Monthly Archives: September 2018

Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter John Graham Mellor, better known by his recording and performance handle Joe Strummer, was a co-founder of one of the most important, and in the view of some, the very finest band in UK punk rock’s original wave. That would be The Clash, but the man’s activities preceded and extended far beyond that group, and on September 28 the Ignition label spotlights the results with Joe Strummer 001 in a variety of formats: a 4LP set in slipcase, a 2CD in slipcase, a deluxe 2CD with book, and a deluxe box set containing LPs, a vinyl single, a cassette, the book, and a handful of additional goodies. Totaling 35 tracks, including a dozen unreleased, it’s a stone-cinch pickup for Strummer fans.

It can feel (and will surely be read as) contrarian to say it, but I’ve never been greatly enthusiastic over The Clash. Sure, the first two albums, ’77’s The Clash and the following year’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope, are essential, and the third, ’79’s London Calling arguably so, but when they took a nosedive in quality after that they did so with gusto, following up a double album with triple album Sandinista!, a display of excess that no matter how well-intentioned sent them into a tailspin from which they never recovered, though folks who discovered them through the rather tepid pop move Combat Rock might disagree.

The bigger problem, at least for me, was how the band came to represent what I’ll call the Springsteenization of punk rock. That is, the Clash were often, and well into the 1980s after their breakup, championed as the exception to the rule that punk rock sucked. By extension, certain folks frequently openly professed Clash-fandom as a way to prove they weren’t complete moldy figs.

Now, most of my punk-loving friends adored the Clash, and I could surely listen to them (the good stuff, anyway) without trouble; merely appreciating the group wasn’t a problem. It’s just that loving their output while deriding the Damned and Buzzcocks and the Lurkers and yes indeed the Sex Pistols (to limit myself to a short list of UK outfits) was and remains downright suspect.

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You can think of KISS, the fire-breathing long-running rock band, as a kind of performance art piece. With face-painted demons in fanciful costumes, the fire and spectacle of their arena shows set the stage for most such stadium concerts today.

Frontman Paul Stanley had a hand in creating that art, and he’s joined the handful of rockers who augment off time by taking to the easel, with colorful canvases that range from abstractions to specific band-centric self-portraits, flags, and an array of guitars.

His gallery shows draw a number of fans, of course, but also viewers who may have never heard “Love Gun.” His original paintings, mixed-media works, prints, and hand-painted sculptures often sell out, and not just because he also makes personal appearances, as he will September 21 and 22 in the Washington, DC area at the Wentworth Galleries in Bethesda and Tysons Corner.

With his voice much more subdued than it is during his famous banter on stage, Stanley, 66, talked recently over the phone about his art, his vinyl, and future Kiss tours.

What period of time does your exhibit cover?

My art shows really reflect my whole road till now. It reflects pretty much all the work that I’ve done or a significant part of it. I used to wonder if I could ever have enough art to fill a gallery, and now I have too much. But it certainly reflects quite a bit of the time.

So what is the oldest piece in it?

Probably about 18 years. Somewhere around 17-18 years.

Was art something you did from an early time?

Yeah, I didn’t paint, but I was very fortunate that my parents, both being of European stock, pretty much meant that the arts were a part of my life. In Europe my parents certainly experienced theater and museums and they brought the same to me. So those were part of my vocabulary, part of my home life.

What made you pick up the paint brush 18 years ago?

I think turmoil will either see you throwing things at the wall or finding perhaps a better outlet. And once I got tired of the first one, a friend of mine said, “You should paint.” That resonated with me even though I didn’t know how it would manifest itself, I went out and bought paints and brushes and an easels. I had no idea what I was going to do and put brush to canvas and basically was pretty much purging. It was almost stream of consciousness using color. It was an interesting way for me to depict for myself what I was felling. And over time, it just kept evolving, and it is still and will continue to evolve. My only rule for this and anything else in my life is: The only rule is no rules.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary, Beggars Arkive is excited to announce a series of colored vinyl reissues.

Late 2018 will mark the 40th anniversary of Bauhaus. To celebrate, Beggars Arkive is reissuing records from the band’s catalog on limited edition colored vinyl. In The Flat Field and Mask will be released on October 26th. November 23rd will bring The Sky’s Gone Out and Press The Eject And Give Me The Tape, which is being pressed in the US for the first time and is exclusive to US Record Store Day Black Vinyl retailers. Also on this date, Leaving Records (a partner of Stones Throw Records) will release the band’s first recording ever, The Bela Session including three previously unreleased tracks and a remastered version of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” On December 7th, the Arkive series concludes with releases of Burning From The Inside and Crackle.

Formed in 1978, The legendary and hugely influential quartet hailed from Northampton, England and is composed of Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David J, and Kevin Haskins. The dark, dramatic music that they made, possessed far more force, variety, and playfulness than the “founding fathers of goth” tag that is always attached to them.

Bauhaus’ landmark debut album, In the Flat Field, came out towards the end of 4AD’s first eventful year. Following the plan at the time, the band then “moved upstairs” to Beggars Banquet, for whom they made three further albums before dissolving in 1983. They charted with their cover of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust,” and they’ve been name checked by everyone from Nine Inch Nails, Sepultura, Janes Addiction, MGMT, Interpol, Bjork, Nirvana, and more. They remain a huge cult concern, periodically reforming to wow their legions of dedicated followers.

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Sometimes I’m ashamed for my fellow music critics. Take their rude treatment of Bauhaus’ 1980 debut, In the Flat Field. An NME writer described the LP as “nine meaningless moans and flails bereft of even the most cursory contour of interest,” while a Sounds writer dismissed the LP for having “No songs. Just tracks (ugh). Too priggish and conceited,” before writing the LP off as “coldly conceited.”

I’m no Goth fan because I have a pulse, but I think the writers above are idiots. I will concede that In the Flat Field is cold, but I also happen to find it brilliant—one of the finest LPs of 1980. Clamorous and loud, it’s a wonderful example of the sonic possibilities of carefully controlled noise, and its wild sounds and angular riffs provide the perfect backdrop for the chilly vocals of Peter Murphy. Take “Dive.” Daniel Ash’s guitar playing and saxophone work are brilliantly crisp and menacing, the tune proceeds at a breakneck pace, and Murphy’s vocals are a marvel; he stutters, shouts, does it all. Or take LP opener “Double Dare.” It commences with some heavily fuzzed out riffs, then the drums kick in, and this is metal, people. Murphy is as his dark best, producing nonsense noises when he isn’t shouting, the rhythm section is heavy as Flipper, and what we have here is a drone rocker as good as any by No Trend.

The title cut is a racing rumble of distorted guitar, with great percussion and Murphy singing about who knows what (“black matted lace of pregnant cows”???), although the chorus is clear enough: “I do get bored, I get bored/In the flat field.” My recommendation is to ignore the lyrics about “spunge stained sheets” and hone in on Ash’s shredding sheets of guitar noise, the wonderful percussion, and Murphy’s vocals, which climb to an apocalyptic pitch while Ash’s guitar howls and howls. “A God in an Alcove” opens with some tentative guitar and Murphy sounding like he’s been gagged, before the song’s angular riff takes over. Ash’s guitar is ominous, someone joins Murphy on vocals, and together they make a wonderful noise, and then the song takes flight, 100 mph in a 55 zone. “Silly,” repeats Murphy, before the song’s close, but there’s nothing silly about the tune, which rocks.

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While the output of Ostinato Records is still small, through the guiding hand of founder Vik Sohonie the Grammy-nominated label has already unveiled a deeply researched wealth of enlightenment succinctly described by the endeavor’s mission statement: “Afrophone stories from the Atlantic to Indian Ocean.” Previously, they’ve delved into the sounds of Haiti, Cape Verde and Somalia, and in 2018 have continued to travel, with the excellent new compilation Two Niles to Sing a Melody: The Violins & Synths of Sudan Ostinato’s second release to focus on the country of the title. Available as a 3LP gatefold on 140-gram wax with a 20-page booklet and as a 2CD bookcase with 36-page booklet, it’s out now.

Ostinato isn’t one of those late-arriving cash-in-hand labels poised to simply scoop up and platter the results of others’ diligence while reclining back as the modest profits and larger plaudits roll in. No, the label’s driving force Vik Sohonie is a true world traveler holding the passion of a fan, the curiosity of an archivist, and the desire to share what he’s uncovered. To an extent, Ostinato reminds me of a cross between John Storm Roberts’ Original Music label and the info-rich approach of Smithsonian-Folkways, or more appropriate to the current moment, Atlanta GA’s Dust-to-Digital.

If you want to not just hear the music of various global cultures but understand its context, Ostinato is a still young but reliably solid resource, and Two Niles to Sing a Melody only deepens this circumstance. It documents the era in Sudan prior to the violent coup of 1989, a fertile period described by the collection’s co-compiler, Sudanese poet and actress Tamador Sheikh Eldin Gibreel as “a time for culture, writers, artists, sculptors, fine arts, the musicians, and the people in the theater.”

It was time under the rule of Gafaar Muhammad Nimeiry, who seized power in 1969. He instigated a long period of support for the arts, though it was a political maneuver that as hardline Islamists established a foothold in the mainstream, was also ended by Nimeiry; in 1983 he imposed Sharia Law in Sudan with matters only worsening after Omar Al Bashir took power in 1989 (a coup removed Nimeiry three years before).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings is proud to announce the release of The Complete Cuban Jam Sessions 5-LP and 5-CD box sets on November 9, 2018. Compiled here in their entirety and original format for the first time, the five volumes of Panart’s Cuban Jam Session albums were recorded over a span of almost a decade, from 1956-1964. Together these albums encapsulate a stylistic and historic panorama of Cuban music, from big band son montuno to Afro-Cuban rumba, mambo, cha-cha-chá, and country acoustic guajira music. At the same time, they attest to Cuba’s long relationship with popular American music and jazz.

Collectively these sessions feature an impressive line-up of renowned pioneers of descarga (improvised jam session), including pianist Julio Gutiérrez, tres player Niño Rivera, flautist José Fajardo, and the legendary master bassist and mambo co-creator, Israel “Cachao” López. Participating musicians include the legendary percussionist Tata Güines, trombone master Generoso Jiménez, pioneering Cuban jazz drummer Guillermo Barreto, Cachao’s brother and co-father of the mambo Orestes López, ground-breaking timbales player/drummer Walfredo de los Reyes, Sr., jazz-influenced pianist Pedro Jústiz “Peruchín”, and Cuban scat singer Francisco Fellove, among many others.

The 5-LP set includes 35 tracks on 180-gram audiophile vinyl in tip-on jackets. It offers a 28-page book featuring black-and-white archival images of the featured artists as well as extensive liner notes and musician bios in English and Spanish by award-winning Latin music writer, Cuban music specialist and box set co-producer, Judy Cantor-Navas. The 5-CD version comes packaged in mini-jacket replicas of the vinyl jackets and is supplemented by an extensive 96-page CD booklet.

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Roan Yellowthorn release thoughtful, dream pop LP Indigo.

Roan Yellowthorn is the moniker of Jackie McLean, daughter of iconic folk and rock & roll artist Don McLean, whose deft melodic sensibilities were not lost on his indie darling offspring.

Mining a deep ’90s vein of gorgeous Lilith Fair acoustic pop, Roan Yellowthorn’s Indigo LP manages to be both charmingly retro and confessional. Hooks abound throughout the record, but McLean really breaks out on “Mark My Words” with a devilishly distorted jazz vocal that is as raw and truthful as anything her father ever sung.

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“My first experience with vinyl was probably around third grade, listening to my Dad’s old Dr. Demento records. He’s the DJ that discovered Weird Al. I got a real kick out of “Flying Purple People Eater,” “Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini,” and “Camp Granada.””

“My dad’s collection was largely great bluegrass like Doc Watson, New Grass Revival, and David Grisman along with some country rock gems like The Allman Brothers’ Eat A Peach whose immensely psychedelic inner cover adorned my brothers wall for many years. My sister’s room was covered wall to wall with Beatles posters and what seemed to be every album cover of theirs. She was the cool one.

In High School my brother Jack (keyboardist for Day Wave) got turntables meant for scratching and mixing. So many funny, stoned, and ultimately embarrassing freestyles went down over that stack of breaks and beat records. The best beat I was able to make with that turntable was with a break beat and the 16 second intro track on George Benson’s album Breezin’, picked from my mom’s collection. I broke the needle while my brother was out skating one day and that was that.

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Remember the Hooters? I know, I know, I wish I could forget them too. I found their meteoric, mid-eighties rise to stardom utterly depressing, and what made it worse was that I was living in Philadelphia–ground zero of the Hooters’ phenomenon–at the time.

Talk about your civic shame. Fantastic things were happening in NYC and LA and Minneapolis and just about everywhere else, really, and what did we get? Five boobs with all the edge of a safety razor. All I could do was hang my head and say thank god for the Dead Milkmen.

Guitarist Eric Bazilian and keyboardist Rob Hyman made their bones on Cyndi Lauper’s immensely fun She’s So Unusual, but the fun stopped there. When it came time to record 1985’s Nervous Night they settled for bland and, thanks to MTV, Rolling Stone (which dubbed the Hooters the best new band of 1986), and lots of record buyers willing to settle for bland, found themselves with a platinum LP on their hands. All you zombies indeed.

Earnest and anodyne, the Hooters aimed for faceless small arena rock and hit their target; first they won over the kids of Philly, then they conquered Australia. And they did it with thin gruel; Nervous Night is a lackluster collection of clunky, wannabe rousing tunes, three of them taken straight off their 1983 independent release Amore, and one of them (gak!) an Arthur Lee cover.

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