Somewhere to the left of alternative music and to the right of new age lies The Dream Academy. Best known for Life In A Northern Town with the chorus similar to The Lion Sleeps Tonight it was one of the better songs of 1985, the year of We Built This City, Take On Me and Broken Wings. But they got points for having David Gilmour taking a liking to them and producing their first album.
While Nick Laird-Clowes is the leader, it was Katie St. John that was MVP with her multi intstruments in tow and shaping up the sonic landscape of this band (let's not forget Gilbert Gabriel too) which made the first album a good listen. Their best album was Remembrance Days, which Lindsay Buckingham helped co produce (with Hugh Padgham (Genesis, XTC)) and does a fairly good cover of Everybody Gotta Learn Sometime. Gilmour returns to co production on A Different Kind Of Weather and the choice of cover was John Lennon's Love. The record was kinda underwhelming and probably the least of the three Dream Academy releases out there. Gabriel and St. John moved on to other things, Kate being the more out front by helping Van Morrison on some of his albums and Marianne Faithful.
There hasn't been a best of Dream Academy in the US, a import came about and added some remixes and a couple non LP tracks but as overview disappoints. Real Gone in 2014 compiled the first ever Best of in the states and adds a new song and a few more outtakes with David Gilmour on guitar. Laird-Clowes' version of what he thinks is the best moments, The Morning Lasted Forever (the original title of Life In A Northern Town before Paul Simon suggested to change it to something more accessible) makes a good sampler. But a cheaper alternative would be to search out the three albums and make your own copy. I think overall, The Dream Academy was one of the more unique bands of the 80s, they were not as annoying as Mr Mister or A Ha or as dated sounding of said bands. I also think they were more of an album band And like the previous band reviewed here The Judybats, the female in the band was the one that gave the band their I.D. With Kate St John, she made the band have that original sound.
Grades:
The Dream Academy (Warner Bros 1985) B
Remembrance Days (Reprise 1987) B+
A Different Kind Of Weather (Reprise 1990) B-
The Morning Lasted Forever (Real Gone 2014) B+
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
The Judybats
If you love The Ocean Blue, you might like The Judybats. Although considered to be Ocean Blue light, unlike said band, The J Bats came from Knoxville Tennessee (a strange place to be if you're an alternative rock band) and made four spotty albums for Sire/Warner Brothers. Led by Jeff Heiskell, he wrote quirky songs in the grand style of Morrissey from The Smiths, and like that lead singer, Jeff would come out of the closet and proclaiming himself to be gay.
What strikes me is how uneven Native Son is, starts out great on side 1 but by side two rolls around they're spinning their tires and getting nowhere. Their cover of She Lives In A Time Of Her Own is perhaps the best song on this album. After Incognito, the rest of the album is just plain forgettable. The followup album with the mouth full title of Down In The Shacks Where The Satellites Dishes Grow is their best overall album, to which they finally get their Smiths and REM influences down to a listenable level. She's Sad She Said worthy of a Morrissey type of song and the humor of Margot Known As Missy makes it their best overall song.
But losing Peggy Hambright after that album, The Judybats lost their soul. Peg simply got tired of hanging with the band and later opened up a successful bakery in Tennessee. The band trudged on. With Pain Makes You Beautiful, they settled for Kevin Moloney (The Ocean Blue) as main producer but the sound he delivered on that effort was too slick for the songs at hand. Not that the songs mattered that much, the alternative adult sound The J Bats strive for didn't work to their advantage. As for the results, this type of faceless pop was a few years earlier than the Verve Pipe which made better albums or Dog's Eye View which was worse. However they did get a number 7 hit on the alternative charts with Being Simple and the record had a couple other decent songs (Ugly On The Outside, All Day Afternoon) but still, like Native Son, the record is too erratic for the casual listener.
Full Empty was the end, to which The J Bats lost their identity, and did a pointless cover of the Bee Gees Jive Talkin. They didn't make a good jam band either and Paul Mahern was as clueless as a producer as well. The comparison is Dave Matthews Band and that's all you need to know how bad this record is.Sorry Counts reminds me of Better Than Ezra's Good, to which was a better song. Full Empty when you compare this to Native Son that the Judy Bats did go full circle and like the title suggest became full empty of no memorable songs. It didn't help that their label with giving them fits either. Even Jeff Heiskell sounds bored singing. After that, The Judybats broke up.
Even in their heyday The J Bats seemed to be dated with their type of alt folk rock made even more outdated by Nirvana and the Seattle music scene. Their Sire output really shows the rise and fall in each of their albums and each band member alternating the sound From Native Son down to the all done Full Empty. They're probably in need of a good overall best of but since it's not cost effective from the Rhino folks in charge of reissuing the Sire albums, you're better off making a mix cd from all four albums that you can find very cheap at local thrift stores or Amazon. But if you think about it, their second album is their best of, the rest are just curio listens at best and at worst something better not heard from. Although Native Son would have made a nifty EP had they left it at six songs rather than the full 12 song album...Which would have worked better had they named that one Full Empty instead of their last album.
Discography (The Sire Years)
Native Son (Sire 1991, later reissued by Wounded Bird) B
Down In The Sticks Where The Satellite Dishes Grow (Sire 1992) A-
Pain Makes You Beautiful (Sire 1993) B-
Full Empty (Sire 1994) C-
If you're still interested in learning more about The Judy Bats: http://www.furious.com/perfect/judybats.html
The Trouser Press Guide to JudyBats: http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=judybats
What strikes me is how uneven Native Son is, starts out great on side 1 but by side two rolls around they're spinning their tires and getting nowhere. Their cover of She Lives In A Time Of Her Own is perhaps the best song on this album. After Incognito, the rest of the album is just plain forgettable. The followup album with the mouth full title of Down In The Shacks Where The Satellites Dishes Grow is their best overall album, to which they finally get their Smiths and REM influences down to a listenable level. She's Sad She Said worthy of a Morrissey type of song and the humor of Margot Known As Missy makes it their best overall song.
But losing Peggy Hambright after that album, The Judybats lost their soul. Peg simply got tired of hanging with the band and later opened up a successful bakery in Tennessee. The band trudged on. With Pain Makes You Beautiful, they settled for Kevin Moloney (The Ocean Blue) as main producer but the sound he delivered on that effort was too slick for the songs at hand. Not that the songs mattered that much, the alternative adult sound The J Bats strive for didn't work to their advantage. As for the results, this type of faceless pop was a few years earlier than the Verve Pipe which made better albums or Dog's Eye View which was worse. However they did get a number 7 hit on the alternative charts with Being Simple and the record had a couple other decent songs (Ugly On The Outside, All Day Afternoon) but still, like Native Son, the record is too erratic for the casual listener.
Full Empty was the end, to which The J Bats lost their identity, and did a pointless cover of the Bee Gees Jive Talkin. They didn't make a good jam band either and Paul Mahern was as clueless as a producer as well. The comparison is Dave Matthews Band and that's all you need to know how bad this record is.Sorry Counts reminds me of Better Than Ezra's Good, to which was a better song. Full Empty when you compare this to Native Son that the Judy Bats did go full circle and like the title suggest became full empty of no memorable songs. It didn't help that their label with giving them fits either. Even Jeff Heiskell sounds bored singing. After that, The Judybats broke up.
Even in their heyday The J Bats seemed to be dated with their type of alt folk rock made even more outdated by Nirvana and the Seattle music scene. Their Sire output really shows the rise and fall in each of their albums and each band member alternating the sound From Native Son down to the all done Full Empty. They're probably in need of a good overall best of but since it's not cost effective from the Rhino folks in charge of reissuing the Sire albums, you're better off making a mix cd from all four albums that you can find very cheap at local thrift stores or Amazon. But if you think about it, their second album is their best of, the rest are just curio listens at best and at worst something better not heard from. Although Native Son would have made a nifty EP had they left it at six songs rather than the full 12 song album...Which would have worked better had they named that one Full Empty instead of their last album.
Discography (The Sire Years)
Native Son (Sire 1991, later reissued by Wounded Bird) B
Down In The Sticks Where The Satellite Dishes Grow (Sire 1992) A-
Pain Makes You Beautiful (Sire 1993) B-
Full Empty (Sire 1994) C-
If you're still interested in learning more about The Judy Bats: http://www.furious.com/perfect/judybats.html
The Trouser Press Guide to JudyBats: http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=judybats
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Joe Walsh
In my years of reviewing bands and artists Joe Walsh remains one of the most entertaining and frustrating artist of the rock era. He did wonders with The James Gang, then went solo and kinda lost his way on Barnstorm which was I gather was either his new band or a solo project. And then he hit it big with Rocky Mountain Way which turned out to be one of my anthems of the band that I used to play in, Paraphernalia. However the crash and bash approach was much different with the more laid back that Joe did.
His albums were somewhat brief, never passing more than a half hour tops and that worked best for Joe. The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get is more of a band effort than Barnstorm was, but So What is more Joe, beginning with the long jam Welcome To The Club and the country sounding Falling Down. Side 2 was a more radio friendly version of Turn To Stone, another country ballad in Help Me Make It Through The Night and then the FM classic County Fair. The quicky live album You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind employs two drummers (Joe Vitale and Ricky Fataar) and charges out of the gate with a speedy Walk Away but in term of self indulgence the record will tend to bore the non fans, including the over the top Turn To Stone.
Leaving ABC for Asylum, Joe made his best album with But Seriously Folks that included his signature song Life's Been Good, however classic rock radio has played it to death so I rather much play the first side with Over And Over/Second Hand Store more. Indian Summer is another favorite of mine. With the success of this album MCA issued The Best Of Joe Walsh which cherry picks the hits off the ABC albums (the cassette version had the live version of Walk Away where the CD and LP had the James Gang version). The album got replaced by a more thought out version Little Did He Know which goes back as far as the James Gang years and adds key tracks from the Asylum and Warner Brothers albums and the bonus track is a edited jam with The Who I think.
There Goes The Neighborhood issued three years later, (Walsh was busy in The Eagles to which he joined and put his solo career on hold and despite another hit single with Life Of Illusion, the record didn't connect with most folks. In 1983 Walsh moved over to Full Moon/Warner Brothers and got Bill Symczek (sic) to produce You Bought It You Name It which could be considered Walsh comedy album. Certainly in my opinion side for side a more consistent listen with I Can Play That Rock And Roll, the droll I.L.B.T's and Space Age Wiz Kids. Of course the Eagles were on hand to help out on vocals whenever they can.
After You Brought It, Walsh's later albums never made much of an impression on me. There were some good moments on The Confessor and the Terry Manning produced Got Any Gum? but for the most part there was lot more filler to contend with. Ordinary Average Guy was his final single that radio played but that album and the followup Songs For A Dying Planet I passed. I gave Joe one more chance with his latest album for Fantasy Analog Man produced by Jeff Lynne. It had some good moments but I couldn't recommend it, Lynne's dated 80s production didn't help things.
Still, Walsh's guitar work cannot be overlooked, especially in the James Gang or for that matter Hotel California. He remains the all around nice guy of rock and roll, and yeah I voted for him as President of the US. His best of's remain a good sampler of what he can do, his albums you have to pick and choose. But he still remains an original, a true rocker but a very eccentric rocker with a wry sense of humor. I'd never count him out.
A selected discography
The James Gang (Revised)
Yer Album (Bluesway 1969) B+
Rides Again (ABC 1970) A-
Thirds (ABC 1971) B+
In Concert (Universal Special Products 1972) B
15 Greatest Hits (ABC 1973) B+
Solo:
Barnstorm (ABC/Dunhill 1972) B-
The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get (ABC/Dunhill 1973) B+
So What? (ABC/Dunhill 1974) B+
You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind (ABC 1976) B
But Seriously Folks (Asylum 1978) A-
The Best Of Joe Walsh (MCA 1978) B
There Goes The Neighborhood (Asylum 1981) B
You Bought It, You Name It (Warner Brothers 1983) B+
The Confessor (Warner Brothers 1986) B-
Got Any Gum? (Warner Brothers 1988) B-
Ordinary Average Guy (Pyramid/Epic 1990) C+
Songs For A Dying Planet (Epic 1992) B-
Little Did He Know-Joe Walsh Greatest Hits (MCA 1999) A-
Analog Man (Fantasy 2012) B-
His albums were somewhat brief, never passing more than a half hour tops and that worked best for Joe. The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get is more of a band effort than Barnstorm was, but So What is more Joe, beginning with the long jam Welcome To The Club and the country sounding Falling Down. Side 2 was a more radio friendly version of Turn To Stone, another country ballad in Help Me Make It Through The Night and then the FM classic County Fair. The quicky live album You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind employs two drummers (Joe Vitale and Ricky Fataar) and charges out of the gate with a speedy Walk Away but in term of self indulgence the record will tend to bore the non fans, including the over the top Turn To Stone.
Leaving ABC for Asylum, Joe made his best album with But Seriously Folks that included his signature song Life's Been Good, however classic rock radio has played it to death so I rather much play the first side with Over And Over/Second Hand Store more. Indian Summer is another favorite of mine. With the success of this album MCA issued The Best Of Joe Walsh which cherry picks the hits off the ABC albums (the cassette version had the live version of Walk Away where the CD and LP had the James Gang version). The album got replaced by a more thought out version Little Did He Know which goes back as far as the James Gang years and adds key tracks from the Asylum and Warner Brothers albums and the bonus track is a edited jam with The Who I think.
There Goes The Neighborhood issued three years later, (Walsh was busy in The Eagles to which he joined and put his solo career on hold and despite another hit single with Life Of Illusion, the record didn't connect with most folks. In 1983 Walsh moved over to Full Moon/Warner Brothers and got Bill Symczek (sic) to produce You Bought It You Name It which could be considered Walsh comedy album. Certainly in my opinion side for side a more consistent listen with I Can Play That Rock And Roll, the droll I.L.B.T's and Space Age Wiz Kids. Of course the Eagles were on hand to help out on vocals whenever they can.
After You Brought It, Walsh's later albums never made much of an impression on me. There were some good moments on The Confessor and the Terry Manning produced Got Any Gum? but for the most part there was lot more filler to contend with. Ordinary Average Guy was his final single that radio played but that album and the followup Songs For A Dying Planet I passed. I gave Joe one more chance with his latest album for Fantasy Analog Man produced by Jeff Lynne. It had some good moments but I couldn't recommend it, Lynne's dated 80s production didn't help things.
Still, Walsh's guitar work cannot be overlooked, especially in the James Gang or for that matter Hotel California. He remains the all around nice guy of rock and roll, and yeah I voted for him as President of the US. His best of's remain a good sampler of what he can do, his albums you have to pick and choose. But he still remains an original, a true rocker but a very eccentric rocker with a wry sense of humor. I'd never count him out.
A selected discography
The James Gang (Revised)
Yer Album (Bluesway 1969) B+
Rides Again (ABC 1970) A-
Thirds (ABC 1971) B+
In Concert (Universal Special Products 1972) B
15 Greatest Hits (ABC 1973) B+
Solo:
Barnstorm (ABC/Dunhill 1972) B-
The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get (ABC/Dunhill 1973) B+
So What? (ABC/Dunhill 1974) B+
You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind (ABC 1976) B
But Seriously Folks (Asylum 1978) A-
The Best Of Joe Walsh (MCA 1978) B
There Goes The Neighborhood (Asylum 1981) B
You Bought It, You Name It (Warner Brothers 1983) B+
The Confessor (Warner Brothers 1986) B-
Got Any Gum? (Warner Brothers 1988) B-
Ordinary Average Guy (Pyramid/Epic 1990) C+
Songs For A Dying Planet (Epic 1992) B-
Little Did He Know-Joe Walsh Greatest Hits (MCA 1999) A-
Analog Man (Fantasy 2012) B-
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Ted Nugent
Long time ago, in my high school years, it was cool to have Ted Nugent's first album on Epic in your collection. The opening riffs to Stranglehold still remain a call to arms and great lead to his best album ever. Since then he's never topped that although Cat Scratch Fever got him the hit that defined him through the years.
Nugent has always been a badassed guitar player but he's also been one big outspoken right winger to which his mouth gets him more into trouble than good. His recent remarks about Obama for a second term would lead Ted into jail has made waves but it's different than the Dixie Chicks bashing the last president. He takes his freedom of speech and uses it a lot it seems.
A long time ago I had a neighbor lady who my folks were friends with and we went up to Michigan in 1975 for a beer can hunt, back then I was into collecting beer cans and figure Michigan would have some special ones. Outside of Jackson on a somewhat gravel road and there was this open field about a half mile down the road from their Grandpa's place, I made my way up around there and my friend told me to get the hell off that property, that's Ted Nugent and he's been known to shoot at folks who trespass. He was well known even back then.
Ted started out as part of the Amboy Dukes, a band of some of Detroit's finest rockers. John Drake was the cool lead vocalist on Journey To The Center Of Your Mind and although the band was garage rock, they had a bit of prog rock and a bit of hippy dippy, even though Ted Nugent was the Tea totaling (no wonder he was Tea Party member later) and did no drugs. He also was lucky enough not to get into the failed Vietnam War. But then again the rumor was that Ted would crap himself to get that 4F rating. Nevertheless, The Amboy Dukes have never been much of critics favorites although I still play and love some of their music (Surrender To Your Kings, Prodigal Man, Flight Of The Byrd) and the best overall album for me was the DCC Ted Nugent And The Amboy Dukes Best Of. Legacy's Loaded For Bear deletes some of the DCC Stuff for others (Surrender To Your Kings replaced by Mississippi Murderer) and for me the lesser of the two. But it has the 5 minute freakout of Baby Please Don't Go and Nugent's Scottish Tea which shows off his guitar talents in their full glory. The Amboy Dukes would see another vocalist change, Rusty Day in for Drake and the band becoming more and more Nugent focused. Never heard their Polydor effort Marriage On The Rocks/Rock Bottom.
Nugent was beginning to get things going when he signed up with DiscReet (the label of Frank Zappa and Herb Cohen) and made two albums that would be more high energy rock and roll than the garage hippy dippy of The Amboy Dukes and Call Of The Wild (with a minor hit Sweet Revenge) . In fact, the bass player Rob Grange would figure into the Epic beginnings. Call Of The Wild was good, but Tooth Fang & Claw is the Ted Nugent that we were beginning to know and love (or hate) with the hard charging Great White Buffalo and the feedback laden Hibernation. Great White Buffalo is the price of admission.
Ted's classic stuff is the Epic years and it begins with the first album, Stranglehold was a underground FM classic (now played to death on classic rock radio more so than the hit singles Hey Baby and Snakeskin Cowboys). There are no weak tracks on Ted Nugent, the B side stomper Stormtroopin, the boogie based Hey Baby, Just What The Doctor Ordered, and the whacked out Motor City Madness, one of the few songs that Nugent sang on. Most of the time it was Derek St Holmes doing the vocals and it made the album lots better for it. Free For All, was still a powerforce, with another minor hit with Dog Eat Dog and notable hits in Street Rats, Writing On The Wall (Sung by a then unknown dude by the name of Meatloaf) and perhaps one of the better unheard songs ever I Loved You So I Told You A Lie. By then, Nugent's band was St Holmes, Rob Grange from the DiscReet Amboy Dukes era and Cliff Davies playing mad drums. No disrespect to Ted's drummer who used to play in Dokken, but Cliff Davies was the overdrive that made the Epic recordings rock out.
Cat Scratch Fever is his second best album ever. But it also begins Nugent's dissent into the goofy lyrics that make some of his music laughable. Nugent, on the first two albums was very democratic in terms of who sang what but he begins to take the band over a bit on the title track and Wang Dang Sweet Pootang. St Holmes still sang the most and is on the best ones (Live It Up, Out Of Control, A Thousand Knives). And then the 1978 live double Double Live Gonzo which pretty much sums up what you get a Nugent concert. He does a fired up Great White Buffalo on this one but the band was breaking up, St. Holmes and Grange would leave and formed St. Paradise which made one boring album for Warner Brothers in 1978, with Denny Carmissi on drums (Montrose).
The second phase of Nugent Epic years that he got a St. Holmes soundalike in Charlie Huhn and continued to make some decent albums. Weekend Warriors with failed hit in Need You Bad, the blues busting One Woman. State Of Shock was better, although Nugent was going more for a pop sound, he blisters the wallpaper with Paralyzed. Wango Tango, was the end of the road for decent new Nugent, by then Huhn's vocals were getting less and the banshee wail of Flesh And Blood and Wango Tango is Ted's. Intensities In 10 Cities, is ten new songs getting recorded live, and although I like it fine, it turned out to be Ted's poorest selling album for Epic and after that he moved over to Atlantic. By then Nugent dismissed his band Cliff Davies, the sole constant member for the Epic albums replaced by Carmine Appice but Derek St. Holmes was back (after a failed liaison with Brad Whitford with Whitford/St. Holmes who made one album for Columbia in 1981). Problem with Nugent the 1982 Atlantic debut suffered from a lack of quality songs and Appice was no Cliff Davies. St. Holmes would leave again but over the years has returned to Ted's live band from time to time and as of this writing, he is touring with Ted.
Since then, Ted's albums have been dull as he tries to fit in what the kids were into. The next album Penatrator features a up and coming vocalist in Brian Howe and he turns Ted into Foreigner and after that Howe would join Bad Company. Little Miss Dangerous, Ted's last notable album has more keyboards and dated sound, and the rest of the albums, just plain goofy.
The only two albums I ever brought from Ted was the 1994 Spirit Of The Wild which Ted had perhaps his best band since the Epic years, of St. Holmes, Michael Lutz of Brownsville Station on bass and Denny Carmissi on drums and there's some fun stuff on this (Fred Bear, Tooth, Fang & Claw comes to mind and Kiss My Ass is actually funny when Nugent tells Courtney Love to do just that) but problem was there were too many songs that went nowhere. Love Grenade (2007) was just plain silly and juvenile especially the degrading album art and the all time worst song he's ever done (Girl Scout Cookies). Musically, he still delivers but if you're not a big Ted fan, this is not where to start. Craveman his other studio album of the 2000's was his most metal sounding but I have never heard that one all the way through.
Still in the end, Nugent's Right Wing Tea Party comments has not endured him very well to the mainstream. Nor does he work well with others, case in point that Rock Star VH1 show that he did with Sabastian Bach, Jason Bonham showed of his my way or the highway that has been a cause for many of his band's breakups. He'll never top St Holmes/Grange/Davies lineup, he may get better musicians down the road but they were the best for his type of in your face rock and roll. But with Derek St. Holmes always, you get to see what made Ted Nugent a force to be reckon with back then.
And now, if Nugent keeps his tongue in check.
Which is never, but amazingly his 2014 album Shut Up And Jam, Ted does just that and keeps the right wing policies down to in his case very minimal. Sammy Hagar pops in on She's Gone and Derek St Holmes does sing on one track to offset Nugent's singing and screaming. Overlook the politics and this just might be Terrible Ted's best since State Of Shock. At least he's not singing about Girl Scout Cookies on this. ;-)
Albums of note:
Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes (Dunhill Compact Classics) B+
Tooth, Fang & Claw (Bizarre Planet 1975) B-
Ted Nugent (Epic 1975) A-
Free For All (Epic 1976) B+
Cat Scratch Fever (Epic 1977) B+
Double Live Gonzo (Epic 1978) B-
Weekend Warriors (Epic 1978) B
State Of Shock (Epic 1979) B+ (Later reissued on American Beat)
Live At Hammersmith 1979 (Epic 1979) NR
Wango Tango (Epic 1980) B
Intensities In 10 Cities (Epic 1981) B-
Nugent (Atlantic 1982) C
Penetrator (Atlantic 1984) C
Little Miss Dangerous (Atlantic 1986) C
If You Can't Lick Them, Lick Them (Atlantic 1988) C
Spirit Of The Wild (Altantic 1994) C
Craveman (Eagle 2000) B-
Love Grenade (Eagle 2007) C-
Shut Up And Jam (Frontiers 2014) B
Note: The Atlantic albums were reissued via Eagle Records in 2008.
Best ofs
Great Gonzos, has always been a spotty best of, although it does have the hits. The Ultimate Ted Nugent does the best job in perserving the the best songs from Ted Nugent's first album and does have Need You Bad from Weekend Warriors but doesn't have Great White Buffalo on it. However, the cheapo throwaway Playlist Series does have GWB so if your looking for a one CD best overview, I would go with that. Great Gonzos is the lesser of the best ofs here. The Essensial Ted Nugent is the same as The Ultimate Ted.
Nugent has always been a badassed guitar player but he's also been one big outspoken right winger to which his mouth gets him more into trouble than good. His recent remarks about Obama for a second term would lead Ted into jail has made waves but it's different than the Dixie Chicks bashing the last president. He takes his freedom of speech and uses it a lot it seems.
A long time ago I had a neighbor lady who my folks were friends with and we went up to Michigan in 1975 for a beer can hunt, back then I was into collecting beer cans and figure Michigan would have some special ones. Outside of Jackson on a somewhat gravel road and there was this open field about a half mile down the road from their Grandpa's place, I made my way up around there and my friend told me to get the hell off that property, that's Ted Nugent and he's been known to shoot at folks who trespass. He was well known even back then.
Ted started out as part of the Amboy Dukes, a band of some of Detroit's finest rockers. John Drake was the cool lead vocalist on Journey To The Center Of Your Mind and although the band was garage rock, they had a bit of prog rock and a bit of hippy dippy, even though Ted Nugent was the Tea totaling (no wonder he was Tea Party member later) and did no drugs. He also was lucky enough not to get into the failed Vietnam War. But then again the rumor was that Ted would crap himself to get that 4F rating. Nevertheless, The Amboy Dukes have never been much of critics favorites although I still play and love some of their music (Surrender To Your Kings, Prodigal Man, Flight Of The Byrd) and the best overall album for me was the DCC Ted Nugent And The Amboy Dukes Best Of. Legacy's Loaded For Bear deletes some of the DCC Stuff for others (Surrender To Your Kings replaced by Mississippi Murderer) and for me the lesser of the two. But it has the 5 minute freakout of Baby Please Don't Go and Nugent's Scottish Tea which shows off his guitar talents in their full glory. The Amboy Dukes would see another vocalist change, Rusty Day in for Drake and the band becoming more and more Nugent focused. Never heard their Polydor effort Marriage On The Rocks/Rock Bottom.
Nugent was beginning to get things going when he signed up with DiscReet (the label of Frank Zappa and Herb Cohen) and made two albums that would be more high energy rock and roll than the garage hippy dippy of The Amboy Dukes and Call Of The Wild (with a minor hit Sweet Revenge) . In fact, the bass player Rob Grange would figure into the Epic beginnings. Call Of The Wild was good, but Tooth Fang & Claw is the Ted Nugent that we were beginning to know and love (or hate) with the hard charging Great White Buffalo and the feedback laden Hibernation. Great White Buffalo is the price of admission.
Ted's classic stuff is the Epic years and it begins with the first album, Stranglehold was a underground FM classic (now played to death on classic rock radio more so than the hit singles Hey Baby and Snakeskin Cowboys). There are no weak tracks on Ted Nugent, the B side stomper Stormtroopin, the boogie based Hey Baby, Just What The Doctor Ordered, and the whacked out Motor City Madness, one of the few songs that Nugent sang on. Most of the time it was Derek St Holmes doing the vocals and it made the album lots better for it. Free For All, was still a powerforce, with another minor hit with Dog Eat Dog and notable hits in Street Rats, Writing On The Wall (Sung by a then unknown dude by the name of Meatloaf) and perhaps one of the better unheard songs ever I Loved You So I Told You A Lie. By then, Nugent's band was St Holmes, Rob Grange from the DiscReet Amboy Dukes era and Cliff Davies playing mad drums. No disrespect to Ted's drummer who used to play in Dokken, but Cliff Davies was the overdrive that made the Epic recordings rock out.
Cat Scratch Fever is his second best album ever. But it also begins Nugent's dissent into the goofy lyrics that make some of his music laughable. Nugent, on the first two albums was very democratic in terms of who sang what but he begins to take the band over a bit on the title track and Wang Dang Sweet Pootang. St Holmes still sang the most and is on the best ones (Live It Up, Out Of Control, A Thousand Knives). And then the 1978 live double Double Live Gonzo which pretty much sums up what you get a Nugent concert. He does a fired up Great White Buffalo on this one but the band was breaking up, St. Holmes and Grange would leave and formed St. Paradise which made one boring album for Warner Brothers in 1978, with Denny Carmissi on drums (Montrose).
The second phase of Nugent Epic years that he got a St. Holmes soundalike in Charlie Huhn and continued to make some decent albums. Weekend Warriors with failed hit in Need You Bad, the blues busting One Woman. State Of Shock was better, although Nugent was going more for a pop sound, he blisters the wallpaper with Paralyzed. Wango Tango, was the end of the road for decent new Nugent, by then Huhn's vocals were getting less and the banshee wail of Flesh And Blood and Wango Tango is Ted's. Intensities In 10 Cities, is ten new songs getting recorded live, and although I like it fine, it turned out to be Ted's poorest selling album for Epic and after that he moved over to Atlantic. By then Nugent dismissed his band Cliff Davies, the sole constant member for the Epic albums replaced by Carmine Appice but Derek St. Holmes was back (after a failed liaison with Brad Whitford with Whitford/St. Holmes who made one album for Columbia in 1981). Problem with Nugent the 1982 Atlantic debut suffered from a lack of quality songs and Appice was no Cliff Davies. St. Holmes would leave again but over the years has returned to Ted's live band from time to time and as of this writing, he is touring with Ted.
Since then, Ted's albums have been dull as he tries to fit in what the kids were into. The next album Penatrator features a up and coming vocalist in Brian Howe and he turns Ted into Foreigner and after that Howe would join Bad Company. Little Miss Dangerous, Ted's last notable album has more keyboards and dated sound, and the rest of the albums, just plain goofy.
The only two albums I ever brought from Ted was the 1994 Spirit Of The Wild which Ted had perhaps his best band since the Epic years, of St. Holmes, Michael Lutz of Brownsville Station on bass and Denny Carmissi on drums and there's some fun stuff on this (Fred Bear, Tooth, Fang & Claw comes to mind and Kiss My Ass is actually funny when Nugent tells Courtney Love to do just that) but problem was there were too many songs that went nowhere. Love Grenade (2007) was just plain silly and juvenile especially the degrading album art and the all time worst song he's ever done (Girl Scout Cookies). Musically, he still delivers but if you're not a big Ted fan, this is not where to start. Craveman his other studio album of the 2000's was his most metal sounding but I have never heard that one all the way through.
Still in the end, Nugent's Right Wing Tea Party comments has not endured him very well to the mainstream. Nor does he work well with others, case in point that Rock Star VH1 show that he did with Sabastian Bach, Jason Bonham showed of his my way or the highway that has been a cause for many of his band's breakups. He'll never top St Holmes/Grange/Davies lineup, he may get better musicians down the road but they were the best for his type of in your face rock and roll. But with Derek St. Holmes always, you get to see what made Ted Nugent a force to be reckon with back then.
And now, if Nugent keeps his tongue in check.
Which is never, but amazingly his 2014 album Shut Up And Jam, Ted does just that and keeps the right wing policies down to in his case very minimal. Sammy Hagar pops in on She's Gone and Derek St Holmes does sing on one track to offset Nugent's singing and screaming. Overlook the politics and this just might be Terrible Ted's best since State Of Shock. At least he's not singing about Girl Scout Cookies on this. ;-)
Albums of note:
Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes (Dunhill Compact Classics) B+
Tooth, Fang & Claw (Bizarre Planet 1975) B-
Ted Nugent (Epic 1975) A-
Free For All (Epic 1976) B+
Cat Scratch Fever (Epic 1977) B+
Double Live Gonzo (Epic 1978) B-
Weekend Warriors (Epic 1978) B
State Of Shock (Epic 1979) B+ (Later reissued on American Beat)
Live At Hammersmith 1979 (Epic 1979) NR
Wango Tango (Epic 1980) B
Intensities In 10 Cities (Epic 1981) B-
Nugent (Atlantic 1982) C
Penetrator (Atlantic 1984) C
Little Miss Dangerous (Atlantic 1986) C
If You Can't Lick Them, Lick Them (Atlantic 1988) C
Spirit Of The Wild (Altantic 1994) C
Craveman (Eagle 2000) B-
Love Grenade (Eagle 2007) C-
Shut Up And Jam (Frontiers 2014) B
Note: The Atlantic albums were reissued via Eagle Records in 2008.
Best ofs
Great Gonzos, has always been a spotty best of, although it does have the hits. The Ultimate Ted Nugent does the best job in perserving the the best songs from Ted Nugent's first album and does have Need You Bad from Weekend Warriors but doesn't have Great White Buffalo on it. However, the cheapo throwaway Playlist Series does have GWB so if your looking for a one CD best overview, I would go with that. Great Gonzos is the lesser of the best ofs here. The Essensial Ted Nugent is the same as The Ultimate Ted.
Friday, June 20, 2014
The MC5
I'll give you a testimonial, THE MC5!
With the rambling 2 minute speech from Brother J C Crawford, we get a sense of the tornado forming from within and after warming up the crowd with his five second speech, the band unleashes with the punk Ramblin Rose. With an out of tune guitar from Wayne Kramer (he admitted in interviews it was out of tune) the band is like a uncoming train wreck. Being one of the first albums to use the sex with your parents word KICK OUT THE JAMS MUTHAFUKKA The Motor City Five or MC5 lays everything to waste on the way to the I Can See The Miles rip of Come Together. The drunk tempo of Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa, one has to catch his breath before turning the record over for Borderline, the mutated blues of Motor City Is Burning (with another Brother Crawford rave up), and back to the noisegrind of I Want You Right Now before concluding with the the trainwreck ending of Starship based on a poem by Sun Ra. This is the beginning of the MC5.
Basically a garage rock band, but with an eye on Ornotte Coleman Free Jazz type of avant garde noise, The 5 were ahead of their time. The twin guitars of Fred (Sonic) Smith and Brother Wayne Kramer, Mike Davis' bass, Rob Tyler's screaming vocals and the underrated Dennis Thompson. The MC5 made a couple of regional singles, a fairly note for note rendering of Them's I Can Only Give You Everything, a feedback laden I'm In The Mood, a John Lee Hooker song remade as I Just Don't Know. And the harder to find Borderline which Rhino either couldn't or wouldn't add to their mix CD of The Big Bang, a subpar overview of what MC5 had to offer. Warts and all, it shows them to be high energy rock, even more wilder than some of the stuff that came out in 1968, but it also shows the downside of the band, adding the worthless Miss X from High Time. Wayne Kramer who wrote that also compiled the best of too. Not much variety for oddities except for 3 of the 4 singles before they signed to Elektra and Thunder Express from a bootleg album.
The MC5 were signed to Elektra, the label that was better known for british blues and folk music rather than rock but with the success of The Doors were starting to take off. Elektra also signed another Detroit band The Stooges but the thought was that The MC5 was going to be bigger. And the ideal was to record The MC5 in a live setting. Bruce Botnick recorded the happening. Now Kick Out The Jams was a groundbreaking album for myself. I came across the title track via the Superstars Of The 70s series that Warner Music put out and we got to hear the Brothers and Sisters version of said song but never did I hear the MF shout till I found the actual record for 1.97 at Wells years ago and proceeded to make my dad mad about hearing that, half crocked on beer and made it known that it was a piece of crap. Especially on hearing Starship, I wonder if he was going fly off the easy chair, snatched the record off the player and break it into little pieces. But I liked most of the record, including the first side. Years later, I would trade a Neil Young Freedom Picture CD disc for a Japanese version of Kick Out The Jams. 40 plus years later, I still find Kick Out The Jams to be the definite MC5 statement and album. This is rock and roll, from the pounding drums to the loud and whacked out guitar work and shouted vocals. Rob Tyler was a shouter and not a screamer and it's a shame that nobody bothered to film their concert at the Grande Ballroom that night. You had to be there.
The 5 were radical rockers and it cost them their contract with Elektra after a now long gone department store refused to stock Kick Out The Jams and somebody responded with a F bom on Elektra paper. Which even the radical label thought that was going way too far and they dropped them. Atlantic actually snatched them up but begin to transfer the band into something less radical. They hooked up with Jon Landau, a Rolling Stone review writer and future Bruce Springsteen manager and managed to make one of the more fucked up recordings in their history. Back In The USA is a fun album. The songs are damn good but the recording of that record is odious and lacking any bass. If anything Jon Landau's production was the main blame. Some of their better known songs (High School, Tonight, Human Being Lawnmower) are here.
High Time might be the better of the two Atlantic releases. Without Landau around they self produced it with Geoff Haslem (Velvet Underground, J. Geils Band) and perhaps this album is the one true vision of what the MC5 was all about. The crazed beginning of Sister Anne which ends with a Salvation Army band doing a death march, the one note lead guitar ending of Baby Won't Ya, the eerie Future/Now and the punk jazz of Skunk (Sonically Speaking) you can hear the influences coming together for the MC5. It wasn't made for the radio and sales showed it (it didn't chart). The Five were dropped from Atlantic.
There's been a onslaught of post MC5 reissues and concerts but the three that I did buy 66 Breakout shows an early but potent lineup of the Five doing covers and plenty of James Brown. Thunder Express was recorded in 1972 with a replacement bass player and the band runs through their better known songs. I came across Phun City UK on a bootleg German import, the sound is K Mart recorder poor but the band is in fine form. I haven't heard anything else when Total Energy reissued some MC5 concert performances (some were reissued via Castle/Sanctuary in the 2000s) but I'm guessing the sound quality varies from good to poor. Buyer beware.
Just as Rhino reissued the Atlantic albums and Elektra issued Kick Out The Jams on CD Rob Tyler passed away. Fred Sonic Smith, later married Patti Smith retired from music to raise a family and then died in 1994. Wayne Kramer would reunite with Mike Davis and Dennis Thompson to do some reunion shows in the 1990s and then in 2005 with Dick Manitoba (The Dictators, Manitoba's Wild Kingdom) did reunite and played from time to time till Davis died in 2012. To which Kramer finally retired the Five once and for all.
In essence, The MC5 never got the credit due when they were around, album sales were lackluster to nonexistent but for those who had an album probably form radical bands of their own. The albums are flawed but a product of the times. But they may have been the most radical and the most dangerous band to ever come out of Detroit. With elements of garage rock and free jazz from the likes of Archie Shepp, John Coltrane and Sun Ra, no other band even attempted this as you can hear on Kick Out The Jams, this makes the MC5 one of the more original bands of the 60s.
And as the story goes, you had to be there to see it to believe it.
Albums:
Kick out the jams (Elektra 1968) A-
Back in the USA (Atlantic 1970) B+
High Time (Atlantic 1971) B+
Thunder Express (Skydog 1972) B
The Big Bang (Rhino 2000) B-
With the rambling 2 minute speech from Brother J C Crawford, we get a sense of the tornado forming from within and after warming up the crowd with his five second speech, the band unleashes with the punk Ramblin Rose. With an out of tune guitar from Wayne Kramer (he admitted in interviews it was out of tune) the band is like a uncoming train wreck. Being one of the first albums to use the sex with your parents word KICK OUT THE JAMS MUTHAFUKKA The Motor City Five or MC5 lays everything to waste on the way to the I Can See The Miles rip of Come Together. The drunk tempo of Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa, one has to catch his breath before turning the record over for Borderline, the mutated blues of Motor City Is Burning (with another Brother Crawford rave up), and back to the noisegrind of I Want You Right Now before concluding with the the trainwreck ending of Starship based on a poem by Sun Ra. This is the beginning of the MC5.
Basically a garage rock band, but with an eye on Ornotte Coleman Free Jazz type of avant garde noise, The 5 were ahead of their time. The twin guitars of Fred (Sonic) Smith and Brother Wayne Kramer, Mike Davis' bass, Rob Tyler's screaming vocals and the underrated Dennis Thompson. The MC5 made a couple of regional singles, a fairly note for note rendering of Them's I Can Only Give You Everything, a feedback laden I'm In The Mood, a John Lee Hooker song remade as I Just Don't Know. And the harder to find Borderline which Rhino either couldn't or wouldn't add to their mix CD of The Big Bang, a subpar overview of what MC5 had to offer. Warts and all, it shows them to be high energy rock, even more wilder than some of the stuff that came out in 1968, but it also shows the downside of the band, adding the worthless Miss X from High Time. Wayne Kramer who wrote that also compiled the best of too. Not much variety for oddities except for 3 of the 4 singles before they signed to Elektra and Thunder Express from a bootleg album.
The MC5 were signed to Elektra, the label that was better known for british blues and folk music rather than rock but with the success of The Doors were starting to take off. Elektra also signed another Detroit band The Stooges but the thought was that The MC5 was going to be bigger. And the ideal was to record The MC5 in a live setting. Bruce Botnick recorded the happening. Now Kick Out The Jams was a groundbreaking album for myself. I came across the title track via the Superstars Of The 70s series that Warner Music put out and we got to hear the Brothers and Sisters version of said song but never did I hear the MF shout till I found the actual record for 1.97 at Wells years ago and proceeded to make my dad mad about hearing that, half crocked on beer and made it known that it was a piece of crap. Especially on hearing Starship, I wonder if he was going fly off the easy chair, snatched the record off the player and break it into little pieces. But I liked most of the record, including the first side. Years later, I would trade a Neil Young Freedom Picture CD disc for a Japanese version of Kick Out The Jams. 40 plus years later, I still find Kick Out The Jams to be the definite MC5 statement and album. This is rock and roll, from the pounding drums to the loud and whacked out guitar work and shouted vocals. Rob Tyler was a shouter and not a screamer and it's a shame that nobody bothered to film their concert at the Grande Ballroom that night. You had to be there.
The 5 were radical rockers and it cost them their contract with Elektra after a now long gone department store refused to stock Kick Out The Jams and somebody responded with a F bom on Elektra paper. Which even the radical label thought that was going way too far and they dropped them. Atlantic actually snatched them up but begin to transfer the band into something less radical. They hooked up with Jon Landau, a Rolling Stone review writer and future Bruce Springsteen manager and managed to make one of the more fucked up recordings in their history. Back In The USA is a fun album. The songs are damn good but the recording of that record is odious and lacking any bass. If anything Jon Landau's production was the main blame. Some of their better known songs (High School, Tonight, Human Being Lawnmower) are here.
High Time might be the better of the two Atlantic releases. Without Landau around they self produced it with Geoff Haslem (Velvet Underground, J. Geils Band) and perhaps this album is the one true vision of what the MC5 was all about. The crazed beginning of Sister Anne which ends with a Salvation Army band doing a death march, the one note lead guitar ending of Baby Won't Ya, the eerie Future/Now and the punk jazz of Skunk (Sonically Speaking) you can hear the influences coming together for the MC5. It wasn't made for the radio and sales showed it (it didn't chart). The Five were dropped from Atlantic.
There's been a onslaught of post MC5 reissues and concerts but the three that I did buy 66 Breakout shows an early but potent lineup of the Five doing covers and plenty of James Brown. Thunder Express was recorded in 1972 with a replacement bass player and the band runs through their better known songs. I came across Phun City UK on a bootleg German import, the sound is K Mart recorder poor but the band is in fine form. I haven't heard anything else when Total Energy reissued some MC5 concert performances (some were reissued via Castle/Sanctuary in the 2000s) but I'm guessing the sound quality varies from good to poor. Buyer beware.
Just as Rhino reissued the Atlantic albums and Elektra issued Kick Out The Jams on CD Rob Tyler passed away. Fred Sonic Smith, later married Patti Smith retired from music to raise a family and then died in 1994. Wayne Kramer would reunite with Mike Davis and Dennis Thompson to do some reunion shows in the 1990s and then in 2005 with Dick Manitoba (The Dictators, Manitoba's Wild Kingdom) did reunite and played from time to time till Davis died in 2012. To which Kramer finally retired the Five once and for all.
In essence, The MC5 never got the credit due when they were around, album sales were lackluster to nonexistent but for those who had an album probably form radical bands of their own. The albums are flawed but a product of the times. But they may have been the most radical and the most dangerous band to ever come out of Detroit. With elements of garage rock and free jazz from the likes of Archie Shepp, John Coltrane and Sun Ra, no other band even attempted this as you can hear on Kick Out The Jams, this makes the MC5 one of the more original bands of the 60s.
And as the story goes, you had to be there to see it to believe it.
Albums:
Kick out the jams (Elektra 1968) A-
Back in the USA (Atlantic 1970) B+
High Time (Atlantic 1971) B+
Thunder Express (Skydog 1972) B
The Big Bang (Rhino 2000) B-
Saturday, June 14, 2014
The White Stripes
Throughout the seven decades of rock and roll, there has always been garage rock. It has never gone away even from the heydays of 60s garage rockers such as the Standells or Louie Louie Kingsmen. The more absurd the more fun (The Trashmen Surfin Bird, local Keokuk freakouts Gonn, Blackout Of Gretely, a more muted version of Dirty Water by The Standells). And there's plenty of historical overviews out there that celebrates the three chords and the truth bands from the garage, from Nuggets to Pebbles and even Teenage Shutdown which really turns every rock out there to find the most obscure garage rock band that practiced enough songs to make it to the corner tavern and then quit to get real jobs the next day. While the major labels don't pursue the local garage band (not enough autotuner or bro country rap) many toil in obscurity. Thank your lucky stars for Little Steven's Underground Garage which for a time, had his own Wicked Cool label to spotlight the garage rock bands as well as putting out a few volumes of The Coolest Songs In The World, the last decade's version of Nuggets and are found cheap at thrift stores. The best of the bunch Len Price 3 and this year's The Strypes have put out new albums of garage rock fusion to indifference attitude sales and shrugs. And so did Jack White this week with Lazaretto.
In the so called garage rock movement of the late 90s and early 00's, the major labels did sign bands of this genre. And most was blah and missing something special. The Strokes come to mind with Is This It? to which was the first thing I said after hearing it. The White Stripes quietly came out of the late 90s with a low fi first album on Sympathy For The Record Industry, a label more associated with the more radical indee labels out there (Merge, Touch And Go, Taang! to name a few). In no way did the Stripes rewrite the music book on how to make it in the music industry. Hell, nobody even predicted that they would go far. They were just another garage rock band intent on selling a few thousand copies of their album and then see how far it would go.
Basically it was a duo of Jack and Meg White, husband and wife. Jack, a music lover of the blues, Nuggets and Pebbles garage rock, and of course early Robert Plant, but Jack also played drums for semi legends Goober And The Peas before meeting and marrying Meg and taking her surname. And then managed to get her playing drums for the The White Stripes project. Jack could play just about anything on guitar or piano or drums, but Meg White's drumming can be described as sloppy at best. She could barely keep a beat and she would have never lasted in any other band but somehow, it worked best in the White Stripes recordings. But it seems like when I hear Icky Thump or Get Behind Me Satan, it sounded she didn't touch her drums since the last recording or live performance.
The first four White Stripes albums are testamentary classic albums upon themselves. The low fi approach to the S/T and De Stiji shows that anybody with a four track and good songs can make a great album. White Blood Cells in 2001, the press and trade papers took notice, as well as help from V2 Records and they managed to get a hit single with Fell In Love With A Girl. Elephant is their classic moment. The riff of Seven Nation Army has become a sporting event chant in college football stadiums all over the US, thus guaranteeing Jack White a nice check every month. Ball And Biscuit being the other major hit off this record which does in someway pays tribute to the electric blues and Zeppelin of course.
However, the last two albums are not aged very well. Get Behind Me Satan was more acoutsic guitar and piano driven and contains some of the worst Meg White drumming committed on record. Icky Thump, their last, I liked at first but then it grated on my nerves. It had its moments as well but not enough for me to recommend it. And then, Meg White either developed a fear of the stage or just got bored with it all and wanted to settle down out of the spotlight and The White Stripes were no more in 2011. While Meg got remarried, Jack White continued to be more busier than ever by embarking on two band projects, The Raconteurs with Brendan Benson and the members of The Greenhornes and The Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart. And of course, two solo albums as well. But perhaps what is best about this all, is how much that Jack White loves vinyl enough to open up a music store (Third Man Records of course) and making a whole array of vinyl art, the new Lazaretto albums has a hologram of an angel when you play the album. And White has worked with a whole array of artists from the past (Wanda Jackson, Loretta Lynn, Neil Young). And enjoys working with vintage music equipment to make his albums sound a lot different from the pro tools autotuned crap of this millennium.
In some ways, Jack White is perhaps this generation of a real rock star. 17 years after The White Stripes first album, he has managed to progress onward with a wide variety of ideals borrowed from the past and looking toward the future. With Neil Young, he recorded A Letter Home from old recording booth to voice your own records, which was used in fairs in the late 40s and 50s. And continues to put out vinyl of one offs, namely a Jerry Lee Lewis in store performance. White is the anti Spotify, the pro record junkie and it's a shame there's not many more like him. I won't say if The White Stripes were the best out of the garage rock wave of the 2000's but they were the more longer lasting and influential.
And perhaps the most fun.
Albums:
The White Stripes (Third Man 1999) A-
De Stiji (Third Man 2000) A-
White Blood Cells (Third Man 2001) A-
Elephant (Third Man 2003) A
Get Behind Me Satan (Third Man 2005) B-
Icky Thump (Third Man/WB 2008) B
Jack White:
Blunderbuss (Third Man/Columbia 2012) A-
Lazaretto (Third Man/Columbia 2014) A-
In the so called garage rock movement of the late 90s and early 00's, the major labels did sign bands of this genre. And most was blah and missing something special. The Strokes come to mind with Is This It? to which was the first thing I said after hearing it. The White Stripes quietly came out of the late 90s with a low fi first album on Sympathy For The Record Industry, a label more associated with the more radical indee labels out there (Merge, Touch And Go, Taang! to name a few). In no way did the Stripes rewrite the music book on how to make it in the music industry. Hell, nobody even predicted that they would go far. They were just another garage rock band intent on selling a few thousand copies of their album and then see how far it would go.
Basically it was a duo of Jack and Meg White, husband and wife. Jack, a music lover of the blues, Nuggets and Pebbles garage rock, and of course early Robert Plant, but Jack also played drums for semi legends Goober And The Peas before meeting and marrying Meg and taking her surname. And then managed to get her playing drums for the The White Stripes project. Jack could play just about anything on guitar or piano or drums, but Meg White's drumming can be described as sloppy at best. She could barely keep a beat and she would have never lasted in any other band but somehow, it worked best in the White Stripes recordings. But it seems like when I hear Icky Thump or Get Behind Me Satan, it sounded she didn't touch her drums since the last recording or live performance.
The first four White Stripes albums are testamentary classic albums upon themselves. The low fi approach to the S/T and De Stiji shows that anybody with a four track and good songs can make a great album. White Blood Cells in 2001, the press and trade papers took notice, as well as help from V2 Records and they managed to get a hit single with Fell In Love With A Girl. Elephant is their classic moment. The riff of Seven Nation Army has become a sporting event chant in college football stadiums all over the US, thus guaranteeing Jack White a nice check every month. Ball And Biscuit being the other major hit off this record which does in someway pays tribute to the electric blues and Zeppelin of course.
However, the last two albums are not aged very well. Get Behind Me Satan was more acoutsic guitar and piano driven and contains some of the worst Meg White drumming committed on record. Icky Thump, their last, I liked at first but then it grated on my nerves. It had its moments as well but not enough for me to recommend it. And then, Meg White either developed a fear of the stage or just got bored with it all and wanted to settle down out of the spotlight and The White Stripes were no more in 2011. While Meg got remarried, Jack White continued to be more busier than ever by embarking on two band projects, The Raconteurs with Brendan Benson and the members of The Greenhornes and The Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart. And of course, two solo albums as well. But perhaps what is best about this all, is how much that Jack White loves vinyl enough to open up a music store (Third Man Records of course) and making a whole array of vinyl art, the new Lazaretto albums has a hologram of an angel when you play the album. And White has worked with a whole array of artists from the past (Wanda Jackson, Loretta Lynn, Neil Young). And enjoys working with vintage music equipment to make his albums sound a lot different from the pro tools autotuned crap of this millennium.
In some ways, Jack White is perhaps this generation of a real rock star. 17 years after The White Stripes first album, he has managed to progress onward with a wide variety of ideals borrowed from the past and looking toward the future. With Neil Young, he recorded A Letter Home from old recording booth to voice your own records, which was used in fairs in the late 40s and 50s. And continues to put out vinyl of one offs, namely a Jerry Lee Lewis in store performance. White is the anti Spotify, the pro record junkie and it's a shame there's not many more like him. I won't say if The White Stripes were the best out of the garage rock wave of the 2000's but they were the more longer lasting and influential.
And perhaps the most fun.
Albums:
The White Stripes (Third Man 1999) A-
De Stiji (Third Man 2000) A-
White Blood Cells (Third Man 2001) A-
Elephant (Third Man 2003) A
Get Behind Me Satan (Third Man 2005) B-
Icky Thump (Third Man/WB 2008) B
Jack White:
Blunderbuss (Third Man/Columbia 2012) A-
Lazaretto (Third Man/Columbia 2014) A-
Friday, June 6, 2014
The Angels/Angel City Revisited
In Australia the best known band remains AC/DC but prior before them you had the Easybeats to which George Young played in that band whereas Angus and Malcolm were the guitar drive in the other. You can't escape Back In Black if you can. It's everywhere.
AC/DC originally recorded for Albert Productions in Aussie land whereas Atco originally signed them (later Atlantic, then back to Atco before they awarded the masters to the highest bidder, Sony Music. A lesser known band The Angels had the AC/DC guitar sound courtesy of the Brewster brothers but it was the vivid imagery, crooning and screams of Doc Neeson that for a short time gave the Angels a rival to the Young Brothers.
The Angels recorded three albums for Albert before CBS finally took a chance and compiled the best of the songs unto the Epic 1980 album Face to Face to which they became a one hit wonder with Marseilles in 1980 to which the earliest song Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again which came from the 1976 S/T album. The Albert version of Face To Face shows a much harder rock direction with a bit of punk overtones with lead off Straight Jacket which went into Marseilles, other songs include the more punk I Aint The One, and a live version of Live It Up. No Exit the 1979 album gets slighty better production and a more melodramatic sound with Ivory Stairs, Save Me and the title track. Upon The Angels signing to Epic Albert Productions put together their very on The Angels Greatest which slightly varies from the U.S. Face To Face, the US version having a more polished sound.
Dark Room is better than No Exit (the Australian version) , with Face The Day to which Great White had a hit single but I always enjoyed The Angels version better, it also features Night Comes Early, Poor Baby, the paranoia that is Devil's Gate and the medley of Wasted Sleepless Nights/Dark Room. Again the US version differs deleting Alexander and I'm Scared in favor of a remade Ivory Steps and Straight Jacket. It sold well enough for CBS to do another album but the end result Night Attack was spotty, as if the band was looking for a hit to get on American radio. The title track was fairly good but the rest forgettable. Watch The Red wasn't even released in the US and has been considered to be their weakest album although I never heard it.
In 1984 The Angels signed with Mushroom Records down under and MCA to release what I consider to be their best album Two Minute Warning. Evil and foreboding the beginning of Underground set the stage for some hard dark rock and roll with FM played favorites Small Price, Razor's Edge and the freaky Walking To Babylon although the meddling American label put Be With You on as a potential hit single, which wasn't.
And then they lost their way, MCA dropped them soon after Two Minute Warning was released (oddly, the then Warner backed Metal Blade reissued this album in 1989) and Howling the next album again wasn't released in the US but a listen to it revealed a lack of identity. It didn't help that The Angels were adding soul chick singers, horns and more keyboards than usual. Eddie Rayner from Split Enz played keyboards on Howling. In 1988, Terry Manning took a crack at trying to produce The Angels and Chrysalis released Beyond Salvation a album that was half Beyond Salvation and the other half remakes of their 70s stuff. Pointless but the drum roll on I Ain't The One threatens to blow up the speakers. The album stiffed although two songs did get some airplay, Dogs Are Talking and the MTV played Let The Night Roll On.
You really need a score card to figure out what the hell went on with this band in the 1990s. Red Back Fever, produced with Paul Northfield (Rush, Asia) was another clash in style and basically the band was having problems with their record label which they wouldn't record until 1998. Rick Brewster produced Sking And Bone and Kevin Shirley (Journey, Joe Bonnamassa) mixed it. Skin And Bone to which was their best album since Two Minute Warning although it was never released in the US. The further complicate things Mushroom issued the very uneven The Angels Greatest Hits (the mushroom years) which cherry picks some of their albums beginning with 2 Minute Warning and adding a second CD of outtakes, live numbers and odd remixes to which Terry Manning's ZZ Top groove just didn't do the job. To which it was the final piece of the puzzle and The Angels called it a day. Before returning back to the fold a few years later,the original Angel City band got back together in 2008 but cause such a big riff that Doc Neeson bolted for a solo career and was replaced by former Screaming Jets singer Dave Gleeson. I haven't heard their lastest Take It To The Streets, nor the new effort Talk The Talk.
The original Angels reunited for the 2006 reunion tour then Neeson had another falling out with the Brewster Brothers and moved on to a band of his own, Angels 100%. However Doc Neeson's health begin to fail him and in 2010 begin to develop brain cancer to which he beat it for a time and then it came back and eventually on June 4, 2014 died from cancer at age 67. While the major music mags ignored Neeson's passing, many bands spoke in tribute of the contributions that Doc Neeson and The Angels have done to better music from down under. While in the US they're only known for Marsalies, their only hit in the US, down under they had 12 gold albums to their credit. And the replacement players (Jim Hilburn, replaced Bailey, Bob Spencer came in for John Brewster, and Brett Eccles replaced Graham Birstrup on Night Attack) were pretty good as well. At times I think the Hilburn/Eccles rhythm section really tighten up the sound on Two Minute Warning. The Birstrip/Bailey section was a bit more loose playing.
Nevertheless, when Neeson's health begin to fail him, The Brewster brothers put together a Rock for Doc concert last year to which most of Down Under's best came out to pay tribute and even Doc himself joined on stage. Doc's final recording was released last month, a reworking of Flash And The Pan's Walking In The Rain. Picking up the lead vocalist from The Screaming Jets and Sam Brewster now playing bass, The Angels continue to be a much loved band from down under although the US never embraced them (like I did). Nothing wrong with Dave Gleason being the vocalist but for myself the Angels or Angel City, it was Neeson the voice of that band.
With that said, it begin with being signed to AC/DC's label (Albert Productions) and it ended with Skin And Bone in 1998. If nothing else, The Angels were like that other band, guitar heavy riffs, straight ahead rhythm but Neeson was a more thoughtful songwriter although more darker than Bon Scott or Brian Johnson. Great White covered Face The Day and even Axl Rose paid tribute to Doc with a version of Marsalies. It's a shame The Angels never got as big in the states as their counterparts AC DC. But The Angels were a great live band with the theatrics of Neeson being the ultimate actor a added plus. And he will be missed. One of the best singers in rock music I think. And that's all you need to know.
The Albums:
The Angels (Albert) 1976 B
Face To Face (Albert) 1978 A-
No Exit (Albert) 1979 B+
The Angels Greatest (Albert) 1980 B+
Face To Face (US Epic) 1980 A
Dark Room (US Epic) 1980 A-
Night Attack (Us Epic) 1981 B
Watch The Red (Liberation 1983) C+
Two Minute Warning (MCA 1984 reissued on Metal Blade 1991) A
Howling (Liberation 1986) B-
Beyond Salvation (Chrysalis 1988) B+
Red Back Fever (Liberation 1991) B+
Live Line (Liberation 1995) B-
Skin And Bone (Shock/Liberation 1998) B+
The Angels Greatest Hits-The Mushroom Years (Mushroom Pty 1999) B-
Greatest Hits (Liberation 2011) B-
Take It To The Streets (Liberation 2012) NR
Talk The Talk (Liberation 2014) NR
Brothers, Angels And Demons (2018) NR
Symphony Of Angels (2019) NR
Chris Bailey, bass player for The Angels lost his battle with cancer on April 2, 2013, he was 62
Doc Neeson passed away from brain cancer on June 4th, 2014 aged 67.
The Angels live on. Dave Gleeson (Screaming Jets) replaced Neeson as lead vocalist. John and Rick Brewster continue to be the link to the past Angels with Sam Brewster playing bass and Nick Norton on drums. However, I have not paid much attention to the latter day Angels. While Gleason is a fine singer in his own right, it's hard to replace Doc Neeson, tho' Jim Hilburn tried his best as well. The Symphony Of Angels album is them teaming with a orchestra. Brothers, Angels And Demons goes back to the days of the Moonshine Jug And String Band and collects pre Angels music from the Brewster Brothers, leading up the today's version of the Angels. The Liberation Greatest Hits has the recording sped up and relies too much from the live album.
Out of all the band that came up form down under, The Angels got fucked. Each and every one of their US albums had remade versions from the first three albums and Beyond Salvation ended up one half of the album and side 2 greatest hits redone. MCA rejected The Howling album and basically killed Two Minute Warning when the original A and R guys that signed them up got fired. Skin And Bone was the last album to feature Doc Neeson. The Epic Face To Face remains in print and gives the argument that The Angels were the smart man's version of AC/DC. I also think that Two Minute Warning ranks up there with Dark Room and Face To Face. Had MCA promoted it better, The Angels had a chance to make it in America but in true fashion MCA didn't. And with the passing of Neeson, The Brewster Brothers turned them into a tribute band. Australia will always hold high regard for them as well as collectors in the US. As for myself, I'll stick with the original lineup.
AC/DC originally recorded for Albert Productions in Aussie land whereas Atco originally signed them (later Atlantic, then back to Atco before they awarded the masters to the highest bidder, Sony Music. A lesser known band The Angels had the AC/DC guitar sound courtesy of the Brewster brothers but it was the vivid imagery, crooning and screams of Doc Neeson that for a short time gave the Angels a rival to the Young Brothers.
The Angels recorded three albums for Albert before CBS finally took a chance and compiled the best of the songs unto the Epic 1980 album Face to Face to which they became a one hit wonder with Marseilles in 1980 to which the earliest song Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again which came from the 1976 S/T album. The Albert version of Face To Face shows a much harder rock direction with a bit of punk overtones with lead off Straight Jacket which went into Marseilles, other songs include the more punk I Aint The One, and a live version of Live It Up. No Exit the 1979 album gets slighty better production and a more melodramatic sound with Ivory Stairs, Save Me and the title track. Upon The Angels signing to Epic Albert Productions put together their very on The Angels Greatest which slightly varies from the U.S. Face To Face, the US version having a more polished sound.
Dark Room is better than No Exit (the Australian version) , with Face The Day to which Great White had a hit single but I always enjoyed The Angels version better, it also features Night Comes Early, Poor Baby, the paranoia that is Devil's Gate and the medley of Wasted Sleepless Nights/Dark Room. Again the US version differs deleting Alexander and I'm Scared in favor of a remade Ivory Steps and Straight Jacket. It sold well enough for CBS to do another album but the end result Night Attack was spotty, as if the band was looking for a hit to get on American radio. The title track was fairly good but the rest forgettable. Watch The Red wasn't even released in the US and has been considered to be their weakest album although I never heard it.
In 1984 The Angels signed with Mushroom Records down under and MCA to release what I consider to be their best album Two Minute Warning. Evil and foreboding the beginning of Underground set the stage for some hard dark rock and roll with FM played favorites Small Price, Razor's Edge and the freaky Walking To Babylon although the meddling American label put Be With You on as a potential hit single, which wasn't.
And then they lost their way, MCA dropped them soon after Two Minute Warning was released (oddly, the then Warner backed Metal Blade reissued this album in 1989) and Howling the next album again wasn't released in the US but a listen to it revealed a lack of identity. It didn't help that The Angels were adding soul chick singers, horns and more keyboards than usual. Eddie Rayner from Split Enz played keyboards on Howling. In 1988, Terry Manning took a crack at trying to produce The Angels and Chrysalis released Beyond Salvation a album that was half Beyond Salvation and the other half remakes of their 70s stuff. Pointless but the drum roll on I Ain't The One threatens to blow up the speakers. The album stiffed although two songs did get some airplay, Dogs Are Talking and the MTV played Let The Night Roll On.
You really need a score card to figure out what the hell went on with this band in the 1990s. Red Back Fever, produced with Paul Northfield (Rush, Asia) was another clash in style and basically the band was having problems with their record label which they wouldn't record until 1998. Rick Brewster produced Sking And Bone and Kevin Shirley (Journey, Joe Bonnamassa) mixed it. Skin And Bone to which was their best album since Two Minute Warning although it was never released in the US. The further complicate things Mushroom issued the very uneven The Angels Greatest Hits (the mushroom years) which cherry picks some of their albums beginning with 2 Minute Warning and adding a second CD of outtakes, live numbers and odd remixes to which Terry Manning's ZZ Top groove just didn't do the job. To which it was the final piece of the puzzle and The Angels called it a day. Before returning back to the fold a few years later,the original Angel City band got back together in 2008 but cause such a big riff that Doc Neeson bolted for a solo career and was replaced by former Screaming Jets singer Dave Gleeson. I haven't heard their lastest Take It To The Streets, nor the new effort Talk The Talk.
The original Angels reunited for the 2006 reunion tour then Neeson had another falling out with the Brewster Brothers and moved on to a band of his own, Angels 100%. However Doc Neeson's health begin to fail him and in 2010 begin to develop brain cancer to which he beat it for a time and then it came back and eventually on June 4, 2014 died from cancer at age 67. While the major music mags ignored Neeson's passing, many bands spoke in tribute of the contributions that Doc Neeson and The Angels have done to better music from down under. While in the US they're only known for Marsalies, their only hit in the US, down under they had 12 gold albums to their credit. And the replacement players (Jim Hilburn, replaced Bailey, Bob Spencer came in for John Brewster, and Brett Eccles replaced Graham Birstrup on Night Attack) were pretty good as well. At times I think the Hilburn/Eccles rhythm section really tighten up the sound on Two Minute Warning. The Birstrip/Bailey section was a bit more loose playing.
Nevertheless, when Neeson's health begin to fail him, The Brewster brothers put together a Rock for Doc concert last year to which most of Down Under's best came out to pay tribute and even Doc himself joined on stage. Doc's final recording was released last month, a reworking of Flash And The Pan's Walking In The Rain. Picking up the lead vocalist from The Screaming Jets and Sam Brewster now playing bass, The Angels continue to be a much loved band from down under although the US never embraced them (like I did). Nothing wrong with Dave Gleason being the vocalist but for myself the Angels or Angel City, it was Neeson the voice of that band.
With that said, it begin with being signed to AC/DC's label (Albert Productions) and it ended with Skin And Bone in 1998. If nothing else, The Angels were like that other band, guitar heavy riffs, straight ahead rhythm but Neeson was a more thoughtful songwriter although more darker than Bon Scott or Brian Johnson. Great White covered Face The Day and even Axl Rose paid tribute to Doc with a version of Marsalies. It's a shame The Angels never got as big in the states as their counterparts AC DC. But The Angels were a great live band with the theatrics of Neeson being the ultimate actor a added plus. And he will be missed. One of the best singers in rock music I think. And that's all you need to know.
The Albums:
The Angels (Albert) 1976 B
Face To Face (Albert) 1978 A-
No Exit (Albert) 1979 B+
The Angels Greatest (Albert) 1980 B+
Face To Face (US Epic) 1980 A
Dark Room (US Epic) 1980 A-
Night Attack (Us Epic) 1981 B
Watch The Red (Liberation 1983) C+
Two Minute Warning (MCA 1984 reissued on Metal Blade 1991) A
Howling (Liberation 1986) B-
Beyond Salvation (Chrysalis 1988) B+
Red Back Fever (Liberation 1991) B+
Live Line (Liberation 1995) B-
Skin And Bone (Shock/Liberation 1998) B+
The Angels Greatest Hits-The Mushroom Years (Mushroom Pty 1999) B-
Greatest Hits (Liberation 2011) B-
Take It To The Streets (Liberation 2012) NR
Talk The Talk (Liberation 2014) NR
Brothers, Angels And Demons (2018) NR
Symphony Of Angels (2019) NR
Chris Bailey, bass player for The Angels lost his battle with cancer on April 2, 2013, he was 62
Doc Neeson passed away from brain cancer on June 4th, 2014 aged 67.
The Angels live on. Dave Gleeson (Screaming Jets) replaced Neeson as lead vocalist. John and Rick Brewster continue to be the link to the past Angels with Sam Brewster playing bass and Nick Norton on drums. However, I have not paid much attention to the latter day Angels. While Gleason is a fine singer in his own right, it's hard to replace Doc Neeson, tho' Jim Hilburn tried his best as well. The Symphony Of Angels album is them teaming with a orchestra. Brothers, Angels And Demons goes back to the days of the Moonshine Jug And String Band and collects pre Angels music from the Brewster Brothers, leading up the today's version of the Angels. The Liberation Greatest Hits has the recording sped up and relies too much from the live album.
Out of all the band that came up form down under, The Angels got fucked. Each and every one of their US albums had remade versions from the first three albums and Beyond Salvation ended up one half of the album and side 2 greatest hits redone. MCA rejected The Howling album and basically killed Two Minute Warning when the original A and R guys that signed them up got fired. Skin And Bone was the last album to feature Doc Neeson. The Epic Face To Face remains in print and gives the argument that The Angels were the smart man's version of AC/DC. I also think that Two Minute Warning ranks up there with Dark Room and Face To Face. Had MCA promoted it better, The Angels had a chance to make it in America but in true fashion MCA didn't. And with the passing of Neeson, The Brewster Brothers turned them into a tribute band. Australia will always hold high regard for them as well as collectors in the US. As for myself, I'll stick with the original lineup.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
