The Cranberries - Zombie

 #The Cranberries #Dolores O'Riordan #alternative rock #Irish folk rock #pop rock #post-punk #dream pop #jangle pop #Celtic rock #1990s #music video

Presaged by shimmering spin-off hits “Dreams” and “Linger,” The Cranberries’ landmark debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, suggested its creators had taken up the baton handed down by jangly indie-pop classicists The Smiths and The Sundays. However, that preconception was swiftly turned on its head by “Zombie,” the furious anti-terrorism lament with which the rising Irish stars trailed their second album, 1994’s No Need To Argue. “Zombie”‘s genesis is traceable to March 20, 1993, when two bombs, planted by the Irish Republican Army, exploded in the northern English town of Warrington. The blast from the second bomb injured dozens of people, but most cruelly claimed the lives of three-year-old Jonathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry: a twin tragedy that shocked and appalled both the UK and Irish public.
“I remember at the time there were a lot of bombs going off in England and The Troubles were pretty bad,” singer Dolores O’ Riordan said in a 2017 interview. “I remember being on tour and in the UK at the time, and just being really sad about it.” Deeply affected by the tragedy, O’Riordan began working on a song that reflected upon the event. However, unlike many Cranberries tracks that sprang from group collaboration, the formative ‘Zombie’ was composed alone by O’ Riordan during downtime from her band’s punishing tour schedule.
“I wrote it initially on an acoustic guitar, late at night,” she said. “I remember being in my flat, coming up with the chorus, which was catchy and anthemic. I took it into rehearsals and picked up the electric guitar and kicked in distortion on the chorus. Even though it was written on an acoustic, it became a bit of a rocker. ‘Zombie’ was quite different to what we’d done before. It was the most aggressive song we’d written.” Recorded in Dublin, “Zombie” featured pounding drums and churning guitars, representing a radical departure from The Cranberries’ signature sound. However, as Dolores O’ Riordan later revealed, the song’s beefed-up alt-rock sound wasn’t an attempt to jump on the grunge bandwagon.
“It came organically, because we were using our live instruments – we were plugging in a lot and we started to mess around with feedback and distortion,” she said. In a 2012 interview, guitarist Noel Hogan explained that “the heavier sound was the right thing for the song. If it was soft, it wouldn’t have had that impact. It would stand out in the live set because of that.”
Released as No Need To Argue’s lead single in 1994, “Zombie” was promoted with a powerful video that also made a significant impact. Directed by Samuel Bayer, the video was filmed in Belfast during The Troubles, using real-life footage. Dolores O’Riordan memorably appeared covered in gold make-up in front of a cross, alongside a group of boys covered in silver make-up. Though banned by the BBC at the time, the clip has since become one of rock’s most-watched music videos on YouTube, clocking up one billion views in April 2020, making The Cranberries the first Irish band to have a song reach that landmark. At the time, O’Riordan received criticism for “Zombie”‘s hard-hitting lyrics, with some detractors suggesting she was taking sides in the Northern Irish conflict. However, as the singer pointedly observed in a 1994 interview, the song was written entirely from a humanitarian point of view. “I don’t care whether it’s Protestant or Catholic, I care about the fact that innocent people are being harmed,” she said. “That’s what provoked me to write the song. It doesn’t name terrorist groups or organizations. It doesn’t take sides. It’s a very human song.”  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-cranberries-zombie-song/

Lone Justice - Sweet, Sweet Baby

 #Lone Justice #Maria McKee #cowpunk #country rock #roots rock #Americana #rockabilly #alt-country #1980s

If there ever was a band that broke up way way way too soon, it would be Lone Justice. The band’s blend of rock meets country, that was often referred to as cowpunk, defined one of the most original sounds of the 1980s. At the heart of the band lay a golden voiced singer that performed with the spirit of Bruce Springsteen meets Janis Joplin meets Dolly Parton. But beyond her thrilling vocals bled the heart of a substantial songwriter who would eventually leave the band for a very successful and critically renowned solo career. It was sad that the band broke up, yet in retrospect, the band actually broke up twice. After the band’s initial record release entitled Lone Justice in 1985, all members of the band left the group with the exception of Maria McKee. Their sophomore debut in 1986 entitled Shelter consisted of an entirely new band and was produced by Steven Van Zandt. Yet the spirit of Lone Justice could still be heard throughout the recording.  The reason is simple; Maria Mckee. After the release of the Shelter album, the band was disbanded once again. The legend of Lone Justice came to a quick end. Geffen records would release a Live at the BBC Radio Concert in 1993, and a greatest hits package with unreleased bonus tracks in 1998. In 2014, Lone Justice fans were presented with a CD of demos entitled This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes 1983. There are bands in rock history that make their mark based on just one song or album. Lone Justice was one of those great bands that turned heads the second they hit the concert stage. And like we said before, that power resonated from the heart, soul, and spirit of their phenomenal lead singer Maria Mckee.  From: https://www.classicrockhistory.com/11-best-lone-justice-songs/

Fairport Convention - The Deserter

 #Fairport Convention #Sandy Denny #Ashley Hutchings #Richard Thompson #folk rock #British folk rock #electric folk #British folk #1960s 

Fairport Convention may not have been the first to combine British and Celtic roots music with rock, but Liege and Lief was certainly the most effective and successful thrust in that direction, opening the ears of the music world to a new kind of sound. Surprisingly recorded while some of the members were still recuperating from injuries sustained in a horrible auto accident that killed their drummer and Richard Thompson’s girlfriend, Liege and Lief sounds as fresh and alive today as it must have sounded when released in late 1969.
“The Deserter” tells the tale of one of the unluckiest people who has ever lived. A victim of impressment into the British Navy, he tries to escape but is turned in by a comrade, for which he receives three hundred and three lashes (not of the erotic variety). A persevering little cuss, he tries to desert again and his girlfriend rats on him. This time the punishment is death, from which he is rescued in this song by Victoria’s Prince Albert in an ex deus machina role. Sandy Denny pointed out that the song’s origins went further back than the Victorian era and that it was common for broadside printers to “bring songs up to date.” The most poignant aspect of the song is the deserter’s commitment to forgiveness; after the whipping and the death sentence, the line, “May the Lord have mercy on them for their sad cruelty,” reminding us of an aspect of Christianity that has entirely disappeared from the current American version of that religion. Dave Swarbrick’s string work is marvelous on this piece, as are the paired guitars that add a certain sweetness to the tale, reflecting the essential sweetness of the deserter’s soul.  From: https://altrockchick.com/2016/09/19/classic-music-review-liege-and-lief-by-airport-convention/

Cellar Darling - Avalanche

 #Cellar Darling #progressive metal #folk metal #folk rock #doom metal #Swiss

We are storytellers. We want to carry you away into our world of music. ​We want to unleash feelings and experiences by telling stories and drawing symbols, in the way mankind has done since its existence: through legends, folk tales, theatre, drama, spirituality - and through songs. We reinvent folk tales for our age as the very essence of what they once were: stories of everyday life. We may sing about the future, we may sing about the past - for essentially, they are the same. If you come to experience our show, you will not know what to expect. If days are bright, our performance shall be bright. If they are dark, it will be dark. In any case, we will tell you stories: those you’ve missed in a world where no bed time stories are told anymore, or those which have never been told before.
Cellar Darling was formed by Anna Murphy (vocals, hurdy-gurdy), Merlin Sutter (drums) and Ivo Henzi (guitars & bass) in the summer of 2016. The trio has previously been part of the core of Switzerland's most successful metal band to date, Eluveitie, touring the world in 45+ countries on 6 continents for over a decade, and forming a bond that could overcome any adversity.
Anna, Ivo & Merlin have turned the departure from their old band into a new beginning, and have moved on to make their own music, while continuing the spirit of musical innovation they have become known for. Cellar Darling’s music is an epic, theatric combination of Ivo’s grand, heavy riffs, Merlin’s energetic drumming, and Anna’s unique, both powerful and fragile voice. Their sound is shaped by the hurdy-gurdy, with its signature folky, earthy tones, and their lyrics tell stories and tales both old and new, true to the band's stated mission: the reinvention of folk tales for our modern age as the very essence of what they once were.
With their very first release, the single ‘Challenge’, along with the bonus track ‘Fire, Wind & Earth’, released in September 2016 after an intense creative retreat, Cellar Darling is already breaking the boundaries between musical genres, blending rock, metal, and folky melodies into a powerful mix. ‘Challenge’ is about an inner struggle, a battle you are fighting against yourself and the world. It is you, screaming at yourself in the mirror and getting high on new found strength. It is failing, overcoming and achieving. The bipolar dance that is life. The song is inspired by a visual image that crept into Anna’s head during what felt like a period tainted with recurring downfall and getting back up again. The music accompanying this image is a symbiosis of dance and combat, sweet and angry. ‘Fire, Wind & Earth’ was written and recorded in the same sweaty summer sessions. The idea for the intro riff was stuck in Ivo’s head for a long time. As soon as all of Cellar Darling started working together on it, the whole song just evolved naturally. The result is a very straightforward and furious song, both musically and lyrically!"
From: https://www.heavymetal.ch/artists/3676/cellar-darling

The Albion Country Band - Hanged I Shall Be

 #The Albion Country Band #Ashley Hutchings #Martin Carthy #John Kirkpatrick #British folk #folk rock #British folk rock #1970s #ex-Fairport Convention

After working with the legendary English folk-rock bands Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, Ashley Hutchings put together the Albion Band (sometimes known as Albion Country Band and Albion Dance Band) in a similar style. They were first gathered as the back-up band for British folksinger Shirley Collins’ 1971 album, No Roses. The band recorded it’s own debut album in 1973, but it wasn’t released until 1976. Over the years, the ever-changing personnel in the Albion Band has included a dizzying number of English folk-rock luminaries, including Richard and Linda Thompson, Martin Carthy, Shirley and Dolly Collins, Maddy Prior, and Martin Simpson, to name just a few.  From: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/albion-country-band/3221110 

E.J. Moeran collected the grim murder ballad ‘Hanged I Shall Be’ in October 1921 from ‘Shepherd’ Taylor of Hickling, Norfolk. This is perhaps the most important of all murder ballads carried across England by the street singers. At least, a vast number of pieces of ballad journalism have taken it for a pattern during the last two and a half centuries. The original comes from a broadside from the end of the 17th Century called The Wittam Miller (Wittam is a village near Oxford). Most of the 19th Century stall-ballad publishers printed a version of this form favourite, which was probably the parent ballad to the American murder ballads The Knoxville Girl and Florella.
Hamish Henderson noted: This murder ballad, with its uneasy psychological undertones, is sometimes known as The Murder of Sweet Mary Anne. It appears to derive from a 17th century broadside in which the murdering lover is a miller. In the United States, the ballad is best known as The Lexington Murder or The Knoxville Girl, and has undoubtedly been the inspiration for several other murder ballads. In the form sung here, it is still very popular in Scotland.
American listeners, who are accustomed to the brisk measures of Pretty Polly or the start directness of The Knoxville Girl, may be surprised to encounter a slow and highly ornamented Scots variant of this familiar ballad. It is the favourite British remake of The Cruel Ship's Captain theme and might be called the classic British murder ballad, in the same sense that Omie Wise or Pretty Polly are the central ballads of the Southern American tradition. In most English variants, the murder weapon is a stick cut from a hedgerow, as in Harry Cox's version about Ekefield Town.
Steve Roud noted: Quite widely collected in Britain by Cecil Sharp and his contemporaries, and in the repertoire of several well known post-war singers such as Cecilia Costello, Jeannie Robertson, and Phoebe Smith, this song was even more well-known in North America, where dozens of versions (under such titles as The Wexford Girl or The Lexington Miller) have been noted and published. As pointed out by Laws (American Balladry from British Broadsides, 1957), in a chapter on “ballad recomposition”, the original text appeared in the mid-18th century as The Berkshire Tragedy or The Wittam Miller, and has since undergone not simply the vagaries of oral tradition, but deliberate re-composition, apparently on more than one occasion. Comparing Harry's with the Original, his is severely truncated and avoids the wordiness of 18th century texts, but it includes many of the most telling details, such as the stake from the hedge, and the dragging by the hair. Nevertheless, the omission of the original motif of pregnancy leaves the murder motiveless in Harry's version, which heightens either the song's stark horror, or the sordidness, according to the listener's own viewpoint.
Norman Buchan noted: Though Francis James Child characterised the broadside ballads as ‘veritable dungheaps’ he conceded the occasional ‘moderate jewel’. This one, ennobled by a splendid tune, is a good deal more than that. It contains little of the conventional trappings of the professional product — no last dying speech, no explanation for the murder, usually pregnancy, no ‘take warning by me’. Indeed it shows much of the bare economy of story line of our classical ballads and is obviously moulded by a community in which the great tradition was still very much alive. It will come as no surprise, therefore, that Enoch learned it from perhaps the greatest living expression of that tradition, Jeannie Robertson.

Albion Country Band's ‘Hanged I Shall Be’

Now as I was bound apprentice, I was 'prentice to the mill,
And I served my master truly for more than seven year.
Until I took up to courting with a lass with that rolling eye
And I promised that I'd marry her in the month of sweet July.
And as we went out a-walking through the fields and the meadows gay,
Oh it's there we told our tales of love and we fixed our wedding day.

And as we were walking and talking of the things that grew around
Oh I took a stick all out of the hedge and I knocked that pretty maid down
Down on her bended knees she fell and loud for mercy cry,
“Oh spare the life of an innocent girl for I'm not prepared to die.”
But I took her by her curly locks and I dragged her on the ground
And I throwed her into the riverhead that flows to Ekefield town,
That flows so far to the distance, that flows so deep and wide,
Oh it's there I threw this pretty fair maid that should have been my bride.

Now I went home to my parents' house, it being late at night.
Mother she got out of bed all for to light the light.
Oh she asked me and she questioned me, “What stains your hands and clothes?”
And the answer I gave back to her, “I've been bleeding at my nose.”
No rest, no rest all that long night, no rest there could I find
For there's sparks of fire and brimstone around my head did shine.

And it was about three days after that this pretty fair maid was found,
Floating by the riverhead that flows to Ekefield town.
That flows so far to the distance, that flows so deep and wide.
Oh it's there they found this pretty fair maid that should have been my bride.
Oh the judges and the jurymen all on me they did agree
For a-murdering of this pretty fair maid oh hanged I shall be.

From: https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/themillersapprentice.html

Nina Simone - Pirate Jenny (The Black Freighter)

#Nina Simone #folk #gospel #blues #jazz #R&B #soul #1950s #1960s #The High Priestess of Soul #The Threepenny Opera #Kurt Weil #Bertolt Brecht

Lotte Lenya’s terrific performance of “Pirate Jenny” in G.W. Pabst’s 1931 film version of The Threepenny Opera might be the most enduring version of the song. One wonders what Brecht might have made of Nina Simone’s rendition of “Pirate Jenny,” which he co-wrote with Kurt Weill in the late 1920s. Simone makes the song her own, not just in the idiosyncrasies of her performance, but in her substantive alterations to the song’s setting, to it's title character and to it's politics. Simone’s version is found on her 1964 LP Nina Simone in Concert.
In Pabst’s film, Jenny sings soon after learning that her erstwhile lover and pimp Mackie Messer has married Polly Peachum - and immediately after accepting a bribe from Polly’s mother, Mrs. Peachum, to betray Mackie to the London cops. Jenny takes the money, tips off the cops and sings. It seems like a desperate, nihilistic moment: an abject woman, amid turbid emotional and ethical crises, articulates a violent fantasy of absolute power. Whose side is Jenny on? Her own, of course, but operating at such an alienated distance from the social is never a good thing in Brecht. 
Simone’s performance feeds off Jenny’s anger and abjection, but the social politics of Simone’s revision are more emphatic, even didactic. The import of Simone’s relocation of the song - from The Threepenny Opera’s Victorian London, to “this crummy southern town, in this crummy old hotel” - wouldn’t have been obscure to anyone in the Carnegie Hall audiences in front of whom she recorded Nina Simone in Concert, in March and April of 1964. The American south was then embroiled in civil rights struggle and mounting violence: Medgar Evers had been executed in his Mississippi driveway in June of 1963, and just a few months later, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley were murdered in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL. Collins, Robertson and Wesley were 14 years old; McNair was 11. 
Simone addressed that violence in another, more famous song on Nina Simone in Concert, “Mississippi Goddam”: “Alabama’s got me so upset / Tennessee made me lose my rest / And everybody knows about Mississippi, goddam!” It’s rightly noted to be a watershed song, signaling Simone’s forceful transformation into protest singer, activist and cultural radical. Her version of “Pirate Jenny” may lack the referential specificity of that other, more storied song (and “Mississippi Goddam” gets pretty direct; at one point in the song, she intones, “Oh, but this whole country is full of lies / You’re all gonna die, and die like flies / I don’t trust you anymore” - in Carnegie Hall). But “Pirate Jenny” is a lively complement to the indignation of “Mississippi Goddam,” and tonally it’s even more bitter, even more violent. 
You can hear that implicit violence in the horrific cackle Simone produces at the 3:27 mark, immediately after the infantilizing image of the ribbon in Jenny’s hair. It’s a stirring contrast: the feminine innocent become vengeful fury. You can hear the bitterness in the final “Ha!” that bursts from her throat as she imagines herself disappearing over the horizon line with the ship. You can feel it in one of Simone’s other revisions to the song. In The Threepenny Opera, the song climaxes with Jenny’s shocking order that all the men in London (“Alle!”) should be killed for her pleasure. In Simone’s version, there’s never any doubt that all of her prisoners should be killed, it’s only a matter of how quickly. She hisses, rapaciously, “Right now / Right now!” 
In another notable change, Simone’s Jenny isn’t a prostitute, but a maid, cleaning up after “you people” in the aforementioned “crummy hotel.” Jenny is still marginalized, but there’s nothing subterranean or metaphorical about the economic environment she moves through. It’s all culturally sanctioned. Her oppression is a transparent element of her southern lifeworld, and she is thus sharply conscious of the manifest power of those transactions: “Maybe once you tip me, and it makes you feel swell.” It’s an important change to Brecht’s original lyrics, focusing on a set of economic relations that indicate Jenny’s racially charged plight. She’s a maid in a southern hotel, a laboring black woman, who’s made recognizable as such precisely because of the larger Jim Crow-period matrix of law and social practice that determined who did what work for whom. 
That economic register makes some of the song’s subsequent images even more resonant. The people on the receiving end of Jenny’s rage are “chained up” on the “dock.” The spectacle of terrified, chained bodies by the seaside evokes the slave auction block, even as the image wants to invert the slave economy’s racialized logic, of white oppressing black. And Simone repeatedly calls the ship in the harbor a “black freighter.” Black freight. It’s another marker for the slave trade, and perhaps Jenny is trying to run the film in reverse. Perhaps she wants to board the vessel, to sail all the slave ships back across the Atlantic, to neutralize the horror of the Middle Passage. That sounds like a utopian desire, a triumphal image that the song’s tone cannot sustain, or even create in the first place. Too much misery and violence has already happened. American history has already insisted that blackness and capital are inextricably bound. Utopian longing is beside the point. What’s needed is critique, sharpened by righteous rage. 
The historical period that we call “the Sixties” ground on for another ten years after Simone’s 1964 Carnegie Hall gigs. She became increasingly militant in her public rhetoric and performative style. She claimed once to have looked Martin Luther King in the face and said, “I am not non-violent.” Her voice throughout “Pirate Jenny” is a sort of corroborating evidence for that assertion.  From: https://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/183632765267/why-brecht-now-vol-ii-nina-simone-sings-pirate 

Sophie B. Hawkins - Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

#Sophie B. Hawkins #alternative rock #pop rock #world music #R&B #jazz rock #afrobeat #singer-songwriter #multi-instrumentalist #1990s

A proudly idiosyncratic singer and songwriter who embraces an eclectic range of musical influences and isn't afraid to be nakedly confessional in her music, Sophie B. Hawkins enjoyed unexpected commercial success with her debut album, but since then has opted to follow her muse rather than a major label's marketing department. Born in New York City in 1967, Hawkins grew up in a family that valued art and creativity but was troubled by alcoholism, and as a child she aspired to be an English teacher. At the age of 14, Hawkins became fascinated with African music and began studying percussion, becoming a student of celebrated African musician Babatunde Olatunji. As Hawkins became more accomplished, she branched out into jazz and became proficient on marimba and vibraphone as well as drums. After finishing high school, Hawkins enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music, and in addition to world music and jazz, she began dipping her toes into rock and pop music, playing trap drums with a band called the Pink Men and a handful of other groups. Hawkins took up singing and writing songs, and recorded a demo tape that made its way to Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry, who hired her to play percussion and sing backup in his road band for two months. Hawkins took odd jobs and sang on commercial jingles to support herself until her demo came to the attention of an A&R man at Columbia Records, who signed Hawkins to a record deal. Hawkins' first album, 1992's Tongues and Tails, suggested the breadth of her influences, with jazz, R&B, pop, rock, and African music informing the 11 tunes. One of the songs, "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover," became a major hit single, and Tongues and Tails became a commercial and critical success.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sophie-b-hawkins-mn0000754055/biography

Yes - Yours Is No Disgrace

 #Yes #Jon Anderson #Steve Howe #Bill Bruford #Chris Squire #progressive rock #art rock #symphonic prog #hard rock #heavy prog #German TV #Beat-Club #1970s

Nowadays, the progressive rock band Yes doesn't need an introduction, but at the end of the sixties, when this great band made their first TV-appearances outside the UK, many people were not aware of Yes. In November 1969, Yes performed at the legendary German TV-show Beat Club. At the time nobody would have believed that their progressive rock sound should become that famous a couple of years later. The band did two more live sessions for Beat Club. The clips of Yours Is No Disgrace and I've Seen All Good People are the most famous ones. Some of the German footage was released on various DVD's, but as far as I know never on one disc. In 2009, the DVD The Lost Broadcasts was released for the first time, one year later followed by the second release.
The disc starts with the aforementioned Beat Club footage of November 1969 shot in black and white. Yes start with a rearranged version of the Richie Havens' song No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed from their second album Time And A Word which wasn't released at the time of this performance. This song was already a live favourite and became the opening piece for that album. The song is followed by two tracks from their eponymous debut album. The footage of Looking Around and Survival were previously unseen actually. Initially, they were not included for only one Yes song could be seen on TV. The next clip was shot at February 23, 1970 and features the title track from the second album in full-colour this time because the live show accorded with the available standards at the time. It's obvious to see that this is a playback performance. This footage shows Peter Banks on the electric guitar, but probably for the last time as he left the band just before the release of Time And A Word because of continuing tensions between Jon Anderson, Chris Squire and himself.
The final four tracks were all filmed at April 19, 1971. It starts with the second take of Yours Is No Disgrace. This take wasn't used for the TV-show because it was a bit faster than the version performed for the first take. In this clip Yes used the head and the chair we can also see on the cover of The Yes Album. This album was the debut for guitarist Steve Howe who plays a rather freaky solo on this long version of Yours Is No Disgrace with Jon Anderson on a keyboard. Tony Kaye, the band's main keyboardist, is almost unrecognizable since he's wearing a beard. The other three tracks are different versions of I've Seen All Good People. Three takes were needed before the band members were satisfied with the result. The first take is a mixture of two shots. First we see Bill Bruford playing the drums and then we see him clapping along with the music. The info on this DVD doesn't tell us which take was used for the actual broadcast on April 24, 1971. However, that really doesn't matter after watching this footage. The most important thing is that we can enjoy Yes in their early days. Most band members were still inexperienced and they hardly ever played in front of a TV-camera
From: https://www.backgroundmagazine.nl/DVDreviews/YesBroadcasts.html

Yes didn't invent progressive rock, but they helped bring it to mainstream audiences, steering the development and definition of the genre. Once their classic lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, and Bill Bruford locked into place for 1971's Fragile, the band crystallized all of the sonic and visual signifiers that eventually became synonymous with prog rock. Yes shifted between complicated time signatures, spliced pastoral folk, and Baroque classical in their muscular rock & roll, structured their songs as mini-suites, and wrapped the entire package in fantastical artwork by Roger Dean.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/yes-mn0000685647/biography

Live - Pillar Of Davidson

 #Live #Ed Kowalczyk #alternative rock #post-grunge #hard rock #funk rock #heavy pop rock #1990s #Throwing Copper Art by Peter Howson

This song is about the plight of poorly compensated factory workers who are treated like machines that only exist to make money. The band grew up in York, Pennsylvania, a working-class town which is home to the Harley Davidson motorcycle factory and other industrial plants that provided inspiration for the song. Kowalczyk credits the band for helping him escape a similar fate. "Most of the kids in our situation don't get fair shots because of the sheltered quality of life in a small town like York," he told The Washington Post in 1995. "Thank God for this band, because it was our ticket to see the world." York is also the subject of another unflattering ode on the album: "Shit Towne." In 1997, an Australian radio interviewer asked Kowalczyk if Michael Stipe of R.E.M. sang backing vocals at the end of the song. He replied, "No, that's just me trying as hard as I can to sound like Michael Stipe!"  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/live/pillar-of-davidson

The rock band Live got its start in 1985, when four teenage friends in York, Pennsylvania - vocalist Ed Kowalczyk, bassist Patrick Dahlheimer, drummer Chad Gracey, and guitarist Chad Taylor - began playing shows in their hometown area under the name Public Affection. Although the band name would change, the original lineup remained intact until 2011. The group gained more visibility and began touring more extensively after recording its self-released, cassette-only debut, "The Death of a Dictionary," in 1989. At the dawn of the 1990s, the band attracted interest from Radioactive Records, which signed the group, now known as Live, to a contract. "Mental Jewelry," the first album with the label, captured the band’s earnest hard rock sound that incorporated Eastern philosophy and unconventional rhythmic styles. As with many band’s debuts, "Mental Jewelry" revealed Live’s nascent talents but lacked a certain amount of confidence. The album didn’t have much impact on the mainstream rock audience, but “Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)” gained airplay, and the album eventually went on to sell well. It wasn’t until Live's second album, 1994’s "Throwing Copper," that the band exploded into the mainstream. Toning down the spiritual searching of Kowalczyk’s lyrics from "Mental Jewelry," Live looked to the sweeping musical energy of groups like Pearl Jam and U2 for inspiration. The result was an album that dominated the charts and launched five singles that spanned the gamut from the brooding “Lightning Crashes” to “I Alone,” which transitioned from a soft verse into an explosive chorus, a popular sonic style of the era's grunge artists. Rock critics accused Live of derivativeness, but audiences warmly embraced the band.  From: https://www.liveabout.com/live-biography-and-profile-2898029

Fifty Foot Hose - Cauldron

 #Fifty Foot Hose #underground rock #experimental rock #avant garde #noise rock #electronic #psychedelic rock #1960s

Fifty Foot Hose is an American underground rock band that formed in San Francisco in the late 1960s and reformed in the 1990s. They were one of the first bands to fuse rock and experimental music. Like a few other acts of the time, they consciously tried to combine the contemporary sounds of rock with electronic instruments and avant-garde compositional ideas. The original group comprised three core members: founder and bassist Louis "Cork" Marcheschi, guitarist David Blossom, and vocalist Nancy Blossom, augmented by Kim Kimsey (drums) and Larry Evans (guitar).
Cork Marcheschi (born 1945) grew up in Burlingame, California. In his teens, he performed with the Ethix, who played R&B music in clubs around San Francisco and in Las Vegas, and released one experimental and wildly atonal single, "Bad Trip", in 1967, with the intention that the record could be played at any speed. Interested in the ideas of experimental composers like Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Terry Riley, and George Antheil, he constructed his own custom-made electronic instrument from a combination of elements like theremins, fuzzboxes, a cardboard tube, and a speaker from a World War II bomber.
David and Nancy Blossom brought both psychedelic and jazz influences to the band. Together, the trio recorded a demo which led to a deal with Limelight Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records. They released one album, Cauldron, in December 1967. It contained eleven songs, including "Fantasy", "Red the Sign Post" and "God Bless the Child", a cover of a Billie Holiday number. It was an intriguing mix of jazzy psychedelic rock tunes with fierce and advanced electronic sound effects. "I don't know if they are immature or premature", said critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The record sold few copies at the time, although the group had a small but intense following in San Francisco and also toured with other acts including Blue Cheer, Chuck Berry and Fairport Convention, when the band was augmented by Robert Goldbeck (bass). They broke up in late 1969, when most of its members joined the musical Hair, Nancy Blossom becoming the lead in the San Francisco production and later singing in Godspell.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Foot_Hose

The Beatles - Rain

 #The Beatles #John Lennon #Paul McCartney #George Harrison #British invasion #pop rock #psychedelic rock #blues rock #classic rock #folk rock #1960s

Released on the ‘Paperback Writer’ single, ‘Rain’ is considered by many Beatles fans to be their finest b-side. Much like Revolver’s ‘I’m Only Sleeping’, ‘Rain’ found The Beatles exploring LSD-influenced feelings of detachment from the real world, and the belief that heightened consciousness can be found within the self. The song is generally credited to John Lennon, although Paul McCartney claimed it was co-written.
The Beatles had discovered during the ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ sessions that slowing down the speed of their recordings revealed hidden depths. They recorded the rhythm track of ‘Rain’ at a fast tempo, then slowed the tape down so the song was a tone lower. Ringo Starr’s drums, locked in to McCartney’s high bass guitar notes, were a key feature of the song.
Paul said, “The drums became a giant drum kit. We got a big, ponderous, thunderous backing and then we worked on top of that as normal, so that it didn’t sound like a slowed-down thing, it just had a big ominous noise to it. It was nice, I really enjoyed that one.” Ringo Starr later said ‘Rain’ was among his favourite performances on a Beatles recording. “I feel as though that was someone else playing – I was possessed!”
The other key feature of ‘Rain’ was John Lennon’s backwards vocals, heard during the coda at the song’s end. Lennon claimed that the discovery was the result of a stoned accident, when he threaded his rough mix tape of the song into his reel-to-reel player the wrong way round. John said, “I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I’d recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, ‘I know what to do with it, I know - Listen to this!’ So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the gutars going backwards. [Singing backwards] Sharethsmnowthsmeaness [Laughter] That one was the gift of God, of Ja, actually, the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one.” Lennon’s version of events was backed up by George Harrison and studio engineer Geoff Emerick. Producer George Martin, meanwhile, recalled the discovery as being his. He said, “I was always playing around with tapes and I thought it might be fun to do something extra with John’s voice. So I lifted a bit of his main vocal off the four-track, put it onto another spool, turned it around and then slid it back and forth until it fitted. John was out at the time but when he came back he was amazed. Again, it was backwards forever after that.”  From: https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/rain/

tUnE-yArDs - Water Fountain

 #tUnE-yArDs #Merill Garbus #art pop #alternative rock #pop rock #worldbeat #indie pop #lo-fi #electronic #animated music video #puppetry

tUnE-yArDs, the duo of Merill Garbus and Nate Brenner, combine soulful vocals, unusual percussion, and trenchant social commentary into uniquely vibrant music. Starting with the raw collages of 2009's self-released BiRd-BrAiNs, the project immediately attracted attention for its impassioned sound and viewpoint. Though Garbus and Brenner polished their music slightly on albums such as 2014's Nikki Nack, the combination of their explorations of complex issues like race, gender, and privilege with bold song forms indebted to playground chants, work songs, and non-Western musical traditions remained as distinctive and acclaimed as ever. The duo took a more reflective, electronic-based approach on 2017's I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life. 2021's Sketchy, saw Brenner and Garbus combining more personal songwriting with the anthemic, kinetic style of tUnE-yArDs' earlier work.
Born in New York City and raised there and in Connecticut, Garbus had an eclectic creative background. She spent some time as a puppeteer at Vermont's Sandglass Theater and also played ukulele in the Montreal-based band Sister Suvi. She began writing and performing under the tUnE-yArDs moniker in 2006, using a digital voice recorder and shareware mixing software to assemble her first songs. It took Garbus two years to craft her debut album, BiRd-BrAiNs, which she offered on cassette and as a pay-what-you-want download on the tUnE-yArDs website. Thanks to frequent touring with artists like Thao and positive buzz from music blogs, the album became a cult favorite. In June 2009, Marriage Records released the album on cassette; that August, 4AD Records reissued it in a special screen-printed version before distributing a CD version of BiRd-BrAiNs in November that coincided with a tour opening for the Dirty Projectors.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tune-yards-mn0002144063/biography

Mountain - Mississippi Queen

 #Mountain #Leslie West #Felix Pappalardi #hard rock #blues rock #heavy metal #heavy blues rock #heavy psych #animated music video

Bob Dylan once said that the ‘60s reminded him of a flying saucer landing – everybody heard about it, but only a handful ever saw it. Out of that handful who saw the decade up close, few had the view of the musicians who played the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The festival, long since pinned like a museum butterfly under history’s glass, misfired for some and cemented the reputations of others. The performance of Crosby, Stills & Nash marked only their second public appearance. Other bands such as The Grateful Dead still talk about how dissatisfied they were with their performance, while the great Alvin Lee and Ten Years After enjoyed, particularly after the concert film’s release, a considerable boost in popularity. Most famously, Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” filled more pages in the guitar great’s growing legend and lingers in public consciousness as the event’s defining moment.
Treading the boards in Max Yasgur’s field transformed Mountain’s career as well. The band’s close to classic lineup, sans soon-to-be-enlisted drummer Corky Laing, ripped through a set largely culled from guitarist Leslie West’s recently released solo album entitled “Mountain.” The wide-eyed, expressive and impressively built West manned center stage as if the fates conspired to place him there at that moment and time, while former Cream producer Felix Pappalardi stood semi-shadowed to his right unleashing furious bass runs in accompaniment. It is little stretch to say the massive crowd heard nothing quite like this before.
It wasn’t the overpowering bluster or blues histrionics of West’s guitar. By 1969, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience spawned a host of imitators and influenced countless others to carry on their groundbreaking work to its logical conclusion. However, the public had yet to hear a guitarist capable of uniting accessibility, melody, power, fluent vibrato, and strong rhythm playing into one package. His imposing frame juxtaposed against the small size of his Les Paul Junior along with his surprisingly soulful and muscular vocals completed the picture. His torrid performances on “Beside the Sea” and “Southbound Train” impressed many and didn’t go unnoticed by record executives.
Mountain formed, in significant part, as a vehicle to highlight West’s talents. The July, 1969 release of his first solo album laid down a rough template of the band’s sound, but transitioning from a solo act into a band necessitated changes. Pappalardi, sensitive to musical similarities between Cream and the new band, recruited keyboardist Steve Knight over West’s objections to play organ and fill out their sound. West, an enormous admirer of Clapton’s stint with Cream, shrugged off potential comparisons. Such maneuvers, however, certainly insulated the band from such charges and provided a textural counterpoint for West’s guitar that recalled other emerging bands such as Vanilla Fudge and Deep Purple far more. Knight’s formal approach and reluctant musical improvisation further rankled West’s attitude towards the keyboardist, but the jazz devotee brought considerable chops to bear that few then-prominent keyboardists could claim.
Switching drummers didn’t impede their ascent. West and Pappalardi grew quickly disenchanted with drummer N.D. Smart’s musical suitability and Pappalardi recommended Canadian-born New York City transplant Laing as his replacement. The new drummer came to Pappalardi’s notice after the latter produced the debut for Laing’s then-current band Energy. The addition of Laing brought Mountain a versatile and physical percussionist unafraid to expand his style. And, perhaps even more crucially, Laing proved to be another songwriter to add to the mix.
One of the earliest dividends from Laing’s membership, “Mississippi Queen,” is arguably the band’s defining work. The story about its genesis has long since passed into rock ‘n’ roll lore, but the track’s gloriously electrified raunch and West’s revival preacher vocals has long obscured its cultural significance. “Mississippi Queen” occupies a significant place in the Great American Songbook for a few reasons, but one of the most important is how it illustrates the breathtaking pace of musical and cross-cultural assimilation underway in the late 1960s. It’s nothing short of indelibly American that a professionally trained musician, composer and University of Michigan graduate, teamed with a gifted, but raw and self-taught, New York City rock ‘n’ roller, a Canadian drummer with a potpourri of musical influences, and a jazz pianist playing keyboards, to record a song that, stripped of its modern gloss and volume, sounds straight out of a Clarksdale juke joint on a Saturday night.  From: https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/story-band-mountain   

Robin & Linda Williams (1975) - Side 1 (vinyl rip)

 #Robin & Linda Williams #folk #Americana #traditional #country #contemporary folk #alt-country #acoustic #bluegrass

In a musical career spanning more than four decades, iconic American musicians Robin and Linda Williams have made it their mission to perform the music that they love—a robust blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time, and acoustic country that combines wryly observant lyrics with a wide-ranging melodicism.Robin and Linda met and fell for each other in 1971 on a visit to Myrtle Beach, SC, while Linda was teaching school and Robin was a full-time musician on a national coffeehouse circuit. It wasn’t long before they discovered additional magic when they combined their voices in harmony. Their career took off initially in the Minneapolis folk scene, where Robin had made many friends and connections as a solo artist. They recorded their first album there in 1975 and the following year made their first appearance on a new public radio show—A Prairie Home Companion. They have continued their rich relationship with the program for 40 years.
Over the decades they have issued 23 albums and crisscrossed the country many times, thrilling audiences with their songs and harmonies. In the late 1980s they began touring with a backup band, Their Fine Group, and their big sound grew even bigger. That association lasted for 25 years, but now Robin and Linda are most often heard as a duo, going back to the roots that brought them together 40 years ago. They marked 40 years on stage in 2013 with their CD “Back 40,” a studio album featuring fresh treatments of their early classics, many from albums long out of print, and favorites by other writers. While as live performers they are second to none, it is as gifted songwriters that they have earned a rarer honor, the devotion and deep respect of their musical peers. The list of artists who have covered their original songs includes some of the greats of country music such as Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, George Hamilton IV, Tim & Mollie O;Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, and The Seldom Scene.  From: https://folkmama.wordpress.com/category/robin-and-linda-williams/

The sounds of rural America are explored through the warm vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar-driven arrangements of Virginia-based husband-and-wife duo Robin & Linda Williams. Accompanied by the appropriately named Their Fine Group, featuring Dobro ace Kevin Maul and ex-Red Clay Ramblers bassist Jim Watson, the Williams blend a mixture of bluegrass, folk, and acoustic country music. As semi-regular performers on Garrison Keillor's nationally broadcast radio show A Prairie Home Companion, the duo and their band developed a solid international following. In addition to being featured on the duo's 12 albums, the Williams' songs have been covered by many artists including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, the Seldom Scene, Boiled in Lead, and Holly Near.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robin-linda-williams-mn0000296010/biography

October Project - Be My Hero

 #October Project #Mary Fahl #folk rock #alternative rock #alternative folk rock #adult alternative #classical rock #progressive pop #1990s

October Project's music is dominated by distinctive and powerful female lead vocals (nothing to do with waif-like, breathy whisperings). Indeed, Mary Fahl's deep voice has an earthy sensuality that looms larger than life on the band's two albums, both filled with superb chorus hooks and haunting melodies. October Project also features keyboardist/vocalist Marina Belica, guitarist David Sabatino, keyboardist Emil Adler (piano, keyboards and harmonium) as well as his wife Julie Flanders who, although not a musician per se, writes the band's lyrics. They released two fine albums in the mid '90's before getting dumped by their record company in 1996, at which point they simply broke off. Like an afterthought, some of the band members later resurfaced as the November Project but reverted back to their former name and released a self-produced E.P. in 2003. Deemed more pop than prog, the music of October Project is perhaps best described as 'vocal-dominated symphonic prog', something akin to Renaissance for the orchestral textures, although Mary Fahl does not sound at all like Annie Haslam. The band's first two albums, which focus primarily on her rich, sultry vocals, feature intense melancholy ballads that ride on a combination of lush keyboards, strings and guitars. Keyboards and acoustic guitar are emphasized on the eponymous "October Project" whereas on "Falling Farther In", an album of slightly more linear compositions with pared-down arrangements, the electric guitar is more prominent. The E.P. "Different Eyes", which features the late reunion of some of the band members (sans Mary Fahl), showcases some reworked material from the band's early days.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2190

Tori Amos - A Sorta Fairytale

  #Tori Amos #alternative rock #piano rock #art rock #pop rock #chamber pop #baroque pop #electronic #singer-songwriter #music video

A Sorta Fairytale is the first single from Tori Amos' 2002 album Scarlet's Walk, a concept album in which Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos, travels across post-9/11 America. In A Sorta Fairytale, Amos refers to how relationships with other people, whether long or short, are part of who you are, which means that you are never completely alone. The music video features Amos as a head attached to a disembodied leg and Adrian Brody as a head attached to a disembodied arm. The pair meet and fall in love, but Brody laughs at Amos' crooked fifth toe; she runs away to a beach, where Brody find her and they share a kiss. In response, their bodies emerge from their disembodied parts, making them into whole people through their love.
Notes for Parents: The lyrics of this song are suitable for all ages, but they are poetic and metaphorical and may require some explaining for younger girls. The tone of the lyrics seems very bittersweet, focusing on the loss of relationships, but the video shows a more optimistic view, with the lovers made whole by each other. The video images are strange, and some younger children may find them disturbing; there is also a scene revealing the emerging bodies of the pair. Nevertheless, the video is fascinating and provides an excellent illustration of the idea that the right person will love you despite what others consider flaws.  From: https://www.amightygirl.com/a-sorta-fairytale

Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. Her music walks the fine line between baroque pop and straightforward alternative rock. She has ventured off into other territories, like electronic (From the Choirgirl Hotel, To Venus and Back, Abnormally Attracted to Sin), funk/soul/gospel (The Beekeeper), big band ("Pink and Glitter"), adult contemporary (Scarlet's Walk, certain songs on The Beekeeper), country ("Not Dying Today", "Drive All Night") and even folk ("Wedding Day"). She has written about many topics, including rape, masturbation, war, religion, feminine sexuality, homosexuality (and related topics), betrayal, and... other things. Richard Croft said it best about the public's perception of her: "The image of Tori Amos most widely known in pop culture is sort of like an American Björk, a modern Kate Bush, a feminist icon, a screeching, red-haired banshee who flails wildly at the piano and sings all sorts of man-hating anthems for her throngs of similarly screeching, red-haired fans." Note that this description was tongue-in-cheek; she is not misandric, and her fans have a variety of hair colors.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/ToriAmos

Arabs in Aspic - Syndenes Magi

 #Arabs in Aspic #progressive rock #psychedelic rock #stoner rock #heavy prog #hard rock #retro prog #Norway

Arabs in Aspic is a heavy progressive rock band from Trondheim, Norway, with their musical roots planted firmly in the golden era of rock. Their sound is a sweet mixture of loud, heavy guitars and drums, 12 string acoustics, funky bass and percussion, screaming hammond organs, soft Rhodes, mellotrons and 70's synths, topped with a bucket of vocal harmonies.
Arabs in Aspic emerged in 1997 from Norway led by guitarist and vocalist Jostein Smeby and rythm guitarist & Theremin player, Tommy Ingebrigtsen. Since they met through their common love for 1970s heavy rock music, especially Black Sabbath, they've been playing together with different personnel, each playing different kinds of heavy music until Arabs in Aspic surged. They said goodbye to playing covers and the band was ready with Hammond organ player Magnar Krutvik, drummer Eskil Nyhus and his brother, bass player Terje Nyhus. The quartet was later joined by Stig Arve Jorgenson on backing vocals and Hammond organ, as Magnar changed to playing acoustic guitar and synth. After a few years and two releases (Progeria EP and Far Out in Aradabia CD) the band was put on hold due to various reasons. In 2006 Jostein, Eskil and Stig hooked up with bass player Erik Paulsen and formed what was known as Arabs in Aspic II. The new spirit and musicianship led to some serious songwriting, and numerous demos were recorded during the following years. In 2009 the band entered legendary TNT guitarist Ronni LeTekro's studio and recorded the critically aclaimed "Strange Frame of Mind", which was mastered by Tommy Hansen in Jailhouse Studios, Denmark. Before the vinyl release of "Strange Frame" in 2012 they decided to cut the "II" in the band name and go back to just Arabs in Aspic.  From: https://www.arabsinaspic.org/bio--info.html

Cream - Tales of Brave Ulysses

 #Cream #Eric Clapton #Jack Bruce #Ginger Baker #blues rock #psychedelic rock #acid rock #hard rock #British psychedelic rock #psychedelic blues rock #classic rock #1960s

Cream switched to a more psychedelic sound for their second album Disraeli Gears, which was helmed by producer Felix Pappalardi, who pushed them in this direction. Their first album, Fresh Cream, was produced by Robert Stigwood and was filled with Blues material. "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" is one of the trippiest songs on the album, thanks in part to the wah-wah pedal Eric Clapton used on his guitar. According to Pappalardi, their first attempts to record the song fell flat. Taking a break, he and Clapton went to Manny's Music store, where they found some wah-wah pedals - Clapton only agreed to use them because he heard Jimi Hendrix was experimenting with one (he was - Hendrix used one on his song "The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp"). This guitar effect became a distinguishing feature of the song. An Australian painter named Martin Sharp helped Clapton write this. Sharp painted the album cover of Disraeli Gears. Clapton was in his phase where he was experimenting with distortion devices on his guitar. He used a fuzz-box and wah-wah pedal on this, as well as some echo. This was Eric Clapton's first use of the wah-wah pedal. He used it again for background effects and an extended solo on "White Room."  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/cream/tales-of-brave-ulysses

The Velvet Underground - Heroin

 #The Velvet Underground #Lou Reed #John Cale #Nico #experimental rock #art rock #avant-garde #proto-punk #Andy Warhol #1960s

The Velvet Underground was easily one of the most important rock bands of all time pushing the boundaries of acceptable music. They were far beyond their time, taking rock music to a whole other level; they never went on to become part of the mainstream but were critical in the forming of other bands. Their legacy has continued to last after their short run as an active band shaping the works of Patti Smith, David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, Talking Heads, U2, R.E.M., Roxy Music, Sonic Youth and many others. They were more progressive than other rock bands during the era of flower power by writing about social taboos such as sexual deviancy in the song "Venus in furs" and drug addiction in the song "Heroin" and "White Light/White Heat". They also wrote about paranoia, social alienation, violence, hopelessness and urban demimonde in several other songs. Sterling Morrison, Maureen Tucker, John Cale, and Lou Reed played their first show together in 1965. Just a few months after that, in a little Cafe in Greenwich Village in New York City the pop artist Andy Warhol saw them perform and took the group under his wing and they soon became the house band at his infamous studio the Factory. He made them the centerpiece for his "Exploding Plastic Inevitable,” a series of multimedia events that included screenings of Warhol's films and musical performances from the band, as well as dancing and other performances. Their debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico (featuring the German singer/actress Nico) dwindled in record-label red tape for a year before finally being released in 1966. The album's tracks proved to be one of the most cutting edge of it’s time. The group and Warhol had a falling out after they performed in Boston without Nico and the rest of the Inevitable cast, who arrived later. They were then forced to take on Steve Sesnick as their manager and without Warhol's connections and publicity they soon faded away. Empty theaters and unsuccessful album launches plagued the rest of the Velvets career, yet their extreme versatility showed that they were a force to be reckoned with.  From: https://sites.google.com/site/mississippijohnhurtproject/home/the-velvet-underground  

The Dead Weather - I Cut Like a Buffalo

 #The Dead Weather #Jack White #Alison Mosshart #blues rock #garage rock #psychedelic rock #alternative rock #supergroup #ex-The Kills #ex-The Raconteurs #music video

A more compelling and accomplished effort than what most ostensible supergroups come up with, the Dead Weather’s Horehound is a thick, skuzzy record that sounds slathered in boot-blacking and axle grease. Given the band’s roster (the Kills’s Alison Mosshart, the Raconteurs’s Jack Lawrence, Queens of the Stone Age’s Dean Fertita, and Jack White), it’s no surprise that Horehound is steeped in blues formalism, but the extent to which the band has embraced the seedy “Devil’s music” underbelly of the blues genre makes for a far darker, more aggressive record than any of its members’ day-job bands have recorded. From the Oedipal dare of “Treat Me Like Your Mother” to a gender-swapping take on Bob Dylan’s “New Pony,” the content of the songs plays into this aesthetic, but it’s the instrumentation and arrangements that do the heavy lifting. Fertita uses the same metal-flecked guitar techniques White employed on the White Stripes’s “Seven Nation Army” and “Icky Thump” but are taken to a far more severe degree, while White, for his part, bangs out drumlines that remain purposefully off-balance. When the band takes risks with this aesthetic (as on the arrhythmic opener “60 Feet Tall” and the phenomenal “I Cut Like a Buffalo,” on which White half-raps with a surprising swagger), the album works. But there are moments, such as on dirge-like lead single “Hang You from the Heavens” and the nearly identical “No Hassle Night,” when the thickness of their sound becomes turgid. It doesn’t help that Mosshart, though a capable frontwoman, is often more effective as a Shirley Manson-style vamp than a PJ Harvey-style belter: Her voice simply doesn’t have the heft to project the necessary menace. Despite these occasional missteps, though, Horehound establishes the Dead Weather as a fully realized band with a sufficiently distinctive point of view that deserves serious consideration as more than just a one-off side project.  From: https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/the-dead-weather-horehound/