Legends – Page 10 – 7th Level Music

New Bomb Turks to release diamond edition of classic album “Nightmare Scenario.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Nightmare Scenario, New Bomb Turks’ fifth full-length album, third for the Los Angeles-based Epitaph Records, and first with drummer Sam Brown (Operators, Divine Fits, RJD2, Gaunt). Originally recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, MI, November 3-7, 1999 and newly re-mastered by Diamond in July 2020, the album will be available August 7, 2020 at https://newbombturks.bandcamp.com. 100% of proceeds will be donated to: Black Queer & Intersectional Collective (https://bqic.net/) and Columbus Freedom Fund (IG @columbusfreedomfund).

It was spring, 1999. New Bomb Turks had just returned from their first tour of Australia in a suspended animation. They soon procured ace drumsman, dessert aficionado [not a typo], and all-around great guy, Sam Brown. It suddenly felt like a brand new beast, but they had an album to deliver forthwith, and nary a new song in sight! Nails were chomped to the cuticle, empty beer cans sat in the corner mocking us…Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes (or at least like a bartender finding another unopened bottle of mezcal at last call), New Bomb Turks soared again. Within four months (May-August 1999), Sam slipped right into the NBT stool, 12 new songs were cooked up easy as fryin’ an egg, and they were back on the road with the Hellacopters to hash those new ones into place.

By the time the band got to Jim Diamond’s Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit – his rep revving up from production jobs with the curdled cream of that Detroit trash-rock scene (Clone Defects, Detroit Cobras, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Andre Williams) – New Bomb Turks were piqued like a baby screamin’ for a higher push on a swing set. Over four days and nights, the band enjoyed their easiest and most fun recording session – the only break being a jaunt over to a bar to see a reunited Real Kids, their first show in years, which floored the band and only added more mezcal to the fire.

Final mixes were left to Jim Diamond, and by the time he forwarded them to the band, overdub ideas had hatched, and about half the record was remixed with local studio wiz, Jeff Graham, in Columbus. A middle ground was eventually found, and what resulted was Nightmare Scenario (Epitaph Records, 2000) – the fifth album in their six album/three compilation catalog, and the one the band believe is their best.

Like every band ever, the years have supplied moments of mixing rumination. So last year, when the band saw the 20th anniversary of Nightmare Scenario right up on their ass, they asked Jim Diamond if he had his original mixes lying around his palatial estate. He found them on a DAT (look it up, kids) tucked underneath a pile of professional recording deck manuals (i.e.,old MAD mags). Lo and behold, they were even more ripping and burning and stinging than remembered. There was the 20th birthday idea, screamin’ like a brat! So here you have the original mixes of Nightmare Scenario that Jim Diamond finished in November 1999, ensconced deep in his legendary, now torn-down Detroit digs. Ain’t saying it’s better than the original, just leaner and meaner. But don’t take our word for it – take yours when you’re screamin’ along too! – Lance Forth, July 2020 (Astoria)

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jo Murray.]

Rewind Review: Rolling Stones – Blue and Lonesome (2016)

There’s a quote from Mick Jagger in the liner notes of the Rolling Stones‘ 2016 album Blue & Lonesome that sums up how good the record sounds pretty well: “We could have done this album in 1963 or ’64, but of course it would not have sounded like this…It’s the interesting thing about a record that is made really quickly, it reflects a moment in time – a time and a place.”

Yes, the Stones could’ve recorded this album decades ago when they were young and raw, and it would’ve sounded great, but Blue & Lonesome is an album that shows the Stones as masters of their craft. They have evolved and matured to the point where they can walk into a studio and record a stunning blues album in just three days. Also, as mentioned in the liner notes, legendary producer (and musician in his own right) Don Was says Blue and Lonesome wasn’t planned. It came about while the Stones weren’t in the groove while recording another song and Keith Richards suggested playing the title track to “cleanse the palate.” After they had played and recorded it (in one take), Don Was (according to the notes) “…said, ‘Let’s do another one.’ It was clear that we had embarked upon the much-talked-about, but never realized, blues album.”

The album turned into twelve great blues classics played by one of the greatest rock bands of all time. The album opens with Little Walter‘s “Just Your Fool,” with Mick blowing out dirty harmonica riffs that nearly run away from Richards’ and Ron Wood‘s guitar licks. Their take on Howlin’ Wolf‘s “Commit a Crime” is downright filthy and sounds like it was recorded in a juke joint in the middle of Mississippi on a humid summer evening. Charlie Watts beats the cymbals on his kit half to death throughout the whole track.

Hearing the title track and remembering it’s the only take they did of it makes it all the more impressive. Richards’ guitar on “All of Your Love” sounds effortless (which it probably is, for him), and Chuck Leavell‘s piano solo on it is sharp. Jagger’s harmonica is back in business on Little Walter’s “I Gotta Go,” and Watts’ groove on it is outstanding.

As if the album wasn’t power-packed enough, some guy named Eric Clapton plays the slide guitar on Little Johnny Taylor‘s “Everybody Knows about My Good Thing.” I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Darryl Jones, who plays bass on the entire album. He puts down a lot of lockstep grooves, and the one he drops on Eddie Taylor‘s “Ride ’em on Down” is solid as a rock. Their cover of Little Walter’s “Hate to See You Go” is a definite toe-tapper, and I like how they bring Watts’ snare drum to the front.

Lightnin’ Slim‘s “Hoo Doo Blues” is as rough and raw as you’d hope it would be, and Jimmy Reed‘s “Little Rain” is the slowest, and still one of the most powerful, songs on the record. They get back into a fun swing on their cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Just Like I Treat You.” You can tell they had a blast on this one (and the whole album, really). That Clapton guy comes back with a so-good-it’s-not-fair guitar solo to help finish out the album with a cover of Otis Rush‘s massive hit “I Can’t Quit You Baby.” Jagger saves some of his best vocal chops for the final cut, too. You can’t help but imagine him strutting his stuff in the studio as he put down the vocal track.

It’s a stunner of a record and one that was long overdue from the Stones. You owe it to yourself to hear it if you’re a fan of the blues or the Stones.

Keep your mind open.

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So long, Maestro.

Ennio Morricone was probably the greatest film director who never directed a movie. Morricone‘s approach to creating a film score was that the music was never just a supplement to a film. Music was a character in the film.

Morricone’s impact on music and film is immeasurable. His Internet Movie Database profile lists 520 films scored. It’s probably more than that. The Italian film industry in the 1960’s and 1970’s was churning out so many movies per month that it was difficult to keep track of them all. Film scholars and historians will probably discover lost Morricone film scores for years.

He’s best known for his work in the Sergio Leone “Dollars” trilogy, otherwise known as the “Man with No Name” movies – A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He scored many other westerns apart from that, including A Pistol for Ringo, Bullets Don’t Argue, Seven Guns for the MacGregors, Navajo Joe, and others both great and obscure. He scored action films, sci-fi films, dramas (His score for The Mission is legendary.), comedies, giallo films (many for Dario Argento), and horror films – notably John Carpenter‘s remake of The Thing. Carpenter and his band played Morricone’s main theme to The Thing when I saw Carpenter perform in Detroit.

He also composed a lot of great Bossa nova music and orchestral pieces. His music is instantly recognizable. You’ve heard it not only in hundreds of films, but also in thousands of TV shows from Moonlighting to The Simpsons.

He will be greatly missed, but he had an amazing life and career. The world is better for him being in it.

Rest well, Maestro.

Also, if you ever wondered what song I want played at my funeral, it’s this.

Keep your mind open.

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Jazz legend Archie Shepp, rapper Raw Poetic, and DJ Damu the Fudgemonk combine for “Tulips.”

Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, and Damu The Fudgemunk have released a new single, “Tulips,” from their forthcoming collaborative album, Ocean Bridges, out May 22nd on Redefinition Records. Following its urgent lead single, “Learning to Breathe,” “Tulips” opens with a quiet array of keys, growing with bursts of saxophone and Raw Poetic’s emotive lyrics. “During the studio session, the spontaneous music that would later become ‘Tulips’ was the second idea we laid down,” says Damu The Fudgemunk. “It would set the vibe for much of the recording that followed. Raw Poetic’s lyrics really illustrate the deeper meaning behind the ‘Ocean Bridges’ album title on this tune.” Raw Poetic adds: “I let the spring vibe name the song, and the flower that bloomed was a tulip. Sometimes you gotta let the music spell it out.”

Listen To “Tulips” by Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, and Damu The Fudgemunk –
https://youtu.be/Hf2MdTRX_7U

Initially conceived after Jason Moore (aka independent, underground rapper Raw Poetic) attended an event with his mother at the Kennedy Center honoring his uncle – legendary saxophonist, Archie Shepp – Ocean Bridges intends to signify a bridging-of-the-gap in their family’s story and a re-establishing of the connection between young and old in their general community.

Entirely improvised, Ocean Bridges was intentionally created without any direction, resulting in a finished product with natural energy, a conversation of ideas that transcend genre. The album blends live improvised music, jazz, hip-hop, and many other musical directions into a one-of-a-kind sound. It was recorded with a live ensemble – Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, wurltizer), Raw Poetic (vocals, raps, lyrics), Earl “Damu the Fudgemunk” Davis (drums, vibraphone, vocals, turntable scratching), Pat Fritz (guitar), Aaron Gause (wurlitzer, synthesizer), Luke Stewart (acoustic bass, electric bass), Jamal Moore (tenor sax, clarinet, bongos, percussion), and Bashi Rose (drums, percussion) – in August 2019 between Washington, DC and Northern Virginia, Ocean Bridges fuses different musical concepts to adapt in a hip-hop format – all of the instrumentation is accompanied by vocals.

Listen To “Learning to Breathe” (Extended Mix) –
https://youtu.be/LUirEpnXves

Watch Video For “Learning to Breathe” (Album Mix) –
https://youtu.be/iVIqsYJ9okw

Pre-order Ocean Bridges –
https://soulspazm.ffm.to/oceanbridges

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Rare Earth – Ecology (1970)

Rare Earth‘s third album, Ecology, picks up where Get Ready left off a year before it – with even more fuzzy funk that brings to mind the pinnacle of the hippie and psychedelic era.

“Born to Wander” is a great theme for the idea of chucking your day job, sticking it to the Man, and becoming a free spirit. Gil Bridges‘ flute solo on it is also a great touch. “Long Time Leavin'” was a big radio hit for the band, and it’s easy to see why. It’s both a nod toward young men being drafted in the military and going to Vietnam, possibly to never return (“I tried so yard, but we’re just livin’ in a grave.”), and toward youth culture at the time looking for something meaningful (“I’m been a long time gone searchin’ for my dreams.”). Kenny James‘ organ solo on the track is sharp, and the breakdown of the song into a brief, fuzzy psychedelic jam is groovy indeed.

Their cover of The Temptations‘ “(I Know) I’m Losing You” is legendary and elevates the original to places that blew people’s minds in 1970 and still does today. Bridges saxophone stabs during “Satisfaction Guaranteed” will get you moving, as will Pete Rivera‘s slick chops – which might be the best on the whole record.

Rod Richards turns up the fuzz on his guitar on “Nice Place to Visit” (written by bassist John Persh) and the band’s addition of Eddie Guzman on conga on this (and the entire album, really) is sharp. They go blend psychedelia and garage rock on “No. 1 Man,” with Richards playing to the moon and the band singing about winning a woman’s love. The album ends with their somewhat operatic cover of The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby.” Rivera’s groove throughout it is rock solid and the additional lyrics of “Take a good look around. Tell me, what do you see? Everybody is lonely. Why must there be lonely people?” reflect the counter-culture movement of the time. The words still hold resonance today.

Like Get Ready, this is essential listening for lovers of psychedelic soul music and the last album with the band’s original lineup.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Rare Earth – Get Ready (1969)

Rare Earth‘s Get Ready is their second album, but many consider it their first since it launched them into the stratosphere of popularity in the late 1960’s. The all-white psychedelic soul group signed to Motown was the first (and pretty much only) rock group to bring Motown hit records – to the point that Motown named it’s rock sub-label “Rare Earth” after the band (Gil Bridges – vocals, saxophone, and tambourine, Kenny James – vocals, organ, and piano, John Persh – vocals and bass, Rod Richards – vocals and guitar, and Pete Rivera – vocals and drums).

There are only six tracks on Get Ready, and all of them are good. I mean, the album did do Platinum-level sales, after all. It opens with “Magic Key” and Richards fuzzed-out guitar and Rivera’s wicked grooves and vocals about equality and mutual respect being the magic key to a better world. Their great cover of “Tobacco Road” is full of sweet solos: James’ great organ riffs, Bridges’ sax work, Rivera’s vocals that bring out the blues and don’t try too hard, and Richards’ quick, trippy solo is top-notch.

Rivera’s groove on their cover of Traffic‘s “Feelin’ Alright” is so tight that it could perform in a military parade. The funky, trippy “In Bed” is both a tribute to shagging and to life and death. Persh’s bass on “Train to Nowhere” is deceptively wicked.

The standout track is, of course, the title track / cover of The Temptations‘ “Get Ready” – all twenty minutes of it. It begins with a spaced-out instrumental jazz-rock solo with Bridges’ saxophone taking front and center stage while Persh slowly builds up to the groove of the track and you realize you’re listening to a live recording that proceeds to race off at eight miles per hour. The bass and drum breakdown around the six-minute mark is killer. Richards gets to stretch his muscles as well for a wild space rock solo that flows perfectly into Bridges’ sax solo. All these solos last about thirteen minutes before blasting back into the chorus.

Get Ready is a fine mix of funk, soul, and psychedelia and essential listening for fans of those genres.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Gary Wilson – Alone with Gary Wilson (2015)

I have no idea why it took me so long to get around to hearing and buying Gary Wilson‘s 2015 album, Alone with Gary Wilson. It might be because Mr. Wilson was prolific in the last decade and that I was too busy buying his Christmas album, his outer space-themed album, his album about returning to Endicott, New York, or any of the other ones he released in the 2010’s. Shame on me for missing this one, because it’s one of his funkiest.

The album starts with the short jazz oddity, “Last Night I Kissed You,” which makes one think Wilson’s head was swirling from the kiss. “You Called Me on the Phone Last Night” follows. It’s a tale of Wilson crying “all night long” as he wishes his dream of a phone call, just a phone call, from his lost love would happen. The electric piano in it is delightfully peppy, making you think that Wilson isn’t too glum.

“Let’s Walk in a Dream” puts down a funky beat as Wilson sings about dancing with his girl in the park, but his band, The Blind Dates, sing, “Gary walked away into the park. He was all alone crying in the dark.” during the chorus. It’s all a dream, but at least in his dreams he can “make the scene” with his girl. “I should’ve listened to Dear Abby’s advice,” Wilson sings on “Linda Walked Away.” The whole tune slinks along as seductively as the tick-tock of Linda’s hips, but Linda still wants nothing to do with him.

Wilson reveals that he’s the (in)famous “Chromium Clown” in a quirky track that reveals he just wants to make his girl laugh, but she’s too full of despair to enjoy a ride on a merry-go-round or anything else he has planned. The groove of “Every Night Is Friday Night” is smooth. Damn smooth. “A Thousand Trees Were Dancing in the Park” has Wilson feeling as cool as he did in high school, but then feeling weak when he sees his girl’s lovely eyes. All he can do is walk into the North Side Park and wonder how he can build the courage to approach her. Why can’t she tell (judging by the groovy swing of the tune) how cool he is?

“I Know That You Kissed Me” has some of Wilson’s sauciest lyrics as he puts down some great electric organ riffs and sings about wrapping his girl in a sheet. “Please Don’t Make Me Cry Tonight” has him lying alone as the sun goes down on another Friday night and he can only dream of taking a walk to the lake with his girl. The song dissolves into a weird nightmare.

“You Looked So Cool While You Were Dancing” is serious bedroom rock. Wilson and the Blind Dates are at the top of their funky forms on it. “I Really Dig Your Smile” has this cool beat breakdown in it before Wilson whispers the names of his secret loves. “Sea Cruise” isn’t a cover of the song by Frankie Ford (although that would be amazing), but rather Wilson singing a nice little love song about taking his girl on a nice cruise to get the both of them away from their troubles and dance the nights away at sea.

“I Will Do What It Takes” proclaims Wilson on the next track. He will do what he needs to do to take his girl fall in love with him – be it take her on a sea cruise, a date at the bowling alley, or just a walk in the park or to the beach. The slow jam sexiness of the track practically drips like honey off a spoon. The album ends with another freaky instrumental, “One More Kiss.” That’s all Wilson wants. That’s all any of us want, really.

Don’t miss out on this album like I did for five years. It’s too good for that.

Keep your mind open.

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Anthology Editions to release “13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History.”

“Their journey still occasions wonder and awe. For so many years, it was hardly told. Here it is, in pictures and words. This is the way, step inside.” – Jon Savage

13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History, written and curated by Paul Drummond and published by Anthology Editions, will be released April 21st, and is available for preorder now. Direct orders of the book through the Anthology website will be shipped immediately. 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History tells the complete and unvarnished story of a band, which, until now, has been thought of as tragically underdocumented. Drummond has spent years amassing an unprecedented archive of primary materials, including scores of previously-unseen band photographs, rare and iconic psychedelic artworks, and more. A full list of visual assets can be found below.

Preview 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History

Born out of a union of club bands on the burgeoning Austin bohemian scene and a pronounced taste for hallucinogens, the 13th Floor Elevators formed in late 1965 when lyricist Tommy Hall asked a local singer named Roky Erickson to join up with his new rock outfit. Four years, three official albums, and countless acid trips later, it was over: the Elevators’ pioneering first run ended in a dizzying jumble of professional mismanagement, internal arguments, drug busts, and forced psychiatric imprisonments.

In their short existence, however, the group succeeded in blowing the lid off the budding musical underground, logging early salvos in the countercultural struggle against state authorities, and turning their deeply hallucinatory take on jug-band garage rock into a new American institution called psychedelic music. Before the hippies, before the punks, there were the 13th Floor Elevators: an unlikely crew of outcast weirdo geniuses who changed culture. 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History places the band finally and undeniably in the pantheon of innovators of American rock music to which they have always belonged.

13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History Visual Assets:
●      Rare photos, including many newly-discovered color shots
●      Family scrapbook photos and clippings
●      Photography and ephemera from the band’s friends, a who’s-who of the 1960s Austin arts scene
●      Stills from the band’s television appearances
●      Contemporary newspaper and underground press clippings covering the band’s rise (and fall)
●      Materials from the books that inspired the band’s unique iconography
●      Internal documents from the band’s label International Artists documenting the disastrous business side of the Elevators’ career in detail
●      Materials relating to the band’s legal troubles, from handwritten drug deal letters to Austin Police Department surveillance photos to mugshots and draft cards
●      The most complete collection of show flyers and handbills ever assembled, including many rare alternate printings of iconic psychedelic posters

About the Author:
Paul Drummond is a renowned antiquarian bookseller based in London. He has spent years documenting every aspect of the history of the 13th Floor Elevators, and is the author of Eye Mind (2007), the exhaustive and definitive biography of the band.

Order 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History
https://bit.ly/2QY4jgv

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Public Image Ltd. – This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get (1984)

The fourth album by Public Image Ltd., This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get, came out in the Year of Orwell – 1984. The world was in the middle of the Cold War and people were wondering which side was going to first heat it up. It was the “me decade” here in the U.S. for Wall Street tycoons who were grabbing all the wealth they could while the rest of us were waiting on Trickle Down Economics to make our lives easier. Spoiler alert: We’re still waiting.

John Lydon and guitarist Keith Levene were working on the album and had an early mix, entitled Commercial Zone, completed. Levene took it to Virgin Records, but Lydon abandoned the project and re-recorded all of it to create This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get.

It starts with the buzzy “Bad Life,” which was the first single off the record. It mixes funky bass with cool horn blasts as Lydon sings, “This machine is on the move. Looking out for number one.” It’s a nice shove at 1980’s yuppies stepping on others to get what they want. The title of the album is repeated over electric drum beats toward the end of the track (and throughout the album).

“This Is Not a Love Song” was Lydon’s poke at people who kept asking him, “Why don’t you write a love song?” He write a brassy jam that mostly repeats the title and ended up being one of his biggest hits. “Happy to have and not to have not. Big business is very wise. I’m crossing over into the enterprise,” he sings, telling all of us that he could take the money and run if he wanted.

Louis Bernardi‘s bass on “Solitaire” is downright nasty. You could easily slap it onto a funk record and it wouldn’t sound out of place. “Tie Me to the Length of That” is a reference to Lydon’s birth, even referencing the doctor who slapped him when he was born. It crawls around the room like a creepy goblin. The horn section echoes from the background like some sort of distant warning.

“The Pardon” has Lydon calling people out for being resistant to change. The beat is a weird tribal jam that is hard to describe but one that sinks into your head. “Where Are You?” is barely controlled chaos as Lydon searches for…someone. I’m still not sure whom.

“1981” is a post-punk classic with Lydon ranting about everything he could see was going to go wrong in the decade and how he figured it might be best to leave England for a while. The drums are sharp, the baritone sax angry, the cymbals sizzling, and the lyrics biting: “I could be desperate. I could be brave…I want everything in 1981.”

The album’s title is repeated again at the beginning of the last track – “The Order of Death” – killer drum beats back dark piano chords. The guitar chords are like something out of a Ridley Scott film score. It’s a cool ending to a cool record, and somewhat of a forgotten post-punk classic.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Randy Holden – Population II (2020 reissue)

Randy Holden, former guitarist and vocalist of metal pioneers Blue Cheer, debuted his first solo album, Population II (because it was just Holden and his drummer / keyboardist Chris Lockheed – and it’s also a term for a star cluster with heavy metals in it), in 1969 to stunned audiences. He recorded the proto-doom metal record with sixteen 200-watt Sunn amps in an opera house and troubles with releasing it bankrupted Holden. The album was bootlegged and copied many times, but RidingEasy Records has unleashed it in a new, high quality remaster that sounds like, as Holden once put it, “Godzilla walked into the room.”

The album opens with the cosmic sludge of “Guitar Song.” Holden moves back and forth between heavy stoner psych and gold old-fashioned metal shredding. Lockheed keeps the drums minimal, letting Holden’s guitar take center stage. Don’t ask me to figure out the meaning of “Fruit Icebergs,” just enjoy the epic riffs and iceberg-heavy drums as they come at you like an unstoppable force. The song (with lyrics about enjoying colors and heaven, among other things) is so massive that there’s a groovy break in it entitled “Between Time” in which Holden sings about loving his guitar before “Fruit Icebergs (Conclusion)” comes back for nearly another two minutes.

“Blue My Mind” could refer to Holden’s time in Blue Cheer or a woman who once gave him a wild ride. Either way, Lockheed thumps out the heartbeats of a titan while Holden’s guitar seems to be the marching music of an orc army. The album ends with the stunning ten-minute long “Keeper of the Flame.” Holden compares women to beautiful blue skies and rainbows, but don’t let the lyrics make you think the track is some sort of acoustic hippie love jam. It’s a chugging blues-influenced rocker that sounds like an out of control big rig truck at some points.

This could easily be one of the top reissues of 2020, and it’s a treasure if you’re a fan of cosmic / stoner / doom rock. Many thanks to RidingEasy Records for giving it a proper release.

Keep your mind open.

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