Showing posts with label emusic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emusic. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Yep, I'm Still an eMusic Fiend

It's been several months since my last eMusic report and my inbox is full of angry emails demanding I get back on my monthly routine. (Actually, nobody has seemed to notice I'd stopped doing it. I guess I'm just posting this shows how obsessive I am.)

Anyway, I'm just going to give a quick glance at what I've downloaded in the past 3 or 4 months.

Naturally, I downloaded some of those excellent, bargain-priced compilations that eMusic is known for.

These include:

* Screaming Gospel Holy Rollers vol. 1This just might be the most spirit-filled, tambourine-shaken', hallelujah-shoutin' old-time gospel collections I've ever come across. This music -- African-American gospel of the '40s and '50s -- truly is the spring from which rock and soul music flowed. And, yes, it was this collection that prompted me to include a wild gospel set on my recent Big Enchilada podcast Shout When the Spirit Says Shout.  Compiled by "Radio DJ and TV presenter" Mark Lamarr for the British Vee-Tone Records, this album features some gospel giants such as Marie Knight, the Famous Davis Sisters and the Blind Boys (both Archie Brownlee's group from Mississippi and their rivals, Clarence Fountain's group from Alabama), as well as several I've never heard of. Each track is tremendous And here's some great news: There's a Volume 2 of Screaming Gospel Holy Rollers.

* Rockin' Boppin' Hillbilly GalsThe title of this 40-track (!!) collection might be somewhat misleading. Whoever slapped this together -- and indeed, the album does have a slapdash feel -- has a bigger-tent definition of "hillbilly" than most of us. The "hillbilly gals" include country stars like Loretta Lynn, Rose Maddox and Kitty Wells; first-generation rockabilly fillies Wanda Jackson and Janis Martin; blues belters like Big Mama Thorton and Lucille Bogan; gospel great Clara Ward; and even an early jazz singers, Bertha "Chippie" Hill and Eva Taylor, both of whom sing on tracks with Louis Armstrong. With songs ranging from Bogan's "Shave 'em Dry" to Ward's "King Jesus is All I Need, " you can't say there's not variety here. 


 * Cool Town Bop. This is an international rockabilly revival collection from the early '90s. "International?" you ask. Indeed, there's Greek rockabilly, Dutch rockabilly, Swedish rockabilly, some token American rockabilly, a bunch of British rockabilly, and  my favorite Cannuckabilly, the late Ray Condo doing a song called "One Hand Loose." Condo is the only act I recognized here and his contribution probably is the best thing here, though I'm also fond of "Please I Wonder" by The Roomates, an English band, though it's more doo-wop than rockabilly. While there's no great revelations here, it's a good listen

I also downloaded these single-artist albums

* House of Blue Lights by Don Covay & The Jefferson Lemon Blues Band. Did I say I was obsessive? Back when I was a freshman in college, (1971-72) I was listening to the KUNM blues show (It was on Wednesdsay nights back then too.) and decided to tape it. One of the songs I remember from that tape was "The Blues Don't Knock" by Don Covay. It wasn't your typical blues song. it was slow and dreamy and featured a flute, I lost that tape years ago, but a few months ago I started thinking about that song and with a few quick Googles I learned it was on this 1969 album, which is available on eMusic. And I'm happy I found it. Though he's best known as an R&B and soul artist, this is a stab at raw blues, backed by a rock band. Though I came for "The Blues Don't Knock," I stayed for the title song, a seven-minute-plus minor-key show-stopper about a guy whose life is ruined by a whore house. (There's a shorter reprise of the song at the end of the album that's nearly as intense.)

* Fire On the Bayou by Stephanie McDee. I'll admit it. I downloaded this because it has the original version of "Call the Police," which was covered by The Oblivians on their great comeback album Desperation earlier this year. McDee's music is a hopped-up zydeco hybrid with elements of hip-hop and techno. This album is less than a half-hour long and it gets pretty repetitive. But I bet it's great live.

* Love Visions by Nobunny. Cwazy Wabbit! If he were more famous, singer/guitarist Justin Champlin would do for shopping mall Easter Bunnies what John Wayne Gacy did for clowns. And he should be more famous. Behind the ratty rabbit mask is a master of irresistible, hooky pop/punk songs. Just about all these songs will get you hopping.

* Live at the Fish Fry by Pocket FishRmen. This band of wild Texas punks started out in the mid '80s. They broke up around the turn of the century, but in recent years they've reunited at least once a year to host an annual charity show in Austin called "The Pocket FishRmen Fish Fry." This album, released in 2011, was recorded at one of those. It's full of frantic, foul-mouthed fun, including odes to Amy Carter, Santa Claus and Saddam Hussein.

* (The songs I didn't already have from) Blank Generation by Richard Hell & The Voidoids. The title song of this was one of the earliest and still one of the greatest punk anthems ever. While  no other song came close to "Blank Generation," the rest of the album is good. How can any band with Robert Quine on guitar be anything but? I love Hell's weird barking in "liars Beware." And I'm a complete sucker for the slow dance cover of the Sammy Cahn /James Van Heusen standard "All the Way." For punk/lounge music, it's matched only by Iggy Pop's version of "One for My Baby (and One More For the Road)."

* The Anti- Naturalists by The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. I downloaded this right after the death of Karen Black this summer. Black herself was a talented singer and songwriter, but, no, she wasn't part of this 1990s New York punk outfit that took her name and honored her voluptuous horror. VHKB, fronted by singer Kembra Pfahler, wasn't exactly groundbreaking, but this record showed they were a lot of fun.

* Moon Sick by Thee Oh Sees. Back in May, I declared Thee Oh See's Floating Coffin as my likely choice for album of the year. Months have passed and I still feel that way. This four-song EP consists of outtakes from the Floating Coffin sessions. The first three songs, "Born in a Graveyard," (which starts off with some computer beeping right out of Wall of Voodoo's "Mexican Radio") "Sewer Fire" (one of the band's harder-edged tunes) and "Humans Be Swayed" would have fit in on Coffin. The more I listen to this EP, the more I'm impressed with "Humans Be Swayed," which starts off with slow droning, then bursts into a frantic, choppy rocker. The last song "Candy Clocks" is almost folk-rock. I continue to be amazed and infatuated by Thee Oh Sees.


* The Devil in Me by Big Foot Chester. I just downloaded this album a couple of days ago. It's raw, minimalist punk blues from a 1990s band led by Texas harmonica man Walter Daniels, who has played with some of my favorite musical acts including Hickoids, Buick MacKane and Eugene Chadbourne. I saw Daniels last year in Austin playing an acoustic set with guitarist John Schooley and banjoist Ralph White.

Several of the albums I got from eMusic in recent weeks ended up being reviewed in my weekly Terrell's Tuneup column.

Namely:

Signed and Sealed in Blood by Dropkick Murpheys (My review is HERE)
Fayt by Cankisou (My review is HERE)
Electric Slave by Black Joe Lewis (My review is HERE)
Haunted Head by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkeybirds (My review is HERE)
And though it's not really an album ...
* Nine Songs by Tim Timebomb "(Between the Two of Us) One of Us Has the Answer"; "Dope Sick Girl"; "Gentleman of the Road"; "Hard Travelin' "; "Jim Dandy"; "Jockey Full of Bourbon"; "Rock This Joint"; "Squeezebox"; and "Rocks Off"  (My review is HERE)

I've also downloaded several individual songs including:

* Three Ty Wagner songs (who I'm looking forward to see this weekend in New Orleans at the Ponderosa Stomp.)
* "Blues in the Night" by Eydie Gorme. (R.I.P.)
* "Warmed Over Kisses" by Dave Edmunds. A nice dose of bluegrass-rock.
* Two songs from Nancy Sinatra's self-titled 2004 album (which since has disappeared from eMusic!) The best of these is "Ain't No Easy Way," which is funky duet with the mighty Jon Spencer. "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time" which is nice and pretty with Nancy singing disparagingly of "some skinny bitch in hotpants."
* Three songs from Other Voices by The Doors, the band's first post-Jim Morrison album. No Freudian pyscho-odysseys without ol' Jim. But these tunes, "I'm Horny, I'm Stoned," "Variety is the Spice of Life," and "In the Eye of the Sun" are just decent bluesy rock.)


Monday, June 03, 2013

New batch of eMusic Downloads

The Gangster is Back by Johnny "Guitar' Watson. Back in the mid 70s, rock stations across this fair land began playing this smooth, funky tune with an amazing little blues guitar solo in the middle featuring this guy singing about his economic frustrations:

"I program computers /I know accounting and psychology / I took a course in business / And I can speak a little Japanese .../ Gotta work two years / To get one week off with pay /And when I’m on my job / I better watch every word I say ..."
                                                                           
The singer's name was Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and this oddball hit was called "Ain't That a Bitch." For most of us, Watson seemed to have come out of nowhere. But the truth is, the Houston-born bluesman had an impressive resume going back to the early days of R&B and rock 'n' roll.

The Gangster is Back is a compilation of some of his earliest recordings, including records he made for the Bihari Brother's RPM label, including "Johnny Guitar," "Hot Little Mama," "Too Tired" and "Don't Touch Me."

But his classic song from the 1950s, alluded to in the title of this collection, was "Gangster of Love," a song later covered by Johnny Winter, Steve Miller, The Grateful Dead, Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs (where I first heard it) and others.

The best line in the song, exemplifying Watson's cocky attitude, and arguably anticipating gangsa rap, was "The sheriff said, `Is your name Johnny 'Guitar' Watson?' in a very deep voice / And I said, "Yes sir, brother sheriff, and that's your wife on the back of my horse.'"

With the Wild Crowd by The B52'S. Techno-goof lives! I'll admit I hadn't thought that much about the B-52s lately until I saw a recent tweet from the Dangerous Minds blog linking to a blog post titled "Only Assholes Don't Like The B-52s Part 6." I read that post, then followed the links and read the previous five parts. But before I even started, I realized, by cracky, he's right! 

I've loved this band since their first album came out. Back about 1980 or so, when there was a hot-tub business downtown called The Soak, my then-wife reserved us a tub room and told me to bring some romantic music. I was shocked that she got pissed at me for bringing a cassette of The B-52s' first album. What's not romantic about "Rock Lobster"?

This is a fairly recent (2011) live album by The 52s. I knew they're. Still touring in one form or another, but frankly, I was afraid that they'd devolved into a casino act. Well, it's true that the huge majority of the songs here are from the days of yore. But, performing before a hometown crowd in Athens, Ga., the band is on fire. Kate and Cindy sing their guts out and geeky old Fred exudes Frednicity all over you.



Plus, I like their new songs like "Love in the Year 3000," (Come on fellas, admit it. You've fantasized about "erotibots" who look like Kate and Cindy, right? ) "Funplex" and "Ultraviolet." In fact I've put their 2008 studio album Funplex on my "Saved" list for future consumption. 

* Re-Mit by The Fall. The Fall is an institution, or maybe a natural phenomenon. They'll probably never get popular, but who those of us who have heard the Call of The Fall, the world would not be the same without them.

To the truly initiated, The Fall is everywhere. Every time you hear a car crash, an explosion, a radio blaring static -- you hear Mark E. Smith ranting, cursing, making rude noises in the background.

It doesn't matter what he's saying. Even when you're able to make out the lyrics, good luck trying to decipher any "meaning."

What matters is that Mark E. is there.

This, by some counts, is The Fall's 30th studio album. Here's to 30 more. 

* Floating Coffin by Thee Oh-Sees.  This year is not even half-cooked yet, so it’s much too early to be declaring an album of the year.

But from my very first listen, I knew in my heart that Floating Coffin, the latest CD by Thee Oh Sees,would place high in my annual Top 10 list.

Sound familiar? I just slobbered all over this album in last Friday's Terrell's Tuneup.  Read the whole review HERE.

Saturday, May 04, 2013

More eMusic Downloads

* Sam Hard and Heavy by Sam Samudio. His real name is Domingo Samudio, but you probably know him best as Sam the Sham, the voice of "Wooly Bully," "Ju Ju Hand" and (even though it's my least favorite Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs hit), "Little Red Riding Hood." Sam was a Chicano-rock icon, a garage-rock pioneer, who, with The Pharoahs blended a Tex-Mex sensibility with Memphis soul.

Hard and Heavy was Sam's attempt in 1970 to establish himself as a serious solo artist. He was picked up by Atlantic Records, which brought in producer Tom Dowd (who'd just produced major records by The Allman Brothers and Derek & The Dominos) and hired musicians including  Duane Allman, Jim Dickinson with his band The Dixie Flyers, The Memphis Horns and even The Sweet Inspirations (Elvis' background singers) for this record.

The result was a horny, soul-soaked, blues-stewed record with Samudio wailing and growling. Shoulda been a hit. It wasn't. And Samudio sank into unjustified obscurity, remembered mostly when his songs popped up on oldies radio.

For those of us who actually bought Sam the Sham albums in the '60s, the musical direction of Sam Hard and Heavy shouldn't be a surprise. Before I actually heard it, I was afraid it woulds be an overstuffed early '70s supergroup fustercluck. It's not.

There's several covers of familiar songs here. -- It's hard to screw up "Lonely Avenue,"  but even harder to make it sound truly fresh. But Samudio aided by The Sweet Inspirations bring out the hidden joy inside this Doc Pomus classic.

Wisely, Samudio's take on "Key to the Highway" doesn't sound like Derek & The Domino's more familiar version. There's a repetivie grating guitar lick and a cool electric organ bouncing off the rest of the band. I'm not sure who's playing the harmonica, but it works.

The best songs here are the longer jams where sam and band get to stretch out. there's John Lee Hooker's "Goin' Upstairs," performed as a Canned  Heat-style boogie. Even better is the urgent, hard-driving "15 Degrees Capricorn Asc." Despite it's goopy hippie mystic title, this is one tough slab of rock 'n' roll. "Come on, push! Come on, work!" Sam commands as the organ, guitar and horns battle it out.

There's a couple of cuts that aren't so "hard and heavy," but are tasty treats. The acoustic cover of Randy Newman's "Let's Burn Down the Corn Field' is soulful and spooky. And the country/conjunto of "Don't Put Me On" is irresistible.

My only complaint here is that a bonus track that appeared on some reissues of Sam Hard and Heavy -- a cover of "Me and Bobby McGee" featuring Duane Allman -- didn't make the eMusic version. Otherwise, this album is a real treasure.

(All Sam the Sham fans should read this wonderful 1999 interview in Salon.)


* Cookin' Up a Party by King Salami & The Cumberland Three. The band's always been called The Cumberland Three, but the album cover clearly shows four guys beside the limboing King Salami. As the late Jonathan Winters might say, "Where's the other two?"

I'll leave that mystery to the numerologists. All that matters is that on this, their second full-length album, the King and his men continue on as one of the best party bands coming out of the British Isles in who knows how long. Admitted devotees of Barrence Whitfield & The Savages, Salami and crew specialize in a frantic, early R&B-infused sound.

Every dang tune here is a moneymaker-shaker. "Monkey Beat" features crazy bongos; "Yosemite Sam" is a spirited tribute to one of the real heroes of the wild west; "Howlin' for My Woman" could wear you out just listening to it.

All those songs are originals. but King Salami does a decent cover of Louis Prima's "She's a Kukamunga."

* Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels. Once again The Black Angels prove that a band can play psychedelic music without sounding campy or even all that retro.

Granted, on its new album, the Austin band certainly employs some sonic tricks from the psychedelic era: lots of reverb, lots of fuzz, some Mideastern/East Indian-sounding guitar licks and melody lines here and there, creepy electric organ — and in a couple of places you’ll hear that electric jug sound pioneered by the Angels’ Texas forebears, The 13th Floor Elevators.

The band’s music is strong enough that it doesn't seem defined by these musical embellishments. ...

Sound familiar? I reviewed this in Terrell's Tuneup not long ago.

Also

* Egyptian Rats by The Paint Fumes. This is a 3-song EP from garage-punk trio from Charlotte, N.C. They were one of my favorite bands I'd never heard of before off the new (free) Slovenly Records sampler. They make The Black Lips sound like The Jefferson Starship.

"Bluebird" by Leon Russell. Just a song I've loved since it came out in the mid '70s.

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Latest eMusic Downloads

Rough Guide to Psychedelic Africa by various artists. This collection reminded me how much I love some of the strange and wonderful sounds that were coming out of Africa in the late '60s and '70s. (It also sparked the idea to include a set of African psychedelia on the latest Big Enchilada podcast, even though no tracks from this collection ultimately made it to that episode.)

It was a time in which African musicians were discovering  Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Funkadelic. And we can't forget James Brown, who though not normally considered "psychedelic," injected his wild energy on all musicians who took him to heart. That's definitely the case with Nigerian shouter Victor Abimbola Olaiya, whose "Let Yourself Go" opens the album.

The real star of this record is another Nigerian Victor -- singer/guitarist Victor Uwaifo. Not only is his spacy classic "Guitar Boy" here, but there's an entire "bonus" disc worth of Uwaifo cuts. Sometimes these songs start out as fairly conventional Nigerian highlife, then take a sharp turn toward the astral plane when Uwaifo takes a guitar solo.

Other high points here include "Nijaay" by the Senegal-based Orchestra Baobab, featuring some other-worldly guitar (This is a fairly recent recording, from 2007);  Ethiopian Alemayehu Eshete's slow-burning "Eruq Yaleshew"; and the rubbery guitar of Celestine Ukwu of Nigeria on the meandering tune "Obialu Be Onye Abiagbunia Okwukwe" is downright trippy.

Howver, I'm certainly not the first to point out that this Rough Guide collection has a rough definition of "psychedelia" and that much of the material here, while being decent African dance music, won't immediately remind a listener of The Doors or Quicksilver Messenger Service or the Electric Prunes.

So if you want to get acquainted with true African psychedelia, you'll find more actual journeys to the center of your mind on collections like those great Soundway Records compilations like The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria and Nigeria Rock Special: Pyschedelic Afro-Rock & Jazz Funk in 1970s Nigeria -- not to mention the fantastic Luaka Bop collection Love's a Real Thing: The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa.

Do You Feel It, Baby? by Question Mark & The Mysterians. Through the magic of the Internet I've recently made the acquaintance of Question Mark, whose "96 Tears" was one of the most bitchen songs of 1966 -- which truly was one of the most bitchen years in rock 'n' roll history. It was a song that helped define the sounf that later would be called "garage" rock.

This live album from Norton Records was recorded in 1997, which wasn't such a  bitchen year, though it was recorded at the Cave Stomp Festival in Coney Island, which by all accounts was a mega-bitchen affair. As Question Mark recently explained to me, his set lasted well past the wee hours of night into the next morning.

It's a high-charged set that includes 19 gems from The Mysterians' heyday. And even though the band at that point was 30-plus years beyond "96 Tears," they played with enough energy to put much younger players to shame.

(For my recent radio interview with Question Mark CLICK HERE. And hey, I downloaded Aretha Franklin's version of "96 Tears" especially for that show.)


The Rock Garage Texas Live Concert Series Vol. 1. This is a collection of live performances in Austin, Texas in 2009 and 2010 compiled  by photographer/videographer/rocker Michael Crawford on his label The Rock Garage.

It includes songs by The Hickoids and Churchwood (both of which I've come to know through Saustex Records); revered Texas garage-punk bands including The Ugly Beats and The Pocket FishRmen (who have their own live album released by The Rock Garage) ; some cool alt-country such as The Texas Sapphires (who used to play Santa Fe fairly regularly a few years ago) covering X's "The New World"; electro-punx Pong; and more.

Not all the bands are from Texas. This album has tracks by Nashville Pussy as well as Dash Rip Rock from New Orleans.

You have to note that "Volume 1" is in the title here. Here's hoping for a Volume 2 in the near future.


* Give 'em as Little As You Can…As Often As You Have To…or…A Tribute To Rock 'n' Roll by Swamp Dogg. eMusic gave everyone a $5 bonus last month because their site's search function went kapoot for a couple of days.

This occurred at the time I was starting to write my column on the new Swamp Dogg reissues, so I couldn't resist using my bonus to pick up the latest (2009) studio album by Swamp (at least his latest non-Christmas album.)

This is a covers album, with Swamp putting his own stamp on rock, soul and blues standards. You might think the Free World doesn't really need new souped-up versions of old chestnuts like "Johnny B. Goode," "Great Balls of Fire" and "Heartbreak Hotel" But Swamp Dogg makes them all irresistible. You haven't heard them like this before. He even makes "I Want to Hold Your Hand," one of my least-favorite Beatles songs sound fresh.

Swamp covers The Stones, Fats Domino, Aretha, Springsteen, Bob Marley, The Temptations ... and, yes, Swamp Dogg. There's a new version of his own classic "Total Destruction to Your Mind." I like the original best, but this one ain't bad.

Plus :
* Several Celt-punk songs I used for my St. Patrick's Day set on Terrell's Sound World.

These were:
* "Rosettes" by The Men They Couldn't Hang
* "Nantucket Girls Song" by The Tossers
* "Drunken Lazy Bastard" by The Mahones
* "Breaking Through" by Blood or Whiskey
* "Brennan on the Moor" by The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem (This isn't Celt-punk in form, ony spirit)

Monday, February 25, 2013

eMusic February


I've gotten so far behind in this, I've actually got two months worth of eMusic downloads to write about this time. It's a long one, so hang on! (And don't miss the videos at the bottom)


* The Beat Generation: Music & Poetry by Various Artists.  This is a massive collection -- 132 tracks that lasts more than nine hours. (All for less than $6 for eMusic members.)

It looks like a major chunk of the 3-Disc Rhino Records Collection The Beat Generation ended up here.

Like the subtitle says, there's music -- including classics by bop and cool jazz giants like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk,  Gerry Mulligan and more -- and there's poetry and other readings by the beat elite -- Jack Keruoac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti ... And there's combinations of poetry and jazz that the beats were so noted. My favorite of these here being Kenneth Rexroth's "Married Blues," recited over a bluesy number by an unidentified jazz combo.

There's also Beat comedy including Lenny Bruce's "Psychopathia Sexualis," and the entire How to Speak Hip album by Del Close and John Brent (plus Close's Do It Yourself Psychoanalysis Kit.) There's a few songs poking fun at the crazy beatniks, such as Perry Como's "Like Young" and Bob McFadden & DOR's song "The Beat Generation." This song, written by Rod McKuen served 20 years later as Richard Hell's inspiration for the punk-rock manifesto "Blank Generation."

And there's several interviews with Beat icons and lengthy news features on the Beatnik phenomenon by journalists like Charles Kuralt and Howard K. Smith.

The best way to listen to this massive, over-stuffed, everything-including-the-kitchen-sink compilation is on shuffle mode. Hearing the inspired music, poetry and writings by these visionary artists juxtaposed with the jokers, the probing, sometimes dismissive interviewers makes me realize the Beats truly were onto something big. The rest of the world seemed torn between wanting to jump in and join the fun or belittle it as something foreign and vaguely threatening. Yes, the Beats were onto something. But most, including the Beats themselves never really figured out what it was.

(And in case you hadn't guessed, this mad collection was the inspiration for my recent Big Enchilada podcast Bargain Basement Beatniks. Dig it!)


* Live at Max's Kansas City by The Troggs. Back in the latter days of the British Invasion, The Troggs were the most overtly primitive of the hitmakers. "Wild Thing" and "I Can't Control Myself" couldn't really be called "garage" music. It was more like something-living-under-the-garage rock.

Troggs frontman Reg Presley died Feb. 4.

This record, originally released in 1981, was recored at the famed New York punk cradle in the late '70s or early '80s. The Stooges unquestionably were influenced by The Troggs, but here The Troggs sound like they've been influenced by The Stooges.

And that's not a bad thing. They sound supercharged. You can hear echoes of Iggy on the cover of The Stones' "Satisfaction" and even on covers of Chuck Berry classics like "No Particular Place to Go" and "Memphis."

Yes, Reg and pals playing the obligatory "Wild Thing" and "Love is All Around," but more exciting are lesser-known songs like "Strange Movie" (a Reg original) and "Gonna Make You."

This makes my heart sing.

* Feel It by The Raunch Hands Bigg Top. Back in 2007, it had been 14 years or so since The Raunch Hands had recorded a studio album (Fuck Me Stupid, 1993) Their guitarist Mike Mariconda was working with another band in Austin when, he decided to call his old Raunch mates, singer Michael Chandler and drummer Mike Edison to help out.

The result was this fine stripped down rock 'n' soul screamer. It's slightly slicker than The Raunch Hands of yore -- but only slightly. There was plenty of filth and fury on this album, starting with the opening cut "Sophisticated Screw."

There's a crunching cover of an Andre Williams song that keeps crossing my path in recent months, "Mojo Hannah," but my favorite is the crazed  "One Way Ride," which has a refrain where Chandler slyly quotes a Bessie Smith song, "Moan all you moaners!"


* The Very Best of Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart. I'm a newcomer to Slim Gaillard. Back a few months ago when I was raving about Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, a friend pointed me the way to Slim, who I realize shared a spiritual kinship with the jive-talking Hipster.

Jive talk? Gaillard invented his own damned language! Seriously. He called it "vout" His performances were so wild, Jack Keruoac even wrote about him in On the Road.


'... one night we suddenly went mad together again; we went to see Slim Gaillard in a little Frisco nightclub. Slim Gaillard is a tall, thin Negro with big sad eyes who's always saying 'Right-orooni' and 'How 'bout a little bourbon-arooni.' In Frisco great eager crowds of young semi-intellectuals sat at his feet and listened to him on the piano, guitar and bongo drums. When he gets warmed up he takes off his undershirt and really goes. He does and says anything that comes into his head. ..."
The material in this generous collection (54 tracks) was recorded a couple of decades before On the Road, when Gaillard  was playing with pianist Slam Stewart as Slim & Slam. It's got the duo's first hit, "The Flat Foot Floogie," as well as novelty hits like "Groove Juice Special," "Dopey Joe," "African Jive," the insane "Laughin' in Rhythm," and perhaps their best known song, "Chinatown, My Chinatown."

I'm no stuffy audiophile, but even my old ears can tell that the sound quality is pretty bad on some cuts. In particular, the pretty ballad "Champagne Lullaby" apparently was recorded off a scratchy old 78 with little, if anything done to mitigate the defects.

But for the most part this album is right-orooni.

* Mr. Supernatural by King Khan & The Shrines.  This was a happy discovery. It's an early (2004) Shrines album, one I didn't have before. None of the songs here even appear on the compilation The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines, so it was all new to me.

For the unitiated, Arish Khan is a Canadian who immigrated to Germany several years ago. The Shrines is a Berlin-based soul band complete with funky horn section (and for live performances, a lovely cheerleader.)

The thing that has amazed me about this band from the first time I ever heard them is how much Khan messes around, how much energy he puts into dirty jokes and silly costumes, and other fucking around. And yet this band is extremely tight and energetic. As I saw for myself at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago a few years ago, thsi band is a powerhouse.

My favorite songs here are "Frogman," an urgent workout showcasing organist Freddy Rococo, and "I Gomez," a fast-paced chugger which at one point seems to borrow the refrain from Steppenwolf's "Sookie Sookie."

* Phosgene Nightmares by The Black Angels. The Angels are my favorite young band of psychedelic commandos from Texas.  This is a six-song EP, a B-sides collection released especially for Record Store Day in April 2011, just a few months after their 2010 album Phosphene Dream. 

The first thing I noticed about this this album is that it's more laid back than their other albums -- which tend to be full-fledged sonic excursions. Some tracks here basically are acoustic numbers. You even can hear country music echoes in "At Night," while "Choose to Choose" might be a channeled Buddy Holly song.

But on "Entance (Rain Dance Version)" you definitely can tell it's the Black Angels kicking open your doors of perception.

Heads up: The Angels are scheduled to release a new full-length album, Indigo Meadow in April.

* Lady from Shanghai by Pere Ubu. Ubu mastermind David Thomas and crew, this time around, are apparently obsessed with dance music.

I’m not kidding.

“Smash the hegemony of dance. Stand still. The dancer is puppet to the dance. It’s past time somebody put an end to this abomination. Lady From Shanghai is an album of dance music fixed.” Cryptic as it is, this quotation from Ubu’s website just about says it all.

Just about. But I said more a few weeks back in Terrell's Tuneup. Read that HERE.

*  Introducing Seasick Steve. I guess you could call bluesman Steven Wold a late bloomer. The ex-hobo, ex-session musician and now ex-pat (living in Norway)was in his 60s released his first album Cheap in 2004.

This compilation is a modest compilation of five of his early recordings. There's a couple of tracks from Cheap with his old trio Level Devil, including the title song, which could fit in with most any punk-trash-blues project coming out of Voodoo Rhythm Records.

Also here are a couple from his second album Dog House Blues including the John Lee Hooker-influenced title song. And there's the title song from a 2007 EP It's All Good, featuring Seasick talking and singing over a repeated lick similar to the main hook on Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile.."

This is a decent introduction -- it's all good, you might say -- but I wish eMusic would offer some of those early works in their entirety.

Plus

* Conjure Man by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkeybirds. This is a new single by Kid Congo Powers (formerly of The Cramps, The Gun Club and Nick Cave's Bad Seeds) It's a slow, smokey, minor-key psychedelic tune that wouldn't sound out of place on a The Black Angels record. The "flip side" (yes, there are two songs), "Lose Your Mind" has a Bo Diddley beat behind Kid Congo's growled vocals. This set is here to whet our appetites before the release of the new Monkeybirds album Haunted Head, expected in the near future.

* tUnE-yArDs as Yoko by tUnE-yArDs. This is a two song collection. I picked it up for "We're All Water," which is is my favorite Yoko Ono song of all times. I still prefer the original, on the John & Yoko album Somewhere in New York, on which Yoko is backed up by the rough and rowdy Elephant's Memory.

But I am a new fan of  tUnE-yArDs, which features a gal named Merrill Garbus creating crazy sounds from percussion and vocal tape loops.

The flip side here is a Yoko song, "Warrior Woman" remixed by tUnE-yArDs. According to Pitchfork, this project is part of a series of singles Ono is currating to benefit the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, which was set up to aide victims of Hurricane Sandy. Proffitrs from the vinyl versions and 100 percent of the download income from these records go to the Alliance.

Check out this video of a live version of "We're All Water" with a cameo by Yoko herself.



* "Strip Polka" by The Andrews Sisters. Believe it or not, this is one of two songs my late mother taught me as a kid. Actually she just taught me the first verse of this saga of Queenie, the cutie of the burlesque show. I always joked this is what led me to write my song "Naked Girls."

A couple of weeks before Mom died, I played her a YouTube of "Strip Polka" on my iPhone, in the nursing home. She wasn't completely conscious, but she smiled. The nurses thought I was crazy. But it meant something to us



Wednesday, January 23, 2013

eMusic January

Here's a month's worth of downloads on my eMusic account.


* Daddy Rockin' Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos.  Never heard of Nolan Strong or The Diablos? Don't feel bad. I didn't either. I downloaded this because it has songs by The Dirtbombs, The Reigning Sound, The A-Bones, Andre Williams,  Lenny Kaye and many more greats.

And I wasn't disappointed.

A little historical backtracking here. After enjoying the various interpretations of songs by this mystery man, I learned that Strong, who died in 1977, was a Detroit doo-wop and R&B lord, who was on Fortune Records, the same label as Williams and the late Nathaniel Mayer.

 Strong was known mainly for a minor hit called "The Wind." This is one of those spooky quasi-mystical doo-wop ballads where the singer seemingly pours out his soul from some distant, barren edge of reality.

Mark Sultan covers it here as the opening number. He gives it a dramatic instrumental intro before slowing down to a crawl and delivering the song in a sad falsetto.

The Dirtbombs take on "Daddy Rockin' Strong," which basically is a fairly faithful rewrite of "Daddy Rolling Stone." This version is a tough garage-band take that makes me look forward to some new material from The Dirtbombs.

The Reigning Sound does a fine job on "Mind Over Matter." This one reminds me of Bob Seger's  classic "Ramblin', Gamblin' Man." Meawhile, The Hentchmen's take on "Mambo of Love" is nothing short of a hoot. Is this the birth of punk mambo?

Kaye, Patti Smith's longtime guitarist, does a slow, soulful and reverent interpretation of "I Wanna Know." Williams, backed by The A-Bones practically loves to death the song "The Way You Dog Me Around."

Honestly, there isn't a bad cut on this tribute. Hopefully someone will make available some of Strong's own music sometime soon.

* Crash the Party by Benny Joy. This is just the first of the multi-volume retrospective of this Florida rockabilly who never made it to the same stratosphere as Elvis, Jerry Lee and Gene Vincent.

But this joyful noise sounds like he had a lot of fun trying.

This 15-song set includes some of Joy's best-known songs -- "Spin the Bottle," "Crash the Party," and "Button Nose," (which seems based around the basic "Peter Gunn" riff). There are several demos of Joy alone with his guitar, and some soulful ballads like "I Remember Darling" and "We'll Meet Again."

Several teenage lust tunes here will take you straight to Riverdale High circa 1959. I'm talking about "Miss Bobbie Sox," "Steady With Betty" and especially "In Study Hall," which contains the immortal rhyme, "Her eyes were blue / Her hair was pretty too."

* Slaughterhouse by Ty Segall Band. This is one of three (!) albums the prolific Californian released this year. I like Slaughterhouse best because it’s the noisiest and the most relentlessly rocked out, though there’s enough melody to keep it interesting. It’s a wild and thrilling show from the first cut, and blah blah blah ...

Sound familiar? I wrote a little more about this album in Terrell's Tuneup not long ago.  Indeed, this was one of my top 10 albums of 2012. Check that out HERE. (And seriously, it gets better with each listen.)

Plus:
* "I Can't Get No Nookie" and "I Am the Japanese Sandman" from The Complete Deity Recordings by The Masked Marauders. No that's not Mick Jagger growling "I Can't Get No Nookie" here. And none of The Beatles really took part in "Japanese Sandman." This entire album, originally released in 1969, is based on a joke review by Greil Marcus (using the nom de spoof T.M. Christian) in Rolling Stone about a supposed bootleg of a supposed "supergroup" session that included Bob Dylan and various Beatles and Stones. Amazingly, many readers took the review serious. Marcus and Rolling Stone crony Landon Winner couldn't resist recruiting a Berkeley band,  Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band (which sounds more fake than "The Masked Marauders") to record some of the songs mentioned in the review. Most people just forgot about this silly lark, but whispers of the fabled supergroup apparently survived into the new millennium. The Masked Marauders actually got the Snopes treatment in 2007.

* And, (tipping my hand that the downloads listed my January eMusic post weren't really downloaded in January)  ... several Christmas songs! It seems like forever ago, but I nabbed "Christmas Tree on Fire" by Holly Golightly and "City of Christmas Ghosts" by Poly Styrene & Goldblade (both from A Damaged Christmas Gift for You) and "Papa Ain't No Santa Claus, Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree" by Butterbeans & Susie and "Santa's Helper" by Joe Poovey (both from a compilation called Papa Ain't No Santa Claus, Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree). I used all of these on the 2012 Big Enchilada Christmas Special.


Friday, December 21, 2012

eMusic December

* Songs of a Freeborn Man by Jimmy Martin. When most casual bluegrass think of the classic performers of the genre, they usually think in terms of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and The Stanley Brothers. But there's another name that belongs in that pantheon -- Jimmy Martin.

 A veteran of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys -- and a longtime devotee of Monroe's music -- Martin, whether he meant to or not, infused a rock 'n' roll spirit into his music. Anyone who's enjoyed Junior Brown ripping through Martin's signature song, "Freeborn Man," could testify to that. Martin doesn't use any electric instruments on his version (or anywhere else here for that matter), but you can hear the blues in his soul and the growl in his voice.

 This is hardly a collection of essential Martin recordings. The 25 tracks on this album, released after the turn of the century, are compiled from three different projects, according to Jon Weisburger in a No Depression review:

 "... a late 1950s home recording of Martin and two of his greatest Sunny Mountain Boys (with bass overdubbed years later), a live album originally released in 1990, and an album of duets recorded in the early 1990s that may or may not have been sold at his record table for a brief period .... 

 Those duet partners include Little Jimmy Dickens, Leonna Williams, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs and Jett Williams. Most of the stars wisely don't try to dominate the feisty Martin.

One strange aspect of this album is that tacked on to the songs that begin and end the album is a snatch of a tune not by, but about Martin. It's Gary Brewer singing s "Jimmy Martin Songs for Dinner," a re-written version of Tom T. Hall's "Bill Monroe for Breakfast."

 On the first track, the Brewer song and Martin's "Made in the Shade If a Tree Don't Fall" are separate by the outgoing message on Martin's answering machine that features the barks of one of his coon dogs. Later there's a song about "Pete the Best Coon Dog in the State of Tennessee."

One of my other favorites here is about another one of Martin's animals, "Jimmy's Mule" which features some world-class hee-hawing by Martin.

There's not a bad track on here, although there's a few too many over-covered bluegrass standards here for my own tastes -- "The Sunny Side of the Mountain," "Molly and Tenbrooks," the obligatory "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" etc. Of course Martin does all of these justice. And his version of "Little Maggie" is just wonderful.

* Putrifiers II by Thee Oh Sees. I only became a fan of this San Francsco group earlier this year when I saw them on the same bill as The Gories and Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds in Austin during South by Southwest. With both a male and female vocalist (John Dwyer and Bridget Dawson), they're a cool blend of garage pop with some almost Black Angel-like psychedelic overtones. You might even hear some overtones of Yo La Tengo.

Soon after seeing them, I downloaded last year's Carrion Crawler/The Dream, which verified my first impression of Thee Oh-Sees as a band I wanted to follow.

However, this one, their latest album, released in September, is something of a disappointment. No, it's not bad and it starts out strong with a couple of fuzzed-out rockers, "Wax Face' and a glam-rock contender called "Hang a Picture."

Later on there's some fine treats like "Flood's New Light" (a song showing the influence of '60s soul) and "Lupine Dominus," which, after 25 seconds or so of a piercing organ note and electronic sputtering, breaks into a high-powered romp that sounds like the work of a rock 'n' roll cargo-cult that worships The Beatles' Revolver.

If the rest of the album was half as impressive as "Lupine Dominus" I wouldn't be complaining . Unfortunately too many of the remaining songs are anemic. There's the plodding title song; the dreamy flower-power reminiscent "So Nice"; and, speaking of The Fab 4, "Wicked Park" sounds like Dwyer and Dawson imitating Robyn Hitchcock imitating The Beatles.

I have to admit that I've come to enjoy "Will We Be Scared," which sounds like a girl-group era tune performed by Martians.

So I'm not giving up on Thee Oh Sees. I just hope they pick up the pace on their next reccord.


* Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine? by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson. I've got Ronny Elliott to thank for sparking my interest in this proto rocker. So I'll give Ronny the task of explaining the story of the man born Harry Raab, who had played piano for Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and other greats. (from Ronny's song "Handsome Harry the Hipster." on his album I've Been Meaning to Write.)

“In the ’40s, Harry began pumpin’ up the rhythm, and tearin’ up the keyboards,” Elliot drawls. “With rollicking songs like ‘Handsome Harry the Hipster’ and ‘Get Your Juices at the Deuces,’ he was bringing hip Manhattan its first taste of rock ’n’ roll.”
Gibson in his songs sang about the joys of drugs. The title song of this collection, some say, got him "blacklisted" -- though I have to wonder whether it was his own drug habit that made it hard for him to find work in the late '40s and  '50s instead of evil censors -- whoever they were -- upset over that one funny novelty song. (I mean, hell, the song "Wacky Dust" hardly stunted Ella Fitzgerald's career. Cab Calloway did lots of songs about dope and he did OK.)

This album consists of material Gibson did in the '70s and '80s. Many if not most of the songs are dope humor that make Cheech & Chong seem sophisticated. The first words out of his mouth on the opening track "Hey Man! You Just Mde My Day" are "I'm the kind of guy who likes to get high on reefer, hash and snow." Then there's "I Flipped My Wig in San Francisco" and "I Want to Go Back to My Little Grass Shack" (Grass! Get it?)

But there's something irresistible about Harry the Hipster , especially on the songs where he's backed by a tasty little jazz combo. And the 7-minute THC-laden shaggy-dog tale "Me and Max" can't help but remind you of those long hilarious stories Tom Waits told, to similar musical accompaniment, on Nighthawks at the Diner.

Read more about Gibson HERE and find Ronny Elliot's latest album HERE

* Sinner Man by Esquerita. This album comes from sessions recorded in New York City in 1966. Esquerita sings and plays piano and organ, sometimes switching back and forth during the course of a song. He’s accompanied only by a drummer, whose name has been lost to history.

The fiery eight-minute title track that opens the album (there’s also a shorter version later) should be required listening for any student of soul music. Inspired by Nina Simone’s take on the old spiritual, Esquerita pounds the piano as frantically as his drummer pounds the skins. He sings “Running to the Lord/He told me to go on to the devil” like someone who had just had that conversation a few minutes before. And when he sings “Went to the devil/The devil he was waiting,” you can almost smell the brimstone.

Sound familiar? I reviewed this in Terrell's Tune-up not long ago. CLICK HERE to read the full review.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

eMUSIC November

* Gumbo Stew by various artists. Yes, it was the cover art that first attracted me to this collection. The cover features a colorized photo of Prince La La in full Afro/Mardi Gras regalia with a couple of his "subjects" in even more colorful clothes.

Prince La La (born Lawrence Nelson) is only one of the New Orleans icons on Gumbo Stew. There's Eddie Bo, Cornell Dupree, a young Dr. John and several others who are even lesser known outside of the world of Crescent City music fanatics.

The album is a compilation of material of the small but influential New Orleans label AFO, started by musicians' musician Harold Battiste. AFO was short for "All For One," the guiding principal of the company, which Battiste started to give local musicians a fairer deal that the national labels. ("All For One" also is the name of a soulful song done here by singer Willie Tee.)

You won't find many big hits here. Apparently another version of the collection contained "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)" by Barbara George, a song I remember from my youth. For some reason it's not on the album I downloaded from eMusic. But that's just a small mistake. There's plenty to make up for that.

Gumbo Stew kicks off with a breezy, funky jazz instrumental called "Olde Wine" credited tot he AFO Executives. Then the hoodoo starts with "Mojo Hannah" by Tami Lynn, a song covered earlier this year by Andre Williams, who co-wrote it in the early '60s. It's also been covered by Esther Phillips, Aaron Neville and Marvin Gaye, who according to Dan Phillips at the Home of the Groove blog, was the first to record it.

Prince La La's contribution here is "Things Have Changed," an upbeat tune driven by exotic-sounding percussion, piano and flute. Eddie Bo's "Tee Na Na Na Na Nay" takes you right to the Mardi Gras, while Dr. John with keyboardist Ronnie Baron play "My Key Don't Fit," an easy-going number with hints of Dixieland. Meanwhile, gruff-voiced Wallace Johnson name-checks early TV detectives like Peter Gunn and Richard Diamond on "Private Eye."

Some songs sound like they were recorded in the late '60s. These include Alvin Robinson's "Tuned In, Turned On" (co-written by that crafty old Night Tripper, Dr. John) and the funky instrumental "Ignant" by Cornell Dupree.

Definitely the most twisted song on Gumbo Stew is "I Found Out" by Willie Tee. It's a song about a poor guy who meets the love of his life. But when she takes him home to meet her family, he finds his aunt and uncle. "I found out you are my cousin/And now there'll be no more lovin' ..." Willie sings.

There's two other Gumbo Stew albums available on eMusic, More Gumbo Stew and Still Spicy Gumbo Stew. If you're a casual fan New Orleans R&B, these should deepen your appreciation.

* I Bet on Sky by Dinosaur Jr.  The 21st century version of  Dinosaur Jr is more melodic than it was back in its young days. But the intensity remains.

As has been the case since the band’s early days, J. Mascis is still the indisputable frontman. He wrote and sings most of the songs on Sky — his high-pitched whine still provides the emotional center for Dinosaur Jr., while his trademark stormy guitar solos dominate the proceedings. And yes, Uncle Neil is still a huge influence.

Sound familiar? I reviewed this in Terrell's Tuneup a few weeks ago, along with the latest Mission of Burma album. See that HERE

* Meat and Bone by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Eight years after The Blues Explosion's previous album, this comeback effort is a dandy, stuffed full of the maniacal, irreverent, rompin’-stompin’ sounds that shook the free world back in the ’90s.

All the old intensity is evident on “Black Mold,” the riff-driven first song of the new album. The tune was inspired by Spencer’s discovery of a box of records that had gotten damp and moldy in his basement.

This sound familiar also? I review this in yet another Terrell's Tuneup column. See that one HERE.
 PLUS

*  "Sweet Jenny Lee" and "St. Louis Blues" by Cab Calloway. I've been nibbling at the Cab Calloway collection The Early Years 1930-1934 for years now. I had a couple of tracks left over at the end of the month, so I nabbed these. I especially like "Sweet Jenny Lee," a song that's also been covered by western-swing giants like Bob Wills and Milton Brown. Willie Nelson did a great version also on his collaboration with Asleep at the Wheel a couple of years ago.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

eMusic October

Play Nine Songs with Mr. Quintron by The Oblivians. Here's a band that's on the verge of a comeback. These garage-punk icons from Memphis broke up back in 1997. Though they've regrouped since then -- they toured with The Gories a few years back -- the trio hasn't had an album of new material since the old days. Until later this year. They've recorded a new one on In the Red Records, allegedly titled "Desperation" and reportedly ready to pounce before the end of the year.

Mr. Quintron was the Oblivian's last studio album before they broke up. It's an unusual effort in that they actually do play with Mr. Quintron, an German-born organist/one-man band based in New Orleans. his own music is an upbeat swampy mix of techno and R&B. The session with The Oblivians brought ought the blues, R&B, soul and gospel influence of both acts.

Best tunes here are gospel-fired tunes like "Ride That Train" and "What's the Matter Now" (featuring Greg Oblivian shouting "The Holy Ghost is in me!"). But I also like the slow, spookhouse/lounge sound on "Final Stretch."

* 8-Eyed Spy by Lydia Lunch. No-Wave boho rocker/poet/noise demon Lydia Lunch made Joan Jet look like Joannie Cunningham. 8-Eyed Spy was her band after she left Teenage Jesus & The Jerks. Though they didn't last very long (they broke up after their drummer George Scott died) Lunch and 8 Eyed Spy combined the no-future detachment of  No Wave with a rootsy funk sensibility.

The album contains several covers. There's a version of "Diddy Wah Diddey" which is closer to Captain Beefheart's cover than the Bo Diddley original. There's a live version of The Strangeloves'  "I Want Candy" but the tape is so lo-fi it makes you wish for a studio version.

Even before The Gun Club covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's swampy nightmare "Run Through the Jungle," Lydia ran through that jungle with the devil on the loose. I haven't decided which did the scariest version.

I mentioned Nancy Sinatra's "Lightning's Girl" in last month's eMusic report. That song always reminded me of  "My Boyfriend's Back" by The Angels -- though Nancy's Lightning seemed more dangerous than The Angels' boyfriend. The boyfriend might beat you up. Lightning would skin you alive. Lunch's Lightning might just saute your brian too.

Most of the originals are wothwhile too. "Motor Oil Shanty" goes deep into the swamp, while "Looking for Someone," with Pat Irwin's greasy sax" sounds like a punk take on crime jazz. And is that a subtle disco influence I hear on "Lazy in Love" ?


Trubble Trubble and Bloody Mary by King Salami. The old fashioned 45 seems to be the preferred medium of this British soul/punk/funk/garage band out of England. Except for one album on the German Soundflat Records a couple of years ago (14 Blazin' Bangers -- I reviewed it HERE -- scroll down), most  music of his available seem to be two-song sets like these. (Mojo Workout has a generous four songs).

The four songs on these recent downloads show that Salami and crew continuing their basic good-time soul shakedown. Salami has long been an admirer of Barrence Whitfield & The Savages, so it's fitting that he tackles "Bloody Mary," (written by original Savage bassist Phil Lenker) with such abandon.

The rest of the songs also are energetic, frantic ass-shakers for which King Salami should be much better known.


Unsound  by Mission of Burma This will be the third or fourth time I've publicly raved about the fact that this Boston "post-punk" (is that what they called it) band after taking a near two-decade breakcame back from the dead and not only made a great comeback album (ONoffON, 2004) but continued to make great records ever since -- arguably just as powerful as their early '80swork.

They came back. And they stayed.

Sound familiar? Perhaps you read this only yesterday in Terrell's Tuneup. Read my full review HERE.


TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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