Monthly Archives: July 2017

“I’m crazier than ever—I don’t wanna get better!” Ted Zurkowski sings in “Dementia,” the cleverly catchy single off Honey West’s Bad Old World album. Honey West is a band—not a woman—and they’ve released their debut record this past May via Readout Records.

As the single’s title and group’s name suggest, New York-based Honey West has a soft spot for the long-lasting. Perhaps this soft spot isn’t too surprising, given Honey West’s intimate relationship with rock and roll legacies. Vocalist-guitarist (and actor, founder of New York’s Shakespearean Co. Frog & Peach) Ted Zurkowski makes up one half of the group’s songwriting and conceptual nucleus. Multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald makes up the other half—you might know Ian too, in fact, if you’re a classic rock regular, you probably do.

McDonald is perhaps most immediately recognizable via his major roles in the foundation and subsequent super-success of rock bands King Crimson (1968-9) and Foreigner (1976-80). The versatile musicality, innovative composing, and production prowess that McDonald displayed during his stints with both bands is impossible to deny. The creative hand that he wields now with confidence and grace on Bad Old World, re-proves these same truths.

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“At a very early age music was an integral part of my life. My pop loves to regale whoever will listen with tales about how I used to sneak out of bed to watch MTV in the middle of the night—or about the time, when I poured milk all over my Muppets drum set after watching the “Centerfold” video for the first time, hoping to mimic the shot of the snare drum exploding with white paint during the fill, just before the coda… you know what I’m talking about.”

“My affinity for music was undoubtedly sparked by my father himself who always spun a lot of tunes around the house. It being the early ’80s and all, the primary source of most of the music we listened to was vinyl. By age four I had amassed what I thought was a not unimpressive record collection—mostly 45s that my pop would buy for me when he had some extra coin.

“Believe it or Not,” which was the theme song from The Greatest American Hero TV show got an extraordinary amount of play as did “Rock the Casbah.” Hall and Oates were in steady rotation along with Toto, and lest we not forget the J. Geils Band’s “Love Stinks” twelve-inch which was a defining record for me. Do yourself a favor and take a listen to, “No Sardines Please.” It’s a bizarre skit in which a man’s wife turns into a bowling ball. It terrified me consistently for a number of years, but still…I couldn’t stop listening to it.

When I wasn’t jamming out to “Maneater” in my bedroom, my pop would treat my sister and me to selections from his stock of well-worn ’60s classics—The Rascals, The Beatles, and Paul Revere and The Raiders were among his favorites. But, there was one song in particular that we listened to more than any other, “Devil With a Blue Dress On”—the Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels’s version. My father absolutely loved that song, and in turn so did my sister and I. As a family it meant a lot to us, but it meant more to my father than anyone. His band in high school used to cover it—it was a cherished part of his childhood that he was now passing along to his kids. It had emotional resonance.

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Paul McCartney was just kidding a half century ago when he painted a picture of a grandfatherly existence at 64, doing the garden, digging the weeds, and wondering whether he’d still be needed. Eleven years after that artificial milestone, people very clearly need him.

And as he continues to thrill the hinterlands at 75 with stops on his “One to One” tour, arenas sell out and fans get on their feet for a wealth of Beatles songs, many of which were never performed live when the group was around. He’s not including “When I’m 64” on the current swing, which stopped Sunday at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, but he could scarcely fit it into a setlist that was already 39 songs long. Add in the wealth of his hits from Wings and solo outings, he could concoct three completely different rosters of splendid music to play.

How can you beat a concert that begins with “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Junior’s Farm,” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” and chooses only the most delicious obscurities sprinkled amid the well-known anthems. The first was “Temporary Secretary,” an early stab at electronica whose performance came with graphics that aped Kraftwerk too. With a lean four piece band behind him, they were able to knock out the arena-ready themes from Band on the Run—the album most reflected in the generous show. But they also became a more spare unit, with acoustic guitars, standup trap set, and accordion to do the first thing he ever put on wax —“In Spite of All the Danger” from The Quarrymen followed by “You Won’t See Me” and “Love Me Do.”

The latter was probably the heart of the show—the first Beatles’ UK single, simply played, coming with a story about its recording (“I can still hear my nerves in my voice,” he says). More than that, it came off like any acoustic-led singalong to Beatles songs that millions all over the globe have participated in for more than 50 years—but this time with the guy who originally wrote and sang it. The degree of communal joy of the spontaneous singalong to this singular cultural moment can’t be overstated.

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“‘Troubled Soul’ is a song about empathy—putting yourself in another person’s shoes. Seeing their struggle, you can relate because you’ve been there.” —Jimmy Lumpkin

Up from the South comes the rough-hewn, heartfelt sound of Jimmy Lumpkin. The soulful singer was raised in Savannah, GA and has lived in Tennessee and Colorado but he wrote most of the songs for his upcoming debut Home in a rustic cabin outside of Fairhope, AL—a marshy, artistic outpost not far from Mobile.

“We use the word ‘home’ all the time and it means so many different things to so many people,” Lumpkin says. “But when I write these songs, I want to live in the songs.” They certainly grew out of his own experiences and recording them all back to back in Los Angeles—using analog recording techniques and a vintage machines producer Noah Shain picked up in Nashville—was an emotional time reliving all the personal moments his songs depict.

The warmth of the horns and the kick of the guitar shine through on “Troubled Soul” we’re happy to be debuting here at The Vinyl District. “Troubled Soul” howls a concern about a wayward friend as the music swells in the Southern soul tradition. Adding to the regional authenticity, Lumpkin recently announced that Duane Betts, son of Allman Brothers guitarist Dicky Betts, will be touring with his band The Revival as lead guitarist.

Home will be released on Skate Mountain Records August 4, 2017.

What’s your favorite party LP? Mine is Killdozer’s For Ladies Only. Small matter to me if nobody else can stomach it—it’s my party and they’ll cry if I want them to. On this 1989 LP the ladies’ men in Madison, Wisconsin’s Killdozer turn their bluntly tuned pile-driver approach and Michael Gerald’s mighty gravel-crushing tonsils to covers and nothing but covers, and the results are both ear pummeling and hilarious. The “Konzept” is wonderful—the possibility of this soundtrack to seduction actually working is less than zero, and Gerald—one of the smartest guys to ever set his sights on complete audience alienation—knows it.

I’ve written about Killdozer before. Working under the radar they produced a whole bunch of great irony-laden protest songs that in their way really were protest songs, while also burrowing into the unseemly pink underbelly of American culture with songs that are as finely detailed as they are queasy-making. Gerald’s eye for Wisconsin Gothic is as well-tuned as Flannery O’Connor’s eye for Southern Gothic, and it’s no accident Gerald celebrated O’Connor in the great “Lupus.” Just listen to “Hamburger Martyr,” the story of a deranged man who murders the fry cook who tries to serve him a subpar burger, if you don’t believe me. I will take the lines, “You call this a hamburger?/Well, I don’t call this a hamburger/Hell, I could make a better hamburger with my asshole!” to my grave.

But on For Ladies Only Gerald and the Hobson brothers—they’re Bill on guitar and Dan on drums—take a break from gritty social realism to celebrate some of the greatest songs ever produced by humankind. I’m talking of such immortal tunes as The Original Castle’s “One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack),” Don McLean’s “American Pie,” and Deep Purple’s “Hush,” amongst others. And where would we be without Killdozer’s fine cover of Bad Company’s “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad,” which is so unutterably cool it actually found its way onto the Old School soundtrack? The world would be a poorer place, let me tell you.

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With a high-quality body of work spanning five decades, few musicians are more deserving of a tribute album than John Prine, and that’s just what he got back in 2010; Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine rounded up a dozen admirers from a younger generation to a surprisingly consistent result. Prine and the disc’s participants have surely added to their fanbases since then, so giving the collection a reissue on vinyl makes sense. It’s out July 28 via Prine’s own Oh Boy Records.

The quality of tribute albums, both individually and as a towering stack, varies wildly. The safest bets are the doffs of the lid to singer-songwriters, particularly those that’ve been underappreciated in their careers, mainly because the source material hasn’t become burned into the collective synapses and is ripe for reinterpretation, either subtle or bold.

John Prine’s success is undeniable, foremost artistically but also commercially, as over a dozen full-length releases comprise his discography. One doesn’t amass that many recordings if nobody’s buying. And yet fans will likely agree that he’s never sold as many records as he should’ve. No doubt a sizeable percentage of his sales has come as gifts from fans to novices, the gesture forming a continuing cycle from his 1971 self-titled debut.

Tributes to oversaturated stars too often falter into self-congratulatory, sanctimonious, or just shallow affairs, but when the subject is someone read about, recognized from the store racks, or perhaps heard only through a song or two on a mixtape or playlist, the sense of discovery can range from pleasant to striking.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Legendary guitarist Steve Howe will add a second volume to his Anthology series this summer with an upcoming collection that highlights his key contributions to groups like Yes and Asia, while also rounding up his numerous collaborations with musicians like Paul Sutin and Oliver Wakeman.

On July 21, Rhino will release Anthology 2: Groups and Collaborations as a physical three-CD set designed by Roger Dean and digital equivalent. The collection spans more than 50 years of Howe’s prolific career with 56 tracks that mix hits with a generous selection of unreleased recordings, including several with Keith West, who was Howe’s bandmate in Tomorrow and The In Crowd.

Starting with his work in the mid-Sixties, the collection opens with songs that Howe recorded during brief tenures with bands like The Syndicats (“Maybellene,” 1964), The In Crowd (“Blow Up,” 1967), Tomorrow (“Revolution,” 1968), and Bodast (“Nothing To Cry For,” 1969).

As you would expect, Anthology 2 is packed with many of Howe’s memorable contributions to Yes and Asia, two of the world’s most successful progressive-rock bands. Hits like Yes’s “Roundabout” and Asia’s “Heat Of The Moment” are featured along with rarities like “Montreux’s Theme,” a song Yes recorded during sessions for Going for the One (1977), and “Masquerade” a previously unreleased tune by Asia.

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“My first memories of listening to music on vinyl are from my Father’s old wall mount stereo with speakers on the sides, and in the middle, an AM/FM radio / 8-track player, with a turntable that had a sliding, wooden door cover. He had these amazing ’50s compilation records, and The Beatles’ greatest hits 1962-1966 with the lads looking over the balcony and the red trim around the cover.”

“That was as good as it got in those days, and I’m so thankful that it remains pretty great, even amid new technology. The streaming era doesn’t encourage listening to full-length albums. In fact I don’t think Pandora even offers that experience. I still love putting on a record, hearing the crackle leading into the first song, and then switching sides when it’s time. It’s nostalgic, but the listening quality is still really high, and if you like artwork, the vinyl format is unrivaled.

I purchased my first vinyl when I was about 12, through the Columbia House Record Club. ¢.99 for 12 albums, and then you had to buy one per month for the next year at regular price. I remember starting out with the entire Led Zep. collection, Foreigner Double Vision, Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume 2, and Van Halen I, all of which I still listen to today.

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In 1993 Victoria Williams gained a wide audience through Sweet Relief, a star-studded covers disc intended to aid in paying her mounting medical bills related to multiple sclerosis. In ’94 she hooked up with a gaggle of high-profile help to cut Loose, which stands as her best-known studio album, and a year later she took the songs out on tour with the Loose Band. Recordings were made, and earlier in 2017 Fire Records put Town Hall 1995 on vinyl for Record Store Day. Copies of the LP are still available, and on July 28 it’s out on compact disc and digital.

Like most people, I guess, I passed on checking out Victoria Williams’ debut Happy Come Home when it was released by Geffen in 1987, and did the same when Swing the Statue! trickled into store racks via an ailing Rough Trade in 1990; the label’s (temporary) demise through bankruptcy insured a lack of promotion when the artist really could’ve used it, but through a variety of activities (playing with Giant Sand, acting in Gus Van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) she continued plugging away into the early ’90s, prior to the diagnosis of MS delivering a severe setback.

Today, it’s common knowledge that Williams triumphed over the disorder, but upon Sweet Relief’s emergence in 1993 matters weren’t so certain. Celeb benefits regularly ooze a self-satisfaction that can breed a lack of urgency and listener cynicism, but the motivation behind Sweet Relief felt right, even if the performers assembled, which included alternative heavyweights Pearl Jam, Soul Asylum, and Evan Dando, varying strains of alt-country in Lucinda Williams, Giant Sand, and The Jayhawks, and the aging cool of Lou Reed, ranged in one’s personal esteem.

This fact only reinforces the worth of Williams’ songwriting, which flowered even further on her breakthrough album Loose; released by Mammoth in the afterglow of Sweet Relief, the label also rescued Swing the Statue! from consumer purgatory during the same period. As stated above, akin to the almost ludicrous lineup producer Anton Fier assembled for her debut, Loose is loaded with guests; amongst a mess of session cats, there’s half of R.E.M., Dave Pirner, the Tower of Power Horns, Rose Stone, and arrangements by Van Dyke Parks, who also assisted on her debut.

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