Monthly Archives: July 2019

The year was 1996, and while he had a 45 and a pair of appearances on Bloodshot Records comps under his belt, singer-songwriter and guitarist Robbie Fulks’ big breakthrough was Country Love Songs, which actually delivered the goods that so many prior “real country” propositions promised but failed. There are numerous reasons why, and we’ll cover ‘em below, but the most important fact to relate is that Bloodshot’s July 24 reissue is the first time the record’s been released on vinyl. It’s the straight but sturdy reissue treatment: 180gm black vinyl (no bonus cuts), liner notes, drawings, and a download code. For those who enjoy spinning classic country on their turntable, it’s purchase would seem mandatory.

13 songs in 38 minutes, with hardly a sound in its freshly pressed grooves that would seem to postdate the compact disc era; it registers as crazy that Country Love Songs has never been on vinyl prior to 2019, but there it is. Actually, it doesn’t strike me as crazy, as I’ve tried to purchase it on wax a few times across the last few decades and have until now been rebuffed by its unavailability.

The situation seems to be the same for all of Fulks’ stuff prior to 2013’s return to Bloodshot, Gone Away Backwards, but let’s not stray from the good news at hand. Featuring backing from The Skeletons and ex-Buckaroo pedal steel ace Tom Brumley, Country Love Songs manages to embody and personalize the sounds of country music’s heyday with seeming ease.

Undeniably a throwback but without radiating a dusted off relic vibe, in part through a few savvy flashes of dark lyrical humor, the record is neither a watered-down approximation of the good stuff nor does it go over the top in trying to impart its realness. It’s simultaneously a highly relaxed and instrumentally sharp album, cut partly with Steve Albini in Chicago, though his recognizable approach to noise-rock heaviness is absent.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Resonance Records, the Los Angeles-based independent jazz label noted for its historical releases, will issue its most ambitious release to date, the seven-CD/10-LP Nat King Cole boxed set Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) on November 1, 2019.

Succeeding critically acclaimed Resonance archival collections devoted to previously unheard recordings by Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Sarah Vaughan, and other eminent jazz performers, Hittin’ the Ramp offers the first in-depth survey of singer-pianist Cole’s work in the years preceding his long hit-making tenure at Capitol Records. “This is a really important project for Resonance,” says Zev Feldman, label co-president and the set’s co-producer. “We’ve done some pretty substantial packages over the years, such as our three-disc Eric Dolphy and Jaco Pastorius sets with 100-page booklets, but this Nat King Cole box is truly a definitive, king-sized set, clocking in at a staggering 10 LPs and seven CDs worth of essential early Cole material with enhanced audio.”

The limited-edition 180-gram ten-LP set was mastered by Matt Lutthans at Cohearant Audio with impeccable sound restoration by Lutthans and Doug Pomeroy. The vinyl will be pressed at esteemed audiophile record manufacturer RTI (Record Technology Inc.) at 33 1/3 rpm. The set’s co-producer, writer and historian Will Friedwald – who received Grammy Award nominations for his work on Mosaic Records’ landmark 1992 box The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio and the 1989 album Nat “King” Cole and the “King” Cole Trio – points out in his comprehensive notes to the collection that Cole’s deep and influential jazz roots were often obscured by his towering reputation as a pop singer.

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In the second half of the 1970s, the hilly West Coast burg of San Francisco was noted for some bands, and a few of them specialized in the creation of punk rock. Amongst the more illustrious names are The Avengers, Crime, The Dead Kennedys, and Flipper, but one of the less championed troops in the city’s early punk narrative was Negative Trend. Their terrific self-titled 1978 7-inch is repressed by the folks at Superior Viaduct, and it’s an essential purchase for anyone striving to build a comprehensive punk library.

By this point, the late-‘70s punk uprising has been examined from a multitude of angles, with the majority of the approaches offering at least some measure of substantive insight. Since the whole explosion proved to be such a complex beast, indeed so multifaceted that individual perspectives can frequently seem downright contradictory, the value found in such a large number of diverse viewpoints should really come as no surprise.

One particularly interesting outlook concerns how punk’s North American surge was inevitably doomed to initial failure due to the lack of an appropriate distribution network to service its burgeoning creativity as it was emerging. It’s a tempting idea, but it tends to sidestep the reality of what actually did occur after The Dictators’ Go Girl Crazy! (my pick as the starting point of the unhyphenated punk era) first hit the racks in early ’75.

Specifically, the impulse spread like wildfire, or better yet like a disease. In England, the situation grew into an epidemic that sent shockwaves through the country’s entire culture, but in the USA, the very land that gave the form its messy back-alley birth, the transmission remained either underground or largely disdained but the public at large.

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Based in Tokyo and extant from 2016, De Lorians have been tersely described as a spiritual and psychedelic group, though the five-member outfit’s founder Takefumi Ishida has additionally explained that “Zappa is God among us,” a tidbit of info that will surely inspire diversity of reaction. But Ishida’s statement doesn’t tidily encapsulate what’s happening on this eponymous debut record, as lovers of the Canterbury scene and prog-fusion in general will find a nugget here, as will those who preferred Frank when he kept his trap shut. It’s out July 24 digitally, as a digipak CD, and on both standard black wax and a clear edition with a neon orange blob and neon violet splatter via Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records.

The above comment on Zappa’s trap might seem mean, but it serves a deeper purpose than to just dig at the guy, as it illuminates how, for this record at least, De Lorians are essentially a sans vocals affair. To be clear, I happen to hold Zappa’s Mothers of Invention material from ’66-’70 (plus early “solo” records Lumpy Gravy and Hot Rats) in varying levels of generally high esteem, and hey, it’s a run of discs that was loaded with vocals.

But a marked change in Frank’s approach in the early ’70s is plainly acknowledged in the PR for this record. The label states that across De Lorians’ sides there is “no singing, no poodle play, just constant surprises, rich vibes, and heavy fun.” Along with avoiding the obvious pitfalls of “risky” toilet-humor, the band, while diving deep into a contemporarily niche style rather than embodying any sort of cutting-edge (the instrumental adeptness is indisputable, though), nicely sidestep the datedness that is hard to separate from the output of Zappa the satirist.

De Lorians are intricate, but they’re never pompous, and at 32 minutes, their debut doesn’t overstay its welcome. The label’s mention of Weasels Ripped My Flesh is on the money, though I also had Hot Rats (a personal Zappa fave) cross my mind more than once. Thrice, even. But maybe most importantly, the record can be easily situated as a descendant of Soft Machine and even Gong.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Showtime Documentary Films today announced it will premiere the new documentary Hitsville: The Making of Motown from directors Benjamin and Gabe Turner (Class of 92, I Am Bolt, One Direction: This Is Us) on Saturday, August 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

The remarkable story of the legendary Motown Records is told through new and exclusive interviews with the label’s visionary founder, Berry Gordy, and many of its superstar artists and creative figures, as well as rare performances and behind-the-scenes footage unearthed from Motown’s vaults and Gordy’s personal archives. Hitsville: The Making of Motown is the first documentary about the iconic label with Gordy’s participation.

Directed by Benjamin and Gabe Turner (Class of 92, I Am Bolt, One Direction: This Is Us), Hitsville: The Making of Motown focuses on the period beginning with the birth of the company in Detroit in 1958 until its relocation to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. The film tracks the unique system that Gordy assembled that enabled Motown to become the most successful record label of all time. The creation and initial success of Motown was achieved during a period of significant racial tensions in America and amid the burgeoning civil rights movement. The company’s music and post-racial vision were significant factors in helping the country—and the world—evolve through this transformative period in history.

“Motown is critical not only to the history of music in America, but also the history of America itself,” said Vinnie Malhotra, Executive Vice President, Nonfiction Programming, Showtime Networks Inc. “And you’ve never seen this bedrock of the music industry explored and remembered the way that Gabe and Ben Turner do it in Hitsville, with never-before-seen clips and interviews with the key players.”

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“I was born at a perfect time. I got to experience a house full of music and full of CDs.”

“My mother, a perfect target for the entertainment industry’s ephemeral mediums, would, every 5 to 10 years, throw out the old and make way for the new. This is not to say that she was wasteful—she rode the big waves. Cassettes to CDs. VHS to DVDs. Eventually doing away with all the plastic boxes and putting them all in zip-up cases. It was all in an attempt to declutter.

I of course, in the wake of all this change, have swung the other way and will happily place nostalgia on a golden pedestal. I think about the bad quality of the movies we taped straight from TV and every radio introduction that overflowed when I taped a song off my boom-box with admiration. The movie channel would occasionally play a behind-the-scenes short, and though I’m glad I can find it on YouTube now, that was as much a part of watching Hook as was watching Rufio tear it up with the Lost Boys or seeing Peter using his “imagination” for the first time (that movie rules and you’re dead inside if you think otherwise).

And then Napster happened. There were a couple of years before getting my first MP3 player where, inexplicably, my dad bought a portable Mini-Disc player and would let me use it so I could record my own 128 kbps, illegally downloaded Incubus, Beastie Boys, and Sublime mixtapes. It’s funny to think how awful the quality must have been, but it didn’t matter, because you could bring your favorite songs with you anywhere.

When I was 14 or 15, my mom found a turntable with a busted needle and a crateful of vinyl by a dumpster—clearly a kindred spirit going through their own cleanse. So we brought it home and went through it all. There must have been 30 records in there, but I can only remember 3 of them: The Best Of Beethoven, a Donna Summer record and John Barry’s soundtrack to You Only Live Twice.

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Power pop stalwarts The Rubinoos first emerged at a high school hop in Berkeley, California nearly a half century ago. With a couple of career defining albums on Beserkley Records, the band brought vocal-rich tunes and a penchant for covers that would try the patience of the most open-minded rockers.

Still, their version of Tommy James & the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now” got some traction in 1977; their 1979 power pop original “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” proved so catchy it landed Avril Lavigne in court for maybe borrowing too much of it for her 2007 single “Girlfriend,” and they did the title song for the film Revenge of the Nerds. Over the years, they wrote and covered songs from “Rhapsody in the Rain” to “Hats Off to Larry” to “Yo Ho,” the Pirates of the Caribbean amusement park ride theme.

Sporadic recording followed a 15 year hiatus, but now one of their biggest early fans, Chuck Prophet, has teamed up with them for their new album due in stores on August 23 via Yep Roc, From Home, with every one of the tracks co-written by the prolific Prophet with the band’s Tommy Dunbar.

And though there are no covers this time, there are some shout outs to some of the acts that fueled their early love for rock ’n’ roll, from the DeFranco Family to the Troggs to the Honeycombs. The Vinyl District is proud to premiere one of its tracks, “Phaedra” a pean to the ancient goddess that also has roots in a classic 45, Lee Hazlewood’s “Some Velvet Morning” with Nancy Sinatra.

We talked to the band founding members Dunbar and lead singer Jon Rubin, as well as rocker and producer Prophet, in a California conference call about the single and the new LP, their love for the old Cruisin’ albums, and that time they got booed at a Jefferson Starship show at Winterland.

What was the origin of “Phaedra”?

Chuck: I think one of the things that was kind of a challenge about writing this record, is that we’ve got guys here that are a certain age. The first couple records had songs like “Can I come over tonight…will your parents be home?” They seem unseemly.

Jon: We can’t sing those songs any more.

Chuck: So, we figured out songs where we can thank the goddesses and address the boy/girl thing in more of a mythical way.

Tommy: It’s funny you mention Lee Hazlewood, because that’s where I got the name from. It was like, that’s a cool name.

A couple of other songs on From Home name check influences in “Do You Remember” and “Honey from the Honeycombs.”

Tommy: It’s funny, the band will have been playing together in some form for 50 years come 2020, and to me Honeycombs records aren’t nostalgic in that we still listen to that stuff. But “Do You Remember” was a lot of—I remember Chuck picking my brain. “What did you do on…” “Oh, yeah, that was off of Kings Road.” “Do You Remember” is very much a history of the band.

Chuck: And also what made “Do You Remember” work for me, is that very much like The Beatles, Tommy and Jon would sing almost in unison just because they got more power. Like if you listen to the early Beatles, Cavern Club era, John and Paul sing together and they have the power. By the time they get to Abbey Road, they’re almost like a prog band, you know what I mean? Everyone is off doing their own thing. It’s a special thing when Jon and Tommy sing in unison in a four piece band. And I don’t even think there’s a couple of minor overdubs on “Do You Remember.”

Jon: In the early days of The Rubinoos, Tommy and I used to sing together all the time. I mean, on tons and tons of songs. And a lot of that was inspired by The Beatles because we thought by the two of us singing together, we came up with third lead vocal voice.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Pop Group announce the reissue of their highly influential and innovative debut album Y through Mute on November 1. For the definitive edition, Y has been remastered and cut at half-speed at Abbey Road Studios for enhanced sound quality. The band’s landmark debut single, “She Is Beyond Good & Evil,” will be reissued alongside Y as a bonus 12”. 

To mark the 40th anniversary of the album, the band are releasing two limited edition box sets that include the original album, the 12” of “She Is Beyond Good & Evil” and two additional albums: Alien Blood and Y Live, as well as an extensive booklet and art prints. A deluxe version of the set limited to 500 copies will include 180gm Inca gold vinyl pressings with two signed prints.

Originally released on April 20, 1979, Y represents a stunning culmination of The Pop Group’s crucial nonconformity. Preceded by a meteoric rise in recognition, Y firmly realized the latent potential of the group’s early years. From playing Bristol youth clubs to early gigs supporting Pere Ubu and Patti Smith to gracing the front covers of NME and Melody Maker, The Pop Group’s progression to the forefront had been swift. With the recording of Y, they were to build on the promise of these earlier experiences and of their first recordings, delivering a debut album that transcends most, if not all, classification and one that exists in a league of its own.

Recorded in 1978, the Y sessions were conducted at Ridge Farm in Dorking, Surrey, an experience the band’s bassist Simon Underwood now characterizes as “an intense and electrifying journey of creative exploration and experimentation.”

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