Monthly Archives: May 2022

NORFOLK, VA | Watching The Struts’ Luke Spiller, it’s easy to conclude that he is doing what he was born to do, that “Rock and Roll Frontman” is the job description that suits him best. There would be no mistaking him if you ran into him on the street; he is a rock star. Certain comparisons are applied so frequently to him that it borders on the cliché: the hip moves of Mick Jagger, and the audience command of Freddie Mercury. I might even throw in a dash of Rod Stewart. However, it never appears to be an affectation for Spiller. He really does seem like he’s being himself onstage—sweaty, ultra-charismatic, and delighted to have complete command of his audience.

I got to experience this for the very first time in Norfolk, Virginia last Tuesday night, when The Struts graced the stage of The NorVa, the fourth stop on the English band’s Across the Pond tour. The band (Spiller, guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott, and drummer Gethin Davies) took the stage in matching yet personally styled stage costumes and radiated infectious energy as they led the crowd through singalong after singalong.

The impressive setlist balanced older hits such as “Body Talks,” “Kiss This,” and “Put Your Money On Me, with several songs taken from The Struts’ latest effort, Strange Days. Throughout the set, I walked around observing the audience, which ran the spectrum in terms of age. Toddlers with giant headphones where there along with folks who probably saw Queen and the Stones in the ’70s. Many people unselfconsciously danced and sang.

Once the band returned to the stage for their encore, they closed out the night with “Strange Days” and “Could Have Been Me.” This is where I saw the band’s command over the audience in full force as Spiller got the entire house to crouch down on the NorVa’s sticky floor, only to spring up a minute later, with many people breaking into song themselves. It was great to be a part of the fun. I’m no longer a Struts virgin.

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Celebrating Augie Meyers, born on this day in 1940. —Ed.

Hey ears: Hungry for some delicious Tex-Mex? I recommend you head for lovely San Antonio, where in 1964 the late, great Doug Sahm put together the Sir Douglas Quintet, which proceeded to cook up a heady concoction made out of ingredients from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The band hit a creative peak with 1969’s Mendocino, which may have failed to make much of a dent on the pop charts but stands up just fine as a stellar collection of bravura performances by a band that was bravely creating its own Longhorn brand of what Gram Parsons famously dubbed “Cosmic American Music.”

What set the Sir Douglas Quintet apart from its contemporaries was its range of flavorings; thanks to the farfisa organ of Augie Meyers and the psychedelic-tinged guitar of Sahm, the Quintet could deliver the garage rock goods, but they could also turn on a peso and, by means of Sahm’s fiddle and country croon, sound like they were playing a barn dance. And on LP closer “Oh, Baby, It Just Don’t Matter” they ratchet up the decibels, crank up the guitar, and make like nothing less than a Lone Star State adjunct of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Mendocino’s two stand-out tracks are both farfisa-fueled; thanks to Meyers the title track is one of the most cheerful salutes to a small city you ever will hear, while “She’s About a Mover” is a stone-cold rave-up, from its crunchy guitar to Meyers’ Vox Continental organ, which Sahm introduces by saying, “Lay it on me Augie.” A jerky-jerky salute to gutbucket rock ’n’ roll served up border style, “She’s About a Mover” is as timeless as they come and the most noteworthy thing to come out of the city on the San Antonio River since the Alamo.

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If you consume any kind of media, then you’ve experienced the very talented Michael Des Barres. His presence is ubiquitous: he’s had a long history performing as a vocalist in rock bands, been on television hundreds of times, worked as an actor in many films, and now hosts his own music program on Little Steven’s Sirius XM channel, Little Steven’s Underground Garage.

So, it’s almost difficult to focus on just one of his projects without thinking about all of the other work he’s accomplished. On one hand, this episode features me speaking with the vocalist responsible for one of my favorite rock and roll songs, “Hello, New York” by Silverhead. But, simultaneously, I’m also speaking to Murdoch from television’s MacGyver. Few guests have such a dynamic background.

But Mr. Des Barres does his best to keep us focused on his career where it matters, he’s been there and done this before, so he can easily jump around topics all with the charm of a true rock and roll gentleman. Mostly, we’re here to talk about the band that Michael fronted during the 1970s called Detective who were signed to Led Zeppelin’s record label, Swan Song.

Their 1977 debut was recently reissued by the ORG Music record label and was completely sold out on Record Store Day. There’s a lot to discuss with Mr. Des Barres and he doesn’t shy away from any of it, including the role that drugs and alcohol played for part of his journey. But, he’s always focused on the positive side of things. He’s open about the bad and ugly experiences he’s had in his life, but, after all is said and done, he’s happiest when he’s talking about the good.

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.

With drummer Brad Elvis and vocalist-rhythm guitarist Chloe F. Orwell as co-leaders, Chicago’s The Handcuffs dish an auditorium-ready sound that draws upon glam rock with a proto-punk tinge, no-nonsense bluesy hard rock, and even a few fleeting snatches of art rock. The lineup is filled out by bassist Emily Togni, lead guitarist Jeff Kmieciak, and keyboardist Alison Hinderliter, with the band’s new album Burn the Rails a vibrant pounder that thrives on solid songwriting, and on two tracks, the guest synth and piano of Mott the Hoople’s Morgan Fisher. It’s out on CD and digital June 3 through Pravda Records, with vinyl to come later in the year.

The scoop is that Brad Elvis (given surname Steakley) and Chloe F. Orwell originally intended The Handcuffs to be a studio project; prior to initiating this endeavor, the pair were in the late ’90s-early ’00s indie outfit Big Hello. Burn the Rails is their fourth full-length, and it appears their vinyl debut; also, it’s their first for the long-serving Chicago-based Pravda label.

Along the way, the itch to play live has needed scratching, which isn’t a surprise given the vividness and heft of The Handcuffs’ sound. Burn the Rails is an unreservedly hi-fi undertaking, with the largeness of its rock gesturing delivered without a trace of irony (notably, Elvis has been the drummer in The Romantics for over a decade), and refreshingly so, as a unifying factor in the band’s approach is a sense of smarts that puts the kibosh on any retrograde tendencies.

Smart but not intellectual, as the title “Big Fat Mouth Shut” helps to situate. After the short instrumental intro “Grapefruit,” Burn the Rails opens proper with “Love Me While You Can,” teasing a strummer but then quickly kicking into overdrive, the guitar burn nicely counterbalanced with piano as Orwell’s sings with a swagger that’s descended from the moves that Bowie swiped from Lou.

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We’ve closed TVD’s HQ for the Memorial Day holiday. While we’re away, why not fire up our Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores?

Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here tomorrow, May 31.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Varèse Sarabande Records is excited to announce the LP release of The Iron Giant (Deluxe Edition) Original Motion Picture Score with music by Michael Kamen. Varèse Sarabande has previously released Kamen’s The Iron Giant score as a 49-minute program single LP. The 2-LP Deluxe Edition is now available for pre-order at all retailers, with a green vinyl version exclusive to VareseSarabande.com and Intl.VareseSarabande.com. The album will release August 5.

The 2-LP package taps directly into the ethos of the film, with a pull tab opening the Giant’s die-cut eyes on the front jacket. Depending on which inner sleeve has been slotted in the first position directly behind the cover, the reveal is different. Open the eyes in normal or defense mode!

Creating The Iron Giant’s beautiful, sympathetic score was Michael Kamen—one of his last major scores and his first animated film, miles away from the action blockbusters for which he had become known, but much closer to his heart. Kamen’s gorgeous score is full of melody, humor and sensitivity, grandly performed by the Czech Philharmonic. It scales as big as the threat of nuclear annihilation, and as intimate as the goodness that connects nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes to the alien machine—who decides he would rather be “Superman” than a weapon.

This Deluxe Edition adds an additional 13 minutes of alternates, outtakes and rare demos—including a piano-and-guitar attempt at an unrealized song, “Souls Don’t Die,” based on Kamen’s theme, performed by Kamen and Eric Clapton. Tim Greiving’s new liner notes feature new interview material with director Brad Bird, music editor Christopher Brooks and orchestrator Blake Neely, going deep into Kamen’s working process and their adoration for the gifted, late composer.

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Celebrating Siouxsie Sioux on her 65th birthday. —Ed.

My favorite Siouxsie and the Banshees fact; the early band, primitivists to the core, ditched axe player Peter Fenton because he was a “real rock guitarist.” Can’t have one of those gussying up one’s primal punk rawk sound, not if one wants to create something truly unique and new. Which is what Siouxsie and the Banshees created with their celebrated 1978 debut, The Scream. So revolutionary was their music that critic Clinton Heylin held that the post-Fenton iteration of Siouxsie and the Banshees, along with the formation of PiL and Magazine, marked the “true starting point for English post-punk.”

On The Scream, Siouxsie Sioux (aka Susan Janet Ballion), guitarist and saxophonist John McKay, bassist Steven Severin, and drummer Kenny Morris created a sound that perfectly melded discord and harmony—a twitchy, spiky, and seemingly chaotic ruckus that was actually filled with beguiling melodies.

Siouxsie’s vocals were by no means “pretty”—on The Scream she’s more attack dog than traditional female vocalist, and that’s a large part of the LP’s charm. But the real beauty of her vocals is the way they perfectly mesh with the band’s jagged yet catchy melodies; she’s in total synch with McKay’s remarkable guitar lines, and the pounding and throbbing of Morris and Severin on drums and bass, respectively.

McKay in particular is brilliant; I listen to his surprisingly ornate guitar work on, say, “Jigsaw Feeling,” and I marvel. The same goes for his magnificent guitar riff on “Carcass,” which is undoubtedly the catchiest song on The Scream. Between his guitar and Siouxsie’s alternately choppy and flowing vocals, this baby is a keeper, especially when you throw in the glam handclaps.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Liza Minnelli’s Live in New York 1979 (newly titled to avoid confusion with Liza’s 1987 Carnegie Hall album) will be available in two unique formats. On vinyl, its 2 LPs will be housed inside a gatefold jacket featuring the absolutely stunning original cover art by Andy Warhol. The insert has new introductions by both Ms. Minnelli and Great American Songbook champion Michael Feinstein, both of whom served as executive producers for this release, plus photos of the artist and liner notes from reissue producers Joe Marchese and Charles L. Granata.

The audio has been fully remastered from the original tapes by Mike Milchner at SonicVision for a front-row musical experience. But we have prepared something extra-special for the CD release. Liza also kept pristine multitrack tapes of all three nights recorded at Carnegie Hall. The tapes revealed a treasure trove of performances not included on the original double album including James Taylor’s “Everybody Has the Blues,” Kander and Ebb’s “Arthur in the Afternoon,” and “Mr. Cellophane” (the latter sung by future Dreamgirls star Obba Babatunde), a Minnelli/ Babatunde duet of Cole Porter’s “You Do Something to Me,” the funky disco jam “Dance Across the Floor,” and even a beautiful nod from Liza to her mother, Judy Garland, with a verse of “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.”

These tapes have been painstakingly restored and beautifully mixed by acclaimed engineer Ted Carfrae (Doris Day, Cilla Black) for this first-ever complete presentation of Liza’s Carnegie Hall show from curtain up to curtain down.

Live in New York 1979: The Ultimate Edition is available on 3 CDs, all of which overflow with showbiz sizzle: one disc with Mike Milchner’s remastered version of the original vinyl release, which premieres on CD, and two discs with the never-before-released complete show. This deluxe edition also features an expanded booklet with additional photos, liner notes, and exclusive tributes from Liza’s friends and collaborators inside a gorgeous, 8-panel digipak boasting the Warhol portrait. Those little town blues will surely melt away as you relive this once-in-a-lifetime evening with an extraordinary artist at the thrilling height of her powers. Never before available at music retail.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The Flaming Lips’ 1999 LP The Soft Bulletin is brilliant. A masterpiece released just as the sun was going down on the Twentieth Century. But for my money—which unfortunately happens to be in worthless depression era German Reichsmarks—the Oklahoma band released its finest work between 1986 and 1995, before they went and got themselves domesticated.

The Soft Bulletin is a warm and fuzzy album for warm and fuzzy people looking for an uplifting musical experience. Earlier Flaming Lips albums featured songs like “Talkin’ ‘Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever),” Unconsciously Screamin,'” Jesus Shootin’ Heroin,” and “Evil Will Prevail.”

If The Soft Bulletin is a hug-your-neighbor ecstasy trip, LPs like 1989’s Telepathic Surgery and 1992’s Hit to Death in the Future Head are LSD trips—you might find instant enlightenment or, conversely, locked in a Porta-John at your local music festival, because demons are pursuing you and you need somewhere to hide.

I attended a few Soft Bulletin-era shows, and they were joyous affairs—Grateful Dead concerts minus the home tapers. The concertgoers around me had the glassy-eyed look of true converts. The only song that’s ever left me glassy-eyed is Sammy Johns’ “Chevy Van,” which ought to qualify as a world religion. Your Flaming Lips idolater is a fanatic, and fanatics can be very dangerous people.

Which is why I prefer albums like 1989’s Telepathic Surgery. It doesn’t hurt that the LP’s title sounds like the name of a Blue Öyster Cult song. But what really wins me over are song titles like “Hare-Krishna Stomp Wagon,” “Hell’s Angel’ Cracker Factory,” and “Redneck School of Technology.” And the songs are as strange as the titles. A fair number of Flaming Lips fans would hide in a Porta-John to escape them.

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