The very first song I ever heard by My Bloody Valentine was Soon, which is a shoegaze classic. I went to a record store in Evanston, IL, to find the album, Loveless, and the hipper than everyone High Fidelity store employee acted like he knew about them before any other member of the public. What a maroon.
I like the edgy compactness of Come In Alone. It is an instant tidal wave of sound coming straight at you, a relentless piledriver. I wonder how many guitar tracks were used on this recording, there seem to be so many layers. There are also various looped parts, like that whistling keyboard sound. MBV were known for guitarist Kevin Shields' disorienting tremolo technique - applying slight pitch bends to create a sense of uncertainty and potential nausea. Bilinda Butcher's vocals are ethereal and generally indecipherable, becoming just another instrument in the mix.
Nice acoustic tune, great vocals. According to the webpage, this tune was made in support of Norfolk/Suffolk Hunt Saboteurs, a group whose goal is to disrupt rabbit hunting or perhaps hunting in general, in England. They posted: If you hunt them we'll fucking hunt you. Hardcore. Right on.
2) Collapse - Game Over You Lose (Bremen, Germany)
Ah, some of The Grimm Bros Bremen town musicians! Tick tock. Whoa, in your face! Guitars, yeah! Growl! Black Flag stuff! Heavy duty. We will die!
Cool, this completes an all-international episode. From Europe to South America, and all points in between (ZZ Top). This is some major goth action here. Cathedrals and crosses, dual pounding kick drums. High altar vocals,epic Lord of the Rings story, Rivendell house band. Speed riffing. Soaring ever higher. The singer makes me think of that JG Wentworth commercial: I have a structured settlement and I need cash now. Opera Rawk!
Lake Shore Drive is a famous stretch of US Highway 41 that flows along Lake Michigan in Chicago, on the eastern edge of downtown. It passes by many landmarks: the Drake Hotel (as seen in Risky Business), Grant Park, Lincoln Park, Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, and Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears play).
Growing up in Chicagoland, I remember driving around in the summer with my friends and hearing Aliotta Haynes and Jeremiah's song on the classic rock radio station. It was pretty much guaranteed that you would hear it once in awhile. I don't know if I ever heard it while slipping on by on LSD, but then again I was never Friday night trouble bound. I was generally a clean teen.
It's a song of great nostalgia for Chicago folk, wistful and pure, blowing in from the prairies on a cool breeze. It could have been a tune by America or Bread, it sounds so wholesome. It's built on a great river of piano, E - C#m - G#m. Stick an A in here and there. The vocals are about as fluffy as it gets, the touch the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives, enlightened farm boys who can smell the green. The whole mellow vibe is supplemented by gentle strings and strummed acoustic guitars.
Like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, the whole LSD thing is supposed to be a coincidence. Yeah, right. Pretty blue lights along the way, help you right on by. My favorite line is:
And it's four o'clock in the morning and all the people have gone away...such an existentialist dream, being all alone in the city. Good thing Lake Shore Drive is here to guide you home.
The song appeared in that sci-fi movie about the talking squirrel, Defenders of the Universe or something, along with a bunch of other 70s AM radio hits. All three of the guys are dead, so they never got to hear their song in the talking squirrel movie. Actually, Skip Haynes may have heard about it, he died last year. Well, hopefully their families appreciated it.
Billy Joel took the piano riff and spazzed it up for the prelude to his angry young man tune, or so I like to imagine (I refuse to link to it, that would be cruel and unusual). Billy Hyperactive Piano Man. Calm down, dude!
Who is it it it .... that's what I hear at the beginning. Step It Up in Dub is King Tubby's studio dub mix of Barry Brown's Step It Up Youthman, a recording that was produced by Bunny Lee. It's from the excellent Blood and Fire compilation Dub Gone Crazy: The Evolution of Dub at King Tubby's 1975-1979. Since the album is credited to King Tubby and Friends, I'm not entirely sure if King Tubby produced this dub version. It was probably one of his protégés, like Prince Jammy or Scientist.
The original tune is stripped to its bare essentials, slowed down and dipped in murky reverb and delay, like a minimalist splatter painting. Drum and bass keep de riddim, while other sounds pop in and out, keys, organ, guitar, vocals. Good for your late night chill out which, if you live in Portland, we all hope comes very soon.
He spent a couple of years in Black Sabbath after Ozzy was fired from the band. Neon Knights is the first track on Heaven and Hell, his first album with Sabbath. It comes roaring right out of the gates, heavy grungy guitars and thundering drums. But then here comes Dio! Totally amazing voice blended from the finest of the Olympic Gods. Who is the Greek God of metal singing? State your opinion in the comments section! In my mind, Zeus is probably not a very good singer. Maybe Apollo?
Dio is so good at increasing the growl in his voice. Listen to him at 0:16, can't remember when, 0:28, nothing's in the past, etc. Levels of intensity, that's what it's all about. He'll get worked up about the protectors of the realm, captain's at the helm. Face it, Dio is a Viking.
He veers into Lord of the Rings fantasy land at 1:09: Circles and rings, dragons and kings. It's that age old story about good vs evil. Tony Iommi takes the solo at 2:00, blazing a trail across the sky. A fantastic tune that makes it quite easy to forget about Ozzy's absence.
And now, gentle reader, if you will recall, Cro-Magnon man was being abducted from his cave and forced to spend a day looking at paintings. As a result, he became confused and pissed off, grabbing paintings and smashing them over the heads of students and lecturers. Hear him Roar at 0:12? No way are you going to hippylise this prehistoric hunter.
I love Napalm Death. They formed in England back in 1981 and became pioneers of grindcore, a fusion of heavy metal and punk. Abrasive distorted guitars, high-speed tempo, and growling vocals are the trademarks of this sound. The thing I most appreciate about Napalm Death is their humanist and socialist political views. I particularly admire lead singer/growler Barney Greenway. He is sensitive, a progressive thinker, a great reader, vegan, a supporter of animal rights, and anti-Trump.
Plague Rages is from their classic mid 90s album Fear, Emptiness, Despair. It's a great wall of noise from the depths of the underworld. There are lyrics, if anyone's interested. It's not for the KINK crowd sipping their Riesling while zoning out to Bruce Hornsby, that's for sure.
"Odds against me from the start, I grew up with a hole in my heart. Who knew someday it would fuel my art." A poet, following his dream out of Danville, ILL.
I don't know what to tell you about this one...Hippylisation by Swara Samrat. According to the album cover, all instruments are played by Captain Ilor (!) and Swara Samrat, aka Attila Fitzgerald, aka Roland H. Wehner, and it was recorded in "South Germany". I found the album, The Truth About Suzanne, on one of my journeys through the blogosphere and assumed it was some lost 60s artifact, but it's from 1993. Perhaps it has something to do with a so-called Swara Samrat Festival? No idea! But of course I am now reminded of classical Indian composer and violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam, to whom I occasionally (and affectionately) refer as Dr. L. Super Mario Brothers.
Anyhoo, in Hippylisation the singer comes on almost immediately, sounding like a bewildered Cro-Magnon man just emerging from his cave and finding himself in an art appreciation class:
We took a look at the paintings
(something?) little notebook in the year of the marshoo(?) we heard the call of the wild
at which point a blast of loud psychedelic guitar hits us in the face. The ramblings of the singer continue into a line about spending a nice summer nearby the lake. The canvas of Rickenbacker bass, drums, and maybe synth takes a backseat to the crazy guitar freakouts.
It's all so strange, like walking into a room in a museum that is kind of dark and ominous, then you notice the giant dinosaur skeleton towering about you. Time to run away.
It's time for some groovy Turkish rock, aka Anatolian Rock, so here we go with Edip Akbayram and his song Yakar Inceden Inceden. The title translates to 'It Burns', and it features the psychedelic rocking Dostlar as his backing band.
The first 0:40 alone is spectacular. Wah guitar feeds into a stunning ubiquitous bass line, which are joined at 0:22 by a heavy distorted guitar. Edip's impassioned vocals arrive at 0:42, singing
Gördü bir kere gözlerim
Akar yaşım dolu dolu
Bir ateş düştü gönlüme
Yakar inceden oy inceden oy
which translates (according to Google) as I once saw my eyes My age is full of flow A fever fell heartbreak Burn your scarf
The music sweeps back in at 1:20. Like my other favorites, Erkin Koray and 3 Hür-el, the music is this amazing combination of Western psych rock and traditional Turkish folk music. After 1:55, the band step it up, and a wild guitar solo hits at 2:06. Great stuff.
Public Enemy are by far my favorite rap group. One of my college roommates had It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and he played it frequently. I love their style, their logo, their militant stance, Chuck D's heavy social and political awareness, Flavor Flav's cartoonish jester role and his giant clock on a chain, and the scratching of DJ Terminator X.
Bring the Noise was initially released as a single, then appeared on the Nation of Millions album. It is one of rap music's essential songs, upping the ante on the new school era with a more confrontational, afrocentric, aggressive and definitely louder sound, thanks to the stunning production work of the Bomb Squad. It starts off with Malcolm X saying Too black, too strong, from his 1963 speech entitled Message to the Grass Roots. Before we know what's happening, at 0:06 the music is in our face, Flavor Flav saying Yo Chuck, these honeydrippers are still fronting on us. Chuck D's deep booming declaration comes in with Bass! How low can you go? Death row, what a brother know.
The rest of the song is dense poetic social commentary and complex music samples and beats. The lyrics focus on black pride, Public Enemy themselves and their reputation, the influence of other rap artists like Run-DMC and LL Cool J, rhymes on Sonny Bono, Yoko Ono, and Anthrax (a metal band with whom Chuck D would record a version of this song), the suggestion that black radio stations won't play this song, and Flavor Flav's esoteric asides. Musically, there are samples of Funkadelic, James Brown, and the Commodores. Lots of little sound tidbits for the ears.
I don't know very much about Killing Joke. I remember hearing that they were liked by some of the grunge bands, but that's about it. I liked their song Wardance when I first heard it many years ago and looked it up on youtube last year. It has those tribal drums, one endless power saw guitar chord, and Jaz Coleman's scary growling heavy British accent. Industrial sounds, glass breaking, guitar harmonics at 1:39, eerie synthesizer. The chorus is just A wardance (a wardahnce), very catchy. The guitars just keep pounding into your skull, intensity increasing at 2:27. It's relentless.
Regarding the name Killing Joke, Coleman once said "It's like a soldier in the first world war. He's in the trench, he knows his life is gone and that within the next ten minutes he's gonna be dead ... and then suddenly he realises that some cunt back in Westminster's got him sussed - 'What am I doing this for? I don't want to kill anyone, I'm just being controlled." They are playing in Portland this year on September 2nd at the Star Theater.
This is a heavy psych rock instrumental, cool guitar tremolo. Drums make me think of the album Gish by Smashing Pumpkins. Whoa, this is really far out.
Listen to the first thirty seconds of this one. Check out the bass, it's quite amazing. So elastic, woody, melodic. Acoustic guitar, one drum on the third beat, nice and easy. Scott Walker's ultra-smooth baritone.
At 0:30, the chorus arrives with a lowing of deep male voices similar to Ennio Morricone's main theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Strings gather in counterpoint, ebbing and flowing.
The Old Man's Back Again is Scott Walker's reaction to the brutal repression of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, in which 137 citizens were killed, the 'old man' being Josef Stalin. His mellow voice disguises his anger at the Soviet crackdown following the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring. It's from his excellent 1969 album, Scott 4.
One of the first rock bands from Israel, Jericho began life in 1965 as The Churchills. They gained popularity through an association with Israeli rock pioneer Arik Einstein. Eventually, they relocated to England and recorded their self-titled album in 1972.
Don't You Let Me Down is its second track, and it's straightforward mid-tempo rock n roll. After a brief acoustic opening, it soon locks into a toe-tapping groove that should be a classic rock staple. It follows a typical pattern of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-guitar solo-chorus-verse-chorus-fade out. The chorus is catchy as anything, and the higher voice reminds me of Paul McCartney on The Beatles' Don't Let Me Down or Helter Skelter. An overlooked gem that I'm glad I found.
Transmission is the brilliant first single from Joy Division. After a momentary ambient stillness, a pulsing bassline comes in, joined by machine-like drums. Bernard Sumner plays a basic two note guitar riff, dropping it an octave at 0:20, then slightly expanding on it at 0:26. The creepy atonally nasal vocals of Ian Curtis appear at 0:39:
Radio, live transmission...I love to mimic his voice, as I'm sure many others do. It's so peculiar but ordinary, not a stretch to achieve (unlike say, Freddie Mercury or Mick Jagger). His lyrics paint a bleak picture of society's tendency to conform to whatever message mainstream media disseminates:
We would go on as though nothing was wrong Hide from these days, we remained all alone Staying in the same place, just staying out the time Touching from a distance, further all the time
Sumner's guitar splits the air at 1:42. The song builds, guitar chords roar, ambient keyboard sounds quiver, Ian's voice increases in passion. Dance dance dance dance dance to the radio. Artists are good at pointing out life's problems, but in the end we all have to figure things out for ourselves. Poor Ian wasn't able to find his way.
What a joy to hear the utterance from a Rasta! Here is the classic Black Uhuru lineup of Michael Rose, Puma Jones, and Duckie Simpson. Utterance is from Red, one of my favorite album covers. I love how Puma Jones looks happy and carefree while the two dudes scowl on either side, don't mess with us. The lyrics point out how at one time the Rastafari were shunned and accused of taking little children away, but then they became internationally accepted through the popularity of reggae music.
The music sways and rocks, every nook and cranny filled with guitar pecks, interesting and varied drum and bass patterns, little croaking frog guiro here and there. Excellent production by the fantastic rhythm section of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare.
1) Birthplace 1 - Tanjeruzu (Salmon Arm, British Columbia)
I feel overcome by paranoia...let me out of this room. The music is warping all around me and I'm scared. Who's there? Jandek?
2) Pretty Things - The Guru (Watertown, Connecticut)
I like this, nice production. Everything is clear, punchy bass, cool guitar chords, late 80s power pop vocals. Sweet distorted guitar solo.
3) Out Of Control - Suburban Birds (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Oh yeah, this is cool. Drums all scratchy, bass out front, ambient noise. Kind of like that Melody's Echo Chamber I posted recently. Trippy guitars, reverb. Swirling air. Twisting my brain. Nuggets era, late 60s sound.
Welcome to Old MacDonald's industrial farm. It sounds like some cows are ill and they are using the farm's shortwave radio in an effort to get help. Some of the chickens have started up the tractors, and a pig has plugged in the bass guitar...
And at 0:52 the barn doors fly open and Chrome come charging in to play a tribute to Iggy and the Stooges. Outta the way, little piggies! Where's that MacDonald anyhow? Oh, he's on vacation with an abstract nympho. (I dunno, trying to work the title into the story somehow).
There is confusion at 1:35, the music breaking down as the farm animals get restless and begin messing with the equipment. Hey, Helios Creed? Sick cows in need of a doctor here! So Helios gets on the radio but he can't work the squelch and the squealing squall phaser goes haywire. A duck gets involved and starts calling for a vet. "Send Peter Ostrum! It is pure chaos in the barn and I think a goose just laid a golden egg!" No idea if the cows are ever helped, as the power fades out.
Mission of Burma were always one of those faceless groups that in my mind were probably ultra-political and intimidating. I thought that in order to be taken seriously as a fan you probably had to quote various leftist writings and be ready for revolution. Underground and intellectual. In reality, although they composed songs that were far from ordinary, they were just another band out of Boston.
Their debut EP, Signals, Calls, and Marches, was released in 1981. Considered a bridge from punk to indie rock, one has only to listen to Fame and Fortune to understand why. It starts off sounding like a mix of punk and new wave, Clash, Talking Heads, Joe Jackson, and Wire mixed together, but after a minute it breaks down into a chaotic middle section of guitar scrapes and noises. The bass and drums find a place to drop anchor, and are soon joined by a picked guitar, a combination that REM would use just a couple years later on their first album.
The music picks up speed at 2:11 and returns to its opening sound at 2:45, but something has changed. I still hear Talking Heads and Clash, but the future is there as well: Guided By Voices, Sleater-Kinney, Fugazi, and Sonic Youth for example.
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/A-2014491-1412961365-4551.jpeg.jpg)
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/A-1291037-1503914843-1597.jpeg.jpg)
