Monthly Archives: February 2021

“’I’ll show you which Beatles songs you need to know!’ my Uncle Phil declared, as he started thumbing through his extensive collection of vinyl to make me a cassette mixtape.”

“At thirteen years old, I was just starting to be able to discern John’s voice from Paul’s and George’s, I was just becoming acquainted with how electric and acoustic guitars sounded different, with how the low plunk of that Höfner bass and Ringo’s backbeat rounded out the sound of a rock band. And as my middle school ears listened to The Beatles’ tracks coming from my uncle’s turntable, I started to learn how music worked.

My uncle, my aunt, and my dad had been playing in bands together since before I was born. They all had instruments lying around, they wrote songs, they had vinyl collections with their names written onto the cardboard so they could share records back and forth with confidence that each favorite would eventually make it home. And they all loved The Beatles. But it was my uncle, with his old school hi-fi vinyl setup, who truly initiated me into their musical world.

Phil got all the wires set up, and began dubbing one song at a time directly from the turntable to the cassette deck. You could hear the tell-tale needle drop, the crackle, and those incredible musical colors that lifted themselves up from the grooves. “Dear Prudence” and “I’ve Just Seen a Face” were on there. So were “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “I’m Only Sleeping,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and a few others (many of which Ryanhood has covered over the years).

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Blanck Mass is the longstanding project of Edinburgh, UK resident Benjamin John Power. The style of his endeavor is roughly encapsulated as electronic-tinged experimental sounds rubbing shoulders with industrial and drone. The newest release from Blanck Mass is In Ferneaux, a full-length effort consisting of two lengthy pieces built from a trove of field recordings amassed by Power across a decade of world traveling (essentially the duration of Blanck Mass’ existence) and constructed in isolation last year. Full-formed in terms of pure sound, the whole is surprisingly engaging on an emotional level. It’s out February 26 on vinyl, CD and digital through Sacred Bones.

In Ferneaux is the fifth LP from Blanck Mass, following Animated Violence Mild, which came out in August of 2019. Prior to the release of the eponymous debut by Blanck Mass in 2011, Benjamin John Power was half of Fuck Buttons with Andrew Hung, an outfit that, while still considered an extant concern, hasn’t put out a record since Slow Focus in 2013.

Slow Focus was Fuck Buttons’ third full-length, with their debut Street Horrrsing putting them on the scene in 2008. This means that Blanck Mass has considerably bypassed Fuck Buttons in the productivity department, so that it’s no longer really applicable to describe Power’s current activities as a “side project.”

Now, to call In Ferneaux the latest from Powers’ “solo project” isn’t wrong, though this album’s two tracks, “Phase I” and “Phase II,” the first breaking 21 minutes and the second culminating just shy of 20, are in a distinct register from many solo efforts which often find musicians focusing inward, prioritizing their own ideas over collaboration and emphasizing content at the expense of formal rigor.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | World Circuit announce the reissue of two essential records from their celebrated catalogue. Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2, compiled by the label’s own Nick Gold, will be released on deluxe 180G, limited edition, red and blue vinyl on 26th March. Ali Farka Touré’s revered breakthrough album Red will be available on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 1984 on 7th May.

​CUMBIA CUMBIA 1 & 2 | Cumbia, the music and the dance synonymous with Colombia, has been around almost since the 17th century. Today, it’s a badge of identity for Colombians everywhere, but is now also enjoying a global renaissance; filling dance floors and captivating a new generation of music fans. This collection brings together some of the greatest recordings made by Colombia’s legendary record label, Discos Fuentes, between 1954 and 1988.

Discos Fuentes was founded in Cartagena in 1934 by the visionary musician, arranger and producer, Antonio Lopez Fuentes. It was the first important record label in the country and grew into a company of immense significance for Colombian music, responsible for thousands of hits and scores of legendary singers and musicians over six decades. Fuentes hand-picked his musicians and singers then meticulously arranged, produced and recorded their music in-house.

This collection presents thirty of these three-minute-masterpieces, showcasing the gamut of styles that make up the distinctive and irresistible cumbia sound; a sound typified by a loping 2/4 gait and a pulsing rocksteady bassline, overlaid with heavy rural percussion, brass, accordion, clarinet, electric guitar and vocals. Disc 1 features a broad range of cumbia styles with recordings from 1960 through to 1988, whilst disc 2 digs further into the classics of the past focusing almost exclusively on the 1950s and 1960s.

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That Los Angeleno singer-songwriter Mia Doi Todd is releasing her twelfth album is cause for excitement, as it’s her first set in roughly five years, and her first album of original material since 2011. As the contents easily meet expectations, the enthusiasm morphs into celebration. Todd’s songs are sturdy with lyrics consistently enriching the whole, her voice is as assured and pretty as ever, and the instrumentation is splendid throughout, featuring guest spots by Jeff Parker, Money Mark, Fabiano do Nascimento, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Sam Gendel, and Laraaji. Music Life is out February 26 on vinyl, CD, and digital through Todd’s label City Zen.

Mia Doi Todd’s last two full-lengths were devoted to interpretations of outside material, with 2014’s Floresta a stylistic tribute to her favorite Brazilian songs, including pieces by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Tom Zé, and Milton Nascimento, while 2016’s Songbook brought together inspirations ranging from Neil Young, The Cure, Prince, Townes Van Zandt, Sandy Denny, and Joni Mitchell.

Floresta is the stronger of the two, mainly because it lacks the handful of missteps found on Songbook. In a positive twist, Music Life’s return to original songwriting, her first since Cosmic Ocean Ship roughly a decade ago, combines the sustained heights of Floresta with the breadth of Songbook as Todd’s personality and her themes shine through with clarity.

Her most personal statements bookend the record, with the opening title track offering descriptions and observations on the existences of those who choose, or as she puts it, give their lives to the vocation of music. As her lyrics delve into the hard, frequently excessive living, the high and the lows, the successes and disappointments, that are the byproduct of lives dedicated to creative pursuits, Todd’s song is more an act of witness than an attempt at autobiography.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Beat Farmers, one of roots-rock’s most beloved but unsung combos, finally get their due with a deluxe reissue of their classic 1985 debut album, Tales of the New West, out April 2, 2021 from Blixa Sounds.

​This deluxe CD reissue features all 12 tracks from the original album released on Rhino Records, as well as a second disc, Live at the Spring Valley Inn, 1983, a 21-song recording of the Beat Farmers on their home turf of San Diego that helped land the band a record deal. A gatefold package houses the two discs with a 24-page booklet featuring rare photos and other images. Also included are liner notes by the reissue’s producer, Dan Perloff, an early champion who discovered the band while attending San Diego State University and brought them to the attention of Rhino Records executive Gary Stewart.

Tales of the New West features the Beat Farmers’ classic lineup of singer-guitarists Jerry Raney and Buddy Blue, bassist Rolle Dexter, and drummer-singer Country Dick Montana. With their trademark double-barreled attack, the Farmers had the unique talent to deliver a mix of earnest roots-rock with killer riffs on originals like Blue’s “Lost Weekend” and Raney’s “Showbiz,” and choice covers of the Velvet Underground’s “There She Goes Again” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Reason to Believe.” They capped it all off with the over-the-top lunacy of Country Dick on tracks such as “California Kid” and “Happy Boy.”

Steve Berlin of Los Lobos co-produced Tales of the New West, and blows sax on “Showbiz.” Other special guests included Chip and Tony Kinman of Rank & File, Peter Case of the Plimsouls, Sid Griffin of the Long Ryders, and the Bangles’ Vicki Peterson, as well as future Beat Farmer Joey Harris and “Bigger Stones” songwriter Paul Kamanski.

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Celebrating Wire bassist Graham Lewis on his 68th birthday. Fine chap too. —Ed.

Wire’s first three albums hold a special place in the rock pantheon. Announcing their presence with sharp, lean, fascinating distinctiveness that seemed fully formed, they proceeded to move forward and expand rather than backslide or stagnate. 

It doesn’t matter if it was heard in 1977 or discovered long after, the immediate reaction to Pink Flag is one of difference, especially when considered in the context of first-wave punk. Released by EMI via the Harvest imprint in November of ’77, the record offered 21 songs in 35 and a half minutes and set Wire so far apart from the pack (standing out even from the other great bands of the era) that it’s no surprise it wasn’t a hit.

It’s by now cemented as lore that for those who did scoop Pink Flag up, it felt like an exit route from the box punk was rapidly building for itself; more than one observer has opined that it’s an example of post-punk from before the term was coined. This isn’t off-target, though it’s quite apparent that Chairs Missing and 154 are the album’s in Wire’s early discography that best fit the post-punk mold (they are in fact cornerstones of the genre).

Pink Flag continues to register as an introductory statement from a band who welcomed punk’s inclusionary street-level ethos and stripped-down method while rejecting a boilerplate approach, but more importantly, they didn’t reject prior, formative influences. The point emphasized in Graham Duff’s spotlight into Wire’s early days (which evolved from a three-guitar no-drummer affair called Overload) was that, like many a garage band, they were learning as they went; learning their instruments, learning that three guitars don’t constitute a band, and learning that some members simply aren’t a good fit.

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I’m here with the most sensitive man in the world, singer/ songwriter Dan Hill. You may remember Dan’s song “Sometimes When We Touch,” a sensitivity bomb that laid waste to large swathes of the easy listening community. Says Dorothy Snerd of Duluth, Minnesota, “I suffered sensitivity burns over 80 percent of my heart, and I have the aorta scars to prove it.”

I was able to speak briefly with Dan, whose trademark beard and mullet are long gone; he’s balding nowadays, and wears a greying goatee. Otherwise all’s the same; I suffered an emotional breakdown just looking at him. But I was finally able to choke back my tears and lob a few softballs his way.

Do you realize how my hearts you’ve touched with your song?

I get letters and emails every day. Here’s one: “Dear Dan: Every time I hear your song it’s like an Aztec ruler tearing the heart from my chest and showing it to me as it continues beating. Of course if that actually happened I’d be dead and you’d arrested. But there isn’t a single soft rock jury in the world that would convict you.”

I cannot tell you what the song means to me. It’s magical in a way that I can’t quite wrap my arms around.

Hold me.

What?

Just hold me.

Okay.

What do you feel?

My god. The honesty… it’s too much. It makes me want to hold you til I die, til we both break down and cry.

I call it total soul-to-soul immersion therapy. It’s the transmittal of pure empathy across an easy listening energy field designed to dispel the fear of possible romantic disengagement.

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The good old days of record collecting are over; the cat is definitely out of the bag. You don’t need me to tell you how sales of vinyl records have been increasing in the last few years. There used to be a time when one could walk up to a garage sale, or into a thrift store, and buy grails for a dollar, or less, but those days are now gone. Additionally, Discogs has created an environment where record stores are well aware of the value of the items displayed on their walls; so the chance of a hidden gem slipping by has grown increasingly slim (though not impossible for us veteran diggers).

Well, what’s the next best thing to do in this hobby? Things will probably never go back to days where mere pennies would procure a serious collection, but there are opportunities. One of the best things for a collector to do is to find a label who cares deeply about music, has access to original master tapes, has them mastered by an expert in the field and sells them at a reasonable price. Enter Craft Recordings and Mr. Mason Williams.

Williams is a Grammy nominated producer in A&R at Craft Recordings who has teamed up with the Vinyl Me Please company (and Craft’s own Jazz Dispensary imprint) to release five, difficult to find, funk-jazz albums; all cut from the original tapes and all mastered by the great Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio, pressed at RTI on 180 gram vinyl and tucked away in heavy stock tip-on jackets. The albums are as follows: Idris Muhammad’s Black Rhythm Revolution!, Bernard Purdie’s Purdie Good!, Jack DeJohnette’s Sorcery, David Axelrod’s Heavy Axe, and Leon Spencer’s Where I’m Coming From.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rock Hall of Fame nominee and revered musician/producer/songwriter, Todd Rundgren performs a very special live concert featuring the entirety of his classic 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star!

​Recorded 2009 in Akron OH, this special concert was released on crystal clear DVD and CD last year and now has been pressed on deluxe RAINBOW SWIRL vinyl! 2LPs in a gorgeous gatefold jacket featuring images from Todd Rundgren’s truly epic multi-media concert event—a front-to-back recreation of his enormously popular and influential album, A Wizard, A True Star!

A Wizard, A True Star. The title of Todd Rundgren’s 1973 solo album aptly foreshadows the contributions of this multifaceted artist to state-of-the-art music. As a songwriter, video pioneer, producer, recording artist, computer software developer, conceptualist, interactive artist, and author, over the past 50+ years Rundgren has made a lasting impact on the form, content, and delivery of popular music.

His seminal album Something/Anything? (1972), on which he played all the instruments, sang all the vocal parts and acted as his own producer, catapulted Rundgren into the superstar limelight, prompting the press to unanimously dub him “Rock’s New Wunderkind.” His 21 solo albums, plus 14 with his prog rock/power pop ensemble Utopia, spawned such hit singles as “I Saw The Light,” “Hello It’s Me,” “Can We Still Be Friends,” “Bang The Drum,” and with his band Utopia, “Love Is The Answer.”

As a producer, Rundgren has brought his creativity to bear on nearly one hundred albums, including with Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, The Psychedelic Furs, The Tubes, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad, Hall & Oates, The Band, and Meat Loaf’s 50-million-selling Bat Out Of Hell.

“As a wee youngin’ of around seven, I was obsessed with a particular vinyl record that happened to be lying around my aunt’s place.”

“This album evoked all manner of mystery and excitement in me: four demonic figures straight out of a twisted game of Dungeons and Dragons perched upon a dais while an assemblage of similarly bedecked succubi wrothe in rapt anticipation below. Who the fuck were these guys? What was the story behind this hellish scene? As it turns out, those guys were Kiss, and the album was 1978’s Love Gun. As for the story—that’s a bit more complicated. And though I couldn’t fully comprehend it at the time, there was quite a lot wrong with the picture I’d ended up painting for myself (and that Kiss had helped paint for me). Let’s have a little look.

First, I could never have predicted what I’d ultimately experience once finally listening to the record. Yep, that’s right. I hadn’t even heard the album. My parents deemed the music inappropriate for one of such a tender young age. Consequently, I conjured up auditory images which I perceived to match the album’s visuals. I figured Love Gun would sound something like Metallica’s “The Thing That Should Not Be” or perhaps Meshuggah’s “Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion.” How could it be anything other than the fiercest, heaviest, most relentless assault the album cover visually suggested?

A couple years later (evidently nine is the magical Kiss-listening age), with suspense thoroughly built, the needle finally made contact with Love Gun. My jaw dropped, but not in the way I’d hoped. What was this? Where was the vicious onslaught I’d been waiting for all these years? This wasn’t anything I hadn’t already heard on the radio (and very likely had, without realizing what it was). Staring back and forth from album cover to turntable, I just couldn’t get to grips with this stark juxtaposition. Thoroughly dejected, I headed out to the local comic book shop. Man, I should’ve seen this all coming.

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