Love - A House Is Not A Motel / Andmoreagain / The Daily Planet

Laurel Canyon, a rural idyll ten minutes from Hollywood and The Strip, became widely populated after it was settled by developers in the 1920s, who built weekend and vacation properties for wealthy Angelenos intending to spend their leisure time hunting up in the mountains. Later, in the 1960s, Laurel Canyon later became a kind of countercultural centre, as the major names (and many minor names too) of the folk-rock scene bought the funky cabins that used to belong to Charlie Chaplin, Harry Houdini and Louise Brooks. Billy James, of Columbia Records, lived there. Mark Volman of the Turtles. Neil Young, Crazy Horse, Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, members of the Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas. Even Frank Zappa.
In 1967, Arthur Lee was one of those musicians. The leader of Love, a moderately successful folk-rock band with increasing leanings towards the orchestrated and the psychedelic, Lee was a well-known, striking figure on the LA scene. The son of a black father and white mother, Lee’s very appearance set him apart in the overwhelmingly white world of rock and roll music in the mid-sixties, and his ornery personality and drug-fuelled paranoia merely added to his isolation. He spent most of his time in his house on Mulholland Drive, listening to the sirens and the traffic noise from the city below, obsessing about what the hell was going on down there.
What was going on down there was a crackdown by the police – begun in the summer of 1996 and said to have been instigated at the behest of local business owners – on the kids who hung out in the coffee shops and drugstores and on the street corners of the Sunset Strip, with a curfew instigated for kids under 18. The folk-rock scene had inherited the Strip after it was abandoned by the film stars and gangsters that had made it their playground in the 1930s and 40s, and for a while young musicians and the kids who constituted the scene mingled freely (“There was a magical quality to it,” said Billy James; “like a carnival midway,” said musician/photographer Henry Diltz). But in 1967, concerned about what looked like it might be becoming a countercultural uprising, the new Republican Governor of California – a former actor by the name of Ronald Reagan – doubled down. Police were not sparing with their use of the side-handle.
Lee, like most of his peers, was appalled and it was inevitable that his disillusionment, which coexisted cheek by jowl with his native cynicism, would find its way into his music as he convened his straggling, multi-racial band at Sunset Sound to record Forever Changes. Most of the band members were by now strung out on something or other (heroin and acid mainly, but coke probably figures too, this being Los Angeles) and the sessions did not go smoothly at first, requiring producer Bruce Botnik to bring in session players for the first couple of songs tackled during the sessions (Neil Young is said to have been involved in arranging The Daily Planet, too). It’s amazing they got the thing done at all.
A House is Not a Motel is one of the record’s more musically aggressive tracks, with a twisting, knotted tension that is only released by the duelling lead guitars that take over (both played by Johnny Echols? One by Echols and one by Lee or Bryan MacLean? – the two guitar tracks have a very similar tone, suggesting that maybe they’re two of Echols’s takes playing simultaneously). While A House is Not a Motel lacks the orchestration that is the album’s defining musical characteristic, in its mix of fingerpicked acoustic guitars, intricate drums, lyrical paranoia and screaming lead guitars, it’s quintessential Love.
It’s become part of the record’s legend that Forever Changes failed to sell in great numbers. This is partly an exaggeration; the record did stay on the Billboard chart for 10 weeks, and was a top 30 hit in the UK. Given that Love seldom played outside the Greater Los Angeles Area and band relations were so low that Lee turned down most of the opportunities the band were offered, that wasn’t a bad showing. Today, though, with its utterly idiosyncratic mix of psychedelic rock, acoustic fingerpicking, orchestral pop and mariachi brass, Forever Changes is universally regarded as a masterpiece, one of the very finest LA records and a towering achievement that casts a long shadow over everything Lee did subsequently.  From: https://songsfromsodeep.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/a-house-is-not-a-motel-love/

Mawaca - Macadeiras

The initial core of Mawaca was formed in 1992 by Kitty Pereira and Magda Pucci, the group's founders, with the participation of singers Marta Espírito Santo, Fabiana Lian, and Valéria Piccoli, friends and choir members from choral groups that Kitty and Magda conducted in the 1990s.
During this period, several instrumentalists participated in the group, some for a short time, others to this day. Between 1992 and 1994, the singers met weekly as a study group where they experimented with vocal sounds from various parts of the globe, with the collaboration of native specialists in the languages ​​they sang.
The professional debut of the group Mawaca (still spelled with a K) took place with the show From Pygmy Songs to Scottish Songs, at the Hall Theatre and the Paulista Theatre, in 1995. In the preceding years, between 1992 and 1994, the singers met weekly as a study group where they experimented with vocal sounds from various parts of the globe, with the collaboration of native specialists in the languages ​​they sang.
In 1996, still with the first lineup: Kitty Pereira, Magda Pucci, Fabiana Lian, Marta Espírito Santo, Valéria Piccoli, Cristiane Mariano, Rosana Araújo and Viviane Querino, the group presented the scenic show Sequenzas, at the Tuca-Arena Theatre, under the direction of Kleber Montanheiro. Subsequently, they participated in the International Festival of Early Music and Oral Tradition in Curitiba.
In 1998, with a new lineup, the group released its first album, CD-Plus Mawaca, at the Itaú Cultural Institute and the Ática Bookstore, with support from the São Paulo State Cultural Incentive Law. This show had stage direction and costumes by Kleber Montanheiro. Mawaca's first work seeks to emphasize, in a panoramic way, the musical diversity of the world, and travels from Africa to the Celtic world. The album includes a multimedia track, with playful and educational content, created by Maurício Nacif, with musical research by Magda Pucci and iconographic research by Itamar Vidal, where each song is approached within its cultural context. In the same year, Mawaca participated in the World Music Festival, curated by Jean Yves de Neufville, at the Sesc Vila Mariana theater, alongside World Music artists such as the English group Baka Beyond, the Iranian Jamshied Sharifi, the Senegalese Baaba Maal, and the Moroccan Hassam Hakmoun.  Translated from: https://mawaca.com.br/biografia/ 

Live - The Beauty Of Gray / Mirror Song / Mother Earth Is A Vicious Crowd

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since Mental Jewelry was released. When you look back on that album now with so much perspective, what thoughts come to mind?

Kowalczyk: What’s been most exciting about the experience is not only listening to the original album but also the second CD, which is a live performance from The Roxy that we did back in 1992. Just to listen to that and realize that we were not fucking around. We were nineteen and swinging for the fences from the minute we stepped out with that album and tour.

What was the songwriting process like for the band back then?

Kowalczyk: We usually did a mixture of riffs and ideas to jam out and others where I might bring something in that was more fully-formed that we would tear down and rip apart. It’s always been that hybrid and I think that’s even the way we’re approaching our writing now.

Taylor: Because we were so young when we were writing, there were obviously no rules. It was a process of self-discovery. I can remember having conversations with Ed with my perception of how difficult it must be to write lyrics, and then he would tell me he was having problems putting together chord parts. But we always pushed each other.

Kowalczyk: One of the other things that strikes me is how much that energy at its core has never left the band. It’s been a constant, intense and visceral approach to performing. We throw down hard every time we’re on that stage.

Let’s discuss a few tracks from Mental Jewelry. What can you tell me about “Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)”?

Kowalczyk: I remember sitting in the practice loft of Chad Gracey’s garage and Chad Taylor was there playing this rhythmic groove. I was following his rhythm and started doing a chant over that. There are only two or three more chords but there was enough to get an emotion across. Then you add Gracey’s drumming and how energetic the song is. We wanted a song that would grab people’s attention right out of the box. It definitely did that.

Taylor: At the time, I had no idea I was even writing a song. I remember Ed telling me to keep playing and then he started singing overtop of it. That’s actually my first memory of a collaboration with Ed. The other funny story about that song is because it was one of the first songs we had written, I remember telling our manager that I didn’t think it should be on the album. I have to laugh at that now because it came out of the box and was the signature thing that started to build the band. But again, we were young and blissfully unaware of the business and were just trying to put our best foot forward.

How about the track “Pain Lies on The Riverside”?

Kowalczyk: That was the first time I had a fully formed a song on acoustic guitar and walked in and said, “Hey, what do you guys think?” Chad playing that cool shaker part and that groove was something I never would have imagined. But that was the brilliance of the band. Our songs were never one train of thought. They were an amalgam of jamming free flow versus here’s a full formed song. Let’s learn how we can make it fit.

How did the band come back together?

Kowalczyk: Chad and I met up for a beer in York about a year and a half ago, and the rest is the history of the reunion. It was a magical beer [laughs].

Taylor: When you turn into adults it’s easy to go your own way. But the truth is, it’s the magic in the music that pulled us back together along with the sheer volume and magnitude of our friendship.

Ed, what was the biggest thing you’ve learned since reuniting with Chad?

Kowalczyk: Having known Chad since grade school and being in a band since I was thirteen, I like to say that when we got back together it felt like riding an old bike that was brand new. We have this great foundation and chemistry and muscle memory that just kicked right in. But I also noticed that we were stronger. After everything we had gone through we came back sounding better than ever.

From: http://www.fansoflive.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6002 

 

Steppenwolf 7 TV Special 1970

Steppenwolf only recorded seven discs for Dunhill Records in the short span between 1968 and 1971, six of them studio albums, and one allegedly "live" -- though there was early Sparrow material recorded in May of 1967 not released by the label until 1972. Throw in a greatest-hits package along with Columbia's reissue of yet more Sparrow recordings, and how they came up with Steppenwolf 7 for the title of this, their fifth studio recording for Dunhill, is a question for hardcore fans of the band to debate (don't even bring the movie soundtracks into this equation). Richard Podolor has taken the production reins from Gabriel Mekler, as he did with Three Dog Night, but where the producer was able to take Hoyt Axton's "Joy to the World" to number one in a notable six weeks in 1971 with the vocal trio and labelmates of this group, the author of "The Pusher," Axton, is represented here by his "Snowblind Friend," a topic not likely to get Steppenwolf chart action. And that's the dilemma with Steppenwolf 7. This is a very worthwhile Steppenwolf recording, chock-full of their trademark sound, but nothing that was going to penetrate the Top 40. John Kay and guitarist Larry Byron (listed on the song credits as Larry Byrom and on the live album as Byron -- take your pick, he's a notable session player) co-write five of these nine tunes, "Ball Crusher" being what you expect, as is "Fat Jack," Byrom's only co-write here with new bassist George Biondo (and perhaps one of them on the vocals, as it certainly isn't John Kay). A nice, thick Goldy McJohn keyboard and solid beat still don't give this tune enough of an identity to be considered hit material. Kay and Byrom do a better job of heading in that direction with their "Foggy Mental Breakdown" and "Hippo Stomp," while Byrom's instrumental, "Earschplittenloudenboomer," had the attitude to be the next "Born to Be Wild," just not enough of the magic -- not explosive enough and no sneering Kay vocal to bring it home. What is happening here is that John Kay is heading in the direction of his 1972 solo disc, Forgotten Songs & Unsung Heroes, especially on the cover of Roth's "Forty Days and Forty Nights" and the country-ish "Snowblind Friend," which is the other side of Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher," the effect of cocaine on the victim/user. Kay and Byrom come back with more driving rock in "Who Needs Ya?," played well and listenable, but just missing the edge that gave "Rock Me" and "Magic Carpet Ride" their specialness. The blueish images of the bandmembers in a desolate area with two skulls above them on the album cover make an interesting statement. Steppenwolf 7 is an intriguing collection of album tracks showing the two sides of John Kay -- the hard rock singer and the artist setting his sights on interpreting other musical styles. It came at a moment when the band needed to redefine itself on the AM band, but opted instead to just put out a decent product and take few risks.  From: https://jazz-rock-fusion-guitar.blogspot.com/2015/10/steppenwolf-1970-7.html 

Oktobernatt - Vonin

Atmospheric, melancholic, and explosive: Two years after forming, the Berlin-based indie band Oktobernatt has released their five-track debut EP, "Coordinates°"—a record that invites you to hit play again and again.
When I recently clicked on a recommended music video titled "Rasa"—which had only a few hundred views—I honestly didn't expect much. After all, who produces music videos these days, and how often are they actually interesting?
However, I was quickly proven wrong. I was even more delighted to discover that the band behind it, Oktobernatt, is an independent group from Berlin.
The six musicians—Gabriel Jansson Svedberg (vocals), Vignir Vidarsson (bass), Alban König (guitar), Ole von Garrel (drums), Myra Amneskog (keyboards), and Joona Keturi (guitar)—hail from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. They came together in 2024 and recorded "Coordinates°" at Berlin’s Trixx Studio (known for hosting artists such as Can, Dave Gahan, and Nina Hagen).
The EP features five gripping tracks characterized by dreamlike soundscapes and vocals filled with a yearning quality reminiscent of the unmistakable Beth Gibbons (of Portishead)—albeit in a grittier incarnation. Through beautiful vocal lines, distorted guitars, and melodic bass work, Oktobernatt create an atmosphere that pulls listeners into a world of their own for the duration of the tracks (which tend to be quite long).
The Berlin-based sextet describes their music as "dream rock"—perhaps the edgier sibling of dream pop. Furthermore, Oktobernatt have a genuine passion for music videos; the captivating cinematography accompanying their songs transforms the EP into something akin to a multimedia project. Strong Songwriting
The opening track, "Vonin," begins with an acoustic guitar arpeggio before becoming increasingly explosive—only to stop just short of a full-blown eruption. And that is precisely one of the band's hallmarks: building tension and a climax, only to take a sudden musical turn at the last moment.
The other songs largely follow this pattern, too—with the exception of the indie-folk ballad "Sweet One." This track highlights Oktobernatt’s songwriting prowess and offers a brief moment to catch your breath before sweeping you into the aforementioned "Rasa." The closing track, "(65.3968°N 20.9094°W)," brings *Coordinates°* to a fitting conclusion—leaving you wanting to start this captivating EP all over again immediately.

Joona, Oktobernatt’s guitarist, was also kind enough to answer a few questions about the band and the EP release—here goes:

Thanks for your time, Joona—how has the Berlin art and music scene shaped you as a band?

Hi Matti. Berlin is a melting pot for a huge variety of art forms and musical genres. There’s an underground gig with an affordable entry fee almost every night. Playing alongside other up-and-coming artists in such an exciting environment has been a fantastic experience.

In your opinion, what exactly defines your very unique sound?

I think every band member leaves their own unique mark on Oktobernatt. We’ve found our signature bass sound, paired with atmospheric guitar melodies, creative synth textures, and powerful vocals. Plus, each of us brings our own artistic influences and playing style—all of which come together to create our sound. You come from different countries and cultures—what role does this personal background play for you as a band and for your music?
Naturally, we draw a wide variety of inspiration and artistic approaches from that; all in all, it expands our range of expression and allows us to share niche music from our respective cultures with one another.

We can hear the result on your strong debut EP, "Coordinates°"—in what formats will it be available?

We’re releasing it primarily in digital format, but there will also be a limited run of CDs—and possibly even cassette tapes—available for purchase at our shows.

Does that mean release gigs or a small tour are already in the works?

Yes, we’re playing a release show in Berlin in early April, and a few other performances are already being planned for early summer. However, our biggest project as a band isn't coming until the end of summer—though, unfortunately, I can't reveal any more details just yet.

Translated from: https://crazewire.de/oktobernatt-coordinates/ 

Nil Lara - How Was I To Know

Nil Lara is a Cuban-American songwriter with Venezuelan roots who has just blown me away. I read about him recently on Matt Nathanson’s celebrity playlist (of all places), sought him out, and immediately loved what I heard. Lara is soulful and passionate and sings like his heart is burning. Add in heavy doses of warm & layered Latin percussion, traditional Cuban and Venezuelan string instruments, and his soaring chants and vocals (in a combination of Spanish and English) – and I was hooked. It’s been named by some “Number 2 on my list of Best Albums By People That 99.5% of the World Has Never Heard Of.”
His 1996 self-titled album was critically acclaimed, but never received the popular attention it deserves. As such it is kind of hard to find: It is on iTunes (but not eMusic), and you can find used copies on Amazon. I would completely go see him live, and surely dance myself sore, but he seems to be on indefinite hiatus. Download these, and buy the album, though – sheer fabulousness.  From: http://www.fuelfriendsblog.com/2006/07/19/world-music-wednesday-nil-lara/

Samaïa - She Moved Through the Fair

"She Moved Through the Fair" (also called "Our Wedding Day", "My Young Love Said to Me", "I Once Had a True Love", "She Moves Through the Fair" or "She Moved Through the Faire") is a traditional Irish folk song, with a number of iterations, that has been performed and recorded by various artists. The narrator sees his lover move away from him through the fair, after telling him that since her family will approve, "it will not be long [love] 'til our wedding day". She returns as a ghost at night, and repeats the words again, intimating her own tragic death and the couple's potential reunion in the afterlife. There are numerous alternate versions, some sung about a male lover, with different lyrics, such as "Our Wedding Day" and "My Young Love Said to Me", among others.
"She Moved Through the Fair" has been found both in Ireland and in Scotland, but pieces of the song were apparently first collected in County Donegal by Longford poet Padraic Colum and the musicologist Herbert Hughes.
The melody is in Mixolydian mode (major scale with a flattened seventh—a fairly common mode within Irish and Scottish musical traditions), placing a large emphasis on the 1st, 4th, 5th and 7th chords of the scale. John Loesberg speculated: "From its strange, almost Eastern sounding melody, it appears to be an air of some antiquity," but he does not define its age any more precisely.
The lyrics were first published in Hughes' Irish Country Songs, published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1909. In a letter published in The Irish Times in 1970, Padraic Colum stated that he was the author of all but the final verse. He also described how Herbert Hughes collected the tune and then he, Colum, had kept the last verse of a traditional song and written a couple of verses to fit the music.
One verse was not included in the first publication: Colum soon realised that he had not put in the poem the fact that the woman had died before the marriage, and so he wrote the verse that begins: "The people were saying, that no two were e'er wed, but one had a sorrow that never was said ..." and sent it on to Hughes, too late for publication in that particular collection. This extra verse was published in other collections, along with the other three verses. The lyrics were also published in Colum's collection Wild Earth: And Other Poems (1916), though the traditional origin of the final verse is not mentioned there.
In the course of the same Irish Times correspondence, however, another music collector, Proinsias Ó Conluain, said he had recorded a song called "She Went Through the Fair", with words the same as the other three verses of "She Moved Through the Fair", sung by an old man who told him that "the song was a very old one" and that he had learned it as a young man from a basket-weaver in Glenavy.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Moved_Through_the_Fair

Vivacious vocal trio Samaïa are in town for the London leg of their European tour. Their debut album is a rich powerhouse of women’s voices reinterpreting folk songs from across the globe, gilted with unique harmonies. On this episode of A World In London they gifted us with treasures from Sweden, Turkey, and Bulgaria, and we learned about their unconventional warm up exercises that include massage and yoga! ‘We sing with our whole body’ explains Luna Silva, going on to describe the athletics of intertwining melodies through three voices. Samaïa weave a rich tapestry of polyphony, mostly accapela, but with minimal touches of percussion, that add to the primal feel of their songs. In fact they met at a Georgian polyphonic workshop, which hints at how extraordinary they are. Luna is the daughter of a Spanish clown and English actress, studied ethnomusicology at SOAS, plus Hindi, ukulele, and jaws harp. Noémie Nael comes from a theatre background. Eléonore Fourniau, studied in Istanbul, plays the saz, and is a queen of Anatolian ornamentation. The three might all have been raised in France but when it comes to music, possibly even The World Is Not Enough to contain their wanderlust! Samaia take their name from a Georgian dance performed by women which originated in the 12th century. Sample a glorious tricolour of harmony, magic, and shakti with the 21st century Samaïa now - three wonderful voices dancing in one superlative body of sound!  From: https://artofjazz.blogspot.com/2019/05/samaia-polyphonic-wanderlust.html 

The Chemistry Set - Firefly

The cult psychedelic band has quite a history. Founded by Dave Mclean and Paul Lake in 1987, the band are veterans of the alternative Manchester label “Imaginary” and cassette only label “Acid Tapes”; they helped pioneer the late 1980’s UK neo-psychedelic boom.
The Chemistry Set counted the legendary John Peel’s as a fan (Peel even went so far as to sending the band a hand-written fan letter!) They also appeared on Factory Records boss Tony Wilson’s TV show and were in the Indie Top 20. The band have gone from strength to strength and The Psychedelic Scientists celebrate their 35th anniversary in 2022, with a new album ‘Pink Felt Trip’ released in July, on the “Fruits de Mer” label. The new album will represent their 45th release.
Known for their sophisticated original songcraft as well as their uncanny ability to interpret often obscure (but always classic) psychedelic songs with unparalleled cover versions, The Chemistry Set have taken some the most lysergic works of The Pink Floyd (‘See Emily Play’ mixed with a section of Brian Wilson’s ‘Smile’), Love (acoustic version of ‘A House Is Not a Motel’), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (unplugged version of ‘Love Or Confusion’ with sitars and tablas), The Rolling Stones (‘We Love You’), Del Shannon (‘Silver Birch’ mixed with ‘Sanctus’ by David Axelrod), The Moody Blues (‘Legend Of A Mind’) Tomorrow (‘Hallucinations’) to more to exciting and unexpected places.
The band have been lucky to get feedback from some of the artists that they have covered. A few years ago, the late great Ray Thomas of The Moody Blues had a listen to The Chemistry Set’s cover of his classic ‘Legend Of A Mind’ and had this to say, “Well done Chemistry Set. It’s not an easy song to cover and you’ve made a cracking job of it. Very impressed with the flute work”.When covering Del Shannon’s acid drenched ‘Silver Birch’ the band inserted a section of ‘Sanctus’ from David Axelrod’s ‘Mass in F Minor’. The band are huge fans of Axelrod’s orchestral arrangements and sent the song to him and he said, “Real music, music to make you sit and think”.
The new album includes a cover of Mark Fry’s ‘The Witch’, whose album ‘Dreaming with Alice’ released in 1972 is a cult classic. The Chemistry Set have given the song a twist, with a Gregorian Chant intro, that is taken from The Bee Gees acid drenched 1967 song ‘Every Christian Lion-Hearted Soldier’. Mellotron flutes, Iranian setar and acoustic guitars abide, faithful to the original vibe but then heads into ‘Colonel Kurtz’ territory a la ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ meets The Red Krayola. The title track kicks off like a deranged amalgamation of ‘Safe as Milk’ era Captain Beefheart versus ‘Freak Out’ period Frank Zappa with Arthur Lee muscling his way into the party with ‘7&7 is’.
‘Pink Felt Trip’ also includes a 10-minute trilogy, entitled ‘Self-Expression Trinity’. The first part is a bold Moody Blues-esque orchestral piece entitled ‘Cesar Manrique’, a tribute to the great Spanish surrealist artist. It features a cupboard full of mellotrons, piano’s, gongs, choirs and orchestral percussion. The second and third parts ‘Once Upon a Time’ and ‘Liberation’ deal with the subjects of freedom and self-expression, with classic psychedelic melodies and stunning guitars.
The front cover of the album is in the style of the 1960’s psychedelic concert poster designer Victor Moscoso and is designed by the Swedish designer; Robin Gnista, who has created designs for John Cale, The Pretty Things, Levitation Festival, Television and The Black Angels.
A delicious piece of psychedelic rock is about to be unleashed on June 6th on a special limited edition 12” vinyl. It will be available with a real pink fuzzy felt cover with pink felt bubble-gum, posters, artwork and a bonus CD.  From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/06/pink-felt-trip-by-the-chemistry-set-album-premiere.html

 

Sparrow and The Workshop - Black To Red

Harking back to the folk and folk rock of the late 60s, there is something simultaneously retrogressive and gloriously refreshing about Sparrow and the Workshop. Belfast-born, Chicago-raised Jill O’Sullivan enunciates like Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick on the surf rock/Pixies riffing of ‘Black to Red’, and Sandy Denny on the reverberating tones of ‘Medal Around Your Neck’ and ‘Tired of this Town’, while drummer Greg Donaldson’s backing vocals slide seamlessly behind. Sparrow and the Workshop’s greatest strength lies in the interplay between these two people, and they know it. O’Sullivan is a powerhouse on Black to Red, and a delicately crooning genius on ‘Tired of this Town’. Her adaptability gives Sparrow and the Workshop a poisoned tipped bullet in their gun’s chamber.
In fact, the more they strip back and turn down every other instrument, the greater the result. Few bands know, let alone exploit, the fact that less is often more. SATW’s acceptance of this technique means that they are already far ahead of many of their contemporaries. Still, ‘Medal Around Your Neck’ and ‘Tired of this Town’ play like Fleet Foxes and First Aid Kit album tracks respectively. There are other acts out there doing this type of Americana to greater effect, but no one does it with such impressive versatility.  From: https://www.silentradio.co.uk/10/15/album-sparrow-and-the-workshop-black-to-red-ep/

XTC - The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul

Todd Bernhardt: Let's talk about "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul."

Andy Partridge: Oh, I am so proud of this song. These are my best lyrics, I think.

TB: Really?

AP: This week's best lyrics, anyway. [chuckles] No, honestly, these are in the top three, possibly number one, lyric-wise.

TB: So let's start by talking about them. On the demo of the song, you don't yet have all the lyrics.

AP: No! In fact, when Mr. Rundgren said, "I want to hear everything," the state of the demo -- which is the one you hear on the Fuzzy Warbles series -- was more of an idea than anything else. The demo is so unformed -- it's just this rather Can-like rhythm in 7/4, and me strumming a badly recorded acoustic guitar and mumbling these lyrics.
It was really him pulling it out and saying, "Yeah, I like this, I think it's going to be track 12 -- have you finished the lyrics up?" "I thought, "Whoa, I better finish these up!" A deadline is really good for me -- I have no deadlines these days, which is part of why I'm stuck in the wilderness, I think -- and knowing that I rather liked the melody and chords spurred me on.
Speaking of the chords and melody -- about a couple of years after we recorded it, I got to hear "Nature Boy." There is a similar feel in the melody. I probably heard that as a kid, on the radio, and it must have gone in. But at the time, I didn't own any Nat King Cole records, and I certainly wasn't consciously aware of it at the time.

TB: Yeah, that song was a huge hit for him.

AP: I'm not sure if it was a huge hit for him in the UK -- I could be wrong. We never had any of his records, but they did play him on the radio a lot when I was a little kid. So, I think it went in when I was very young, and it was that thing where you think you've invented this chord shape and this melody shape, when after all it's not a million miles away from something you probably would have heard hundreds of times as a child.

TB: But that's true of most music that anyone creates, right? Isn't it all some form of something that you soaked in earlier in your life?

AP: Yeah, absolutely. You're either mangling it up on purpose, to get some further juice out of it, or you're smashing together lots of different things -- you know, you're making these songs mate. "I'm going to take a bit of that Beatles song, and a bit of that song by Frank Sinatra, and a bit of that Captain Beefheart one, and I'm going to force them to have sex, until the obscene abomination is born."

TB: [laughing] Then you release their mutant spawn upon the world!

AP: Yes, that evil spawn that leaves a trail of fluorescent snot everywhere it goes! So, sometimes you do that on purpose, but sometimes it's by accident. You know, so many times in the past I've thought, "Wow, this is going to be great -- this song's wonderful! Oh no! I'm writing 'Hey Jude'!" Sometimes you catch yourself. But with this one, it wasn't until a few years later, when I got to hear "Nature Boy" -- I think it was on a TV documentary or something -- that I thought, "Wow, hang on a minute! That's not too far away!"

But, I did have to finish the lyric up, and I think it kind of goes hand-in-hand with the "Dear God" lyric. At that time, I must have been looking for deeper things.

TB: It seems as if you're rejecting conventional wisdom...

AP: Yeah. It's looking for the deeper meaning. Quite a few lyrics are like that on this album -- "Season Cycle" is another one.

TB: Although, in "Season Cycle," it seems as if you've found the meaning. You're saying it's all right here.

AP: I'm in the process of finding it, I think. Which is why the "Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" lyrics are the way they are, and the others are the way they are. You're showing people that you have found it, in a questioning song, if you see what I mean. You're doing your own interview -- asking yourself the question in the interview, and answering it. So, it must have been a time in my life when I was trying to find the answers to everything. But I'm really proud of this lyric -- I think I tapped into something good.

TB: Let's talk about where you were in life, because The Big Express had not done very well, but you did have the first Dukes album out, and that had done well.

AP: Yeah, The Big Express had sold about 30,000 in England, while 25 O'Clock had sold something like 90,000! [laughs] It just goes to show that people like nonsense!

TB: And you'd been given an ultimatum by Virgin, which is why Todd was your producer on the album?

AP: Oh, absolutely. That was a very low time my life. I'd been told, basically, to stop interfering with my own records. They were telling me to, "Let Colin" -- let the handsome one, the one with the hair, who doesn't wear glasses -- "let him do more of his sweet songs, and you shut up and don't interfere. You need to have a big hit in America, and so you've got to have an American producer. You mustn't argue with him, and you mustn't try to fuck up your songs by putting in interesting shit! Because if you don't, you're off the label."

TB: So, this feeling must have informed the lyrical content of the album.

AP: Maybe the fear of losing the label made me dig deeper. I was certainly at that point in my life where I was starting to question everything, and finding my own answers. So, the lyrics to "Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" are really of me saying, "There is nothing more -- you die, and you're wormcake." It's sort of an existential idea of, "You're haunting yourself." It's tricky to describe, really. [Cockney accent, aggressively] "It's all in the lyrics! It's self-evident, really." [laughs] That's a bit of an interview killer, isn't it?

TB: [laughing] In a way, though, it's true! The lyrics are very well constructed, and the meaning is pretty damned clear.

AP: I was proud of all the internal rhymes -- the tension and release of the internal rhythm and internal rhyme. But as for the meaning, you're right -- it's all laid out. For anyone who doesn't get it, it's the story of somebody who realizes that all there is to life is your body, with your brain in it.

TB: Hence the resolution at the end: "Now he sits all alone / Knowing flesh blood and bone / Is everything / He found the treasure he'd been seeking."

AP: The treasure you're seeking is yourself, and your own experiences and knowledge. And what you do with that -- that's the treasure. It's not a matter of, "Well, I'll be a complete asshole all my life, and then repent on my deathbed -- because God loves a sinner who repents -- and then I'll go and live for all eternity getting sucked off by angels!" It's not going to work like that. I hope that more and more people are starting to realize that that's not going to be the case.
It's my kitchen existentialism [chuckles] -- which has just been completed with a nice sunroof! There is nothing more than your blood and guts and bone, and when you die, that's all gone. So make the most.

TB: So, let's talk about the music. You had sent over this demo -- it's acoustic guitar and percussion...

AP: And he said, "Yeah, I really want to do this song." He wanted me to finish up the song, so I came up with the rest of the lyric and the other parts of the song, but I don't remember rehearsing it before we left for Woodstock. The only time I remember running through it is when we were left for about a week on our own, in this freezing-cold shed that was Utopia Sound Studios, running through all the numbers before Mr. Rundgren came off of his holidays, or whatever it was he was doing -- he wasn't around, and we were rehearsing ourselves for about four or five days. We were just sat around in a little circle -- "Oh yeah, it's this chord, or that chord, and try it like that" -- you know. We were knocking stuff up between us.
When he came in and we got recording proper, he said to me, "How do you see this? How do you want to do it?" I had in my head that I really wanted to out-do "Mack the Knife" -- the Bobby Darin version.

TB: What turned you from your relatively straight-ahead acoustic treatment of this?

AP: Because it was "The Man Who...", it sounded like a spy film title to me. So I thought, "It'd be great to do sort of a John Barry secret-agent soundtrack thing." I didn't know how to do that, of course. But I was proud of this existential lyric with this kind of Beatnik angle, so if we could do Beatnik/coffeehouse/spy music, that what's needed! That's going to cover all the requirements here.
So, we decided we were going to get Colin playing the Epiphone Newport with the damaged damper on, so it sounded like an upright bass, and we did finger clicks -- which is Colin. We all had to audition our fingers, and he had the loudest click. "Jump to a finger click," as he says in "King for a Day"! Dave and I failed miserably, and I think Todd did, too, but Colin excels at clicking, so we sampled some Colin clicks, and they're played in from a Fairlight, which Todd had just bought, so he was pretty Fairlight-mad at the time.

So, Colin's playing this [imitates Colin's intro bass part, while clicking his fingers] -- and you can just imagine Sammy Davis Jr. kicking in, can't you?

TB: Oh yeah, sure!

AP: Another song I wanted to hint at was "It Ain't Necessarily So." You can see where I'm coming from on that. So, there's this whole mash-up of stuff I was thinking of, and I said to Todd, "Ideally, make it like a Beatnik existential spy movie soundtrack. Can such a thing be done?" And literally, he went away overnight and came back with charts for this stuff. I don't read music, but he had these ideas mapped out. He said, "Look, this'll be flutes, and this'll be horns, and we'll get a high string line here" -- because I'd said, "Oh yeah, I want that Gershwin, Blues-y feeling." "Dear God" got that treatment, too, so that must have been in our heads at the time.
He did a fantastic job. I think the arrangement on this is immaculate. I think that was his strength -- it's not engineering, and it's certainly not people skills, but as an arranger, he's completely faultless, and he did a brilliant job of making this Beatnik spy music.

TB: Talk a little bit about the chronology of how this song was recorded. The album was done in both Woodstock and San Francisco...

AP: Do you know, I can't remember doing much of this song in Woodstock.

TB: That's what I wanted to ask -- did you do anything with this song before you went to San Francisco? Because there's so much orchestration.

AP: I don't think we did! We probably just booked the tape space with a click track or something. I remember 90 percent of it happening in San Francisco.

TB: Prairie wasn't just playing with a click -- he must have been playing with something else, right?

AP: We may have put the bass on in Woodstock -- certainly we did the finger clicks! [laughs] I remember that. But everything else, I think, was done in San Francisco. Todd got Mingo Lewis to do the bongos on this...

TB: Which is fantastic stuff.

AP: It's great, yeah. But he couldn't play shit until he got stoned, though. He was so nervous! I thought, "Oh god, are we making this fellow feel bad, or is he just exceptionally nervous when he gets in the studio?" But then he got himself stoned, enough to stop a rhino, and suddenly he was fantastic!

TB: I guess everyone has their own way of getting comfortable in the studio...

AP: He probably had enough dope to put the island of Jamaica asleep for the evening, but he was fantastic. And then there's Prairie showing off his Jazz chops...

TB: The drumming on this is incredible.

AP: Yeah, it's great -- lots of punctuation. That Big Band kind of thing.

And, listening today, I was reminded about how good the bass playing was, though it could have done with a little more of the Latin push, I think. Colin's very melodic, but he also puts all of the downbeats on the downbeat, whereas with the Latin bass it's more on the "ah-one" -- it's always pushing the beat a bit.

And Dave plays some great piano!

TB: Absolutely. He also does that low, spy-movie guitar, right?

AP: Right, which we did at Woodstock, after we got back from San Francisco. I said, "Look, we need a little more John Barry in there," and of course Dave came through with this great ersatz Bond guitar. But, for a man who says he's not a piano player, his piano playing is perfect on this! Just the right chords, just the right choice of inversions -- everything.

TB: And his sense of rhythm is perfect on this, too -- the way he punctuates against the horns, and all that.

AP: Oh yeah -- he's got a pretty good sense of rhythm. Always has.

TB: Was the piano done in San Francisco, or later on in Woodstock?

AP: You're really testing my brain on this one -- do you know, I cannot remember. I know Todd had a piano at Woodstock -- it was a big grand -- but I think there must have been a piano at San Francisco as well.

But I'm not playing on this. I'm just singing on this -- I'm doing nothing on the track other than that.

TB: What about the whistling in the song? Is that you?

AP: If there's any whistling, then it's usually me. I'm a bit of a whistle-aholic. In fact, Erica calls me "the whistler," because I'm whistling all the time at home.

TB: That's a sign of happiness!

AP: Or missing teeth. [laughs]

TB: [laughing] You had horn players and string players as well. They all played by themselves, I presume?

AP: Yep -- we did them all in session. We did all the horn parts one afternoon, then all the string parts another afternoon. All of this in San Francisco. And then the flute player came in -- there are multiple parts, but it's one flute player tracked up.
But the arrangement is so good -- it's got just the right sting at the end. It's just what I wanted. I wanted to beat "Mack the Knife" -- because, I mean, look at the pedigree of that song -- it's Brecht and Weill who did the music and lyrics, and that Bobby Darin version -- I loved that as a kid. That was on the radio a hell of a lot. I think I secretly wanted to feel as if I'd beaten out "Mack the Knife."
You've got to feel that you've beaten your influences. You've got to feel that you've beaten your heroes. You have to -- you have to kill them all, and stand on a giant heap of all your influences. They've all got to be dead, because you've written better things than them -- you know, you make a mountain formed of John Lennons, Paul McCartneys, Brian Wilsons, Brecht and Weill [laughs]. "You shall know them by their dead."

TB: Do you feel like you've done that, at least with this song?

AP: For me, I felt as if I had, but no other bastard bought the damn thing, because I didn't have Bobby Darin's charm -- or wig! [laughs]

TB: Well, the album sold pretty well, so some people must have thought you succeeded!

AP: Yeah, that album actually did save our career. Virgin didn't drop us -- phew.

TB: And you guys became college-chart darlings after that, for Skylarking through Nonsuch.

AP: Yeah, that's true. They couldn't scrape us off those charts. So, maybe I should have shut up and let other producers produce me! But the irony of it is that Todd was not like any other producer we've ever had, because he allowed us to be completely English. He did not Americanize us -- if anything, he took the Americanism out of us, because he was a big Anglophile.

TB: Yeah, when I was talking to him, last time they toured in this area, he was saying he was a big fan of you guys.

AP: Yeah, he was -- he had all our albums. Probably had them twice -- I think I saw them in his San Francisco house as well as his house in Woodstock. But, even so, I was instructed to shut up and be produced -- "You need a hit in America, so you've got to have an American producer, and you've got to obey" -- and weirdly, Todd allowed us to be as English as we wanted to be. He just allowed us to be the Dukes of Stratosphear, basically. Skylarking is the great missing Dukes album. 

From: http://chalkhills.org/articles/XTCFans20100104.html

Mary Fahl - The Great Valerio (Richard & Linda Thompson cover)

When Mary Fahl fronted the October Project, she was the force behind the band. According to her contract, she was not allowed to write music or do anything besides singing. With these limitations, she used her hands to convey the power of the songs like an operatic diva. After the band broke up, she had to do things independently, including playing the guitar and writing songs. It is great to see such self-reliance, but I think she is at her most arresting when she sings, using her body language to amplify the heart and soul of the song. The Great Valerio is the first official music video from Can’t Get It Out Of My Head, the just-released album of her favorite songs. I had no idea she likes ELO, and this is a great surprise. 
So what’s the story behind her decision to cover this song? Here’s a little info: Directed and edited by Lisa Hancock, Mary Fahl reimagines this personal favorite by one of her greatest inspirations, Richard and Linda Thompson. She brings “The Great Valerio” to life utilizing archived footage of a tightrope walker to put a face to the name of this fictitious character made famous from the original recording off the album “I Want to See Bright Lights Tonight” originally released in 1974. Mary stays true to the beauty of the original recording while transforming this beloved cover into her own version with soaring chamberpop vocals and a unique, haunting arrangement.  From: https://spheremusic.wordpress.com/2022/08/06/mary-fahl-is-at-her-most-theatrical-with-the-great-valerio-official-music-video/

The Moody Blues - The Land of Make-Believe

For me, The Land of Make-Believe is one of the songs—maybe THE Moody Blues song—that I’m pretty sure I love way more than everyone else does. I think what elevated it to that level is when I realized the song structure.
A: we’re living in…
B: heartaches…
A: we’re breathing in...
B: Our prayer will be heard…
C: So fly little bird…
D: Whyyyyyy
E: Open all the shutters…
F: Oh say it’s true…
Repeat.
Justin was in such mastery of his songcraft that he wrote SIX achingly beautiful, song-worthy melodies for this one, sub-5 minute song. Plus the excellent band contributions, fuzz guitar, and flawless production… I love it to bits.
From: https://www.reddit.com/r/MoodyBlues/comments/1qtwzbf/daily_randomized_song_discussion_64_the_land_of/

Despite the presence of a pair of ballads -- one of them ("New Horizons") by Justin Hayward the latter's most romantic number since "Nights in White Satin" -- Seventh Sojourn was notable at the time of its release for showing the hardest-rocking sound this band had ever produced on record. It's all relative, of course, compared to their prior work, but the music is comparatively stripped down here, and on a lot of it Graeme Edge's drumming and John Lodge's bass work comprise a more forceful and assertive rhythm section than they had on earlier records, on numbers such as "Lost in a Lost World," "You and Me," and "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock & Roll Band)." The latter, authored by Lodge, was -- along with Lodge's "Isn't Life Strange" -- one of two AM radio hits that helped drive the sales of this album, issued in early November of 1972, past all previous levels. Indeed, it was with the release of this album that the Moodies achieved their great commercial success in America and around the world, with a "Grand Tour" that kept them on the road for much of the year that followed. The irony was that it was all about to end for them, for years to come, and the signs of it were all over this record -- Seventh Sojourn took a long time to record, and a lot of the early work on it had to be junked ("Isn't Life Strange" was one of the few early songs to get completed); it was clear to all concerned except the fans that, after six years of hard work in their present configuration, they all needed to stop working with each other for a time, and this was clear in the songs -- many have a downbeat, pensive edge to them, and if they reflected a questioning attitude that had come out on recent albums, the tone of the questioning on songs like "Lost in a Lost World," "You and Me," and "When You're a Free Man" had a darker, more desperate tone. Perhaps the group's mostly youthful, collegiate audience didn't notice at the time because it fit the mood of the times -- the album hit the stores in America the day before Richard Nixon's landslide presidential re-election victory (the culmination of events behind the scenes that would subsequently drive him from office). But the members were not working well together, and this would be the last wholly successful record -- difficult as it was to deliver -- that this lineup of the band would record, as well as the last new work by the group for over five years. And oddly enough, even amid the difficulties in getting it finished, Seventh Sojourn would offer something new in the way of sounds from the group -- Michael Pinder, in particular, introduced a successor to the Mellotron, with which he'd been amazing audiences for six years, in the form of the Chamberlin, which is all over this album.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/seventh-sojourn-mw0000191080#review   

Morcheeba - Everybody Loves A Loser / World Looking In

 Morcheeba - Everybody Loves A Loser

 

 Morcheeba - World Looking In

 

This is a tale of cunning, of unscrupulousness. It is the story of a three-piece band called Morcheeba, which is appearing Friday at Metro. Morcheeba was once a wholly unknown outfit, just another collection of wannabe pop stars laying siege to the record industry but unable to conquer the affections of the A&R people lounging lazily beyond its corporate gates.
But then Morcheeba — brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey, and singer Skye Edwards — had an idea. Like the Greeks, who built that monster wooden horse to conquer Troy, the three would build an elaborate vessel with which to cloak themselves.
So in 1995, Morcheeba set about whittling the image of a group that looked like a trip-hop band. The trio piled inside their trip-hop horse and wheeled themselves up to those unyielding corporate walls. Hoodwinked, the A&R people gleefully pulled the offering inside the industry gates.
“We fooled a lot of people. Really, it was just a Machiavellian way of trying to get a deal and trying to get the press on our side,” says the younger brother, Ross Godfrey. “We were fully aware of what we were doing. We got the attention, and the songs were good enough to transcend any genre kind of thing. Now we’ve just jumped off the bandwagon and started doing whatever we like.”
The strategy has worked. Though the band’s first album, “Who Can You Trust?” was dreamy and pointless (all part of the trip-hop guise, they say), it propelled the group to music’s inner circle just one year after its birth in the seaside town of Hythe, England. Musical revolutionaries to the bone, the three then looked to affect change from within.
The result is Morcheeba’s sophomore album, “Big Calm.” Much less trip-hop — a blend of hip-hop beats with atmospheric rhythms — “Big Calm” is more a work of modern-beat folk, a blend of blues and hip-hop with a Cat Stevens, Crosby Stills and Nash edge.
The name Morcheeba is a combination of “M.O.R” (an acronym for Middle of the Road, a description the band reserves for what it thinks are mediocre talents) and “cheeba” (slang for marijuana). That the band came up with it in the first place was all part of the diabolical plan to deceive the record industry.
“We had about 15 different names that we were putting on the tapes that we were giving out to different record companies so that if they chatted amongst themselves they wouldn’t pick up on the fact that they were talking about the same band,” says Godfrey. “There were loads of others. The Montana Country Band was a great one, because it used to really confuse English A&R people.”
It’s no doubt that Morcheeba has been wise every step of the way so far. Glomming onto the trip-hop and electronica frenzy in ’95 was smart. And jumping off in ’98, just as it is becoming apparent that electronica may not be the musical panacea the critics thought it would be, is even smarter.
“It’s a very confusing time at the moment. No one really knows what’s going on,” says Godfrey.”That’s why we’re moving in our own direction, rather than follow anyone else’s.”
Indeed, “Big Calm” is the metaphoric antidote for a rave scene, which may finally be coming down from its media-fueled, chemically induced high. “Big Calm” is the music you put on after the rave hat is stowed in the hall closet, after the high-pitched wail in the eardrums becomes tolerable.
The track “Part of the Process” is country fiddle and bass. “Friction” is funky reggae with trumpet and trombone. The beginning of “Fear and Love” could appear in a Henry Mancini soundtrack.
“The thing is, we’re the first generation of kids to have cool parents,” says Godfrey. “My mum used to go see Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. There’s no way I can rebel against that. You can’t get more outrageous than Keith Richards was in the ’60s. You have to submit to the fact that everything’s already been done, so we might as well carry on, enjoying it and mixing it up with different ingredients.”
Morcheeba’s first single was the semi-hit “Trigger Hippie,” which is on the band’s first album. That stirred interest in the group from David Byrne, who had the brothers co-produce nine songs on his latest solo album, “Feelings.” To date, personalities as diverse as Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne and George Michael have rung up Morcheeba, expressing interest in collaborating and professing affection for the group’s groove.  From: https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/04/24/morcheeba-the-band-that-faked-being-trip-hop/

 

 

Lyle Lovett - If I Had A Boat

Since I have been going over Texas Songwriters…I have saved Lovett for a while. I knew of him because his name is huge where I live and I’ve seen him on different shows throughout my life. So I started to listen to some of his music recently with high anticipation and was not disappointed.
The thing about these songwriters I like so much are the lyrics. What surprised me were the lovely melodies that sold those lyrics to listeners. You can write the best set of lyrics in the world but without a good melody they will just stay just lyrics.
He was born in the German farming community of Klein, Texas and was influenced by blues and country greats such as Ray Charles, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and more. His music has a little bit of everything in it.  Western, folk, swing, jazz, bebop, blues, and gospel music. Lovett earned two degrees from Texas A&M University in Journalism and German, and music was his career of choice. One of his roommates in college was no other than fellow Texas songwriter Robert Earl Keen.
Lovett said that If I Had A Boat was based on a true story. He did try to cross a pond on a pony but he wished he had a boat when it happened. This song was about getting away from things and not being tied down. This song was released in 1987 on the album Pontiac. The song peaked at #66 on the Billboard Country Charts. The album peaked at #12 on the Billboard Country Album Charts, #18 in Canada,  and #117 on the Billboard Album Charts.
He was asked if him and Robert Earl Keen were trying to carry on with the tradition that Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark started. He answered: There’s a direct line from those guys to Robert and me. We learned how to play those Guy Clark songs from Guy’s first record, and we sought out Guy and Townes as we came up, because we admired them so much, and got to know them. So their version of storytelling, their take on what a song was supposed to be, was something that Robert and I actively pursued.
On what Texas is to him: Texas is just home. I’m tethered here and lack perspective. My whole experience, every day in my life, is wrapped up in being from here. I’m what in the horse business we call barn blind. I really like my horses better than anybody else’s.
Lyle Lovett: Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.  From: https://powerpop.blog/2024/04/27/lyle-lovett-if-i-had-a-boat/

 

Juliana Hatfield - I See You

Juliana Hatfield achieved alterna-rock stardom with the release of 1993's Become What You Are (recorded under the group name The Juliana Hatfield Three). Several songs from the album received regular airplay on major North American rock stations, with Hatfield's song "My Sister" becoming the biggest hit of her career with the video becoming an MTV staple. Another one of her songs ("Spin the Bottle") was used in the soundtrack of the Hollywood film Reality Bites (1994). Hatfield also made the cover of Spin magazine. Hatfield's popularity coincided with the success, in the mid-1990s, of many other female musicians (such as Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Belly, Letters to Cleo, Velocity Girl, The Breeders, Hole, Veruca Salt, Poe, Throwing Muses, Magnapop, Bettie Serveert). Although she has always maintained that her gender is of only incidental importance to her music, Hatfield was pleased to have been invited, in 1997, to tour with the first Lilith Fair, a prominent all-female rock festival founded by singer Sarah McLachlan. Hatfield was profiled in a number of girls' magazines at this time and was embraced by many pre-teen and teenage girls as a role model due to the positive way she addressed serious issues faced by young women in her songs and interviews. About this period she says: "I was never comfortable with the attention. I thought it had come too soon. I hadn’t earned it yet." She gained notoriety in 1992 for saying that she was still a virgin in her mid-twenties in Interview magazine. In a 1994 interview for the magazine Vox she said she was surprised by the effect 'outing' herself had: "I think there are a lot of people out there who don't care about sex, but who you never hear from, so I thought I should say it. The magazine I did the interview for is full of beef-cake hunky guys and scantily-clad models, so I thought it would be really funny to say that I didn't care about sex in a magazine that's full of sex and beauty - but no one really got the joke."  From: https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/78r7js/juliana_hatfield_i_see_you_90s_alternative/