Soul man Charles Bradley recorded this stripped down version with us at Red Rockets Glare studio while in town last month prior to the band's gig at the Echo. It airs this Friday on the radio show, but here's a sneak peak for those of you sans the satellites. Video shot by Elliot Glass.
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We all knew this day would eventually come, it was only a matter of time. Earlier this month it was announced the sessions from the Beach Boys fabled Smile sessions would finally see an official release -- and in grand fashion. Next month Capitol is releasing Smile via a variety of formats to satisfy all manner of Beach Boys fandom -- from the simply curious to the obsessive. The former can pick up a two-CD version (itself boasting 40 tracks) while the latter can dig into the box set comprised of 5 CDs, vinyl, 7" singles, etc . . .
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There's a guitar tone that opens A.A. Bondy's third album Believers like someone ringing strings at the bridge of the guitar. It fades as "The Heart Is Willing"'s metronome drums and main guitar line come in, but that momentary disorientation, like an alarm bell ringing softly in the middle distance, echoes the record's sense of numbing disorientation. This is an autumn album; not the early autumn of . . .
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Beginning with 1967's Fire & Fleet & Candlelight, the music of Cree folksinger Buffy Sainte-Marie began to take on a decidedly schizophrenic nature. Traditionally celebrated for her biting political songs, as well as her stark approach to folksong, the late sixties saw her take her distinctive sound in a series of surprising directions. Candlelight experimented with sweeping orchestral arrangements and electric pop music, while . . .
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While it may sound as if it's been culled from one of the dozen or so 70s outsider folk compilations you have stashed on your hard drive, it is not. The following slightly damaged, instrumental, guitar piece comes to us via UK's Roof Light. This is "Penfold."
MP3: Roof Light :: Penfold
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It's hard to believe, in some ways, that it's been 25 years since Matthew Sweet's solo debut. Possibly even harder to believe it's been 20 since his career-breaking album, Girlfriend. Regardless, the perennial high priest of power pop returns September 27th with his eleventh LP, Modern Art. AD spoke with Sweet over the phone about the new album, surviving as a pop writer in the music industry, taking Girlfriend out on the road and the perils of listening to your old work. At the bottom, check out the Aquarium Drunkard premiere of "Late Nights With The Power Pop" from Sweet's upcoming album.
Aquarium Drunkard: You have a new record, Modern Art, which will be out on September 27th on Missing Piece Group. It sounds like an amalgam of a lot of your past songwriting. There are particular songs - "She Walks the Night" reminds me of parts of In Reverse and "When Love Let's Go, I'm Falling" reminds me of "You Don't Love Me" from Girlfriend - that feel like they come from certain eras, even while sounding like your recent recordings. Is that something you consciously feel, or is it that your whole body of work has pulled from similar sources over the years?
Matthew Sweet: Well, probably both things. To some extent, you're you, and there's only so much you can do to try and change that. [laughs] On the other hand, sometimes I might have a knowledge of that. When you mentioned "You Don't Love Me," "When Love Let's Go.." felt really heavy to me in kind of in the same way, I guess. It especially sticks in my mind because I was singing that song when my wife came in and told me that Alex Chilton had died. It's strangely apropos. That little moment sticks in my mind, even though that song was already written and had the vibe and everything. It's not something I think about a lot. I might think "Oh, this is a 'I've Been Waiting' sort of song," or something like that, but not real specifically.
AD: Speaking of Chilton, the song does remind me of some of the darker ballads from Big Star's Third.
MS: It made me really think a lot about Big Star's influence on me. I was listening to that album as a senior in high school. I went last spring and sang on a performance of Third in New York City that Chris Stamey of the Db's organized. Guys from REM were involved - Mike Mills played bass - and Jody Stephens, Big Star's drummer, was kind of an anchor. And it made me think a lot about their influence on me. It really made it hard for me to imagine not having heard those dark ballads. Just to know you could go there - that's why Chilton was one of my main guys. He could do all sort of emotions - he could be funny and cynical or honest and straightforward, or he could go really dark and morbid. Guys like John Lennon - people I really admire - could do that sort of stuff.
During the time Big Star got its big revival, I kind of felt like I kept quiet about the amazing amount of influence they had on me because it seemed like everybody was having a big influence from them. Nobody needed another guy going on about it. Whereas, when I go back and look at them, it feels really important.
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This Wednesday, September 21st, Futurebirds bring their psychedelic country-rock to the Satellite in Silver Lake. Waters and Loch Lomond support. We’re giving away three pairs of tickets to AD readers. Hit us up in the comments, below, with your name and an email address we can reach you at. Winners notified by Monday afternoon. (purchase tix
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(Welcome to the third installment of Clifton’s Corner. Every other week on the blog Clifton Weaver, aka DJ Soft Touch, will be sharing some of his favorite spins, old and new, in the worlds of soul, r&b, funk, psych and beyond. — AD)
JAZZ: When I was a little kid, just the word alone was enough to bore me to tears. In some respects, I probably feared jazz. The lack of rules. The . . .
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Live "Cracked Actor" during the "Philly" Dogs tour in Los Angeles coupled with Bowie's twisted ode to Hamlet. Dig the cape. CC: Yorick.
Video: David Bowie :: Cracked Actor (Los Angeles, September 5, 1974)
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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can now be heard twice, every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 210: Jean Michel Bernard - Generique Stephane ++ Braids-Lemonade ++ Azeda Booth- In Red ++ Baths- Lovely Bloodflow ++ Kurt Vile- Freak Train ++ Tijuana Panthers- Crew Cut ++ The Babies- Wild 2 ++ The Strange Boys- MLKs ++ Shannon & the Clams- Old Man Winter ++ The Vaselines- You Think You're A Man ++ Hunx and his Punx- You . . .
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(MTV turned 30 last month. Wow. Any music lover who came of age in the 80s, and most of the 90s, certainly has a positive or negative (or both) opinion of the network and its affect on popular music. In the first of two pieces, AD's J. Neas looks back at the network, its place in pop culture, whether anything like it exists now and whether or not we should care. Part two, coming next week, will be an interview with former MTV News anchor and reporter John Norris.)
It's easy to scoff at what I'm about to say, so I won't blame you if you do. I miss my MTV.
Technically, yes, the station still exists, but with its own self-awareness reaching a peak with its decision to drop the "Music Television" wording from its logo last year, the MTV that I miss is truly a thing of the past. It's not something I'd spent a lot of time thinking about until August 1st, 2011 rolled around and there was a bunch of hullabaloo around the 30th anniversary of the channel's launch, back in the dark ages of cable television. VH1 Classic devoted an entire weekend to playing clips and videos and whole programs from classic MTV, sometimes in thematic segments. (A section of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance segued into the MTV News report announcing Kurt Cobain's suicide.) But of course, the fact that all of this celebrational look-back played on VH1 Classic while the regular MTV was just, well, its normal self, says everything about who might still care about the once domineering arbiter of musical cool that was MTV.
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Early rock & roll fetishist, garage devotee, punk rocker, bandleader, impresario: Billy Childish has gone by about as many names and monikers as he has mustaches (and he's had some good ones on both counts) but at their core, whether recording as Thee Headcoats, The Milkshakes, Thee Mighty Caesars or The Buff Medways they all boil down to a Billy Childish album.
While a true, multi-decade, career overview would be exhaustive, I gave this collection, become a member or log in.
Humor Risk, Cass McCombs second full-length of 2011, is set to release on November 8 via Domino Records. Here's the first taste, "The Same Thing." At this rate McCombs may land two slots on my best of 2011 list.
MP3: Cass McCombs . . .
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A young Nancy Sinatra, seated with the ever-dapper Michael Caine, in 1965 at the Hollywood premiere party for Martin Ritt's film, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. While this photo has absolutely nothing to do with Sinatra's bubblegum rendition of the Statler Brothers "Flowers On The Wall," the two do tend to complement one another quite well.
MP3: Nancy Sinatra :: Flowers On The . . .
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Working the same vein as Black Merda and Band of Gypsys, 70s psychedelic funk outfit Kool And Together are getting the Heavy Light treatment next month. Forged in south Texas, the group merged raw, thick-grooved, soul and r&b with era-appropriate rock & . . .
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