The Story - Missing Person Afternoon / The Angel In The House / Mermaid / The Barefoot Ballroom

Jonatha Brooke’s background in English literature informs many of the songs on Angel in the House; the album takes its title from a poem by Victorian poet Coventry Patmore. In the poem, Patmore extols the “virtues” of womanhood: to stay at home by the hearth, take care of the husband and children, and always have a cheerful countenance.
Brooke found inspiration in English writer Virginia Woolf’s response to the poem: “Woolf got a hold of the poem and used it as a metaphor for that particular phantom that tells us, as women, not to offend, not to do our work, but to flatter and coo. The song comes down to the struggle we still have with that notion of womanhood,” Brooke explained in the Elektra release. In the Billboard interview, she added: “I think that I and my generation are still messing with this stupid angel that says, ‘Why don’t you take care of your house before you write a song!’”
Set up as a series of drawing room ballads, the first song on the album, “Mermaid,” addresses the image of women portrayed in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Little Mermaid.” Referring to the difference between Andersen’s version and the commercially popular, sugary-sweet, Walt Disney film version of the tale, Brooke wrote in the album’s liner notes: “In the original story, she doesn’t get the guy, she doesn’t live happily ever after, she loses her voice, her tail, her family and turns into sea foam.”
Cramton described “Mermaid” in the Metro Times as representative of the “multilayered meanings” present in many of the Story’s songs. “They voice the frustrations of many women who want bustling lives but fear public reprisals for ‘neglecting their feminine duties.’” People magazine called Angel in the House “the year’s most radiant folk record,” while White, writing in Billboard, suggested that “fans of the fragile gleam of Grace in Gravity will find Angel in the House a darker prism.”
The title track of Angel in the House was also inspired by a literary work—this time, a short story by Grace Paley about a middle-aged woman who is forced to reexamine her life: “My mother moved the furniture / When she no longer moved the man.… / She wanted to be a different person.… / And he walked away.” “My mother is a big part of the song,” Brooke told White in the Billboard interview. “It’s about me and my mother, and … any woman who’s been torn between desires and what they’re supposed to do as a female in this world.”
Kimball added her own feelings about the song, which conjured up memories of her parents’ divorce: “That was an awful time; they were very friendly, almost too friendly, and I wanted them to be more angry with each other and more separated.”  From: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/story

 

Midlake - Antiphon

Midlake don’t get enough credit for being ahead of their time. Actually, they don’t get any credit, understandable in light of the Denton, Tex., sextet's antiquated imagery and sepia-drunk sound. But the formula that made The Trials of Van Occupanther a sleeper hit in 2006—bearded indie-folk meets California soft-rock meets Fleetwood Mac at their most glassy-eyed—would likely make it a massive success in 2013. It’s certainly in their best interest to revisit that style after the clock-stopping Tull torpor of The Courage of Others, and guitarist Eric Pulido claims their fourth LP Antiphon “is the most honest representation of the band as a whole.” Except he goes on to say, “as opposed to one person’s vision that we were trying to facilitate.” Pulido got an internal promotion to frontman after the departure of singer-songwriter Tim Smith in 2012, and...shots fired?
Antiphon does somehow manage to be a “forget everything you know about Midlake!” album as well as a “return to form,” at least if you remember that Van Occupanther was preceded by the burlier, less precious (title aside) Bamnan and Silvercork in 2004. Pulido’s words foreshadow a more aggressive tack on the part of Midlake and they certainly oblige during the first half of Antiphon. If the title track and “Provider” don’t exactly boogie, they’re at least rollin’ and tumblin’, with the shuffling beats and sticky, distorted guitar leads that invert Midlake’s previous ratio of rock to folk. More notably, the flutes and other non-strung instruments are pushed to the periphery, foregrounding a lightly psychedelic blues that I suppose recalls Fleetwood Mac before their big personnel shakeup. Likewise, Pulido begins the record asking the listener to “start a war,” and goes on to speak of foxholes and space shuttles. There’s even one song called “It’s Going Down”, which doesn’t sound all that more vigorous than what came before it, but hey, make your own Yung Joc "meet me at the farmer's market" jokes.
But throughout, it’s clear that Smith’s departure is an amputation that doesn’t change Midlake’s DNA. They’ve got a couple of opening gigs for Pearl Jam in the near future, so that should give you an idea of whether they’ve retained the earnestness of their previous work. Pulido doesn’t have Smith’s distinct, dulcet tone, though it’s actually to Midlake’s advantage on Antiphon. His vocals are alopecia-stricken, almost fascinating in their lack of texture even when layered in harmony, offering no resistance to the bulkier music backing him. So Antiphon never sounds awkward even when he sings about space travel on “Corruption” (“we went to the moon/ with a tycoon”) in a way that comes off as quaint as the more typically Midlake-y concerns like sorting out “The Old and the Young” and having a good woman waiting at home by the fire.
The bigger shift is in the production, provided by Grammy-nominated Tony Hoffer. His most frequently cited credits are Beck and Air, who both ended up working with Nigel Godrich on their very next albums, so I’ve come to think of his aesthetic as a kind of Radiohead starter kit. Midlake get that kind of sound here—you wouldn’t call it overproduced, but there’s tons of production if you know where to listen for it, as the stereo panning is neatly utilized, the percussion crisp and non-obtrusive, while all of the folk instruments are spit-shined and shellacked. It’s a retro-modernist (or modernist-retro) schematic, aspiring for Laurel Canyon decor while paying West Hollywood rent.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18696-midlake-antiphon/

Natalie Merchant - Beloved Wife / River / Cowboy Romance

I’ve always found being passionate, open, vulnerable, and transparent to be among the greatest qualities a person can have.  We are so programmed to close off to other people about anything deeper or more personal than work, entertainment, the weather, and current events, that it’s almost shocking when we are allowed into the personal thoughts of an artist.  And when those personal thoughts are arranged in the right way, and the words are chosen carefully enough, we tend to call those things works of art.
After fronting the alt-pop 10,000 Maniacs for the better part of a decade, Natalie Merchant took her talents to the studio for her solo debut Tigerlily.  I love solo debuts because I like to believe the artist has been collecting songs for years without a venue to display them.  They are, in so many cases, loaded with poetic gems that give us a massive picture window into the soul of the writer/performer.  I have no idea if this is true for Merchant and Tigerlily, and I don’t want to look it up because I may be wrong.  My perception of Tigerlily is that it’s Merchant finally breaking free of the restrictions of pop and working as part an ensemble, and finally having the artistic license to say things she’s been holding inside. 
With her pitch-perfect, bright and emotional vocals, the entire album is driven by her voice, her words, and some gorgeously sparse musical arrangements.  It’s a truly poetic album.
“River” is a beautiful tribute to the recently deceased (1993) River Phoenix, a once-in-a-generation acting talent that succumbed to the temptations of Sunset Blvd.  I was a huge River Phoenix fan and his death was truly a tragedy; a talent and a soul so bright snuffed out long before its time.  Merchant not only mourns his death, but chastises the media for essentially dissecting his life and his youthful indiscretions, all while his family, his friends and his fans were still in mourning. 
So many critics at the time of Tigerlily’s release praised the album but also used words about Merchant like “lighten up” or “too intense”.  I even read one that said “get over yourself”.  Why is it that Daniel Day Lewis gets Oscars for his intensity and Bob Dylan gets Pulitzer prizes, while women get told to smile more and stay in their lanes?  From: https://eons.substack.com/p/natalie-merchant-tigerlily 

 

The Zombies - If It Don't Work Out / I Know She Will / Walking in the Sun

Everyone knows that The Zombies had already called it a day before Columbia Records even released Odessey & Oracle; how Al Kooper championed it and cajoled the heads of Columbia to issue it (finally) and how “Time Of The Season” became a massive – but fluke – hit in 1969.  Once this happened, The Zombies were in demand again but Colin Blunstone, Hugh Grundy and (the now sadly deceased) Paul Atkinson were tending to other matters.  Rod Argent and Chris White took the reins and headed into the studio to record a “follow up” single for “Time Of The Season” – Chris White at the producer’s helm; Rod Argent handling keyboards and lead vocals.  Joining them in the studio were Bob Henrit on drums, Jim Rodford on bass and Russ Ballard on guitar – the band now remembered as Argent.  They recorded a single, the gorgeous, heartbreaking and delicate “Imagine The Swan” – and duly released it on CBS in the U.K. and the Date imprint in the U.S.  It didn’t go anywhere, unfortunately, but this group proceeded to record a total of six new songs:  the aforementioned “Imagine The Swan”, its B-side, the soulful instrumental “Conversation Off Floral Street”, the haunting and majestic epic “Girl Help Me”, the sad and wistful “Smokey Day”, the rollicking “She Loves The Way They Love Her” and the laid-back “I Could Spend The Day” – all great songs taken on their own merits.
The idea was to couple them along with some previously unreleased material by the original line-up that had been (criminally) languishing in the Decca Records vaults in the U.K. with some cleaning up and embellishments.  Dusted off were “If It Don’t Work Out”, “I’ll Call You Mine”, “I’ll Keep Trying”, “I Know She Will”, “Walking In The Sun” (which dated back to 1964) and the incredible “Don’t Cry For Me”.  An interesting and highly believable combination of songs – 6 with Argent as lead singer and 6 with Colin Blunstone’s remarkable voice.
One more “taster” single was released by Date in the U.S. and Canada – and disappeared without a trace – “If It Don’t Work Out” coupled with “Don’t Cry For Me”.  Thus, the album, tentative titled R.I.P. was permanently shelved and The Zombies’ name was consigned to memory as shortly thereafter, Argent made their triumphant debut.
Many of these songs have circulated over the years – I first locked into most of them (save for “Smokey Day” and “I’ll Keep Trying”) via a 1988 compilation called Meet The Zombies; many people were first turned on to these “lost” tracks through the (now) seminal 2-LP set on Epic from 1974, Time Of The Zombies and like all great albums that never were, there have been various versions of what this album would have been shaped as, if it had actually been released.
Fast forward to 2014:  the good people at Varese Sarabande (the American label who reissued Odessey & Oracle) released R.I.P. in its intended running order on vinyl for Record Store Day; shortly thereafter, the CD edition appeared.  With detailed and informative liner notes by the always-incredible and brilliant Andrew Sandoval and reissue production by Cary Mansfield and Andrew Sandoval, you have a seamless collection of the 12 songs, sounding better and stronger than ever, plus mono mixes that had previously been unreleased.  From: https://popdose.com/reissue-review-the-zombies-r-i-p/

Whimsical Creature - Begin Again Again

Formed in late 2024, Whimsical Creature are a British progressive rock duo from Reading, consisting of I Am the Manic Whale's Michael Whiteman and Ella Lloyd. The project's impetus can be traced to a late summer camping trip taken by both members' families, where the two agreed to write material more acoustic and stripped-down than Manic Whale. With Whiteman the chief lyricist and composer, Whimsical Creature perform a style of folky, neo-tinged prog-pop which greatly resembles Big Big Train (the pair even played a set at the BBT fan gathering A Mead Hall in Winchester).
After a handful of gigs and singles (one of which a cover of Chris Squire and Alan White's "Run With the Fox"), Whiteman and Lloyd revealed their debut LP Wistful Thinking in 2025. The self-released album is an explicitly acoustic affair, with Whiteman handling guitar, bass and piano, Lloyd juggling flute, autoharp and glockenspiel, and both musicians sharing vocals and percussion. Whiteman's songs speak of human resilience, an appreciation of the natural world, the Cottingley Fairies hoax and scepticism about the rise of AI.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=13074 

Irreversible Mechanism - Nocturnal Light

You are a couple weeks away from the release of your second album, Immersion. How does it feel?

Of course we are very excited. We put a hell of a lot of effort into this record: so many thoughts, so many problems to solve, dozens of demos and months till we got how we wanted it to be. It’s part of our life and now we’re waiting for the moment then people all over the world will hear what we made.

Immersion sounds great, I really enjoyed the use of ambient sounds. Do tell us more about the album.

It’s a concept album, so there is the story which walk through each track. Every song has it’s own theme, but still it’s a part of the journey. It’s really difficult describe the general idea within few words. We tried to create the entire world in this record, with it’s own rules, colours and atmosphere.
In general it’s a lot more dynamic, comparing with our previous record, but in the same time it’s more solid, more intimate, more deep and personal, that means the band is progressing, evolving in every single way. And we should say that it’s something we really proud of.

What was the writing and recording process for the album? Did you try anything new this time around?

It differs a lot from previous record. This time we used seven string guitars, six string and fretless bass, a little bit different approach to guitars and bass tones. Other ways to create atmosphere, more ambient sounds as you’ve mentioned before, different drummer, different vocalist. We added clean vocals, so it’s took it’s part in songwriting too.

The album features Dan Presland on drums. How did he become a part of the recording?

We worked with Lyle Cooper on our first album, so it’s not the first time when we used session drummer for the record and the good thing about this, that we can experiment with the sound just by using different people, different personalities.
We knew Dan from his works with Ne Obliviscaris and actually he was the first person we asked. We sent him couple demos and fortunately he liked it. He had his own musical vision to the drum parts and we should say it was perfect for what we’ve been trying to reach. We really happy to work with him, he is truly professional and a very nice and talented guy.

You have released a music video for the track, Abolution. How important do you think music videos are in the age of YouTube?

It’s very important, but we should say it’s not necessary. As the music for us, musicians, it’s a great tool if you used it properly. The great way to introduce the band to the audience, it’s music, it’s mood, it’s colours, it’s energy. To show something what’s hidden in the band’s songs and lyrics to make it easier to understand. And it makes so much easier to the listener to discover new music, new bands. So, it’s not only about band promotion, it’s about heavy music culture in general.

From: https://themetalwanderlust.wordpress.com/2018/09/17/interview-irreversible-mechanism/

 

Fleetwood Mac - Spare Me a Little of Your Love / Believe Me / Why

Publication of the first volume of Mick Fleetwood’s memoir Love That Burns led to a series of articles discussing the book and the pre-1974 versions of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood’s first volume ends at the end of 1974, as he introduces new band members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham to the group’s keyboard player, Christine McVie. McVie was a Mac veteran already, having joined unofficially with Kiln House in 1970. McVie had proven to be a strong band member, writing some good songs, becoming the group’s only female vocalist, and adding musically with her keyboard work.
Most articles I’ve seen discuss the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac in great detail, centering on Green’s outstanding guitar playing as well as his songwriting and singing and his eventual crash and burn. But for me, the period of greatest fascination and least attention is from 1971-1974 when Fleetwood Mac was neither fish nor fowl.
They were no longer a British blues band, but neither were they an arena rock act. They produced great pop material, but with some amazing shading and color that belied the fact that they were still a rock band. Their sound began to skew much more to the American side of the Atlantic, as did their personnel. Most of the records they produced in this time period are flawed but contain a lot of deep musical moments that make it worth sifting through some less than stellar tracks.
During this time period, Christine McVie contributed 15 songs to the Fleetwood Mac catalog. While many have not been part of the group’s set lists for many years, they form a solid body of work that shows she was writing great material long before Buckingham and Nicks joined the band.  From: https://newdirectionsinmusic.substack.com/p/christine-mcvie-fleetwood-mac-songs

Maldito - Live from Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal 2025

 Maldito - Live from Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal 2025 - Part 1

 

 Maldito - Live from Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal 2025 - Part 2

 

It's hard to believe, but the Norwegian band Maldito is a hitherto largely undiscovered jewel in the current musical landscape of loud and heavy sounds. Maldito formed in Liverpool in 2015 while the band members studied at the renowned Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Inspired by rock and prog of the 70s, combined with a touch of 90s pop rock, the band has developed their own unique style of music. The band made their breakthrough in the blues and rock scene in 2019, after the release of their first album and their tours through Norway, Germany, England and the USA.The band's live performance, bursting with power, will be remembered by everyone who has seen it. Their rousing energy, the memorable guitar riffs and their songs inspire both the older and the younger generation. "Four guys who make the place shake, but at the same time are exceptionally tight in their blues-based rock format. With the energy of Jack White (White Stripes) and the drive of the Rival Sons, this is undoubtedly a band to look out for in the future." (Blues News) We experience geniuses who develop from blues to rock to metal – and yet there are still these typical, floating pop melody moments. A mixture that is as exciting as it is intelligent, and this music does not have to shy away from any international and historical comparisons with, for example, Blue Oyster Cult, The Beatles or Yes.  From: https://nica-jazzclub.de/en/events/maldito-335 

 

 

 

The Wailin’ Jennys - One Voice - Live on eTown

Right after a band’s name, how a group comes together and not only grows, but sustains—and in the case of folk trio The Wailin’ Jennys, sustains for nearly 20 years— is the next most notable aspect of a band’s story. Though what might surprise some, is the fact that there was never a grand plan or slowly developed strategy for the Manitoba, Winnipeg trio to become an ongoing endeavor back in 2002. To that end, it feels fitting that the first track on The Wailin’ Jennys debut album 40 Days—a song titled “One Voice,” written by founding “Jennys” member and vocalist Ruth Moody—would also go on to become bigger than the sum of its musical origins. 
A three-part, vocally cumulative, acoustic song that builds on a partially repeated lyrical premise of this is the sound of one voice… voices two… voices three… all of us, the hymn-like piece seems not to leave much mystery within itself. However, its simplicity bears more surprises than its surface character gives away.
“You know, sometimes songwriters describe that experience of almost like, receiving a song. And ‘One Voice’ is maybe as close as I’ve ever come to that experience where it just sort of starts, it just kind of arrives, and you just are lucky enough to be there with a pencil and you write it down,” Moody says. “Conversely, I think the seriousness of the song maybe comes from the fact that it was my way of processing, a very, very serious and emotional moment.”
Indeed, Moody was quite fortunate to have pencil and paper within easy reach, as the fated stage for igniting the idea behind “One Voice” was none other than a room full of emotive musicians, all running on the perpetual energy of an open jam session.
“The music and lyrics came very easily and spontaneously,” she explains. “The Wailin’ Jennys toured folk festivals across the country and we were at this one camping festival. There was one night where all the musicians were gathered backstage, around the kitchen, and the jamming went late.
“People just kept starting songs, everyone would join in,” she continues. “It went from sort of rowdy jams, to really moving, intimate, sharing from individuals. I don’t know that I thought about it consciously in this way but, I think the thought just really hit me: If only the world could be more like this—that just the power of music could bring people together. And so, I was so moved by this at around two in the morning, I went up to my tent with my flashlight and just wrote down the words to the song.”
This duality of internal and external experience isn’t the only interesting set of opposites sewn into the song’s foundation. Given “One Voice” became rather iconic for not just Moody, but The Wailin’ Jennys as a whole, it’s interesting to note how despite being one of the earliest projects the band undertook after coming together, “One Voice’s” solitary compositional approach ended up enduring as the primary songwriting method for the band. 
“The band has sort of talked about maybe sharing some ideas but it’s just worked really well for us to stick to that formula of writing our own songs, and we arrange them together,” Moody explains. “I think, the fact that we’ve been in a band for 19 years now—let’s put it this way: It hasn’t hurt us to to always respect the fact that that we’re all solo artists as well because I think that balance is important.”
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of “One Voice’s” finished iteration, comes from how others’ feelings of resonance have manifested through so many altered arrangements of countless cover performances. The sheer creativity and degree of deviation from the piece’s original three part, acoustic folk structure that The Wailin’ Jennys ended up embracing, speaks to the song’s fundamental flexibility. “I think by nature “One Voice” is a folk song but I’ve heard some arrangements that definitely sort of went in different directions from the Wailin’ Jennys and they have also been emotionally effective.” says Moody.  From: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-uniting-behind-the-meaning-of-the-wailin-jennys-one-voice/

 

Timechild - Son And Daughter (Queen cover)

At the end of 2021, the Danish heavy rock band Timechild released their debut album “And Yet It Moves”, and received top reviews and big praise from all over the world. Now the band is back with their new single and video “Son & Daughter”, where they have dug deep into their inspirations of the past and have reinterpreted this underrated and slightly atypical treasure from Queen’s first album from 1973.  It is a song that fits perfectly with Timechild’s sound universe with a powerful and soaring lead vocal and characteristic twin guitars and vocal harmonies.  From: https://mhf-mag.com/timechild-cover-queens-son-and-daughter-in-new-video-and-single/

As much as I enjoy having a feeling with my favorite moody sludge, or letting out that single, definitely masculine tear down my cheek with a beautiful progressive concept album, an urge persists for the thrill of the arena-sized riff and rattle of proper heavy metal. You know, the kind of stuff that makes you feel like you’re a pitch down when you’ve only had a pint, or allows you to imagine your engine revving with the force of at least twice its listed cylinder count.1 Timechild knows this feeling, and with their 2021 debut And Yet It Moves, they presented a solid, proto-metal-inspired outing—your Deep Purple, Rainbow, UFO, and related acts—with focused musicianship and a voice that knows how to soar.
Continuing down their chosen path, Timechild takes the feel-good sounds of hard rock past and fuses a modern-looking, 00’s radio melancholy to form their own brooding yet bolstered identity. Cuts from Blossom & Plague don’t feel far away from the T-injected dad jams of a band like Tremonti or the soulful and virtuosic AOR thump of Winery Dogs, but this unheralded Danish act plays without a notion that bands like that even exist. Hungry and targeted, Timechild instead comes off holding homage as a tool in the kit, reminiscent of fellow Scandinavian throwback act Audrey Horne. And similar to that act, one founding member, Martin Haumann, has spent much of his career far outside the trad circuit, helming the kit for the techy, thrashing Mother of All and the folky, atmospheric calls of Afsky and Myrkyr. Unfitting pedigree—and the unlisted talents of his bandmates—aside, Timechild supplies a bluesy swing and rumble (“Call of the Petrichor,” “Buried in Autumn”) that matches a band that sounds as if they’d been playing for far longer than three years.
Lead vocalist Anders Folden Brink immediately glues the experience together with his warm, gritty baritone croon. Truth is, though he’s uncredited in the metal world, Brink spent some years prior to Timechild with SEA, who boasted a less propulsive but equally rock attitude as this entity. No surprise, he shines there too, but Timechild has allowed him to lay pipe across sneaky, cutting riffs in a junkyard metal fashion (“The Dying Tide II,” “Hands of Time”)—feel good tunes held out with calloused hands. With the spectacle and machismo of peak Coverdale-Whitesnake, and backed by the kind of dark vocal layering pioneered by Alice in Chains, album highlights “Call of the Petrichor” and “Only Our Shadows Remain” see Brink both calling wildly for a stadium-sized crowd to holler yet towering above them at his most dramatic moments.  From: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/timechild-blossom-plague-review/  

 

Uxu Kalhus - Extravagante

“Radical folk,” “subversive folk,” or “chameleonic sounds” are expressions that Uxu Kalhus, whose name is a kind of phonetic transcription of Os Chocalhos (The Cowbells), rightly uses to define themselves. And rightly so, because, starting from melodies, forms, and lyrics of the Portuguese dance tradition, such as the malhão, viras, corridinhos, mazurkas, and chotiças, their sound is imbued with the tribal force of Afro-Brazilian rhythms, the urban communication philosophy of hip-hop and raggamuffin', and the sensual cadence of Caribbean music with touches of jazz and ska, in a fascinating musical melting pot that continues to surprise with every shifting moment. Didgeridoo sounds and powerful electric guitar riffs combine with bouzoukis, percussion, flutes... Eclecticism, versatility, passion, energy, and a unique originality. An exhilarating musical offering that they have already taken to countless stages and which is captured in two memorable albums: A revolta dos badalos (The Revolt of the Clappers) and Transumâncias groove, in addition to their live DVD celebrating 10 years of Folk in Portuguese, released at the end of 2010.  Translated from: https://cantarranacorps.blogspot.com/2011/06/uxu-kalhus.html

 

Pateka - Night Stairs

Experimental rock quartet Pateka released their self-titled debut album, Pateka. A nine-track, 34-minute EP that blends jazz, psychedelia, and experimental neo-soul–Pateka's let loose on their first full-length effort with a blend of synthesizers, samples, wonky grooves, and uncontrollable time signatures.
Made up of longtime collaborators—Elihu Knowles on vocals and keys, Dylan Ransley on guitar, Quinn Girard on bass, Ryan Higley on drums, and Hayden Dekker on saxophone, flute, and synths—Pateka is a group of old friends who understand each other’s quirks and eccentricities, coming together to create something both weird and special.
Equal parts Discipline-era King Crimson, sparkling 1980s jazz-fusion, and mid-2000s math rock with a smattering of smooth blue-eyed soul, Pateka is a genuinely lush soundscape, revised over months by the band and stuffed full of snippets of recorded dialogue–most notably, a cry of “I’m not going to space, that shit’s too far!”- warm friendship and musical wit.
According to vocalist Elihu Knowles, one particular track, “Teni,” was inspired by their time working together at a Burmese restaurant. “The song plays with the duality of the fast-paced jazz we’d play in the dining room when it was super busy, juxtaposed with whatever was on the radio in the kitchen. Walking between those two zones on a busy day always feels super disorienting, and we wanted to write something that captured that. Most of the dialogue is real stuff we heard from coworkers and customers.”
“Teni” starts up like a whirlwind, almost sinister with its arrival. It then builds, messy layers of dialogue, the ringing of a bell in the background, slow bass, wailing saxophone, and an almost maddening rhythm that refuses to stay consistent.
This same sense of chaos is also adeptly used on track “Gnome’s Orchard,” which shifts between fuzzed-out, background noise-heavy prog bass fighting for dominance with smeary brass, and the quiet moments interspersed throughout, which creates the sense of going through a door from a noisy outside space into a calm house. It’s jarring, and it’s great. Despite its manically upbeat energy, much of the album is dedicated to the loss of a close friend of the band.
Opener “Cafe Chroma” explores the band members’ personal grief journey and acceptance, and alongside the interludes “Big Red” and aptly-named “Loss,” the emotional insistence of the record is palpable, despite its frenetic energy. “Loss” is a jazz standard in almost every way, but specifically if a jazz standard was being played drunk and was being listened to specifically by someone lying on the floor watching the world spin.
The self-titled track “Pateka” carries a touch of Conor Oberst’s emo sensibilities, the vocals smeared across the song as if reluctant to be there, layered over crashing cymbals, rumbling bass, tweeting synths, and an oddly—but sweetly—melodic guitar. It’s like early Muse put through a fax machine, shredded, then reassembled with strips of an also-shredded Battles. It almost shouldn’t work, but like the rest of the album, the confluence of genres and production choices feels deliberate rather than messy.
Album closer “Rock Night” manages to be almost normal–at least, at first. The track really serves to cap the album off at exactly the right point. The vocals might be half-there, the background bloops might be as present as ever, and the rest of the instrumentation might be doing its best drone, but it feels like the end result of an automated song machine finally turning its cogs in sync with itself – that is, until the tracks starts speeding up, and turns itself into something that wouldn’t be amiss as the score for an extended chase scene.
Overall, Pateka is something wholly special. Handled by lesser musicians, it would be unbearable; it should be messy, and it shouldn’t make sense. But this is almost certainly the gift of a band who have worked together – and have known each other–as long as Pateka have. It’s one of the most inventive, freshest things I’ve heard all year, and I’ll be listening to it on repeat for months to come.  From: https://earmilk.com/album-reviews/pateka-show-up-to-the-party-to-make-it-weird-on-their-self-titled-debut-lp-album-review/

Skating Polly - Hail Mary

Scene Point Blank: What’s one thing you wish everyone knew about Skating Polly?

Kelli: I guess just how versatile we can be. I think it's easier for people to think that we're a loud girl band or something. But one thing that I'm really proud of is our band is really versatile -- there’s lots of sides to us. It's funny. I'll have relatives who you know just go, “It’s not my thing” and I’ll go, “It's okay, Grandma. Have you heard this song?” [Laughs.] And then it’s, “Oh, that’s lovely. Why don’t you sing like that more?” [Laughs.]

Scene Point Blank: Broadly speaking your music is considered to be punk, or at least have a deep punk influence and appreciation. Is there ever a fear that you’re trapped in a box now as far as genre goes? Do you feel pressure to sound a certain way to appease fans?

Kelli: Not really. I think part of labelling ourselves Ugly-Pop was like, you know, when you make up your own genre, it can be whatever you say it is. Ugly-Pop is an oxymoron to me; it covers like all sides of the spectrum a little bit. The idea is every harsh song has a little bit of pretty in it and every pretty song has a little bit of weirdness or harshness or darkness in it. I don't feel too trapped in a box. Sometimes when we’re planning a live show, building a setlist, I feel like we have to do a certain number of the faster, louder ones. Those are also just fun to play. But you know, I think it's weird with Skating Polly fans. A lot of the songs that I am most proud of, that's what people end up latching onto the most as well. There's not been a lot of times where I've written a song and then been like, “Oh man, this one really got overlooked.” I mean, there are songs that are less popular than others. The ones that resonate with me the strongest usually strike a chord with other people as well no matter what genre it is.

Scene Point Blank: You kind of have a song for everyone then?

Kelli: Yeah, it feels like that. With this album, I sent it to a lot of my close friends and other musicians and everyone had different favourites and that's really exciting. So, it’s like they're all really good songs and it's more like what your vibe is.

Scene Point Blank: You’ve talked about Ugly-Pop as this idea of heavy melody mixed with imperfections and blemishes. As you refine your sound and continue to gain experience, is it more difficult to tap into the “ugly” part of Ugly-Pop?

Kelli: No, I feel like that's always very accessible to me. [Laughs.] First of all, as we've become better musicians, we’re pushing ourselves. A lot of the time me, Kurtis and Peyton will write parts that we can't quite play yet. So, there's still room there for errors, you're learning these parts that you're trying to play in the studio. When you aren’t editing yourself with robot perfection, there's always these really cool imperfections. There's always these cool moments, if you just, like, look under the rock and see who’s hanging out. I feel like that’s just part of playing music and putting yourself out there: you will just naturally kind of capture these things, these chatty moments. So no, it's not been hard to tap into that. “Ugly” has evolved in what it means to me. Ugly is a guitar flub we decided to keep in the track or sometimes the content of the song is about a really ugly feeling. Sometimes it's getting vulnerable with my voice in a way that's not the most proper singing but is still just a cool, real moment. To me, it's always been about not editing out humanity. That’s how you keep ugly and Ugly-Pop.

Scene Point Blank: It’s been five years since your last album. Does Chaos County Line feel like a chance to reintroduce yourselves? Or does it feel like you never left?

Kelli: I feel like our first tour after the pandemic was like the chance to reintroduce ourselves. It was the longest Kurtis, Peyton and I had been apart. I was living in LA a bit, I was living in Oregon a bit, so we weren't all together. I do really feel like the record, though, is a continuation of what we've always been doing from the start. But it's evolved and I feel like it's our best work yet. Of course I want to reach new fan --- but I think that people who’ve known about us will also like it. I think this will resonate with them. It's not like we were trying to recapture something we did before, but I really do feel like it was the natural progression of where everything started and kind of like everything's been leading up to this. [Laughs.] Which is like, “Where does the next one go?” which I don’t know. [Laughs.] Yeah, I'm really proud of it. I really do hope it reaches new people. That's another thing that actually happened during the pandemic. A lot of young, cool people found our music randomly. Our audiences have been a lot younger and made up of people who like to make their own clothes. It's like a Skating Polly Ugly-Pop fashion show every night. Like, it's really rad.
Photo by Karen Mason Blair

Scene Point Blank: I've been a fan for a while, and I’ve noticed younger people have recently started getting into your music too.

Kelli: Yeah, it hasn't always been like that. There have been some younger fans and I don’t think young people dislike us, but it's just like we weren't capturing the attention of a lot of young people. We were touring with X and these people that I think -- I don't know -- it's just our audience was a lot of older rockers and that was cool ‘cause it was people who really appreciated music and kind of music snobs, you know, who like Skating Polly. Now we’re catching on with younger people. I feel like the cool kids.

Scene Point Blank: A lot of your past merch has been DIY or handmade and Skating Polly generally carries a do-it-yourself ethos. Does it feel like you, as a band, are reviving a more DIY mindset in comparison to other bands today?

Kelli: I've definitely always been very pro DIY. Just this last tour we ran out of printed T-shirts so we went to Walmart, bought some white t-shirts, bought fabric markers, you know, and went for it. We are on a label -- a small label that’s been really great to us -- but it's funny ‘cause there's just still so much that we take care of. There is so much that we're constantly doing ourselves. It's cool because it would be very un-Ugly-Pop if we had that all streamlined and taken care of. It’s the only way to make sure we’re doing things the most Skating Polly way. I hope it inspires people to just do things themselves. It totally is the same mindset as Ugly-Pop, you know: to just go for it, make it, put it out there, it shouldn't be perfect.

Scene Point Blank: You started making music when you were pretty young. As you’ve aged did it ever feel like there was a point when you had to decide to try and take music on as a career and forgo a more traditional job?

Kelli: I've always known that I wanted this to be my thing. I mean, I'm living back with my parents now. There are times when I’m like, “Oh,” ‘cause I want to move back to LA. [Laughs.] There are times when I want to make more money, but I don't really consider something else as another career. It's just, “What else can I squeeze it so that I can make money while doing this?” There's definitely sacrifices I make so that Skating Polly can be my focus -- same for Peyton and Kurtis. Truly I don't see life without it. This is me and if it never gets to the level where I can just live off of my music then I'll just keep doing it at this level forever. I don't think that'll be the case. I think that things will keep growing and it's not something that I’m going to stop. Peyton and Kurtis feel the same way. We all just want to keep going with it forever. The things that it fulfils in our life couldn't be filled by anything else.

From: https://www.scenepointblank.com/features/interviews/skating-polly/ 

 

Telyscopes - Metamorphosis

“I need a change of pace, loss of face,” sings experimental Philly artist Jack Hubbell on the first track from the 13th Telyscopes album, Spectacol ///. “I need an unpaid vacation that never ends.” And sure enough, his narrator gets what he asks for, way down at the very bottom of everything. The song is called “MH370,” framed with a two-note guitar vamp that flashes like a warning light, and it ends not with a wonderful splash, but with audio carnage–howling distortion as grim sound painting of the Malaysia Airlines flight whose disappearance dominated the global news in March of 2014.
Telyscopes’ catalog is, on some level, a flight recorder logging Hubbell’s musical fixation on disaster. Sometimes that’s personal (finding blood in your urine, getting swept away in a flash flood) and other times, it’s social and political (nuclear weapons tests, assassinations). Like the best cinematic horrors and thrillers, the setup creates compelling drama by pushing humanity to the most extreme limits–or at least engages in the time-honored tradition of tapping your fellow man on the shoulder and saying, “Hey, was that fucked up, or what?”
To that body of work, Hubbell adds the chilling “O-Ring,” littered with saxophone, theremin, and debris from the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Is it morbid and horrific? You bet–take it up with cable news, I guess. This is a record haunted by the sense that catastrophe can happen at any time, but Hubbell doesn’t make the alternative sound much better: “What is waiting for us, at the end of our numbered days?” he asks on “Python (In the Weeds).” “Maternity centers, custody hearings, nursing homes, marble graves.”
That’s a rare direct soliloquy on an album that, as often as not, invites you to gawk at its wildness. The title Spectacol /// comes from the Romanian word for “show.” To wit: in the music video for “Metamorphosis” (more chant than song, rattling by on chitinous legs), Hubbell drinks raw egg from a champagne flute before flashing a demented smile at the camera. The album follows much the same spirit, pushing the experimentalism of his last full-length With A Y while cutting back on that record’s diaristic tendencies (unless, of course, there’s something he’s not telling us, re: his experience with prion diseases).
Spectacol /// is personal in other ways–this time out, there are fewer instrumentalists hired from Fiverr and more focus on close collaborators from past projects. Patty Hamill provides pianos and synths, Karl Hovmark plays drums, and long-time live singer Madelyn Van Trieste becomes the first guest vocalist to feature on a Telyscopes record. And in the end, there’s no mistaking Hubbell’s singular rhythm, piloting through ecstatic skronk, synth-laden nightmares, and soft fusion jazz like bends in a jungle cruise.  From: https://theallsceneeye.com/2021/09/21/telyscopes-13th-album-casts-itself-as-a-plane-crash-you-cant-look-away-from/

Old Blood - Midnight Climax

It’s been a long four years since the release of 2020’s Acid Doom, the second album by Californian heavyweights Old Blood. In that time, the band have been busy refining their dynamics, reinforcing their strengths, and plotting for world domination. Back in my first summer of writing for The Shaman, I had the absolute honour of reviewing that very release, and it was on my Top Ten list for the year.
I found both the band, and the album, to be just so utterly engaging, and interesting, in equal measure. The blend of psychedelic occult bluesiness, mixed with those hard rocking theatrics completely blew my mind. Now here we are. Four years on, and the unit have never sounded tighter.
On Acid Doom vocalist Lynx was a relatively new addition, but those sparkles of greatness were evident. Now, fully fledged in the ranks, the vocal dynamics are at the next level and have more than helped to shape Old Blood 2024. Midnight Climax shows just how much Lynx and the boys have embraced their uniquely lavish sound, and have brought something to the table that is very much needed, an air of mystery to music again.
The sounds are vibrantly nostalgic, darkly wondrous and richly intoxicating. The heady desert rock meets psychedelia vibe gives for more of an eclectic sound, which is reminiscent of Jess And The Ancient Ones, but with more of an Americana swagger. Over the course of the seven tracks, this is driven firmly home, and even for seven tracks, you are still getting an incredible forty minutes of otherworldly goodness. It may not sound like a lot, but it’s forty minutes jam packed with awesomeness, which is all killer, no filler.
Opening with the title track, and a somewhat suggestively titled Midnight Climax, the band wastes no time in reintroducing themselves, and picking up where they left off with Acid Doom. With a distorted spacy guitar introduction, the band, one by one, emerge from the darkness and into the light. Dark, brooding and dripping in ‘70s ooze, they firmly announce their return, and it’s somewhat spiritual. Lynx’s vocal is as overwhelming as ever, and with a saucy, sensual display the outpouring begins. It’s a full body desert rock at midnight kind of affair, naughty, but very very nice.  From: https://thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/old-blood-midnight-climax/ 

The Wytches - Unsure

Hi Kristian, how did The Wytches come about?

We started in 2011. Our drummer Gianni and I just decided to move to Brighton because there was nothing going on for us in Peterborough. We both upped and went to university in Brighton. We started in the band in Peterborough with a guy called Mark on bass, but he didn’t want to move with us so we just went.

Was there much difference between the music scene in Brighton and the one in Peterborough?

Basically everything is different about it really. It’s got a culture in Brighton, or several cultures in Brighton, and in Peterborough you are kind of limited. There is not much to do and you are left to your own devices. I guess that can be a good thing but in Brighton you are spoilt for choice.

How did you come up with the name The Wytches?

When we first started we were just called The Witches. I just thought it was quite funny that it was so average. I liked the idea that there were probably a million bands called The Witches. We knew we weren’t significant to anyone back then, as we had just started and we weren’t trying to come into the music industry with a big bang. We were just up for making music and having a really simple name. It kind of fitted.

Is it true that the Y was added to make your name more easily found online?

We got management and they said if we wanted to get things going a bit more, it might be easier. I liked how it was written down when it was spelt with a Y too. We recorded about three EPs under the name The Witches but we didn’t do too much with them. We hadn’t amassed a following so we didn’t feel it was going to harm us to change it.

You have described your sound as surf-doom in the past, do you stick by that?

You know you get really silly genres like ‘moderate-funk’, we said surf-doom as it was a really obscure genre and I found it funny. I think people thought I was being serious. The stuff before the album was a lot more thrash. Now it is more rock music or just songs. Songs played in a disgusting way, hard, loud and unlistenable.

What music influences The Wytches as a band do you think?

This sound particularly is influenced a lot by The Birthday Party and bands like that; old fifties surf music too. This is just the sound of our entrance into the music world though. We jam all the time and it’s not always like that. This is just how we wanted it for this particular album. I have many influences and I wouldn’t want to be one thing. I mean, it will always sound like The Wytches and a lot of noise mainly.

You have an artist called Sam Hull who does all the band’s artwork, is that visual side of the band important to you?

Yes it is. Every band needs some kind of visual side to it and with Sam it is always of a good quality. I know he’ll come back with something great, which is his own interpretation of the music. It’s always his wacky interpretation. He is a really close friend of mine so it always nice to work with your close pal.

How does your creative process work within the band?

I normally record songs at home. I can play the drums too so I can demo stuff myself and then show it to the band. Then sometimes, I won’t demo them and leave them guys to add their own parts to it. It is equal parts collaborative as much as it is me bringing it to them.

Lets talk about the new album, Annabel Dream Reader. What’s the name about?

The name was just something that I just thought of when I was in school. I used to be into creative writing; where music isn’t involved. Where you are just writing for the love. It always stuck with me. I don’t know the significance of it. I just knew I liked it and it made me think of certain things. It felt cool for the album.

Is it true you recorded the whole album in just two days?

We knew the songs and they were really old when we went to record them. We built those songs properly from playing them live rather than figuring them out in the studio. Most of them came together in their complete form. It just happened to not take that long at all.

Why did you decide to record it all analogue to tape?

All my favourite bands recorded on tape. We tried recording on digital loads of times before but it just never really worked. Digital is cool when you are tracking everything so you can isolate things and put it together that way but tape for me works better when you do it all live, when everything is bleeding into one another and all the instruments are blending.

From: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/the-wytches-this-is-just-the-sound-of-our-entrance-into-the-music-world

 

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - She's a Rainbow (Rolling Stones cover)

“It just kind of happened organically. I wanted a fun project to work on and it was nice because it kind of re-inspired me during the pandemic,” Molly Tuttle explains, while discussing the origins of her new record. On …but i’d rather be with you, the dynamic acoustic guitarist and singer interprets 10 songs from other artists, ranging from Harry Styles (“Sunflower, Vol. 6”) to Karen Dalton (“Something on Your Mind”), The National (“Fake Empire”), FKA Twigs (“Mirrored Heart”) and the Grateful Dead (“Standing on the Moon,” which yielded the album title). “I was feeling drained and it was hard for me to write my own songs. So coming back to these songs that I love was helpful.”
At the time, she was in the initial stages of working with producer Tony Berg on the follow-up to her acclaimed 2019 album, When You’re Ready. “We had been talking about making a record sometime this year or early next year so I had been staying with him. We were just trying to get to know each other while we did some preproduction—we’d play songs and listen to music together. I flew home to Nashville from his house in LA and then went into quarantine. A couple of weeks into it, we both felt like we should start working together and put these covers together. I sent him some demos—just me playing songs that I liked. And, when he heard them, he was like, ‘Why don’t we just make an album of these covers, quarantine style. You send me your guitar and vocal tracks, and I’ll have people that I work with play on top of them.” That list eventually included: Taylor Goldsmith, Matt Chamberlain, Patrick Warren and Ketch Secor.
In making her song selections, Tuttle decided to focus on compositions that were uncommon in acoustic picking circles. That is why the 26-year-old musician—who studied in the American Roots Music Program at the Berklee College of Music and would go on to win the IBMA Bluegrass Music Award for Guitar Player of the Year in 2017 (when she was the first women ever nominated in the category) and 2018—opted to take on The Rolling Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow.”
Tuttle acknowledges, “The style of the song is so different from my own that it was a little challenging to work up. But once I realized that I wanted to learn the piano part as closely as I could on the guitar, the song opened up to me and I felt like I could put my own spin on it while still paying tribute to the original.” Not only does the song appear on …but i’d rather be with you, but Tuttle also conceived an absorbing, ruminative video in which her own performance of the tune is juxtaposed with appearances by a series of guests (including Tom Morello, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Linda Perry, Nathaniel Rateliff, Lilly Hiatt, Danny Clinch and Ali Harnell) who share their handwritten reflections on gender roles and social equity.  From: https://relix.com/articles/detail/molly-tuttle-shes-a-rainbow/

 

David Bowie - Queen Bitch - Old Grey Whistle Test 1972

“I’m up on the eleventh floor, and I’m watching the cruisers below.” That’s how it starts: the singer unable to sit still, pacing the narrow length of his hotel room, unwillingly returning to the window over and over again so he can watch his lover pick up someone on the street. It could be a transvestite, or a female prostitute—it’s galling to the singer in any case. And what’s most galling isn’t the betrayal, really, but the sort of pickup his man’s descending to—“Oh God, I could do better than that!“ he snarls in desperation and envy. Is he talking about his own taste in cruising, or that he’s flashier and prettier than the streetwalker? It’s either or both.
It’s Bowie’s Velvet Underground song (the riff’s a bit like “Sweet Jane”‘s, and “sister Flo” is a cousin of “Sister Ray”), but “Queen Bitch” isn’t an imitation of the VU as much as it’s an utter annexation of their sound. It’s as if Bowie had taken a photograph of one of Lou Reed’s urban landscapes and imposed his image upon a corner of it, a vicious face framed in a hotel window. When Reed finally sang it in public, at Bowie’s 50th birthday concert, he looked amused and slightly bewildered, as if wondering whether he had written the song himself.
There’s the riff, of course—a primal progression of C-G-F. Bowie gives it first on his 12-string acoustic, then Mick Ronson zips in and steals it whole, his guitar mixed so that it leaps from right speaker to left, his tone loud and dirty. The riff is all there is (no solos, only a slight variation in the chorus): it’s set at a breakneck tempo, repeated twice with each appearance, and arranged so that the repeat of “C” comes just before the bar, heightening the anticipation, furthering the drive. Bowie’s so enamored with the riff (and he should be) he has it bolster most lines of his verses.
The first verse, only five lines, sets the stage, while the chorus delivers the put-down. But in the second and third verses, as the singer’s indignation bursts, he simply won’t let the song go, pushing out the verses for another three or four lines, the band coming with him—Woodmansey crashing on cymbals, Ronson thrashing his guitar—while the singer pounds his hands against the cheap hotel wall. It ends in a series of jump cuts: “And he’s down on the street! so I throw both his bags down the hall! And I’m phoning a cab, ‘cos my stomach feels small!…It could've been me oh yeah It could've been me!”  From: https://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/queen-bitch/

Townland - Highland Park TV 2023

For those potentially out of the loop, Townland is a Los Angeles-based project that’s made up of Shannon Locke (lead vocals), Matt Gourley (guitar, e-bow, vocals), Daniel Michicoff (bass, vocals), and Wade Ryan (guitar, keyboards, percussion, vocals). Although the band has been around since around 2008 and experienced many iterations, finally they managed to get out their long awaited debut album titled Honey on the Hi-Fi. It’s an eclectic mix of soft rock, country, Americana, and so much more that comes together and delivers an unbelievably wholesome and uplifting listening experience. Plain and simple, we love it, and truly cannot recommend it enough.
Coming in at 12 songs that span right around 45 minutes, it immediately comes off as one of those listens that shows you what it’s got up front, but only gets better with repetition. While we’ve had many opportunities to enjoy this over the course of last year, a major factor of our love for it is its versatility and sincerity. It’s quite obvious that Shannon’s euphoric vocals steal the show right up front, but that’s not a slight to every other talented member of the band that plays with passion and love. It’s not something you can learn, rather a feeling that effortlessly comes off. The breezy, lighthearted, and slightly more doomy songs hit you right in the feels as you attempt to connect the dots within their storylines, however everything is still up for interpretation depending on how you depict it as a listen. Thankfully we got some much needed backstory on some of these songs’ origins and how far their creation dates back, which is another reason we’re urging everyone to enjoy this conversation prior to your listen.
Another underrated aspect of this record is its cohesiveness and the way that it flows so smoothly from track to track. While there may not be an overarching message, it hardly matters, because everything about Honey on the Hi-Fi is one laidback mood. As mentioned during our conversation, an ideal listen would take place on a quiet and slow Sunday morning with a hot cup of coffee, popping this on the turntable, and letting the music curate your day. It serves up that coveted album experience that feels like a lost art nowadays due to single streaming culture, so if you’re looking to lose yourself in something that borders on perfection, this is 100% the record for you.  From: https://www.wewriteaboutmusic.com/reviews/townland-honey-on-the-hifi-interview 

Foreigner - S/T - Side 1

01 - Feels Like the First Time
02 - Cold as Ice
03 - Starrider
04 - At War With the World
05 - The Damage Is Done

Born in Portsmouth, Mick Jones had been in bands since the early 60s, and had achieved a modicum of success when he lived in France and worked with Johnny Hallyday.
“He was – and still is – treated like the French Elvis,” says Jones. “And being in his band gave me the opportunity of meeting so many greats, like Jimmy Page [who played on the Hallyday single A Tout Casser] and Otis Redding, who came over to teach Johnny how to sing soul. It was an incredible grounding, which taught me a lot. I call it my ‘French Period’.”
In 1973, Jones hooked up with Gary Wright to start Wonderwheel. “Then Island Records asked us to get Spooky Tooth back together [Wright had been an original member of the band], and that lasted about three years. But when Spooky Tooth broke up I was left high and dry in New York. However, I got the chance of joining the Leslie West Band [who released one self-titled album in 1976]. Working with Leslie was such a privilege; he was a great guitarist and songwriter, even though there were harrowing experiences at times. But it prepared me to do my own thing.”
In 1976, Jones began to bring to fruition a vision he’d been harbouring secretly for a long time. “What I wanted to do was a British take on American music. I had gotten into R&B and also loved soul music. I was very comfortable with the idea of doing rock with a soulful feel – and that was the foundation for the new band.”
One of the most crucial people involved in this project from the beginning was Bud Prager. The pair had met because Prager managed Leslie West, but now they began to realise there was a synergy between them, one that would later prove to be mutually beneficial.“We challenged one another,” laughs Jones. “I threw down the gauntlet to him to prove he could be an effective manager for me, and he dared me to prove that I could actually put together my own band and make my musical dream come true. It was a great partnership.”
“I understood from the start that Mick wasn’t just an artist, but one who had the discipline to make things happen,” Prager once said. “Our relationship was more than just a manager and his client. I knew that first album would sell at least a million copies even before it was recorded, because I had complete faith in Mick.”
The quest for Jones was to put together a band who could bring his ideas to life, and he began with two Englishmen whom he already knew. “I had met Ian McDonald before the band idea ever came up,” Jones says, “and so it seemed logical to ask him to be part of this from the start.”
Multi-instrumentalist McDonald (who had been part of the early King Crimson) has a slightly different recollection on the timing of his recruitment.
“As far as I can recall, Mick already had a couple of musicians on board by the time he contacted me. I believe Al [Greenwood, keys] was already in the line-up, and there was one more as well, although I can’t now recall who this would have been. But Mick and I got on very well, so working with him was the sensible thing to do.”
The probability is that drummer Dennis Elliott was already involved when McDonald was brought in, because his arrival is seen as crucial by Jones. “I had played with Dennis on Ian Hunter’s first solo album [1975’s Ian Hunter],” says Jones, “and he inspired me a lot in terms of the direction the band should take. He had a really special feel in the way that he played, and I loved that. Dennis acted as a sounding board for my ideas, and I’d say he was a major part of Foreigner. In fact, he was the spirit of the band as far as I was concerned.”
But Jones was also determined to bring in young talents who elicited a freshness and vitality. Musicians who weren’t tainted by years of failure or bitterness. “Al Greenwood and [bassist] Ed Gagliardi both came from the New York area, and while they’d been in local bands for a few years, they’d not had any significant success. But both fitted in with what I was after.”
The American duo were both found through a series of extensive auditions held at a rehearsal studio in the building where Prager’s office was located. “The studio had been built by Felix Pappalardi of Mountain, when he worked with Bud [the two effectively co-managed Mountain], so we just based ourselves there for nine months while the line-up came together.”
The biggest problem they faced was finding the right vocalist. In the end, around 50 hopefuls were auditioned. “We tried out so many. And all of them were young guys who were unknowns at the time; I don’t think any of them went on to have success, though. There were a few who were good – but not good enough. You see, I had an idea in my head of how the singer should come across. I’d hear a Robert Plant or Paul Rodgers doing the songs, and I kept on singing to myself to get an idea of what worked. So I wasn’t prepared to settle for less than someone who really knocked me out.”
Two high profile vocalists were almost offered the chance to front the band. One was American Ian Lloyd, who had topped the US singles chart in 1973 with Brother Louie, while he was a member of Stories. “Ian was a friend of mine, and he helped us out during the auditions. And I came very close to asking him if he wanted to be the vocalist in the band. He was really good, and it felt right when he did the songs.”
Lloyd would end up doing backing vocals not only on this album, but also subsequent Foreigner recordings. The second possibility, meanwhile, was a little more far-fetched. “I had gotten to know Steve Winwood when Spooky Tooth toured with Traffic,” says Jones. “And while we were still struggling to find a suitable vocalist, I went on holiday to Wales with a friend. Steve was staying very close by, and we hung out for a few days. I was always a fan of his voice, and was very tempted to ask him if he’d consider joining the band. But I could never quite bring myself to ask him. I just thought he would inevitably turn down the whole idea, so it remained one of those thoughts you never put into action. Still, I do sometimes wonder if he might have agreed to give it a go!”
However, all such thoughts were dispelled when Lou Gramm entered the story. Formerly with Rochester, New York band Black Sheep (who had released two albums), Gramm was asked to audition by Jones. “What happened was that when Mick was still in Spooky Tooth, they played in Rochester, New York, where Black Sheep were based,” says Gramm. “So we went along to the show, and because our manager worked for A&M Records [to whom Spooky Tooth were signed in America], we got to meet the band afterwards, and gave them copies of our two albums [1974’s self-titled debut and the following year’s Encouraging Words].
“Then we had a major piece of bad luck. We’d been chosen to open for Kiss, but after the first gig in Boston our van hit a patch of ice, which not only destroyed the van but most of our equipment as well. That meant we had to pull out of the Kiss tour, and come off the road for ages.
“In April 1976, Mick tracked me down and asked if I’d like to audition for his new band. But I turned the offer down, because I was committed to Black Sheep. Anyway, Mick said he’d call again in two weeks to see if I’d changed my mind. Now, when I mentioned the offer to the rest of the guys, they told me to go ahead and audition, because Black Sheep would be out of action for a long time. So when Mick did call back, I accepted his offer.”
McDonald says that Jones took a lot of convincing before he finally plumped for Gramm as singer. “Mick put on the first Black Sheep album, and as soon as I heard the vocals I just knew Lou was the man for us. I said so at the time to Mick, but he insisted that we had to go through the whole process of auditioning him. I kept on at Mick, telling him we had to grab this guy before someone else did, and finally he agreed with me. He was very cautious about it, though.” Jones, though, suggests he was won over by Gramm almost immediately.
“As soon as he came in to the audition, I realised we’d found our guy. He sounded exactly the way I wanted the band’s singer to come across. Lou was just so much better than anyone else we had tried out. He brought everything to a new level.”
Gramm sang four songs in his audition: Feels Like The First Time, At War With The World, Woman, Oh Woman and Take Me To Your Leader. And these were the same songs the newly cemented sextet elected to record for the demo that they hoped would get them the all-important record deal. This was cut in the same rehearsal room where the auditions were held, and in the case of Feels Like The First Time it featured Gramm’s very first try at doing the song.  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/foreigner-debut-album