Monthly Archives: September 2020

VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Ready, Steady, Go! was the best rock ’n’ roll TV show of all time. It just seemed more vibrant and real…You always thought you were slightly on the edge there.” —Mick Jagger

​The London-based Ready, Steady, Go! began broadcasting in August of 1963 and, within a matter of weeks, became an essential television ritual for the newly confident British teenager. It set trends and became the barometer of popular culture by attracting and presenting everyone who was anyone in popular music: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Animals, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Otis Redding, and many more. RSG! also provided the first small screen exposure for then-unknowns such as Rod Stewart, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Donovan, and Jimi Hendrix. The show ran for three and a half years, setting a blueprint for music presentation and production on television that resonated over the following decades and can still be felt today.

Ready, Steady, Go! has never been documented in full detail—until now, when BMG Books will publish Ready Steady Go: The Weekend Starts Here in the U.S., due out November 6, 2020. Featured in this lavishly illustrated and definitive history of the show are hundreds of photographs—the bulk of them previously unpublished—as well as exclusive essays and more (see below for details). Author Andy Neill fully examines RSG!, from quintessential Swinging London fixture to its current iconic status as the most legendary popular music program of all time.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | John Prine’s Souvenirs will be available for the first time on vinyl Friday, September 25 on Oh Boy Records. Originally released in 2000, Souvenirs was produced by Prine and his longtime collaborator and friend, Jim Rooney, and includes members from his longtime band, Jason Wilber and Dave Jacques. The fifteen-track album features new performances of some of Prine’s most beloved songs, including “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Stone,” and “Hello In There.”

​Prine reflected on the album in the original liner notes, writing, “These songs are beautiful. They have been faithful companions throughout the years, never letting me down and constantly making me new friends, even when I was sleeping… This collection of newly recorded versions was originally intended for European release only, as I have always wanted to be popular in Germany. After we mixed, sequenced and listened to the songs, all of us at Oh Boy decided that perhaps we should release this in the U.S., as I would like to be popular there as well.”

Additionally, on October 3, PBS’ Austin City Limits will kick-off Season 46 with “The Very Best of John Prine.” The hour-long episode will feature favorite performances across Prine’s eight visits to the venerable program as well as never-before-seen footage. Prine will also be honored as part of the Recording Academy’s Great Performances: GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends ceremony recognizing the 2020 Special Merit Awards recipients. Airing October 16 on PBS, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, and Amanda Shires will all perform in celebration of Prine and the Lifetime Achievement Award he received this past January at the 62nd Grammy Awards.

Moreover, due to popular demand, Picture Show: A Tribute Celebrating John Prine, will re-air with additional footage on October 10 in celebration of Prine’s 74th birthday. Hosted on Prine’s YouTube channel, the tribute will begin at 7:00pm CT and will remain available through midnight on Sunday, October 11. Originally viewed over 500,000 times, the tribute has raised over $400,000 for NAMI, Alive, Make the Road New York and MusiCares.

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Starting in October of 2018 and then continuing last year, the Mancunian outfit A Certain Ratio received some well-deserved retrospective action via Mute Records, first the 2LP/ CD acr:set and then the 7LP/ 4CD ACR:BOX; now here’s ACR Loco, their first LP of new material since 2008, and it finds them in energetic and inspired form. It’s out September 25 on CD, cassette, and vinyl in a variety of colors: white, blue, red, or turquoise. The same day, the band and Mute are celebrating the release with the An Evening With ACR online event, which includes a live show from last year, a Q&A, the new album played live, and a DJ set from ACR Soundsystem. Tickets are available here.

When it comes to the combination of post-punk heft and funky dance-appropriate fervor, A Certain Ratio’s importance is commensurate with others of the same period who were dedicated to a comparable objective (e.g., ESG, Pigbag, Liquid Liquid, Konk, Pop Group, Delta 5, Gang of Four), and it should definitely be stressed that in the storied history of Factory Records, A Certain Ratio had established themselves as a highly rhythmic force prior to the recording of New Order’s first album.

However, for some, ACR’s lasting significance has been overly synopsized into the namechecking of “Shack Up,” their 1980 cover of a two-part funky-disco nugget from Banbarra, their sole single released in ’75 on the United Artists label. While “Shack Up” is indeed a whopper of a record (the original, ACR’s cover, and in some of its myriad interpolations via dance music/ DJ/ hip-hop culture since), A Certain Ratio’s career achievement has been substantially greater, as the size of ACR:BOX (comprised of singles, B-sides, rarities, unreleased material, and demos) helps to clarify.

ACR Loco is also their tenth full-length (excluding comps), though it is only the second album of new material they’ve released the 21st century. It’s suggested by bassist Jez Kerr that the boxset’s assemblage directly impacted the recording of this fresh offering, a sensible conclusion as ACR Loco incorporates sounds and styles from throughout their existence. Furthermore, the wide-ranging whole is heightened by cohesiveness and spirited execution that can be linked to the stated success of ACR’s recent tour.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | And She Could Be Next, a voting rights companion album to the PBS docuseries And She Could Be Next, executive produced by Ava DuVernay and chronicling the story of a defiant movement of women of color including Stacey Abrams, Lucy McBath, Rashida Tlaib, AOC, Nikema Williams, and more who are transforming American politics from the ground up, will be released in October 2 via Lakeshore Records.

​The album features dynamic, powerful, outspoken voices from the hip hop, pop, and R&B community including Aloe Blacc, Lila Downs, Sa-Roc, Sheila E, Arabian Prince (NWA), Madame Gandhi, Saul Williams, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, Hyro the Hero, William Stanbro, Flor de Toloache, Ruby Ibarra, Judith Hill, Shawnee, Sussan Deyhim, Sarah Thawer, Vivek Maddala, Jahi Lake, Daniel French from Las Cafeteras, Sarah DeAun McCrary, Dee MC, and Nappy Nina.

“It is only when we understand the sheer weight of our collective power that we can begin to grasp the tremendous potential for change. Being a witness to the commitment of this generation’s artists, activists, and policymakers to radically transforming our global landscape has cemented my belief in the inevitability of a new and just future.”
—Sa-Roc

And She Could Be Next is produced by and features musician and composer Gingger Shankar (The Passion of the Christ, CNN’s We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World, Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock), who scored the two-part documentary series.

On the heels of the docuseries release in June and after speaking with Stacey Abrams’ camp about the urgency surrounding the upcoming primaries and Presidential election and their inability to canvas door to door due to the pandemic, Shankar began reaching out to musician friends to help create a companion album—with the docuseries score woven through—as a tool for voting organizations to lift spirits and amplify not only the message and reach of the docuseries but of the organizations as well.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Like never before The Soul of the Midnight Special brings home audiences and music lovers everywhere an unforgettable collection of legendary soul artists performing their hits in the prime of their careers—uncut performances, just straight-from-the-heart soul singing with live musicians in front of a live audience. Now available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon for the first time on October 6, 2020.

​In the period between American Bandstand and MTV, there were sev­eral shows that tried to bring new music to television, but it wasn’t until The Midnight Special, premiered on August 19, 1972, that live music found a home on the air. Burt Sugarman, producer of Grammy Awards telecasts, was frustrated by television’s lack of programming after The Tonight Show ended—the screen reverting to test patterns at 1:00 a.m.. Recognizing this valuable airtime could cater to a brand-new audience that craved its latest musical heroes, he created The Midnight Special, which ran every Friday night on NBC from 1972 to 1981.

The’70s was a special time for soul music and The Midnight Special truly had an affinity for the genre. Week after week, home audiences would have virtual front row seats for performances by the greatest soul performers of the time including Al Green, Earth Wind & Fire, Patti LaBelle, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Spinners, The O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass, The Stylistics, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and The Pips and so many more. The Midnight Special was the only show where you could see real live performances week after week.

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The word “icon” is thrown around alot these days, but some folks just qualify as goshdarn icons with no tired cliches attached. When it comes to radio icons, if you had to pick a few big ones, Cousin Brucie Morrow would be right there near the top of Modulation Mountain. He’s been there, done that: seen it all, even introduced The Beatles at Shea Stadium with Ed Sullivan. His voice was hard to miss on the radio in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s until he moved to satellite radio in 2005.

But there was something that was always calling Cousin Brucie back to the radio radio. In this case, it was John A. Catsimatidis who literally called Brucie during his shows every Saturday night. After Catsimatidis purchased WABC in 2019, he knew he wanted to hear great music on his station and there was only one person who he saw fit to bring it back to a New York City audience via the airwaves: Cousin Bruce. Brucie returns to the station where his career began in 1961 with a new show on Saturday night at 6pm where he goes head-to-head on the airwaves in the same time slot as yours truly.

But, we’re not rivals. In fact, Brucie called me his “Cousin” which is really all I could have hoped to hear from this radio legend. He’s warm, he’s engaging. He’s one of those guys that you expect won’t have enough time for you and then makes you feel as if you’re the only one in the world. He’s had practice connecting with people and it shows. In this interview, we discuss his storied career, calming down a nervous John Lennon, his time on satellite, and how there’s no place like home on the radio airwaves beaming from an antenna and blanketing New York City.

Pull up a chair, cousin. We’re all family here.

Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Sharp Notes each Saturday evening at 6pm and TVD Radar on Sundays at 5AM on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.

If there’s one thing I know about the hated eighties, it’s that absolutely no one I knew could abide synthpop. Oh, some of us may have locked our doors and listened to it in the privacy of our own homes, confessing to doing so one meant being labeled a Eurofop and drummed out of our social circle.

But while my friends and I despised the genre and were disheartened by the prospect of its conquering the world, A Flock of Seagulls were a kind of consolation prize. Them we could laugh at. Mike Score’s gull wings haircut cracked us up, and the little dweeb in the sunglasses was funny too.

But lately I’ve been wondering if there might have been more to A Flock of Seagulls than Michael Score’s iconic topiary coiffure, so I picked up a copy of the band’s 2006 VH1 Classic best-of compilation We Are the ‘80s and gave it a spin. And much to my chagrin, I discovered their music isn’t as bad as all that.

Just as I’d suspected, I found A Flock of Seagulls’ species of MTV-friendly Europop to have all the soul of an automatic car wash. But despite my social clique’s dismissal of the group’s synth-heavy dance music as bloodless as your average cyborg, there must have been a thumping heart in there somewhere, a point A Flock of Seagulls drove home in “Heartbeat Like a Drum.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Brian Eno releases Film Music 1976–2020—his first-ever collection of music from his film and television soundtrack oeuvre digitally on November 13, 2020, and on 2LP and 1CD on January 22, 2021. Spanning five decades, this release features classic Eno compositions and includes some lesser-known gems and seven previously unreleased tracks.

​Eno’s long-standing affair with film goes all the way back to 1970 with his soundtrack to Malcolm Le Grice’s short experimental film Berlin Horse. In 1976 he followed this with Sebastiane and a long-forgotten Greek b-horror film, Land Of The Minotaur AKA The Devil’s Men. This led to an unstoppable momentum largely initiated by the release of Music For Films. Early classic Eno film moments include “Prophecy Theme” from David Lynch’s Dune, “From The Beginning” from Dario Argento’s Opera, “Force Marker” and “Late Evening In Jersey” from Michael Mann’s Heat, “Under” from Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World, and his moving cover of William Bell’s soul classic, “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” in Jonathan Demme’s Married to The Mob.

His 1978 studio album, Music For Films was a loose compilation of material recorded between 1975 ~ 1978. It was intended as a conceptual soundtrack for imaginary films, and only the last track, “Final Sunset” was written for an actual film. It proved to be a fruitful project with nearly every piece on the album going on to be used in future films, including several of Derek Jarman’s, the remake of Jean-Luc Goddard’s Breathless, John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, and Todd Hayes’ Safe.

Eno again explored this approach with U2 as Passengers on their collaboration album, Original Soundtracks 1. Four of the tracks from the album were used in films prior to release: “Beach Sequence” and “Your Blue Room” in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Beyond the Clouds, “Miss Sarajevo” in an eponymous documentary about a beauty pageant held in the midst of besieged ‘93 Sarajevo, and “One Minute Warning” in Mamoru Oshii’s Japanese animation classic, Ghost in the Shell. Another track, “Always Forever Now” later appeared in Heat.

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“My first introduction to the world of music was searching through my dad’s modest record collection.”

“I was a four-year-old who thought I wanted to be an astronaut or scientist at the time. My father was a casual music fan who came from a highly-gifted musical family. His stash of vinyl largely consisted of classics like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, and lots of folk music. His taste in folk ranged from Leo Kottke to Buffy Sainte-Marie. I loved the harmonies of The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers, and all of the folk groups. What really excited me was the raw guitar tones of The Beatles and the other rock groups.

In particular, I was drawn to The Beatles Rubber Soul. Something about the way the band looked on the cover resonated with me before I even heard the music. It inspired me to ask my dad for a “Beatles haircut,” which he happily gave me himself using a Tupperware bowl as his guide.

Back then my dad told me John Lennon had been assassinated some time ago. When I looked at the smoke-filled picture of him on the back cover of Rubber Soul he seemed other-worldly—almost like he sent that photo back from the great beyond. I asked my dad if that photo was taken after he had been shot. My dad just shook his head, probably not sure how to respond to such a ridiculous question.

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