#suzzy roche

[musicmags]

[spilladabalia]

The Roches featuring Robert Fripp ''Hammond Song''

[pierreism]

The Roches - McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ 4/14/90

The Roches from the McCarter Theatre in Princeton NJ. on April 14th, 1990. This is footage that was ripped from my DVD that was made from my master tape. JVC Single Tube Camera, Nakamichi 300 microphones -} Panasonic AG-7400 portable SVHS recorder. (I've had single songs from this show up for more than 10 years on my channel and I've wanted to put the whole show up in its order for some time. Today is the day. The quality will be a bit better on this one too. Enjoy!

via Jonathan Bernstein

[elvisomar]

The Roches  |  Pretty and High  |  The Roches (1979)

Produced by Robert Fripp.

[jt1674]

[dollarbin]

Nickel Bin #12:

The Roches' Losing True

Ah yeah, Dollar Binners, it's Roches time. We celebrated the beginning of this already silly year with Maggie, Terre and Suzzy's epic monster track, The Hammond Song: five minutes of bizarre and perfectly harmonic storytelling swirling around Robert Fripp's equally bizarre and perfect guitar effusions.

Losing True, from the sisters' third record, Keep on Doing, is the natural sequel to The Hammond Song. And, unlike the Roches' coveted first record, Keep on Doing is a certified Dollar Bin mainstay: it's relatively easy to track down alongside mid to late late seventies Carole King albums (which are optional to your collection) and the essential to us all 70's titles from the Lord and Lady of the Dollar Bin, Gordon Lightfoot and Linda Ronstadt.

Take a listen.

There's no better surf to be had than on this swell of voices. The sisters curl and churn around one another, cradling us in warmth and bold sun sparkle.

We already know that they skipped town, risking everything, to go down Hammond, and, as promised, they never came back. Losing True tells us what happened next. They, or maybe it's just the iconically elfin and yet deep throated Maggie, who wrote both songs, wound up with the wrong guy. But now they're ready to ditch Loudon Wainwright, who seemingly had a thing going with every female singer-songwriter of that era, like a dead skunk in the middle of the road, and reunite with one another in jubilant song.

Happily, they invite Fripp to the reunion. He'd sat out their underwhelming and poorly produced sophomore record but he's back on Losing True with his signature, other-worldly harmonics and blatant skills. Fripp knows better than to upstage the ladies and it's a shame we don't have 16 more sequels to The Hammond Song to keep on spinning on a suddenly sweet weekday.

Cheers Everyone...

[soundgrammar]

The Roches (left to right: Suzzy, Maggie, Terre)

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

The Roches - Metropol, Berlin, Germany, November 3, 1982

Sometimes, nothing but The Roches sounds good. Here, we've got an excellent Rockpalast performance from around the time of the Keep On Doing LP. Maggie, Terre and Suzzy kick things off in fine fashion with that album's "Losing True," sending laser beams of pure harmony out into the crowd of rowdy Berliners. Somehow, that crowd remains a little rowdy throughout the Roches set — how??? Well, it turns out they were waiting for the Go-Go's, who were riding high on a few new wave hits at the time. Can we check out the Go-Go's, too? Oh yeah, we can.

But before you do that, dig the one-two punch that The Roches close with — Dylan's "Clothesline Saga" and "Hammond Song." That Dylan cover is an especially inspired choice, allowing the sisters to inhabit a number of characters and voices, uttering gnomic riddles and otherwise unspeakable truths beneath everyday exchanges. That's kinda the same thing that happens on "Hammond Song," too. Has Bob ever listened to "Hammond Song"? I bet he has.

[hammill-goes-fogwalking]

hmmmmmmmm okay okay top 5 bands. well my absolute favorite top #1 is going to be a dead giveaway as to who i am if you follow me which i think you do and if you pay attention but i don't post about them all too much because nobody else cares so maybe i can preserve my anonymity and still answer this question. i don't know if i even put them on the list of bands on the secret santa signup form actually but

THE ROCHES. they were my first band obsession definitely i have liked them since i was a small child. they're a folk trio, three sisters maggie terre and suzzy roche. they have interesting harmonies and kinda sassy funny lyrics.

i don't know about any kind of order for the other four why don't i go with: syd barrett. genesis (but only pg era). king crimson. pink floyd....can i put them with syd so i can also put....augh either rush or yes...i can't pick five i'm so sorry ahahahhaha

(took two days to post because whenever I dont study I have that terrible laziness 🫥)

okay so it’s the first time I hear of the Roches, and now I’m listening to them… really something completely different from everything else that ive ever been familiar with!? They’re so different, its not easy to listen to more than three songs in a row XD like from a different world

later, now I watched some videos of them, listened to the first half of the debut album (because it’s at night here) and one thing that kinda bothers me: why is there no English Wikipedia side for the members but in German Wikipedia there is 🤣

with your other favourites I agree -except Rush 🗿- but hey, with so many bands I don't dare to say 'all' I always have a negative sight on them before I turn a fan, algorithm

[pardontheglueman]

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volume III : Line Up Reveal

Wales Arts Review is delighted to reveal the line-up for Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volume III, as the ultimate alternative Christmas album returns for a final installment, with an introduction by the album’s creator, Kevin McGrath.

I spent 2022 curating Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volumes I & II, a collection of 108 original Christmas songs, including contributions from Dodgy, Girl Ray, The Lilac Time, Pete Astor, Helen Love, White Town, bis and Suzzy Roche, in order to raise money for the homeless charity Crisis. The albums made a bit of a splash, being played on BBC6 Music, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio Wales (each volume was named an album of the week by Huw Stephens) and on Radio X. Internationally renowned critics John Harris and Pete Paphides endorsed the project, which raised just over £5,800 for Crisis at Christmas.

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol III, the final album in the series, follows the same eclectic mix as its predecessors: a generous sprinkling of celebrated indie names (this time around it’s The Wedding Present that tops the bill), cult combos from across Europe and America and a selection of underground bands that listeners will be thrilled to hear for the first time. All have one thing in common: they’ve each written a distinctive Christmas earworm that will make your Xmas playlists for years to come!

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas III is available from Velindre Bandcamp, priced at £5.00. You can pre-order now, but if you can hold on until December 1st, a ‘bandcamp Friday’, the company waives its commission, raising even more money for Crisis. All of the credit for the compilation’s success goes to the contributing artists, a reflection of their creativity and generosity. As always, I don’t receive a penny.

It’s a thrill to exclusively reveal the line-up for Volume III at Wales Arts Review:

Merry Christmas Joey Ramone – El Sancho

El Sancho is a fast, fun DIY punk rock band from Hawaii. “Merry Christmas Joey Ramone”, taken from the combo’s 2022 cassette release Jollier Than Thou, is carried along on a wave of crunching riffs.

Christmas Was Better in the 80s – The Futureheads

The Futureheads, alongside Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party, were part of the “angular movement” of post-punk inspired bands that emerged in the 2000s. This track was originally released in 2010 and there remains a lot to like here, from the song’s affectionate swipe at Xmas nostalgia, to its blockbuster chorus.

Would You – Sunturns

Sunturns are a Norwegian super-group devoted to Xmas, featuring members of Making Marks, Moddi, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Monzano and Einar Stray Orchestra. “Would You” has a cool, distrait vocal that smooths the way to a simply glorious chorus. Taken from their 2nd Xmas album Sunturns II (2015).

Lockdown Holiday – The Brixton Riot

New Jersey’s The Brixton Riot wrote and recorded this especially for Jon Solomon’s 32nd Annual 25-hour Holiday Marathon show on WPRB 103.3 FM. Princeton. A legendary festive broadcast from Princeton University campus.

The Loneliest Time of Year – The Wedding Present

David Gedge has flirted with Xmas songs once or twice before, returning to the subject as part of last year’s 24 Songs album. At the time of release, the singer noted “To be honest, I’ve been one of those ‘bah, humbug’ types ever since I realised that the thing we’re really celebrating on 25th of December is capitalism!”.

It Only Snows at Christmas – Les Bicyclettes de Belsize

Charlie Darling, the one and only member of Les Bicyclettes de Belsize, has a true passion for Xmas songs. This track has a sublime Weather Prophets sheen to it and can be found on the Christmas compilation Dufflecoats and Christmas Cards (2016).

Christmas in the Borough of Our Birth – The Virgin Birds

“Kiss me on the mouth, It’s Christmas Eve”, sings Jon Rooney, helmsman of Seattle’s Virgin of the Birds, in a striking, stream of consciousness lyric that ventures well outside the scope of a traditional seasonal song.

Merry (Christmas) and Me – Toad Venom

Even in the age of social media, there is a dearth of info on Toad Venom. A Swedish band “experimenting in the void between the spaghetti western and psychedelic rock”, this track aims for the stratosphere and damn near gets there. Released in 2021.

C U Christmas Day – Jacklen Ro

The opening lines – ‘I’m on my way to your new apartment/Just down the street from Sunset Boulevard/The neon lights are all shining on me/My mistletoe is always where you are’ – sends a romantic shiver skidding down the spine as LA’s Jackie Giroux & Caelen Perkins trade vocals in heartwarming, heart-on-sleeve fashion.

A Cold Wind – The Ornaments

The ninth intriguing instalment of Christmas music from The Ornaments. Wisconsin’s Mike Behrends and Lance Owens are joined on this twist-in-the-tale seasonal story by Erin Kirby, literally phoning in her part from the airport.

Take it Easy This Christmas – Health and Wellbeing

This beautiful tune is taken from the band’s Christmas Demos EP, released on Xmas Day last year. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t found out too much more about the band, except that there may well be a Welsh connection. A proper Christmas mystery!

Thee Christmas Card Committee – Wake Up And Smell The Sun

Philadelphia’s John Murray, the mainstay of Wake Up And Smell The Sun, has long specialised in Xmas music, so it is a shock to hear from the singer/songwriter that he is renouncing, if that is not too strong a word, the seasonal sub-genre altogether. Enjoy it while it lasts.

The Joy is in the Giving – Lisa Mychols

Lisa Mychols, aka the ‘Queen of power-pop’, founded the cult LA group the Masticators in 1998. More relevant to this project, Lisa worked with Darian Sahanaja & Nick Walusko of the Wondermints (regular backing band for Brian Wilson) on Lost Winter’s Dream (1991), now regarded as a lost Xmas classic. Lisa re-recorded this 2017 track for the album.

Always a Dream – Charlie’s Hand Movements

“Always A Dream” is taken from Lance Keeble and Adam Gardner’s unique compilation album Xmas Singles 2014-18.

Xmas Trip – Run On

New York’s Art-Rock outfit Run On ‘combine a love of pop, rock and the avant-garde’ (Heather Phares). Originally written in 1996, “Xmas Trip” was re-released last year to raise funds for the American Foundation for The Prevention of Suicide.

The Pearlfishers

The Pearlfishers released an Xmas classic (if you like Prefab Sprout and The Beach Boys, that is) in 2004’s A Sunflower at Christmas. The track selected here comes from the expanded edition that the Glaswegian band issued through Germany’s Marina Records five years later.

Can You Hear the Snowfall – The Hannah Barberas

The Hannah Barberas play DIY indie pop loaded with sharp melodies and hooks you could hang your Santa hat on. “Can You Hear the Snowfall?” will be part of a vinyl compilation of B-sides and EP tracks planned for 2024 on the Spinout Nuggets label.

Christmas is Coming (We all Know the Score) – Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard

A rollicking glammed-up track that has a proper pop at the commercialisation of Christmas. Singer Tom Rees declaring this 2020 release a ‘sarcastic song about capitalism’.

The Salvation Army Band Plays – Helen Love

The legendary Helen Love has dabbled with Christmas music on and off, including on their cover of the Ramone’s “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight”). This track, released in 2012, features producer, songwriter and musician Ricardo Autobahn.

Ice and Snow – Red Shoe Diaries

Nottingham’s Red Shoe Diaries has played at Indietracks and Edinburgh Popfest. They previously released music through Fika Recordings, a DIY vinyl and cassette label. This track was released in 2012 and is something of a lost classic.

Fell in Love at Christmas – The Photocopies

Sean Turner, a Londoner based in Michigan, maybe the hardest working person in showbiz. In the last year or so, he has released Pop Trivia a 45-track retrospective and Triple Decker a 39-track follow up on the Subjangle label.

The Sound of Snow – Math and Physics Club

All Music has a nice line on the band, which I can’t top: “Sweet and earnest indie-pop from a group of sweater clad fellows from the Pacific Northwest”. This track can be found on the B-side of “Jimmy Had a Polaroid” and on In This Together: EPs, B-Sides, Rarities and Unreleased Songs 2005-2015.

Christmas Has Come – Man Behind Tree

Berlin’s Hans Forster featured on Volume I in the guise of Hanemoon and he returns here with a track from one of his many other projects, Man Behind Tree. Described by Rolling Stone as purveyors of “sunny Westcoast melancholia”.

Merry, Merry Christmas – El Gato Roboto

Chicago’s El Gato Roboto play a frothy mix of Garage Rock, Power Pop and Space Rock. This track was released back in 2019.

Nadolig, Pwy a Wyr? – Swansea Sound

Swansea Sound kicked off Vol I, so it’s great to have this underground super group (Hue Williams-The Pooh Sticks, Amelia Fletcher-Tallulah Gosh, Rob Pursey-Heavenly & Ian Button-Death in Vegas) back again. The vocal is provided by Catrin Saran James, formally of The Loves.

I Fell in Love on Christmas Day – Caleb Nichols

This ballad is included on It’s Hard to Dance When It’s Cold and There’s no Music: Kill Rock Stars Winter Holiday Album Volume 2 and is also the closing track on Caleb’s 2022 album, Ramon.

Ho Ho It’s Christmas Again – Wicketkeeper

The band makes no secret of how this Xmas ditty came about: “The story is we got asked to demo a tune to pitch for a TV ad. When they didn’t use it (boo, British Telecom), we thought it would be funny to re-record the vocals, add some sleigh bells and plop it down your chimneys”.

Grief of a (Frozen) Sailor – Jetstream Pony

Fronted by Beth Arzy (Trembling Blue Stars and featuring Shaun Charman (The Wedding Present). This track originally appeared as a Snowflake Singles Club (a specialist Dutch Xmas label) selection back in 2020.

All I Got for Christmas Was This Lousy Boy – Bunnygrunt

Missouri’s Bunnygrunt has been around since 1993, although they did take a break between 1998 and 2003. Leading exponents of ‘Cuddlecore’, they were once labelled by All Music as ‘the world’s cutest band’.

I Want New Ramones Songs for Christmas – Vista Blue

Vista Blue is a rock band based in Nashville and rooted in New Orleans. This is one of many festive tunes the band has released and was included in their Keep it all Year EP (2019).

Advent Calendar – Valentina Way

A Charlie Darling composition given an Xmas makeover on the Balham band’s Advent Calendar EP (2022). With five mixes to choose from, I’ve opted for the ‘Candlelight’ version, which should only be played in absolute darkness, save for the lights on your Christmas tree.

Sleep Sound – Bjéar (featuring Ella Ion)

Adelaide’s Bjéar released A Christmas with Friends Vol 1 & Vol II in November last year. A stunning mix of standards and originals, it found favour with the peerless Christmas Underground, who described the mesmerising “Sleep Sound” as a “sonic hug”.

Christmas in Love  –  Euros Childs

Euros Childs, former frontman with the legendary outfit Gorki’s Zygotic Mwnci and current keyboards player with the legendary Teenage Fanclub, released his 20th solo studio album Curries last year. ‘Christmas in Love’ is taken from the album Sweetheart, released in 2015.

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas is available now via Bandcamp.

[discoatnine]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: 🛍 4 for $16 • Wayward Saints by Suzzy Roche - Hardcover.

[riylcast]

Episode 558: Terre Roche (of the Roches)

The new album is a product of a largely forgotten time in Roches lore. Before youngest sister Suzzy joined the group, the sister act was a duo: Maggie and Terre Roche. The pair produced one album: Seductive Reasoning.

Terre’s latest project, Kin Ya See That Sun, explores the group’s early days, touring the country, encourage by early supporter, Paul Simon. It combines live track from the era with a book that began life as an oral history.

The Roches found a bigger, more lasting success as one of rock’s great vocal trios.

While the group effectively ended when Maggie passed away in 2017, the group continues to attract new generations of fans.

[jt1674]

[shadowland]

The Roches [1979] photographed by Janette Beckman

[reds1981]

The Roches photographed by Paul Natkin, Chicago, December 1982.

[dollarbin]

Nickel Bin #2:

The Roches' Hammond Song

Some songs have no peers.

There's nothing comparable to Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone: while his efforts to write another anthem are many, and they vary from the successful (Knocking on Heaven's Door) to the underappreciated (Changing of the Guard) to the overrated (Gotta Serve Somebody) to the annoying unless you are in a very weird mood (Brownsville Girl), he, and everybody else, has never come close to a comparable synergy of warmth, anger and energy.

I think The Roches' Hammond Song is equally unique. Suzzy, Terre and Maggie Roche never climbed a musical mountain like it again in their fitful, joyful and far too short career together, and I don't know any other song or group that presents such bizarre and daring vocals (they range from startlingly androgynous to winningly effete and back again); where else can you hear three such utterly distinct voices sharing a space with such elegance? Add to that mix the unique layers afforded by the song's length and its guitar solos, plus its confusing but vital story, and you've got yourself a masterpiece.

Let's listen.

First of all they're not singing about Heaven. They're singing about Hammond, Louisiana and Maggie and Terre's decision, years earlier, to ditch their budding music career altogether. It seems there was a Kung Fu school (seriously!) in Hammond that a friend was running and that seemed like a better place to be than in New York City, wearing clothes assigned to them by their record company.

The song is a natural cousin to Cat Stevens' Father and Son: In Hammond Song The Roches present a musical debate between the patriarchs in their life and themselves; they sing both sides of the argument and they let you choose the winner.

The song opens with a long, suspenseful opening that gives way to warm strumming and then the refrain's three part harmony. But then it swerves for the first wild time into Maggie Roche alone, and she's telling the band they're "on the wrong track". What other voice is like hers? I'm afraid my sexist biases hear her unique contralto and summon up a woman on a motorcycle with arms the size of my thighs who smokes six packs a day and would happily kick my ass while having yet another. But here she is:

Maggie died 6 or 7 years ago. My famous brother's friend Ryan, who recently bought me a very delicious beer at a Yo La Tengo show, sobbed when he heard the news. The more time I spend listening to Maggie's music, the more I understand where he was coming from. Just take a listen to Quitting Time from the same record:

At the end of each section of Hammond Song The Roches hit and hold a high, odd and transfixing note. You can hear it for the first time on the Ooooo after the first section, soon after Maggie's introduces her voice. That same note, or one close to it anyway, comes back again before the first guitar solo on "you're LYYYYYYing to me", then again on "don't be a FOOOOL."

When CS&N reach for a note like that I wonder just what the hell I'm doing with my life. When Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris finally threw off the concerns of their record companies in the mid-80's and came together as a bluegrass version of The Roches they hit some angelic notes, yes, but they never sounded weird. Such weirdness is a big part of Hammond Song's, and the band's, genius.

And capturing that weirdness, and that note, is still a goal for a new bands. Check out Meg Baird search for and then find it - and then keep it for an impossible, audacious length, at 3:15 mark of Heron Oblivion's seismic Your Hollows:

Next time I get an hour with Baird in a bar I'll ask her about Hammond Song as a basis for Your Hollows instead of quizzing her on Mike Heron. Poor Meg. I suppose she's been warned.

And now that you have Heron Oblivion in your ears, let's talk about Hammond Song's guitar solos. That's Robert Fripp, of King Crimson/Eno/Bowie/Talking Heads fame, making himself known. He walks a careful and skillful line in his production of the song and the record around it: you never forget he's there but he never gets in the way. This is the sisters' record and the sisters' song. But wow, what a guitar sound he achieves: it's nearly as weird as the vocals, part theremin, part Hendrix, all magic.

Finally, Hammond Song avoids easy cliche in its storytelling as well. Okay, their male authorities wanted them to put on sexy dresses and stop being weird, but the girls said no and became their awesome selves instead:

Lesser artists would have wrapped the story up with victory. But Maggie and her sisters know it's not that simple. When they released Hammond Song their story was far from over: the record could have tanked; it could have proved the record company right.

And so The Roches bring us into the debate; they let us decide whether their defiance in life and in the song are justified. "Tell me," they appeal to us in the song's conclusion, "I'm okay."

Dear Suzzy, Terre and Maggie,

You are not okay. You are the best.

Sincerely,

The Nickel Bin