The Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South - Side 1

01 Revival
02 Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
03 Midnight Rider
04 In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed

The Allman Brothers’ second album, Idlewild South begins with “Revival,” a typical song that features the twin lead guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, who also wrote it. “Revival” sounds like it will be an instrumental and it’s only after a minute and a half that the vocal starts; it was originally conceived without the vocals that were only added as something of an afterthought. It’s the perfect opening for what is a much-underrated album by some.
This quintessential slice of Southern Rock was recorded, along with the rest of the album, between February and July 1970 and it came out later that same year on September 23. Recorded at Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, Criteria Studios, Atlantic South in Miami, and Regent Sound Studios in New York City it is, along with their debut, the least well-known of the band’s studio albums, but deserves to be heard more widely.
Idlewild South had its release just after Duane had largely finished recording at Criteria with Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, and Jim Gordon on the album that would become Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
Named for a remote farmhouse/cabin the band rented for rehearsals, and where much of it was written and conceived, Idlewild South includes two of the band’s best-loved songs, “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Midnight Rider” both of which are among the Allman Brothers’ most played live numbers; Elizabeth Reed being one of the highlights of the Allman Brothers’ Fillmore album.
Such is the unique nature of what the Allman Brothers achieved on their recordings that few have been covered extensively – “Midnight Rider” is the exception. Joe Cocker had a hit with it in 1972; Gregg Allman did another version of it in 1973 on his solo album and the single made the Billboard Top 20. In 1976 a reggae version charted in Britain sung by Paul Davidson and in 1980 the godfather of Outlaw Rock, Willie Nelson made the top 10 of the Billboard Country Chart; other versions have been done by Patti Smith, Alison Krauss, Michael McDonald, Bob Seger, and Hank Williams Jr.
This was the first Allman Brothers album produced by the legendary Atlantic producer and engineer, Tom Dowd. During its recording, the band were constantly touring and their sound was road-honed, so much so that instead of doing it as a conventional multi-track recording, the band and Dowd opted to cut most of Idlewild South live in the studio, with the band performing together. According to Dowd, “The idea is that part of the thing of the Allman Brothers is the spontaneity — the elasticity. The parts and tempos vary in a way that only they are sensitive to. Duane would often make the decision to leave a song alone for more work and testing out on the road. They would record maybe five songs. Then they might say, ‘I don’t think that song was good enough,’ or, ‘I don’t think that song was ready to record.’”
Joel Dorn, best known as a jazz producer for Atlantic, cut one of the songs, “Please Call Home” and although some more songs were recorded with Dorn, this was the only one to make the record. The Gregg Allman composition, “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin,” features Duane on slide and Thom Doucette on harmonica; the latter was an old friend of bass player Berry Oakley’s from Florida.
Dickey Betts wrote the majestic “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” about Boz Scaggs’s girlfriend, whom Dickey was also involved. According to Betts, “She was Hispanic and somewhat dark and mysterious—and she really used it to her advantage and played it to the hilt.” Betts saw a headstone with the inscription upon it at the Rose Hill Cemetery, a place frequented by band members during their early days to relax and write songs. Betts’s guitar playing on this is sublime; it’s one of the Allman Brothers’ truly monumental songs.  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/rediscover-idlewild-south/

The Beatles - The Blue Video Album

 The Beatles - The Blue Video Album - Part 1

 

 The Beatles - The Blue Video Album - Part 2

 

With a non-stop work schedule The Beatles took advantage of promotional films and TV appearances to help promote their latest releases. TV companies around the world would pay good money to broadcast these clips while the cost of the production itself for the group was relatively inexpensive.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed four promotional films for “Paperback Writer” including a colour film shot at Chiswick House in West London, England on 20 May 1966, where The Beatles mimed to the song. The clip was first broadcast in black and white on BBC-TV’s Top of the Pops on 2 June 1966. “Paperback Writer” was the last new song by The Beatles to be featured on their final tour in 1966.
Three different music videos of the Paul McCartney song “Hello Goodbye” would emerge from footage shot on 10 November 1967 at the Saville Theatre in London. The first film shot featured The Beatles in their Sgt. Pepper uniforms performing against a psychedelic backdrop and featured cutaways to The Beatles, seated and waving, wearing their grey, collarless stage suits from 1963, while over the coda they are joined on the stage by female hula dancers. 
For “Revolution” The Beatles sang live to a prerecorded tape. One of the promotional films would make its debut (and only contemporary screening) in the UK on Top of the Pops on 19 September 1968. “Revolution 1” was the first track recorded for The White Album, the initial takes were recorded with the aim of it being a possible single.
On 4 September 1968 The Beatles filmed promotional clips for “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” at Twickenham Film Studios. A promotional film for “Hey Jude” debuted on Frost on Sunday in the United Kingdom on 8 September 1968 surrounded by members of the studio audience. In that version The Beatles broke into an impromptu rendition of Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now Or Never”, although this was edited out of the broadcast. A 36-piece orchestra was also assembled, the members wearing white tuxedos, and 300 extras were brought in for the finale. The latter had been recruited after 20 students handed out leaflets in the area, and The Beatles’ assistant Mal Evans invited a number of fans from outside EMI Studios.
Compiled from home movies showing the four band members and their wives “Something” became the final music video made while all four Beatles were together as a band. The single “Something”, backed by “Come Together”, (both from Abbey Road) was released on 6 October 1969 in the United States and 31 October 1969 in the United Kingdom, just as The Beatles were on the verge of breaking up – George Harrison’s first Beatles single A-side. Since the individual Beatles had drifted apart by this time, each of The Beatles and their wives were shot around their respective homes. The individual footage was then edited together to create the promotional film for “Something”.  From: https://www.thisdayinmusic.com/liner-notes/the-beatles-promo-films/

 

Preoccupations - Fix Bayonets!

Preoccupations have always been a profoundly psychological band. More accurately, they tend to be predisposed to emotional fragility. This feeling seems to widen for them, but it’s easy to feel despondent these days. It feels appropriate, like the right thing to do, to view the world through dirty, bleak lenses. Parts of the world burn, integrity is undone, and immorality is exposed in institutions that we can only hope to trust. Such is the expression of Arrangements, the new record by Preoccupations, who have become very adept at making anxious music.
Based in Calgary, Preoccupations stand at the forefront of the new age post-punk movement of the last decade, delivering gloomy goth sounds reminiscent of bands like Joy Division, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, complete with a starkly cynical outlook. Produced by bassist and vocalist Matthew Flegel and guitarist/synth player Scott Munro, with additional production by drummer Michael Wallace, Arrangements comes four years after their third album, 2018’s New Material. While maintaining their connection with Canadian label Flemish Eye, handling the new album’s release, the band has decided to self-release Arrangements across all other regions they reach.
“The lyrics are pretty conspicuous and self-explanatory on this one,” says Flegel. “But it’s basically about the world blowing up and no one giving a shit.” Flegel’s lyrics explore internal pressure and complications, often articulating a desire to push the world away because the world is an engine of distress. Like their previous records, Arrangements touches on the anxiety that comes from uncertainty and alienation, but unlike previous records, this one does not signify a search for ataraxis. There is no peace of mind in sight at the moment for Preoccupations.
The seven songs that comprise Arrangements are not designed with the typical verse-chorus-verse structure. Instead, they’re more like vivid compositions assembled in movements. These are songs made of parts that evolve rather than recycle. As far as repetition goes, Flegel can be heard throughout the album repeating melancholic phrases as if he’s pacing in his home, distraught about the uncertain future.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/preoccupations-arrangements-album-review 

King Crimson - Dinosaur / Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream / Vrooom Vrooom

The only progressive rock band from the '60s to be making new, vital, progressive music in the '90s, King Crimson returned from a ten-year exile in 1995 with THRAK, their first album since 1984's Three of a Perfect Pair. As with the '80s band, guitarist/ringleader Robert Fripp recruited singer/guitarist Adrian Belew, bassist Tony Levin, and drummer Bill Bruford for this incarnation of his classic band. However, he added to this familiar quartet two new members: Chapman Stick player Trey Gunn and ex-Mr. Mister drummer Pat Mastelotto. Effectively, Fripp created a "double trio," and the six musicians combine their instruments in extremely unique ways. The mix is very dense, overpoweringly so at times, but careful listens will reveal that each musician has his own place in each song; the denseness of the sound is by design, not the accidental result of too many cooks in the kitchen. Sometimes, as in "THRAK," the two trios are set against each other, in some sort of musical faux combat. In others, they just combine their respective sounds to massive effect. On "Dinosaur," perhaps the strongest track on the record, Mastelotto and Bruford set up an ominous tom-tom groove that supports an even more ominous guitar figure. The vocal, the musings of a long-dead sauropod, are vintage Belew, just as the freaky, falling-down-the-stairs solo in the middle is vintage Fripp. Other high points include the drum duet "B'Boom" and the two Belew/Fripp "Inner Garden" pieces. Allusions to earlier Crimson abounds, such as the form of "VROOM," for example, which is suspiciously reminiscent of "Red" (from the 1974 album of the same name), or the shout-out to "The Sheltering Sky" (from 1981's Discipline) in "Walking on Air." Thankfully, this never gets annoying, but instead acts as a subtle nudge and a wink to faithful fans. King Crimson came back in a major way with THRAK, and proved that, even in its fourth major incarnation, Fripp and company still had something to say. High-quality prog.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/thrak-mw0000125655#review 

 

Mission Jupiter - Revelation

For those unfamiliar with Mission Jupiter, talk us through the background of the band from the early days to the current line-up.

Mission Jupiter is a band from Minsk, Belarus, formed in 2015. The story of how the band came together is quite remarkable. Originally, the project began as a musical experiment – no one expected it to evolve into something so significant and compositionally mature.
Vlad met the former bass player, Artem Gulyakevich, in 2014 while they were still students. Not long after, Vlad (guitarist and composer) met Nastya, the band’s former vocalist, along with drummer Eugene Zuyeu. That’s how it all started. Bit by bit, we began jamming together, crafting musical ideas that eventually formed the foundation of our debut album, Architecture.
With Nastya and Artem, we released two albums—Architecture in 2018 and Talk to Me in 2021 – laying the groundwork for Mission Jupiter’s signature sound.
In 2022, Kate joined the band, and together we began working on Aftermath. And that’s where our journey continues. In short: MJ’s dramatic songs are framed by a gloomy, modern, and atmospheric sound. We are trying to bring a breath of fresh air to today’s alternative and progressive metal music, combining various sounds, moods, and touching melodies. We blend the raw energy of ’90s rock with the emotional drama of the ’80s + some big synths (of course).

New album ‘Aftermath’ has just been released; what was the album’s gestation period like? Did the songs come together quite easily?

Eugene – The creation of Aftermath was a deep and transformative process for us. It wasn’t something that came together overnight. After our lineup change in 2022, with Kate joining as our new vocalist, we felt a shift in energy – new ideas, new emotions, and a new perspective on our sound.
Some songs came together quite naturally, almost as if they were waiting to be written. Others took more time to shape, as we explored different sonic textures and lyrical themes. We approached this album with a more mature, introspective mindset, reflecting everything we’ve experienced in recent years – both personally and creatively.
Aftermath feels like a rebirth. It carries the DNA of Mission Jupiter, but with a fresh intensity and emotional depth. So yes, parts of it flowed easily, but the overall process was thoughtful and deliberate. We really took the time to craft something that felt honest and resonant.

‘Revelation’ is a fantastic album opener. Was it always going to open the album? The title seems to suggest that it was.

Kate – Thank you! Revelation definitely set the tone for the entire album. From the early stages of writing, it felt like a natural opener. There was something powerful and immediate about it – both musically and lyrically – that made it feel like the beginning of a new chapter for us.
The title itself carries a sense of awakening or unveiling, which fits perfectly with the themes of Aftermath. It’s about confronting truths, inner transformation, and the emotional landscapes that come after chaos or change. So yes, it was very intentional—Revelation was always meant to be the first step into the world of this album.

From: http://devilsgatemusic.co.uk/interview-mission-jupiter/ 

The Pilgrim - Riding The Horse

Upon first listen to the new album by duo The Pilgrim, it’s incredibly hard to believe that the homeland for this opus is actually Italy. Described as ‘Space Folk’, The Pilgrim is somewhat of an oddity, and for thepsychedelic folk rock project, it sounds like they have been teleported straight out of the nineteen sixties, and right in to modern day life.
Multi-instrumentalist Gabriele Fiori forms one half of the band, some may know him as the front man for Black Rainbows, and for him this is primarily a solo project which has evolved, and he is joined on this adventure by Filippo Ragazzoni on percussion. All other instrument duties are covered by Fiori too, and these include vocal, guitar, and keyboards, but to name a few.
…From The Earth To The Sky And Back is the follow up to their debut Walking Into The Forest, which due to popular demand, is being reissued at the same time as this new album with the first pressing selling out.
To paint a picture sonically of The Pilgrim, if you think of The Eagles, or perhaps even Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, you wouldn’t be far wrong. There are also elements of Led Zeppelin at times, and even The White Buffalo, so I guess essentially it has a real acoustic ‘stoner meets country’ swagger about it all. Over the fourteen tracks we’re invited in to the world of The Pilgrim, and as a whole this is a very upbeat affair, it’s doesn’t wallow in pity, it isn’t aggressive in any way, and overall, it is a very proficient, expertly played opus.
The beginning third is somewhat of something you could compare to a spaghetti western, if feels like it would fit very well into a cowboy movie with no problem at all. The last third, by contrast, feels like a far more personal affair, a more honest depiction of life, and feelings, and they seem to fill the subject matter toward the end somewhat. Not so much in a morose way, more in the acceptance of life changing, and the acceptance that we aren’t as bulletproof as we think we are sometimes, and that we are always learning on this journey we call life.  From: https://thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/the-pilgrim-from-the-earth/ 

Pumpegris - Føkk Det

When it came to naming her new band, Vera Sonne didn’t overthink it. “You really just need a word, then you will define it with your music,” she says. “And then stand by it, because that’s how people remember you.”
That word? Pumpegris. Don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with it – even the majority of Norwegians aren’t. Most will ask, “What the fuck does that mean?” as guitarist Astrid Garmo tells me. But Sonne is half Danish and grew up with the surrealist poems of Halfdan Rasmussen. “He wrote a sweet little poem about a pig that can pump anything,” she explains, referring to the Danish writer’s work Pumpegris og andre børnerim. In English: pumping pig.
“This kid finds this pig that pumps whatever he wants out of its nose, and asks for soda, like, ‘Please pump three-million liters of soda,’” Sonne continues. “Then he wants some more. ‘No,’ the pig says. ‘I am all empty now.’ And the kid says, ‘Oh shucks, I should have made alcohol! I should have made booze!’”
Sonne explains that Scandinavia's folk-adjacent acts tend to adopt names associated with nature or animals – “some kind of bird or the wind or the cliffs” – but she didn’t want to take things so seriously, an intention that had to start with the first thing anyone learns about you: your name. “It’s really such a musical playground for us,” she says, “so it’s great, I realise, to have a name that implies fun or playfulness.”
You’ll see those characteristics in the uneventful, fly-on-the-wall video Pumpegris put together for “Føkk det”, the lead single from their recently released debut album, Fritids, meaning ‘leisure time.’ The camera follows the band as they shoot the shit and drink booze (from bottles, not pigs), moving from cramped apartment to park to bar. Not much – not anything – happens, but the video remains faithful to the song’s origins: that pandemic-era “we-have-no-place-to-be” hangout time. And hey, perhaps Sonne sees something of herself in that alcohol-craving child from Rasmussen’s poem.
“Remembering those times when I was younger, hanging out with friends, we weren’t young enough to drink someplace, so we would drink in the backyard of the school or just wander around drinking,” Sonne explains. “So [“Føkk det” has] this wandering, disillusioned vibe.” Darker stuff underpins the song, too: it borrows a traditional hardanger fiddle tune (Norway’s national instrument) that is supposed to put you in a trance-like state, as Garmo notes. “The devil puts you in this dancing mood and you can’t stop,” Sonne adds. Though, perhaps anticipating problems with that, they transposed it into a different tuning, as fiddle player Trygve Liahagen clarifies.
The founder of Pumpegris, Sonne calls herself the captain of a “very secure ship.” But the band – whose members met at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo – has become democratic and driven by each person’s different skills and interests. “I guess it started with me finding these incredible musicians and friends that wanted to build this idea I had about a folk music-based band with a more groovy, loose, and funky direction,” Sonne explains.
Indeed, the band plays around with dozens of ingredients under their broad ‘folk-fusion’ moniker: religious psalms and traditional folk tunes. Uplifting, falsetto harmonies. Sexy grooves one minute, thrashing drums the next. Noisy, punky sections, and Mikkel Bjørneboe’s always-acrobatic bass chops. Garmo, the lead guitarist, meanwhile, is an unlikely shoegaze stan, listing off upcoming gigs – Ride, Slowdive – while name-dropping contemporary American acts working in the genre, such as Trauma Ray and They Are Gutting a Body of Water. Garmo was the last member to join, meaning, for the most part, the band constructed their music without a chord instrument – arguably the reverse of conventional pop songwriting – instead relying on bass and fiddle. “That’s the shape of the tunes,” Liahagen says. Garmo’s parts, therefore, are not foundational but they colour everything in, utilising fuzz, reverb, and “sound-walls” – “weird shit” – that sit atop everything.  From: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/pumpegris-are-on-the-rise  

Black Sabbath - Wicked World / Fairies Wear Boots / Hand of Doom / Lord Of This World / Dirty Women / Over to You

 Black Sabbath - Wicked World

 Black Sabbath - Fairies Wear Boots

 Black Sabbath - Hand of Doom

 Black Sabbath - Lord Of This World

 Black Sabbath - Dirty Women

 Black Sabbath - Over to You

Fairies Wear Boots is about Skinheads. At the time in England, Skinheads were not racists, but punks and anarchists. They usually wore boots, which is how Sabbath got the title. Regarding the rest of the words, guitarist Tony Iommi said, "We smoked a lot of dope, so that might be why some of the lyrics are a bit unusual."
The lyrics were inspired by an incident after a Sabbath concert in 1970. The band was attacked by a bunch of Skinheads after the show, injuring Tony Iommi and forcing them to cancel their next performance.
"We got into a scrap in Western-Super-Mare, these skinheads came to get us - and back then to call someone a 'fairy' was not a very nice thing," bassist Geezer Butler recalled to Uncut magazine. "So, Ozzy came up with 'fairies wear boots' because of those skinheads."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/black-sabbath/fairies-wear-boots

Hand Of Doom is about American soldiers returning from the Vietnam War, often injured or traumatized. The song reflects the disoriented feeling that afflicted many of these veterans, who often used drugs to cope. That's reflected in lines like, "drop the acid pill" and "holes are in your skin, caused by deadly pin."
Black Sabbath is from the UK and hadn't yet come to America when they wrote this song. Geezer Butler, the band's bass player and lyricist, was inspired by a concert that band played at an American army base in Germany.
"It was a sort of halfway house when soldiers were coming back from Vietnam so they could face family life and ordinary life when they came back to America," he explained to Songfacts. "They'd stop in Germany to decompress. They'd tell me these horrendous stories about being stuck in the mud in Vietnam and how many of them were on heroin. Of course, they didn't tell you that on the news. I just thought I'd write about that." The UK didn't fight in the Vietnam war, so there weren't a lot of songs by British groups that tackled the subject.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/black-sabbath/hand-of-doom

Dirty Women is about prostitutes that Sabbath bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler saw in Florida.
Technical Ecstacy was taped in Criteria Studios in Florida. The Eagles were in the next room recording Hotel California, and at times had to stop recording because Black Sabbath was so loud.
During the Technical Ecstacy tour, a strange character called "Tony's Twin" started showing up. The stranger dressed like Tony, grew a moustache, played guitar, made his own prosthetic thimbles like Iommi. The man even marketed these prosthetics; he swore they somehow aided guitarists.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/black-sabbath/dirty-woman 

Carina Round - Girl And The Ghost

Carina Round’s an incisive songwriter and an absolute dervish of a vocalist, but for a decade now she’s escaped acclaim. It’s a number of things: getting mired in merited-but-dismissive PJ Harvey comparisons (early albums) then Glen Ballard slickness (Slow Motion Addict, minus the tremendous “Stolen Car“), arriving a few years behind trend, lacking the co-signs that’d let her dodge that. (Her critical-assessment slot this year went to Screaming Females, apparently.) It’s a shame, because Tigermending is her best work in years: by turns spooky, steely, weird as hell and tremendous as its opposite. That last is “Girl and the Ghost”: post-apocalyptic intro, vocals like thunder strikes through silence, backing vox like Greek fire, words hellbent on finally getting up from rock bottom and a chorus that provides that push. It’s anthemic without the associated clichés, quirky without being feeble, and goddamn if I didn’t, don’t need half these things shouted at me this year. And if it’s too short and acoustic, there’s always the Puscifer remix.  From: https://thesinglesjukebox.com/carina-round-girl-the-ghost/ 

Pterodactyl - Three Succeed

As if there aren’t enough indie rock groups coming out of Brooklyn these days, three dudes who met at Oberlin College migrated to the small Polish neighborhood of Greenpoint a few years back, bringing with them an abrasive barrage of noise rock. The band — whose first full-length is self-titled, unofficially entitled Blue Jay — has had their share of problems in the past. After a “disastrous” US tour, where their equipment and van were not cooperating, the band recorded out of a makeshift studio in Connecticut — which may, or may not, have been inundated with water. Pterodactyl released some not-so-well-received 7-inches before hooking up with Jagjaguwar imprint Brah and hitting up the Greenpoint studios to record Blue Jay. The release signals a new path for the band, as they hone their skills and impress with some tight, explosive tracks.
Pterodactyl maintains a close connection with label mates and fellow Brooklynites Parts & Labor, even joining them in the studio when P&L recorded their impending release Mapmaker. And Pterodactyl’s raucous delivery certainly draws similarities between these two Jagjaguwar outfits. But where P&L uses noise to dramatic effect, melding melodic electronics with emotional shouting, Pterodactyl goes straight for the gut. Pterodactyl is grating and abrasive. The music is well-constructed, an efficient display of angular guitars and shrill vocals.
As the album opens with “Polio”, relentless pounding drums and dueling guitars cede a guttural sound that rivals Lightning Bolt and Hella. The vocals, which alternate between Joe Kremer and Kurt Beals, screech and squeal to the listeners delight. Pterodactyl proceeds with intensity, but does not lack in diversity. The songs can deviate anywhere from grating thrash to elongated proggy kraut jams. “Esses” takes a page from Modest Mouse. Its krautrock flavor and repetitious riffs succeed at being eerily ubiquitous and pervasive, while the rhythm section goes through a number of ebb and flow crescendos.
Kremer and Beals take a break from the obnoxious squeals and instead deliver a harmony of soft “ohhh”s on “Three Succeed”. The song echoes the incessant nature of “Esses”. The pulsating math rock rhythm and piercing guitars is grating yet infectious at the same time. The album then turns back to thrashing punk as “Ask Me Nicely” delivers an alarming amount of noise and screeching yells. Pterodactyl continues to alternate from blaring noise to melodic math riffs as “Rampage 1” and “Rampage 2” offer a variety of ferocious melodies and impassioned screams.
Pterodactyl will certainly add some allure to the already thriving music scene coming out of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In addition to being the home of fellow noise rocker Parts & Labor, the town is also houses a fledging hipster community, a host of studios, and a bevy of Polish nightclubs being slowly transformed into music venues. The precision and tenacity involved in Pterodactyl’s abrasive sound is alarming. It reminds me of the good old days when Modest Mouse wasn’t penning 3-and-a-half minute pop songs, but letting their eccentric tuning and endless riffs breathe, filling up an 80-minute disc with powerful and unusual rock tunes. Pterodactyl’s debut may not be as good as the pre-major label Modest Mouse material — but it’s pretty damn close.  From: https://www.popmatters.com/pterodactyl-pterodactyl-2496182557.html 

Blame Sally - Severland

Bay Area band Blame Sally may have just inked a six-figure, five-year, three-album deal with Berkeley label Bay Area Opus Music Ventures, but it is not your typical band-on-the-verge-of-success story. The band isn't made up of four teenage guys who practice in their parents' garage. Blame Sally is four women ranging in age from 44 to 53, who have been playing music around the Bay Area for decades.
Pamela Delgado, Jeri Jones, Renee Harcourt and Monica Pasqual began Blame Sally in 2000, with the goal of just doing it for fun. They all had solo as well as other group projects going on, and they wanted to be able to play together and write music without any consideration of commercial interests. From the beginning, Delgado says, "everyone was going to pitch in songs and singing."
"It was a totally cooperative and fun effort and involved a lot of wine and cooking dinners," she says. "Of course, once we said we didn't care anymore, it all came naturally."
But although Delgado and Pasqual are thrilled by the direction their musical careers have taken, it took lots of sweat and tears to bring Blame Sally to its current level. The musicians began by playing small venues such as the Bazaar Cafe in San Francisco, then graduated to music festivals.
"We had all played in a lot of bar situations, gigs that were supposed to be good exposure, but it wasn't fun," Pasqual says. "We avoided places like that - we wanted people to listen, not talk over the band. ... We started doing summer festivals, and that was great."
"We produced a few shows - basically, made up our own venues when none existed," Delgado adds. "We got creative with how and when we played."
After a year or so, local radio station KFOG picked up on Blame Sally and began playing the band's music on the popular "Acoustic Sunrise" show, leading to more gigs and bigger venues. Blame Sally got national attention through XM radio when what would become the Starbucks channel picked up some songs. By the end of 2006, the band was playing more than 50 shows a year.
In addition to touring, the women have self-produced a few albums over the years, but this spring, they are releasing "Night of a Thousand Stars," produced by veteran producer Lee Townsend, who has also worked with Noe Venable and Loudon Wainwright III. They will also be starting a tour with a release party Friday at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco.
Blame Sally benefits greatly from its well-honed performers and musicians. Their lush, lovely melodies draw from folk and rock traditions, but they really distinguish themselves through their unusual storytelling. Moving from personal accounts (Harcourt has written about her struggles with cancer in songs such as "Pass the Buddha") to narratives inspired from the headlines (the title track of the new album is about suicidal war veterans), Blame Sally makes the political personal.
Delgado and Pasqual say that working with a producer helped them go in new directions with "Night of a Thousand Stars," choosing songs that, at first blush, might not have seemed to be a good fit for the band. "We handed him this pile of 40 songs - new songs, old songs, originals, covers - and he picked them. That was really interesting," Delgado says. "It made it really different from if we had recorded them ourselves. It revealed our own source of prejudices. We had this idea that this was a Blame Sally song, this wasn't - and he didn't have that at all."
While they all have been musicians for decades, signing with Bay Area Opus Music Ventures marks the first time the quartet has been able to work in Blame Sally full time. All four women have had successful careers outside of music - as a photographer, graphic designer, soundtrack producer and ranch manager - but Pasqual and Delgado say that none of their friends or family were surprised that they leaped at the chance to pile into a bus and rock out like kids.
"It's been amazing," Pasqual says. "With the disintegration of the music industry model, anything goes now, in a way." Besides, she says, people have been telling her she was too old to play music since she began writing songs in her late 20s. "I think that was one of the things we decided from the beginning. We thought, 'Screw it.' Age is not an issue for us. It never has been. Maybe the media cares, the labels care, but in the real world, our audience hasn't cared at all."  From: https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/band-can-only-blame-sally-for-success-3243434.php

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Karn Evil 9

Brain Salad Surgery, the fourth studio album by the supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), was released in 1973 after an extensive touring period.
The band felt they were at the peak of their creativity: “I thought the album was the beginning of our big rise,” Carl Palmer stated. In retrospect, though, it marked the closing chapter of ELP’s golden era. Even so, many fans, critics, and musicians consider Brain Salad Surgery to be the band’s strongest album. Rick Wakeman believes it was “far ahead of its time.” Frank Us (Legacy Pilots) calls it “the ultimate work of progressive rock.”
The initial reactions from the music press, however, were less enthusiastic. The first side of the record in particular seemed rather patchy – featuring a completely unmotivated English hymn, one of those notorious classical adaptations, the obligatory Greg Lake ballad, and even a honky-tonk number.
The heart of the album, though, is the original long track “Karn Evil 9” – actually a trilogy, a “half-hour science-fiction suite” (Ian Fortnam). The starting point of the first part (“First Impression”) is a vision of a dystopian world, where only a surreal circus (starting at 5:22) can provide amusement. Emerson imagined this world on an exoplanet he called “Ganton 9.” Lyricist Peter Sinfield, who was brought in as co-writer, found the circus element more compelling and preferred the word “Carnival.” As a synthesis, the song’s title became “Karn Evil 9.” (Emerson was also a fan of stuntman Evel Knievel.)
This “First Impression” (13:22) turned out to be rather text-heavy (about 3,000 characters!) but melodically quite simple. (The circus section alone has 13 uniform four-line verses, each with a triple rhyme.) The instrumental interludes – on Hammond organ, synthesizer, electric guitar, drums, and other combinations – are numerous and colorful, though usually quite short. By contrast, the “Second Impression” (7:07) is entirely instrumental. Emerson returned here to the piano trio format (piano, bass, drums), something he had loved since his jazz beginnings. (At least two jazz themes are quoted in the piece.) It features a hectic, virtuosic main theme, a two-minute mysterious, calm middle section, and a jazzy, fast-paced improvisation toward the end. There’s even a “Caribbean”-flavored organ solo with a steel-drum sound.
With the “Third Impression” (9:06), the music returns to the science-fiction dystopia. This time, it’s about the conflict between man and computer –in 1973, mind you, long before PCs, the internet, or AI. Musically, “Third Impression” is the most capricious part of the “Karn Evil” suite – an “extremely aggressive piece” (Walter Sehrer) with “impetuous, diamond-hard structures” (Paul Stump). A true Greg Lake classic is the vocal melody (from 0:25): “Man alone, born of stone, will stamp the dust of time.” Emerson’s synthesizer answers with a melodic variation (at 3:00) that carries a certain Prokofiev feel. The overall character of the piece is march-like, almost martial. There are synthesizer fanfares and later an ostinato staccato rhythm. The organ solo (from 4:30) leads into the most musically interesting passage (from 5:50) – the actual “battle” between man and machine. The distorted computer voice (“I’m perfect! Are you?”) was, in fact, Keith Emerson himself.  From: https://www.fidelity-magazine.com/emerson-lake-palmer-karn-evil-9/

Maria McKee - My Girlhood Among The Outlaws

Though she has a devoted audience, and at least early on received a lot of music-press attention, Maria McKee has never been a big star or sold a ton of records, and she’s hardly been as critically admired as I’d argue she deserves. Most of that’s been out of her hands. Many music critics, especially those from the post-punk and indie-rock eras she’s mostly worked in, are suspicious of acts who slot as “roots,” as McKee did for the first not-quite decade of her career. Double that for someone, particularly for a young woman, as hyped as she was out of the gate. David Geffen was all in on making her a superstar. Jimmy Iovine was determined to make her into “the female Bruce Springsteen.” Bob Dylan wrote a song for her before she’d even completed an album, for God’s sake. She had an enormous voice, played rock guitar and was traditionally cute to boot. Both attention and skepticism trailed her like a stalker. She put her head down and did the work of creation and perpetual self-transformation, a trooper and a seeker all at once. For most of her subsequent career, she’s been not so much underrated as ignored, at least critically speaking, even sometimes when hiding in plain sight (That’s her, for example, behind Adam Duritz on “Mr. Jones”). Music writers have thankfully become much more intentional about putting women at the center of pop music narratives, yet even now McKee remains overlooked.
McKee is an under-appreciated songwriter. To my ears, she tends to save her best stuff for herself but has had a handful of commercial successes to help her get by in lean years. She didn’t get around to cutting her “A Good Heart” until 2007, but Feargal Sharkey had an enormous British hit with it all the way back in 1985. The Chicks famously cut her “Am I the Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way),” and Quentin Tarantino grabbed her haunting “If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)” for Pulp Fiction. Still, it’s the “singer” half of McKee the “singer-songwriter” that I love most of all. I’d like to underline then that McKee’s a fantastic interpreter of other people’s work, with powerful and distinctive recordings of songs by Van Morrison and Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Victoria Williams, Lou Reed and Blind Willie Johnson, Jimmy Webb and Merle Haggard, among others. Her 2005 recording of the jazz-pop standard “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am” (no offense, Nancy Wilson) is my favorite version of the song. As it happens, I didn’t pluck any of these for my 16, but I could have.
McKee’s tendency to shift gears artistically, pushing herself and her audience, has been thrilling to my ears, and challenging—repeatedly helping me to think and feel through my own evolving tastes. Fans haven’t always appreciated such reinventions. Punk and roots-rock audiences, who were there for McKee first, often demand authenticity and purity from their artists. Artistic changeups, especially ones in a pop direction, land as inauthentic. For her part, McKee has embraced artifice. She’s an intensely in-the-moment vocalist but, at the same time, understands that art is artifice by definition; putting on a show is a big part of the gig. The thrift-store Depression-era frocks she wore back in her Lone Justice days signaled this from the jump, and her shifting sonics have followed suit across the decades. If her career best isn’t Americana masterpiece You Gotta Sin to Get Saved, then maybe it’s her neo-glam rock follow-up Life Is Sweet. And the musical theater I hear prominently in her performances—she has some of Stephen Sondheim’s beau ideal, Bernadette Peters, in her, I think—is the quality in her work I’ve grown to value the most.  From: https://nofencesreview.substack.com/p/maria-mckee-a-love-letter-in-16-songs

Moron Police - The Phantom Below

I'm not sure that many UK readers will have come across 'Moron Police' before, but they are well established in particular as a live outfit back in Norway, having played at festivals as Fjellparkfestivalen, the Norway Rock Festival, and 'Music and Media' in Tampere - the Finnish equivalent to by:Larm, supporting the likes of Honningbarna, Black Debbath and even Major Parkinson along the way - a band that they are fortunate / unfortunate enough (delete as appropriate) to 'share' two members with.
Anyway it's been so long since 'Moron Police' released anything in physical form that we weren't actually around to write about it, but since the release of their 2014 album 'Defenders of the Small Yard' they apparently seem to have gone through some type of transformation, because the hard rocking of their formative years has been replaced by a highly entertaining Progressive Power Pop style brand of music, which I can't entirely define, but still brings a huge smile to my face.
'The Phantom Below' is the first single from their new album charmingly entitled 'A Boat on the Sea', and it has just so much entertainment packed into the 4 minutes 12 seconds. Firstly there's the most extraordinary 1 minute 'overture' ('intro' doesn't do it justice') which opens as if it might be a way out hard rocking track, cuts to a hyped up 80's quiz show theme played at speed (or is it a 90's video game?), introduces a dance beat faded out and back, and which with the introduction of drums will have you dancing around the house to the joyous concoction of melodies and rhythms. Vocally there is more of a conventional rock sound, but then it keeps heading leftfield with a series of unexpected twists such as a saxophone solo, and I just love the quirky deviation after vocalist Sondre belts out 'I Am Lost Without You'. 'The Phantom Below' is simply great fun, as well as being an absolute musical delight.
Anyway we haven't even really written about the lyrical thoughts behind 'The Phantom Below', which quite rightly suggests that our anger towards modernization of our society (such as social media platforms) should be 'directed at the humans misusing it, not the technology itself'.  From: https://www.nordicmusicreview.com/post/2019/04/12/moron-police-new-single-the-phantom-below

Minnie Riperton - Reasons

Minnie Julia Riperton (1947 – 1979) was an American soul singer and songwriter best known for her 1974 single "Lovin' You", her five-octave vocal range, and her use of the whistle register.
Born in 1947, Riperton grew up in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. As a child, she studied music, drama and dance at Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Center. In her teen years, she sang lead vocals for the Chicago-based girl group The Gems. Her early affiliation with the Chicago-based Chess Records afforded her the opportunity to sing backing vocals for various established artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Ramsey Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. While at Chess, Riperton also sang lead for the psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection from 1967 to 1971. She also performed backing vocals in Stevie Wonder's live band, Wonderlove, in the early 1970's to 1974.
In 1975, Riperton reached the pinnacle of her career with her No. 1 single "Lovin' You". The single was the last release from her 1974 gold album titled Perfect Angel. In January 1976, Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer; in April, she underwent a radical mastectomy. By the time of diagnosis, the cancer had metastasized and she was given about six months to live. Despite the prognosis, she continued recording and touring. She was one of the first celebrities to go public with a breast cancer diagnosis, but she did not disclose that she was terminally ill. In 1977, she became a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society. In 1978, she received the American Cancer Society's Courage Award, which was presented to her at the White House by President Jimmy Carter. Riperton died of breast cancer in July 1979, at the age of 31.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Riperton

Jethro Tull - Hymn 43

It’s hard to miss the political message in this one. Ian Anderson didn’t bother with satire or subtext – this is one of his most openly political songs. He’s always used Jethro Tull as a means to express his feelings about England and her culture, but most often it was done in a humorous way or allegorical way. And Anderson has a lot to say, whether about the things he loves or the things that piss him off. What he loves is quiet English country living, the land, animals, tea, and community. What he loathes is organized religion in general and the Anglican one in particular, the unfairness of the class system and the idle ways of the upper castes, and the increasing industrialization that threatens to wipe out the pastoral green life of the farmer. Most of those feelings are in this song, clear as day, despite being quite short and simple. Maybe it’s my preexisting familiarity with the rest of the JTull catalog that makes the message so clear, but I suspect that even first-timers will get it. If the words be too subtle (they’re not), the anger comes through well enough in the music. It’s actually best placed within the context of the rest of the Aqualung album, where several other songs explore the same topics. Then again, those topics are all over every Jethro Tull album, in varying degrees of prominence.  From: https://ladygarfunkel.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/hymn-43/

Our Father high in heaven
Smile down upon your son
Who's busy with his money games
Or his women and his gun
Oh, Jesus save me

And the unsung western hero
He killed an Indian or three
And then he made his name in Hollywood
To set the white man free
Oh, Jesus save me

If Jesus saves, well, he better save himself
From the gory glory seekers who use his name in death, aw!
Oh, Jesus save me

Well, I saw him in the city
And on the mountains of the moon, hey
His cross was rather bloody, oh
And he could hardly roll his stone
Oh, Jesus save me 

Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella - Let This River Flow

It all started with an acoustic duo cover version of the song “Miracles Out Of Nowhere” by Kansas. Melanie Mau and Martin Schnella, both from the lovely Harz mountains in Germany and both dedicated musicians through and through, discovered their passion for playing music together – and this very song was the starting point!
They decided to rearrange more and more songs from various musical genres in their own unplugged style in order to give the tunes a new and refreshing angle. However, being passionate about creating new sounds, Melanie and Martin are consistently working on originals as well. Stylistically the music of this duo is a mixture of folk rock music as well as incorporating progressive influences.  From: https://www.progstock.com/2021/artists-schedule/2021-artists/melanie-mau-martin-schnella/

 

Discipline - Circuitry

Think of Detroit, Michigan, and you’re far more likely to link it with Motown and the car industry. But another significant export since 1987 is Discipline. Speaking from his home just outside the city, Matthew Parmenter – vocalist, songwriter and keyboardist of the band for 38 years – recalls the early days of his group, during the somewhat analogue wild west world of cassettes and physical mailing lists.
“We played a lot around Detroit and built up a mailing list, transitioning from high school into college with a lot of friends following us. Then we started getting people we didn’t know, who were interested in what we were doing.
“After a while, we had over 500 people on our mailing list, which I was told was pretty good. We were wearing costumes back then – I think people thought it was a little bit trippy. There’s also a love of Halloween that’s very specific to Detroit; we always liked costumes because of that.
“I had some social anxiety. I didn’t want to be the vocalist. But the band suggested I sing, and that allowed me to dress up. It also helped me to make-believe with the characters in the songs, and I feel it helped the audience too – people enjoyed stepping into fantasy play. When our last keyboardist left the band suggested I do both. But I missed the theatrical part.”
Parmenter’s initial rock influences were Genesis and Gentle Giant, introduced by his elder brother. “He gave me my first album, Freehand by Gentle Giant. It was my first experience of rock’n’roll, and I assumed that’s what rock music was. The other formative album for me was A Trick Of The Tail by Genesis.
“But Discipline started in the 80s, so we were also influenced by new wave and punk. Finally, I was exposed to King Crimson’s Discipline album, which at first I didn’t like, but Elephant Talk stayed in my head. I have a history of reacting badly to music initially and developing a love later!”
Parmenter’s band are often likened to Van der Graaf Generator; but he says he’d never heard of Peter Hammill’s group until Swedish band Anekdoten made the connection when they toured with Discipline in 1994. Any similarities had been coincidental.
The band released two full-length studio albums in the 90s: Push And Profit in 1993 and their best-known recording, Unfolded Like Staircase four years later. By that point, Parmenter had developed an idea that informed his work: “I realised the melody line was more important than the chord. I remember coming upon the theory and thinking, ‘Eureka!’
“I allowed instruments to follow their lines irrespective of chords. If a melody occurs, allow it to develop. You often hear a melody being bent by the gravity of the chord. But we decided that if a melody wants to go to a particular note, even if it doesn’t fit, then let it – and that creates tension.
“I like Unfolded Like Staircase but it’s rather chaotic. With newer music I’ve been thinking about how to create a space for the melody. It doesn’t mean I bend the chord to it, but I ask, ‘Where’s the focus of the moment? Is it the singer? Is it the guitar line?’ I’m trying to be a little bit more selective about how the song is orchestrated than I might have been in the past.”
This leads us to Breadcrumbs, the third in a more recent sequence of studio recordings that began with To Shatter All Accord in 2011 and continued with Captives Of The Wine Dark Sea in 2017. The new album features five pieces of hugely varying character, given a sensitive analogue mix by former Rush producer Terry Brown, which brings out the dynamism of new drummer Henry Parmenter, Matthew’s son.
Parmenter senior is full of admiration for Brown’s work; in particular his refusal to participate in the “loudness wars,” which often sees dynamics sacrificed at the altar of volume. “Terry manages how the instruments and parts sit together, which gives them their own space but blends naturally. There’s no risk of listening fatigue – you can blast it or listen quietly.”
Initial contact with the producer came via guitarist Chris Herin of the band Tiles, who replaced Jon Bouda in Discipline in 2014. Parmenter can’t praise Herin’s contribution enough, especially on the title track, which features a wonderful repeating guitar motif.
“Chris is one of the few musicians I work with who can read music, so he’ll read and then embellish the parts. But that particular line is a main melody, so we felt it needed to be extended. He suggested we take it up an octave. He slides the whole carriage up – it just makes you feel like you’re home once that happens.”  From: https://www.loudersound.com/music/albums/discipline-breadcrumbs-interview