I'd Love to Turn You On #23: Yes – 90125 (Rhino)

Many think of Yes as the 70's prog-rock band with that fantastic alien world album cover art. As a child of the 80's, my memories of Yes are the “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” video and “Owner” on the radio, in the car, going on long road trips to Disney World with the family. At that age, I mostly disregarded any music earlier than 1980, but hey... Michael Jackson had exploded and Duran Duran captured my musical focus. It wasn't until about 10 years ago that I rediscovered Yes and their classic 1983 album 90125.

The album could very well have been 90125 by the band Cinema, the name that some members of Yes adopted when singer Jon Anderson quit the band a few years earlier along with keyboardist Rick Wakeman. After singer/guitarist Trevor Rabin entered the band for the 90125 sessions, Chris Squire played some of the music to Jon and it was enough for Jon to agree to rejoin Yes late in the album's construction. The nine tracks that ended up on the album are nothing short of fantastic. Again, this was the emerging 80's and synths were gaining popularity fast. Keyboards had almost always been prominent in Yes with Rick Wakeman's magical fingers, but at the time they were part of the prog-rock style. I can hear some of that style throughout the 90125 album, but there is something quite different going on. The pop/new wave sensibilities had influenced the band without taking over and morphing Yes into something they had not previously been.

“Owner Of A Lonely Heart” kicks off the album with a bang with its ultra-catchy verses and chorus, and ended up being the band's first and only number one single in the U.S! In my opinion “Hold On” and “Leave It” rival “Owner” as the best songs on this album full of great songs. With Jon's wonderfully majestic vocal style spearheading them, there is so much melody and intricate excitement going on. I find these songs in my head days after playing the album. A great example of the brilliance of 90125 can be found in the lyrics of “Our Song”: "Music has magic, it's good clear syncopation." Magic indeed. The guitars, keyboards, vocals, even the production by short-lived member Trevor Horn is all top-notch.

I rediscovered Yes as a band (including their 70's output), but this album brings back distant memories of songs from 90125 that I believe hold up very well at 27 years old. The peak of the band Yes is five numbers that are not a zip code of any kind: just

9 0 1 2 5!

Sincerely,

J O E L

Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer (Atlantic Records)

Cee-Lo Green's The Lady Killer finds the Grammy-winning artist in a familiar place for a superstar – on the prowl. But, much like his fellow ATLien Andre 3000 on The Love Below, the search isn't without its one night stands, lost loves and doubts. The result is a brave and complex soul-inflected journey through Green's colorful ups and downs.

By informing the listener that "my name is…not important" on album opener "The Lady Killer Theme (Intro)," Green immediately identifies with party hoppers looking for love on the dance floor. Pre-party anthem "Bright Lights Bigger City" follows, with a bass line reminiscent of "Billie Jean" and call-to-fun lyrics sure to be played on the way to clubs throughout the winter of 2010 and beyond. Like "Bright Lights Bigger City," The Lady Killer is full of invitations to relax and give in to the pleasures of spontaneity. The use of gunshots in the chorus of "Love Gun" are a positive response to M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," turning "you shot me baby" into a winking double entendre. Elsewhere, Green exposes his disappointments in love on songs like "It's OK," and internet phenomenon "Fuck You" (which is stripped of its appeal in the cleaned up version "Forget You"). However, the true heart and soul of "The Lady Killer" comes in the latter half of the record with the three-song punch of "I Want You," "Cry Baby," and album standout "Fool For You."

Overall The Lady Killer offers a glimpse into Cee-Lo Green's journey through relationships and reveals many relatable situations. Add to that a compelling mix of R&B grooves and soul-inflected pop songs and you've got a record that not only warrants but rewards repeated listens.

- Paul Custer  

I'd Love To Turn You On: At the Movies #1 - Dead Man

Dead Man (1995, dir. Jim Jarmusch)
One of my favorite film critics described Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man as an “acid western.” It’s a fitting label, but misleading. It makes you expect lots of aggressive camera work, special effects and color. Dead Man has none of that. It’s black and white, and the pace is slow. But it’s a total trip just the same — one of those rare works of art that exists in four or five or eighteen different dimensions.

At its core, Dead Man is a simple story. A man sells everything for a train ticket to the western frontier to fill an accounting position he’s been offered. By the time he gets there, though, the job has gone to someone else. He spends his last dime on a bottle and winds up getting shot in a fight over a girl. He flees into the wilderness where an Indian finds him, tries to save him but is unable to remove the bullet from next to his heart. Duty bound, the Indian delivers him to the Pacific Ocean for a proper send off into the afterlife.

Where the film gets really heavy is in its cultural allusions. The biggest is the lead character’s name, William Blake (played by Johnny Depp). This William Blake knows nothing about the British poet, painter and printmaker. In fact, none of the film’s characters do except for the Indian, who, it turns out, actually studied Blake’s work in England after he was captured and hauled across the ocean in a cage and paraded around Europe as an oddity from the New World. When the Native character (who calls himself “Nobody” and is portrayed brilliantly by Gary Farmer) learns Blake’s name he assumes that he’s the real William Blake. He recites a chilling stanza: “Every night and every morn / Some to misery are born / Every morn and every night / Some are born to sweet delight / Some are born to sweet delight / some are born to endless night.” This moment in the film combines with others like it to suggest a theme or message that’s never exactly clear, but still makes sense on multiple levels.

Dead Man is about America and the Manifest Destiny, that much is obvious. During the early shoot-out scene, for instance, when Blake discovers a gun under his lover’s pillow and asks her why she has it she says, “Because this is America,” as if it’s the stupidest question she’s ever heard. Also, the film’s plot line clearly moves from east to west. And throughout the film, Nobody refers to European settlers (invaders) as “stupid fucking white men” and reveres Blake as “a killer of white men.” It gets really deep, though, when filthy fur trappers sit around campfire reading Bible verses about Philistines or when a cold-blooded bounty hunter finds a corpse looks like a “goddam religious icon” or even in the scenes with Robert Mitchum, which are clearly crafted in homage to all the cool and kind of cheesy Westerns he starred in as a young man. It’s funny, too — full of sight gags and inside jokes, including a couple that only people who speak Cree or Blackfoot languages would understand. (There also a lot of rock and roll nods: appearances by Iggy Pop and Gibby Haynes, characters named after musicians and songs.)

It sounds like a recipe for pretentious muddiness, I know, but Jarmusch pulls it all together artfully with the simplicity of the story and with a mesmerizing soundtrack by Neil Young (a must-have in its own right; it’s all solo guitar with a little bit of pump organ with a few key dialogue scenes from the movie and a Blake poem read by Depp mixed in). The slowness of the plot offers time and space for contemplation. I’ve owned a copy of the film for years, watched it dozens and dozens of times, and I always feel profoundly moved after the final scene — one of the most beautiful and poetic in all of cinema. I always walk away with a mixture of disgust and awe about America, which, to my way of thinking, is absolutely on point.

- Joe

The Posies – Blood/Candy (Rykodisc)

The Posies have always been a dark band with lucid undertones, but each album they have produced remains unique and unclassifiable. After a long crazy ride of collaboration and having mentored and collaborated with Alex Chilton as the other half of Big Star for a number of years, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer have learned a thing or two about loss and friendship. The song "Accidental Architecture" seems to allude to their collaboration with Chilton, and it is one of the shining examples of the delicate landscapes created by The Posies with each subtle structuring of lyrics and song. With pensive, starkly honest, painful yet playfully childlike lyrics and solid psychedelic sounds, The Posies have caught me off guard yet again by producing one of the most refreshing albums of 2010.

"For The Ashes," one of Blood/Candy’s best tracks, is a masterwork that intricately mixes booming, juicy, psychedelic nuggets with the feel of a powerfully raw ballad. "She's Coming Down Again" is a brutally honest, desperate plea from one friend to another and a haunting warning. Stringfellow and Auer have created a wondrously disturbing portrait in song, something they have always had a gift for. They seem to unlock various puzzles of the mind without question or judgment, and complement that gift with lavish, encompassing melodies that are often times starkly beautiful. Another treat appears on “Plastic Paperbacks” in the form of special guest Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers.

Much like Alex Chilton (one can really hear and understand how they all got along so well) one might be initially put off by the sheer indulgence of their sound. It is so awesomely big and illuminating, but if the listener chooses to embrace its chaos, I am guessing they will find themselves like me, returning again and again to this album. It is the sound of grown adults revisiting childhood fairy tales and making peace with how their lives turned out. It is two long lost friends finally putting the past aside to create a fruitful and fun future.

Having been one of the greatest songwriting duos of the 90's, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer have now returned and solidified with this thrilling, decadent release. They have proven, working with legends of the past, that this partnership is essential to the future of authentic and innovative music. 

- Christianne Chowning

The Posies play December 1st at the Gothic Theater with Brendan Benson.

Lez Zeppelin Lez Zeppelin (Pie Records)

We had so much content for our upcoming Winter zine, that we had to throw some reviews on our blog. Check out this review and keep an eye out for our upcoming Winter zine in the store!

The latest girl-group sensation Lez Zeppelin is the hottest thing in blues-rock since the first Jeff Beck album! I mean, these lassies can seriously rock out with the best of the boys, the only possible drawback being a reliance on cover material. Luckily, there is a range of inspiration here, from Willie Dixon, Jake Holmes (a dynamic cover of “Dazed and Confused”), to Bert Jansch and Maurice Ravel (!), with the highlight being a distinctly beefed-up cover of Joan Baez's “Babe I'm Gonna Leave You.” All of this is fed through a powerhouse wall of sound, geared towards the heavier sounds of today. Unusual for a Garage band these days, LZ even have a bass player. The drums too, are very economical yet powerful, with the whole effect of the rhythm section being very original indeed. I would like to hear these ladies attempt some original material, because if they can pull that off the world is their oyster.
- Ben S.

Several Species of Small Furry Thoughts – The Wild Man and The Boss

In the new world of fewer physical sales and diminishing marketing clout going to music sales, it is surprising to see two large and extremely important box sets hit the market on the same day, but this Tuesday saw the release of some very important pieces in the jigsaw puzzles that represent Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen. One of the more interesting Rock and Roll parlor games has been to speculate on the direction Hendrix’s art would have taken had he not died such an early and tragic death. It is pointless at some level because Hendrix’s art and style have become so closely associated with the late 60’s that it is almost impossible to imagine him unstuck in time as an older, less interesting man. He is perfection in his completeness. Unlike his peers his legacy is preserved in a way. He didn’t become less like the Beatles, whose solo work is a clear indication that the parts were indeed less than the sum. He didn’t become a sad drug casualty like Sly Stone, but he also didn’t get to become an institution, touring the world to staggering acclaim and revenue like The Rolling Stones. He has remained a roman candle of color and sound, splashed across the rock firmament in preserved history. There has been a lot of product released since his death, and remarkably most of the major label stuff has been pretty high quality. There might be two explanations for that; one is that since the Hendrix estate has taken over the administration of his music they have been careful and smart with the legacy. The other is that Hendrix didn’t produce much crap. He recorded everything - studio, concert stage, jam sessions, parties - he was always recording himself, and what he recorded was uniformly high quality. He was truly one of the great searching artists of the 60’s. He was always seeking new sounds, new influences new peaks. The box set, entitled West Coast Seattle Boy - The Jimi Hendrix Anthology comprises 4 CDs and 1 DVD and is an incredible smorgasbord of every Hendrix era and style. The first disc compiles 15 songs by different artists who used Hendrix as a hired gun before he was famous. It is fascinating to hear him inserting his proto licks into these more conventional settings. It is especially interesting to hear a song like Don Covay’s chart hit “Mercy Mercy” and realize that this familiar guitar break is actually a young Jimi. The disc ranges from pop to soul to funk to the manic rock performances of Little Richard who turns in the worst recorded performance of the set. Throughout this first disc it is instructive to hear Hendrix figuring out his sound. 

The real fireworks begin on disc 2. There are far too many highlights on each disc - in fact there is almost no filler, so I will just point out a couple of outstanding moments on each disc. “Little One” is a real psychedelic treasure - Dave Mason playing sitar with multiple tracks of Hendrix playing acoustic, lead, slide and bass and Mitch Mitchell playing drums. It’s great, trippy fun with some bracing soloing by Jimi. The real find of this disc however is an incredibly intimate 6-song session of Hendrix and friend Paul Caruso in Jimi’s hotel room in March of 1968. Playing solo electric and singing in a relaxed voice Hendrix plays a stunning cover of Dylan’s as yet unreleased “Tears Of Rage,” a funky “Hear My Train A-Comin’” before ending with a hauntingly simple version of “Angel.”

Disc 3 opens with a big, fat, funky jam session with The Experience, Buddy Miles and some exceptional Hammond organ playing by what is believed to be Lee Michaels. It has a great freewheeling feel - very 1960’s. “Messenger” is a weird, driving, complex song that never made it past the instrumental run-through stage but provides an interesting glimpse into the Hendrix creative process. “Untitled Basic Track” is another pretty developed track with no vocal, but it shows Hendrix as a proto-metal guitar monster. Disc 3 finds its center with “Young/Hendrix,” which is the full 20 minute jam session with Jimi and jazz organ great Larry Young. Recorded in April of 1969 the jam goes through countless changes as Hendrix and Young play off each other with playful telepathy.

Disc 4 bows with a previously unreleased track from The Band Of Gypsys’ triumphant New Year’s Eve shows at the Fillmore East in 1969. These shows yielded the Band Of Gypsys album and several reissues, so it is sort of amazing that this track has never seen the light of day. Especially because it is an incendiary 14 minute performance where Hendrix improvises wildly, taking on “The March Of The Wooden Soldiers,” and “Sunshine Of Your Love” among others before coming back to “Stone Free” where he started. It is really an exciting find. “Lonely Avenue” is a slow, bluesy reading of the Doc Pomus classic that is shockingly credited as a Hendrix original in the liner notes. “Peter Gunn/Catastrophe” finds Jimi screwing around between takes with funny results. The box set closes with a gorgeous unreleased recording from the spring of 1970 called “Suddenly November Morning” that is another tantalizing peek at what might have lay ahead for Hendrix had he not checked out. It is beautiful and fragile and points to many possible new directions. 

This box set is so full of great stuff it is kind of hard to believe. There is never the feeling that this is anything but a fresh and exciting collection of material from a vital and vibrant artist, not something from a man close to half a century gone.

Speaking of vital and vibrant, Bruce Springsteen has remained on an upward trajectory for so long that it hard to fathom. Like Dylan, he has had career peak after career peak (along with a few lows). The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story puts a microscope on what I consider to be his ultimate peak, both as a songwriter, and as a performing artist. The mammoth box set includes a remastered version of the album proper, two discs of unreleased songs that came out of the remarkable period between Born To Run and Darkness and three videos containing over 6 hours of illuminating and thrilling material. 

I don’t know about you, but for me there is the phenomenon of albums that I never fully understand. Some albums are 80% above the surface. I got Never Mind The Bollocks by The Sex Pistols immediately. I got Nevermind by Nirvana immediately, and even London Calling by The Clash. Darkness On The Edge Of Town was always a deep, strange mystery to me. It was, for me, the last Springsteen album I really loved until The Rising (with the possible exception of Nebraska). It wasn’t that I thought he was bad, it just seemed like he never topped the creative high-water mark this album represented. The fact that it was so mysterious; such a beguiling blend of muscle-car rock and highbrow poetry is what made it such an enigma to me. The River and Born In The USA are many things, but enigmas they are not. Part of the equation was THAT show. Red Rocks, June 20^th 1978, the summer of my freshman year of college. It was everything I have ever wanted from a rock concert. I was familiar with all of his albums, but had only heard of his live reputation. I had a hard time believing the hype. By the late 70’s many of the dreams of the last decades had evaporated like so much powder up the nose of disco dancers at Studio 54. Springsteen kind of represented the four corners of Rock and Roll. He stood straddled between four decades. He embraces Doo-wop and the great revue type rock shows of the 50’s; he embodied the singer/songwriter/social conscience of the 1960’s; he helped define the giant rock show of the 70’s, while providing the most meaningful anthems of the decade; and in 1978, he looked forward to the future and years of confusion and bitterness as music changed irrevocably from art to business. That Red Rocks show was like seeing an artist at THE moment of his career. It was palpable in the air. This was one of those moments when an artist transcends fashion and just delivers the goods. He did that night. It was three hours of balls to the wall rock. His material was epic, and his band was, on any given night, the greatest show on earth. Did you miss that tour? Wish you could see it? You can now. 

The Promise contains the best video proof of Springsteen’s greatness. One video is an entire show from Houston in 1978 that finds the E-Street Band winning over an arena-sized crowd of yahoos who probably don’t know his material as well as the coastal audiences he is used to. They perform valiantly. The show encompasses the best of his early material, and all the big numbers from Born To Run and Darkness as well as some rarities like “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” and the “Detroit Medley” which actually lives up to the term “barn-burner.” It is pretty exhilarating, but the next video (compiling various clips from ’76-’78) really showcases what an explosive band they were. In particular, the five songs from Phoenix are unbeatable. The chemistry between Bruce, Clarence Clemons and the audience is something to behold. The version of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” is what that show at Red Rocks was like. In the future, if young people want to know why we found Rock so exciting, this would be a good piece of footage to show them.

But there is so much more. There is The E-Street Band in 2009 performing the album in its entirety in an empty theatre in New Jersey. One is struck by the fact that these guys are definitely older, but maintain a gritty intensity that still puts the material over. There is a great documentary about the making of the album, and this period of extraordinary achievement for Springsteen. Few artists could stand up to the challenge of following up Born To Run and yet Springsteen gave an album that meets and possibly surpasses. The two discs of material left off the album are a revelation as well. His castoffs are better than many great albums. There are at least 10 bona fide Springsteen classics in this bunch of songs, and in total it fills in a lot of blank spaces between Born and Darkness. The path this artist took between albums is much more clearly illustrated with this addition to his canon. I love those first two albums like a first kiss, and Born To Run is just incomprehensible, but with history at its back Darkness On The Edge Of Town might just be the best Springsteen for me. This is an artist reaching for the stars and actually getting hold of them.

IMA Robot - Another Man's Treasure (Werewolf Heart Records)

We had so much content for our upcoming Winter zine, that we had to throw some reviews on our blog. Check out this review and keep an eye out for our upcoming Winter zine in the store!

Whatever vision singer Alex Ebert had out in the desert a few years back really changed him and his musical ideas. Though the experience did spark the Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros magic, here IMA Robot is subdued compared to previous albums. Maybe the collective ADD is under control rendering a more focused output; maybe the band has discovered love. Lyrics like "love will lead us home" and "pass it on and multiply your love" are signs that the band's hippie flag is flying high and in the same yard as the Zeros. The best song, "Life Is Short" really stands out to me with its catchy as hell verses and chorus plus the Dean Ween style guitar solo towards the end. This song sticks to my cortex like honey. "Sail With Me" has some semi-tribal elements and the closer "Swell" takes notice of various instruments and sounds utilizing a professional studio (Werewolf Heart Studios; Werewolf Records is home to Ryan Gosling's Dead Man's Bones band). I am always excited to hear more music from Alex and Another Man's Treasure is said to be an experimental album, and lives up to that statement. 

- Joel

I'd Love To Turn You On #22 - The Kinks - Something Else By The Kinks

When going through the list of universally acknowledged rock and roll masterpieces, one will usually come across The Kinks' 1968 album The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society. However, often lost in the praise heaped upon Village Green is the masterpiece that came before, 1967's Something Else By The Kinks. The title can be looked at in a couple of different ways, as in "oh, here's something else" or "WOW! that's really SOMETHING ELSE!" What's clear is that in the psychedelic summer of love year of 1967, The Kinks really were doing something else compared to their rock and roll peers. They had left behind the blues and R&B-based rock of their early years, but instead of following the psychedelic path of Sgt. Pepper, Pink Floyd and the San Francisco scene, they turned to traditional British music hall and folk stylings. It also helped that Ray Davies was writing some of his very best songs.

The opener, "David Watts," is the closest they come here to the heavy-riff guitar rock on which they initially made their name. Yet the lyrics offer a contrasting mood as they detail a schoolboy's jealous obsession with the popular athlete of the title. These attitudes of vulnerability and self-doubt were new to rock and roll at the time and would set the stage for many introspective songwriters such as Morrissey and Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian. The band takes its biggest musical left turn on the bossa nova flavored "No Return." Davies originally wrote this song for bossa nova star Astrud Gilberto. The music hall influence comes through on the jaunty "Tin Soldier Man" and the wistful "End of the Season." "Harry Rag" is a particularly British song that I had to look up on wikipedia to find out just what it was all about. "Situation Vacant" is a phrase that sounds stark and grim to us yanks, though it's really just what the Brits use for "help wanted" (which also can sound a bit grim when you think about it).

One of the most striking songs on the album is "Two Sisters," an intriguing look at a sibling rivalry. Sibling rivalry is certainly something Ray and his guitarist brother Dave knew a thing about. Dave contributes a pair of songs to Something Else and they may just be his two best. "Death of a Clown" is a folk-rock character study with a great sing-a-long chorus. "Love Me Till the Sun Shines" is an infectious rocker that should be required learning for garage bands everywhere.

The album concludes with the masterful "Waterloo Sunset," easily one of the greatest pop songs of the rock era. A beautiful tale of a young couple finding quiet time in the midst of a sprawling urban landscape, this may just be Ray Davies' finest work. It's also a fitting finale for an album of quiet yearnings and small pleasures, proving that great music can be made from things other than volume and bombast. Something Else is certainly not your typical rock masterpiece, but it is a collection of excellent songs that work both individually and as a complete work. It led off a string of fantastic Kinks albums that are all worth checking out as well.

- Adam Reshotko

Several Species Of Small Furry Thoughts - KEEF

It’s going to be a very Keith Richards Christmas and New Year. What with the recent release of the incredible concert movie Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones, the re-release and re-expansion of Keith’s hypnotic Wingless Angels project, the earlier releases of the expanded Exile On Main Street and its accompanying documentaryStones In Exile, it all seems to be setting the stage for the massive two-year world trek that even the band is calling their final tour. Thus it is almost an embarrassment of riches that Keith has released his tremendously entertaining autobiography Life and put out a single disc retrospective of his solo career Vintage Vinos that elicits a reassessment of the man and the myth.
Life is so much more than I could have expected. The hoped for tales of excess on the road are all there; and he really hides very little in the way of juicy details. The book opens during the Stones’ ’75 tour of America with him tearing across the country in a rented car with Woody and the ultimate drug-dealer to the stars, Freddie Sessler (there needs to be a book about this guy too), completely ripped on every drug imaginable. They getting popped in small-town Arkansas, and through wile, bravado, and high-as-a-kite luck they talk their way out of it. We learn about both the recklessness and the charmed nature of his existence right off the bat. There is no other rock star - period. Keith is the ultimate! One suspects that he paints himself as a bit more saintly in the last decade or so than might be the truth, but for the most part he pulls no punches. After the ’75 incident, we jump back in time for a long, fascinating and very Anglo look back at his childhood. He seems to have grown up a cross between the Artful Dodger and well, Keith Richards. His post-war, lower class upbringing seems a perfect metaphor for the entire generation who came of age with him. He is a baby-boomer whose life was shaped by the immediate past (WWII) and whose life helped shape the future. The casual way he talks about the birth of Rock and Roll and his part in it just reeks of authenticity. You know he was there, and we now know he was not some drugged up moron. He was a drugged up keen observer of people and places. His take on the events of the times are always thoughtful and earthy. After all the many books written about the era, it is interesting that the Human Riff has some of the most insightful things to say about the times he inhabited.
His insights into the music of The Rolling Stones are also unique. He is impressed with Mick Jagger’s talent, but is clearly not star-struck and again pulls no punches when describing the large ego and small weenie of his 50-year partner. His overall feeling towards Jagger and all the Stones is loving and respectful, and in spite of some playful cattiness we actually get the clearest picture ever of the depth of their creative marriage and their love for each other. It is hard to remember a better book about Rock and Roll than Life, but then it is hard to find a better rock and roller than Keith Richards.
In addition to all the Stones albums you will listen to while reading this book, pick up Vintage Vinos. This superbly chosen set takes songs from all three X-pensive Winos releases; Talk Is Cheap, Main Offender and their Live At The Hollywood Palladium and shows Richards’ solo career to be pretty damn great. Songs like “You Don’ Move Me,” “Eileen,” Wicked As It Seems” and “Locked Away” would fit in perfectly with the Stones repertoire, but others like “Struggle” or “Take It So Hard” have a uniquely Keith feel about them, and the three Stones songs he performs live - “Connection,” “Happy” and “Time Is On My Side” - boast his rough and ready abilities to carry this material. Perhaps the most exciting song on the album is the rarely heard “Hurricane” which was released as a benefit for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Written by the Glimmer Twins, it is just Keith and Woody in the studio playing acoustic guitars and Keith singing the slyly simplistic lyrics about the great tragedy unfolding before his eyes. It is short, very sweet and it alone demands you own the album.

Solar Bear - Captains Of Industry

We had so much content for our upcoming Winter zine, that we had to throw some reviews on our blog. Check out this review and keep an eye out for our upcoming Winter zine in the store!

Solar Bear Captains Of Industry

Solar Bear’s Captains Of Industry is the sound of a band growing up but refusing to go quietly. The foursome specializes in melding post-hardcore ferocity with angular, progressive melodies, usually connected with just a sprinkling of tasty grooves. But on this six-song disc, they seem finally content to let the reins of their hardcore past loosen a bit and give in to the bounce: For every dissonant start-stop arrangement, there are swinging breaks that are downright danceable. The result is that they instantly widen their party tent without losing an ounce of aggro crunch.

The key to maintaining this constant ebb-and-flow between high-energy chaos and devil dance comes from the interplay between Tyler Stoakes’ bouncing bass thump and Marshall Gallagher’s dextrous guitars. Gallagher weaves intricate licks that balance dissonance and uplift; these riffs then seesaw between Stoakes' elastic, earthshaking foundation. Together, they're masters of pacing, and Gallagher knows exactly how to balance his spiky runs atop Stoakes' high-tension wires before both crash together into a ruthless but catchy breakdown. The dearly-departed Kevin Henkelman serves as a solid backbone on the drum kit, pounding out beats that suit both the complexity and subtlety of the group’s writing without trying to hog the spotlight in a band already blessed with virtuosos. To wit: Marcus Tallitsch’s ability to talk-scream like a banshee and overdrive into a razor-sharp wail would make Steve Snere of These Arms Are Snakes proud (or jealous). Solar Bear’s latest does more than solidify their place in Denver’s post-hardcore scene: It makes them noisy captains of the next wave.

-Jeff2

I'd Love to Turn You On #21: John Cale - Paris 1919

Before this all gets completely incoherent, let me say that John Cale's 1973 masterpiece Paris 1919 is a fabulous record that you should own if you love great, classic pop music. And good lyrics. This is one of those rare albums with both rich, thoughtful music and intelligent, thought-provoking words. The arrangements, playing and production are equal to the compositions. It is one of those records that is just special. It's one of those dearly cherished albums that immediately spring to mind when one thinks about these things - desert island discs and so forth. Like Neil Young's Tonight's The Night, Big Star's 3rd or Scott Walker's 4th album, Paris 1919 gives me that magic feeling. I want it to belong to me; it's just special.

In 1967, John Cale was a Welshman in New York, a viola and bass player aggressively exploring the outer limits of noise and minimalism. His sound gave the Velvet  Underground that edge which made them arguably the most influential group of the following decade. And, while for much of his subsequent production and recording career, Cale has maintained a high level of manic abrasiveness, there is little of that to be found on Paris 1919. If this was any other Cale album, our protagonist might be found to be yelling about, oh! the horror of things, but this is 1919 after all; stultified post-colonial grin-and-bear is the "customary thing to say and do." So this time the anger is folded in between cushions of literary references and lush major 7 chords.

I like to see Paris 1919 as a concept album - a narrative that slips in and out of consciousness like a dizzy Bruce Chatwin travelogue with maybe a dash of Proust. We are on a train ride through Europe, after the war. At a time of renewal and hope, just as all this potential was about to be squandered at Versailles (which the title surely refers to), there is a sense of innocence and foreboding. After all, with all that grizzly Grand Guignol slaughter we had just witnessed still fresh in our minds, among the calm of this journey there is a creeping sense of menace. And, perhaps with the roundabout lyrics betraying a hero after too much opium or absinthe, the half-remembered, half-understood lyrics make this one of the most compelling song-cycles of the era.

Paris 1919 opens with a rollicking dream of “A Child's Christmas in Wales” (Dylan Thomas is the first of several quoted men of letters in this revolving novella). It's one of the "rockers" on the LP but that doesn't mean the subtle erudition escapes him. Splendid lines about "murdered oranges" and the whole "cattle graze bolt uprightly, seducing down the door," like everything on this LP continue to bewilder and delight me on every listen. Next up are two master classes in songwriting: “Hanky Panky Nohow” and “The Endless Plain of Fortune” - one of Cale's greatest ever tracks. This stuff is just breathtaking. And then there is “Andulacia,” another stop on the train journey (this time in Spain) and the tenderest love song on the album. Ending side one (or CD part one, if you will), “Macbeth” appears to be another frenzied fever dream, specifically Shakespearean but channeled through a Glam-era bonfire of pounding drums and slide guitar. This is the only track that sounds remotely like the band that is actually on this LP - Little Feat. 

One side two, the quirkily macabre, self-consciously cultivated “Graham Greene” is sandwiched between three of the best, most beguiling songs in the pop canon. Geography is again the main focus for imagery, the itinerary taking in England and France, with daydreams drifting all the way from Norway to Africa, the church and the spoils of war. The great title track is part-jolly, part-terrifying with stunning “Eleanor Rigby”-style strings. With “Half Past France,” Cale airs his feelings of exhaustion and dislocation through the eyes of an Edwardian gentleman, and even manages to get a dig in at Lou Reed. “Antarctica Starts Here” ends the album with Cale assuming a dangerous sotto voce over blissful descending chords. The final line of the album is one the best - "the anaesthetic wearing off...Antarctica starts here."

Paris 1919 is more than just a pop album, it is more like a novel. Or maybe a fine wine.

--Ben

Several Species Of Small Furry Thoughts- Fly Translove Airways

For their second installment of vintage live recordings, Collector’s Choice Live has unearthed four tremendous Jefferson Airplane concerts from four very different and pivotal periods in their career. Kicking off with original singer Signe Anderson’s final performance with the band, the October 15th, 1966 show at The Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco was the biggest surprise to me. I assumed that it would be the least interesting since I know the least about Anderson and there is so little stuff out there about her. Well the show is an emotional powerhouse as the band, the audience and even famously curmudgeon-like promoter Bill Graham all take turns making their feelings known to this singer. The little speech Marty Balin makes saying goodbye and her reaction that she is going to be a mother is a classic bit of 60’s nostalgia not to be missed. The band is tighter than expected and their repertoire is classic ballroom fare. The second release in the series comes the very next night as new singer Grace Slick doesn’t waste a minute in making her presence known. They perform a largely different set that shows Grace unafraid to get her feet wet with new material and comfortable singing with three other male lead singers. It bodes well that over the course of two sets you can hear her become more confident and the band responds by becoming more excited.

The third set skips ahead a month to two shows at the Fillmore that bring us a fully engaged Grace and a band that is really feeling their oats. Two full shows loaded with classics from the first two albums as well as a bonus couple of songs that were played at a late night photo session. The version of “The Other Side Of This Life” from the late session clocks in a almost 10 minutes and presents the Airplane in full flight. The final release is from February 1, 1968 and is a very special show the band was asked to play at the their old stomping grounds The Matrix. The Airplane had become much bigger than The Matrix (a small club) would indicate, but they good-naturedly loaded in to the club they used to own and proceed to tear the place down! The set now boasts material from the third album After Bathing At Baxter’s and even a couple of the not yet released Crown Of Creation songs and the presence of LSD is quite evident in their music as lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen lights up one solo after another with high-octane rocket fuel. The band is now a live musical beast on a par with their contemporaries The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service. The Airplane were always the best songwriters and singers but now their musical muscle is bursting Hulk-like out of their Bruce Banner sized clothes and it is something to hear. All four of these sets are fantastic recordings, and far surpass some of the dicier live Airplane releases of the last few years. The packages are beautifully illustrated with vintage photos of the band and informative liner notes. This is a great series.

What's in the Bin?

One of the sheer joys of being in an indie record store is browsing the bins. Just starting somewhere, flipping through things, pulling out items that catch your eye, giving a few of them a test spin. So in the eighth of a hypothetical series, I've browsed the "New Arrivals" bins here at Twist & Shout, picked out a few things, and gave them a listen. The nature of used record stores being what it is, I can't promise these items will still be in the bin by the time you get here. But hey, browse the bin anyway. You might find something else of worth.

CD - Los Campesinos! - Hold on Now, Youngster...

The first blow across the bow in what's shaping up to be a very prolific band (this one came out in late 2008, and they've already released two follow-ups). They vaguely fit in with the rest of the indie/college crowd circa the late '00s - with song titles like "This Is How You Spell 'Hahaha We Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-Romantics'", how could they not?  But they do have their own sound - it's just hard to pinpoint exactly what sets them apart. There's a vague sense of exuberance to the music here. It sounds like the band is really enjoying recording this album, and that seeps through even when they sing "I was sick in my mouth because of the fear of the scent of an ex-girlfriend/and no more conversations about what Breakfast Character you'd be/I'd be the one that dies (no one dies)." The arrangements are busy but rarely sound cluttered, and the end result sounds "different" without sounding too "out there". If there's a negative, it's that I'm left with an overall impression rather than actual tunes, songs or lyrics running through my head. Oddly, the most memorable bit of the album to me was the extended yelped countdown leading into "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats". That doesn't mean the album's bad by any stretch - it just means I'll have to work harder to remember I have it, and like it, and should play it again.

LP - Max Steiner/LeRoy Holmes - King Kong - Original Motion Picture Score

There are "soundtrack people", who obsessively hunt down, collect, trade, and argue about every single bit of music recorded for film, TV and video games. (A friend of mine does some TV soundtrack work, mainly for children's shows, and even he has semi-obsessive fans.) I certainly don't fall anywhere near this category. Most of the soundtracks I own were purchased due to "having that big hit on there", or having that not-available-elsewhere song by some artist I'm a fan of. But there are a few soundtracks and scores I own that don't fit that category. I don't recall what led me to buy the score (or "tonalities") of Forbidden Planet, but I love that one. And this one might just join it. It's a 1975 rerecording of the original score from the 1933 filmKing Kong. I haven't actually seen King Kong, so I can't speak for how faithful the reproduction is. I'm guessing they took some liberties with the main title, as there's a steady backbeat that vaguely hints at disco, and I can't imagine that being in the original. But the rest sounds appropriately moody, threatening, or pulse-pounding as the situation warrants. I don't need the film (or even to have seen the film previously) to enjoy the cues. And frankly, who couldn't use song titles like "Rescue Team Follows Kong and Meets Brontosaurus" and "And That, Children, Is Why There Is No 6th Avenue 'L' Today" in their library?

45 - Ray Charles Orchestra - "Booty Butt/Sidewinder"

45 buyers going in blind might have run into what I call the "baker's chocolate effect" when first encountering a single by the Ray Charles Singers. They might have simply bought the 45, taken it home and put it on, expecting to hear the blind piano genius (and perhaps the Raettes) yelping out "Love me with all your heart!" in front of a funky groove. And instead, they were treated to prototypical easy-listening fare recorded by Charles Raymond Offenberg that most people couldn't tell apart from Ray Conniff. And it's a bit like when you were five, and you found the baker's chocolate in your parents' pantry, and excitedly unwrapped it and took a bite. For some, the facial expression might even be identical.

Once bitten and twice shy, such a person might immediately circumvent anything by the "Ray Charles Orchestra", or at least approach it with great caution. But approach it one should. The title "Booty Butt" should put everybody at ease that yes, this is the Ray Charles we all know and love. He's just not singing on either track. The flip-side (the Lee Morgan number) actually sounds like the backing track for Ray Charles that he just didn't get around to singing on, but it's upbeat and soulful enough that it's quite enjoyable. But "Booty Butt" really is the star of the show. A slower, slinkier tempo for Ray to pound his piano to, and a great BB King-like guitar line running across. This might not replace "Hit the Road Jack" or "Busted" as your favorite Ray Charles track, but it should definitely help get that taste of baker's chocolate out of your mouth.

- mondo gecko

An interview with Marnie Stern

I called Marnie Stern last week just as she was walking into a coffee shop in New York City. She told me, “I would like for people to think of me as a songwriter instead of just a guitar player because it becomes like a carnival act.”

It’s easy to understand how she might seen as a novelty: a chick wields a double-neck axe and rips out fast and nasty licks. For her new album, though, she focused more on the songwriting as opposed to “hiding behind tricks” like she had on previous releases.

“My tendency is to put a lot of stuff in there,” she told me, explaining her earlier releases densely layered sounds. “These songs have a simpler structure. This album is more straightforward and direct.”

It’s also more personal. “For Ash,” a song that she made available on the Internet before the self-titled album’s release is about an ex-boyfriend who killed himself last year. She’s reluctant to talk about the stories behind these songs. All I could get out of her was “I put a lot of myself into them” and “it was cathartic to write them” and “it’s just personal stuff.” She recently told the Village Voice: “I let it all in, I mean, on the thing, as opposed to being abstract. And I know it's OK, but I feel embarrassed, a little.”

Even the album’s cover, which was painted by her good friend, Brooklyn artist Bella Foster, is steeped in personal narrative.

“It’s a painting of my bedroom,” Stern told me. “Not actually my bedroom. It’s idealized. Lots of little things we’ve talked about together. My dog. Guitars. Stuff like that.”

She told the Voice writer that “she worries that all the recording, writing, interviewing, and touring is just vanity.” I got a sense of that when I talked with her last week. It seemed as though she was reluctant to say anything because she couldn’t quite understand what the point would be if she did.

I might have caught her near bedtime. It was about one in the afternoon; All the articles I read about her said she stays up all night and crashes somewhere around the noon hour.

Plus she was with her band. “They’re sick of hearing me talk about this stuff,” she said.

Which might be a passive-aggressive way of saying the album speaks for itself.

An interview with The Growlers

One second after The Growlers’ http://www.losgrowlers.com/ vocalist Brooks Nielson told me he is “a classic hoarder,” he rattled off a list of stuff he hoards. He spoke too quickly for me keep up, though, so my notes read “old furniture, old machines, piano, surfboards,” which is about a tenth of what he said.

“We’re always digging in dumpsters, so after every tour we come back with a bunch of stuff,” he explained. “We live in a warehouse and every inch is covered.”

We got to talking about this because I wanted to know more about the Costa Mesa, California, band’s sound. They call it “beach goth,” which, to my ears, is as accurate a categorization as you’re going to find. It’s got the Ventures’ twang and driving beat mixed with ghostly vocals and lyrics about death and graves and pale-skinned creepy concerns. They might want to consider adding “cowboy” in there somewhere, because there’s a little “Ghost Riders in the Sky” stirred in. And “low-fi,” too, because their new album, Hot Tropics, has the gritty tinniness of records recorded decades ago for next to no money, the kind you might find while dumpster diving. It’s a sound they get by recording on equipment from the 70s and 80s. The kind of equipment you might find in a dumpster.

“The lack of quality in our equipment adds to our sound,” Nielson says. “With certain bands, when you take away the old gear, they’re not as interesting. It’s the same with us. If you put us in clear digital, it’s not as good. I like it more ghetto. It kind of fills up the sound. It’s not empty. There’s weird scratchy noise in the background.”

Their equipment is always breaking down and that adds to the complexity of their sound, Nielson says. For example, when they made their first album, Greatest Hits, the 4-track they were using broke down midway through. They switched to an older, crappier machine while it was being fixed. When the original, better machine came back from the shop, Nielson says, “It was like, ‘Shit. We shouldn’t have fixed it.’ It was definitely a little different sounding.

“But I didn’t care,” he adds. “I don’t put too much thought into that stuff. If we record on a cell phone or on tape, personally, I don’t care. It’s not that important. Because when does it end?”

When I asked him to name some of the equipment they use, he had to ask their bass player and technology guy, Scott Montoya. Lately it’s been an Ampex MM 1100 8-track http://www.msusurplusstore.com/servlet/Detail?no=2454 and an Otari MNR-100 24-track http://www.blevinsaudioexchange.com/16DAH.html, Montoya said.

“It’s from like the 80s,” Nielson added, a little irritated at having been bothered with such details. “And of course crappy mikes and crappy homemade cables.”

He hates it when they play larger venues with good sound systems, especially the way the drums sound when they’re all miked up. It feels unnatural to him. He wants The Growlers’ music to sound the way it does when they’re playing in their warehouse, where they live in together. They’re housemates, Nielson explains, “so we don’t have to track each other down. It’s our own little world within a world where we can make music and party.”

By this point, ten minutes or so into our conversation, Nielson was getting restless.

“This band talks about music too much,” he said. “I just want to make the song, record it, and move on.

“We’re just making music. This is a weird, stupid business and we’re trying to figure it out so we can one day not be broke.”

--Joe Miller

Bob Dylan- Bootleg Series Volume 9 – The Witmark Demos 1962-1964

Ok, the question at this point has to be: how did this happen? How did this guy come to be? It seems inconceivable that a man in his early 20’s, from an unsophisticated background in a modest Midwest town would turn out to be the genius of the age. Dylan’s place in American history is assured, although it is still evolving. With each new album, book, radio show or movie he bends the light around his image becoming more tantalizing, more smoke-like. This set of demos (songs recorded in a minimal fashion to secure the copyright and use as a calling card to other, more famous, singers) recorded between 1962 and 1964 do indeed show this young man to be a genius. It is just hard to fathom the creative arc this skinny kid embarked upon in the first six years of his career. He goes from a topical folk singer - on a par with his hero Woody Guthrie - to a once-in-a-generation poet using the most elevated language and demonstrating a real understanding of poetic convention and the turn of history in just the two years illustrated on this box (2 CDs or 4 LPs). Early on we are struck by the seemingly wizened experience of the words to songs like “Poor Boy Blues,” “Rambling, Gambling Willie” or “Man On The Street.” Then like some bolt from the blue, “Blowin’In The Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” signal a seismic shift in his songwriting, and he is off to the races. His reputation and career could have stopped right there. Ponder that for a moment. The majority of his storied career could have never happened and his place in history was still assured. That’s how good those songs are. But, as we know, and as this set amply illustrates, this was just the starting gun for Bob Dylan. His winning streak has been so long and so varied and so exhilarating, that going back to the beginning and re-examining those first sparks is instructional.

In addition to the miracle that is the songwriting, one has to marvel at Dylan’s abilities as an instrumentalist and his already developed performance sensibilities. He is self-assured and funny pulling off even the trickiest emotions and tongue twisting phrases like a seasoned pro. One has to imagine that this kid was so smart and paying such close attention to the culture evolving in front of him that he somehow became the tip of the spear. When you see a flock of Geese winging south, somehow that one at the very front of the flock ended up there through some combination of circumstances and genetic predisposition. That’s Dylan. He is so far ahead of the pack you can’t help but just shake your head in wonder. Over the course of the 46 songs on this set, Dylan exceeds expectations again and again, moving from the stately “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” to the mature “Boots Of Spanish Leather” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright." There are humorous side-trips through “Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues” and “I Shall Be Free,” but by the time we arrive at “Mr Tambourine Man” and the incomparable “I’ll Keep It With Mine” all one can do is sit back in awe.

Everything on this set is unreleased. These are different versions than you are used to, conveying the solitary achievement of this one person. Listening to the entire box reinforces the fact that it wasn’t the producers, or the backing musicians, or the other three Beatles - it was Bob. Loaded with gorgeous unreleased photos and a fascinating narrative by journalist Colin Escott that explains, among other things, how Dylan single-handedly destroyed Tin Pan Alley, this might be the most important of Dylan’s Bootleg Series because it so clearly shows the germination of a singular talent that shook the world.

I'd Love to Turn You On #20: The Tickets – The Tickets

I came to discover the little gem of a record that is The Tickets by way of their Brewery label founder, Walter Clevenger. Clevenger and his band the Dairy Kings made some fine Bakersfield inspired pop records in the late 1990s, so by association, I figured his taste as a label head would be in a similar style. I figured right, and have been enjoying the Tickets ever since.
Mainly active in the mid to late 1980s in Southern California, this quartet released but a single, followed by a cassette entitled The Tickets Make a Record in 1990. It is these archive recordings, with a bit of keyboard embellishment from Clevenger, that make up their lone CD release. Lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Bryan Shaddix offers up a treasure trove of charming guitar pop. Like most all power pop, the classic Beatle-y and '60s guitar combo influences are quite easy to spot in the Tickets, but the group's energy and fresh approach scuttle any formulaic negatives. All the tracks boast any number of hooks: fuzzy guitars, roaming bass, nimble drum fills, and choruses buoyed by the band's vocal harmonies. Not all is sunshine and light; the song "Dream About Me" displays a haunting, Searchers like melancholy, while "I Don't Belong" is pretty lyrically downbeat, portraying the singer as a ragged outsider.
Several of Shaddix's songs are in the vein of character sketches, no doubt owing not a little to the likes of Nick Lowe or Squeeze. Indeed, like Lowe in his days with Rockpile, the Tickets favor a touch of rockabilly in their tunes. "Way Down Here" is a definite twangy stand out, the kind of thing the Beat Farmers also reveled in during their time. Reference points aside, the Tickets' originality does shine through. Particularly, Shaddix's nicely weathered voice adds a new dimension to the usual boy-girl lyrical concerns. "Heartland" is another showcase song on the album. Sporting a great jangly riff, Shaddix pulls off the rare achievement of penning an earnest, metaphor based love song without succumbing to dreaded sentimentality.
Power pop like The Tickets, and the kind of bands that craft them are important to the landscape of rock n roll. As with other kinds of genre music - trad folk, prog rock, singer songwriter - new bands making a fresh, personal take on familiar styles renews long-established legacies. The future is brightened. Certainly do not pick up The Tickets looking for a tortured confessional, nor any avant-garde fireworks. But certainly do indulge if you like well crafted rockin' poppin' songs that convey a basic, enthusiastic joy. And while you’re at it, check out the 2010 releases by the Posies, Hoodoo Gurus, Teenage Fanclub, Tommy Keene... and the Apple label reissues from the late, great Badfinger.


-Brian

Several Species Of Small Furry Thoughts-STONED

Finally, the most compelling evidence of The Rolling Stones as greatest band in the world is here. The 1972 concert film Ladies and Gentlemen... The Rolling Stones has never officially been released for home video and now it is out, in all its glory. This is it. If you love The Stones, there is no greater footage of this band in concert. I took home the Blu-Ray version and waited breathlessly as the band takes the stage and breaks into “Brown Sugar.” Not only is the song list exactly to my taste - heavy on Exile and Sticky songs, one can’t help but be mesmerized by the real miracle of this era of Rolling Stones - Mick Taylor! Again and again throughout this program Taylor absolutely floors you with his perfect guitar solos. His ability to lock into Keith’s groove and then go high above it with perfect, wailing cascades of notes is chilling. Speaking of Keef - he could not look or act cooler than he does in this movie. He is Rock perfection. Which is not to take anything away from the other Mick, whose performance is propelled by his manic, druggy charisma more than the cultivated dance steps and audience manipulation of his modern performances. It should be a humbling reminder for any other band to watch this footage of how great the Stones really are, and any guitar player who thinks he is hot shit should take a moment to review Taylor’s leads on “Gimme Shelter,” “Love In Vain” or “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” before slinking back to their hole to practice for another thousand years. The picture and sound are cleaned up beautifully and the release also includes some interviews and three songs from a tour rehearsal that show the band in uber-hipster mode. It is hard to convey how great this footage is - all I can say is "this is it!"! 

Want more Keef? There has just been a release of his rarely heard reggae group called The Wingless Angels. Originally released in 1997, this album of chants and drum circles featuring Keith on guitar, bass, organ and vocals on every song. It is real roots reggae. This is not a bunch of goodtiming hits - it is a deep meditation of like-minded dreads and their patron from Babylon. It says much about Keith that this group of Rasta elders and experienced musicians let him into their circle, but they did, and they trusted him enough to play with them and record the results. This release expands the original album with a second disc of sessions that is as good if not better than the original. This is healing music for deep smoking and meditation. If you are ready for it; it can be a healing and uplifting experience, and it is an essential part of the Keith Richards mystery and mystique.