Sunday, January 27, 2019

Short Rounds: Badfinger, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Billy Bremner, Dave Davies & Midnight Oil (2019)

Badfinger's Wish You Were Here
New album releases in 150 words or less...

Badfinger – Wish You Were Here (Real Gone Music)
The Badfinger story is one of malfeasance and mismanagement that robbed the popular U.K. band of both money and momentum – a tale for another time, perhaps. The last gasp by the band’s best-known incarnation, Wish You Were Here is a stunning, critically-acclaimed collection of rock ‘n’ roll and power-pop that, if not for insurmountable legal issues, could have been huge. I count at least three hit singles here – the grandly-orchestrated “Dennis” (beating ELO at their own game), the enchanting “Know One Knows” (in the vein of earlier hit “Day After Day”), and the country-flavored “You’re So Fine,” which is what the Beatles might have sounded like if they hailed from Nashville. This expanded CD version doubles-down on the goodness with nine bonus tracks, mostly alternative mixes save for the unreleased gem “Queen of Darkness.” Call it Badfinger’s “lost album,” Wish You Were Here is a classic waiting to be rediscovered. Grade: A   BUY!

Big Brother & the Holding Company's Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills
Big Brother & the Holding Company – Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills (Legacy Recordings)
San Francisco’s Big Brother & the Holding Company made a star of singer Janis Joplin with their classic Cheap Thrills album, but there was a lot of material left behind that further cements the album’s status as a landmark of rock ‘n’ roll. Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills is a two-disc, 30-track collection of 29 mostly-unreleased alternate takes from the album’s original recording sessions along with a rare, blistering live performance of “Ball and Chain” from Winterland Ballroom that highlights Joplin’s whiskey-soaked vocals and the twin-guitar attack of the underrated Sam Andrew and James Gurley. There’s nothing truly revelatory here, save for the mesmerizing “Oh, Sweet Mary,” on which Janis shares her vocals. Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills will appeal mostly to the hardcore faithful, but it’s fun (and a little intriguing) to hear the band’s varying approaches to well-worn and familiar material like “Summertime” and “Piece of My Heart.” Grade: B   BUY!

Billy Bremner's Singled Out
Billy Bremner – Singled Out (RPM Records, U.K.)
British rocker Billy Bremner is best known for his tenure with the band Rockpile and association with Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, having contributed musically to solo albums by both artists. But the singer, songwriter, and guitarist has enjoyed a lengthy solo career dating back to the early 1980s, with a handful of albums to his name. Singled Out is a career-spanning, 21-track compilation, and it’s a dandy, indeed! Bremner wrote “Trouble Boys,” a hit for Edmunds, and was an early Stiff Records label artist in the power-pop vein of Lowe, but he’s often been overshadowed by his friends. Singled Out puts his talents on display with smart wordplay and wiry fretwork as on the lovely “I See It In Your Eyes,” the rockabilly-tinged “Fire In My Pocket,” or his first single, the loping “Loud Music In Cars.” Bremner’s masterful style of rootsy pub-rock is timeless, his talent seemingly endless. RIYL Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Brinsley Schwarz, Rockpile. Grade: A   BUY! 

Dave Davies's Decade
Dave Davies – Decade (Green Amp Records)
Ray Davies is lauded – and rightfully so – as the songwriting genius behind legendary British rockers the Kinks. Several songs written by brother Dave through the years has shown that there was more than one creative spark in the band, and Decade proves this in spades. A collection of 13 previously-unreleased songs recorded by Dave Davies between 1971 and 1979, Decade offers a something for everybody, from the country-flavored pub-rock of “Midnight Sun” and the soulful “If You Are Leaving” to the bluesy “Mystic Woman” and the swirling prog-psych of “Mr. Moon.” Brother Dave is a top-notch wordsmith in his own right, and if his vocals aren’t as melodic as Ray’s, they’re not half-bad either, and his immense six-string skills imbue each performance with the same sort of energy and emotion that he brought to his full-time band’s work. You don’t have to be a Kinks fan to love Dave Davies. Grade: A-   BUY!

Midnight Oil's Armistice Day
Midnight Oil – Armistice Day: Live at the Domain, Sidney (Sony Music, Australia)
Australia’s favorite rockers returned in 2017 after a 15-year hiatus, the band’s best-known line-up bringing their lyrical message of social justice and environmental awareness to over 500,000 fans with 77 shows around the world on “The Great Circle” tour. The tour ended, appropriately, in Sydney, which is where Armistice Day was recorded. Featuring an explosive 26 performances across two discs and packaged in a handsome square-bound book with lots of photos, it’s really like they never left! Vocalist Peter Garrett still roars like a wounded lion across familiar songs like “Beds Are Burning,” “Blue Sky Mine,” “Redneck Wonderland,” and “Forgotten Years” while guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey destroy everything in their path. There are a lot of great “deep tracks” from the band’s extensive catalog included here as well and, overall, Midnight Oil sounds every bit as powerful and passionate on Armistice Day as they did 30+ years ago. Grade: A+   BUY!

Previously on That Devil Music.com:
Short Rounds, December 2018: Doug Deming, Tom Guerra, Handsome Jack, Tom Morello, NRBQ & Unicorn

Short Rounds, November 2018: Joe Bonamassa, Peter Holsapple & Alex Chilton, Winston Jarrett, Permanent Green Light, The Posies & Rolling River Royalty
Short Rounds, October 2018: Mike Felten, Eric Lindell, John McLaughlin, Daniel Seymour & Mark Robinson, Bob Seger & Ska Authentic

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Blues Singer Michael Ledbetter, R.I.P.

Michael Ledbetter, R.I.P.
We're saddened to report on the death of blues singer Michael Ledbetter, an incredible talent who was only 33 years old at the time of his passing.

Ledbetter came to prominence singing with Chicago blues veteran Nick Moss's band, first appearing on record the Nick Moss Band's critically-acclaimed 2014 album Time Ain't Free. Ledbetter toured with the NMB through the band's 2016 album From the Root to the Fruit, spending seven years with Moss before striking out on his own. Ledbetter would leter form the Welch Ledbetter Connection with guitarist 'Monster' Mike Welch, releasing the Right Place, Right Time album in 2017.

On his Facebook page, Moss wrote "my little brother shone brighter than the flames he left behind when he walked off the stage." The best way to remember Ledbetter's enormous talent is hear him sing. These videos provide a taste of what the blues world has lost. R.I.P.

For more on Michael Ledbetter, check out Marty Gunther's interview with the artist from the October 2018 issue of Blues Blast magazine...




Archive Review: Nick Moss Band's Time Ain't Free (2014)

Nick Moss Band's Time Ain't Free
It’s been nearly 13 years now since guitarist Nick Moss released his debut album, 2001’s Got A New Plan, and better than two decades since he first broke onto the scene as the bass player for bluesmen Buddy Scott and, later, Jimmy Dawkins. After all this time, Nick’s fans have become somewhat complacent, expecting the same high-octane Chicago blues performances that Moss has become known for on every album release, maybe with a little blues-rock influences thrown in for good measure as they were on his recent Here I Am (2011) and Privileged (2010) albums. After all this time, too many expect too little from the ever-surprising Mr. Moss.

Credited to the Nick Moss Band, Time Ain’t Free was crowdfunded through the Indiegogo website. This was Nick’s first surprise – although the album is released under Moss’s independent Blue Bella Records label, a big chunk of the money to finish up the recording, packaging, and publicity was supplied by the guitarist’s hardcore fan base (yours truly included). It proves to be a good investment, Time Ain’t Free the hottest, most satisfying slab o’ blues and blues-rock that Moss has released to date. Crowdfunding is the future for indie artists, allowing them to connect with the fan directly and allowing them the freedom to make the music they want without interference from a label or, in Moss’s case, with the financial freedom to push yourself in the studio and make something truly special.

Nick Moss Band’s Time Ain’t Free


The other big surprise with Time Ain’t Free is the addition of singer and guitarist Michael Ledbetter, a descendent of folk-blues giant Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter. Moss has always had a keen eye for talent, whether in choosing the fine musicians he had as his former band the Flip Tops, or those talents he used on his two previous solo albums. With Ledbetter, though, he’s found a massive talent to not only handle nearly half the vocals (thus freeing Moss to concentrate on guitar), but also to share in the songwriting. The wisdom in this choice is glaringly apparent with Ledbetter’s first turn at the microphone, the shuffling, greasy blues tune “Light It Up.” An original, mid-tempo Chicago blues-styled romp, Ledbetter does an incredible job of dancing atop the song’s spry rhythms with his warm, lively vocals. Moss’s funky guitar strains play nicely off Bryan Rogers’ piano, creating an electric track that is going to translate well to a live setting.

But first Moss ignites Time Ain’t Free with a pair of solid performances in “She Wants It” and “Was I Ever Heard.” The former offers up a Southern rock ‘n’ soul styled groove with slippery fretwork, honky-tonk piano, and a slinky rhythm while the latter throws some greasy guitar into the bucket above a choogling, locomotive rhythm, Moss’s vocals underplayed in favor of the unrelenting, driving beat and subtle, circular guitarplay reminiscent of R.L. Burnside’s Mississippi Hill Country drone. Ledbetter jumps back into the fray with “Fare Thee Well,” a smooth-as-silk urban blues tune with smoldering vocals and frayed emotion pouring out of every one of Moss’s guitar licks. Ledbetter’s incredible vocal turn here reminds of Bobby “Blue” Bland, every inflection hitting a soulful high while Moss lays down a tearjerker solo.

Death Letter Blues


The album’s title track is a monster blues-rocker with muscular fretwork and a fluid groove, drummer Patrick Seals really shining with an explosive performance. Moss’s vocals are a bit slight here, but his guitar sings loud and clear with imaginative, fleet-fingered solos. “Been Gone So Long” is cut from a similar cloth, with a bit of Canned Heat-styled boogie-blues flavor rolling low and slow in the background as Moss roars out the lyrics above Rogers’ chiming keys, the guitarist slicing and dicing the arrangement with a switchblade solo as deadly as a knife’s edge which not-so-subtly punctuates the song’s heartbreak lyrics. The gospel-tinged “I Want The World To Know” offers a stark contrast, making the best use of Ledbetter’s soulful voice on a tradition-clad, old-school romantic blues ballad.

It’s a true measure of a band in how well they handle a cover of a blues standard like Moss and crew do here on Son House’s classic “Death Letter Blues.” The band amps up the Delta blues tune with soaring guitars and raucous, chaotic instrumentation that brings the 90-year-old song into the 21st century with a bang. Moss’s subtle but strong vocals might pay homage to the great Delta legend’s original, but his stinging six-string and Rogers’ furious keyboards are more reminiscent of late 1960s British blues-rock bands like Cream or Free. The mesmerizing throwback tune “Walkin’ On A Ledge” blends Isaac Hayes with Curtis Mayfield, Ledbetter’s excellent vocals supported by backing singers and an infectious groove that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in the Stax Records studio circa 1971. Time Ain’t Free closes with “(Big Mike’s) Sweet Potato Pie,” a rowdy instrumental with a definite 1970s era vibe that features lightning-fast keyboard runs, a rock steady beat, and shards of slaphappy guitar and bass.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line


With his tenth studio album, bluesman Nick Moss proves that he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Time Ain’t Free is his bluesiest studio recording in years, and potentially his most acclaimed, the guitarist downplaying his classic rock tendencies in favor of a carefully-achieved balance of blues, rock, and soul music that flows out of your speakers like honey from the hive. The addition of Ledbetter on vocals provides a creative new facet to the band, while Moss continues to expand and experiment with his sonic palette, bringing a myriad of fresh flavors to his guitar playing and exploring new directions with his songwriting. Consider Time Ain’t Free as another winner from one of blues music’s most innovative talents and exciting live performers. (Blue Bella Records, released March 18, 2014)




Saturday, January 19, 2019

Archive Review: Jello Biafra & the Melvins' Sieg Howdy! (2005)

Jello Biafra with the Melvins' Sieg Howdy!
America loves a sequel! How else could you explain the inexplicable success and dubious achievements of American Idol, the gasoline crisis, or George W. Bush (Reagan-lite)? America seems to love the comforts of familiarity…but familiarity inevitably breeds contempt, and where there’s contempt, you’ll find Jello Biafra. For better than a quarter-century now, Biafra has given voice to our contempt, first through his groundbreaking and influential hardcore punk band the Dead Kennedys and later through a series of spoken word albums and musical collaborations with fellow travelers like Mojo Nixon, DOA, and Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, among others. It’s safe to say, however, that Biafra has found his perfect musical foils in the Melvins.

Last year, Biafra the punk icon teamed up with grunge forefathers the Melvins to create a red-hot blast furnace of an album in Never Breathe What You Can’t See. The collaboration proved to be Jello’s most productive and critically-acclaimed since the heyday of the Dead Kennedys, and your humble scribe echoed the sentiments of many punk fans when, reviewing that album, I stated that “hopefully this will be but the first of several collaborations between Biafra and the Melvins.” Like a kid eagerly ripping away wrapping paper on Christmas morning, the Reverend was overjoyed to open a recent package from Alternative Tentacles to find a copy of Sieg Howdy!

Jello Biafra photo courtesy Alternative Tentacles Records
I’m here to tell you boys and girls, that not only does Sieg Howdy! meet the high expectations created by its predecessor, in many ways the new album passes Never Breathe What You Can’t See like a DeTomaso Pantera screaming past a Volkswagen on the autobahn. Biafra sounds more comfortable working with King Buzzo and the boys, easily delivering his most spirited vocal performance in a decade or more. On the flip side, the Melvins also sound more natural backing Biafra, the band mixing shades of DK-inspired hardcore thrash alongside their trademarked metallic sludge and riff-happy, feedback-ridden instrumentation. The resulting sound is simply invigorating, a heady musical elixir that kicks the stall like a horny, drunken mule.

The songs on Sieg Howdy! also showcase some of Biafra’s most inspired lyrics since Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Tackling issues like the “War On Terrorism,” Christian extremism, the Middle East, and Republican politics with deadly accuracy and more than a little intelligent humor, Biafra again proves that the pen is mightier than the sword in spreading seditious ideas and satirizing your enemy. Jello updates one of his better earlier songs as “Kali-Fornia Uber Alles 21st Century” to include Governor Ah-nold’s political ambitions, while a spot-on cover of Alice Cooper’s “Halo of Flies” recreates the original song’s reckless menace. Biafra even takes aim at the complacency of young punk fans with “Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)” and puts his relationship with his former band members in perspective with “Voted Off the Island.”

Whenever times have gotten dark, we have always been able to depend on Jello Biafra to shine a light on greed, injustice, and hypocrisy. With the Melvins at his side, Biafra has delivered his most incendiary collection yet in Sieg Howdy! Ignore this album at your own peril ‘cause it rocks like Friday night at a Delta juke joint and displays more intelligent thought than the entire Bush administration combined. (Alternative Tentacles Records, released September 27, 2005)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2005

Alternative Tentacles is reissuing Sieg Howdy! on vinyl – get it now!


Monday, January 7, 2019

Book Review: Randy Fox's Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story (2018)

Randy Fox's Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story
One needn’t be a historian to recognize the widespread changes that the United States experienced in the wake of World War II. As the country’s industrial capacity turned from servicing the war machine to manufacturing washing machines, American society experienced an economic boom unparalleled in American history. With the growth of a relatively-wealthy consumerist society also came a post-war “baby boom” of children that largely came of age in the 1950s and ‘60s, further turbocharging the economy.

As the U.S. economy grew, so too did the country’s appetite for entertainment, which resulted in a rapid growth of the film and music industries as well as technological advances that resulted in an expanding number of radio stations across the country and prompted the evolution of television programming. Large numbers of teenagers and adults had disposable cash to spend in the 1950s, which directly fueled the sales of pop, country, and rhythm & blues records that both parents and their children would hear playing on their favorite radio stations.

Mr. Ernest Young would step into this growing market for music in the late 1940s. The Nashville businessman had made a respectable living from placing popular coin-operated ‘flipperless’ pinball machines in stores, restaurants, and bars in the Middle Tennessee area. Patrons would rack up “free games” on the machine that were paid off in cash, making it a form of gambling in the eyes of the strict Southern Baptist church. It was a dirty business, though, requiring regular pay-offs to the police in order to continue operations without being raided and your machines seized. By the end of the decade, Young had divested himself of the pinball business to focus on a new and profitable fad – jukeboxes, which played 7” vinyl records.

Jukeboxes took in nickels and, if placed in the right environment (like, say, the Elliston Place Soda Shop), would spit out tidy profits. But records had to be swapped out frequently, so that the jukebox had a good selection of current hits to ensure regular plays, leaving the operator with a surplus of 45rpm records. Young responded to the challenge by opening Ernie’s Record Mart in downtown Nashville, where he sold new and used 45s (from his jukebox stock). With regular advertising on local clear-channel AM radio station WLAC (a 50,000-watt behemoth that could be heard from Canada to the Caribbean and across most of the United States), Ernie’s Record Mart branched out beyond its retail storefront, launching a successful mail-order operation. The store would ship out records to eager buyers across the globe throughout the 1950s and well into the ‘70s.

Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story


Excello Records' Slim Harpo 45
Young realized that he could “double dip” and make more money if he produced records as well as selling them so, in 1951, he launched Nashboro Records as a label specializing in African-American gospel music. Nashboro would release records that would subsequently be promoted during WLAC’s Sunday night gospel program and sold via mail order by Ernie’s Record Mart. Author Randy Fox’s excellent book Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story tells the rest of the tale, how Young expanded his operation to include a song publishing company and, most importantly, forming the legendary Excello Records label in 1953 to take advantage of the growing popularity of R&B and blues music.

Excello Records is a name well-known to rock ‘n’ roll aficionados, record collectors, and music historians who obsess over such things. The Nashville-based label made a deal with a Louisiana-based producer (J.D. Miller) to provide master recordings which resulted in Excello releases by artists like Slim Harpo, Lightnin’ Slim, Tabby Thomas, and Lazy Lester, among others – classic sides that would spark the imagination of musicians and fans on both sides of the pond. Excello also released music by homegrown R&B singers like Marion James, Roscoe Shelton, and Arthur Gunter, whose song “Baby Let’s Play House” would be covered by Elvis Presley, resulting in a financial windfall for both the artist and Excello’s in-house publishing company.

Fox’s Shake Your Hips tells a story of, basically, three different companies, beginning with the original version of Excello as founded by Ernest Young, writing of its importance and influence on popular music. The second version of Excello/Nashboro was owned by the local Crescent Company, which bought the entire operation – the labels, the publishing, the record store, and the mail order business – from Young when he retired in 1966. Crescent wisely kept longtime employees Shannon Williams and Dorothy Keaton, and hired a sympathetic manager in Bud Howell to run the labels. This version of the company continued to thrive well into the 1970s, with Williams’ love of gospel music and production talents allowing Nashboro to expand its influence in the black gospel community while Excello would ride workhorse Slim Harpo while trying to capture a measure of the growing soul, funk, and rock ‘n’ roll markets.

The third company, however, was the broken-down version operated by Los Angeles-based music firm AVI, Inc. which bought the operation from Crescent in 1980. The company’s fortunes had been waning for several years, with neither Excello nor Nashboro able to grow their market share in the face of ever-changing trends in music. Both labels had essentially ceased to exist by 1977, releasing their final records mere months before founder Ernest Young’s death later that year. AVI’s interest in the labels’ properties was negligible save for a few licensing deals. AVI itself was purchased by an investment group led by a former Motown executive, which resulted in a slate of CD reissues of Excello label releases during the mid-to-late 1990s. They would, in turn, be subsequently gobbled up by the multi-national Universal Music conglomerate in 1997, with UMe barely scratching the surface of the deep Excello catalog since.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line


Excello's The Best of Slim Harpo
That, in a nutshell, is a capsule history of Nashville’s Excello Records label. Fox’s Shake Your Hips provides the full story of this historic independent record label with a narrative delivered at a breakneck pace. Fox’s well-researched tome is chockful of details on artists and record releases without ever getting bogged down in arcane minutiae. It’s a quick read, and a fascinating story for any true-blue R&B fan – I ran through the book in two (lengthy) sessions – Fox managing to capture the zeitgeist of the era within the pages of Shake Your Hips.

A casual acquaintance of mine from my Nashville days, I can avow that Randy Fox is particularly suited to documenting Excello’s storied history; he’s been walking this particular beat of obscure R&B history for a long time and is deeply knowledgeable of the music and its artists. It’s a tale of a different time, to be sure, but an important one nonetheless, Shake Your Hips an entertaining as well as educational history of a record label that made waves beyond its commercial fortunes. If you love the music of Slim Harpo, Lightnin’ Slim, et al or simply love old-school R&B music altogether, you owe it to yourself to check out Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips. Grade: A (RPM Series/BMG Books, published November 20th, 2018)

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story



Sunday, January 6, 2019

Spotlight on R.L. Burnside

R.L. Burnside photo by Bill Steber
R.L. Burnside photo by Bill Steber, courtesy Fat Possum Records

R.L. Burnside Select Discography:
Bad Luck City (Fat Possum Records, 1994)
Too Bad Jim (Fat Possum, 1994), produced by Robert Palmer
A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (Fat Possum, 1996) [with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion]
Mr. Wizard (Fat Possum, 1997) [two tracks with Jon Spencer]
Acoustic Stories (M.C. Records, 1997)
Come On In (Fat Possum, 1998)
My Black Name a-Ringin' (Genes, 1999) [vintage recordings from 1969]
Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down (Fat Possum, 2000)
Burnside On Burnside (Fat Possum, 2001) [live LP]
First Recordings (Fat Possum, 2003) [George Mitchell sessions circa 1967]
A Bothered Mind (Fat Possum, 2004)

North Mississippi Hill Country blues legend R.L. Burnside had been performing and recording for decades before he struck paydirt in the 1990s as part of an overall rediscovery by indie rock fans of Mississippi blues music that was fueled by Fat Possum Records. Burnside found a new audience with his sincere, high-energy blues sound among young punk and garage-rock fans after recording with indie rocker Jon Spencer in the middle part of the decade, but it was his own recordings like Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down and the live Burnside On Burnside that cemented his legacy as one of the most innovative and influential artists in the history of Mississippi blues. Sadly, Burnside left us in 2005 at the age of 78 years, but he leaves behind an enormous musical legacy that is being carried on to this day by his grandson Cedric Burnside.

Also on That Devil Music: R.L. Burnside - Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down CD review




Archive Review: R.L. Burnside's Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down (2001)

R.L. Burnside's Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down
That R.L. Burnside would only begin experiencing some degree of artistic and commercial recognition so late in his career is the story of the blues, kids. Many of the blues greats – Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell, Skip James and Son House, to name a few – were old and gray before being “rediscovered” during the 1960s. In his 73 years, Burnside has certainly seen his share of ups and downs. Since his own revival a few years back - fueled by an appearance in Robert Palmer’s Deep Blues documentary film – he’s been burning the candle at both ends. Burnside’s 1998 release Come On In, with Tom Rothrock’s contemporary electronica production laid upon the bluesman’s organic guitar and vocals, was a breakthrough of sorts, reaching an audience who knew little of the blues, much less anything of Burnside.

Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down is Burnside’s follow-up to Come On In and a return to a more roots-based sound. Lyrically, this is possibly Burnside’s bleakest album, with many songs haunted by death and betrayal, carrying with them an ambience as dark as the Delta soil. The album is also an artistic triumph – Burnside’s vocals are rich, soulful and expressive, his lyrics direct and carefully crafted. Even when covering somebody else’s material – such as his haunting rendering of Skip James’ “Hard Time Killing Floor” or an electric version of Don Covay’s R & B classic “Chain Of Fools” – Burnside’s talent and consistency make the songs his own. The title track is a traditional gospel tune that Burnside invokes with a great deal of fire and passion. Original songs such as the “Bad Luck City,” with its advice on romance, or “R.L.’s Story,” a spoken tract with minimal instrumental backing are as cutting edge as the blues will ever get.

For fans who only discovered Burnside through Come On In, there’s enough tape loops, turntable scratching and electronic tricks on Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down to satisfy your warped little tastes. A handful of producers, led by Andy Kaulkin, as well as contributions by guitarist Smokey Hormel and scratchers DJ Swamp, Iki Levy and DJ Pete B bring a modern feel to an art form that’s close to 100 years old. Burnside shines through all of the high-tech gimcrackery, though, with an originality and talent that places him alongside the greatest names in Mississippi blues.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: R.L. Burnside’s Wish I was In Heaven Sitting Down

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ webzine, 2001

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

New Music Monthly: January 2019 Releases

Meager pickings await the music lover with the passing of a new year, but January often means quality over quantity, and while there’s not an abundance of fresh tunes coming your way this month, who can complain about new albums from Walter Trout, the Flesh Eaters, and Watermelon Slim as well as archive releases by Soul Asylum and Big Star? January will be easier on your bank account, but will tickle your ears nonetheless!

If we wrote about it here on the site, there will be a link to it in the album title; if you want an album, hit the ‘Buy!’ link to get it from Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts money in the Reverend’s pocket that he'll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy!

Gaye Adegbalola's The Griot

JANUARY 4
Gaye Adegbalola - The Griot   BUY!

Soilwork's Verkligheten

JANUARY 11
The Delines - The Imperial   BUY!
Eric Schenkman - Who Shot John?   BUY!
Soilwork - Verkligheten   BUY!

The Flesh Eaters' I Used To Be Pretty

JANUARY 18
Deerhunter - Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?   BUY!
The Flesh Eaters - I Used To Be Pretty   BUY!
Guster - Look Alive   BUY!
Juliana Hatfield - Weird   BUY!
Joe Jackson - Fool   BUY!
Pedro the Lion - Phoenix   BUY!
Soul Asylum - While You Were Out/Clam Dip & Other Delights   BUY!

Big Star's Live On WLIR

JANUARY 25
Big Star - Live On WLIR   BUY!
Michael Franti & Spearhead - Stay Human, Vol. II   BUY!
Steve Hackett - At the Edge of Light   BUY!
Rival Sons - Feral Roots   BUY!
Walter Trout - Survivor Blues   BUY!
Watermelon Slim - Church of the Blues   BUY!


Album of the Month: Walter Trout’s Survivor Blues. The talented fretburner follows up on 2017’s critically-acclaimed album We're All In This Together with an inspired collection of vintage blues tunes. Trout doesn’t settle for the low-hanging fruit, however, eschewing the usual blues standards in favor of more obscure tracks by legends like Jimmy Dawkins, Sunnyland Slim, J.B. Lenoir, and Otis Rush, among others. Silk-toned soul-blues vocalist Sugaray Rayford guest stars on Luther Johnson’s “Woman Don’t Lie” while Robbie Krieger of the Doors appears on Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “Goin’ Down To the River.” I’ve heard Survivor Blues and suffice it to say, Walter has another hit on his hands!

Archive Review: Live at Continental, Best of NYC (2005)

Live at Continental, Best of NYC Vol. I
In honor of the closing of the infamous East Village music venue Continental, we’re republishing this vintage album review from the Revs archives. For more info on the legendary NYC club, check out Eric Davidson’s article at the Rock and Roll Globe.

Every city in America with any music scene at all has a rock ‘n’ roll club of some notoriety. In Nashville, it was Cantrell’s, the legendary late ‘80s dive that hosted bands like Black Flag, the Replacements, and the Gun Club as well as serving as home base for the Music City’s growing rock music scene. In Detroit circa 1980, the club du jour was the New Miami over in the Cass Corridor, where rich kids from Grosse Point would go slumming alongside rockers, fighting rats for their beer while watching Motor City bands like Flirt, Destroy All Monsters, and the Mutants. As for New York City, well, there are too damn many clubs to consider, from the infamous CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City of the ‘70s to the late ‘90s hub of New York/New Jersey culture, the East Village’s Continental.

Continental opened in 1991 on Third Avenue in the East Village, a rather smallish club holding around 300 people. Club owner Trigger opened Continental with the idea of having a venue for local talent to get off the ground, a place for NYC bands to gather, swap ideas and create great music. Continental soon attracted some of the scene’s heavy hitters, with folks like Joey Ramone, “Handsome” Dick Manitoba and Adny Shernoff of the Dictators, and Blondie’s Debbie Harry hanging out at the club, hosting shows and generally supporting the scene. During the almost decade and a half of the club’s existence, local talents have graced the Continental stage alongside national artists like Green Day, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, and Guns ‘N’ Roses.

A few years back, Trigger decided to document the music scene that had grown up around Continental and brought in the Rolling Stones Mobile Unit to capture a week’s worth of performances in the club with the idea of releasing the recordings as a live CD. Those performances, along with various live recordings from the club through the years, make up Live at Continental, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. If you’ve ever had a fondness for NYC rock, and this scribe does, you absolutely, positively need these two records. Joey Ramone, Cheetah Chrome, Lenny Kaye, the Ramainz (Dee Dee and Marky Ramone), Murphy’s Law, and the Bouncing Souls are among the many artists gracing these two discs, delivering live performances you won’t find anywhere else.

Live at Continental, Vol. I kicks off with a slice of NYHC courtesy of Agnostic Front, followed quickly by Jesse Malin’s Bellvue, whose “Faded Flowers” sounds like an inspired cross between Jim Carroll and the Jayhawks. The Bouncing Souls deliver their “Quick Check Girl” with the usual reckless abandon and solid punk rock fervor. Other highlights of the first disc include Cheetah Chrome kicking out the jams on the Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer” with “Handsome” Dick on vocals; the Cro-Mags’ blistering hardcore rant “Street Justice” and Joey Ramone’s reading of “I Wanna Be Sedated,” which lights up the record with its spirit and energy.

Lenny Kaye, best known as Patti Smith’s guitarist, is an artist of considerable talent in his own right, delivering the dark, somber “Going Local.” Among the few bands here that I was unfamiliar with, Heap’s “Puerto Rican Girl” is a red-hot rocker and Furious George’s “I Am the King” is a punky rave-up. The vastly underrated H2O smacks down the crowd with its “Liberate” while LE.S. Stitches, Lunachicks, and Murphy’s Law crank out fine variations on a punk rock theme. Dee Dee Ramone and Marky Ramone are joined by Barbara Zampini in possibly the coolest cover band ever, the Ramainz running through a faithful reading of “Cretin Hop.”

Live at Continental, Vol. II
Live at Continental, Vol. II features many of the same artists found on the first disc, with Bellvue, the Bouncing Souls, Cheetah Chrome, Joey Ramone, H2O, the Ramainz, Lunachicks, and Murphy’s Law cranking out dynamic live performances for the Continental crowd. Bellvue’s “Money Runner” drones like the Pixies and hits with the power of a hundred ‘80s college rock bands while Cheetah Chrome’s “Love Song” leaves scorched earth in its wake behind Chrome’s incendiary guitarwork. Joey Ramone’s “Blitzkrieg Bop” and the Ramainz “Commando” illustrate the longevity and power of the Ramones’ legacy. H2O kicks serious ass with “Empty Pockets,” an anti-poverty screed that will make your ears bleed while the raucous Murphy’s Law classic “Somebody’s Gonna Get (Their Head Kicked In Tonight)” will certainly satisfy your hardcore Jones.

The second volume also offers a number of performances by lesser known (to audiences outside of NYC) artists such as Battershell, Independents, Stab City, Blisster, Gutter Girl, and Harley’s War. Battershell vocalist/guitarist Tammy Lynn sounds like a cross between Karen O and Wendy O Williams on “Shower Song,” the hard-edged pop song spiraling out of control into a cacophonous clash of instrumentation and attitude. Gutter Girl’s “Crazy Chicken” hits your ears with all the subtlety of a jackhammer while Harley’s War, fronted by the Cro-Mags’ Haley Flanagan, serves up the powerful “Steal My Crown,” a minimalist dirge punctuated by hard riffs and explosive rhythms. Blisster offers up guitar-driven pop/rock with a razor-sharp, punkish edge and Independents’ “Vampires From Outer Space” evokes memories of the Misfits with three-chord recklessness and B-movie soundtrack lyrics.

Other Big Apple bands featured on Live at Continental, Vol. I and Vol. II include Honky Toast, the Waldos, Toilet Boys, the Voluptous Horror Of Karen Black, Vasquez, Superthrive, Simi, Helldorado, Frankenorange, Bottom, the Bullys, Sea Monster, Suicide King, Candy Ass, and the David Ellis Group. There are 46 tracks here altogether, stretched across two excellent CDs. Produced by club owner Trigger and Continental soundman Noel Ford, the sound is uniformly good – not as slick and processed as your typically lifeless major label recording but head and shoulders above the usual live club bootleg. There is a bit of echo and a slight hollow feel to the tracks, but overall the performances are dynamic with crisp guitars crisp and sharp vocals. Turn up the volume a notch and it sounds like you’re standing right in front of the stage.

If you’re looking for the Strokes, the Mooney Suzuki, or the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, you’ll have to look elsewhere, bunkie! The bands on Live at Continental, Vol. I and Vol. II tend to lean towards the punk and hardcore side of the musical equation, but there’s enough pure, unvarnished indie rock in these grooves to satisfy a wide variety of tastes. Kudos to Trigger and Ford for creating the essential audio documentary of the Continental club scene in these two volumes – this shit rocks! The Rev says “check it out!” (Continental NYC, 2005)

Buy the CDs from Amazon.com:
Live at Continental: Best of NYC, Vol.I
Live at Continental: Best of NYC, Vol. II

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2005