The Smithereens - Only A Memory

#The Smithereens #alternative rock #hard rock #power pop #college rock #indie rock #1990s

Dressed in leather, brandishing heavy guitars, and exhibiting an unabashed fetish for British Invasion pop, the Smithereens were an anomaly in the American college rock scene of the late '80s. Lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Pat DiNizio stood out not only with his strange beatnik goatee, but also because his catchy hooks were haunting, not punchy, and because his lyrics were morose. As time wore on, the group became more straightforward, turning into an excellent bar band, one that attacked pop songs with the weight of AC/DC.  From: https://www.iheart.com/artist/the-smithereens-15174/

The Smithereens is a band few know about today and that in itself is a shame.  Formed in 1980, this band would produce a dozen albums in addition to innumerable compilations, live albums and soundtracks until the death of the lead singer Pat DiNizio in 2017. While the Smithereens would produce a ton of great music, it was Green Thoughts that introduced me to the band and this album remains my favorite of their to this day.
I am not sure how I came across the album Green Thoughts but somehow a copy fell into my lap sometime in early 90’s.  From the moment I heard the opening track, Only A Memory, I could tell there was something special about the band.  It may have been their polished Beatlesque sound or their ability to blend pop rock with a touch of Chet Atkins style guitar work, but whatever it was, this was a band that was on heavy rotation on my cheap GPX CD Boombox and I loved every second of it.
Part lounge singer, part crooner and part pop icon, Pat DiNizio had a voice that evoked the classic tone of Del Shannon and Buddy Holly. Coupled with the guitars by Jim Babjak, Bass from Mike Mesaros and drums by Dennis Diken, the quartet managed to create a sound that is unlike anything from its era setting itself apart from the rest by borrowing from their classic inspirations.  This was a band that was safe to listen to with music that was easy to fall in love with.  It was pop rock in it’s purest form and, with my love for the Posies that emerged at around the same time, it is no surprise that I became a fan.
From: https://latetothegame.blog/2019/07/09/stand-out-albums-the-smithereens-green-thoughts-1988/

Mean Mary - Where Were You

 #Mean Mary #Mary James #bluegrass #folk #country #blues #Americana #contemporary bluegrass #traditional

A singer and songwriter with a gift for connecting with sounds of the past, Mean Mary (real name, Mary James) has gained a loyal following for music that draws on vintage country, bluegrass, and traditional folk with just a touch of modern-day flash. A performer since she was six years old, Mean Mary grew up on the work of country artists like Dolly Parton and Hank Williams, Jr., but as she matured, she developed a taste for American folk songs of the Civil War era, and by the time she began recording prolifically with 2006's Thank You Very Much, she was combining songs of the past with fresh material that reshaped the sounds of history with her strong, emotive, blues-influenced vocals as well as her capable instrumental skills on banjo, fiddle, and guitar. While acoustic traditionalism remained the hallmark of Mean Mary's music, on albums like 2012's Walk a Little Ways with Me and 2016's Sweet found her incorporating more contemporary themes and sounds to her performances without compromising her creative vision.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mean-mary-mn0001761489/biography

Bridge City Sinners - Unholy Hymns

#Bridge City Sinners #alternative folk #jazz rock #folk rock #dark folk #Appalachian folk #folk-punk #death folk #retro jazz rock #Americana #music video

This is not your Grandparents’ folk music. The Bridge City Sinners take folk songs in the direction of a punk rocker. A rowdy folksy mosaic of banjo, violin, guitar, mandolin, upright bass, and ukulele. The Sinners started their journey as a rotating cast of friends in 2016 who just wanted to play music on the streets “busk” in Portland, Oregon. They have transitioned into a powerful force playing festivals such as Vans Warped Tour, NW String Summit, The Fest, and The Seattle Folklife Festival. Before the Bridge City Sinners, lead singer Libby Lux and upright bass player Scott Michaud infrequently started playing music together on the streets of Portland, Oregon over eight years ago. Without rehearsal, nor a plan, a few times a year they would meet up with other various street musicians to sing and yell at passers-by. Years before that, on their separate journeys, they traveled, hitch-hiked, and howled at the moon across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In hobo fashion, they earned what they’d eat and roofs over their heads by the papers and coins tossed into their hat. Through their years of wandering, they were able to pick up a rich catalog of songs passed through the traveling/busking community. In 2012, their mutual best friend and lead singer of folk-punk band Profane Sass, passed away when he fell off a train in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In a way the Bridge City Sinners are a homage to keep his spirit alive and continue passing along the music they all sang together on the streets, hidden in trains, and in living rooms across the continent. They formed the Bridge City Sinners in the Winter of 2016.  From: https://www.cactusclubmilwaukee.com/artists/bridge-city-sinners/

The Grateful Dead - China Cat Sunflower

 #The Grateful Dead #Jerry Garcia #Bob Weir #Phil Lesh #psychedelic rock #folk rock #blues rock #acid rock #West coast psychedelia #1960s #1970s

Nearly synonymous with the term "psychedelic," the Grateful Dead reached their true peak of psychedelia on their third album, 1969's Aoxomoxoa. The band had already begun work on an initial recording of the album when they gained access to the new technology of 16-track recording, doubling the number of individual tracks they'd used on their last album. Fueled by acid and keeping pace with the quickly changing hippie subculture of the late '60s, the band went wild with this newfound sonic freedom. The exploratory jamming and rough-edged blues-rock of their live shows were ornamented with overdubbed choirs, electronic sound effects, and layers of processed vocal harmonies. Rudimentary experimental production took the band's already-trippy approach and amplified it with generously applied effects and jarring edits. In their most straightforward songs, Aoxomoxoa's ambitious production isn't as noticeable. Gelatinous rockers like "Cosmic Charlie" and "St. Stephen" showcase Jerry Garcia's spindly guitar leads and the band's dusty vocal harmonies clearly before detouring into wild studio experiments. Though the studio mix of "China Cat Sunflower" sounds like the different instruments are floating in space, trying to connect from distant individual planets, the core of the song still comes through, and this number would become a live favorite for the rest of the band's lengthy run.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/aoxomoxoa-mw0000650206

Sly & The Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

 #Sly & The Family Stone #psychedelic soul #funk #funk rock #progressive soul #R&B #1960s

Sly Stone wrote "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" because he felt listeners were not hearing the messages in his songs even though the band was more popular then ever. Sly & the Family Stone were an integrated band and tried to spread the message of racial harmony, but Stone thought that message was getting lost. Larry Graham played the innovative bass line using a technique where he thumped the strings. He learned this technique when he was playing in a duo with his mother, who played the organ - with no drummer, he had to create the percussion with his bass. This style became very popular on funk records for years to come and was a big influence on artists like Prince and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.  From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/sly-the-family-stone/thank-you-falettinme-be-mice-elf-agin

In the beginning, Sly & The Family Stone were pop’s great utopian experiment: A band where the musicians were black and white, male and female, drawing on hard R&B and way-out psychedelic rock, playing for every audience that would have them. In 1969, the Family Stone hit #1 with “Everyday People” and played one of the standout sets at Woodstock. Their wild, freaked-out take on soul music helped birth funk and set the Motown aesthetic on a whole new trajectory; the Temptations and the Jackson 5, especially, built on what they’d done. But for Sly Stone and his bandmates, things turned dark quickly.
Around the time that they blew up and became huge stars, Sly & The Family Stone left their San Francisco home for Los Angeles. They all started doing harder drugs — PCP was reportedly a favorite — and hating each other. Sly insulated himself from his bandmates, some of whom were his actual siblings, and he surrounded himself instead with dealers and gangsters. There are stories about how he’d carry around a violin case full of nothing but drugs. He started missing shows and putting on chaotic performances at TV tapings. And he stopped releasing music. At a time when popular artists were expected to crank out albums at a dizzy rate, Sly & The Family Stone only put out one single in the more than two years between their 1969 breakout Stand! and the dark, nasty 1971 epic There’s A Riot Goin’ On. And that single went to #1.
On a purely sonic level, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” sounds like a total celebration. It’s sharp, sprightly, upbeat. All the band members share lead vocal duties, singing as one, like they’re an army. Larry Graham hammers his bass hard, popping the strings and treating his instrument like it’s percussive. Sly and Freddie Stone’s guitars do a wah-wah strut, and Jerry Martini and Cynthia Robinson’s horns stab through the mix. The hook sounds celebratory — like the Family Stone is thanking America’s public for latching onto their bugged-out sound.
But that is not, of course, what the Family Stone were doing. Instead, the lyrics are both sardonic and freaked the fuck out. The first verse may or may not be a story about a dangerous fist fight with a cop, or with a white man: “Looking at the devil, grinning at his gun / Fingers start shaking, I begin to run.” The second is an admission of defeat, a statement of futility: “Thank you for the party, but I could never stay / Many things on my mind / Words in the way.” On the third verse, the band reels off the titles of past hits, turning those words into pure gibberish. It’s a whole song of heavy notes, and it ends on the heaviest one: “Dying young is hard to take / Selling out is harder.”
So: A stark fuck-you hidden within the disguise of a great party song. And it will remain a great party song, since most of us never pay attention to the lyrics, which is the whole problem that those lyrics tried to address. (Technically, “Thank You” shared its #1 with the ballad “Everybody Is A Star,” which would’ve been a 7.) “Thank You” is a remarkable song, a possibly-ironic work of unity from a band that wasn’t even close to being unified. It’s messy, since everything the Family Stone did was messy. And Sly would find sharper, more direct ways to say the things that he wanted to say. But the intensity was already there, if you knew where to look.
From: https://www.stereogum.com/2026526/sly-the-family-stones-thank-you-falettinme-be-mice-elf-agin-review/columns/the-number-ones/

Morphine - Buena

 #Morphine #Mark Sandman #alternative rock #blues rock #jazz rock #bass-driven #no guitars #post-punk #indie rock #1990s

“Low-rock” and “Fuck-rock” are two descriptors enigmatic Morphine front man Mark Sandman used to describe his band’s beat-inspired blues-jazz-rock holy racket. Along with Sandman’s baritone vocal delivery and laconic two-string bass styling, co-founder Dana Colley played a saxophone as his lead instrument of choice instead of the expected guitar, creating a quirky and burning sensibility. Original drummer Jerome Deupree, who was replaced by percussionist Billy Conway during the recording of 1993’s Cure For Pain, flushed out the unorthodox trio. Tragically, Morphine’s Sandman passed away on-stage at an Italian gig with the group in 1999, leaving behind five engaging albums. Today, the group is hailed as one of the great bands of the last 25 years and was recently profiled in the feature-length documentary Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story (2011).  From: https://lightintheattic.net/releases/624-cure-for-pain

Morphine was an American rock band formed by Mark Sandman, Dana Colley, and Jerome Deupree in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1989. Drummer Billy Conway also played in the band, frequently during Deupree's absence, though at times both played together. After five successful albums and extensive touring, they disbanded after lead vocalist Sandman died of a heart attack onstage in Palestrina, Italy, on July 3, 1999. Founding members have reformed into the band Vapors of Morphine, maintaining much of the original style and sound. Morphine combined blues and jazz elements with more traditional rock arrangements, giving the band an unusual sound. Sandman sang distinctively in a "deep, laid-back croon", and his songwriting featured a prominent beat influence. The band themselves coined the label "low rock" to describe their music, which involved "a minimalist, low-end sound that could have easily become a gimmick: a 'power trio' not built around the sound of an electric guitar. Instead, Morphine expanded its offbeat vocabulary on each album."  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphine_(band)

The Nields - Mr. Right Now

 #The Nields #Katryna & Nerissa Nields #folk rock #contemporary folk #alternative rock #indie rock #Americana #1990s

The first incarnation of what would later become the Nields came together in 1987 in McLean, Virginia, when Nerissa Nields met David Jones, and started a band with Nerissa's sister Katryna. In 1991, Katryna had graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut, and Nerissa had graduated from Yale University. Nerissa married David, who was now known as David Nields, having taken her surname. By now, the threesome was performing together as the Nields, with Katryna as the lead singer, Nerissa playing rhythm guitar and singing harmony, and David Nields on lead guitar. In 1992, the three of them moved to Connecticut, where David had accepted a job at the Loomis Chaffee School, and the band recorded its first album, the self-released 66 Hoxsey Street, named for a house in Williamstown where they had lived. The band began to tour New England in earnest, earning a reputation in the regional folk music scene. In 1993, they released a live album titled Live at the Iron Horse Music Hall, recorded at the popular folk club in Northampton, Massachusetts.
In 1994 the band grew from a three-piece folk group to a five-piece rock band. The new members were Dave Chalfant (bass), whom Katryna had met in college, and Dave Hower (drums), a friend of Chalfant's. Chalfant also produced the band's album released that year, Bob on the Ceiling. This album featured a mix of the acoustic material that the Nields had previously specialized in and a more rock-oriented sound that would become their trademark. With their new sound, the Nields received critical acclaim, and quit their day jobs to become full-time musicians. Their 1995 EP Abigail, named for Katryna and Nerissa's sister, was self-released, followed by Gotta Get Over Greta in 1996 on the independent Razor & Tie record label. The album was re-released in 1997 with three bonus tracks on Guardian, a division of Elektra Records.
Unfortunately, the group suffered a number of setbacks the next year. Guardian folded, leaving them without a record label, and their tour van was growing increasingly unreliable. The band self-released an album called Mousse (the nickname for Dave Chalfant's sister Andromache) and held a special fundraising concert entitled "Jam for the Van." As a result, the Nields were able to purchase a new van, and were also able to secure a new label, Zoë, a division of Rounder Records. Over the next three years, the Nields released two more records (Play and If You Lived Here You'd Be Home Now), and in 1999 Katryna Nields and Dave Chalfant got married.
Although the band enjoyed a moderate degree of success, they ceased touring as a five-piece in 2001. Their final recording with David Nields was a two-disc album titled Live From Northampton. Like their 1993 album, it was recorded at the Iron Horse Music Hall, and was self-released by the band. In 2002, David and Nerissa Nields were divorced.
In 1998, Katryna and Nerissa were invited to play Lilith Fair as a duo. The performances were successful, and the two sisters performed several more shows together in areas where the full band had not previously been able to tour. By 2001, shows by the full band were increasingly rare, as Katryna and Nerissa toured mostly by themselves. In mid-2001, Katryna took some time off to have a baby, Amelia. Afterwards, she and Nerissa recorded their first album as a duo, titled Love and China, followed by an EP of children's songs, Songs for Amelia. In 2004, they released their second full album, This Town is Wrong. In 2005, Nerissa's young adult novel, Plastic Angel, was published by Scholastic Books. This Town Is Wrong was intended as a soundtrack to the novel, which came packaged with a CD containing the songs "This Town Is Wrong" and "Glow-In-The-Dark Plastic Angel" from the album.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nields

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime

 #Talking Heads #David Byrne #new wave #alternative rock #post-punk #art rock #avant-funk #experimental #funk rock #worldbeat #1980s #music video

As the 80s began, the future of Talking Heads was uncertain; that they would soon record their defining song, 1981’s Once In A Lifetime, would have seemed impossible to a group then on the verge of burning out. In Remain In Love, Chris Frantz’s 2020 memoir, the drummer remembers talking to a journalist on 19 December 1979, following the final gig of their tour in support of their third album, that year’s remarkable Fear Of Music. “He opened with the question, ‘What are you going to do now that David [Byrne, singer] is leaving the band?’ David had already spoken to him privately and told him this. Tina [Weymouth, bassist] and Jerry [Harrison, guitars and keyboards] and I explained to the journalist that we knew nothing about it and left it at that. Everyone was exhausted.” The group took some time to take stock and explore individual solo projects and interests. David Byrne used his downtime to work with Brian Eno (who’d produced the previous two Talking Heads records) on the groundbreaking album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, eventually released in February 1981. Meanwhile, Weymouth and Frantz took a long holiday in the Caribbean, where they pondered the group’s future and soaked up musical influences that would set them in good stead. Feeling Byrne had become too controlling, they looked to redress the balance; rather than rely on their frontman bringing material to the group, Weymouth and Franz suggested they emulate the music that was exciting them – early hip-hop, Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat grooves, West African highlife pop – and embark upon jam sessions, with the intention of “sampling” themselves and working the results up into new material. Frantz and Weymouth invited Harrison to their New York loft for informal jams, recorded on Frantz’s boombox. When it became apparent they had the beginnings of some promising tracks, they reached out to Byrne and Eno, both of whom had previously told Frantz they were not interested in making another Talking Heads record. Once the reluctant pair had been separately coaxed over and joined in, things began to get interesting. “By nighttime we took a break to listen back. You could hear all kinds of interesting parts germinating, mutating and evolving,” Frantz recalled. “There was no denying that Talking Heads still had a great chemistry going on and the beats were good. You could dance to it!” Excited by the loft jams, recording sessions were booked at Compass Point, the studio where Talking Heads recorded their second album, 1978’s More Songs About Buildings And Food, in Nassau, The Bahamas. One of those jams, a hypnotic and relentless instrumental called Right Start, might very well have been abandoned. Instead, it was worked up to become one of the best Talking Heads songs of all, the transcendent Once In A Lifetime. Talking to NPR for a 2000 edition of All Things Considered, Brian Eno revealed that he “immediately misheard it and I still mishear it to this day, I always think the one of the bar is in a different place from them. This might seem like a rather irrelevant technical point but actually it means that the song has a funny balance within it, it has two centers of gravity – their one and my one.” This unusual quality, along with the insistent bass line – played by Weymouth after she thought she heard Frantz shouting the riff at her during a session – made Byrne think it had potential for lyrics. The song was saved from the discard pile. And what lyrics they were. Byrne had become increasingly interested in the end-of-days rhetoric of evangelists and looked to channel that energy, as he told NPR: “So much of it was taken from the style of radio evangelists. So I would improvise lines as if I was giving a sermon in that kind of metre. In that kind of hyperventilating style. And then go back and distill that.” While many have interpreted the lyric as an extended jab at the materialistic 80s, Byrne himself has suggested the song implores the listener to take stock of their lives. “We’re largely unconscious. You know, we operate half-awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else. We haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, ‘How did I get here?’”  From: https://www.thisisdig.com/feature/once-in-a-lifetime-talking-heads-song-story/

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - I Don't Live Today

 #The Jimi Hendrix Experience #hard rock #psychedelic rock #blues rock #R&B #heavy metal #British psychedelia #acid rock #1960s #power trio #Mitch Mitchell #Noel Redding

Jimi Hendrix’s debut album, Are You Experienced, was pieced together in London in between dazzling live gigs that left the competition reeling. But the end results are still a revelation. Revered music writer Dave Marsh spoke for many when he called Are You Experienced, “The greatest, most influential debut album ever released” but, truth to tell, it was never really conceived as an album at all. Released on May 12, 1967, Are You Experienced ushered in a new and exciting era where albums, not 45s, dominated rock music. Just three weeks after its release, The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band confirmed the album’s position. It had now become the definitive statement of a rock artist’s worth. However, when Jimi Hendrix went into London’s De Lane Lea studios with producer Chas Chandler in October 1966, hit singles were still very much the goal, and the album, which would change it all, would eventually come together via a sequence of higgledy-piggledy recording sessions, strung out between live commitments. The influences that Hendrix melded together to create the revelatory guitar and songwriting style on the album are many and include his early exposure to the blues, his years on the road as a guitar slinger for hire with Little Richard, the Isley Brothers et al and his fascination with Bob Dylan. One song, however, would bring all those strands together, spark the world’s love affair with Hendrix and establish the template for his earth-shattering debut album. In the summer of 1966, when Hendrix was between jobs and low on cash, he could be found contemplating his options over a coffee at the Cock’n’Bull café on MacDougal Street in New York’s Greenwich Village. He would stroll over to the café’s jukebox again and again and select Hey Joe by folkie Tim Rose. Copyrighted in 1962 by songwriter Billy Roberts, it was already one of the most recorded songs of the mid 1960s, but whereas most bands treated it as an uptempo rock cut, Rose had slowed it down and introduced a distinctive walking bass line. About a month later, Chas Chandler, bassist of The Animals, caught Hendrix’s set at Café Wha? in the Village, and heard him perform his version of Hey Joe. By happy coincidence, The Animals’ career was winding down and Chandler was looking to move into management and record production. He saw his golden opportunity in Hendrix, signed him up and flew him to London to launch a new career. But no one could predict the tumult that would follow Hendrix’s arrival in the UK on September 24, 1966. After touchdown at Heathrow, he got straight to it, jamming at the Scotch Of St James club. Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, The Who’s managers were in the audience and, so impressed, stumped up a £1,000 advance to tie Hendrix to their fledgling record company, Track Records. Soon he was also jamming with London based band The VIPS and Eric Burdon and The New Animals. “He just grabbed hold of Vic Briggs’ guitar and said, ‘Do you mind if I have a jam?’,” remembers Eric Burdon, The Animals’ singer. “Barry Jenkins and Danny McCulloch from my band just leapt in and chased him on this incredible jam, and the sounds just rocketed around the room, like, ricocheted around the room. I was totally stunned.” Before the month was out, he was performing with keyboard virtuoso Brian Auger at Blaises’ club, when guitarist Andy Summers, later of The Police, then in Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band walked in. “He had a white Strat and as I walked in he had it in his mouth,” recalls Summers. “It was intense and it was really great. It kind of turned all the guitarists in London upside down at the time.” Then on October 1, Chandler arranged for Jimi to jam with Cream at the Polytechnic of Central London. “He did Killing Floor, a Howlin’ Wolf number I’ve always wanted to play, but which I’ve never really had the complete technique to do,” admitted guitarist Eric Clapton. “Ginger didn’t like it and Jack didn’t like it. They’d never heard the song before. It was just, well, he just stole the show.” By this time, Noel Redding, attracted by a small ad in Melody Maker, had also jammed with Hendrix on a handful of instrumentals and found himself hired as bassist for the newly named Jimi Hendrix Experience. The arrival of drummer Mitch Mitchell came next. On October 1, he was fired by R&B hitmaker Georgie Fame and five days later he auditioned for Hendrix. They meshed well but at the end, Hendrix simply said, “Okay. I’ll see you around.” Before Mitchell could leave, though, Chas Chandler mentioned a potential gig in the middle of the month, supporting French pop idol Johnny Hallyday in Paris. Mitchell recalled: “I said ‘Okay’ and spent three days rehearsing. Then off we went and that was how it started.”  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/rocks-big-bang-theory-jimi-hendrix-and-the-most-influential-debut-album-ever

Led Zeppelin - Hey Hey What Can I Do

 #Led Zeppelin #Jimmy Page #Robert Plant #hard rock #blues rock #folk rock #heavy metal #folk metal #heavy blues rock #1970s

Led Zeppelin were purposefully not a singles band. For the majority of their career, the hard rock icons didn’t release a single in their native UK. Since their American audiences were exponentially larger, singles were necessary evils, but Led Zeppelin considered themselves an album-focused group throughout their career. There was never a time when you couldn’t find a song featured on a single that wasn’t already on a studio album. With one notable exception, that is. Throughout their entire career, only one single released by Zeppelin featured a B-side that never found its way onto a studio album. That was in 1970 when the group released ‘Immigrant Song’ as a single. The track wound up being the first track on what would become Led Zeppelin III, and its B-side was representative of the more acoustic direction that Zeppelin would be taking on the rest of Zeppelin III. Strangely enough, the song itself wouldn’t be included. ‘Hey, Hey, What Can I Do’ is an almost fully non-electric outing for Led Zeppelin. Featuring Jimmy Page on acoustic guitars and John Paul Jones on mandolin, the only plugged-in instrument in the mix is Jones’ bass guitar. John Bonham bashes out his signature rhythms while Robert Plant gamely belts out his blues-influenced lyrics about his partner who stays drunk all the time and can’t stay true. Mixing the classic come-ons of Zeppelin’s past with the folkier direction of their future, ‘Hey, Hey, What Can I Do’ would have made the perfect addition to Led Zeppelin III. But for whatever reason, the track was left off the final album, making it's appearance on the ‘Immigrant Song’ single its only appearance in Zeppelin’s catalogue for a number of years.  From: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/rare-led-zeppelin-song-without-studio-album/

Renaissance - Can You Hear Me

 #Renaissance #Annie Haslam #progressive rock #British progressive rock #symphonic prog #classical #orchestral #1970s

 

Novella gets so deep into an era of a few centuries ago that I feel like I'm getting some kind of plague every time I play it. Not as accessible as most of their stuff, the orchestral arrangements are the dominant force for most of these songs, resulting in an album that is certainly progressive and with folk leanings, but the 'rock' factor is at a low ebb concerning their output.
I was never a fan of this... until now. It finally clicked for me, and I love it for being such an unabashed foray into olden day jive at a time when the new and modern was going wild in the music scene. Very classical at times, and not exactly a thrill-ride either. Rather somber and even dour at times, like living under the age of kings and churches. Novella is quite an evocative beast, complex in arrangements and led by Annie's graceful, heavenly yet traditional folkish voice. "Can You Hear Me?" is actually amazing, but at first I thought it was too steeped in orchestration, like a movie score with singing. Now I'm sincerely impressed with the chord changes and the sudden, quick operatic bursts. Pompous in all the right ways. The closer "Touching Once (Is So Hard to Keep)" is the other mega-track, and while it's not as vocally engaging as the opener, it's got some potent segues into numerous grooves that possess real bounce. And believe me, those groovy moments are needed when you have depressing old tales like the lyrics of "The Sisters" to contend with. There's a weight to this album, gloomy tales to dispirit kids. But Novella does it so damn well that I can only marvel at it’s successful embodiment of the album cover. And it's not all morose, as the music itself never settles for a singular mood.  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/renaissance/novella/

Renaissance were an English progressive rock band who developed a unique sound, combining a female lead vocal with a fusion of classical, folk, rock, and jazz influences. Characteristic elements of the Renaissance sound are Annie Haslam's wide vocal range, prominent piano accompaniment, orchestral arrangements, vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar, synthesiser, and versatile drum work.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(band)

Luciferian Light Orchestra - Taste the Blood of the Altar Wine

 #Luciferian Light Orchestra #doom metal #psychedelic rock #heavy metal #occult rock #psychedelic metal #gothic rock #heavy psych #retro 1970s #Swedish #music video

Luciferian Light Orchestra is a band formed in 2014 by Therion’s Christofer Johnsson. The band performs songs that Johnsson has written over the years but thought that they were too retro sounding for Therion. Christofer always had a big passion for ’70’s music. Luciferian Light Orchestra sounds like a ’70’s version of Therion, mainly inspired by the ’70’s occult vibes and themes. The self-titled album was recorded and mixed by Christofer at Adulruna Studio and and mixed by Lennart Östlund (Led Zeppelin, ABBA) at Polar Studios, Stockholm. In the process of making the record, there was a large group of people involved: 2 drummers, 1 bass player, 5 guitarists, 2 keyboard players, 3 hammond organists, 4 lead singers, 5 backing singers It's not official who contributed on the album and who the members are, but Christofer has revealed that it’s ”a mix of old symphonic rock and progressive musicians, some current Therion members, one ex-Therion member and some artists from other bands. Plus some known and unknown people from Dragon Rouge giving a hand with backing vocals.”  From: https://svartrecords.com/en/product/luciferian-light-orchestra-black-ep/4110

Butthole Surfers - Tongue

 #Butthole Surfers #experimental rock #alternative rock #punk rock #psychedelic rock #noise rock #psychedelic punk #1980s #1990s

Butthole Surfers is a Noise Rock band formed in San Antonio, Texas in 1981, well known for it's bizarre and often disturbing lyrics, heavy synthesizing, and macabre live shows. They also use a lot of Black Comedy in their lyrics. The Surfers began in 1980, when lead singer Gibby Haynes met guitarist Paul Leary while going to college in Texas, where they became friends due to their shared overall weirdness and interest in strange music. They published a magazine, Strange V.D., with a lot of pictures of strange diseases and illnesses, long before they actually started playing in 1981. Throughout The '80s, they built up a cult following in the college rock world through their melding of Punk Rock and Psychedelic Rock, plus a multi-media stage show (including a naked female dancer and grotesque film clips projected on a giant screen) that was an assault on the senses, all capped off with a twisted sense of humor. Their mainstream commercial breakthrough finally came in The 1990s, when big labels were scrambling to sign Alternative Rock acts in the wake of Nirvana's success. After a decade of releasing their music on small indie labels such as Alternative Tentacles and Touch and Go, the Buttholes signed with Capitol Records; their second Capitol album, 1996’s Electriclarryland, contained their first big hit "Pepper.” Afterwards, they became featured on many movie soundtracks, such as William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.  From: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/ButtholeSurfers

Buffalo Springfield - Special Care

 #Buffalo Springfield #Stephen Stills #Neil Young #Richie Furay #Jim Messina #folk rock #psychedelic rock #country rock #West coast sound #1960s #pre-CSNY #pre-Poco #pre-Loggins & Messina

After just over two turbulent, creative, and brilliant years, the members of Buffalo Springfield decided to call it quits. Neil Young would release a solo album four months after the group’s demise. Stephen Stills would move on to the successful and enduring Crosby, Stills & Nash. Richie Furay and Jim Messina, who had replaced original bass player Bruce Palmer, would form the country-rock band Poco. Drummer Dewey Martin would form Medicine Ball, retire to become a mechanic, and then form Buffalo Springfield Revisited with bass player Bruce Palmer. Last Time Around was the third and last studio album by the group and was released after they had disbanded. It is unique, creative, diverse, and excellent which is probably an accurate description of their career. It seems as if Neil Young could hardly wait to leave the band. He only contributed two full songs but his talent was such that both are superb. “On The Way Home” contains vocal harmonies with Richie Furay and guitar work by Stephen Stills which are top notch. There is an excellent version of this song on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s live album Four Way Street. “I Am A Child” did not include any other member of the band but is a classic Neil Young composition. He would recycle it for his Live Rust album. Stephen Stills would contribute five tracks which can be considered the album’s foundation. “Four Days Gone” remains one of his strongest compositions. It has a country-rock feel and is another political statement by him. A bluesy rendition appears on Stephen Stills Live. “Pretty Girl Why” contains some nice guitar interplay with Young but it is the co-lead vocal with Furay that pushes it over the top. “Questions” is another country-rock composition with strong lyrics and stellar guitar riffs. “Uno Mundo” features some almost psychedelic guitar playing by Stills. “Special Care” is another track which would appear live throughout his career in various forms but here in it’s original incarnation it is precise and very laid back” Richie Furay’s “Kind Woman” can really be considered the first Poco song. Rusty Young was brought in to play the pedal steel guitar part and meshed so well with Young and Messina that they decided to start their own band. This is a gentle, romantic song that remains among his best. “Merry-Go-Round” would travel in a different direction as a light pop tune. “It’s So Hard To Wait” was co-authored by Neil Young who then abandoned the song and does not appear on it. Furay finished it as a slow ode of lost love. Jim Messina managed to contribute one song before everything fell apart. “Carefree Country Day” is light and competent, and further solidified his relationship with Richie Furay. Last Time Around remains one of the better albums of the late sixties despite the group members being pulled in different directions during the recording process. It has stood the test of time well as a lasting testament to one of the masterful groups in American rock history.  From: https://blogcritics.org/music-review-buffalo-springfield-last-time/

Strawbs - New World

 #Strawbs #Dave Cousins #progressive rock #folk rock #progressive folk #British folk rock #1970s

Dave Cousins efforts to move the band from folk rock into more progressive areas took another step forward here. The luxurious packaging of the original LP suggested even before hearing it, that this was going to be a confident album. Blue Weaver, Rick Wakeman's replacement on keyboards, stamps his own mark throughout the album. He provides structured layers of sound for the band to build on, rather than the more independent sound of his predecessor. The opening track, "Benedictus" has the hymnal feel of "A Glimpse of heaven" from the previous album, but the mood soon changes with "Queen of Dreams" which comes close to acid rock. The title track "New World" was probably the Strawbs most powerful track they ever made. As Dave Cousins sang "May you rot in your grave, new world" his teeth must have ached from being so tightly clenched!  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=2897

One of the more unsung British progressive bands of the early 1970s, the Strawbs differed from their more successful compatriots - the Moody Blues, King Crimson, Pink Floyd - principally in that their sound originated in English folk music rather than rock. Their transformation from acoustic bluegrass outfit to progressive folk-rock innovators was an impressive feat, and they hit their stride with gems like 1972's Grave New World and its follow-up Bursting at the Seams. As the '70s wore on, the Strawbs' career began to falter with ongoing lineup and label changes marring their progress. They survived a breakup at the end of the decade and went on to enjoy a robust revival period in the mid-1980s that, while not quite up to the level of their peak years, helped carry them and their fans into the 21st century. The Strawbs of the 2000s were particularly prolific, delivering an array of studio albums including highlights like 2005's Painted Sky and 2009's The Broken Hearted Bride. Over the years, the group have managed to remain stylistically adventurous even on late-period outings like 2021's Settlement, released over 50 years after their debut.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-strawbs-mn0000940076/biography

Shocking Blue - Venus

 #Shocking Blue #Mariska Veres #psychedelic rock #garage rock #nederbeat #pop rock #garage rock #proto-prog #Dutch #1960s #music video

Musically, Shocking Blue was hard to peg. While their solid rhythm section comprised of guitar, bass and drums, was regularly augmented by an array of instruments including sax, sitar, banjo and mandolin, their repertoire freely leapt from proto-glam to kickass country rock. Robbie Van Leeuwen’s obsession with American music was apparent with one listen to The Big 3’s 1963 update of Stephen Foster’s 1847 song, “Oh, Susanna,” which they renamed “The Banjo Song.” Tim Rose, Jim Hendricks, and the future “Mama” Cass Elliot gave Foster’s famous tune a rock ‘n’ roll edge with a driving guitar riff straight out of Henry Mancini’s theme song to the popular TV show Peter Gunn. Whether a flagrant case of plagiarism or merely “inspired by” The Big 3, Robbie kept the music fully intact, note for note, chord for chord, while re-writing the lyrics, transforming the obscure novelty folk number into the pop smash “Venus,” and topped the Billboard charts in December 1969. Other obvious influences can be heard in the song’s intro, which kicks off with chiming suspended guitar chords by way of Pete Townshend’s “Pinball Wizard” from The Who’s Tommy (released only a few months before “Venus” in March 1969). In 1988, Cor van der Beek, confessed that “Venus” “was stolen from The Beatles.” While one might comb the Fabs’ albums looking for the source of the song’s irresistible guitar hook, it was actually Billy Preston’s electric piano groove from “Get Back” (imitated by Cees Schrama of Golden Earring) that van der Beek was referring to. It also didn’t hurt that Robbie van Leeuwen’s lead guitar break on “Venus” strongly resembled John Lennon’s slinky licks on The Beatles’ 1969 single. Robbie van Leeuwen was obviously hip to American roots music and had no qualms about re-working it into great pop. For their 1972 single “Rock in the Sea,” van Leeuwen employed the electric mandolin and lifted a verse directly from the Holy Modal Rounders’ “Mole in the Ground” (who’d copped it from banjo picker Bascom Lamar Lunsford). Shocking Blue’s “Navajo Tears,” which featured Robbie on mandolin and saxophone, employed the melody of “The Trees They Do Grow High,” a traditional folk song sung by Joan Baez, Pentangle and many others. No matter what their source of inspiration, or which direction their sonic compass pointed, Mariska Veres inevitably became the group’s focal point. Her striking looks - long dark hair, cut into bangs (said to be a wig) framed her alluring kohl-ringed eyes. Dressed in wild print blouses, short skirts and high boots, she drew comparisons to every sultry brunette who ever fronted a rock band, from Grace Slick, to Cher and Linda Ronstadt. But Mariska had something extra. She was Romany - an exotic cocktail of Hungarian, Russian and French. One of three daughters, Mariska began her career singing and playing piano with her father, Lajos Veres, a violinist with a gypsy orchestra. By 1963, she was singing with a twangy guitar group called Les Mysteres, who recorded a righteous reverb-soaked cover of “Summertime.” Nearly every article written about Shocking Blue compared the band to Jefferson Airplane. But the similarities between Mariska and Grace Slick were superficial at best. To begin with, Veres would prove a more versatile vocalist, and while Grace was a legendary wild woman and provocateur, Mariska was said to be a gentle soul who loved cats, didn’t smoke, shunned drink and drugs, and warned her bandmates upon joining their ranks that relationships were strictly out. Years later, Mariska told the Belgian magazine Flair: “I was just a painted doll, nobody could ever reach me. Nowadays, I am more open to people.”  From: https://pleasekillme.com/mariska-veres/

BoDeans - Good Things

 #BoDeans #alternative rock #roots rock #folk rock #heartland rock #indie rock #1980s #1990s

BoDeans all began when Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas met at Waukesha South High School in 1977. How did the duo’s band get its name? Sam often explains that he got the name from The Beverly Hillbillies character Jethro Bodine. For Kurt, BoDeans conjured up the image of rock n’ roll icons Bo Diddley and James Dean for a familial name, similar to The Smiths and The Connells. Early on, Neumann and Llanas were often credited as Beau and Sammy BoDean. In 1983 “Da BoDeans” began playing around Milwaukee’s East Side music scene along with a hired drummer and bass player. The band practiced in the garage of Mark McCraw, a mutual friend who soon became their manager and provided financial support during the early years. In 1985 labels began to make offers, and the band chose to sign a contract with Slash/Warner Records. After signing, the label suggested that they shorten their name to simply “BoDeans.” Under the guidance of producer T-Bone Burnett, they entered Hollywood’s Sunset Sound Factory in October to record their first album. Burnett focused on capturing the band’s natural sound without many additional overdubs. The band later expressed their regret for not being able to spend more time on the production, but high studio costs kept the sessions concise. The critically acclaimed debut Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams was released in 1986. BoDeans mix midwestern roots rock with elements of adult contemporary pop, fashioning a sound that earned critical acclaim during the ’80s and commercial recognition during the following decade.  From: https://k-zap.org/music_profiles/bodeans/

The Dead Weather - Die By The Drop

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

Crafting a darkly potent mix of garage, blues, punk, and rock & roll informed by the members' other projects, the Dead Weather features Jack White, the Kills' Alison Mosshart, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita, and the Raconteurs' "Little Jack" Lawrence. The group began in 2008 after the Raconteurs' U.S. tour with the Kills: Toward the end of the tour, bronchitis made it difficult for White to sing as much as usual, so Mosshart was drafted to sing several of his songs. Her on-stage chemistry with the band led White, Mosshart, Lawrence, and White's house guest Fertita to record a cover of Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric?" The newly formed band began working on a full album at White's Third Man Studios in Nashville Tennessee, with White on drums for the first time since his days with Goober & the Peas. The Dead Weather finished recording their album in a matter of weeks and made its live debut in March 2009, performing a short set for 150 friends at Third Man's offices to celebrate the release of the single Hang You from the Heavens/Are Friends Electric? Horehound, the Dead Weather's debut album, arrived that summer. The band continued to tour and record through 2009, and Mosshart announced that their second album was halfway done that October. In March 2010, the single Die by the Drop arrived. Sea of Cowards, which boasted a heavier and more integrated sound than the band's debut, appeared that May. That year, the Dead Weather contributed the song "Rolling in on a Burning Tire" to the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack. In 2013, White announced that the band was working on new material, and the 7" Open Up (That's Enough)/Rough Detective arrived late that year as a part of a package from Third Man Records subscription service The Vault. Further singles heralded the release of the Dead Weather's third album Dodge and Burn - which featured remastered versions of the previously issued songs along with new material - in September 2015.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-dead-weather-mn0002006721/biography

Ian Matthews - Seven Bridges Road

 #Ian Matthews #country rock #folk rock #British folk rock #Americana #singer-songwriter #1970s

A vital figure in the history of British folk, Ian Matthews was a founding member of the pioneering U.K. folk-rock band Fairport Convention before he went on to found his own group, Matthews' Southern Comfort, and later moved on to a solo career. Matthews possesses a warm and expressive tenor voice and a talent for songwriting. While he drew from British folk traditions in his work, his greatest inspiration came from American country, folk, and roots music, and he blended their timeless themes with a hippie-fied pastoral feel that was warm and sweet or sorrowful, depending on the song. Though he would dabble in soft rock, power pop, and synth pop in the late '70s and early '80s, he always returned to the sun-dappled sound of the country-folk hybrid that was his trademark.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ian-matthews-mn0000768231/biography

"Seven Bridges Road" is a song written by American musician Steve Young, recorded in 1969 for his Rock Salt & Nails album. It has since been covered by many artists, the best-known version being a five-part harmony arrangement by English musician Ian Matthews in 1973, later recorded by the American rock band the Eagles in 1980. "Seven Bridges Road" is an ode to Woodley Road (County Road 39, Montgomery County, Alabama), a rural two-lane road which runs south off East Fairview Avenue - the southern boundary of the Cloverdale neighborhood of Montgomery, Alabama - at Cloverdale Road, and which features seven bridges: three pairs of bridges, and the seventh approximately 1 mile south by itself. The song's composer Steve Young, stated that and his friends "used to go out to Woodley Road carousing around.” “I wound up writing this song that I never dreamed anybody would even relate to, or understand, or get. And I still don't understand why it was so successful, actually.” "I don't know exactly what the song means. Consciously, I just wrote a song about a girl and a road in south Alabama. But I think on another level the song has something kind of cosmic that registers in the subconscious: the number seven has all of these religious and mystical connotations”.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Bridges_Road

Babe Ruth - Gimme Some Leg

#Babe Ruth #Janita Haan #hard rock #progressive rock #blues rock #funk rock #British R&B #album rock #1970s

British band Babe Ruth debuted in 1972, sporting an incendiary hard rock sound ignited by the forceful voice of Janita "Jennie" Haan and jamming guitar/organ work of multi-instrumentalist Alan Shacklock. Though primarily a hard rock group, their tireless experimentation with wildly diverse styles was assuredly in step with the progressive rock of the era. Their incredible debut, First Base, encompassed more styles than may be able to be absorbed at first listen. Here they display a penchant for radically deconstructed cover versions, which may make them comparable to a hipper, heavier Manfred Mann's Earth Band; using as sources Zappa and Morricone as opposed to Springsteen and Holst. Their second and third albums (Amar Caballero and Babe Ruth) come off as recklessly irregular yet occasionally dazzling. After the self-titled album, Shacklock left, replaced by live second guitarist Bernie Marsden (whose best-known gig was with Whitesnake). The magic was gone for the subsequent album, Stealin' Home, except for the two Haan-penned and Shacklock-arranged songs: "2000 Sunsets" and "Tomorrow (Joining of the Day)." Haan left after that, yet the band, which now included no original members, made one further album, Kid's Stuff, which many believe should never have been made.  From: http://www.expose.org/index.php/articles/display/babe-ruth-greatest-hits-17.html