Bob Seger - Smokin' O.P.'s (2005)

As a kid, I was lucky enough to live within the limited midwestern sphere of Bob Seger’s musical shadow. Growing up in the industrial wasteland of Erie, Pennsylvania – a mere few hours away from Seger’s Detroit home – I heard the artist’s earliest ventures into rock & roll, songs like “Persecution Smith,” “East Side Story” and the classic “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” played on my local rock radio station.

A subsequent move southward to the Nashville area coincided with Seger’s major label recording contract and album releases like Noah and Mongrel, which I eagerly dug out of the bins of local record stores. Half a decade later, after Live Bullet and Night Moves propelled Seger into the upper reaches of ‘70s arena rock stardom, I was living in Detroit and had the chance to witness in person a string of sold-out 1979/1980 hometown concerts by the rust belt phenomenon.

I mention all of this merely to establish my long-held Seger bona fides. Your humble scribe was no mere “johnny come lately” on the Seger front, no sirree! The Reverend was down with Bob back in ’69 and ’70. Of all those pre-stardom album releases – nearly every one, sadly, long out-of-print and unavailable on CD – none was nearer and dearer to my heart than Seger’s 1972 “covers” album, Smokin’ O.P.’s. Released by Motor City indie label Palladium, the album was a bitch to find outside of the Midwest. Thanks to the wonders of the postal service and an editor in Illinois, a young rock critic in Tennessee got his grubby little hands on a copy of this often-overlooked entry in the classic Seger canon. Recently reissued on CD by Seger’s long-time label Capital, I’m glad to say that Smokin’ O.P.’s sounds every bit as great as it did over thirty years ago. Hopefully the label will see fit to reissue some of the other early Seger material on CD in the near future.

At the time the album’s release, Bob Seger was in a state of transition. He had delivered an understated, underrated singer/songwriter styled disc, Brand New Morning, as the final album of his contract with Capitol. Returning to Detroit, he put together a touring band that included drummer Dave Teegarden and keyboardist Skip “Van Winkle” Knape, a pair of musicians from the Tulsa, Oklahoma scene that had relocated to Detroit on the heels of a fluke hit, “God, Love And Rock & Roll.” Recruiting guitarist Michael “Monk” Bruce, the four of them recorded Smokin’ O.P.’s as an unabashed hard rock album. Taking its title from a slang term – “smoking” other people’s songs – Seger and his short-lived pick-up band would run through a selection of songs that included classic rock & soul gems like “Bo Diddley” and “Let It Rock” as well as newer material from artists like Stephen Stills and Leon Russell. The album’s primal D.I.Y. dynamic was provided by recording the songs in a studio beneath a bowling alley, the balls rolling down the lanes accidentally providing bass rhythms.

Seger’s choices in material and his vocal performances both hold up well, even after almost three-and-a-half decades. The singer manages to rework much of the material in his own image, infusing the performances with his charismatic energy and personality. Kicked off by Van Winkle’s churchy-organ riffs, “Bo Diddley” rocks as hard as any of today’s young punks, while a scorched-earth cover of “Love The One You’re With,” featuring some raw fretwork from Bruce and vocal assistance from Pam Todd and Crystal Jenkins. Turning the tune into an energized, R&B styled rave-up, Seger and crew manage to out-distance Stephen Still’s classic original.

Tim Hardin’s “If I Were A Carpenter” benefits especially from Seger’s soulful vocals. Fueled by Van Winkle’s dynamic keyboard work, Seger’s voice soars, reinterpreting the folk-ballad as a spiritual passion play. The blues romp “Turn On Your Love Light” rocks like a church revival, with Van Winkle’s organ and Teegarden’s jazzy percussion driving the tune towards the stars. Seger even covers his own work here, delivering, perhaps, the strongest version of his “Heavy Music” yet. Stripped down to a mere two-and-a-half minute explosion, the song builds slowly towards a powerful crescendo, delivering sort of classic Motor City rock & roll thrills that made cult favorites of bands like the Rationals, SRC, the Up and Seger’s Last Heard.

In the end, Smokin’ O.P.’s would serve to reinvigorate Seger’s career, which had been treading water for at least a couple of years by 1972, serving as a crucial point in Seger’s transition from cult rocker to musical superstar. By embracing the music of other artists, Seger laid the path for his future commercial breakout, figuring out the formula of flat-out rockers and mid-tempo ballads that would later become his musical trademark. It would take a couple more albums before 1975’s Beautiful Loser album would cement Seger’s lyrical and performance voice and lead him towards his eventual destiny.

Smokin’ O.P.’s would prove to be the only album Seger recorded with this particular trio of musicians – Michael “Monk” Bruce would disappear into obscurity while Teegarden would rejoin Seger later in the decade as a member of his Silver Bullet Band. Regardless, the chemistry and focus of the musicians on these songs is undeniable, the album a triumph of the spirit of pure, unvarnished rock & roll. Although Seger would go on to write some great songs and to make (much) more successful albums, never again would he capture the raw immediacy and reckless spirit of Smokin’ O.P.’s. (Capitol Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Smokin' O.P.'s from Amazon.com)

Riddle Of Steel - Got This Feelin' (2005)

Riddle Of Steel is a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. While many of today’s indie-rock bands are trying to sound like everybody else they hear on (corporate) radio, Riddle Of Steel instead has forged its own distinctive identity. They’ve done this by creating a sound that includes everything THEY heard on the radio while growing up, and their record collections, too – scraps of ‘80s-styled power-pop, vintage ‘70s metal and prog-rock and ‘90s-era punk infect Riddle Of Steel’s music like a high-grade fever.

As shown by Riddle Of Steel’s third album, Got This Feelin’, the band knows what to do with these disparate influences, and they don’t wear them on their sleeves like some folk. This St. Louis-based trio has seemingly created its own indie-rock nirvana, leading to a maddening game of “chase the sounds” as in “this song sounds like.” It’s a game you’ll never win, ‘cause Riddle Of Steel is too damn good at hiding the ghosts of its musical predecessors beneath sheets of chiming guitars and floating melodies.

“The Lovers Of Never” sounds like early Police, before Sting got all uppity and self-righteous, the song’s soundtrack incorporating elements of jazz and rock with syncopated rhythms and vocal harmonies. “Deeper Still” begins with a persistent guitar line suitable for Echo & the Bunnymen, or maybe Joy Division, or maybe one of a half-dozen other early-80s new wave bands. ROS tricks the song out with a space-rock coda featuring otherworldly guitarwork and cacophonic drumming.

The album’s title track starts off like something out of the Alex Lifeson songbook before evolving into a college rock ode that is all angles and straight lines, a low-fi sonic masterpiece worthy of Sebadoh or Pavement. “Detroit Flu” kicks out the jams, led by Rob Smith’s muscular drumming, Andrew Elstner’s guitar and Jimmy Vavak’s bass intertwining in an instrumental battle that starts/stops, starts/stops with insane precision, the band swinging into monster arena-rock riffing before lapsing back into a stoned groove.

Got This Feelin’ is a solid collection of inspired performances, Riddle Of Steel displaying incredible energy, impressive instrumental skills and more than a little late-night creativity in their welding together of various styles and eras of music. In an age where most bands are chasing a major label contract, dumbing down their sound to the LCD of radio playlists and TV soundtracks, it’s refreshing to hear a band like Riddle Of Steel that has ideas to spare and the skill and desire to bring them to life. (Ascetic Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Got This Feelin' from Amazon.com)

Amy Rigby - Little Fugitive (2005)

Thanks to Little Steven’s addition of “Dancing With Joey Ramone” to the playlist of his weekly Underground Garage syndicated radio program, Amy Rigby has probably received more airplay for her fifth album than she has for her first four combined. Van Zandt has always had a good ear for ‘the song,’ and his inclusion of Rigby’s catchy pop-rocker is as much for the song’s killer hook and clever wordplay as for its subject matter.

Weaving song titles like “Be My Baby,” “Gloria” and “Needles & Pins” into her fantasy of dancing with the rock & roll hall of famer, Rigby delivers her vocals with vintage girl-group glee, the song’s infectious melody standing up to repeated listens. I know, ‘cause I’ve spun the song several dozen times and haven’t gotten tired of the damn thing yet. In “Dancing With Joey Ramone,” Amy Rigby has written the perfect tribute to rabid record collector Ramone and I have no doubt that somewhere in rock & roll heaven, my pal Joey is dancing along with Amy.

One would think that a song as inherently cool as “Dancing With Joey Ramone” would dominate an album, overshadowing the other material, but that just ain’t so here. Little Fugitive is a solid effort from a veteran performer, brimming over with great songs. Rigby writes songs like a Renaissance master, her musical palette swimming with shades of pop, rock, folk and even a touch of psychedelia. Rigby’s highly-personalized lyrics offer a mirror to her soul, and it seems that sometimes she even surprises herself with the resulting reflection. In the defiant “Rasputin,” Rigby takes stock of her life and compares her resilience to that of the infamous Russian mystic.

On “The Trouble With Jeanie,” she obviously wants to dismiss her husband’s ex-wife except for the fact that the woman is “so nice” that it’s hard to dislike her. “So You Know Now” is a direct throwback to ‘60s psyche-pop, Rigby’s sultry vocals simply hypnotic above the swirling, chaotic instrumentation. “Needy Men” sounds like a movie moment, one of those Brill Building tunes with a bright sunny melody and deceptively cynical lyrics. Lenny Kaye’s excellent “The Things You Leave Behind” is provided a magical reading, Rigby’s charming vocals matched with a middle-aged weariness that jaded young artists, for all their alleged “worldliness,” have yet to discover.

Woven throughout Little Fugitive are the little insights that often escape lesser wordsmiths. Rigby’s talent is in taking the mundane realities of daily life and recognizing the humor, the sadness, the irony and the joy in each little moment. Paired with an unerring artistic sense that makes the best use of 50+ years of popular music as a foundation, Rigby delivers songs that are emotional, invigorating and intelligent in a way that is far too often missing from the radio these days. In a perfect world, “Dancing With Joey Ramone” would be blaring from the airwaves of every pop/rock station in America. As it is we’ll merely have to thank Steve Van Zandt for his recognition of excellence and be satisfied that, in this day and age, a talent the caliber of Amy Rigby can still find an appreciative and supportive ear now and then. (Signature Sounds)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Little Fugitive from Amazon.com)

Black Sunday - Tronic Blanc (2005)

Down around Memphis way, on a bluff high above the mighty Mississippi River, Alicja Trout is a one-woman rock & roll wrecking crew. An artistic triple-threat, Trout is an accomplished musician, an insightful producer and a successful independent businesswoman running her own Contaminated Records label and Tronic Graveyard recording studio. Trout earned her indie street cred as the guiding light of the Lost Sounds, a critically acclaimed art-rock outfit with garage-rock sensibilities; she’s since gone on to experiment in different musical avenues with bands as diverse as MouseRocket and the River City Tanlines. Don’t be fooled, however – as disparate as these bands may seem, they are nothing but different faces of the same brilliant artist.

Black Sunday has been billed as Trout’s first post-Lost Sounds project but in reality, like most of her work, it’s been a work in progress. Collecting tunes written and recorded from 2002 until 2004, Tronic Blanc is a perfect representation of Trout’s many different talents. She performs most of the instrumentation on the album, with friends adding drums or guitar to a handful of songs. More impressive, however, is that Tronic Blanc tends to incorporate a wider range of Trout’s songwriting interests than any of her other bands that I’ve heard.

From the new wavy, Gary Numan-influenced electronic paranoia of “This Heart Is Now Aluminum” to the hook-laden ‘80s pop stylings of “Next Girl Detour,” Trout experiments across the board with different sounds on Tronic Blanc. Although the results vary from song to song, Trout’s talents tie them all together and provide a continuity that is tough to achieve over a multi-year timespan. Most of Tronic Blanc skews towards electronic-tinged synthpop, although a few cuts – like the hard-rocking, guitar-driven “Torture Torture” – would be perfectly at home alongside many Victory Records “screamo” bands, albeit less abrasive and with more visible intelligence. “Good Dreams” is an interesting art-rock instrumental, classical piano layered above an electronic drone that would make Klaus Schulze green with envy.

Simply put, Alicja Trout is one of the most interesting and intelligent musicians working on the indie circuit today. Perhaps because Trout’s home base is Memphis she doesn’t get the ink that coastal-based indie artists garner. Her relative isolation from the industry has also insulated her from the battering winds of changing musical trends, allowing Trout to follow her own muse. Black Sunday’s Tronic Blanc delivers thought-provoking music, challenging without being heartbreaking, entertaining, intelligent and ambitious. Between Alicja Trout and her friend Greg Cartwright’s band the Reigning Sound, these two artists are making some great music in the Bluff City. (Dirtnap Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Tonic Blanc from Amazon.com)

The 101ers - Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited (2005)

Before Joe Strummer became a punk icon with the Clash or the patron saint of rock & roll that he has become since his death, he was just another British musician trying to knock out a hardscrabble living with a local band. In Strummer’s case, this band was the 101ers, a better-than-average group of rockers that have found a degree of infamy mostly through being eclipsed by the Clash’s considerable legacy and Strummer’s significant solo work. A loose-knit collection of 101ers’ material was originally issued on vinyl back in ’81 and by various fly-by-night operations in varying forms and formats since. The expanded Astralwerks collection, Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited, provides the final word on this important, if historically slighted band’s legacy.

Formed by Strummer in 1974 near the end of the British pub-rock era, the 101ers were much closer in spirit to bands like Ducks Deluxe and Dr. Feelgood than anything that would follow during the punk-rock explosion of ’77. Inspired by the music of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and early Rolling Stones, the 101ers practiced a street-smart brand of R&B drenched, guitar-driven rock & roll that would later inform some of the Clash’s London Calling and later musical output. The 101ers never put out a proper album, however, and released only one 7” single, making Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited a ragtag collection of rough-hewn studio demos and rare live tracks.

Fans of the Clash expecting the spit-and-bile proto-punk of the band’s first two albums will be sorely disappointed. Fans of Strummer, though, who appreciate the artist’s wide range of talent and musical tastes, will certainly enjoy the raw charm offered by these rare 101ers songs. Especially significant are Strummer’s first attempts at songwriting, tentative steps like “Keys To Your Heart” or “Sweet Revenge” that sound surprisingly mature. Blending a classic Chess Records R&B sound with strains of rockabilly and roots rock, the 101ers weren’t a half bad band by any standards, and Strummer’s early songs easily stand with similar efforts from notable songwriters like John Fogerty or Bruce Springsteen.

Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited also includes a number of previously unreleased live tracks, including originals like “Keep Taking The Tablets” and “Lonely Woman’s Son,” one of Strummer’s first socially-conscious songs that would later be recreated by the Clash. A number of live cover songs are also included, from the obvious (Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline” and Bo Diddley’s “Don’t Let It Go”) to the obscure (Slim Harpo’s “Shake Your Hips”) and the unusual (the Stones’ “Out Of Time”). A glorious performance of Van Morrison’s garage-rock standard “Gloria” closes the disc.

Befitting its pedigree, the sound quality of Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited varies wildly, from rough studio recordings to hollow-sounding, thirty-year-old live tracks (digitally massaged to be slightly better than bootleg quality). The material here all displays a certain undeniable rock & roll spirit, however, the performances filled with raw energy and passion. The 101ers were as much a part of Joe Strummer’s considerable legacy as the Clash or the Mescaleros, Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited an essential document providing an intriguing snapshot of the artist’s early days. (Astralwerks Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited from Amazon.com)