Emerson, Lake & Palmer - The Endless Enigma

 #Emerson, Lake & Palmer #Kieth Emerson #Greg Lake #Carl Palmer #progressive rock #symphonic prog #art rock #hard rock #jazz rock #blues rock #electronic #modern classical #1970s 

The first thing you'll ever learn about Emerson, Lake & Palmer is that they were the first 'supergroup' of the progosphere. The second thing is that they made their living on hyper-fast semi-classical excursions on anything equipped with ivories, preferably connected to sci-fi modulators (courtesy of Keith Emerson), hyper-fast machine gun drumming on anything equipped with a skin (courtesy of Carl Palmer) and suspiciously mellow folk balladry about anything equipped with a vagina (courtesy of Greg Lake). Every now and then though, they got together around lengthy pieces aspiring to one-up just about any modern classical composer in existence and in the process came up with some of the finest prog epics known to man. You see, this is one band where prog initiation is all but obligatory for anyone to have a decent chance to get into them, and I don't really think that anyone with much more humble taste would have that much need for Lake's ballads alone. Not that they are bad or anything, quite the opposite, but we'll get to that in due time.
Anyhoo, they got together as a result of Keith Emerson's, freshly out of The Nice, ambition to expand the boundaries of three-piece bands in 1970. He teamed up with bass player/guitarist/singer Greg Lake, who was right in the midst of recording "In the wake of Poseidon" with King Crimson but decided ELP was a better shot, and drum ace Carl Palmer who was to be found in Atomic Rooster (which you by the way really should check out; Art metal began here) as well as being an Arthur Brown graduate. And I'm gonna take the opportunity to debunk a widespread myth here; Hendrix was not considered as a fourth member (which would have yielded the abbreviation "HELP") since Emerson was keen on preserving the trio format from the very beginning, and I've got at least one fairly recent in-depth interview with Carl Palmer in a magazine to back it up. From the very beginning they pulled out all the stops on their live performances with Emerson straddling his Hammond organ the same way that Hendrix straddled his guitar, making it scream and moan with feedback and all kinds of unholy noises, occasionally crowning it all with daggers between the keys. Trust me, you gotta see it if you haven't already! What he should be revered for though, is his classically tinged finger-flashing over the whole thing. He could pull out just about anything from his sleeve, from rag-time barroom piano to Bach fugues at the speed of light. Of course, he had already made a name for himself in The Nice, but it was in ELP that he rose to the sky really. And don't forget his toying with all those Moog synthesizers which he actually helped develop with Bob Moog himself at the time.
Obviously, Emerson was the center of attention, but do not forget that he was backed up by one of the finest rhythm sections in prog as well. Carl Palmer may not be the fastest drummer in the world, but he sure is the fastest drummer I know of that simultaneously could swing and deliver something more than just robotic noise. After all, he took his inspiration from such giants as Buddy Rich, didn't he? And then Greg Lake, a great bass player in his own rights who on occasion had to switch to guitar to fill in the gaps, and on top of that crowned the songs with one of the best voices in rock; bombastic but yet humane and delicate. Listen to what he does on tracks like "The great gates of Kiev" and compare it with "The sage" or "Living sin". Talk about versatility! And he was also responsible for the more melodic and accessible elements of ELP's output and all of their albums sport at least one stripped-down acoustic ballad courtesy of him.
So there, the scene is set. Now what? Full frontal prog that managed to write itself into the history books as one of the most bloated, self-indulgent, excessive and pretentious acts of the whole movement. That's what the critics will tell you whether they like it or not, but that's not the whole picture. They were never strangers to silly little send-ups (or the aforementioned acoustic stuff) either, to spice up the flow on their albums and those who claim that progsters took themselves much too seriously have obviously missed out on songs like "Benny the bouncer". Of course, none of the occasional detours would overshadow their main schtick which was the grandiose epics and Emerson's lengthy keyboard excesses. But that's alright with me, because they are among the greatest epics and keyboard excesses ever captured on magnetic tape. I just don't want you to forget they were much more multi-faceted than they normally get credit for.
From: https://www.musicbanter.com/album-reviews/54650-endless-enigma-emerson-lake-palmer-reviewed.html#ixzz7vud1uMYp

Betty Wright - Clean Up Woman

 #Betty Wright #R&B #soul #Southern soul #funk pop #1970s

Betty Wright was a soul and R&B singer with deep gospel roots. She influenced a generation of female singer-songwriters and the world of hip hop, who sample some of her more famous material. Born singing gospel with the family group, the Echoes of Joy, Wright began experimenting with R&B music in 1965 when she was only 11. In 1968, she released her first album, My First Time Around, at the age of 14, and scored her first national hit, "Girls Can't Do What Guys Can Do". But it was not until the end of 1971 that Wright's most successful phase of her career began to take place. The song, "Clean Up Woman", became a Top 5 pop and #2 R&B hit, and would later influence a remix of Mary J. Blige's "Real Love" single with the sample of its guitar riffs; R&B girl group trio SWV's "I'm So Into You" also featured a sample from "Clean Up Woman," as did Afrika Bambaataa's song "Zulu War Chant", and Sublime's "Get Out!" remix. In 1974, Wright scored big with the songs "Tonight is the Night" (about a real-life love affair that happened with Wright when she was a teenager) and "Where is the Love". After experiencing the Alston label’s apparent dissolution in late '79, she rebounded founding her own record label, Ms. B Records in 1985. In 1988, Wright made music history by being the first woman to have a gold record on her own label, (self written, arranged, produced, and published). With the release of Mother Wit, which featured two of her biggest hits in years, "No Pain No Gain" and "After The Pain." On both songs, Wright displays her powerful upper register capabilities and seven-octave range.  From: https://www.umusicpub.com/us/Artists/B/Betty-Wright.aspx

Birdeatsbaby - Tenterhooks

 #Birdeatsbaby #alternative rock #progressive rock #alternative metal #dark cabaret #gothic pop #music video

Birdeatsbaby is a genre indefinable quartet formed in 2008 and based in Brighton. The dark and twisted quality of their music videos has gained them some degree of fame. Just like that other dark cabaret band, The Dresden Dolls, they present a lot of piano-led pop tunes, supplemented with drums, guitar, and violin. Singer and pianist Mishkin Fitzgerald has also released a solo album, and works in electro-math-rock band Cat Fire Radio.

This band contains examples of:
Cover Version: Birdeatsbaby has released covers of songs by Muse, Tool, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Hole, and PJ Harvey to name a few.
Genre Shift: The bombastic cabaret theme of the early videos has been somewhat withdrawn from their latest videos, giving place to more desaturated colors à la Nolan, and more melancholic songs.
Genre Throwback: The "Feast of Hammers" music video evokes Hammer Horror movies.
Gothic Horror: "The Bullet Within" borrows from this genre, particularly the song "Hands of Orlac" which is named after a gothic horror film.
Harsh Vocals: Mishkin alternates between this and more gentle vocalizations.
Haunted Heroine: The subject of "Ghosts".
Murder Ballad: "Love Will Bring You Nothing."
Obligatory Bondage Song: A variation: "Miserable" is about a woman who is into BDSM, but the narrator of the song seems to disapprove of her lifestyle.
Riot Grrrl: The movement seems to have at least influenced the band, though it is unknown if Birdeatsbaby identifies itself as a part of it.
Pintsized Powerhouse: Mishkin trains in kickboxing in real life. She is shown training and fighting in the "Present Company" video from her first solo single.
Sanity Slippage Song: "Incitatus"
Take That!: "Gone", "Jim", and "The Replacement". All quite vicious and open. "Part of Me" may be the band's most scathing song to date.
Teenage Death Songs: "Seventeen".
Uncommon Time: The verses of "Tenterhooks" are effectively in 22/8 time, and sections of "The Bullet" are in phrases of 5.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In "Feast of Hammers", when Mishkin sees the masked men in action.
Whole-Plot Reference: The entire "I Always Hang Myself With The Same Rope" video is one to Alfred Hitchcock movies.
Word Salad Lyrics: Most of the album "Here She Comes-a-Tumblin'" was the result of a teenage Mishkin's insomnia-induced hallucinations and nightmares, resulting in some particularly strange and terrifying imagery on more than one occasion.

From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Birdeatsbaby

Birdeatsbaby is a Brighton, UK chamber rock/prog-punk/dark cabaret four-piece, of Mishkin Fitzgerald (lead vocals, piano), Hana Maria (violin, vocals), Garry Mitchell (bass, guitar) and Anna Mylee (drums). The band was formed in November 2007, followed by début album Here She Comes-a-Tumblin' (2009, self-released). Their albums include Feast Of Hammers (2012), The Bullet Within (2014), Tanta Furia (2016) and The World Conspires (2019). Not fitting current musical trends, Birdeatsbaby's sound is fast-paced with complex drums, and piano/bass/violin generally combined for dramatic/catchy choruses. Like a more hyper-active Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds meets a slightly depressed Freddie Mercury. Descriptions of the band have included: 'an unhinged burlesque brand of freak-pop' and 'Twin Peaks on snuff.'  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Birdeatsbaby/+wiki

Donovan - Season of the Witch

 #Donovan #folk rock #psychedelic folk #singer-songwriter #1960s #music video #Häxan

One of the first songs to fit the "psychedelic" genre, Donovan recorded it in May 1966, shortly before his highly publicized arrest for possession of marijuana. The genesis of this song goes back to an evening at folk music notable Bert Jansch's house in north London, when fellow acoustic master John Renbourn showed Donovan a D ninth chord. From that Donovan built up a riff that, according to the memories of those present, he then played solidly for the next seven hours. "There was a feeling, even then, that all was not perfect in the Garden of Eden," he said of the song in an interview with Mojo magazine June 2011. "Dealers were moving into bohemia and hard drugs were on the fringes. The song was also prophetic. It was about the bust, although of course I couldn't know that then."
This song is ideal for long jams. The two main chords (A and D) are played during the verses, and during the chorus there are three chords (A, D and E). In Mojo magazine, January 2005, Donovan said: "Season of the Witch' continues to be a perennial influence because it allows a jam – not a 12-bar or Latin groove, but a very modern jam. Led Zeppelin used to warm up every day to it on the road during the soundcheck. It makes me very proud that I've created certain forms that other bands can get off on, to explore, be experimental, or just break the rules."
In the same Mojo interview, Donovan said: "I remember the bass line going down and Mickie saying, 'We've got a problem. The engineers are saying that they can't turn the bass up.' I said, Why? They said, 'Well, it's going into the red.' And so he said to the engineers, 'Look, you go into the red, I'm giving you permission. Go in the red! That's the bass sound I want. Very, very loud.' And they said, 'Well, we'll have to have a meeting.' So they went upstairs and had a meeting about whether the bass should go into the red. And they came down, they said, 'No, I'm sorry, the equipment can't stand it.' So Mickie Most said, 'Look, I've just made a record deal with your boss Clive Davis for $5 million and seven bands. And he's given me $1 million right now. So do you think if I phone him up, you'd give me a little bit more bass?' And they looked at each other, and immediately realized that their jobs were on the line. They said, 'OK, you've got more bass.' We got more bass the needle went into the red, the equipment didn't blow up. I guess next time they made that needle, they did that thing by just moving the red bit a bit farther to the right, like in Spinal Tap: 'My amp goes up to 11!'"
This song was covered by Al Kooper (Blood Sweat & Tears, The Blues Project) and Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills Nash & Young) on the historically significant 1968 album Super Session. That gives us an excuse to tell a fun story: Stills was brought in midway through recording the album to replace Mike Bloomfield (Butterfield Band, Electric Flag). Now, Kooper was originally enthusiastic to play with Bloomfield, but Bloomfield had a habit of ditching at the worst possible time. So when he showed up at Al Kooper's house, Bloomfield complained of an infected toe, then proceeded to use the most expensive crystal bowl in the house to soak his toe in. A photo of this (the toe) ended up on the back cover of the Super Session album. Then Mike Bloomfield simply disappeared in the morning, leaving only a note saying that he'd had insomnia. It wouldn't even be the last time he stood up Al Kooper! In his memoir Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards, Al Kooper mentions that he's been moved to cover this song after a trip to London, when he'd heard Donovan's "Season of the Witch" coming out of every shop on King's Road.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/donovan/season-of-the-witch

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary silent film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages and early modern era suffered from the same ills as psychiatric patients diagnosed with hysteria in the film's own time. Far from a dry dissertation on the topic, the film itself is a witches’ brew of the scary, the gross, and the darkly humorous. Christensen’s mix-and-match approach to genre anticipates gothic horror, documentary re-creation, and the essay film, making for an experience unlike anything else in the history of cinema.  From: https://www.criterion.com/films/352-hxan

Tardigrade Inferno - Hypnotherapy For Beginners (Hypnosis)

 #Tardigrade Inferno #avant-garde metal #alternative metal #dark cabaret #Russian #music video

Tardigrade Inferno’s Mastermind is one odd duck. Put one way, this album is literally my personality written into a metal record. Put another way, it’s a circus-tent nightmare from clown hell, and Frontierer happened to play there once and left their chunky guitar tone there by accident. What sets Tardigrade Inferno apart from the only other act on the planet that I know of who sounds remotely like these Ruskies — Stolen Babies — is that their concoction of dark cabaret and metal is more straightforward and therefore way more fun. Cheesy? Hell-fucking-yeah. Yet, every microsecond of Mastermind claws deeper and deeper into my brain with every single riff or chorus or synth lead, of which there are multitudes.
Take the opening track, “All Tardigrades Go to Hell,” as the template for the album as a whole. Darya Pavlovich hosts The Greatest Show Under a Microscope with her sometimes sneering, sometimes quasi-operatic ringmastery. Maxim Belekhov and Alexander Pavlovich follow right behind with an elephantine riff that will stomp your skull flat. Keyboardist Viktor Posokhin further ensnares my imagination with eerie calliopes and buzzing synths, and drummer Andrew “Drew” [lat name redacted] provides a dynamic, albeit not at all technical, rhythmic backbone to support this colorful cannon of confetti and carnage.
Things get silly very quickly after that. “Hypnosis,” “Dreadful Song,” and “Alabama Song” maximize on Witchyworld-ready whimsy, but once again the riffs use the upbeat instrumentation as leverage to smash your face in with a Fist-in-a-Box. Instrumental “Precourse” comes next, smartly bisecting Tardigrade Inferno’s debut into two segments. In this second half, songs like “Church Asylum,” “All Pigs are the Same,” and Song o’ the Year Finalist “Mastermind” feel more story-driven and tinged with villainy, but in a playful way. Plus, you get not one but two fantastic covers: System of a Down’s “Marmalade” and “We Are Number One” from Lazy Town. Both of them are as faithful as they are absolutely ridonkulous.
Mastermind is certainly not perfect. As consistently insane as it is, it’s definitely also an acquired taste for many. At the same time, Tardigrade Inferno offer something truly rarefied in my world. I normally hate cabaret music, with very few exceptions (almost all of them found in videogames). And yet, here I am, spewing nonsense about a cabaret metal album that everyone else here will probably hate, but which I love with the burning passion of a million firecrackers. What a time to be alive!  From: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/tardigrade-inferno-mastermind-things-you-might-have-missed-2019/

Avey Tare - Uncle Donut

 #Avey Tare #Animal Collective #psychedelic folk #experimental #psychedelic pop #neo-psychedelia #electronic #freak folk #music video

The EP Conference of Birds/Birds in Disguise recreates five songs Avey Tare (aka Dave Portner) wrote and played live during his Eucalyptus and Cows on Hourglass Pond tours. Like the two solo discs—and indeed, like the recent work of Animal Collective — the songs alternate between tone-washed mystical auras and bouncy, dance-y raves. This bird-themed recording breaks down into two distinct sides. Conference of Birds — encompassing “Midnight Special,” “Red Light Water Show” and “Disc One”—has a euphoric air, whether in the dopplering guitar and distant voiced soundscapes of the opener (“Midnight Special”) or the gentle undulations of “Disc One,” the catchiest, most melodic song on the EP. “Red Light Water Show” splits the difference between hook and atmosphere with oscillating keyboard riffs that split the time in twos and fours and high chanting vocals that crest over a burble of noise and glitch.
The Birds in Disguise side runs incrementally more abrasively. Its exuberance is sweatier, more physical and less celebratory than the opening’s cerebral whoosh and hum. A wheezing buzz marks out dystopian time in “Enjoy the Change,” sounding a bit like the siren-y riff in ESG’s “UFO,” then eighth-banging percussion bumps up the tension. There’s a claustrophobic tautness in this cut very much at odds with “Disc One”’s dayglo colored joys. “Uncle Donut” dials up the rhythm further, with a syncopated cadence in percussion and chant; it is very much in line with the rave-y, drum-heavy experience of a live Animal Collective show.
Fans of Avey Tare, and of Animal Collective in general, will find much to like in this brief recording. If nothing else it’s more of what they do, which lots and lots of people like very much. Does it break down the barriers, explore new territory, redefine how you think of Avey Tare (assuming that you do think of him)? It does not. But it shimmers and envelops and bops in a satisfying way, and will perhaps, hold you until the next full length from Portner solo or his more famous band.  From: https://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/190124837243/avey-tare-conference-of-birdsbirds-in-disguise

The Dixie Chicks - Truth No. 2

 #The Dixie Chicks #country #bluegrass #country pop #contemporary country #country rock #Patty Griffin cover

As the summer of 2001 drew to a close, Natalie Maines invited her bandmates—the sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer—to play some bluegrass in her living room in Austin, Texas. They’d been off the road for a few years, and their plan was to hang out, catch up, and remember how good it feels to hear their voices blend in harmony, for no audience but each other. Earlier that year, they’d sued their label for withholding royalties from their first two blockbuster albums. In the years after, they’d find themselves in a righteous battle against the industry, leaving their future as a band uncertain. But for now, they were enjoying the most relaxed, unburdened creative experience of their lives.
It was Maguire on fiddle, Strayer on banjo and dobro, and Maines with a voice like a gut-punch. No amplifiers. No drums. One song Maines suggested they try was Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” a classic rock staple that Stevie Nicks wrote at the age of 27. Maines, who had just turned 27 herself, found new resonance in its words after the birth of her first child and she thought she could hear her bandmates’ voices in its bittersweet sunshower of a melody. Also on the setlist were two songs written by the folk artist Patty Griffin. One was about speaking your mind in the face of public dissent; the other was about winding up on your deathbed with a long list of regrets.
They weren’t planning on making an album. And even if they were, because of the lawsuit, they figured they couldn’t release it anyway. As the music started coming together and Maines enlisted her father, behind-the-scenes steel guitar legend Lloyd Maines, to produce the sessions, they brainstormed a couple of strategies. After the surprise success of the bluegrass soundtrack to the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they thought maybe these songs would be served best in a film. They contemplated going indie. They considered breaking the mold and sharing the music directly on their website for free, a way to thank the loyal audience they’d amassed as a major breakthrough act in the late ’90s.
The two songs written by Patty Griffin, one of the band’s formative influences, serve as the heart of the album. In “Truth No. 2,” Maines belts in her powerful soprano how “you don’t like the sound of the truth coming from my mouth.” Without the direct narrative of their previous anthems, they meditate instead on the moral of these stories. Maines would become well-known for making enemies by speaking her mind; “Truth No. 2” would become the centerpiece of their songbook. The other Griffin composition, “Top of the World,” finds Maines narrating from a haze between life and death, lamenting “a whole lot of singing that’s never gonna be heard.” The arrangement is the album’s most elaborate. Its orchestral swell is punctuated with dramatic pauses that stretch it out past the six-minute mark, as if the song itself is fading in and out of consciousness. It threatens a long, eerie quiet, an afterlife to be avoided at all costs.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/dixie-chicks-home/