John Carpenter’s accomplishments as a director include a handful of masterpieces and a larger number of cult classics, his body of work defining him as a maestro of genre flicks and maker of personal films. Part of the distinctiveness relates to Carpenter’s frequent role as composer; he’s credited in this capacity on such heavyweights of the American Cinema as Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, Big Trouble in Little China, and They Live. Now Sacred Bones offers Carpenter’s non-OST debut with Lost Themes, his legion of fans unlikely to require much persuading in order to investigate further.

I guess the mainstream consensus on John Carpenter is that he’s just one in a long line of filmmakers who started out strong, hung in there for a while and then faltered as time progressed. And our current motion picture industry does a good job of making it seem like he’s retired; his last effort was The Ward, which hit US theatres, or a few of them anyway, back in 2011.

But for an ever growing pack of buffs, Carpenter is a very special auteur indeed. Gaining his biggest commercial and critical success with Halloween in 1978, it and the titles surrounding it in his filmography are trim, energetic no-nonsense affairs emerging from a motion-picture scene noted for self-consciousness and excessiveness.

Circa the late-‘70s, Coppola, Scorsese, Altman, Cimino, and even that lurid genre-dabbler De Palma were all clearly Artists. Where the family-friendly Lucas and Spielberg danced atop the rubble of the New Hollywood and ushered in the age of the multiplex, Carpenter rose out of the exploitation scene and subsequently spent the majority of his career in unfashionable if not always disreputable territory.

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Brooklyn afro-beat trio Kahli Abdu & VHS Safari’s newest single “Forever and Ever” channels the native pop of Africa through the lens of Brooklyn indie rock.

We have the pleasure of bringing you the video premiere for the song which flashes nondescript images of everything from zebras to the Hello Kitty logo over the mellow moves of lead singer Kahli—a man who seems to draw great satisfaction from singing about his dream girl and her mother’s cooking. The song keeps things moving with its personal flavor and colorful guitar arpeggios which trickle over the track like a babbling brook, highlighting the tropical rhythms.

http://youtu.be/3N9qNXeva4A

This musical gumbo has seen quite a resurgence the past decade and can often come off as being gleaned from an origin too far-removed from the revivalists’ true instincts. The fact that Kahli Abdu is originally from Nigeria lends resounding substance to the act and frames the collaboration with two D.C. natives (VHS Safari) in an air of unpretentious collaboration.

Kahli Abdu & VHS Safari’s full length release, A.R.T. Project is on store shelves—and Spotify—now.

Kahli Abdu & VHS Safari Official | Facebook | Twitter

Ah, the Kinks. Of all the great bands to come out of England in the 1960s, they were by far the most English. Their music hall inclinations and deadpan irony simply didn’t translate, and until they reconstituted themselves as a hard-rocking touring band in the 1970s their only claims to fame here in the U.S.A. were “You Really Got Me” and “Lola.” Ray Davies was simply too smart, and had his tongue too far in his cheek, to win over U.S. fans, although I do remember—because it was, I think, the first 45 rpm record I ever heard—my older brother’s copy of “Apeman.” Nor did it help that the band was refused permits by the American Federation of Musicians to tour the U.S. for 4 years, ostensibly due to over-the-top on-stage band mate on band mate violence.

Of course, the Kinks always had their Kultists, people who lovingly cuddled their copies of 1968’s The Village Green Preservation Society the way you might your dog Blighter. As for the rest of us, we listened to our Beatles and our Stones and The Who, and the rest of England be damned. This was especially true if you were raised, the way I was, in a rural outpost of provincialism, where the Klan once marched through town and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” was considered the pinnacle of pop sophistication.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I was a real latecomer to Ray Davies and Company, but have come to love their music, including Muswell Hillbillies. It’s one of the bleakest and funniest albums I know, and it deals with a subject that I hold near and dear to my heart—namely, the failure of everything. Tormented character follows tormented character on this LP, and I can’t get enough of it. Davies sings about paranoia, rampant alcoholism, and the myriad other complications of life, all from a working class perspective. Only Randy Newman could compete with Davies in the hilarious downer department, and while I prefer Newman, Davies more than holds his own.

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Press Play is our Monday morning recap of the new tracks received last week—provided here to inform your vinyl purchasing power. Click, preview, download, purchase.

MyMidnightHeart – D R O W N
Simian Ghost – Echoes of Songs (For Trish Keenan)
Moonbabies – Chorus (2014)
Lights – Running With The Boys (Leisure Cruise Remix)
Busses – Wizard of the Eye
The American Spirit – Waiting For The Night
Howth – Tourist Town
Ocean Floor – Looking At The Sun
The North Country – The Cross We Bear
Thoughts Detecting Machines – New Day

TVD SINGLE OF THE WEEK:
Colleen Green – TV

MY BODY – All I Can
Little Dragon – Nabuma Purple Rubberband – (ChopNotSlop Remix by OG Ron C & DJ Candlestick of the Chopstars)
The Capture Effect – SKYwave
Grand Lake Islands – Monterey
Right Away Great Captain – Love Come Save Me (Daniele Di Martino Remix)
Atlantic Oceans – Sweet Believer
DRAAG – Milk Money
Sorren Maclean – Rows & Rows Of Boxes (Acoustic)
Nicki Minaj – Only (Whiiite Remix)
Their Wedding – I Tried To Leave You

16 more FREE TRACKS on side B!

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The Rolling Stones’ Sucking in the Seventies: not only is it the most nakedly honest album title ever, it also proves that truth in advertising actually exists!

But before we give the Rolling Stones any consumer honesty awards, it should be borne in mind that Sucking in the Seventies is a colossal act of hubris. Not on did the Stones happily release a piece of swill, they actually announced right in the title that it was a piece of swill, that’s how confident they were that the great undiscerning herd would go out and plunk down their hard-earned shekels for it anyway.

And by God, the Stones were right. Sucking in the Seventies reached #15 on the U.S. album charts, which should discourage all those do-gooders who believe that a clear warning will deter people from buying products that are deleterious to their health. Just as I continue to smoke despite all those obviously bogus warnings on the cigarette packs saying that smoking causes cancer, gads of Stones’ fans went out and bought a product that blatantly declared that it sucked.

The Stones didn’t completely suck in the seventies; in fact the decade marked their high-water mark, what with those back-to-back gems Sticky Fingers (1971) and Exile of Main Street (1972), the latter of which may well be the greatest rock album ever made. But after that it all went to shit, with 1973’s disappointing Goat’s Head Soup, 1974’s lackluster It’s Only Rock’n’Roll, 1976’s execrable Black and Blue, and 1978’s respectable but seriously overrated Some Girls—their supposed return to greatness that wasn’t, except to those people so desperate to believe the Rolling Stones were still the World’s Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band they happily swallowed the inedible “Miss You” and didn’t even belch.

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“Put Your Finger In The Socket” was born out of a poem I wrote in Spanish that essentially tried to put my contrarianism in very blunt terms. After realizing you don’t share anything in common with someone, you try to do the opposite of them, regardless of how you would act independently of them.

Dressing oppositely, interacting oppositely, holding opposite principles–this behavior is arbitrary and based on being different, rather than any deep-seated beliefs. The song is so blunt partially because of my shortcomings as a Spanish speaker, but also because it represents a petty way of acting that is at once mindless and delightful.”
—Matt Jaffe

San Francisco based Matt Jaffe’s enthusiasm for pop rock is palpable and he is more than equipped to spread the gospel.

https://soundcloud.com/mattjaffemusic/put-your-finger-in-the-socket/s-6Dntk

Jaffe displays his youthful, retro tinged know-how on our exclusive premiere of “Put Your Finger in The Socket” which sees the 19-year-old casting off a protracted list of opposites. These are the meddling nuances that separate him from his sugar mamma. It seems his intention is to be the antithesis of whatever his object of affection is, even going so far as to say he would prefer hell over her bible thumping.

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If, like me, you wrote off the Rolling Stones a long, long time ago—hell, I didn’t even like Some Girls, which in effect means I think the last great Stones LP was 1972’s Exile on Main Street—you most likely consider Mick and Company as little more than a longstanding joke. You know, The Steel Wheelchairs tour and all. And you’ve probably asked yourself when they intend to finally hang it up and retire to their respective tax shelters, to spend their time getting total transfusions of young blood so they can live to be 147.

Because they’re old, goddamn it, and you’d have to be some kind of fanatic to buy any of their recent product, which leaves us with the question: The Stones—what are they good for? Absolutely nothin’, I would have said as recently as last week. Then I accidentally happened upon their 1995 live LP, Stripped, and I was shocked. Flabbergasted. Because the damn LP is good. They play the songs well and sound like they’re actually putting in an effort, and they don’t come across as a mediocre cover band playing their own material, which is what I would have predicted of any live Rolling Stones LP recorded after, say, 1985 at absolute latest.

A word of caution: when I say this is a live LP, it comes with one huge caveat. To wit, 8 of the album’s 14 songs weren’t played in front of an audience, but were recorded live in studios in Lisbon and Tokyo. To the Stones’ credit, it’s hard to tell the tracks apart, although there’s no mistaking the opening track, “Street Fighting Man,” for a studio endeavor. It’s raw and admirably raucous, with lots of great guitar and piano, and Mick’s voice is still as strong as in days of yore. No Dylan-like voice death for Jagger; he still slurs and preens and knows his way around a wry sexual innuendo, and the band is better for it.

Speaking of Dylan, they follow “Street Fighting Man” with “Like a Rolling Stone,” recorded at a London concert, and I’ll be damned if they don’t pull it off. The organ is perfect, Jagger sounds great on the verses, and the choruses are shout-alongs of the type first introduced by Dylan and the Band when they performed the tune during their live tour of 1974. The only false step is Jagger’s harmonica solo, which staggers along like Mike the Headless Chicken, who if you’re not familiar with his work I advice you to immediately look him up on Wikipedia.

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Be he solo or in collaboration with a multitude of performing partners over the many years, Paul Kelly has established himself as one of Australia’s finest singer/songwriters. His latest finds him dipping back into the collaborative pool once more with a number of guests on his latest, The Merri Soul Sessions whose contents have been assembled into a special, limited to 1,000, 7″ double A-side singles box. And as the headline above attests, we have one box set to give away to one of you.

“Following the recent releases of his groundbreaking song cycles, Spring and Fall and Conversations With Ghosts, Australian troubadour Paul Kelly is pleased to announce another innovative chapter in his long-standing career. In the dawn of last year, he assembled his touring band and an exciting group of singers that included Clairy Browne, Vika and Linda Bull, Dan Sultan, and Kira Puru to record a set of new songs as well as one old classic.

http://youtu.be/mme6FnU2wSY

Over an exhilarating two-week period, the tracks were performed live at Soundpark Studios in Northcote, Melbourne. Dubbed The Merri Soul Sessions, the music is being made available via PledgeMusic as a very “limited edition” series of four 7” vinyl singles (double A-side). Each vinyl single can be bought individually or combined in a limited-edition box set of which only 1,000 will be manufactured. More details are here.

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