After almost ten years, Tortoise have recently returned with a new album. I've been a fan of this music collective ever since I saw them live 30 years ago. I was fascinated by how perfectly this instrumental band managed to integrate contradictory styles such as krautrock, dub, electronica, and even jazz into a homogeneous sound.
I admit that I lost sight of them in recent years, but with their current album Touch, they are more present than before. The influence of krautrock is unmistakable on many songs. At its best, you could be forgiven for thinking that Neu! had released a new, contemporary album. Motor-driven beats, sparkling guitar riffs, and a touch of synth are the defining elements of their sound. It's good to know they're still around.
Last week, I visited an exhibition at our city museum that summarized the citizen protests in my hometown over the last 50 years. Among other things, we used referendums to prevent a bypass road from being built through a nature reserve and part of the old town from being demolished to make way for a new shopping center.
What could not be prevented was the construction of a new sports hall for one of our high schools. This meant that an old restaurant, which was one of the first places we young people would go, had to be demolished. On the day of the demolition, we took the day off and occupied both the surrounding trees and the roof of the restaurant. It did us no good, except that the police took us away.
What could not be prevented was the construction of a new sports hall for one of our high schools. This meant that an old restaurant, which was one of the first places we young people would go, had to be demolished. On the day of the demolition, we took the day off and occupied both the surrounding trees and the roof of the restaurant. It did us no good, except that the police took us away. Here is a song from their debut that I enjoyed listening after ages and not only because I was in a sentimental mood.
Earlier this year I featured the debut single by Jo The Man The Music at this place. At the time, not much was known about the artist other than that she was planning to release her first EP soon. Much more than that behind the strange name Johanna Gußmagg stands a singer/songwriter from a small village in Austria.
Once again, she has released a little gem of guitar/indie pop. Nothing less than one of the most beautiful new songs from my neighboring country.
Kieran Hebden released his latest album 41 Longfield Street Late '80s two month ago. Together with William Tyler, an America guitarist they created one of the finest albums this year. The mixture of country, ambient, minimal techno and a bit of psychedelia is extraordinary and still on my turntable since it's release.
He obviously also finds time to devote himself to his side projects. One of these is Le Carousel, where he focuses on electronic dance music. His song, released earlier this year, has now been reworked and refined by Sean Johnston. The result is a steady beat underlaid with a massive bass and voices floating around somewhere.
Everything comes to an end, even going around looking at different houses. We conclude this short series with a few songs that couldn't be more different.
The first one is from the fifth album by Talking Heads in 1983. This song shaped exactly the style of the bands last episode. Combining funk and new wave in an excellent way. It's no surprise that this would become her biggest chart success in the United States.
The next one is a seldom played song by Jimi Hendrix. Perhaps only because he didn't launch into his usual feedback orgies here, instead demonstrating his technical skills with a classic blues number.
Want more blues? Gladly, because with House Rent Boogie and John Lee Hooker, we're going back to its roots. Everyday stories are told with great emotion and a classic guitar. George Thorogood later conjured up a killer slide guitar riff from this.
Last but not least, a classic from LCD Soundsystem that has already been discussed extensively. Even after all these years, it remains a great song.
When I listened The Cords' debut, it struck me that Scotland seems to have an inexhaustible reservoir of indie pop bands. The Cords are two sisters, Eva and Grace Tedeschi, and they keep it simple with guitar/vocals and drums.
In principle, it's indie/jangle pop, but their wiry minimalism exudes a pleasant charm. They bring the nineties back to life with their short songs, and anyone who liked listening to The Shop Assistants and The Sundays back then should give these two women a listen.
A few month ago I featured a song by Viper Patrol, a mysterious DJ who released a superb song for a late night disco. Now he is back via Leeds' Paisley Dark Records and presents two new songs and some remixes. Dancing Voices is a song that slowly takes hold with hypnotic percussion and light acid house and won't let you go. Def Charge is darker in structure, but impresses with its driving rhythm and psychedelic excursions. Both worth to give them a listen.
Since 2011, Mannheim had what was perhaps the best open-air festival in Germany. It was a playground for many mostly unknown indie bands from around the world. Unfortunately, it was not possible for the organizers to host the festival again in the future. As usual, financial uncertainties and declining visitor numbers were the reason for this. I attended most of the events together with my youngest brother, who lives locally, and was able to enjoy numerous musical highlights from many different genres.
Their music is diverse and has clear references to Krautrock and the West Coast sound of the seventies. But fuzz, wah-wah, and folk influences can also be heard repeatedly in their songs. Live, they thrilled me with their sprawling jams. Dripping Sun is from what I consider their best album, Masala Temples, and is a highlight of current psychedelic rock. Unfortunately, the band broke up indefinitely two years ago.
A few month ago I featured Gulp, a Scottish/Welsh band with Wildflower, which was a superb song for warm summer days. Now Richard Norris took this song and made an excellent remix that brings back the summer into autumn. A great bass-line opens the song until the piano starts playing. Still a very good song.
In 1995, there was a battle between two Britpop bands that was incomprehensible to me as an outsider. Both released singles at the same time, Blur's Country House and Oasis' Roll With It. Not that I don't appreciate both bands, but at the time, the hype surrounding so-called supremacy got on my nerves. Country House is one of the greatest songs Blur ever released and deserves to be played again.
There are only a handful songs from Elvis Presley that I could listen to. One of them is Jailhouse Rock the title song from the same movie released in 1957 and rightly one of his better ones.
Before the Commodores and Lionel Richie started releasing inconsequential soul music, they had released what was perhaps the most dominant funk song ever, Brick House.
A few weeks ago, I switched my internet provider because I got a very good deal on a new fiber optic connection. So far, so good. The connection was activated yesterday, but my former provider had already cut off my connection on Saturday night. So I got to enjoy almost two days without internet access except on my mobile phone. Basically, it was a good experience to be disconnected from the internet for once and to devote myself to a good book and go for long walks again. I'm considering whether I should spend one day a week offline in the future.
Last year Justin Robertson released under his alias Five Green Moons one of the most impressive albums for me. Now he's back and has announced his second album for the end of November. Apart from a first song that was released last week, there is hardly any information on the web. He remains true to his style and picks up where he left off last year.
He continues on the path of post-punk and PIL-inspired, dark, hypnotic dub. He was able to get Brix Smith on board for some songs, who adds another mystical touch with her chants. I'm looking forward to the album.
Australian singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett returned last week with a new single. This time less lyrical and reserved, but with edgy riffs and a great bass line. You can still hear her love for Patti Smith, early grunge, and her passion for playing. It's great to have her back.
At the end of this short series, I must mention a club where I experienced some of my most memorable concerts. The Wagenburg Tunnel connects two districts in the north of Stuttgart. In 1985, a club called “Die Röhre” (The Tube) opened in a side arm of the tunnel. It was a long tube with a large bar on the left-hand side. Initially, it was used almost exclusively for parties at the weekend and occasional concerts. It was not until the late 1980s that concerts began to be held there regularly.
A defining experience was a double concert in 1989, when Spacemen 3 and The Wedding Present performed. The latter impressed with their indie guitar sound, but were able to keep up with the psychedelic-tinged guitar feedback, as a bootleg shows.
This club has always been a good venue for indie bands and new independent bands, even if they haven't always been to my taste. I still remember many gigs by bands I had never heard of before and who later went on to have great careers. One example would be Rammstein, who were still unknown at the time but already used massive guitars and pyrotechnics back then. In a sentimental retrospective, I think back to concerts by Meat Puppets, fIREHOSE, The Mekons, Chumbawumba and Mark Lanegan. Unfortunately, the club had to close its doors 10 years ago as part of the massive renovation of Stuttgart Central Station.
Our journey around the houses today begins with a song by The Doors. Released on their fifth album Morrison Hotel they returned to their roots and played a powerful blues-rock on this song. I didn't listen to this song for a long time and I'm amazed at how fresh it still sounds today.
I couldn't resist presenting you with Status Quo's version as well.
We don't need to say much about Madness, and their biggest hit speaks for itself.
Alan Price was a key member of The Animals and after he left the band he formed The Alan Price Set and had chart success with this number.
Last weekend, while searching for something else, I stumbled upon a classic by Wes Montgomery, one of the most influential jazz guitarists, performed by Brian Auger. This prompted me to delve deeper into his music again after many years.
Brian Auger, for those who don't know him, he is a British keyboardist who played with pretty much all the greats of rock, soul, blues, and R&B in the 1960s, leaving his mark on them with his Hammond B3. With his Hammond organ, he had a greater influence on the sound of one of the Yardbirds' first singles than the guitar did.
Later in the 60's he formed Trinity together with Julie Driscoll and recorded some classic records. With their cover versions With their cover versions of David Ackles and Bob Dylan, they even made it into the charts.
Later on he formed Oblivion Express where he played more Jazz and fusion but still with his Hammond which still dominates his sound.
I never thought that Anna von Hausswolf, a Swedish singer and composer, would appear on these pages one day. Her songs, which mainly dealt with death, were too dark in the past. No one can doubt that she has always had a good voice, but her mixture of art pop, drone, and gothic, with an organ pipe at its center, takes some getting used to.
Now she announced a new album that will be released at Halloween and I have to admit that the leading single shows new road she will walk. Based on a 80's electronic post-punk sound she includes some folk-pop into her sound, the organ pipe isn't is no longer so dominant and makes way for a hypnotic beat.
A few days ago Austrian all female trio DIVES released their latest single Keep Talking and announced that they will disband at the end of the year. I followed them during the last ten years and it always was fun to listen to their sound that was something between indie-rock and garage-/lo-fi-pop. Their style is characterized by catchy melodies, driving rhythms, and polyphonic vocals. Finally, they give us one last glimpse of what we will miss.
Another example of their music is a song they released earlier this year.
Since the end of World War II, more and more US soldiers have been stationed around Stuttgart. In recent years, their numbers have decreased significantly, but to this day, Kelly Barracks in a suburb is home to AFRICOM, the headquarters of the US military for operations in Africa. In the early 1980's, we often visited the barracks for the annual German-American Friendship Day. To be honest, it was mainly to buy cheap cigarettes. When we talked to the soldiers, they often complained that there was no country club like the ones they knew from home.
The Longhorn Country & Western Saloon opened in March 1984, catering to the need of US military personnel stationed in Stuttgart for an American-style bar. We became aware of this club at the end of 1984 because it was the venue for the nationwide public male striptease. At that time, the strippers were US soldiers; men were not allowed in. Other events such as mud wrestling and wet T-shirt contests are also unthinkable today. When we visited the club for the first time, we were presented with a strange competition.
From 1987 onward, local concert promoters became aware of the club because they had the opportunity to organize concerts for up to 1,000 spectators. Since then I became a regular visitor of the club and was lucky enough to The Pixies, The Levellers, The Fall, Steele Pulse, The Woodentops and George Clinton among many others.
I particularly remember The Gun Club concert in 1987. At that time, there was still a public bar and a pool table on the first floor in front of the artists' dressing rooms. We arrived quite early and passed the time playing a few games until the opening act, Dinosaur Jr., came on stage. After that, we sat down at the bar and ordered a beer. Then a young Japanese woman sat down next to me and we had a nice chat until a long-haired punk with red eyes and an open mouth came up to me, grabbed me by the collar, and told me to leave his girlfriend alone. Several security guards immediately separated us and asked me to leave the floor. How could I have known that I was talking to Romi Mori, the bassist and then-girlfriend of Jeffrey Lee Pierce? Happy that nothing more happened, I was able to enjoy the concert.
The first song is well known, as Primal Scream released a cover version on Screamadelica. The original is by 13th Floor Elevators, who released it on their second album in 1967, and it contains everything they stood for: constantly repeating distorted guitar riffs and the electrifying vocals of Roky Erickson.
My New House by The Fall was released on their eighth album, This Nation's Saving Grace, perhaps their most accessible album, without sacrificing dangerous riffs and Mark E. Smith's sarcasm.
Our House from 1970 was disturbing for many fans of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as they preferred to see the band as protesters and couldn't relate to Graham Nash's declaration of love for Joni Mitchell. Nevertheless, it has become a classic that is played too rarely.
About every ten years, musicians get the idea to cover I See A Darkness. A few days ago, Anna Calvi also ventured to cover the dark ballad written by Will Oldham in 1999, which for me is one of the best songs he has ever written. Rarely has a song about friendship moved me as much as this one. While Calvi's urgent guitar playing and vocals create an ominous atmosphere, it is Perfume Genius who breaks through the dark sky with his falsetto.
A good song can't really be ruined. That's why we're featuring the original by Mr. Oldham and a version that Martin Gretschmann, aka Acid Pauli, brought to clubs quite some time ago.
From time to time it is necessary for me to leave my musical road and have to go back to the roots where handmade songs were made. If I have this mood and go back to The Singing Loins, a low-fi folk band from Kent, formed by Chris Broderick in 1990. I love their simple yet melodious songs, which often tell of the everyday lives of ordinary people, and the fervor with which they are performed. Sometimes I think they wrote the best songs The Pogues never recorded. In better times, there may be nothing better than sitting in a pub with a glass of beer and listening to The Singing Loins.
From the ashes of Bauhaus, Love and Rockets rose in 1985 with some members of this band. They shed their goth attitude and focused more on psychedelic-inspired longer pop songs. I liked their music back then, even though it was neither fish nor fowl. Maybe that's why I haven't listened to their songs in a long time. Looking back, they're not so bad that they should be forgotten. Their eclectic mix of post-punk, folk, psychedelic rock, and a little bit of glam are forgotten gems from a time when so much other great music was being released.
Just under ten years later, they reinvented themselves once again on Hot Trips to Heaven, having obviously listened to a lot of The Orb and Orbital and developed musically in the direction of ambient with psychedelic influences. The result was definitely worth listening to, but it obviously scared their fans away too much, because after that, things went very quiet around this band.
To be honest, I am not the expert on techno and it's musical history and seldom listen to it. But sometimes a new artist artist was featured in my in-box and I give him a chance. This happened this week when Phillip Sollmann aka Efedemin released his fifth album after a six year hiatus. Sollmann is a German DJ, producer and sound artist. On his new album Poly, he attempts to give his techno-based songs more depth, melody, and rhythm. He probably succeeds best in this on this track, presenting his version of dub techno. Certainly not to everyone's taste, but an album that has a cohesive and at times melancholic touch.
In the early 1980s, clubs were still called discotheques. It was only later that the term “club” became established here too. One of these clubs was the Oz in the center of Stuttgart. The Oz was more of a meeting place than a dance temple for goths and wavers. It was a relatively small space for about 250 visitors, most of whom were dressed in black, wore Doc Martens, and had heavy kohl eyeliner. It was a meeting place for the subculture, and we often went there because there were few venues that played Siouxie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, or Joy Division.
I also witnessed King Kurt throwing eggs and flour sacks on and off the stage and Anne Clark performing her poetry to electro dark wave for the first time. I didn't get to hear a new, unknown electronic band because the hall was completely overcrowded. So I had to listen to Depeche Mode with many others on the stairs leading to the event room.
One highlight was definitely Big Country's performance when they were promoting their debut album, The Crossing. It was a wonderful concert where I met a colleague who took me backstage, and I had the opportunity to exchange a few words with Stuart Adamson and the band.
In the nineties, the club underwent a transformation and dark wave was replaced by techno. I went there a few more times and the music was okay, but I wasn't ready for that sound yet.
We begin today's tour of the houses with a band that has unfortunately been unjustly forgotten and wasan s not appreciated enough in their heyday. In 1965 Roy Loney and Cyril Jordan formed Flamin' Groovies in San Francisco with their own interpretation of Rock 'n' Roll. Unfortunately, their first two albums at the end of the sixties did not capture the spirit of the times, when sprawling guitar jams were all the rage. For me they were more punk than many others at this time and idols of power-pop. This guitar gem is from their second album Flamingo.
In 1992, three rappers set out to turn hip hop upside down. Two of them were of Irish descent and decided to incorporate this identity into their sound. It was also remarkable that all the members of House Of Pain were white, showing their colleagues that they too could make formidable music.
Finally, some country rock from Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, an almost forgotten band who covered Kenny Loggins' song on their third album.
It has become somewhat fashionable lately to release albums when an anniversary of their original release is approaching. These are often anniversary editions featuring demos and/or live tracks. Much of it is arbitrary, but sometimes gems are reissued that are worth buying because astronomical prices are now being asked for the originals.
It is thanks to Warp Records that they re-released Boards Of Canada's third album last week. Two brothers from Glasgow, Michael and Marcus Sandison, joined forces at the end of the last century to make their mark on electronic music. With this album, BOC take their sound collages one step further by incorporating folk, obscure samples, strings, and other quirky sounds into their repertoire. With their acoustic guitars, organ and synth, analog drums, and test-tube beats, they manage to transport the listener into a dreamlike state. And not many can do that.
Brant Bjork is one of those musicians who enjoys a good reputation in the scene but is largely unknown. Growing up in Palm Desert, California, he devoted himself to surfing and played in a band from a young age, which Josh Homme later joined.
In the beginning, he hid behind the drums and founded the doom rock band Kyuss to play psychedelic-inspired Black Sabbath heavy rock. After a couple of albums he left the band and formed Fu Manchu, where he developed stoner rock for himself.
In 1999 he released his debut Jalamanta where he played all instruments and became his masterpiece for me. An album filled with psychedelic blues songs and it became the blueprint of stoner rock. This album is probably the link between heavy rock of the late 60's and as he called it low-desert punk.
Today's song isn't really new, but was released last year. English Teacher released their first album, and it's still well above average compared to other releases from 2024. It contains great songs that fall somewhere between post-rock, shoegaze, and noisy riffs.
At the end of the week, the album was re-released, this time featuring various remixes of all the songs. Particularly outstanding is Daniel Avery's rework, which transforms The World's Biggest Paving Slab into a hypnotic, powerful structure.
Another remarkable remix comes from West Yorkshire's Working Men's Club that gives this song a bit of a post-punk touch.
Jo Bartlett released a couple of days ago a song in which she recites the history of a club she often visited and also performed at. That inspired me to write about clubs that became regular venues when I was much younger.
Many of them no longer exist or have reopened elsewhere with a new concept. In the early 1980s, Stuttgart was a city that offered many unknown bands from Great Britain and the United States the opportunity to perform in small clubs. This was partly because there were promoters at the time who offered these musicians this opportunity and did not focus too much on profit. One of these promoters was Stefan Siller, a radio presenter who brought the right bands to Stuttgart at the right time with Paul's Music.
One of the first clubs in Stuttgart to embrace punk and new wave was the Mausefalle in the city center. In earlier times, it was a cabaret opened by Werner Finck, one of the most famous cabaret artists of the post-war period, who ran it until his death in 1978. The Mausefalle was located on the first floor on Tübinger Straße, right next to a strip club with the lovely name Natalie-Bar. It was quite funny to watch the club guests line up on the left side of the stairs while the nightclub guests on the right watched them sneak past bashfully.
I was lucky enough to see Dexy's Midnight Runners there at the time, when they were still performing in their sailor outfits, The Fall in 1981, Ruts DC, who combined punk and reggae with their powerful sound, and Trio, who were one of the first to make new wave with German lyrics before they became commercially successful in the NDW. ZK, who actually called themselves Zentralkommitee, were a bunch of brats from Düsseldorf who could barely play their instruments and were guests long before they filled stadiums as Die Toten Hosen.
I took some time off over the last few days and went to a skat tournament in Ingolstadt with a friend. My father taught me this card game decades ago, and I played it often in my younger years. But it's a huge difference when I, as an amateur, want to compete with professionals. Fortunately, I hadn't forgotten everything, and the lessons I had to learn the hard way were kept to a minimum.
Back to blogging reality and a short series about songs that have houses in their titles. Let's start with X, a band from Los Angeles. They were filed under punk-rock but they included more stiles like rockabilly in their sound. In This House That I Call Home is from their second album and one of my favorites from 1981.
The House Of The Rising Sun is a classic recorded by innumerable artists. I prefer the version by Sinead O'Conner from 1995.
Let's finish today with a classic by Blur without any further words.
It's always the same with bands that release an album again after several decades: I wonder whether there's still a need for it or whether they still have the magic they had back then.
Manchester's Chameleons (they left out the “The” and Mark Burgess now calls himself Vox) were iconic in the early 80's and their debut is still on rotation at my place. For me, the impression is ambivalent. It's a contemporary development of their guitar sound, although some songs have clear weaknesses, are too sprawling, and on some songs the drummer can neither keep nor find the beat.
Take this two songs and probably one more and you will be pleased. There will be no memory of the rest at the end of the year.
