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#lizzie- lead guitar and some back up vocals
dammarchy211 · 2 years
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OKAY BETTER OLDER DESIGNS FUCK
I hate shoving a bunch of art into one post bc it never does well but w/e im doing it anyway</3
So! Raz and Lili are taking a more long term mission in a big city! So they have their own tiny apartment and Dogen is there too sometimes as their “man in the chair” type deal but I haven’t drawn him yet lol. As for other characters! They befriended Kitty when they were about 13-14 (was very hard they were all mean to eachother at first) because she had entered the intern program and was assigned to Cher! Now her, Lili, Frazie, and Lizzie are in a shitty mostly cover band bc I said so. Norma went very headfirst into the whole agent thing, but mostly takes up detective type missions, she just finds them more fun. Naturally Dion stuck with the circus, but Frazie’s mostly doing her own thing, kinda trying to find her calling for the most part, this stresses both Dion and Norma out gjfhdk. I have design stuff for other characters like Sasha n Milla as well as some oc stuff but I’ll post those later
!Blood/light gore/needle warning under the cut! Scar backstory ish baybyy
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Tumblr has been kicking my asss with this one picture so if you see it twice or smth or if u don’t see it sorry</3
I wasn’t gonna post the Dex half of this but fuck it it just might not be on the insta post fjfhdkdh
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Ever think about how villains and such wouldn’t be a able to go to the hospital for major injuries and such due to just generally being villains because yeah
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aaronafgash · 1 month
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10 NEW SONGS - 2/16/24
No significant new albums to note today but a ton of singles that are worth discussing - much more fruitful than last week. Without further ado:
1. TEXAS HOLD ‘EM - Beyoncé
Beyoncé is BACK. After a fun Verizon Super Bowl ad, she surprised everyone and dropped two new singles. As many others have noted online, it appears that the theme of this Renaissance trilogy is Bey reclaiming genres of music that were created by Black artists but popularized by White ones. She tackled house music first, and now she’s onto country.  Listening to “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” has me yearning for a proper cowboy bar to line dance / honky-tonk in. She effortlessly flows on the track, sounding completely in her element despite having just a few “country” songs in her discography (if you liked “Daddy Lessons” from Lemonade, I promise you’ll love this). I haven’t been able to stop singing “And I'll be damned if I can't slow-dance with you / Come pour some sugar on me, honey too” all week.
2. 16 CARRIAGES - Beyoncé
“16 CARRIAGES” feels like a proper B-side single - a slower, building ballad that really makes you feel something. Just an incredible vocal performance and some truly beautifully written lyrics as she reflects on how hard she’s grinded in the music industry since she was 15 years old: It's been thirty-eight summers, and I'm not in my bed / On the back of the bus in a bunk with the band / Goin' so hard, now I miss my kids / Overworked and overwhelmed”. Beyoncé has been constantly reinventing herself for over two decades now - I can’t wait to hear what her iteration of a full-blown country record sounds like.
3.  Older - Lizzie McAlpine
Typically, I am not a fan of the slow, simple, stripped-down pop ballads, but Lizzie McAlpine’s take on that has me hooked. On “Older”, the lead single for her album of the same name, Lizzie sings of transitioning into adulthood, with cutting lyrics like “Over and over, watch it all pass / Mom's getting older, I'm wanting it back / Where no one is dying, and no one is hurt / And I have been good to you instead of making it worse”. I may or may not have cried to this on my commute this morning.
4. Thinking Less - Sinéad Harnett
Sinéad Harnett has been consistently dropping excellent R&B music for a minute now, and “Thinking Less” is par for the course. Over a rhythmic, plucked, syncopated (it's unclear if I used this word correctly) acoustic guitar and a steady beat, Sinéad sings of independence and moving on from a former partner. This vibe pairs so nicely with her first single, “Say Something” - really looking forward to her new album.
5. Cockblocker - Kim Petras
Babe, wake up! Kim Petras dropped an album where she exclusively talks about dicks and sex! “Cockblocker” is hilarious - Kim just lists all the things she likes. You know what she doesn’t like? A cockblocker.
(I just found out that Dr. Luke produced this song and Kim works with him a ton so that sucks, but unfortunately I will still be listening!)
6. Training Season - Dua Lipa
I love Dua Lipa. I love Tame Impala. This song is great, but I don’t love it. I have a feeling it will grow on me (as most her songs tend to do), but it’s absolutely worth a listen regardless. Pro tip - the extended version is significantly better. I’m never mad about new Dua, but I think Future Nostalgia may have set up unrealistically high expectations for her new music.
7. Gen-X Cops - Vampire Weekend
Beyoncé isn't the only artist who's back - Vampire Weekend would like a word! They haven’t dropped an album in 5(!?) years, but they’re finally here with a few new singles. I struggled to pick between the two - I have a feeling that "Capricorn" will grow on me and make sense more in the context of the album - but “Gen-X Cops” grabbed me more, at least initially. It’s upbeat. It’s a bit grungy. It's got a thumping bassline. And I love Ezra singing the line “Each generation makes its own apology”.
8. Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In The Mouth - Caroline Polachek
Released as a bonus track to Caroline Polachek’s excellent 2023 album Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, “Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In The Mouth” is simply a bop. I love how it builds for 45-ish seconds before bringing to bass and drums together to set the tone for the rest of the track. Add some of those heavenly, airy vocals with weird lyrics on top, and it’s everything I could ever want in a Caroline Polachek song.
9. Inaka - Mei Semones
I’ve been trying to put people onto Mei Semones for years now. Seamlessly oscillating between English and Japanese lyrics, I never really know which direction her music is going to go, but I’m always along for the ride - this is definitely true on “Inaka”. I love the use of backing orchestral strings on this track in particular. She’s often described as a “jazz” artist, but I wouldn’t even begin to try to put her in a box.
10. Like This - Buddy
Years ago, I went to see Aminé live in Milwaukee. Buddy was an opener. I knew a few Buddy songs so I was looking forward to seeing him. A rapper came up on stage and started performing who I thought was Buddy. He was bad. I was bummed. After his set, another rapper came on stage and he rocked. THAT was Buddy! Anyways, this song is great. Jazzy, smooth beat. Laid back flow. Everything I want in a Buddy song.
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doomedandstoned · 1 year
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Depraved NYC Rockers MICK’S JAGUAR Turn Loose “Georgian Pine”
~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~
By Billy Goate
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Sometimes you're just in the mood for an old fashioned, beer drinking, bottle breaking rock 'n' roll good time and MICK'S JAGUAR surely delivers. Their new record holds nothing back lyrically, with titles like "Speed Dealer," "Molotov Children," "Nothing to Lose," and "Free On The Street" (which I've been singing a lot lately). Then there's the band's three guitar attack! Musically, 'Salvation' (2022) is a rousing, fist-raising, fire-starting nightbreed that scratches all the right itches for me.
Today, Doomed & Stoned is bringing you an advance listen to its closing track, "Georgian Pine," which vocalist/guitarist Grace Hollaener tells us "is inspired by Matthew McConaughey's performance as Moondog in Harmony Korine's masterpiece The Beach Bum. It's an anthem for the apathetic resistance (see trend of 'quiet quitting') to the horrors of proto-fascism, climate change, and late capitalism that plague our modern condition. It's also a cracker jack little ditty about getting high and eating fast food."
"We always like to throw a curveball with the album closer," says singer John Martin. "So, when Grace took over lead vocals for this pop banger sans guitar solo, we figured it is the perfect way to find 'Salvation' after the nine pissed off tracks that came before. It's the sun coming up after a blackout night at the bar. Maybe things will be okay after all."
If you're ready to "turn on, tune in, drop out" when you read the day's headlines, "Georgian Pine" may be just the medicine for you.
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Mick’s Jaguar will be releasing Salvation on December 2nd via Tee Pee Records/Totem Cat Records (pre-order here). Stick it on a playlist with Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Sex Pistols, Mudhoney, and The Shrine.
Give ear...
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LISTEN: Mick's Jaguar - "Georgian Pine"
SOME BUZZ
Born in the wild, alive to stalk death, and destined to make righteous noise via the annihilation of shit rock, Mick's Jaguar is a force to reckon with.
Formed in Brooklyn many moons ago, as a one-off Stones’ covers band for an impromptu New Year’s Eve party, at its core, the NYC collective is the bastard son of an unholy union between Judas Priest and Guns N' Roses.
Their debut album – 2018’s 'Fame and Fortune' – received praise from both American and European press alike, with Classic Rock Magazine noting that the only way to describe their sound is, "If Ace Frehley was in Thin Lizzy and it was the summer of 1977...and they were all really into the Sex Pistols...and AC/DC."
Since 2018, the band has toured nationwide, making appearances at the inaugural Psycho Smokeout in Los Angeles and Desertfest New York, as well as opening for legendary punk and hard rock acts like Airborne, The Adicts, and Turbonegro’s late/great Hank von Hell.
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After losing their original bassist amidst the dense jungle boughs of Thailand, Mick’s Jaguar have since enlisted close friends Jack Ridley (Drowners) and Aaron Roche (Wye Oak, Anhoni, Tōth) to record another round of ten, bar fighting rock tracks at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Recording with engineer Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Alanis Morissette). The result? Their killer new record, Salvation, which once again finds the band living too late, bound for hell and quite possibly, the last great rock and roll band on the planet.
“Like every band says at every show these days, it feels incredible to be back,” says vocalist John Martin. “But after the last three years of bullshit, this is the music you need to hear. Having both Tee Pee and Totem Cat in our corner is huge too. We're stoked to see there's a new wave of bands coming up that are making music for rock fans like us.”
'Salvation' by Mick’s Jaguar is released 2nd December on Tee Pee Records/Totem Cat Records.
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existentialmagazine · 2 years
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Review: Darcey Hope new folk-pop single ‘Just a Phase’ that preaches letting ago amongst a soundscape of haunting delicacy
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Back again only a mere few weeks after her last single ‘Autumn Sky’, folk-pop singer-songwriter Darcey Hope is returning yet again with another heart-wrenching tune ‘Just a Phase.’ Her inspiration in the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Lizzy Mcalpine and Kacey Musgraves truly shows itself within her recent work, but Darcey is sure to bring her own flair and individuality to everything she puts out to the world, and ‘Just a Phase’ is no exception to that.
As a whirring tape sound gently leads us into the experience that is ‘Just a Phase’, it’s clear from the moment the acoustic guitar follows that this track is one that might leave you in need of some tissues to wipe your tears away - but sometimes, that’s what you really need. With delicate strums solely paired along with Darcey’s hauntingly angelic singing, ‘Just a Phase’ intends to keep things as raw as possible as to enhance the narrative and tug on your heart strings just that little bit harder as you ache to the weary strums. Picking up a little in the second verse, the soundscape adds another layer of depth and volume in a striking drum beat to truly bring a gravity and confidence to Darcey’s poignantly sung vocals for just a short while. This pacing picks up once again towards the end of ‘Just a Phase’ , with an even fuller array of instrumentals from flute to wonderfully harmonised backing vocals, before shifting right back to the simple yet hard-hitting softened strums. There’s an evident ebb and flow in instrumentals that Darcey has clearly worked incredibly hard to coordinate, making for an almost theatrical listening experience that jumps between melancholic lows in the somber simple guitar tones before hitting infrequent climaxes of full-blown instrumentals that adds just a little much needed brightness into the mix without taking anything away from the pain below. Pieced together with her vocals at the very forefront, the most emotionally evocative part of ‘Just a Phase’ finds itself within Darcey’s mesmerising yet intimate vocal performance that works as both a comfort and a cause of heart-ache in this three minute experience.
If the sound of ‘Just a Phase’ wasn’t enough to draw you in, Darcey has put together quite the touching narrative reflecting on her own teenage years. As she looks back on leaving behind her cliquey high-school and toxic friendships, the lyricism intentionally remains open to interpretation as Darcey hopes that her listeners can attach their own experiences to her words and use it as a step in moving on from the pain they’re still holding onto. From the striking chorus lines that mention ‘remembering you face, as blurry lines I keep misplacing’, there’s an immediate nostalgia as it provokes most to reflect upon those faces they can’t quite picture but hold deep in their memories, as well as the leading line ‘Was it all just a phase? Sleepwalking through these stages’ that look back upon these times with distain. Written somewhere between half conversationally and half poetically, ‘Just a Phase’ bares lines and questions that will be sure to haunt your mind for a long time to come amongst Darcey’s delivery that brings a warmth similar to a friend opening up. It’s clear from every listen of ‘Just a Phase’ that this track is more than just a song, earning its right to be a real transformative piece that carries weight in every line and instrumental choice, forming a sonic experience of unparalleled depth and clarity for listeners to offload their woes and escape.
When talking about the song, she said “It’s been so therapeutic for me to finally record this song and get it out in the world, it feels like that chapter of my life is closing and the next one is only beginning! I hope the song helps listeners let go of their past, or find solace in what they may be struggling with now.”
Go give a listen to ‘Just a Phase’ for yourself here if Darcey’s comforting soundscape and lyricism made to evoke emotion sounds like the folk-pop single you’ve been dreaming of. You can also find Darcey performing live shows here too, which we’re sure will be just as much as a cathartic experience as listening to her music alone.
Written by: Tatiana Whybrow
Photo Credits: Harry Jenkins
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dustedmagazine · 3 years
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Idle Ray — s/t (Life Like)
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Photo by Simon Joyner
Idle Ray by Idle Ray
Between 2015 and 2018, Fred Thomas released three albums worth of “wildly personal poem-songs about death and upheaval,” as he put it to Aquarium Drunkard, that cracked open a new musical continuum. On All Are Saved, Changer and Aftering, Thomas synthesized the many styles he wears within the indie universe into a coat of so many colors that it seemed limitless. But, surprisingly, after completing the trilogy he felt like he’d said all he could possibly say in the style, and just like that, hung it up. Thomas fans can rejoice over his full-length debut as Idle Ray, though, which slipped out into the world on a Bandcamp Friday in May, and like a punchy sibling of sorts, is still in the direct bloodline of his recent solo work.
Idle Ray is Thomas’ conscious return, after more than 20 years in the game, to how he started: recording guitar-based pop songs on his 4-track. And he’s taking the opportunity while traveling through the past to explore it from new angles. On “Polaroid,” Thomas looks through the viewfinder and sees an old way of living in sharp, self-aware focus, his voice bouncing atop a handclap-enhanced beat that recalls his old band, Saturday Looks Good To Me. He emerges alone with his guitar from behind the bristly cloud of fuzz that’s been building to let a little light in with the refrain, cleanly capping the song at both ends. “I used to have a Polaroid camera/I took it with me everywhere/I used to take pictures of people/so they’d remember I was there.” The narrator is a foil to the one in “House Show, Late December,” Aftering’s muted centerpiece, who carried a disposable for a different reason: searching for meaning in everything — “a vacant storefront, telephone wires, a cloud” — everything, that is, except people.  
There’s a renewed sense of joy to the performance on Idle Ray which is partly the result of Thomas pivoting on the fly. After a couple of years working out the material, he entered, as he put it in the same interview, “a really nice studio” only to emerge with “a mediocre indie rock record” that had sucked the life out of his hook-heavy songs. Thankfully, after scrapping the sessions and plugging in at home, Thomas was able to capture the material’s intended energy. “Dreamed You Were A Dog'' is evidence of this, and, like most songs on Idle Ray, begins by introducing a vaguely menacing scenario: “Twenty times a day the room begins collapsing/Your surroundings slip away.” When the drums hit they pack such a bright punch that they leave a mark, like taking a pair of double-taps from a paintball gun. Thankfully, the track offers an antidote to the unpleasant situation, and a continuation of an idea Thomas first envisioned on All Are Saved, of exchanging places with man’s best friend: “You dreamed you were a dog/You dreamed you had some friends who sometimes asked you what was wrong.” “Dreamed” steadies itself with power-pop poise when the change comes, but a guitar lead that sounds like a gamma ray tuned to Thin Lizzy arrives suddenly, like an unexpected form of punctuation, and sees the song to the door before it reaches the two-minute mark. 
Even Idle Ray’s quieter songs have a loud way about them, with the acoustic guitar and vocals pushed viscerally to the front a la Bee Thousand, although not quite as frayed. The comparison might be more apt in terms of their brevity, and how abruptly they come to an end, giving way to the next song.  The best (and shortest) of the bunch is “Water Comes In Through The Windows,” where Thomas’ singing fluctuates between hushed and cathartic, like Arthur Russell, and his wife, Emily Roll’s (Haunted, XV) backing vocals have this cool, whispery way of lingering in the air for longer than you expect. But their spell is quickly broken by the arrival of the insistent snare that begins “Coat of Many Colors” and the tightly-harnessed fuzz guitar that pulls the song forward towards the verse. And this might be what most distinguishes Thomas’ recent trilogy from this album: If those records are colorful, Idle Ray is textural, and a place where Thomas’ poetic lyrics share the spotlight with the instrumental and vocal hooks. 
Chris Liberato
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Behind The Album: Appetite For Destruction
In July 1987, Guns N’ Roses released their debut album, Appetite For Destruction. The album would go on to become the biggest selling debut record in music history. Furthermore, it would be the 11th highest selling album of all time in the United States. The strange thing was that the record did not actually achieve this immediate success after its release. Its popularity was a very gradual growth that needed the help of singles, a tour, and music videos including their only number one hit “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” The record company, Geffen, did not do much in the way of promotion for the band, Critics at the time did not think very much of the album at first, but now they all agree that Appetite For Destruction now represents a classic album that changed music.
The recording sessions began in January 1987 as the band had signed with Geffen Records six months prior. They could have signed with Chrysalis Records for twice the money, but they would not give them complete artistic freedom. For their part, Geffen Records did not have very much faith in the album anyway pushing the band to release the EP Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide the previous December. The executives did not feel that GNR had enough material to make a full album, but they did not want to miss out on the buzz that was building about their live shows. Most of the tracks for the album had been written while playing their club shows primarily in LA from 1985-1986. As stated previously, they produced a wealth of material that actually went on their other albums, G N’ R Lies and Use Your Illusion I and II. For example, “November Rain” was seriously considered for this album, but they only wanted one ballad on there, which became “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” a love letter to Axl’s girlfriend Erin Everly. The band considered several producers to record the album including Paul Stanley of Kiss and Mutt Lang, who had produced Def Leppard. The rejection of Lang really came down to the producer being too expensive. The first producer they worked with, Spencer Proffer, actually recorded nine tracks with the band, but he was ultimately rejected. They finally chose Mike Clink, who had produced several records by the band,Triumph. The album would be mostly recorded at Rumbo Studios in the San Fernando Valley. One of the reasons for this decision represented the fact that the location was away from Los Angeles, which meant the band members could focus a lot more on the music. The distractions of sex and drugs were problematic from the very beginning. The record company from the time they were signed began to fear that the band would not be around long enough to record any album because one of them was probably going to die very soon. Recording was slow at first because Slash needed to work on perfecting the guitar sound for the album. Once he got that down, the album still took quite a bit of time because Axl Rose demanded that his vocals only be recorded one line at a time. Steven Adler would later say that his drum tracks only took six days. As Axl gradually recorded his vocals, the rest of the band stayed completely away from the studio to let him work. A good number of the tracks for the album had actually been written when band members were in other groups. “Rocket Queen” had been a song written by Duff McKagan, Slash, and Stephen Adler when they had the group, The Road Crew. The song “Anything Goes” had been a Hollywood Rose tune. The lyrics reflected personal experiences of the band members. The song, “Welcome to the Jungle” came from Axl hitchhiking to New York. A homeless stranger came up to him upon arrival and said, “Welcome to the jungle you’re gonna die, man.” The song, “Out To Get Me” had been based on Rose’s troubles with the police that essentially forced him to leave Lafayette, Indiana to avoid prosecution. The song, “Mr. Brownstone was a direct reference to their seemingly full-time pastime of doing heroin. The song” “Paradise City” was written just after a disastrous trip to Seattle for one of their first tours. They had been left stranded on the way there needing to ditch much of their equipment just to make the tour. Paradise City emerged as a reference to Los Angeles upon their return.
GNR needed to battle the record company over the original cover art for the album. They had wanted an image of a robotic rapist being punished by a metal avenger, but record stores said they would not sell the album. Band members would later say that the robotic rapist was a symbol for the industrial system polluting our environment. Sometimes when it comes to Guns N’ Roses, you simply could not make this stuff up. A compromise was finally reached to allow the image to be included on the insert. The cover of the album, which is now iconic actually originated from a tattoo Rose had gotten the year before. Along with his tattoo artist, the singer would receive most of the credit for that logo. A little known fact emerges in that the knot symbol in the cross on the logo was actually a reference to Thin Lizzy. Another creative difference that most people may not realize was that the record did not have an A and B side, but a G and R side. The G side represented songs that took on darker themes like drugs and violence, while the R side were the ones about love, sex, and relationships. Originally, Axl had wanted to have a picture of the Challenger space shuttle exploding as the cover of the album, but the record company refused because it would have been in extremely poor taste.
At first, nobody noticed that the album had even been released. For example, in August 1987 Appetite For Destruction was number 182 on the charts, but exactly one year later the album was number one. Author Stephen Davis said that competition from other groups like Aerosmith and Def Leppard at the time hindered the group's ability to effectively promote the album. Slash would recall, "We thought we'd made a record that might do as well as, say, Motörhead, it was totally uncommercial. It took a year for it to even get on the charts. No one wanted to know about it." Another thing that must be noted that absolutely helped the success of Appetite For Destruction was the music video for “Welcome To The Jungle.” MTV had refused to play the video until David Geffen from the record company requested that the channel play it. The video aired for the first time at 4 AM on a Sunday, but some people saw it that lead to a tremendous number of requests for the video. Surprisingly looking back now, but critics absolutely hated the album at first. Dave Ling of Metal Hammer said the band simply copied other groups like Aerosmith, Hanoi Rocks, and AC/DC, and not very well at that. Other critics believed that the band’s popularity could be wholly attributed to their embrace of sex and drugs in their lyrics. They felt the group was glorifying it at a time when America was suffering from the AIDS epidemic and the war on drugs. Now in retrospect, critics undoubtedly keep lavishing praise upon the album being a turning point as rock and roll turned away from hair metal and glam metal to hard rock. Many agree that it represented the best metal record of the late 1980’s, if not the entire decade. Ann Powers of Rolling Stone would write, it “produced a unique mix of different rock values, speed and musicianship, flash and dirt,” that "changed hard rock's sensibilities at the time." Christa Titus of Billboard also noted that overall Appetite For Destruction embraced multiple other sub genres besides what would become hard rock. The album had, “metal's forceful playing, punk rock's rebellious themes, glam metal's aesthetic, and bluesy guitar riffs that appealed to purists." As other critics brought up that the record was more in line with The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith in the 1970’s, rather than any current band. In 1999, Axl Rose with all new members of Guns N’ Roses re-recorded the entire album. His reasoning had been to utilize new recording technology to improve upon the master. This new version was never released to the public, except for the second half of the song, Sweet Child O’ Mine which can be heard in the credits for the film, Big Daddy. In 2018, the band released a deluxe version of the album including early demos recorded at Sound City, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide remastered, and early versions of the tracks that would eventually land in some form on Use Your Illusion I and II.
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beginagain-- · 4 years
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Support: Pulverise, Sertraline
Date: 29/02/20
Take it all in, for this is the final show of the story of Chasing Dragons. This would be possibly the great show of their careers, it was rowdy, energetic and downright crazy (some might say a touch clumsy from Adam, but that’s because when he came back on stage from the crowd, he immediately crashed into Kate’s drumkit and destroyed it) but enough of the spoilers, this last night, their farewell Leeds show was a triumphant look back into just what makes Chasing Dragons such a great band to experience live and from this, a celebration of just what the independent Hard Rockers have been able to achieve over the last decade together as a band.
Turning things up to eleven from the very start of things were Rap Metal Partycore (at least this is what they go by on their bio) heavy hitters, Pulverise. This was my first time experiencing this band live and wow, they were just a joy to watch! Everything just seemed to flow naturally for this band but it did look as if you were tripping through half their set because that’s why it was so great to watch. You just never really know what you’re going to get from some bands you see for the first time. High energy riffs and headbanging all around, what more could you want to get things going in the Key Club?
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Moving onto the main support of the evening was the Progressive Mettalers; Sertraline. I did have a quick chat with another attendee on the evening, saying that this band were probably the more technical band on the evening and I do have to say that description was fairly accurate. Still, though, the rhythm sections of the band were perfection where the solos cut in to delve into the mix very well. In this, Lizzie’s vocals were tuned almost to perfection where some of the changes from the scream vocals to some of the clean were relatively lacking in some regards to where the changes in quality weren’t as smooth as she’d like it to be. Apart from this though, my only complaint is that their set wasn’t longer because they were pretty fun to watch but I think maybe they gear towards a younger crowd as I think they could’ve gotten a little more out of the audience, especially with their energy output. Still, I’ll be happy to attend a headlining set in the future which I can’t wait to see.
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Now after an anxious wait, Chasing Dragons came onto one smoky but thunderous applause, especially with the appropriately named, ‘How The World Went Black’, to open up their set. Powering through some energetic riffs we’ve all come to know and love, especially where ‘Bare Knuckle Lover’ and ‘Parasite’ (Not at all connected with the Oscar-winning 2020 film of the same name) are concerned. All of this is made captivating by a mix of things; Tank’s vocals which just sound absolutely pristine as she leads the fold, which then goes into Kate erupting behind on the drums where you can just see her slamming away and enjoying every moment, then you have riff master Adam who looks as if he’s about to go ballistic tucked away onto the left hand of the stage but from here, it’s as if he’s cooking something truly spine-tingling and last but not least the deep grumble of the one and only man (but not the only one with facial hair on stage tonight) with some glistening facial hair and even more badass on bass; Murf moving into some slyly duotastic moments with everyone on stage.
Switching things over (into an out of tune guitar at first) to an acoustic part of the show, where Tank did dedicate ‘Bravery, Honestly’ to her wife was just so touching and amazing to witness where you could see her stage presence is unmatched, even if a larger band playing on this stage. Not only did she perform that track, but she also performed Shinedown’s ‘How Did You Love’ and you just can’t imagine anything better right now. The intimacy that came with the timing of these tracks in the set is something that’s really lost on a lot of bands but here, Chasing Dragons deliver a gut-punching few acoustic treatments that just beats anything I’ve seen this year so far and quite possibly, within the last few years.
That wasn’t the end though as they kept pulsating through some crowd-pleasers, ‘For Kingdom, For Glory’, Throw Down For King’ just blow everyone away and surpass the expectations that have come to be expected from this band tonight. There was some crowd surfing going on (This is where I said enough of the spoilers so apologies for the repetition in advance) with Tank and Adam but with him, he immediately loses his balance and crashes into Kate’s drumkit, where she just has the most shocked face on in the world and you have to wonder, the look she has on, is it one of ‘Oh no, not again’!, as if he did it on the previous night as well. But nevertheless, Adam soldiers on and marches straight back to his feet, as if he’s Kyle Reece sent back to protect the bands set if this was a musical Terminator film (which would be interesting to watch, now that I think about.)
The last two tracks Chasing Dragons would ever play you ask? Well, that could only be ‘Spawn Of The Succubus’ and ‘Devil In Her Eyes’. I think it dawned on everyone there, no matter what the energy was during these last two tracks (both were high octane, as it should be) is that they have gone above and beyond throughout this set and lived past expectations of an unsigned band as they should be but now, this will live in the bands memory, or at least Tank’s as she declared, (and I can’t remember the exact word for words she used so don’t hold me to this) that ‘This is my favourite show ever’. And it’s not hard to see why; it’s a packed house, some moshing, high energy and right at the end of the set they bring out the Champagne, of which they got me good! And when I say they got me good, they hit me right in the face with it! It’s a good feeling right there I do have to say. Hopefully, all the band members will spin off into some different musical projects because the talent every individual member has, it would be a shame if they didn’t.
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  Rating 9/10
Live Review: Chasing Dragons @ Key Club Leeds Support: Pulverise, Sertraline Date: 29/02/20 Take it all in, for this is the final show of the story of Chasing Dragons.
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thesinglesjukebox · 4 years
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WHITE REAPER - MIGHT BE RIGHT
[6.25]
"Might" doing a lot of heavy lifting here...
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: I just want to say I suggested this be covered on this here Jukebox back in June of 2019. It was a modern rock banger then, it's a modern rock banger now. It doesn't lean quite as hard into the carnival-ass intro as I wished it did, but the sheer Thin Lizzy of it all is as comfortably cool as a guitar rock song can be. [7]
Josh Langhoff: The name "White Reaper" is completely unearned -- you go in expecting White Wizzard--meets--Grim Reaper and instead get the Adenoidal Strokes. On the other hand, if their entire shtick is pillaging the triple-A dadrock catalog (in this case John Mayer's "New Light") just so they can add bitchin' twin-guitar leads to everything, I am extremely here for it. [9]
Ian Mathers: I am mezmerized at how bad a band name that is, both (a) generally (b) for the generic kind of vaguely grungy indie whatever it is that they make. It sounds like the name of a demon-possessed National Front-loving metal band from an old issue of Hellblazer or something. [3]
Alfred Soto: An impressive bass line and the strength of the solos assuaged my worries about their name -- do you really wanna haunt the stage of the festival circuit with "White Reaper" on your bass drum or whatever? Perhaps "Might Be Right" distills the essence of contemporary AAA tracks; I don't listen much to those stations. For now, though, its anonymous crunch offers minor pleasure. [7]
Juana Giaimo: This is a fun song, with a catchy melody and lively beat, but I feel it lacks some personality -- it could be by any pop-punk band of the beginnings of the '00s. [6]
Brad Shoup: Finally, America makes something worthy of CBC Radio 3. This is itchy, haunted pop/rock -- I think it's about enabling a drug habit -- where the twin guitars signify a faraway decade just as ably as the reference to "your sister." [8]
Michael Hong: "Might Be Right" feels entirely subdued. The guitar and bassline are too controlled, the drums are too stagnant, and the vocals often sound choked back. It's only when the vocalist amps up the intensity that it sounds like the track is really going anywhere. Instead, coupled with a bridge that's just a bit of meaningless lyrical repetition, "Might Be Right" sounds like a group phoning it in. [4]
Oliver Maier: Ghostly organs and warping synths portend a more atmospheric track that never manifests. What arrives instead is some serviceable power pop midway between Elvis Costello and Bowling for Soup. You could do worse. [6]
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tassium · 5 years
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#TAYLOR SWIFT APPRECIATION LIFE
PART 6 - reputation
(part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5)
Listen. This was by far the hardest review for me to get going into properly. I love every single track on this album without exception, and it was SO HARD for me to come up with coherent comments to make on all of them.
But I think I managed alright, and we’re finally about to embark on the wild ride that is @taylorswift‘s 6th studio album, reputation.
Hang on tight, and please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.
1. ...Ready For It?
No, Taylor, none of us were ready for this, not even a little bit.
Can we just talk about that introduction? like. What a way to kick off an album. This track grabs you by the hand and just pulls you along for the ride, like “get in losers”. That little throat clear at the beginning! the beat that drops off and lets her voice go all light and ethereal! This song is a wild ride from start to finish, and I love it. “Let the games begin” indeed.
And that MUSIC VIDEO!!! I want the rest of that movie, please.
I made a reaction video to this track/video and if you wanna check it out, click here
2. End Game
I love the synths at the beginning of this song, but I’ll be honest that Future’s verse took some time to grow on me. Ed’s verse and Taylor’s on the other hand? Boy. Those grabbed me from the start, as did the harmonies that are laced all through this track.
Is it just me or was this the first time she used the word enemies for the people she’s clashed with? I feel like that’s a new thing. 
I also reacted to this one when the video dropped, click here to watch
3. I Did Something Bad
Okay so first and foremost. Taylor Alison Swift, in the year of our lord 2017, swearing on a track out there in front of god and everybody. I feel like if there was any remaining ‘oh she’s just a sweet young thing’ attitude from anyone, this album shattered it to pieces in the best way.
The production on this track, I can’t even. This is an explosive track, it just hits you like a train and drags you along for the ride. There’s a bit on the way out of the track where she says “I did something bad” in a straight spoken voice and it is. Too much for this weak swiftie!
4. Don’t Blame Me
This sacrilegious hymn of a track. I swear. That almost broken electronic wavering synth behind the chorus. The choir effect on her voice. The stripped down beat-driven verse. The lyrics in general? My dude. I can’t. Also anyone who still thinks she has no range can physically fight me after that note after the bridge. That’s power is what that is.
Also can we talk about that behind the scenes clip of her filming the angry distant vocals for the chorus? I’m weak.
5. Delicate
Another thing I’m weak for is use of vocoder. And that beat that comes in for the verse! AND THAT LITTLE ‘delicate’ IN THE CHORUS!! kills me every single time. I’ll be honest here and say that the video for Delicate didn’t really grab me as much as some of the others, but the song itself certainly did.
Can we just. Talk for a second about how sad it is to think about that concept of ‘wow. you must really actually like me if you’re hanging around through all this mess.’ 
One of my favorite things in this track is the descending harmony behind “sometimes when I look into your eyes”. I always want to sing along with the harmony instead of the melody on that part because I find it so compelling.
6. Look What You Made Me Do
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN! that building drumline is absolutely gorgeous and I can’t not air drum to it - I don’t even play drums!
Also, yes, I am fully aware that I JUST SAID on the 1989 review that Out of the Woods was too repetitive for me, and here I am raving about this song which... honestly. Is just as repetitive if not more so. But this song just grabs me so much more and so instantly that I really get into the repetition (And maybe that has something to do with the familiarity because of the sampled melody).
That plinking lead line thing, and oh my god, the percussion on the second chorus. I can’t.
The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now CAUSE SHE’S DEAD. And I feel like with lover about to come out, maybe we’re killing off yet another “old taylor”
click here for my reaction video
7. So It Goes...
I read somewhere that the tracks with the ellipses on them mark out the edges of the “side A” part of the album, and it’s the spot where things shift over to a different feeling, and I believe it.
Again, this track has absolutely outstanding production on it, the softness dropping into the driving beats, and the bridge. Oh my god. I’m still not over that whispered “1 2 3″. And that line “i’m not a bad girl but I do bad things with you’ reminds me of blank space and that “I can make the bad guys good for a weekend” it’s like the inverse of it.
Also welcome to the first track on this album that I refuse to let my dad listen to - “scratches down your back” indeed t a y l o r
8. Gorgeous
Adorable baby voice!! This song is so great, I love it to pieces. I love the sort of bitter quality about it and the way she’s taken how tumblr and twitter fandom talks about celebrities and made it just a mainstream piece of her song.
Also is that a bell like the kind they put on counters to get the attention of the person working? because I can’t help but hit the bell (air bell!) when it comes in and that’s what I always picture when I do so.
I can’t come up with anything more coherent so .... guess I’ll just stumble on home to my cats.... ;)
9. Getaway Car
More vocoder! I love. The wording in this song is so evocative and brings up such perfect, crisp mental images for me, and she applied that to perfect metaphors for the situation in question. I love the idea of how.... like. It’s a rebound relationship, right? but it’s the getaway car from the previous relationship. And really, you can’t be surprised when something like that doesn’t last as long.
Also that outro beat? Be still my heart!
10. King of My Heart
THIS SONG!!!! More gorgeous vocoder use, of course, but then also. So many little things about the lyrics that get me! “Salute to me, I’m your American queen” and “jag-u-ars” and the way she sings “luxury” and just!!! so much!
As for the musical side of things, I absolutely adore that really subtle acoustic guitar in the chorus, and the DRUMS in the post-chorus (or whatever you want to call that bit). They’re so full and almost feel-it-in-your-chest even just in headphones! (I’m still not sure I survived that concert)
11. Dancing With Our Hands Tied
Early on I had a half-baked theory that this song is about John Mayer, but the timeline doesn’t work at all, so... definitely not. Still though, think about it. “slow dancing in a burning room”/”swaying as the room burned down”
That aside, though, this song makes me think of the Halsey track Bad at Love if ONLY because of the theme of melancholy looking back at relationships that felt doomed from the start (or didn’t, as the case may be, I don’t know)
But also just. Taylor’s vocal performance on this song. Those ‘ad libs’ in the background of the final chorus have so much power in them.
12. Dress
And here we have the other Taylor song I won’t let my dad listen to. He would be scandalized to death by this song.
I love that lyric about the golden tattoo. I can’t really explain what it is about that line that gets me so much.
More beautiful production - something about the tracks on this album feels so grand for lack of better word. Plus there’s that moment in this song “say my name and everything just STOPS” and the whole thing goes silent... I will never forget the feeling of that line coming out and the way the whole stadium went dark.
13. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Ahhhhh I love this song. Gotta love a nice sassy Taylor style clapback, right? Beautiful.
“Feeling so Gatsby” is the best line for getting her point across. You don’t even have to be particularly familiar with the work that references, it just brings the opulence to mind effortlessly.
That laugh in the bridge though, and the tumbling low piano crash afterward, I love it so much. Again to reference the tour, it was such a great extended moment of laughter. So great.
14. Call It What You Want
This... Is probably my favorite track on the album, if I were pressed to name one. I adore this song so completely. I still get just emotionally overcome if I take the time to really pay attention to this song when it comes on. I love it so much, and it’s such a beautiful hopeful song. Like, yeah, my life’s been a right mess but it’s better now with you in it, and just.... this song fills me with feelings like that one animation in the lizzie mcguire movie. 90s kids, you know the one I mean. (lover, the song, gives me those same feelings, just amplified like 30x)
The smile in her voice on “yes” can almost bring me to tears all by itself.
my reaction video can be found here
15. New Year’s Day
Speaking of beautiful mushy-feelings-bringing tracks... The fact that these two are paired back to back like this is just bringing both barrels to my emotions. Gosh.
At the show, I’d taken my shoes off literally two songs prior - I was the girl carrying her shoes in the lobby.
I love so much that it’s just her with a piano and then a little bit of guitar, and those soft self-harmonies on some parts - “please don’t ever become a stranger” reminds me of Enchanted.
This song will without fail make me cry because it’s just so soft and I’m so happy for her. I can’t believe how long it’s been and she’s so happy and in love and. Even when this song came out. Gosh.
We did it, yall. We’ve made it up to date, and it’s almost time for Lover to come out! I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready. My emotions aren’t ready. Gosh.
Anyway, thanks for coming along with me on this ride. See you on the other side of the release!
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dablesretrospective · 2 years
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2011 - Wuss - The Demos From Hell
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***Download a zip file of The Demos From Hell by Wuss here:***
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sKsV0aMEKYG3daEM-T5vnvrYC1SROs01/view?usp=sharing
In the Summer of 2009 I wanted to start a “real band”.  Dables was still just a solo project at the time, DAN had just started but had a specific direction of writing novelty punk songs and my experimental noise rock band Closet Monster had just broken up. I was still hanging out with Alex (guitarist from Closet Monster) all the time and we decided we wanted to start a new band together with the idea of it being a “real” band that just played heavy rock.  No more drum machines or experimental noise jams or gimmicky bullshit, this time we wanted a full four piece band with a real drummer. I was set to play rhythm guitar and vocals with Alex on lead.  We wanted it to be a stoner rock with a psychedelic and heavy edge but not full-on metal or psyche rock, but somewhere in between.  We were heavily influenced by stuff like Tad, early Flaming Lips (first 5 or 6 Wuss songs we wrote were directly inspired by the first 4 Flaming Lips albums), Cave In, Electric Wizard, Helmet, The Melvins, Neurosis, Clutch, Thin Lizzy...
So I set to work at slowly writing songs for this new psychedelic stoner rock band we wanted to start even though we had no bassist or drummer.  I wanted to wait until we had written some good material before even trying to seriously find a drummer or bassist.  In order to remember the songs, I started making demos with *ZERO* intentions of anyone besides the band hearing them and they were to be used as reference points only.  I had also decided to call the project Wuss. No reason really, just thought it was a great name for a stoner rock band and after searching online there were no other bands with that name so Wuss it was!
Both the writing of demos and the search for a drummer went extremely slowly with our jobs and spending the majority of free time working on Dables or DAN stuff.  In other words we were lazy as fuck when it came to Wuss. Many messages sent online to potential band mates but nothing ever came to fruition.  Our biggest hurdle was not having a good practice space since by Fall 2009 I had moved back in with my parents and Alex was still living with his, both in neighborhoods where loud band practices would of probably got the cops called on us repeatedly.  So whoever was to be our drummer had to also provide a practice space of some type and ALSO want to play the kind of psychedelic heavy stoner rock we wanted to play too so we were kind of asking a lot.  Before I knew it an entire year had passed since originally getting the idea to start Wuss, and we had still not found a drummer or a bassist but I had amassed over 20 rough, mainly instrumental demos that unfortunately very few of which Alex had even recorded any of his lead guitar parts on.
It wasn’t until November 2010 that our old band mate from Death Mullet, Cody Blackwell moved back to town that things started finally happening. We got in touch with Jake Garrett (also from Death Mullet) to see if he wanted to jam again since Cody had moved back to town.  My initial plan was to try to coerce them into joining Wuss but Jake was more interested in trying to do a “24 hour album”, meaning he wanted us to try to record an entire album in 24 hours. So I ended up teaching them a handful of Dables songs that had never been played with a band before instead since they were easier to learn and were completely written. Most of the Wuss songs still didn’t have any lyrics and they just didn’t seem that interested in hearing my Wuss demos anyway. They were both more familiar with Dables songs like Boredumb and Love Headache. Since we weren’t doing Wuss (yet), Alex didn’t come to these jam sessions. We got together and jammed 4 or 5 times and on Dec 5, 2010 spent the whole day recording 10 tracks for the “24 hour album” and called it “Dables & The Fountain Inn Jam” which I will go into more on the next blog entry but eventually this “hey man, let’s try to record an album in 24 hours” idea that Jake had evolved into Dables becoming a real band that is still going 11 years later!
Anywho, I was still somewhat trying to get Wuss off the ground with other people since I wasn’t sure where the “24 hour album” thing was going to go with Jake and Cody or how long it would last.  But I hadn’t given up yet because I knew some of these songs had a TON of potential to be really good if re-recorded with a band, so a few years later several of the songs from the Wuss demos became Dables songs  and eventually the full band version of Dables evolved to become very close to the original  sound I had envisioned for Wuss: psychedelic grunge/stoner rock. If you want to know the way I heard these songs in my head, check out “Intergalactic Death Farm” by Dables which is pretty damn close to how Wuss was supposed to sound, only without Alex’s guitar leads. More on  that in future blog entries.
The Demos From Hell never received any kind of official release.  Most of the songs were uploaded to myspace as soon as they were recorded  and around the time I released Stuff  Volume 2 by Dables in February 2011, I also compiled all the demos for Wuss  into a collection I called “The Demos From Hell” and uploaded them to a file sharing site called megaupload (I think?) which I shared on all my social media sites online to see if anyone was interested in learning these songs  with a full band...unfortunately it never happened.  By the time 2012 rolled around I started focusing on Dables and had officially given up on the idea of Wuss entirely and deleted the demos from the Internet.  So aside from myspace, having the link to the megaupload zip file (which was only up for a year or so), or having one of the literally less than 20 burned CD-R copies that I made for friends or potential band mates, these songs have been completely unavailable to the public until right now.
Since these are mostly instrumentals, I don’t have much to say in a track-by-track breakdown like I’ve done in other blog entries, so I’ll just comment on a few of them.
“We’re All Fucked” This song will *FINALLY* be released in a new recording on the upcoming album from Dables titled “108 Years”. It’s a song I’ve been trying to resurrect ever since Dables starting writing heavier material around 2013-2014 or so and it took until the end of 2021 for this song to reach it’s full potential and be released with a full band playing it. It just didn’t feel right re-recording and releasing this song on any of my albums until “108 Years”, it just would’ve felt out of place on any of our other albums...This song was directly inspired by The Melvins, specifically their Houdini album. I wrote a heavy riff and some nonsensical lyrics that had uncomfortable words & negative imagery. “Open up a gas can and take yourself a big whiff” was from something this kid said to me in 9th grade. I remember him turning around in his desk and telling me about how when he can’t get any beer or weed he would just “go out in the garage and stick your head in the gas can and take like 10 huge gulps of air”. I found this hilarious and sad. No clue what became of that kid.
“Psuedoslacker” I had actually written the main riff for this song for Closet Monster on the bass. At every one of our shows we would jam out on that riff. Alex liked the riff so much he took it and fleshed it out and turned it into this recording (he plays every instrument on this track) which I think he wanted to use for his solo project World of Giants instead of for Wuss.  However things were pretty open and free-flowing back then and I figured since I technically came up with that main riff and it was something we both “owned”, that we could turn this into a Wuss song, so after he gave me a copy of the track, I recorded some vocals on top of it without involving him which I now realize kind of rubbed him the wrong way although I do remember him being perfectly fine with this becoming a Wuss song once we got a full band together. I think it was more he was annoyed that I put my not-so-great-and-too-loud vocals on top of it, but I never considered this particular version of this track to be anything but a demo for us anyway which was merely a reference point for learning the song with a band. Makes me very sad that that never happened with this track, it’s one of my all time favorite songs that Alex ever recorded and deserves to played with a full band.
“A Sweet, Satisfying Death”, “Songs About Girls”, “Xenocide Doesn’t Bother Me”, “Looks Like Rain”, and “A Resounding No” These 5 tracks all eventually ended up as Dables songs, all on our 2019 album “Intergalactic Death Farm” in their final versions. If you wanna hear crappy instrumental demos of those awesome songs from Intergalactic Death Farm, well here ya go! Once I get to the blog entry for that album, I’ll do a more detailed analysis of these songs.
“Chainsmoke”, “Small Talk”, “Way Too Late”, and “The Moth” Have all come close to being turned into Dables songs and still may eventually if they can be re-written better. I haven’t completely given up on these songs being re-recorded someday, but so far haven’t been able to get them to sound right with the band so they remain as lo-fi instrumental demos for now.
The last thing I have to say is that I don’t know who drew the cover art.  It’s just something I randomly found online and slapped Wuss on it...sorry I used your artwork without permission whoever you are, but rest assured I didn’t make a single penny from this hahaha...
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"Released” in late February 2011 (exact date unknown)
All music written, performed, and recorded by David Walker "Psuedoslacker" was performed and recorded by Alex Murray, parts co-written by David Walker, vocals and lyrics by David Walker
Recorded sporadically from mid 2009 through late 2010 in Greenville, South Carolina and Fountain Inn, South Carolina
1.We're All Fucked 2.Pseudoslacker 3.A Smiling Piece of Plastic 4.I Seriously Fucking Hate You 5.She'll Fuck Anyone 6.Aloof Like A Noose 7.A Sweet, Satisfying Death 8.Songs About Girls 9.Chainsmoke 10.I Am The Wind 11.Light My Butt on Fire 12.Xenocide Doesn't Bother Me 13.If I Ever Get To Heaven 14.Looks Like Rain 15.Small Talk 16.Your Face is A Porno 17.There is No Right and There is No Wrong 18.Way Too Late 19.A Resounding "No" 20.The Moth
***Download a zip file of The Demos From Hell by Wuss here:***
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sKsV0aMEKYG3daEM-T5vnvrYC1SROs01/view?usp=sharing
If the link doesn’t work, shoot me a message or email me at [email protected] and I’ll send it to you directly!
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secretradiobrooklyn · 3 years
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The Singing Senator Edition | 5.22.21
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Secret Radio | 5.22.21 | Hear it here.
1. Dara Puspita - “Bertamasja”
Dara Puspita was an Indonesian band, active right from the start of rock n roll — like, they jumped into it in 1964. I love how it sounds like gnarly garage rock until the lead guitar tone pulls out and reveals a super VU sound. With a surf structure! It’s just about a perfect nugget of song. 
2. Yol Aularong - “Sou Slarp Kroam Kombut Srey (Rather Die Under a Woman’s Sword)”
Yol Aularong has the wildest voice, and total commitment to rock’s magic transformative power, even in a context where he was risking his life. He does things that would make Screamin’ Jay lean back and appreciate. The arrangements and his delivery just o’erbrim with life and character. 
3. The Psychedelic Aliens - “We’re Laughing”
This band is like Atomic Forest in that they’re just the answer to any collector’s wildest dreams of rarity: they’re a Ghanaian band who released exactly 8 songs and were big in the Accra scene. The groove of this song, especially in headphones, is just mesmerizing, and his delivery gets gradually more and more abstract. It sounds like Marijata and what I wish WITCH sounded more like. Undeniable.
- Glenn Miller Orchestra - “Sunrise Serenade”
4. Prewar Yardsale - “Turn On (Live Peel Session)”
We got into Prewar Yardsale through Jeffrey. Because we got into this band that he introduced us to, he said he had some rarities and other tracks. That he sent our way, and this is from that.  
5. Chai - “In Pink (feat. MNDSGN)”
I think first it was the New York Times, then the Guardian, then the New Yorker all writing about this band essentially in the same week — and we definitely had no idea what they sound like. This song had just debuted on YouTube 18 hours earlier. I think, especially now through repeated listens, it’s a rad track. I love the way MNDSGN winds his vocals into the song, then has his passage, then smoothly winds his way out again. It’s like meeting a really interesting person at an already cool party.
6. Waipod Phetsuphan - “Ding Ding Dong”
Siamese music — Thai music. The guitar part is so primal and the drums so bright in the fills and meanwhile it sounds like he’s casting a spell. And what a refrain.
7. Jacques Dutronc - “J’ai me un tigre dans ma guitare”
One of the greats — I have loved every song of his I’ve ever heard. This song really makes me appreciate his band, especially his drummer. 
8. Orchestra Baobab - “Kelen Ati Leen”
When we started WBFFing, it was partly because we were being blown away by the indisputable proof of James Brown’s influence on, and interaction with, the entire world. I don’t think I realized JB was a lot bigger than the Beatles in huge swaths of the world. This track is fundamentally expressing a JB groove and doing their own entire thing at the same time. The lead vocals’ flavor is just off the charts and the band is SO tight. 
9. Pierre Vassilou - “Qui c’est celui-là?”
What IS this song? It’s in French but it sounds like Brazil — I guess really it sounds like Os Mutantes. 
10. Betti-Betti w T.P. Orchestre Poly Rythmo - “Mahana”
The abundance of T.P. Orchestre keeps on giving. This beautiful, beautiful song is from an album they did with Cameroonian star Betti-Betti, who basically expressed the pain of her country so precisely that the whole nation mourned her passing when she died young. This melody is just stunning, and the harmony 
- Stunt Double - “Be My Baby”
Ace track from some of our favorite people in all of LA.
11. Bug Chaser - “Crowley’s Kids”
I don’t know if Bug Chaser is active at the moment, but some of our favorite STL shows have been watching and/or playing with Bug Chaser. We did the City Museum rooftop twice — and we split favorite VU songs at the Lou Reed Farewell show. Two drumsets, way too much information per track, and an epic live show with a lead character who knows how to lose himself in a song.
12. Eko Roosevelt - “Attends Moi”
We learned about Eko Roosevelt by glimpsing him in a movie about Betti-Betti. He’s a handsome bearded gentleman behind a piano. The first songs by him that got us were super heavy disco, but this one has its own special power. Lately Paige has been singing and playing it on guitar — I’m kind of hoping that we hear her version of “Attends Moi” in another broadcast.
13. Manzanita y Su Conjunto - “Shambar”
One of the sweetest musical gifts in our life has been the discovery of Analog Africa’s ever-growing musical jackpot. They sent their list a note recently about an upcoming record focused on Manzanita y Su Conjunto and their path through cumbia music, and there are two  tracks available now counting this one. We’ll be getting this record, this shit is amazing.
Paige: “I gotta get in touch with Mrs. Link.”
14. Lizzy Mercier Descloux - “Fire”
This song is from her 1979 debut, “Press Color,” and man, what an undeniable new character on the scene! She was based in Paris, hooked up with Michel Esteban, and together they not only established a store of crucial Parisian punkness but also published a fucking MAGAZINE called “Rock News”!! While making music like this! Eventually they moved to New York in 1977 (natch) and as far as I know just continued to be the coolest humans on Earth. I can’t wait to share some of her other tracks with you — besides the brilliant first album, there’s a whole record called “Zulu Rock”! 
15. Os Mutantes - “A Minha Menina”
And as always I think: What did the Beatles think of this music?! They must have known about it, they must have. To me it really brings a whole additional level that the Beatles wanted to get to but literally didn’t know how — and Os Mutantes did. 
16. Suburban Lawns - “Janitor”
Sometimes I wonder why something that sounds so objectionable can be the most vital music in the world. Like, nothing about the lyrics or the way this song is sung should be appealing — and instead, this song is brilliantly undeniable. It’s even better when you see them performing it. If you don’t know what they look like, I guarantee you she will be a surprising character.
My favorite words on it ever are something someone wrote as a comment under the video of their TV performance of this song: “Spent 15 years as a janitor. Can confirm every word.”  
17. Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea - “Mou Pei Na”
These two are just amazing characters in the pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian music world. Ros Serey Sothea’s voice is totally unique, and Sisamouth has a sincere urgency that gives the whole song a surprising narrative shape.
18. Ranil - “Ángel Terrenal”
Analog Africa again — the cure for what ails you. They are truly combing the world for music that amazes. They played the length of the Amazon river and did their best to stay out of big cities after a bad experience with a record label. So they released these psychedelic jungle masterpieces on little slabs of vinyl that they sold up and down the river. Can you freaking believe that? 
- Salah Ragab - I believe you are responsible for telling us about Salah Ragab, Josh Weinstein. So good.
Also, as promised, further information about glue traps and why they’re so harsh (and how to pull off a successful rescue!) can be found here.
19. Dagi D - “Beka”
I feel like I knew my musical life had changed when I started thinking of every visit to an Ethiopian restaurant as a valuable moment to learn as much about the music as possible — especially Meskerem in St. Louis, it must be said. It turns out modern Ethiopian pop music is super addictive and can easily get stuck in your head for days. 
20. Raxstar - “Jaaneman”
We’re still pretty new to Kensington, our neighborhood in Brooklyn. We knew that a Muslim holiday called Eid al-Fitr was happening, and when it was happening, but we were still surprised by what a joyous holiday it was in our neighborhood. Everyone of all ages was out in their fines, which involved a whole lot of sequins and shining metallic threads. The men wore a lot of caftans and those excellent long shirts and/or jackets, most with beautiful patterns. We went for a long walk and just enjoyed seeing a holiday at full pitch — excited kids and tutting grandmas, people carrying big flower arrangements (in the shape of a crescent and star!), heavy-looking tins of food headed toward a feast, even fireworks overhead. We crossed paths with a group of dudes all dressed up in various states of celebration, from a sharp Western-style two-piece suit to an even sharper South Asian suit with a Nehru collar and snug caftan. It looked like they had just finished the parental part of the night and were deciding where and who to meet up with — exactly like, say, Thanksgiving night in your hometown. It felt like, from Coney Island to McDonald, Church to Cortelyou, it was New Year’s Eve for everyone but us. 
After our walk we returned to our apartment and set up a little folding table out back to enjoy a glass of wine in the warm air. Our neighbors across the fence were still in the midst of family time, with tons of kids running around, including a teensy little girl on a tiny little pink scooter and a gaggle of beautifully awkward teens in the posture and attitude that says “stand by your cousins and let me take your picture.” As the evening wore on and the parents drifted back inside, the young adult contingent got a speaker going, and soon we were catching tracks we’d never heard before. The one that made us first pay attention was “Jaaneman,” with the vocalist’s super-charismatic delivery and priceless accent. We found ourselves Shazaming song after song, and thus started learning about Desi hip hop, a whole world of East Asian immigrant tracks that offer a lens into life in the US and UK that I haven’t really seen since watching “My Beautiful Laundrette” many years ago. Fascinating!
“Jaaneman” literally means “soul of me,” but translates to “my love” or “my darling.” Check out Raxstar — I’d love to see him play SNL and get an impression of what he’s like live. Just last month he released “Forever Jaaneman,” which updates his original smash hit and is also a very strong track.
21. Nate Smith - “Spress Theyself”
One of the last shows we got to see in St. Louis was Nate Smith at Jazz at the Bistro, and holy smokes, what a pleasure to see him do his thing up close. I love this solo album because it sounds like a practice sesh that died and went to heaven. It doesn’t have a song’s logic, but it does follow the feel of a great intuitive exploration of a beat, wandering through subdivisions and feel variations with complete ease. 
22. Jefferson Airplane - “White Rabbit”
This is Paige’s call. I think it’s cool because I can hear the direct connection between this and Erkin Koray’s Anatolian psych rock style, which I previously had no idea about. This listen through, we’ve both been appreciating how overwhelming massive Grace Slick’s voice is.
23. Marie France - “Dereglée”
Another cut off the fantastic Born Bad Records comp “Paink,” and more proof that punk was happening in other languages at the same time. (Though I think they called themselves “méchant”… or denied being méchant, depending) The album art reveals that Marie France happened to look uncannily like a punk Marilyn Monroe, which only makes both MM and MF cooler. 
24. Operation Ivy - “One of These Days”
I was never for one second a punk in high school, but I knew that the Op Ivy t-shirt was the essence of functional punk.
- Shin Joong Hyun - “Moon Watching”
25. Shin Joong Hyun - “Spring Rain”
This guy has an otherworldly sense of melody and performance that indie rock only starting catching up with decades later. This is the guy sometimes referred to as the “Korean godfather of rock.” He was active from the early ‘60s til 1975, when he was arrested, tortured and banned in South Korea. Eventually, the leader who had hammered down on him died, and he was able to begin piecing his life back together. These iconic, evocative, cinematic recordings would sound great in any decade. 
Spoiler: it wasn’t! We walked across the bridge and it was a thoroughly magical New York evening. 
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Children Of The Pope
Who are Children Of The Pope? Well they’re your friendly dystopian biblical rockers that serve all of your DIY needs. We have the pleasure of introducing the band on a very personal level, with their first ever published interview. In this exclusive first, we will take you on a journey allowing you to experience what is Children Of The Pope. You can currently find their latest single ‘Dying Cold’ on Spotify, and keep watch for the 1st of March as their exhilarating new single ‘Street of Chance’ is set for release, you will not be disappointed.
The band is made up by João (lead guitar and vocals) a tall Brazilian-Italian man with a degenerate sense of humour, Fells (drums) a Tropical Rio De Janeiro Latin lover born in the wrong era, Karolina (vocals) always aware of her surroundings, usually everyone is looking at her whilst she’s staring back at them, Lizzy (bass guitar) a runaway daughter of Reading town, with a portfolio of Christian praise on excess, Callum (lead and rhythm guitar) who's tale claims that he staggered to London from the depths of Cambridgeshire after a drunken bender, and last but not least, Deniz (keys) a Turkish man who knows more about music than any other person in the business.
Although this is understandably a difficult time for any band to be in, our interview with João had a true feeling of benevolence, which in turn is portrayed through their live shows too, Children Of The Pope are a rarity in the scene. There is a clear sense of comradeship with the punters and the band and this clearly correlated with the level of enjoyment they emit from the stage.
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How would you describe your music? What bands would you say are your biggest influences?
“Dark, grand Dionysian music”, Dionysiac tunes from the folk to the folk. We try, through means of intoxication to turn ourselves into squirming mediators of artistic endeavour to entertain the regular layman sitting at the pub or the average house wife listening to us on their stereo. “We come from a long line of entertainers’’, Although we have immersed ourselves in every kind of mind altering dystopian sounds from an early age, it was really the old times garage rock and roll that portraits our personality best, rough dirty beats with catchy melodies and plenty of underlying cynicism. To name a few, we could put Os Mutantes, Link Wray and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins on that list.
We’ve seen you guys a good few times at Windmill now, what would you say your biggest gigs have been so far?
We have headlined a few sold out shows at The Windmill and venue MOT, trying my hardest to remember, id say these were the civil partnership gig at the windmill in 2019, One of the great Bible Club Nights in the same year, and a few gigs we put on at the MOT.
How have you guys been fairing with the pandemic in terms of getting your music out there, gigging is obviously at a moot point now, but how have practices been going?
We try to make the most of what we can get. We never made any significant amount of money from music anyway, so it doesn’t change much financially and we are always broke, but it could be worse if this pandemic had hit us in a different period of time. We have taken this chance to record and work on new material which is something that we put a lot of effort into, as it pleases us just as much as playing gigs, like working on a painting.
Considering the last question, how was ‘Dying Cold’ recorded and released?
‘Dying Cold’ was recorded in The Bookhouse Studios in surrey quays, we practiced it a lot in our church space and booked the studio for 8 hours only (all we could afford), Bashed the songs out all first try and spent the remaining hours working on overdubs and polishing the rear view mirror. We Held on to the songs for about 6 months not sure what or how to put it out there. We emailed every single record label we knew but it was no use, I assume because it is hard times for everyone in the industry, so we just chucked it onto Spotify ourselves. This whole ordeal of trying to get people to notice your music can be extremely exhausting so we just try to do our thing and hope for the best.
You guys always have a very streamlined approach to performance, the sheer talent is evident and you’re electric! Are there ever any bumps in the road or hiccups on the way?
Although we are shy to say it but we always believed in our great work, believed that we knew what we wanted and that we could in fact do it. You have to put yourself in some sort of godly altar in order to make a difference, even if you cry yourself to sleep at night. If you don’t believe in yourself you are set up to be mediocre.
Thank you, the road with the Children Of The Pope have been always smooth when it comes to reception, I think we gave the kids what they wanted when they wanted it. Before the Children Of The Pope formed, there were long years of sheer rejection blast-projected onto all of us.
Going on from this incredible single, how was ‘Street of Chance’ recorded? What made you guys feel that this would be better to release separately from ‘Dying Cold’? How was it written? What was the inspiration behind it?
‘Street of Chance’ was recorded in the same batch of songs as ‘Dying Cold’ at BookHouse Studios in Surrey Quays. The melody and structure was written in a cooperative effort between all of us in the studio but then I laid some old lyrics I had for another song that were inspired a documentary called “streetwise”, that I watched when I was younger and had related to it deeply. The film is about street kids from Seattle in the 80’s and their everyday hustle to survive the city, hence the lyrics about broken families, dirty overgrown alleys and all other types of stuff you learn in the royal academy of life.
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Words by Aidan Dunne
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thebandcampdiaries · 4 years
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The Something Brothers introducing brand new release: Apollo
The Something Brothers is a driven, direct and forward-thinking group based in Bloomington, Illinois. They have a truly one-of-a-kind vision, and a willingness to bring back the earthy, original sounds of great rock and roll.
The project’s most recent studio effort is a stunning new release titled Apollo. This amazing studio effort is very balanced and extremely diverse, making for a very special combination of different genres and influences, while still staying true to the pillars of great classic rock music.
The gritty edge of 70s rock blends in together seamlessly with the ultimate melodic sensibilities of the 60s and even something a bit more alternative, echoing the work of influential artists such as Thin Lizzy, as well as Television, Velvet Underground and Free, only to name a few. In addition to the broad musical and creative coordinates of this project, the band also complemented the music with some outstanding lyrics. The words are witty and direct, combining great vocal melodies and powerful dynamics, with heartfelt songwriting. This is the kind of release that feels very deep and personal, yet it has a very relatable feel that makes it very easy to relate to. After all, some of the best rock songs actually come a very personal place, and the magic is really to know when to balance the gritty, primal energy of rock with some personality and insightfulness. The title track itself has a very smooth and understated arrangement, and when you listen to this one, you really get that feeling that everything is falling into place to absolute perfection. I love the mid-tempo vibe of this song, as well as the clean cut of the production, with a tight rhythm section and some punchy guitars, letting the vocals shine through. The song “Stupid Old Man” is a soothing ballad, which sets the bar higher in terms of highly emotional and introspective soundscapes. This song almost makes me think of groups such as Pink Floyd as well as The Byrds, only to mention a few. The 70s vibes add so much depth to the mix, but this doesn’t feel like an attempt at nostalgia, rather an amazing modern take on this great rock and roll music. “Tree Full Of Bees” is a scorcher, which captures the energy of some earlier punk rock, think Social Distortion or even The Sex Pistols! I love the catchy melodies, and the fact that the guitars are so in your face! “The Unthinkable” is yet another fantastic composition with an epic stadium rock intro. Eventually, the song acquires a different dimension, reminiscent of groups such as The Beatles or The Who, among others. “Lovelands” is yet another amazing highlight. I love the atmospheric parts which lead into the song, as they sort of remind of acts such as Arcade Fire. This is a very meaningful and atmospheric song, which stands out as one of the most memorable melodies on this release.
One of the most interesting and striking features of this release is definitely its remarkable consistency. Not many artists can easily pul off a project that features such a wide variety of elements and influences. The most obvious risk is that the material can end up sounding quite disconnected and loose - but this is definitely not the case. This band is a master at creating organic, cohesive and consistent vibes, which really flow well throughout the span of this release. The performances are loaded with passion and integrity, while the production aesthetics are also excellent. The mixing quality is indeed absolutely world-class, with some amazing definition in the top end and lots of punch in the low-end and midrange. The results sound warm and present, yet never harsh or fatiguing, which is quite an amazing achievement, particularly in this genre!
On Apollo, The Something Brothers really made a point to set the bar higher, not only for themselves, but also for their listeners, genuinely delivering something that’s catchy and direct, yet forward-thinking and challenging in the best possible way.
Find out more about The Something Brothers, and do not miss out on Apollo, and other releases from this talented group
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hmel78 · 4 years
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In conversation with Brian Parrish ...
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1973 - the year in which emerging talent included ‘AC/DC’, ‘Bachman Turner Overdrive’, ‘Bad Company’ , ‘Stillwater’, ‘Television’, ‘The Tubes’ ; albums were released by ‘Wishbone Ash’, ‘Nazareth’, ‘Uriah Heep’, ‘Thin Lizzy’, ‘Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’, ‘Aerosmith’, ‘Mike Oldfield’ ... to name just a few. ‘YES’ were already big on the scene, as were ‘The Rolling Stones’, ‘The Who’, ‘David Bowie’, ‘Black Sabbath’, ‘Led Zeppelin’, ‘Wings’ - it’s really quite a mind-blowing list isn’t it? A seriously exciting time to be around for any music lover, but imagine being a musician at the heart of that scene ... Enter Brian Parrish. 
For many of you reading this, Brian Parrish will already be a familiar name -  amongst many fans of ‘prog’, he is held in high regard as the guitarist / vocalist with ‘Badger’, but this is by no means all that he should be remembered for, or associated with. In fact, to document ALL of his history would require an entire magazine edition of it’s own! ‘Badger’ were co-founded by keyboardist Tony Kaye after he left ‘Yes’, along with David Foster - the pair found drummer Roy Dyke, who thus suggested Parrish, and voila!  Rehearsals began in September 1972, a deal with Atlantic Records followed in quick succession, and with the dawn of 1973 came their first album “One Live”. From a ‘fame’ perspective, it might seem that ‘Badger’ was the point at which Parrish suddenly appeared on radar, but prior to this he really hadn’t been a stranger in the music industry. Parrish had grown up in the “Skiffle” era and says that he “saw the Light“ when he heard Lonnie Donegan, and the wealth of American Roots music at the time.  He Received his first guitar at the age of 11, and despite passing his 11+ exam a year early, cites “once I had a guitar in my hands I had no more interest in, or use for, formal education” - by the time he was 17, he was in a touring band, and shortly after that the doors opened wide to the world of music and songwriting, on landing his first ‘professional’ job as lead guitarist for rock n roll legend Gene Vincent. During the next few years of touring, and residencies at the Star Club in Hamburg with ‘The Londoners’ [aka ‘The Knack’], Parrish had also landed himself a publishing deal and achieved success with songs that he wrote for Johnny Hallyday, & ‘Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich’ amongst others. He was in demand for sessions, playing on albums for Jerry Lee Lewis, Graeme Edge (‘TheMoody Blues’), Jon Lord (‘Deep Purple’) and on hits for the likes of ‘Medicine Head’ (“One and One”), and all the while striving towards his own solo career. Whilst preparing demos for a solo album, Brian ran into old friend Paul Gurvitz (formerly of ‘The Londoners’ / ‘The Knack’) who agreed to help with vocals. The blend of harmonies was so good that they decided to make it a joint project - ‘Parrish & Gurvitz’. George Martin (the 5th Beatle) heard the P&G tapes, and subsequently signed them to his newly formed production company - the resulting album which he produced was hailed as the debut of the “next Beatles”, however it wasn’t long afterwards that ‘Parrish & Gurvitz’ went their separate ways. ‘Badger’ marked the next milestone in Parrish’s career - “One Live” entered the U.S. Billboard charts, and was widely acclaimed. The band had already toured with YES, and Black Sabbath ; and then suddenly, in what he describes as the hallmark of his “bad timing” , Brian Parrish elected to leave the band more or less on the eve of their American tour ... A solo deal with Chas Chandler (manager of Jimi Hendrix and Slade) followed, but his debut album “Love On My Mind” proved to be less successful than he anticipated. From there he moved increasingly into production and writing, becoming what they call a “back room boy” rather than a performer. Whilst he continued to take session work, his live performances all but stopped-  yet throughout the years, he has never stopped writing. Brian suffered a brain tumour in the late 90s - the ensuing surgery, whilst 100% successful in removing the tumour, left him without hearing in his right ear ; meaning he has had to re-learn the recording process in the absence of a “stereo” picture - it did not, by any stretch of the imagination, deter him from carrying on with his career in music! In 2004 Brian returned to the stage when invited to perform in Hamburg as a special guest for a “Star Club Night”.   In 2007 he released “End Game” - his first album of original songs for 30 years, and also formed a band. They still play regularly. This year [2016] saw the release of “Traveller” - a ‘concept’ album in which BP takes us on 13 of life’s journeys, with notes to the listener along the way : “We are all travellers with a one way ticket for our own unique journey through life – and our choices define us”. One thing is for certain, Brian’s choices have certainly defined him, and his life has indeed, so far, been a colourful one in which he muses “Music has dominated my journey, intensifying my experience” , and hopes that his own music is enjoyed as part of yours. He continues to work, exploring new directions, and tells us that “the best is yet to come”! If the new album “Traveller” is anything to go by then we will all be in for a treat. “Traveller” itself is one of those timeless records which contains something that will appeal to just about every taste in music. We caught up with Brian recently - curious to know more about “Badger” as there is very little documented, and also the bits before, inbetween, and afterwards, that have formed the road map of his own journey ... Helen Robinson : By the time Badger’s “One Live” was recorded you were already a ways towards carving a successful career in music ; your first professional gig was with Gene Vincent - how did you land that?
Brian Parrish : I started young.  Somehow getting a publishing deal at around age 17 ( I am not necessarily saying my songs were good, but the publishers obviously thought I might make some money for them - that´s how it works). Our band had done tours of American Army bases in Europe with success, especially among the black soldiers - I believe this was due to our material being R&B (black) influenced. I knew nothing of “race” issues - quite naive, I was! Upon our return we got the opportunity to try out with Gene Vincent, as Paul’s [Gurvitz] father was working for Don Arden, who handled Gene in the UK. I think our musicianship was limited at that point, especially when you consider that Cliff Gallup (one of the all time greats!) had been Genes guitar player in the original ‘Blue Caps’ ; Jeff Beck still cites Gallup as a great influence. Where we scored, was stagecraft - we had been learning from the get go ... and possibly because we were cheap! Both, I imagine!
HR : From there you toured and recorded quite extensively with ‘The Londoners’, and you also had a brief stint with ‘New York Public Library’ - so what made you want to go solo?
‘The Londoners’ worked pretty much nonstop through 64 / 65, scoring heavily in the “Star Club” Hamburg, where we were hugely popular. We also worked and recorded under the name ‘The Knack’, and had a near hit with a Ray Davis song. ‘The Kinks’ connection also came about through Paul’s father, who by then was working for their management. We recorded 4 or 5 other singles - one may have been written by me.  They went nowhere. Finally, shortly before Christmas, I announced that I wished to be home for Christmas Day, so please accept no gig if offered.   There was a job offered in maybe Scotland or Wales (I am not sure, but in pre-motorway Britain it would have been a slog) and the money was good, but I said “I am not doing it!” They gave me an ultimatum: Play or leave the band.    I left, of course. In order to keep playing I joined ‘NYPL’, who as ‘The Cherokees’ had played the “Star Club” with us. They had a hit under their belts but opted for a new name and a fresh start. We released some singles, not all of them bad, some written by me, and all of them died.  For collectors only, I am afraid! When I had the offer to do something solo, I took it.
HR : You became highly sought after as a session musician, and made an impact within the song writing world - what’s the most memorable thing in that period of your career?
BP : I played more sessions than I can remember. Things with Roger Cook, a bunch for ‘Dave Dee, Dozy, Mick & Titch’, for whom I also wrote some songs. It was all very eclectic. I would like to say I stayed true to blues roots, or whatever, but the truth is, the work came up and I took the jobs. Ken Dodd was one, for example. For credibility points I would add that I did a couple of sessions for Paul Jones. In the following years I would play with Jerry Lee Lewis, Tony Ashton (another Star Club friend) and Jon Lord, but there were many that I do not remember. Someone told me I was on a session with Robin Gibb. I really do not remember! Complete blank. I did have some early songwriting success with Johnny Hallyday - Huge in France and Europe. I remember the publishers were very pleased, although Paul Gurvitz (know as Curtis then) asked “Who is he?”
HR : You actually teamed up with Paul Gurvitz next, and were signed up by none other than George Martin! That’s kind of a big deal isn’t it?
BP : The way that happened was that I started a solo project with Lou Reizner, and began working up material in his Knightsbridge apartment, which he gave me the keys for while he was away in the States ...  Me and a Revox . I was taking a break and walking in the street nearby when Paul drove up - “Whats happening ?” etc.  I told him what I was doing and said “Come and listen”. Paul and the drummer from ‘The Knack’ had formed a trio with brother Adrian, calling themselves “Gun”. They had a respectable hit , but 2 albums later had called it a day, so Paul was free and I invited him to sing harmonies with me on my project. Our voices have always jelled, so when Lou returned from the U.S. I said “what about if we did this as a double act?”. In the spirit of the times he said “OK if that’s what you want”. I persuaded Paul to call himself Gurvitz (his real name). I said “it’s more memorable and has authenticity. Think of Art Garfunkle”. We recorded a pretty good album at Island studios, with the guys who would later be our band. Lou drafted in a manager from Canada, and he ran to George Martin with the tapes, without Lou Reizner´s  knowledge. Et Tu Brute? He was a snake really. Long story short , George loved us but wanted to re-record the songs, jettison a couple, and most importantly produce the album. ‘The Beatles’ had just disbanded, and had been huge, so this WAS a big deal. We were not overawed, but were ready to learn stuff and listen to his comments and suggestions. He absolutely respected our instincts, but was able to enhance everything when scoring string parts. Also having worked with John and Paul he was very open to experimentation sonically. No digital effects and limitless tracks in those days! He demystified everything for me, and there is no occasion in front of a mixer, or working on harmonies when I do not draw on what I learned.  A master-and a gentleman. Being hailed as the “new Beatles” was ultimately the kiss of death. We needed time to develop our own identity free from misconceptions and a public who did not WANT a NEW Beatles! We had inherited the infrastructure but we were not ‘The Beatles’, nor wanted to be!
HR :  No, no I see how that would have been detrimental, even with the backing of such major business influences - so,  ‘Parrish & Gurvitz’ was short lived?
BP : Yes. We toured the States with our band a good six months after the album came out. Disastrous timing. No-one would invest the kind of money and logistics demanded of touring without a current “product” to promote and sell. Also we had started on the second album - a more electric, rockier thing than the acoustic vibe of the first one. The band were great but the style of presentation was unexpected, and the new songs not known even to those who had heard the first album. The management were inexperienced in this, and we had already moved on stylistically. We were not about to bow to the demands of the U.S. Record labels “We didn´t sign a ROCK band!” - so the plug was pulled two weeks before the end of the tour. We returned to the UK, and went into the studio to finish the second album, but the honeymoon was over and we could no longer keep paying the band. They joined ‘Peter Frampton’ as an already slick working unit. We dumped the management. Paul and I separated - he going into a project with his brother and Ginger Baker, and I was approached by my friend Roy Dyke who was playing with Tony Kaye. “We need songs, a guitar player and a singer” he said, “I can do those things” I said. Cut to next scene : the rehearsal rooms where Badger would be formed.
HR : Ha! Yes - ‘Badger’. I would like to just sidestep there for a moment though, if I may ... It’s 1972 - that point in music history may well have been the ‘peak’ when you look at the wealth of talent and genuine passion for music that existed ; and remarkably the fact, as you’ve already pointed out, that by that time ‘The Beatles’ had disbanded ; Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin were already gone - what was it like to be a working musician throughout that time?
BP : An unbelievable time, Yes ... We hung out with a lot of these people. I saw Jimi at a club called Blaizes for the first time. Looking like a black Bob Dylan playing “Like a Rolling Stone” with an upside down Stratocaster - but sounding otherworldly. I could not figure out what he was doing, never mind how he was doing it. I was barely three feet away. He played someone else’s guitar upside down (left hander, was Jimi). He freaked everybody, Eric [Clapton] included. We would meet all of these folks in the clubs. Janis chased our bass player all around the Revolution club I remember. He was quite innocent and the Jack Daniels toting Lady would have devoured him for breakfast! As you say, these artistes were all gone by ´72. I do not know if there were “lows” on a conscious level, but the substance use had hit high levels and I nearly died on a couple of occasions. I was rehearsing at one point with Paul Kossoff, who was in a worse mess than I - and as we know, he died sometime later. Keith Moon, who had been a friend was another. There is quite a list of drug casualties. Better not to dwell upon it. Mostly it was still an amazing time for creativity and one still had the feeling that everything was possible. We were in the vanguard of the counter culture and we were changing the world. HR : I’m in awe Brian, actually ... It really did change the world - certainly the face of music. To be a part of that would have been exhilariating, I’m sure.  I’m fascinated, because I missed it all in person - there was so much going on politically, and musically - including  the birth of ‘prog’ ...
BP : Well, The “prog” thing which was often quasi-classical and Gothic in tone, may have been started in ‘67 with “Whiter Shade of Pale”.  All the classically trained players - Emmerson, Wakeman etc. thought “Right! We´re on now!”  - By 71 /72 it was in full swing. West Coast music flourished, Blues music was marginalised but “Soul”  with a message thrived (Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Staples Singers) -even the Godfather of Soul, James Brown was  smart enough to catch the Zeitgeist -“I´m Black and I´m Proud” he sang and it all resonated with the Civil Rights movement.
HR : It all goes hand in hand. But ... going back to You , and to add further perspective to what you were doing in 1972 - Elvis was still around, Lennon and McCartney had gone solo, and many of the UK’s (even the worlds) best known, best loved, bands and artists were already established in the public eye  - ‘The Who’, ‘The Rolling Stones’, ‘David Bowie’, ‘Pink Floyd’, ‘Elton John’, ‘Led Zeppelin’ , ‘Genesis’, ‘Queen’, ‘Black Sabbath’, ‘YES’ etc  ... taking all of the afore mentioned artists into account - they were the people you hung out with, but how conscious were you of them as competition?
BP : I think any musicians forming a band at that time just got on with the job in hand. There were plenty of acts I really liked, but I regarded none as competition. David (Bowie) was a primped up Marcel Marceau acolyte, who would brilliantly morph into whatever took his fancy, exploring Dadaism and so on. Great - but nothing to do with my universe. ‘Zeppelin’ were huge of course (we sat together in Madison Square Gardens to watch Elvis during the Parrish & Gurvitz time) ; ‘Paul McCartney & Wings’ were flying (the correct verb I assume),and I had been privileged to be around Air Studio when Paul with orchestra arranged by George Martin recorded “Live and Let Die”. Breathtaking. ‘Queen’ were nothing like as successful as they would become, but the others you mention were already very big. When Tony Kaye left ‘Yes’ and we began to rehearse ‘Badger’, I had little interest in what ‘Yes’ had been doing - seeing our music simply as the best we could do together without labels, and by extension no comparison, let alone competition with anyone in particular ; certainly not Tony´s ex band. I wasn´t even sure we were that good, to be honest - and I was always insecure about my own playing. We have had enough compliments over the years (my guitar playing included) that I am able now to accept it with good grace and gratitude!
HR : And so you should ... Not only was “One Live” your debut album, but it was also Live (funnily enough!), which was somewhat of a rare thing to do - why did you release that as opposed to a studio recording?
BP : It was not an artistic choice, but a practical one. We were playing  with ‘Yes’ who had ‘the Stones’ Mobile Studio on hand to do a “live” concert recording. To record ‘Badger’ also, was going to cost a few reels of tape and some mixing time to follow. I was not sure it would work, but I remember the “Rolling Stone” review at the time said it was the favourite album (of the reviewer) and if this was what ‘Badger’ could do live, may they never feel the need to set foot in a recording studio. It was a fluke really.
HR : Is it completely Live, or did you work on it afterwards?
There was just a little overdubbing /repair work. Notably on one song (would you believe I forget which one?). We had recorded the songs on two separate nights, and as we listened to a version of the song in question all of the vocal mikes went down half way through. Not in the auditorium, but the recording microphones. The version was great, and there were tempo discrepancies with the recording from the second night. In the digital age this would call no problem, but at that time this was a big problem. Could we lift the vocal from the second night? Splice the 2 halves together despite the tempo problems? Some of the instruments spilled onto the mikes we were singing in, so to re sing in the studio would still leave us with a significant change in sound. Our engineer Geoff Haslam helped us mix and match various parts with minimal re-singing. We tried to keep it as “live” as possible for the sake of integrity. Actually the night following the Rainbow concerts we played in Glasgow, and this was without question a much better performance. It was not recorded! HR : Typical! When you consider the impact this album had, amongst all those other huge albums in 1973 - did you feel that the band should have been bigger, or lasted longer than it did?
BP : Well one sees everything differently with the benefit of hind sight. The “business” or “career” head might have advised “Stick with it. Ride the train! The band is getting such a reaction, growing in popularity, so with touring and so on you could push the album higher in the U.S. charts, to further cement what you have done-and in time, maybe come up with a good second album”. We will never know. I would be interested to hear what the others might answer to this question. I left the band pretty much on the eve of the U.S. tour, as you know. The drug intake was prodigious to say the least, and I was becoming disenchanted with the work rate in terms of working up new material. Frustrated songwriter stuff, but not being “sober”, of sound mind and body (!) my judgement might have been impaired. I may have been too hasty. The others thought it was a tantrum, or something I could be talked out of, but it wasn´t. It was a lousy business move on my part, I would be in a better position today, if I had stayed with the band whose popularity was increasing (and if I had not died, as so many did!). Whatever. I dropped the band in the lurch, and still feel a little guilty about that. I liked them all, and still do. We had something……. Writing wise I was travelling in an altogether funkier direction - and whatever ‘Badger’ were, they weren´t funk (I reject the “prog” label). What happened next was Jackie Lomax replaced me and lo and behold, took them in a funkier direction, with the addition of Kim Gardener on bass. Jackie was a great talent, but the public did not want a reinvented ‘Badger’, so the second album more or less bombed, and my solo album did little better.
HR : Well “One Live” has certainly stood the test of time and secured some loyal fans! Given that you were the main songwriter, how do you feel about the fact that so many people still cite it as a pivotal moment in their musical journey?
BP : At the time I was not so impressed with it. A little bemused even. I was arrogant enough to think there would always be another door opening for me, with something interesting behind it. I had always bumped into people who liked what I did and assumed it would stay that way. I forgot a crucial factor, which is that a young artiste / band is much more marketable. That´s another theme, however. Over the years, right up to the present day I have heard from many people who hold “One Live” in special regard. I also have had feedback from many young people, including musicians, who love it. I think it has to do with the energy. I included a ‘Badger’ song in a concert last year and it seemed so fast! I thought “My God did we really play a whole set at this pace?” It was exhilarating on one level, exhausting on another. Overall I am much more comfortable with ‘Badger’ these days. I think it was a very good album in retrospect. I feel vindicated in respect of the writing (although there are lyrics I would change if I were to do it today) - I would definitely change the album credits to reflect the fact that I wrote four of the six pieces. ‘Badger’ has given me a little cult status. Just a little, mind you, but enough to prove I lived and played on the planet. Oh ... and I am not finished yet!
HR : Well that’s good to hear - we like having you around ... I’m curious about another dynamic of the album - “One Live” - it was produced by Jon Anderson of ‘YES’, but with the departure of Tony Kaye from their unit, were the band friends, or foe?
BP : Should I talk about Jon? First of all I like him. We are very different kinds of people - and certainly his approach to recording is a little more “clinical” than mine, shall we say? I believe that if anyone “produced” ONE LIVE it was Geoff Haslam, the engineer who spent every studio hour with the band and technically and creatively had as much to do with the finished product as we, the writers and musicians. He was great at recreating the live ambience and getting it on tape. Jon came in very little and tended to focus on vocals more than anything. Long story short - I think the folks who would take care of marketing fancied the idea of having Jon’s credit on the sleeve. This would maintain the link with the ‘Yes’ fan base. I see that, of course. Certainly, whatever the undercurrents might have been between Tony and the ‘Yes’ guys, we were all friends. I greatly admired Steve Howe, without wishing to do what he was (is) capable of. I was more pentatonic based, as is David Gilmour, for example, but Steve was perfect for the band. Rick Wakeman too, was a good mate. Great player, funny, intelligent guy and fond of a drink. He fit very well with us on a social level. Remember we played the concerts with them when the recording took place. All friendly.
HR : Happy Campers! You also toured with Black Sabbath - knowing Ozzy, I can only imagine the shenanigans! Would we be wrong to assume that it was one big party?
BP : A detailed answer to that question would be mostly unprintable. Shenanigans does not begin to cover it. We had a break in the tour - 5 days, a week maybe. Ozzy did not want to break the party up. He loved us and said “Come and stay at our house - all of you”, including road crew. We tore it up. I am not sure his wife was amused. She kept a pretty low profile. On the road it was all the smashed TV sets, drink and nonsense you would expect. We were thrown out of a hotel in Italy (Bologna, I believe), passport numbers taken and both bands and the entire crew - perhaps 25 / 30 people were banned for life. This was at 4.30 in the morning, and not in any way to do with noise, breakages (for which we paid) but something less than respectful our party did to a statue of the Pope, which was on the same floor as all our rooms. There were Mafia related events which took place during the Italian leg of the tour which would take a lot of space here and these stories are perhaps best left untold. A party, certainly. I paid my bill in brain cells, I fear.
HR : Hmmm. I’m laughing, but ... not at the brain damage!   Maybe it was for the best that you left the ‘Badger’ party when you did?! You next signed a deal with Chas Chandler, which really marked your biggest step towards becoming a solo artist didn’t it?
BP : Yes it did. I had some material which had not “clicked” with ‘Badger’, and having left the fold I knew that whatever happened next, songs would be a valuable currency. I had friends with connections to Chas. He had managed Jimi, who had recently passed, and was already back on comfortable (pop) territory with ‘Slade’.  He loved my stuff and told me he was starting a new label and that I could have complete control over the recording. I believe I should have had a co producer, or at least a second pair of ears in retrospect. That is another theme, however. HR : That album “Love On My Mind” was tagged as “Blue Eyed Soul” on account of it’s funk / soul vibe ... You were essentially being true to the style of music you loved, but did you enjoy making the record?
BP : White boys can´t do soul - or they are certainly not supposed to! Actually I think the songs were good and, in the main, came out as I would have wished. Good arrangements, some great musicians. I found my own performance less convincing. My singing always seemed detached to my ears. If I had not been wearing the producers hat, concentrating on arrangements and so forth , we might have got a performance. Few could do that. Prince showed us all how its done subsequently. As it is, the notes and arrangements are OK, everything in its place, but it seems emotion free, at least to me. Blue Eyed soul indeed! I am far better equipped to produce myself today, but would always wish for a co producer (as I have in the shape of Steff Ulrich on TRAVELLER). You have to stretch yourself, and it helps when someone is pushing, and offering creative criticism. I bowed to Steffs instincts more than once whilst making TRAVELLER, although I could have pulled rank and said “My songs, brother. I´m the boss” - I think the album is better for my not having done that. Ah humility at last! I am sure we will talk about that later.
HR : Sure ... and we’ll talk more about “Traveller” too, but around the time of “Love On My Mind”, Did something change for you at that point? It seems that after working so hard for your first solo release, you then made a move towards the production side of the business, becoming - as you say yourself, “A back room boy” - were you more comfortable there?
BP : This was never planned or envisioned. I had publishing deals as folks always liked my writing.  I should have stuck out for recording deals in tandem with publishing, ensuring that records would come out with my name on. At the very least some level of success might have been on the cards as some were still anticipating some news from the guy who had been with ‘Badger’. It was a strange time. I had no band, no records out, some sessions certainly - but publishers pushing me for material. Most publishers were not what I would call working publishers as they once had been. Less and less were we seeing covers generated by publishers. This was the beginning of the “writer/producer” era. Many people were finding artistes as vehicles for their material and producing them.  Alan Tarney is a case in point, producing Leo Sayer, Cliff Richard, Barbara Dixon and so on. I did a little of this, producing Alvin Stardust, for example. Not my finest hour I think. I was still torn between the need to play and sing and not to be limited to one genre and the fact that the publishers vision was often at odds with the labels. I was kind of fading into the background rather than choosing it. There was a point where I was getting “clean and sober” as the popular expression would have it, so there was important stuff to focus on there, and I never for a moment stopped writing ...
HR : You also worked on the “Many People, One Planet” project through the United Nations?
BP : This was an interesting, and somewhat unexpected detour. The concept was to provide education resource packs for underprivileged Italian school children. There is a huge divide between those schools which had computers and up to date visual aides, and the poorer schools where, for example, if the roof of the school needed fixing the parents would give up their time to do the work. A North / South divide basically. The resource packs were re usable, and so passed along to the other students in succeeding years. My job was to persuade companies to get behind it financially. In return for which they would receive a small credit on the laminated packs. Many people became involved, including Zucchero - something of an Italian musical icon. The high point for me was to travel to Rome to meet some very excited school children, attend the launch at the UN headquarters there, and the director had privately asked me if I could formulate some words to address the UN ! I had the experience of hearing my “speech” delivered in Italian. Of course we were provided with headphones and little handsets where we could select a language. There were live translators speaking French, English, Spanish and so on. Quite exciting. I thought “I am addressing the UN!”. I wasn´t of course, but actually seeing the joy on the faces of the kids was a necessary humility shot.
HR : Sounds like a rewarding detour ... meanwhile, a 30 year gap between solo records ensued ...
BP : A gap between publicly released recordings, certainly - I suppose it must seem that I just disappeared, although I never stopped writing or working in music, as I said. You may know I was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1999, which was kind of a banana skin in the road at that point. I had been experiencing unpleasant symptoms, including hearing problems for some time. No need to dwell on any of this as I am super fit these days! I had the successful operation to remove it early in 2000. I was left deaf in my right ear, so some re-training was necessary. All far behind me now ... but my first foray into live music following this was in Hamburg in 2004. It was strange as the information I was getting onstage soundwise was completely different. It wasn´t easy, but I resolved to work as much as possible in this altered “soundscape”. More gigs followed, some in Germany, and to make a long story short I have lived here since 2006. I wanted to see how I could function recording-wise . In the 5 or 6 years since the operation - my “recovery years” if I can put it that way, a lot had changed technically. I opted for a small multi track digital recorder, which I had then to learn to use. It was not only that I had dropped off the Radar from a public standpoint. I had missed stuff!
HR : So along comes “End Game” in 2007 - It’s a completely solo album in that, on top of the writing, you play ALL the instruments too. Did you feel a greater reward from producing a record like that?
BP : It was a “necessity as the mother of Invention” scenario, I would say. I was alone working with my digital recorder laying tracks alone as I had for a long time when I made demos. So I played guitar tracks, of course, but also bass , some keyboards (which was laborious as my skills are less than rudimentary). I did all vocals. I have much experience with harmonies. ( you may notice that many tracks on the new TRAVELLER album have harmony vocals by me - not all though, as I love the texture of girls voices. The “amen corner” as Ray Charles used to call it)  I also worked with a digital drum machine. I was not really wonderful with it - there are people who could do it so much better. I think the ENDGAME songs are pretty good, and it was an important stepping stone for me. That said, I would like to re record the material utilising the recording methods (and musicians) I had for TRAVELLER. Actually I have started tinkering with some of them in my studio. I think you are familiar with the “live” version of “Many Moons Ago” (from ENDGAME). There is a vid on YouTube. This is an example of a good song (in my opinion!) changing, especially dynamically, with the participation of a group of musicians.
HR : Yes - it is a good song, I will vouch for that - I love the album - Time and Tide particularly. I would urge people to seek it out ... You’ve touched briefly on your hearing, and having to work around that these days -  You’ve found a new love for performing , so apart from your ‘altered soundscape’, is it a different experience to when you were playing at first?
BP : Very different. In some ways I am more confident as I have a better idea of what I am doing these days. I can draw on a lot of material from my back catalogue. When I started I was too nervous about introducing my own songs into the act, and our focus was in being creative with other songs which we liked. I always tried to make some kind original statement in the interpretation of other material. That is something which continues today. I enjoy performing R&B tunes, for example - but if you want to hear the familiar arrangements get a juke box or go see a cover band! These days I love contact with the audience. Some musicians are less comfortable in a stage environment and just get their heads down and play, probably speaking very little. We don´t do lasers and dancing(!) but there is a performance element, which I like. Bruce Springsteen has talked about a time required to psych himself up, to go out and “be Bruce Springsteen”. I identify a lot because there is a zone which I find I must enter in order to pull it off. It´s a “front man” thing, probably.
HR : Haha! You know, I have learned over the years not to invade a ‘front man’s’ zone before he goes onstage ... I’m not sure people who haven’t grown up around the business ever truly appreciate what it takes to psyche yourself up, but - we’re onto at least the 3rd different theme if we go down that road now! Which, talking of 3rds, brings us nicely to your 3rd album - “Traveller” - which you’ve mentioned a couple of times there. It’s just been released, and is sort of a retrospective collection of songs about your own journey through life ... was it an emotional album to make?
BP : Well I am not sure it is ALL about my journey through life. Some of it has to be of course, but I wanted it not only to be about an individual experience but through character songs, which most are, to reference a commonality. You must have experienced that thing of thinking “I wonder if other people have felt this way? “ ... This is personal, individual, as I perceive it, but with millions of people on the planet I can´t be “the only one”. Some of TRAVELLER was personal and emotions do come into play, yes . I had a lot of material so the final choice of songs, the sequence, even the time between tracks was something I paid a lot of attention to. In an age where few people play an album right through and listen as we used to, this was perhaps, superfluous, but I wanted the experience to be there for anyone who elected to listen in this manner. HR : How did you decide on which tracks, or journeys, to include?
I had around fifty songs - some accumulated over time and others newly written. I had the song “Traveller” and had wanted to loosely base an album around the idea of each of us being a traveller and that each of life´s experiences may be perceived as a small journey, each of which contribute to our life story and the greater journey. My task then was to choose songs which would reflect some of these experiences. I knew right away that I could reference various musical styles - dip into musical waters I have sailed in, and that this might enhance the sense of variation in our experiences. I threw out any ideas of chronology right away. It is not, nor is it meant to be, my life story. The label calls it an “acoustic road movie” and I like that. My deliberations regarding sequence was about taking the listener through a series of moods. The opening song “Land of the Night Games” is about falling into the dream state. Dreams do not follow any conscious logic. They just are. I wanted to start with this as a preparation. To give myself and the listener permission to go anywhere. In this way themes like sex, loss, our spiritual quest, death, faith, joy, reflection etc. can be explored whether I have written from a personal perspective or in character, which I do quite a lot. “Angel of Death” for example, is not about me, although each of us will cross that bridge eventually. I could talk at length about how this came about, as I could with each of the songs if time and space would allow. I am not sure how important or even interesting this would be. Suffice to say that there was a song called “Oh Death” which was part of the African American blues / folk story which I never forgot. Library of Congress stuff. Alan Lomax was the Marco Polo of American folk music. Without his obsession and tireless enthusiasm we would have none of these recordings. There is more to this shit than Robert Johnson!
HR : HAHA! Well, musically, I think it’s fairly eclectic - for anyone wishing to check it out, there’s some blues, rock n roll, funk, a good helping of classic rock, some great guitar work, it’s a little jazzy in places, with a hint of country, and even a ‘nod’ to Bruce Springsteen -  generically the influences are clear, but how much have you been influenced by other musicians?
BP : Now we are into an area I enjoy talking about, because this relates to my own journey! I have inevitably been influenced by everything I have heard. I have been required to play in different styles / situations so I guess it is not too difficult to slot into different genres. As a writer my only limitations are to do with technical ability. First and foremost I am a music fan, so when I am noodling and something comes up, some kind of shape, I try not to hinder the process. I try to get Brian out of the way and listen. At some point I might think “ah this is kind of an R&B thing”. The task then becomes trying not to be too generic - not to churn out a musical cliche´. On TRAVELLER I had no problem developing the songs consciously drawing upon different genres - so that “Slow Riding” for example is absolutely recognizable as coming from a “soul” tradition, but hopefully with modern production values and some arrangement features which are not purely from that time. Your comment about different styles on the album is precisely the obstacle which kept labels from getting involved in the 80s and beyond. “We don´t know how to market you. Are you Rock? Blues? Soul / Funk? Prog?” The answer would have been “yes”  .
HR : At least you have the freedom to create now ... We talked earlier about your musical peers in the 70s - many of whom WE, the fans, would call our ‘heroes’, but I guess to you they were just friends - so beyond them, have you any defining moments where you’ve met or worked with the people you’ve looked up to? BP : It is always great to play with people who are good at what they do. In my early teens I saw what you might call a “pop exploitation” film which included Little Richard and a clip of Gene Vincent doing “Be Bop-Alula” which galvanised me. Just a couple of years later I was playing with him. For a young musician it was like winning the lottery. I was and still am in awe of George Martin, from whom I learned a great deal. Peter Green was a good friend of mine back in the day, although we lost contact as he became increasingly withdrawn and suffered mental problems.  A truly gentle soul - and I am glad that he is around and still playing. Herbie Hancock got up with my band a year or two after my solo album came out and blew us away.  He only inspired me to practice! I worked with Eric Burdon, as you may know, and played a Wembley concert with him and Carlos Santana. I met Carlos and his wonderful band back stage and marvelled at what they were doing together. Their example of interaction is something I took away with me. Years later I wrote a Latin style tune - not really my forte ´style wise, but a good song and maybe I was drawing on the Santana experience. I think a writer is like a magpie ! Those birds steal things, and I strictly avoid that, but I certainly borrow stuff. I have contact to many people whom I hold in high regard. I met Albert Lee on a Jerry Lee Lewis session in the 70s and we catch up when he gets to Germany - He lives in California where some of my British musical friends (Tony Kaye, Brian Chatton ) are living. They hang out together certainly, but I am happily ensconced miles away, here in North Germany where I have a small circle of musicians as friends. Otherwise I meet some great musicians who come through to play the Music Hall where I live, including my big favourites - Little Feat, our friend Eric Burdon played here not long ago. I get to meet them when they come through but writing is mostly a solitary occupation, so I am pretty much in studio captivity. I do socialise a little and for example Blue Weaver, veteran keyboard man from the Strawbs, Bee Gees and before that, Amen Corner is a really good friend who lives here in the village. Not surprisingly he is on a couple of tracks of TRAVELLER , and he is my “go to “ guy if I have technical problems - He is way better than me with technology. A half a step away from being a gadget freak. He is always telling me of the new toys he has bought for his studio. So there are dinners and inevitable improv sessions.
HR : I saw that Blue is on the album too - It’s a really interesting record, and you’ve paid a great deal of attention to the ‘whole package’ - the artwork etc ... in a way you’ve referenced an answer to this question already. With regards to the way that people listen to, and experience an album in a digital age - do you feel that somewhere in the evolution music, we’ve genuinley lost something?
BP : Each generation believes that their time is the best. The young discover sex and somehow think they are the first despite the biological contradictions inherent in having parents! It is common for the older generation to be nostalgic and trumpet “It was better in our day!”. So maybe if we accept that knowledge as a given we might still consider that some things may actually have been genuinely better even when not viewed through the rose coloured glasses of age. So, yes, the packaging was definitely an attempt to provide an interesting visual aide as with some of the album sleeves from the classic rock times.  There are the obvious examples among the “prog rock” fraternity. I designed a booklet with lyrics and photo montage illustrations, fully realising that most people today do not listen to music in the depth that we used to, much less sit reading the sleeve notes and illustrations. A 12 “ album sleeve was of course a better canvass to work on. I need glasses to read my booklet ! I hope the music stands up well alone. It is not in the Gothic / mock Classical style we might think of if we talk of “concept” albums, But I am fond of saying I have just released the last concept album - but hopefully it is not all too cerebral. I want the layers to be there if you look for them, but equally the listener can read the lyrics, comments and credits and just enjoy the pictures without seeking any explanation. In an age where everything is commodity music is not regarded as “art” by most people. It has to compete with video games, all kinds of apps and other entertainment options, so the sense of wonder has left the planet, and creative people are less revered. Folks mainly think that everything is digitally programmed! Few think about the writing I suspect. There is an interesting documentary on the late Tom Dowd, legendary producer of Coltrane, Aretha, Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton and many more. He could accept that times and methods change but lamented the fact that so little music today is performance driven. He talks about computers and plug ins from “Toys R Us” and the heavy use of samples etc. Understandably he maintained we have lost something. We have so many programmes and techniques used to recreate the sound and excitement generated in a time when the tracks were recorded live on analogue machines. It is supremely ironic.
I know I am being very “wordy” in my answer to this question. Simply put, I know that most download one song at a time and have little patience to sit and listen to an entire album created as a single piece of work. The concept is alien. Many cannot even listen to one song without looking at selfies on their cell phones, texting a friend.  Multi tasking is seldom spiritual. People are not in the moment, are seldom able to do one thing at a time. The attention span of people these days is ridiculously short. I have noticed some people are incapable of listening to one song through without talking, interjecting . It is disrespectful to the artiste, of course, but people do not intend this.  
I had a decision to make. In the face of some of negativity, people were saying “why produce a CD? Almost no one buys them” and “ Forget about doing a book. Who will read it? Put the information on your website if you wish. That way your true fans can access it-but otherwise forget it”  ... I did the book despite this and the label love it, thankfully.  I wanted to make some kind of statement. The album and booklet are there in one package should you wish to listen and experience the project as we used to. I doubt that I will do anything like this in future, although songs are already in the pipeline.
HR : Well I, and I am sure anyone reading this will also be interested in whatever you produce for us down the line ...  but for now - do you have any great words of wisdom to impart to your fellow travellers?
BP : I do not really do “words of wisdom”! I have learned a little and this is a process which continues, however - these lessons are for me hopefully informing the way I spend my time. I practiced Buddhism for some years and became a leader in the lay organisation. At some point I realised that this was the biggest joke of my life - and the joke was on me. I had nothing special to impart to anyone else! I learned more about Spirituality, if you will, from alcoholics and addicts in recovery who had reached a point of acceptance and purpose through suffering. Most do not want to pay the price of love. If there is a reason for our being here I believe it is to learn to love.  As we travel we understand “love” differently. It is quite hormonal when we are young. Later we might confuse sentimentality with love, or sympathy. There is no love without suffering, without sacrifice - but love is everything, I believe. Big topic. One for the book, perhaps. No words of wisdom for fellow travellers, then - I would merely say “Good luck” ...
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rockzone · 4 years
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Album Review: Anchor Lane - Casino
Release Date: 31 Jan 2020
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L-R: Lawrence O’Brien (lead guitar), Conor Gaffney (lead vocals, guitar), Matthew Quiqley (bass), Scott Hanlon (drums). * Photo Credit: © Dougie Souness
Scottish rock band Anchor Lane released their eagerly awaited debut album on 31 January.
Their eagerly awaited debut album, Casino, is packed with immense sounding up-tempo tracks it showcases the band as exceptional rock musicians and skilled songwriters.
The album was written by singer Conor Gaffney, guitarist Lawrence O’ Brien, bassist Matthew Quigley and drummer Scott Hanlon in Glasgow and recorded at Vale Studios in the Midlands with renowned rock musician, writer and producer Toby Jepson.
Casino is a sonically exhilarating album from the band who take influences from Royal Blood, Nirvana, Soundgarden and The Foo Fighters.
On working with producer Toby Jepson, Conor said, “We learned so much from Toby. His ability to take a song and flip it on its head was so inspiring to us.”
Toby said, “Before I commit to working with a band, I need to get a sense of whether they have a genuine vision and something to say. When I heard the demos I knew there was some intuitive and intelligent writing going on.”
Rock legend Ricky Warwick (Black Star Riders, Thin Lizzy, The Almighty) co-wrote two tracks on the album. Hook-driven opener Blood & Irony which features intoxicating howling vocals that showcase Gaffney’s prowess as a frontman and the incredibly catchy stadium-rock Dead Run which also features Warwick on backing vocals.
Despite being in their early twenties, there’s a maturity to Anchor Lane’s song writing. They don’t shy away from tackling difficult subjects as Casino’s themes include toxic relationships, addiction and the death of a close friend.
First single Fame Shame condemns modern society’s fascination with social media and reality television. Scott said, “It’s about waking up to the fact that while you’re watching someone else’s life on the internet your own life is passing you by.”
The album’s title is a metaphor for the ever-changing music industry explained Matthew, “We called the album Casino because in this industry you either go all in or you leave the table. We gladly left our jobs to concentrate on writing the album. It’s a high-risk high-reward gamble but we’re here for the right reasons.”
Toby Jepson adds, “When I met the guys, they said ‘We want to change the world, we want to write something that makes a difference.’ They’re ambitious with strength of character and real vision. This is their first album and judging by the material they’ve come up with so far, they have a very big future.”
Anchor Lane came to the public’s attention with the release of their EP New Beginning. They toured incessantly scoring notable guest spots with Cheap Trick, Eagles of Death Metal and Tremonti. The band have garnered an impressive reputation as a thrilling and dynamic live act and have notched up appearances at rock festivals including Download, Isle of Wight, Stone Free, Belladrum and Hard Rock Hell. Fame Shame the first single from their debut album Casino was released to wide acclaim in October 2019.
Anchor Lane - 202 Tour Dates Sat 25th January: Bradford, Nightrain – Anchor Lane & support Sun 26th January: Giants Of Rock, Minehead Wed 29th January: Swansea, The Bunkhouse – Anchor Lane & support Thu 30th January: London, Black Heart – With Scarlet Rebels & Revival Black Sat 15th February: Bathgate, Dreadnought Rock – Anchor Lane & support from Quiche & PYRO
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