Monthly Archives: August 2018

VIA PRESS RELEASE | A spectacular new live collection recorded last year in North America and Europe during the legendary rock ‘n’ roller’s first world tour in nearly two decades, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul’s SOULFIRE LIVE! is available now via Little Steven Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records and UMe. The 3CD collection includes 24-tracks released digitally in April alongside an exclusive third disc highlighted by superstar guest performances recorded throughout the trek, including Bruce Springsteen, Richie Sambora, Peter Wolf, and Jerry Miller (of Moby Grape). Pre-order SOULFIRE LIVE! here.

Rolling Stone is premiering the live video of Little Steven’s performance of “Can I Get A Witness,” featuring Richie Sambora. Recorded last year at the famed Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, the video captures Little Steven and his 15-piece band, the Disciple of Soul’s, spirited and sweat-soaked shows which will be on full display on the Blu-Ray coming later this year. Fans can now pre-order ahead of their release later this year, SOULFIRE LIVE! as a unique 7LP vinyl box set and on Blu-Ray video exclusively at Little Steven’s just-launched new webstore. The vinyl box set will incorporate an exclusive bonus LP capturing Little Steven’s extraordinary surprise set at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club recorded November 2017 during his band’s sold out European tour.

The intimate lunchtime gig saw Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul paying tribute to The Beatles with rocking renditions of “Magical Mystery Tour,” “Good Morning, Good Morning,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” and “All You Need Is Love,” alongside iconic songs famously performed by the nascent Fab Four, including “Boys” (originally by The Shirelles), “Slow Down” (by Larry Williams) and “Soldier Of Love” (first recorded by Arthur Alexander).

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The septuagenerian German superstar Heino has spent more than five decades doing the predictable–churning out mortifyingly maudlin Schlager and Volkmusik songs for sentimental German-speakers to sing and clap along with. He really has no American equivalent, although Neil Diamond at his very worst comes close.

Heino (aka Heinz Georg Kramm) is perhaps best known in English-speaking countries for his frightening album covers (google the cover of Liebe Mutter, I dare you), but in Germany his old-fashioned renditions of Schlager (it means “hit,” but these are most certainly not your idea of hits) and German folk songs make him much beloved, albeit mostly by the elderly and the kinds of folk sentimentalists who never miss out on a chance to break out the lederhosen.

Germany’s alternative-music loving young people, of course, consider him the enemy–the personification of backwards-looking nostalgia and the bane of anyone who has ever turned on German television only to be treated to a solid hour or two of sheer Schlager terror. But Heino had a surprise–or should we say a blitzkrieg?–up his sleeve. The platinum-haired, dark-glasses wearing Teuton may look like the epitome of a sinister Bond villain, but he has more in common with Liam Neeson’s character in Taken.

To wit, Heino has a particular set of skills, a set of skills he developed over a lifetime, and in 2013 he put them to hair-raising and nefarious use on the ironically titled Mit Freundlichen Grüßen (which translates as “With Best Wishes”), on which he covered songs by some of Germany’s most popular punk, industrial metal, and hip hop artists. It was a master stroke of agitprop by a man eager to take revenge on the people who despise him, as he made crystal clear in interviews where he expressed contempt for the very songs he was covering.

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Glenn Jones is no stranger to this column, for no other reason than he continues to make fine records. As the number of contemporary American Primitive-descended solo fingerpickers grows, the idea of temporarily setting Jones’ achievements to the side of the spotlight has been contemplated, but when an LP as strong as The Giant Who Ate Himself and Other New Works for 6 & 12 String Guitar hits the speakers, such a notion gets the kibosh with due swiftness. Aided by friends Laura Baird (recording engineer) and Matthew Azevado (mixer), it finds Jones as personal, personable, and sure handed as ever, arriving on CD and vinyl (with a limited toad green option) August 24 through Thrill Jockey.

Although there are instances to the contrary, Golden Ages (as in the Golden Age of Comics and the original Golden Age of Television) are distinctions best bestowed after the passage of time. As it was unfolding, nobody was calling the output of John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, and less prominently but beneficially, Peter Lang, Max Ochs, Harry Taussig, and Don Bikoff the Golden Age of American Primitive Guitar, but from the vantage point of the present, describing it as such feels like a designation free of controversy.

That’s partially because the American Primitive impulse continues to thrive. There was definitely a period of severe waning, where plucking records from the Takoma and Vanguard labels out of the bins (when they occasionally appeared in shops) maybe felt similar (at least somewhat) to discovering a house with an attic holding a box with a copy of a shellac disc by Mississippi John Hurt or Son House or Sylvester Weaver. Okay, this analogy is definitely a stretch, but hopefully one understands the reason for the comparison.

American Primitive didn’t die, though it’s reemergence through records by Steffen Basho-Junghans, Richard Bishop, and a little later Jack Rose did sorta register as a rebirth, and the style remains well-represented today. Indeed, the field of American Primitive-influenced players is currently deep and wide-ranging, enough so that claiming we’re in the midst of a Guitar Soli renaissance, if perhaps jumping the gun of assessment a bit, isn’t the slightest bit inappropriate.

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If you stress it, they’ll press it. —Ed.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | In honor of 21 years at the forefront of the folk protest tradition, Appleseed Recordings will release a powerhouse triple album set exploring two decades of their most revolutionary work, featuring new recordings from Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello, Donovan, Tim Robbins, John Wesley Harding, Tom Russell + more. Across 57 tracks total, each disc of Appleseed’s 21st Anniversary: Roots and Branches serves as a beacon of the label’s longstanding devotion to three philosophies: truth-telling, preserving our wisdom keepers both past and present, and keeping the legacy of roots music alive for future generations.

Although steeped in the history of traditional folk, roots, and world music, the themes on Roots and Branches ring especially true in our present moment. Tom Russell offers a searing new take on Bruce Springsteen’s “Across the Border,” recorded firsthand on the New Mexico/Mexico line; social worker Anne Hills takes a harrowing look into the heroin epidemic on “Needle of Death”; Tom Morello reimagines AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds” to name check US foreign policy and “fake news”; and John Wesley Harding’s own 12 year-old daughter appears on “Scared of Guns” to recite NRA donation figures, updating the original with crunchy guitars and the voice of a new generation. Additional contributors to this collection include Pete Seeger, Ani DiFranco, Joan Baez, Al Stewart, Billy Bragg, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and more. See full track list below.

“The CDs in this 21st anniversary set have been loosely organized by separate, but frequently overlapping, themes,” says Appleseed founder Jim Musselman. “They match my three goals in forming Appleseed Recordings – to provide an outlet for songs of social justice, both current and past; to release newly written songs of personal experience and emotion in modern times; and to keep alive the centuries of still-vital traditional songs from our country’s and our world’s history. To learn how to move forward, we can never forget the lessons, or songs, of the past.”

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No Wave history is populated with numerous characters, but few heaved forth as much personality as vocalist-saxophonist-bandleader James Chance. Initially the frontman of the Contortions, by the end of the ’70s he’d formed James White and the Blacks and issued Off White. After that lineup exploded, he reconvened the group with all new personnel and recorded Sax Maniac for Animal Records, the label of Blondie’s Chris Stein. If not as incendiary as the Contortions’ material on the Brian Eno-produced No New York, the LP is still infused with Chance’s distinctive brand of surliness and suavity. Fusing funk and punk in an avant laboratory, its Redux vinyl edition is out August 24 through Futurismo.

The early recordings of the Contortions, and specifically the four songs that open 1978’s No New York, were so inspired and intense in their frenzy that listeners could maybe be persuaded that Chance’s subsequent work was of lesser, if not negligible, interest. While in terms of wild, inventive enthusiasm the Contortions are hard to beat (the streak of quality extended into ’79’s Buy the Contortions), and to discredit the guy work as James White as second-rate stuff is a blunder in my estimation.

If the Contortions could register as a subversive demolition party, James White and the Blacks were more of an attempt to further blend the rawness of Chance’s big-city attitude, the power of his voice, and his funky free-jazzy sax playing with disco, R&B, and pop forms. The results, while less immediately formidable, basically had no chance for a chart crossover, but where many other similar attempts at hybridization and sound (and by extension audience) broadening register today as failures, the two LPs by White and the Blacks hold up pretty dang well, mainly because Chance’s personality wasn’t diluted.

Lots of folks seem to prefer the first White/Blacks alb Off White, maybe in part because it was a reshuffling of seminal No Wave figures (a bunch of Contortions are involved, as is Lydia Lunch as Stella Rico), and for a long while I sorta felt the same. That’s partly because while I was familiar with Sax Maniac (rating it fairly highly, certainly higher than some), I never owned a copy, making my time spent with it minimal. However, soaking it up in relation to this reissue has elevated it in my esteem; I now consider it the equal of Off White, and in some ways it’s the more interesting of the two.

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If you stress it, they’ll press it. —Ed.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | If you’ve seen Paul McCartney over the past nine years, you’ve seen Chris Holmes. He’s been the DJ spinning records pre-show for nearly a decade now. But his story starts much earlier.

After his “space rock” band Sabalon Glitz scored a spot on the bill at Lollapalooza in 1995, they became part of the “alternative” bidding war scene in Chicago, and caught the ear of former Atlantic Records Vice President Jon Rubeli. But, a different muse was calling Holmes. He wanted to make music that reflected his love of AM radio. Recorded under the name Yum-Yum (an homage to songs like “Sugar Sugar” and bands like 1910 Fruitgum Company), a cassette of bedroom demos moved Rubeli to sign Holmes to a deal on his the new Atlantic imprint TAG Records.

The result was 1998’s glorious Dan Loves Patti, a slice of pop perfection featuring strings, brass, Melllotron, and Chamberlin, as well as lush harmonies and hook-laden songs. But as happens in the music industry, a regime change shuttered TAG, and the album was swallowed up into Atlantic. The lack of attention and promotion saw the album fade from view.

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“Growing up, my parents had a nice record player with giant upright speakers. One of the first vivid memories of my life was sitting in front of those speakers, listening to Peter and the Wolf on vinyl.”

“It was an enlightening experience for me. My memory of it still has colors associated with the melodies from that album. I don’t have synesthesia, but I believe that when you listen to a record sitting cross-legged, staring at the album cover for hours, the sounds, sights, and smells all start to blend into one in a really beautiful way.

Years later, on that same record player, I once naively attempted to emulate ’90s DJs with my dad’s Beatles record. That didn’t go over very well!

I like to think that even growing up with the convenience of the digital age, I have retained a deep respect for vinyl and the experience it creates. It’s the difference between eating drive-through fast food in the driver’s seat of your car and sitting down to share a home cooked meal with your loved ones. Vinyl creates an atmosphere of authority for music that I love. You put on the record, sit down, and simply listen…or dance!

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The recent passing of Aretha Franklin was hardly unexpected, but it still sent many millions of people the world over into flash mourning. Here in America, the Queen of Soul inspired us through the Civil Rights Years with her soaring voice, set our hearts a-beatin’ with her timeless R&B anthems, and sent us to Heaven with her songs of devotion and praise. She was the very definition of “young, gifted and black,” and her immortal voice will roll down the ages like soul thunder.

With a discography that spanned from the late 1950s to 2017, Aretha produced more than enough great music to stock a top-notch jukebox, but most everybody has a favorite Franklin LP. Me, I turned for solace upon learning of her death to 1968’s Lady Soul.

As with most of her albums, Lady Soul demonstrates Franklin’s amazing range; unlike many of her albums, Lady Soul gives Aretha the opportunity to show off her amazing range on a uniformly amazing collection of songs. She cooks up a heady soul stew, gets real funky, reaches for the stars, and sings from the gut about her poor broken down heart, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had one foot planted solidly in her hometown of Detroit and the other one in the Great Beyond.

Franklin got her start at her daddy’s New Bethel Baptist Church in the Motor City, and while she ultimately took the secular route, her gospel beginnings always showed; just listen to her spirit-rousing cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” on which she sings about a heaven-bound train that’s coming and thanks the Lord more times than I can count. I’m not a devout man, but this one makes me want to cry, “Raise me up, Jesus! I wanna ride that glorious soul train!”

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