My Bloody Valentine’s famously obsessed frontman spent 3 long years and a whole shitload of other peoples’ money making this 1991 shoegaze classic, and he didn’t deliver a follow-up until 2013. Seems Kevin Shields found Kevin Shields a tough act to follow. As for the guy whose money he spent (Creation Records honcho Alan McGee), his verdict on the record is on the record. In 2014 he said, “Loveless is fucking overrated as fuck.”

Well I humbly fucking disagree. While there are brief moments on Loveless when my attention wanders, My Bloody Valentine’s “sheets of tampered guitar noise meet dreamy melodies and hushed vocals” recipe is a winning one. The songs contained therein are simultaneously abrasive and deliciously mesmerizing–Loveless is as hypnotic a drug as nembutal, but it won’t put you too sleep.

The formula’s simple–Shields utilizes a whole mess of tricks (reverse reverb, tremolo techniques, tuning systems, samplers, etc.) to create oceanic swells and tidal washes of guitar that he harnesses to beguiling melodies over which he and Bilinda Butcher sing like sedated angels. Every single review I’ve ever read has described the guitars on this record as “swirling,” but that’s not what I hear. I hear churning–the churning of raw distortion into creamy dream pop butter.

Both mood and volume vary–for some reason “Only Shallow” and “What You Want” are twice as loud as anything else on the LP–but for the most part what you get are a set of songs that sound, well, like some mad genius fucked with them in the studio until they sounded wrong–wrong in such a way that obliges you, dear listener, to grow an entirely new set of ears in order to hear them right. And you do. After a while the brain-melting seesaw guitars and slushy and pureed vocals not only begin to make sense but to sound inevitable–as inevitable as any great forward leap in music, or any of the arts for that matter.

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Sounding like a suburban version of Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna,” Eli Greenhoe’s “Katie’s Song” indirectly exposes the object of his affection by concentrating on the oddball details surrounding her. It’s a kind of free-associative rhapsody that allows the listener to glean a deeper insight than a standard love song might denote.

Although this is Greenhoe’s debut as a songwriter, the songs that comprise his forthcoming full-length, That Time When It Rained, have been in his mind and performed in some or fashion since his days studying music at LaGuardia High School.

Greenhoe would go on to focus his attention into the classical composition world, but never lost his affinity for music in the folk tradition, which he revisits with such panache here.

Eli Greenhoe’s new album, That Time When It Rained arrives in stores on May 10th.

Marvin Gaye is rightly evaluated as a crucial chapter in the story of Motown, but the relationship’s peaks weren’t immediate. Marvin had his goals while Barry Gordy and company had theirs, and across his first batch of releases the results only fitfully align with the vocalist’s popular image. The seven 180gm LPs contained in USM’s Marvin Gaye Volume One: 1961-1965 are still very much of interest however, offering a portrait of the soon to be great artist as a confident young man profoundly concerned with classicist pop objectives.

A recurring theme in the history of 20th century Pop finds record labels big small and in between striving purely in the name of profits to mold and modify a developing talent into a contemporary setting. In the process these actions frequently limited, damaged, or even downright quashed creative promise. In such instances the label’s miscalculations were reliably due to the reactive nature of the whole endeavor, the attempts seeking to capitalize on trends in place of shaping organic wrinkles in musical progress.

The seven albums included here complicate the above scenario considerably, detailing Motown as determined to travel a fertile trail as the young and undeniably skilled Gaye sought not to set trends but instead to examine a Pop/Jazz zone a la Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra just as this tradition was on the wane.

Rather trying to strong-arm him into a mode he didn’t wish to inhabit, Motown displayed a tremendous amount of patience with the singer’s ambitions, though this might not be as commendable as it sounds; Gaye was fully capable of pulling-off (if not truly excelling at) the crooner role, making commercial success in this capacity a possibility. Had that transpired, Motown surely would’ve primed the pump until it gushed. On the other hand, none of the non-R&B focused LPs assembled in 1961-1965 charted, and Motown was unambiguously in the business of hits.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | As part of their continuing reissue campaign, Domino are very proud to announce details of the release of Buzzcocks albums A Different Kind Of Tension and Singles Going Steady, which are out on Friday June 14th, 2019.

They follow the 40th anniversary re-issues of Another Music In A Different Kitchen and Love Bites in January of this year, and the re-release of the band’s debut EP, “Spiral Scratch,” and a 1976 collection of demos, Time’s Up, in March 2018. As previously, both albums have been lovingly restored and re-mastered from the original ¼” tapes for the first time and come packaged with lavish booklets containing unseen images and extensive liner notes by famed cultural commentators Jon Savage (A Different Kind Of Tension) and Clinton Heylin (Singles Going Steady).

Faithful to their original tracklistings, the re-issues see the albums released on vinyl for the first time in many years, available on deluxe 180g vinyl and CD. Their third studio album, A Different Kind Of Tension, was recorded at Eden Studio in West London in the summer of 1979 with producer Martin Rushent, who had worked on their previous two albums.

Their last studio album to feature the line-up of Pete Shelley (vocals / guitar), Steve Diggle (guitar / vocals), Steve Garvey (bass), and John Maher (drums), it was released in September 1979 and featured a distinctive cover by Malcolm Garrett who had provided the artwork for both Another Music In A Different Kitchen and Love Bites.

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“Records… where to start? My Dad’s collection was on a shelf which ran the length of the living room in the house I grew up in. I have very early memories of flicking through them having absolutely no idea what they were. On the covers were all these incredible looking people, bright colours and weird drawings. They seemed to belong to a different world…”

“On my 16th birthday he left Marquee Moon and Psycho Killer in my room. I went downstairs, put them on the stereo, sat there in front of the speakers and it changed my life.

I’m hyper sensitive, I get goosebumps quite easily, and there’s something about the actual sound of the music that comes from a vinyl record that is closer, clearer, and more personal than any other format. Hearing the intro to “Elevation” on Marquee Moon and then Tom Verlaine’s voice piercing through that warm fuzz of the needle on plastic had my hairs standing on end.

I remember holding the first album I played on. A box of them had been delivered to a gig in London, and we were each given a copy by the label. In the physical pressing of a record onto plastic you transform performances and emotions, words and feelings, into a tangible object that can be held, touched and seen. I think this process is magical, there’s such permanence to it. Once it’s on there, it’s not coming off.

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There has been no shortage of single and various artist Soul anthologizes over the years, but most came encoded on compact disc and ranged in worth from outstanding to moderate to shoddy. Vinyl sets became few and far between, but recently that circumstance has begun to change. Behold A Crate Diggers’ Collection of Rare Soul, a compilation of three 180gm LPs assembled by Rhino Custom in an edition of 1,000 copies and currently available only through Popmarket.

The purported scarcity of the originals corralled here, everything initially issued on 45s from ’64-’75 either by Atlantic and its subsidiaries Atco and Cotillion or Warner Brothers and its sub-label Loma, offers a fine angle of presentation. However, the secret to any various-artist comp, and especially one devoted to a genre so deeply tied to the emotional, is not rarity but listenablity, though the opportunity to hear these selections on vinyl is an unequivocal plus.

A Crate Diggers’ Collection of Rare Soul smartly drafts a smattering of ringers and immediately taps into a cornerstone of the style. Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle” was issued posthumously by Atco in ’68 both as a single and on The Immortal Otis Redding. Oft covered and sampled as it features the confidence, precision, and verve of Otis, Booker T & the MGs, and the Memphis Horns, there’s simply no substitute for the original.

Another stone beast is ’66’s deep and slow groover “You Put Something on Me” by Don Covay & the Goodtimers. A somewhat slept-on soul figure both at the time and hence, akin to the majority of the artists on this set Covay was recorded by Atlantic, but like “Sookie Sookie” before and “Somebody’s Got to Love You” after it, “You Put Something on Me” failed to chart, which is difficult to fathom since it pairs with “Hard to Handle” as the best track on this set’s first side.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Omnivore Recordings, in conjunction with the Buck Owens Estate, will release Buck Owens and the Buckaroos’ The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971–1975 on May 31, 2019, available on CD and Digital.

The set is the third and final volume in a series chronicling every one of Buck’s historic Capitol Records singles from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Taken from the original stereo masters, The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971–1975 collects the A- and B-side to all 21 singles from that period, including nine Top Ten hits, in their original, chronological form. Newly remastered, and featuring liner notes from author and Bakersfield country historian Scott B. Bomar, The Complete Capitol Singles: 1971–1975 presents the golden age of Buck Owens in an entirely new way.

“One of the good things that happened in 1970 was that I finally had my studio up and running in Bakersfield,” said Owens of that period. “If I was in the mood to record, I’d just call the guys and tell ’em when to be there. I didn’t have to deal with having to find out when Capitol’s studio would be available anymore, or go to the trouble of driving down to L.A. every time we were going to record, or knowing that every minute I was recording at Capitol it was costing me money. It was still costing me money to record at my own studio, of course, but at least I wasn’t billing myself at an hourly rate that would be charged against my record royalties like Capitol had done to me all those years.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | TOTO is pleased to announce the release of their definitive CD box set: All In via Legacy Recordings (a division of Sony Music) on May 24th. In late 2018, a deluxe limited-edition vinyl/CD version of the set was released direct to consumers and quickly sold out (this is now out of print and will not be reprinted). However, due to demand, a CD only box-set will available from all major retailers worldwide.

All In features the following TOTO albums on thirteen CD’s: Toto, Hydra, Turn Back, IV, Isolation, Fahrenheit, The Seventh One, Kingdom Of Desire, Tambu, Mindfields, and Toto XX. The set also includes a previously unreleased “Live In Tokyo” EP from their 1980 tour, along with an album titled Old Is New. The Old Is New CD features ten tracks, seven which are previously unreleased along with “Spanish Sea,” “Alone,” and “Struck By Lighting” which are featured on the band’s greatest hits collection 40 Trips Around The Sun. All of the music in the box set was personally remastered by TOTO along with Elliot Scheiner. Also included in the box set is a 24-page booklet which includes new essays and previously unseen photos.

TOTO’s Greatest Hits package titled 40 Trips Around The Sun was released in early 2018 and impacted charts all over the world. The band recently completed another set of tour dates in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. European shows are already scheduled for this summer along with an upcoming North American tour in the fall (Sept/Oct). Full details on the North American tour will be announced shortly. The 40 Trips Around The Sun tour has been the band’s most extensive run in years.

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“File under ‘Everything Old is New Again.’”

“Fifty years ago, my parents’ generation had its own version of Spotify: the mail order record club. Once a month, five new LPs arrived in the mail and headed straight for the record player built into the top of the Zenith TV. That was the plus side. The minus side—none of them were rock and roll. Still, it warmed my heart to hear my dad singing along with all those albums by Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, and Tony Bennett. Those were his happiest moments in a young life heavily weighted with family responsibilities and an ever-increasing tab at the neighborhood tavern.

The only way to change the music selection was to start making my own money, cobble together speakers, an amp and a turntable from a pile of gear in an uncle’s basement, and ride the bus to the record shop after school. My first single was The Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” (B-side, “Rain”), which may still be in a box around here somewhere. Ultimately, I bought only a handful of singles. In order to make those lawn-mowing dollars stretch, I opted for albums, and like my dad, was happiest when I was singing along with records in my room.

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I suppose you’re asking yourself why I’m wasting my valuable time writing about Mike + The Mechanics, and more importantly, why you should waste your valuable time reading about them. But before I get around to answering that question, I must ask another question: Would you really let this so-called supergroup of English wheelnut monkeys anywhere near your car?

Oh, and I can only answer the first question (this is getting confusing, I know) by asking yet another question. To wit, what exactly was it that made this vapid Genesis offshoot’s 1988 debut LP Living Years such a smashing commercial success? Did living breathing human beings really hanker for music that was even blander and more faceless than the bland and faceless “product” Phil Collins’ Genesis was supersaturating the airwaves with? Is it possible they found the likes of Duke and Abacab too musically challenging?

It’s a demoralizing thought. The generic pablum produced by Mike + The Mechanics–who were led by Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford and included two vocalists named Paul (Carrack and Young, respectively)–is a lot of things, but idiosyncratic ain’t one of ‘em. These guys aren’t your colorful auto jockeys down the street, who crank Motörhead in the garage and drink beer during work hours. They’re a chain, like Midas, and their songs are antiseptic outlets that all look exactly the same. Just look for the big yellow sign!

The music on Living Years is (to switch metaphors on ya) white bread and margarine, flavorless fare incapable even of inducing heartburn. If music (here I go again!) is a drug, Living Years is a placebo–in single-blind clinical trials almost 70 percent of participants thought they were listening to real music!

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