Archive for the 'Artists / Bands' Category
Neil Young Archives Project on Blu-Ray
Neil Young has now actively publicized the Neil Young Archives Project. The project focuses on multi-media presentations documenting the history of Young’s musical and other contributions. It allows you to listen to many rare recordings in high-quality (24/192) while simultaneously browsing through rare materials and photos gathered by Young over the years (arranged [...]
Read More..>>Excellent Shawn Phillips concert in Toronto
A while back I blogged on what I considered a forgotten album, which I had found in a bargain bin at the local record store (also see my post on his use of the sitar). I had never heard of Shawn Phillips, despite the fact that his Second Contribution (1969) was certified platinum. [...]
Read More..>>What does Brian Eno to do with emperor Augustus?
Hat tip to David Meadows who noticed the story on Brian Eno’s involvement with artist Mimmo Paladino in creating the ever-changing ambient music for an artistic display at Rome’s Ara Pacis Museum.
Read More..>>Exposure to Robert Fripp (1979)
Last week I picked up a near-mint LP copy of the original mix of Robert Fripp’s 1979 album, Exposure. I find listening to the album, whose main themes orbit suffering, a fascinating experience. Fripp (who is best known for fronting King Crimson) thought of the album as a third in a triology including the [...]
Read More..>>Bill Bruford on Genesis, Yes, and King Crimson
I recently took the book Genesis: Chapter and Verse (2007) out of the library. It’s mainly a collection of quotations from each of the band members, as well as collaborators, on various stages in Genesis’ history. There are some interesting things in here.
Bill Bruford, who is best known as the drummer of Yes [...]
Unexpected rock instruments: Sitar
When one thinks of traditional rock and roll, one generally pictures a band of four and the instruments are usually the drums, bass, guitar, and vocal, as well as some keyboards. (You can also throw in a harmonica and tambourine, if you like). As rock developed into the 1960s, however, a variety of other [...]
Read More..>>Motown meets Bayou: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “I heard it through the grapevine” (1970)
Listen while you read: “Heard it through the grapevine” (a half-decent recording of the song on youtube opens up in a new window)
I’ve been listening to a lot of Motown and related (R&B, Soul, Funk) since getting back into vinyl, including the likes of Al Green, Supremes, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, and others. Marvin [...]
Favourite Christmas album: Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas
Listen while you read: Open up the Verve jukebox in a new window (the jukebox will automatically play a snippet of each tune from the album)
Don’t let the strange (though cool-looking) cover with a multi-coloured unicorn eating a flower fool you. This is a Christmas album, and an excellent one!
Don’t get me wrong. I [...]
Milli Vanilli-esque?: The Poppyfields’ Alarm’s “45 RPM” hoax (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZPm2S5tCdw
A while back I posted on the Alarm as part of my ongoing series on bands of the 1980s. A friend of mine, Tony, commented that he remembered a recent incident involving a Milli-Vanilli-like “scam” of sorts in connection with a come-back of the Alarm. Now another reader (Jeff Fulton) of that post [...]
Read More..>>Bands of the 1980s: The Call (Michael Been)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HM0b_M-ToU
The first time I heard the band The Call, it was a tape of Modern Romans (1983) that my friend Sue lent to me. The tune you are listening to now, if you pressed play above, is “The walls came down” from that second album (and, yes, that is Garth Hudson, seated, on keyboards). [...]
Read More..>>U2 collaborations: Robbie Robertson’s “Sweet Fire of Love” (1987)
Robbie Robertson’s debut solo album of 1987 is significant for several reasons, including his team-up with U2.First of all, the album reflects Robbie Robertson’s first substantial musical contribution since the dissolution of The Band, whose final performance of 1976 was captured in Scorsese’s The Last Waltz. Over ten years had passed, and this length [...]
Read More..>>U2’s Bono on the new song “Wave of Sorrow” (Joshua Tree remastered)
The release of the remastered edition of Joshua Tree (original 1987) is coming up in a few days and the 2 or 3 disc editions (”deluxe” and “superdeluxe”) include the original B-sides, along with a few previously unreleased songs. One of these songs is “Wave of Sorrow” which, as Bono explains, is based on [...]
Read More..>>Review of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand (2007)
Buy at Amazon
Listen while your read: Open up the Plant / Krauss “jukebox”
This album involves quite an unexpected team-up. Robert Plant, lead singer of Led Zeppelin, joins one of the most important voices and fiddles in bluegrass music, Alison Krauss. There is a third artist, not mentioned on the cover, who really makes [...]
The story behind a song: Haunted by “The Rhythm of the Heat” (Peter Gabriel and Carl Jung)
Listen while you read:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-5KPdwUJC4
A 1982 live version of Rhythm of the Heat from YouTube
By haunted, I don’t mean in the halloween sense, but in the sense of losing your self entirely to the spirits, of losing your very soul. One of the most haunting and experiential songs I know of is Peter Gabriel’s “Rhythm [...]
Review of Radiohead’s In Rainbows (2007)
In some ways, Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows (2007), is a continuation of their experimentation in recent years, experimentation that continues in interesting new directions. In other ways there are some of the sounds of The Bends (1995), one of my own favourites. So far, the album, which was released October 10, is [...]
Read More..>>Bruce Springsteen and the bible
In light of my recent discussions of Bruce Springsteen, I should mention that Michael Pitkowsky (a long time fan of the boss) has an interesting post on biblical imagery and narratives in Springsteen’s lyrics: Bruce Springsteen, Genesis, the Bible, and Religion.
Read More..>>New book on U2’s Achtung Baby (33 1/3 series)
I have been a U2 fan for a good number of years (since about 1983), so I was interested to hear that a book was coming out about the ground-breaking Achtung Baby (1991). I’m also a student of the history of religion, as well as religion and popular culture, so I wasn’t turned off [...]
Read More..>>“21st Century Schizoid Man. . . “: King Crimson’s debut (1969)
Seldom does an album-cover embody the essence of a song so perfectly (or vice versa), but that is the case with the disturbing cover of King Crimson’s debut album of 1969, the year of my birth (art by Barry Godber). The thing is, An Observation by King Crimson (© 1969 E.G. Music Ltd) is [...]
Read More..>>Review of Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band’s Magic (2007)
Click to buy at Amazon
Listen while your read: Open up the Springsteen Magic webpage in a new window (then click on a track)
In some ways, Bruce Springsteen’s latest album, Magic, which sees the reuniting of the E. Street Band, comes at a high point in Springsteen’s recent career, and this means there are high expectations. [...]
Roberta Flack’s Second Chapter (1970): Reverend Lee
Listen while you read: “Reverend Lee” (audio)
Roberta Flack is perhaps best known for her influential performance of the song “Killing me softly with his song” back in 1973, recently re-covered by the Fugees (if 1997 is “recent” to anyone else). Flack’s early work, before the years of disco set in and had their deleterious [...]
Read More..>>Bands of the 1980s: The Alarm
Listen as you read: “The Stand” (audio snippet from first self-titled ["Eponymous"] album, © 1983 IRS).
One band that very few seem to remember (at least in North America), even if they were teenagers in the 1980s, is The Alarm (full discography). The Alarm was a contemporary of both U2 and Simple Minds, and there [...]
Read More..>>Post-Gabriel Genesis: A Trick of the Tail (1976)
Listen while you read: “Dance on a volcano” (audio snippet)
I have been a fan of Genesis for some years. Just now memories are coming back of earlier days, when I was 13 (1982-83), listening to Genesis on 103 PhD, coming out of Buffalo (for many years when someone referred to a “PhD”, I thought [...]
Read More..>>Bruce Springsteen’s character sketches: Welcome to Asbury Park N.J. (1973)
Listen as you read (live version of “Lost in the flood”, Hammersmith Odeon, 1975):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_h4jxXPENU
With Bruce Springsteen’s new studio album (Magic) due out on October 2nd, what better time is there to post on the boss’s songwriting (official Springsteen website).
I am a relatively new fan of Springsteen. This shift was thanks, in part, to my [...]
Forgotten albums: Shawn Phillip’s Second Contribution (1970)
Listen while you read: “She was waiting . . . ” (audio snippet)
I was browsing through the overload bins at the local record store and came across an intriguing cover with a lone, long-haired guitarist amidst a sea of dried mud. This image caught my attention and I began to wonder whether it [...]
Read More..>>From Pink Floyd’s mysteries to Led Zeppelin’s “Satanic” music
There are a number of posts about music, religion, and culture on my academic blog that may be of interest to readers of this one:
The times they are a changin’ endin’: Bob Dylan’s apocalypse
Satanic conspiracies of the 1970s and 1980s (dealing with the supposed and real cases of back-masking)
“Me and the Devil Blues”: Robert Johnson [...]
Jazz guitar duel of 1976: George Benson vs. Jeff Beck
Listen as you read: “Breezin‘” (audio snippet)
Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m biased and the winner is a foregone conclusion. Through the luck of the draw, I recently ended up with two jazz guitar records from the same year (the first for ¢.10 and the other for a mere buck–both in excellent condition with almost [...]
Read More..>>Phil Spector’s “wall of sound”: Isn’t it a pity?
Listen while you read: Beware of darkness (Spectorized) (audio snippet)
Phil Spector’s influence on rock n’ roll cannot be underestimated. His production of several Beatles albums ensured this. Spector’s style of production (by the mid-late 1960s) with heavy reverberation and very full orchestral arrangements mixed with the original performances and overdubs has sometimes been [...]
Read More..>>Peter Gabriel sings in German - 3. Melt (ein deutsches album) (1980)
Listen while you read: Biko (audio snippet)
I was lucky enough to find one of Peter Gabriel’s lesser known albums at the local record store in Waterloo (”Orange Monkey”). After leaving the then well-known Genesis to pursue his solo career in the mid 1970s, Gabriel went on to create a number of interesting and somewhat [...]
