Monthly Archives: August 2017

Gather round, all ye Parrotheads! Because I’m here to announce the government has just adopted a plan to lasso you all up and corral you in Kansas internment camps where your silly hats and overly loud Hawaiian shirts won’t pose a menace to the morals (and eyeballs!) of the more self-respecting members of our fair society! Just kidding, folks. While Jimmy Buffett has his fair share of slaggers I’m not one of them—sure, “Cheeseburger in Paradise” irks me no end, but I sing along to “Margaritaville” every time it comes on the radio, and “Come Monday” always melts my heart.

Buffett has carved himself a unique niche in American popular culture—he’s our great nation’s Official Tropical Escapist Balladeer, whose every song celebrates the freedom to sit on the shady porch of a dilapidated Gulf Coast beach house doing nothing but drinking margaritas all day without suffering the kinds of baleful consequences that land so many daily drinkers in the gloomy rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Relentlessly upbeat even when he’s singing about being down and out, Buffett’s as sunny as the sky above Key West, and just like the sun he wants to shine his warmth down upon all of us. The guy is, let’s face it, charming, and who can resist charming? Well lots of people, actually, but once again I’m not one of them even if I am a nasty cynic of the sort who usually casts a gimlet eye upon the type of guy who possesses the annoying knack of looking at the bright side of everything, including a slow slide into cirrhosis of the liver.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings is proud to announce the forthcoming release of The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976), chronicling the ascension of one of the most influential creative talents in music history, Isaac Hayes, who would have turned 75 this year.

Due out September 22nd, the four-CD collection examines the various avenues of Hayes’ prolific career; each disc offering an in-depth look at his distinct musical contributions to both Memphis-based Stax Records and to the world at large: from his foundational presence as a songwriter and producer at Stax, to his artistic metamorphosis and subsequent rise to stardom. The set also includes a wide range of previously unreleased material, as well as a replica 7″ vinyl single of the artist’s first commercially released recordings.

Housed in a 60-page hardcover book, the retrospective incorporates a wealth of archival photos and ephemera, as well as an essay by author Robert Gordon (Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion) which includes new interviews with Stax luminaries Deanie Parker and Jim Stewart. Contributions from Floyd Newman, Mickey Gregory, Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), and compilation producer Joe McEwen round out the package. Track listing below.

From his humble beginnings as an orphaned sharecropper to his rise as a session musician, house songwriter, and producer for Stax Records, to his arrival as a star in his own right, Isaac Hayes (1942-2008) became a symbol of what was possible for Black America. Dubbed “Black Moses” during the height of his popularity, Hayes revolutionized soul music, leading it out of the era of the three-minute single and into new territory: that of the fully orchestrated concept album, complete with extended cuts that, in some cases, spanned nearly the entire side of an LP.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | BMG will be reissuing the solo catalogue on vinyl from Iron Maiden frontman and rock legend, Bruce Dickinson worldwide on October 27, 2017.

Bruce Dickinson’s six solo albums span from 1990 to 2005 and have been cut from the original masters for reissue on heavyweight, black 180g vinyl in artworked sleeves. Two of the titles The Chemical Wedding and Tyranny Of Souls are being made available for the first time ever on vinyl. The four previously available: Tattooed Millionaire, Balls To Picasso, Skunkworks and Accident Of Birth have been long out of print, with the latter two titles now expanded to double LPs for optimum sound. As a special bonus to fans, all six albums will also be available in a limited edition Soloworks box, a must have for any collector.

From the stripped down, hard rock of Bruce’s debut solo album Tattooed Millionaire (1990) and it’s heavier successor Balls To Picasso (1994), through the cutting edge alt-rock of Skunkworks (1996) and the heavy metal celebration of Accident Of Birth (1997) to the modern metal with a traditional heart of The Chemical Wedding (1998) and final solo foray, Tyranny Of Souls (2005), these six albums are an essential part of Bruce’s story outside of Maiden and, more importantly, some of the most vital and absorbing metal albums of the last three decades. Revisit them now at maximum volume.

Pre-order exclusively here. All fans who purchase the complete Soloworks box will receive a double-sided 24” x 36” Bruce Dickinson poster.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings, the Catalog division of Concord Bicycle Music, is proud to announce the release of King Of The Boogie, a career-spanning retrospective, honoring blues icon John Lee Hooker. Due out September 29th, the five-CD set delves deep into the catalog of the influential artist, featuring not only his iconic hits, but also rarities, live recordings, and several previously unreleased tracks. Housed in a 56-page book, the collection includes a wide selection of photos, taken throughout the musician’s life, plus new liner notes by writer and John Lee Hooker historian Jas Obrecht, as well as by the artist’s longtime manager and friend, Mike Kappus.

John Lee Hooker (1917-2001) was born 100 years ago, near Clarksdale, Mississippi to a sharecropping family. Throughout the years, there has been some academic debate about his original birth year. However, The Hooker family maintains 1917 as the de facto date. Says daughter Zakiya Hooker, “As we all know there was no great push for accuracy back then in that portion of the community. But we just stick to what my father told us, which was what he was told by his mother.”

As a young man, Hooker worked his way up north to Detroit to pursue his passion of music. By 1948, the artist had a hit on his hands with one of his earliest recordings, “Boogie Chillun’.” From there, Hooker would record over 100 albums throughout the course of his six-decade-long career, building a diverse collection of fans along the way: from folk musicians and beatniks, to the stars of the British Invasion. The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Carlos Santana are among those who cite Hooker as a major influence. In his liner notes, Mike Kappus recalls that, “Everyone who knew John Lee Hooker loved him and felt privileged to be in his presence. While he influenced generations of musicians with his incomparable style, that impact on musicians stepped up to yet another level once they got to know and, universally, love him.”

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The recordings cut at Memphis’ Sun Studios remain a cornerstone of modern music, which is why the stuff has been reliably reissued across the second half of the 20th century and into the current moment. The latest round of vinyl platters comes courtesy of Org Music, their picks offering well-assembled overviews of two giants in the Sun narrative, namely Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, and then teaming them with a pair of inspired choices, one a compilation reinforcing the influence of Hank Williams on Sam Phillips’ rockabilly brigade, the other the often-overlooked debut LP by the young Roy Orbison. All are out now, some with limited color editions found only at participating indie retailers; the red wax version of the Williams covers comp is a Barnes & Noble exclusive.

So much has already been said regarding the explosion of creativity documented by Sam Phillips that writing up Org Music’s fresh batch of Sun reissues is more than a little daunting. As a long-established portion of the rock ‘n’ roll bedrock, better minds than I have soaked up the Sun experience and then expanded upon its essence with eloquence.

By extension, there has been a certifiably massive amount of retrospective attention paid to the work captured by Phillips, with a sizable percentage of the releases mediocre or shoddy in a manner that suggests purely mercantile interest. Yes, the wildness of the music shines through, but the effect can be a bit like watching Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It on a 40-year old budget-line 10-inch TV set (or iPhone).

It’s true that two of Org’s most recent dip into the Sun catalog are straight reissues, but the look and sound is terrific, and all four would provide a fine introduction for the curious newcomer. And hey, don’t let the title of the Perkins’ set insinuate that it’s a mere cherry-pick of the guy’s most well-known tunes; through 14 numbers, Best of the Sun Records Sessions makes a really cogent argument for Perkins as the most stylistically diverse of the rockabilly cats briefly corralled by Phillips.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Waxwork Records is thrilled to present the deluxe soundtrack re-press of George A. Romero and Stephen King’s seminal 1982 horror-anthology classic, Creepshow. Originally pressed and released in 2014 and 2015 by Waxwork and quickly sold out, Waxwork Records worked exhaustively with director George Romero and composer John Harrison to develop, for the very first time, the definitive Creepshow soundtrack experience.

By collaborating with composer John Harrison (Day Of The Dead, Tales From The Darkside), Waxwork Records located the original 1982 master tapes in an attic in Pittsburgh which were thought have been lost forever. Re-mixed and re-mastered for vinyl, Creepshow has never sounded better, and features every piece of score music from the classic 1982 CREEPSHOW episodes “Father’s Day,” “The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill,” “The Crate,” “Something To Tide Your Over,” and “They’re Creeping Up On You.”

The deluxe 2017 re-press of Creepshow features high quality packaging with heavyweight old-style tip on gatefold jackets with a built-in booklet page, director liner notes from George A. Romero, composer liner notes from John Harrison, 34 retro synth-horror driven tracks, 180 gram colored vinyl, printed inserts, and is loaded with artwork by Ghoulish Gary Pullin.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | John Carpenter has announced Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998, a collection of 13 of his classic movie themes newly recorded with the collaborators that worked on his Lost Themes studio albums and subsequent tours: his son, Cody Carpenter, and godson, Daniel Davies.

Set for release on October 20 via Sacred Bones, Anthology… is a near-comprehensive survey of John Carpenter’s greatest themes, from his very first movie (the no-budget sci-fi film Dark Star) to 1998’s supernatural Western, Vampires. Those sit alongside the driving, Led Zeppelin-influenced Assault on Precinct 13 theme, Halloween’s iconic 5/4 piano riff, and the eerie synth work of The Fog. Carpenter and his band also cover Ennio Morricone’s bleak, minimalist theme for The Thing. “I asked Morricone to please compose something with a very few notes,” Carpenter says. “And brilliantly, he did.”

To accompany the announcement, Carpenter has shared the theme from 1994’s “In The Mouth of Madness.” Reminiscing on the original composition he states,”I worked on the soundtrack for In the Mouth of Madness with Jim Lang. We never came up with a great main title theme. In a rented house on Woodrow Wilson (my house was being remodeled), I came up with a heavy metal theme inspired by Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” My friend Dave Davies played lead guitar, and now, over 20 years later, his son Daniel is playing the lead. One of my favorite themes.”

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Never—never!—have I encountered an album so brilliant, bad, enthralling, infuriating, and just plain pretentious in so many ways as Patti Smith’s Passover 1978 offering to her many genuflecting worshippers, Easter. Smith can be a ferocious vocalist, and an inspired and inspiring artist to boot, but I’ll be damned if I’ll buy into her shaman’s shuck or her often bathetic poetry for that matter.

I simply don’t trust her; while her hero and role model Arthur Rimbaud spent his season in hell (which he went into in harrowing detail in his Une Saison en Enfer), Patti the elitist (who humbly went on record as saying “I never think anybody should do art unless they’re a great artist”—geesh, I wonder if she puts herself in that class?) spent her season in Hell being feted by the celebrities of the New York City punk scene, and I have never for one moment believed she harrowed anything more soul-scorching than the parties she had to attend with Debbie Harry, whom she loathed for having the audacity to be a woman and an artist and hence a threat to Patti’s role as the undisputed Queen of NYC punk.

As poor Harry said, “Basically Patti told me that there wasn’t room for two women in the CBGB’s scene and that I should leave the business ‘cause I didn’t stand a chance against her.” Evidently Patti the prima donna had no interest whatsoever in feminist unity. (And indeed, many feminists would go on to attack Smith for her altogether dismissive statements on feminism, which she was adamant in declaring played no role whatsoever in her success.)

And she’s not a very good poet either. “Babelogue” may be an enthralling listen, but pay careful attention to the words and what you’re left with is the stark realization that Smith is no more a poet than poor dead Jimbo Morrison. Both toss off the occasional great line, but “the scroll of ancient lettuce” is bunk, while “I would measure the success of a night/By the way by the way/By the amount of piss and seed/I would exude over the columns that nestled the P.A.” is problematic at many levels. Both “exude” and “nestled” are poor word choices, and call me overly fastidious but I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor peon (not that Patti would care about her; she’s no genius) left to clean up this mess. And what in God’s name are we to make of the line, “Like a log of Helen/Is my pleasure”?

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Rick Deitrick is yet another in the recent wave of solo guitar rediscoveries, or better put, for nearly all of us just plain old discoveries. In Deitrick’s case the sounds are far less American Primitive and, as the titles of his two LPs, Gentle Wilderness and River Sun River Moon make clear, much closer to a log cabin in the mountains, and there is nothing wrong with that. Tranquil without becoming a sedative, both records are out on vinyl August 25 through Tompkins Square.

It’s a familiar story; back in 1978, Rick Deitrick had Gentle Wilderness pressed in a 500-copy edition for his own Niodrara Records, subsequently selling copies at performances and through retailers that would buy them, but he also gave some to libraries and left a few in the wilderness, “so people would find them,” hopefully before it rained.

There is undoubtedly a handful of folks who remember Deitrick from the original release of that LP; his playing makes this clear. But for a whole lot more, knowledge was gained through the inclusion of the Gentle Wilderness track “Missy Christa” on the Brooks Rice and Michael Klausman-compiled entry in Tompkins Square’s long running Guitar Soli series.

Imaginational Anthem 8: The Private Press gathered a slew of worthy fingerpicking previously heard only by the fortunate few or the wildly persistent. Due to the high quality of the prior Imaginational Anthem volumes and of solo guitar in general, The Private Press wasn’t a jaw-dropper, but it did open the ears to an unexpected amount of formerly obscure high-quality players in a field that was once, at least from this writer’s perspective, not especially deep.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | On August 29th, Metal Blade Records and BMG will release For the Sake of Heaviness: The History of Metal Blade Records—written by label founder and CEO Brian Slagel with Mark Eglinton, and featuring a foreword by Metallica’s Lars Ulrich. Celebrating the storied label’s 35th anniversary, For the Sake of Heaviness is an inside look at how Slagel built Metal Blade from a one-man operation in his mom’s non-air-conditioned garage to the preeminent international home of heavy music that it is today. Pre-order here.

For the Sake of Heaviness pulls back the curtain to reveal the definitive look at how Metal Blade began, what they’ve accomplished, and where they’re going. Slagel reveals the early advice he gave that helped guide Motley Crue’s career; how he helped Metallica replace their bassist—twice; his detailed work on Thin Lizzy and Alice Cooper re-issues; his behind-the-scenes role in the careers of Slayer, GWAR, Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Faith No More, Goo Goo Dolls, and Lamb of God; and his unlikely ventures with kindred metal heads—from hockey star Ken Baumgartner, to celebrity chef Chris Santos, to The Howard Stern Show’s Richard Christy, to comedians Jim Florentine, Don Jamieson, and Jim Breuer.

On September 19th at 6PM, Slagel will appear for a book panel and signing at Rough Trade in NYC alongside Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder), Richard Christy (Charred Walls of the Damned and The Howard Stern Show radio personality), and Jim Florentine (Stand-up Comedian and TV personality for That Metal Show). Hosted by Don Jamieson (Stand-up Comedian and TV personality for That Metal Show), please visit roughtrade.com/events for more details.

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