Monthly Archives: June 2019

VIA PRESS RELEASE | The 3-LP Set comes inside a gorgeous, double gatefold jacket sporting photos of the band at Woodstock, most taken by legendary lensman Henry Diltz with liner notes by folk-rock guru Richie Unterberger and pressed in “New Dawn” blue vinyl to commemorate Grace Slick’s opening words (“It’s a new dawn!”) when the band took the stage.

At the muddy miracle that was Woodstock, the most miraculous performance just might have been Jefferson Airplane’s. The band had been one of the first to sign on for the festival, their imprimatur prompting many other acts to hop on board, and their stature had landed them a coveted headlining slot closing Saturday night’s schedule. But, as the torrential downpours and the unexpected crush of half a million people kept on delaying their set, the chances of putting on anything approaching a quality performance seemed to diminish.

According to Paul Kantner, “We were supposed to go on at 10:30 at night and we’d been up and down about four or five times on acid that night, getting ready to go on, and then everything was delayed for whatever reasons. So, we didn’t get on until like 7:00 the next morning and everybody was pretty much burned out.”

Kantner’s protestations to the contrary, the Airplane (with guest pianist Nicky Hopkins in tow) played a scorching two-hour set that defied the elements and the circumstances. Grace Slick led the charge as the band plunged into a frenetic version of Fred Neil’s “The Other Side of This Life”: “Alright, friends, you have seen the heavy groups. Now you will see morning maniac music. Believe me, yeah. It’s a new dawn!”

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Once a decade or so a major label release comes along that is so utterly devoid of redeeming qualities you just know it’s going to go double platinum.

Take, as object lesson, Damn Yankees, the 1990 debut album by the supposed supergroup of the same name, who took their name from a 1955 baseball film about a Washington Senators fan who sells his soul to the devil for a chance to beat the hated Yankees, and is promptly transformed into the hitting sensation Shoeless Joe Hardy.

Combining the gonzo hard rock stylings of Styx’s Tommy Shaw, the tender romantic sensibilities of Ted “I Kill Mammals” Nugent, and the nebulous contributions of Night Ranger’s Jack Blades, Damn Yankees were hardly nobody’s idea of a rock and roll dream team. But on Damn Yankees they demonstrate a commitment to the cliché that is positively awe-inspiring, and over 10 cuts ingeniously manage to say (or play) not a single original thing.

The end result? Two million units sold and counting. Talk about your deals with the devil. Let this be an object lesson to you, young bands!

Damn Yankees is purely a cookie-cutter affair; it’s as if the boys in the band went down a list of bad rock tropes and dutifully checked off the boxes. Mega-successful suck-ass power ballad? Check. Song about a little girl lost in the big bad city entitled “Runaway”? Check. Song with the generic words “rock city” (i.e., “Rock City”) in the title? Check. Song with delicate acoustic guitars and soulful vocals kinda along the lines of “Dust in the Wind” only shittier? Check.

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NYC-based singer-songwriter Chapell produces tasteful and ambitious progressive pop rock that recalls R.E.M.’s mid-’90s output.

His newest LP, Penultimate, is a distinctly personal collection of material, charged with a sense of freedom and optimism and brimming with newly adorned sense of direction. Clearly, this is the dominating vibration now that the internet age’s hangover has dissipated. Sure, there is still plenty to be paranoid about (see the sucker punch of “I Am Zuck”) but more often we catch him ready to cut ties with the modern world and ride into the sunset, free of technological distortion.

Chapell’s crystal clear intonation makes his loaded content go down easy, often using buff melodic hooks to make deeper sentiments more accessible. The world-tinged “Sandinista” is a wonderful expose of the tragedies taking place in the tiny Central American country of Nicaragua, while the bittersweet “Catch Me” is an unnervingly catchy investigation into human character flaws. Chapell winds things down with the anthemic “If You Like It” which mixes edgy post punk guitars with powdery horn arrangements, revealing a sweetly paternal side to the songwriter.

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Saxophonist Sonny Stitt made plain that the best way to emerge from another artist’s shadow is to simply persevere. Well, that and focus more on the tenor sax. Initially downgraded (if not totally dismissed) as a Charlie Parker imitator, Stitt didn’t let the criticism slow him down; from the late 1940s to the early ’80s, he recorded well over 150 albums. Of course, not all of those are great. The brand-new Lone Wolf: The Roost Alternates does flirt with that level of quality however, rounding up unissued takes from the ’52-’57 period of his lengthy association with the Roost label. Out June 28 on Run Out Groove through Warner Records, it offers Stitt in fine form and leading consistently sharp bands.

Indefatigable and adaptable; both terms fit Sonny Stitt like a glove. As the decades unwound and the records piled up, he who was once belittled for his similarity to Charlie Parker came to be valued as one of the grand survivors of the original bebop era. All the while, he was refusing to be boxed in by this reversal of esteem, picking up the electric saxophone, exploring the potential of soul jazz, and dishing albums of pop covers (like ’73’s Mr. Bojangles), though he could still deliver in the trad Modern Jazz manner. He recorded and gigged regularly up to his death from cancer on July 22, 1982.

Stitt was a strong player with classic LPs in his discography and an impressive list of achievements. He briefly played with Miles Davis, co-led two groups with tenor-man Gene “Jug” Ammons, and played in the bands of Dizzy Gillespie and alongside the trumpeter in the ’70s-era outfit The Giants of Jazz. As said, time has vindicated Stitt, and it can be tempting to completely dismiss the naysayers as being hypercritical. However, there is still an important distinction to be made.

Charles “Yardbird” Parker Jr. remains one of the great musical innovators of the 20th century (if one whose rep has been somewhat unfairly eclipsed by that of John Coltrane). Stitt has claimed that his style on alto was a case of parallel development, and I’m in no position to dispute that claim. But Stitt, to my knowledge, has never been pronounced as an architect of a new musical form, which is not to put him down but just to state facts.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Waxwork Records is thrilled to release Child’s Play (2019) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack! Featuring music by EMMY® and BAFTA Award winning composer Bear McCreary (Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, TV’s The Walking Dead) in a special deluxe double LP vinyl edition. Directed by Lars Klevberg and starring Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry, and featuring the new voice of Chucky performed by Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Child’s Play is the 2019 American horror film reboot of the 1988 film of the same title. The plot follows a family that is terrorized by a high-tech doll that rejects its programming and becomes self-aware.

Composer Bear McCreary’s music of Child’s Play is carried out with his assembly of a “toy orchestra.” McCreary uses his own voice to create an ominous “kids choir” and collaborates closely with legendary actor Mark Hamill who sings the track for the film, “The Buddi Song.” Inspired by Chucky’s toy origins, McCreary challenged himself by composing a score predominately with toys and handheld instruments, completely avoiding traditional orchestra. Toy pianos, slinkies, xylophones, rattles, ukuleles, accordions, kazoos, hurdy gurdies, and more are married with a variety synthesizers, percussion, violin, viola, cello, and bass to create a wholly original, terrifying, and dynamic score.

Album features include the complete film music by Bear McCreary, double 180 gram “Chucky’s Eyes” colored vinyl (Blue and Red), artwork by Phantom City Creative, composer liner notes, a 12”x12” insert, and deluxe packaging.

To soak up Vanilla Fudge’s talent as song-interpreters the best route is their eponymous ’67 debut. A further understanding of them as a singles act is most appropriately gleaned through the Rhino compilation Psychedelic Sundae. If an immersion into the multifaceted positives and negatives of these trailblazing late-‘60s hard rockers’ everyday reality is what one wants however, then one should look into the contents of Near the Beginning.

There’s no question Vanilla Fudge are an important band. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” the group’s reading of a Holland-Dozier-Holland tune originally by The Supremes, is a vital evolutionary brick in the hard rock megastructure, and it stands as a one-song distillation of nearly everything that was good and potentially less than stellar about this hard-touring New York quartet. There are two versions of the Fudge’s recording, a just shy of three-minute single edit and the take found on their debut; that one’s over twice as long, and this duality is to an extent indicative of the group’s creative problems. It’s far from that simple though, and their somewhat brief and highly eventful initial existence provides a consistently interesting story, if one that’s only sporadically fruitful in musical terms.

Vanilla Fudge’s beginnings are in The Electric Pigeons, the soul cover unit featuring organist/lead vocalist Mark Stein and bassist Tim Bogert. They soon acquired guitarist Vince Martell and drummer Carmine Appice, and after hooking up with Shangri La’s producer Shadow Morton, they changed names and focused attentions on the studio.

The first effort turned out to be the best, but it was also a problematic record. Those soul roots were still showing; in fact, they never went away, flaring up rather flagrantly later in their tenure, but on Vanilla Fudge, it’s not a decisive detraction. It’s true that “People Get Ready” (and the first album is composed entirely of covers) is no great shakes, but “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” is one of the better R&B lifts in ‘60s rock precisely because it displays a disinterest in mimicry (a real issue with NYC bands of the era) to instead hone a variation on a then new sound.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Type O Negative, the Brooklyn-based Goth Metal pioneers known for their dark humor and satirical lyrics recorded six studio albums for Roadrunner Records from 1993–2003.

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2011, Roadrunner released the legendary None More Negative 12LP box set in a limited run of only 1,000 copies that included the six Roadrunner studio albums on translucent green vinyl with a set of Type O bumper stickers. The set quickly sold out and to find a copy now on EBay or Discogs usually requires a mortgage payment. Eight years later, Run Out Groove, in partnership with Roadrunner Records, has decided to reissue this legendary vinyl box in a limited edition of 5,000 copies worldwide.

Re-mastered for maximum fidelity, this deluxe box set has received a modern make-over. The twelve individual LPs will be pressed on 140g green and black mixed color vinyl at Record Industry and come in six 380 gram direct to board gatefold jackets. The set features a newly designed and band-approved hard outer slip case, as well as a fold-out poster, insert with credits, and a backstage laminate exclusive to this set.

As if that weren’t enough, also included are the albums World Coming Down, and Life is Killing Me—both currently unavailable on vinyl, as well as the original and controversial cover art for The Origin of The Feces (Not Live At Brighton Beach). With World Coming Down previously only available on CD, the first track “Skip It” was edited and updated to replace the sound of a skipping CD with that of a skipping LP to keep in line with the band’s tongue-in-cheek creative touches. When asked about the box set and its re-release, keyboardist Josh Silver stated, “There’s a fine line between clever and stupid.”

Shipping around September 6th, the None More Negative box set is available to pre-order now.  

While I can’t claim to be an expert on the breadth of the man’s output, it suffices to say that Frank Hurricane works in recognizable territory while being in a class by himself. His latest is a further refinement of his singular approach as released through a steady stream of cassettes, CDRs, and vinyl since the beginning of the decade. Setting certain aspects of his method mostly aside, perhaps temporarily, Hurricane continues to zero in on the psychedelic, the folky, the laidback, and the eccentric. Life Is Spiritual is out now on vinyl in an edition of 1,000 as a split release from Feeding Tube and Crash Symbols.

Here are some things I have learned about Frank Hurricane. He is an excellent fingerpicker. He likes to swap the vowel i for the sometimes y in words, but not always, so that the title of his 2012 cassette is Night Tyme Vybes. His ’16 release Pymp World (released first on tape, next on CDR and available now on LP through Ultra Eczema) comes with the description “THIS IS THA NEW FRANK HURRICANE TAPE! POP, FOLK, COUNTRY, HIP-HOP, AND COMEDY! MY FAVE THING I’VE DONE IN A LONG TYME!” He enjoys hiking.

More stuff: He is fond of the descriptors “holy,” “psychedelic, “gangsta,” and “off the chain,” and he frequently ends sentences with “dog,” or more appropriately “dawg,” and “man,” pronounced “mane” like Al Pacino in Brian De Palma’s rap culture cornerstone Scarface. Hip-hop is indeed a component in his overall thing, exclusively so on the 2012 CDR EP “Flowin Internal” (released under one of his alternate monikers, Gangsta Love), though his style is decidedly lo-fi, captured direct to cassette and using the presets of an archaic Casio keyboard. He’s from the “Dirty South,” most recently Tennessee.

Upon initially soaking up Frank Hurricane’s reality, I had more than a couple of moments where it was debatable whether or not he was “for real.” This relates to the comedy aspect mentioned as part of Pymp World, but which came through for me strongest in the “story” tracks on his 2013 2LP Quintorian Blues. That one seems to be his first release for Feeding Tube.

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MANSFIELD, MA | Grammy Award-winning Dave Matthews Band continued the first leg of their 2019 North American Tour on June 21, 2019, at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, Mass. In support of the tour, the band released a reworking of the title track “Come Tomorrow” featuring Brandi Carlile from their latest album, Come Tomorrow (RCA Records), which debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2018.

The Massachusetts crowd was buzzing with excitement as the band took the stage of the outdoor amphitheater lit by a setting sun. With the majority of the packed house being diehard fans, a crowd thrilled for the dynamic show DMB has brought for more than 28 years. The veteran band humbly took the stage without a dramatic introduction or opener. Instead, they played a passionate and energetic 19-song set well into the night.

It was almost exactly one year to the day since they last performed at Xfinity Center—many elements reminiscent of the last performance; a spirited lead singer dancing along to the music backed by a joyous band sharing continuous smiles and laughs. The most notable change this year was the setlist, which only contained three songs from their last summer performance. The Dave Matthews Band’s discography of nine studio albums equips the band to deliver a unique and personal set to each crowd along their 2019 tour.

Dave Matthews Band’s ability to deliver a personal experience at their concert was best exemplified by the experience of super-fan Ashley Gleason of Pawtucket, RI who has been to four stops along DMB’s 2019 tour already—and has two more shows to go. While living with the sudden passing of her brother Justin, the song, “Sister” which was played during their show in Mansfield held special importance to her. “To be there, at my home venue, and hear Dave play “Sister” made my heart so full. I knew Justin was there with me enjoying the show alongside me.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | As part of the ongoing celebration of their 50th anniversary, on September 6 the Allman Brothers Band Recording Company–caretakers of the original band’s unreleased catalog–in conjunction with distributor The Orchard will release a four-CD set titled Fillmore West ’71, culled from an epic weekend of live music recorded at the legendary San Francisco venue. The Grammy-winning, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band (formed in March 1969) were in great form on this weekend, where they were the middle act playing between headliners Hot Tuna and the 24-piece opener Trinidad Tripoli Street Band. This will be the debut release of these recordings. The packaging contains a front cover photo of Duane Allman from Jim Marshall Photography (taken at these shows) that has rarely been seen before.

Compiled from reel-to-reel soundboard masters, the January 29 show that kicks off this collection reads like an Allman Brothers Band greatest hits, from opener “Statesboro Blues” through the set-wrapping “Whipping Post.” On the next night, the standard sequence of “Statesboro Blues,” Trouble No More,” “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’,” and “Elizabeth Reed” was typically riveting, and then the blues-soaked “Stormy Monday” was worked in, replacing “Midnight Rider.” Gregg’s vocals were visceral and honest, while Duane and Dickey added down and dirty licks. “You Don’t Love Me” showcased some run-and-gun guitar work, and a frenzied “Whipping Post” closed out another solid night.

The band–Duane Allman, Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Jaimoe, Berry Oakley, and Butch Trucks–were loose and talkative and you can hear them really dialing their sound in at what would be a final tune-up for the seminal At Fillmore East album, recorded less than two months later. At Fillmore East would cement the band’s place in rock history and Rolling Stone would eventually call it the second-best live album ever released.

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