Monthly Archives: June 2021

VIA PRESS RELEASE | The long-awaited autobiography from heavy metal music icon Ronnie James Dio, the powerhouse voice of Elf, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and his long-time bespoke band DIO, will be published on July 27 by Permuted Press in the U.S. and Canada and Constable in the U.K. Co-written with British music journalist Mick Wall and Dio’s widow and long-time manager Wendy Dio, Rainbow in the Dark, The Autobiography is now available for pre-order.

​For actor and musician Jack Black, in whose 2006 film Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny Ronnie played a pivotal cameo role, Dio was “the Pavarotti of heavy metal.” When Ronnie James Dio lost his valiant battle with gastric cancer in 2010, Chuck Klosterman, the author of Fargo Rock City, told Rolling Stone. “Anybody who tries to caricature heavy metal singing is really just doing an imitation of what Dio did naturally. His influence is vast.”

Ronnie James Dio had begun writing the manuscript several years before being diagnosed with cancer. Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and raised in an Italian-American family in the upstate New York town of Cortland, his journey to international fame was hardly pre-ordained. He first began playing trumpet and then guitar and bass in local bands at parties, bars and clubs while still in high school, surviving life-changing setbacks–among them the loss of his bandmate and best friend in a car accident that put his own life in jeopardy.

These events only made him more focused and determined to succeed. He documents how he evolved from sideman into singer and frontman to not one, but three, internationally-renowned multi-Platinum-selling bands, playing on the world’s most hallowed stages, among them London’s Hammersmith Odeon, Tokyo’s Budokan, The Forum in his ultimate hometown of Los Angeles, and the arena that represented, for him, the pinnacle of success—New York’s Madison Square Garden, where this book begins and ends.

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Celebrating Steven Page on his 51st birthday with a look back from our archives. —Ed.

“I grew up with parents who loved music, so there were always records playing on our stereo at home.”

“My folks had a record collection that, to a seven-year-old, seemed slightly impenetrable: jazz artists like Joe Williams and Oscar Peterson, folkies like Ian and Sylvia or Buffy Sainte-Marie, or stuff I thought was just plain mushy like Charles Aznavour. Of course, years later I realized the awesomeness of all of these artists and am grateful for being exposed to them at such a young age.

However, looking back, it strikes me that my Dad must have bought in the neighborhood of one rock album per year: Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, Hey Jude (aka “The Beatles Again”), Blood, Sweat and Tears, Joni Mitchell’s Clouds, CSNY’s Deja Vu, the Chicago album with the chocolate bar on the cover, Bee Gees’ Main Course, Clapton’s Slowhand, Hotel California, and then the descent into Dad buying only singles, ones like Kansas’ “Dust In the Wind,” because he didn’t much care about getting to know the rest of the album. For which I say thank you, Dad.

Dad loved to sing along to songs on the radio in his clear, high tenor, especially ones that had intricate beats to which he could drum his rings on the steering wheel and dashboard. He’s a great drummer and this rare display of abandon was both thrilling and embarrassingly intimate to my little brother and me in the back seat of our AMC Matador. The most exciting would be when Dad enjoyed a song so much that he’d buy the 45 of it. Like, for example, the double A-side of Queen’s “We Are The Champions” / “We Will Rock You.” That was exciting to have in the house. I liked “We Will Rock You,” Dad liked “We Are The Champions” because of the high anthemic singing. I was seven. He later bought “Another One Bites The Dust” and I played it over and over and over until he told me to stop. I said, “But I thought you liked that song?” to which he replied, “I did.”

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As The Fall’s constant fount of creativity, vocalist-songwriter Mark E. Smith has attained a rare position in the rock pantheon, with the man and his band exhaustively covered in print form. And so, the publication of Excavate! The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall might seem an inessential item. However, the objective of editors Tessa Norton and Bob Stanley isn’t biography, but is rather to assemble between hardcovers a series of ambitious essays plus photos of front and back album covers, flyers, correspondence and much more. Delivering vivid portraiture of and perspectives into the environments that shaped Smith and his art, it’s out in the USA today June 22 through Faber Books.

Norton and Stanley’s objectives for Excavate! are admirably bold, but it still feels right that the book’s final piece is a eulogy, by Richard McKenna, that was published on January 30, 2018, six days after Smith’s death, for the website We Are the Mutants, of which McKenna is senior editor. It’s also fitting that his opening line functions a bit like tripwire for writers covering this hefty tome who might not have finished the text or indeed even bothered to begin: “Mistrust all eulogies containing the words ‘contrarian,’ ‘curmudgeon’ and ‘national treasure’: these are inevitably the work of hacks.”

It’s pretty clear the author was referring to those either choosing to or fulfilling the given task of eulogizing Smith in the period shortly after his passing, so that hopefully the next sentence in this paragraph will escape McKenna’s harsh judgement (but if not, them’s the breaks). If by now so well-established as to be considered clichés, in the admittedly short interval since his passing, “contrarian” and “curmudgeon” (we’ll set “national treasure” aside for a bit), along with an unquenchable thirst for booze, remain dominant aspects of Mark E. Smith’s persona.

Norton and Stanley’s book doesn’t refurbish his reputation but instead complicates the issue by delving into the outside forces that helped shape Smith’s perspectives and his art. That means the man isn’t always front and center, with the shift of emphasis onto influences artistic, cultural, and environmental driving home that Smith’s antagonisms weren’t kneejerk or for the sake of just being difficult (well, mostly), and that his grumbling and grousing ultimately stemmed from the same complex worldview that shaped his art.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The only “group” on the Black Jazz roster, The Awakening today should be heralded as one of the great bands in early ‘70s jazz. That they’re not is the result of the Black Jazz label’s distribution woes; witness the fact that original copies of both of their records for the imprint command prices in the hundreds of dollars if you can find them at all.

​Mirage is their second (1973) album, the last one they made together; it boasts the same Chicago-based, AACM-centric line-up as the first, with the notable addition of bassist Rufus Reid on a couple of tracks. Spiritual jazz, free jazz, soul jazz, fusion jazz, you name it—The Awakening take all those threads common to early ‘70s African-American music and, like any great ensemble, weave them into a beautiful sonic garment that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

The Mirage is a bit less political/pan-African than Hear, Sense and Feel, its predecessor, which definitely owed some of its feel to the band’s Art Ensemble of Chicago/AACM roots; this record is a little more abstract, a little more varied in its moods and textural coloring, yet no less powerful and transporting. Our Real Gone release represents the first time Mirage has been reissued on LP; it comes newly remastered (by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision) and with new liner notes by Pat Thomas. A record to discover, savor, and treasure.

Who is Racquel Jones? To some, she’s an amazing musician and vocalist. For others, she’s an inspired artist and painter. However, after peeling back the onion a bit, I found Racquel Jones to be quite simply extraordinary.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Jones has broken molds and shattered ceilings as a rising star. She is fearless, focused, and unapologetic in her desire to crush pre-existing stereotypes with a quest to be treated equally as a woman in the arts—and to create on her own terms.

What were your first impressions of music as a child?

I could not make sense of music as a kid, and it is still hard to articulate it now. I just know that it did something inside of me, it moved me. I liked it and wanted more of that feeling. I also wanted to create that feeling for others incorporating into it the sounds I love.

Do you recall the first time you performed on a stage?

My introduction to performing was in church, but I don’t remember the first time because I was so young. Outside of that, I do recall performing at about eight or nine at school. My teacher discovered that I knew how to play the recorder—nerd alert—that I taught myself to play. She decided to enter me into the JCDC Music Competition in Jamaica. I made it through three rounds—and got a bronze medal—but apparently was too young at the time to advance in the categories that would allow me to compete nationally. I remember that feeling. I remember the audience. I remember the judges. It was incredible.

Who would you consider your greatest overall influence on the person you are today?

I find that question to be very strange for us as human beings because it leads to compartmentalizing and prioritizing one influence over another. I feel as if everything that I have encountered in life, every person and every experience, has influenced me. I cannot pick them apart to compare and definitively say which had influenced me more. Like I said, everything I hear, everything I see, everything I think of—good or bad—has impacted me in some way. I just know that I’m open to everything and the learning that I encounter along the way.

What are some the challenges that women in the arts currently face?

I don’t know if this is me downplaying myself or not, but my fight is literally to occupy my own space along with being free to be myself. I don’t know if that equates to me being strong or revolutionary. I just know that’s my fight and it’s probably relatable to a lot of women. The challenges for men are the same challenges we have as women in everyday society, except that they are more heightened for women.

At the end of the day, we’re literally just screaming, “Give me the space to fucking create. To be paid like guys are paid and to be me without these imposed misogynistic unrealistic standards brought up by men. Why can’t I have freedom to be me?” That’s literally the fight.

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Seals & Crofts have moved into our house! It’s true! And here’s how it happened. Yesterday we got a knock on our door. I had no intention of opening it because most likely it was our crazy neighbor from across the street who’s been accusing our garden gnome of shitting on his lawn. Then I caught a whiff of jasmine and said to myself, “No way is it the legendary soft rock duo whose gossamer thin sound has enriched the lives of so many.”

But it was! Seals & Crofts in the flesh! And they were wondering if they could move in with us for a couple of days because times were tough and they were tired of living in a lean-to by the railroad tracks running past the lake of toxic sludge near the abandoned nuclear reactor.

And of course I said YES! Who wouldn’t? And they couldn’t express how grateful they were because everyone else had slammed their doors in their faces, including our neighbor from across the street who accused them of shitting on his lawn.

“How could anyone think that?” asked a perplexed Jim Seals. “In the bushes by the railroad tracks, sure. But that’s out of sheer necessity.”

“Where’s your stuff,” I asked. All they had with them were their acoustic guitars.

“We had to hock everything,” said Dash Crofts, “including our gold record for ‘Summer Breeze.’ I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the railroad hobo economy is in the tank.”

“Would you like to take a shower?” asked my wife. “You’re caked with coal dust and radioactive slime. And I’m catching the distinct aroma of urine.”

“That would be me,” said Seals. “And that shower would be much appreciated.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Latino, the Latin repertoire arm of Craft Recordings, proudly announces the release of an all-analog remastered vinyl reissue of Sabor, the electrifying salsa album that established Angel Canales as “El Diferente”—one of the most idiosyncratic and charismatic singer/songwriters in the annals of tropical music. So memorable and unique was Canales’ artistic style, that he gained a rabid following among salsa aficionados throughout the Americas.

​Out August 27th and available for pre-order, the new edition of Sabor was remastered from its original analog master tapes by Phil Rodriguez at Elysian Masters and pressed on 180-gram audiophile quality vinyl. The iconic album will also be released in hi-res digital for the first time, including 192/24 and 96/24 formats.

Born 1950 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, Angel Luis Canales moved with his family to New York when he was only eight years old, and grew up listening to the albums that Ismael Rivera recorded with Rafael Cortijo’s orchestra—a paradigm of Afro-Caribbean singing with personality and flavor. After working as a jeweler and a stint in the army, Canales devoted himself to music. Lacking any formal training, he used the limitations of his voice to maximum effect, perfecting a style that is instantly recognizable: stressing vowels in unusual places, emphasizing lyrics in theatrical fashion and creating a particular groove and emotional connection to the music that draws from previous masters but remains inimitable to this day.

Canales’ recording debut couldn’t have been more auspicious. He was lead vocalist on Markolino Dimond’s 1971 Brujería—one of the most transcendental and atmospheric albums in salsa history. Produced by Joe Cain and released in 1975 by Alegre Records (Alegre was acquired by Fania Records in 1975), Sabor introduced Canales as songwriter, bandleader and star vocalist, featuring a provocative cover with a naked female torso and the bald-headed singer flaunting his love of jewelry.

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Laura Benack and Steven Mertens are a duo that go by the name Bass Race. They may have created a 21st century fusion of music on their new release Tender Vittles, but something about them feels comfortably old fashioned. You can feel their familial connections to music and the arts, the respect they have for old-school Los Angeles, and the way they nurture their own relationship in a respectful and fruitful way.

As you’ll hear, their musical influences are rich and tasteful and pull inspiration from some of the best r&b, soul and funk music of the last 50 years: they love their Earth, Wind and Fire and Donny Hathaway records. They lean on analog recording techniques and instruments, but fuse them together with modern-day beats and technology to create something fresh, but pleasantly familiar. There’s something about a duo that’s a little forgotten and underappreciated in today’s day-and-age: Sonny and Cher, Louis Prima and Keely Smith, Ashford and Simpson, or Marty and Eliane: they all work best when they work together; their teamwork makes the dream work.

Laura and Steven bring that same harmonious synergy to Tender Vittles making it more than just a geat record; perhaps the album serves as a love-letter or a representation of the relationship Laura and Steven have together, but it’s also a testament to all of the good things that a mighty duo can accomplish when they make a choice to set aside their own needs and focus on their partner.

Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector, and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Evan Toth Show and TVD Radar on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.

I’ve spent years trying to winnow my horror of progressive rock down to a simple formula. Little did I know the enemy (in the form of progrocker Dave Stewart of Egg and National Health non-fame) had already done it for me. In Stewart’s words progressive rock was “hard to learn, hard to play, and probably hard to listen to.” Take away that “probably” and I’d say he had it spot on.

Amongst the early progrock progenitors stand King Crimson and their overrated 1969 debut In the Court of the Crimson King. Aside from “21st Century Schizoid Man” the LP is both overblown and overwrought, but that hasn’t stopped seemingly intelligent listeners everywhere from venerating it like a splinter from the holy rood. Me, I’m with The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau, who upon its release labeled it “ersatz shit.” And the band’s follow-up, 1970’s In the Wake of Poseidon, is worse, if only because its pretentious levels remain in the red zone and it doesn’t have a “21st Century Schizoid Man” on it.

Despite the excellence of Robert Fripp’s guitar and Keith Tippett’s piano, the LP’s problems are your typical progressive rock problems–this ain’t rock’n’roll, this is genrecide. Pomposity is the order of the day, as is what I can only call the bucolic plague. England’s green and pleasant land is a breeding ground for such pastoral nonsense as “Peace–A Beginning,” ”Peace–A Theme,” and ”Peace–An End,” on the last of which Greg Lake sings like he’s being castrated in Winchester Cathedral. The same goes for the sylvan “Cadence and Cascade,” which should give even the staunchest ecologist pause to consider the positive aspects of urban blight. And to punch Mel Collins’ flute solo in the mouth.

The title track’s only plus is that King Crimson keep things relatively simple. Sure, Lake’s vocal interpretation of Peter Sinfield’s lyrics–which are godawful throughout–belongs at a Renaissance Faire, but you get no 19/8 rhythms, poly-tonality or other high crimes and misdemeanors of the progressive rock genre. The jazzy “Cat Food”is the only number on In the Wake of Poseidon that doesn’t make me puke pomp, thanks primarily to Tippett’s dissonant piano going-ons.

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