Music doc watch: Revenge of the Mekons

While recently binging music documentaries, 2013s Revenge of the Mekons seemed like an obvious choice. 

Intimate enough to be more of a story of the bands I rather than a “this happened then this happened” narrative l. It seems a perfect labor of love kind of project to capture the band. Truly, as the band says, success cause bands to break up, which is why they are together 40+ years later. Also they were loved by the critics, but critics get complimentary copies and don’t buy albums. 

 I first heard the punk Mekons on the Mutant Pop 78/79 compilation after I already knew of their 80s albums. In many ways, they have always had those punk ethos (and to my ears “Never Been in a Riot” and “Where Were You” are as good of punk anthems as ever were). The band started as an ambitious (but untalented) punk little brother to Gang of Four. “Never Been in a Riot” a response to the Clash’s “White Riot” from non-Londoners. The band, for the first but not last time, would be not well served by a major record label. Although they stopped performing for a time, they would not die, reuniting to play benefits for the Coal Miners Strike. 

Adding Sally Timms, violinist Susie Honeyman, multi- instrumentalist Rico Bell and a couple of established musicians in Lu Edmonds of The Damned and Steven Goulding of Graham Parker and the Rumour, the modern version of the band was born. The band would find an affinity for old time American country music which brought them their biggest success. 

They learn from the likes of the Chicago Honky Tonk pioneers the Sundowners; and Dick Taylor of the Pretty Things and a pre-Wyman Rolling Stones lineup had joined the band. While not a fully in depth history, it is interesting to see the old press kits and how close Mekons Rock N Roll came to being a hit. (As someone coming to age with 1980s Rock critics, it’s hard to imagine this album and Fear & Whiskey being lost to the collective memory). Next is 1991s The Curse of Mekons which seems like a self fulfilling prophecy. The band is dropped from the label after the staff that were promoting them are fired. 

The next phase shows the Mekons more of as a concept than band. There have always been the acclaimed albums and though they don’t get into specifics (you can pick 2000s Journey to the End of the Night or 2002s OOOH for example) but they do acknowledge every new Mekons album seems posed to be better than the previous. 

For their relative obscurity, they do get a buzz every time there a new release. We see the Mekons branch out in the 90s. They do music for Kathy Acker’s feminist musical Pussy, Queen of the Pirates. They go all in on painting and art in early 00s collaborative mixed media projects. They even form a children’s music band the Wee Hairy Beasties (one of the many Jon Langford bands that only have so much room to be mentioned in the documentary). 

In some ways, I am reminded of the Residents- more an art concept than a band. Meanwhile, album sales top out at 8000 and the band tours - mainly hitting their homes in Chicago and the UK and though they aren’t selling out arenas, seem to maintain the same size crowds. The doc may not be the flashiest but neither are the Mekons and it’s a perfect match for the band itself. A mix of high profile guests (Greill Marcus, Fred Armisen, Will Oldham, Jonathan Franzen) join Mekons past and present. 

If you aren’t inspired, you likely never will be. The band continues to reinvent itself and despite all the years together- they try to maintain the spirit of teenage punks.

RIP: Bluegrass legend David Davis

Bluegrass legend David Davis died from injuries caused by a car accident on September 15, 2024 at the age of 63. He led the Warrior River Boys (a band originally founded in 1960) beginning in 1984 and has been honored for being the closest practitioner of Bill Monroe style Mandolin. (Davis’s uncle Cleo played in the first lineup of Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys). 

The band came to prominence by releasing two albums for Rounder Records in the early 1990s. After their success had subsided and the band self-released a couple of albums, the band with a new lineup had a post- O Brother Where Thou renaissance releasing a self titled album in 2004 for bluegrass label Rebel Records, then two more in 2006 and 2009. Bluegrass has had a jump in popularity recently with artists like Billy Strings, Greensky Bluegrass and Trampled by Turtles. 

But before that, the Warrior River Boys were keeping the genre alive in that prior decade with a traditional sound along with the likes of IIIrd Tyme Out, the Country Gentlemen, and the Seldom Scene. What will be the last studio album of Davis’s lifetime is hands down my favorite and in my mind, the band’s masterpiece. 2018s Didn’t He Ramble is a collection of songs from 1920s country music pioneer Charlie Poole. Praised by Paste magazine as one of the best Bluegrass albums of the year and awarded four out of five stars by Allmusic users, it has a sound that would appeal to modern rock ears- think of Del McCoury’s early 00s albums or any number of throwback indie folk bands who appreciate old time country.

What I am listening to: LYR

There's probably not a more unusual album that I loved this year than An Unnatural History by LYR. 

LYR (Land Yacht Regatta) is British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, producer Patrick Pearson and multi instrumentalist Richard Walters. I really am not familiar with Armitage though he seems like someone who is modern and accessible- a perfect kind of poet for the 21st Century. Raised on Britpop, where I heard of Armitage was the infamous 2010 Guardian interview he did with Morrissey. That particular interview seemed to be the crossing of the Rubicon for which the outlandish Mozzer seemed to pass from controversy to being blatantly racist. 

Album reviews seem to try to counter the idea that it's all that odd. John Betjeman made a “pop” album in 1974 with longtime Gerry Rafferty producer Hugh Murphy. Now, I did give some listens to Neil Gaiman's 2023 Signs of Life album which took his poetry and prose to String Quartet backing. Plus, if we are being honest, rock artists like the Fall, the Smiths, Pulp, British Sea Power and Tindersticks wed literature to modern music. But I also feel like this is the kind of album I wouldn't have picked up. I am not necessarily a fan of spoken word but somehow this works. 

 The music is compelling as is Armitage's words on top. The subject is the Natural History Museum in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England which documented local flora and fauna until it closed in the 1960s. The album imagines the area, plants and animals past and present. The band's Bandcamp lists a series of fantastic (and sometimes Fantastic) animals- elephants, rare moths, urban foxes, whales, pigeons, two headed dogs and Phoenixes.

Album Review: Still Corners- Dream Talk

Dream pop is a genre that is huge in the music circles I run in. It’s a genre that really begins in the late 80s and early 90s when you think of bands like Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Lush and Galaxie 500. The 4AD record label being synonymous with the sound, which surely evolved from post punk bands like the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but also drew from so many places- the multiple facets of the Velvet Underground of course, but also weirdly the country rock of the Byrds, Gram Parsons and Neil Young. 

 In many ways, Dream Pop is linked with shoegaze, and over time, the importance of both (as well as the nitpicking gatekeepers) seems to have grown in leaps and bounds. While this has benefited those original bands, it also benefits lesser known bands that seem to have accrued diehard audiences. Dream Pop was also a perfect antidote to the Oughts style of indie rock, leading to a next wave of popular and artistic heights with Beach House being the most notable face of the genre this time. While that wave probably hit its peak in 2010, its influence lives on with bands like Japanese Breakfast, No Vacation and Hatchie. But even without discussing these popular bands, the sound of the genre is deep and widespread at this point. Dream Pop is entrenched beyond 90s fans’ wildest expectations. 

Still Corners, the British/American duo is among some of the best known bands in the genre. Beach House formed in 2004, released their first album in 2008 and got signed to Sub Pop in 2010. Still Corners formed in 2007 and Sub Pop signed them for their first album in 2011. Still Corners never got the attention Beach House got. 

After the second album, they left SubPop and some of the big online sites stopped reviewing them. But they’ve remained at it, and album # 6, 2024s Dream Talk is a hidden gem of the genre. Cinematic, psychedelic and even some New Wave-ish pop- all based around “dreams” A lot of the songs sound familiar. I think that it’s an ok thing. I would also say that unlike many of the bands I mentioned above, this album really leans into Dream Pop and online reaction really reflects that with genre fans raving about it, while a lukewarm reception from indie heads. 

Still if you love the genre as much as I do, this is well worth checking out.

 

Album Review- Charlie Risso -Alive

Charlie Risso is an Italian singer who came on to my radar due to a recent duet with Hugo Race, the guitarist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in the 1980s. 

 Like Cave, Race has had quite a career making dramatic and cinematic music. Risso is very much in the same vein and the Race collaboration is logical. 

The 2024 album Alive is her third full length, I believe, and follows a noteworthy EP The Light which came out in 2022. There is not a wealth of info on Risso online, which is shocking given how good of an album Alive is. Of the reviews online, seemingly every single one mentions David Lynch. 

I am not sure if the reviewers are sharing a press kit or if she mentioned this in an interview or “Lynch” is acceptable shorthand for cinematic, ethereal music. (In which case, I am guilty too, as I throw around Nick Cave’s name. Alive though is a great piece of noir pop. Risso has found like minded contributors like Race and R&B singer/songwriter H.E.R. 

The creation is a bit genre fluid and in a year where you have new albums from artists like Mick Harvey, Barry Adamson and even Nick Cave himself (not to mention adjacent artists like John Cale and Isobel Campbell), this album still stands out. Hopefully, it will get some of the attention it deserves.

 

Album Review- Steve Earle: Alone Again....Live

Steve Earle is probably my favorite musical artist. Now, he wasn’t my favorite artist at the formative ages of 16 or 21 but by 30, he likely had taken the position, and one assumes, that won't change again with age at this point. Art is fluid, so the term “favorite” is subjective, of course, and listening will fluctuate. 

Surprising to me, I was able to meet him in a post concert meet and greet. These in-person events are awkward and seemingly a recipe for disappointment, but I don’t have anything negative to say about the encounter. Like many artists with long careers, it’s hard not to think of his different eras. Earle will still always be most likely known for his 1980s peak chart period where he took a Springsteen singer songwriter approach to country music. 

Many diehard Earle fans surely became that way in the 90s as Earle was one of a group of artists that was creating a new brand of country music. In a four year time frame, he put out four of the finest albums that I have ever heard - the span from Train A Comin’ that lasted to The Mountain. Earle has a new live album. He released a live album in 1991- the lightly regarded Shut Up and Die like an Aviator- the critics aren’t wrong as it serves as a book end to his first act and isn't particularly essential. His next major live album was a two disc album Just An American Boy in 2003 which sort of book ends that phase in his career. That album takes me back to 2004- a particular place and time. 

For me, life seemed amped up. The Bush-Kerry election. The War on Terror. Fahrenheit 9/11. Web 2.0. I constantly played the two discs. While they don’t measure quite up to his 90s work- the three early 00s albums - 2000s Transcendental Blues 2002s Jerusalem and 2004s The Revolution Starts Now come pretty close. Overly political (not that Earle was ever apolitical) buzz formed around brash ideas like “John Walker’s Blues” and “Condi, Condi” After that flurry of activity, Earle returned in 2007 and also had quite an acting career appearing in two HBO series The Wire and Treme. 

There have been 11 albums in those 17 years since 07s Washington Square Serenade. There have been some great moments. Four of those albums have been all cover tributes to Earle influences and friends Guy Clark, Townes Van Zant, Jerry Jeff Walker and his son Justin Townes Earle. 2020s Ghost of West Virginia- his last studio album which featured songs that were written for an Off Broadway play is among his best work. I would also rank 2016s self titled collaboration with Shawn Colvin and 2017s So You Wannabe an Outlaw as right up there with the aforementioned early Oughts records 

Earle has often been backed by his band the Dukes. Longtime bassist Kelly Looney died in 2019. Guitarist Bucky Baxter passed in 2020. Chris and Eleanor Masterson who have their own band went their own way in 2022. But most famously after the 2023 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, the rest of the band emailed their resignations. I am not sure Earle is easy to get along with or what, but regardless he seems to always fight his way through and he landed on his feet by touring alone now and releasing some of the results as an album On top of that, though I know not all fans share the opinion, most critics seem to rank it as a career highlight. Good chunks of dialogue make it feel like one of those “Storyteller” albums. There’s also a good chunk of his whole career. 

In interviews, Earle said he doesn’t understand how artists won’t perform their hits, which is why Copperhead Road and Guitar Town are here among many others. Still hearing, say “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” here reminds you how even the greatest artists- Lou Reed, Springsteen, Dylan, McCartney and so on- had long careers but they also had those indelible early hits. Even at 15 songs, it’s hard to get everything covered. Though the double shot of I Feel Alright is not only some great songs but is a nice acknowledgment of the rough years Earle lived through and equally doesn’t fall for the “romantic self-destructive artist” trope that some may fall for. The recent Ghosts of Virginia only gets one song which is It’s About Blood- but it sounds better live here than in the studio and has an extra benefit to the new listener as Earle explains the project. 

Most critics have raved over this album but a select few have said Earle sounds tired and old. Even then for a country singer, that probably wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me- but I think he sounds great here in this setting. I tend to skip 2007s Washington Square Serenade which mainly is overshadowed by the two previous albums that had such a political bent. “Sparkle and Shine” from that album is a nice inclusion for the flip side of so many of the political songs. There are no surprises which pop up on the longer tour set lists, say covers of the Pogues or Justin Townes Earle. As a huge fan, I would have appreciated those, but this does make things as close to a “Where to start with Steve Earle” primer as it is likely intended to be.

On the Shelf: Swami John Reis

In retrospect, I likely don’t rate Rocket from the Crypt as high as I should. sure 

I played the heck out of Scream Dracula Scream, but come to think of it, I played a lot of the RFTC and All Systems Go records too. Somehow, as Indie Rock evolved into a serious Pitchfork rock critic concern in the 00s, Rocket might not have been the type of group that got mass attention. John Reis is sort of an opposite coast version of Jon Spencer. He does what he wants regardless of prevailing styles or trends, even if it means a different band name or record label. 

It means I lost track of him as he largely focused on Hot Snakes, the Sultans and the Night Marchers instead of Rocket. Up until 2015 when he collaborated with garage punks the Blind Shake for Modern Surf Classics- the kind of album that does what it says on the packaging. It wasn’t quite Rocket and definitely wasn’t the Ventures but somehow an intersection of the two. In 2022, Reis made his first “solo” album Ride the Wild Night and to my ears, about as a good album as any I know- a pretty straight forward take on garage rock with pop hooks. It had the Rocket From the Crypt vibes but with more Nuggets and less post punk edge. All of this Awaits You is some of the same. While it reminds me of the recent work of peers like King Khan, but with radio friendly production. 

Ironically, this blast of fun comes from sadness. Rick Froberg passing away unexpectedly was the catalyst for recording. Froberg had been in bands with Reis like Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes. So Reis who is running at least four bands now, decided he was going to bang out some rock n roll. All of this… is in the mold of his debut solo album. The opener invokes a classic Rocket from the Crypt with a peel my heart like a banana or onion metaphor. Write what you know I guess and if you are prolific as Reis, you don’t have time for the kind of Lauryn Hill, Tom Scholz or Axl Rose style writers block. The notorious reputation of Harbor Freight Tools? That’s a song. What do you put on your Hot Dog? That’s another song. But why overthink it. This is 23 minutes of rock fun and it’s hard to quibble with that. More accessible than the fury of Hot Snakes ( though original drummer Jason Kourikounis and Tommy Kitsos, an occasional Snakes fill- in is on bass). Let’s just rock and have fun. 

2024 - BMG/Swami Records

Album Review- A Country Celebration of Tom Petty

Contemporary Country music has adapted the roots rock of the 1980s as its heroes which always seemed like an obvious relationship. Springsteen and Mellencamp have been canonized, songs like Tom Cochrane’s “Life is A Highway” and Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” have become cover hits, and as Contemporary Country Music has also revered southern rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker Band, its no surprise the country community has come to love Tom Petty.

I had an online conversation recently about most universally loved musicians and Petty was mentioned a lot. As I was growing up, Petty did seem like a big deal. 1985 single “Don’t Come Around Here No More” was one of the handful of most important music videos and the Dave Stewart produced song was no slouch either.

Only a handful of artists like Billy Joel, ZZ Top, Genesis, Springsteen, Van Halen and the Police seemed to bridge the cultural gap from FM Rock to the Video climate. 1986 me thought Petty was a bigger name than Dylan as they toured together (and at the time, maybe he was) and in 1988 when Petty became the youngest Wilbury.

And let’s talk about Full Moon Fever which probably should get more mention as one of the big albums of my lifetime. It was deep with 5 singles- certainly in conversation with Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Free Fallin surely as overplayed as any song I can think of. Following that album - 2 hit singles off 91s Into the Great Wide Open and 1993s Greatest Hits maintained Petty as perhaps the most unlikely and unsung hero of music video television.

1994s Wildflowers is another album we should probably talk about. There were again three killer singles and accompanying videos. Although atypically downbeat, in retrospect it seems like a perfect 90s album on par with any Grunge album of the day.

It surely doesn’t help that Petty went five years without a new album and when he did it was a soundtrack. Still music was under going a change and you can’t expect everyone to hang on. Still, from then on, Petty never seemed to command as much attention again.

I’m probably oversimplifying. 2002’s single “Last DJ” was a big hit with the FM rock crowd. Still as indie music seemed to be rising, artists on non-indie labels were not of interest to indie media.

Which is a shame as during this time, in 2008 and then again in 2016, Petty made some incredible albums with his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch. They are some of my favorite 21st Century albums.

But I never heard people in the cool websites talking about Petty. I am not saying he didn’t get any attention but he sure felt underappreciated. At least not until his passing. That's when a lot of Petty tribute bands seemed to start pop up, too.

The Tom Petty tribute Petty Country features a mix of some of the biggest names in popular country music with some of the most innovative. The album itself was overseen by Petty’s daughter and the estate.

Legends like George Strait, Willie Nelson, Wynonna and Dolly Parton meet some of the biggest radio stars of today like Dierks Bentley, Thomas Rhett, Eli Young Band and Luke Combs with a nice mix of fhosw who push radio country’s boundaries like Ateve Earle, Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, Rhiannon Giddens and Marty Stuart.

The Petty tribute isn’t likely to get a lot of traction in the Americana circles as it is heavy on the pop country names. There’s also not much in the way of deep cuts. It’s understandable. Sirius XM (who gave Petty his own dedicated channel a la U2, Jimmy Buffet, and the Beatles)played a good deal of the singles on release on its pop country Highway channel.

If you drop the needle most anywhere you will get something like Lady A’s “Stop Dragging My Heart Around”. One of the most popular bands in America for a time, their version of pop country isn’t something I would normally listen to. But it’s hard to deny the strength of Petty’s song. So is the album

More adventurous listeners will likely wish there was more songs like “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Rhiannon Giddens backed by the Silk Road Ensemble and Heartbreaker Benmont Tench. It’s a perfect match of ambitious musician and a song that isn’t a cookie cutter pop song. Giddens adds banjo and I can only describe as neo psychedelica among other elements to really bring out the dream world envisioned by Petty’s famous video.

I would remiss to mention a personal favorite of mine. Steve Earle’s cover of “Yer So Bad” is a bit of a revelation in its own way. Of course, most of the album stays pretty close to the originals and so I won’t complain about a Petty cover. But “Yer So Bad” has such great lyrics and is a perfect match for the story telling abilities of Earle. Like he did with Townes Van Zant and Guy Clark, it’s hard to beat the original but he can at least match the original in his own way.

RIP: John Mayall

John Mayall recently passed away at aged 90. 

Through his group the Bluesbreakers, he fostered some of the best musicians of the rock era- Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jack Bruce, John McVie, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor and many others. 

 I saw Mayall in the early 00s after longtime Bluesbreaker guitarist Coco Montoya had gone solo and Buddy Whittington had taken his spot in the band. I saw them play at a now defunct Labor Day Blues Festival in St Louis that I adored. I know I went twice and I think three years in a row in the late 00s. It meant that I got to see legends like Mayall and Booker T Jones of the MGs. 

What’s particularly ironic is that in a post-Jack White/Dan Auerbach musical world, Blues became another strain of Americana and you could probably say these musicians, who often weren’t young, are now more famous than when I saw them because of that new audience. So, no I won’t forget seeing Bettye LaVette, Shemekia Copeland and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. 

Also, sadly Death has taken a couple of musicians who would surely have gone to bigger things given new styles- Michael Burks who played a great rock guitar has been covered by Kingtone “Catfish” Ingram and Nick Curran who played a rockabilly influenced blues kind of similar to what Jesse Dayton does now. This free festival was replaced after a few years but it leaves some of my strongest musical memories. 

 

RIP: Martin Phillips of the Chills

It’s funny that as we talk about music, hidden memories get rediscovered Martin Phillips, lead singer of the Chills recently passed away at 61. 

Like so many artists, his legacy can’t be summed up in one thought or sentence His band seemed to be on the breakthrough of the US mainstream in the early 1990s. There were some quirky pop singles on MTV’s 120 Minutes with bands like XTC, House of Love and the Ocean Blue among many others finally finding large audiences. I went as far as buying Submarine Bells and although I kind of just stuck with Heavenly Pop Hit- a song that describes itself- I didn’t go all that much further. But my friends did, and when the Chills reemerged with 2015s Silver Bullets, they were greatly loved once again. 

All of this doesn’t even cover their 1980s albums for Flying Nun which are a great influence and when I made it to college, submerged myself into finding the New Zealand sound. Along with bands like the Clean, the Bats, the Jean Paul Satre Experience, the 3Ds and Straitjacket Fits among others, the sound of Velvet Underground influenced pop from New Zealand bands has touched everyone who has heard it, and I suspect will be timeless for new listeners to come. 

Recent conversations around the Chills and another band Downy Mildew now immortalized by the recent Strum and Thrum: American Jangle Underground compilation unlocked a surprising forgotten memories. 

Me in 1992 was very interested in discovering music. This was before I found college radio but knew of it. MTV offered a window but I was hungry for more. I remembered some sampler CDs that I had either ordered for free out of the back of a music magazine or maybe bought with the magazine. It was a novel idea then. Of course, in the 1990s and early 2000s, I would buy the CMJ newsstand magazine that excelled at promoting new alternative bands. Then as it disappeared, saw the rise of Uk mags that did the same- Q and the Word back then and Mojo and Uncut carrying the torch. But I did look for free music back in those pre Internet days. Sire Records of course had the Just Say Yes series (for a price). Epic/Columbia promoted free music via soda pop companies. I even bought for a dollar or two the fantastic sampler put out by small indie Alias Records. 

But I couldn’t quite pull that early memory. I remember these discs being weirdly diverse with rock, jazz, world, etc. A few big names, a few names that became big and some who never did. And I thought it seemed it was something to do with Musician magazine. Though I now wondered if that was a real thing or if I made it up. I went to the Wiki and saw it did exist- a place for writers like Lester Bangs and Cameron Crowe- though by the time I started reading it, it was owned by Billboard Magazine and folded in 1999. Sure enough I looked and the discs I remember having I found. 

It was their series A Little on the CD side. I had at least three and possibly more. Looking at what I found online-the series carried on a bit and would have been great to keep up with as I see later discs with people like PJ Harvey, Elliott Smith and others who came later. It’s likely where I first heard Shakespear’s Sister, the Rembrandts, the Spin Doctors, Sophie B Hawkins and Del Amitri before they made their marks on 90s Radio. It was also a good spot to hear new music from Warren Zevon, Ringo Starr, Maceo Parker, Wendy & Lisa and Los Lobos- established artists who had been pushed to the margins. Eno and Cale was a revelation as were the Chills as was E (Mark Everett) who had bigger days ahead as Eels. I heard Me Phi Me whose Wikipedia entry details his success but someone I feel deserved more. But I also remember the bands that sounded like nothing I had ever heard and maybe I could or couldn’t make heads or tails of like Strunz and Farah, Young Gods and Limbo Maniacs. 

Here are the discogs pages for the ones that I know I had 

 https://www.discogs.com/release/6612622-Various-Musician-Magazines-A-Little-On-The-CD-Side-Volume-1 

 https://www.discogs.com/release/6613313-Various-Musician-Magazines-A-Little-On-The-CD-Side-Volume-VI 

 https://www.discogs.com/release/6613277-Various-Musician-Magazines-A-Little-On-The-CD-Side-Volume-5

 

RIP: James Chance

There are many times in our life where we hear a song that blows us away. While it may be less over the years, one still runs into them, and definitely one of those songs for me is “Contort Yourself” by James Chance.

I must have of him before I heard him. Like Glenn Branca or John Zorn, it’s almost impossible not to have heard the name. Famously, Chance was part of the 1978 Brian Eno curated compilation No New York which also introduced Arto Lindsay and Lydia Lunch.

Although I don’t know that I am a huge fan of the scene that became called No Wave- as opposed to New Wave- this post punk rock imagining of funk, jazz and disco, I do find the idea intriguing. And as an alternative rock fan of the 80s, its legacy was being carried out by the Swans, Sonic Youth and others.

I never fully jumped into a Chance deep dive but I always found “Contort Yourself” an amazing song. By the time I had gotten to it, it shouldn’t have seemed so revolutionary. There’s definitely a straight line to bands like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion that loves James Brown and gritty rock equally. I had found fringe bands like Chrome and Dog Faced Hermans whose stretching of boundaries really appealed to me. Even the post punk sounds of PiL and Pere Ubu were taking us there.

And yet, knowing all this still, it smacks a wallop. Even if you never heard the music, album covers like Off White by Chance’s alter ego band James White and the Blacks is pure cool- Chance with greased pompadour and sax.

In the modern day of social media, I learned of Chance’s failing health and though he truly was a great rock character, he still needed a GoFundMe. It is sad that someone of such a legacy would need that kind of assistance. His music will live on

An Appreciation - The Four Tops

88 year old Duke Fakir passed away last month meaning all of the original Four Tops are now gone. 

I knew Fakir was still touring the group when I read a review I think from the Guardian a few years ago. Fakir performed up until two days before his death which means he was a Four Top for 70 years The band will continue led by Ronnie McNeir who took over for Levi Stubbs in 1999 and sang with them since. 

I think most of us love the Motown (and similar sounding soul) bands but the Four Tops were really the pinnacle for me. They legitimately are one of my favorite musical artists of all time. The Funk Brothers were the backing band as they were for most every big Motown hit you can name. Holland-Dozier-Holland were the songwriting team and although they wrote for many artists, they are particularly known for writing for the 4 Tops and the Supremes. 

This may be some subliminal suggestion but Billy Bragg had a song called Levi Stubbs’s Tears and I truly think Levi was an amazing unique frontman. The band’s most famous songs are “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)” and “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” and they are fantastic songs. But so many of their hits are great. Stubbs always sounded like he was singing about the most important thing. “Bernadette” with its false finish, “Standing in the Shadows of Love” with its juxtaposition of urgent rhythm and the desperation of "Seven Rooms of Gloom", Stubbs signing his heart out on these essential songs. 

 If anything, I love the Motown essentials, but I know the band released music until the late 1980s. Though I consider myself a Rock Guy, an indie music fan, the Four Tops are always on my listening menu. Though they predate the “album” era, Second Album is remarkably solid with the recognizable songs on side one and a nice enjoyable second side of songs that don't get played on the radio.. At this point, it looks like the band will continue on led by Lewis McNeir who replaced Stubbs in 1999 and has had a strong musician and producer career on his own. 

 1966 - Motown 

 

Album Review- Vacations- No Place Like Home

I have been quite interested in the generational music divide. 

People my age generally had some commonality which I attribute mostly to MTV and its alternative music kingmaker 120 Minutes. We all knew the popular band and it seemsd like the mags like Spin and Alternative Press, college radio and everything else fell in line behind. When I talk to someone my age, we have the same references. 

When I talk to someone 15 years younger, they don’t get my references. Names like Psychedelic Furs or Horton Heat are meaningless. But it goes both ways. I am not sure how this generation consumes music. 

I suppose it’s multiple things like Spotify curated playlists, alt rock radio, Pandora streams, viral TikTok videos, TV and movie soundtracks, hipster blogs, tastemaker YouTube shows, Reddit threads and so on. Perhaps some secret dark web that only those under 35 have access to, for all I know. Still, these bands have millions of listeners and pack concert halls (though not always, a common modern problem is determining if streams can equal ticket sales). I used to feel I know the scope of everything but those days are gone. 

Australian band Vacations feel like a group that straddles both lines. They get play on Sirius XMs “College Rock” station which echoes the old guard commonality. Their sound is old school too. Dream Pop probably most accurately describes their blend of psych, shoe gaze, and Smiths jangle. To my ear, I hear comparisons to another Antipodean band San Cisco and Midwest bedroom pop artist Yot Club. Vacations do market themselves as Australia’s biggest boy band and their biggest moment is from a TikTok for their 2016 song “Young” and their 2018 song “Telephones” appropriately about being obsessed with our phone. For a band that sprung to life like many of their age from Tumblr and SoundCloud, that shouldn’t be a big deal. But the 90s sound of dream pop is what lures me in and I dig their sound.