Music from My Mailbox
Oops – looks like it’s been a couple of weeks since I purged the mailbox. There was a lot of stuff in there, but probably half of it was either random PR things or music you probably don’t want to hear.
From the surviving half I managed to pull several decent items. Of particular note is Spider Problem, a rock band out of El Lay. They are without a doubt my pick of this post, with a sound that kinda sorta reminds me of X.
Another interesting band is The Bad Dogs. The Bad Dogs are fronted by two teenage girls (one is 16 years old and the other is 18 years old), who, rather than going the power pop route a la Avril Lavigne, they’ve instead turned out a tasty little garage rock number, “Power to My Amp.”
A couple of bands are making encore appearances in my mailbox: Amanda Zelina just released her version of “Try a Little Tenderness,” the oft-recorded track made big in 1966 by Otis Redding. Also returning with another track from their soon-to-be-released debut is garage super group The Almighty Defenders.
As always, follow the links for more information.
The Bad DogsRock / Soul / Indie
From: Brunoy, Ile-de-France, France
Band
MySpacePower to My Amp.mp3The Wooden BirdsIndie
From: Austin, Texas
Band
MySpaceHometown Fantasy.mp3
Sean BonesIndie / Pop
From: Cobble Hill, U.S.
Band
MySpaceDance Hall (Bodega Girls remix).mp3
Electric Tickle MachinePsychedelic / Garage / Pop
From: e. vill, NY
Band
MySpacePart of Me.mp3The AntlersIndie / Ambient
From: Brooklyn, NY
Band
MySpaceTwo.mp3Tiny VipersGothic / Acoustic / Ambient
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band
MySpaceDevelopment.mp3
Spider ProblemRock / Rock / Rock
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band
MySpaceBullet.mp3
The RadiantRock / Indie
From: New York, NY
Band
MySpaceI Don’t Need a Reason.mp3The Almighty DefendersRock / Garage
From: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Band
MySpaceCone of Light.mp3
Amanda ZelinaPop / Soul / Alternative
From: swamp water, Canada
Band
MySpaceTry a Little Tenderness.mp3BoatIndie / Pop / Soul
From: Seattle, Wash.
Band
MySpacePrince of Tacoma.mp3Logan LynnIndie / Pop / Emotronic
From: Portland, Ore.
Band
MySpaceFeed Me to the Wolves.mp3~~~~~
(Pictures, top-to-bottom:
The Bad Dogs, Electric Tickle Machine, Spider Problem, Amanda Zelina)
Labels: "alternative", garage rock, indie, pop muzik, remix, rock, soul
'There Goes the Neighborhood'
Long, long before Lil Wayne picked up a guitar and an Autotuner and decided he wanted to be a “rock star,” there was Ice-T.
Anyone remember Body Count? Ice-T’s hardcore band that came about more or less after his being certified
the OG gangsta rapper, but before he became Det. Tutuolain on “Law & Order: SVU”?
Well, I was rooting around my CD collection earlier, waiting for inspiration to strike so I could maybe post
something, and I saw Body Count’s debut disk. I haven’t listened to this thing in years, so I dropped it in my CD player and I was pleasantly surprised. For some reason, I’d had a memory of this disk sounding slick and overproduced. Not at all. Musically, BC is right there alongside any other decent thrash band. These guys aren’t virtuoso musicians, but what they do, they do competently: They basically set Ice-T’s angry raps against a hardcore background. “A rock album with a rap mentality,” as one reviewer called it.
Ice-T, a fan of hardcore music long before he started his rap career, debuted Body Count on his 1991 album,
O.G. Original Gangster. They made an impressive public debut later that same year at Lollapalooza. The self-titled Body Count debut album was released in March 1992. And it was just a short while after that when the shit hit the fan.
“I thought I was safe,” Ice-T said in an interview. “I thought within the world of rock ‘n’ roll, you could be free to write what you want. Hell, I was listening to Talking Heads singing ‘Psycho Killer.’ Fuck it, I’ll make ‘Cop Killer’.
“But, that was the cross of metal with something that was real. Now we’re not just killing your family, we’re killing somebody so real that everybody just went, ‘oh shit.’”
After
vehement protests, Ice-T pulled the song from the album and re-released it with a song called “Freedom of Speech,” co-written by Jello Biafra.
Body Count still plays together occasionally, whenever Ice-T’s schedule can accommodate it. Their last disk was 2006’s
Murder 4 Hire. Here are a couple of things from the first album.
Cop Killer.mp3 There Goes the Neighborhood.mp3 Labels: hard rock, metal, thrash
The Stooges: 1973 WABX broadcast
In case you’re wondering, I’m currently reading “Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed.” Written by Paul Trynka, the biography was published in 2007, so it’s pretty up-to-date and includes the Stooges reunion.
I’m about two-thirds of the way through the book; up to about the
Zombie Birdhouse period. The Stooges’ story is more or less the centerpiece, as you might expect, with chapters devoted to each of the albums and to the band’s eventual implosion. There are also chapters on Iggy’s collaborations with Bowie and the time they spent in Berlin. As time passes and Iggy turns out albums that are less than heroic, Trynka’s praise, and the amount of ink given each, seems to fade.
An interesting perspective Trynka has given the story is his take on the Iggy Pop persona. Throughout the book, Trynka has written as if Iggy is Mr. Hyde to Jim Osterberg’s Dr. Jekyll. It’s frustrating as, over and over, throughout his career, you see Jim achieve near success only have Iggy snatch it away. One brutal example is after the release of
Lust for Life. Trynka writes that Jim/Iggy locked himself in a room at the Schlosshotel Gerhus in Berlin where “he stared and stared at the album cover, all the while snorting up a small mountain of cocaine, waiting to see if he’d like the photo. Eventually he decided he hated it.
“He listened over and over to ‘The Passenger,’ waiting for it to get faster. It didn’t, and he decided he hated that too.”
Reading this biography has, naturally, put me in the mood to listen to Iggy, and I’ve dragged out several of the old CDs (I cannot find my
Raw Power disk, dammit!). I wanted to share some of the old stuff but couldn’t decide if I should go with something from the commercial releases or something a little more off-the-wall. In the end, I decided to go with what you find here: The 1973 WABX broadcast of an early mix of
Raw Power, which comes from a disk called
Rough Power.
There’s a whole long story about the original mix of the album and subsequent remixes. I’ll suggest you start
here, and then read on as necessary.
As far as this WABX broadcast, I’ve got two not-totally-dissimilar versions at hand as to how it came about. I’m guessing the truth is somewhere in between. In “Open Up and Bleed,” Trynka writes that Iggy himself brought the rough mixes to the radio station, previewing the album, singing along with some of the tracks, then stripping down and dancing naked in the studio.
The liner notes for
Rough Power indicate CBS Records refused to allow Iggy to be interviewed or to play the rough mixes on the air. Iggy, however, wanted to do something for the station, which had always been supportive of the Stooges. As a sort of compromise, according to Ron Asheton, Iggy ended up taking some lesser mixes and keeping quiet.
You’ll hear that the sound quality of these recordings is pretty poor – I don’t know the original source, but it seriously sounds like someone with a handheld microphone recording from a portable radio. The one thing that does come through is the “raw power” that was the Stooges. It’s a shame that, despite several efforts, this seminal album has never been properly remastered.
I Need Somebody.mp3 Hard to Beat.mp3 Death Trip.mp3 Raw Power.mp3 Search and Destroy.mp3 Shake Appeal.mp3 Not Right.mp3 Labels: demos, Detroit, garage rock, punk
'Let Me Die in Southern California'
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Southern California. I grew up there and as we sometimes do, I took it for granted. I spent 30-some years there and missed a lot. In my mind, I’ve missed living there, but I doubt the reality matches my memories. And barring some drastic change in economics (the U.S.’s; California’s; mine), I doubt I would move back there anytime soon.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been back there at all, and those trips had been for deaths of family members, so not really vacations. Due to the modern wonder of the Internet, I've recently reconnected with some old friends who still live there and I’ve also made a couple of new friends out there, so I plan on going out for a real visit sometime in the next few months.
That all said, it was by virtue of its title alone that The Voyces’ new song, “Let Me Die in Southern California,” caught my eye when it hit my inbox the other day. I’ve listened to the song several times since – it’s undeniably catchy, with a hummable tune. More than that, it seems to have an underlying darkness: “Those big bright lights that sometimes seem so pretty / Lose every bit of allure / When you feel the weight of the world.”
I think every good California song should be about either mindless summertime fun (i.e. almost all old Beach Boys songs), or about the decay behind the façade (i.e. almost all Eagles songs). The Voyces, who are originally from Southern California have come up with a classic in the vein of “California Dreaming,” complete with beautiful harmonies and visions of the sun setting over PCH as trash and bodies rot in ditches alongside the highway.
“Let Me Die in Southern California” is the first single from their upcoming album of the same name. The disk will be out September 28 on Planting Seeds/Darla Records. For more info, check The Voyces’
MySpace.
Let Me Die in Southern California.mp3Labels: folk, new stuff, singles
Can You Go a Little Deeper: Dylan and the Band
I hate to even say this out loud, but my introduction to “This Wheel’s on Fire” was via the 90s-era TV show Absolutely Fabulous, which used the song as its theme. Rather than the Band’s version, though, AbFab used a poppy, sort of psychedelic version by Julie Driscoll.
The original was a darker-themed dirge recorded by Bob Dylan and the Band during the legendary 1967 sessions at Big Pink. It would later be officially released on the 1975
The Basement Tapes album.
Like many Dylan songs, “This Wheel’s on Fire” seems to defy defining. Is it a religious song? Is it an apocalyptic vision he’s giving us? Could it even be a tale of a gunfighter?
While I was doing some research on this song, I stumbled across a blog called
“Every Bob Dylan Song.” The entry for “Wheel” begins with a story about a conversation that took place among the Beatles while they were recording
Let It Be. When the discussion turned to the topic of song writing, someone said that a great song doesn't have to tell a story or even make much sense; if the words match the emotion of the backing, you can make a masterpiece without hewing to musical convention.
Anthony, the blog’s writer, sticks pretty much to this thesis as he discusses “This Wheel’s on Fire,” although he does give mention to other views, particularly the idea that the song is a fire and brimstone sermon.
Interestingly, one of the comments on the blog notes that the line “if your memory serves you well” comes from Arthur Rimbaud's poem
“Une Saison en Enfer.” Dylan, of course, regarded the French poet as a major influence, once telling friends, “Rimbaud’s where it's at. That's the kind of stuff means something. That's the kind of writing I'm gonna do.”
Dylan has never hidden the fact that he’s borrowed from the masters, so it’s very possible indeed that some of the French decadent's influence found its way into some other areas of “This Wheel’s on Fire.”
On the other hand, it's also possible this song is nothing more than a classic example of what the Beatles were talking about....
This Wheel’s on Fire.mp3 ~~~~~
(
Can You Go a Little Deeper is an irregularly recurring feature here wherein I resurrect old favorites, lost songs, and other things you maybe haven’t heard in a while)
Labels: classic rock, deep tracks
Black Leather Soul
When your band is called Angus Khan and you’ve got a singer whose voice bears more than a passing resemblance to that of the late great Bon Scott, it’s only natural the AC/DC comparisons are going to come fast and furious.
Of course they do. Everything I read about the Los Angeles five-piece mentions AC/DC. I suppose there
are worse bands you can be compared to, however. And AK play the same type of bluesy hard rock that would sound at home on an AC/DC disk. And they have a song called “Big Balls.” Although in my opinion, singer Derek Christensen sounds more like Angry Anderson than Bon Scott. Hair-splitting aside, before I’d even heard Angus Kahn, I was impressed by their pedigree: guitarist Frank Meyer and bassist Dino Everett came from the Stooges-influenced Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs; Christensen was formerly with the B Movie Rats. A veritable who’s who of great L.A. bands no one’s heard of.
The members of Angus Kahn came together in the summer of 2006, with the intention of forming a band that hearkened back to the days when word of new music “traveled by human network, a tribe of delinquents relying on word of mouth and the local record swap,” according to lead guitarist Screamin' Lord Duff.
“Add the years past the prime of punk's first wave,” he continues, “when many of the practitioners started adding the elements of U.S. Camaro madness to their post-hardcore brew: Black Flag energy combined with Aerosmith savvy and a Cheap Trick wink.”
A lot to live up to, but I can tell you this: Angus Khan give it their all and this is a great disk to have blasting from the car stereo while you’re speeding around your local freeway system, a beer in one hand, the gear shift in the other, on your way to a party where you know the night won’t be over until someone ends up in jail.
Angus Khan’s debut,
Black Leather Soul, was just released last month on Nickel and Dime Records. You can (and should) go get it from
eMusic.
Exile on Mean Street.mp3Labels: hard rock, metal, new stuff
Stuck on 17B - Day Three-and-a-half
Woodstock organizer Michael Lang: “Jimi Hendrix wanted to close the show because the headliner does close the show. [Jimi’s] manager, Michael Jeffery, insisted. I said, ‘Listen, it’s not like that. They’re all headliners. Why don’t you go on around midnight?’
“Jeffery said no. Hendrix has to close the show. So I said, ‘OK. You got it,’ even though I knew it was not really a great spot to have, waiting up all night and knowing many of the people would have left already. On Monday morning, Hendrix did play an incredible set, but by the time he got to the stage there were only about 60,000 people left.”
Impatience became anticipation as everyone warmed to the first rays of the new rising sun. Melting rainbow watercolors seeped through the sunrise sky and inspired a new title for Jimi’s band. He walked out in to the dawn of a Gypsy Sun, with multicolor streaks stretched across the sky.
A blissful afterglow radiated over the site as his Gypsy Sun & Rainbows Band took positions on stage. It wasn’t until this moment that history could claim Woodstock as the apex of the decade.
“I see that we meet again....”from the liner notes,
Jimi Hendrix: WoodstockVoodoo Chile (Slight Return).mp3 Star Spangled Banner.mp3 Purple Haze.mp3 Labels: classic rock, current events, guitar heroes, hard rock, live albums
Stuck on 17B - Day Three
Days Two and Three at Woodstock seem to kind of blur together, with no real separation: Although technically part of Saturday, The Who didn’t go onstage until about 4 a.m. Sunday morning. Jefferson Airplane, also technically scheduled for Saturday, finally went on at around 8 a.m. Sunday.
Day Three of Woodstock officially started at 2 p.m. when Joe Cocker took the stage. The fuzziness of each days’ borders would continue – aided by the rains, which would periodically bring everything to a standstill – through to the
next morning, when Jimi Hendrix would finally close the festival at about 11 a.m.
As the Airplane took the stage, Grace Slick introduced the band with the words, “All right friends, you have seen the heavy groups, now you’ll see morning maniac music, believe me....”
Day Three performancesJefferson Airplane
Plastic Fantastic Lover.mp3White Rabbit.mp3Joe Cocker
Let’s Go Get Stoned.mp3Ten Years After
I’m Going Home.mp3The Band
The Weight.mp3Blood Sweat And Tears
Johnny Winter
Tobacco Road (w/Edgar Winter).mp3Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.mp3Sea of Madness.mp3Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Love March.mp3Sha-Na-Na
Labels: classic rock, current events, live albums, live music, Neil Young
Stuck on 17B - Day Two
I left home with friends; told my mother “I was going to a concert.” By Sunday, she had me reported as a missing person. I was one of the “mud sliders.” Oh what a feelin’. I just wanted to see Janis J. She was sooo great. We survived on the “grub” we took with us. We found people who didn't mind sharing food for some tent space to sleep and get out of the rain for a little while. I love seeing the look on peoples faces when I say, “I was at Woodstock.” Good people, good music, good memories. ~ Joni, Philadelphia, Penn.
I got pneumonia, and I got knocked up at 15. But it was the best high of my life! ~ Karen, Memphis, Tenn.
Born in New York, my sister got her license and off we went. Got stuck in the mud in some field. She kept covering my eyes with her hands because of the naked people. Boy, were our parents mad because they had to come pull us out of the mud. ~ Judy, Little Chute, Wis.
One of the most terrifying things was the predominant sound of helicopters. When you’re on acid, right in the middle of Vietnam, it was really bone chilling. We thought they were going to start dropping napalm – and of course, we believed the Government was quite capable of that shit as well. ~ David Dalton, former Rolling Stone writer.
Saturday on Yasgur’s farm started just after noon with Quill and ended sometime early Sunday morning following The Who’s set. In between were several of the greatest bands of not only that era, but of decades to come: CCR, Janis Joplin, Santana, and the Grateful Dead.
The Dead’s appearance has become notable as one of their worst performances ever, due to technical and substance problems. They turned in a five-song set, hour-and-a-half set, including a 50-minute version of “Turn On Your Lovelight”.
What’s referred to as “The Abbie Hoffman incident” is maybe the most memorable from a performance that Roger Daltrey has called “The worst gig we ever played.”
Hoffman attempted to go on stage just after the band played “Pinball Wizard.” He grabbed the mic and began to yell, “I think this is a pile of shit! While John Sinclair rots in prison....”
Already annoyed with the presence of the camera crews on stage, Pete Townshend cut Hoffman off: “Fuck off ... fuck off my stage!”
Accounts vary as to whether Townshend hit Hoffman with his guitar or merely bumped into him; regardless, he quickly ended Hoffman’s attempt at a revolutionary statement to the Woodstock Nation. Townshend said, “I can dig it,” but moments later added, “The next fucking person that walks across this stage is gonna get fucking killed!”
Day Two performancesQuill
Keef Hartley Band
Country Joe McDonald
Fish Cheer / Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.mp3John Sebastian
I Had a Dream.mp3Santana
Jingo.mp3Canned Heat
Going Up the Country.mp3Mountain
Theme for an Imaginary Western.mp3Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Born on the Bayou.mp3Bad Moon Rising.mp3Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band
Work Me, Lord.mp3Piece of My Heart.mp3Sly & the Family Stone
I Want to Take You Higher.mp3The Who
We’re Not Gonna Take It.mp3Abbie Hoffman Incident.mp3Underture.mp3Labels: classic rock, current events, folk, hard rock, live albums, live music, rock
Stuck on 17B - Day One
Like the rest of the free world, I’m spending this weekend nostalgizing about Woodstock. Never mind that I was five years old at the time and lived at the opposite end of the country. I’m sure that, had I known about Woodstock, I would have said to my parents something along the line of, “Look, you know that bicycle I’ve been saying I wanted for my birthday? Well, I’ve got a different idea....”
Growing up in a time where there is a Fest this and a Fest that, it’s hard sometimes to understand the cultural significance of Woodstock. I’m not going to get into a whole dissertation, because that would be well beyond the realm of this blog. In 2001, Dr. Michael Doyle, at the time an assistant professor in the history department at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, published a 12-page paper titled “Statement on the Historical and Cultural Significance of the 1969 Woodstock Festival Site.” In that paper he wrote:
The myth of Woodstock is that in a time of military conflict abroad, racial and ethnic strife at home, when a deep social division known as the “generation gap” separated parents from children, a half a million mostly young people removed themselves from proximity to these conflicts and went “back to the garden” to “try and set [their] soul[s] free.” Attracted by the largest lineup of popular music talent ever showcased at one venue, these young people endured inclement weather, and critical shortages of food, water, shelter, dry clothing, and sanitation facilities; in sum, most of the basic necessities of life. Despite these hardships, for three days they lived peaceably in a state of harmony and love, sharing what limited resources they had with one another (my emphasis).
The sharing, the community, the peace, the love; if anything, that would be the significance and the legacy of Woodstock. That people
could come together and be together and get along. In a country reeling from an unpopular war and a generation gap never before seen, that was a powerful statement.
There are reams and reams of books, articles, Web pages, etc., on Woodstock, so I won’t go on any more about the history or whatever its significance was. For the next three or so days, I’m going to post some music from the bands and artists that performed at the festival. I won’t be able to post stuff from everyone, because I couldn’t find music from all of the bands. I drew from various sources, so in some instances the sound quality won’t be so great, but overall it’s mostly pretty good.
Day one kicked off at 5:07 p.m., with Richie Havens taking the stage. Sweetwater were supposed to be the opening act – and were supposed to have gone on at about 3:00 – but got waylaid in traffic. A very pregnant Joan Baez was the last act of the night, taking the stage at about 1 a.m.
Day One performances:Richie Havens ~
Freedom.mp3Swami Satchidananda ~ gave the invocation for the festival
Sweetwater
The Incredible String Band
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin ~
If I Were a Carpenter.mp3Ravi Shankar
Melanie ~
Beautiful People.mp3Arlo Guthrie ~
Coming into Los Angeles.mp3Joan Baez (w/Jeffrey Shurtleff) ~
Drug Store Drivin’ Man.mp3Labels: classic rock, current events, folk, live albums, rock
Les Paul: 1915 – 2009
I was going to post something else before I jump on the Woodstock anniversary bandwagon this weekend (oh yeah – you think I’m missing that?), but I just heard this afternoon about
the passing of Les Paul.
I’m pretty old, but not quite so old as to know much about the Les Paul and Mary Ford records or the music Les Paul made as a younger man. But I can attest to the influence Les had on the rock ‘n’ roll that I know and love. You would be hard pressed to find a rock guitarist who hasn’t played a Gibson Les Paul at some point. Even me – and I’m not a musician by any stretch – the first guitar I bought that I never learned to play was a Les Paul copy.
To sum up his achievements in a paragraph seems almost blasphemy, but Les Paul created the solid-body electric guitar. Called “The Log,” it was the precursor to his Gibson Les Paul guitar. He then began working on new studio techniques: putting microphones close to individual instruments to reduce noise and help separate specific sounds, playing and recording along with other recordings to create multiple tracks. By the late 50’s, he had invented an eight-track recording machine that would pave the way for producers like George Martin, who created much of the Beatles’ mid-Sixties works using Paul’s multitrack technology.
I wanted to somehow pay tribute to Les Paul’s genius and I guess the best way to do that is post something by a guitarist I admire and that Paul had so much influence on. After much casting about, I decided on Slash and a track from the 1992 Guns N’ Roses album
Use Your Illusion I.
Guitar World magazine dubbed Slash’s “November Rain” solo as the
sixth greatest rock guitar solo of all time. “When it came time to do the record,” Slash told
Guitar World, “I just went into the studio, played the solo through a Les Paul Standard and a Marshall and said, ‘I think that sounds right. It was as simple as that.”
November Rain.mp3 Labels: current events, hard rock
The Return of the Ace
I got an email last week asking me if I knew anything about Ace Frehley’s upcoming album. I had to profess ignorance, as I’ve pretty much lost track of Space Ace’s doings the last few years. A couple of exchanges later, I learned that Ace does indeed have a new album scheduled for release September 15.
Anomaly is Ace’s first new release of new material since 1989’s
Trouble Walkin’. Twenty years? No wonder I’ve lost track.
According to
Rolling Stone, the new disk “shows why many rock and metal guitarists list ‘Space Ace’ as a prime six-string influence.” I can tell you the lead single, “Outer Space,” is vintage Ace. The heavy rock is reminiscent of classic Kiss and I swear I can hear Ace borrowing Paul Stanley’s riff from that
Rock and Roll Over chestnut “Take Me”. Even when he tosses out lines such as “It’s like I told you, I came from outer space / That’s how I know your name,” it doesn’t seem too goofy. If anyone can pull it off, Space Ace can.
Ace compares this album favorably to his first solo effort, the classic
Ace Frehley disk from the Kiss solo albums. “Everybody keeps talking about my first solo album,” he told
Rolling Stone. “I keep thinking, ‘Right now, I feel exactly like I did after I finished mixing that record.’ I kind of knew I had something hot, that everybody was going to like.”
I’m pretty excited to hear the rest of the album, which is more than I can say about any upcoming Kiss releases. In addition to 12 original tracks (and if you buy from iTunes, you get a bonus 13th track), Ace also covers the Sweet’s “Fox on the Run,” which is an excellent choice. I can absolutely hear Ace doing great justice to that song.
In addition to “Outer Space,” I’ve also got a small handful of live Ace tracks recorded early last year in Los Angeles. I thought I had more specific venue and date info, but I can’t immediately find it.
Outer Space.mp3 Rip It Out (live).mp3 Parasite (live).mp3 Snowblind (live).mp3 New York Groove (live).mp3 Love Gun (live).mp3 Cold Gin (live).mp3 Labels: classic rock, covers, hard rock, live music, new stuff
Music from My Mailbox
I’m getting this post out early this morning then heading out the door for my last week of work before a week of vacation. Well, more like time off, really – not like I’m taking a real vacation; I will unfortunately be staying in and around town.
This go-round with the mailbox yielded up a couple of artists I’ve written about before: Sir Salvatore and Leerone have both previously graced these pages and both have new music out that you should be aware of.
I’ve also gotten a handful of country contributions lately. That kind of strikes me as odd, because I really don’t post much in the way of that type of music. My taste in country, as documented here, runs to the old-school and hardcore, Hank III variety. In keeping true to my tastes, I’ll only ask you to listen to a country song if it’s something I would listen to myself. “The Prettiest Girl in Walmart” is just such a song. It’s not hardcore twang, but there’s a certain white trash charm to it that I liked.
Something I almost passed on was Steven Mark’s take on Supertramp’s “Logical Song.” But I wasn’t sure and the more I listened, the more I liked it. He’s more or less stripped down the original, which makes it even more of a cry for recognition in a world of facelessness: “Please tell me who I am.”
As always, follow the links for more information.
LivanPop Punk / Alternative / Rock
From: London and Southeast UK
Band
MySpaceHappy Returns.mp3 
LeeroneIndie / Folk Rock / Experimental
From: Los Angeles, Calif.
Band
MySpaceHere on Earth: The Opening.mp3 Roy JayRock / Americana / Folk Rock
Los Angeles, Calif.
Band
MySpacePrettiest Girl in Walmart.mp3 Sir SalvatoreExperimental / Indie / Rock
San Francisco, Calif.
Band
MySpaceFireflies, Reading Books.mp3 
Bad VeinsIndie
Cincinnati, Ohio
Band
MySpaceGold and Warm.mp3 The DivorceesCountry
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Band
MySpaceMining Man.mp3 JJ Soul BandJazz / Blues / Fusion
Oxford; Akureyri and Reykjavik, Iceland
Band
MySpaceThat Kinda Man.mp3 
Amanda BlankNew Wave / Electronic
Philly, Penn.
Band
MySpaceMake It Take It.mp3
Steven MarkIndie / Alternative
New York, NY
Band
MySpaceThe Logical Song (Supertramp cover).mp3 ~~~~~
One last note: I appreciate and love the artists and their reps that send me music, but if it’s something you want me to share with my readers, please send it in MP3 format. I've gotten a couple of things in WMA format, and while I enjoyed the songs, I’m not able to easily pass them along. Thanks!
~~~~~
(Pictures, top-to-bottom:
Leerone, Bad Veins, Amanda Blank)
Labels: alt.jazz, country music, covers, electronic, indie, new stuff, pop-punk
‘This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles...’
For my entry in the macabre post of the month sweepstakes, it was 40 years ago tonight that Charles Manson sent four of his followers to Cielo Drive in Los Angeles to commit the gruesome murders that were supposed to lay the groundwork for his vision of Helter Skelter.
As Manson interpreted it, Helter Skelter would be an apocalyptic war that would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites. In his courtroom testimony, prosecution witness and Family hanger-on Paul Watkins explained how it would happen: “There would be some atrocious murders; that some of the spades from Watts would come up into the Bel-Air and Beverly Hills districts and just really wipe some people out, just cut bodies up and smear blood and write things on the wall in blood.
“So, in retaliation,” Watkins continued, “this would scare; in other words, all the other white people would be afraid that this would happen to them, so out of their fear they would go into the ghetto and just start shooting black people like crazy.”
The resultant rampage by frightened whites would be exploited by militant blacks to provoke a war of mutual near-extermination between racist and non-racist whites over the treatment of blacks. The militants would arise to finish off the few whites that had survived.
In this holocaust the members of Manson’s Family would have little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city underneath California’s Death Valley. As the sole remaining whites, they would emerge from underground to rule the now-satisfied blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world.
When you’re discussing how Manson managed to twist the Beatles’ lyrics into these bizarre ideas, your guess is as good as mine. We’re obviously not dealing with a rational mind. According to Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor on the Manson case and author of the book “Helter Skelter,” Manson believed that the lyrics “When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide / Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride” was an obvious reference to the Family's emergence from “the Bottomless Pit” – the underground hideaway. Manson also twisted “Helter Skelter... She's coming down fast” to mean that race war was imminent.
Of course, the Beatles were shocked to learn of Manson's interpretation of their lyrics. As Ringo Starr would later say, all the Beatles ever stood for was peace, love, and harmony.
Helter Skelter.mp3 ~
The BeatlesHelter Skelter (take 2).mp3 ~
The BeatlesHelter Skelter (live).mp3 ~
U2 Helter Skelter.mp3 ~
AerosmithHelter Skelter.mp3 ~
Motley CrueHelter Skelter (live).mp3 ~
Motley CrueMy Monkey (demo).mp3 ~
Marilyn MansonHelter Skelter.mp3 ~
Henhouse ProwlersHelter Skelter (Dizmaster remix).mp3 ~
Sam Punk~~~~~
By the way, if you haven't read
"Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi, it's a fascinating and very readable account of the events leading up to the Tate/LaBianca murders and the subsequent trial. I fully recommend it to you.
Also, if you're wondering, the bottom picture is an actual
Helter Skelter.
Labels: alt.country, Beatles, classic rock, covers, glam, industrial, live albums, metal, outtakes, remix
Can You Go a Little Deeper: Mott the Hoople
I spent a lot of time today listening to
SiriusXM’s Deep Tracks channel. It’s the first time in a long time I dedicated all day to that channel and, dammit, there’s some good stuff there. Things I haven’t heard in ages and even a couple of things I don’t remember ever hearing.
With the Deep Tracks channel in mind and admitting blatant influence from the
Aquarium Drunkard “Sevens” series, I’d like to introduce a new and randomly recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: Deep tracks from
my CD collection.
My plan is to spring this on you every week or week-and-a-half, however it works out. What I aim to do is randomly select a CD, then pull a song from somewhere deep on side two. My secret selection process will ensure a random disk, but it’ll be my judgment picking the song. It may be something that never got any recognition or airplay, or it may be something I used to love but haven’t heard in forever. The only stipulation I’m putting on myself is that I won’t pick / post anything from this decade.
In honor of one of the main reasons behind this post, I thought I’d get things started by sharing the Mott the Hoople song I heard this morning (well, OK, not exactly a random selection, but I’m still working out the wrinkles in the process). Originally released on the 1972 album
All the Young Dudes, I had long since forgotten Mott had recorded “Ready for Love” two years before Mick Ralphs would take the song with him to Bad Company.
Ready for Love / After Lights.mp3 Labels: classic rock, deep tracks
‘Lick Your Lips Before Suicide’
For reasons I can’t quite describe, I love the Raveonettes. I have only one of their albums, but I’m always excited to hear them on the radio, and I was very excited to get this new song in my mailbox today.
I didn’t even want to check the blogosphere to see if “Suicide” had already been posted all over hell and halfway to
My Old Kentucky Blog – I just wanted to listen to it myself and present it to my faithful few readers who maybe haven’t heard it yet.
“Suicide” is an advance track from the Raveonettes' upcoming album,
In & Out of Control. The disk itself isn’t due in stores until October 6, but there’s nothing like creating an early buzz. I hate that the official description of the song calls it “a sugar-coated, 60’s-meets-shoegaze anthem.” Shoegaze to me means someone who’s too sad to even be emo. But I do like the idea of an updated, darkly sugar coated 60’s anthem. Think “Last Kiss,” redone not so long ago by Pearl Jam. There’s hit records in them thar tragedies!
The song itself is everything indefinable about why I love the Raveonettes: Sharon Foo’s understated voice; the fuzzed-out guitars; the simple and timeless rock ‘n’ roll – Velvet Underground by way of the Jesus and Mary Chain. Wait. Did I just define it there?
Suicide.mp3 (Pay no mind to the teensy-tiny Vice Records promo at the end of the song – whattaya want for free?)
Here’s the full track list for
In & Out of Control:
01. Bang!
02. Gone Forever
03. Last Dance
04. Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)
05. Heart Of Stone
06. Oh, I Buried You Today
07. Suicide
08. D.R.U.G.S.
09. Breaking Into Cars
10. Break Up Girls!
11. Wine
...and if you click over to the Raveonettes’
MySpace, you can get info on their tour, which formally starts at Lollapalooza in just a few days (and which, I should also note, carefully avoids Florida).
Labels: "alternative", new stuff, singles
Care for some Death Cabaret?
Found something kind of interesting over the weekend. Well, actually, they found me. Australian band Rouge Foncé hit me up on MySpace, inviting me to check out their music. As a fan of both Australian rock and attractive women, I didn’t hesitate to see what’s doin’.
Rouge Foncé is a pretty recent addition to the Melbourne scene – they’ve only been together since June last year. Their music, especially live, is very compelling and listenable. One of the tracks I’m posting tonight has that definite Aussie feel to it: A raw energy behind a pop sensibility. At the same time Laura, Rouge Foncé’s singer, looks and sounds a bit like a chanteuse gone wrong. They describe themselves as “dark cabaret rock: a little bit burlesque, a little bit gypsy, and all sexy and stylish.” That kind of neatly sums up.
After gigging around Melbourne for a year, Rouge Foncé recently went back into the studio to re-record their demo, under the guidance of Brent Gray, who, if I’m not mistaken, has worked extensively with Silverchair. Those recordings have resulted in an EP,
Retrograde Amusia, which should be out almost any time now. You can find most of the tracks streaming on the Rouge Foncé
Website. There are also a few additional older songs there you can download. In contrast to some of the older songs, what I've heard of the stuff planned for the EP is closer in feel and sound to the way Rouge Foncé sound live. I'm looking forward to hearing the whole thing and hope I can find it over here.
Kittens, Science, and Punk Rock (live).mp3 Continuum.mp3 Labels: "alternative", Australian
Detailed Twang (blogroll addition)
Wow.
A week has slid by without a substantial post. Like I just disappeared off the face of the earth. Truth to tell I got busy with other stuff, as happens to the best of us, and things here kind of inadvertently got shifted to the back burner. And now I’m back with a post that doesn’t even involve anything new.
Over near the right side of this page you may or may not have noticed the blogroll. I used to note whenever I updated it, but the last few additions have been singular and were mainly link exchanges with someone. I try to make sure most of the links are active, but otherwise it just sits there as testimony to some of the other blogs I like.
However, I’m adding a blog today that I thought I should bring to your attention because I’m assuming that if you’re a regular reader here, you and I share similar tastes in music. A couple of weeks ago, when I first found the
Detailed Twang blog, I spent at least an hour reading the posts and listening to the music Jay had posted there. I don’t know the last time I spent an hour on any site, but the selection of music and the generally conversational style of writing just kept me browsing the archives. The only reason I pulled away was for dinner.
The music is a lot of obscure garage rock – bands like The Twilighters, The Bristols, and The Zip Code Rapists. There are also some things like Cramps demos and some old DMZ vinyl. If I recall correctly, Jay had some connection with the Bay Area music industry at some point in his life so he has that background to draw upon.
I’m posting (re-posting?) a couple of the things I found over at Detailed Twang, and then I most whole-heartedly encourage you to
click over there and browse.
Can’t You Do Anything Right.mp3 ~
Lazy CowgirlsHigh School.mp3 L.A. Drugs(As irony would have it, Jay is taking the first week of August off, but don’t let that discourage you from checking out his old posts.)
Labels: blogroll, garage rock, punk
Oops – looks like it’s been a couple of weeks since I purged the mailbox. There was a lot of stuff in there, but probably half of it was either random PR things or music you probably don’t want to hear. 
The Bad Dogs
Electric Tickle Machine
Spider Problem
Amanda Zelina
