Monthly Archives: January 2019

If news of the first U.S. Mott the Hoople tour in 45 years doesn’t have you digging your knee-high platform glitter boots out of the closet, well, I guess you’re just not a hopeless old glam geezer like me. Mott the Hoople ‘74 will feature core members (Ian Hunter, Ariel Bender, and Morgan Fisher) of the Mott that toured America way back in 1974, and will give their legions of lucky faithful the opportunity to swoon to all of their old favorites.

The bad news? Mott’s eight-city tour will begin in lovely Milwaukee on April 1 and end in New York City on April 10, so your opportunities to see one of England’s premiere bands of the early seventies live and in person are limited. But if you love Mott the Hoople–and you really should love Mott the Hoople–you’ll do what it takes to catch one of these shows because let’s face it, boys and girls, Mott the Hoople is THE NAZZ.

As everybody who was alive in the early seventies knows, Mott the Hoople were a hard rock band distinguishable from the pachydermal herd mainly by Ian Hunter’s lyrical (and hyper-self-aware) flights of fancy and Dylan meets pub rock vocalizations who were at the point of breaking up because nobody was buying their records when David Bowie more or less brought them back from the dead by handing them “All the Young Dudes,” which the Hoops turned into one of the most glorious anthems to teen solidarity in the face of parental sneers and fears of growing old you ever will hear. Turn twenty-five? Never! I’d sooner kill myself!

After that they cut a pair of simply extraordinary LPs in the form of 1972’s All the Young Dudes and 1973’s Mott, both of ‘em packed with songs so great you’d break your granny’s arm if she dared besmirch ‘em. You get everything from lethal stabs in the eye like “Sucker” and “One of the Boys” to big rock myth deconstructions like “Hymn for the Dudes” and “All the Way from Memphis” and “Ballad of Mott the Hoople (26th March 1972, Zurich)”, on the latter of which lets you know he knows a rock star is a rather shabby thing to be. Oh, and he also has a sensitive side; who else would have dared to produce a song (and it’s pure dead brilliant) called “I Wish I Was Your Mother”?

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Combining fretless bass with heavy rock drumming, Gary Numan further refined his dark, sparse, funky- electro style, mixing it with impenetrable, slurred vocals. Numan recorded and wrote most of the music between January and March 1982, following his infamous round-the-world trip in a light aircraft and a near-death crash onto a British road while co-piloting a spiraling Cessna.

According to Numan, who was still only 24-years-old at the time, “the round-the-world flight, the plane crash, these were big things that helped me shape a new opinion of myself. Those experiences gave me a self-confidence, a genuine strength that I hadn’t had before.” Twenty years later, the singer enthused, “I still think it’s one of the best albums I’ve made.” I, Assassin’s heavily percussive approach led to several tracks becoming unexpected intruders on American dancefloors, notably the 12” single of “Music For Chameleons” and a specially remixed U.S. version of “White Boys And Heroes. I, Assassin stands out as a record fiercely propelled by powerful rhythms in songs laced with an earthy cynicism.

“I, Assassin also utilizes the warped elasticity of fretless bass lines underneath his customary monotone vocalizing and abstract lyricism. Highlighted by the upbeat synthetic funk of “We Take Mystery To Bed” & “White Boys,” I, Assassin is an in-depth examination of genuine dance music roots.” —URB 

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Los Angeles transplants Social Gravy originally hail from their respective countries of Belarus and Britain, but met up in downtown LA and bonded over their mutual love for vintage, honey-dipped, West Coast ’70s rock. Today, TVD is proud to present the “side a” off of the duo’s forthcoming digital 7″ “California” / “Let it Out.”

“California” is a jangly, yearning slice of pop rock that channels the seminal work of the Eagles, beginning with an intimate vocal and guitar combo that effortlessly expands into a full-blown Oasis-esque chorus. It’s a hook that feels so neatly symmetrical, it’s hard to believe it has not been fashioned before.

Social Gravy produce an interesting and alluring sound, enhanced by the fact that these two foreigners now live in the epicenter of contemporary pop culture. Often it takes an outsiders perspective to objectively nail down what makes something so great, and Social Gravy have certainly proven themselves as honorable LA scribes.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | David Bromberg is a cultured guitar player, much in-demand session musician, singer-songwriter, and recording artist. His solo recordings—for the Columbia / CBS label, and after that, the Fantasy imprint, until a self-imposed hiatus where he retired to become a violin manufacturer, are musically varied and impeccably played. This set—The Player—is a reissue of a compilation of songs taken from his Columbia Records tenure, 1971-74, and features highlights from his four albums recorded for the label, plus some previously unreleased material. Included on The Player is the track “The Hold-up,” which was co-written, and features former Beatle, George Harrison playing an inimitable slide guitar part.

Also featured is a wonderful, affectionate live version of “Mr. Bojangles,” the Jerry Jeff Walker opus—Walker featured Bromberg in his touring band for several years. Elsewhere, “Sammy’s Song,” a deeply affecting, very sad, and lyrically very frank ballad shows what a masterful composer Bromberg can be in his own right—he even roped in his ol’ mucker Bob Dylan to add plaintive, melancholy harmonica for added texture. The “Yankee’s Revenge” medley of instrumental folk tunes is a superb vehicle for Bromberg’s nimble acoustic guitar work—breathless stuff indeed. His country waltz version of Dylan’s “Wallflower” is another pure delight. Bromberg may not be the world’s greatest singer, but he can inhabit a song along with the best of ‘em, and not being a Pavarotti never did the song’s composer much damage, did it?

Bromberg is a musician whose services as a session player saw him gainful employ from the likes of Dion, Doug Sahm, Bob Dylan, John Hiatt, Richie Havens, Tom Rush, Joan Baez, Link Wray, The Beastie Boys, Pearls Before Swine, Al Kooper, Tom Paxton, Rick Derringer, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, The Eagles, The Band, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bonnie Raitt, Phoebe Snow, Gordon Lightfoot, Carly Simon, and scores of others.

David Bromberg has returned to recording and live work in recent years; The Player: A Retrospective offers a marvellous insight into his early recording career, and provides much evidence of why he is held in such high regard.

Always with the Hendrix comparisons!

Here all Robin Trower wanted to do after he skipped the light fandango out of Procol Harum in 1971 was play some titanic blooze, but every which way he turned people were calling him a clone of rock’s greatest dead guitarist and how do you think that made the poor guy feel?

Crappy probably.

Here’s The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau, circa 1975: “Is [Trower] experienced? He’s a retread, and the best thing I can say for him is that he makes me remember the verve, humor, and fluidity of the original.”

Ouch!

Well I happen to love the music Trower’s power trio was putting out in the mid-seventies and I don’t give a flying fuck whether people dismiss him as a Hendrix wannabe.

Are there similarities? Sure. But Trower’s doom-laden, Stonehenge-heavy guitar stylings are quite easy to differentiate from Hendrix’s manic-impressive chord splooge, and speaking of Stonehenge, Trower’s vocalist cum bassist James Dewar (formerly of Stone the Crows and a proud member of the Paul Rodgers’ school of blue-eyed soul men) never fails to come off like some kind of death-stalked Druid dude bemoaning the fact that he’s lost in the night and fog and can hear the wolves a’circling.

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Nashville-based Tyler Boone creates colorful pop rock blues that soothes the soul. Unlike the many other guitar slinging singer-songwriters, Boone is keen to let his songs breathe, savoring the pauses between the twangy embellishments, like a fine whiskey.

Today TVD has the pleasure of premiering his full EP, “Jealousy,” which is one of the first entries into the South Carolina native’s recording repertoire. His live resume, however, reads like a hit list with opening slots for Sheryl Crow, Hootie & The Blowfish, The Avett Brothers, and Old Crow Medicine Show. One can certainly see the potential of reaching mainstream heights with the EP’s finest and most original cut, the Petty-esque “Moving On.”

Reflecting on the long gestation period for the EP, Boone comments, “Releasing this EP has been a project that began back in 2016 after being asked to perform at the “Firefly Music Festival” in Dover, DE. The band on this project was not only apart of the tours but also the writing aspect. I’ll always be apart of the “Americana” world, but releasing an EP like this in the bluesy and heavy rock vein has always been a goal. It’s still pretty cool that “Moving On” is still climbing on radio across the country.”

Of Lead Belly records, there are a ton, and the reasons why are simple. Foremost, this titan of American music possessed a deep reservoir of songs, but he was also something of a crossover artist, robust enough in style to appeal to subsequent generations of blues fanatics as diversity of subject matter and musical approach ensconced him as a godfather-cornerstone to the burgeoning mid-20th century folk movement. Smithsonian Folkways’ fresh reissue of Easy Rider: Leadbelly Legacy Volume Four is a tidy encapsulation of the man’s aptitude for social commentary, its arrival welcome in this period of severe tumult. It’s available now in the label’s signature tip-on jacket, remastered and with the original notes.

Born in January of 1888, Huddie William Ledbetter was a performing musician prior to the 1920s commercial boom for the blues, which party explains the breadth of his talent beyond the form. Like many early blues players, he’s just as aptly described as a songster (versatility allowing a player to become something of a one-man show in those days), and while an effective multi-instrumentalist, his excellence on the 12-string guitar was matched by the strength of his voice and an ability to consistently communicate the essence of his songs, many of which were handed down from oral tradition.

All of these attributes found Lead Belly fitting nicely into the early US folk scene, but it was probably his relationship to the pre-recording industry roots of folk tradition (he was an eight-year elder of Blind Lemon Jefferson) that sealed the deal. This places him historically in strong and varied company; think Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, and Lightnin’ Hopkins for starters, but with the crucial difference that Lead Belly wasn’t a subject of rediscovery after an earlier dalliance with commercial record makers.

He was discovered, however. Like many others of his circumstance in Jim Crow USA, it was during a stay in prison, with Lead Belly first recorded in 1933-’34 by John and Alan Lomax while serving a term in Angola. These songs weren’t commercially released until the ’60s, but once he’d been given early release in ’34, the man took the ball of interest in his music and ran for a career-securing touchdown.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The remarkable Taj Mahal, for over fifty years an intrepid explorer of arcane musical Americana, is the subject of a twelve track compilation of material culled from his lengthy tenure with the Columbia Records label, entitled Taj’s Blues, to be released on Friday, March 1st 2019, on the Retroworld reissue division of the North London indie label, Floating World.

Taj’s Blues features his distinctive interpretation of classic material such as “Statesboro Blues,” “Frankie & Albert,” “Dust My Broom” and others, and offers a superb point of entry to the recorded works of this thoughtful, dynamic musician. Taj began his career as a member of the US West Coast combo The Rising Sons, alongside Ry Cooder, before setting off on a solo career that has endured through to the present day.

He was one of the guest artists on the infamous Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus movie, filmed late in 1968, and has always enjoyed a substantial following in the UK and mainland Europe ever since. Alongside Ry Cooder, Van Dyke Parks, Leon Redbone, Asleep at the Wheel, and very few others, Taj has blazed a trail drawing attention to the dusty, often forgotten hinterlands of twentieth century music, some of the finest moments of which are featured on Taj’s Blues.