'Paranoid' redux
A couple of weeks ago I got my
third copy of Black Sabbath’s 1971 classic
Paranoid. It was something like 30 years ago I bought the vinyl edition; replaced it much later with a relatively poor sounding CD; then recently got the newly remastered version.
In line with other remastered re-releases (i.e.
Ten ), the newly beefed-up
Paranoid disk sounds much clearer and sharper than the original CD release. Along with a cleaner sound, the re-release features the long sought after quadraphonic mix of the album, as well as alternate versions of most of the album’s tracks.
Most interesting of these alternate versions – many of which are just instrumental tracks – is "Paranoid" itself. The story behind this song is that Sabbath basically rushed it together as filler for the album. “There was some spare tape left,” drummer Bill Ward said in an
interview with the
Shropshire Star newspaper. “So we said let’s see if we can get another song and we all went down the pub which is the best place to work – well, it was then – and when we got back Tony had got a really, really good riff.”
The original lyrics are very different from the classic we now know: “Why are you on my mind all day long / I can't think straight no more.” The alternate version of “Paranoid” is about an obsessive love, whereas the final version is about paranoia and loss of hope (although I'm sure someone can connect the topics...). I’ve heard the original so many times that hearing alternate lyrics sounds like someone trying to force a square peg into a round hole. It just don’t fit.
Paranoid (alternate lyrics).mp3 Paranoid (original).mp3 Labels: classic rock, rereleases
Wolfmother comes 'Back Round'
I was very happy to see a new song from Wolfmother in my mailbox this weekend. I hadn’t heard anything from the band in ages and I feared they had permanently called it quits.
“Back Round” is the first new music from Wolfmother since their excellent 2005 debut disk. The band went through a major upheaval in the intervening years with vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale being the only remaining original member. Bassist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett both left Wolfmother last year, leaving the band’s future in doubt. After a brief hiatus, as well as two low-key gigs under the name “White Feather,” Stockdale revealed the new line-up in February: Guitarist Aidan Nemeth, bassist and keyboardist Ian Peres, and drummer Dave Atkins.
Wolfmother is currently working on a new album, tentatively titled
Cosmic Egg. According to Stockdale, the new disk will be a double album containing at least 18 tracks. The album, which Stockdale says will be "a little bit heavier [but] hopefully not too complicated," should be out this summer.
“Back Round” is the first taste of music from the album. The band is giving the single away, asking that fans donate to the
Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal (note: The actual Brushfire Appeal is
closed, but I’m sure the Australian Red Cross – or your local Red Cross – would appreciate any donations).
Back Round.mp3 Labels: new stuff, rock, singles
One Night In Paris (with Led Zeppelin, not Ms. Hilton)
All right – I made it back on line and will stay on line for a while. I hope.
As promised, I dug around the Licorice Pizza vaults in order to bring you good people something to make up for the downtime. What I came up with is a nearly 40-year-old Led Zeppelin concert recording.
One Night Stand In Paris was recorded October 10, 1969, at the Olympia in Paris. According to the notes that came with the file, this recording comes from audio released to radio stations. So it’s like one step up from FM broadcast quality.
Actually, I found the quality of this recording so good, I burned it onto a CD and had it in my car for a couple of weeks. That’s something you can’t say about many live recordings – especially recordings from 1969.
This show took place a little less than two weeks before Zeppelin would release their second album, so there’s a mix of songs from both disks. This short set is heavy on the blues, but, as Zep would prove over the years, they could add a heavy element to almost anything. No exception here. They also stretched the songs out into showcases,
a la the 23-minute version of “How Many More Times” you’ll find here.
Introduction.mp3 Good Times Bad Times (intro) / Communication Breakdown.mp3 I Can’t Quit You Baby.mp3 Heartbreaker.mp3 Dazed and Confused.mp3 White Summer / Black Mountain Side.mp3 You Shook Me.mp3 How Many More Times.mp3Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, live music
All you need is just a little patience...
I'm in the midst of some type of ISP "service interruption" here.
Q: If you have no service, how are you posting now?
A: My work computer, although I cannot upload files.
Please bear with me. I expect to have things up and running within the next couple of days. I've got a couple of things that might be worth the wait.
In the meantime, have a look around.
peace and love, peace and love
Labels: no music
Beretta Suicide
Got some more British rock for you this afternoon.
A fairly new band outta Leeds, Beretta Suicide draws from the best parts (loud, bloozy, guitar rock) of the 80’s-era Sunset Strip bands while leaving the worst parts (hairspray and make-up) where they belong.
There’s little information to be had about Beretta Suicide; all I can tell you is they are a five-piece composed of drummer Kidd Pert, Gazz Hunter and Ryan “Scarface” Earl on guitars, Joey “Wreckless” Kilkelly on bass, and singer Mickey Tyrany. As mentioned, they come from Leeds, where they’ve been together since last year. And, to the best of my knowledge, they are currently playing shows in and around Leeds while recording an EP.
Last month there was a little bit of a dust up on a Leeds music forum when someone suggested Beretta Suicide is the best new band in the area. “These guys rock the shit out of anything I have seen before,” the poster wrote, “they just came on stage [and] blew me away.”
That didn’t go over well with the forum regulars and eventually Mickey T. had his say, suggesting anyone with an issue come to the band’s next gig and talk to him about it. Beretta Suicide garnered a lot of hate in that particular thread, which ended up being locked by the forum mods. But any publicity is good publicity, as the saying goes. I’m sure anyone reading the forum that previously wasn’t aware of the band probably wanted to see what the fuss was about and took the time to seek them out. Which, in the end all plays to Beretta Suicide’s benefit.
I like this band and I like this song, which they’re giving away free via their
MySpace. If you’re a fan of that genre known as “sleaze rock,” you’ll dig these guys, too. Just save yourself some trouble and don’t post about it on the Leeds Music Forum.
You’re So Gentle.mp3 Labels: rock
'Spending Cash, Talking Trash'
I’ve been listening a lot lately to the broad genre called garage rock. It’s the only place left in rock ‘n’ roll that seems to be fun and carries the DIY and “fuck it” attitude of the early days of punk.
Little Steven’s Underground Garage, on
SiriusXM, has put me onto so much new music it’s mind boggling. Their play list is remarkable; in one set you’re likely to hear the Ronettes, the Raconteurs, and then some garage band you otherwise never would have known existed.
Such a musical epiphany struck me yesterday. Through the course of the day I had heard several new – and great sounding – bands. Exactly the sort of thing I signed up for. One such band was England’s Thee Exciters. And as NME says, there is a rule that “any band who spell ‘The’ with two ‘e’s will always be beer-soaked garage rockers.”
Thee Exciters hold up their end of the deal. Their first full-length album,
Spending Cash, Talking Trash, came out last year on Dirty Water Records. The album crushes dirty blues and punk into a Detroit-style grimy collection of some of the best garage rock I’ve heard in a while.
By way of introduction, Thee Exciters formed in Southampton, England, in 2003, where they were originally called The Mood. The original lineup included Lee Tea on bass and Ken Robshaw on drums. Ken left the band and was replaced by Richie Walker in 2006. Lee left in 2007, moving to Malmo, Sweden, where he formed The Branded. The current line-up is: Paul le Brock, vocals; Justin Cunningham, guitar; Alex Tapps, bass; and Walker on drums.
When (not
if ) you decide to get
Spending Cash, Talking Trash, you’ll find it at eMusic or you can go to Thee Exciters’
MySpace for more info. Here’s the title track from the album.
Spending Cash, Talking Trash.mp3 Labels: garage rock, punk
'Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up'
Like every year for the past 20 or so years, I did not get to attend South by Southwest this year. I’ve read plenty enough to know that I missed several great performances. Maybe someday....
In the meantime, I’m drafting in the slipstream of the music media, picking up tidbits here and there. One such nugget is Austin’s The Strange Boys. I checked around a little before starting this post and found that a few blogs were singing their praises before this year’s SXSW appearance.
Rolling Stone, back in December, called The Strange Boys their
“new favorite band” after catching a show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge.
In their latest issue (the one with Lil Wayne on the cover),
Rolling Stone again mentions The Strange Boys, this time as one of the breakout bands at this year’s SXSW. I can’t find the article online, and damned if I haven’t already passed my issue on, but the praise for the Strange Boys was enough to make me want to give them a listen.
The Strange Boys, lead by singer/guitarist Ryan Sambol, refer to themselves as an “R&B” band. At first I’m thinking, oh great, more pansy white soul singers. Totally wrong. The Strange Boys are R&B in the same sense that The Who used to refer to themselves as Maximum R&B. I have no idea what type of guitar Sambol plays, but it sounds so much like Pete Townshend’s old Rickenbacker, I’d almost swear The Strange Boys are coming out of 1960’s England rather than modern day Texas. I keep expecting to hear the line, "I'm the face baby, is that clear?".
The music has a classic feel to it without sounding dated or like a tribute act. Sambol’s twangy, slurred, distorted voice veers from sounding kinda-like-Paul Westerberg to kinda-like-Tom Petty. The band (Matt Hammer, drums; Philip Sambol, bass; and Greg Enlow, guitar) make a sound that draws from early Who, early Stones, early Beatles... well, you get the picture, I think.
The album,
The Strange Boys... and Girls Club, is available from In the Red Records. Click over to The Strange Boys’
MySpace for the link and more info about the band. Definitely worth your time.
Heard You Wanna Beat Me Up.mp3 Probation Blues.mp3 Labels: "alternative", indie, RnB, rock, rockabilly
An Easter KISS
After all the new stuff I’ve posted recently, I thought I’d drop back about 35 years for this live KISS recording.
Electric Magic, recorded Oct. 21, 1974, at the Brewery in East Lansing, Mich., captures KISS on the brink of disaster.
Hotter than Hell would be out the following day;
Alive! was still a year off. In the meantime, the band was fast going nowhere. Their debut had sold only 75,000 copies. Neither a tour with Blue Oyster Cult nor national TV appearances were giving the band that push into the big time. To make things worse, their label, Casablanca Records, was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The band on this recording is one that’s hungry – you can hear it in the music, which is raw in a way missing from the cleaned-up
Alive! recording. Kiss is represented here as they really were, without the studio “corrections.”
The set list is very similar to
Alive!, minus, of course, the tracks from
Dressed to Kill, which wouldn’t be released until March of 1975. The sound isn’t as clean as the official recording, but the band is just as tight, honed by months of touring. I’m not sure of the original source, maybe an FM broadcast.
Introduction.mp3 Deuce.mp3 Strutter.mp3 Got to Choose.mp3 Firehouse.mp3 She.mp3 Nothing to Lose.mp3 Parasite.mp3 100,000 Years.mp3 Black Diamond.mp3 Let Me Go Rock ‘n’ Roll.mp3 Cold Gin.mp3 Labels: classic rock, live music, rock
Queen of the Cavemen
A couple of weeks ago, if you’ll recall, I
posted some music by the Dutch band Queen Bee.
The ladies in that band have dropped me a couple of notes – including catching a mistake I made (oops! Turbonegro are not from Finland!). They also recommended a band that actually
is Finnish.
The Micragirls are a guitar / organ / drums trio from Kuopio, Finland. The ladies – Mari, Kata, and Risu – draw their influences from 50’s rock ‘n’ roll, 60’s girl groups, and garage punk. The band formed in 2001, releasing singles and playing venues throughout Europe. In 2007, the Micragirls released their first full-length album,
Feeling Dizzy, Honey?. That same year Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray invited the band to support Heavy Trash on their fall European tour.
I don’t think
Feeling Dizzy, Honey? was released in the U.S., but I found it on eMusic. It’s truly a taste of garage-rock yumminess that hearkens back to the “Nuggets” releases and a classic garage compilation I used to have on cassette.
“The Micragirls are what trash-garage-punk-rockarolla is all about. Mean, nasty, filthy, inept and wild! They are armed with great tough songs full of bizarre tales of meaningless mayhem” – from the Micragirls’
MySpace.
The Micragirls are currently on tour in Europe and have a new single due out in June. If you like garage rock, punk rock, or just energetic, enthusiastic rock, you definitely need to give these songs a listen.
Queen of the Cavemen.mp3 Rockin’ Date.mp3Labels: garage rock
'B-Boys Makin' with the Freak Freak'
I found something a little bit cool the other day: A Website hosting remixes and some live and rare stuff from the Beastie Boys.
The site,
BeastieMixes.com, is mostly about remixes, with what looks like daily updates and links to a cappella versions of Beastie songs that you can use to remix. Some sample things from the last couple of days:
(4-7-2009) 11:05 PM
DJ AK47 bringin' on the craziness with his two latest mixes. I'll give him one thing, he sure finds some great music to mix with the Beasties.
Ch-Check it out -vs- dZihan Kamien - After 7
(4-5-2009) 1 AM
Next up, MCScoobyT takin' it back to the old school again with three Check Your Head mixes. Takin' it back to 92' with:
Live At PJ's - Beastie Boys Are Play'n At My House f. Afrika Bambaataa
Stand Together - Stand Conjunto f. Cypress Hill
The Maestro - Red Maestro f. Redman
Although remixes are the site’s mainstay, there is also a good selection of Beastie Boys live recordings (some dating back to the early days); some rare tracks; and a few boots, too. And if you’re into doing the whole remix thing, you’ll also find some helpful resources linked from the site.
Bottom line, if you’re any sort of a Beastie Boys fan, you definitely need to check out
BeastieMixes.com. Here are a couple of things I found there:
I’m Down (Beatles cover).mp3 Radio Radio (live-SNL).mp3 ~
with Elvis CostelloLotta Cocaine (live-1994).mp3 Hey Ladies (DJ Strictnine Paranorm Remix).mp3 Labels: covers, hip-hop, Internet, remix
Music from My Mailbox
Time again for the purging of the perpetually packed Licorice Pizza mailbox.
It seems like there are more and more two-piece bands these days. Maybe it’s the economics of maintaining a four- or five-piece group; maybe it’s just a trend, I dunno. The lack of a stage full of musicians isn’t keeping the duos from putting out some decent music, as you’ll find here with Dynasty Electric and The Boy Least Likely To. And what’s cool is that these bands play totally different styles of music, so it’s not like they’re derivative or stuck within one genre.
I was surprised (to say the least) to see the single from Wendy & Lisa show up in my mailbox. I say that because as former protégés of Prince, they don’t seem like they’d need to go the indie promotion route. But I’m glad they did and I’m happy to share this song with you.
My pick of the week (month? whatever) has to be Children. They’re not really ghettotech or Japanese classical, but straight-ahead, guitar-driven heavy rock. And lastly is Sweden's very own Kaka. I included it because I detected some Adam Ant influence. I'll let you decide for yourself on that one.
As always, follow the links for more info.
The TraditionistIndie / Folk / Experimental
From: Huntington Beach, Calif.
Band
MySpaceDriftwood Doll.mp3 
Love Like FireRock / Indie
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band
MySpaceSigns.mp3 Wendy & LisaPop / Funk / Other
From: United States
Band
MySpace Niagra Falls.mp3
Clara BellinoPop / Soul / Indie
From: San Francisco, Calif.
Band
MySpacePotential Criminal.mp3 
Trey GreenRock / Comedy
From: Boston, Mass.
MySpace Mad Crush.mp3 ChildrenGhettotech / Healing & Easy Listening / Japanese Classic Music
From: New York, NY
Band
MySpace Power Spirit.mp3
Grand LakeIndie / Rock / Other
From: Oakland, Calif.
Band
MySpace She’s a Hater.mp3 
MilophobiaAlternative / Alternative / Alternative
From: Edinburgh, UK
Band
MySpace Soul in a Soulless City.mp3
The Boy Least Likely ToAlternative / Pop / Country
From: United Kingdom
Band
MySpace Saddle Up.mp3 PreeIndie / Glam / Americana
From: Washington, D.C.
Band
MySpace In the Parlor.mp3 
Dynasty ElectricPsychedelic / Electro / Rock
From: Brooklyn, NY
Band
MySpace One Small Push.mp3 KakaPop
From: Sweden
Band
MySpace What a Frame.mp3 ~~~~~
(
photos, from top to bottom: Love Like Fire, Trey Green, Milophobia, and Dynasty Electric)
Labels: "alternative", folk, glam, indie, metal, rock, soul
I'll be your gun, Sharon...
I’m working on gathering things together for a long overdue “Music From My Mailbox” post, but in the meantime, I wanted to share something kinda cool that I got a few days ago.
The Ropes are a two-piece band from New York. In a variation of the usual guitar and drums theme, they have a singer/bassist (Sharon Shy) and a “multi-instrumentalist” (Toppy, who will often play the drums with a guitar hanging around his neck). Following the success of their debut,
What They Do for Fun, which was chosen as number 15 on ABC News' 50 Best Albums of 2008, the Ropes have just released an EP.
The new three-track disk,
Be My Gun, came out last month. The title track is eerily catchy and I found it stuck in my head after listening to it a few times. That’s not to say it’s necessarily upbeat or sunny, though. It seems to be about finding some motivation to live up to your potential, whatever that potential may be: “I'm a bullet / Will you be my gun?’
Check this song out; I think you’ll like it.
Be My Gun.mp3 The Ropes’ albums are available through the usual: iTunes, eMusic, etc. Get to the duo’s
MySpace for more info.
Labels: indie, new wave
Oh no, Ozzy!
Did anyone else happen to catch
“The Osbournes Reloaded” last night?
Oh my God, what has happened to Ozzy? Ozzy Osbourne – the only Black Sabbath singer who mattered; the self-proclaimed Prince of Fuckin’ Darkness – now reduced to jumping around wearing tights in a Flashdance parody.
Their reality show was one thing: It showed a funny, human side to Ozzy and it was mostly tolerable. This new venture makes me think Ozzy could be a short step from squeezing into a white jump suit and booking Vegas.
If you didn’t see it, the show combined some skits (Ozzy and Sharon as foul-mouthed children) and some sort of a something where a girl was going to dump her boyfriend if he didn’t immediately propose. Of course he gave in and the happy couple was married on TV. Whee!
All this fun stirred up some controversy, naturally, and several stations refused to air the show or aired it later. One station in Milwaukee didn’t air “Reloaded” until just after 1 a.m.
I’m pretty sure that at this point Ozzy isn’t doing these things for the money. I just can’t figure what he’s doing or the logic behind appearing on an idiotic variety show. What would have been so wrong with advancing into elder metal statesman, a la Lemmy?
I’d be interested in hearing from any of you if you tuned in. Drop a comment and let me know what you thought. Meanwhile, here’s some classic Sabbath.
Snowblind.mp3 Labels: classic rock, metal, TV
A couple of weeks ago I got my third copy of Black Sabbath’s 1971 classic Paranoid. It was something like 30 years ago I bought the vinyl edition; replaced it much later with a relatively poor sounding CD; then recently got the newly remastered version. 
The original lyrics are very different from the classic we now know: “Why are you on my mind all day long / I can't think straight no more.” The alternate version of “Paranoid” is about an obsessive love, whereas the final version is about paranoia and loss of hope (although I'm sure someone can connect the topics...). I’ve heard the original so many times that hearing alternate lyrics sounds like someone trying to force a square peg into a round hole. It just don’t fit.
