We interrupt this virtual 1966 with something from 1971 because, bless his soul, Tony McPhee singer and guitarist of the perpetually underrated Groundhogs has passed away.
Speaking of The Quest's high pitched vocals in a psych setting (see previous post) here's a similar aesthetic five years later. It's heavy psych avant-blues guitar pyrotechnics with an array of classic vocal tones including that infectiously insane high wailing falsetto. A metallic pop epic that never gets old. Somehow it always remains fresh, exciting and a blast every time. My favourite tune of my year of birth.
Another storming slice of unorthodox Michigan garage. The Quest's hailed from Grand Rapids MI. They released three singles on the legendary Fenton label. While we get some supreme fuzz and manic surf drummage, it's the high pitched hook laden vocals that set this tune apart. Good fun spooky stuff. Is it spooky? Maybe it's an ode to paranoia? I dunno, I've never been able to comprehend exactly what he's on about.....
I'd never heard this until today. Make Her Cry is the a-side of which the previous post's I Never Forgot Her was the b-side. This tune wasn't on any of the Pebbles or Teenage Shutdown compilations. It did however appear on a volume of the Garage Punk Unknowns compilation series but I missed those so...
To say the sonic contours and musical aesthetics of this song were unexpected is probably an understatement. Initial impression is: This sounds like TheBeach Boys doing a glam rock stomper five years early. It's the kinda music indie/psych/hypnagogic artists were aiming for twenty years ago. You could imagine a cover of this turning up on a James Ferraro recording circa On Air.
Anyhow Make Her Cry woulda been a barnstormer at the local Michigan teen beat sock hop back in the day!
Ok now lets get to the weirder side of the unknown teen beat garage scene from Michigan. The Undecided ? were from Dearborn MI and released just the one single. This is the flipside. I Never Forget Her was firstly compiled in 1983 on Pebbles: Highs In The Mid Sixties Volume 5: Michigan.
Sometimes the acolytes of The Yardbirds, The Beach Boys et al. match or even outdo their heroes. If you've never heard this before give it a chance, the uncommon charms of The Undecided ? might just cast a spell on you. I Never Forgot Her is unexpected and curious. Apart from the monstrous reverb there's something going on here that's sonically quite disconcerting which makes it totally irresistible. These guitar sequences are left intentionally unresolved leaving a slightly disorientating undercurrent: A ghost in the air of what you thought should have been.
If Blue Oyster Cult's 1976 hit Don't Fear The Reaper has always been a favourite of yours and you've not heard this you might be in for a surprise. Found Love was on a Pebbles: Highs In The Mid Sixties comp. This is another 7" single flipside that has outlasted its totally forgotten and forgettable A-side.
This toe-tapper flows along in an incredibly pleasing manner. It's an anthem. The organ sets the driving tone and the guitar gets on board along with that killer bass doing its own thing. There's even a break! What's not to like.
Another hook laden slice of perfect driving psych-rock that didn't become a top ten smash. How can this be? It's undoubtably one of the great singles of the 60s.
Was the subject matter too disturbing. I mean:
"So now they put him away, they say he's not a normal man You never can tell, but well they say he may do it again"
Whatever he did it can't have been good. But Johnny was a good boy wasn't he?
"Animals all loved him And he had a way with kids"
It's all terribly upsetting and mysterious. I'm gonna go with, not a crime against a person, but maybe he set the local sports stadium on fire because he didn't like footy. I can't help but think it was something much much worse though, like the most most transgressive abhorrent crime possible. Oh dear Johnny what did you do?
*Imagine if all the San Fran psych/Matrix groups were this good?
Anyway they became just another one and done group which has probably made them way more legendary than if they had released a full LP or three or perhaps they missed out on being more influential than The Velvets.
My other favourite 60s tune of right now (and many previous nows). I know I've probably posted it before but it deserves it. This did appear on the first Pebbles comp so it's been a cult favourite for a long time,
Going All The Way is a supreme paean to fearless youthful exuberance delivered with er... youthful exuberance.
For their one and only 7" single The Squires were signed to ATCO Records so how this didn't become a global number one smash is a fucking mystery. Number one in our hearts though.
It doesn't get better than this. Crank this up to eleven!
My current favourite 60s tune of the last 25 years. Teen fuzz and scuzz. The best.
The Plagues had it going on here alright. All the elements perfectly coalesce. Those drums are just electric and the array of fuzz oh my. The astounding synergetic tight-loose-ness of it all. The doom-y teen aguish and petulance of the lyrics delivered in such a sullen tone. The insidious melody, the bass, the push and pull of the pace, the synchronous backing vocals...it's all in the right place, flawlessly.
Captivating.
I wanna fall out of love just to feel this song even more.
This was The Plagues second single and was released in 1966 on the Fenton label out of Sparta, Michigan. I've Been Through It Before later turned up on that early 80s bootleg series The Chosen Few and then in 1998 on a volume of Teenage Shutdown.
You gotta love that a high school group from Lansing mid-Michigan made this immortal tune of adolescent love gone sour.
"You expected me to
believe, every word you said
but now those words are dead"
How fucking cool were these kids?
As far as 60s guitar driven doomed pop goes it doesn't get better than this. If you don't believe me, play this three times in a row and tell me I'm wrong.
Savages - The World Ain't Round It's Square (1966)
Troglodytes with electricity.
Frightening, raw, exhilarating.
Peak get your kicks 1966!
Savages were the choice 60s Bermuda band. Who lives in Bermuda? Is that a thing? I thought Bermuda was an uninhabited archipelago of ocean volcanos where hurricanes took planes out of the sky. But Bermuda shorts though...(?)
The weird thing is that this tune, which is considered by some as one of the greatest 60s garage rock songs, was only the b-side to their second single You're On My Mind which was a Bee Gees style ballad. Huh.
That throbbing sinister bass is very the best. This one's all about the atmosphere: A restrained yet menacing vibe. You gotta love the contrast of the snarly lead vocals of the verses compared with the ominous sweetness of the backing vocals of the melodious chorus. A dark minimalist tune that's all about those tambourine hits for me. I mean you just never know when that tambourine is gonna be hit again.
Top shelf unhinged neanderthal garage punk fun from the mid 60s.
Pebbles Vol. 5... need I say more?
It's all about the haunting, funny and slightly deranged "Why?" backing vocals refrain innit. That tiny bit of melody is so intrinsically 60s, I'm sure you couldn't replicate it if you tried.
What a great tune. A driving organ led psych-surf gem. Love the psychotropic flashes of reverb in the chorus, like King Tubby popped into the control booth momentarily.
Apropos of nothing. I just hadn't heard this tune since it last turned up on a cd compilation I Feel Like Acid in the 00s. Originally heard this in the 90s because it was on a Rhino 60s garage comp though.
Anyway wouldn't it have been cool to be in a group that did just one forgotten but ace garage-psych single, only to be rediscovered 15 years later via teen-psych-punk bootleg compilations?
*Some Aussie 80s garage-psych band ripped this tune off I'm sure. I just can't put my finger on it though which is driving me mental.
Since the 80s ended I've thought this is the greatest R&B number of that decade. Thirty something years later, while I no longer have absolute lists in my head, it sounds about right. I mean top 5 anyway along with the previous four tunes posted and Billie Jean. There was a story that if the record company didn't release this as a single songwriter David Wolinski was going to give it to Michael Jackson who was recording Thriller (1982) at the time. Wolinski had been in a couple of groups previous to joining Rufus including 60s garage punks Shadows Of Knight who famously appeared on Nuggets (1972).
I feel like this was beamed down from another planet or at least a space station back when I was a kid in the 80s. To me it still is futuristic. This song gets better every time I hear it and it's been being heard for quite a while now. The incredibly atmospheric opening minute still sends chills down my spine. The synth bass drops and it's spectacular. Just Be Good To Me is definitely cinematic in all the 80s futuristic gloriousness and on screen dystopianism but adding a human soul presaging the likes of Neneh Cherry and Massive Attack. Also is there a running water sound or... there's definitely an ambient track running throughout.
Just Be Good To Me is the only other tune that I could think of that had a similar vibe to the previous post's Don't Stop The Music with regard to that wonderful driving synthetic bass sound and in the last post's comments section Simon Reynolds agrees. I'm trying to come up with other examples.
I know and love this tune from back in the days of school, footy and blue light discos and regional radio so it was a hit here in Australia. A quick check on the American R&B charts reveals it only got to number two. Sorry to disappoint. Maybe I'm not the chart whisperer I thought I was.
It's funny when you read that an immortal anthemic tune such as this only got to number 17 on the strayan charts back in '83 because it seems a bit wrong. The influence of Just Be Good To Me has been far and wide with very high profile covers, rewrites, samples, mash ups and an appearance on Grand Theft Auto's The Vibe 98.8 as well as still being an actual perennial dance floor banger. So it has managed to stay in the public consciousness for the last 40 years whereas say Dionne Warwick's number one for two weeks in 1983 is totally forgotten, just try to name it.
The la la la la la-la luh though...las never sounded so good.
That sound that is the hook is soo good. I assume it's some kind of synth but I dunno it could be anything, maybe some kind of bass key-tar. Whatever it is I love it and why wasn't it used one thousand more times in the 80s? When the funky maestros hit upon something novel like that in the studio, it must have been hard to contain themselves because they would know immediately that it was gonna slay on the dance floor. Don't Stop The Music's not just about that hook-y new bass sound either, it's all the funky R&B goodness moving into the post-disco boogie era. All the elements coming together: Supreme synth action atop a to die for groove along with the swirling funky riffs, a conga break and even a chipmunk bit. Irresistible!
*This harbinger for the rest of the decade is another delightful platter that hit the top spot on the R&B chart in the USA. All these R&B number ones! It's all a coincidence. Every time I'm about to post a monster jam and quickly look up the chart history it turns out to be an ultimate smash hit. I should just get a hold of an R&B chart book documenting the late 70s and early 80s and actually go through all the chartbusters. But nah that would be a bit arbitrary and staid. I'll just keep up the random gold and see what happens.
This is a pure perfect pop cultural artefact. It's also still one of the greatest ever dance floor jamz. It's roller boogie time, big time.
*I only discovered Zapp in the early 90s which is a shame because they would have been the perfect soundtrack to growing up in the 80s. This is another American R&B chart topper that didn't make the charts here but I assume it got played in the discotheques and roller rinks in Melbourne and maybe made it out to some regional discos. Who knows? I don't recall it though. Were there any "in the know" funky regional Victorian djs in the 80s?
Back to the non stop groove action. Funk for you future nuclear winter. As kids of the Cold War in the 70s & 80s we were promised nuclear annihilation on what seemed like a daily basis. That never came to fruition thanks to peacemakers Gorbachev & Reagan. However Joe Biden's administration seems to be recklessly insane and hellbent on chaos. They are supporting and provoking all sorts of conflicts and festivals of human death throughout the world (They gotta keep the military industrial cash-cow flowing right) so a Nuclear Holocaust seems to be a distinct possibility once again.
As far as the 21st century goes, the American government have got to be hands down the most evil empire on earth. I mean Victoria Australia during lockdowns was an insane breach of human rights along with China's C**** policy not to forget Canadia and their restrictions of freedom and economic sanctions on their own citizens during the truckers protest. America though is a death machine, that's their main business - DEATH. Let us not forget then those other two war mongering presidents, the most vile of war criminals George W Bush & Barack Obama. Oh... Iraq war wise I need to give special mention to allies Tony Blaire and our very own Johnny Howard whose lies led to so much human devastation. So how many dead people is that? How much human suffering have they caused? How many fellow human beings are dead? How many people like you and me, just trying to get through the day without too much hassle, slaughtered
A new report is estimating that the post-9/11 war machine has exterminated 4.5 million human people. Even if that's a 50% overestimate...
...it's still fucking revolting!
Anyway this tune is da bomb! Hooks galore. It's like every single musical element here has a hook which makes this totally infectious. Its that heavy duty drone-y synth bass though that is absolute killer like a blanket of wavering bass tone. I guess that was a precursor to the drum'n'bass and tech-step pile-driving style.
Sorry to interrupt the blog's non stop groove action but I tripped over this in the cyberspace, clicked on it because I liked the look of it and it turned out to be good fun stuff. Eerie ambient of the highest order. Creepy occult happenings in the woods vibe.
Black Goat Of The Woods was apparently inspired by the darkest of low budget 70s horror flix, spooky 70s telly, weird electronic OSTs, HP Lovecraft, VHS tapes etc., you know the sorta thing was soo de-rigueur in the 00s to the point of cliche. Luckily the music is much better than that would suggest, in fact it's quite a way ahead of his (now mostly forgotten) contemporaries. The music here is much closer to old school 80s post industrial dark ambient than say a cheap Radiophonic Workshop or Goblin knock off.
The fella behind Black Mountain Transmitter JR Moore originally released this as a cdr on his own diy label Lysergic Earwax in 2009. From what I can gather he picked up a cult following and some critical acclaim maybe. Black Goat In The Woods has since been reissued on cd, cassette and just recently on vinyl by a bunch of different labels. I mean this video's had almost a million views so that's something. Perhaps Black Mountain Transmitter are the next dark ambient haunt-y logic act to join The Caretaker in the crossover zone.
*Oh hang on this wasn't as random as I thought. I have a compilation 2cd from 2013, The Outer Church, that Black Mountain Transmitter contributed to. This cd had other like-minded abstract post industrial dark ambient experimental noise artists such as IX Tab, Hacker Farm, Robin The Fog, Time Attendant, VHS Head etc.
This really swings... just right. The Atlanta Rhythm Section will have you hypnotised with this...er...rhythm. Someone once neatly described this tune as like Steely Dan if they were southern rock. Then there's the whole relatable lyric that captures perfectly the intensity of an unrequited lusty obsession. I actually always thought it was about his new girlfriend until I read the lyric sheet today so it still works on that level of being so into your new honey that it's all you can think about.
You don't hear this song on golden oldies radio in Australia which is weird because it was a #27 hit but those stations seem to have set a particular playlist sometime in the 90s and now nobody budges from that oddly picked set of songs.
Peak 70s radio rock, it really doesn't get better than this.
PS
This groove is just the greatest. The band are all on it. A twenty minute version of So Into You would be just the ticket.
Peak early 80s funk for your disco. I can't be 100% sure this made it to the footy club and Blue Light discos in the Victorian bush in the 80s. It sounds very familiar though and it isn't on any of my old disco-funk-boogie compilations so maybe...I mean you used to hear things at discos that were never on the radio or Countdown. I'd guess tracks such as these were club favourites in Melbourne and Sydney imported straight from America's R&B charts and roller rink playlists that would then filter through to the disco djs in regional towns.
A quick search reveals this choice piece of Motown wax only got to #97 on the Australian charts and yes it was an American R&B chart topper.
Anyway, loving this right now. All the right vibes: New wave synth funk with strong 80s R&B flavour. A hell of a squelchy synth bass line amongst mucho 80s goodness and hooks galore. The sorta tune that would perfectly slide in next to GAP Band, Cameo, Prince or Zapp on your dj's turntables Good times.
Totally forgot this top 10 smash existed. If you're from the Antipodes you know. Actually I'm surprised it wasn't a hit in Canada. It was big in South Africa though. An 80s Sydney band consisting of Leon Berger a Russian bloke and a lady from New Zealand Tina Cross. She was a sex symbol for a moment. Anyway this is some 80s synth pop lost treasure. It still sounds good to me...teenage nostalgia, maybe, I don't care. Peak hair in your eyes, gotta love that.
Once you get past the fact that these tracks ain't gonna be no 60s jazz or 70s jazz-funk-fusion you can free your mind to enjoy this handful of sweet delights that Hancock recorded amongst some absolute dross in the second half of the 70s and early 80s.
On Doin' It look out as this is one hell of an insidious groove. At the start you may think "Oh this is just ok" but by the end you will be in a funky trance that you won't want to end. As far as intergalactic disco-funk jamz go it doesn't get better. Infectious.
I Thought It Was You - Herbie Hancock (1978)
Vocoderized vocals over mellow grooves progress to driving funk then into a robotic vocal workout on this futuristic toe tapper. It was either Kraftwerk or Herbie who were the first to use Sennheiser VSM 201 treated vocals on recordings in 1978 but Man Machine was released before Sunlight, I think.
Stars In Your Eyes - Herbie Hancock (1980)
Oh boy the magic happens on this one. For a start the glorious groove is laid down by legends Freddie Washington and Alphonse Mouzon amongst a bed of exquisite Hancock keys. The strings are just splendid, then Ray Parker Jr's sublime guitar hook enters at 2:22 and you know greatness is upon you. Not to mention the wonderful vocal from Gavin Christopher. Impeccable from all angles. Undeniablestone cold R&B classic. 11 minutes just isn't quite enough.
Satisfied With Love - Herbie Hancock (1981)
Another top slow jam with Gavin Christopher on vocals. Washington & Mouzon lay down the groove once again, I mean that is some funky shit emanating from the fingertips of Freddie Washington innit. Deluxe.
Obsessed with this track this year. The fact that Carla Vaughn's vocals don't infuriate me is a testament to the restrained approach on the production of this record. Producers Ayers & Vaughn reign this shit in to a flawless degree.
That synth/guitar/whatever break at 2:54 is in that perfect controlled zone, what could have gone berserk is reeled in, just. Again this tune is all about balance.
Years ago (pre-youtube/streaming) I decided to investigate the Roy Ayers oeuvre but I entered his catalogue in an incorrect place and got the wrong end of the stick. So I thought he was not for me but ten years ago I discovered this sweet spot which is the You Send Me LP from 1978. It wasn't a consensus record back then but it might be a bit more on people's radar today. You Send Me might not be the 60s jazzers or early 70s jazz-funkateers choice but these grooves are just fine by me. The soul jazz is heading further toward what would become known as R&B. Smooth, sensuous and melodically spacious, it's got the subtle luxurious vibes.
Was this the inspiration for Spirit Of Radio by Rush? I feel like I can hear bits of it in here. Both songs were recorded around the same time so...who knows? Anyhow this is peak Loggins. Peak FM pop really. You either love it or hate it
Kenny is a surprisingly interesting cat. He was in a 60s garage group, The Second Helping, who were later included on Greg Shaw's seminal compilation series Highs In The Mid 60s. Kenny was even in The Electric Prunes for like a minute prior to forming a duo with Jim Messina of Buffalo Springfield and Poco fame. Loggins & Messina had a very successful run of six LPs from 1971 to 1976, selling over sixteen million records.
Anyway fast forward to 1979 and the release of his third solo LP of which Keep The Fire is the title track. Amazingly this single only just cracked the top US top 40 reaching number 36.
The Second Helping - Let Me In (1966)
Before becoming yacht rock royalty and the king of Hollywood in the 70s and 80s Kenny was in The Second Helping. They released three singles. Let Me In is ramshackle diy garage pop, that's almost proto-indie, with girl/boy vocals. Wait for psych lead break at 1:55. Good fun 60s stuff.
When you hear this you immediately think of hip-hop from the late 80s/early 90s. That's how ubiquitous James Brown samples were then. This tune was famously sampled by Ice-T and Marley Marl along with literally hundreds of others.
Anyway who cares right because this tune is better than anything it was sampled in. I can't stand how the only way to discuss legendary artists is through who they influenced.
This is another jam that was only ever released on one of those three great James Brown Polydor comps from 1996: Make It Funky (The Big Payback: 1971-1975).
I don't recall anything much about the way JB approached his music in this peak period but I assume it's similar to the way Miles Davis and Can operated. Doing long jams then editing them later. Parts 1, 2 and 3 of Make It Funky were all edited down to singles. Parts 3 & 4 were included on the classic double LP Get On The Good Foot (1972). I gather this raw twelve minute jam is where all the material for the Make It Funky releases comes from. However I don't think he was so much into the splicing or overdubs in the way Teo Macero and Holger Czukay were, I may be wrong...
The exalted musicianship makes me smile and laugh out loud at the sheer ease of their audacity. In particular the bit where everything turns on a dime at 1:48 and Fred Thomas's world famous bass line drops. Glorious.
It makes me think these jams are somewhat composed if not completely...
James Brown begins a list of soul food at 2:49.
Fred Wesley barges in with his trombone at 8:33 for a bit of dick joke banter. They continue with Brown getting Wesley to imitate what he's doing vocally on his trombone which is just brilliant. All the while Jabo Starks and Fred Thomas are holding down a mother of a fucking groove, that is a stone cold hard funk rhythm like no other.
At 11:16 Brown yells out to guitarist Robert Coleman to give him a bit of BB King and he proceeds to lay down some blues licks.
Down and dirty and base this all is.
The JBs line-up for this session on July 13, 1971, Rodel Studios, Washington, D.C. was
Organ, Arrangement - James Brown
Alto Saxophone, Vocals - Jimmy Parker
Bass, Vocals - Fred Thomas Drums, Vocals - Jabo Starks Guitar, Vocals - Cheese Martin
Guitar, Vocals - Robert Coleman Tenor Saxophone, Vocals – St Claire Pickney Trombone, Vocals - Fred Wesley Trumpet, Vocals - Jasaan Sanford
Trumpet, Vocals - Russel Crimes Vocals - Bobby Byrd
Vocals - Danny Ray
Vocals - Martha Harvin
Vocals - Vicki Anderson
*So we've got the aforementioned Robert Lee Coleman on guitar here. He was a fellow Georgian who put in a good couple of seasons for The JBs in 1970 and & 1971. He'd previously done a six year stint with Percy Sledge. He played on and possibly co-wrote Hot Pants (1971) and played on Think (About It) (1972) by Lyn Collins...er that makes you a legend.
Some minimal cosmic funk right here and it's glorious. A bass masterclass. It makes me wish I knew all about the musician-y stuff so I could appreciate what is going on here even more. That groove, oh my. All of the musicality moves...yes sir!
When you hear stuff like this it's hard not to think the perceived achievements by rock critics of things like Remain In Light or My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts as dubious and way overrated.
Also that guitar is just outrageously splendid. It could be Michael but it's probably one of these two legendary guitarists who have a credit on the LP: Bruce Nazarian or Ralphe Armstrong.
I really should just go through Miles Davis's 70s bands and make sure I've checked out each members other projects and solo releases to make sure I've not missed more great stuff like Solid. All I knew for 30 years was that Michael Henderson was a fucking cool bass player because he was on all those amazing 70s Miles albums. When I say that I mean he played wicked bass on ten of the best LPs ever made! I think I had some years where pretty much all I listened to was Big Fun, In Concert, Live-Evil, Get Up With It, Agharta, Dark Magus etc. So Michael's bass has been rolling around in my head for eternity but my awareness of Solid is brand new.
This cover. Yes.
All of it.
That font. Recently a restaurant nearby took down its old signage which was in this exact font and from the same era, that was a depressing day.
...but wait also check out those glasses. He's giving his old mate Miles, on the cover of Get Up With It, a run for his money.
Insane jazz/funk/fusion eyewear is probably a much under-explored subject. Then again there might just be an entire website devoted to it.
That's what I had written down as notes for this tune. Need I say more?
This tune and parts of this tune had been recorded and released previously on several high profile James Brown records between 67-70 including as part of a medley, a single, an album cut and several live versions.
This version however is somewhat mysterious. It appears to be a studio jam recorded in 1970 but as I no longer have the 96 compilation cd Funk Power 1970: A Brand New Thang I can't really find any concrete information on it apart from the fact that this version was previously unreleased.
1996 was a fantastic year for for JB fans because three of his best ever cd compilations were released by Polydor: Foundations Of Funk: A Brand New Bag 64-69, Funk Power 1970 and Make It Funky: The Big Payback 71-75. In fact if you're a funky JB neophyte this is exactly where to start. It's got all his soulful-proto-funk to his funky funk to just plain funk and stops just short of where he starts integrating disco elements into his sound. These were meticulously put together collections. So this is THE primo James Brown goodness. Then if you need more there's an endless amount of releases to explore. These three stellar compilations have never been reissued though but they can be found across blogs, youtube, spotify etc.
Going back to the band...I mean how smokin' was his band? This is quite possibly the best band of the 20th century...These guys:
Vocals: James Brown
Organ: Bobby Byrd
Bass Guitar: Bootsy Collins
Guitar: Phelps "Catfish" Collins
Drums: John "Jabo" Starks
Conga: Johnny Griggs
Tenor Saxophone: Robert "Chopper" McCollough
Trumpet: Clayton Gunnels
Trumpet: Darryl Jamison
Engineer: Ronald Lenhoff
We've got just the one drummer here as Clyde Stubblefield left the group sometime in 1970. Sometimes they would have three drummers and a conga player on one tune. Here we've got Griggs on congas and the man behind the "Think" break Jabo Starks on drums. There's no Fred Wesley who sat out most of 1970 but then came back in 71. You could spend your life tracking and tracing the fabulous personal on each phonkay JB cut. They're like an elite footy team. They should have their own footy cards.
Oh almost forgot fuzzy lead break alert at 4:17. Thank you Catfish Collins, you are a legend!
Was gonna go on a rant about what D would have thought about Russia-gate, fake leftists now being shills for the CIA & war and so on, but I'm just sick to death of the mindless conformity. It continues on though with Biden's war on establishment dissent today with the indictment of four old school African American black power dudes. They are being accused of being Kremlin agents which just sounds like the latest iteration of Russia-gate bullshit.
......plus political terms are pretty bloody redundant nowadays. When is someone gonna come up with some relevant ones to improve political discourse?
I was totally disappointed when Four-Calendar Cafe came out in 1993. What happened to the sublime? Why were they sad instead of ecstatic? Why were they trying to sound like they wanted to be on American radio? Why were there so many more recognisable words than usual? Why did they release such a pissweak album? Less than seven listens in I gave the cd away. I tried to wipe it from my memory. I mean the recent-one-two punch of Blue Bell Knoll (88) then Heaven Or Las Vegas (90) was so glorious. I just wanted to live that vibe. And the Sugar Hiccup (83) to Love's Easy Tears (87) run of 45s vibe and the other one two album punch of Head Over Heals (83) and Treasure (84). I would forever just hold on to them as the 4AD group. Whatever they did after that on another label we'll just ignore. Just try to quietly forget the fact that they'd fallen from grace and faded away into artistic inconsequence.
I was forgetting something though. The Cocteau Twins had slumped before, you know with Victorialand (86). An LP I've listened to many times but couldn't tell you the name of one track. This was an easy album to overlook though as they released so much good music between 1983 and 1990 there was enough great stuff, you could forget a record and it didn't matter.
By 1993 though we had been waiting for three years for a record. In the mean time a bunch of kids had stolen their sounds and made them less good in their shoegaze groups Slowdive, Lush etc. So you know you don't wanna release an album so inferior that a band of b-grade imitators are going to outdo you. Some might say Slowdive's Souvlaki is better than Four Calendar Cafe and historical consensus does seem to favour that narrative. By late 93 I couldn't have cared less though as I didn't like either. Recently though I've come round to Souvlaki so I know in all fairness I need to reassess Four-Calendar Cafe.
Evangeline keeps popping its head up in my world and yeah guess what? I've become somewhat enamoured by it. I've had to compartmentalise the Cocteau Twins into their two distinctive record company stints though. So you've got the supreme golden era of the 4AD years 1982 -1990. Then you've got the less incandescent Fontana twilight years 1993 - 1998.
In the 90s I did end up getting the final LP Milk & Kisses (1995) and those Fontana EPs probably twelve or eighteen months after release when they were cheap and in the 2nd hand bin. I recall liking some of the material, the more dubby out there type of stuff. When a seminally influential band becomes a chaser of a sound though, it seems a bit sad. Even if the sound they're following was influenced by them in the first place. Anywhoo I could'n't name or hum a tune from Twilights or Violaine. Perhaps I've underestimated the twilight years era. I hope that I've been absolutely wrong for thirty years. We'll see...
Anyway back to Evangeline the 1993 single. This is like an answer song to the dream pop they helped create (Julee Cruise, Lush etc.) except it's better, more emotional and in a class of its own. It's like they're saying yeah thanks that's flattering and all but we've got real emotional depth beneath the pop sheen. Plus they just up the ante don't they? with a preposterous key change that before you have time to throw your hands up in exasperation you realise it works just perfectly. BAM the masters have nailed it, goosebumps jackpot and the acolytes should be sheepish. Can't deny thirty years later Evangeline is one of the great Cocteaus moments.
I must admit the RFK assassination is intriguing to me. I'm currently reading another tome on the subject. I gotta say I know very little of the JFK & MLK assassinations outside of their historic news story synopses. I assume the CIA was behind the death of MLK too (?). Anyway these three men are the subject of this tune. They had peace on their minds which made them a radical threat to the American money making war machine establishment. How revolting is it that the deep state has ruled American politics and their foreign policy for over 60 years. So much for the Church Committee.
Anyway this is all kinda fitting as American hegemony has taken some severe blows in the last few weeks. Look out peace is starting to break out due to diplomatic deals being made that America isn't a part of. I reckon it's time for Australia to realise it doesn't have to be a suck job ally to America anymore either. Lets hope CIA meddling in international affairs is on the way out because lets face it, it's always been totally fucked up. Gross. I mean sure it's been a good thing for American arms manufacturers and dealers, just not so good for living people who happened to be citizens in countries America liked to war with. Perhaps it's time to develop a Peace-time Industrial Complex while hopefully the military industrial complex finally dies. Although over a hundred billion dollars to arm Ukraine and Finland joining NATO seems like peak times for reprehensible corporations Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing etc.
On another note the CIA, FBI and all the other nonsense American security bureaus colluding with the White House, big tech and establishment media to quash the free speech of the citizens has been a frightening turn of events in the past decade. Truth was being censored during covid, that's bloody outrageous...oh but it was all done out of concern for your safety. Sure. The Twitter Files have been an incredible revelation. It's a wake up call for all Americans and the rest of the west. We are not the free societies we once were. Sure perhaps that was mostly an illusion but we used to be able to make jokes without fear of going to prison.
I'm pretty sure Australian intelligence agencies like ASIO, ASIS etc. were doing the same thing here in Australia. They're all in cahoots with the CIA in The Five Eyes anyhoo. The thing is we don't actually have freedom of speech enshrined into our constitution so we're fucked because everybody likes to conform down under. Full totalitarianism is going to be a cakewalk here over the next year or two.
...anyway how good is Tommy Cash? Poor son of gun never had a chance, spotlight-wise, with a big brother like Johnny Cash but hey I like him. He seems to have had some moderate success over the years although I think he had to maintain a day job as a real estate agent to pay his bills. Terrific singer.
One of the few musicians didn't put all his critical thinking skills aside to become a conformist shill for the globalists during the covid era. Then there were all the covidian turds: Neil Young, Joni, Rage Against The Machine, Louder magazine, Noam Chomsky, the majority of corporate news media... the list is endless. The masks were bullshit and the faux vaccine was almost fully useless too. I mean they literally had to change the definition of vaccine and everyone just went along with it. Nothing to see here. How's everyone going with the lies three years on?
Anyway...
If you get to a point where you're at the end of your tether and the bad thoughts are spiralling in at 3AM, give this tune a shot. It might just save your life.
Sprawling...when he hilariously starts listing authors, how on earth do we let him get away with that? But we do, well some of us do. Then he can do what he pleases, so it's incantation time. The spell is cast upon you for fifteen fabulous minutes. I don't know if he's high on the Jesus juice or the cocaine or just high on life or all of the above and does it really fucking matter? No... it just is! Can you feel the light in your soul. Soak up the lord shining through in Summertime In England.
This recent Snog tune is from last year. Some things change, some stay the same.
Here's a weird connection to the previous post. David Thrussell, of legendary Melbourne electronic act Snog not to forget Black Lung and Soma, once released a Porter Wagoner album or maybe two on his Omni Recording Corporation label. Snog of course were not that well liked here despite being signed to Universal but they garnered cult followings in Europe and America in the 90s. I think they even had a top ten hit in Germany.
In the 90s Thrussell was host of the brilliant Rude Mechanical radio show on Melbourne's 3PBS FM. In the last couple of months it's been great to discover Dave is still around, not only with his music but as part of the podcast The No Goat Show. I'm kicking myself I didn't discover this podcast during Victoria's insane totalitarian lockdowns. Yes rubber bullets were deployed by Victoria's militarised police. The other voices on the show are playwright Michael Gray Griffith, Melbourne legend of Hellfire Cluband Melbourne Underground Film Festival fame Richard Wolstencroft and Ryan Etherington a young Melbourne comedian. Anyway this motley crew of wrong thinkers are Aussie freedom fighters raising a ruckus because of the tyranny of Melbourne lockdowns.
My favourite discovery though is Thrussell's solo show The Forbidden Book Club on the All Out Of Bubblegum channel which can be found on Rumble and youtube. He discusses controversial, underground and even blockbuster books from history. Many of which have forewarned us for many years about the oncoming authoritarianism in western democracies that has now arrived as well as stuff that's outside of the establishment narrative. It's amazing to think Robert F Kennedy's book about Fauci sold over a million copies and yet the good ole New York Times would not list the book. Anyway the latest episode of The Forbidden Book Club is one of the best as it features The Day Of Saint Anthony's Fire by John G Fuller. That is an incredible story of mass hallucination in a small French village in 1951.
Wikipedia is so fucking retarded they are referring to David as her because he did an album 10 years ago where apparently they thought he was pictured as a woman, so they all now think he's trans and are falling over themselves to conform to the groupthink rules.
If you went to an industrial disco in the early 90s you know this tune, it made Snog (in)famous. Nothing has changed except now everybody wants to conform and please the government. The government serve you not the bloody other way round!
If I recall correctly Judee Sill had been a teenage delinquent who was sent to a Christian reform school where she ended up playing the church organ. Later she became enamoured by hymns and channelled all things mystical into her music. At some point though I think she was even in some kind of new age cult. Sill was a fascinating woman, an erratic genius and a rock'n'roll outlaw. How has she not been on the cover of Mojo magazine ten times by now? However her infamous notoriety and ultimate tragedy usually overshadows her artistic achievements which is a shame because THE real story is her exalted music. This stuff is just elevated higher than the rest.
Judee Sill is a musical messiah offering up her divine gifts to we who are not worthy. The Donor outdoes the peak sublime moments of Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Linda Perhacs, David Crosby, Gene Clark, Dennis Wilson et al. and foreshadows the delights of His Name Is Alive, Liz Phair, Panda Bear, Grouper etc.
The consensus in the youtube comments is that The Donor is "heavenly" and "a masterpiece" One thing I love about comments sections under great ye olde songs is that you usually get some oldies who heard the music back in the day and still can't believe how good it is. Then you have the young folk, who heard it for the first time the day they left a comment and they also can't believe how good it is. Anyway it seems everyone who hears this track is totally moved by it. Sill was aware of the effect of her music stating "my music is really magnified four part choral style. It gets to people's emotional centres quickly"
This is just one song, sure it's her most divine and epic effort but she has two LPs worth of enchanting folk pop with cosmic, classical and ecclesiastical overtones. Judee Sill came up with a term for her deceptively simple yet complex music "country-cult-baroque" which is perfectly succinct.
Speaking of perfection. It does not get better than this.
Johnny Cash's influence on the whole hypnagogic chillwave scene has been underestimated. The heavenly reverberating production on this is just gorgeous. Plus that ghostly kids choir moment is an unexpected creepy delight. It's a shame he didn't do an entire double LP in this style. It would have been the best album of the 80s. I dedicate this to the only holy son of man I know me. How this was not a number one smash across the globe in 1984 still puzzles me.
Well I guess I was expecting some kind of of retro Amen smasher 94 style with a dash of shoegaze but that's not really what we get exactly. Actually I'm not even sure what we've got here. TAGABOW are another group from the the current Philadelphia scene. I can hear hints of their forefathers like Blue Smiley and early Spirit Of The Beehive. This is noisey shoegaze jungle (There's some kind of breakbeat science submerged under that racket) goes slowcore hypnagogia with a chipmunk choir singalong. As far as song structures go this is anarchistic. The kids might have a name for this kind of genre mash up, who knows? It's something you might have imagined James Ferraro doing once upon a time instead of whatever crap he's actually doing right now. Unpredictable, strange, psychedelic and ultimately quite fabulous.
Menthol Box (2021)
This one has an audible assemblage of breaks jungle stylee. I can't make out if it's an Amen or not. Anyhow it's a pretty faithful facsimile of a 93/94 jungle rhythm with added My Bloody Valentine-esque noise. It's as good as anything Third Eye Foundation ever did... only thing is they did it in the 90s when it was, you know like... a happening thing. Nevertheless it's pretty infectious. Back to the future.
Killing Capitalism With Kindness: An XPRESSWAY Compilation - Various
I wanted to show an example of the "no-fi diy psych drone ambient noise" that had been going on in New Zealand before Flying Saucer Attack renamed it rural psychedelia and called it their own. These are peak examples noise-y psych drone from the late 80s/early 90s.
Kilroy is mainly known for being an engineer and producer. He's recorded some of NZ's most legendary artists like The Clean, Snapper, The Terminals, The 3Ds, The Cake Kitchen, Sandra Bell et al. Naturally he has engineered some of Roy Montgomery's most well known music as well as being a fleeting member of 90s Flying Nun groups Chug, King Loser and a duo with Peter Jefferies.
Anyway he really could have had a promising tiny career as a cult guitarist doing these little noisey psych-folk/space-rock jamz but that was not to be. He only ever had a few tracks released.
Stephen Kilroy - 45 Degrees Below Frozen (1988)
5 Xpressway Pile=Up - Various (cat no. X/WAY 5) Cassette
I wonder if the members of My Bloody Valentine realise the enormity of the spell they have cast over generations young regional guitar bands. They are more popular and adored than ever before. Go on youtube, bandcamp or spotify and you will find a gazillion kids from all corners of the globe doing spirited replicas of all things shoegaze-y.
Full Body 2 are a relatively new group on the Philadelphia scene. It's hard not to like Mirror Spirit's electrifying buzz.
Full Body 2 - 2g ether (2022)
This one's even better. A jubilant sonic sherbet bomb.
For the shoegaze nut who lives in a perpetual 1994, this is what we would have really preferred instead of the disappointing bullshit of Slow Buildings, Carnival Of Light, Souvlaki etc.and the non arrival of any new My Bloody Valentine material.
*I must admit I've now come round to Souvlaki. Only took 30 years. The other two records? Fuck off.
Full Body 2 - Dancer's Theme (2022)
93/94 style ambient jungle meets the fizz of Glass Swords era Rustie. I like how Full Body 2 have no qualms about mixing in all these elements so long as an ecstatic goal has been reached. They get the mission statement of My Bloody Valentine.
Another influence on the more adventurous of bands in this milieu seems to be Sweet Trip whose dream-pop, shoegaze, IDM, drill n bass, ambient, glitch and noise amalgam seemed a bit too obvious and clunky when those early records appeared on Darla at the turn of the millennium. However, as is often the case, the next generation has picked up on these ideas, particularly 2003's Velocity:Design:Comfort, and found them useful.
Full Body 2 - Sprite Ocarina (2021)
Quite the impressive sound design, Sprite Ocarina goes off the beaten path into some glitch-y gloomy doomcore and ends up in some strange Steve Reich goes ambient techno jam or something. A lot going on here.
21st century shoegaze bands really haven't appealed to my 80s & 90s soul. I couldn't stand Deerhunter and Atlas Sound. Then there was a glut of groups which were so awful that I can't even recall their names. There was a Welsh group I heard once and liked. I didn't mind Belong and Winona Dryver had an excellent song. Then blackgaze and the whole doom and whatever metal crossed with Shoegaze... just nah... no thanks...nope... and I love me some old school and second wave Black Metal. M83 were sometimes ok whatever their sub-genre was. I've never checked Grouper's Liz Harris in her shoegaze outfit Helen which is weird because i'd probably like them. I didn't understand how Spirit Of The Beehive's consummate throwback to 90s slacker alt-rock & psychedelic grunge got tagged shoegaze but whatever...
So that brings us to Blue Smiley who were contemporaries of Spirit Of The Beehive in Philadelphia during the mid 2010s. Blue Smiley's Return mini album from 2016 is probably the only innovative shoegaze record of the new millennium. They did the impossible and made shoegaze fresh, fun, exciting and unique again. Its got heavy use and abuse of that chorus effect (sorry I'm no gear head, is it chorus?), frantic shimmering jangles, helium cloud synths and ecstatic lawn mowing lead breaks.
If the Pale Saints were fully obsessed with all the fluttery bits of guitaring from rock's history, had the brevity and dexterity of Minutemen and were produced by Scott Cortez it might have sounded like this. This is some of the most buoyant shoegazery put to tape. The sonic shapeshifting's like squishing marshmallows. These fizzy to fuzzy and back again tunes burst into life like fireflies, just a flash and then they're gone.
.
Talk about leaving you wanting more, not long after the release of this all too brief album of supreme sherbet bomb shoegaze the band's mastermind Brian Nowell died. He was just 26. The twenty minutes of Return has already proved influential though, inspiring the current crop of groups in Philadelphia including They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, A Country Western and Full Body 2.
Flying Saucer Attack - Everywhere Was Everything (1994)
This is right in the sweet spot of all the converging things noise-pop, shoegaze, space rock, lo-fi, drone-y psych-folk and whatever else I've forgotten. Such fresh exciting territory at the time, it gave new hope for those of us still wanting the ultimate in psychedelic pop noise.
Flying Saucer Attack - For Silence (1995)
Probably my favourite FSA jam from their second LP Further. Starts out out all mellow, lo-fi & folky then ends up in a meteor shower space rock storm. Peak FSA.
You can't ignore this musical statement from 1984. You can ignore all the cliches ever written about the band though. All you need to do is listen and you will realise why so many idiots have made fools of themselves trying to come up with superlative adjectives to explain their awe while listening to Cocteau Twins.
Cocteau Twins - Pearly Dewdrops Drop (1984)
Is this their best tune? Glistening guitar waterfalls cascading into fluffy clouds, celestial alliteration and ecstatic glossolalia coalesce in this sublime, enigmatic and magic music.
I have recently read a lot of absolute crap on the internet since I started posting stuff about Twin Peaks, Cocteau Twins, dreampop, noise-pop, shoegaze etc. I have the knowledge because I was there in the 80s and 90s when it all happened. However finding old reviews written at the time these records were released is impossible. I've always thought the level of information and discourse about music on Pitchfork, allmusic, Trouser Press, wikipedia was poor but boy are they are scraping the barrel way worse than ever now. So many bad writers with so little insight. The internet had such potential with regard to music, its history and the history of of writing about music but it's time to face facts: It's pretty crap. Potential not realised. I would have thought every obscure fanzine from the 80s & 90s would have been scanned and uploaded to the web by now creating an unprecedented abundance of material for fans to revel in. Where are all the great music resources? Am I just not finding them or are they just not there?
I just read a feature article about Cocteau Twins on, I think, a Chicago newspaper's website. The story was so wrong it was backwards. The writer was asserting how much the Cocteaus were influenced by The Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine and how they integrated various aspects of each of these bands into their own aesthetic. It was strange because the author was obviously a fan of the group, or at least the Heaven Or Las Vegas LP, and had a good understanding of what made them so great but had this part of their story so fundamentally wrong. The funny thing is, this was posted a couple of years ago and the incorrect article has not been taken down or corrected...
Cocteau Twins - Otterley (1984)
One of the Cocteau's most restrained efforts but also one of their most atmospheric. This dark tone is deliciously eldritch. Surely this is another track that Angelo Badalamenti loved as that haunting vibe was all over Julee Cruise's Floating Into The Night and Twin Peaks.
Cocteau Twins - Pandora (1984)
Hang on I nearly forgot this one, it might be their best tune. Luxuriate in the subtle impressionistic psychedelia of the most perfect kind. The shoegaze brigade totally missed this memo.
Hard to believe FSA's debut single is 30 years old. This was a much needed injection of youthful exuberance into a flailing noise-pop, shoegaze, neo-psych scene at the time. Underneath the foggy hiss and distorted reverb is perhaps an indie pop gem. The swathes and waves of beautiful noise, reminiscent of early Jesus & Mary Chain and early AR Kane, are fused with the ghostly remnants of a Barney Sumner-esque pop tune. Soaring High indeed.
Flying Saucer Attack - Wish (1993)
The second single starts out all calm with low key distorted jangling and soft choir boy vocals but that soon surges into a maelstrom of supreme mangled psychedelic space rock. Such fun. Now that I'm old though, I'm wondering if they needed to rinse & repeat that outlined description or maybe they could have just ended the song at the halfway mark. Yeah nah, just listened to it again and the second round of cacophonous psych space rock is even better so er... rock on FSA.
Flying Saucer Attack - Oceans (1993)
The b-side does what is says on the tin ie. it's oceanic. Textures, ebbs and flows as opposed to going for the jugular of the previous two tunes with quiet to loud pay off dynamics. This is indebted to AR Kane's Sixty Nine, Kosmische, The Residents' Eskimo, the Xpressway catalogue and their no-fi production aesthetics.
