Author Archives: Joseph Neff

Remembering Big Bill Broonzy, born on this date in 1893. —Ed.

Born on June 26, 1903, William Lee Conley Broonzy, aka Big Bill Broonzy, was a giant of the blues. Cutting his first sides for Paramount in 1927, an extensive stretch of recordings followed across the next two decades. After a break in the late 1940s, he experienced a career resurrection that lasted until his untimely death in 1958, a sustained second wind that carried him to Europe, where he cut records for the Vogue label in France and was captured in performances of astonishingly high fidelity in the Netherlands. Grooving into vinyl a substantial portion of Broonzy’s shows in the titular city, Liberation Hall’s Live in Amsterdam 1953 arrived for Record Store Day Black Friday in 2022.

To appropriately comprehend the level of Big Bill Broonzy’s popularity, please consider his prolific output across the decade of the Great Depression. The brutal 1930s economic downturn decimated the young record industry, which had been thriving before the crash, and snuffed out recording opportunities for dozens of bluesmen, with a handful of those musicians later “rediscovered” in connection with the folk music boom of the 1950s-’60s. Broonzy was an early catalyst-beneficiary of that boom, and would’ve surely experienced further success had he not died in ’58.

Broonzy’s late ’40s sabbatical from touring (reportedly through doctor’s orders) found him working as a janitor at Iowa State University. It didn’t take him long to return to activity, and when he did there was a comfortable shift into folk blues mode as he kept company with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Pete Seeger.

That Big Bill choose to hang around with ol’ Pete and Studs Terkel as he pivoted into a somewhat easygoing style no doubt ruffled the feathers of many a subsequent blues purist, particularly as the two Yazoo volumes of his early stuff, The Young Big Bill Broonzy 1928-1936 and Do That Guitar Rag: 1928-1935 are loaded with hokum smokers, wicked rags, and uncut bluesy oomph. Columbia’s Roots N’ Blues comp Good Time Tonight is also an excellent survey of his more urban 1930s motions that benefit from the cleaned up sound that was the Roots N’ Blues series specialty.

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Anybody seeking a full understanding of the 1980s underground music scene must reckon with the prolific if largely undercelebrated project F/i. Founded by Richard Franecki out of a creatively stalled early ’80s Milwaukee, WI hardcore scene, F/i honed a sound betwixt doom-laden early Industrial, surly experimental noise, abstract electronics, and even a smidge of kosmische atmosphere.

As one of the many outfits that helped define ’80s cassette culture, F/i favored self-releasing on said format before making arrangements with a few discerning labels. Invisible Men is Birdman Records’ reissue of a 1985 tape, plus a bonus track, on double vinyl in an edition of 500 with liner notes by Kark J. Palouček. It hits stores on June 26.

Milwaukee has a worthy punk history, but F/i sprang from the later period of the original hardcore wave, morphing out of the stylistic stagnation alongside the highest-profile hardcore band from the city, Die Kreuzen. Starting as straight-up hardcore (but good… real good, in fact), Die Kreuzen became one of the few post-hardcore bands to incorporate both post-punk and non-doofus heavy metal into their sound. This made Die Kreuzen a solid fit for the Touch and Go Records experience.

Prior to F/i, Franecki had played in The Drag (no known recordings) and The Shemps (a couple of tracks on Mystic Records compilations) and was part of The Surfin’ Führers together with Greg Kurczewski (an ex-bandmate from The Drag) and Brian Wensing. The Surfin’ Führers released a six-song demo, “Peewaukee Surf,” in 1983 that was eventually reissued in 2013 as a 10-inch metal acetate in an edition of 20 copies.

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The Handover is the trio of Aly Eissa on oud, Ayman Asfour on violin, and Jonas Cambien on vintage organ and synth. Eissa and Asfour are from Egypt, while Cambien is Belgian, currently based in Norway. They deliver longform excursions into Egyptian trance music, infused with a beautiful, slow-building psychedelic thrust. Naturally rhythmic without the use of percussion instruments, The Handover’s music is a wonderfully enveloping experience.

Their latest release after an eponymous debut in 2024 is New Old Medicine, freshly out via Sublime Frequencies. It offers one piece that’s only break is to allow its brilliance to fit onto opposing sides of vinyl.

New Old Medicine’s long track gives the record its title. Recorded in Berlin at Morphine Studios by Rabih Beain, the music’s shared progression (between the players and the audience), the twists and turns, and ebbs and flows of the journey, the sheer movement that shapes the piece, is captivating as the trio never sets a foot wrong.

The folkloric Egyptian root is discernible straightaway. It’s a natural foundation, nothing forced or fake or exotic. Likewise, the gradually mounting psychedelic qualities are utterly lacking in elements of the retrograde. The Handover collectively develops an atmosphere of psychedelia without premeditation. There are no calculated attempts at the trippy or outlandish. Never do they sound out of control or even on the brink of the same.

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Remembering Alan Vega, born on this day in 1938. —Ed.

Although he’s departed this mortal coil, the spirit of Alan Vega remains vital to contemporary music, mainly through his work as the vocal half of the groundbreaking unit he formed in the early ’70s with keyboardist Martin Rev. Today, Suicide is justly celebrated as one of punk’s most beautifully twisted and truly sui generis outfits, but the appreciation hasn’t really spilled over to the solo careers of either member. Out of print for decades, the contents of Vega’s self-titled 1980 debut highlight a ’50s rockabilly-ish approach that’s loose, non-studious, and yet thoroughly sincere.

Solo albums generally work best when they provide some sort of departure from the artist’s main gig, and Alan Vega surely fits that bill. Suicide’s second album (titled Suicide: Alan Vega and Martin Rev), illuminates the duo’s connection to synth-pop and electronica; Alan Vega was released shortly afterward, and is succinctly described as an off kilter early rock ‘n’ roll experience, landing halfway between revamp and throwback.

How so exactly? Well, the record’s opener gets right down to business, with “Jukebox Babe” clearly indebted to the hip-swiveling swagger and vocal affirmations (i.e. a whole lot of “uh-huh”s) of Elvis in his spring chicken days. Overall, the results sport an unserious vibe, and it’s easy to imagine it pissing off more than a few purists, but simultaneously, the formally recognizable nature of the tune scored Vega an unlikely hit in France. Or maybe not so unlikely, as the region has been a reliably enthusiastic locus of rockabilly and roots fandom for a long fucking time.

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The sheer amount of high-quality old-time music that’s been preserved and released by numerous archival record labels is voluminous to the point of being forbidding to the curious neophyte. It’s okay just to plunge right in, but those seeking a thoughtfully curated point of entry need look no further than Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square Present…1925 Songs. As the cover of this beaucoup 2CD collection details, the contents offer, per the cover, Blues, Country, Jazz & More. The ride is fascinating and delightful from start to finish.

As the promo text for this release succinctly states, 1925 was the dawn of electrical recording. The record companies in their bloom were grooving into shellac any act, solo, duo, or group, they could plant in front of a microphone. There was no shortage of brilliance in a range of artistry that had yet to be rigidly defined, and musicologist Dick Spottswood, whose radio shows on WAMU over the years never sat stylistically still for very long, is the perfect guide to an eventful year of recording.

Dora Carr’s “Cow Cow Blues” opens the set, Carr belting it out while the track’s credited composer Charles “Cow Cow” Davenport brings the rollicking boogie-woogie piano, getting the collection off to a lively start. Rosa Lee Carson’s “The Drinker’s Child” follows, an early country lament with Rosa Lee singing and playing guitar, accompanied by her father, Fiddlin’ John Carson, on the instrument that brought him considerable success. The despair is palpable.

The Wheat Street Female Quartet’s “Go Down, Moses” swings the proceedings into gospel territory, the emotionally resonant root of a collective vocal style carried forward by groups like the Golden Gate Quartet, the Swan Silvertones, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Next is fiddler William B. Houchens and guitarist J. M. Houchins with the fleet dance mover “Fisher’s Hornpipe and Opera Reel,” and then comes the Old Southern Jug Band (reportedly the pseudonymous Dixieland Jug Band) with the spirited and lithe “Hatchet Head Blues.”

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Drummer Charles Downs has been on the scene for a long time. Stretching back to the 1970s, he was known as Rashid Bakr and contributed to numerous albums, including a few stone killers with the great pianist Cecil Taylor. After the turn of the century, he reverted to his birth name and continued recording; Inner by the Charles Downs Quartet is the first release to feature him as a sole leader. It is a superb set of five medium-length improvisations with Hery Paz on saxophone, Jamie Saft on piano, and Joe Morris on bass. It’s out now on compact disc and digital through ESP-Disk.

Charles Downs’ credits as Rashid Bakr are extensive and illuminate various points of development in the jazz avant-garde after its 1960s heyday, with his productivity continuing and contributing to the resurgence of free jazz in the ’90s. His initial recordings were with a younger generation of improvisers who were either deep in the thick of the New York City loft scene or adjacent to it.

During this early stretch, Downs played with double bassist William Parker (collected on Centering. Unreleased Early Recordings 1976–1987), saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc (collected on Muntu Recordings), and violinist Billy Bang’s Survival Ensemble (the albums New York Collage and Black Man’s Blues).

A hookup with Cecil Taylor in the 1980s captured Downs in a quartet for the live album The Eighth and the larger all-star ensemble for the studio set Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants). Both releases are high-energy monsters in Taylor’s distinct mode of explosiveness, and both are essential to understanding Downs’ progression.

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Celebrating Jello Biafra, born on this date in 1958. —Ed.

In 2022, Manifesto Records reissued Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, the debut album from iconic Bay Area punk outfit Dead Kennedys on vinyl and CD in a freshly remixed version courtesy of Grammy-winning producer Chris Lord-Alge. Setting aside the question of whether the record actually needed a remix (it didn’t), nothing abhorrent transpires as these 14 tracks (there are no extras) blaze forth; those who love and own the original mix should test drive before buying, but for those looking to get acquainted with this band through their first and best LP, this edition will serve that purpose just fine.

It’s no secret that Dead Kennedys’ vocalist Jello Biafra and his bandmates, guitarist East Bay Ray, bassist Klaus Fluoride, and drummer D.H. Peligro, have been at odds, and for a couple decades now, all due to the most banal of reasons. That is, money. Of course, I don’t have a dog in that fight, though this doesn’t mean I haven’t formulated opinions on the subject. It’s just that my viewpoint on this particular falling out isn’t pertinent to the matter at hand, which is, you know, the music.

So, when I say that this 2022 Mix of Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables exists for the most banal of reasons—that is, money, it’s not a dig at the band, but simply an observation, as money is the reason for the vast majority of remixed and remastered records (and quite a few straight reissues). And in turn, I can’t help but feel somewhat blasé about the existence of this new mix.

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Psych-rock heaviness has long been one of Japan’s prime exports. Much of this outpouring came via the P.S.F. label starting in the mid-1980s, but there were other pockets of expansionist scorch, including Up-Tight, a Hamamatsu-based band formed in the early ’90s. More recently, Up-Tight’s vocalist-guitarist Tomoyuki Aoki has persevered with his own trio, now three albums deep. Their latest full-length offers five doses of raw brain-melt burning bright near the very apex of the psychedelic style. High Oxygen Blood by the Tomoyuki Trio is out now on vinyl through Feeding Tube Records.

Psychedelia is amongst rock music’s finest pleasures, but there have surely been recurring stumbles and flat-out faceplants of qualitative consistency within the style over the decades, particularly regarding matters of strained ambitiousness, along with attempts at outward exploration that meander. There are also numerous examples of bands that value reverence for earlier eras (mistakes and all) through replication rather than embracing true progression.

That’s part of why the heavy Japanese stuff referenced above has accrued such a sterling reputation. The bands aren’t universally perfect, but there is a remarkably high standard leading into the 21st century, spurred in no small part by Up-Tight, which featured Tomoyuki Aoki in the scheme from 1992 to 2024. The Tomoyuki Trio falters not a bit in carrying the heavy psych torch; the records are right up there with the best of P.S.F., which includes White Heaven, High Rise, and more.

“Echoes of the Last Word” opens High Oxygen Blood with stinging, stabbing guitar, gnawing bass distortion, and echoey, submerged vocals. As has been observed, the Tomoyuki Trio can conjure up thoughts of the Stooges, particularly in how the sound gets gloriously bent as the heaviness is in no hurry.

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Formed in 2010 by Chicago-based pianist and songwriter Johnny Iguana, The Claudettes have been steadily evolving across a string of albums since. Their sixth full-length Garage Glamour is the first with lead vocalist Rachel Williams, who joined the outfit in 2023. With this new edition, the band has further sharpened their blend of blues and soul with punkish intensity and contemporary flair. The album’s out now on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Pravda Records.

The Claudettes have a direct line to the blues, as Johnny Iguana has played with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, and Johnny Winter, along with recording a solo album, Chicago Spectacular!, for noted Windy City blues and jazz label Delmark Records in 2020. Johnny Iguana is also a name many might recognize through his work as co-composer of the score to the TV series The Bear, with fellow Chicagoan Jeffrey “JQ” Qaiyum.

Bassist Zach Verdoorn and drummer Michael Caskey complete the current lineup of The Claudettes along with the belter’s pipes and punk stylishness of Williams, whose visage, captured in the midst of a throaty wail, adorns Garage Glamour’s front cover. The photo is mildly reminiscent of Gary Panter’s artwork for the late ’70s Los Angeles punk band Screamers.

The Claudettes aren’t as anarchic as that comparison might suggest. There is a songwriting acumen and a deft musicality that make a strong case for the band’s potential for widespread appeal. In earlier, less restrictive eras, the precise dual-vocal emotionalism of opener “(You Are My) Whole World” would’ve been a prime candidate for frequent radio play on stations catering to adults.

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Remembering Jackie Wilson, born on this day in 1934. —Ed.

Singer Jackie Wilson landed a slew of hit singles in the 1950s and early ’60s with a sophisticated strain of R&B that crossed over to the pop charts. In 1967, he managed a sizable comeback with the song for which he is now likely best remembered, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” The coinciding LP Higher and Higher, finds Wilson in strong form throughout with typically dynamic backing from members of the Funk Brothers.

To insinuate that Jackie Wilson is today a neglected figure would be ludicrous given how “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” has endured as a musical staple. It feels safe to say I’ve heard this tidy platter of pop-soul uplift at least 50 times while shopping for groceries alone, a number that can be doubled (probably tripled) when taking oldies station rotation into account.

To be clear, Wilson has other killer songs in his body of work, and to expand on his importance, he’s a crucial figure in bringing an admittedly smooth and erudite strain of R&B to wider acceptance. In turn, he helped lay the groundwork for soul music of a refined variety. But here’s another flat fact: Wilson hasn’t been well served in the vinyl reissue market, perhaps in part because none of the full-length albums he cut have grown into consensus classics.

Wilson recorded over two dozen albums between 1958 and 1976, but only a small number made a dent in either the R&B or the pop charts. But just as germane to the issue is how that many LPs is a surefire recipe for an uneven discography, especially considering Wilson’s penchant for Broadway show tunes and straight schmaltz (a tendency spanning back to the ’50s that necessitated his comeback).

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Celebrating Nancy Sinatra on her 86th birthday. —Ed.

The pairing of singer Nancy Sinatra and singer-songwriter-producer Lee Hazlewood made for one of the 1960’s most delightfully unusual pairings, though the collaboration was a relatively short one, consisting of a slew of singles and a sole LP…until they reunited for a follow-up in 1972. Nancy & Lee Again is that album.

It might seem like the delayed nature of Nancy & Lee Again’s reissue is to some extent down to neglect on the part of the rights-holders, but please understand that the duo’s 1968 debut Nancy & Lee wasn’t given a standalone new edition until last year, also by Light in the Attic, the label that has, along with the Nancy Sinatra Archival Series, returned a fair portion of Hazlewood’s solo catalog to print since early last decade.

The main reason for Nancy & Lee’s belated appearance is due to the easy availability of the contents on compact disc, the entire record included on Rhino’s 1989 compilation Fairy Tales & Fantasies: The Best of Nancy & Lee. Plus, secondhand copies of the LP were easily findable (in varying degrees of condition, of course) in thrift shops, if not necessarily music stores. Unlike Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass’ Whipped Cream & Other Delights, Nancy & Lee wasn’t ubiquitous, but like Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 and The Association’s Greatest Hits!, it was quite a common find.

As these comparisons should help make clear, the descriptor of unusual isn’t interchangeable with strange. Now, anybody familiar with “Some Velvet Morning” and to a lesser extent, “Sand,” knows that pop psychedelic strangeness was part of Sinatra and Hazlewood’s stylistic bag. But weird took a back seat to playful C&W duets and proto-Vegas Middle-Of-The-Road-isms, with the palatability of both modes, and especially the latter, intensified by the combination of Sinatra’s youthful verve and Hazlewood’s buzzsaw tones and general eccentricity, a quality that was only laid on thick when it benefitted the song.

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Remembering Jimmy McCulloch, born on this day in 1953. —Ed.

There are One Hit Wonders and One Album Wonders, and occasionally the paths of those two dubious honors intersect. One such instance is UK group Thunderclap Newman, mostly celebrated for their single “Something in the Air” but also noted for their only LP, 1969’s Hollywood Dream. The record contains that superb single, but it also features a surplus of additional charm, and while its profile has increased substantially, it’s sadly plagued by its reputation as the sole document from one of rock’s notable underachievers.

And to be blunt, Thunderclap Newman is a questionable entry into the club of the One Album Wonder anyway. They have the solitary LP down pat, but a passionate bout of quibbling just might break out over the Wonder part of the equation. For Hollywood Dream, released after “Something in the Air” spent three weeks as a UK number one hit, was something of a stiff in terms of sales. It climbed no higher than #161 in the US album chart, and the single was a bit of an American sleeper, making it to only #37. And in an odd twist, apparently the LP was even more coolly received in their home country.

When the band’s back-story is added into the mix, Hollywood Dream’s landing with a splat of relative indifference becomes something of a persistent head-scratcher. Vocalist/drummer John “Speedy” Keen had previously penned “Armenia City in the Sky” for The Who’s 1967 album The Who Sell Out. Pianist and band namesake Andy Newman looked like a dry run for the likes of Bun E. Carlos and banged on the keys like an auxiliary member of the Bonzo Dog Band. A suitable nickname for their young guitarist would be “The Kid,” or maybe even better “The Face,” for it’d be well nigh impossible to find a more splendiferously Mod figure than the one cut by Jimmy McCulloch on the record’s cover.

Throw in that Pete Townsend played bass on the LP and its lack of performance is indeed a stumper. It’s in essence an album tailor made for Beatles fans, registering at times like a slightly more twee incarnation of Badfinger, though they never cross the line into the precious. Maybe the problem was that at the point of the record’s release The Beatles hadn’t really broken up yet (though the end was certainly near). However, Badfinger’s sales figures in ’70 and ’71 surely benefited from the realization of many that their favorite band was no longer extant.

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Although they had long since reformed to cut a pair of albums, Urge Overkill delivered their swan song to the Alternative Rock ‘90s in the middle of that decade with Exit the Dragon, the second of two records originally released by the Geffen conglomerate. Now, with its recent double vinyl edition, it joins Saturation in Porterhouse Records’ reissue program. Listening to the set with fresh ears finds it holding up better than expected. Indeed, it now registers as the high point of the band’s major label sojourn. For its 30th anniversary, it arrives in a pressing of 1,000 copies, with options for pink or purple vinyl.

Saturation basked in the glow of Geffen’s abundant Alternative era success through the DGC imprint (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck, Hole, Weezer, Counting Crows, Elastica, The Posies, Teenage Fanclub, The Sundays, that dog, Boss Hog, Veruca Salt) and was the Urge Overkill record that was fresh in the store racks during the extended Pulp Fiction hubbub; the band’s solid cover of Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” accompanies a crucial scene in Quentin Tarantino’s second feature.

Naturally, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” landed on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, but listeners new to the band who were looking for more would’ve likely gotten their mitts on Saturation or the album’s single “Sister Havana,” which was a moderate airplay hit. Saturation was also a charting album, but it’s something of a surprise that Exit the Dragon was their biggest-selling record.

The surprise is mainly due to a certain amount of Alt-rock fatigue setting in by the point of Exit the Dragon’s release. Related to this was the uninhibited gusto in Urge Overkill’s striving for Big Time commercial success and how the boldness of their collective image compounded this, as the band disdained the simple t-shirt, jeans, and Chuck Taylors favored by a large percentage of the indie rock brigade for flashy outfits befitting a trio striving for rock star dominance.

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Utterly inspiring in their dogged perseverance while aging like a fine vino, the Mekons returned last year with yet another solid album, Horror, its dozen songs easily up to the band’s usual high standard as they steadfastly refused to stagnate. Backslide? Absolutely fucking not. As evidence, here comes Horrorble (Mekons vs Tony Maimone in Dub Conference).

As one might ascertain, a decidedly psychedelic strain of Jamaican roots is part of the method in collaboration with the veteran New York City-based drummer-producer and friend of the Mekons, Tony Maimone, formerly of Pere Ubu and numerous other concerns. This new set further invigorates a still-fresh batch of tunes while presenting alternate sonic avenues and avoiding any trite stylistic maneuvers. The album is available June 5 on vinyl, compact disc, and digital with a bonus track.

The most overtly Jamaican-tinged moment in the Mekons’ recent scheme comes at the beginning of Horror, with the beautifully sour Brit post-punk reggae-rock buoyance of “The Western Design” and its deliciously bent dubbing-out, which lands as track five on Horrorble. And it becomes clear that Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Tom Greenhalgh, Dave Trumfio, Susie Honeyman, Rico Bell, Steve Goulding, and Lu Edmonds, the current and long-established lineup of the Mekons, are disinterested in any predictable linear moves.

That’s not to say that Horrorble isn’t a fully dubbed-up affair. It’s just that the warpage is more in line with NYC or London than Kingston. The pretty carnival-esque indie pop of “Sad and Sad and Sad” and its corresponding version, brighter and bigger and revealing a timidly strange Brit-folk root, are sequenced second on both albums.

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Remembering Miles Davis who would have turned 100 yesterday.
—Ed.

In the autumn of 1955 trumpeter Miles Davis hit the studio for the first time in the company of tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet was the first album to see release by this combo, a wholly worthwhile undertaking that set the stage for bolder achievements to come. 

It’s occasionally difficult to shake the notion of music history being shaped by particular inevitabilities. That is, certain great musicians, and specifically those who innovated across extensive discographies, were just creatively unstoppable. Their brilliance simply had to happen. And in the realms of jazz, perhaps no single musician can foster this atmosphere of the inescapable more than Miles Davis.

The man was responsible for an enormous number of masterpieces; listing only a third of them here would only serve to pad out the length of this review. But think of it this way; Davis was part of the original bebop wave, played a crucial role in the subsequent advancements of hard bop, and was an (arguably the) innovator in the cool, modal and fusion genres.

And if Davis eschewed free jazz, his “second great quintet” could occasionally creep up near the borderlines of that movement. That group’s string of mid-’60s studio albums remain sterling examples of a transitional and exploratory style that many describe as post-bop. And for that matter, Davis’ electric period is fairly assessed as experimental.

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