The Guess Who - American Woman - Side 1

01. American Woman
02. No Time
03. Talisman
04. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature

By early 1970, the Guess Who had established themselves as a true force on Top 40 radio—with “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” and “Undun” solidifying the Canadian band’s reputation as masters of the three-minute pop song. The group aspired to something more, however, and with the American Woman album, they achieved it. Sporting a heavier musical vibe and tackling weightier themes, the record helped carve a niche for the band among its harder rocking peers. Guitarist Randy Bachman and frontman Burton Cummings wrote nearly all the material for the album. Jim Kale (bass, backing vocals) and Garry Peterson (drums, backing vocals, percussion) filled out the band’s lineup.
“We always wanted to have a harder sound,” explained Bachman, speaking with this author for a 2001 feature that appeared in Performing Songwriter. “We fought like mad not to have ‘These Eyes’ released as our first single, because we didn’t want to be viewed as a ballad band. But when ‘These Eyes’ became a million-seller, the record company asked us to write another song like that one.
“When ‘Laughing’ came out, we were very fortunate that radio programmers flipped it over and started playing ‘Undun,’ which was the B-side. That song helped bridge a gap for us, and put us into a new arena.”
The first single from American Woman was “No Time,” a re-recorded version of a track featured on the band’s previous album, Canned Wheat. Released before the new album was completed, the song peaked at #5 on the charts, ramping up expectations for the forthcoming LP.
When American Woman hit record stores in January 1970, however, it was the title track that created the biggest stir. Structured around a heavy guitar riff worked up by Bachman during a concert jam, and featuring a menacing vocal from Cummings, the song homed in on what the band viewed as the social and political havoc wreaked by the Nixon administration.
“A lot of people thought ‘American Woman’ was addressing the woman on the street,” explains Bachman, “but it wasn’t at all. The band had witnessed all the desolation going on in America, where there were hardly any young men in any of the towns we went to. They had all been drafted. We would see 18-year-old guys at the airports, with their buzz cuts and their uniforms, with their fathers telling them how proud they were, and their mothers and sisters in tears. It was heartbreaking. So instead of singing ‘Uncle Sam, stay away from me,’ or ‘Richard Nixon, stay away from me,’ it was ‘American woman.’ RCA actually released a piece of promotion that showed a New York alley filled with litter, and at the back of the alley was the Statue of Liberty, holding up the torch. Fortunately, by the time radio and the government understood that the song was an anti-war song, it had already reached #1.
Following the explosive one-two punch of the title track and “No Time,” American Woman settles into an eclectic mix that showcases the growing maturation of Bachman and Cummings as songwriters. “Talisman” features Cummings singing the words to a poem he had written two years earlier, as Bachman provides classical-style accompaniment on acoustic guitar. “969” finds Bachman rocking out on a blues instrumental spiced by a jazzy break played on the flute. With the exception of the title song, however, it’s the inventive “combination” track, “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature,” that shines most brightly. A melding of two distinct tunes into a “round,” of sorts, the composition resulted from a bit of serendipity.
“Burton and I often brought pieces of songs to one another,” observes Bachman. “We would write great half-songs, which is what most co-writers do. Or maybe you write a third, and your partner writes a third, and then you work on the last third together. In this instance, I brought Burton what I thought was a really weird song. It was in F#, which is a really strange key for the guitar. I played it for him, and he was like, ‘Hey that’s a complete song.’ Then Burton told me he had a song written in F#, which was also weird, to have a piano-based song in that key.”
Bachman continues: “Somehow, at that point, I got the idea that we should play both songs together. I started singing ‘No Sugar Tonight,’ and as I finished each line, Burton would answer me. It was just one of those magical things. We decided to do one of the songs, and then do the other, and then overlap them. The idea was that it would be like the Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life,’ where you have two different parts, in different tempos.”  From: https://bestclassicbands.com/guess-who-american-woman-album-review-9-30-166/

 

Atavia - Azure

Atavia, solo endeavor of Michalina Maja Rutkowska — the vocalist known from the polish Post-Metal band Datûra, was formed in early 2018. Maja’s initial musical experiments gravitated toward Ambient, Dark Folk, and Psychedelia, taking the form of abstract soundscapes. Over time, the sound of the compositions evolved toward Rock and Post-Punk, and the tracks acquired a more song-oriented structure. Later, Tomek Wazia (drums) and Szymon Stadniczenko (guitar) joined Atavia, transforming the solo project into a power trio.
The name Atavia was derived from the term “atavistic nostalgia” by Phil Hine, an author of books on chaos magic. Briefly, this term signifies a longing for the primal forces dormant within humans that were lost during the evolutionary process. According to Hine, humans can evoke these forces by interacting with animals — their distant ancestors. The project’s name serves as a tribute to the non-verbalized, subconscious and primitive world. This is the world from which the ideas for the album “To the Old Ones” emerged.  From: https://progrockjournal.com/news-post-ambient-dark-folk-project-atavia-from-vocalist-of-polish-post-metal-band-datura-debuts-with-single-to-the-old-ones/

 

 

Susanna Hoffs - Eyes Of A Baby / Happy Place / To Sir With Love (Lulu cover)

Susanna Hoffs catapulted to stardom as part of the Bangles, the power poppers who rose from Los Angeles' Paisley Underground and into the Top 40 with "Manic Monday," a Prince song that Hoffs sang for the group. She sang the lion's share of the Bangles' big hits -- providing the closing verses on both "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Hazy Shade of Winter" and taking the lead on "Walking Down Your Street," "In Your Room," and "Eternal Flame" -- positioning herself nicely for the solo career she launched with the 1991 release of When You're a Boy. Neither When You're a Boy nor its eponymous 1996 successor was a commercial success, so Hoffs returned to the guitar pop she loved best, first reuniting with the Bangles for 2003's Doll Revolution, then cutting a series of covers albums with Matthew Sweet in the 2000s and 2010s. By the 2020s, Hoffs had resumed a solo career with Bright Lights and The Deep End, a pair of records where she covered some of her favorite songwriters.
Hoffs was born in Los Angeles, California on January 17, 1959; her father, Joshua Hoffs, was a physician, while her mother, Tamar Simon Hoffs, was a screenwriter and film director. Susanna was the second of three children, and she and her siblings learned to play guitar from their uncle, a folk musician who also built dulcimers. Hoffs grew up on classic AM radio pop and literate, folk-influenced artists such as Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt; she enjoyed singing with family and friends but was more interested in pursuing acting or dance as a career (she played a small role in the 1978 film Stony Island, an acclaimed independent feature co-written by her mother) until she enrolled as a ballet student at UC Berkeley.
After her big brother passed along albums by the Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads, and Susanna saw Patti Smith perform in San Francisco, she became a quick convert to the new wave, and formed an informal band with her brother and David Roback, a friend from the neighborhood who played guitar. While the trio proved short-lived, Hoffs and Roback, who were a couple for a while, recorded some living-room demos that emboldened her to form a band. (Echoes of these unreleased recordings can be heard on the 1984 album Rainy Day, coordinated by Roback after he became leader of the acclaimed Paisley Underground band Rain Parade; Hoffs contributes striking lead vocals to versions of the Velvet Underground's "I'll Be Your Mirror" and Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It with Mine.")
Looking for like-minded musicians, Hoffs answered an ad in an L.A. weekly newspaper, The Recycler, in late 1980 and met guitarist Vicki Peterson and her sister Debbi Peterson, who played drums; the three shared a fondness for '60s-influened pop/rock and the Petersons were impressed with Hoffs' vocal abilities. The three formed a band called the Colours that would quickly evolve into the Bangs and became the Bangles after a threat of legal action from another group called the Bangs.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/susanna-hoffs-mn0000043241#biography 

Moving Oos - Eight Miles High

Since upper Norway in early February remains dark both at night and during most of the day, it is impossible for a visitor with only three days in the country to assess time with any accuracy. Add alcohol, plus sleep deprivation to the already extant sensory deprivation, and the task becomes laughable. The vague occasion was the after-party to what had previously seemed the after-party, on the day after the last night of Trondheim's by:Larm festival, and thus it could have been nearly any time in the early or even late morning that we emerged out of cluster of warehouses and, ducking the wind off the snow and the nearby fjord, ascended the steps up into the third or fifth venue of the evening.
Though we had been told otherwise, we did not expect the "biker bar" to which we had been referred to contain American-style bikers, to boast mounted Death Valley cow skulls and wall-to-wall worn-out leather jackets. And we did not expect the Moving Oos, which we knew as a side-project to the New Violators and were our last stop before the airport, to have much to do with "classic rock"-- somewhere, somebody sketchily said, between the Faces and MC5. We expected them to sound like the New Violators: gauzy not bluesy, early 1980s not early 70s, good clothes and a dignified affect, not blue jeans and jean jackets.
OK, that's not quite right. We knew their singer had worked as a truck driver and knew that Per Borten, the gifted music mimic, singer, and songwriter behind New Violators, wrote the Moving Oos' songs too. And we knew that the New Violators' occasional backup singer/siren was one of the two "oos" in that band's three-person vocal front (the two bands also share a drummer and keyboardist). Two of us had even seen the Oos the night before. But who could believe the same people carrying off such a brilliant American/English 80s pop resurrection could be doing the same thing later that evening for a completely different decade, the 1970s??
Anybody who's heard Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones or the Black Crowes or AC/DC-- everybody-- will know what's coming in this music minutes before it actually happens, making Peace and Love a brain-teaser of a good record. How can we still enjoy this stuff: the bluesy lick, guitar or keys; the tambourine hits on the eights; the gesture skyward cued by women saying "ooh"; the multi-tracked, song-title-based chorus? The motorcycle revs on "Natural Man", the "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" interpolation on "Turn Back Time", the "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" intro on not one but two songs, "Prisoner" and "Promised Land"?
One answer is that Peace and Love is less homage than pretty close to the real thing, right place/wrong time, maybe, but right songs. What makes Peace and Love more than a joke or side-project or late night drunken escapism is something perhaps old fashioned or unfashionable, but it has to do with everyone in the band knowing how to sing, how to play their instruments, everyone knowing the exact moment on "Romancer" to get out of the way and let the two women deliver the second chorus by themselves, a shivery and sharp moment of clarity that says, just maybe, these guys know what they're about.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10037-peace-and-love/

Snow Ghosts - Rip

Snow Ghosts formed in 2008 consisting of Ross Tones, Hannah Cartwright and Oliver Knowles. Their musical interests reside in our own time and the beginning of time and all points between. They bind the ancient and modern with echoing threads of the human condition. They channel folk, but not out of woolly jumpered whimsy but to summon ancestral spirits, understand through the myths, rituals and songs of old the eternal, unbending truths of love, death and nature. They explore further the complex weave of these elements through the prisms of contemporary, openended genres like electronica, post rock and metal, to create a very physical ambience.
Death in particular is a theme of their latest album, A Quiet Ritual. It seeks to process the shock and grief of bereavement, its aftermath, as well as casting back across history and other cultures for their own metaphors and coping strategies.
Recorded in a castle in Wiltshire and two years in the making, A Quiet Ritual is written for an ensemble of classical and modern instruments including the carnyx, an Iron Age Celtic boar-headed horn excavated from a bog in Deskford, Scotland. This mix of instruments is indicative of the theme of timelessness common to this album and their previous work. For the carnyx, they enlisted the services of John Kenny, one of just a few musicians able to play the instrument and the first to do so in modern times.
“The carnyx seems to have been used as a ritual instrument,” they explain. “Other examples have been found to be stabbed with a stake as some kind of offering. Its sound really evoked something within us. It has an enormous range and we’ve used it, with all its colours throughout the album.”  From: https://www.houndstoothlabel.com/artist/snow-ghosts

 

The Move - Wild Tiger Woman / Omnibus / Blackberry Way / Something / Lightning Never Strikes Twice

Brummie pop heroes the Move had a spectacular run on the UK singles chart despite fall-outs, controversy and a lawsuit from the prime minister. From their formation in 1965 to their split in 1972, only two of their twelve original singles flopped. The first and most ignominious of those failures was "Wild Tiger Woman", a rollicking, hysterical tune that troubled radio stations due to its sexual lyrical content. Its failure could also be attributed to how ahead of schedule it sounds. It's full of itself. It's fast, it's fey, it's novel (the "WILD WILD WILD" vocal in choruses) and it pounds with a throwback chug. Despite lines like "tied to the bed / she's waiting to be fed", this is no burly boogie. The interplay between straight-man lead vocalist Carl Wayne and the coy, shrieking Roy Wood ("I'll nevah find another girl!") is identical to the schtick Brian Connolly and Steve Priest used on all the biggest Sweet hits and just as camp. Within a few years, the painfully shy Wood would grow out his hair and bury his face in startlingly colourful makeup. By the time he was fronting Wizzard, he looked like a carnival dragon - KISS have admitted they took notes. Next time someone dismisses Wood as a parodic Johnny-glam-lately, send them this Beat-Club clip where Wood can be seen shredding in a sparkly black jacket and velvet trousers in 1968.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the-move/wild-tiger-woman-omnibus/

"Blackberry Way" is often cited as an "answer song" to the Beatles' "Penny Lane." It has similarity with "Penny Lane," only with much darker lyrics and a melancholy mood. The bridge is lifted from the intro of Harry Nilsson's "Good Old Desk." When it was put to him in an interview, Roy Wood admitted the influence of "Penny Lane" on this song. He said: "I suppose it could have been. We were all very influenced by what The Beatles were doing because they were the best songwriters around."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-move/blackberry-way 

MediaBanda - El Pulgar Del Diablo

Some of the greatest artists in history are those who have made us feel that we live in worlds that are not simple. Or, at least, more complex than the one we already inhabit. The members of MediaBanda have achieved some of that with their polished works, titled "Between Insecurity and Ego" and "Money and Nervous Breakdown," and although they didn't perform them during their presentation with the fullness that the attendees would have liked, they conveyed it in each of the pieces they delivered almost continuously. 
To begin the ritual, the band—or some part of it—places their sheet music on the respective stands. The keyboards are turned on, the amplifiers are connected, while other instruments remain in their cases. Mother and daughter, Arlette Jecquier and Regina Crisosto, respectively, watch from the side and comment on something between laughs. Things are about to begin. Images are projected onto the back of the stage, something that evokes Fulano's performances in the late eighties, and that's it. Getting very close to the stage seems to be the best approach, allowing a clear view of each member's performance, something that La Batuta generously provides. In the front row, the aforementioned relatives display their unique vocal abilities, along with the two guitars (Sebastian Dintrans and Diego Aguirre) that attract and captivate the eye. In a second row, keyboard, bass, drums, and brass instruments make up the rest of the formation, building that atmosphere of regulated unpredictability that appears on the albums, and which is even further amplified in the live performance. As was evident in "Liquid Inspiration" or in the requested and dedicated "Jah, there are no more weeds left." The group's performance, mirroring the essence of their two albums, reiterated the telepathic interaction of its members, the unsettling balance of their musical narratives—on a night where Cristián Crisosto remained strangely silent—as well as the value of the compositions, where the denser themes were naturally and contagiously interwoven with those rare interpretations of reality that its members construct and which ultimately unfold and give rise to "The Devil's Thumb." A truly creative concept that can only be appreciated and enjoyed. 
Therefore, it's worth repeating that the evocative, present, new, and enduring construction offered by MediaBanda is built not only in these pieces, but in every detail, in every appearance of the guests, in every phrase, irony, or memory, in every image projected onto the screen, in every shout that erupts from the audience—although I only heard Ponce's—and in every sound that lingers for a few seconds in the air. It seems incredible that the minutes of the performance fly by in an instant and yet, at the same time, become etched in memory forever. Time passes, and the end approaches inevitably. There is no encore. The shouts fail to bring them back. Other music is already playing.  Translated from: https://www.elciudadano.com/actualidad/media-banda-entre-la-seguridad-el-anti-ego-y-las-terminaciones-no-deseadas/07/01/ 

Permanent Green Light - (You & I Are The) Summertime

The short-lived Los Angeles trio Permanent Green Light featured the songwriting and vocal talents of guitarist Matt Devine and bassist Michael Quercio. The latter had been in the psychedelic pop group the Three O'Clock and this project melded their Baroque melodies with the strutting crunch of a grunge Big Star. They only released a handful of singles, one EP, and an album, 1993's Against Nature, before splitting up, but it was enough to make them a memorable, if completely unsung, addition to the era's underground music scene.
After the Three O'Clock folded in 1988, Quercio joined his buddy Scott Miller's band Game Theory, just as that band was winding down. The two thought about starting another band together, but neither wanted to leave their respective cities -- Los Angeles for Quercio, the Bay Area for Miller -- so Quercio stayed home and formed the trio Permanent Green Light, which was named after a song on the Godz's 1967 release Godz Two. He had been playing in a pickup band called the Fairy Turnout with guitarist Matt Devine and the two decided to start something real. They found drummer Chris Bruckner and quickly developed a sound that nodded to the grunge fashions (loud guitars, thrashing drums) of the day, but sounded more like a charged-up cross between the paisley-tinged melodies of the Three O'Clock and the classic power pop of Big Star. Quercio and Devine split the songwriting and singing duties, while Bruckner was in charge of song titles and concepts. The group's theatrical and divisive live show -- one night they flung chocolate-covered fish at the crowd -- got them noticed quickly. The music was impressive, too, and Bill Bartell signed the trio to his Gasatanka Records label (home of White Flag and Redd Kross, not to mention the Tater Totz, a local scenester supergroup Quercio was a part of) then released their debut single, "We Could Just Die," in 1991. The band followed with a self-titled EP the next year on Rockville Records that concluded with a lengthy acid rock experiment called "Chris Drops In (originally titled Against Nature)." That subtitle, nicked from the cult novel by J.K. Huysmans, eventually turned up as the title of the trio's first album.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/permanent-green-light-mn0000311538#biography

 

The Mamas & The Papas - No salt On Her Tail / Trip, Stumble And Fall / The In Crowd / Creeque Alley

No Salt on Her Tail: The Mamas & the Papas self-titled second album contains no shortage of John Philips breakup songs aimed at his wife and bandmate Michelle. This leadoff track is perhaps the best of them. It was during these sessions that her affair with ex-Byrd Gene Clark came to light and drove the group to near extinction for the second time in its short life. The title comes from an 18th century Simple Simon nursery rhyme John remembered from his childhood and is based on an old English idiom that if you sprinkled salt on a bird’s tail, it would be temporarily unable to fly away. Four months before his own group entered the studio to record their debut single, Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek was enlisted to play the Hammond organ that’s featured prominently throughout. Following drummer Hal Blaine’s snare kick, pitter patter intro, it lifts the song off the ground, giving it a contemporary Dylanesque sound. With a host of musicians who’d just finished playing on the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” LP, “No Salt on Her Tail” helps to keep that vibe going, making the Mamas & the Papas sophomore effort sit comfortably next to Brian Wilson’s masterpiece.  From: https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/mamas-papas-top-5-deep-cuts/

The song Creeque Alley’s story line only makes passing reference to the Mamas and the Papas’ time on the island though, and never mentions Creeque Alley by name. It starts in the years leading up to the seemingly preordained coalescence of the four singers.
The first line, “John and Mitchy were getting’ kind of itchy just to leave the folk music behind,” refers to John and Michelle’s activities as folk singers in the early ’60s. John Phillips, then 26, had been singing with a folk group called the Journeymen when he met 17-year-old Michelle Gilliam during a tour stop in San Francisco. They fell in love and, after John divorced his first wife, married on Dec. 31, 1962, moving to New York where they began writing songs together while Michelle did modeling work to earn some cash. By late 1964, with the rock scene exploding, John and Michelle had become, like many others, “itchy” to move away from folk. It wasn’t all that easy, they quickly discovered, and the couple, along with Doherty formed the New Journeymen in the meantime.
In the meantime, other similarly inclined folk artists were coming into one another’s orbits. First, there were “Zal and Denny, workin’ for a penny, tryin’ to get a fish on a line,” which refers to Zal Yanovsky and Dennis (known as Denny) Doherty. Both Canadians, they’d been working together in a folk trio called the Halifax Three in their home country. “In a coffeehouse Sebastian sat” brings into the picture John Sebastian, the New York City-born singer-songwriter who at the time was part of the Even Dozen Jug Band and would soon form one of the most beloved American rock bands of the era. And then there were “McGuinn and McGuire, just a gettin’ higher in L.A., you know where that’s at.” McGuinn, of course, was Jim (later Roger) McGuinn, whose group the Byrds would vault to the top of the charts with their cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” in the late spring of ’65, while McGuire was Barry, whose rendition of P.F. Sloan’s protest song “Eve of Destruction” struck a nerve that summer, also catapulting to the #1 position.
The first verse leaves off with a name-drop of the fourth member of the Mamas and the Papas: “And no one’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass.” Cass Elliot (born Ellen Naomi Cohen), originally from Baltimore, also had a background in folk music when she came to the attention of the other folkies in the song. She’d sung in a trio called the Big 3 with Tim Rose and Cass’ husband, James Hendricks (not to be confused with New York scene regular Jimi Hendrix), but like the others she saw the proverbial writing on the wall and wanted to expand her range of music. The “gettin’ fat” remark has a double meaning, however: not only was Elliot physically large but she was the only future M&P member who was making a decent living with her music, singing jazz in the Washington, D.C., area.
The second verse begins with a couple of mutual compliments: “Zally said, ‘Denny, you know there aren’t many who can sing a song the way that you do, let’s go south.’ Denny said, ‘Zally, golly, don’t you think that I wish I could play guitar like you?’” And so they headed south from Canada, soon finding themselves at a popular club in New York’s Greenwich Village: “Zal, Denny and Sebastian sat (at the Night Owl), and after every number they’d pass the hat.” (More trivia: The Night Owl would become the home base of the Lovin’ Spoonful, Sebastian and Yanovsky’s group, and much later on would be the site of the famed New York record store Bleecker Bob’s.) Meanwhile, McGuinn and McGuire were “still a-gettin’ higher in L.A.” and Mama Cass was still “gettin’ fat,” but no one had yet found their destiny.
Verse three gives us some more background on Cass’ run-up to joining the group. She was planning to attend college at Swarthmore, the song says, but instead hitchhiked to New York to see if she could make it in the music world. (Trivia note: Cass never planned to go to Swarthmore—she wanted to attend Goucher College near her hometown of Baltimore. But John Phillips needed a rhyme so he used sophomore and Swarthmore.) Upon her arrival in NYC, she met Denny Doherty and fell in love with him.
“Called John and Zal and that was the Mugwumps” adds the next piece to the puzzle: The Mugwumps were a folk quintet formed in 1964 featuring Elliot, Doherty, Sebastian, Yanovsky and Hendricks. (The John here refers to Sebastian, not Phillips.)
The Mugwumps recorded enough material to be compiled into an album in 1967, which did not feature Sebastian, but the group was short-lived as its members were also “itchy to leave the folk music behind.” The next verse ties up the loose ends and takes us to the point where everyone is on the verge of fame: “Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful; Michelle, John and Denny getting’ very tuneful; McGuinn and McGuire just a-catchin’ fire in L.A., you know where that’s at.”
And there you have it: the various figures peel away from folk and move into what was then called folk-rock: Sebastian and Yanovsky teamed with bassist Steve Boone and drummer Joe Butler in the Lovin’ Spoonful; the Phillipses, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty became the Mamas and the Papas; McGuinn led the Byrds for several years; and McGuire had a chart-topping hit as a solo artist. In fact, says a previous verse, “McGuinn and McGuire couldn’t get no higher and that’s what they were aimin’ at.”)
“And everybody’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass,” goes the final line in that verse, inferring that success had arrived. But there’s some unfinished business, that matter of the time spent at Creeque Alley.
The last chorus/verse informs us that it wasn’t overnight success for the Mamas and the Papas by any means. It’s here, at the end of the song, that the scene shifts to the Virgin Islands. The singers, still called the New Journeymen and minus Cass at first (as the song said, they “knew she’d come eventually”) are cash-poor and borrowing on their American Express cards. They’re “broke, busted, disgusted,” but thanks to some help from a fellow named Hugh Duffy, who owned a boarding house in Creeque’s Alley, the four young singers who would soon be known worldwide were able to start thinking about their future: “Duffy’s good vibrations and our imaginations can’t go on indefinitely,” they sing toward the end of “Creeque Alley.” So the four returned briefly to New York, then all headed out to Southern California to see if they could catch a break. “And California Dreaming is becoming a reality” is the final line of the song. We all know what that one means.  From: https://bestclassicbands.com/mamas-papas-creeque-alley-4-30-1999/

Choice 4 Inc. - Who Knows

As DJ’s and music lovers here at Nostalgia King, we’re always on the hunt for the lesser known, undiscovered and in this case, recently discovered music that has been locked away in the vaults for over 50 years and now finally getting to see the light of day. Choice 4 “Clean Up Your Mind” is a project that was recently found in the Sigma Sound Studios which is currently stored inside of Drexel University’s Audio Archives which currently houses 7000 audio tapes documenting Sigma Sound Studios and its pop, soul, disco, and R&B recordings that became known as “The Sound of Philadelphia.” Founded in 1968 by engineer Joe Tarsia, Sigma Sound Studios served as a hub for many of the defining recordings that emerged from Philadelphia during the 1970s and 1980s.
Talk about tough as nails heavy duty funk!! This is exactly what we would expect to be recorded during that time from a band that’s obviously deep rooted in the funk. “Clean Up Your Mind” features eight never-before-heard tracks recorded in 1972 at the iconic Sigma Sound Studios here in Philadelphia, documenting an early intersection of soul, funk, and psychedelia. The album has been released via Drexel University’s student-run record label MAD Dragon Records and will be available on streaming services and as a limited vinyl release.
Recorded in 1972, the Washington, D.C.-based ensemble included the vocal group The Choice Four and their rhythm section which featured Richard Lee on guitar, Norman Durham on bass, Gregory Tolbert on keyboards, and Woodrow “Woody” Cunningham on drums. These unreleased recordings document an early chapter in these groups’ histories and laid the groundwork for influential careers in soul, funk, and disco. In 1974, The Choice Four signed to RCA Records, while the rhythm section relocated to New York City and renamed themselves Pipeline in 1975. In 1978, Pipeline evolved once again and changed their name to Kleeer. As Kleeer, they signed to Atlantic Records and achieved commercial success, including several charting hits between 1979 and 1985.
The songs on the album were produced by Billy Jackson, a Philadelphia native and foundational yet often under-recognized in our opinion, architect of the Philadelphia Sound. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he wrote and produced for a wide range of artists including Aretha Franklin, The Tymes, Frank Beverly, and many more. His early friendship with engineer Joe Tarsia placed him at the heart of Sigma Sound Studios during its rise as the epicenter of the Philadelphia Sound. These recordings stand as part of that legacy and establish his place within a generation of producers whose work helped define the sound of Philadelphia.  From: https://nostalgiaking.com/2026/05/12/choice-4-clean-up-your-mind/

 

Renaissance - The Sisters / Touching Once (Is So Hard To Keep)

“Novella” is the seventh studio album of Renaissance and was released in 1977. The line up on the album is Annie Haslam, Michael Dunford, John Tout, Jon Camp and Terence Sullivan. The album also has the participation of Richard Hewson.
When we talk about the years of 1976 and 1977 we mustn’t forget the arising of the punk movement. So, those years were a big problem for all progressive rock bands. Those were times of great turbulence and obscurity for all the progressive rock music. Renaissance was able to manage and to last longer than most of the other progressive rock bands before beginning their period of musical decline. During the period of 1977 and 1978, when bands such as Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant and Emerson, Lake & Palmer fell part way or whole way into pop, Renaissance managed to come up with a great progressive album, “Novella”, in 1977, and one very good album “A Song For All Seasons”, in 1978.
While AOR radio and to a lesser extent punk were undermining the creative license of many other progressive rock bands, Renaissance managed to escape relatively unscathed, for a few years at least. Why did it happen? It’s really quite simple. It happened because in fact Renaissance had a different audience base than many other progressive rock bands. In reality, they didn’t need to go through the channels of “rock and roll” or “hit radio” to keep their audience. And, as such, they were able to keep going with elaborate musical ventures even while Yes were being paired back to “Tormato” with “Don’t Kill The Whale”. However, the band didn’t pass unscathed to that and Renaissance began to experience certain problems by 1979. Perhaps no band can outrun the market forever. But the fact remains that they kept their credibility longer than most of their compatriots. And it was a blessing for all their progressive fans, indeed.
Musically, “Novella” followed in the footsteps of the previous albums, but the mood was slightly mellower. The material was maybe also a bit less accessible, and the album requires several listens before you’re able to grasp the melodies. But once you’re into it you’ll find that it has almost all of the qualities from the band’s best albums. It was also the last album where Renaissance still remained a pure progressive band. The 13 minute opener “Can You Hear Me?” has a kind of a melodramatic feel to it, and the instrumental passages are a lot more muted and humble than before. This track glides straight over in the beautiful and atmospheric “The Sisters” that maintains the mellow mood. The acoustic “Midas Man” features one of the last examples of Tout’s sparse use of synthesizers before he unfortunately would take over much of the band’s sound with it. “The Captive Heart” is a piano dominated ballad with some fine harmonies, but the closing epic “Touching Once (Is So Hard To Keep)” is a lot more interesting. It builds up from a medieval styled tune to a symphonic and dramatic crescendo before it gets back to the start again. This is very striking indeed.  From: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/72129/Renaissance-Novella/

Green Eyes Witch Hands - Ball

Green Eyes Witch Hands is a duo of Canadian brothers based in Bathurst, New Brunswick, which is a town that I had never heard of until I heard of this band. Bathurst’s population falls well under 15,000 inhabitants; its modest downtown faces a recessed body of water. If you would like to have a nice, low-key multimedia experience, I would suggest looking at still images of the town while listening to The Lumberyard, Green Eyes Witch Hands’s newest release. Personally, I lingered on one snowcapped picture in particular. As an acoustic guitar strummed in the background, I was practically living a different life.
The band works in a variety of contemporary indie modes—there’s some cloud rock here, there’s some indietronica, there’s some emo rap—but bonds them together through the power of a less specific kind of songwriting, the kind rooted in decades upon decades of folk and rock. It’s a forward-thinking indie record, the sound of two brothers incubating their own musical vernacular, built on the back of a contemporary moment but, in its execution, knocking against the timeless.  From: https://www.ninaprotocol.com/articles/green-eyes-witch-hands-the-lumberyard 

The Carpenters - Rainy Days And Mondays / We've Only Just Begun / (They Long To Be) Close To You

The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. They produced a distinctive soft musical style, combining Karen's contralto vocals with Richard's harmonizing, arranging, and composition. During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 10 albums along with many singles and several television specials.
The siblings were born in New Haven, Connecticut, but moved to Downey, California, in 1963. Richard took piano lessons as a child, progressing to California State University, Long Beach, while Karen learned the drums. They first performed together as a duo in 1965 and formed the jazz-oriented Richard Carpenter Trio along with Wesley Jacobs, then formed the middle-of-the-road band Spectrum. Subsequently the two signed as the Carpenters to A&M Records in 1969; they achieved major success the following year with the hit singles "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun". The duo's brand of melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening, and adult contemporary music genres. 
The duo toured continually during the 1970s, which put them under increased strain; Richard took a year off in 1979 after he had become addicted to Quaaludes, while Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa. The duo ended in 1983 when Karen died from heart failure brought on by complications of anorexia. Her death triggered widespread coverage and research into eating disorders.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carpenters

 

Babe Lewis - Yellow Bicycle

The dreamy rolling grooves and spiraling emotionalism of "Royal" by Babe Lewis, the solo recording project of Harrisonburg -Virginia based songwriter Joseph Harder, and performing band with Dane Ludwig (drums), and Valentin Prince (bass, vocals), encompasses abstractions and guitar heaviness that feels seeded from the 2000's, that fertile post grunge period when genres happily collided. For me, the sound feels part slacker garage rock, part neo-psychedelic distilled though indie pop filters. I am appreciating the chorus feeling shoegaze-esque but the verses feeling less so, riding on primarily the bass line and opened up vocals where you can actually make out the lyrics without the lyrics in front of you, a luxury I sometimes miss these days. This gritty blend feels lush and emo while kind of industrial at the same time, an ethereal flesh with callouses. 
Liner Notes offer: [Inspired by the guitar stylings of bands like My Bloody Valentine and Helvetia, the hypnotic lo-fi pulse of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and the mystic harmonies of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Babe Lewis inhabits a niche at the overlap of myriad eras and modes of psychedelic music].  From: https://www.americanpancake.com/2025/05/babe-lewis-and-dreamy-rolling-grooves.html  

Church of the Cosmic Skull - Live at Reggies 2022

 Church of the Cosmic Skull - Live at Reggies 2022 - Part 1

 

 Church of the Cosmic Skull - Live at Reggies 2022 - Part 2

 

With influences from prog, rock and pop new Nottingham-based supergroup Church of the Cosmic Skull are about to unleash their debut album Is Satan Real? on the world. And what an album it is – certainly one of the finest rock records of 2016.
Sitting somewhere between religious cult and ’70’s prog this band are pairing their massive sound with a doctrine of cosmic unity. It could be gimmicky, an eye-roll-inducing pseudo-philosophy in matching white outfits but there’s an air of quiet authenticity about the band, undoubtedly strengthened by their phenomenal sound.
A rising choir of harmonies, some unusual instrumentation and big riffs and growling lead vocals the tracks take the best of the theatrical side of rock and do away with self-indulgent and overt technical displays. It brings rock music back to a core of pounding melodies and ominous builds; a listen that is huge the first time but reveals an underlying complexity of concept with further plays.
With members who have also played in bands such as Dystopian Future Movies, Mammothwing, Hellset Orchestra and You Slut! and a set of principles that include an intention to “Celebrate and uphold the freedom of art, science and thought” Louder Than War caught up with Church founder Bill Fisher to be inducted into their philosophy and music. 

LTW: You describe yourselves as a “twofold entity: a new religious movement…and a 7-piece supergroup.” Which came first – the religious or the musical aspects? How long has the band been in the making?

BF: Love and music have been with us for all of time, they are inseparable. Most of the songs were written many years ago. It made sense to bring a new group of people together around the songs.

Where did that vision for the band, and the aesthetics of it, come from?

All visions come from within the Cosmic Skull.

Given this twofold aspect what place do you think music plays in challenging or reflecting society and political positions?

Music has the power to take us far away from the rantings of the puppet-masters. Ignore their propaganda! They control nothing. Celebrate and uphold the freedom of art, science and thought. Maintain focus on the unity of all living beings.

The Seven Objects you use as pillars of your approach – are these your personal principles to adhere by or something you came up with as a band or…? What is you hope for sharing these Objects and encouraging people to sign up to them?

The Seven Objects are the ‘things we are directed towards’. Perhaps the music will encourage people to be similarly directed.

As a supergroup how did you all come together? Were you playing gigs together or knew each other through the local scene…?

The music scene here is a vibrant place full of willing participants. Michael Wetherburn [Ulysses Storm/Hellset Orchestra] is the go-to hammond player, with a tremendous vocal range. Michael and I share a love of musical theatre and the songs of Queen.
Loz Stone [Iron Swan, Rescued By Wolves] has incredible feel and taste which are the most important qualities in a drummer. Amy Nicholson [Hellset Orchestra/Polymath] is a phenomenal cellist and singer who was introduced to me by Michael, with whom she played in Hellset.
Sam Lloyd [You Slut!/Pilgrim Fathers] is undoubtedly one of the best bassmen I have ever heard and plays a huge role in spreading the Cosmic Word. Joanne Joyce has amazing vocal power and technique, and has some wonderful solo material coming soon. Caroline Cawley, who I met during the formation of our other band, Dystopian Future Movies, has a beautiful natural singing voice which never fails to touch my heart. I am also in love with her.

Prog and ’70’s rock (which you list among your influences) can sometimes be looked down on as being a bit too serious and/or indulgent and theatrical – do you think it’s got an undeserved reputation?

The allusion to Prog/Psych/’70s Rock/Pop came after the songs were developed. My influences are more prog-pop than prog-rock. Kate Bush, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, The Beatles. In the same light, the rock music I always return to is song-orientated; Thin Lizzy, Queen, Sabbath etc. The song must come first. I am not interested in meaningless displays of technical ability.

How easy has it been to take the recorded sound and arrange it for live? On video you have a very strong visual aesthetic, can we expect something similar in the live show?

The recordings feature only single parts from each instrument or singer, without additional layering, so it translated. And yes, live you can expect some strong visuals.

Album is out on Bilocation Records / Kozmik Artifactz – how did you find this label / how did they find you?

I was in Mammothwing, who were also on Bilocation, they released our album last year. They are an amazing label based in Germany, pressing the highest quality vinyl for great bands from all over the world. They’ve worked with Mondo Drag, Ruby the Hatchet, The Heavy Eyes. Recent releases include some wonderful stuff, especially Bright Curse, Friendship, Gin Lady, I can’t list them all here, see the label site at kozmik-artifactz.com.

What’s the plan for Church of the Cosmic Skull beyond this album?

More music and video. CDs are available now, vinyls are coming later. We are booking festivals and a tour for next year, hopefully reaching out to Europe. The word must be spread, for the word is good.

From: https://louderthanwar.com/interview-church-cosmic-skull/ 

 

Bat For Lashes - The Dream of Delphi - A New Transmission

Natasha Khan has always treated pop music like it’s spell-casting; her pinches of synth-bass and sprinkles of fantastical lyrics create an unmistakable sparkle. Over nearly 20 years performing as Bat for Lashes, the singer-songwriter has become an expert daydreamer—her last album, 2019’s Lost Girls, was written from the perspective of a female biker gang—and her theatricality has drawn frequent comparisons to Kate Bush. Then, in 2020, Khan had a baby. Her body became impossible to ignore, and its tenderness inspired her latest album. Dedicated to and named after Khan’s daughter, The Dream of Delphi offers several intriguing ambient-adjacent experiments—until its enchantment fades like a half-formed thought.
To continue the Kate Bush comparisons, The Dream of Delphi is Khan’s own Aerial. Like that 2005 album, in which a typically enigmatic Bush describes her son as sunshine, The Dream of Delphi sees Khan exchange personal sensuality—the wild horses and weepy kissing of past albums—for more earthly musings. The Dream often sounds like a cut-up version of Khan’s discography, taking her beloved strings, sappy ’80s synths, and seashell drums and slicing them into translucent slugs. The instrumental “Breaking Up” twitches slowly, like many of Khan’s bittersweet pop songs, with an imposing synth-bassline that gurgles like an empty stomach. The harpist Mary Lattimore releases starbursts into the title track, matching Bat for Lashes’ tendency to use strings as a sweetener. Khan sings hypnotically of “milk and opal light.” It’s all pretty, but, in comparison to her more hearty compositions, it’s missing protein.
Khan is an efficient maximalist when she allows herself to be, drenching everything with cascading synths—every second should be a waterfall or bust. The impulse to make things bigger translates well to the melody-forward ambient music that makes up most of The Dream, so songs like “The Midwives Have Left” have lovely balloon-like buoyancy. Khan’s fudgy voice thins out as she dips into weightless cooing, nested in piano splinters. These moments are some of the album’s most transportive; they recall the best experimental music about motherhood, like Medulla by Björk. A few of the songs on The Dream of Delphi are a little too underdeveloped and end up dissipating into thin air. But it’s Khan’s lyrics, always so full of gravity and grace, that keep the album from stalling out. “Remember you came from a spiral, unfolding,” Khan sings on “Letter to My Daughter” with the measured insight of motherhood. In this music, motherhood sounds as supernatural as it feels to the people who experience it.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/bat-for-lashes-the-dream-of-delphi/

 

Ladaniva - Saraiman / La Montagne

 Ladaniva - Saraiman

 

Ladaniva - La Montagne

 

The musical group Ladaniva was founded in 2019 by Armenian singer Jacqueline Baghdasaryan and French multi-instrumentalist Louis Thomas. The group’s music is inspired by traditional songs from Armenia, Russia and the Balkans—with influence from travels in Latin America, Africa and Reunion Islands.
Last month they were here in Los Angeles for a sold-out performance. I had a chance to meet the group as they were getting ready for rehearsal before one of their shows at Arbat Hall. Jacqueline Baghdasaryan and Louis Thomas met at a bar one night during a jazz jam session.
"Louie was playing trumpet, and I was singing. And after we started to do the jazz together, and also we did our study in our conservatory together. And after one day, Louis heard that I am singing in Armenia. And he said, ‘let's do something with this,’ because he loved Armenian language and music," Baghdasaryan said.  
No matter where they’re performing or what language they’re singing in--- their energy is contagious. "There's something melancholic, you know. Melancholy is something beautiful in sadness," Thomas said. Baghdasaryan said Thomas encouraged her to write a song in Armenian. She wrote their first song "Vay Aman" and immediately following the release of their music video the song was a hit in Armenia and went viral with millions of views. As far as the name Ladaniva…it’s a Russian car. "Jacqueline's father and my father, when we were kids, both had this car."
Most of their songs are in Armenian, but they also have songs in Russian and French. Jacqueline says her inspiration for songs comes from everyday life—like their most recent song "Shakar" which means "sugar" in Armenian. Jacqueline’s connection to Armenia has remained strong over the years.  
"I was born in Armenia and I grew up in Belorussia. And after I came to France already eight years. I was always in the Armenian community. I did Armenian dance, singing Armenian songs and for me it was my nostalgia to my roots, and I always wanted to sing in Armenian, to dance it, to participate in our culture," she added.  
Louis was born and raised in France. For him, music is in his DNA; he began playing the trumpet at the age of 7. "I was born in a musician family. My mother played the classical piano. And since I was a child, I used to play a lot of different instruments," he stated. His love for music and adventure have had a big influence in his work and life. "I used to travel a lot to learn the traditional music from everywhere."
Their music comes from everywhere... connecting people and different cultures. "A lot of different vibes -- we have joyful vibes, but also we have a nostalgic and melancholic vibe. Our music is like a mix of different cultures… a music of travel and also the humanity," she explained.  From: https://www.foxla.com/news/musical-group-ladaniva-bringing-a-new-twist-to-armenian-international-music