Monthly Archives: June 2018

As part of NYC’s fertile ’70s free-spiritual-loft jazz scene, the alto saxophonist Alan Braufman cut a solitary and underheard album as a leader, the ’75 effort Valley of Search. It was the second LP on the esteemed independent jazz label India Navigation, captured essentially live with no overdubs, alternate takes, or extra cuts, and while a handful of particulars solidify its stature as a noteworthy recording (including the debut of pianist and instrument builder Cooper-Moore), the biggest is its robust, ecstatic improvising. Long a rarity and never given an authorized reissue, a fresh vinyl edition is out June 29 through the Valley of Search label.

Clifford Allen’s excellent liners for this reissue go into greater depth, but in brief, the move that made Valley of Search a reality was Braufman’s leaving Boston along with a group of Berklee College of Music students for New York City, and specifically lower Manhattan; the others were saxophonist David S. Ware, bassist Chris Amberger, and pianist Gene Ashton, who’s known today as Cooper-Moore.

Next came the acquisition of a space in which to live and create, in this case a building on 501 Canal St. Once moved in, the first floor was designated for performances. Others took up residence, including drummer Tom Bruno and vocalist Ellen Christi; Amberger moved out. Through rehearsal and performance, the Braufman-Ashton unit, which included bassist David Saphra and drummer Ralph Williams, grew into the role of the house band. With time and diligence came increased attention and then the opportunity to record.

The five LPs (released separately) or three CDs (issued as a set) that hold the Wildflowers loft jazz sessions (a series of events held at Sam Rivers’ Studio RivBea that featured a range of players both well-known and obscure) remain a bountiful point of entry into this scene, but they should in no way be considered definitive. A whole lot more was happening, and a sizable percentage was preserved through Bob Cummins’ India Navigation label.

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Grammy Award-winning Dave Matthews Band continued their North American tour on June 22, 2018, at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, MA. Touring in support of their ninth studio album, Come Tomorrow (RCA Records), the band will continue to travel across the U.S. and Canada finishing at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA.

As the sun began to set in Mansfield, the sold-out crowd was buzzing with excitement as the band took the stage with the song “Again & Again” from the new album. Already knowing the lyrics, die-hard fans sung along with Matthews who noticingly gave an appreciative grin. DMB transitioned into the powerful “So Right” which engaged the band as well as the crowd.

Johnny Perry, who traveled from Warwick, RI to see the show and is approaching a milestone 100th DMB concert, noticed the established connection between the band and crowd early on. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the band play with that kind of energy,” said Perry. “The band and the crowd were definitely feeding off of each other. I always try to get as many close friends as possible to join me for the DMB Mansfield show. Nearly 15 of us for this past show—it makes the whole experience better.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “At various points in the band’s four-decade career, the Fall might sound like punk, hard rock, psychedelia, funk, blues-rock, jazz-rock, electropop or sheer noise. “If it’s me and your granny on bongos, it’s the Fall,” Mr. Smith once declared. The BBC disc jockey John Peel, an early and steadfast supporter, said of the Fall that ‘they are always different, they are always the same.’” —The New York Times

The seventeen songs collected on 458489 A-Sides come from The Fall’s Brix Smith era, aka “the golden era of Fall releases.” This is a perfect introduction to the band, and as legendary critic Robert Christgau said, it’s “The only Fall record any normal person need own.” Originally released in 1990, this album has never been released on vinyl in the US, and isn’t easy to find elsewhere.

The band’s legendary and notorious frontman Mark E. Smith passed away earlier this year at the age of 60. The band’s output since they formed at the height of the punk rock movement in Manchester in 1976 was prolific to say the least. It’s hard to be exact, but in their four decades, The Fall released 31 studio albums, 5 part-studio/part live albums, 32 live albums, 40 compilations, and Mark E. Smith also released two spoken word albums. Another high number is that of former members of The Fall. There were over 60 different band members over the years. Their high volume of quality work over the last 40+ years had an enormous influence which was extolled greatly after his death.

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Since 1972, Frank Newsome has been a minister in the Little David Old Regular Baptist Church, located near tiny Haysi in southwestern Virginia. As part of services, he is also a singer of uncommon richness and power, delivering his message without musical instruments in keeping with church tradition. Although Newsome received some exposure beyond Haysi through his longtime friend Dr. Ralph Stanley and was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship in 2011, Gone Away With a Friend is his first recording. Capturing him a cappella and unaccompanied in his church, the compact disc is out June 29 through Free Dirt Records. Anyone with an interest in folk and gospel traditions will want to hear it.

Gone Away With a Friend provides a rare opportunity to experience the Old Regular Baptist singing tradition. As mentioned in Christopher Koepp’s notes for the set, the only prior widely available Old Regular Baptist recordings were two early ’90s discs from Smithsonian Folkways that offered lined-out hymnody from Southeastern Kentucky. Making this collection rarer still is that with one exception, the pieces here aren’t lined-out, i.e. an individual leading a congregation in song (and as such, a relative to shape-note singing), but instead present Newsome alone.

The strength of Newsome’s voice is immediately felt, its quality made even more remarkable when considering his contraction of black lung disease after years working in the coal mines of his region; his last day underground was February 12, 1976. As vocal intensity gets seamlessly united with the conviction and indeed the utter soulfulness of Newsome’s singing, Gone Away With a Friend attains a brilliance that’s at first startling, then soothing, and ultimately life-affirming.

More so than most recorded examples of undiluted tradition, the disc registers almost entirely as an act of preservation rather than dually serving as a calling-card for an artist or group working in a niche of the vast field of Americana. It is true that Newsome would often commence the proceedings of Ralph Stanley’s Hills of Home festival (and has sung at other folklife oriented fests), but those appearances (it feels wrong to call them performances) occurred as an outgrowth of friendship and community, aspects that deeply resonate as Gone Away With a Friend plays.

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It’s make or break time for arguably one of the biggest breakout bands from the UK over the past few years. The Struts will release their long-awaited sophomore record sometime this summer. Will the group be able to shake the stigma of the sophomore jinx? If the first two singles are any indication of what’s to come, that shouldn’t be the case.

Frontman Luke Spiller was recently quoted discussing the direction of the highly anticipated release. “We were very much aware that even though the band has lived with the first album and the songs that come with it for quite a while, for everyone else, it’s relatively fresh,” says Spiller. He continues, “So I felt like it was really important to make this second album somewhat depart from the first one. Not a departure musically, I didn’t want to go completely left. I think it’s important to give people more of what they fall in love with.”

“One Night Only” was released late last year and “Body Talks” was just released last week. Both are strong athematic songs that continue the band’s quest to bring back all the best attributes of ’70s arena rock, but is the world ready for them? Interscope is certainly taking a gamble with a four-year space between albums here, and I can’t imagine the band would agree with this timing, but that’s the price one pays for being part of the major label machine.

Then again, the stars seem to be aligning perfectly as the band is queued up for the opening slot on the Foo Fighters summer stadium tour. While that certainly doesn’t guarantee the future success of the group, especially since the record will not be out yet, it does set the stage for what could be a breakout year for the band.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Why would we reissue a record that is reputed to be the second worst-selling release in the history of Columbia Records? (Legend has it that it was undersold only by a yoga instructional album.) Well, because in the 47-some years since its release, the Hampton Grease Band’s Music to Eat has steadily ascended the list of Greatest Cult Records of All Time so that now it resides at the tippety-top.

Indeed, modern-day jam bands genuflect at the sight of the trippy cover art alone (Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit was an early ‘90s fixture in the movement), as the jazz/prog/psych guitar licks of Glenn Phillips and Harold Kelling give such famous duos as Betts/Allman, Verlaine/Lloyd, and Bloomfield/Bishop a run for their money. Add a generous dollop of Pop Art surrealism delivered by Hampton’s Dada-ist, Beefheart-ian roar and you’re left with an album that inhabits a rarefied realm somewhere between Trout Mask Replica, Anthem of the Sun, Hot Rats, Happy Trails, and maybe The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East (particularly because the Hampton Grease Band was also from the South but far, far stranger).

But what makes this record even more special is the way it points the way forward as well as back. Yes, you can hear echoes of their more famous, improvisationally-minded contemporaries, but the offhand guitar riffs, frenzied instrumental passages, stylistic about-faces, and deadpan vocals bring to mind nothing other than a psychedelicized Minutemen (and David Thomas of Pere Ubu sounds a lot like Col. Bruce).

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It’s the 350th (!) edition of TVD’s Press Play—and an announcement:

Upon the launch of Press Play quite a number of years ago, we were happily deluged with free files we were invited to share with you. While never a fan of Mp3 downloads, we nevertheless felt sharing was caring. However come 2018 with streaming (and happily, vinyl) on the rise, we receive fewer and fewer free files for download, as today’s paltry pickings attest.

Press Play will move from its weekly perch to perhaps bimonthly, monthly–or hell, as warranted–moving forward. We invite your feedback. —Ed.

Static Diary – UFOs
Chris Rivers – RIP X
Ricky Bats – By My Side

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Paul McCartney – Come On To Me

PRESS PLAY FOR THE WEEK OF 6/18/18
Pale Green Things – The Islands
The March Divide – I Don’t Care
Mountain Lions – California
The Eyebrows – Suicide Love
Hot Sauce Pony – Fenced In
Sara O’Brien & the Community Rocks! Kids – Vegetarian
Lara Smiles – Coincidence
SIR-VERE – NIGHT TIME (SYSTEMIC OBLIVION REMIX)
Chris Rivers – Gimme The Boost

PRESS PLAY FOR THE WEEK OF 6/11/18
The Color Forty Nine – Storyteller
Chris Rivers – I Am He
Badjokes – Clap Your Hands

PRESS PLAY FOR THE WEEK OF 6/4/18
Sleepspent – Come Smile With Me
Rodin – Rickshaw Roadtrip
Chris Rivers – Y’all Know Me

PRESS PLAY FOR THE WEEK OF 5/28/18
Eric Benoit – Black Currant
James Rose – Head for the Coast
Carry Illinois – Pushing Sound
J Hacha de Zola – Lightning Rod Salesman
Cosmos Sunshine – Letdown
Chris Rivers – Can’t Fight The Healing
Rebekah Rolland – Standing Still
PHOSPHENES – Boy In The Hood
Plusaziz – Murra (مُرّة)
Pale Green Things – Snakes
Broken Baby – Year of the Fat Man
The March Divide – Get In Line
Sara O’Brien & the Community Rocks! Kids – Let Yourself Shine!
Chris Rivers – Dragonfly
RRose RRome – EXCELLENT
Marz Money – The Truth Freemix

Steve Miller took the long and winding road to superstardom, putting out eight albums before he hit paydirt with bicentennial year smash Fly Like an Eagle. And there was a reason for his prolonged stint as a journeyman; most of those first seven albums were middling at best, and even Miller conceded as much.

Here’s Steve in the liner notes to 1972 comp Anthology: “Always before, you know, people more or less needed to be fans to like the albums. Oh, I mean there’d be some good cuts and a couple of not-so-good cuts, and then some cuts I don’t even like to remember. But Anthology is what I always wanted to make–two good LPs that’ll hold up.” Hardly a killer endorsement for his earlier work.

But all middling is not created equal, and I have a soft spot in my heart for the Steve Miller Band’s second LP, 1968’s Sailor. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a psychedelic rock masterpiece–that notion goes out the window right from the get go with the Pink Floydesque opening track “Song for Our Ancestors,” which is all whale farts and organ noodle and should have come with a tab of acid to render it interesting–but it includes more than its fair share of “good cuts.”

On Sailor–the last Steve Miller Band album featuring original members Boz “Lido Shuffle” Scaggs and keyboardist Jim Peterman–the group splits their affection for white blues and psychedelic rock more or less down the middle, and tosses in a couple of Dylan/Stones/Beach Boys homages while they’re at it. All of which is to say they’re all over the damn place, but still manage to turn what might have been an impossibly diffuse LP into a charmer.

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