Who recorded Animal Magnetism in 1981?
Ummm, this is pretty wild, but I just found that hip Brooklyn blog-rag, Brooklyn Vegan, is reporting (in multiple posts) about unhip iconic progressive rock band, Yes, in a non-ironic or negative way! The posts are regarding Yes’ 40th Anniversary tour starting this June. Of course half of the comments are negative and as simple and creative in their negativity as ‘NO!’
Check out the Yes posts here and here.
*awesome pic courtesy of Natalie Dee
And in a related story, you absolutely need to hear this new band that’s rockin’ with a progressive bent. They’re Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears and their new Flight of the Knife album is amazing! Here’s a vid for you…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJXBDRE44uw&hl=en]
And as a bonus, here‘s a song from that Flight of the Knife album called “Imitation of the Sky” which will disappear very soon (so listen now…and then support the band and your own good listening habits by picking up the album at Amazon!) Don’t be turned off by the fact that Perez Hilton endorses this band!
Related stories: Positive ELP Review, African Prog
This one is tough, ya’ll…
Shades of Deep Purple [1968]
So I’ve had one of my Best Band features published elsewhere on this here web which extends the whole world wide. The site is called Blog Critics and I’ll be regularly writing pieces for them, but for now I just have one lonely little unpopular piece about a band that the general public doesn’t know sitting over there wishing it would get some clicks. So do it (and me) a favor and click on over there and give ‘er a read and better still, leave some glowing comments!
Well, here’s news that I’m sure will delight all… I’ve had a couple breakthrough moments concerning Radiohead in the last couple days. ‘So what!’ you may scoff, but never do I get any stranger looks on peoples’ faces as when I inform them kindly that I don’t really listen to Radiohead. I think the popular assumption is that everyone does, so that would especially include me. But I’ve never really caught on to their brand of magic, although it certainly must be there (here’s where I’ll avoid saying ‘millions of people can’t be wrong’). I think the biggest factor was that when they were really blowing up after Kid A, it was a time right after I had discovered Krautrock, so when I heard Kid A, it didn’t floor me the way that it floored everyone else the first time they heard it. I had already been listening to way trippy electronica mixed with droning rock guitars. That said, I just kind of missed the wave when it was at it’s crest.
But a couple nights ago, I fell asleep near the beginning of Conan and awoke near the beginning of the musical guests’ live simulcast from England. It was Radiohead (who was the very first musical guest Conan had on Late Night when the show launched in ’93). I was captivated. It sounded beautiful. I must say I didn’t even know the name of the song, but I was in a sleepy trance. Well, I’ve got the full performance for you below. I missed all the stuff at the beginning with the ‘carbon emmissions’ and ‘dedicated to the **** who walked away from the Kyoto agreement’ and was happy to see it all on YouTube.
And before I play the projection for you, the other thing that put Radiohead in a nicer light for me was today when I was reading in Rolling Stone that Radiohead performs (or will perform) a different set list every time they play, so each show is different. I dig that. Anyway, come 2010, I may be headed for becoming a big Radiohead fan ten years after Kid A was released. That would be sort of typical for me… always dabbling in the old sounds!
Dig this…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccAiL6Klo0w&hl=en]
And I’ve got a few more links to throw at you at the start of your weekend, links that will shape your world…
- You must hear and see the new Animal Collective song and video, ‘Water Curses’, which will be the name of the upcoming EP release.
- New Eno/Byrne album and tour coming soon, although I would unpopularly say that My Life In the Bush of Ghosts was not a favorite of mine. The show will be fantastic though, I’m sure!
- Do you have time/interest to read a lot about African music and why white people should be outlawed from playing it? It’s a very well-written and informative piece with lots of great mp3 examples, but I do think Heart on a Stick is missing one very valid point.
- Van Halen is back at it!
- Cool video from the new John Varvatos at CBGB… now that’s punk rock. Or something.
- The 2008 Celebrate Brooklyn schedule is up.
- Daryl Hall in action at Live From Daryl’s House
What else is up?
Brass In Pocket (1979)
The band, Blodwyn Pig (blawd-win) is definitely one of the Best Bands You’ve Never Heard In Your Life. The band formed after original Jethro Tull guitarist, Mick Abrahams left Tull in 1968. It is said that Abrahams and Ian Anderson did not agree on the musical direction of the band, Abrahams preferring the hard blues-rock style and Anderson starting to write in a more progressive rock style. (Who won that feud, would you say?) Blodwyn Pig released two albums, one in 1969 and one in 1970, and this song is from the second album, titled Getting To This. It’s one of the Best Bands You’ve Never Heard In Your Life, Blodwyn Pig with “See My Way”…
And here’s a bonus for ya…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN68LSrPTC0&hl=en]
What Texas band pretended that they were British in 1965?
Who replaced Brian Eno in Roxy Music?
So Trout Mask Replica had you as confounded as it had me when I first checked it out from the library in high school? As is the case with most bands, it seems like the most critically heavily-lauded album is usually not my favorite. It’s even the case with the Beatles…I’d rather have the White Album on a desert island than Sgt. Pepper’s (not to take anything away from Pepper’s, though!) What other examples can you think of?
Anyway, I put together this nice Muxtape to share with you the glory of Beefheart’s bluesier, more psychedelic debut album Safe As Milk from 1967. I feel like there’s almost no way to not love this album. If ya dig, the next logical step in my mind would be Spotlight Kid and/or Clear Spot.
So here’s Safe As Milk for your listening pleasure…nice and listenable! Hope this helps all you Star Room folks give Beefheart another chance. Cheers!
Anybody else have any similar examples of critically-acclaimed albums that are not your favorite?
What was the first production credited to Apple Films?
What group is (was) Steve Perry a member of?
So Saturday is Record Store Day and I guess the reason we’re starting to celebrate it is because of the death of the music industry as we know it. I gotta say I look back on the record store days as pretty sweet. Me and my sister used to go to the local record store (at the Shoppes) and see all these cool records which we weren’t yet familiar, when I was around 9-10 years old. I always remember a Dirty Deeds poster and wondering why all the peoples’ eyes were blacked-out, and a life-size Ringo Starr cardboard cutout in a police uniform. But at that age we were mainly going there to get to the arcade in the back of the store, where I honed my Donkey Kong skills as often as I could.
Fast forward a year or two after Back In Black opened my eyes to rock ‘n roll, and I’m going to the Record Bar at the mall almost religiously and ordering records from the record club…getting 10-12 records at a time in a cardboard box in the mail is about as cool as life gets.
Then a few years later in high school, how many trips did I make to Clifton from the burbs of Cincinnati to visit Wizzards Records to load up on cheap used albums? Then there’s all the stores I’ve loved before… Everybody’s Records, Mole’s, Used Kids, Recycle, and a couple I’ve visited where I live now… Academy Annex in Williamsburg and that joint on Bleecker Street. I’ve gotten the best deals most recently though at NYC street fairs and the last WFMU Record Fair.
So get out there Saturday and find your local record store and grab yourself some tasty vinyl. Or if you don’t have a turntable, seek a cheap one out. Shit, you could even get one of those USB Ion tables, if you don’t have a proper receiver. Anyway, here’s a couple other things…
- Listen to a killer vinyl rip (via Muxtape) , of Neil Young’s Time Fades Away, and then find yourself a vinyl copy of it at your local shop
- Get your free download of the new Gnarls Barkley! The catch…it’s backwards.
- More talk about classic rock live albums at Hidden Track
- Can you think of any other bands that peaked too soon? I’m thinking The Specials.
- You absolutely have to see and hear David Byrne doing his rendition of Paul Simon’s I Know What I Know, which he just performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (where I was married) for the recent Paul Simon Graceland tribute, Under African Skies.
- Central Park Summerstage‘s calendar is up.
Yeah, I’ve got a ton of cool shit to share with you today, the first being the news that this here NewmRadio cyber-rag, received its most visits ever on Wednesday, April 16th! Pretty cool. Let’s just say there were a LOT of folks searching for mucho Rock of Love stuff, since it’s Sunday finale. What an ending, huh? Ambre is now Bret Michael’s ‘Rock’. Whatever that means. Maybe it’s like common-law or something.
- Is there going to be a new Cross/Odenkirk joint? Which will shoot a pilot on May 9th?
- You’ve got to see and hear this Swedish prog rock band, Ungdomskulen!
- Check out the trailer for I Need That Record
- I know what my niece will be getting this Christmas
- Pitchfork again shows it shallowness by exposing that sacred Indie band, Fiery Furnaces, will play with a jam-band keyboardist! I’m sure they will encourage a boycott or stoning at the shows.
- Can I just say that I hate the band name Tapes ‘N Tapes? I will never like this band just because of the name (speaking of shallow). Any band names buggin’ you?
- This album looks like it’d be very cool
- Take RS’s Almost Impossible Rock Trivia quiz… and let’s see your score below!
- Happy Passover, fellow Jews!
Before going solo, what group did Sammy Hagar sing for?
I just found this cool new way to share mix “tapes” with friends, called Muxtape. You upload the songs (which is quick), order the tracks, and it reads the titles and diplays them, and plays the songs back for your favorite cats. So go ahead, listen to this, it’s fun and easy, and it removes excess body fat!
And one more thing, God Bless America! Grace Potter is a cool rock chick.
Anyone else gonna share a Muxtape with us?
True of False – Duane & Gregg Allman formed a group called the Allman Joys
Howard Devoto left The Buzzcocks to form what group?
Utterly amazing…[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pS5xzOWbwo&hl=en]
Robert Christgau totes sourced NewmRadio…
Eating Crowe
Robert Christgau
The rockcrit flap of the moment concerns a review by David Peisner of the Black Crowes’ not-then-released Warpaint in Maxim, a magazine that discretion demands I mention shares ownership with Blender, where I am currently a senior critic. I do not recall ever looking at an issue of Maxim, although on its site I found a joke about men’s collective propensity to premature orgasm winningly candid. But thanks to the folks at newmradio who scanned it onto the Web, and encouraged by its extreme brevity, I can tell you how the review reads in its entirety:
The Black Crowes already sounded like grizzled classic rockers on their 1990 debut. While it was certainly a neat trick for a bunch of wasted twentysomethings to pull off, it hasn’t left Chris Robinson and the gang much room for growth. Now that they’re legitimately grizzled, they sound pretty much like they always have: boozy, competent, and in slavish debt to the Stones, the Allmans, and the Faces.
Here’s the full piece…
http://www.najp.org/articles/2008/03/eating-crowe.html#more
Kinda cool! No?
