Merry Christmas from Uncle Henry and Auntie Amazon

Auntie Amazon delivered a generous early Christmas present, and so did Uncle Henry at 2.13.61. Help me, I’m drowning in new music/box sets!!

RPAKRS

RPAKRS

Robert Plant, “Raising Sand” – There’s something really stunning about Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on “Raising Sand,” another album of covers but the first true duets Plant has recorded since “The Battle of Evermore” with Sandy Denny. There’s a supreme focus on those two amazing voices, one of the unlikeliest pairings to produce the most magical surprises since Isobel Campbell hooked up with Mark Lanegan on “Ballad of the Broken Seas.” It’s supremely satisfying that this album slayed at the 2009 Grammy Awards, beating out Coldplay and Radiohead and several other not-as-good-as-Robert-Plant bands to win a bunch of awards. Funny – they won or “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals” and “Best Country Collaboration with Vocals”. Only one song is not a cover, that’s “Please Read The Letter”, a song Plant wrote with Jimmy Page for their “Walking Into Clarkdale” release of 1998.

The album starts off with both voices singing the sombre “Rich Woman,” then there’s the stunning and majestic “Killing The Blues,” with its superb slide guitar and a very laid back country feel. That’s followed with “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us”, which is another first on a Robert Plant album – a song sung by someone else! (Plant shows up only for a few backing vocals. Things get reversed in the next song, “Polly Come Home”, which slows things down to near Low-levels (and, yes, Plant does cover two Low songs on his next album… sounds like he’d already been taking Low lessons). “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)” is an Everly Brothers song that sounds a bit out of place here (can Alison Krauss rock? Robert Plant sure can…). “Through The Morning, Through The Night” is a pure country song, mainly sung by Krauss, but Plant comes in regularly. “Please Read The Letter” is a nice enough song, but it is also just a bit mushy. There’s nothing traditional or classic about this song, although both vocalists do a great job giving it life. “Trampled Rose” is a Tom Waits song from the 2004 “Real Gone” CD, and it sounds like it, with its spooky bone-rattling rhythms, but then Alison Krauss’ sweet voice comes in. Plant gives the whole song to her, and he doesn’t sing on it at all. “Fortune Teller” is an upbeat and silly song that sounds a bit out of place on the album, Plant handles it by himself, although there are some Krauss backing vocals. A lot of bands have covered this song, including The Who, The Stones, The Hollies, etc. “Stick With Me Baby” is a beautiful country style song sung between Plant and Krauss. Stunning. “Nothin’” is a very heavy song, with grungy guitars zazzling it up, making it very different from the sombre Townes van Zandt original. Plant sings this one without Krauss in a mumbling high tone. Great spooky fiddle comes in, making this sound a bit like a Dirty Three song. Grrr!! “Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson” starts off like a Jimi Hendrix song, then it melds into a sassy Alison Krauss country number. Yee haw! “Your Long Journey” is a beautiful duet that closes the release.

Incidentally, I gathered the originals of these songs. They can be found here.

RPBOJ

RPBOJ

Robert Plant, “Band of Joy” – A difficult follow-up to the Grammy award-winning “Raising Sand” (and Plant and Krauss apparently did try to make “Raising Sand II”), this time around we see Plant releasing yet another covers album – he only has writing credits on one song, besides a few where he credits himself for “arrangement.” The album is somewhat uninspiring, although the two Low covers (“Silver Rider” and “Monkey”) are brilliant (and you wonder what they would have sounded with Krauss, although Patty Griffin does a great job.

“Angel Dance” is a fun rocker, while the Richard Thompson cover “House of Cards” slows things down somewhat, with sassy backing vocals. “Central Two-O-Nine” is a rustic ole banjo-pickin’ bluegrasser, with old man baritone keeping it warm on the porch of the ole shack on the hilltop. Yup. “Silver Rider” is the longest song on the album, and in many ways a standout. There is a loud, grungy riffage, and the song is a stunning duet that needs to be blasted. Plant was born to sing this song, one of his top 10 solo works. It’s slow and trudging, slower and more trudging perhaps than even the original song by Low, from “The Great Destroyer” release, as Plant’s is over one minute longer; the Low version also has louder vocal harmonies (which Plant replaces with crunchy guitars – nice). “You Can’t Buy My Love” is a spirited old rocker, and “Falling In Love Again” is a gloomy crooner. “The Only Sound That Matters” is a beautiful ballad with slide guitar, it sounds great and groovy. “Monkey” is a beautiful version of the Low song, with great swooning guitars. Low’s version goes for bombast, getting away from the mellower than death sound, while Plant’s version keeps it sombre.

Plant follows up the haunting “Monkey” with the hokey “Cindy, I’ll Marry You Someday”, a song that Nick Cave has also covered. Plant does it bluegrass, and it builds up slowly in intensity. Then there’s another Townes Van Zandt, his second in two albums, “Harm’s Swift Way”. This is reportedly the last song ol’ Townes ever wrote, and Plant gives it a jazzy rendition, a bit different than Townes probably would have done it. “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” is a traditional, done in a very spooky and swampy ole way, it is another of the album’s standout tracks. Groovy. Last song on the album is “Even This Shall Pass Away”, a spare tune that just has Plant’s voice with some percussion, and then, later, some weird bass groanings. Pretty fun and funky electronic moaning closer.

This page originally contained a review of the Rolling Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Yas Out box set. That review can now be read at canadian manufactured cialis page.

20YOD

20YOD

20 Years of Dischord, 3CD set of songs from 1980 to 2000, both previously released and unreleased, with downloadable songs from 2001-2006, as well as six videos – This wonderful box set comes with a 134-page booklet full of information and photos (one page of text on a band, with a facing page of a photo/photo collage of the band, for 48 bands; at the end, pictures of the 132 releases of the first 20 years, a list of split-label releases, then staff photos), a compilation from the official releases, a compilation of unreleased tracks and other rarities, along with six video clips. The front cover shows Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson sitting in the Dischord office in 1980 then again in 2000 – it’s kind of like the Beatles in the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 compilation albums; Jeff has lost more hair than Ian has, that’s for sure. There is also a code to download a batch of songs from the next 10 years of Dischord history (2001 to 2006, or so).

In the intro, Ian and Jef’s talk about the set itself and its difficulties in finding the material (i.e. tracking down devices that could play some of the obscure formats that the original tapes had been recorded onto, etc), while Henry Rollins’ intro sets the scene, from the late ’70s (Bad Brains, the Enzymes, the Extorts). DIY releases were unthinkable at the time, but then there was Skip Groff’s early support of young bands, along with Don Zientara’s Inner Ear studio (where the early Bad Brains shows had been recorded). First two bands, the Teen Idles, and the Untouchables, represent brothers Ian and Alex MacKaye respectively, and the bands playing on the first Dischord show (discs 01 and 07 respectively). The story of State of Alert – Henry taking the remains of the Extorts to form a band. Minor Threat and SOA debuted at the same gig with the Untouchables, Black Market Baby and Bad Brains (!!!!). Minor Threat – Lyle was new to guitar (formerly a vocalist with the Extorts), Ian was new to vocals (formerly a bassist from the Teen Idles). A five-pice from fall ’82-June ’83. Reunited, perhaps because they were so successful. Void first non-DC band. Youth brigade had a very different, near-industrial sound, bass-driven. Government Issue very funny, rock and roll bullshit, first Dischord band to release on a different label. Scream from Virginia, more advanced musically. Iron Cross primitive, early oi! band, few songs. Red C standard punk, first female member for a Dischord band. They only appear otherwise only on the Flex Your Head compilation. Brendon Canty debuts in Deadline. Skewbald/Grand Union sounds like Minor Threat, but not as good. Gray Matter jangly electro pop before it speeds up to punk. Rites of Spring “Drink Deep”: bass-led, Guy Piciotto vocal intense, liked slowed-down Suicidal Tendencies. Beefeater has a thin guitar sound, mixes funk and ska, Tomas from Switzerland (and in Red C), metal poser drummer, mixes in metal sounds, they also did “No More Apartheid.” The Snakes’ goofy “Snake Rap, released on “Discard Records,” Jeff had Adult Swim Records. Dag Nasty, Brian from Minor Threat (he was in a Samhain precursor). Embrace very dogmatic “Money”. Ian and Faith. Soulside, formerly Lünchmeat. “Egg Hunt” is Ian and Jeff trying it again, sounds like Fugazi, last time together on a recording. One Last Wish is Guy and Brendan, shoegazer-ish, 3 Rites of spring guys and 1 Embrace guy, gut-dominated, they only did six shows in four months before breaking up. Fire Party a girl band with Amy Pickering, first Dischord girl band, haunting like Siouxsie Sioux. Ignition like a weak Minor Threat. Three plays a great tune with snotty vocals, initially had Ian and Jeff, then Jeff left, but it has the Gray Matter guys. Shudder To Think plays with soft vocals. Happy Go-Licky does an instrumental, crazy stuff, like Sonic Youth, very minimal. Fugazi. Lungfish, which is Jane’s Addiction-like, ex-DC, Baltimore, 22 years old, rare concerts, repetition of playing the same song over and over again, Fidelity Jones has organ and funk. Nation of Ulysses has Brendan Canty’s brother Nathan on drums, playing fast, aggressive punk, but not tough or full loud. Holy Rollers – scratchy and groovy, groovy funk, lotsa changes. Jawbox groovy, bass-driven, grinding. Good ‘n’ melodic ‘n’ aggressive. Severin – melodic bagpipe and singalong sound. The High Back Chairs – Lush-like rocker, crunchy, bassy, REM vocals, good mix, Jeff Nelson’s last performance. Autoclave – sweet girl stuff. Was a DisKord (Dischord plus K! Records) release. Circus Lupus – roaring punk, Joan Jett produced (first time since The Germs). Branch Manager – funky Minutemen-like tight and roaring. Slant 6 – girly funky catchy. Hoover – dressed like The Band. Groaning and like Fugazi, but with horns. Funky, cool. Trust – crunchy, poppy, Little Rock AR band, la la la la las, poppy, catchy. Smart Went Crazy – weird Pavement-like, very un-hardcore, angular, cello! Ian versus Jeff again on releasing this, Jeff likes weird bands. Good groove on solo. Proggy Faith No More-ish. The Crownhate Ruin – Tool-like metallic complex structures, two Hoovers and one… The Warmers – Alex MacKaye five years after Ignition (1994), sparse and groovy intense. The Make-up – Cramps-like, Kingmen copy with Michelle from Olympia. “Gospel yeh-yeh.” Bluetip – sparse, angular, big chorus. Farquot – funky, goovy, stop-start, angular, roaring, plopping. Q And Not U – energetic alternative music, angular guitars and weird, crazy drumming. 20th anniversary Dischord Records dogmatic crisis, arrogant last line. Nice flipping through the gallery of album covers.

That was all what was on the first two disc, which are samples of 20 years of Dischord releases, with an accompanying booklet. Then there’s the third CD, which contains all the rare and unreleased stuff, which is what you’d be after if you’d been following the label for years. The songs are mainly very very good. The first track is The Teen Idles’ “Get Up and Go”, a much longer version than the one that kicks off the first CD, which was on the official release. “Deadhead” is a snooty anti-hippy song with a lot of energy (“I’ll be grateful when you’re dead”), that has a weird acoustic bit in the middle before it kicks off into the stratosphere. The Untouchables’ “Stepping Stone” is that band’s version of a song that everybody in DC covered in the day, this one sounds like it’s driven by the bass guitar. The State of Alert song “Draw Blank” is from an early session of the band, one that was abandoned for a stronger later session that the band funded themselves. These guys were in a hurry, the song is only 39 seconds long. They still manage to squeeze in a guitar solo. Nice. There are two Minor Threat songs, a live verson of “Straight Edge” from December 13th 1980, the first song that they ever played live, and “Understand”, the only unreleased Minor Threat song that came with lyrics. It’s rough, and the guitar sound is uncharacteristically weak, but it’s got all the catapulting energy you’d expect of a Minor Threat song. Government Issue’s “Snubbing” is a savage punk anthem with sharp guitars and sloppy vocals. “Asshole” is one of three versions of the song that the band recorded, but the one on this CD has Ian Mackaye singing. Great guitar, fantastic vocals. It sounds like a new Minor Threat song. That’s followed with another Minor Threat song, “Asshole Dub”, being a reggae version of Government Issue’s “Asshole”, it’s good fun. I mean, it’s really really good fun. You’ll love this song to pieces. The Rozzlyn Rangers song/anthem is a silly piece of work that has a sort of weird honky tonk feel to it. Void follows with “Black, Jewish and Poor”, a savage song just over one minute long, and “Authority”, two takes in nearly the same time! These guys really were in a hurry!! These songs are amazing, constant tromelling and screaming. The first version is 0:26, the second one is 0:48. Madness. Scream’s “Search For Employment” is pure energy. I can’t believe these guys played this well and stayed in tune. Beautiful. Deadline’s “No Revolution” is not that great, and Faith’s “No Choice” is snooty and sloppy, it’s good fun. Marginal Man’s “Manipulator” is sweet and moody, it builds nicely with great sounds and feeling, nearly Middle Eastern in some ways, before it builds into a real punk song; the lead-out is sweet and sexy and a bit proggy even, just a great song. You can’t listen to the song just once. Dag Nasty’s “All Ages Show” is sort of nearly like a Naked Raygun catchy tune, it’s great. There are two Fugazi tracks: “The Word”, an outtake from the Margin Walker EP, it was one of the first Fugazi songs, but it never went anywhere. Too bad, it’s a great song and sounds just like those early Fugazi songs that you remember that made you want to burst out of your dorm room and catapult through the sky. Real beauty, it’s just full of complex parts and full production. How could this song not been considered good enough to put on an official release? Astounding. It’s the only song on this CD that is over four minutes long. “Burning” is a live track and naturally it has to be sheer fun! Shudder To Think’s “Drop Dead, Don’t Blink” is a great hunk of burning pop punk, very catchy. Circus Lupus does “We Are The One”, an Avengers cover that was intended for a tribute album, it’s a good scratchy cover that is a bit cleaner than the original but with a bit less energy. Slant Six’s “Are You Human” is sweet and beautiful Grrl roque, very fun and sexy and funny, in a strange way. Rock ‘n’ roll! The final track is an “interview” of DC punks, with Ian’s voice standing out the whole way through, he talks about all the new and young bands… of course, now they’re old and old. Weird and stupid, but funny in retrospect, especially to hear the passion. “Gene Simmons, 24.” I listen to this and I just want to order about half the Dischord catalogue. Or all of it! “Hi, Ian… one of each, please!”

But wait, there’s more – the disc actually contains six live clips, and boy are they great! The Teen Idles were recorded on October 31st 1980 playing “Deadhead”, there’s a young Ian Mackaye on bass. Of course, it’s pure anarchy, more kids on the “stage” than in the audience, the clip is in primitive technicolor (1:48). S.O.A. plays “Draw Blank” at dc space on December 18th 1980, even at that young age Henry’s already got his trademark Rollins squat and pose. Half of the audience are wearing bit S.O.A. t-shirts as they pogo all the way to hell. The shot is grainy, smoggy ‘n’ black ‘n’ white, but hey – it’s history (0:42)! The Untouchables play “If The Kids Are United”, a Sham 69 cover, at the same gig, and a very young Alec Mackaye, brother of Ian, freaks right out (3:09). The Faith played “You’re X’d” on June 25th 1982, lots of intense yelling and screaming, the audience doesn’t seem to know what to make of them (1:15). At the same show, Deadline played “Outside The Law”, three guys in white shirts (yay). The song builds up slowly, but then tries to get pretty intense (Void plays “Who Are You” on July 1st 1983, is insanity, lead singer John Weiffenbach comes out in his green shorts, does three jumps where he touches his toes mid-air, and then the song kicks off. The show is utter chaos, with the kids in the audience jumping all over each other, and them singing the lyrics as often as John does. At the end, the guitarist does a little Jimmy Page-like thing, very un-punk… but that’s okay, they later became a metal band anyway (2:19). Most of these songs and more are available on YouTube, by the way…

But wait, there’s even more – since it’s Dischord, the value never ends, and you get a code to download the next ten years of Dischord stuff (they should call this “30 Years of Dischord”). It’s with these songs that you really hear how much the label has changed. El Guapo contains nary a guitar, it sounds like silly synth-pop, but it’s clean, it’s pure, and it’s good. “The Licensee” by the Channels sounds like Helmet at first, but you get thrown off later by the female backing vocals (Helmet meets the B-52s?). Black Eyes’ “Speaking In Tongues” is sheer madness, great insane vocals with funky drumming, really insane in an Insane Clown Posse sort of way, but very indie. The Aquarium’s “White House” has a sort of hockey arena anthem-feel to it, and is very keyboard/bass/vocal-driven. Unique. French Toast’s “Off Center” is a freaky bass-driven song with fun female vocals that grows in its craziness. “Reflector”, by Antelope, is another guitar-less bass and vocal-driven song, what’s up with this? The song is okay, but nothing very exciting. “Sissy Spacek” by Edie Sedgwick is a great song about Carrie and who-knows-what-else; again, it’s electronic beats, bass and vocal, but its wild and beautiful. “And that pig’s blood came down in a red flood.” I love it. The CD also offers “Me And You”, the other Egg Hung song (they only recorded two songs, and the other one is on another CD in this set). The song is atmospheric, super-produced, but with loving guitars and great beats an echoes. Supreme! “Around The Corner” by The Evens is a beautiful bass and drum and vocal-driven song, mostly sung by Amy Farina but with baritone guitarist Ian Mackaye providing backing vocals. Funky and smooth, a really fun number. “Solid Ring FIghers” by Soccer Team is a sweet and funky pop song with really great drumming and a strong woovering bass sound. Woooooo!!!!! Henry Rollins raves about The Soccer Team and The Evens in Fanatic 2. “It’s Good To Have Met You” by The Pupils is pretty dull and slow (one voice, one guitar and something that sounds like a rail crossing bleating on and on… interesting. The lyrics are sad, I wonder what the story behind them is). “Prison Song (A Love Song Called Will You Come Visit Me In Prison)” by Beauty Pill is a very nice, very beautiful love song that’s sweetly funny, nice acoustic guitar, pretty female vocal, very un-Dischord. By now, Dischord is totally un-Dischord, and it has been for a very long time. And why not? “Via Nomentana (version)” by Fugazi bassisst Joe Lally is a really fantastic, melodic, lyrical song, intense in its own way, with nice bass parts (of course). This song has a weird Velvet Underground feel to parts of it, I wonder how he did that. “The Perfect Target” by Medications is a sorta boring rocker that manages to get a bit angular and Naked Raygun-ish at times too. “Not Me Now” by the Capital City Dusters is a sweet little song that is full of pop energy and sneering SHeavy-like vocals. Love it!

NYLN

NYLN

Neil Young, “Le Noise” – Neil Young’s latest album is a collaboration with Daniel Lanois, and it arrives in a simple gatefold paper CD casing that contains a disc in one of its sleeves and a simple lyrics sheet, printed front and back and folded into quarters. The whole thing is in black and white, silver and brown, with the only splash of primary colour a tiny little Canadian flag on the CD itself. It’s a true solo album, with Neil the only one who gets credits (Guitar and vocal: Neil Young), although apparently Daniel Lanois added some noise and keyboard flourishes; there is not a single drum sound on the whole disc. Opening track “Walk With Me” opens with feedback-drenched guitar and the echoey vocals of Neil shouting “I feel your love, I feel your strong love”. “Sign of Love” is a droner, and “Someone’s Going to Rescue You” chills it out a bit, with Neil singing in his famous falsetto, letting it warble and break at times. It’s pretty raw and sounds like it was recorded in an afternoon, even if it probably wasn’t. Wait, did I just hear a bit of background vocals? Neil accompanying himself? “Love and War” is a beautiful, very mellow song with heartbreaking lyrics. “Seen a lot of young men go to war and leave a lot of young brides waiting/I’ve watched them try to explain it to their kids and seen a lot of them failing/They tried to tell them and they tried to explain why daddy won’t ever come home again.” It confesses about his feelings about approaching these tough themes, trying to sing about what is right. The best song on the CD is probably the sarcastic “It’s an Angry World”. “It’s an Angry World, and everything is going to be all right, yeah, it’s an angry world.” Great riff, cool noise. “The Hitchhiker” is storytelling, where Neil tells his life story, mainly his history of drug use (grass, hash, amphetamines, valium and cocaine), ending with the words “I don’t know how I’m standing here, living in my life/ I’m thankful for my children, and my faithful wife.” “Peaceful Valley Boulevard” is an odd little acoustic number about the killing of the buffalo that is somewhat reminiscent of Pocahontas. Disc closer “Rumblin’” is just that.

The 8-song CD runs nearly 38 minutes.

GS

GS

KMFDM, “Greatest Shit” -I don’t remember the last time I bought a CD based on the album cover alone, but you have to admit… this is a pretty cool album cover. It’s been several years since I’ve given KMFDM any attention, and it’s been too long – they’re an amazing band. Nearly every song on this compilation is raucous, and there several surprises and standouts (WWIII, DIY, Tohuvabohu, Hau Ruck, Dogma, Free YouR Hate, Terror, Adios, Trust, Attack/Reload, Sturm & Drang, Never Say Never), and some old favorites (Megalomaniac, Virus, Light, Godlike – especially Godlike – and A Drug Against War). Great, great, great stuff. Some of the songs lay it on a bit thick with the backing vocals, and not every singer can live up to the En Esch vocals (although Nicole Blackman does a good job on Dogma).

Besides the cover, there are really no other extras, and the booklet doesn’t contain too much – it has a two-page essay that is pretty flattering of the band, i.e. it reads like PR:

After more than 25 years, KMFDM remains a musical entity to be reckoned with. Through relentless musical exploration and reinvention, they have continued to top themselves. Sascha and his band of misfits have stood the test of time. As can plainly be seen, the self-proclaimed fathers of industrial rock show no signs of stopping.

Barf. But the song credits that contain some pretty funny little surprises if you read them all, and album cover art. The sense of humor is intact, they call the first CD of their greatest hits package “Würst”, which means “sausage”, but it sounds like “worst”. Get it – greatest hits, the best, and the worst? Even “Greatest Shit” is a play on “Greatest Hits.” Of course, it’s all good… but none of it beats that great cover.

DBSTS

DBSTS

David Bowie “Station to Station” 3CD set – I am a sucker for box sets. I didn’t need to get this so badly, since I am quite familiar with ever second song on this CD (“Golden Years”, “TVC 15″ and “Wild Is The Wind” would be on any Bowie compilation or greatest hits release; “Station To Station”, “Word On A Wing” and “Stay” are new songs to me). But the two-CD concert that is on this is stunning, and Bowie’s touring band is amazing! For the studio release, there are seven musicians (including three guitarists – Bowie himself is credited with “vocals, guitars, tenor and alto saxophone, Moog and mellotron”), whereas live he only sang, working instead with two guiarists, Carlos Alomar, who had been in the studio band, and new guitarist Stacey Heydon. They also toured without a piano player. The tour was called the Isolar Tour, but it was quickly referred to as the Station To Station Tour, or the White Light Tour. The booklet for the box is okay – a short opening essay by Cameron Crowe tries to paint a picture, but eventually confesses “The details of the recording remain enigmatic to this day. The artist himself has little to say about it. When pressed in a 2006 interview, he remembered few details from the sessions.” Great. What we do know is that this is a period in his life when he was using a lot of drugs, was getting paranoid, encountering “spiritual frenzy”, producing demos for Iggy Pop, filming “The Man Who Fell To Earth” for Nicholas Roeg, and preparing for a 64-date tour of Canada, the US, Central Europe and the UK that took him to 49 cities in four months. Wow.

While the booklet may be a bit skimpy on details of this difficult and creative period for Bowie, the outside source-referenced cialis costs on the Station to Station does provide more details:

According to biographer David Buckley, the Los Angeles-based Bowie, fuelled by an “astronomic” cocaine habit and subsisting on a diet of peppers and milk, spent much of 1975-76 “in a state of psychic terror”.[3] Stories – mostly from one interview, pieces of which found their way into Playboy and Rolling Stone – circulated of the singer living in a house full of ancient-Egyptian artefacts, burning black candles, seeing bodies fall past his window, having his semen stolen by witches, receiving secret messages from The Rolling Stones, and living in morbid fear of fellow Aleister Crowley aficionado Jimmy Page.[1] Bowie would later say of L.A., “The fucking place should be wiped off the face of the earth”.

The CD set also includes some nice pictures in the booklet, and there’s a timeline of events from May 1975 to May 1976. It’s all Bowie all the time – the only picture of the back is an audience view from the drum riser that shows everyone’s backs (it’s a great shot, though, and is also used across the 2CD inner gatefold. No lyrics, but some nice big colour photos of Bowie on cards.

The opening track of the studio album, with its long 3:20 buildup (the whole song is 10:15) is mesmerizing, as are the opening lyrics “The return of the Thin White Duke…”, it foes on and on and is a lot of fun with its funky grooves, its piano, its touches of electronica, and a superb Bowie vibe. “Golden Years” is the good retro fun that we all know and love. “Word on a Wing” is glorious Bowie operatic vocalosity, while “TVC 15″ rocks and rolls, with its goofy six opening “oh-oh-oh-oh-oh”. Probably the funkiest song on the release is “Stay”, with its groovy percussion and its two minute-long closing guitar jam-out (and its lack of saxophone – thank you, David, for showing restraint here). “Wild Is The Wind”, the emotional Nina Simone cover that closes the studio release, needs no introduction.

The concert, like the album it supports, opens with “Station To Station”, the band wringing it out here to nearly 12 minutes long. It openings to blistering feedback guitar, before phasing into the long opener we’re familiar with, stretched now to 4:30. The song is a funk fest, with the last three minutes a nice jam-out. It’s the longest song in the concert. “Suffragette City”, “Fame”, the “Life on Mars” and “Five Years” medley, “Panic in Detroit”, a boring version of “Changes” with Bowie cutting up in the intro, Diamond Dogs”, a not-so-great “Rebel Rebel” and “The Jean Genie” are pretty conventional versions. “Panic in Detroit” (with its not-so-great drum solo, but a nice guitar solo and a bit of a bass solo) makes it the better version of the older songs, the end of which Bowie introduces the band, adding “a Canadian, but a guitarist nonetheless, Stacey Heydon”. Ha ha ha… “Stay”, with its wicked guitar funk is stupendous, and the long outro is a vision to behold. It’s also the closest David Bowie will get to writing a new theme song for Shaft. The Velvet Underground’s “Waiting For The Man” is a bit odd in a funkified version, but it’s good fun nonetheless, with a bit of lyrical improv to spice it up a bit. “TVC15″ is interesting with its party atmosphere in the intro, but that and the rest of the songs on the discs, “Diamond Dogs”, “Rebel Rebel” and “The Jean Genie” are all pretty straight forward.

MCTS

MCTS

Mastodon, “Crack the Skye” CD + DVD – “Oblivion” starts off like a Metallica song, then bursts out into Mastodon, not really going anywhere interesting. It’s a catchy song, though, and the guitar solo is very ice. “Divinations” starts off with some “country yokel” ukelele, but then gets moving quickly into the standard “100 riffs” formula that Mastodon has, going quickly into scary lyrics turf, but the song is not murderous. It is also the shortest on the CD, and has a zinging guitar solo. “Quintessence” has the killer opening riff that you’d expect from Mastodon, and it moves in, but doesn’t get fun. It is a boring pop song. “The Czar: I. Usurper II. Escape III. Martyr IV. Spiral” is a dirge of sorts, and it boils in the midst of kooky Russian imagery for what seems like a long time, but then it gets insanely good as the movement of the song shifts higher and higher. Great sound, great production, great riffs!!! The song grinds on and on, always pushing a hard course. “Ghosts of Karelia” opens with a great riff and thunderous drumming, and it just keeps up throughout. “Crack The Sky”, the title track, blasts open with those arpeggio riffs, grooving along, then going into a regular rock song (nothing too ferocious here, right?). Hearing space vocals – is this Mastodon or Daft Punk? Interesting, though! “The Last Baron” is a very long song of 13 glorious minutes, good stuff. But isn’t this band suddenly a bit too melodic, and a bit too un-scary? But the song is great in its insanity, which manifests itself deep into the last song, with its stunning moods. It’s the best song on the album.

The DVD shows the making of “Crack The Skye” and you get to find out a bit about what the band’s all about. Guitarist Bill Kelliher is a major Star Wars fan, has a room full of the figurines (still in their boxes) that he gives a brief tour of. He also often wears Star Wars t-shirts. The other guitarist Bent Hinds, who’s a bit goofy/loopy since his brain hemorrhage (he’s also the only potbellied rockstar that I can think of) is a major Creature From The Black Lagoon fan, and tours his Creature swag. They talk about the difference in the recording process – “Blood Mountain” had been recorded over two months of torture when the band was living in a hotel room in Seattle, “Crack The Skye” was recorded in their home town of Atlanta. Drummer Brann Dailor is a Cadillac fan, looks bored in sessions. Rehearsed album in their jam space before entering the studio, they were more prepared lyrically and vocally. They now have the money to invest in equipment, love old gear. Played a 1964 Stratocaster through a 1968 purple Marshall JMP 100 watt head. Brann has a cool black velvet Bruce Lee painting, also a black velvet sad clown. He talks seriously about Skye, his sister, who committed suicide when she was 14 and he was 15, the album is in a way named after her, but is not about her. In a stupid sequence, he starts to tell what the album is about, but then turns on a lawnmower and pushes it around, so of course you can’t hear a thing. “Oblivion” is about leaving your body, going out too far, getting burned, getting lost, a metaphor for leaving home, a metaphor for the band about leaving and letting the soul ascent as it goes near the sun. “Sometimes you just have to close your eyes, grab your balls, and think of the 1970s.” The band talks about how they wanted to make a prog rock album, and sure enough, some parts of it sound very Yes-like.

TTAB

TTAB

Talk Talk, “Asides Besides”, 2CD set -The two-disc set has a very clever title, as the first disc covers the A-sides of the band’s series of 12-inch singles and remixes of their well-known songs. They are mostly kind of silly, and don’t usually improve on the originals (exceptions are “My Foolish Friend”, the “It’s My Life” extended version that is just as luscious as the original, “Living In Another World”, the freakout that is “Pictures of Bernadette”, which was a B-side of the “The Colour Of Sprint” track “Give It Up”, and the long drone of “Happiness is Easy”). It is often quite jarring to hear these great songs dancing cheek to cheek with in-your-face Eurodisco beats. But what can you do? Those were the times, and that’s what people wanted to hear. At the same time, it’s interesting to note that they didn’t entertain extended remixes after their third album, which is when Hollis returned to his jazz/experimental roots (and when his record company gave him the money to do so).

The second disc is the B-sides and they start off a bit slowly, with demo versions of the songs we know from the first two albums, such as “Talk Talk”, “Mirror Man”, and “Candy”. They are not too different, except that the vocals are a bit different, the pace of “Talk Talk” is less frantic, and “Mirror Man” has cheezier new wave keyboards. The first real moment of interest comes with “Call In The Night Boy PIano Version)”, a dramatic reading of this song, accompanied by a spongy bass, with a lot of noodling; stellar vocal renderings in this one, really amazing, and a sign of things to come. That’s followed by some regular versions of songs from their early period, such as synth-popper “Striker Up The Band” and “Dum Dum Girl”, as well as oddities such as “Question”, with its “la la la la la” melodies, and a sweet piano version of “Call In The Night Boys”, as well as “Again A Game… Again”, which is a strong pop song and would have fit right in on any of the band’s first two albums. Eventually, we’re hit with the jackpot that anyone who buys this is waiting for – some of the post-rock magic that Talk Talk is infamous for, in the form of wonderful fragments of the experimental sessions of “The Colour of Spring” and “Spirit of Eden”. These do show up in the form of “It’s Getting Late In The Evening”, which was a B-side of the “Colour of Spring” single “Life Is What You Make It” of early 1986, and “For What It’s Worth”, the B-side of “Living In Another World”, a single from the same album that was released in March, 1986. “It’s Getting Late in the Evening” is a (nearly) drumless keyboard-a-thon, with piano and Mark Hollis’ hauned, floating voice that swells and sways into a burbling ocean of swirling organ sounds; the flood surges, but then eventually disappears. “For What It’s Worth” is the more appealing of the two songs, with attractive keyboard hooks melodies and Hollis’ patented laid back moan that quivers with emotion. “Pictures of Bernadette” is a pretty regular rocker, while “John Cope” is another moody, melancholic piece with the well-known shuffle beat, the groovy keyboards, and the Hollis moan. Superb.

EBDFEC

EBDFEC

Earth, “A Bureaucratic Desire For Extra-Capsular Extraction” – Love the title; just as our own planet was formed over a million millenia to become what it is today, the great band Earth did not emerge fully-formed to record their masterpiece Earth 2, they clearly had to have a first album. This, now, is the re-release of their first drone recordings, complete with an opening essay by mastermind Dylan Carlson, writing in May 2010 about the early pre-grunge days of the band in October 1990. Noting that the band started out with two bass players (one of whom was Melvins/Thrones/High on Fire bassist Joe Preston), a guitarist and a drum machine, Carlson mentions that the troupe contained “a certain singer of a soon to be well known pop band”, who was actually Kurt Cobain of Nirvana (making this probably the first time Nirvana has ever been referred to as a pop band – although, compared to Earth, maybe they are). The track listing is on the cover. There’s a freaky word-collage on four of the inside pages. The CD label is half in Chinese. Oh my God… how weird?!?!?!?!?!?!

The first two songs, “A Bureaucratic Desire For Revenge” parts one and two (the title comes from Bergman’s “Hour of the Wolf”) are dirge-like, but sound odd with a drummer. The second one even introduces horrible screams and odd chanting, some of it provided by lead dude Dylan. It sure is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. “Ourobos is Broken”, at 18:13 the longest song on the disc, is nearly Godflesh – like in parts, with its broad chords and mechanical drumming (both bands formed around the same time), although the drumming fades out after the first six minutes and it becomes sort of Earth 2-ish. Wow – long and boring and exciting! “Geometry of Murder” is even more Godflesh-like, with its blazing guitar riffs, but the drums are too subdued, not as crisp. But that’s okay!!! “German Dental Work” is slow and plodding, “Divine and Bright” (which is “a love song written to the H-bomb”) is poppy and plodding and features moans by Kurt and screams by Dylan. It’s a very short song, only 2:58. “Dissolution I” is your regular drone beauty. I love those cold, autumn days.

Blast it in your earphones, or through your expensive sound system – play this music LOUD!!!

SDTDAFTAT

SDTDAFTAT

Sandy Denny, Trevor Lucas and friends, “The Attic Tracks” – I was very happy to get this album, or at least I was happy right up until I realised that they have now released a cialis how much to take of Sandy Denny. Holy smokes!!!!! But I guess if anyone deserves it, it’s Sandy. All of the Sandy Denny songs on this are also in the box (but none of the Trevor Duncan songs are).

This disc was issued in 1995 by Raven Records with the note that “royalties generated by the sale of this disc will be used by the Estate of Sandy Denny and Trevor Lucas to fund the education and/or welfare of their children and Trevor’s widow,” and that it was released with the co-operation of Island Records International and PolyGram Australia. Sandy and Trevor were in her post-Fairport Convention band Fotheringay together, and they were married from 1973 until Denny’s death in March 1978 after a fall down the stairs that left her with a brain haemorrhage. Lucas was a guitarist and singer/songwriter from Melbourne, Australia, who played with Fairport Convention on Unhalfbricking while he was dating Denny. He died in 1989 of a heart attack.

The disc comes with a booklet, lovingly written by John Penhallow, Fairport Convention’s first manager in 1967, in Sydney Australia, that talks about how he got to know Trevor and Sandy, how he collected the songs that are on the compilation, and other background stuff. It is one of the better liner notes I’ve seen, and there is excellent track-by-track notation. The source of the music is Trevor’s tape collection. The booklet hints at more tracks that aren’t here yet – nine tracks from Sandy’s first recordings of 1966/1967, and 15 tracks from what was probably Sandy’s last concert (three of the latter are on this disc). The disc also has great images – there is one of Sandy and Trevor on their wedding day, pictures of them performing, shots of record covers and singles, concert posters, and other rare stuff.

For me it was interesting hearing these Sandy Denny songs that I’m unfamiliar with. What a voice! Trevor Duncan I’m unfamiliar with, but he’s a great guitar player and has a nice Neil Diamond/Gordon Lightfoot kind of a voice, warm but maybe a bit boring.

The first track is “Moments”, an unreleased song that is the last studio track Sandy recorded, in May 1977. Great lyrics: “If I had my life again/ I would choose to be with you, my friend/ Time moves slowly and it goes so fast/ And who knows how long our days will last.” Sadly ironic words, and a really beautiful song that gets a lump in the throat. What a voice! “The Ballad of Ned Kelly” Trevor wrote for Fotheringay in 1970 and it sounds like something from The Band. “Ecoute, Ecoute” is a cool French version of Sandy’s solo “Listen Listen”, supported by Richard Thompson. “One More Chance” is Sandy’s voice and piano, the demo for a song she wrote for Fairport Convention in 1975. Ditto for the next song “Rising For The Moon,” which has more of a Gaellic twang to it and less oomph in it. Both tunes are stark and beautiful. A Fairport Convention B-side, “Tears” is a fantastic song, written and sung by Duncan in a doleful songwriting way, with great lyrics, and the tale told in each verse ending with the line “The tears that we shared simply dried.” “Easy To Slip” is a rockin’ Little Feat song, also sadly ironic considering the fall down the stairs that did Sandy in. “Losing Game” is a Flying Burrito Brothers track that has nice horns and a rockin’ Sandy Denny vocal. “Girls On The Avenue” is a pop song sung by Trevor that sounds a bit dated, sort of like a minor Neil Diamond song from the time, it was written by Richard Clayton and was a hit in Australia, Duncan hoped it would crack him globally but it never did and later got buried in his attic. Icky background vocals, even though they are by Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson (!!!). “Breakaway” is soundtrack music that has a shuffling train sound to it. “Still Waters Run Deep” sounds a lot like a Joni Mitchell song, and “The King And Queen Of England” sounds like one of those 10,000 Maniacs songs that Nathalie Merchant does on with piano accompaniment, this one is gorgeous. “No End” is also a song with voice and solo piano, a long meandering melancholy reflection on lost friendship and love, and it has buy cialis brisbane: “They said that it was snowing in astounded tones upon the news/ I wonder why they’re always so surprised – cos every year it snows.” Smartass. But this is one of the nicest songs I’ve heard in years. What a song. What a voice! Trevor Duncan then sings “The Town I Loved So Well”, which sounds like “And The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda.” He also does a great version of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young,” which I suppose is how we will always think of him and Sandy, it has a nice guitar solo. “Gold Dust” is, again, a song that sounds a lot like Joni Mitchell. “Stranger To Himself” is an old Fairport Convention song that Sandy sings, it grinds away moodily with Gaellic menace. “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” is the well-known Fairport Convention song, here represented in a long, slow version. The last three songs were from Sandy’s last concert performance, on November 27 1977.

GMIAA

GMIAA

Germs, “The Complete Anthology” – Every song that this seminal LA punk band recorded. Darby Crash crashed and burned brilliantly in the early 1980s. A total anarchist, he played a last gig with the band in order to afford a does of heroin to take him out. Brrrr… Crash is compared to Rimbaud, and his lyrics are highly literate, and the band that backs him up can be heard to improve a lot over the course of the recording; he also sounds a lot like Flipper lead guy Will Shatter, who also died of a heroin overdose. The liner notes are very good, and there are lots of pictures of the band in there. Pat Smear, who is now a superstar with Nirvana and Foo Fighters, got his start in the Germs. The first and last song on the release is “Forming”, and you can hear how different the band was at the start and end of their career by listening to this little punk ditty.

HDWSAS

HDWSAS

Husker Du, “Warehouse: Songs and Stories” – This has always been one of my favorite albums from one of my favorite old hardcore bands. The songs here are hardly punk, as each of them has that great songwriting, and Bob Mould and Grant Hart are in great form. “These Important Years” starts it all off with a blister and a blaze, and then it just gets better. “Standing In The Rain” is a catchy-as-hell song, as is nearly every song that follows – “Back From Nowhere”, “Ice Cold Ice”, “Friend You’ve Got To Fall” (despite its overly catchy chorus), “She Floated Away”, the punchy and irresistible “Turn It Around”, the crusty “Bed of Nails”, and fun rockers with catchy harmonics like “Up In The Air.” The double album closes off with the thunderous “You Can Live At Home.”

Typically, the songs that appeal to me more are by Bob Mould, but songs like the Irish canty-like “She Floated Away”, “Tell You Why Tomorrow”, the silly “She’s A Woman (And Now He’s A Man)” are good offerings from Grant Hart (although his Elvis-like “Actual Condition” is pretty weird). But at least it shows his willingness to experiment and get away from that drone drone thing.

JWIM

JWIM

Judge, “What it Meant – the Complete Discography” – A great discovery, Judge was a New York straight edge band that played from 1987 to 1991. They played angry, metallic hardcore that sounds a lot like Suicidal Tendencies from the” Join The Army” era. Practically all of the songs are very good, with the possible exception of the Led Zeppelin cover, “When The Levee Breaks”, which isn’t so great. Standouts are “The Storm”, “New York Crew”, “I’ve Lost”, the OI! band Blitz cover “Warriors”, and nearly every other song on this album. I only heard about this group when it came up on some sort of a search of Amazon for bands, and I’m glad that it did. Some great lyrics, mostly against drugs: on “Fed Up” it’s “Smoking that butt, it makes you mature/ A slave to sex and you tell me you’re pure/ You slam that beer, it makes you a man/ I’ll try to keep my cool but you better understand”; on “In My Way” it’s “Those drugs are gonna kill you if I don’t get to you first”; on “Bringin’ It Down” it’s “A beer, a joint like a gun at your head/ The price that you pay is the blood that you bled/ The needle, the track mark, youu’re scarred for life; You’re weak and you’re hurt and you’re gonna lose this fight/ You drink it and you smoke it and you say you feel fine/ And you snort it and you shoot it and now it’s melted your mind”. “Like You”, with its cool arpeggios intro, and the raw emotion of “I’ve Lost”. A song like the second version of “Take Me Away” is not so great, with its tinny drums failing to impress where others have been so strong. There are two versions of “Bringing It Down”, one with really bad drums. This CD represents every recording the band ever made. Some of the tracks appear twice, because they were re-recorded for an ultra-rare EP called “Chung King Can Suck It”, of which only 110 copies were made.

Check it out – Judge!

CD

CD

The Cure, “Disintegration” [Remastered] – “Disintegration” has been the only Cure studio release that I ever bought close to its release (I’ve only ever bought packages, such as the “Standing on the Beach”/”Staring at the Sea” compilation, and the Connect the Dots box set), so when this was released as a set with demos and the full “Entreat” live show I thought it would be a good one to get. The booklet has a short essay describing what the band went through in the recording, such as kicking the useless Lol Tolhurst out of the band, or allowing him to leave, or whatever happened; it also talks about how they saved the lyrics from a deadly fire, the band forming a human chain, wrapping wet towels around their heads and shoulders, and then groping around a smoke-filled room to retrieve the already-smouldering leather satchel with the only copy of the lyrics in it – whew! There are a bunch of pictures from the era – man, were those guys ugly. Vocals for the 12 studio songs (but none of the singles) are included.

The songs on the studio release are all as good as I remember, although somehow they are a bit shabby, pale, boring. Not quite what I remembered, exactly, although the later songs are a bit nicer than the earlier songs. I was quite surprised when I got to the live show, which was from a show at Wembley Stadium in July of 1989 that represents all 12 songs on Disintegration, that I actually liked it better than the studio version. I was surprised, because usually it’s the other way around, where the live recording bugs me for some reason or other, I nearly always prefer the studio album… just not this time.

The second disc doesn’t really excite that much either, although it has its moments. It includes three Robert Smith home demos, nine band demo instrumentals, two studio rough instrumentals, four studio roughs with guide vocals, one rough mix with vocals and one Robert Smith solo rough mix with vocals. Seems that the band went through two rounds of laying down the instrumentals, a process that lasted from about April to October. Taken together they chart the whole recording process of the album. Listening to the instrumentals can be a bit trying at times, but it also shows how interesting the music can be (even when it drones on and on) without the distraction – pleasant though it may be – or Robert Smith’s unique voice. It’s also fitting, since the album is known for its long instrumental sections anyway.

First off: the demos that Robert Smith did at home before he added the vocals, which are sort or like rough karaoke tracks. “Prayers For Rain” sounds like it’s been programmed into hell, and there are three such demos. “Fascination Street” sounds weird with a bit of slide guitar and keyboard thrown on top of the mix. There are also band rehearsals. The one for “Homesick” sounds just that – it’s awful. Other band rehearsals are “Closedown”, “Lovesong”, “The Same Deep Water As You”, and “Disintegration”. “Lovesong” has really weird bass sounds. There are also B-sides “Fear Of Ghosts”, which sounds like some sort of a weird early Cure icy poker repeating its tracks over and over, “Noheart”, which starts out with wicked drums and noise and then a creepy dirge with cheap keyboard sounds, “Esten”, which is jaunty and cheerful and a lot of fun, and “2 Late (alternate version)”, a gorgeous and textured number that has that “Monday I’m In Love” spring in its stride. “Babble” is a fun tune, bass-driven with prominent keyboards and drums, here in its instrumental version. Other studio roughs have vocals and sound a lot like the final album versions. “Out of Mind” is keyboard-led and it sort of grooves, it also has hard rock guitar (!?!) in it. It’s a lot less murky than the final B-side version, and it has great Robert Smith vocals. “Delirious Night” is jaunty and drum-led, it sort of grooves on and on and on and has really strange vocals. “Pirate Ships” is a Judy Collins cover that Robert Smith did for a planned 40th anniversary Elektra tribute album that never happened so it never got used, and appears here for the first time. It is a strange little ditty, with Robert Smith singing over accordion sounds, with the sound of surf to accompany it. I can’t find this song on YouTube, my ersatz jukebox; I wonder what the original sounded like.

MH

MH

Mark Hollis, “Mark Hollis” – Mark Hollis released his only solo album so far in 1998, seven years after the final Talk Talk album “Laughing Stock”, and it’s simply called “Mark Hollis.” On the cover is a strange picture of a pasty that has haunting, sad eyes – it looks alive. The black and white photo is framed in white, and the whole booklet is simply lyrics and very simple production details.

The first song is called “The Colour Of Spring”, which is of course also the name of their third release from 1986. After 18 seconds of silence, the song starts with simple piano chords and the gorgeous, pleading voice of Mark Hollis. “Watershed” is a beautiful song with the fractured accordions, percussion, light guitar and basswork, and (as always) very dominated by the vocals. “Inside Looking Out” is mainly guitar and voice, and is haunting. This is the only song on the album solely-written by Hollis. “The Gift” is a full band, and moves along more quickly, with faster drums, strange sounds, and that odd harmonica howl from time to time. It fades out abruptly with goofy bassoon work, and the next song, “A Life (1895-1915)” fades in with that all-over-the-place quasi-classical blurting stuff, which continues, then with voice, and percussion comes in finally after about three minutes, when the wind instruments fall away and the guitar starts to swell, Hollis turns the vocal duties over to half-murmuring half-singing children’s voices. Beautiful. This is the longest song on the release, 8:10, it is an extremely complex song that goes through several movements, and after the children’s voices you get keyboard and double bass, then weird windworks, then some sort of a strange fade-out. “Westward Bound” is only guitar and Hollis’ haunting voice. “The Daily Planet” is more like a full on song – it starts with bassoon doodling for a minute, but then picks up with a drum beat that moves the song along slowly, the voice comes in after 2.5 minutes with those haunting vocals, there’s some great harmonica work. “A New Jerusalem” moves right along, with piano chords, guitar and vocals, but near the middle it peters out and becomes a whispering, still, moody statement, Hollis’ last so far. The last 90 seconds of the song are silence.

RBLT

RBLT

Rollins Band, “Life Time” – The great first release from the Rollins Band is now available on Henry’s own 2.13.61 label. Rollins had done self-titled album with other musicians, as well as a joke album under the moniker Henrietty Collins and the Wife-Beating Child Haters called “Drive By Shooting” (which is a lot of fun – anyone should look it up), but he must have not enjoyed those bands because this is the unit that he had for many years, minus a bass player or two. The album was produced by Ian MacKaye (of Minor Threat/Fugazi/Dischord Records fame), and the songs don’t pull any punches. Opening track “Burned Beyond Recognition” is a fantastic screamathon that opens like Black Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf”, with Henry’s voice dominating the mix. “What Am I Doing Here?” screams and yells, and “One Thousand Times Blind” commands the listener “don’t love me, you’ll hate yourself.” Lots of wordplay like that. “Lonely” and “Wreck-Age” are pretty regular musically, and again they’re dominated by Rollins’ superb voice. Lyrically they’re all good. “Lonely” posits that “there’s nothing like finding someone when you’re lonely”, and “Wreck-age” talks about individuals that have been crushed by the world that they live in. “Gun In Mouth Blues” is probably the most intense Henry Rollins has ever recorded – and that’s saying something. It starts off slow, with drums, then a bit of bass, some guitar comes in, and it builds up to a slow, plodding, wallowing thump, and Henry’s voice comes in with a low voice, saying “you’ve got hard times… oooh… you’ve got blues… you’ve got, got, got, got, got…. YEAH!!!!!!!” It just shatters any stillness in life. They really don’t make music like this any more, not even Rollins himself. If you play this so anyone who owns a Coldplay album they will definitely run screaming from the room (i.e. how to lose friends and alienate people). The song winds down, the narrator has a gun in his hand, he ask himself “should I pull it? Should I pull it? Pull it? Pull it? PULL IT??!!??” Then all hell breaks loose with intense screaming and a long burnout jam.

The rest of the album is relatively anti-climatic now. How can it not be? But there are still some gems. “You Look At You” is a relatively straight-forward rocker, as is “If You’re Alive.” “I’ve Been Turned Out” has a bit of a rap in it, it’s slow in parts but has great lyrics. “You say that you’re my friend, but I don’t know you/ I’ll trust you just as far as I can throw you/ No I don’t know you, I know my enemy/ They’re the ones that look at me with honest eyes/ They hate my guts, but at least it’s the truth/ I’ll trust them just as far as I can throw them off the roof.” Naturally it ends with a pure jam, and some of that bungee bass and band wallop that we know and love from releases like “The End of Silence”. The release also comes with live versions of “What Am I Doing Here?” “Burned Beyond Recognition”, “Move Right In” (a Velvet Underground cover) and “Hot Animal Machine II” are pretty good, especially “Move Right In” with its short bass solo and the mini drum solo that busts out with the blazing “Inna Gadda da Vida” lick. Stellar. “Hot Animal Machine 2″ appeared on Henry’s solo album of two years earlier, but by now the version is much longer and full of craziness, with atmospheric beginnings and insane drum beats and full on screams and love dripping off the world. Love it all!!!

RBW

RBW

Rollins Band, “Weighting” – Here are extra songs from the “Weight” sessions, including three songs that ended up on soundtracks, four songs with New York saxophonist Charles Gayle, and five live songs. “Fall Guy” had appeared on the Demon Knight soundtrack (I didn’t watch it), it is a crazy burner with lots of anger. “I See Through” is heavy on the vocals, the band is kind of taking it easy; the song appeared on “Johnny Mnemonic”, a film that Rollins had a small role in (he gets murdered by a psychotic, animalistic Dolph Lundgren. “Right Here Too Much”, great title, but not an exciting song; still, Rollins is giving it all he’s got. I’m not sure which film soundtrack it appeared on.

“Miles Jam #3″ is the first song with Charles Gayle, which starts off with bass bopping and drum beating, Rollins doing some sort of an abstract speech about something that pisses him of, the sax comes in slowly after a minute and a half. It’s a loose jam and just sort of goes on and on, with Rollins taking his time in his delivery. It’s stream-of-consciousness, it seems like he doesn’t really have a plan for what he wants to say. “I just want to see what you would do if you were pushed. I mean REALLY pushed.” “Plague #3″ is a bit funkier, as it has some cool riffs, and is the most like a formal song among the Charles Gayle tracks. It’s a great song. “Night Sweat” sounds like just that, and it is tense and jagged, almost Velvet Underground-esque. Rollins moans like a crazy man. “Jam #1″ is a pretty good song, the longest on the set at over 14 minutes, starting off slow, building up to some cool guitar riffs and some very nice basswork. Badass!

The live songs are pretty okay, especially a very funky “Disconnect” with its wicked basslines, and some surreal ad-lib (and nasty hollering) on “Liar.” “Volume 4″ is a pretty good song, but sounds a bit muddy. “Divine Object of Hatred” is not a fantastic song, but it’s trippy hearing Rollins holler “divine” over and over again, and there is some nifty bass spazzing. “Civilised” is scary and intense with some great vocal delivery – crazy tonguetwisters like ” see what you do when you use what you got but what do you do when you do what you want” and “freedom, you ain’t no freedom, you want your freedom,
your freedom is killing you man, freedom, you can’t handle your freedom, hey! And now you’re dying for it.”

RBANSOR

RBANSOR

Rollins Band, “A Nicer Shade of Red” – A goofy recording with Rollins’ third band, the Mother Superior-backed Rollins Band, and these are extra songs that didn’t get onto the “Nice” album, along with some odds ‘n’ ends. “Too Much Rock ‘n’ Roll” is some great… rock ‘n’ roll, with funky-ass distortion on the Les Paul, and some funny backing vocals. Is that Slash or is that Jim Wilson? Jim who?!?!?! “Marcus Has The Evil In Him” is a washed-out grungy piece of work, thunderous. Love it. “Nowhere To Go But Inside” is a deep dark rusty nail of a muttering Rollins scary-tune. “10x” is good ole rock ‘n’ roll with a sorta Slash-like solo. “Always The Same” is near-punk, very repetitive and with a bit of blues. “Soul Implant” is a great old rocker, full of cool sounds, very unconventional. Probably the best song on the CD as it is understated, yet innovative. It’s grown on me. “Raped” starts off well, but it is, of course, an icky song. I wonder what point Henry’s trying to make being confrontational about someone who wants to rape him. Run! “Ain’t It Fun” is a great great Stooges cover, and “You Lost Me” is again washed out and droopy, with waves of feedback and distortion. “Stone Washed Clean” is a groovy jam-out, with some truly incredible guitar spazzes. Jim Wilson, HELP ME! “A Life Denied” is full of cool guitar sounds, and a snatch of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, sinister vocals, great atmospherics, then it cuts off abruptly. Crazy. “Your Number Is One” has great great guitar effects and cool bass, the song is very good, and this long version has extended guitar bits, a very good drum solo, and a brief bass solo. Perfect! The last song on the release is “Such A Drag” and it is an indulgent spoken word with music thing. The song drifts out after eight minutes, but then comes back with the sound of wind, and Henry’s still talkin’ about stuff, but now over a piano. It sounds like a bit of an operetta now.

V30SODC

V30SODC

Various, “:30 Over D.C.~~” -

When you think of DC punk and indie music, you think of Dischord Records, right? Well, before Ian and Jeff started Dischord Records, there was Skip Groff and his Yesterday and Today record shop, with its Limp Records label attached to it. Ian and the other DC kids got a lot of support and early breaks from Skip, and memorialized him in the “Skip, we love you” crack in their version of “Stepping Stone” (the song that, of course, every DC band covered). This CD is a collection of pre-Dischord DC bands, and it is being kept in print by Skip; Henry Rollins is distributing it on his label, and I was smart enough to snag a copy. It’s great!

The CD comes with the original liner notes from the first edition, notes on the printings, and new liner notes from the 2004 re-release. The original notes are funny, talking about how there was once a scene in DC in the mid-60s, before the town became Vietnam war-era conservative and late night entertainment dried up, eventually giving itself over to either heavy metal or “John Revolta clones and that dreaded social disease, disco music.” The disc seems to champion “New Wave” music, which is a lot different in the 1978 version represented here than what we would associate it with a few years later. But it’s all good fun. In the 2004 liner notes, theyre sill calling it New Wave, making it sound very important like it was setting off a musical bonfire. And it was, even if it doesn’t sound very incendiary here. As such, then, it’s a really great musical document, one that every serious record collector should own. This was Skip’s label’s first release, but not its last.

The CD starts off with “The Break” by The Penetrators, which is pretty straight forward punk and very fun. “This shit is gonna break,” sounds kind of California but it’s DC. “Imagination [Live]“ by The Rudements is a bit Flipper-sounding, with thick bass lines and snotty spoken-vocal storytelling. “Thank You for Sending Me an Eno” by The Mock Turtles is weird squeaky scratchy instrumental that strums and is full of sampled talk. Strange, aimless and fun. “Attitude [Live]“ by Slickee Boys is a great piece of light punk with fantastic lyrics and a bit of a rockabilly beat to it, and fun crowd response. Classy. “Jet Lag Drag” by Chumps has that slow creep, with a bit of tooting horn (sax?), it’™s poorly recorded but has a lot of authentic attitude. “Every Time You Give Me a Call” by Billy Synth sounds like a famous song, with its familiar verse, but I can’t place it. It’s great strumming snottiness. “Get Up ‘N Dance” by Jeff Dahl is strumming pop, while “I Want Something New” by Half Japanese is screaming, shouting noise from Jad and David, hard to recognise from the current wonky Half Japanese that we know and love so well; same same but different, and mush hoarser. “I Hate” by White Boy, White Boy is either racists and misogynistic or totally taking the piss. It’s a bit too extreme, with its metallic raving in a Jello Biafra voice. “I hate shitty food and girls on the rag/ I hate straights and I hate fags.” Riot, man, riot!

“I Can Explain” by The Nurses is a sweet, twee song with great jangling riffs that has a tough chorus. “No Fun” by Mark Hoback makes you think of the Stooges song, but it’s self-penned. It’s a simple song with mild guitars, and a shaker keeping the beat, the singing is a bit Jerry Lee Lewis. “Tell my baby that my car wouldn’t run, tell my baby couldn’t have no fun, we end up what we barely begun, no fun.” And more in that vein. “Wouldn’t feel bad about having no fun, even the TV told me I should have fun / All of my friends are saying they had no fun too, tell me what’s there for me to do, no no no fun.” The lyrics are fun, I should type them all out – some day. “Getting tired of electrical toys, getting tired of the drug of my choice / Getting tired have to lower my voice, getting tired being one of the boys.” It is fun! And – dare I say it – I think I like it better than the Stooges song of the same name. Ha ha ha haaaaa…

“Martyr Me” by Judies Fixation is regular snotty punk, very fun too, with great bluesy -70s guitar solo breakdown thrown in, those DC punkers knew how to rock, the longest song on the album at 3:55, ha ha… “Knocking Down Guard Rails” by Tina Peel is a bit of B52s-like fluffy/weird pop with organ and female backup singers, the kids are goin’ crazy. “Murder One” by Young Turds is a simple, sax-based song, while “Mr. President [Live]“ by Da Moronics is a real punk song, with a Richard Hell yell and political lyrics that seem a bit dated now: “Mr President, Mr Carter, I think that I augha tell you what’s going on the ground, something ain’t right this time. Mr president, I may love you, I know that I voted for you, Mr President, Mr Carter, I think that I augta tell you that people out there they don’t even care about Washington DC, or New York City, or any place it seems.””I want you again in ’82, that is true.” “Don’t pull a JFK.” “I don’t tell lies, I’m Catholic y’know, and we gotta do everything right.” “You’re so lenient.” Crazy. “Stay Limp” by The Raisinets is jangly old rock ‘n’ roll with a great bassline, but rambling Half Japanese-like lyrics, “stay limp, avoid excitation, keep your trouser snake in traction.” Even more wild, weird craziness, very bass-driven with jangling guitars playing out repetitive chords. Love it, or leave it for those with class.

DVD Review:

TTIA

TTIA

Roxy Music, “The Thrill of it All” – Yeh, groovy, video of Roxy Music from 1972-1976 (hot, arty, weird, thrilling) and 1979-1982 (smoothy, sexy, stylish, mature, very ’80s). “Re-made/Re-model” from an u dated July 1972 session at the Royal College of Art in London shows the band in full swing. It’s the first tune from their debut album and it is the only real glimpse of a freaky Bryan Ferry, showing him with thick eye shadow and long hair. The song is frantic and zany, with images, glimpses and colour. The song is strange, but traditional in the sense that there is a break for every member to get a solo (even Brian Eno gets a “treatments” solo). “Ladytron”, from the Old Grey Whistle Test BBC show, starts out with green suit clarinet, then spacey jam, Eno in leopard print and sliver gloves, guitarist Phil Manzanera with bug sunglasses with embedded diamonds (they reappear in some 1982 footage). Eno gets crazy at the console. Bryan Ferry has shorter hair now and just a bit of eye shadow, and by the time of “Virginia Plain” for the Top of the Pops, he’s looking pretty much like how we know him forever after: the slimy, vamping sophisticate. “For Your Pleasure” is weird, sparse Space:1999 music. “Do The Strand” vamps in suits, Eno in a silver boa jacket, while “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” the band is Kraftwerk-like, all sling guitars but don’t play, robotic, only Eno plays gurgle, halfway through they rock out. Ferry like Elvis with Stratocaster as a prop, Ray Manzanarek on cherry red Les Paul, wailing. Eno with black feathers. “Editions of You”, Eno with gold puff jackew with epaulets. Watching Roxy Music at this point is as much as hearing the music as checking out what the boys are wearing… except for the drummer, of course, who is meaty, always wears singlet, and looks like a young Glenn Danzig. “Pyjamerama” shows Ferry in a white tux, something we’ll see much more of going forward, especially for the next three tracks, all recorded at Musikladen for German television, with the great SH IT sticker on the wall. By now, Brian Eno is out of the band, and the main eccentric is keyboardist and violinist Eddie Jobson (long-term brass and woodwindist Andy Mackay, with his mullet and green suits, doesn’t really qualify as eccentric). “Amazona” has Jobson’s great violin solo, and “Psalm” is a weird Nick Cve-like song, with Ferry buildup and sow-off vocals, cool funk vibe, Ferry looks like a young Harvey Heitel, and then someone trhwos him a tamborine. “All I Want Is You,” a greaser Ferry, rockin band. “Love is the Drug”, pre-recordef for Top of the Pops with a two-tier stage and backup singers, a real big-stage production for the first time – we’ll see more of that later too. Ferry looks great with his eye patch. In “Mother of Pearl” Ferry goes nuts, saxophone sweater, guitar crazy, cool rhythm section, great lady keyboardist (oh, that’s Eddie Jobson, actually). “Nightingale” is a bit of weird funk, while “Out of the BLue” is sharp and rockin’ with great clarinet, and a great Jobson violin solo. The second disc shows off the band’s 1979-1982 line-up, which is very big-sounding and suave stadium rock-ready, it also combines live footage with promotional videos. The first song is on the ABBA show, and Anni-Frid and Agnetha introduce them as one of their favourite bands (cool). The songs are good fun, and the musicianship is amazing. You get to see the evolution of the bass player, from a sluggish goon in the earlier songs to a full-on boppin’, dancin’ dude who’s a very big part of the sound. Phil Manzanera is mostly doodling away on his Gibson Firebird, although at times he’s on a Les Paul, and some other devices. Disc 2 is less interesting than the first, but it’s still good fun. Yay.

Book Review:

HRF1

HRF1

Fanatic, Volume 1, by Henry Rollins – From May to December 2004, Henry Rollins hosted a radio show called Harmony In My Head. These are the liner notes for the show and they provide a lot of information about a lot of bands. They also give a sense of the deep appreciation of all sorts of music that Rollins has, his knowledge of the bands he loves (or his lack of knowledge, in some cases, whether that information is hard to get or not), some anecdotes of the interesting people he’s met and the cool shows he’s seen; you also get a sense of just how much of a music fanatic Henry Rollins really is! He uses phrases like “What a man. What a song. What an album. What a band” a lot. The year 2004 seemed like a relatively quiet year for the man, but he did go off a few times for USO tours, speaking to the men in Afghanistan and at a camp in the Caribbean somewhere.

Some of the groups that he raves about (and seems to have a complete discography of, including extremely rare singles and EPs and foreign releases/alternate versions) are Suicide/Alan Vega, The Cramps, The Damned, UK Subs, The Buzzcocks and Buzzkunst, X Ray Specs, The Adverts, The Stains, The Fall, Trouble Funk, The Ramones (especially Johnny Ramone), Bad Brains, The Ruts, Sham 69, Richard Berry, Black Sabbath, Public Enemy, Devo, Iggy Pop and the Stooges (of course), Lou Reed, The Gun Club, John Lee Hooker, Lightin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, John Cale, Eater, Roy Orbison, Lee Scratch Perry, Roky Erickson, all of Scott “Wino” Weinreich’s bands (Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, etc) and all of the Dischord Records bands. The band he plays the most of is The Fall.

Some of the bands that he’s obsessive about that surprised me are Billy Idol and Generation X, Roxy Music, Nico, J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr, Alice In Chains, Captain Beefheart, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and some others.

He’s a major fan of jazz, and is a walking encyclopedia of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and all of the other greats (the former Henry Garfield did take his stage name from Sonny Rollins, by the way).

Among the goofy songs that he threw in just to be a sarcastic bastard are ABC “The Look Of Love”, Venom’s “The Chanting of the Priests”, Nena’s “99 Luftbalons” and Mercyful Fate “Black Funeral.”

Then there are also all the bands he’s been associated with, such as State of Alert, Black Flag, Bad Brains, The Misfits, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.

He also tells strange anecdotes, like hanging out with the mother of Thin Lizzy singer/bassist Phil Lynott (?!?!), getting tapes of radio DJ chatter, the time they opened for Venon and got great between-song banter, the story of hanging out with violent bands like The Stains, chasing down hard-to-find Generation X songs, helping Bad Brains and Teen Idles distribute their early albums when no one had any money, checking out the tortured piano that Jerry Lee Lewis plays on in his home in Mississippi, the time that Beasts of Bourbon blew away Nirvana when they opened for them, talking about Captain Beefheart with Jeff Bridges (also a huge Beefheart fan), checking out Trouble Funk with a dangerous all-black audience, walking home through the snow after a Clash concert that had Bo Diddley opening for it, tying Pete Shelley’s shoelaces together as he played supe-serious (and then mentioning it to Shelley years later when they met), hanging out with a sick Johnny Ramone a week before he died, meeting the drummer of X-Ray Specs, a chance encounter with King Sunny Ade, helping Alan Vega re-master old recordings that he’s left lying around, watching the first Minor Threat show, live recordings from never-released bands like The Enzymes (his former guitarist Chris Haskett former band). Then there’s a sad tale about the Minutemen – he could only bring himself to play one Minutemen song, simply because of the torment he feels about the death of D Boon. He also talks about bands he DIDN’T see – The Germs and Rites Of Spring, for example, are bands he’d rave about but never got a chance to experience. Included in the book is the foreword to the autobiography of Eater singer Andy Blade, as well as his contribution to the liner notes of the Adverts’ “Cast of Thousands” re-release.

The book is full of interesting concert posters. I have barely heard any of these songs, and many of the bands are new to me. I need to spend some time on YouTube doing research. Missing from the book is Frank Zappa, and California hardcore groups like Suicidal Tendencies. I wonder if he has a low opinion of these acts, or if they are just left out for other reasons. I don’t know if he’s being ironic or mean, but he describes a guy “Thurston Moore, who’s in a band called Sonic Youth”; who hasn’t heard of Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth? Either way it’s all good, all interesting.

HRF2

HRF2

Fanatic, Volume 2, by Henry Rollins – Henry Rollins’ second Fanatic book is even thicker than the first one, with 417 pages of notes for the songs he played on 52 radio shows in 2006. The book also has playlists of all the shows he did in 2006, as well as a song index catalogued by band. It’s here that you get to see just how many songs he played by The Fall (49), the Buzzcocks (22), Public Enemy (5), Thor (4), Dio (1), etc.

You get to learn a few interesting things about Rollins, namely that he is a big fan of all sorts of doo wop music, and he totally loves Indonesian gamelan music. Who’da thunk? He’s also not a fan of rap or hip hop – the only band he plays here is Public Enemy (he’s got that right), and a Vanilla Ice track, just for fun. Of course he plays tons of UK punk, DC punk and SoCal punk, as well as blues and jazz and avant garde, as well as a bit of comedy (Coyle and Sharp, National Lampoon).

There are a few interesting anecdotes. In the set that he dedicated to the recently-deceased John Peel, Rollins writes “It was always a dream of mine to do a Peel Session. We asked at the BBC in the 80s around the time we had recorded the Life Time album and we got word back that he didn’t like our music and didn’t like me.” Oh well. When he played Public Image Limited we find out that John Lydon didn’t like him either, and when he played The Fall, we find out that Mark E. Smith had some sort of an attitude about Rollins as well – Rollins quotes him several times saying “I mean, I wouldn’t even shake hands with Sonic Youth, you know. And Henry Rollins is a bit of a lunatic. He gets up and gives a fucking lecture about how he wishes he was me.” Rollins mentions the quote at least three times, at one stage saying “I wish I was Mark E Smith!! I want to be a small of stature genius somewhat destroyed by my intellect and drug abuse. I want band members to quit left and right! That’s what I want! I want it now. I’m a lunatic and that’s what I want!!!!!!!!!!” Funny how Rollins mentions the cialis generic online from canada at the end of every single entry on The Fall.

This book has fewer “pullout” stories than the first book, meaning special sections where he expands on a song entry with a long anecdote about the band (one of the longer ones in this book is a breakdown of his favorite Damned albums), but it’s full of tons of great information, photos and posters anyway. Rollins tells a weird story about how Gene Defcon asked him to draw a picture of a cop riding on the back of a unicorn that Defcon used on the inside of his album.

I have a feeling that Mr Defcon was making sport of me but I remain a fan nonetheless.” There’s a great story about the Descendents: “One night the band’s drummer and guitar player, Bill and Frank,walked into the venue right from their day job as commercial fishermen all covered in fish scales and fish blood. What a smell. They set up their gear and played at full bore in stench mode.

Rollins talks about his agony over never seeing certain DC bands play live since he was away too much touring with Black Flag so bands like Rites of Spring, formed, played, and broke up before he got a chance. But he did get to see One Last Wish, which included three of the four Rites of Spring members. I happen to be reading this at the same time as I listen to the “Twenty Years of Dischord” CD set, which is totally appropriate, great. He writes at great length about The Ruts and their doomed lead singer Malcolm Owen, there’s long pieces Suicide and Alan Vega told in a very personal, as well as pieces by The Buzzcock, John Coltraine, Nico, Brian Eno, John Cale, Tuvan throat singers Huun-Huur-Tu, Miles Davis, James Brown (and his band, the JBs, and some of his band’s solo efforts), Roky Erickson, The Snakes, Bad Brains, The Gun Club and Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Parliament/Funkadelic/George Clinton and the Ramones (nice bit of praise on the drumming of Tommy Ramone in one of the entries).

He devotes a whole show to The Misfits where he compares the unreleased 12 Hits From Hell version of the band’s songs with their alternate versions on other albums. He also has another chapter describing a show of all Hallowe’en related songs (scary) and another of a show of all Christmas-related songs (even scarier!) that starts off with a great drawing someone did of Tony Iommi wearing a santa hat, his left-handed Gibson SG garlanded with Christmas lights and Christmas tree ornaments and an angel sitting on the headstock. Awwwww!!! Oh yeah, and another one devoted to just b-sides (Ozzy Osborne’s “Party With The Animals” is played here, for example). On another show a week before Christmas on the 15th anniversary of Joe Cole’s murder he plays songs that were among Cole’s favorites. There is also stuff about the craziness of Sham 69 and the “good Skrewdriver” from before they became a racist white power act.

The book has fun, irreverent stuff like his mention of Ann Coulter, “she’s hard as a rock and anything rough that comes her way she can bounce off her adams apple effortlessly.” A great bit on Black Sabbath:

It’s hard to be one of the best bands in the world and invent a genre. A lot of people can’t handle it. It’s not surprising that music critics couldn’t handle it. They get it wrong all the time. Sabbath is proof that most music critics are not worth the food they’re fed. If you can’t get to Black Sabbath, if they’re not your cup of tea, you’re drinking herbal tea and the rest of us are done with you. Really. If you don’t like Sabbath, please stop listening to our show. You’re better off without us and we’re better off without you.

Lots of despair also about the SST back catalogue and how poorly it’s being maintained. Rollins doesn’t seem to be a Sonic Youth fan. Mentions Half Japanese opening up for the Dead Kennedys in 1980, that must have been quite a show. Then there’s funny stuff like:

That many records come out without my knowledge is nothing new. Bands come together, record several great albums, tour relentlessly and break up for one reason or another and I find out when their best-of comes out years later. A lot gets by me. Good thing I’m not the president.

I know the feeling well, and I’m sure you do too. He relates some interesting tales of prison recordings, such as Robert Pete Williams, who wrote “I’ve Grown So Ugly”, which is covered by Captain Beefheart.

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