Celebrating Joe “King” Carrasco on his 71st birthday. —Ed.

Casual research into the name Joe “King” Carrasco reveals the synopsis of a manic Tex-Mex bandleader better suited for the club stage than to the purposes of recording LPs. Mention his name to someone who’s seen him in action and you’ll likely hear an enthused recollection of a wild and happy night. Listen to Mil Gracias a Todos Nuestros Amigos, the 1980 Stiff Records debut of Carrasco and the Crowns, and the ear will be greeted by 12 songs from a group that from under the wide umbrella of the New Wave was briefly able to transfer their wild performance-based abandon into the grooves of long-playing vinyl.

There’s been a lot of debate over the years regarding the value of the late-‘70s musical surge known as New Wave. Setting aside the zealous haters that simply could not abide the movement’s departures from the Zeppelin/Eagles Arena Rock model, many detractors continue to associate the term with a weakening of the punk aesthetic set in motion by acts looking for wider success as encouraged by the interests of parties that were largely if not completely mercantile in character.

Naturally, some kernels of truth reside in this assessment, as the linguistic sleight of hand of Seymour Stein’s “Don’t Call it Punk” campaign easily attests. But naturally, it’s a far more complex situation than that. For example, new wave’s proponents often describe it as music made in direct response to ‘70s arena rock having reached a juncture of stylistic exhaustion, and for emphasis they point directly to the recycling of the buzzword applied to the cinematic uprising known as the Nouvelle Vague, which in the US, Great Britain and elsewhere was translated under the heading of the French New Wave.

That much needed and still influential development in film was surely a break with its home country’s Tradition of Quality, but it was also delivered by a small handful of auteurs, the most famous being Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and Claude Chabrol. Displeased with “a certain tendency in the French cinema” they surely all were, and they did certainly set themselves to the task of creating something fresh.

Read More »

Light and dark have been engaged in an eternal dance since the earliest of times. You’ve all seen the yin and yang which, if nothing else, illustrate that complicated symbiosis between good and evil: you can’t have the hero if you don’t have the villain. It’s just one of those conundrums of humanity. Writers, poets, filmmakers, artists of all ilk have explored this deeply, and will continue to do so as it’s a concept that’s hardwired into the human experience.

You can look at the balance of values through many different lenses. Anastasia Minster has decided to explore light and dark through the experience of love. Her latest album, Song of Songs peels back the layers of common experiences when it comes to that most confounding of human feelings: there’s no greater experience than being in love with someone who loves you back, but there’s possibly no worse feeling than unrequited love, or losing your kindred spirit.

Anastasia joins us on this episode to explain how she perceives love, but she also shares the details of this new album, recorded in Canada with the support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Song of Songs is a fusion of classical and jazz elements that satisfyingly dovetail with Anastasia’s artistic, scholastic, and psychological intellect. You might want to sit in the front of the class so you can keep up. Here, there’s an empty chair right next to me.

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.

“The greatest rock and roll band you have ever heard.” That was what jazz legend Miles Davis, impressed by the likes of Hendrix and Sly Stone not only for their innovation but for the ability to draw the kiddies to their shows, set out to put together at the dying end of the sixties.

And if any rebopper could do it, Miles “Prince of Darkeness” Davis could. Over the course of his decades-long career he’d set standards in bebop, more or less pioneered cool jazz, moved on to hard bop, and kept on moving, like a boxer inventing a new technique every round. He couldn’t sit still, had ants in his trumpet, and had one last great move up his sleeve—he was going to go rock, just like Dylan, and just like Dylan he was going to do it with arrogance and attitude. Never look back.

He’d already gone jazz fusion, but by the time he got around to recording 1971’s Jack Johnson, a sound track for a documentary about the great black boxer who refused to bow to the racism of white America, he was dead-set on incorporating hard rock and funk into his fusion. It was a move that would alienate plenty in the jazz community in the process.

Jack Johnson wasn’t the most controversial album of Davis’ career—those would come later. But some jazz traditionalists howled. Leonard Feather (a long-time music critic of very pale complexion) was appalled by “the thumping, clinking, whomping battering ram that passes for a rhythm section” on Jack Johnson. Noted trumpeter (and retro-jazz traditionalist) Wynton Marsalis dismissed Davis as “a genius who decided to go into rock, and was on the bandstand looking like, basically, a buffoon.” As for the noted critic Stanley Crouch, who is no slouch, it was his expert opinion that everything Miles had recorded since his first foray into jazz fusion, 1969’s landmark In a Silent Way, made him “the most brilliant sellout in the history of jazz.”

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | On January 24, 2025, Merge Records will reissue two 1994 releases by The Clean: their second studio album Modern Rock, and the “Late Last Night” 7-inch. These vinyl releases represent the first time either title has been in print on the format since its initial release, and the first time Modern Rock has ever been available on LP in North America.

Modern Rock crackles with spontaneous energy, as if The Clean—namely, Hamish Kilgour, David Kilgour, and Robert Scott—couldn’t help but make music together whenever they were in the same room. Following their 1989 reunion tour and the 1990 release of Vehicle, those opportunities were rare, with Hamish in New York City fronting The Mad Scene, David releasing his first solo album, and Robert recording albums with The Bats at a breakneck pace. Then, for nine days in April 1994, the stars aligned over Dunedin and Modern Rock bloomed into life.

It’s an album of easy charm by a band so attuned to guitar pop that they make the creation of their sonic universe seem easy, as if what you’re being let in on is a long-running conversation between three masters at a point where all three are riffing off of each other, line by line and hook by hook. Significantly, after making Modern Rock, The Clean decided to keep the project going on a part-time basis. More than just a reminder to listeners of the reverence fans and musicians had for The Clean, each new record was a welcome surprise that established them as one of the great active bands of the 1990s and 2000s, their second act on par with the many, many groups their first act inspired.

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Limited 48 page souvenir photobook by rock n’ rollin’ author/ artist/ photographer/ journalist/ bon vivant John Mendelssohn, who was tapped to meet up with an unknown longhair from London named David Bowie on his first trip to the US on a press junket for the just-released Mercury album The Man Who Sold The World.

John met up with DB in San Fransisco with his camera in tow, and started snappin and yappin. This book includes John’s original story from Rolling Stone, his revelations and jubilations on (and of) the topic of DB, plus we have Paul Gorman writing brilliantly about the origin and influence of the man-dress, as created by bespoke tailor Mr. Fish of London… and we have the photos, one roll of film that captured both Mr. Fish man-dresses—the luxe, flowing, floral that appeared on the UK cover of The Man Who Sold The World and the sublime blue-gray raw silk number that graced a special edition collection, presented in a newspaperly dot screen reminiscent of the Rolling Stone print methods of the day.

Graphic designer Tommy Bishop has outdone himself in creating this first edition for what we hope will become a series of small books that make all aspects important—subject, author, images, and design. Go Tommy! Also, with this photobook comes a wee fragrance called simply, Peculiar. It is a refined scent, reminiscent of old London, with a hint of lavender, suitable for all persuasions. Concocted from organic Canadian floral waters and contained in a lovely souvenir bottle. The fragrance is a limited free holiday bonus with the book supplies last.

Remembering JJ Cale, born on this day in 1938. —Ed.

Folks take things pretty slow down in Tulsa; they ain’t in no particular hurry to get anywhere, and see no good reason to talk real fast like your Northern city slickers either. Ain’t nothin’ can’t be put off ‘til tomorrow, and that includes this here record review, which I intend to write at a slow shuffle. The late JJ Cale, who epitomized the laid-back Tulsa sound better than anybody–without even trying, natch, because trying is hard work and not how they do things down in Oklahoma–probably would have wanted it that way.

Cale inspired the likes of Eric Clapton and Neil Young, wrote a handful of songs like “Call Me the Breeze” and “Cocaine” that have entered the popular music lexicon, and in general left a faint but indelible mark on the American sound with his mellow blend of blues, country, rockabilly, and jazz. Call his music what you will (Americana, swamp rock, country rock, Red Dirt–the list goes on), the important thing to remember is that Cale was relaxed. Relaxed as dirt, relaxed as that raccoon sauntering at his leisure from your overturned trash can (keep hollering, he doesn’t care), relaxed as the oldest bluesman to ever pick out a song on yonder shotgun shack porch. Hurry just wasn’t in his vocabulary; take a potshot at him, and he’d have probably flinched slow.

In 1972 Cale, then in his thirties, finally got around to recording his first album, Naturally. Eric Clapton had just made a hit out of Cale’s “After Midnight,” and intrigued by the idea that he might be able to make some actual pocket change by being his laid-back self Cale found some time in his anything-but-hectic schedule to record 12 songs before, I don’t know, taking a long nap. Nobody would call the results electrifying, but in their own small way they changed the course of history.

I’ll say one thing for JJ–he simply refuses to be hurried. Hell, he even sings slow on the fast ones, and there aren’t that many fast ones. He’s content to shuffle along like an old dog to his supper, which isn’t going anywhere anyway. And this is both Cale’s genius and his downfall. If you’re a fan of laid back you probably love him. If you’re not a fan, like me, you find yourself wishing he’d chug a couple of cans of Red Bull and top them off with some NoDoz. Robert Christgau wrote of Naturally, “Push a little, fellas, it’ll feel so good.” I can’t help but agree with the guy.

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | In the winter of 1974, WAR were already a half-decade into their career and fresh off the success of the #1 Billboard best-selling album of 1973, The World Is a Ghetto. Following months of touring throughout the US, and then nearly thirty shows across Europe, WAR arrived in Japan for the first time ever, to perform a series of live shows in Shizuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe. Now, recordings from these performances have been rediscovered and meticulously restored for Live In Japan 1974, the first live album to feature all seven original members in 50 years.

With the release of a Japan-exclusive CD set for January 29th, 2025—featuring a custom obi sleeve and liner notes by local music journalists—Live In Japan 1974 will get a global release on February 7th, 2025. The collection will be available in 2LP and 2CD sets worldwide, as well as digitally, and includes a variety of live recordings of classic WAR tracks like “The Cisco Kid,” “The World Is A Ghetto,” and “All Day Music.”

The liner notes, written and edited by Cory Frye, feature an in-depth interview with founding band member Lonnie Jordan and WAR’s longtime producer Jerry Goldstein, wherein Lonnie shares, “It was a fun, exciting experience because we’d never gotten that amount of people loving what we did, especially during that time.” Jerry adds, “They knew all the songs. It was pretty exciting, getting the vibe that everyone knew and loved what we were doing. They gave us a lot of standing ovations, and we did lots of encores.”

The liner notes also reveal the story behind the creation of yet another iconic WAR song, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?,” inspired by the band’s interactions with locals during their debut tour of Japan.

Read More »

Both in songwriting circles and in the oft harsh arena of departed personalities that never got their just due, the late Townes Van Zandt has grown into a mythic figure. Widely celebrated today for his very personal blend of smart country-folk expression, for the majority of his life Van Zandt was a frustratingly unknown entity. There exists numerous worthwhile entry points into the man’s rich body of work, but the best doorway is provided by his exquisite self-titled third LP from 1969, a record inching toward its forty-fifth year of existence with all of its artistic power undiminished.

Townes Van Zandt was one of the true bittersweet troubadours of American Music. The woeful obscurity that afflicted him during a life too short and rife with trouble (dead of a heart attack shy of his 53rd birthday in 1997 after many years of drug and alcohol addiction) is hard to reconcile with the nude beauty of his music.

The Velvet Underground’s now legendary lack of popularity while extant was basically tied to their being so defiantly ahead of their time, Big Star’s elusive sales figures were directly related to how they harkened back and revitalized the tidy appeal of ‘60s pop-rock in an era that greatly preferred excess, and Don Van Vliet was a kingpin of cult status mainly because he was such a blatant weird-meat, but Townes Van Zandt was just a powerful singer and brilliant songwriter whose early recordings should’ve been, if not huge, than certainly substantially bigger than they actually were at the time of their release.

From ’68-’72 Van Zandt recorded six albums that slowly solidified his reputation as a true rough diamond in the oft-problematic category of singer-songwriter, and it can be speculated that the guy’s natural blend of folk and country was perhaps a little bit urbane for the C&W hardliners of the time and maybe too tough for a folk-set that was preparing to turn the corner into the mellow hell of James Taylor etc. But at worst this should’ve somewhat limited Van Zandt’s appeal, not kneecapped it outright; it’s far easier to surmise that lack of promotion from the small Poppy label led to his misfortune as a musician’s musician.

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Sacred Bones & Back Lot Music release the physical & digital release of Robin Carolan’s original motion picture soundtrack for Robert Eggers’ forthcoming film Nosferatu. The soundtrack is available for both physical purchase and to stream digitally following the release of the first two singles, with the film set to hit theaters nationwide on December 25th.

Robin Carolan’s latest soundtrack for the highly anticipated Nosferatu is a haunting, gothic-infused, and meticulously crafted work that draws from a vast palette of sounds, instruments, and inspirations. Following their successful collaboration on The Northman, Carolan reunites with Eggers to bring the legendary tale of Nosferatu to life, infusing the film with a score that is as complex and nuanced as the story itself.

With Daniel Pioro, one of Britain’s most exciting young classical musicians, at the helm as the orchestra leader and first chair for a vast majority of the recording, the soundtrack for Nosferatu features a vast orchestration, including 60 string players, a full choir, various horns and woodwinds, a harpist, and two percussionists. This orchestral richness brings a profound depth to the score.

“From the get-go, it was important to me that I not just write something you’d solely think of as a ‘horror score’,” Carolan explains. “I wanted to really lean into the melancholy, tragic aspect of the tale, and even make room for something akin to romance, albeit a very warped kind of romanticism.”

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan announces Lookaftering – Expanded Edition, a reissue of her legendary second album, out on February 7, 2025 via FatCat Records. 

Marking the occasion of 20 years since the first release, and coinciding with Vashti’s 80th birthday, the new expanded edition features the original studio album along with a second LP / disc of demos, an alternate take, and a live performance version. This edition also comes with reflective sleeve notes from Vashti, producer Max Richter, Devendra Banhart, and FatCat’s Dave Howell, as well as a 16-page lyric booklet featuring a collection of paintings by Vashti’s daughter Whyn Lewi—paintings that they both say have closely, and coincidentally, reflected the lyrics of the album.

Originally recorded between 2001 and 2005, the demos were created by Vashti at home, accompanying herself on electric and acoustic guitar, and experimenting with synth instrumentation—accordion, piano, strings, pipe organ, harmonium, recorders. The collection of demos offers a more stripped back sound compared to the finished album, and the live version of “Lately” recorded at an early “comeback” gig in L.A. in 2006, orchestrated as on the record, is absolutely pitch perfect.

Read More »

Beginning in 1966 with the self-titled debut album from Cream, the supergroup became a rock phenomenon that, even in an age that now seems to signal the end of the significance of rock bands, is still with us. The early era of the rock supergroup was primarily dominated by British groups other than Cream, such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer and another group like Cream that also included Eric Clapton, Blind Faith, among others.

Mixing one British artist (Graham Nash) and two Americans (David Crosby, Stephen Stills), Crosby, Stills and Nash released their self-titled debut album in March of 1969, establishing them as the American supergroup of the day. The album was a runaway smash and the group had created an entirely new sound that defied description.

As loaded with talent as CSN was, in mid-August they added yet another superstar to their lineup, Neil Young. Young had played with Stephen Stills in Buffalo Springfield. Interestingly enough, Crosby had previously played with Stills, when Young decided not to play with the Springfield at the Monterey Pop Festival way back in May of 1967. CSNY became an even bigger supergroup.

In 1969 CSNY set out on tour and began writing music and performing some of the songs that would make up their debut album Déjà vu, which would be released in 1970. CSNY was short-lived and other than a tour in 1974, the group wouldn’t work together in any capacity until they released their second album American Dream in 1988.

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs is a Martin Phillipps passion project. A dedicated reimagining of his earlier unreleased songs that became his artistic farewell, a lasting legacy, and a reminder of his huge, underappreciated talent.

As the subject of an undulating life and times movie—The Chills: The Triumph And Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps—Chills’ singer, songwriter and main motivator, Martin Phillipps spent the last decade releasing studio and live albums while careering into his sixtieth year with typical gusto.

Amid such momentum, Martin was stilling digging through old tapes, searching for the foundations that resulted in global rapture in 1987, an overnight success that took a mere seven years to ignite. These early songs and musings were revisited, revised, and finally put to record. As such, Spring Board is the final chapter of The Chills’ immeasurably significant output.

“The album seemed like an easy option,” mused Martin, but breathing life into tunes that were penned by a twenty-something hopeful wasn’t as simple as it sounded. Cassettes fragmented, memories were hazy. “All of the songs needed varying degrees of rewriting; a 60-year old man couldn’t just stick to the lyrics of those formative years. And some of the songs were just vague recollections, incomplete, only blossoming during recording.”

Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs is alarming, personal, brittle and at times hopelessly upbeat. This is a man casting his mind back on an esoteric career that led to nothing short of cult status; someone rediscovering his roots, his innermost thoughts, hopes and fears.

Read More »

In the annals of jazz, tenor saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins is simply incomparable. A man without a creative weakness, he is equally celebrated as an innovator and for his sublime transformations of jazz standards and classic American song. No record gets to the core of Rollins’ greatness better than Way Out West. Originally released in 1957, it comes out in a fresh 180 gram vinyl edition this week via Craft Recordings as part of the label’s Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series, remastered from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman and tucked into an utterly swank tip-on jacket.

Having debuted on record in 1949, backing hipster jazz vocalist Babs Gonzalez in his band Three Bips and a Bop on a 10-inch 78 rpm disc for the Capitol label, Sonny Rollins played and recorded extensively and by the mid-1950s he was the top tenor saxophonist in jazz. After cutting an LP a year as a leader from 1953-’56 for Prestige, Rollins exploded onto the marketplace in ’56 with a half dozen albums, all for Prestige, including what many consider his greatest recording, Saxophone Colossus.

After exiting his Prestige contract, Rollins became something of a free agent across an equally productive stretch, cutting three albums for Blue Note and one record for Riverside, plus half of a split album shared with the Thad Jones Ensemble for the Period label and the record under review here, all released in 1957.

Of the studio albums, Way Out West stands out for it’s lack of piano. On Rollins’ trip to California (hence the title and its accompanying cover motif, which was reportedly Rollins’ idea), he was joined by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne in a foray into what the saxophonist described as “strolling,” which in short means improvising in a band that lacks a chordal instrument (e.g. piano or guitar).

Read More »