The Days Of Vine And Roses

 

Back then in 1982 popular music was ruled by electronic sounds and across the Atlantic ocean many bands returned to the guitar sound of the 60's/70's. Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Rain Parade and REM interpreted their musical history in a very new and great way. Another band that played in this league were The Dream Syndicate, formed in the early 80's in Los Angeles and set with their first albums trademarks in American alternative music. Steve Wynn was the mastermind of the band which combined the energy of punk with music inspired by CCR, Crazy Horse and yes, Bob Dylan because Tell Me When It's Over has a lot of fragments of Stuck Inside Of Mobile... Their first album is still one of those that I always come back to and at every time it is a great pleasure for me to listen to their guitar sound and Wynn's voice that is sometimes very close to Lou Reed.

The Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over

The Dream Syndicate - Definetely Clean

The Dream Syndicate - Halloween

In The Sun

 

Yesterday I posted a long song by Psychic Ill and I remembered them when I read the news of a new series of albums released as Live At Leviation. It is a series about live recordings of the annual Austin Psych Fest. It seems like a series of live albums bringing back the best of American psychedelic music to our ears. Psychic Ill released a live album as well as Moon Duo from their appearance in 2012. Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada formed their band in San Francisco in 2009 to make a dusty, dirty and psychedelic guitar sound, minimalist rhythms and melodies, deliberately broken sounds and constant repetitions make up the sound. On stage Moon Duo make noise for five bands. Ripley nuzzles into the mic, playing down his fuzzy riffs, while Yamada feeds in flirty synthies and keyboard tunes. The drum computer works continuously without a break. You might think the two live in a different world. Or on the moon. This live recording seems to show them at a high leverl.

Monday's Long Song

I think it is time for another trip into space because I didn't featured this kind of music for a longer time. Psychic Ill are an American experimental/psychedelic band from NYC formed by Tres Warren and Elisabeth Hart in Austin at the beginning of the century and released a couple of albums and EP's. Psychic Ill play a guitar based psychedelic sound and on their longer songs they take you to a journey into space. Mantis is the first track from their second album and show their abilities at the best. Psychedelic mantras over a bass led ground with cymbals that wasn't even used in the days of flower power. A song you should watch the video by. Sadly Warren died a few years ago at the age of 42 and this is his legacy to the world.

 

Weird Goodbyes

The dogdays and summer are almost over and we turn slowly into autumn and the time when melancholic songs will return. I don't know why but during the last years sentimental songs were released mostly in the last months of the year. And so I wasn't surprised when I first listened to the new song by The National. A beat, a gentle chord sequence: Weird Goodbyes is at first simple and minimalist, nothing groundbreaking, until then Matt Berninger's vocals appear: „Memorize the bathwater, memorize the air / There’ll come a time I’ll wanna know when I was here“. Less singer can sing about separation and pain like him. Together with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon they made the an anthem for people who want to leave their past behind and looking forward to something new.

 

Back Then

 

Last weekend a few of my pals watched the Stuttgart game for the Bundesliga and we were all disappointed by the result. Stuttgart were the far better team but they lost at home 0:1 at home against Freiburg. After we got over our frustration we went to a friends home to finish the afternoon, There was nothing more to do than talking and have good conversations until a friend started to play some music. Step by step each of us took over the controls and finally it was my decision DJing for half an hour. I didn't know much better than to go back to the early 70's to play some glam rock. We all enjoyed this evening and so it is a pleasure for me to kick you all back to music more than 50 years ago. Enjoy this little journey.

Monday's Long Song

 

This song came a few days to my ears and I have to say that I really enjoy this one. It is based on a simple blues figure but played in a relaxed way I listened seldom before and this by someone who is not too far into this genre. I don't know who Weils is or are from but by the names of their members they must be from Scandinavia. Glimmering electric guitars over a relaxed blues theme makes this song outstanding in this genre. Anyway, great music could be made everywhere in the world and if you find a piece like this that works well with a glass of vine on a summer evening you could be grateful.

Lover Teacher

 

Last Friday Nina Walsh released Retrospective a new four-track EP with songs from her long lasting career. Walsh is a British composer, performer, producer and engineer and well known for her long time collaboration with Andrew Weatherall and The Woodleigh Research  Fascility. These four track show how different her style is and where she got the influences. Lover Teacher, is driven by a vintage `60s Vox Invader. Its distorted, fuzzed, freaked-out, mutant rockabilly riffing, recalling The Smiths and Johnny Marr from the times when they made Hand In Glove and What Difference Does it make. Great stuff. 

Music Of Quality And Destinction

 

According to yesterdays post I have to continue with the project B.E.R., the so called British Electronic Foundation formed by members of Heaven 17. Their first album is not that good as the ones by Heaven 17 but certainly full of great and sometimes forgotten songs. The best thing they did was to hire artist that had their best times long gone by. And for me are the re-interpretations by Gary Glitter and Tina Turner made this album worth to be remembered.

Gary Glitter - Suspicious Mind 

Tina Turner - Ball Of Confusion

Penthouse, Pavement And More

 

Back in 1981 Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, former members of Human League formed in Sheffield together with Glenn Gregory on vocals Heaven 17, one of the pioneers of new electronic synth pop. They came up with the first wave of new wave bands and brought back funk into music. It was new and irritating to the guitar based music that was released at this time but you couldn't detract from the groove and funky sound of (We Don't Need) This Fascist Groove Thang that was played in every good discotheque in the 80's. It was also a political statement because the single's condemnation of the political leaders Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan proved an ill-fated move. And also these meaning made it an hit here in Germany.

Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang

The song was originally wrote for the B.E.R.-project and was also released on their debut album Penthouse and Pavement which became a classic in electronic music. How great the song on this album are is shown by a remix of Play To Win by New York DJ's Martinez Brothers who had a big success in Ibiza.

Heaven 17 - Play To Win (Martinez Brothers Edid)

On their second album they created on of the best songs from 1982. Let Me Go is still one of those songs I return from time to time and I think it is a perfect track. Sometimes it is simple to create a great song when you have a bubbly bassline, dubby drums and the chopping up of the lyrics.

Heaven 17 - Let Me Go

Monday's Long Song

 

The good things about re-releases are that you can remember the times you listened first to it or you can hear something new you missed but the lot of releases from this time. This happened to me when I listened to the latest release by Stereolab. In 1997 they released their collaboration with Nurse With Wounds as a limited single. On this two songs Stereolab combined their mighty organ sound with the krautrock inspired avant-garde of Steven Stapleton and he couldn't hide his experiences working with Guru Guru and Faust. Tripping With The Birds is an experimental mix of Kraftwerk's Autobahn, combined with a Rother-esque guitar and the spoken words by Stereolab. A nugget of forgotten release.

Stepping Out

 

During the last days I read Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson once again just to see if this books works to like it did almost 50 years ago. I have to admit that I wasn't impressed that much as in my younger days but the way Thompson wrote is still freaked out. He described the journey of two persons writing about an off-course race in the desert near to Las Vegas. But it is more about using drugs than reporting about the race. Anyway a book worth to be read. While I read this book I remembered Curse Of Lono a band named after another novel by Thompson. Based in London they released a couple of albums and EP's and I don't know if they still active. They wrote songs Mumford And Songs would die for. Always between classic rock with a heavy affinity to Americana and Country. Steppin Out is a song that works to any time and any place to me. Especially Sunday morning with my first cup of coffee.

Curse Of Lono - Steppin Out

Dub Housing

 

A few days ago while I looked for something other I found Dub Housing by Pere Ubu. I almost forgot that I had a CD version from their 1978 album. Formed in Cleveland in the late 70's they created their very own version of rock music. Inspired by punk as a new form of music they added elements of krautrock and free jazz to their cosmos. Seldom heard a darker and dangerous sound like on their first albums. If any music can hurt than theirs. I know this is not the cup of tea for everyone and lots of people would annoy this kind of music but if you are willing to to go to the darkest chapter in punk/new wave influenced music you have to listen to this. A tour de force of experimental sound. On the other side many bands were influenced by them. Once I read that they were the link between Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine, Brian Eno and This Heat and I have to say this is true.

Pere Ubu - Codex

Pere Ubu - Dub Housing

Pere Ubu - Ubu Dance Party

Monday's Long Songs

 

Another slow start to the week and with a new song by Nils Frahm a Berlin based pianist and composer. I featured him several times during the last years at this place and now again because he announced a new album for September. It is the first new album after he released collected works from the last years and what I heard so far is much better than them. Music for Animals sounds like he combined Brian Eno's Music for Airports with very own ambient works. Right Right Right shows him at a peak of his output and fusions his ambient works with krautrock elements.

Star

 

Sometimes a song comes unexpected and stays for days and probably will become a high position in my years end list. On the last days of last month A Mountain Of One a British band that is typically filed under psychedelic and prog rock. Now they released wit Star their now song. It was released with various remixes and the one by GLOK is certainly the best. A dubby journey into another space. More versions and the original could be found here

The Return Of The Protest Song

 

A few days ago I read that one of the last true folk-punk rebel is going to release another song. Together with The Singing Loins Wild Billy Childish released The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant a song where an acoustic guitar accompanied his words. I don't know if he wrote this song by himself or if it was a cover of a traditional folk song. Anyway, it is good that there are some people out there recording songs like these. Nothing more or less than a throwback to times when Billy Bragg got famous with this kind of songs.

Monday's Long Song

 

Let's start into a new month with a song that came back to my memory during the last week. Bob Dylan released Hurricane in 1975 on his album desire. t addresses the arrest and conviction of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. In the song, Dylan criticized the investigation into the Carter case and its racist acts. Carter and a man named John Artis were convicted of three counts of murder. This had occurred in 1966 at the Lafayette Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. After it was widely reported that the crime apparently had racist backgrounds (the victims were white, Carter and Artis black), Carter and Artis were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In the following years, the case became more and more a controversial issue. Thus, the lawfulness of the investigation and the testimony of an alleged eyewitness were questioned. Carter asserted his innocence in his biography, which eventually led to Bob Dylan's contact. Dylan and his prominent associates reached a further investigation. In the third instance, Carter was finally acquitted. Listening to this song makes me thinking that less things changed in the United States during the last decades. Desire is one of those albums by Bob Dylan from the 70's that didn't the recognition it should not only for introducing a violin into his sound but just because there were so many great songs on it.

Bob Dylan - Hurricane