians, most prominently Eirik Øverland Dischler on keyboards and Jon Even Schärer on drums. Husum is playing bass and Ellingsen is playing guitars, saxophones and also handles the vocals.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=9885 

Vas - Izgrejala

Feast of Silence is the most recent recording by the talented duo of Azam Ali and Greg Ellis, who together form the group, Vas. The two met in 1995 at a Master Musicians of Jajouka concert in Los Angeles and found a common bond in their approach to making music. In 1997, they released their first CD, Sunyata, on Narada Equinox and justifiably caused a stir in the “world” music community. Not only is Greg Ellis an outstanding percussionist; but also Azam Ali is an extraordinarily gifted singer. They have both proven themselves to be very fine composers as well.
They went on to record two more CDs as Vas: Offerings in 1998 and In the Garden of Souls in 2000. Then they took a brief hiatus as a duo and recorded solo albums. Azam Ali’s Portals of Grace (recorded on Narada World in 2002) embraces medieval musical traditions from Europe (a tradition in which Ali did not grow up) and shows the great depth of her talent and range. Kala Rupa, Explorations in Rhythm recorded by Ellis in 2001 is exactly that; but also an exploration in the many sounds that are created by amount of many different percussion instruments (such as udu, cajon, bendir, tambourine, tabla, bells, cymbals, shakers, etc) combined with guest artists playing such instruments as kemencheh, bansuri flute, cello, and on two tracks, the voice of Azam Ali. Many fans were worried that the two had gone their separate ways and would not be recording as Vas any longer. Feast of Silence has, of course, ended those fears.
Azam Ali was born in Iran; but when she was four her family moved to India, where she grew up and seemingly absorbed the rich culture that surrounded her. She sings in many languages, but also quite often sings in a language all her own — spontaneous vocals that work beautifully with the throbbing rhythms of Greg Ellis’ drumming. Her voice can be cultured and controlled when she is singing songs from a more “classical” tradition such as Latin songs, or it can be wild and strong when she is performing, for example, a traditional Bulgarian tune. On Feast of Silence Azam sings “Izgrejala”, a traditional Bulgarian tune, as if she was born to sing it and her voice compares with some of the great Bulgarian singers such as Yanka Rupkina and Valya Balkanska. She is a poet as well as composer and seeks to combine her poetic sense with her music. On Feast of Silence she composed nine of the twelve tracks.
Greg Ellis grew up in Los Gatos, California, and began playing trumpet when he was nine years old. He became interested in drums at age 12 and has made percussion instruments his major passion since then. He not only composes music for himself and for Vas, but also music for film and television.
Feast of Silence is a richly textured recording and although it would appeal to those who like “new-age music”; because of the rich imagination and creativity of both Ellis and Ali, they rise above this category and give birth to something of real depth and lasting value, and place Feast of Silence into a category all of its own — not really “world and not really “new-age”. Their spiritual side is obvious in the choice of their arrangements and subjects; but this serves to enhance their music because it is obviously so genuine. In Ali’s solo work, Portals of Grace, she says in the liner notes: “for me, singing and praying are one and the same.” Indeed, listening to a recording by Vas isn’t just entertainment or background noise; but a journey into the mystic realm.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/vas-feast-2496102933.html

Tō Yō - Titania Skyline

How would you describe the music you create?

Masami Makino: We found it interesting to see comments on YouTube such as “farming on acid” and “rice field psych.” We don’t have a concept as a band, but those comments certainly make us think that we are playing like farming on acid.

Would you like to talk a bit about your background?

Interestingly, we all have different musical backgrounds, with many different genres as one element, from acid folk, metal and tribal music to techno. The key to our songwriting lies in blending them together.

When did you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music? What brought that about for you?

There was a time when we were covering songs, but at that time we had the confidence unique to young people that we could do the same. Once we started, this was a never-ending path of exploration, so we followed a kind of inertia and started to make songs and perform more often.
Photo by Sebun

What does the name “Tō Yō” refer to in the context of the band name?

It means eastern sheep. But as an interesting play on words, this is also pronounced the same as “oriental.” We don’t really represent the Orient, so it doesn’t have a deep meaning anyway. Just like there is a British band named Japan.

How do you usually approach music making?

We jam in the studio and make music. As we said we have different musical backgrounds, sometimes it doesn’t work at all and we waste a lot of time, but just try things out and if we find a good phrase or melodies, just cut it out and make a song out of it. We also jam a lot at our gigs.
Photo by Takaumi Minagawa

Can you share some further details how your latest album ‘Stray Birds From The Far East’ was recorded?

It was recorded by Yui Kimijima at Tsubame Studio in Asakusabashi. There are many items that are not normally used as instruments but make fascinating sounds, such as plates and tubs, which are very inspiring. It was therefore not uncommon for the arrangements to be made while recording, in an organic environment where good ideas are always turned into reality.

How pleased were you with the sound of the album?

We tried everything we could at this time, but we are a young band and always growing. Super happy with this album, but I think the next album will sound more original.

What are some bands/musicians that have a big influence on you?

Japanese psychedelic musicians have been a great influence. (Far East Family Band, J. A. Seazer,Flower Travellin’ Band, Kikagaku Moyo). At the same time, there are many musicians who have had a strong influence on each member of the band, so you can imagine that from the sound references.

Do you often play live? Who are some of your personal favorite bands that you’ve had a chance to play with over the past few years?

These days we play about three gigs a month. We also played at a rock festival for the first time and felt that our music is more pleasant to listen to in the open air. Played with a Japanese band such as Dhidalah or Barbican Estate, they are super awesome and have the same passion as us.

How important is improvisation for you?

Improvisation requires a fairly high level of communication and technique. The feeling of fusion between body and instrument, and sharing this with the other members of the band, is very important and is the goal.

From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2023/10/to-yo-interview-new-album-stray-birds-from-the-far-east.html 

Tranquebar - Tigers in Spain

Sometimes it can be better to accept and not examine things too deeply. Let it flow and enjoy it. Take Tranquebar’s music. In many ways, what the Danish band creates shouldn’t work. The mix of banjo, voice, accordion, and percussion is beautifully ramshackle (at least on the surface). Yet it succeeds, and it does it in a fashion that’s quite mesmerizing. Ø is actually a collection of four EPs, each recorded on a different Danish island (hence the title, as Ø means island). And each island exerts a subtle influence on the shading of the music. The first cuts, from Sejerø, are the most nautical, with a hearty shanty rhythm that percolates underneath, and reaches the surface on “Joy.”
Here, and with every track on the album, the band show the magic they have and how they knock it all into shape: not only can they write a good tune that takes unexpected turns but they create the kind of chorus that sticks in the brain (at its core, this is essentially acoustic, folky pop music of a very twisted sort), and they can also arrange with wonderful imagination. Layers of vocals on “Tigers In Spain,” for instance, or using dobro and percussive cast iron stove for the rhythm behind a track.  From: https://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/tranquebar-20.shtml

The Grateful Dead - Wharf Rat

“My name is August West…” So begins the second verse of “Wharf Rat,” a song I have long considered to be a key song—one that helps to unlock the whole body of work Robert Hunter created along with Jerry Garcia. The shape of the story told by the song is recursive—a sort of passing-of-the-torch for the down-and-out. The narrator whose voice frames the story is well on his way, from the sound of it, to being out there on the street, looking for spare change. In fact, he already doesn’t even have a dime; all he has is some time to listen. (Brings to mind the old saying, “I’m so poor, I can’t even pay attention!”)
Hunter and Garcia both had a certain amount of experience to draw on in writing and singing about being homeless, on at least semi-indigent, living in cars in their early years of first acquaintance, crashing where they could. The fact that Hunter has Garcia sing a song, one of whose characters is named August, seems possibly significant in light of Garcia’s birthday: he would have been 71 years old this week—born on August 1, 1942. There are other examples of songs in which Garcia sings lyrics, crafted by Hunter, which seem like personal cautionary tales: “Althea,” for example. So is this August West a character Garcia might have become had he not made other decisions?
“Wharf Rat” was first performed by the Dead on February 18, 1971, at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. This is another of those shows that included a number of firsts: “Bertha,” “Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Loser,” and “Playing In the Band.” This is the beginning of the songwriting period in which Hunter and Garcia collaborated on a series of great story songs set in an America peopled by outlaws, the down-and-out, and a range of more or less disreputable characters. The song was never given full studio treatment, although the version released on “Skull and Roses” did benefit from some studio enhancement, with Merl Saunders’s organ track overdubbed after the fact.
Back to the arc of the story. The song’s initial narrator seems to be a relatively young man who is wandering down by the docks of the city. He encounters a panhandler, August West, who then tells his story to the listening young man. August professes love for his “Pearly Baker,” apparently a girlfriend. Two things here, both fascinating, both probably without any particular bearing on the song. There were historical figures named August West and Purley Baker.
From an article about a historical plaque dedication in 2003 in Greenfield, Ohio: In 1837 a runaway slave named Augustus West arrived in the Greenfield area and along with local farmer Alexander Beatty, authored a story that has become a part of both the area's and the nation's history. To raise money to purchase his own land, West and Beatty devised a scheme to travel back south, sell West back into slavery, help him escape and then split the profits. On at least three documented occasions the two employed this money making scam and their story became the basis for a 1971 Hollywood film, The Skin Game, starring James Gardner and Louis Gossett, Jr.
West used his profits to purchase land near the intersection of Bonner and Barrett Roads in Fayette County. Some distance from the road he built a "mansion" and the dirt road leading up to his front door became known as Abolition Lane. In the years that followed, at least twelve cabins were constructed on West's land and these became temporary residences for other runaway slaves who needed a place to live and work as they stole their way further north to freedom.
Historically, Purley Baker was a man—the head of the Anti-Saloon League, which was an anti-drink temperance organization in the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century. This is one of those wonderful occurrences in Hunter’s lyrics of a name that carries a weight that might go completely unnoticed—who has heard, these days, of Purley Baker or his organization? It came to my attention thanks to a reader sending a contribution to The Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics website. And I think someone sent me a photo once of a bar ironically named “Purley Baker’s.” Possibly in upstate New York. 
So, in this song, Pearly Baker becomes the idealized woman of August West’s dreams and of his past. He feels betrayed by all those who told him he would come to no good—Pearly believed them. 
He spends his life drunk or in jail—doing time for the crime of someone else (either “some other fucker” or “some motherfucker,” not sure which—Garcia’s singing often sounds like the latter). But in the song’s amazing middle, one of the great Garcia bridges moves the time signature into waltz time, and August West avows that he will get back on his feet, if the good Lord wills it. (Though earlier, he had already stated bluntly that his maker was no friend of his—a key moment.) Moving back into march time, the music frames West singing what seems to be an extension of the bridge: “I’ll get up and fly away…”. From: https://www.dead.net/features/greatest-stories-ever-told/greatest-stories-ever-told-wharf-rat

There Is No Mountain - Song of Seikilos

Is there a Donovan song stuck in your head yet? No? Let me repeat the title, this review is about Luna, the second full-length album from There Is No Mountain. If “First There Is a Mountain” isn’t stuck in your head yet, I don’t think we can be friends. If you can push that ear worm out of your head for long enough, There Is No Mountain (TINM) has released an experimental/folk/Americana/psych-pop-rock record that takes inspiration from all kinds of genres. This Portland-based duo is made up of vocalist/percussionist/guitarist Matt Harmon and vocalist/drummer/keyboardist Kali Giaritta, who happen to be married.
There’s a ton going on with the guitars, whether they’re big and fuzzy or faint and picked, but it’s like life going on below the surface of a body of water. When the guitar is at its most intricate, it’s also at its softest volume. There are big, fuzzy chords on “Listening to Sadness” and “Waterbound,” but there are also soft, plucked parts hiding in there. “Hiking” is one of the few songs where the guitar gets all the solos it needs to really stand out. Because inspiration was taken from so many sources, at times the guitars sound like ‘90s alternative, or Latin (think of a world music CD being played at a Ten Thousand Villages store,) or a little Renaissance Faire-esque when it gets classical, or kind of folky Americana. I’m pretty sure I even caught a touch of zydeco in “Black Hole (Part 2).” Now keep in mind that all of those different styles may exist within the same song. There are tempo changes all over the place to accommodate for all of the style changes. Add in the vocals and you have even more styles for which to account.
The vocals are shared by Harmon and Giaritta, though their voices sound absolutely nothing like each other’s. They harmonize, but Harmon basically speaks all of his lead vocals while Giaritta has a clear voice I last heard from a church’s choir director. They harmonize well when singing together, but it’s a strange mix when they take turns singing because they styles are so different (even within the same song.)
While the music has dark moments, it’s punctuated by things like really audible maracas and tambourine – who can be sad with maracas and tambourines? The lyrics, however, are pretty dark. They’re full of anxiety and depression, like not feeling worthy of the sun’s rays on “Listening to Sadness” because she’ll be dead soon, worrying that she’s not a good wife on “Good Life,” or Harmon wondering what happens if he dies while laughing after announcing that he doesn’t take care of himself on “What If?” Despite the anxieties expressed, “Good Life” has a pretty upbeat sound, and along with “Cat’s Away,” kind of sounds like it was inspired by a sea shanty. “Benjamin” is full of warnings to the title character about how life is sucky and lonely, but it has these cute little plinky keyboard notes that sound so happy. Many of the songs reminded me of being dragged to church as a child, mainly because of Giaritta’s voice and some of the vocal arrangements being really reminiscent of some of the more modern hymns, but also because some of the lyrics start to sound a little preachy. “C’mon Friends” implores us all to give ourselves a break and forgive each other; “Listening to Sadness” wonders why no one listens anymore and guilts us into it; “Black Holes (Part 2)” tells us that we have a choice when we’re afraid. Then there’s “Song of Seikilos,” which sounds like it came from church because the oft-repeated lyrics were taken from an ancient tombstone in modern-day Turkey and translated to English. They basically tell us to live life for the moment because life is short, which is quite a different message than asking a body of water to let you drown (“Listening to Sadness.”) Again, “Hiking” stands out as being different because its lyrics seem to recount a good hike at dusk – though there’s still the worry that it will be too dark to safely find their way back down from the summit of the hill they just climbed. There is no such thing as happiness, you guys. Everything sucks, even successful hikes.  From: https://survivingthegoldenage.com/there-is-no-mountain-luna/

Monophonics - Chances

The Bay Area’s indelible psychedelic soul, live-show phenomenon, Monophonics have just released their third full-length, It’s Only Us. It combines the raw funk and sheer power of early soul masters with a touch of mind-bending effects in a dub-like vein. Singer Kelly Finnigan and company are calling it as they see it about the common day political state and the overwhelming sense of loneliness. Perhaps from the powers that be, perhaps not even in a political lean, but the theme strikes home for many of us in this day and static age. A proper soul record that smokes from start to finish is a fine way to mitigate the norms, social and otherwise. Simply said, if you can make it past “Chances” without a repeat, you’re dead inside.
With one of the best songs of 2020 starting things up, Monophonics stretch an eight-song record to its wildest abyss. Combining spacey build-ups with shuttering vocal effects is just part of the buttery slickness, reminiscent of early Impressions mixed with latter-day Curtis Mayfield too, and a touch of Isaac Hayes, after the acid, of course. Using them as building blocks but completing the assembly in their own sonic fashion with horns aplenty and a rhythm section well-versed in the sanctifications of their predecessors but deep diving to make a sound their own. It’s hard to put into words, but there are plenty of folks labeling themselves sweet soul and the numerous other morphs thereof, but there are few who come correct and keep it exactly where it should be in sound and spirit.
The brothers Cole not only record and produce quite a few of them but they’re becoming the nucleus of most of it all anymore. They’ve been mining gold out of Colemine Records for quite some time now, having given the light of day to the initial Durand Jones and the Indications offerings, Ikebe Shakedown, and Soul Scratch, not to mention countless seven-inch singles all within the same realm. If that’s a new label name for you, your diligence is due. Monophonics are most definitely a keystone, even coming from out in California, a bird’s distant fly from the label’s Loveland, Ohio headquarters. Birds of a feather flock together in the means of shaking tail feathers. Monophonics produced this one at Transistor Studios, straight to tape, no doubt.
Monophonics stretch things out a bit as they go off on psychedelic rock-inspired runs. Among the best are “Last Man Standing” an over seven-minute stretch of the band’s legs and late-sequenced banger “Run For Your Life” with a heady hook and spaced-out synth bridge, only half as much in time, but equal in message and posterity. The hypnotic percussions accentuate Finnigan’s vocal while the fuzzed up guitar and bass chop reverb into cutlets amidst a trap-slapping clinic, keeping time but perpetuating cool while keeping it hot.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/monophonics-its-only-us-2645577426.html

The Witches Of Elswick - Jan Knuckey

OK, we admit it. We almost missed this little beauty when it was first released last Autumn. Admittedly when faced with the prospect of a purely a cappella album of English folk many might baulk, but anyone who visited Radio 3's World On Your Street tent at last year's WOMAD festival will know that, in a feast of musical riches, these Witches cast a pretty powerful spell.
They describe themselves as: 'Four buxom lasses who in all honesty break wind, drink pints and, when they're not arguing about whose turn it is to pay the rent, they sing songs'. In other words, while Out Of Bed contains mainly traditional songs these are thoroughly modern lasses with what clubbers would call a lot of 'tude.
True, most members do have a grounding in the folk scene (member Fay Hield's mother was a Morris dancer while she herself attended Newcastle University's Folk degree: itself a huge breeding ground for homegrown talent at the moment), but listening and reading the album's sleevenotes leaves one with the impression that the overriding principle at work here is to have fun.
''Daddy Fox'' provides a suitably rousing introduction. A live favourite, it encapsulates their ability to pick a song not only for its beauty, but for its suitability for crowd participation. In fact that's the one element missing here. One longs to be in the same room and some of the infectious enthusiasm is inevitably lost in a studio setting.
But when all's said and done, this is still a lovely piece of work. The usual subjects of love (''Maids At 18'', ''Honey For The Bee''), drinking (''Bring Us A Barrel''), servitude (''I Once Lived In Service'') and, umm...the natural course of things (''The Tree In The Wood'', ''The Scarecrow'') are all dispatched with warmth, clarity and irrepressible good humour.  From: https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pnhj/

Genesis - Seven Stones

Lyrically, “Seven Stones” is a meta-narrative of three smaller tales. The first sees a tinker lost in a storm. He finds seven rocks under a pile of leaves, takes it as a sign, and sure enough finds shelter within the seventh house he comes across. The second tale is of a sea captain unknowingly making a beeline for disaster, only to see a single seagull over what appears to be open water. He thinks, “Well that’s odd,” and turns the boat just in case, never knowing for sure that he just saved the lives of everyone on his ship. And the final tale is of an inexperienced farmer trying to buy wisdom, only to have his money taken with no answers. He did buy wisdom in the end, if only the certainty that wisdom can’t be bought.
These stories are pretty different things, but they’re all framed within the song’s lyrics as being told by a singular old man who laughs at grief and grieves at mirth. He’s passing his own brand of wisdom onto the listener, as each story has a different but related moral. The first, that pivotal things can happen totally out of the blue. How unlikely is it that at the exact moment of despair, this tinker finds an apparently meaningful marker on the ground that actually leads him to safety? The second moral is that we can never know what roads other decisions may have led us down. The sea captain didn’t know there was a rock there, and he never truly will. And finally, that our plans are useless. A farmer who doesn’t know when to sow wants to plan his whole crop, but for his trouble is only cheated of his cash, because what answer could the old man possibly give? You make the decision and you live with it.
This is an odd thing for Genesis - well, almost certainly Tony Banks, at any rate - to be writing about, isn’t it? To be sure, they’d by now proven their penchant for fanciful stories and drama that would befit some kind of Age of Legends, but “Seven Stones” isn’t quite that. It’s not a grand tale of kings and betrayal, or a description of a pastoral scene, or even a channeling of a particular emotion. It’s just a kind of proverb, told as a set of proverbs, about how the world is ruled by randomness, and that to an extent simply believing in the power of good fortune can almost will it into existence. Where did this come from? My theory is that it had a lot to do with the uncertainty the band had experienced over the previous year, how much stronger they came out of it, and how outrageously unlikely all of that was.  From: https://www.reddit.com/r/Genesis/comments/igbbra/hindsight_is_2020_29_seven_stones/

Tapping The Vein - The Ledge

Rick:  Categorize TTV’s musical style/genre for us.

Heather:  People tell us that it is not that easy to describe. A little this a little that. We usually call it “Dark Rock” because it is definitely moody and dark and it is definitely a rock band. That seems to fit OK. However, there are definitely aspects of Metal, Goth, Electronic, etc.

Rick:  TTV have a unique sound. What influences do each member bring to the overall musical style of TTV in your view?

Heather:  Eric is the electronic factor because he handles most of the programming. Mark is the old school rock guy and Joe is the goth “Cure”-ish factor. I don’t really know what part I play. Maybe the moody, emotional influence, I guess. 

Rick:  What was the first song that TTV wrote, as a band?

Heather:  I would have to clarify the line-up, though. The very first TTV songs were ones that Eric and Steve had written and that I put lyrics and melody line to. “Falling In” was probably the first. “Broken” and “Numb” were also among those early songs. The first song that I personally brought in to them was “Butterfly”. But with the present line-up of me, Eric, Joe Joe and Marky, I think that the first one written was “Beautiful”.

Rick:  Where do the “dark” lyrics come from? i.e.. Beautiful, The Damage?

Heather:  Butterfly. All these songs are true stories about myself or someone that I am close to.

Rick:  Is that where the outward emotion that you display when you sing songs like Fingertips comes from? Do you relive those experiences when you sing the songs?

Heather:  I absolutely relive them. Fingertips isn't even about me but it is one of the most horrible stories that I sing about.  I don't tell anyone. Even the boys in the band don't know most subjects. They know only a few. I have to protect the people that the songs are written for because these are things that were told to me in confidence. So, just because I choose to relive someone's nightmare, it doesn't give me the right to tell their secrets. Even if I told "what" it was about, I could never say "who" it was about.  

Rick:  Do you remember your first live gig with TTV? Tell me a little about it.

Heather:  You know what? I don’t remember. I know of three early shows that all had weird stories attached and I know one of those was the first but I don’t know which. There was the sport’s bar where the idiots wouldn’t stop playing air hockey while I was trying to sing. Or the night that Eric’s crazy ex-fiancé AND my former band all showed up for the sole purpose of freaking us out. Or the show where our former guitar grabbed the mic right out of my hands so that he could scream from the stage across the room at the sound woman.  Yeah, right in the middle of the show. Actually, I think they were the first three so take your pick!

Rick:  Why do you think that TTV have been so well received by the Goth/Alternative crowd?

Heather:  I think it has a lot to do with the lyrics and the grooves. The Lyrics have pretty dark subject matter and programming is not too Industrial sounding. Just cool, trippy grooves, I think.

From: https://www.soniccathedral.com/zine/index.php/band-interviews/287-Tapping%20The%20Vein%20Interview

Deep Purple - Chasing Shadows

When Deep Purple released their eponymous third studio album in June 1969, the career of the now-legendary group was in a rather tenuous state. Not even a year had passed since their debut, Shades of Deep Purple, had spawned a U.S. Top 5 single in a cover of Joe South's "Hush." But the comparatively disappointing sales of their sophomore LP, The Book of Taliesyn, coupled with mounting business troubles experienced by their U.S. record label Tetragrammaton (co-owned by Bill Cosby), put increasing pressure on the band ahead of recording this crucial third long-player.
That pressure evidently set the insecure musicians to firing songwriting bullets in numerous directions ("Chasing Shadows," as the album’s rhythmically intense opening number appropriately put it) in the hopes of connecting with that elusive second hit. As a result, ensuing album cuts ranged from the classically-infused baroque 'n’ roll of "Blind" to the bluesy qualities of "Why Didn’t Rosemary" to the solid groove of standout "Bird Has Flown."
Songs also varied from a tepid cover of the Donovan ballad "Lalena," to significantly more ambitious, artistically promising, but commercially challenging material like "Fault Line/The Painter" and the 12-minute "April," which many listeners felt was somewhere between tired post-psychedelia and formative progressive rock. In the end, the only possible element of relative consistency coursing through this self-titled LP’s disjointed collection of tunes was the obvious creative dysfunction that had, by then, set into what we now call Deep Purple Mk. I.
Within a year, both vocalist Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper would be tapped as sacrificial goats by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, organist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice, who soon found, in singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, the final pieces of Deep Purple’s best known musical puzzle.
Together, these five men — collectively referred to as the Mk. II lineup — would soon successfully pursue the much more focused heavy rock direction they aspired to with a string of classic albums that eclipsed Mk.I’s three-LP output. Including this oft-overlooked eponymous album, which, at worst remains justly appreciated, warts and all, by Deep Purple purists, and, at best, served as a major stepping stone towards the glory that lay ahead.'  From: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/deep-purple-deep-purple/

Say She She - Pink Roses

Say She She will release their full length debut - Prism - on October 7 (Karma Chief Records).  The album injects funk and pop with a heavy dose of dance and disco beats and a wide range of inspirations: Indian legend Asha Puthli, David Macuso’s loft parties, Turkish funk, Rotary Club, Stax soul groups and more, carving their own corner and coining their own crate of Discodelic Soul.  On Prism, this dazzling harmonizing trio of frontwomen are joined by a roaring roster of musicians that includes members of The Dap-Kings, The Extraordinaires, The Shacks, Twin Shadow and Chicano Batman.  
Today’s new single, “Pink Roses,” is the latest taste of Prism and they’ve announced a West Coast tour for November to go along with the news.  “Pink Roses,” produced by Chicano Batman frontman Bardo Martinez, starts with a driving post-punk disco beat before the three frontwomen of Say She She - Piya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham and Nya Gazelle Brown - sing about cosmic love in perfect unison.   Written in remembrance of Sabrina’s mother on the anniversary of her passing, the song is sweet, elegant and designed to lift the spirits, just like her mother’s favorite flowers.  From: https://shorefire.com/releases/entry/say-she-she-pink-roses  

Covers - Blake Babies - Temptation Eyes (The Grass Roots) / Buddy Miles - You Really Got Me (The Kinks) / Cold Blood with Lydia Pense - You Got Me Hummin' (Sam & Dave) / Dolly Parton & Nickel Creek - Shine (Collective Soul) / Electric Würms - Heart of the Sunrise (Yes) / Little Quirks - Jolene (Dolly Parton) / Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics) / PJ Harvey - Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan) / Two Minutes To Late Night - Candy's Room (Bruce Springsteen)

 Blake Babies - Temptation Eyes (The Grass Roots)

 

 Buddy Miles - You Really Got Me (The Kinks)

 

 Cold Blood with Lydia Pense - You Got Me Hummin' (Sam & Dave)

 

 Dolly Parton & Nickel Creek - Shine (Collective Soul)

 

 Electric Würms - Heart of the Sunrise (Yes)

 

 Little Quirks - Jolene (Dolly Parton)

 

 Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)

 

 PJ Harvey - Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan)

 

 Two Minutes To Late Night - Candy's Room (Bruce Springsteen)

 

Blake Babies were an American college rock band formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts. The three primary members were Freda Love, Juliana Hatfield and John Strohm. They recorded three albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed to record a new album in 1999, and again in 2016.
The band formed in 1986, while Hatfield was studying at Berklee College of Music. The name "Blake Babies" was provided by the poet Allen Ginsberg; following a reading at Harvard University, the group (which had just begun to play together) raised their hands and asked him to name their band. Their first release was the Nicely, Nicely album, released on their own Chewbud label in 1987.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Babies

 

Best known as the drummer in Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, Buddy Miles also had a lengthy solo career that drew from rock, blues, soul, and funk in varying combinations. Born George Miles in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 5, 1947, he started playing the drums at age nine, and joined his father's jazz band the Bebops at a mere 12 years old. As a teenager, he went on to play with several jazz and R&B outfits, most prominently backing vocal groups like Ruby & the Romantics, the Ink Spots, and the Delfonics. In 1966, he joined Wilson Pickett's touring revue, where he was spotted by blues-rock guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Bloomfield had left the Paul Butterfield Blues Band earlier in 1967 and was putting together a new group, the Electric Flag, which was slated to be an ambitious fusion of rock, soul, blues, psychedelia, and jazz. Bloomfield invited Miles to join, and the band made its debut at the Monterey Pop Festival; unfortunately, the original lineup splintered in 1968. With founder Bloomfield gone, Miles briefly took over leadership of the band on its second studio album, which failed to reignite the public's interest.
 With the Electric Flag's horn section in tow, Miles split to form his own group, the similarly eclectic Buddy Miles Express. Signed to Mercury, the group issued its debut album, Expressway to Your Skull, in 1968, with Miles' fellow Monterey Pop alum Jimi Hendrix in the producer's chair. In turn, Miles played on Hendrix's Electric Ladyland album, and later took part in an all-star jam session that resulted in Muddy Waters' Fathers and Sons album. Hendrix also produced the Miles Express' follow-up, 1969's Electric Church, and disbanded his backing band the Experience later that year; shortly afterward, Hendrix, Miles, and bassist Billy Cox formed Band of Gypsys, one of the first all-Black rock bands. Bluesier and funkier than Hendrix's previous work, Band of Gypsys didn't last long in its original incarnation; Miles departed in 1970, replaced by Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, but not before his powerhouse work was showcased on the group's lone album, the live Band of Gypsys.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/buddy-miles-mn0000943936#biography

 

Cold Blood is a long-standing R&B horn funk band founded by Larry Field in 1968, and was originally based in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The band has also performed and recorded under the name Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, due to the popularity of their lead singer, Lydia Pense.
The band first came to prominence in 1969 when rock impresario Bill Graham signed them after an audition, and they played the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Pense has been compared to Janis Joplin, and it was Joplin who recommended the audition to Graham.
The term "East Bay Grease" has been used to describe the San Francisco Bay Area's brass horn heavy funk-rock sound of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s; Cold Blood was one of the pioneer bands of this sound. Others were Tower of Power (who made an album called East Bay Grease). The Tower of Power horn players have performed with Cold Blood on a regular basis since the early 1970s. Skip Mesquite and Mic Gillette have been members of both Tower of Power and Cold Blood. The band disbanded in the late 1970s. Pense suspended her music career in the early 1980s to raise her daughter Danielle, before re-forming the group in 1988.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Blood_(band)

 

In 1993-1994, Collective Soul’s breakout single was the song “Shine.” It was inescapable. Any kid with a radio and an interest in “alternative” music heard it way too many times. The funny thing about these types of hits is how they get etched into your brain from sheer exposure. I don’t think I even noticed at the time that some rockers had snuck an almost-church song onto the charts.
It’s a prayer. A simple, beautiful meditation. All of this talk and I don’t want to play Collective Soul today. I don’t want to play them because I don’t think I actually noticed the lyrics and felt the weight of the song until 2001 when an unlikely cover broke out… in country. Dolly Parton, backed by bluegrass badasses Nickel Creek, reimagined the song for her album Little Sparrow. Same song, totally different impact, on me at least. And if you’ve never heard her version but you know the original, don’t worry, she kept the “yeah” in the chorus.  From: https://cultishcreative.com/p/sunday-music-heaven-let-your-light-shine-down 

Electric Würms is the side-project duo of longtime Flaming Lips partners Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd, and they've just announced the impending release of their new EP Musik, Die Shwer Zu Twerk, set to arrive later this summer. The EP's first single is a cover of Yes's "Heart Of The Sunrise," a 10-minute prog odyssey that appeared on that band's 1971 album Fragile. The Electric Würms version is considerably shorter, but it's bugged out and psychedelic and discordant in ways that go beyond even the more recent, freaked-out Flaming Lips material.  From: https://stereogum.com/1685826/electric-wurms-heart-of-the-sunrise-yes-cover/news 

Little Quirks is the family that accidentally became a band. Sisters Mia and Abbey grew up not far from their cousin Jaymi on the Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia. At family gatherings they were all about making music for fun, playing whatever instruments were lying around following the demise of their parents’ touring rock band in the late 90’s. The Beatles and Queen would feature heavily. The three teenagers gradually formed a tight musical bond and began performing as Little Quirks.
The youngest in the group Mia (drums) is just 18 years of age and often gets stopped by security entering venues to perform, but what they’ve lacked in fake IDs, Little Quirks make up for in hooks, harmonies and explosive live energy. The band’s boisterous approach to the Folk Rock / Pop genre unashamedly pushes catchy melodies and big rhythms to the fore. While their layered vocals draw inspiration from the sibling charms of First Aid Kit and The Staves, the trio’s direct and often epic songs land them in a space of their very own. Recently that sound captured the attention of esteemed NY indie label Glassnote Records who promptly signed them to a roster that includes some of Little Quirks’ own major influences in Mumford & Sons and AURORA.
With a DIY mindset that would rival any act – the band make all their own recordings, videos, stage costumes, artwork and merch – Little Quirks are a breath of fresh, unbridled and joyful air that is determined to keep the music fun.  From: https://glassnotemusic.com/little-quirks 

Marilyn Manson is an American rock band formed by namesake lead singer Marilyn Manson and guitarist Daisy Berkowitz in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989. Originally named Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids, they gained a local cult following in South Florida in the early 1990s with their theatrical live performances. In 1993, they were the first act signed to Trent Reznor's Nothing Records label. Until 1996, the name of each member was created by combining the first name of a female sex symbol and the last name of a male serial killer, as for the band and lead singer name that combine Marilyn Monroe with Charles Manson. Their lineup has changed between many of their album releases; the eponymous lead singer is the only remaining original member.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Manson_(band) 

 

The noisy bedlam of Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” and its quixotic references to the road that stretches between his hometown of Duluth, Minnesota to New Orleans fit in perfectly amid the guitar chaos of PJ Harvey’s breakthrough album, 1993’s Rid of Me. But rather than record a reverent cover of one of Dylan’s most irreverent songs (mercifully, she omitted the original’s irritating slide whistle), Harvey made the tune her own with quiet, almost whispered sections, which sound a bit like a Thirties radio broadcast before they swell into a big, extraverted wave of noise. She adds falsetto harmonies to the Louie the King verse and lets her guitar rumble while wailing the word “highway” in a much more menacing way than even Dylan could have mustered.  From: https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/the-80-greatest-dylan-covers-of-all-time-26132/pj-harvey-highway-61-revisited-1993-26185/  

 

During the past year, the virtual jam — wherein a group of artists each claim their own corner of a 16:9 YouTube screen to rock out in isolation, together — has become as ubiquitous as Zoom conference calls, online schooling, and any other pandemic-era activity. Pearl Jam did it for Covid relief. The Rolling Stones did it for Global Citizen. Metallica did it very quietly. But few virtual jams have been as relentlessly creative and consistently surprising — not to mention flat-out awesome — as the ones featured in metal-themed talk show Two Minutes to Late Night’s long-running Bedroom Covers series.
Want to see Primus bass master Les Claypool, Tool drummer Danny Carey, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher, and Coheed and Cambria vocalist Claudio Sanchez, all avowed Rush fanatics, take on the beloved Canadian power trio’s 1975 classic, “Anthem”? Or Sleigh Bells vocalist Alexis Krauss lead a motley crew of artists through a metal-ized medley of Nineties Eurodance hits like Vengaboys’ “We Like to Party!” and Haddaway’s “What Is Love”? How about septuagenarian E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg slamming the skins on a furious cover of the Misfits’ hardcore punk rager “Earth A.D.,” alongside members of My Chemical Romance, Hatebreed, and Dillinger Escape Plan? Two Minutes to Late Night’s YouTube channel is the one and only place where these twisted musical fever dreams regularly become reality.  From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/two-minutes-to-late-night-bedroom-covers-interview-max-weinberg-1164120/

 

 Blake Babies

 

 Buddy Miles

 

Cold Blood with Lydia Pense

Dolly Parton

 

Nickel Creek

Electric Würms

 

Little Quirks

Marilyn Manson

 

PJ Harvey

 

Two Minutes To Late Night

Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen

 Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Part 1

 

 Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Part 2

 

 Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Part 3

 

When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen concert movie premiered on January 22, 1971, cinema audiences were able to experience Joe Cocker at the peak of his powers. The live album from the famed tour of the same name had been released in August 1970. The subsequent film brought Cocker’s unique performance to the silver screen for the second time in a year. He had starred with his Grease Band in the film of the Woodstock Festival of summer 1969, which came out in 1970 and showcased his celebrated interpretation of The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends.”
ong among an all-star event, Mad Dogs, directed by Pierre Adidge, was a two-hour showcase for Cocker as a frontman, and a chance to watch Leon Russell in full flow as Joe’s musical director for the 48-city tour. There are also prominent roles for other members of the band that we already knew, or came to, in their other work. Saxophone maestro Bobby Keys, especially admired for his long relationship with the Rolling Stones, is featured along with another of their collaborators, Jim Price.
Cocker’s keyboard man Chris Stainton is on board, as are prolific sidemen such as Jim Keltner and Derek and the Dominos members Jim Gordon and Carl Radle. The tour, and the film, also did much to announce the vocal talents of Rita Coolidge, who featured on Russell and Bonnie Bramlett’s lovely “Superstar.”
Vincent Canby’s review of the film in the New York Times in March 1971 described it as “a record of the tour featuring Cocker, the young extraordinarily talented, British blues singer, and the largely American entourage (band, choir, friends, wives, children, groupies and a single dog named Canina) that accompanied him. The entire group numbered almost 40 people, most of whom were on stage during most of the performances, making for what seems to have been extremely cheerful and friendly chaos.”  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/joe-cocker-mad-dogs-and-englishmen-film/

 

 

Witch Club Satan - You Wildflower

Firstly, how did you all meet and when was Witch Club Satan formed?

We have all met through different art educations and projects. Both Nikoline and Victoria have studied and worked with theater, while Johanna has her background in literature and writing, but we have all carried a passion and curiosity for music in our life and work. 
During the pandemic we met and started talking about our urge to create something together again. We had a feeling that the three of us shared an energy that we needed to dive deeper into. At that time all of us could feel the stillness of the world as an excuse for apathy. We felt stuck and careless – as the rest of the world. It was time to wake up, learn to play these instruments and scream. 

For anyone not familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?

We play black metal as people did in the 80s. At that time there were no rules for the sound of black metal, as the genre did not exist yet. Young, experimental bands kept challenging themselves and the rock scene to find the most brutal, disturbing sounds. This is the core to us; the energy and the willingness to experiment. Our sound is raw and primitive, and our way of playing metal is strongly rooted in the genre’s big sister: punk. But our sonic universe is dynamic, unpredictable, and in the middle of the most chaotic noise, you’ll suddenly find a moment of calm in a sacral prayer. 

If you had to recommend one of your songs to a new listener, which one would you choose?

Our songs strongly relate and reflect the world as we experience it, and for that reason we would say that our latest release is a footprint of now. ‘You Wildflower’ is a battlesong, a call to action, to remind us to unite, care and keep fighting.  

You all identify as witches – how do you tie this in to your music and performances?

We look at music as a way of practicing magic. Music has a transformative power that should not be underestimated. We write and perform our songs as spells. As practitioners of performance art for many years, rituals at display feels normal. The whole gig can be watched as one big ritual together with the audience, but we also do smaller ritualistic acts on stage, changing from time to time and the world situation. 

What can we expect from your set at Supersonic Festival?

We will bring our all to Supersonic. As we have understood the festival, the audience are open minded towards the alternative and dark. That makes us feel welcome with the weird and good stuff. We will make sure to take care of the energy, and to create a memorable night. 

Are there any other bands/artists on the line-up you’re particularly looking forward to seeing?

Backxwash has been a huge source of inspiration to us from the very beginning. Her song “Spell” was actually shown to us by Jørn Stubbrud (aka Necrobutcher) from Mayhem, and the three of us instantly fell in love with it. Her newest album is a masterpiece, and the way Backxwash puts politics and the personal side by side is just straight out sexy, and super powerful. Also, Penelope Trappes is a fellow witch that makes music magical.

From: https://loudwomen.org/2025/07/21/interview-witch-club-satan-talk-black-metal-songs-as-spells-and-relentless-touring-ahead-of-supersonic-festival/