Did Y'all Hear That?

Tim Carr - The Shadows (Electro Pop, 2011)

2012-02-18T06:51:00.002-08:00

Tim Carr's music has been called "dark dance," "art pop," "an unapologetic adventure mix" and "theatrical pop," crossing through many genres and pulling from a wide variety of inspiration. His focus on the intersection between rhythm, melody and harmony results in a unique dancy sound.
Tim Carr was born and raised in Philadelphia, where as a child he frequently woke up in bed singing. He began training as a singer during his adolescence, and got his chops playing in high school musicals. Following his bliss, Tim moved to L.A where he studied the piano and musical theory and began writing his own music. His early work caught the attention of LA musicians and producers. During this time, his songs were featured on several prime-time television shows (Men In Trees, Without A Trace).
Tim continued to follow his own sound north to San Francisco where he began to produce his own music, his own way. Tim believes that the heart of music-making is to present to the world the purity of the musician's own vision, and never contort it for the sake of making it comfortable or familiar. He has found his artistic home in San Francisco, a city that inspires and encourages personal expression.
In 2009, Tim released his first self-produced album, The Tim Carr Project, which was recorded at Studio SQ with engineer Chris Crawford (French Miami) as his right-hand-man. He oversaw production of two music videos for songs from The Tim Carr Project - Caved In (animated and directed by Micah Ritche) and Shake Your Caboose (photographed by Hanr, the nah Cairns).
Tim's new album, The Shadows, marks his second collaboration with Chris Crawford in an LP where the rhythm section takes control. However, the ever-present pop-hook holds a tight grip on the listener's ear leaving him humming the stylish tunes over and over again. The songs are incredibly catchy and underlying them are luxurious synthesizer melodies that create a highly danceable sound both uplifting and wistful at the same time. A true unashamedly pop record, one you should definitely check out while waiting on Tim Carr's restlessly preparation for his third self-produced LP this year.

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Chemical Distance - This Program Is Not Responding ( Electronic Rock, 2011)

2012-02-17T04:52:00.000-08:00

Over the course of 2009, Otto Kinzel decided to strike out on his own to record his very first solo album, The Pain and the Progress. As Otto was enjoying the freedom and liberation of his new solo project, a funny thing happened: His new solo project turned into a band called Chemical Distance.
It wasn't supposed to happen. Otto had recorded a set of industrial tracks, handling much of the playing himself, but also working with a variety of contributors serving as studio musicians. When it came time to play the songs live, Otto began to assemble his "live band," which was intended to be an amorphous collection of musicians who would assist Otto in various configurations at shows. An inaugural show was booked at City Hall Plaza in Manchester, NH where Otto played guitar and sang, flanked by vocalist Michael Hauptly-Pierce, and bassist Matt Connarton. The live chemistry between the three was so strong that Otto felt compelled to shift gears and make it a band. And thus, Chemical Distance was born
The band released their debut LP entitled "The Pain and The Progress" in 2010 and now this follow up EP. In comparison to Otto's past projects, it manifests a much richer sound and proves that three minds are better than one. True be told, Otto's past work was an experimental concept album whose theme you don't expect to see every day. But now, this EP is evident of how good team work can increase positivity, performance and productivity. The vibes are still heavy but the sounds swaps from imaginative tempo changes to aptly backing vocals. Almost every sound imaginable is present; heavy distortion, electronic, breaks, smoked fat basslines. Also, the meticulous lyrics on this one are of special note. All in all, this is a well-crafted record of apparent skilfulness and authenticity; which makes it difficult to surpass but leaves me eager waiting on it.

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El Ritual - El Ritual (Psychedelic Rock, 1971)

2012-02-17T04:05:00.001-08:00

El Ritual were a short-lived but important early 70's Heavy Psych band, praised by audiophiles as the best Mexican Rock band in the world.

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La Revolucion De Emiliano Zapata - La Revolucion De Emiliano Zapata (Psychedelic Rock, 1971)

2012-02-17T03:57:00.001-08:00

Outstanding fuzzed/psychedelic record named after Mexico's legendary revolutionary guerrilla. Although the band stills exists and performs easy-listening ballads, it is this amazing LP that gets the praise by Heavy Psychedelia freaks worldwide.

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Paul Kossoff - Back Street Crawler (Blues Rock, 1973)

2012-02-17T03:44:00.000-08:00

"Clapton came up to me and asked "How the hell do you do that?" talking about my vibrato. "And I said, "You must be joking!"

Free were most noted for "All Right Now" a song that gained the group headlining status and a slot at the prestigious 1970 Isle of Wight festival, also featuring Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, and Sly and The Family Stone, among others. It also marked the bands' demise as the chart success got them pressure to stay on top, along with increased touring and stress. As a result, the band broke up in 1971. However, because the split didn’t seem to be doing anyone, especially Kossoff, any good, the group decided to get back together in early 1972. After a few gigs to dust off the older tunes, Free hit the studios to try to recapture their place in modern rock. In addition to his Les Pauls, and influenced by Hendrix’s passing, Koss’s studio setup now included a 1957 white Fender Stratocaster that he played through two full Marshall stacks! These sessions would ultimately produce the “Free At Last” album, which contained several strong tunes including “Catch a Train” and the hit “Little Bit of Love.” At the same time, Koss started recording tunes for an upcoming solo album eventually released under the title “Back Street Crawler,” featuring Yes drummer Alan White, among others. One of the stand-out tracks recorded at these sessions is a guitar duet with British songwriter John Martyn called “Time Away,” which was actually a jam clocking in at close to twenty minutes. “Time Away” featured Koss playing his Strat through a Marshall-powered Leslie cabinet for a very liquid, ethereal sound. Eventually, only the last few sections of “Time Away” would be used for the “Back Street Crawler” album, which is a fine example of loose, blues-based rock jamming.
Unfortunately, Koss’s drug problems were starting to impact his reliability, and on Free’s 1972 U.S. tour, his inability to make gigs combined with earlier personality clashes resulted in Andy Fraser leaving the group permanently. Back home in England at Island Studios, the group began work on what would become their swan song, the aptly titled “Heartbreaker” album. Joining the band for “Heartbreaker” were Tetsu on bass and Rabbit on keyboards from Kossoff’s splinter group. By all accounts the sessions were strained, and because of Koss’s problems, his contribution was minimal. The resulting album is the sound of a band going through a lot of pain. In the title track, Paul Rodgers sings “I’m wasting my whole life trying to make a brand new start” and you get the feeling he really means it. “Wishing Well” is another song about struggle, played uptempo with a sense of urgency. To fill in for the ailing Koss, Rodgers and Snuffy Walden both contributed guitar work, and the album was completed and released. “Heartbreaker” was supported with another U.S. tour, which didn’t even include the ailing Kossoff, who was replaced by Wendell Richardson of the group Osibisa. Following the return trip home, Free disbanded for the last time.
After Free, Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke went on to great success with Bad Company. Andy Fraser played with several less successful acts before scoring an MTV hit in 1984 with “Fine, Fine Line.” And Paul Kossoff formed a group named after his solo album “Back Street Crawler,” and recorded “The Band Plays On.” Although the album was a decent effort, Kossoff never again enjoyed the level of success he first achieved with Free, and the drugs continued to take their toll on his playing and his health. In 1975, while in a London rehab, Koss’s heart stopped functioning for thirty minutes before he was revived. Sessions for Back Street Crawler’s followup album, “Second Street,” began in Los Angeles in early 1976, but Koss’s health continued to deteriorate. Tragically, on March 19th, 1976, Paul Kossoff died on a flight bound for New York from Los Angeles. He was 25 years old.

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Phil Jones - Phil Jones Songs (Rock, 2012)

2012-02-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

"As soon as it gets too serious or we push too hard, things dont work out..."

Hidden deep in one of Americas most beautiful islands, Kauai, Phil Jones and his band have been crafting a remarkably enlightening blend of world infused electro-rock.
Phil is a native Californian with a background in music that dates to an early childhood spent singing and playing guitar for various bands such as The Mad Tea Party of Hermosa Beach. Now he writes a different kind of song, imbued with the spiritual maturity only years of travel and self-reflection could inspire. His music promotes positive change, love, religious tolerance, racial equality, peace and personal evolution. Phil's ultimate goal is to change the world into a better place, and he sees no better tool for this purpose than the power of song.
The mellow grooves of Phil's music and the peaceful yearning for a better world expressed by his lyrics are reminiscent of Jack Johnson, while his deep, gritty voice and penetrating wisdom evoke the work of Leonard Cohen. There is also a laid-back mood in his songs that reminds me of J.J Cale, whereas the vocal delivery has a strong resemblance with Chris Rea. Moreover, songs like "Are You Aligned" demonstrate a social uneasiness that proves he has a restless spirit. In their Moby-esque, electronic-tinged acoustic prowl and mystical whimsy songs like "The Perfect Wave" and "The Golden Race" suggest a 21st century equivalent of Mr. Cohens seminal album, "The Future". But such comparisons only gives a small hint at the dynamic sound on Raise Up, Phil Jones' forthcoming LP. For now, here's a small sample of his fine work.

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The Open Mind - The Open Mind (Heavy Psych, 1969)

2012-02-14T11:34:00.000-08:00

"We never would have thought that anyone would still be listening to us now (don't know if anyone ever listened to us then). I did hear us once on the radio, completely by accident and couldn't believe my ears. Since then I've spoken to some people who have actually heard of us!"

The Open Mind were a British Freakbeat/Psych band from London, considered by many as the definitive proto-metal pioneers in the UK. Jon Anderson briefly sang in the band but left before the recordings to form Yes. Fans of heavy psychedelia will fall in love with this gem!

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The Congos - Strength To Strength 7" (Dub, 2011)

2012-02-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

"Yeah, yeah. It was a vibes thing..."

Strength To Strength is the second single release from Congos on The Ariwa Label. The first being "Some Are Having Fun". Cedric Mytons sweet falsetto cuts through on the Militant steppers riddim (produced by Mad Professor) singing about the struggles and tribulation of the working class people dealing with recession.

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Clip Of The Week

2012-02-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

Matt Green & D-Formed - Base Corrupt #8 (Dubstep, 2009)

2012-02-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

"Its an odd one with Dubstep, the style I originally liked almost doesnt exist anymore, crazy how the scene exploded and to be honest, became so gheigh at times. Love deep, depressing down tempo shit to balance out the Core shit, dont connect the two and maybe this is a problem..."

This amazing EP features three fierce and forceful dubstep rave joints from Matt Green and D-Formed that will satisfy every conscious Dubhead. Essential stuff!

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Dreadzone – Second Light (Electronic/ Dub, 1995)

2012-02-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

"A love of music and exploration, trying to fly the flag for innovation, through DJ stuff live shows and working on new ideas, its what I make a living from so I must keep the flow going. If you have ideas its easy to be motivated..."

Dreadzone formed in 1993 when ex-Big Audio Dynamite drummer, Greg Roberts, teamed up with Tim Bran. Greg had decided to work up some new ideas and he did so with a certain agenda. With choice elements from his previous groups fused with the energy of the growing house/techno scene in the UK he linked up with Tim to shape a new sound. The name Dreadzone was suggested to Roberts and Bran by Don Letts, the dreadlocked B.A.D. filmmaker. Bran and Roberts were soon joined by bassist Leo Williams and keyboardist Dan Donovan, also formerly of Big Audio Dynamite. The band signed to Creation Records in 1993 and released their first album 360°. The following year the band signed to Virgin Records and released their second studio album Second Light which got much airplay from John Peel and soon became a cult favourite.
This is a truly special album, a beautifully uplifting journey of a rich timeless quality. It seems to fit those special moments in life and feels like it was made for listening to when out amongst nature. Whether you are at home alone, travelling to a strange new land or sitting round a campfire at dawn with your friends this is a perfect album for any occasion. Go to some magic places in your body and mind and turn it up loud!

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Common - Like Water for Chocolate (Hip-Hop, 2000)

2012-02-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

"I just wanna innovate and stimulate minds, Travel the world and penetrate the tides, Escape through rhythms in search of peace and wisdom..."

This incredible track is a homage to Black Panther activist Assata Shakur, 2Pac's step-aunt.

It is often said that you can judge someone by the company that they keep. If this is the case then one look at the albums credits will convince you that Common is an artist held in the highest esteem. Indeed, the album’s production is almost entirely handled by a new collective known as "The Soulquarians" a.k.a. Jay Dee (A Tribe Called Quest, Slum Village, Q-Tip, De La Soul & the Pharcyde) D’Angelo, ?love (of The Roots), The Roots themselves, and James Poyser (Eric Benet, D’Angelo, The Roots, Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu). The one time that they are not in control is when the legendary DJ Premier provides Common with the magnificent lead single “The 6th Sense.”
So what about the album then? Well, from the moment we hear the somewhat abstract opener “Time Travelin’” right up until we once again greet Common’s father for his customary conclusion “Pops Rap,” the quality on this set never falters. Highlights include the funky “Heat,” the battle rhyme of “Dooinit,” the ‘70s retro feel of “A Film Called (Pimp),” the laid-back groove of “Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For The World)” and the rolling piano of “Thelonius.” Elsewhere, D’Angelo borrows a vocal hook from The Family Stand as he provides the chorus for the exceptional “Geto Heaven Part Two,” whilst the spiritual tones of Cee-Lo permeate the organ, Rhodes, and string drenched six minute epic “A Song For Assata.”
Mindful of retaining ones roots in the face of commercial success, Common, much like The Roots before him, is on a mission to achieve greater exposure so as to bring real hip-hop artistry to a market firmly in the grip of the sample-laden, commercially motivated, "Jiggy Thug" era.

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Link Wray - Rumble: The Best Of Link Wray (Classic Rock, 1993)

2012-02-11T06:59:00.001-08:00

"The speakers are rattling because they can't take that heavy playin', they're small, and I'm playin' really hard, see?"

Link Wray's 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble," was pivotal in the invention of the power chord and the basis of modern rock guitar-playing from thrash to heavy metal. It heavily influenced guitarists such as Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, etc.

It seems unlikely that you could draw a straight line between the roaring, shredded power chords wrenched out of the ’53 Les Paul wielded by a Korean War vet in 1958 to Steve Jones’ "punk" rock riffs with the Sex Pistols on his Les Paul nearly two decades later. But Fred Lincoln Wray, a half Shawnee Indian born dirt poor in rural North Carolina, changed rock guitar forever with his ’58 instrumental hit "Rumble." Even the leather jackets adopted by bands like the Pistols and the Heartbreakers were a throwback to Link Wray, the other Man in Black, as were the riffs and power chords he pummeled into existence with the Wraymen, which included his brothers Vernon and Doug.
Wray was an inadvertent rock and roller from the very beginning. He went after the nastiest sound possible from his Les Paul, run through a screaming Premier amp with cranked tremolo and some well-placed pencil jabs to the speaker. Largely self-taught, he picked up a guitar when he returned home from the Korean War. Relocated to the DC area (Portsmouth, Virginia), Wray and his brothers first tried their hand on the country circuit but found their sound with “Rumble” and never looked back. Wray humbly explained later that he lacked the chops to copy his heroes of the day (Les Paul, Chet Atkins) and was forced to invent his power chord style. He wrote riff-heavy rock songs rather than pretty tunes you could sing along to. Songs you could feel under your ribs. He never considered himself a strong vocalist, having lost one lung to tuberculosis contracted during his stint in the service, but his growled, snarling vocals sound timeless today, long outliving the saccharine crooning of his chart contemporaries.
The still brutal, menacing “Rumble” was one of those songs plucked from the ether, an improvised instrumental they called “Oddball,” created when an influential DJ hosting the sock hop the Wraymen were playing asked Link to perform “The Stroll” by the Diamonds, which they didn’t know. Link made up the riff and Vernon and Doug fell in right behind him with a pounding, primitive stomp. They cut the song soon after. Re-christened "Rumble" (West Side Story had debuted on Broadway in ’57), Cadence Records put out the track and credited it to "Link Wray and the Wraymen." The song, which sold four million copies, was seen as a juvenile delinquent call to arms and was banned on some radio stations, despite the fact that it was an instrumental. It also created a rumble heard across the ocean in England (Pete Townshend declared "He is the King; if it hadn’t been for "Rumble," I would have never picked up a guitar"), in northern Minnesota (Dylan saw Wray in 1958), in Winnipeg (Neil Young), and elsewhere. It was a call to all coming-of-age youngsters who heard something dangerous in Wray’s guitar tone and were inspired to get a guitar and turn up. More than half of a century later, boys and girls still nod their heads knowing something's going on with this gem.

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Bobby McFerrin - Simple Pleasures (Vocal, 1988)

2012-02-11T06:42:00.000-08:00

"I did a lot of research on voice and sang backing vocals in some groups but I would say it was a six year process all told before I finally got up on stage to perform solo with just myself and my voice..."

Bobby McFerrin's vocal rendition of Cream's classic "Sunshine of your Love" is astonishing. After 02:14 you can hear a wonderful imitation of Clapton's wah-wah pedal.

Bobby McFerrin's four octave range, use of vocal percussion (simulating drums, for example, while singing), and the ability to sing three notes simultaneously (a talent he developed after studying Tibetan monks and their common practice of this style of singing) set him apart from other vocalists. There's more to it than the mega-hit "Don't worry, Be Happy", in fact this LP is a true pioneering musical endevor. His incredible ability to hold melody and rhythm with one voice is unique and endearing. Nevermind the cheesy cover, this is a must-have!

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Noam Chomsky - "10 strategies of manipulation" by the media

2012-02-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

Renowned critic and MIT linguist Noam Chomsky, one of the classic voices of intellectual dissent in the last decade, has compiled a list of the ten most common and effective strategies resorted to by the agendas “hidden” to establish a manipulation of the population through the media. Historically the media have proven highly efficient to mold public opinion. Thanks to the media paraphernalia and propaganda, have been created or destroyed social movements, justified wars, tempered financial crisis, spurred on some other ideological currents, and even given the phenomenon of media as producers of reality within the collective psyche. But how to detect the most common strategies for understanding these psychosocial tools which, surely, we participate? Fortunately Chomsky has been given the task of synthesizing and expose these practices, some more obvious and more sophisticated, but apparently all equally effective and, from a certain point of view, demeaning. Encourage stupidity, promote a sense of guilt, promote distraction, or construct artificial problems and then magically, solve them, are just some of these tactics.

1. The strategy of distraction – The primary element of social control is the strategy of distraction which is to divert public attention from important issues and changes determined by the political and economic elites, by the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information. distraction strategy is also essential to prevent the public interest in the essential knowledge in the area of the science, economics, psychology, neurobiology and cybernetics. “Maintaining public attention diverted away from the real social problems, captivated by matters of no real importance. Keep the public busy, busy, busy, no time to think, back to farm and other animals (Quote from "Silent Weapons for Quiet War")

2. Create problems, then offer solutions – This method is also called problem -reaction- solution. “It creates a problem, a “situation” referred to cause some reaction in the audience, so this is the principal of the steps that you want to accept. For example: let it unfold and intensify urban violence, or arrange for bloody attacks in order that the public is the applicant ‟s security laws and policies to the detriment of freedom. Or: create an economic crisis to accept as a necessary evil retreat of social rights and the dismantling of public services.

3. The gradual strategy - [of] acceptance to an unacceptable degree, just apply it gradually [...] for consecutive years. That is how they radically new socioeconomic conditions ( neoliberalism ) were imposed during the 1980s and 1990s: the minimal state, privatization, precariousness, flexibility, massive unemployment, wages, and do not guarantee a decent income, so many changes that have brought about a revolution if they had been applied once.

4. The strategy of deferring – Another way to accept an unpopular decision is to present it as “painful and necessary”, gaining public acceptance, at the time for future application. It is easier to accept that a future sacrifice of immediate slaughter. First, because the effort is not used immediately. Then, because the public, masses, is always the tendency to expect naively that “everything will be better tomorrow” and that the sacrifice required may be avoided. This gives the public more time to get used to the idea of change and accept it with resignation when the time comes.

5. Go to the public as a little child – Most of the advertising to the general public uses speech, argument, people and particularly children ‟s intonation, often close to the weakness, as if the viewer were a little child or a mentally deficient. The harder one tries to deceive the viewer look, the more it tends to adopt a tone infantilising. Why? “If one goes to a person as if she had the age of 12 years or less, then, because of suggestion, she tends with a certain probability that a response or reaction also devoid of a critical sense as a person 12 years or younger. [See "Silent Weapons for Quiet War" (lawfulpath.com).]

6. Use the emotional side more than the reflection – Making use of the emotional aspect is a classic technique for causing a short circuit on rational analysis , and finally to the critical sense of the individual. Furthermore, the use of emotional register to open the door to the unconscious for implantation or grafting ideas , desires, fears and anxieties , compulsions, or induce behaviors …

7. Keep the public in ignorance and mediocrity – Making the public incapable of understanding the technologies and methods used to control and enslavement. “The quality of education given to the lower social classes must be the poor and mediocre as possible so that the gap of ignorance it plans among the lower classes and upper classes is and remains impossible to attain for the lower classes.

8. To encourage the public to be complacent with mediocrity – Promote the public to believe that the fact is fashionable to be stupid, vulgar and uneducated…

9. Self-blame Strengthen – To let individual blame for their misfortune, because of the failure of their intelligence, their abilities, or their efforts. So, instead of rebelling against the economic system, the individual autodesvalida and guilt, which creates a depression, one of whose effects is to inhibit its action. And, without action, there is no revolution!

10. Getting to know the individuals better than they know themselves – Over the past 50 years, advances of accelerated science has generated a growing gap between public knowledge and those owned and operated by dominant elites. Thanks to biology, neurobiology and applied psychology, the “system” has enjoyed a sophisticated understanding of human beings, both physically and psychologically. The system has gotten better acquainted with the common man more than he knows himself. This means that, in most cases, the system exerts greater control and great power over individuals, greater than that of individuals about themselves.

Melvins/Mudhoney - Symptom of the Universe Split 7"

2012-02-09T04:57:00.000-08:00

"Oh man is it heavy. It's heavier than shit!"

Incredible Melvins/ Mudhoney split 7". The Melvins cover Black Sabbath's "Symptom of the Universe" and Mudhoney the Dicks' "Hate The Police". A cult classic that brings back so many memories. I was finally able to retrieve it via the Classic Rock forums.
Two different versions of this item surfaced so far. The first one, limited to 100 copies only, is probably one of the weirders bootlegs ever put together. The record is packaged in a manilla envelope, with thick papers glued on either side: one side lists the bands and tracks, and has a scribbled picture of a man with a knife, saying "I have a knife!", and the other has a face that looks a bit like the Incredible Hulk, yelling "I'll kill you" at a little boy (who also appears to be yelling). Inside the envelope is a Japanese porno magazine and the 7" record. The picture sleeve of the record itself is black and white and makes the "I like the sprite in you" cover look tame, showing some very dirty shots involving dogs and other nasty stuff. Every copy is hand numbered with a blue pen.
The other version is limited to 500 copies, hand numbered with a red pen; some copies (probably the first 250) come in a white picture sleeve, with classic promo band snapshots on each side, while the others have a pink sleeve featuring a photo of a heavily tattooed naked man with tits.
The record, same for all versions, is on black vinyl with yellow labels: on one side there is a vampire face with mouth open, while the other has a drawing of a wimpy guy standing over the prostrate body of someone who might look a bit like Saddam Hussein. In bold letters it says: "Make'em bleed and suffer...", and below the drawing, "For their crimes! Even a 110-pound wimp could put down a Zulu chief with the Urban Skinner. Just think what a strong well-coordinated person like you could do. Skinner in your fist you could make a crowd of hugger/mugger/pimpo thieves look like they've been through a Bologna slicer!".

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10 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time

2012-02-08T15:13:00.000-08:00

10 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time (in terms of influence, tone, technique and overall artistic delivery)

10. Andrew Latimer

A founding member and the driving force behind the cult Progressive Rock act Camel; one that has guided them through the highs and lows of musical tastes, trends and fashions. He is also a flautist, a keyboardist and one of the most emotional guitar players ever, with a highly distinguished tone.

Recommended Listening:

9. Paul Kossoff

Sadly, Paul Kossoff's solos for British hard-rock pioneers Free are better-known than his name, but he is admired by fellow guitarists for the economy of his lines and the purity of his tone. He was a major Hendrix fan yet bought his first guitar after a Clapton gig. The man was Heavy before Heavy even had a definition.

Recommended Listening:

8. Tom Morello

Few rock guitarists in the 1990s were as groundbreaking as Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, who incorporated a myriad of different styles into his own playing. Morello's style includes monstrous control of his instrument. Counter to the hundreds of posers that tried to copy his style, the dude can really shred.

Recommended Listening:

7. Stevie Ray Vaughan

With the blinding stratocaster fireworks on his debut album, Texas Flood, in 1983, SRV kicked off a blues-rock renaissance when the music needed one most. This was the start of Stevie's international stardom and constant worldwide touring that soon made him a worldwide superstar until his tragic death on August 27, 1990 in a helicopter crash, at age 35. His unique and dynamic style continue to increase his posthumous reputation even to this day.

Recommended Listening:

6. Rory Gallagher

In 1957, a little boy from Cork saw Elvis on the TV and went crazy on buying a guitar. He began his musical career in the showband era but soon founded the rock band Taste. After leaving the band, Rory Gallagher recorded his first solo album in 1971. He was one of the world’s greatest guitarists, singer/songwriters and live showmen; A people's guitarist, modest, truthful, down-to-earth, never compromising his vision, never selling out. Probably too shy for his own good, definitively too good for this world.

Recommended Listening:

5. Peter Green

During the Golden UK Blues era this man (backed by some incredibly talented musicians) outsold The Beatles, inspired Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" and wrote some of the most sweet, fragile and beautiful music I ever got the chance of hearing. Once he was Britain's most progressive blues guitarist, with a Chicago-informed aggression that distinguished his playing from miles away, yet his modesty and child-like kindness deprived him of many accommodations. (Even the name Fleetwood Mac came after combining Mick Fleetwood's and John McVie's surnames). Later on, he experimented a lot with LSD and underwent electro shock therapy in a London clinic, resulting to him needing the tabs for his own songs in order to play. However, in 1979 with the help of his friends, his confidence was bolstered and his natural creative instincts started to flourish with "In The Skies". To this day, he continues to make music.

Recommended Listening:

4. Jeff Beck

If this list was strictly about the technique, Jeff Beck would be No.1. He has shown an incredible ability to change with the times and create a more modern sound - unlike many fellow artists who begin to sound dated over time. Even in the Yardbirds, he had a tone that was melodic but in-your-face - bright, urgent and edgy, but sweet at the same time. You could tell he was a serious player, and he was going for it. He also has one of the most sweet and precise tones that will give you the goose-bumps. A true genius, hands down.

Recommended Listening:

3. Eric Clapton

It first appeared in 1965, written on the walls of the London subway: "Clapton is God!" Eric Patrick Clapton, of Ripley, England - fresh out of his first major band, the Yardbirds, and recently inducted into John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - had just turned 20 and been playing guitar only since he was 15. But Clapton was already soloing with the improvisational nerve that has dazzled fans and peers for more than 40 years. Cream turned the world upside down and helped shape Hard Rock music worldwide, the "Beano" album is still praised by guitarists worldwide as the definite guitar masterpiece that has influenced generations of subsequent players, "Layla" is one of the most popular and emotional Rock songs ever written, and even know his solos and flourishes still pack the power that made him "God" in the first place.

Recommended Listening:

2. Jimmy Page

In the 1970s, there was no bigger rock group in the world than Led Zeppelin and no greater god on six strings than Zeppelin's founder-captain Jimmy Page. Getting his start in college as a session player, Jimmy Page wanted to be able to strike out on his own and write his own original music. Initially playing electric bass, Page began playing with the Yardbirds in 1964. However, after some internal strife, and key personnel leaving the band, Page was asked to reform the band leading to the eventual supergroup; Led Zeppelin. It was with Led Zepp that he demonstrated not only his virtuosity but his incredible song-writing skills as well. With a tremendous sound to his guitar, which was more raw, and edgier than anything being played at the time, he displayed some of the most important and influential albums of all time. Thank God, this man had no limits.

Recommended Listening:

1. Jimi Hendrix

Learning to play guitar by himself as a teenager, Hendrix grew up to become a rock guitar legend. He created his first band as a soldier in the United States Army in 1962 but then was discharged due to an injury.
After leaving the military, Hendrix pursued his music, working as a session musician and playing backup for such performers as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and the Isley Brothers. He also formed a group of his own called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, which played gigs around New York City's Greenwich Village neighbourhood. In mid-1966, Hendrix met Chas Chandler, a former member of the Animals who convinced him to go to London where he joined forces with musicians Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell to create The Jimi Hendrix Experience. While there, Hendrix built up quite a following among England's rock royalty. Members of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Eric Clapton were all great admirers of Hendrix's work. When "Hey Joe" was released in 1967, the "psychedelic rival" Eric Clapton admits buying a copy without even owning a record player to hear it. Soon enough, "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cried Mary" became major hits. Hendrix delighted audiences with his outrageous guitar-playing skills and his innovative, experimental sound. In June 1967, he lit his guitar on fire and 2 years later he performed at the Woodstock Festival. His rock rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" amazed the crowds and demonstrated his considerable talents as a musician. He was also an accomplished songwriter and musical experimenter. Hendrix even had his own recording studio in which he could work with different performers and try out new songs and sounds. Unfortunately he died on September 18th, 1970, at age 27 from drug-related complications, leaving his mark on the world of rock music and remaining popular to this day. Literally millions of guitars have been sold because of this man walking the stage and doing his thing, making him the most influential guitar of all time; God's true gift to all music lovers worldwide.

Recommended Listening:

Clip Of The Week

2012-02-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

Dust - Dust (Hard Rock, 1971)

2012-02-08T02:06:00.000-08:00

"Dust did a lot of heavy stuff, some experimental, covers of Stones, The Who, a lot of English rock..."

In the years before British innovators turned the heavy music of the sixties into the "heavy metal" of the seventies and eighties, three skinny Americans in black leather jackets found themselves faced with a momentous choice: to go with the menacing riffs and folk pastorals of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, the progressive sounds of Jethro Tull and King Crimson, the raucous psychedelic way of American acts like Spirit and Iron Butterfly, or even the roots-revival road favored by Mountain.
The year was 1971 and the band was Dust, a three-piece from New York made up of singer/guitarist Richie Wise, bassist/steel guitarist Kenny Aaronson and one Marc Bell on drums. Those names don't mean much to most of us, but all three came to play notable roles in the history of American Rock. Wise eventually went on to an illustrious producing career, beginning with the first two Kiss albums in '74. Aaronson joined Stories in '73 following the departure of its founder, Michael Browne, then embarked on a career as a successful session artist. And finally, Marc Bell left Dust in 1977 to join Richard Hell and the Voidoids for the recording of Blank Generation, then a year later changed his name to Marky Ramone and permanently took up sticks for the Ramones.
The album was a self-titled debut released by Kama Sutra, Neil Bogart's predecessor to the notorious Casablanca label (whose coffers would do more than their fair share to fan the rock debauchery of the seventies), and home to such Top 40 pop acts as Stories and The Lovin' Spoonful. At first glance, Dust and its labelmates seem like strange bedfellows; after all, what does a proto-metal band with a progressive bent have to do with a bunch of radio-friendly flower children and the guys who wrote "Brother Louie"? For one thing, production partners Wise and Kerner went on to produce Stories' third record in 1974, an album of almost slap-happy marketing potential. Also, heavy sounds were starting to gain an audience at the time, and Dust's debut certainly reflects some commercial ambition, if not real commercial success, with its stoner rock packaging (the inner sleeve is an image of a camel flanked by three very scruffy looking dudes), token metal fixations on death and betrayal, and overall darkly-inspired sound.
Dust's A-side is a veritable document of the band's progression from blues-influenced roots-rockers, much in the vein of Spirit or Mountain (only more stoned) to proto-Kiss riff-monsters. "Stone Woman" kicks things off in high fashion with a whistle, some really fluid slide-guitar and the insistent clatter of a cowbell. Things pretty much continue in this gutbucket way for the next two tracks, occasionally stopping to contribute to the era's Zeitgeist fascination with "gypsies", "mamas" and "chasin' ladies". It's really on the side's last track that Dust start to come into their own. Taut, rhythmically inventive and incredibly heavy, "Love Me Hard" is just a few steps short of a full-on rock 'n' roll assault. But before things reach the breaking point, the band's irrepressible love of all things experimental, including progressive drumming, exotic inflection and jam-happy solos mixes things up and returns the song to the cocktail of styles that it was before.
The flip side opens with the record's best, and one of rock's most bizarre, tracks - the cryptically titled "From A Dry Camel" (perhaps a reference to the one-humped number on the back of the album). Opening with the rumble of a faux-Chinese gong, "Camel" quickly rips into some super dirty guitar work from Wise and a great bass-riff from Aaronson, then initiates its sexually loaded lyrical contemplation of the Virgin Mary and the virtues of camels:

    And then if her (Marion's) body runs dry,
    Got no reason to fear, there's a camel nearby.
    Just let it lie down on its side,
    And get yourself into place and then go for a ride.
    It matters not one hump or two,
    Take care of your machine in whatever you do.

Then, either by way of explanation for this fantastic image or in unconscious tribute to John Lennon (whose Imagine was released the same year), Wise drones on: "You see, there's no need to explain / If you want it enough you can solve your own game." Though I'm not sure I'd want to solve the game he's talking about, any listener so inclined would have time to figure it out, as "Camel" clocks in at a lengthy 9:37 (the album is only 36 minutes long). The track is even filled out with a four-minute zonk-out and - at least the way I imagine it - all the hokey stuff that goes with a jam-session (think Spinal Tap). But campy or not, "Camel" is the watermark of Dust's sound: inventive, rhythmically diverse and heavy in a very psychedelic way.
Dust isn't all downhill from here. "Often Shadows Felt" stands up as both a solid semi-acoustic number and a Led-Zep-influenced rocker. Due mostly to one hell of a simple and evocative riff, the track rolls along with pretty slide work and Bell's shimmering, cymbal-heavy drumming.
Aaronson's only composition, "Loose Goose, closes the album - it's a bottomless jam that unfortunately pulls Dust back into the voodoo mind-meld of Leslie West's Mountain. But Dust's stylistic grab bag is really a part of the band's charm. They went on to refine their sound on the following year's aptly titled "Hard Attack", but only on their debut album did Dust capture the loose and messy spirit of the early seventies. The flux of folk, metal, prog, roots, and RandB all descended on one band for the recording of one rock's most kick-ass records.

Let's Go Get It!

Quantic - The 5th Exotic (Trip-Hop, 2001)

2012-02-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

"I would say it has a lot more traditionally musical and harmonic elements. I have used more live instruments than before. However, I'm still using the same recording techniques and trying to keep the drums interesting but heavy for the dancefloor at the same time..."

Quantic's debut melded jazz, trip-hop and funk so beautifully it catapulted his reputation at the level of trip-hop greats such as Mr.Scruff, Blockhead, DJ Krush etc. Like label compadres Bonobo and Jon Kennedy, Holland takes his inspiration from the sleepy 90s chill of Ninja and his samples from an enviable collection of funk 45s and in spite of the occasional off-message meander, his debut full-length has plenty to offer those seeking late night horizontal delights. Whether the blunted percussion of "Time Is The Enemy", which slowly unravels around a series of dreamy piano loops, or the wide-eyed orchestration which makes a glorious swoop through the vocal preface of "Infinite Regression" - there is more than enough here to persuade even the most hardened opponent of chill that Holland is a musical youth to keep an eye on.

Let's Go Get It!

Amon Düül II – Phallus Dei (Krautrock, 1969)

2012-02-07T13:22:00.000-08:00

In the commune, you couldn't say the musos play and the others can't. When there was music being played, everybody could join in. Even the little children in the commune used to play along. For a long time, this was a part of the sound of Amon Duul reflecting the political view of the commune. This was a part of the new touch in Amon Duul. Not just a band...

Even the formal story of this experimental German outfit is weird: Amon Düül II were the "offshoot" of Amon Düül, a revolutionary musical and political "commune" of bohemian German intellectuals that formed in the late Sixties. They occasionally released albums, too (most of them derived from the results of one enormous marathonian jam session that lasted for several days and provided them with a lifelong supply of material). The name was taken from the Egyptian Amon (the sun god) plus Turkish Düül (word for "moon"), so as not to sound neither English nor German. It is said that some of the material of the original Amon Düül is worth the while, but usually it is condemned as nothing more than wild freaking out with heavy emphasis on trippy percussion. Anyway, around 1969 a part of this commune, led by Chris Karrer (main guitar player for the band), separated itself from the "main body" to pursue a more direct musical career, and since they did not want to quarrel about the name, they just called themselves Amon Düül II. Both 'communities' have a long and twisted history, with further outbranching and lots of different projects under the names Amon Düül, Amon Düül II, and sometimes even Amon Düül III that have nothing or little to do with the "Classic Amon Düül II" material I'm discussing here - namely, the material that dates back to the 1969-75 years.
Like most 'classic' German Rock, the music of Amon Düül II was dark, depressing, cold and mechanic. However, all of these classic German bands practiced their darkness and depression in a different way, and Amon Düül II were no exception. These guys' main specialty was being able to construct an entire fantasy world of their own, with lengthy, complex conceptual albums all revolving around themes of death, doom, and mystery, with a multi-layered, echoey, sci-fi sound that was more futuristic than anything around at the time. They were, if you wish, the closest German analogy of Yes, their main concern being not the music itself, but rather the special 'otherworldly' feeling induced by the music. And while the band certainly loses to Yes in the technical department , as well as in the commercial department (the band could never even hope to achieve Yes' level of popularity), they definitely overdo Yes in the dedication department - I mean, it's always possible to understand where exactly the ADII music is heading to.
The fact that Amon Düül II was a 'community' rather than a stable band does have certain advantages: the band's multi-instrumentalism, for one. Sure, gritty, jagged, hard-rocking, and at the same time colourful and extremely expressive guitars are always at the heart of this music, as well as various synthesizer tones, but you'll meet pretty much everything on their records - accordeons, violins, flutes, saxes, etc. In all respects, this music is always huge: the band never relied on minimalist tactics, so beloved among other Krautrockers. As for the music itself, it's pretty good. Sure, the band got carried away by its own weirdness at times - the noisy instrumentals on the second disk of Yeti are still a complete waste of time as long as I'm concerned - but even so, even the weirdest, most discordant compositions are often salvaged and elevated to high status simply because they have a sense of purpose ('The Marilyn Monroe Memorial Church', for instance, is a masterpiece of 'musical-fantasy-sequence-writing'). Usually, however, the band was always concerned about hanging together - however dissonant and rambling the music might seem, it is almost always underpinned by tight and solid melodies. For instance, a song might be based on a couple complex guitar riffs that provide the solid base, on top of which they pile up almost everything - 'cosmic' synthesizers, weepy violins, speedy metallic solos, or spooky vocals. The first impression, then, is that of a complete mess, but the solid foundation of the song eventually makes it easier for you to appreciate the material. And once you do, you're hooked - a single Amon Düül II album might be more exciting than the whole Lord Of The Rings taken together.

Let's Go Get It!

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports (Ambient, 1978)

2012-02-07T05:58:00.000-08:00

"I see myself often maneuvering to maintain mobility. And I'm certain one of the reasons that my whole kind of selling thing is so uncoordinated and clumsy is that in fact it acts as a kind of non-constraint to have it be so..."

Brian Peter George Saint Jean le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, or simply Brian Eno, is hailed as the instrumental figure in the sculpting of ambient music. He was, afterall, the one who coined the term for low-volume, minimalistic music designed to alter one's perception of the environment. This came about from months of lying in a hospital bed with nothing but very quiet 18th century music that he was unable to turn up. He then realized that music could be in a form so as to provoke many levels of listening attention, without being stricken to just one. As a result, he set out to make just that and created Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
This album consists of just four tracks, each one as simplistic as it is beautiful. Each one consists of a few different synth loops intertwining, and in some cases, has some gentle piano on top of it. The songs are labeled in accordance to the order they were on the original vinyl release. 1/1 is the first song on the first side, and is probably the best of the album. One of the two with piano, this one gently lulls along with sparsely populated notes and a bit of backing synth. 2/1 is the second song of the first side, and consists purely of synthesized voice loops interacting with one another. A great song to space out to, and stays interesting enough (for ambience that is) throughout. 1/2 is like a combination of the previous two songs. It's got the sparse, delicate piano and the soothing voices which flit and prance about during the length of the piece. 2/2 is an exercise in pure synth work with some things that sound almost like a tuba.
The songs are very minimalistic and don't require concentration to enjoy. In fact, they were designed to be background music and eliminate the dread and misery of an airport terminal. If you listen to this and expect something extraordinary, you'll probably be disappointed. While this is a great album, it's a passively great album. If you think too hard or pay too much attention to things, you may get bored and give up. What Eno does here is mold a soundscape for you and then allow you to do whatever you wish with it. Read a book, take a long bubble bath, or even both. You could even put it on as you try to sleep. Whatever activity you have for it, Music for Airports will provide the perfect soundtrack. A must have for ambient fans, and a worthwhile listen for those who simply enjoy music. Just try not to doze off while you inhale the simple beauty.

Let's Go Get It!

Jeff Beck - Wired (Blues Rock/ Jazz Fusion, 1976)

2012-02-07T04:44:00.000-08:00

"...Then Hendrix came along and I thought I might as well become a bus conductor!"

"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is actually a Charles Mingus cover

After garnering universal accolades for the brilliant "Blow By Blow" album, Jeff Beck's status as being much, much more than a gifted rock and roll guitarist blossomed. Those select musicians dwelling in the lofty penthouses of progressive jazz rock/fusion now had no choice but to acknowledge him as one of their own and he understandably attracted the attention of the likes of Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden, both formerly with the legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra. Still taking advantage of the unmatched guidance and production skills of Sir George Martin, Jeff went about the business of following up what many consider his best album ever.
"Wired" is the perfect title for this record because the high-voltage electrical charge generated by the all-star band Beck assembled for this project gives you the impression that they had a coaxial conduit linking them together. The opening song, Max Middleton's wild "Led Boots" lets you know up front that this isn't going to be some kind of easy-listening MOR fare with its edgy, syncopated beat slapping you up side the head. Drummer Walden and bassist Wilbur Bascomb lay down a rhythm track that is tighter than the ProgArchives petty cash fund while Jeff supplies a ferocious guitar solo overhead. An added bonus is that Jan Hammer's synthesizer lead at the end sounds amazingly like an electric violin. Walden's "Come Dancing" follows and the infectious groove here is at least partly due to guest Ed Green adding a second drum kit to the beat, creating a funkathon of mammoth proportions. Hammer supplies some very realistic keyboard horn sounds to accompany Beck's incredibly fat guitar licks. After an interesting detour into some rock and roll landscapes during the middle section Jeff and Jan each perform hair-raising rides that will have you shaking your head in disbelief.
Next is the incredible "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" in which Beck magically coaxes every beautiful tone imaginable from his Gibson Les Paul. Here you get a lesson in why Jeff is one of the best ever to pick up the instrument as he displays his immaculate technique and draws on every nuance of his unique style, doing full justice to this bluesy-jazz classic. "Head for Backstage Pass" starts with a torrid bass solo (it was written by Bascomb) before the crackerjack band (led here by drummer Richard Bailey) joins in to create a short but very funky ditty for Beck to set ablaze with his fiery runs. Hot stuff.
One of the highlights of the album is Hammer's eclectic "Blue Wind." The astounding thing about this particular cut is that it's just comprised of Jeff and Jan and nobody else. Hammer provides the intense drums and synthesizers and Beck, of course, unleashes his jet-fueled guitar. Not only does the song feature a contagious melody but both virtuosos get to stretch out on three individual solos, each one topping the other as they create a landmark tune that ranks with the greatest in this genre. It's not to be missed. Walden's "Sophie" follows and it's the most progressive number of all. It starts like a ballad with a complicated but pleasing theme as Jeff utilizes his guitar's tremolo bar like the master he is, then the tune segues into an up-tempo, joyous mood where Max Middleton works absolute wonders on his clavinette. They then repeat both segments before Beck and Middleton do fierce battle back and forth to the end with Narada playing his ass off on the drums rumbling underneath.
Walden composed the final two tracks, as well. "Play With Me" is yet another funky jazz venture that has a good feel to it but, other than playing on the melody line with Jan, Jeff doesn't even play a lead. Now, don't get me wrong, Hammer does a fine job in the spotlight but the song really doesn't go anywhere exciting. Beck chooses to end things with a quiet number, "Love Is Green," in which he plays both acoustic and electric guitars as Walden supplies the piano and Wilbur the bass. It's a very pretty tune, to be sure, but rather forgettable in the long run.
All in all, within a two-year span, the twin towers Blow by Blow and Wired set a standard for instrumental rock that even Beck has found difficult to match. On Wired, with first-rate material and collaborators on hand, one of rock's most compelling guitarists is in top form.

Let's Go Get It!

Scorpions - Taken By Force (Hard Rock, 1978)

2012-02-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

"I really liked it, I thought it was special and unique..."

The Scorpions' cult classic "Sails of Charon" has been covered by many guitarists including Kirk Hammet and Yngwie Malmsteen.

If anyone told me 3 years ago when I started posting good music on this blog that I would share any Scorpions stuff I would probably reply: Fuck the Wind of Change and Fuck You like a Hurricane! However, this 1978 masterpiece is worth having for "Sails of Charon" alone; just listen to that funky guitar riff and the mesmerising Jon Roth solo!
Taken by Force was the last studio album recorded with Uli, who left the band ithe same year due to creative differences. Although not as well known as the later ballad-filled and commercially successful albums produced by the Scorpions, "Taken by Force" doesn't sound crappy at all. Actually, it is a fine example of 70's Hard Rock as it should be. Try hearing this gem without prejudice for their latter crappy attempts and you will be somewhat surprised! I know I did.

Let's Go Get It!

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Rock, 1972)

2012-02-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

"Ziggy really set the pattern for my future work. He was my Martian messiah who twanged a guitar. He was a simplistic character, someone who was dropped down here, got brought down to our way of thinking and ended up destroying himself."

Upon the release of David Bowie's most thematically ambitious, musically coherent album to date, the record in which he unites the major strengths of his previous work and comfortably reconciles himself to some apparently inevitable problems, we should all say a brief prayer that his fortunes are not made to rise and fall with the fate of the "drag-rock" syndrome - that thing that's manifesting itself in the self-conscious quest for decadence which is all the rage at the moment in trendy Hollywood, in the more contrived area of Alice Cooper's presentation, and, way down in the pits, in such grotesqueries as Queen, Nick St. Nicholas' trio of feathered, sequined Barbie dolls. And which is bound to get worse. For although Lady Stardust himself has probably had more to do with androgyny's current fashionableness in rock than any other individual, he has never made his sexuality anything more than a completely natural and integral part of his public self, refusing to lower it to the level of gimmick but never excluding it from his image and craft. To do either would involve an artistically fatal degree of compromise.
Which is not to say that he hasn't had a great time with it. Flamboyance and outrageousness are inseparable from that campy image of his, both in the Bacall and Garbo stages and in his new butch, street-crawler appearance that has him looking like something out of the darker pages of City of Night. It's all tied up with the one aspect of David Bowie that sets him apart from both the exploiters of transvestitism and writers/performers of comparable talent -- his theatricality. The news here is that he's managed to get that sensibility down on vinyl, not with an attempt at pseudo-visualism (which, as Mr. Cooper has shown, just doesn't cut it), but through employment of broadly mannered styles and deliveries, a boggling variety of vocal nuances that provide the program with the necessary depth, a verbal acumen that is now more economic and no longer clouded by storms of psychotic, frenzied music, and, finally, a thorough command of the elements of rock and roll. It emerges as a series of concise vignettes designed strictly for the ear.
Side Two is the soul of the album, a kind of psychological equivalent of Lola vs. Powerman that delves deep into a matter close to David's heart: What's it all about to be a rock and roll star? It begins with a slow, fluid "Lady Stardust", a song in which currents of frustration and triumph merge in an overriding desolation. For though "He was alright, the band was altogether" (sic), still "People stared at the makeup on his face/Laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace". The pervading bittersweet melancholy that wells out of the contradictions and that Bowie beautifully captures with one of the album's more direct vocals conjures the picture of a painted harlequin under the spotlight of a deserted theatre in the darkest hour of the night. "Star" springs along handsomely as he confidently tells us that "I could make it all worthwhile as a rock and roll star". Here Bowie outlines the dazzling side of the coin: "So inviting - so enticing to play the part." His singing is a delight, full of mocking intonations and backed way down in the mix with excessive, marvelously designed "Ooooohh la la la"'s and such that are both a joy to listen to and part of the parodic undercurrent that runs through the entire album.
"Hang on to Yourself" is both a kind of warning and an irresistible erotic rocker (especially the hand-clapping chorus), and apparently Bowie has decided that since he just can't avoid cramming too many syllables into is lines, he'll simply master the rapid-fire, tongue-twisting phrasing that his failing requires. "Ziggy Stardust" has a faint ring of The Man Who Sold the World to it -- stately, measured, fuzzily electric. A tale of intra-group jealousies, it features some of Bowie's more adventuresome imagery, some of which is really the nazz: "So we bitched about his fans and should we crush his sweet hands?" David Bowie's supreme moment as a rock and roller is "Suffragette City", a relentless, spirited Velvet Underground - styled rushing of chomping guitars. When that second layer of guitar roars in on the second verse you're bound to be a goner, and that priceless little break at the end - a sudden cut to silence from a mighty crescendo, Bowie's voice oozing out as a brittle, charged "Oooohh Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am!" followed hard by two raspy guitar bursts that suck you back in to the surging meat of the chorus - will surely make your tum do somersaults. And as for our Star, well, now "There's only room for one and here she comes, here she comes."
But the price of playing the part must be paid, and we're precipitously tumbled into the quietly terrifying despair of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide". The broken singer drones: "Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth/Then you pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette." But there is a way out of the bleakness, and it's realised with Bowie's Lennon-like scream: "You're not alone, gimme your hands/You're wonderful, gimme your hands". It rolls on to a tumultuous, impassioned climax, and though the mood isn't exactly sunny, a desperate, possessed optimism asserts itself as genuine, and a new point from which to climb is firmly established. Side One is certainly less challenging, but no less enjoyable from a musical standpoint. Bowie's favourite themes - Mortality ("Five Years", "Soul Love"), the necessity of reconciling oneself to Pain (those two and "It Ain't Easy"), the New Order vs. the Old in sci-fi garments ("Starman") are presented with a consistency, a confidence, and a strength in both style and technique that were never fully realised in the lashing The Man Who Sold the World or the uneven and too often stringy Hunky Dory. Bowie imitates "Moonage Daydream" on Side One with a riveting bellow of "I'm an alligator" that's delightful in itself but which also has a lot to do with what Rise and Fall... is all about. Because in it there's the perfect touch of self-mockery, a lusty but forlorn bravado that is the first hint of the central duality and of the rather spine-tingling questions that rise from it: Just how big and tough is your rock and roll star? How much of him is bluff and how much inside is very frightened and helpless? And is this what comes of our happily dubbing someone as "bigger than life"?
David Bowie has pulled off his complex task with consummate style, with some great rock and roll (the Spiders are Mick Ronson on guitar and piano, Mick Woodmansey on drums and Trevor Bolder on bass; they're good), with all the wit and passion required to give it sufficient dimension and with a deep sense of humanity that regularly emerges from behind the Star facade. The important thing is that despite the formidable nature of the undertaking, he hasn't sacrificed a bit of entertainment value for the sake of message.

Let's Go Get It!

Wax Tailor - Hope & Sorrow (Trip-Hop, 2007)

2012-02-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

"I've always been really involved about movies and, as long as I can remember about what I've done, I've been using some sentences and quotes. There are very different ways to use them. It's also because it can create the link between different moods."

Wax Tailor's sophomore release, Hope & Sorrow, has the gravity that one sees on DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing or Portishead’s debut. With the playfulness of the Avalanches, this second outing maintains the sample-based quirkiness that Le Saoût introduced on his previous effort, Tales of the Forgotten Melodies, but evolves to a work of true originality. The mood is set quickly and confidently with the opener “Once Upon a Past”, with its chanting reverberating over a Portishead-like thumping mixed with the nu-jazz wickedness of Herbaliser. Modern RandB standout Sharon Jones gets a backing fit for Shirley Bassey on “The Way We Live” that constantly pulls back and forth to give Jones’s most soulful cries just enough time to keep it moving forward. Female contributors, such as spoken-word queen Ursula Rucker and French songstress Charlotte Savary, make a good showing, but nothing as bright as the Voice’s. Like a viper coiling back for just the right slither, the female rapper takes a flute-laden instrumental and turns it into a menacing dance.

It’s not as gimmicky as the Avalanches’ “Frontier Psychiatrist”, although “The Tune” also uses circa-1950s spoken word samples to similar effect. The clever interplay of narration is cute, but the real hook is the haunting snippet of Buddy Holly’s “There Goes My Baby”. Jazz samples over students of the T.R.I.B.E. ASM and Marina keep it crisp on “Positively Inclined” so the instrumentals are accentuated, not pushed to the background. As this and Copywrite’s work with RJD2 has shown, the MC’s role as promoter—not showboater—is hip-hop at is best. A Busta Rhymes sample phases to the Others’ forgettable spiel on “House of Wax”. The loss is quickly compensated with the creaky piano tinkling on “Beyond Words” that recalls some of the forgotten soul drops on DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing. The case could be made that Wax Tailor’s newest is more a pastiche of innovators’ past work than an original work. Somehow, he has been able to lift the best elements of trip-hop pioneers and created a darkly cinematic update of a day past or simply across the ocean.

Let's Go Get It!

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (Hard Rock, 1975)

2012-02-06T08:13:00.000-08:00

"Led Zeppelin's mediocre was better than anyone else's best!"

Released smack in the middle of their career, on the surface, the double record set appears to be simply another example of the ‘70s rock behemoths wielding more power than necessary. The expansive album packaging depicts a four story brown building, which, when opened, reveals pictures of Marlene Dietrich, the Queen of England, Charles Atlas, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the band themselves in drag along with dozens more offbeat images within it’s die cut windows. Three songs are listed at being over eight and a half minutes long with the rest hovering near and beyond the five-minute mark. Simply put, it reeks of excess. Get past the scent of something overdone though, and what’s deeper in the packaging is indispensable.
Taken from a dwelling located on St. Mark’s Place in New York City, the cover is metaphorical for the music. Guitarist Jimmy Page stated on numerous occasions that Zeppelin was constantly striving to find the perfect balance between light and shade. Physical Graffiti accomplishes the feat like no other. Phasing in and out of radically different styles, much like the “something different behind every door” way of thinking.
Initially, the band went through a deep heavy blues phase, demonstrated on their first two recordings released in 1969. This was followed by a complete 180 on the third record, which, while still pushing up the volume knob at times, delved mainly into an acoustic side that showed Zeppelin was more than simply cock rock held over from the Yardbirds’ era of guitar heroes. The next two records cemented the legacy of the band, who, while routinely written off and chastised by the music press at large, continued to outsell every seventies act in both album and ticket sales.

You could say so many different varieties of music combined into a solitary idea would be substandard and poor quality in the hands of lesser talents, but in the hands of Plant, Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham, it became a magnum opus, Led Zeppelin's masterwork, and raw genius. Many of the songs on here came from Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's personal experiences, and trips. The entire first disc of Physical Graffiti is alone worth your money. And needless to say, the similarities between the songs are vaguely present, but their own personas and sounds are one of a kind. "Kashmir", being Jimmy Page's first song written for Physical Graffiti, was written about a trip he and Robert Plant took to Morocco, where the song's eerie, Arabian trance originated. The broodingly dark, psychedelic riff intertwined the guitar and Mellotron into a single wall of middle eastern-esque culture. Shabang! Bonham's powerful beat and Robert's trippy lyrics make the eight minute epic a Zep fan's wet dream.
From the album's opening hard rock blows on "Custard Pie", you can tell Physical Graffiti is unlike any other record. "Custard Pie" is a hard rock anthem, with a heavy guitar riff and in addition to a bouncy bassline, John Paul Jones provides a funky Clavinet part, whose offbeat timing accentuates the dancing rhythm. And its successor, "The Rover" is anything but weak as it adds a mystical supremacy over its antecedent, and more flavor. Page's raucous blues riff during the verses, and beautiful chord progression on the chorus, combined with Plant's lyrical mystique and Bonham's dirty drumming, it is easily the best song on the first disc. The juxtaposition of musical styles does not necessarily limit to Arabian, psychedelic, and rock music. In fact, if you could make a list that includes every aspect of every damn genre, in someway, one song on Physical Graffiti could correlate to something. The spicy delta blues and slide guitar of "In My Time of Dying", the bubbly James Brown-esque funk on "Trampled Underfoot", the dancing swing of "Houses of the Holy" and "Boogie with Stu" (which is actually a piece whose inspiration came from a jam with the Rolling Stones" keyboardist), and even the folk/country of "Down By the Seaside" and "Bron-Yr- Aur", there is no limitations for the members of Led Zeppelin, and they definitely show what they are capable of throughout the record.

The content of these songs, like their styles, may be completely different, but feed off each other, and Zeppelin makes each different genre or technique and molds it into their own. "Bron Yr Aur", Jimmy Page's folky tune, is unlike anything on the album, just because it's Page's only acoustic guitar solo work on the record. And it's not like it's simple, either. In fact, the solo is more complex than most other acoustic guitar work I've heard, and to say that Jimmy Page fingerpicked the solo makes it more intimidating. And the other country and folk inspired songs on here do not pale in comparison. "Down By the Seaside" is a sweet, southern belle which shows how much a pretty ditty can compete with heavier, beefier rock music. And "Black Country Woman" emphasizes the same exact thing. But what is even more appealing to most Zeppelin fans is how Zeppelin still manage to incorporate their hard rock sound into the album. They still fit in those furious, sleazy rockers in once in a while. "Wanton Song", "Sick Again", and "Night Flight" are all powerful hard rockers with a furious drum beat to them. And one song, in particular, is a rocker, but not heavy. In fact, "Ten Years Gone" it borrows its sound heavily from classical music and does it in the most climactic, beautiful way possible. Definitely one of Zeppelin's greatest songs.
Every member contributes their own unique pieces into every song on the album. For instance, John Paul Jones, who actually contributes more on keyboards rather than bass, is sometimes the member who carries the songs the most. Kashmir, Trampled Underfoot, and Custard Pie (coincidentally, all three are on clavinet and mellotron) owe their dues to John Paul Jones for their existence. Page undoubtedly always was the center of the band, and his guitar riffs and solos are orgasmic to the tenth degree. His playing is magnificent, as is his vocal counterpart, Plant. No one can touch the Plant. His voice soars throughout the entire album, and his lyrics further his mystique and charisma. And John Bonham's drumming is yet again powerhouse. With every song on here being what it is, it's really hard to call it contemptible. As much as I'd hate to admit it, however, there are some songs which I view as weak. Meh. "In The Light" is probably my least favorite song on the album, and the Elvis parody on "Boogie With Stu" could have been done with out. But I'm happy to say that most of the songs on Physical Graffiti are revolutionary and amazing pieces of music.
Physical Graffiti just might be the secret ingredient to Led Zeppelin's power. Whether it be funk, folk, rock, psychedelic, Arabian, country, swing, bop or any combination of them, Led Zeppelin weld and juxtapose lots of different influences and genres to make Physical Graffiti. Better yet, nothing on this double album sounds the slightest bit out of place or awkward. It's very hard to not like this album, and both discs are superior works of art. This was undoubtedly the band's tour de force, and even if some songs are superior to others, it is a force to be reckoned with.

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Zero 7 - Simple Things (Electronica, 2001)

2012-02-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

"We were surprised by it's success in the sense that when you have never released a record before you have no idea what is in store. Although we did feel confident that our work was good, I guess because we liked it ourselves!"

In this age of niche marketing and corporate Rock and Roll, it’s refreshing to encounter an album that defies the usual categories. Zero 7’s Simple Things could comfortably find its way in to a number of record store racks - ethereal Trip-Hop, Acid Jazz, Chill Out, Whateva. Truth be told,this is a lush, dream-state miracle.
Zero 7’s debut collection quickly lures you, mirage-like, to its moods and textures - mellifluous in melody and multi-layered. It brings to mind the vogue for smooth fruit drinks: sweet, rich and blended to a flavoured pulp. In fact, for all its masterful arrangements, for all its breath-taking production, Simple Things is an extrremly likeable and sophisticated easy listening record. Beautiful stuff!

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DJ Krush - Stepping Stones: The Self-Remixed (Trip-Hop/ Electronica, 2006)

2012-02-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

"I have always been interested in jazz and using jazz elements in my music. It's just that it wasn't as popular as it is now, this was before the whole boom of acid jazz and this whole popularity of it. But I have always been doing this, it's just that now people are recognizing it!"

As Japan's most acclaimed hip-hop emissary, DJ Krush has been expanding the lexicon of turntablism, loops, samples, and boom-bap since the early 1990s. Taking his early inspirations from the concrete jungle of the South Bronx, and charting them into distinctly jazz-influenced waters, Krush has influenced legions of like-minded hip-hop renegades. Stepping Stones is a unique career retrospective spanning nine albums and a myriad of styles, moods, and tones. Expanding the very notion of a "best-of album," Krush has re-cooked the originals, lending his distinctive touch once again to tracks that have outlasted musical trends and have become classics in their own right.
Approaching his musical canvas like a painter, DJ Krush contrasts soft-focus atmospherics with hard-edged beats. On the track "Duality," an orchestral sample swells over an arpeggiated synth stab- a contrast between light and shadow akin to an aural chiaroscuro.This LP, however, is not just for the blunted chill-out set. On the updated "Shinjiro," a slinky double-time bass groove provides a sinuous counterpoint to Mos Def's languid rapping, evidence that Krush has the chops for club bangers as well. Showcasing the full breadth and Zen-like depth of Krush's hip-hop artistry, Stepping Stones is a diverse collection by one of the genre's true originals.

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Yamamoto Tsunetomo - Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

2012-02-04T10:39:00.000-08:00

Hagakure is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to Nabeshima Mitsushige, the third ruler of what is now the Saga prefecture in Japan. Tsuramoto Tashiro compiled these commentaries from his conversations with Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716; however, it was not published until many years afterwards. Hagakure is also known as The Book of the Samurai, Analects of Nabeshima or Hagakure Analects.
The book records Tsunetomo's views on bushido, the warrior code of the samurai. Hagakure is sometimes said to assert that bushido is really the "Way of Dying" or living as though one was already dead, and that a samurai retainer must be willing to die at any moment in order to be true to his lord. His saying "I have found the way of the warrior is death" was a summation of the willingness to sacrifice that bushido codified.
After his master died, Tsunetomo himself was forbidden to perform junshi, a retainer's ritual suicide, by an edict of the Tokugawa Shogunate combined with his master's disapproval of the tradition. Hagakure may have been written partially in an effort to outline the role of the samurai in a more peaceful society. Several sections refer to the "old days", and imply a dangerous weakening of the samurai class since that time. The Hagakure was written approximately one hundred years after the start of the Tokugawa era, a time of relative peace. With no major campaigns to fight, the samurai were transforming from a warrior to an administrative class. His work represents one approach to the problem of maintaining military preparedness and a proper military mindset in a time when neither has much practical application.

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The Wipers - Is This Real? (Punk Rock, 1980)

2012-02-04T03:21:00.000-08:00

"When you’re a billion-dollar industry like Kurt Cobain, you’re not a free artist at all, you’re just under a state of Mafia control. I mean, I even had my life threatened, basically twice, from that end of that establishment, because of some people wanting to put out movies with, including some songs that I wrote..."

When the Wipers burst upon the Northwest music scene in the latter years of the 70's, the scene would forever change. Fronted by Greg Sage, The Wipers became leaders of the new wave explosion. Greg's knack for using distortion as an additional instrument coupled with his painful, alienated words and highly perceptive take on human life would help cement his legacy in the world of independent rock. Future generations of rockers such as Kurt Cobain, Dinosaur Jr., the Melvins and Mudhoney would later cite Greg Sage as one of their most important influences.

Mystery takes the spot of being the best song on the album, followed closely by Alien Boy, which was a minor hit. It's a punk rock record, but has unexpected melody and allure, giving off a hint of New Wave influence, like that of the Talking Heads. Sage's vocals and lyrics are at most times, haunting. With topics of confusion and alienation, it sometimes creates a dark mood. Henry's drumming is interesting, they aren't as loud or intense as a lot of other punk rock songs, but they really do get the job done, and quite well at that. The album has some great guitar solos, most notably on Return of The Rat. All in all, this is an essential cult album whose legacy leaves on.

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The Clash - Rock The Casbah/ Mustapha Dance 12" (Disco Punk, 1982)

2012-02-04T02:38:00.000-08:00

"The Clash were always from the heart!"

Killer dancefloor single and yet another example why The Clash are not your typical Punk band.

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Rory Gallagher - Tattoo (Hard Rock/ Blues Rock, 1973)

2012-02-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

"Music can heal. It can cool down the savage breast, as they say. It does have that power. All kinds of power. By the time you subtract the music business and all of the good and bad things that go with it, you’re left with a piece of music and the player, and it’s important that that should remain fairly – not precious, but organic and true!"

Rory, firmly "back on course" after his "Blueprint" album - he himself says that one went off at a tangent - has produced a balanced collection of numbers, two at least of which must rank as the best rock guitar he has ever recorded. Also, a tough, integrated group sound has emerged, now at its most forceful since Lou Martin's resilient piano was is brought into Rory's line up.
The first two tracks on the album are the real goodies packed with wild spirit. "Tattoo'd Lady" is founded on a pulsating chord which catches the breath as it boils on. It's about the biggest sound Rory's ever come up with the guitar solos are choice, eddying and melodic with a fuming power behind them. Rory sings taut and gasping. Coming hard on its heels is "Cradle Rock" anchored on a monumental R&B derived riff, with some organ sound up front. It has the relentless mass of a juggernaut, Gerry McAvoy’s bass grinding and pumping away, guitar stuttering overhead bead. Harp is absorbed onto the heavy mesh and then bottleneck guitar settles onto the top layer. It's tracks like these that put Rory among the greats as a crack guitarist. They go straight for the vitals, get in the blood.
After these two monster tracks the tension subsides into "20:20 Vision," a song with a walking blues pace and country/ ragtime acoustic guitar, the easy picking backed up by Martin's barrelhouse style, laid back and loose. That's the only track with acoustic guitar throughout. "Who's That Coming “ on side two opens with raunchy bottleneck acoustic, but switches to electric bottleneck early on, driving to a climax with piano over a circular chord pattern similar in effect to "Tattoo'd Lady." Before side one is over Rory includes, as he his done in previous albums, a number with a jazz feel "They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore". This one's taken at a fast lick with snappy solos and a lively liquidity of sound.
The second side begins with "Sleep on a Clothes Line" , a mid-pace rocker using 50's style echo (in Rory’s voice it's hard and wiry and the piano filters through only briefly. "A Million miles Away" is the biggest production and includes organ and saxes to make the sound good and flat. Rory flicks the notes in that teeth - gritting split harmonic manner, catching the strings between pick and forefinger and holding them on the edge of feedback.
All in all, every track satisfies Rory's credo that what he records must be capable of parallel reproduction on stage. Out of a really strong catalogue of great Rory albums, this one definitely holds a special place.

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Metallica - Master of Puppets (Metal, 1986)

2012-02-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

"We're doing it our way like we always wanted to...We haven't had to conform to any certain standards, record companies or whoever else wants us to do it. They haven't molded us a certain way, we did it all ourselves and that's great!"

Metallica's magnus opus and a true classic between classics; one that any person who wants to know what is that world called Metal music needs to have, and listen to. In the most concrete terms, Metallica achieved with "Master Of Puppets" an expansion upon the sound showcased on "Ride The Lightning", a sound rather clumsily overstretched with "...And Justice For All". Each song averages between 5 and 8 minutes, with the band’s patented buzz-saw thrashing takes on a significantly more expansive turn, with a hundred times more thought given to song-writing and its effect rather than relentless speed.
To say that it is a far more emotionally charging record is to undersell it – the work here is anthemic to an astounding degree, and this feat is made all the more impressive by the fact that for all the brazen, soaring and wonderfully handled melodicism, the band’s more violent tendencies are never lost amongst the slew of newer ideas.
The epic song structures meld with gritty thrashing aggression fantastically cohesively, with the band bashing the living hell out of their instruments to capture a sound that is stunningly forthright as well as considered and introspective. The level of musical balance exhibited here between these two aspects is the band’s true triumph – they valiantly negotiate between the pitfall of simply putting their heads down and thrashing out for the hell of it, and the pitfall of flogging their more high-minded ideas to death.
From the intro of "Battery" to the last guitar riff of "Damage Inc." this is the definition of Thrash Metal to the degree that even people who despise Metal are caught humming this one after a few too many, this is an authentic piece of ferociously headbanging thrash which also had a brain and something to say to the world. Totally recommended!

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The Morning Birds - Surrender to This (Indie/Folk Rock, 2012)

2012-02-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

This magnificent EP, full of pastoral optimism and the virtues of spectacular-sounding harmonies sounds as if it was lost and eventually dug out from the 60's. That being said, It doesn't sound dated as it teeters somewhere between psychedelic pop and folk with some tunes at a faster twist, indicating more contemporary influences. The voices of Jenn and Sam are beautifully combined and make up for a soulful and pleasurable listen. Give it a try!

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The White Stripes - Elephant (Garage/Blues Rock, 2001)

2012-01-31T09:37:00.000-08:00

"I was raised and brought up into my early 20s to think that most pop music was disgusting and had no artistic merit, but there's still a part of my heart that loves novelty songs and the idea of accidentally coming upon something that everyone wants to hear every day at that particular moment..."

It's easy to get lost in the vivid, unstable emotional tangle of 'Elephant'. But consistently, the brilliance of the music acts as a compass. When Jack bitterly resolves to study the rules of attraction on 'Black Math', he does so to juddering garage punk that recasts 'Let's Build A Home' in corroded metal. When he practices more dark algebra by comparing his status as his girl's "third man" to that as his mother's "seventh son" on 'Ball And Biscuit', he streamlines the epic crunch of Led Zeppelin in the album's most overt nod to the blues.

That said, the strongest influences on 'Elephant' are the three albums which preceded it. But it's a heavier one than they've made before, less immediately pop-friendly than 'De Stijl', especially, and with a nasty undercurrent that battles for prominence with Jack's romantic anxieties. He's a fabulist and a showman. But he can also voice sweetness and torment with an intensity that most conventionally emotional songwriters would kill for. Critically, he can make you believe in his songs, at the same time as you don't believe a word of them. This, perhaps, is what great songwriters do. And always, there's the implication that he can do more. Right now, the eloquence, barbarism, tenderness and sweat-drenched vitality of "Elephant" make it the most fully-realised White Stripes album yet; one that conveys authenticity although songs like "Seven Nation Army" have been massively covered and remixed all over the world; from cheesy club nuisances to fans rephrasing them on football games. You simply can't go wrong with this record.

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The White Soots - The White Soots (Rock, 2010)

2012-01-30T07:37:00.000-08:00

One of the most interesting bands I came across lately are The White Soots; a blues rock trio that sounds as if they were sprouted from the hard rockin' 70's. The band formed in early 2009 with brothers Kyle (Guitar/Vocals) and Kraig Byrum (Drums) and longtime friend Karl Benge (Bass). They began playing under the name Fuzz Hound, which was changed to The White Soots shortly thereafter.
This is their homonymous debut whose aesthetic will definitely appeal to lovers of the fuzzed and distorted sound. Guitar work is unexpectedly stunning in this one. Frankly, it is weird that these guys have not achieved stardom yet. Seems like there are still some Rock and Roll bands out there!

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Clip Of The Week

2012-01-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

2012-01-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

In this lively, invaluable book — which grew out of an essay Pollan wrote for The New York Times Magazine, for which he is a contributing writer — he assails some of the most fundamental tenets of nutritionism: that food is simply the sum of its parts, that the effects of individual nutrients can be scientifically measured, that the primary purpose of eating is to maintain health, and that eating requires expert advice. Experts, he says, often do a better job of muddying these issues than of shedding light on them. And it serves their own purposes to create confusion. In his opinion the industry-financed branch of nutritional science is "remarkably reliable in its ability to find a health benefit in whatever food it has been commissioned to study."

Some of this reasoning turned up in Pollan's best-selling "Omnivore's Dilemma." But "In Defense of Food" is a simpler, blunter and more pragmatic book, one that really lives up to the "manifesto" in its subtitle. Although he is not in the business of dispensing self-help rules, he incorporates a few McNuggets of plain-spoken advice: Don't eat things that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize. Avoid anything that trumpets the word "healthy." Be as vitamin-conscious as the person who takes supplements, but don't actually take them. And in the soon to be exhaustively quoted words on the book's cover: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." An inspiring head of lettuce is the poster image for this mantra.

Do we really need such elementary advice? Well, two-thirds of the way through his argument Pollan points out something irrefutable. "You would not have bought this book and read this far into it if your food culture was intact and healthy," he says. Nor would you eat substances like Go-Gurt, eat them on the run or eat them at mealtimes that are so out of sync with friends and relatives that the real family dinner is an endangered ritual. Other writers on food, from Barbara Kingsolver to Marion Nestle, have expressed the same alarm, but "In Defense of Food" is an especially succinct and helpful summary.

Among the historical details that underscore a sense of food's downhill slide: the way a Senate Select Committee led by George McGovern was pressured in 1977 to reword a dietary recommendation. Its warning to "reduce consumption of meat" turned into "choose meats, poultry and fish that will reduce saturated fat intake."

When McGovern lost his seat three years later, Pollan says, the beef lobby "succeeded in rusticating the three-term senator, sending an unmistakable warning to anyone who would challenge the American diet, and in particular the big chunk of animal protein squatting in the middle of its plate."

Pollan shows how the story of nutritionism is "a history of macronutrients at war." If the conventional scientific wisdom has moved from demon (saturated fat) to demon (carbohydrates), creating irreconcilably different theories about the health benefits of various foods, it has also created an up-and-coming eating disorder: orthorexia.

"We are," he underscores, "people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating." This book is biliously entertaining about orthorexia's crazy extremes. A recent "qualified" FDA-approved health claim for corn oil makes sense, Pollan says, "as long as it replaces a comparable amount of, say, poison in your diet and doesn't increase the total number of calories you eat in a day."

Since a Western diet conducive to diabetes has led us not to improved eating habits but to a growing diabetes industry, complete with its own magazine (Diabetic Living), Pollan finds little wisdom from the medical establishment about food and its ramifications. "We'll know this has changed when doctors have kicked the fast-food franchises out of the hospitals," he says.

Until then he recommends that we pay more attention to the reductive effects of food science, recognize the fallibility of research studies (because to replicate the healthy effects of, say, the Mediterranean diet completely, you need to live like a villager on Crete) and dial back the clock. Pollan advocates a return to the local and the basic, even at the risk of elitism. He recommends that Americans spend more on food: not only more money but also more time. Eat less, and maybe you make up the financial difference. Trade fast food for cooking, and maybe you restore some civility to the traditional idea of the meal.

"No, a desk is not a table," he points out. Though he shouldn't have to tell us that, readers of "In Defense of Food" will be glad he did.

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The Shadows - Another 20 Golden Greats (Rock, 1987)

2012-01-27T04:36:00.000-08:00

"What's the most distinctive sound of our group ? We often wondered what it is ourselves. Really, it is the sound we had when we recorded "Apache" - that kind of Hawaiian sounding lead guitar... plus the beat!"

The Shadows are the biggest-selling instrumental act of all time in the UK and the group with the longest span of chart hits. Early in 1958, sixteen year-olds Hank and Bruce travelled from Newcastle to London as part of a group "the Railroaders" to enter a talent contest in which they were to achieve third place behind a jazz band and an opera singer. After the contest, the other Railroaders returned to Newcastle but Hank and Bruce decided to stay and seek their fortune in the Capital.
Teaming up with 3 others they had met at the contest, they became part of the "Five Chesternuts" led by drummer Pete Chester, son of radio comedian Charlie. They made one single (Teenage love/ Jean Dorothy) and appeared on TV's "6.5 Special" but fame was still a little way off.
Later that year, Cliff Richard, who was enjoying chart success with his first single (Move it) was booked to appear on tour with the American duo "The Kalin Twins". His manager went to the 2I's coffee bar in Soho to check out Tony Sheridan as a possible lead guitarist for his backing group "The Drifters". Instead, he signed up Hank and Bruce for the tour.
Jet Harris was also on the tour, as part of the backing for the Most Brothers. He guested with the Drifters for some appearances during the tour and, in October, replaced Ian Samwell on bass. In February 1959, drummer, Terry Smart, left the group and Tony Meehan became the fourth member of the famous line up: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan.
Besides backing Cliff, the Drifters began to release singles on their own, the first being two vocal numbers Feelin' Fine/Don't be a Fool with Love. The second pairing the instrumentals Jet Black/Driftin', Jet Black being unusual in having Jet's bass as the lead guitar. When American group 'The Drifters' obtained an injunction preventing the group from using their name in the USA, Feelin' fine was withdrawn there after a few days whilst on Jet Black, they were listed as 'The Four Jets'. In July, to prevent further confusion, their name was changed to The Shadows.
The first release under their new name was another unsuccessful vocal pairing, 'Saturday Dance/ Lonesome Fella'. Things changed dramatically, however, when composer Jerry Lordan passed his latest tune to the Shadows.
"Apache" topped the UK charts for six weeks and was a world-wide hit except in America where lack of promotion led to the Shadows' version being overlooked whilst a cover version by Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann took the sales. Still a dancefloor favourite today, "Apache" is one of the original b-boy breaks and one of the most sampled songs in the world!

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Kak - Kak-Ola (Psychedelic Rock, 1968)

2012-01-27T04:28:00.000-08:00

"It means dust in sanskrit..."

Magnificent psychedelic LP

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Jamiroquai - Synkronized (Disco Funk, 1999)

2012-01-27T03:03:00.000-08:00

"It's very, very simple, a very sing-along kind of thing, and some things have to be like that!"

This is Jamiroquai's fourth album, the one who made them superstars. Cheesy synthesisers, groove basslines, a little bit of hip-hop and acid jazz moods make up for a multi-layered LP well worth listening to.

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Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music from the Penguin Café (Ambient, 1976)

2012-01-27T02:47:00.000-08:00

"I wonder if anyone is looking at us the way we look at Penguins, fondly observing all their struggles and idiosyncracies."

This record is a manifestation of a dream that Simon Jeffes - composer and self described "proprietor" of the collective - had in Japan of a place called the Penguin Café where a certain kind of unusual music is played. The record is, in effect, a compilation of at least three years' work in various contexts and with different musicians, mostly recorded on Simon's trusty A77 Revox tape recorder 'on location'. The original combination of musicians that rehearsed for, and played on, this record was called 'the 4 musicians in green clothes'. By the time Brian Eno had adopted the project, and Simon had dreamt his dream, they had become the 'Penguin Café Quartet', members of the 'Penguin Café Orchestra'.
A section of the record is entitled 'Zopf' with slightly different performers and includes tracks that have become PCO classics such as 'From the Colonies', 'Surface Tension' and 'Giles Farnaby's Dream'. 'Zopf' means pigtail in German and was used in the 18th Century to describe a certain kind of light music played in coffee-houses. Later, Simon used the name for the PCO's own record label. 'Music From The Penguin Café' is a charming and seminal record that was to lead to a quarter of a century of innovative music.
First released on Brian Eno's Obscure Records label in 1976 with the catalogue number Obscure 7, it was originally available from Island Records in the UK on mail order only. Since then it has passed to the Virgin label. Essential album for relaxing moods.

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Edith Piaf - Greatest Hits (Cabaret/Jazz, 2008)

2012-01-27T02:32:00.000-08:00

"All I've done all my life is disobey!"

Edith Piaf was one of the most remarkable singers of the twentieth century. Her distinct voice and waif-like figure endeared her to not only her home land of France, but to audiences across the globe. The 'Little Sparrow' as she came to be fondly known, captivated people with her sobering, heartfelt performances which resonated with a world torn apart by the Second World War. From a childhood spent singing on the streets of Paris, to the dazzling glamour of the cabaret halls and her enduring friendships with such figures as Jean Cocteau and Maurice Chevalier, Edith's path to stardom was littered with personal tragedies. The death of her daughter in infancy; the plane crash which killed the love of her life, Marcel Cerdan; her crippling addictions and copious affairs all reveal the sincerity of emotion behind her songs. You should at least own a representative collection of her marvellous work.

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Duke Ellington - Money Jungle (Jazz, 1963)

2012-01-27T02:20:00.000-08:00

"It's all right to let the people have their freedom of criticism and all that sort of thing, but I don't think they should get to the point where they decide what any artist should do, no matter whether it's jazz or painting or whatever it is..."

The dramatic character of this album’s title track tells you from the start that few trio jam sessions have ever carried so much weight. Recorded in 1962, it brought together three definitive leaders in this field we call jazz. Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach interpreted a program of swinging Ellington material. His “Money Jungle,” “African Flower,” “Very Special” and “Wig Wise” were introduced to the listening public for the first time with this LP. Blue Note has added additional material from the same recording session, some of which was previously unissued.
“Caravan” finds Mingus emoting in lyrical fashion while walking the bass forcefully. Roach drives the classic tune straight ahead while Ellington reaches down to obtain the majestic harmonic formula originally intended. “Switch Blade” has a trademark Mingus intro that sets the mood for a slow, nightingale-like piano swinger. The bassist steps forward later with walking bass along a hiking boot landscape, and then as soloist with tales to tell. The trio converses and shares a common idea of what kind of blade is being switched. Blades of grass and a natural charm suit the day. “A Little Max,” of course, features Roach with a variety of textures. Like much of the session, “REM Blues” simply creates a blues field into which the trio lays out their interpretations. REM, which must surely represent Roach-Ellington-Mingus, finds three relaxed giants having a good time. The slower alternate take, not issued previously, turns out even better than the other. Sometimes, as heard here, an alternate take is simply a very tough choice between two excellent tracks.
Considering its 24-bit mastery and the addition of rare but exceptional material, this 40-year-old, highly recommended session has gotten better with age.

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Melvins - Stoner Witch (Grunge, 1994)

2012-01-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

"Everything’s pretty planned. Even the stuff that doesn’t sound like it is. It’s all worried over quite a bit..."

Melvins are a hard band to pin down; they never really gained much commercial appeal but nevertheless they have been together for over 30 years and managed to maintain a devoted fan base all over the world. Interestingly enough, back in the day there was a young boy who carried their guitars and returned their empty beer bottles to get some change back named...Kurt Cobain.
"Stoner Witch" is their seventh LP and carries their distinctive sound a step further with 1:30 minute length punk anthems such as "Sweet Willy Rollbar", sleazy and trippy ballads ("Goose Freight Train") and ferocious fuzzy grunge songs ("Revolve", Roadbull"). Underrated yet wonderful, this is an excellent record redolent of the typical Melvins bizarre authenticity.

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Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (Classic Rock, 1975)

2012-01-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

"I don't consider myself that good to front the band and I don't want to. Nobody can be a leader of a band if they're really truthful. If you are someone like Rory Gallagher, well everybody else is playing to back you up. This is not that kind of band. With Rainbow, they are all stars in their own right..."

After Deep Purple disbanded in 1974, their guitarist Ritchie Blackmore founded Rainbow with members of a band called Elf. Elf's lead vocalist was none other than Ronnie James Dio. Rainbow's first album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was released in 1975.
When you get down to it, Rainbow offered some of the greatest albums of the 1970s, thanks to the undeniable talents of Blackmore and future rock and roll giant Dio. Merging Blackmore's experience in blues and his classical training with Deep Purple's prototypical bombastic heavy metal thunder, Dio's majestic vocals completed the band's recognizable sound. Although the band would reach great heights from 1975 to 78, their debut is not quite a mind-blowing, life-changing release, however great some individual songs are. The incredible cover of The Yardbirds' "Still I'm Sad" shreds the original version to pieces and which true rock and roll fan hasn't caught himself humming the lyrics of classic songs like "Man on the Silver Mountain" or "Temple of the King"? This is a total must-have for Classic Rock fans.

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Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Psychedelic Rock, 1968)

2012-01-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

"Def Leppard once credited us as being the Father of Heavy Metal. The only reason I shy away from that reference is simply because I'm not convinced that I really like where heavy metal has gone nowadays..."

With its endless, droning minor-key riff and mumbled vocals, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" is arguably the most notorious song of the acid rock era. According to legend, the group was so stoned when they recorded the track that they could not pronounce the title "In the Garden of Eden" properly, thus "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was born. But that's the essence of its appeal - it's the epitome of heavy psychedelic excess, encapsulating the most indulgent tendencies of the era. Iron Butterfly never matched the warped excesses of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," either on their debut album of the same name or the rest of their catalog, yet they occasionally made some enjoyable fuzz guitar-driven psychedelia that works as a period piece. The five tracks that share space with their magnum opus on In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida qualify as good artifacts, and the entire record still stands as the group's definitive album, a highly influential Psychedelic masterpiece and one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

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Rodrigo y Gabriela - Rodrigo y Gabriela (Acoustic, 2006)

2012-01-24T12:42:00.000-08:00

"A lot of the riffs that we play could actually be played with distorted electric guitar. What happens, though, is that a lot of people don’t notice that—because not very many people really understand heavy metal. The metalheads definitely get it, and a lot of our crowd comes from that world!"

Check out the obvious Metal Influences at 02:35, this puts a smile on my face.

Nylon-string sensations Rodrigo y Gabriela were out of gas in a dead-end Mexican metal scene until they ditched their band and relocated to Ireland for four years of intense street training. Now they’re global stars racking up millions of views on YouTube and making late-night talk show appearances with their signature Yamaha guitars.
If they’re new to you, what you need to know is that Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero have made a name for themselves by melding traditional world music with the dynamics and aggression of heavy metal. To make up for the lack of drums and bass, Quintero has developed an exceptional method of hand percussion that relies on striking both fretted strings and carefully chosen parts of the guitar with an attack that can be downright vicious. She’s basically a one-woman rhythm section. Sanchez, on the other hand, plays ’80s-shred-style riffs and leads mixed with a heavy dose of South American and Middle Eastern flavors.
The duo originally met in Mexico City. Both played in a thrash metal band called Tierra Acida, but their frustration with the narrow range of music being followed in the area led them to pack up and head for Europe. They eventually settled near Dublin, Ireland, where they spent countless hours busking on the street. Naturally, their electric instruments weren’t really suited to the task, so they adopted the simple setup of two acoustic guitars. Over time, Sanchez and Quintero’s distinctive sound came together as a natural result of struggling to make the guitars communicate the dynamics of their eclectic backgrounds.
Since then, Rodrigo y Gabriela’s popularity has exploded. They’ve made appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and at press time their version of “Stairway to Heaven” had nearly six million views on YouTube.
This is their second album, known for the extraordinary covers on Metallica's "Orion" and Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven". However, it is the duo's original compositions that are off the hook; "Tamacun" begins with the Gabriela punching out chords while Rodrigo picks notes at a rapid pace. She is arguably one of the best rhythm guitarists that I ever heard (sorry Malcolm Young). She turns her guitar into percussion, hitting the strings with force and making everything keep moving. Rodrigo keeps the songs interesting with his acoustic noodling, but Gabriela is like both guitarist and drummer. She employs the flamenco technique of hitting her guitar, which makes the drum sounds throughout the album. It adds an almost tribal feel to songs like "Diablo Rojo." All in all, this is one of the purest albums I have heard in a long time, it somehow manages to capture the moods of past times to something completely fresh and groundbreaking. Absolutely mind-blowing stuff right here.

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The Misfits - Earth A.D (Punk, 1983)

2012-01-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

"The Misfits are a total byproduct of the Ramones. The Ramones really changed the face of music. I think the Misfits took it to a place where nobody wanted it to go and you know - more scary, more dark, more sinister and definitely aggressive..."

The Misfits were a classic punk rock band formed in April of 1977 in New Jersey. Singer of the band, Glenn Danzig, and bass player of the band, Jerry Only, were the men that formed the band and named it after Marylin Monroe's last movie.
The Misfits' sound could be described as "Horror Punk" as they play fast, vicious punk rock with gory, demonic and horrifying references. Needless to say, they were highly influential and despite the constant line-up changes over the years, they maintained an extremely devoted fan base including both punks and metal-heads. To this day, although the original line-up hasn't worked together in more than a decade, kids continue to play the old records, get the logos tattooed on their body, and go nuts for the classic Misfits sound.

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Radiohead - OK Computer (Alternative, 1997)

2012-01-24T11:17:00.000-08:00

"There was the mixture of sounds there, the performance, everything. It all gelled in that one moment - it hadn't sounded like that before. That was very exciting..."

Using the textured soundscapes of The Bends as a launching pad, Radiohead delivered another startlingly accomplished set of modern guitar rock with OK Computer. The anthemic guitar heroics present on Pablo Honey and even The Bends are nowhere to be heard here. Radiohead have stripped away many of the obvious elements of guitar rock, creating music that is subtle and textured yet still has a rock essence.
Even at its most adventurous - such as the complex, multi-segmented "Paranoid Android" featured above - the band is tight, melodic, and muscular, and Thom Yorke's voice effortlessly shifts from a sweet falsetto to vicious snarls. It's a thoroughly astonishing demonstration of musical virtuosity and becomes even more impressive with repeated listens, which reveal subtleties like electronica rhythms, eerie keyboards, odd time signatures, and complex syncopations. Yet all of this would simply be showmanship if the songs weren't strong in themselves, and OK Computer is filled with moody masterpieces, from the shimmering "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and the sighing "Karma Police" to the gothic crawl of "Exit Music (For a Film)."
OK Computer is the album that establishes Radiohead as one of the most inventive and rewarding guitar rock bands of the '90s. It was the last time that Radiohead were a guitar oriented band, and remains their finest moment, and one that demonstrated their brilliance both musically, lyrically, and at creating feelings. The cover art lays the tone for the album, as it isn't an easy listen, and one you can't have in the background, but instead a masterpiece that is Spartan in some ways, but a genuine treat to listen to. If you like good music, it is compelled that you have this.

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Ramones - Ramones (Punk Rock, 1976)

2012-01-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

"The Ramones were never anti-Led Zeppelin...We could never play at that level!"

They were so stupid they were brilliant. Their songs were so short they were mini-symphonies. The formula was so obvious it took four drug-addled kids who could barely hold their instruments, much less play them, from a suburb of New York City to discover it... and once they discovered it, the world of music would never be the same. The Ramones - Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy were the least likeliest of geniuses, and that is what made them great. They were the troublemakers at the pearly gates of rock'n'roll, and when no one was looking, busted the party wide open way back Bicentennial 1976. Trampling over the bloated likes of the Eagles, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd, the Ramones paved the way for a whole rowdy slew of malcontents. All the upstarts, the dreamers, the misfits, the outcasts, the loners who didn't quite have the courage to begin before then suddenly found the Ramones holding the freak flag high: "Hey-ho, let's GO!"
"Blitzkrieg Bop" opens the album, and if ever there was a more perfect Song One, Side One, then I don't know it. This is what the Ramones always would be about: a glorious, blissfully infectious tune celebrating the sheer unstoppable joy of rock'n'roll:

Hey-ho, let's go
Shoot 'em in the back now
What they want I don't know
They're all revved up
And ready to go!

A baker's dozen of classics, hot on the heels of this one, follow in breathless, breakneck speed, slowing down only so Dee Dee can count off one more time: "1-2-3-4!" Each song is three buzz-saw guitar chords, 4/4 drumming, and Joey's flat UK-by-way-of- Qeens snarl. Rock had never been this distilled before, not in the Stooges, not in the New York Dolls, not in Black Sabbath. Here was something completely new. Their street attitude, the lunging chord structure and fuzzed-out songs, their clothes, everything they did was insurmountable in terms of influence and helped create Rock music as we know it today. Essential album!

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Slayer - Reign In Blood (Metal, 1986)

2012-01-21T03:39:00.000-08:00

"It would be nice to have monetary success but we’re not going to go out of our way to try to achieve that— we’re going to be Slayer and you’re going to like us for what we do..."

Beware of bleeding corpses and sacred souls begging violently for mercy as extreme metal unveils 30 minutes of its most unbridled thrash metal within. Seasoned warrior drop to their knees by the mere mention of its name and small children explode by stepping within miles of it. Its sound causes women to be subject to mental insanity and spontaneous abortions. Priests from worldwide flock to its resonance to perform exorcisms in desperation, but to no avail. Blood seeps from every orifice of every unsuspecting victim who travels within earshot of it. Hearts beat furiously to keep up with its furious pace causing uncontrollable heart failure. The solos defile virgins while the harsh vocals sodomize all that is decent and good. Yes my friends, this is Reign in Blood, a testament to extreme metal’s progression into sheer brutality as well as an undeniable thrash metal classic.
Due to Reign in Blood’s high punk influence, songs are lightning fast, often containing little or no repetition or predictable structure. Because of this, the album flows seamlessly from one song to another forming one solid half hour of thrash. 30 minutes is short for any genre of music, but rest assured that your neck will never get such a rigorous thirty-minute workout anywhere else. Heads bang uncontrollably while Reign in Blood plays from the opening pounding of Angel of Death to the demonic sound of rain closing Raining Blood. In between, listeners are treated to some of the fastest, most aggressive riffs and drumming ever heard in metal. Solos shred beyond the lifespan of any cheese. Necrophobi, clocking in at a mere 1:40, along with Jesus Saves, define speed in music at a chaotic level. Going beyond the sheer extremities of the music, the two heavy metal classics on the album coupled with tracks such as Reborn and the mid-paced songs Piece by Piece and Postmortem deliver catchy, listenable thrash riffgasms without sacrificing an ounce of aggression.

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Mercyful Fate - Melissa (Metal, 1983)

2012-01-21T03:25:00.000-08:00

"We wanna create great music, but we don’t really think in terms of great musicians as in advanced instrumentalists, technical geniuses or virtouses...if your songs require that, fine, but if you don’t have the songs to back it up I couldn’t give a rats ass about those things..."

One of the most influential Metal bands of all time, Mercyful Fate played traditional blasphemous heavy metal based on satanism but with progressive tendencies altogether. This is their debut LP and its a landmark record for the whole Metal genre. The name "Melissa" comes from a skeleton King Diamong used to bring along on stage and whose femur bones were used to make his trademark microphone handle.
The album features gigantic arsenal of sinister riffs revealed in machine gun succession throughout the roller-coaster like compositions, dueling solos, neo-classical influence throughout, stellar, brutal drum work that features hardly any mindless blasting like so many modern metal bands, vivid, visual and most of all fun lyrics to make the whole thing larger than life, a completley Satanic and demonic presentation, some of the most insane vocal acrobatics you have ever heard. Indeed, King Diamonds high-pitched clear falsetto scream and stage presence has been copied by many frontmen since. All in all, this is an amazing record.

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Drugs, Inc. - Season 2 Episode 4 - Hallucinogens

2012-01-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

Neu! - Neu! (Krautrock, 1971)

2012-01-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

"By comparing the second Kraftwerk album to the first NEU! album, both of which were recorded shortly after our separation, I think one can easily hear the reason for the split..."

Krautrock has always had a tenuous relationship with mainstream prog, or even more experimental forms. While much of the music seems to have the same sense of experimentation and willingness to journey into worlds unknown, there is rarely the crossover appeal for many prog fans — or, when there is, it seems a distinction must be made between what is "prog" and what is "Kraut". On the surface, I suppose there are quite a few differences between the two: Krautrock doesn't have the flashy instrumental exhibitions or overriding album concepts a lot of prog does, and classic prog rarely places so much importance on pure rhythmic pulse or trance inducement. However, it would be difficult to argue that these two musics don't exist in the same family. For all its reported grandeur, the music of bands like Yes and King Crimson doesn't necessarily aim for any higher purpose than the music of Can or Neu! — nor does it contain any more spiritual weight. Are those subjective claims? Of course, but determining what is and isn't prog will vary no less among listeners. I say Krautrock is great prog, and Neu! is as definitive a specimen as any.

Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger jumped ship from Kraftwerk at a very early juncture. In fact, it was so early, Kraftwerk's now famous trance-bot methods weren't even in existence yet. What the two ex-werkers took with them may have been the human touch, because immediately after their departure, things became a lot more mechanical for their former band. Rother and Dinger were instrumentalists (guitar and drums respectively, and both played keyboards), so it was only natural that their new band should focus on the performance end of the "motorik" beat. Theirs was still music for the Autobahn, but rather than streamlined and futuristic, it was somehow vulnerable and timeless.

"Hallo Gallo" begins the first album, and is arguably a marvellous encapsulation of the Krautrock style and a masterpiece of rhythm: tight drums, funky guitar scratch, a coolly insistent bassline, futuro synths, and effects-laden guitar slinging wide acid-fried launches into deep space. Neu is remarkably economical where its influences cultivate excess: the exploratory guitar and keyboards discover new aural landscapes where the pioneers of prog would remain hours blissfully adrift. "Hallo Gallo" is intelligent dance music in every sense of the term: it's the ass inviting the mind out onto the floor. Nobody leads; both are simply in motion. Similarly, "Sonderangebot" is a murky soup of noise and silence: an interlude of clanging cymbals, and ambient fuzz, a kind of breathing nebula. The song bleeds darkly into "Weinensee," a droning parade of dirty, cone-filtered guitar that anticipates the pastoral psychedelia of Flying Saucer Attack and Hochenkeit. "Negativland" opens in jackhammer drills and coalesces into a lock-tight, bass-driven martial progression of stabbing guitar and industrial noise: it's dark but strangely danceable. Something like krautpunk: syncopation, cerebral and serrated. Amazing stuff.

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The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers (Rock/ Punk, 1976)

2012-01-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

"We got this kind of dark Rolling Stones vibe in our rhythm sometimes..."

During the early 1970s, Jonathan Richman and his band the Modern Lovers launched a small revolt against the rock world. In a period when rock music had become heavy, mellow, ponderous, and technical — sometimes all at once — the Modern Lovers stood for raw simplicity. They wanted nothing to do with meandering blues jams or ten-minute drum solos or trippy sound effects or forty-foot Marshall amps. Stark, energetic rock and roll was what they played. In his oddly nasal voice, Richman sang about girls, neon signs, highways, and other things he loved. He also sang about things he hated: long hair, bell-bottoms, emotional detachment, and drugs. Within Richman’s idiosyncratic mind, an unlikely assortment of bands — from the Velvet Underground to the Beach Boys to the Stooges to Question Mark and the Mysterians — seemed to coexist happily until he and the Modern Lovers reconfigured them into something better.
Writers and musicians alike have rightly credited Richman as a forerunner of the punk revolution. His minimalism, defiance toward everything “hip,” and knack for writing oddball lyrics (his observation that “Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole” will remain immortal) helped to establish the fundamentals of punk. The Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and many others have acknowledged their debt. This is a marvellous proto-punk masterpiece.

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Motörhead - Ace of Spades (Metal, 1980)

2012-01-20T02:07:00.000-08:00

"I remember seeing The Beatles perform live at The Cavern Club and they were special. Some people are. Some people aren't. Hendrix was. We are. I know we are!"

This album is the definition of Classic. The production is as relentless as the depiction of the band in the cover. The bass booms like an engine, the guitar rips through the sound like lion claws and the drums pound bruises into your stomach. Not to mention the (always) awesome vocal performance by Lemmy. Motörheads music is hard to classify as they have fused aspects of punk rock with heavy metal and are noted for their contributions to the styles now known as speed metal and thrash metal. Either way, this album sounds like a motorcycle engine except that that certain engine also contains some hard-rockin' songs that never get old. This album helped Motörhead become a whole generation's synonym for pure,angry and authentic rock and roll. Every serious rock fan head-bangs on this one!

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Dream Theater - Images and Words (Progressive Metal, 1992)

2012-01-20T01:49:00.000-08:00

"We just write the kind of music we like and have a lot of fun doing it. What it's all about for us is following our musical vision, just do what we think is best..."

Dream Theater's second LP demonstrates excellent musicianship and is considered one of the best Progressive Metal albums of all time. There are only 8 songs, which might lead one to believe that it is lacking. But out of these 8 songs, half are over 8 minutes long epics with blistering solos, which shows just how serious these guys are about their songwriting.
Of course, the amazing capabilities of guitarist John Petrucci, drummer Mike Portnoy, bassist John Myung and keyboardist (at the time) Kevin Moore are nothing to scoff at. Musically, these guys are unparalleled by metal or by artists in any other musical genres. Dream Theater albums, as far as skill and complexity are concerned, are often head and shoulders above the rest. That’s why pretty much any album to come from these guys will become an instant metal classic, but Images and Words is the album that stood before them all, and still stands pretty damn tall when compared to the rest of their works today.
Images and Words to me is the quintessential Dream Theater album and the best one to get into them. It’s got songs of all lengths and styles, from the short piano-only “Wait for Sleep” to the epic, energetic masterpiece of “Metropolis”, this album is a prime example as to why DT is a success and loved by so many the world over. This album is especially mellow by Dream Theater standards and probably will appeal more to the baby-boomer generation who grew up with bands like Yes, Be Bop Deluxe, King Crimson, etc.

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Μωρά στη Φωτιά - Θεατρίνοι (Rock, 1999)

2012-01-19T03:27:00.000-08:00

"We loved Brian Eno and played many of his songs from the "801 Live" LP. Baby's on Fire was one of them so we named ourselves after that..."

The second LP of one of my favourite Greek Rock acts. "Μωρά στη Φωτιά" means "Baby's on Fire", a term taken from the homonymous Brian Eno song. Some of songs found here are based in poems by Kostas Kariotakis, Giorgos Seferis and Nobel Prize winner Odysseas Elitis.

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Rory Gallagher - Top Priority (Hard Rock, 1979)

2012-01-19T03:20:00.000-08:00

"When you’re in tight corners, you can come to the realization that you have some kind of a belief..."

The year in-between the release of "Photo Finish" and "Top Priority" saw Rory touring extensively in the States and receiving great press in America and the UK. Chrysalis was keen to keep this momentum going and promised to make this new album their "top priority". In typical Rory style he named the album after their promise so that no one at the record company would be able to forget their guarantee.
The tone of the album is set right from the off with the opening riff of the heavy rocker, Follow Me, which with it’s hook-laden chorus and powerful solo, harks back to Derek and the Dominos era Clapton except with a harder edge to it. Following track, Philby is another rocker and is one of Gallagher’s catchiest compositions and has since become a favourite among fans. The song is notable for featuring a rare 60’s Coral electric sitar, which Gallagher hired from Pete Townshend. The instrument gives the song a certain eastern flavour and shows that the guitarist was still willing to try different things more than a decade into his career. Songs like Keychain and Off The Handle have a more pure blues sound than is heard on the rest of the album but they still maintain that hard rock edge due to Rory’s energetic vocals and the intensity of his guitar playing.
One of the album’s most memorable songs is the brilliant southern rocker, Bad Penny, which soon became a live favourite brilliantly demonstrated in live albums as "Stage Struck" and is considered one of Rory’s finest songs. It’s songs like this that make Top Priority such an enjoyable listen, not only will it leave you in awe of his technical ability as a guitar player but it also shows just how good a song writer he was. Overall, this is a pivotal Rory Gallagher record with the good old bluesy hard rock feeling at its finest. Essential!

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Hawkwind - Space Ritual (Space Rock, 1973)

2012-01-17T03:17:00.000-08:00

"We were pretty much playing psychedelic music, and at that time there was a lot of people taking LSD. There was a big rave culture at the time. We also had a good light show, with a lot of strobes at really dangerous levels, and we utilised a lot of different sound frequencies..."

Hawkwind, at their peak, as on 1973's double LP "Space Ritual", were an air-tight rock'n'roll demolition unit who combined the best of trancey psychedelia and buttocks-scorching rock'n'roll. The album captures the sound of their tour through Britain and the US (circa 1973) in all its psychedelic glory. It's an experience captured on disc to deliriously grand effect! With a sound finding itself in a netherworld between early Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, Hawkwind blew minds everywhere it went with a lavish extravaganza of lights, chattering electronics, sci-fi poetry, Stacia's exotic dancing, sci-fi and fantasy tales with charmingly goofy lyrics (see "Orgone Accumulator" for example, with such lines as "It's no social integrator, it's a one-man isolator" and "Turns eyeballs into craters") relentlessly rocking and crunchy riffing, disembodied woodwinds bleating and blatting happily away and certifiable sci-fi nutcase Robert Calvert lending his poetic talents to the proceedings. Future Motorhead frontman Lemmy also plays bass here. Strap yourself into the ejection seat for this one from these true rock prophets of space.

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Edgar Broughton Band - Edgar Broughton Band (Progressive Rock, 1971)

2012-01-17T03:00:00.000-08:00

"There were a lot of people out of their mind on various substances and of course some of those substances aren’t conducive to good social behaviour, and so there were all kinds of overdoses and people really tripped out..."

The most conventional of the Edgar Broughton Band's first (and best) three albums, 1971's Edgar Broughton Band finds the group dispensing with the no-holds-barred mania and theatricality responsible for such classics as "Out Demons Out," "Up Yours," and "Apache Drop Out" and concentrating instead on more musical endeavors. It's an approach that arguably captures the band at their very best at the same time as revealing them at their ugliest.

The opener - Evening over Rooftops - should be compulsory listening for any student of prog. It is a beautiful, throbbing peice with an apocalyptic finale (apparently sung by the Ladybirds). This is followed by a series of tracks ranging from blues rock, to country, to folk in style all overlaid by Broughton's rasping, powerfull vocal and with a pervading, tongue in cheek wit running through the lyric. The album finishes with "For Dr Spock", a liltingly beautiful mainly instrumental piece that finishes with the suggestion that babies might go on strike for a "better world to be born in".

This LP is a Progressive masterpiece and quickly became a cult classic, also known as " the meat album" due to its cover that depicts lots of meat on hangers in a warehouse. The marvellous artwork was a Hipgnosis project; an art design group that dominated the 60's and 70's creating hundreds of album covers for notable musicians such as Pink Floyd, Bad Company, UFO, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and many more. Can you spot the human hanged upside down amongst the meat in the middle?

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Alice in Chains - Dirt (Grunge,1992)

2012-01-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

"We don't look at the sale charts to see how many records we've sold. We know when we've done something good..."

Alice In Chains' second LP is a masterpiece of the Seattle-based sound that deals with topics like addiction, depression and isolation. Whereas Kurt Cobain built himself on his music of Black Sabbath worship without an inkling of skill, Jerry Cantrell continued to show his formidability as a guitar player. This helped to keep Alice In Chains clearly above the majority of their peers, regardless of what degree they could be likened to the Seattle crowd. Alot of this also comes from Layne Staley, whose voice has taken a noticable beating since "Facelift" just two years earlier. His drug addictions had gotten rampant by now, thus helping to influence this album. Staley's own personal demons combined with Cantrell's magnificent songwriting abilities allow "Dirt" to manifest itself as a violent torrent of pain and suffering. As we all know, it was the end of him almost a decade after this album's release and in retrospect adds a sense of ghostly foreshadowing to the majority of the lyrics here. This is a classic album made by a legendary band.

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Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (Psychedelic Rock, 1967)

2012-01-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

"It says “spiritual advisor” in the album’s credits, but Jerry Garcia was really a producer..."

Just a few short months after the release of its debut, Jefferson Airplane underwent several personnel changes, replacing Signe Anderson with Grace Slick and Skip Spence with Spencer Dryden, thereby forming the combustible line-up that lasted through the end of the ’60s. Surrealistic Pillow, the group’s first outing with its new structure, was not only its best effort, but it undeniably also was one of the finest albums ever created, especially for a band soaked in acid and personal conflicts.
Jorma Kaukonen is a great guitarist, playing bluesy leads with great skill. His acoustic song 'Embryonic Journey' creates folky guitar textures that are as mind expanding as it's title. Jack Casady and Specer Dryden create one of rocks finest rhythm sections, the highlight being Casady's heavy and power bass-lines. If there is a virtuoso in this group it is Casady, his bass-lines are amazing, 'White Rabbit' being his claim to fame.
There is indeed a lot of echo in this record, something Frank Zappa would comment on. That contributes much to the albums psychedelic/trippy atmosphere. Jorma distorts his guitar and manages to use a plethora of effects pedals, creating the 'acid rock' guitar sound that became part of the Summer of Love and helped define the San Fransisco scene. This album is a total classic.

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New York Dolls - New York Dolls (Glam Rock/Punk, 1973)

2012-01-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

"We were the first ones. There was no English movement. There was no New York movement. It was the end of the '60s. When they saw us, they coined the phrase "punk music". They didn't coin that phrase when they saw Iggy Pop or MC5..."

Around 1973, as cliched as it sounds, punk rock was taking the U.S. and Britian by storm. Bands like The Stooges and MC5, and were inventing a new style of music, also paving the way for artists like The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Elvis Costello a few years later. One of the most influential groups to take part in this explosions was the New York Dolls. Hailing from N.Y, they burst on to the scene with this 1973 self-titled album, dressed in over the top glam outfits, and reworking old rock n' roll riffs created an anarchic new sound. Often praised as "the missing link between The Rolling Stones and punk", The New York Dolls created punk rock before there was a term for it. Building on the Rolling Stones' dirty Rock and Roll, Mick Jagger's androgyny, girl group pop, the Stooges' anarchic noise, and the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, the New York Dolls created a new form of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal. Their drug-fueled, shambolic performances influenced a generation of musicians in New York (Ramones, Television, Talking Heads) and London, who all went on to form punk bands. And although they self-destructed quickly, their debut remains one of the most popular cult records in Rock and Roll history.

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The Clash - Sandinista! (Punk, 1980)

2012-01-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

"We aren't political..."

Dauntless in its ambition, maniacal in its eclecticism, The Clash’s 1980 follow-up to their classic "London Calling" was a thirty-six track musical revolution named after a communist revolution in Nicaragua. However, 1980's Sandinista! was greeted with derision and bad reviews by much of the press and the music-buying public. A triple-album was too much music it was argued, not only for listeners to comprehend but for The Clash to fill up with quality music. This may be semi-true; it is obvious to those listeners that sit through all 36 songs that the quality control is almost non-apparent. This is a shame as there are many excellent songs present that are lost amongst the murk. It also seems apparent that The Clash's broadened musical horizons, while marking this diverse collection of songs out, leaves the listener stunned as they are catapulted back and forth between ska, reggae, dub, punk, rockabilly, gospel, calypso, soul, disco, funk, rap and bizarre covers of two early Clash classics by (Blockhead's keyboardist) Mickey Gallagher's kids. If this eclectic mix wasn't already enough, on first inspection it seems that little attention has been paid to the running order of the songs as the song styles switch to and fro.
On first listen it’s all a bit much, and most definitely very un-Clash like. However, as you delve deeper you discover brilliant individual songs; some of the best are ones you won't have heard mentioned on Clash compilations, and are instead buried somewhere on the album. In the same way, if you take some songs off the album they sound weak, but in their place on the record they sound perfectly fine – witness the ‘dub’ side (6 – tracks 13-18 on CD2) featuring red-eyed metallic dub cuts of previous songs on the album. Another notable feature of the album is it’s ‘song-cycle’ ideas. This was primarily influenced by Jamaican producers such as Lee Perry (who produced the ‘Complete Control’ single in 1977) and Mikey Dread (who produced the 1980 ‘Bankrobber’ single and Sandinista!), who use techniques of re-using instrumental cuts of songs and re-producing them, dubbing them up, or adding toasts or new vocal melodies. In the Clash book ‘Passion Is A Fashion’ it is noted that The Clash originally began sessions for Sandinista! in Jamaica with Mikey Dread intending to cut a full reggae/dub album. This obviously permeated through the further sessions for the album and the idea of re-using takes from recorded songs placed in the first half of the album and dubbing them up for a place later in the album was kept, demonstrated by ‘One More Time’/’One More Dub’; ‘Something About England’/’Mensforth Hill’; f Music Could Talk’/’Living In Fame’/’Shepherd’s Delight’; ‘Washington Bullets’/’Silicone On Sapphire’; ‘Junco Partner’/’Version Pardner’, as well as the children’s covers of ‘Career Opportunities’ and ‘Guns Of Brixton’. This is interesting to note, as it shows how the band were not just experimenting musically, they were also looking at aspects of presentation and musical culture.
An eclectic experiment is probably the best way to sum up Sandinista!. Some of the experiments work and at times The Clash sound at the very peak of their songwriting; on the other hand these moments are counteracted by failed experiments where the band sound like they are just trying to fill up the record. Still, 36 songs for about a tenner isn't bad and back in 1980 The Clash had to forfeit virtually all their British sales to bring the price of the triple album down to that of a double, resulting in a virtual commercial failure. Every Clash fan should own a copy of this!

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Nirvana - Incesticide (Grunge, 1992)

2012-01-10T15:40:00.000-08:00

"I never wanted to sing..."

This album is actually a compilation of material recorded for the John Peel Sessions, rare singles from Nirvana's tenure with Sub Pop, and previously-unreleased tracks.

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Some of the booklets in American CD releases came with extra pages containing a note written by Kurt Cobain, but DGC stopped printing the extra pages in the late 1990s. Check out Kurt's note:

A while ago, I found myself in bloody exhaust grease London again with an all-consuming urge to hunt for two rare things: back issues of NME rumored to be secretly hidden in glass casings and submerged in the fry vats of every kebab machine in the U.K.and the very-out-of-print first Raincoats LP.
The NME search was a clever, saucy upstart of an attempt to be, uh, nasty. However, the Lord and Julian Cope himself know how we need, need, need, the NME to embrace the unifying hands of our children across this big blue marble and NIRVANA's tarty musical career. So please bless us again -- we'll forever feed off of your high-calorie boggy turbinates.

In an attempt to satisfy the second part of my quest, I went to the Rough Trade shop and, of course, found no Raincoats record in the bin. I then asked the woman behind the counter about it and she said "well, it happens that I'm neighbors with Anna (member of the Raincoats) and she works at an antique shop just a few miles from here." So she drew me a map and I started on my way to Anna's.

Sometime later, I arrived at this elfin shop filled with something else I've compulsively searched for over the past few years -- really old fucked up marionette-like wood carved dolls (quite a few hundred years old). Lots of them... I've fantasized about finding a shop filled with so many. They wouldn't accept my credit card but the dolls were really way too expensive anyway. Anna was there, however, so I politely introduced myself with a fever-red face and explained the reason for my intrusion. I can remember her mean boss almost setting me on fire with his glares. She said "well, I may have a few lying around so, if I find one, I'll send it to you (very polite, very English)." I left feeling like a dork, like I had violated her space, like she probably thought my band was tacky.

A few weeks later I received a vinyl copy of that wonderfully classic scripture with a personalized dust sleeve covered with xeroxed lyrics, pictures, and all the members' signatures. There was also a touching letter from Anna. It made me happier than playing in front of thousands of people each night, rock-god idolization from fans, music industry plankton kissing my ass, and the million dollars I made last year. It was one of the few really important things that I've been blessed with since becoming an untouchable boy genius.

It was as rewarding as touring with Shonen Knife and watching people practically cry with joy at their honesty. It made people happy and it made me happy knowing that I had helped bring them to the UK.

It was as rewarding as the last Vaselines show in Edinburgh. They reformed just to play with us in their home town, probably having no idea how exciting and flattering it was for us (and how nervous we were to meet them).

It was as rewarding as being asked to support Sonic Youth on two tours, totally being taken under their wing and being showed what dignity really means.

It was as rewarding as the drawings Daniel Johnston sent me, or the Stinky Puffs single from Jad Fair's son, or playing on the same bill as Greg Sage in L.A., or being asked to help produce the next Melvins record, or being on the Wipers' compilation, or Thor from T.K. giving me a signed first edition of Naked Lunch, or making a friend like Stephen Pavlovic -- our Australian tour promoter who sent me a Mazzy Star LP on vinyl, or playing "The Money Will Roll Right In" with Mudhoney, or having the power to insist on bringing Bjorn Again to the Reading Festival, or being able to afford to bring my friend Ian along on tour just to have a good time, or paying Calamity Jane five-thousand dollars to be heckled by twenty thousand macho boys in Argentina, or asking my friends Fits Of Depression to play with us at The Seattle Coliseum, or playing with Poison Idea at a No On Nine benefit in Portland organzied by Gus Van Zandt, or being a part of oen of L7's pro-choice benefits in L.A., or kissing Chris and Dave on Saturday Night Live just to spite the homophobes, or meeting Iggy Pop, or playing with The Breeders, Urge Overkill, the T.V. Personalities, The Jesus Lizard, Hole, Dinosour Jr., etc.

While all these things were very special, none were half as rewarding as having a baby with a person who is the supreme example of dignity, ethics and honesty. My wife challenges injustice and the reason her character has been so severely attacked is because she chooses not to function the way the white corporate man insists. His rules for women involve her being submissive, quiet, and non-challenging. When she doesn't follow his rules, the threatened man (who, incidentally, owns an army of devoted traitor women) gets scared.

A big "fuck you" to those of you who have the audacity to claim that I'm so naive and stupid that I would allow myself to be taken advantage of and manipulated.

I don't feel the least bit guilty for commericially exloiting a completely exhausted Rock youth Culture because, at this point in rock history, Punk Rock (while still sacred to some) is, to me, dead and gone. We just wanted to pay tribute to something that helped us to feel as though we had crawled out of the dung heap of conformity. To pay tribute like an Elvis or Jimi Hendrix impersonator in the tradition of a bar band. I'll be the first to admit that we're the 90's version of Cheap Trick or the Knack but the last to admit that it hasn't been rewarding.

At this point I have a request for our fans. If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us -- leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records.

Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song "Polly". I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience. Sorry to be so anally P.C. but that's the way I feel.

Love,

Kurdt (the blonde one)

Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks (Punk, 1977)

2012-01-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

"If we wanted to please everybody we'd end up sounding like the Beatles!"

In the summer of 1977 the UK was gripped with unprecedented patriotic fervour, with street parties being held up and down the country in celebration of the Queen’s 25th anniversary rule (her Silver Jubilee). Into this pandemic outpouring of joy, this euphoric coming together of the nation, stepped a man with green hair, rotten teeth and an “I hate Pink Floyd” t-shirt; who promptly gobbed on the home-made cakes, pissed in the lemonade shandies and tore the flags of his benevolent ruler into tiny little pieces.
In one sense Johnny Rotten was the typical teenager, with his desperate desire to shock, such as the gleeful stressing of “c*nt” in Pretty Vacant and the gratuitous swearing in Bodies. Except that most teenagers are obsessed one way or another with sex, whereas Rotten seems strangely asexual. He doesn’t write about love and relationships. In fact he even had a massive hit with a song saying exactly that (This is Not A Love Song - Public Image Ltd).
His sneering take on the national anthem (“God Save The Queen and her facist regime”) was considered so subversive, the BBC had to rig the charts (really!) to keep it off the no.1 spot. The Sex Pistols had already caused pandemonium with their debut single Anarchy in the UK, causing questions to be asked in Parliament and the national newspapers. The furore forced EMI and then AandM to dismiss them from their recording contract and the BBC to ban them from the airwaves. A record shop that sold the single was prosecuted for indecency.
Steve Jones guitar evokes Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls. Paul Cook’s drumming keeps everything tight. Matlock’s songwriting has plenty enough melodies. With the exception of Sub-mission, the songs are played at two paces: fast and even faster, recalling the Ramones. But it is the iconoclastic Johnny Rotten who single-handedly spawns the UK punk movement; his lyrics spewing all forms of bile and vitriol, dripping with confrontation and screaming defiance.
Before the Sex Pistols, there was heavy metal, rock operas, glam rock and prog rock: all various forms of musical escapism. Yet thirty years after World War II, the country still writhed not just in economic disorder but social disarray, with unresolved issues such as mass immigration, welfare dependency, terrorism and cold war paranoia. Johnny Rotten returns us to earth with a bump, espousing a basic humanist philosophy, an articulate and eloquent diatribe on a post war dream gone wrong:

“You won’t find me working 9 to 5. It’s too much fun being alive. I’m using my feet for my human machine. You won’t find me living for the screen. Are you lonely? All your needs catered? You got your brains dehydrated!” (Problems)

What Rotten is concerned with is the here and now. He attacks all types of invocations to higher powers including God (“I kick you in the brains when you pray to your god” (No Feelings), political institutions (God Save The Queen) and business corporations (EMI). But more specifically he also attacks all forms of escapism (Holiday In The Sun), whether it be drugs (New York), moral mendacity (Liar), indolence (Seventeen) or intellectual pretension (Pretty Vacant). Above all else he urges the primacy of life, forever posing the question: what is a human being? Are we “morons”; “faggots”; “fools”; “stupid people”; “flowers in the dustbin”; “animals”? The genuinely disturbing Bodies reduces the matter of humanity to its barest of bones:

“Die little baby screaming! Body screaming f*cking bloody mess!
Not an animal, it's an abortion! Body! I'm not animal!
Mummy I'm not an abortion.” (Bodies)

This album represented a call to arms of the nation that was far more empowering than any Silver Jubilee. Think of all the bands that were formed on this premise that music was about emotion, not technical proficiency: knowing three chords was sufficient. Think of all the fanzines that sprung up to describe these bands and the independent record labels formed. It wasn’t just the birth of a punk movement and its splinter groups. A whole series of radicalised and energised music movements broke out, grounded in realism and humanism, such as Ska (The Specials), Skinhead (Madness), Mod (The Jam), Rockabilly (The Polecats), New Wave (Elvis Costello), Post Punk (Joy Division), even Folk (Billy Bragg) and Irish Folk music (The Pogues); all defiant, confrontational and politicised; and all revering the Sex Pistols.
Don’t let yourself be fooled by Malcolm McLaren, the band’s avaricious and rent-a-quote manager, that the Sex Pistols were some kind of social experiment that he had fabricated. He was just hanging on to their coat-tails, milking the phenomenon for all it was worth. His subsequent interventions, such as his mockumentary “The great rock and roll swindle”, his replacement of Matlock with Vicious (as bass player), of Rotten with Vicious (as lead vocalist), of Vicious with Ronnie Biggs (a notorious career criminal), were woeful. Despite recording only one album and four singles, the impact of the Sex Pistols was phenomenal.

Let's Go Get It!

Drugs, Inc. - Season 1 Episode 2 - Meth

2012-01-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

Some call methamphetamine the "Devil's Drug." Often made in less than an hour from a common cold remedy, this powerful stimulant is sweeping across the U.S. and Asia. Follow a raid on a suspected meth lab, stake out a neighborhood pharmacy where addicts attempt to accumulate cold and flu pills, and meet a neuroscientist urgently searching for a cure for addiction. See the dangers of meth and the unexpected physical damages caused by the drug.

Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield (Folk Rock, 1966)

2012-01-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

"The break up of Buffalo Springfield was inevitable. After the first few months we were together, it was a struggle making forward progress..."

Apart from the Byrds, no other American band had as great an impact on folk-rock and country-rock -- really, the entire Californian rock sound -- than Buffalo Springfield. The group's formation is the stuff of legend: driving on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay spotted a hearse that Stills was sure belonged to Neil Young, a Canadian he had crossed paths with earlier. Indeed it was, and with the addition of fellow hearse passenger and Canadian Bruce Palmer on bass and ex-Dillard Dewey Martin on drums, the cluster of ex-folkys determined, as the Byrds had just done, to become a rock and roll band.
Buffalo Springfield wasn't together long - they were an active outfit for just over two years, between 1967 and 1968 - but every one of their three albums was noteworthy. Their debut, including their sole big hit (Stills' "For What It's Worth"), established them as the best folk-rock band in the land barring the Byrds, though Springfield was a bit more folk and country oriented.When mentioning folk-rock music, Buffalo Springfield cannot be excluded, as they were one of the most talented of their time. This album surely will not let you down if you are a true classic rock fan.

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AC/DC - Back In Black (Hard Rock, 1980)

2012-01-09T07:16:00.000-08:00

"Nobody got us, the odds were not in our favour. We didn't have a commercial sound. People were just into very light and user-friendly music and they looked at us and said, 'What is this?"

Back in 1979 a little-known, Gateshead-born singer called Brian Johnson was performing with his band Geordie while suffering from appendicitis. Rolling around on the floor in agony and screaming before being wheeled off stage, the gig was watched by enthralled AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott who thought it was part of the show. At the time, AC/DC were riding high on the back of ‘Highway To Hell’, their first album to make an impact in America, and finally, after five years it seemed the band were on the verge of major commercial breakthrough. But less than a year later, Scott was found dead in a car after choking on his own vomit on a night out in London. Soon after his death, AC/DC hired Johnson as their new singer.
It’s debatable how many bands could lose their singer and return with not only their best record to date, but a record that would come to define the very spirit of rock ‘n’ roll itself, that would become a benchmark for other bands to aspire to aim for, but never better. "Back In Black" is of course this album, and having sold over forty-five million copies worldwide, it’s the second best-selling album of all time, second only to Michael Jackson’s "Thriller".
A tribute to their late singer, despite being born out of grief, "Back In Black" explodes in a testosterone-fuelled, strutting slab of sex, booze and fast cars. A raucous celebration of hedonistic excess, it’s ten songs of pure escapism, a middle finger to the mundane existence of everyday life.
In comparison to Scott’s sleazy, bad-boy growl, Johnson shrieks as though someone’s just stabbed him in the eye with a fork, while the Young brothers provide the frenzied solos and guitar riffs that spiral around him at an alarming rate. Sure, a lot of the songs sound the same and, despite being their best album, the prowling riff for "Shake A Leg" or "Let Me Put My Love Into You" could herald the arrival of myriad AC/DC numbers. Progression aint one of the band’s strong points, but hey, why mess with perfection?
Of course, along with "Highway To Hell", the raunch of ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’, anthemic air-punching of ‘Hells Bells’ and the unstoppable, instantly recognisable riff of ‘Back In Black’, have become AC/DC signature songs - as synonymous with the band as Angus Young’s school uniform, duckwalking and perpetually raised arm.
But it’s "Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution" that always caught this writer’s ear. The whole anthem sums up the swaggering, stomp of AC/DC’s pleasure-seeking attitude. And as Johnson screeches “Forget about the past / It’ll always be with us / It’s never gonna die”, it’s clear just how fitting a tribute for rock’s wild man, Bon Scott, "Back In Black" was and still is - the biggest sex-soiled party that rock ever threw.

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Did Bon Scott help shape AC/DC’s milestone album? Malcolm Dome reports.

It’s been one of the greatest controversies in the history of AC/DC: did the late Bon Scott actually write any of the lyrics for the Back In Black album? Bearing in mind that Scott died on February 19, 1980, and that Back In Black came out a mere five months later, is it just possible that he did have an input?
Officially, Bon is not credited with writing anything for the album, but there’s a lot more to this scenario than the superficial.
Firstly, Ian Jeffrey – AC/DC’s tour manager at the time – claims to have a file of papers containing lyrics written by Scott for the record. The band themselves have never denied this story, but insist all of these were scrapped, and that the Young brothers (Angus and Malcolm) and new vocalist Brian Johnson subsequently wrote a whole new batch for Back In Black.
Now, I can personally attest that Bon did indeed write some lyrics in preparation for the record, having seen a few sheets myself. This was just a couple of days prior to the man’s death, at a venue called The Music Machine in Camden, North London (which became the Camden Palace, and is now known as Koko), a popular hang-out for the charismatic frontman and other like-minded musos such as Lemmy.
Bon proudly showed me some of the scribbles he’d put down in preparation for an album he felt would define AC/DC – and open up new possibilities as well. It’s hard to be absolutely accurate from a distance of a quarter of a century, and through the haze of alcohol which enveloped the night, but one line sticks in my mind as being on one of those sheets: ‘She told me to come, but I was already there.’ A renowned lyric from the song You Shook Me All Night Long, it has Bon’s trademark all over it – a neatly worked double entendre that fits in with the track record of a man who wrote Big Balls, The Jack and other similarly styled songs.
But there’s further, albeit circumstantial, evidence that leads AC/DC aficionados to suggest Bon Scott did play a role on Back In Black.
Compare lyrics like ‘She’s using her head’ from Give The Dog A Bone with the Scott-era output of the band, and then with the subsequent albums written with Johnson; it seems clear that they belong more to the former’s approach than the latter’s. The fact is that Scott was a sprightly weaver of streetwise words, whereas Johnson is a lot less subtle.
Of course, unless somebody unearths the actual sheaves of paper on which Scott wrote his ideas for Back In Black there will never be any proof of his involvement. And it must be pointed out nobody has ever doubted that the majority of the lyrics were written after his death. However, the nagging doubt remains. One fuelled when the Bonfire box set was released in 1997, containing solely Bon Scott recordings, plus (inexplicably) Back In Black. Just why was Back In Black included? Was that ’DC’s way of indirectly acknowledging their debt to him on that album?But, as a final thought, let’s scupper one myth. Bon Scott never recorded any demos for Back In Black. Over the years, so many have insisted that these tapes exist. However, don’t you think if that were case, then someone, somewhere, would have got them into the public domain? It’s just another myth surrounding this classic band.

Metallica - ...And Justice For All (Metal, 1988)

2012-01-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

"There was no place else to go with the progressive, nutty, sideways side of Metallica, and I’m so proud of the fact that, in some way, that album is kind of the epitome of that progressive side of us up through the ’80s..."

The video for Metallica's classic "One" uses images and monologues from the 1971 movie "Johnny Got His Gun"

The most immediately noticeable aspect of ...And Justice for All isn't Metallica's still-growing compositional sophistication or the apocalyptic lyrical portrait of a society in decay. It's the weird, bone-dry production. The guitars buzz thinly, the drums click more than pound, and Jason Newsted's bass is nearly inaudible. It's a shame that the cold, flat sound obscures some of the sonic details, because ...And Justice for All is Metallica's most complex, ambitious work; every song is an expanded suite, with only two of the nine tracks clocking in at under six minutes. It takes a while to sink in, but given time, ...And Justice for All reveals some of Metallica's best material. It also reveals the band's determination to pull out all the compositional stops, throwing in extra sections, odd-numbered time signatures, and dense webs of guitar arpeggios and harmonized leads. At times, it seems like they're doing it simply because they can; parts of the album lack direction and probably should have been trimmed for momentum's sake. Pacing-wise, the album again loosely follows the blueprint of Ride the Lightning, though not as closely as Master of Puppets. This time around, the fourth song - once again a ballad with a thrashy chorus and outro - gave the band one of the unlikeliest Top 40 singles in history; "One" was an instant metal classic, based on Dalton Trumbo's antiwar novel Johnny Got His Gun and climaxing with a pulverizing machine-gun imitation. As a whole, opinions on ...And Justice for All remain somewhat divided: some think it's a slightly flawed masterpiece and the pinnacle of Metallica's progressive years; others see it as bloated and overambitious. Either interpretation can be readily supported, but the band had clearly taken this direction as far as it could. The difficulty of reproducing these songs in concert eventually convinced Metallica that it was time for an overhaul.

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Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland (Psychedelic/Rock/Fusion, 1968)

2012-01-09T06:48:00.000-08:00

"Actually, this is more like a free-style thing..."

The front and back of the alternate "nude" cover from the UK edition. Since the intended artwork did not arrive in time to press the album, a cover of naked women lounging in front of a black background was issued in its place.

Nearly four decades ago, a blazing comet crashed into London’s burgeoning music scene and exploded in a cloud of purple haze. Arriving from an entirely different artistic universe, that comet, better known as James Marshall Hendrix, single-handedly changed the face of ‘60s pop culture. Everything about this axe-wielding apparition was different: his looks, his playing style, his ability to create. Even the name of his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, foretold the sensory journey he was to lead. He was light-years ahead of his time, and quite possibly too good for his own good, as his visit proved to be a short one. What Hendrix did in his brief career, however, was raise the bar of creativity to impossible heights, while cementing a legacy as an innovator, visionary, and icon.
Hendrix’ prowess as a guitarist initially left Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend slack-jawed in disbelief, and nearly made them hang up their own instruments out of frustration. Yet Jimi’s talent was not predicated on mere physical dexterity, but more so on spirit. The guitar was a part of him; an appendage that was directly connected to his head and heart and channeled through his soul. The sounds and emotions emanating from his lefty-strung Fender Stratocaster and amps were by-products of what Hendrix could see and feel within himself. So profound were his musical and spiritual sensibilities that his accomplishments still elicit wonder and amazement all these years later.
The scope and breadth of the Hendrix catalogue belies the fact that only three studio albums were recorded during his lifetime. Beginning with 1967’s Are You Experienced and progressing through Axis: Bold As Love (also from 1967) to 1968’s Electric Ladyland, Hendrix matured as an artist at an unbelievably rapid rate. His debut recording showcased unbridled flair and flash; it was anchored by the classic psychedelic excursions of “Fire”, “Foxy Lady”, “Manic Depression”, and “3rd Stone From the Sun”, while also hinting at Hendrix’ deep affinity for American Delta Blues with the inclusions of “Hey Joe” and “Red House”. Axis went a step further as Hendrix deftly mingled the ethereal beauty of “Little Wing” and “Castles Made Of Sand” with the acid test mind expansion of “If 6 Was 9”.
Hendrix’s true genius was not fully recognized until his final studio album; Electric Ladyland was an exhaustive labor of love, one that blended aspects of Jimi’s past, present, and future into a bubbling cauldron of sonic energy and expression. Originally released as a double album, (adorned with a controversial gatefold photo of unclad female worshippers in the UK), its sixteen tracks ebb and flow with a precise irregularity that affords listeners a fleeting glimpse into the recesses of Hendrix’ artistic psyche. It also features contributing guest artists including Buddy Miles, Jack Casady, Brian Jones, Al Kooper, and Steve Winwood, and boasts the engineering wizardry of Eddie Kramer.
Beginning with “...And the Gods Made Love”, Jimi’s uncanny ability to harness imagination is on full display. No one but Hendrix could conjure, much less transcribe, appropriate studio effects to approximate a deific act of intimacy.
Mixing board magic aside, the album contains the most thought-provoking and moving material Hendrix had written and performed to date. Painting a canvas with broad aural brush strokes, Jimi transitions effortlessly from the gracefully poetic “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)” to the determined punch of “Crosstown Traffic” and “Long Hot Summer Night”, from the rollicking cover of Earl King’s “Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)” to the haunting melancholy of “Burning of the Midnight Lamp”, from the relaxed serenity of “Rainy Day, Dream Away” to the urgent charge of “House Burning Down”. Even the jaunty Noel Redding-penned “Little Miss Strange” is smartly contrasted against the blues-drenched “Voodoo Chile” and “Gypsy Eyes”, evidence that Hendrix was willing to deviate from the norm at every twist and turn, traveling in directions even he may not have initially expected.
As wonderfully diverse as Electric Ladyland’s material is, there are two moments that transcend the album’s greatness, albeit it in different ways. A devotee and admirer of the music of Bob Dylan, Hendrix chose to cover the classic “All Along the Watchtower” but what he did in the process was to reinvent the song, bettering the original and making it his own. The fervency of Hendrix’ playing and vocals make this version such a powerful statement that it has evolved into arguably the best cover of a rock song ever.
The album’s creative zenith, however, is reached with the track, “1983 … (A Merman I Should Turn To Be).” Not merely a song, it is a thirteen and one half minute epic wringed by pointed social commentary, optimistic dreams, and idealistic fantasy, all held together by mind-bending musical experimentation. It is a tale of love and life that showcases Hendrix’s skills as romance writer and passionately cerebral artist, one who could weave words and sounds into a vivid pictorial tapestry. A rare and exquisite composition that can transport a willing listener into another dimension, “1983” is as majestic in its grandeur as it is awe inspiring in its vision of Atlantean Nirvana.
Perhaps the ultimate significance of Electric Ladyland comes by way of Jimi’s subconscious knowledge that it was to be his crowning achievement. He did, after all, leave a cryptic message amidst the soaring guitars of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” when he stated, “If I don’t meet you no more in this world, then I’ll meet you in the next one, and don’t be late, don’t be late”. It can be argued that after the album was recorded, Jimi was never the same. Frustrated by public expectations and professional obligations, he soon grew weary of the business of music, departing this world 18 September 1970 to continue on his cosmic travels. Although he moved on far too quickly, his energy and artistry still resonate in the recorded material that remains.

Let's Go Get It!

The Damned - Damned Damned Damned (Punk, 1977)

2012-01-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

"The "sound" is coming from boredom, mostly. There was nothing at first so we decided to create the sound. That's what we've done I hope!"

Under the lead of bassist/ vocalist Captain Sensible, and with their chief songwriter/ guitar player Brian James, The Damned were one of the very first British punk rock acts, second only to the Sex Pistols. In 1977, their debut "Damned, Damned, Damned" proved to mark them as one of the preceding fathers of Punk Rock. It fit all the credentials as to what the criteria of punk required- Lots of distortion, snarling vocals, wit, political criticism, and most of all, simplicity and fury. At just over the thirty minute mark, "Damned Damned Damned" was supplied brevity with all the fire and filth you would expect from lower class British kids. What they created was a pivotal Punk album that combined unbelievably tight songwriting energy and more importantly a sense of humor. Fans of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stooges etc, already know this; this album is a classic in every sense of the word.

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Clip Of the Week

2012-01-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

Hidden Amongst Us - The Machine (Hard Rock, 2011)

2011-12-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

Hidden Amongst Us are Brent Pettersson (vocals), Michael Grgas (guitar, programming), Ken Colosa (bass, programming) and Henry Alexander Vartan (guitars).Three former members have opened up the main stage for the likes of Danzig, Sepultura and Ozzy Osbourne all along the East Coast and Canada. However they never got to record their debut album which was postponed until last year when Brent Pettersson and Michael Grgas re-united. Their debut is a fast and tight heavy rock album with Orwellian references and an overall sleaze of minor grunge anthems. Guitar work and production is its brightest spot- the heavy riffs and Petterssons' thick and virile screaming reminded me a lot of Soundgarden. Had this remarkably potent debut been less restrictive and we would have a landmark album.

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Chocolate Watchband - At The Love-In Live! (Psychedelic/Garage, 1999)

2011-12-19T01:54:00.000-08:00

"We would do things to songs that had not been recorded on the songs. A song could last fifteen minutes for us, that's no big deal. And it would be different, and it would be fun. And each night we performed it, it would be different!"

In the mid-1960's, something new emerged from the garages of America. It was rough, primal and sizzling with energy that reflected the mindset of the most affluent generation to appear on the face of the Earth. It's been described as an irresistible mixture of electric-folk rock, Far East vibrations, mind-blowing surfing guitar solos and anti-establishment rebellion that expoused free love. It employed terse lyrics and a curious mixture of new sounds that became the foundation, in years to come, for punk, grunge and alternative rock. It exuded raw sensuality, love and anger for injustice, as well as unlimited hope for the future. It literally shaped and defined a new generation. It was the first musical language of the young Boomers and it was called "Garage Rock". And, when discussing legendary psychedelic garage rock of the 1960s, the Chocolate Watchband is at the top of the list. Do keep in mind however that this is a 1999 recording of the bands' reunion so this is actually men in their fifties or so performing. It's raw and powerful nontheless, fans of the 13th Floor Elevators, the Electric Prunes, the Sonics, MC5 etc will be very pleased!

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Frank Zappa - Waka/Jawaka (Jazz Fusion, 1972)

2011-12-16T02:13:00.000-08:00

"Some people just expect of musicians to be robots you know, making little noises that they can identify with...I don't think that's what music is all about!"

Yet another Frank Zappa masterpiece, one of the three he wrote whilst recovering from the assault of a fan a year back.

Let's Go Get It!

Clip Of The Week

2011-12-15T07:03:00.001-08:00

Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77 (Rock/New Wave, 1977)

2011-12-15T06:57:00.000-08:00

"The better a singers's voice, the harder it is to believe what he is saying!"

Talking Heads: 77 exhibits a band that had a unique vision with few obvious influences and even fewer copycats. Lumped in with punk music due to the lack of touchstones and the frequency of appearances alongside fellow New York scenes-ters, the Heads’ first record, while being an extremely influential release among college and alternative musicians, presented nothing that could be characterized as a traditional punk sound. Comparisons may exist between the Heads and Television, but the Heads lacked the virtuoso guitarists found in Television and made up for it with the stellar rhythm section of drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth. Their sound was rounded out by keyboardist and occasional guitarist Jerry Harrison and frontman David Byrne.
Talking Heads can throw you off balance, but grabb your attention with a sound that seems at first alternately threatening and goofy. The music was undeniably catchy, even at its most ominous, especially on "Psycho Killer," Byrne's supreme statement of demented purpose. Amazingly, that song made the singles chart for a few weeks, evidence of the group's quirky appeal, but the album was not a big hit, and it remained unclear whether Talking Heads spoke only the secret language of the urban arts types or whether that could be translated into the more common tongue of hip pop culture. In any case, they had succeeded as artists, using existing elements in an unusual combination to create something new that still managed to be oddly familiar. And that made Talking Heads: 77 a landmark album.

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J.J Cale - Troubadour (Blues Rock, 1976)

2011-12-13T04:55:00.000-08:00

"Eric Clapton, of course, cut a bunch of my songs. He's the reason I don't have to work for a living anymore!"

"Cocaine" became a Clapton hit although its written by J.J Cale

J.J Cale is a "musician's musician" meaning he is a lot more recognized and respected by his fellow peers and musicians than the average listeners on the radio, which is odd since he has written many hits credited to others; Dire Straits, Eric Clapton, Santana. This is one of his best records, nice laid-back blues you 'll love.

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The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East/West (Blues Rock, 1966)

2011-12-13T04:34:00.000-08:00

"It's hard to put into words what the real blues is and what it isn't. It's when there's an absolute confidence about it and you're not studiously trying to cop something...If Paul opens his mouth to sing it would have to be blues, because that's his thing!"

East-West is the second album by The Butterfield Blues Band, released in 1966 on Elektra Records. It was recorded at the famed Chess Studios in Chicago. It peaked at #65 on the Billboard chart. Like the band's record debut, this album features traditional blues covers and the guitar work of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. The album includes two extended jams at the instigation of Bloomfield following the group's successful appearance at The Fillmore in San Francisco alongside Jefferson Airplane. The title track "East-West" used elements of modal jazz as introduced by Miles Davis on his ground-breaking "Kind of Blue" album. Bloomfield had become enamored of work by John Coltrane in that area, especially his incorporation of ideas from Indian raga music. The title song was reportedly inspired by an all-night LSD trip that "East-West"'s primary songwriter Mike Bloomfield experienced in the fall of 1965, during which the late guitarist said he'd had a revelation into the workings of Indian music. The album liner notes observe that the song "East-West" was an exploration of music that moved modally, rather than through chord changes.'East-West' can be heard as part of what sparked the West Coast's rock revolution, in which such song structures with extended improvisatory passages became commonplace. The Butterfield Blues Band has been called one of the greatest bands of the rock era. With 'East-West', above any other extended piece of the mid-Sixties, a rock band finally achieved a version of the musical freedom that free jazz had found a few years earlier.

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