Monthly Archives: April 2013

Children of the ’80s may remember The Fabulous Thunderbirds as “stuff our dads listened to when they wanted to look cool.” The Thunderbirds doctored up raucous blues rock with hooks so catchy that songs like “Tuff Enuff” and “Wrap It Up” found their way into heavy rotation on Top 40 radio and MTV. 

But that was then, and Kim Wilson is all about now. He and the latest incarnation of the T-Birds have created a fresh-yet-familiar record with On The Verge, mixing funk, rock, blues, soul, and even pop elements into the new songs. They have a reputation as a stellar live band, and with their intense touring schedule there’s a good chance they’re playing at your favorite hometown venue tonight. 

In addition to a successful solo career as a blues singer and harmonica slinger, Kim records and performs with dozens of rock and blues legends—when he’s not carrying the torch for the Thunderbirds, that is. The jovial Wilson chatted up a storm about the making of On The Verge, his affection for vinyl, and a passion for music that keeps him going 40 years after he began. 

It’s been six years since the last Fabulous Thunderbirds album. On the Verge is said to be kind of a departure from the expected blues rock-y stuff you’re known for; I hear R&B and even funk. How would you best describe the sound of the new album?

I think it’s a very diverse record. I think there’s a lot of bluesy stuff, but there is a lot of soul-y kind of R&B. It’s really more Americana. I’m not really a dyed-in-the-wool soul singer, but people seem to think I am on this one. I am just singing along with the tracks and doing it in my own way.

As far as it being a departure, I am not sure that there’s [all] that many expectations, you know, at this stage. I think people are really just wondering what the next one is going to be. That’s just the way it is. You have to be creative in this business to keep it fresh for as long as I have been playing—especially contemporary music. I can play straight blues the rest of my life you know, but that’s not what I desire to do all the time.

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The Nashville duo Ttotals is just getting started, but if they keep on their current course their profile should only increase. They possess a solid handle on heavy and at times atmospheric psych-rock action, and they provide it with a distinct stamp. Their latest release is a 7-inch titled “Spectrums of Light,” a limited edition of 300 from the label Twin Lakes Records, and while Ttotals discography is still small, it’s their best one yet.

Regarding Ttotals, two descriptions come up rather frequently, specifically “psych” and “outer blues.” Both terms are fitting, though it should be added that the duo of vocalist/guitarist Brian Miles and drummer Marty Linville is consistently focused on songs rather than displays of outbound excess.

Prior to Ttotals, Miles and Linville were in another Nashville outfit called Heathern Haints, a group most notable for kicking up a small amount positive dust via a self-released eponymous 4-song 12-inch way back in 2008. That puppy was limited to 300 copies, so Heathern Haints’ achievement quite understandably flew more than a bit under the radar.

And that’s too bad, since their music was deserving of wider exposure, remindful at times of a cross between Bardo Pond and Galaxie 500, but with a vocal bent that reminded more than one listener of Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCullough. In terms of their overall thrust, others made mention of bands like Codeine and Spacemen 3, quite sensible references in both cases.

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On Friday, this NYC reporter will be flying down to Austin early in the morning to take in the amazing sights and sounds of the 6th-annual Austin Psych Fest. Having gone to last year’s APF, I knew I couldn’t miss this year’s celebration of some of the best psychedelic music being made today…and yesterday.

Here’s a little background from Austin Psych Fest’s website: “Austin Psych Fest was founded in 2008. Over the years, this independent festival has grown from a small word-of-mouth event to an internationally acclaimed, full weekend event that attracts attendees from all over the world. Austin Psych Fest has become the world’s premiere showcase of psychedelic rock.

Austin Psych Fest will celebrate its 6th year on April 26-28, 2013 spotlighting the best new vanguards of mind expanding music and hosting legendary artists from around the world. The lineup is programmed by producers and curators The Reverberation Appreciation Society, who also run a Record Label of the same name. Austin Psych Fest works to promote and create fertile ground for artistic expression through music and visual art, support homegrown businesses in Austin and beyond, and operate in an environmentally responsible manner.”

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“My most vivid memory of albums, vinyl albums, is the way they smelled. I don’t recall a time when they weren’t around. Even through my vagabond years when I couldn’t keep track of much, I always had a few on hand.”

“My folks had them when I was a child. They weren’t avid collectors but they had a nice bunch of about 70 or so. I can still smell the cardboard and the finest hint of dust. My folks’ taste varied from Nina Simone to Jesse Winchester, Cat Stevens to Paul Robeson, to a Billie Holiday multi LP collection that came in a box. We also had children’s records. The Uncle Remus LP lulled me to sleep on more than one occasion and I can still hear the opening ‘Good morning, children’ croon of Leadbelly singing to a classroom full of kids.

To this day I still think of the sound tracks to Grease and Saturday Night Fever as kid’s records because I remember staging mini shows in the living room with my brother to ‘Grease Lightening’ and ‘More Than A Woman.’ Vinyl and the emotional response to the music I heard come from it, to me, are one and the same. As kids, my brother and I tried to be gentle with them but we used them, they got handled. They forced you to be still and listen because if you jumped around too much they’d skip. God, there was nothing more annoying than hitting that inevitable scratch and then you had to go over and pick up the needle.

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Between 1986 and 1998, Public Enemy released six albums for Def Jam, and they’ve just been gathered across nine 180-gm LPs in the 25th Anniversary Vinyl Collection. Yes, that means their knockout debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show, the explosive second installment It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and its odds-defying follow-up Fear of a Black Planet, are all included, but perhaps the biggest insight this hefty collection holds is in how well Apocalypse 91…the Enemy Strikes Black, Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age, and the He Got Game soundtrack have endured over the years. This set surely won’t be cheap, but in documenting and celebrating one of the finest hip-hop acts of all time, its appearance is very necessary.

So much ink has been spilled over the music of Public Enemy that endeavoring to approach the subject at this remove can be more than a little daunting. Bluntly, it can seem like the possibility of adding anything new to the discourse is basically nil. In searching for fresh twists on the subject, there is a recurring problem; any attempts to shed new light upon the group’s achievements can reliably lead right back to a very familiar place.

It’s a story that relates to the severe but worthwhile lesson their music dealt to the many listeners with the curiosity to drift away from the imposed safety zones of the time. For in the ‘80s, musical tastes were quite often still segregated. And it can feel downright tired to restate how Run DMC and The Beastie Boys essentially set the table for this audience, bringing certain expectations over what exactly this fresh form of music was supposed to encompass, with PE turning up right on time to craftily pull the tablecloth out from underneath it all.

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Can we just agree at this point that grunge didn’t kill hair metal, it just sort of…put it on hold for a bit? OK, for maybe 25 years – but still.

The success of the M3 Rock Festival, now in its 5th year, is testament to Metal’s popularity which in some circles (TVD HQ) has never really waned. The 2013 line-up reads like a who’s who of the Metal Masters preaching to a leather clad choir.

“M3 Rock Festival starts with The Official M3 Kix-Off Party, which will get things started Friday, May 3rd at 5:30pm. Acts playing Friday night are W.A.S.P., KIX, Danger Danger and Bad Seed Rising.

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“When I was seven, I stole my Dad’s record player. I don’t know why I wanted it so badly, I just knew that this record player was the heart and soul of the family and I wanted this magical instrument to myself.”

“Bearing in mind it was almost the same size as me, it was a feat in itself that I managed to get it to the top of the stairs en route to my bedroom. However, it was the final step of my journey that proved to be the most fatal. It happened so fast. I tripped and my precious cargo slipped from my child’s grip and crashed with a sickening crunch on the floor.

I followed suit and landed perfectly on top of the arm spinner. The whole thing was in bits. It was an incident that wasn’t spoken of for years to follow, I probably cried all the tears in my body that day. My Mum and Dad’s collection of records which were stacked up in our sitting room were only a painful reminder of my misdemeanour and the fact that for ten years later, we didn’t have a record player.

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