Monthly Archives: October 2017

I’m no fan of Henry Rollins, and I don’t say that because he once threatened to sock me in the kisser. I consider being threatened by big bad Henry a badge of honor. No, I don’t like him because he’s the straightedge stinkbug who single-fistedly transformed one of punk’s funniest bands into a sullen bummer. His patented combination of testosterone and angst leached every last ounce of hardy har har out of the band that brought us “TV Party” and “Six Pack,” and frankly if I hadn’t had the crack-ups in the Angry Samoans to fall back on I might have croaked from sheer cackle deprivation.

But the decision to transform Black Flag from the most explosive hardcore band in the known world into Black Sabbath Mark II was guitarist/songwriter/band leader Greg Ginn’s, and it’s Ginn who is chiefly to blame for the sludgefest that is 1984’s Slip It In. Going from playing ‘em fast and hard to cranking out dinosaur ‘eavy riffs may have satisfied some atavistic need of Ginn’s, but by abandoning himself to the impulse he largely sacrificed the blowtorch intensity that made such songs as “Police Story” and “Nervous Breakdown” so breathtakingly awesome.

Slip It In has its moments, and some of its songs are keepers, but as the almost unlistenable grind to nowhere that is “Rat’s Eyes” proves, aping Black Sabbath can be just as disastrous a move as aping the Doobie Brothers if you lack the good sense to realize that even at their heaviest Black Sabb’s songs actually go somewhere. And Rollins’ “lyrics” don’t help; popular music has rarely gone lower than Rollins’ invitation to touch his “filth.” I think I’ll pass, thank you very much. And the same awful fate would have befallen “Obliteration” had Ginn not seen fit to slather liberal amounts of his deranged guitar skronk all over it.

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PHOTOS: ALEX KROHN | Sometimes a record label anniversary concert can be a pretty disparate affair, if only because of the breadth of the rosters. Motown 25 was probably a pinnacle of its type in 1983, even though it also included Adam Ant and DeBarge as well as Michael Jackson. Atlantic Records’ 40th anniversary fete in 1988 featured both Ruth Brown and Debbie Gibson (famously culminating with a Led Zeppelin reunion).

Yep Roc is a smart indie roots label that has always had a pretty simpatico roster, top to bottom. So its big 20th anniversary celebration over the weekend in small town North Carolina built on its complementary approaches. And while it touched on bluegrass, R&B, and country, it basically rocked pretty hard.

Because Nick Lowe was an early signee—and a lure to other bands—he headlined two of the three nights at Cat’s Cradle in Carbarro. The first was a hushed backroom acoustic VIP appearance for label “completists”— fans who paid a couple hundred dollars to get every release all year. The second appearance was a big stage sampling of Lowe’s current tour with Los Straightjackets, the hugely fun Mexican-masked instrumental surf band that backs him up and gets to play a bit of their own twangy instrumentals as well.

Other than Lowe there were few repeats at an event that also had stellar sets from The Fleshtones, Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express, Alejandro Escovedo, Phil and Dave Alvin, Tony Joe White, Dressy Bessy, Eli “Paperboy” Reed and Tift Merritt. Also on the bill were Jim Lauderdale, Grant-Lee Phillips, Josh Rouse, Kim Richey, Mandolin Orange, the Stray Birds, and Jeremy & the Harlequins. And there were surprise one-song appearances throughout the weekend from Gary Louris of the Jayhawks and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Chuck D Presents This Day In Rap And Hip-Hop History, one of the most comprehensive, chronological histories of rap and hip-hop ever written, is available now at all major retailers. Assembled by Chuck D., co-founder of Public Enemy and a respected, influential voice in the genre, the book includes pivotal moments from 1973 to the present alongside artistic portraits of people who have shaped the sound and the culture of hip-hop for over 40 years. This definitive history book takes readers from the Bronx to the billion dollar global phenomenon it is today.

The massive anthology opens with a house party on August 11, 1973 when DJ Kool Herc unleashed “the break” on his turntables. By 1979, rap had become embraced by mainstream audiences as “Rapper’s Delight” sold over two millions copies and went on to be the first hip-hop record on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart the following year. This Day In Rap And Hip-Hop History follows the art form through more than four decades, examining artists and moments that drove the messages and the music with exacting details that can only come from a musicologist who has witnessed it firsthand.

“If you want to understand our culture. To learn knowledge itself. Truth about the art form of poetry in motion. The struggle of our community through rhyme and rhythm. This is the book that inspired me long before I found my place in hip-hop,” says Kendrick Lamar. “The power of self-expression. Unapologetically. Taught by the teacher himself. Chuck D!!!.” “Reading this book is like reliving my life all over again,” adds LL Cool J.

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PHOTO: STEVE GULLICK | Those of you with sharp memories will recall that it was only just last week when TVD’s Alan Snodgrass chronicled The Jesus and Mary Chain at the Fillmore in San Francisco, writing “…frontman Jim Reid commanded the open stage, a long mic cable wound up and clenched in his hand as he flawlessly belted out classic after classic.”

“’Amputation’ gave way to ‘Happy When It Rains’ which flowed into ‘Head On’ before Reid finally paused to state, ‘We might play a few songs off of our new album.’ …The setlist hit on a handful of tunes from Damage and Joy including new fan favorites ‘All Things Pass’ and ‘Black and Blues.'”

“But that’s not to say that the ample set time didn’t allow room for the rest of the catalog. In fact, the band managed to cover a wide swath of material from all seven of the albums released over their 30+ year career. While The Jesus and Mary Chain have been reactivated for about a decade, Damage and Joy demonstrates that this is no nostalgia act and seeing them live only underscores the depth and relevance of their catalog.”

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“My first introduction to music was my family’s record collection. It was like a whole new world opened up, and suddenly I was part of this club.”

“My Dad had a lot of blues records by American artists like B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf, alongside The Rolling Stones, Peter Green, Eric Clapton, and John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers. Wild wild sounds for a young kid from a small village, and I loved it all. My mum had a lot of singer/songwriters in her collection like Bob Dylan, Carole King, Serge Gainsbourg, and Jane Birkin.

And then my aunt and uncle used to play ’50s rock and roll records like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard and Elvis with lots of dancing round the house. And I’ll always remember them playing me Bonnie Raitt and Michelle Shocked for the first time and thinking I want to do that.

I worked in a record shop for a while and discovered so many artists, a lot of dub and reggae, jazz, hip hop, soul and funk, The Cramps, Billie Holiday, Tom Waits—all of my wages went on records. When we are on tour I always try to hunt out the local record shops and have a dig. It’s a love affair that will go on and on.”
—Emma Richardson

“I was a hand me down kid despite being the eldest, never the receiver of the latest must have gadgets. I seemed to get things just as they became obsolete. One of the upsides of this were the old hi-fi separates and records making it out of the living room and into my teenage bedroom.”

“After working out that old records play on both sides, I quickly devoured my Dad’s late ’70s collection. “Spiral Scratch” by the Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto, Q: Are We Not men? A: We Are Devo by Devo, and Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True, all being early influences on me. After that, garages of 45s made it to my deck and a love of The Beatles’ b-sides and Kinks singles were blasting from suburbia for a couple of summers.

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PHOTO: EMORY HALL | Trevor Hall lays down a soulful rendition of the Petty classic.

Hall is launching the West Coast leg of his “Fruitful Darkness Tour” this week, with 14 successive East Coast dates in the bag. The tour commenced with a performance on the mainstage of the KAABOO Festival, which welcomed a closing set by none other than Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers later that night. It was one of Tom’s final shows.

Today we’re proud to present Hall’s exclusive take on the Petty classic, “Free Fallin,” captured by the fine folks at Sugarshack Sessions at the Jannus Live Theater in Florida. It’s a song that’s been incorporated into his setlist since the late rocker passed earlier this month, and clearly a moment of cathartic jubilation for all those involved, including musical guests East Forest and Christina Holmes who take a stab at the final verses.

Hall has always been a deeply nuanced and singular artist, able to blend roots music with exotic world elements, his subject matter predominantly influenced by Eastern mysticism which makes this rare cover the most Americana-tinged piece of material he’s approached in a decade. The honey-dipped organ and wily fiddle solo all feel perfectly at home alongside the jangling iconic riff, but it is indubitably Trevor’s soulful take on the folk-rock staple that puts a refreshingly sultry spin on the time-honored hit.

Hall’s new album, The Fruitful Darkness, is being released in three song installments on specific lunar dates, culminating in the physical release early next year.

It took seven albums, but blue-eyed soul man Boz Scaggs hit pop paydirt with 1976’s Silk Degrees. If you were alive and had ears during America’s Bicentennial Year you’ll remember the Boz was every bit as hard to avoid as Fleetwood Mac.

But why would you want to avoid him? Silk Degrees is a small landmark in music making, and what’s all the more remarkable is that nobody saw it coming. Scaggs was a journeyman with a long pedigree dating back to the mid-sixties and stints with the Other Side, the Steve Miller Band, and Mother Earth, and his solo career wasn’t exactly the stuff of which legends are made—his highest charting solo LP before Silk Degrees coughed and died at #81 on the Billboard Charts, and it was a smash hit compared to the five that came before it. I doubt many industry folks were betting their Andrew Gold royalty checks on Scaggs delivering an LP that would go five times platinum.

But after much tinkering with the formula Scaggs finally got it right on Silk Degrees, which veers from Little Feat-school boogie to deep-dish soul to pseudo-disco to lithesome funk without breaking a sweat or seeming to overreach. Boz does it all on this one, and while I prefer the upbeat material to the pair of ballads, he (mostly) pulls them off as well. I don’t know what he was snorting at the two studios in Hollywood where this baby was recorded, but he somehow managed to utilize El Lay studio talent—including three of the members of benighted Toto—to produce an LP that doesn’t sound like yet another example of sterile El Lay studio product.

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Best known today as the frontman for Endless Boogie, Paul Major’s also been a record hound of uncommon diligence and discernment for decades. Earlier this year, Anthology Editions released a book detailing his experiences as a music lover, and particularly his passion for the subterranean fringe; unearthing private-press artifacts by outsiders and “real people” became his specialty. Joining that hardcover volume is Paul Major: Feel the Music Vol. 1, a far-out but focused curation of the guy’s sweet discoveries. It’s available on vinyl, compact disc, and digital October 27 through Mexican Summer.

As the publishing arm of Anthology Recordings, Anthology Editions is dedicated to disseminating “cultural narratives” toward the establishment of a “new canon,” meticulously digging into assorted subjects, from underground filmmakers to the Brit punk scene to skateboarding to the written and visual manifestation of the belief in UFOs, all with the intent to solidify importance.

In short, it’s a valuable undertaking. Earlier this year the imprint unveiled Feel the Music: The Psychedelic Worlds of Paul Major, a 272-page tome dedicated to one man’s labyrinthine journey from rock ‘n’ roll loving ’60s teen to crate digger and record dealer extraordinaire to vocalist-guitarist for one of the current scene’s most expansive heavy rock acts. It’s loaded with photos, gig flyer reproductions, anecdotes, essays from fellow music nuts, and even a split 7-inch featuring Endless Boogie and Major’s early ‘80s “proto speed-metal” band The Sorcerers.

I’ve yet to soak up its charms, but coverage indicates it’s an enlightening hoot of a read. I have spent time with Mexican Summer’s compilation offshoot however, and it’s such a pleasurable ride that purchase of the book now seems all but inevitable. A big part of the album’s success derives from a disinterest in simply offering a hodgepodge of extremes, though in its cohesiveness there is still ample range.

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