Interview: Peter Holsapple of the dB's (1984)

Masters of a unique American pop/rock sound that garnered tem a great deal of critical acclaim for their two import albums, the dB’s are virtual unknowns outside of a few college radio markets across the country. “We received a lot of college radio airplay with those two albums,” says Peter Holsapple, the band’s songwriter and vocalist. “Songs like ‘Black and White’ and ‘Happen’stance’ were staples. When you have an import LP, though, and you’re taking it around to people, you don’t have the promotional ability that an American label, even a small independent, does.” This identity crisis should end, though, with the release of the band’s first American album, Like This.

Like This is a collection of various musical influences, produced by former Waitresses member Chris Butler. Listing influences as wonderfully diverse as REM, Jason and the Scorchers, Marshall Crenshaw, and the Gun Club, Holsapple says of the album “it’s an optimistic record for optimistic times.” With all eleven of the album’s songs penned by Holsapple, Like This represents a departure from the old dB’s style. Former member Chris Stamey, who left the band to pursue a solo career, wrote half of the band’s past material. Says Holsapple, “our focus has changed somewhat. We’ve tried to make it a diverse and yet as interesting as possible.” With six years of both on-the-road and in-the-studio experience already under their belts, of Like This Holsapple says “we got our sophomore jinx out of the way years ago, so this is our first third LP and our second first LP!”

The band acquired their recording contract after a two-year hiatus. “We had to take a break and look at where we were going, what we were achieving,” says Holsapple. During this break, Holsapple toured as an opening act for R.E.M., performing an amazing acoustic set. Because of these performances’s optimistic and upbeat nature, Holsapple dubbed this his ‘No Nebraska’ tour, an obvious reference to Bruce Springsteen’s somber recording of that name.

The dB’s will tour all summer and into the fall, not only to build a base for their audience (“I want people to say ‘Yeah, I want that album when it comes out!’” says Holsapple), but also to reacquaint themselves with the rigors of life on the road after such a long lay-off. “The power that this band puts out on stage is incredible,” says Holsapple, “it’s the hottest, cookingest little outfit I’ve heard in a long time.”

Interview originally published by Nashville Intelligence Report #24, October 1984

Also on That Devil Music: The dB’s Like This CD review 

Archive Review: The Smithereens’ Especially For You (1986)

It’s a music lover’s dream come true, the best damn pop band in the whole freakin’ world recording an album with the globe’s top pop producer. If you don’t’ believe me, the proof is in the grooves, chuckles! The Smithereens’ Especially For You, producer by music-meister Don Dixon (R.E.M., Guadalcanal Diary, etc) is THE disc of the year!

“Well, well,” I hear you shaking your collective heads and sighing, “that fruitcake Gordon has finally sunk his ship off the pier on this one…who the hell are the Smithereens and why should I listen to them” That screwball is always making grandiose claims of greatness on behalf of some obscure bar band or another...I just don’t know!”

Fret no more, oh skeptical one, for I shall lay aside all doubts with a handful of reasons as to why you should discover the Smithereens: 1) The Smithereens write and sing melodic, engaging little ditties that resemble and recall all those songs you love from the swingin’ ‘60s; 2) Especially For You is the album that every one of those “nuevo wave-o” pretenders tried to make during the years 1977 to 1982 with their skinny ties and all, the Smithereens deliver it in 1986; 3) How about a band that combines Beatlesque harmonies with fab instrumental gymnastics like the Who and sound like the entire British Invasion’? That’s the Smithereens; 4) Don Dixon’s pop sensibilities and immense production skills are tailor-made for a band such as this and it shows in the results; 5) The Smithereens hail from New Jersey, that mythical rock ‘n’ roll badlands that has produced such musical stalwarts as Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny, and Little Steven; and 6) I highly recommend Especially For You as a tonic for your blues, a quick pick-me-upper, a miracle cure for boredom, a way to get a date on Saturday night, a rock ‘n’ roll elixir and besides, have I ever steered you wrong?

The Smithereens…either you pick up on ‘em now or feel humiliated and shunned down the road when you hear ‘em all over your radio and you have to borrow a copy of this classic LP from that smarmy, pimple-faced wanker that lives next door. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you… (Enigma Records, released July 1986)

Review originally published by Nashville’s The Metro magazine...

Archive Review: Velvet Crush's Free Expression (2003)

Velvet Crush is one of those great little pop/rock outfits that continuously cranks out choice tuneage with little or nothing gained in the way of commercial success, fame, or even respect, fer christ sakes. If you haven’t heard of VC before, well, Free Expression is as good a place as any to get your feet wet. Originally released in 1999 on the band’s own Action Musik label, this two-CD deluxe reissue from Parasol is the way to go. Disc one offers the complete original Free Expression album as produced by Matthew Sweet (no neophyte around a pop song himself), as well as a bonus song tacked onto the Japanese version of the album. The second disc holds the original demo versions of many of the songs on Free Expression, recorded by vocalist/guitarist Paul Chastain in his home studio (including several cool unreleased tunes!)

The demo disc holds several unheard gems and holds up well on its own; sounding better than most of the legitimate album releases you’ll hear this year. The full-bore Sweet-produced version of Free Expression is a marvel though, Chastain and partner Ric Menck crafting an excellent collection of power-pop and twangy rock that will have you humming for days. Imagine the Byrds jamming with Big Star with the Everly Brothers adding harmonies. Sweet contributes some of his own underrated guitar work here, but Free Expression is Chastain and Menck’s show, an obvious labor of love resulting in an obscure classic that stands tall among the giants of rock ‘n’ roll. (Action Musik/Parasol)

Review originally published by Jersey Beat music zine, 2003

Archive Review: Katrina & the Waves’ The Original Recordings 1983-1984 (2003)

Back in the day, around 1984 or so I’d say, my fellow rock ‘n’ roll fanatic Andy Anderson turned me onto a little British pop/rock outfit that had released a couple of fine albums in Canada. Led by Katrina Leskanich’s soulful vocals and former Soft Boys’ guitarist Kimberley Rew’s solid songwriting, the band had just released its stateside debut album. They hit Nashville as part of the band’s promotional tour, and with my industry connections and the sponsorship of Andy’s Nashville Intelligence Report zine, we scored an interview with the charming Katrina. We met in the attic loft of The Brass A, the dive club the band was performing in, our interview went quite well, Katrina signed some album covers and the show that night was incredible. The band subsequently scored one of the major hits of the ‘80s from its debut album, “Walking On Sunshine” lighting up the charts for months.

Unfortunately, the Waves’ first big hit pretty much turned out to be its last. Even though they would continue to record some fine music (their Waves album is vastly underrated), they would soon be steamrolled on the charts by cro-mags like Guns ‘N’ Roses, Motley Crue, and Poison as pop music took a decidedly aggressive turn towards nerf metal. Somewhere along the way, the band’s excellent two Canadian albums became obscure footnotes in Waves’ history. Thanks to Ralph Alfonso, a long-time champion of the band and the personable boss at Bongo Beat, these long-lost albums have been revived on CD for the first time. The two albums fit comfortably on one disc, the remastered tracks overseen by Kimberley Rew and released in observance of the 20th anniversary of the band’s first album.

Katrina and the Waves’ The Original Recordings 1983-1984

The Original Recordings 1983-1984 collects ten songs each from 1983’s Walking On Sunshine album and 1984’s Katrina and the Waves 2, updating the sound for the digital age from the best tapes possible but otherwise leaving the songs raw and unadorned. Capitol cherry-picked the best songs from these two Canadian albums, originally released by Attic Records, having the band re-record them for its American debut. These original versions are fantastic, however, with an immediacy and vibrancy that eludes the better-known Capitol versions. The Original Recordings 1983-1984 includes four previously unreleased bonus tracks, a 24-page booklet with exhaustive historical notes on the band, band interviews and more pictures than you can shake a stick at. A DVD accompanies this 20th anniversary release, featuring the 25-minute Live At Shepperton Film Studios video, documenting a 1983 “live-in-the-studio” performance of many of the band’s best songs and also includes the original live concert video for “Walking On Sunshine.”

It’s the music that does the loudest talking, however, songs like “Dancing Street,” with its staccato riffs and rave-up vocals sounding like a house party, or the original “Going Down To Liverpool” with its perfect sense of ennui, a slacker ballad a decade and a half ahead of its time. The original “Walking On Sunshine” is faster-paced that the Capitol version, a blurred dynamo of energy and joy while “Brown Eyed Son” is a 60s-styled musical romp with chiming guitars and lively vocals. Some of the band’s lesser-known tunes hit just as hard, songs like the rollicking “She Loves To Groove” offering proof of Katrina’s nimble vocal gymnastics. Or the blues/pop tune “Red Wine And Whiskey,” with Rew’s guitar shining brightly in the mix and its wonderful chorus, “we’d love to take you out tonight, but we haven’t got a dime.” “Mexico,” the bittersweet “Do You Want Crying?” and the spry, rockabilly-tinged “The Game of Love” are all overlooked gems, among the best rock songs of the '80s.

Of the unreleased bonus tracks, “That’s Just The Woman In Me” is a slow-paced, soulful Stax-inspired tear-jerker magnificently belted out by Ms. Leskanich. The band’s version of the classic “River Deep, Mountain High” leaves other covers of the song in its wake, evoking the spirit of Ike & Tina Turner’s hit, reinterpreting it as a revved-up rocker with wicked fretwork courtesy of Mr. Rew. A reverent, by-the-numbers cover of Buddy Holly’s “Heartbeat” leads into an early live performance of “Walking On Sunshine,” a wonderful version of one of the decade’s best-known songs, the band’s spirit and onstage energy amplified and framed by the echo and spaciousness of the live recording. The band’s best songs are those written by Rew, whose deft hand at pop songwriting is easily the equal of such acclaimed tunesmiths as Marshall Crenshaw or Matthew Sweet.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

If they are only remembered for one song, the forever-frozen-in-time “Walking On Sunshine,” Katrina and the Waves have achieved a degree of musical immortality. After listening to The Original Recordings 1983-1984, however, I’d say that it’s time for music lovers to rediscover one of the finest pop/rock outfits that the ‘80s had to offer. With bands like Hot Hot Heat and other ‘80s-era revivalists garnering critical acclaim and radio airplay these days, perhaps it’s time to take another look at the recorded legacy of Katrina and the Waves and finally provide the band the respect it has earned. (Bongo Beat Records, released October 21st, 2003)
 
Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™

Classic Rock Review: Badfinger's No Dice (1970)

Widely-considered as the “Godfathers of Power-Pop,” Badfinger’s storied career dated back to the early 1960s. Formed in 1961, the band ran through names like the Black Velvets and the Wild Ones before settling on the Iveys. A typical British R&B outfit, the Iveys played Top 40 chart hits, Motown, psychedelic-rock, blues, and soul while touring with better-known outfits like the Who, the Yardbirds, and the Spencer Davis Group. They would come to the attention of the Beatles and, signed to that band’s Apple Records label, would change their name and start the long slog of moving out of the long shadow of their benefactors.

No Dice was the second album recorded under the Badfinger band name and features the “classic” line-up of guitarists Pete Ham and Joey Molland, bassist Tom Evans, and drummer Mike Gibbins, all of whom share vocals at one time or another. It’s an odd album, and not what fans might expect, in spite of the power-pop blueprint “No Matter What,” an engaging slice of guitar-driven chart candy that would become the band’s second Top 10 U.K. and U.S. single. Although a lot of the album’s exercises in rock ‘n’ roll reflect the uncertainty of the changing decades (as well as upheaval in the Beatles camp and Apple Records), there are a number of gems hidden in these grooves.

The Ham/Evans co-write “Without You” would become a big hit for Harry Nilsson a year after Badfinger’s hauntingly beautiful and sublime version. The rollicking, country-tinged “Better Days” offers up some stellar fretwork and harmony vocals while the rockin’ “Love Me Do” one-ups the Beatles with a stomping ‘50s throwback soundtrack. Evans’ “Believe Me” is a Paul McCartney solo track by any standard with plaintive, yearning vocals and lush instrumental accompaniment and “We’re For the Dark” closes No Dice with an elegant folk-pop tune boasting of elegant guitarplay and Ham’s warm vocals. Oddly enough, only “No Matter What” was released as a single off the album, although there are easily a couple of other worthy candidates here.     

Badfinger peaked commercially with the band’s 1971 album Straight Up, which would ride the Top 10 U.S. hits “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue” to a #31 position on the Billboard albums chart. Financial mismanagement, personnel changes, the demise of Apple Records, numerous lawsuits, and other issues plagued the band until its break-up in 1975 following the death of Pete Ham by suicide. Broker than broke, Badfinger members Molland and Evans re-formed the band in the late ‘70s and released albums in 1979 (Airwaves) and 1981 (Say No More) before breaking up again, each man touring with their own version of Badfinger in the early ‘80s. Despondent over an argument concerning royalties, Evans took his own life in 1983. Joey Molland continued to lead Badfinger, in one form or another, into the 2000s while also releasing several solo albums. (Apple Records, 1970)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Badfinger’s No Dice

Archive Review: The Bangles' Everything (1988)

Dear Susanna, Debbi, Vicki, and especially Michael:

I’ve been reading a lot of words ‘bout how y’all decided to write or co-write all of the songs on your new album, Everything, and how a lot of know-nothing, haven’t-listened-to-a-record-all-the-way-through-in-years critics have been insulting your considerable talents by dismissing the new disc as “too saccharine,” as “too much sweetness and light.” One friend of mine even waggishly suggested that each copy of the album come with a free lollipop (this was before I forcibly changed his mind…in a purely intellectual manner, of course).

Pay no attention to all that vitriolic critical crapola those clown-boys are spreading around like so much manure. I know that Everything is an entertaining and intelligent collection of tunes done up in the finest pop-rock tradition, replete with delicious melodies, hypnotizing harmony, trademark tight instrumentation, and songwriting that, while perhaps not the equal of former Bangles contributors Prince and Kimberly Rew, is mighty darn close (besides, does nobody else remember your 1984 breakthrough LP All Over the Place, of which nine of the album’s eleven songs were Bangles-written jewels?).

Maybe all of those self-righteous prigs are so damn busy listening to their gloomy Joy Division and Bauhaus records that they’ve forgotten that, first and foremost, rock ‘n’ roll was meant to be fun, Fun, FUN! Personally, I spell F-U-N with Susanna’s delicate, haunting vocals; Vicki’s jangling, Byrds-like guitar lines and tough vocals; Debbi’s tasteful, rhythmic drumbeats; and (especially) Michael’s throbbing, powerful bass lines. One spin of Everything proves that y’all deliver the unabashed rock ‘n’ roll goods…not just another bunch of pretty faces printed in 12x12 to try and sell records.

Love to all (especially Michael)...

Review originally published by The Metro (Nashville), 1988

Spotlight on Game Theory

Select Discography:
Blaze of Glory (1982, Rational Records)
Distortion EP (1984, Rational Records)
Real Nighttime (1985, Enigma Records)
The Big Shot Chronicles (1986, Enigma Records)
Lolita Nation (1987, Enigma Records)
Two Steps From the Middle Ages (1988, Enigma Records)

Much of Game Theory's back catalog was recently reissued by archival specialists Omnivore Recordings and all these albums are worth spending your hard-earned coin on...

Omnivore Revisits the Posies

The Posies, photo by James Bush, courtesy Omnivore Recordings

The archival experts at Omnivore Recordings are launching an ambitious reissue campaign for power-pop legends the Posies that includes new CD and vinyl versions of the band’s three critically-acclaimed major label albums. Fronted by the talented duo of Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, the Posies were critical darlings of the alt-rock ‘90s, their unique blend of British Invasion styled melodies and grungy guitars tailor-made for the era. Although Posies songs like “Golden Blunders,” “Suddenly Mary,” “Dream All Day,” and “Flavor of the Month” achieved a modicum of FM airplay, especially on college radio, by the end of the decade the band had rejoined the indie rock ranks.

Omnivore will reissue Dear 23, the band’s 1990 DGC Records debut album, on June 15th, 2018 as a two-CD set featuring the album remastered from the original master tapes along with previously-unreleased bonus tracks. The band’s 1993 album, Frosting On the Beater, will follow on August 3rd as a double-disc set with additional bonus tracks. Both albums will also be reissued on vinyl as two-LPs sets mastered at 45rpm for better sound. The band’s major label swansong, 1996’s Amazing Disgrace, will be reissued as a remastered two-CD set on October 28th, and will also be available on vinyl as a two-LP set mastered at 33-1/3 rpm (it is too long for 45rpm).

The Posies kick off a lengthy North American tour in May featuring the Frosting On the Beater line-up of Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, bassist, Dave Fox and drummer Mike Musburger. After their jaunt through the U.S. and Canada, they’ll be jetting over to Europe for dates in September, October, and November. These three albums remain the most popular and in-demand titles of the extended Posies catalog of music, and yet they’ve jumped in-and-out of print with alarming regularity through the years and, even then, previous CD releases weren’t always properly sourced from the original analog master tapes.

The band has launched a PledgeMusic campaign to help make the reissues a reality, writing on their campaign page “we need to raise a pretty significant advance fee to license these albums from Universal, so we are putting a ton of personal items, experiences, and exclusive merchandise into this campaign…from clothes we’ve worn onstage, in videos, etc. to spending quality time with Jon and/or Ken in their adopted city of Paris or a coffee date in Seattle…private shows…music lessons…plus exclusive Jon & Ken style guitars…” Check out all the available perks on the Posies’ PledgeMusic page.

The Posies 2018 North American tour

May 18  VICTORIA, BC @ Capital Ballroom
May 19  PORTLAND OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
May 20  EUGENE OR @ OW Hall
May 21  BEND OR @ Volcanic Theatre Pub
May 22  SACRAMENTO CA @ Harlow's
May 23  SAN FRANCISCO CA @ The Independent
May 24  SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO CA @ Coach House
May 25  LOS ANGELES CA @ Bootleg Theater
May 26  SAN DIEGO CA @ Soda Bar
May 28  PHOENIX AZ @ Valley Bar
May 30  SANTA FE NM @ Santa Fe Brewing Co.
May 31  DALLAS TX @ Club Dada
June 1  SAN ANTONIO TX @ Paper Tiger
June 2  AUSTIN TX @ The Parish
June 3  HOUSTON TX @ Bronze Peacock at House of Blues
June 4  LITTLE ROCK AR @ Capitol View Studios
June 6  NEW ORLEANS LA @ The Parish at House of Blues
June 7  NASHVILLE TN @ Mercy Lounge
June 8  BIRMINGHAM AL @ Saturn
June 9  ATHENS GA @ Georgia Theatre
June 10  CHARLOTTE NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
June 11  ANNAPOLIS MD @ Ram's Head On Stage
June 13  PHILADELPHIA PA @ World Cafe Live
June 14  FAIRFIELD CT @ Stage One at Fairfield Theatre
June 15  SOMERVILLE MA @ ONCE Somerville
June 16  WASHINGTON DC @ The Hamilton
June 17  NEW YORK NY @ The Bowery Ballroom
June 19  PITTSBURGH PA @ Club Cafe
June 20  CLEVELAND OH @ Music Box Supper Club
June 21  KALAMAZOO MI @ Bell's Eccentric Cafe
June 22  DETROIT MI @ The Magic Bag
June 23  CHICAGO IL @ Park West
June 24  MADISON WI @ High Noon Saloon
June 25  DES MOINES IA @ Vaudeville Mews
June 26  ST. PAUL MN @ Turf Club
June 28  MILWAUKEE WI @ Summerfest
June 30  DENVER CO @ Levitt Pavilion
July 1  SALT LAKE CITY UT @ The State Room
July 6  BELLINGHAM WA @ Wild Buffalo
July 7  SEATTLE WA @ Neptune Theatre

Cleveland Rock Royalty The Choir’s Unreleased Album

Years before the Raspberries would tear up the charts with early ‘70s hits like “Go All The Way,” “I Wanna Be With You,” “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record),” and other tunes, its members performed with other Cleveland, Ohio area outfits like the Choir and Cyrus Erie. The Choir is especially notable as future Raspberries band members Wally Bryson (guitar), Dave Smalley (guitar/bass), and Jim Bonfanti (drums) were members; future Raspberries frontman Eric Carmen, a member of Cyrus Erie, had auditioned for the Choir but was passed over in favor of another vocalist.

A popular garage-rock outfit, the Choir is largely remembered for the band’s first single, the minor hit “It’s Cold Outside.” Released in December 1966, the song was featured on the garage-rock compilation Pebbles, Volume 2 and would subsequently appear on a number of dodgy import comps of garage and psychedelic-rock. Although the band would never release a full-length album during its tenure (roughly 1966 through 1970), Bomp! Records released a five-song self-titled EP in 1976, and Sundazed Records released Choir Practice on CD and vinyl in 1994, the album featuring the five songs from the previous EP along with a number of previously-unreleased tracks.

On February 16, 2018 Ominivore Recordings will release Artifact: The Unreleased Album, featuring ten tracks recorded by the Choir in 1969 and making their very first appearance in any format. Restored in the studio by Tommy Allen and Ducky Carlisle, who worked on the Raspberries’ recent Pop Art Live, the album includes new liner notes by Eric Carmen and Choir band members Denny Carleton and Phil Giallombardo as well as a Choir family tree and rare photos from the band’s collections.

In his liner notes for the album, Eric Carmen wrote, “I went to see the Choir when I was 16, and immediately wanted to join their band. They were a great group that had many lives and many members. This album was made by one of the last and final versions of the band. This recently discovered recording is sure to rekindle fond memories for the many fans of the Choir, including myself. Give it a spin, and enjoy a special piece of Cleveland rock history.”

Also on That Devil Music: The Raspberries’ Pop Art Live CD review

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: The Choir’s Artifact: The Unreleased Album

Cult Rocker Tommy Keene, R.I.P.

We’re saddened to report on the death of singer, songwriter, and guitarist Tommy Keene of natural causes at the very young age of 59 years.

Keene is known for his melodic power-pop songwriting skills, and over the course of a career that spanned four decades, Keene released better than a dozen critically-acclaimed live and studio albums. Born in Bethesda, Maryland Keene was taught classical piano as a child before teaching himself drums and guitar. As a teenager, Keene performed in Blue Steel, a trio with Nils Lofgren’s younger brother Mike, before forming the Rage with singer/songwriter Richard X. Heyman. Keene left the Rage to join the Washington, D.C. area band the Razz, which opened for artists like Patti Smith and the Ramones.

After touring with singer Suzanne Fellini as a sideman, Keene decided to form his own band with former bandmates Ted Nicely and Doug Tull from the Razz. The band released their 1982 debut album, Strange Alliance, under Keene’s name on their independent Avenue Records label before signing with the Dolphin Records label in North Carolina. Keene subsequently recorded two EPs for Dolphin before getting signed to Geffen Records. The major label released a pair of well-received Keene albums in 1986’s Songs From the Film and 1989’s Based on Happy Times before dropping the artist from their roster. To be sure, Geffen had no idea of how to promote Keene’s unique brand of melodic rock and intelligent songwriting as they were literally printing money with Guns N’ Roses albums.

Keene built upon his major label exposure with a string of solid indie recordings throughout the 1990s and early ‘00s, released by labels like Alias Records, Matador Records, and spinART Records. In 2009 he was signed by Stephen Judge’s fledgling Second Motion Records label, which would release a handful of Keene’s recordings between 2009’s In the Late Bright and 2015’s Laugh In the Dark. Second Motion also released a career-spanning 2010 retrospective titled Tommy Keene You Hear Me.

I interviewed Tommy Keene once during his brief major label career, but never had the pleasure of meeting the artist who, by all accounts, was a helluva nice guy in addition to being incredibly talented. Our pals Stephen Judge (publisher) and Fred Mills (editor), who knew and worked with Keene, have put together an excellent remembrance of the underrated talent on the Blurt magazine website.

CD Review: The Raspberries' Pop Art Live (2017)

At the time, I didn’t personally agree with placing The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. As the music editor of Nashville’s Metro magazine when the choice was made in 1986, I was one of those voices that spoke loudly in favor of the Music City, where Elvis had recorded many of his early hits and where Jimi honed his axe before taking his act worldwide. There’s no denying, however, that the “mistake on the lake,” as Cleveland was known when I lived there in 1967-68, is a rock ‘n’ roll town.

Power-Pop Pioneers

Cleveland broadcasting powerhouse WMMS has a history as one of the most influential tastemakers in FM rock radio, helping break artists like Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, and Rush, among others, while the station’s long-running weekly live broadcast, The WMMS Coffee Break Concert, promoted artists as diverse as Warren Zevon, Lou Reed, Tim Buckley, and Peter Frampton, resulting in a wealth of bootleg tapes and records. Although Cleveland hasn’t spawned a rock scene as madly-hyped as, say, Athens, Seattle, or Austin through the years, how can you argue against the influence and importance of such homegrown artists as Joe Walsh and the James Gang, the Dead Boys, Pere Ubu, Peter Laughner, Rocket From The Tombs or, perhaps, the most notorious of them all – the Raspberries?

Formed in Cleveland in 1970 by members of two fondly-remembered local rock outfits – the Choir and Cyrus Erie – the Raspberries originally consisted of singer and guitarist Eric Carmen, guitarist Wally Bryson, bassist John Aleksic, and drummer Jim Bonfanti. Aleksic bolted before the group really had its feet on the ground, replaced by guitarist Dave Smalley while Carmen moved to playing bass, completing what is considered to be the “classic” line-up of the Raspberries. Influenced greatly by British Invasion bands like the Beatles, the Who, the Hollies, and the Small Faces, the foursome struck gold when their second single, “Go All The Way,” went all the way to #5 on the charts and sold over a million copies.

Coasting on the success of “Go All The Way,” the Raspberries self-titled 1972 debut virtually invented the “power pop” genre, peaking at #51 and spending a whopping 30 weeks on the charts. The band’s ‘60s-era musical roots, whipsmart songwriting, melodic instrumentation, and gorgeous vocal harmonies made fans out of fellow musicians like Bruce Springsteen and John Lennon. Carmen and Smalley switched instruments again and a quick follow-up album, Fresh, was released in November 1972. Fresh would yield two big hits with its two singles, “I Wanna Be With You” and “Let’s Pretend,” which would help push the album into the Top 40.

The Raspberries’ Pop Art Live

The band’s Side 3, released in 1973, saw the Raspberries moving towards a more aggressive rock sound as creative tensions grew among the members. None of the album’s three singles performed all that well, leading to Smalley’s ejection from the band, followed by Bonfanti’s departure, the pair replaced by Scott McCarl and Michael McBride. The band’s final album, 1974’s Starting Over, produced a Top 20 hit with “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record),” but it wasn’t enough to push the album up the charts and the Raspberries broke up in 1975, with Carmen moving on to enjoy a modestly-successful career as a solo artist and songwriter well into the late 1980s.
 
The House of Blues chain of nightclub/restaurants opened a location in Cleveland in 2004, coaxing the four members of the Raspberries to reunite for the first time in nearly 30 years. After a bit of practice to shake off the ring rust, the band’s best-known line-up – Carmen, Bryson, Smalley, and Bonfanti – climbed on stage on November 26th and ran through an inspired set that featured better than two-dozen songs and included both hits and ‘deep cuts’ alike. The well-received performance led to a ‘mini-tour’ in 2005, a VH1 Classic TV special, and a live concert broadcast on XM satellite radio. One of the band’s 2005 performances was filmed and subsequently released on CD and DVD as Live on Sunset Strip. Oddly, however, the band’s triumphant reunion at the House of Blues in 2004 remained unreleased until now, with Omnivore Recordings rescuing the performance and releasing it as Pop Art Live.

With interest in the Raspberries revived by the use of “Go All The Way” on the hit movie soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy during the summer of 2014, along with the following year’s reissue of all four of the band’s classic ‘70s-era albums as a reasonably-priced box set, the time seems ripe for Pop Art Live. That the band’s electrifying performance belies their three-decade layoff doesn’t hurt any – from the opening notes of the 1972 hit “I Wanna Be With You,” the listener knows that they’re about to hear something special – and the band keeps the energy crackling throughout the two-disc set’s 28 red-hot tracks. Carmen’s voice has lost a bit of resonance over the years, but what it lacks in range it makes up for in character as the singer sounds a bit more soulful. Instrumentally, the band itself still kicks ass, with Bryson’s stinging guitar and Bonfanti’s powerful drum fills providing a perfect backdrop for Carmen’s vocals and the band’s backing harmonies.

Go All The Way

Even amidst a playlist that features an abundance of hits like the aforementioned “I Wanna Be With You,” “Go All The Way,” and “Let’s Pretend,” there remain a few surprises. A cover of the Who’s “I Can’t Explain” explodes out of your speakers while “Nobody Knows,” from Fresh, is a Beatles-esque delight with vocals shared by Carmen and Smalley. A cover of the Beatles’ obscurity “Baby’s In Black” is afforded gorgeous harmonies dancing atop the song’s waltz-like tempo while “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” is drenched in grandeur. The familiar opening riff of “Tonight,” combined with the song’s passionate vocals and ramshackle instrumentation, makes one wonder why it didn’t climb higher than #69 on the charts back in 1973.

Bryson’s original “Last Dance” showcases both his underrated songwriting skills as well as his elegant fretwork. It should come as no surprise that a bunch of Beatles fans like the Raspberries would pluck more than one tune from the Lennon/McCartney songbook. The band acquits itself nicely as “Fab Four” sound-alikes on “No Reply,” falling somewhere on the spectrum between Klaatu and Badfinger, while their cover of “Ticket To Ride” is beefier than the original, with deliberate drumbeats and a solid rhythmic backbone on which the vocals ride, with flashes of brilliant guitar punctuating the arrangement. The album’s only other cover song, of the Choir’s 1966 garage-rock hit “It’s Cold Outside,” is delivered reverently but with appropriate zeal, offering jangling instrumentation and expressive gang vocals that perfectly capture the innocence of the era.

The other two unsuccessful singles from the Side 3 album (the first being the aforementioned “Tonight)” – “Ecstasy” and “I’m A Rocker” – are a pair of pure pop gems. The former offers the band’s trademark melodic sonic bluster, with an epic sound not unlike “Go All The Way” or “I Wanna Be With You,” featuring soaring vocals and rolling drumbeats, while the latter is more of a Stonesy blooze grind with Bryson’s deliciously greasy guitar licks and a foot-shuffling rhythmic track. Pop Art Live closes, of course, with “Go All The Way,” the band’s performance of their best-known song living up to the audience’s expectations, its yin/yang creative dynamic balanced by Carmen’s lofty vocals and Bryson’s raucous fretwork.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Fans of the Raspberries waited nearly 30 years for the band’s 2004 reunion show, and have suffered through almost another decade and a half waiting for the concert to receive a legit CD release. The band sounds mighty good for a bunch of aging duffers, picking up pretty much where they left off in 1975 and delivering a high-octane performance for those of us who never got to witness the band in person back in the day.

The closest most of us have come to hearing the Raspberries perform live was a 1974 bootleg album (Back Home Again) that framed the band in a more rock-oriented light with blues overtones (Omnivore, why don’t you track that disc down and reissue it?). Short of inventing a time machine and traveling back to the early ‘70s and Cleveland’s Agora club, Pop Art Live provides all the cheap thrills a fan could ask for from power-pop pioneers the Raspberries. Grade: B+ (Omnivore Recordings, released August 18, 2017)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: The Raspberries’ Pop Art Live

CD Preview: The Raspberries’ Pop Art Live

The Raspberries were power-pop pioneers who, like just about anything to come from Cleveland, still struggle to get respect to this day. Formed in 1970 by singer/guitarist Eric Carmen, guitarist Wally Bryson, bassist John Aleksic, and drummer Jim Bonfanti, the line-up shifted when Aleksic left the band, Carmen took up the bass, and they added guitarist Dave Smalley. With a sound steeped in British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Who, along with a dash of blues and gorgeous pop-derived melodies, the Raspberries enjoyed modest chart success with a half-dozen radio-friendly hits.

The Raspberries released four albums during their brief existence, including their 1972 self-titled debut and, later that year, Fresh (their best-seller, which yielded two hit singles). Side 3 followed in 1973, and the following year’s Starting Over would prove to be the Raspberries’ swansong. Carmen went on to a successful solo career after the band’s 1975 break-up, but the enduring influence of the Raspberries could be heard in the music of fellow-travelers like the Bangles, Game Theory, the dB’s, Jellyfish, and many others. The band counts among its fans such musical heavyweights as Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, and Paul Westerberg of the Replacements.

In November 2004, the classic line-up of the Raspberries – Carmen, Bryson, Smalley, and Bonfanti – reunited at the grand opening Cleveland’s House of Blues club for a boisterous, well-received show. The response prompted the band to undertake a 2005 mini-tour which in turn led to the release of a double-album, a VH1 Classic television special, and a concert broadcast by XM Satellite radio. On August 18th, 2017 Omnivore Recordings will release the Raspberries’ Pop Art Live, a two-disc set that documents that near-legendary House of Blues concert performance from 2004.

Pop Art Live features live versions of songs from all four of the band’s classic studio albums, including favorite hits like “Go All The Way,” “I Wanna Be With You,” “Let’s Pretend,” and “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” as well as their unique performances of timeless songs by rock music legends like the Beatles and the Who. The double-disc set also includes notes and testimonials from fans like Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Cameron Crowe, pop music author James Rosen, and band aficionados Bernie Hogya and Ken Sharp. In addition to the CD release, plans are to release Pop Art Live as a three-album vinyl set later this year.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: The Raspberries' Pop Art Live

The Raspberries' Pop Art Live track list:

Disc One
1. I Wanna Be With You
2. Play On
3. I Can’t Explain
4. Nobody Knows
5. Let’s Pretend
6. Don’t Wanna Say Goodbye
7. Party’s Over
8. Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)
9. Might As Well
10. It Seemed So Easy
11. Baby’s In Black
12. If You Change Your Mind
13. Tonight
14. I Can Remember

Disc Two
1. Starting Over
2. Last Dance
3. I Saw The Light
4. No Reply
5. When You Were With Me
6. It’s Cold Outside
7. Should I Wait
8. Come Around And See Me
9. Makin’ It Easy
10. Ticket To Ride
11. Hard To Get Over A Heartbreak
12. Ecstacy
13. I’m A Rocker
14. Go All The Way

Odd Fellows: R. Stevie Moore & Jason Falkner's Make It Be

Here’s a match made in rock ‘n’ roll heaven: on March 10, 2017 Bar None Records will release Make It Be, a brilliant collaboration between underground rock legend R. Stevie Moore and power-pop icon Jason Falkner. The album was recorded by Falkner at his Rhetoric Studio in Hollywood, California and features a number of Moore originals as well as one co-write by Moore with longtime Nashville cohort Roger Ferguson and a song by Falkner.

R. Stevie Moore is a pioneer in lo-fi rock as well as the Godfather of Nashville rock ‘n’ roll. His classic 1976 album Phonography kick-started a nascent Music City scene that, until that time, had mostly consisted of Moore and his circle of friends playing original music, and a handful of horrible cover bands playing Top 40 tunes in local dive bars. Moore moved to New Jersey shortly after the release of Phonography and forged a reputation as an extremely prolific singer/songwriter, cranking out over 400 albums over the course of his lengthy career. Moore was also one of the original D.I.Y. artists, selling cassettes and CD-Rs via mail order, and making low-budget music videos that would become YouTube favorites. Moore moved back to Nashville a couple years ago and continues to make intriguing, creative music.

Jason Falkner came to prominence as a member of the L.A. “Paisley Underground” band the Three O’Clock, performing on their 1988 major label debut album Vermillion before the band broke up. He later joined neo-psychedelic rockers Jellyfish, working with the band on their classic 1990 album Bellybutton, his restless muse leading him to launch his solo career with the 1996 album Presents Author Unknown. In between Jellyfish and his solo debut, Falkner recorded the 1994 cult fave LP Ro Sham Bo with the Grays. Over the past 20 years, Falkner has earned a well-deserved reputation as a melodic songwriter and dynamic performer with four solo albums to his credit, the most recent being 2009’s All Quiet on the Noise Floor. Falkner has also lent his talents to recordings by artists like Beck, Brendan Benson, and Paul McCartney.

It’s an odd pairing – the power-popper and the lo-fi rocker – but it’s a collaboration that works. Moore is an exceptional songwriter and underrated guitarist, and his winsome vocals mesh perfectly with Falkner’s melodic tones. The two men put together exciting arrangements for the material that explore the boundaries of pop, rock, and avant-garde instrumental experimentation. Throw in a few spoken word passages and some spacey instrumentals alongside the pop/rock performances and the listener will find Make It Be to be an engaging, challenging, and entertaining collection of 21st century rock ‘n’ roll.

In a press release for the new album, Moore explains how the collaboration came together. “We unknowingly shared a mutual admiration bigtime and finally got in direct contact mid-2000s,” says Moore. “I think my friend Tim Burgess was the first one to turn him onto my stuff. Recording with him was a dream, totally incredible. We showed a similar sense of both crazed adventure and textbook pop discipline. The sessions moved fast, just gleefully piling on overdubs. I am grateful he allowed me to just dive into any left-field idea I felt. JF’s a marvelous producer and killer drummer, but I don't think he usually gets quite as much creative leeway to tinker with things as he did with me.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the brilliant – albeit unusual – talent that is R. Stevie Moore and have an hour to be entertained, check out the documentary film on the artist embedded below. Then get on over to Amazon.com and buy R. Stevie Moore and Jason Falkner’s Make It Be CD (also available on shiny black wax for you vinyl aficionados!)