#its a compilation/mix of all three performances

[nmixxgifs]

Kyujin performing Boom at MIXX LAB (2024.10.04-06) via attack on

[noodlepigeon]

Red Vox Before Red Vox

Vinny started playing guitar in 2003, and started writing music in 2004. He and Mike met in college and bonded over a mutual taste in music, including rock bands of many styles and eras, but especially classic rock and grunge.

Vinny was part of a few small bands at this time. He often played guitar for and with his high school friend Bill, even playing bass for Bill as his first gig. Eventually, Vinny and Mike formed a band of their own: Davy’s Grey. Mike was on drums, and Vinny took the role of vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter. A mutual college friend of theirs, Phil, played bass.

Davy’s Grey was primarily a live band, performing sporadic shows before recording seven of their best live songs and compiling them into the 2009 EP No Cigar.

Davy’s Grey was a formative time for the future Red Vox members. Several songs written during this period would make their way onto Red Vox’s earliest releases, including Trolls and Goblins, which was later recorded as a charity incentive in 2015, and Long Lonely Night, the penultimate track on Red Vox’s first full-length album. Several songs off the Red Vox EP Blood Bagel also came from this era; its Bandcamp page credits Phil with “witnessing the real Blood Bagel playing some of these songs with us back in the day.”

Davy's Grey disbanded shortly after the release of No Cigar, beginning a five year period of little musical activity from its former members. Mike took on various drumming gigs, though little came of these ventures. Phil became a solo musician and producer. Vinny primarily focused on his YouTube channel and streaming on Justin.tv, later Twitch.tv – he would, however, release his solo album Sibilants in January 2011, and Odds and Ends, a short collection of Davy’s Grey demos and solo demos, in December 2011.

All the while, Bill – a pianist/keyboardist, vocalist, bassist, guitarist, and probably some other things – was busy playing and writing music. In 2008, he joined the Seconds along with Joe Pecora. The Seconds released their first album Slip Away in 2010 and their second, final album Monstro in 2013. Bill released his solo album Villain in 2010 as well. All three of these albums were recorded, mixed, and produced by Joe. Joe himself played in quite a few local bands – notably, the Sweathogs, which would later evolve into Happy Anarchy (for which he also recorded, mixed, and produced). All of these projects took place at his studio, the Red Room, in Staten Island, NY. Vinny has described him as “a local legend,” a well-earned moniker.

Bill and Joe with the Seconds. First image: Bill on far left and Joe on far right; Second image: Bill on far right, Joe immediately to his left.

Joe (second from left) with Happy Anarchy at Red Room Studio, SINY.

Vinny and Mike reconvened around 2014, deciding to dust off some of their old songs to record. Bill introduced them to Joe, and this simple idea would soon balloon into an album taking a year of their lives to record and costing thousands of dollars to make. What could go wrong?

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Jeff Buckley: Sketches (For My Sweetheart The Drunk) (Columbia)

Jim Irvin, MOJO, June 1998

FANS OF Grace might find this album tough going. For one thing, it's hard to divorce the circumstances of its existence from the music – some of which is very beautiful, yet you know it wouldn't sound this way if Jeff Buckley had lived. In other words, you're listening to this record because he died.

Secondly, there are several moments that seem too private, things we probably shouldn't be hearing. At these times you might experience the same uneasy fascination you'd get from illicitly reading someone's diary. You might also find yourself distracted by questions like, "Who chose this running order?", "Why are there two versions of two songs with nothing much to choose between them?" or "Was this song finished?"

We'll never know if Jeff Buckley wanted anybody to hear the ugly clutter of ‘Haven't You Heard’, we can be certain he had more in mind for the complex ‘Murder Suicide Meteor Slave’ than the detuned, trebly mush it is here and we can only wonder at how its lovely Beatle-ish interlude would have turned out. Did he lay down the home-made cover of ‘Back In New York City’ (a Genesis song from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway) with a view to putting it on record or simply for his own amusement, something to get the creative juices flowing? Is there any real value in hearing tracks as nascent as ‘Demon John’ or ‘Your Flesh Is So Nice’ – barely written songs, with arrangements just hinted at by slapdash guitars and extemporised melodies you know he'd have nailed later or abandoned completely? Is it right to include performances where his singing is unfocused, lazy or tired? Or those where the band are just feeling their way?

As I understand it, from talking to his management shortly after his death, Jeff Buckley's unreleased legacy runs thus: the remainder of the Live At Sin-E recordings; radio sessions and solo spots such as those on the French ‘Live At The Bataclan’ EP (which he hated); one outtake from Grace, ‘Forget Her’ (removed to make room for ‘So Real’); the "live in the studio" solo sets recorded during the making of Grace; a series of 24-track live recordings with the full band (some of these, like the extended version of Alex Chilton's ‘Kanga-Roo’, have appeared on B-sides and promo discs); the sessions recorded with Tom Verlaine in Memphis a few months before his death; a few tracks recorded in New York soon afterwards; and a large number of 4-track demos Buckley cut in the last weeks of his life.

After he drowned, the inevitable question of what to do with this material had to be faced. Manager Dave Lory spent days going through the tapes found in Jeff's house. He had to listen to everything, no matter what it said on the box, as Jeff had a habit of cutting demos on whatever came to hand. Sure enough, he found one new song halfway through side two of an old Michael Bolton promo cassette.

He then met up with Steve Berkowitz (Jeff's A&R man) and Andy Wallace (the producer of Grace), to make a definitive inventory of all the extant recordings and dub the demos onto digital masters. These were three of the men who knew Jeff's working methods best and they argued every day about what might be done with this stuff, which songs Jeff would have been happy with, how best to release the material or, indeed, if any of it should come out at all.

Just as they were finishing this process, they were 'fired' by Jeff's mother, Mary Guibert, who'd inherited her son's estate and assumed the responsibility of compiling an album with another Columbia A&R executive, Don DeVito, (who'd not worked extensively with Buckley while he was alive). They asked Buckley's friend, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, to "sit in Jeff's seat". Andy Wallace was rehired to complete his mixes of the Verlaine sessions which make up Disc 1 of this collection.

When Buckley completed those tracks he told Lory that he "couldn't find his soul" in them. He was aware there was a lot of work still to do before he could cut a worthy follow-up to Grace, so he temporarily dismissed his band and retreated to his rented house in Memphis to revise the songs and write new ones. (Some of these, ‘Mood Swing Whiskey’, ‘Sky Blue Skin’, ‘Don't Listen To Anyone But Me’, ‘Woke Up In A Strange Place’ and ‘Let's Bomb The Moonlight’ remain in the can.) Disc 2 features seven of those demos, retakes of two of the songs on Disc 1, some CD-ROM material (which was not available for review) and a stray radio recording from 1992 of the country standard ‘Satisfied Mind’ ("I went with a satisfied mind"), clearly chosen as a pointed closer.

Diametrically opposed to it, Disc 1's opener, ‘The Sky Is A Landfill’, is a bleak, relentless torrent of anger. As "evil blacks the sky" Buckley advises that we "Don't suck the milk of flaccid Bill K Public's empty promise to the people". "This way of life is so devised to snuff out the mind that moves," he continues, moved to send a mail bomb to "Mr Strong Arm", who is "useless like the cops at the scene of a crime" Although impressive, it's a curious track to open with, throwing a grim shadow over what follows. It takes a few listens, then, but gradually Sketches' pearls begin to shine through.

‘Vancouver’ kicks off with a Byrdsian riff and a beautiful double-tracked falsetto, spinning into a dizzy song driven by piano, fuzz bass and crashing guitars. ‘Nightmares By The Sea’ is great, too. After an intro reminiscent of Nirvana's ‘Come As You Are’, it turns into a churning pop song – and check the lyrics: "Stay with me under these waves tonight/Be free for once in your life tonight! Bluebeard's young and handsome/So new to your bedroom floor/You know damn well where you're gone." Likewise, the a cappella ‘You And I’ (again, a song whose melody was not fully developed) starts with the line "Oh, the calm below that poisoned river wild". It can't be too long before someone ekes out a morbid dissertation concerning the water imagery in these songs.

However, it's the second track that will be this collection's calling card. ‘Everybody Here Wants You’ draws from the same divine well as ‘Lover, You Should've Come Over’ on Grace. It's a lump-in-the-throat soul ballad which sways like Smokey Robinson's ‘Cruisin'’ or Chic's ‘At Last I Am Free’. Jeff sings it in a tender falsetto with a hint of jealous ire shading the delicious, pleading chorus – "Everybody here wants you! Everybody here thinks he needs you/I'll be waiting right here just to show you our love will blow it all away" – as the bass tumbles along lyrically. Awkward middle-four aside, it's an instant classic. And it serves to make the lesser tracks here an even greater source of sadness, simultaneously reminding us that this wonderful voice has sung its last.

There's a lot of fine material still unheard and we must hope its trustees are careful with it. One thing's sure: a definitive selection will never exist, except in our heads and, one day perhaps, on our personal 'Ultimate Jeff' compilations.

At best, Sketches has much the same function and effect as The Beatles Anthology collections. It's a document of a great musical mind cranking into gear, a series of clues to what might have been. If you were hoping for a record to equal Grace, well, you'll be disappointed. But be assured that Jeff Buckley's sketches overshadow most artists' completed works.

[consanguinitatum]

For One Night Only: David at the RSC Fringe Festival (oh, and one other thing he probably didn't do...)

For today's post in "obscure things David Tennant did way back when," we'll need to travel back in time to the late 1990s. It was a busy time for David. By May 1997, he'd just wrapped up his first Royal Shakespeare Company repertory season (in which he simultaneously played Touchstone in As You Like It, Jack Lane in The Herbal Bed, and Alexander Hamilton in The General From America). This set of three plays had begun their runs in Stratford in early- to mid 1996; they then transferred over to London's Barbican Theatre, where they had ended their runs by mid-1997.

Programmes for The Herbal Bed, As You Like It, and The General From America

Next on David's theatre agenda was the role of Mickey in Hurlyburly (a play I've talked about before) which ran at the Queen's Theatre in London from August to November 1997. He then performed a one-off staged reading of Derek Jarman's Blue at the Chelsea Arts Theare on 16 November 1997 (which, by the way, is another little-known DT performance I want to explore!)

That was it for 1997, theatre-wise.

Then, beginning in March of 1998 - as I've explored previously - he began his run as Moon and Brindsley Miller in The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy. This double bill ran first at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Surrey and then in London, first at the Richmond Theatre and then at the Comedy Theatre. That play finally wrapped in August 1998.

But a month before wrapping The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy, David had popped over to Stratford to do something interesting, something that's the focus of this thread. It was called For One Night Only, and - as it says on the tin - it was, indeed, for one night only!

First, though? A little history!

Around 1990, the RSC began to hold an annual summer festival called the Royal Shakespeare Company Fringe Festival. Intended as a showcase for RSC talent, it included a mix of events: short plays, devised pieces, stand-up comedy, concerts, etc., as well as new works making their Stratford debut. The festival lasted two weeks and saw actors, directors, stage managers, musicians and staff all taking part in more than 25 events. All the events were either on Sundays, or timed around RSC productions, so audiences could go see fringe shows after seeing the actors perform in their usual RSC roles.

Most of the events for 1998's festival took place in a specially adapted 100-seat rehearsal room at the RSC's 'alternative' theatre, The Other Place. But not all of them. Their opening night event - on Sunday, 19 July - was to take place at the Swan Theatre.

That opening night event? For One Night Only!

Starring Desmond Barrit, Emma Handy, and Amanda Harris as well as David, the launch event cost £4-£12 and began at 7:30 pm. It was called a "curtain raiser" as well as "aptly-named."

And just what was it about? Well, um....I know it was organized and compiled by its star, Desmond Barrit...and that it was supposed to take its audience on a journey through the theatre. These articles say so.

But that's about all I know. I wish I had more details.

I am, however, supremely lucky to own a piece of ephemera about this one night only event.

Here's the front and back of my For One Night Only flyer, and as I'm sure you'll notice, it promises "an evening of theatrical prose and poetry...and a little gossip!"

Great. Could you tell us a bit more, thanks?

While researching For One Night Only, I came across something else of interest, which I thought for a moment David might have been involved in - an event staged nine days before For One Night Only. But after researching this event in more detail, I don't think he was involved, after all. Such a shame, really. He would've been perfect!

On Friday, 10 July 1998, at 1 pm in the afternoon, some Royal Shakespeare Company members got together to do a fund raiser and preview of the upcoming Fringe in the forecourt of the Other Place. Called a Sonnetathon, this three-hour event featured various RSC members reading all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets!

Now a Sonnetathon would've been right up David's alley, am I right? He'd have loved it! But I'm about 99% certain he wasn't there - and here's why. That Friday night at 7:30 pm, David was onstage in The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy at the Comedy Theatre in London, that's why!

But here's why I say 99%. It's not impossible to imagine he got up early that Friday (after doing a show the night before) and took the train in to Stratford to do the Sonnetathon - wrapped it up by 4pm, then hopped on another train back to London in time to make the 7:30 curtain up for The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy.

But you have to admit, it seems unlikely.

But The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy wasn't showing on Sunday, 19 July 1998, so David was able to get to Stratford and go onstage as part of 'For One Night Only' to open the Fringe...and then get back to London in time to go onstage once more the following night.

So now you know what I know about For One Night Only.

Of course I'll keep looking for more!

[blogthebooklover]

Movie Recs In Honor of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

I decided to write out a list of movies to watch in honor of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes coming out very soon. This list will feature movies with apes besides the POTA movies, or movies with weird and bizarre friendships/found families.

The Original Planet of the Apes Franchise (1968-1973, Amazon Prime)

Honestly, I've only watched the 1968 movie a handful of times. I decided to watch all of the original franchise leading up to the release of Kingdom. They're all a lot of fun, with social/political commentaries at the time of each film. If you're a movie collector, or like behind-the-scenes/director's commentaries, I highly recommend buying the Blu Ray compilation pack.

2. Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001, Disney+ or Amazon Prime)

I know, hear me out. Yes, it's over-hated, and yes, there was A LOT of potential for this movie. There were definitely too many "cooks in the kitchen" when drafting this movie. Imho, I think it's a guilty pleasure, popcorn movie. If you're a fan of makeup effects, Rick Baker (THE modern makeup effects master) does an absolutely phenomenal job with the designs of the apes in this movie (and check out his Instagram too). I do like the production and the ape costume designs for this film as well.

Tim Roth and Paul Giamatti are such a blast in this movie, too!

And the posters for this movie look so cool.

3. Planet of the Apes Reboot Trilogy (2011-2017, Amazon Prime)

I think this is what the 2001 movie should have been, and was trying to go for. While the three movies did make their money back at the box office, I have two theories why they almost went under everyone's radar (again, this is my opinion):

A. Because of the mixed reception from the 2001 movie.

B. Because of the abundance of comic book & remake movies coming out during the 2011-2017 years.

I put this trilogy right up with the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. The storytelling is great, the special effects hold up well, and this reboot's version of Caesar has became one of my favorite main characters in modern film.

4. Mighty Joe Young (1998 remake, Disney+)

I don't know why this movie doesn't get talked about that much. Rick Baker, once again, does incredible work on the special effects for Joe. There's also a great musical score by James Horner. And Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron give amazing acting performances. And I think it's actually one of the better remakes that came out from the late 1990s.

In fact, the team that worked on the 1933 King Kong also made the 1949 film. Even Robert Armstrong (Carl Denham) came back for the '49 film. Ray Harryhausen worked under the supervision of Willis O'Brien for the special effects for the original movie. He also has a cameo appearance alongside Terry Moore (Jill Young) in a party scene.

Aaaaand I just found out the writers, Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner, also did an uncredited rewrite for the 2001 POTA movie.

5. Tarzan (1999, Disney+)

Of course, who doesn't love Tarzan??? And Phil Collins's A.M.A.Z.I.N.G soundtrack???!!!

6. King Kong (1933, 2005, Amazon Prime/MAX)

Okay, technically it's a giant monster movie and the OG prior to Godzilla. And it also set the standard of film making overall. However, it is also a bit of a Beauty and the Beast story, hence the lines: "It was Beauty killed the Beast" and the "And the prophet said: And lo, the Beast looked upon the face of Beauty. And it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day forward, he was as one dead." I also recommend watching the extended cut of the 2005 remake.

7. Lilo & Stitch (2002, Disney+)

Again, who doesn't love Lilo and Stitch???

8. How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy (2010-2019, Amazon Prime/Peacock App)

Once again, who doesn’t love HTTYD (and why are they remaking it as a live action movie????)???

9. Gorillas in the Mist (1988, Amazon Prime)

This movie is about Dian Fossey (played by Sigourney Weaver), a primatologist who studied mountain gorillas and she was part of a trio of women who studied great apes; the amazing Jane Goodall and her study of chimpanzees, and Birute Galdikas who studies orangutans. The movie is also based on her book of the same name.

I use past tense for Dian, because she met a tragic and horrific death while she was conducting her research on gorillas. I have in-lined a link to Dian Fossey's Wikipedia article for further reading.

Rick Baker, once again, does some amazing practical creature effects work for the gorillas.

10. George of the Jungle (1997, Disney+)

One of my favorite Brendan Fraser movies, and such a fun, and a bit of a campy movie based on the cartoon series (which is also a spoof of Tarzan). I quote this movie every so often. Unfortunately, Rick Baker did not do the ape designs for this movie. The creature effects this time around was done by none other than the Jim Henson Creature Workshop!

[randomvarious]

1990s Breakbeat Playlist

Added a few sweet gems to this 90s breakbeat playlist of mine that I've been slowly growing over the past few years. This week brings us a remix by Lol Hammond, aka Girl Eats Boy, who provided an update to his own Drum Club duo's 1991 progressive house tune, "U Make Me Feel So Good," in '97 that transformed it into this super soothing atmospheric thing with a terrific combo of soft horn and subtle string to go along with its chugging drum break 😌. And in addition to that, we've also got something a bit out there by acclaimed Ninja Tune act DJ Food, who perform here as The Illuminati of Hedfuk with "The Worm Turns," and a song by UK group Globo, whose "Breakdown" was mixed by none other than Jack Dangers of pioneering trip hop and breakbeat group Meat Beat Manifesto. The "U Make Me Feel So Good" remix is sitting at somewhere under 1,000 plays, "The Worm Turns" has a little over 38K plays, and "Breakdown" is only at over 6K plays. So some pretty dope, underheard stuff for you all to savor this week.

The Illuminati of Hedfuk - "The Worm Turns" The Drum Club - "You Make Me Feel So Good (Girl Eats Boy mix)" Globo - "Breakdown (mixed by Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto)"

But with the YouTube update, we've got a couple more adds that can't be found on Spotify too, and one of them comes courtesy of the legendary Chemical Brothers, who, by the time they'd remixed UK duo Deeper Throat's harmonica-infused "Mouth Organ" into a lovely big beat jam all the way back in '93, weren't even performing under that name yet, and were instead going by The Dust Brothers, who are not to be confused with the popular American electronic group that they'd actually taken that name from 😅. Wait for this one to all come together towards the end, with the drum break, the hazy harmonica notes, and the looped-up, sampled, energetic rap vocal all firing in tandem to yield something that actually sounds great, but really has no right to. ~31.6K plays across a handful of uploads on YouTube.

And then we've also got something by a one-off trio called S.D.S., which actually consisted of a couple classic UK punk rockers—drummer Rat Scabies from The Damned and bassist John Jennings from The Ruts—and versatile dance musician Steve Jones aka Steve Dub. Here, the unlikely three-piece delivers "Solar Flares," a dark and futuristic bit of groovy breakbeat dystopia from 1998 that exclusively appeared as their only song, on the otherwise awful Hypnotic Records' compilation, The Chemistry Set. Sounds like the drums on this one were recorded live rather than sampled, and if I had to guess, they're almost certainly provided by Rat Scabies himself. Song currently only has a little over 340 plays, and is deserving of so many more, because it could've easily slotted onto something like The Matrix soundtrack and enjoyed a much more fruitful legacy.

Deeper Throat - "Mouth Organ (Chemical Brothers mix)" S.D.S. - "Solar Flares"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So this update now brings us up to 18 songs on Spotify that clock in at 104 minutes, but over on YouTube, we're now at 40 songs that clock in at 223 minutes. So if you want a much more fulfilling trip into the land of 90s breakbeat that includes both legends like The Chemical Brothers and ephemeral acts like S.D.S. alike, as well as so much more, give the YouTube playlist a listen!

And here's a list of all the comps and mixes that I've used to put this playlist together so far:

St John's Playhouse: Fierce Club Classics by DJ Dave Matthias (1997, Sony Music Special Products) Science Fiction Jazz Volume 1 (1996, Mole Listening Pearls) The Desert Sun: A Higher State of Trance and Chemical Music (1997, Hypnotic Records) Artificial Intelligence (1992, Warp Records) Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism (1996, Ninja Tune) Tresor.4 - Solid (1997, Tresor) California Dreaming (1994, Internal / FFRR) The Chemistry Set (1998, Hypnotic Records) Funky Breakz 2 by DJ X (2000, Xquizit Records) Eclectic Electric (2000, eMusic) Amberdelic Space II: Angel of Ecstasy (1997, Dressed to Kill) The Best Rap Album of All Time (1999, Dressed to Kill) Pacific Rhythm - The First Wave (1996, Harthouse America) The Uncertain Future - The Fourth Barramundi Sampler (1996, Barramundi / Antler-Subway) Monsieur Dimitri's De-Luxe House of Funk by Dimitri From Paris (1997, DMC Publishing Ltd.) Jackpot Presents Guerilla by Phil Perry & Danny Howells (1997, Jackpot) DJ-Kicks: by Kid Loco (1999, !K7 Records) Further East-Westercisms (1998, Law & Auder) The Vertical Iris (1998, ZoëMagik Records) We Are Reasonable People (1998, Warp Records) Live and Rare (1998, F Communications / PIAS France) A Jedi's Night Out by Tom Middleton (1999, DMC / Mixer) Electric Kingdom: Episode One (1999, Language) Bakchick EP #4 (1999, Basenotic Records) 4am Eternal (A Truly Twisted Post-Club Chill-Out Selection) by Osymyso (2000, Mixmag)

Another breakbeat update next week!

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

[mywifeleftme]

240: Various Artists // The Golden Turkey Album: The Best Songs from the Worst Movies

The Golden Turkey Album: The Best Songs from the Worst Movies Various Artists 1985, Rhino

Early Rhino Records was a grand old place for musical perverts thanks to its steady stream of novelty compilations like the Dr. Demento albums and Teenage Tragedy, which collected ‘50s and ‘60s songs about kids dying in automobile accidents (there were a lot of those, it turns out). The Golden Turkey Album: The Best Songs from the Worst Movies is from square in the label’s whacko prime and it’s exactly what it says on the label. These 16 tracks culled from trashy exploitation films like Eegah! (1962), Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (1964), and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) range from Confederate bluegrass to saloon music performed by a group of little people, though the majority are cornball rock ‘n’ roll numbers. On balance, it’s a highly listenable record, full of amateurish, nakedly trend-chasing but ultimately charming recordings that spark the same bewildered laughter as the films from which they derive.

As we march through the tracklist, remember at all times that I am sitting alone on the couch in my apartment wearing a frayed housecoat. Okay, let’s go.

Side One

Trevor Duncan — “Grip of the Law”

Side one opens, as indeed it must, with the blaring opening title theme from Ed Wood’s deathless groaner Plan Nine From Outer Space (1959). Duncan, an Englishman, was a prolific composer for film and television, but “Grip of the Law” wasn’t written for Wood’s opus, which lacked the budget to commission an original score. Duncan’s piece rather was cribbed for the film by one of Wood’s collaborators—which explains why in contrast to everything else about the film, it’s a perfectly competent piece of bombastic orchestral horror/thriller music

The Five Blobs — “Beware of the Blob”

1958’s Steve McQueen vehicle The Blob tracks the very, very slow slugtrail of destruction wrought by a ball of alien red Jell-O, and it’s probably fair to say it peaks with its opening credits and this incongruous “Tequila”/cocktail music-esque number penned by a young Burt Bacharach and Mack David (the elder brother of Burt's future writing partner Hal David). It doesn’t rise to the level of a good Esquivel! track, let alone Bacharach’s own later work, but it’s very dumb and goes on my Halloween playlist every year.

Arch Hall Jr. — “Valerie”

The first of three Arch Hall Jr. tracks on the compilation, which tells you the Rhino guys figured they had a little find on their hands. Hall Jr. was a genuinely talented singer and guitarist with an enormous dome who resembled Jesse Plemons (Todd Alquist from Breaking Bad) or perhaps a wax museum James Cagney. His father, filmmaker Arch Hall Sr., clearly hoped to turn the 16-year-old into an Elvis Presley-esque acting and singing double threat, and featured him in a series of screamingly bad early ‘60s B-movies. “Valerie” is a twinkling, whistling ballad drawn from 1962’s Eegah!, a film which sees the 7’2 Richard Kiel (later Jaws in the James Bond series) as a horny caveman who wants to rail a teenage girl named Roxie whom Hall Jr.’s character is dating. As someone who loves sock-hop dream music and throwing metaphors in a blender (“vitamins are good they say / and so’s a calorie / but I feel like a tiger / on one kiss from Valerie”), I think this one’s pretty great!

Carol Kay & the Stone Tones — “Shook Out of Shape”

Coming in hot from The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964), billed as “The First Horror Movie Musical,” “Shook Out of Shape” puts me in my mind of a Wanda Jackson or a Patsy Cline in a rock mood. Perfectly acceptable beach party music, though it has less of that wonderful offness about it than most anything else here.

Bobby and Benny Belew — “Lonesome”

This is more like it. 12-year-old Texan twins sing close harmony rockabilly from 1957’s Rock, Baby—Rock It! one of a million chintzy attempts to cash in on the rock ‘n’ roll craze that looks like it was shot for $10 (in today’s money). The performances (which some kind soul has cut free of the film’s narrative) by a string of never-were stars generally rip (check out Johnny Carroll, and also whoever’s playing guitar for Preacher Smith & the Deacons, goddamn!), but the Belew Twins were definitely the right choice for this comp. Kids singing adult music basically always comes with the scent of some sweating, overambitious father clenching his fists in the wings. Delish.

The Pleasant Valley Boys — “Robert E. Lee Broke His Musket on His Knee”

From the seminal hicksploitation film Two Thousand Maniacs (1964), we have straight up and down rural car chase bluegrass concerning the eventual return of the South; the horrible shrieking of a crazed Robert E. Lee; and the sucking chest wounds of Stonewall Jackson. The slapping sound? Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just tapping away on the big vein in my arm.

Some adults and some kids — “We’re the Lemon Grove Kids”

Described in the liner notes as a “grating jingle,” this minute-or-so number served as the theme song for a series of Bowery Boys knock-off short films directed by Ray Dennis Steckler, who also gave us The Incredibly Strange Creatures and Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (see side 2 of this LP). Both grating and a jingle.

Arch Hall Jr. — “Vickie”

More Hall Jr., hailing like “Valerie” from Eegah!, also like “Valerie” sung to his character’s girlfriend whose name is Roxie. The songs are similar, but this one is dweebier.

Side Two

Milton Delugg & the Little Eskimos — “Hooray for Santa Claus”

This review didn't need to be this long, but with band names like this, and movies like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) I don’t see how I can stop. A thoroughly unbearable twist-style song sung by a chorus of children who pronounce it out S-A-N-T-A but say it “Santy.”

Arch Hill Jr. — “Yes, I Will”

Yet another one from Arch, this time from 1962’s Wild Guitar. “Yes, I Will” is kind of pubby rock, and it’s perfectly fine, but there are much better numbers from this one—chalk me up as a “Twist Fever” guy personally. Wild Guitar is very in the Elvis teen idol-movie mode—ironically though the best performance of Hall Jr.’s short career would come the following year in Jamis Landis’s brutish The Sadist, in which Hall plays a psychopathic killer based on Charles Starkweather!

Johnnie Fern — “Hey, Look Out! (I Want to Make Love to You)”

1938’s The Terror of Tiny Town is a Western with a cast entirely composed of little people. It will not shock you to learn the movie did not originate from an urge to improve representation of little people in film, but rather from a joke producer Jed Buell overheard. According to the liners the song is sung by someone named Johnnie Fern, but in the film it’s presented as the voice of Nita Krebs, a dancehall girl doing a kind of Marlene Dietrich femme fatale shtick. It’s a treacly Vaudeville-ish ballad sung in a very, very high pitch, and I love it. Sending this one out to my girlfriend, to whom I am hornily disposed and who also is quite short.

Dr. Frederick Kopp — “The Dance Hall Twist”

Yet another twist number (from 1964’s monster flick The Creeping Terror). Not much to say about it, likely included here because it immediately precedes this unforgettable sequence:

Dr. Frederick Kopp — “She Left Me Lonely”

A vaguely Latin-flavoured country ballad from the same film featuring the indelible chorus, “she left me lonely / she left me sad / but still I am happy / in fact I am glad,” the liner notes quote the classically trained Dr. "Not a" Kopp as “feeling dirty” to have written the song, which apparently took him 15 minutes or so.

Harold "Duke" Lloyd with Page Cavanaugh and His Trio — “Special Date”

Before kicking off this number from 1958’s Frankenstein’s Daughter, the Duke sends “Special Date” out to anyone in the audience on a special date, which is like dedicating a song called “Having Sex” to anyone currently having sex or “Eating Food” to anyone actively eating food.

Ron Haydock & the Boppers — “Rat Pfink”

Ray Dennis Steckler’s Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (1966) is a straight crime movie for the first 40 minutes before abruptly becoming a parody of the Batman television series and ending with a rockabilly barbecue party. Sung by Ron Haydock, who plays the titular Batman knockoff, the Gene Vincent-y “Rat Pfink” is damned solid stuff.

Ron Haydock & the Boppers — “Big Boss A-Go-Go Party”

Same artist, same movie, same scene, not quite as vigorous as “Rat Pfink” but you gotta think Lux Interior of the Cramps must’ve loved this shit.

That’s it? That’s all the turkey? Thank you Rhino, thank you directors of trash movies and performers of trash music, thank you dear reader for sticking around.

240/365

[burlveneer-music]

Dur-Dur Band Int. - The Berlin Session - return (after decades) of a top Somali band

The first studio album of its kind since the golden days of Mogadishu came to a halt three decades ago. Glamorous discos and beachfront stages disappeared as the city was bombed to the ground. Like a sleeping giant patiently awaiting its revival, we can finally hear a new recording by the living representatives of that distinct era so far heard only on reissues. This record captures the historic reunion which took place in 2019 in Germany’s capital. London-based Dur-Dur Band Int. - itself an eight-piece powerhouse of Somali live-music - is backing three legendary singers. Sounding equally Asian as it does African, a definitive proto-Reggae groove channels the titans as they devotedly draw the bridge between the sorrow of all that was lost and the delight of a magic which survived. So Why Did We Have To Wait So Long To Hear This Album? By the end of the 1980s, Somalia’s capital (Xamar as the locals call it) was dancing its final dance. The musicians strived to keep it up as the country fell apart, but when the war eventually entered the capital, exile was inevitable. The national theatre was a battleground and the hotels became the backdrops for destruction, many remaining in ruin to this very day. Dur-Dur Band for example was then active in the 90s in nearby Addis Abeba, yet most of the scene was eventually dispersed over 4 continents. For a decade, Mogadishu’s veteran musicians remained dormant. For Xabiib, the glamour of stardom and Gucci had been replaced with an occasional wedding - singing alongside a backing track. In 2003, a fund-raiser was held in London for the reconstruction of Hargeisa’s National Theater which had been bombed to the ground during the war. Somali singers, actors and comedians from all over the diaspora were invited. A new Kooxda was formed around Dur-Dur’s founding member Abdillahi Cujeeri - calling itself Dur-Dur Band Int. Yet for the last twenty years they’ve been performing mostly within the Somali community. In 2015 Berlin-based Nicolas “Çaykh” Sheikholeslami was enticed by Somali music. Little did he know that his mixtape Au Revoir, Mogadishu Vol. 1 - Songs From Before The War would end up sparking a massive international interest in Somali music. Soon he was approached by Ostinato Records with the idea to create a legit compilation featuring those sounds. Thus, Sheikholeslami went on to co-curate ‘Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa’ which received a Grammy nomination in 2018. Berlin’s prestigious HKW took notice and granted him an opportunity to put together a concert with artists from the golden era. Luckily for us, Nicolas sensed the chance for a recording session to be arranged - and that is how we got this album.

Text by: Nicolas Sheikholeslami & Omri S. Shmulewitz of Spiritczualic Enhancement Center Vocals: Xabiib Sharaabi Vocals: Cabdinuur Alaale Vocals: Faadumina Hilowle Drums: Saciid Xuseen Congas: Saalax Xariiri Bass: Cabdillahi Cujeeri Keys: Yusuf Naaji Guitar: Nabil Sacaani Guitar: Cumar Teesiyow Saxophone: Morton Zakaria Claves: Akila Artwork: Muhyadin Sharafo (oil painting) & Ventral is Golden (design) Recorded: 21.02.2019 & 22.02.2019 Berlin at Butterama Studios in Neukölln by Daniel Nentwig Producer & Mixing: Nicolas Sheikholeslami

[wearethekat]

as anyone who's read Alexis Hall's Something Spectacular would know, this is a queer novel which namedrops a lot of Baroque music. as someone with a Lot of Thoughts about music (albeit with no claim to expertise), here's the compiled results of the frantic youtube searching I did to find out which pieces he was referring to. Plus bonus commentary on the likelihood of the piece sending someone into raptures. May this be a help to anyone mixing up Artaxerxes (Arne), Artaserse (Vinci), and Serse (Handel).

(Yes, all three of these works do appear in the book, a curse on baroque composers and their recycled libretti)

Sonata no. 1 Book 1 in F For Piano Four Hands: II: Allegro (Burney)

Quote: "'Oh no.' Peggy elbowed Sir Horley urgently. 'I haven't heard Sonata no. 1 Book 1 in F for Piano Four Hands: I. How will I understand the plot?'" (45)

Commentary: I thought Alexis Hall had made this one up when reading the book. That's too much title, put some back. This one is actually legitimately tiresome*, 2/10. Highly unlikely to send someone into raptures.

Mozart's Flute Concerto no. 1 in G major

Quote: "only to be replaced by a long-nosed gentleman who subjected them to the full thirty minutes" (47)

Commentary: Cmon, this is Mozart, Peggy! please don't disrespect his divine name. 6/10. I could see how it would fail to send someone who doesn't like music into raptures, especially if we account for the fact it was apparently performed sans orchestra and possibly by an amateur performer.

Artaxerxes, "Still Silence Reigns Around" (Arne)

Quote: "As her clear, crystalline voice filled the room, Peggy wondered if anyone else was sensible of the irony of a two to three hour piece of musical theater opening with the line 'Still silence reigns around.' It was all she could do to prevent herself from muttering 'We should be so lucky' under her breath." (48)

Commentary: I was extremely skeptical that any concert would subject people to straight recitative, a convention designed to jam as much plot as inhumanely possible into thirty seconds of half-sung Italian. But no, Alexis Hall says this piece was so overplayed at the time that Jane Austen complained about it in a letter, and I believe him. 1/10. It takes a very good composer to make this stuff rapturous and this is not it.

"Come Fill, Fill, My Good Fellow" (Beethoven)

Quote: "the name of which reduced Sir Horley to a fit of giggles that had to be stifled in Peggy's handkerchief" (48)

Commentary: okay now this one was definitely put in just to make the obvious joke, but it's actually quite a fun drinking song, 6/10.

Cello Concerto in A Major (CPE Bach) (probably)

Quote: "the CPE Bach concerto he played sounded like someone sobbing under their bedclothes in the dark, but it spoke to her present mood." (48)

Commentary: Now THIS is more like it. Surely this would touch the heart of even the most hardened music hater, if only briefly. 7.5/10.

Serse, "Ombra mai fu" (Handel)

Quote: "There were no vocal tricks, no embellishments, or flourishes: just the performer's voice merciless in its power and perfection like nothing Peggy had ever heard before." (51)

Commentary: Okay, yeah, that would do it. I'm skeptical that this would make someone faint OR give them a spontaneous orgasm (especially since it's already been established that their hearts are hardened to the glories of Mozart), but it's a gorgeous piece. 9/10. Almost makes you want to forgive Handel for writing that wretched Hallelujah Chorus.

Artaserse, "Vo solcando un mar crud" (Vinci)

Quote: "Orfeo's voice rose and fell like the waves in a storm, gathering power and breaking afresh" (125)

Commentary: This is so extremely tiresome and unlovely. In fact it was so bad I had to double-check that the author actually meant this opera and not the five other Artaserses, but no. This is it. 0/10, bad even for the excesses of Baroque music, there's no way that an accredited Music Hater would enjoy this, no matter how hot they found the singer. If you want to hear what really good Baroque opera sounds like, try Joyce Didonato** chewing the furniture in this fantastic performance of "Pensieri, voi mi tormentate" (Handel again).

Germanico in Germanium, "Parto ti lascio, o cara" (Porpora)

Quote: "They surged through a dizzying series of rapid trills and flourishes, half-desperate, half-furious, the melody almost stumbling to keep up with them." (259)

Commentary: Perfectly passable if not precisely to my taste (<- baroque music disliker). I could see it having an effect if you already thought the singer was hot, 7/10.

Also mentioned: Minuetto (Boccherini)

*in my personal opinion as number 1 piano disliker

** for those of you who are musically uninclined, she's also singing a role which would be conventionally described as an "evil MILF" while dressed in black lingerie.

[doomedandstoned]

Give Us BARABBAS: French Doomers Return with New LP

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

BARABBAS had just released Messe pour un chien in 2014 when Doomed & Stoned sprang to life. Now at last, after eight years of silence, the doom 'n' heavy metal troupe are back with their second full-length -- and what a tour de force it is!

The album swings into motion after a creepy public service announcement: "La mort appelle tous les vivants," which means "Death calls all the living." It reminds me just a smidgen of calls to "Bring out your dead!" when the death cart came rolling by during the Black Death -- which was, by all accounts, the most ruinous pandemic in our pockmarked history, claiming more than 75 million souls.

“Je suis mort depuis bien longtemps” riffs on that familiar (if not enshrined) motif to Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf." The song is a great headbanging starter, and while the lyrics are all in French the sentiment couldn't be more relatable. Saint Rodolphe reveals, “I’ve been dead for a long time.” The Barabbas frontman has the pipes to fully convince us, regardless of whether or not we track with his native tongue. The past three years have left so many of us feeling spent, numb, hollow, apart. The organ chimes in with a gravitas that gives the whole thing a dire, Gothic feel.

There's no mistaking the Biblical subtext of a band called Barabbas, for it was he the bloodthirsty crowd called to be set free in place of Jesus Christ, who was then forced to carry his own cross to the Place of the Skull. The five-member Combs-la-Ville crew play up the religiosity of it all, each taking the name "Saint" and even referring to their followers as a cult (tongue-in-cheek, of course).

“Le Saint Riff Rédempteur” is “The Holy Redeemer Riff” and is surging with fist-raising energy. Longtime guitarist Saint Stéphane (who's been a pillar of this outfit since its 2007 inception) and his counterpart Saint Thomas here give us a winteresque mix, with the rhythm section of Saint Jean-Christophe (drums) and Saint Alexandre (bass) charging bravely through the snow-blind madness towards the dim light of New Year.

“De la viande” (“Meat”) reminds us of our frail humanity, juxtaposing the human race with all its pomposity against the cruel grandeur of a universe that cares nothing for Twitter checkmarks, designer clothes, luxury cars, or the creature comforts of central heating and air conditioning. The clock is indeed ticking on mortals and our artificial world. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. As with its predecessor, some of the song's most powerful moments are in the last two minutes, with wicked soloing and maniacal vocals a highlight.

“Le cimetière des rêves brisés” is “The cemetery of broken dreams,” where human desires, ambitions, hopes and visions are interred. Barabbas hold the funeral rites in a hazy, swirling atmosphere of rhythm and melody earnestly, with a clean chorus and grief-struck guitar licks.

“Sous le signe du Néant” (“Under the sign of the Void”) is like a team of horses galloping into the unknown. Here I miss not being bilingual, as the band has revealed in interviews that the song contains a sprinkling of dark humor in addition to its pessimistic overtones. Overlapping screams of anguish arrest us five-minutes in and the song rumbles to a finish with a stinging guitar solo.

We've had some fantastic synthesizer effects throughout the album, accenting each track at the most opportune moments. These come from keyboardist Emmanuel Peyraud from the band NorthWinds (featured along with Barabbas on our 2018 compilation Doomed & Stoned in France). Here, sounds of the flute welcome us to the private hell of “Mon crâne est un crypte (et j’y suis emmuré),” which translates: “My head is a crypt (and I’m trapped inside).” You'll be forgiven for falling into a hypnotic trance under its spellbinding riffmaking. Stay tuned for some beautiful twin guitar harmonies, along with one of the most passionate vocal performances of the record.

It ain't a Barabbas ritual until all the skeletons come out and dance. “La valse funèbre,” therefore, fittingly closes the album. The band tells us inspiration for this track comes from Dance Macabre, the famous composition by 19th century Frenchman Camile Saint-Saens, as well as the surreal 1962 horror film Carnival of Souls. Even though I don't know the song verbatim, my spirit wants to sing along with this damning dirge of death. Saint Rodolphe's crooning is strong and sincere, if not sinister. Devilish guitars and a spritely bass enter at just the right moments to keep us waltzing to the bitter end.

La Mort Appelle Tous Les Vivants by Barabbas is coming out this weekend on December 9 via Sleeping Church Records, who will issue the album digitally and on compact disc (get it here). Stick this on a playlist with Candlemass, Cathedral, Serpent Venom, and Hela.

Give ear...

LISTEN: Barabbas - La Mort Appelle Tous Les Vivants (2022)

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[accapitalmarket]

Fed, BoE double cut, Sterling rebounds, UK100 mixed

UK blue chips ended lower on Thursday as investors digested a slew of corporate news, assessed a rate cut by the Bank of England (BoE), and awaited the latest policy announcement from the Federal Reserve in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s US Presidential election.

As expected, the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by eight to one to reduce UK interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.75%. It was the second cut so far this year, after the MPC trimmed rates for the first time in over four years in August. The MPC kept rates on hold at 5.0% at its last meeting in September.

Thursday's cut was widely anticipated after a surprise drop in UK inflation in September to 1.7%, the lowest rate for more than three years and below the BoE's 2.0% target.

The latest data showed UK house prices hit record highs in October. Mortgage lender Halifax said that house prices rose by 0.2% last month following a 0.3% increase in September. Year-on-year, prices were up 3.9% in October following a 4.6% rise the month before. The average price of a UK home increased to £293,999 last month, up from £293,305 in September.

On currency markets, ahead of the US rate decision, sterling was up 0.8% against the dollar at 1.2982 and added 0.1% versus the euro at 1.2017 bolstered by the UK rate move.

GBPUSD H1

After the London close, US rate-setters also decided to ease monetary policy by 25 basis points, as expected. However, the Fed shied away from providing any further forward guidance until the new Trump administration's policies are known and could be modelled.

At the close in London, the blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.3% at 8,140, although the broader FTSE 250 index managed to gain 0.9% to 20,635.

Among the blue-chip fallers, BT Group shed 3.6% as the telecoms giant downgraded its full-year revenue guidance, pointing to both its non-UK operations and a competitive retail environment as the cause.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s fell 4.1% after its underlying retail earnings before interest and tax in the first half came in at £503mln, below the company compiled consensus of £516mln.

Other blue-chip fallers after results included engines maker Rolls Royce, down 3.7%, insurer Hiscox, off 3.6%, and media group Auto Trader which lost 7.2%.

UK100 H1

On the upside engineer IMI was the biggest FTSE 100 gainer, up 5.4% as it hailed a resilient third-quarter performance and reaffirmed its full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance.

Miners were also higher as metal prices increased after Chinese exports rose a strong 13% year-on-year in October, more than double the 5% increase analysts had predicted. Antofagasta rose 4.8%, Anglo American gained 3.6% and Rio Tinto added 3.1%.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this market commentary is of general nature only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You are strongly recommended to seek independent financial advice before making any investment decisions. Trading margin forex and CFDs carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Investors could experience losses in excess of total deposits. You do not have ownership of the underlying assets. AC Capital Market (V) Ltd is the product issuer and distributor. Please read and consider our Product Disclosure Statement and Terms and Conditions, and fully understand the risks involved before deciding to acquire any of the financial products provided by us. The content of this market commentary is owned by AC Capital Market (V) Ltd. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

[c-40]

A-T-4 055 Satsuki Shibano - Erik Satie (France 1866-1925)

I own one musician/band t-shirt and that's for Erik Satie. I'm gutted because in my middle age I'm getting a bit big to wear it, perhaps I should do what Satie did for a while (as did Homer Simpson) and dress up in priestly dress. I adore Erik Satie he was a true eccentric and a leading figure in the French avant-garde comparable to playwright Alfred Jarry and poet Guillaume Apollinaire. The three all contributed to early 20th century artistic movements such as Dada and Surrealism but Satie is also seen as the father of modern ambient music

Satie as ambient music pioneer is what we're interested in here and 環境音楽, or, environmental music, or, kankyō ongaku. I'm a little sceptical the phrase kankyō ongaku is a bit like hygge as in its invention is relatively recent and has been widely popularised by articles and publishers. The Danish tourism board is thoroughly invested in hygge but I wonder if you ask a Japanese person what kankyō ongaku is they'd give you a strange look (similar to the bemusement over city pop)

Anyway in 2019 Light In The Attic (LITA) asked Spencer Doran to compile Kankyō Ongaku (Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980 - 1990). Spencer Doran is from Portland, USA, in the early 2000s he released albums in Japan inspired by Japanese environmental music by the likes of Hiroshi Yoshimura or Midori Takada and many others. 2010 Doran produced a mix titled Fairlights, Mallets And Bamboo Fourth World Japan, Years 1980-1986 for Root Strata's Blog. The mix and its follow up are prototypes of the LITA compilation Kankyō Ongaku. I really wanted the Kankyō Ongaku compilation but I remember the vinyl version being so expensive when it came out (hipster prices for hipster vinyls) so I never picked it up which means I've not read Spencer Doran's sleeve notes, I have read some of the interviews Doran did to promote the comp tho. I associate the phrase Kankyō Ongaku with Doran and LITA, it's the only place I've heard it

Through Doran I read about the Satie Crazy in Japan and according to him Kankyō Ongaku and the Satie Crazy began with a series of Erik Satie concerts that took place in Japan in 1975. 13-years earlier in 1962 John Cage performed a series of concerts held in Japan, Japanese media came up with the buzzword Cage Shock to report the reception. An avant-garde existed in Japan before this moment but Cage Shock was a transformative moment. I think Doran misses the connection between John Cage and Erik Satie when looking for why Erik Satie resonates with the Japanese so much. Cage isn't coy when attributing Satie's influence on Minimalism (especially 1893's Vexations), I think he's even got so far as to call Satie the father of Minimalism. It was 1969 John Cage produced Cheap Imitation for piano. This piece is based on Socrate by Erik Satie and created using the I Ching (an early example Cage using East Asian philosophical thought to create his work). Cage would base other pieces on works by Erik Satie throughout his career (especially throughout the 1970s). At least some of Erik Satie's popularity in Japan comes through John Cage

Satsuki Shibano - Erik Satie (France 1866-1925) is the third and final instalment of the Wave Notation series released in Japan by Sound Process. Sorry I've not written about the pianist as she's brilliant, this was also her debut. In 2019 Satsuki Shibano did a European tour with Spencer Doran's Visible Cloaks

It's easy to find recordings of Erik Satie but popular culture tends to focus on 1888's Gymnopédie No. 1, and more increasingly 1890s Gnossienne No. 3 - neither are in this collection

Tracklist is here

[avaliveradio]

Indie Rock Band Shapeshifted Makes an Impact with 'Gimme rock'n'roll'

The indie rock scene is currently experiencing an influx of new music with unique sounds and styles. Bands like Shapeshifted are taking the industry by storm with rock n roll that holds nothing back.

‘Gimme rock'n'roll’ by Belgium indie band Shapeshifted is a high energy guitar fest of its own time. The band gives you a song that you can bite into. Filled with fast guitars and pumping energy, the band rocks on all cylinders.

I can’t help but feel nostalgic as I listen to this music recalling classic like 'The Who’s ‘My generation’ and wondering if perhaps Shapeshifted is influenced by the greatest bands of past. I hope so because this music is sensational and I’m hoping that the new album tips the scale pulling the next generation of listeners into real rock n roll. It’s time we open the rock box and unleash a sizzling summer mixing the old and the new.

Title track from our new album released March 9th 2023 by the Belgium indie band Shapeshifted. The band consists of four experienced musicians:

Singer-guitarist Marc Van der Eecken (The Highway Band, Sugar & Cream, The Shrimptons),

Guitarist Pieter Minne (Southern Voodoo, 70's Tush, Dandelion, Buzzkill Baby),

Bassist Jean-Marc Talloen (Red Zebra, Guy Swinnen Band, Letz Zeppelin, Derek & the Dirt, Weez)

Drummer Peter De Bosschere (An Pierlé, Derek & the Dirt, Weez, Give Buzze, Needle & the Pain Reaction).

The band was founded in 2011 and after the first four years there were a few personnel changes. May 2019, the four original group members decided to reunite.

Since the first performance in May 2011, the band played more than 200 concerts. Shapeshifted is known for its energetic live performances. The music is often compared to that of The Rolling Stones, Iggy Pop, Dr. Feel good.

Shapeshifted played three times in Ghent's Charlatan, Kinky Star, Zenith, Petit Tonneau, Le Montmartre, Festival Acosse, Festival Nandrin, Castle Rock, More Blues Festival ... In 2015 the band was invited as a headliner at Puglia Rock in Ostuni (IT ).

The debut CD "Shapeshifter" was released in 2012 and was played gray on RTBF Classic 21. "Spit it Out" the first single from the follow-up "Old Nick's Fire" was in the top 20 of Virgin Radio Italy for months.

In the annual review 2014 of Rolling Stone Magazine Italy the number was number 9. "Spit it Out" can also be found on the compilation CD Virgin Radio Style Rock 6.

The band is currently working on a third CD of which "Soldier" is the single in advance. The album will be released spring 2020.

Social Links & Website: www.shapeshifted.club

www.facebook.com/shapeshifted.be

www.instagram.com/shapeshifted_official/

Featured on the Rock Rising Playlist

[affairesasuivre]

People Helping People / No Age (Drag City, 2022)

No Age’s breakthrough release, Weirdo Rippers, came out 15 years ago, when Billie Eilish was five years old and people could still afford to live in Los Angeles. The compilation of early lo-fi singles shifted guitarist Randy Randall and drummer-singer Dean Spunt into indie rock’s low-watt spotlight; stories tended to focus on their deep involvement in L.A. performance art venue and community space The Smell, a hub for the city’s burgeoning bohemia. The Smell is still kicking. And so are No Age, thankfully, even though their hazy, propulsive, and blissful skate-punk hasn’t changed substantially since 2007.

Between 2008’s universally acclaimed Nouns and 2020’s Goons Be Gone, Randall and Spunt have remained committed to their foundational sound—wielding whirls of guitar effects to smear three- or four-chord punk songs—but tend to differentiate each release through mixing and tweaking. They’ll lower the levels of distortion or accentuate Spunt’s slurred, slacker vocals; they’ll cut out the drums, or anything resembling a song, entirely; they’ll thrash away or chill out. But on People Helping People, No Age’s sixth album, Randall and Spunt break from their template with music that’s more abstract and eccentric. For the first time since their early releases, they’re playing with a renewed sense of possibility.

Of all No Age’s LPs, People Helping People has the most in common with the jagged arrangements of 2013’s An Object. Yet that album was still primarily song-based, whereas People Helping People emphasizes sound and texture. It’s bookended by two ambient pieces, and the first track resembling classic No Age—the squelchy, nervy, and unexpectedly poignant “Plastic (You Want It)”—doesn’t arrive until nearly a third of the way in. Seven of the 13 cuts have no vocals; five have no drums. The most straightforward songs are an unusual hybrid of IDM and post-punk. No Age draw lots of comparisons to Hüsker Dü, but People Helping People is more like Mouse on Mars trying to make The Flowers of Romance.

The kitchen-sink sound design is likely a byproduct of the recording process. People Helping People is the first No Age album created without an outside producer, in their own studio in Randall’s garage. Some songs feel like experiments with new tools. A motorik-paced synth-drum beat is the sole backing on “Compact Flashes,” with clipped guitar scrapes and drum hits entering at random. “Interdependence” is a phased-out passage of psychedelic guitar shredding that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Six Organs of Admittance LP. The ceremonial and downright dreamy “Blueberry Barefoot,” backed by orchestral synth chords, could be a Disintegration demo, a punk church wedding, or hold music for androids.

Spanning just over half an hour, People Helping People requires a few listens before its logic begins to click, but eventually the fractured music overlaps with their catalog, even suggesting new directions for their work to come. No Age’s music always felt like it was equally at home in a gallery or a basement show, but now they seem to be inching further toward the art world. That holds true for Spunt’s lyrics, which are still too cryptic to be sloganeering (“I don’t like the obvious, I made you my man,” he sings on the single “Tripped Out Before Scott”). The video for closing track “Andy Helping Andy,” directed by noted L.A. photographer and experimental filmmaker Kersti Jan Werdal, shares a similar sensibility, with a montage of found footage of Andy Warhol. None of these gestures are pretentious or off-putting. In fact, they’re in line with No Age’s persistent virtue: to inspire and energize through ambiguity and without resorting to cheap sentiment.

[ghostinthelibrarywrites]

Eskel Gets Nice Things Fic Rec List

With season 2 of The Witcher nearly upon us, I thought now would be a good time to share some of my favorite fics where nice things happen to Eskel (for reasons totally unrelated to certain rumors.) The below vary as far as rating, length, and ships, but all are fluffy to low angst completed stories. Thanks to @rawrkinjd, @eyesofshinigami, and @iboughtaplant for your help in compiling it!

Eskel/Jaskier

Uncommon by Descarda: E, 11K. A very soft, sexy fic where Jaskier is a prostitute who has been nursing a crush on Eskel for years and jumps at a chance to lavish him with attention.

Eskel's Spa Day by mayatheyellowbee: M, 4K. Eskel doesn't think anyone should bother giving him nice things and Jaskier spends a day in Kaer Morhen's hot springs showing him how wrong he is. Very fluffy and hot, with background Eskel/Geralt/Jaskier/Lambert.

A Love as True as Mine by eyesofshinigami: E, 2K. A sweet PWP set in a modern AU where Eskel is a beefy farmer and Jaskier is a country singer who decides to wake his lover up in the best way.

What The Tide Brings by xxenjoy: T, 3K. A delightful lighthouse keeper!Eskel, mermaid!Jaskier AU where Jaskier tries to court Eskel by leaving mysterious gifts for him.

Jaskier's Eskel Obsession by Hallianna: A series of darling one-shots, rated between T and E and all under 2K, where Eskel and Jaskier are a married couple that just can't get enough of each other.

Eskel/Geralt

Growing pains by apuzzlingprince: G, 4K. A cute, hijinks-filled fic where Eskel and Geralt are still trainees at Kaer Morhen determined to bag trophies for their bedroom door, with mixed results.

Love Looks Not With Eyes by aleatory_fox: T, 8K. Fairy!Eskel is charged with the thankless task of guarding his ungrateful community, until he meets single dad Geralt and his daughter, Ciri. This one is an absolutely delightful fic about two lonely people finding and valuing each other.

Honey, You're Familiar Like My Mirror Years Ago by stevie_RST: 4K. A soft, sweet story where Eskel is a witch and Geralt is his familiar. When they both temporarily lose their powers and Geralt gets stuck in his cat form, they have to confront their feelings for each other.

Its Eyes Are For the Stars by inexplicifics: T, 3K. A lovely modern with magic AU featuring fire lookout Eskel and park ranger Geralt, who are childhood friends reunited after years of not seeing each other.

Eskel/Geralt/Jaskier

And For My Next Trick... by Hum My Name: T, 3K. A delightful modern AU where Eskel goes to see a magic show starring Jaskier the Illusionist and his assistant, Geralt and the magic tricks are the last interesting part of the performance.

The Infamous Kaer Morhen Petting Zoo Trip by JinxedAmbitions: E, 5K. This one is technically a WIP, but the first chapter stands alone as a hilarious, charming fic in its own right where Jaskier is a teacher who takes his class to the petting zoo on a field trip... but it's not the animals that Jaskier wants to pet.

On Top of Someone Else's Love by mayatheyellowbee: Eskel/Geralt/Jaskier, E, 5K. This is a really lovely post-mountain fic where Jaskier falls in love with Eskel and then realizes that Eskel and Geralt have been harboring feelings for each other for years. It's sweet, smutty, and full of characters actually communicating.

Twirl Three Notes and Make a Star by inexplicifics: Eskel/Geralt/Jaskier, E, 33K. Eskel gets a vacation and finally gets to admit his feelings to his longtime love. It's part of the larger Accidental Warlord verse, where nice things happen to all our favorite witchers, but this is one of my favorite installments in the series because it's nice to see Eskel get to take a break.

Eskel/Lambert

over fire and water by catoptric_lunarian: Eskel/Lambert, M, 1K. Eskel and Lambert reunite for the winter, with very soft, slightly smutty results.

With You (Nowhere Else I'd Rather Be) by stevie_RST: Eskel/Lambert, T, 3K. Some very soft Lambskel modern slice of life, with lots of banter and fluff.

This Is How Our Story Starts by eyesofshinigami: Eskel/Lambert, M, 7K. An absolutely adorable fic featuring librarian!Eskel and Lambert both being nerds and bonding over a series of books that they both love.

[randomvarious]

1996 Paris Playlist (YouTube)

Man, I really love putting together these city-based playlists, because while they give people a sonic taste of what a specific location was up to at a certain point in time, they also have a chance to be *very* eclectic too. And if you've been following me long enough, you know that I am one hell of an eclectic motherfucker when it comes to all this music 😁.

So, bienvenue à Paris, gens! Today, I've got a brand new playlist that'll take you back to the year of 1996 inside of this vibrantly bustling metropolis. We're starting out all electronic, but we've got a little bit of an array within that scope, with some downtempo and trip hop, some house and deep house, and a little bit of techno too; and it's all pretty lightly treaded underground stuff as well!

Now, while some people on this playlist are pretty well-known entities when it comes to Parisian electronic music—like DJ Cam, Pépé Bradock, and Dimitri From Paris—the artist who currently has the most tracks on this thing is someone who is far more obscure: the versatile Chaotik Ramses. On this 1996 Paris playlist, Ramses has three separate songs: a dark and intense, synthesizer-heavy, psychedelic downtempo pupil expander called "On the Way to Paris," which only has a little under 3,800 YouTube plays and has only ever appeared on a compilation called Musiques Pour Les Plantes Vertes (Music for the Green Plants); "No Way Out," a piece of downtempo/trip hop with a little under 1,000 plays that really seems to reflect a uniquely French feeling of deep isolation and ennui, and is topped up with some sweet blues guitar; and a live techno performance of "Crying 202," which was recorded from a set that Ramses played in the Swiss border city of Lausanne, at a venue called MAD Club. That one comes with some lusciously cinematic strings laid over acid pulses and ticking hats, and it currently has over 900 plays.

And ultimately, it's hard to pick an absolute favorite among this set, but at the risk of sounding repetitive—because I posted about this song just last week in an update on a French deep house playlist too—I think it's probably Dimitri From Paris' "Free Ton Style." The fullest version of this song is kind of rare, because it's only ever appeared on an unmixed triple-vinyl release of Dimitri's brilliant 1997 mix, Monsieur Dimitri's De-Luxe House of Funk, but thankfully, a YouTube channel called Classic House & A Little More uploaded it 10 years ago so we could all experience it in its extended glory. A spectacular deep house tune with some really satisfying sections of jazzy synthesizer improvisation 😌. Currently at under 3,800 plays.

This playlist is ordered as chronologically as possible.

Norma Jean Bell - "Baddest Bitch (Motorbass Mix)" DJ Cam - "Life" Chaotik Ramses - "On the Way to Paris" Shazz - "Le Marais" Chaotik Ramses - "No Way Out" DJ Deep - "Signature" Dimitri From Paris - "Just About Right (Full Length)" Chaotik Ramses - "Crying 202 (Live at the M.A.D. - Lausanne)" Cheesy D - "Broken House (3 At Mosco's)" Bradock - "Last" Dimitri From Paris - "Free Ton Style (Monsieur D's Classique Extension)"

And this playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So with the inauguration of this playlist, we kick off with 11 songs that come in at a total of 79 minutes.

Next week we'll be digging into some house jams!

Enjoy!

More to come, eventually. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!