“It should be obvious by now that Creedence Clearwater Revival is one of the great rock and roll bands. ‘Cosmo’s Factory,’ the group’s fifth album, is another good reason why.” – Rolling Stone, 1970
46 years ago today, Cosmo’s Factory was released on the 22nd August 1970.
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL started a nine-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with their fifth studio album “Cosmo’s Factory”. The name of the album comes from the warehouse in Berkeley where the band rehearsed. Bandleader John Fogerty was so insistent on practicing (nearly every day) that drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford began referring to the place as “the factory”.
Creedence Clearwater Revival released three classic albums in 1969. Their first in 1970 came after a small break for leader John Fogerty, who turned in some of his band’s greatest songs here. (“Lookin’ Out My Back Back Door” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” is just the tip.) Creedence would tap out soon – they released another album five months later that was the beginning of the end – but they’re at the top of their game on ‘Cosmo’s Factory.’
The band included guitarist brothers John and Tom Fogerty, bass player Stu Cook and Clifford – had signed in 1964 to the San Francisco based Fantasy Records, an independent jazz label. Fantasy co-owner Max Weiss initially named the group the Golliwogs (after the children’s literary character, Golliwogg), apparently to cash in on a wave of popular British bands with similar names. The band, who hated the name, then suffered a setback in 1966 when the draft board called up John Fogerty and Doug Clifford for military service. Fogerty at least managed to enlist in the Army Reserve instead of the regular Army, while Clifford did a tenure in the United States Coast Guard Reserve, the following year, new management at Fantasy extended their deal along with agreement to a name change. The group arrived at their new title Creedence Clearwater Revival from three elements. From TomFogerty’s friend Credence Newball’s name they added an extra ‘e’, making it resemble a faith or creed; ‘clear water’ came from a TV commercial for Olympia beer; and finally ‘revival’ spoke to the four members’ renewed commitment to their band. The raw edge of John Fogerty’s voice, or the driving force of the rhythm section, CCR sounded different to everything else, delivering for the most part, short sharp songs, a rare thing in 1967, the year of psychedelic jams and long freakouts. Not totally immune, the band’s other side manifested itself in long, guitar-driven versions of selected songs on their album, including 8 minutes of Suzie Q.
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Cosmo’s Factory [Full Album] Concord/Fantasy, 2008 RM. Video with album liner notebook. Album is 1 disk of 14 tracks: original 11 track recording remastered plus 3 bonus tracks. Cosmo’sFactory is the fifth studio album by CCR released in July 1970. All songs written and composed by lead guitarist and vocalist John Fogerty except as noted
Side A 1. Ramble Tamble 0:00 2. Before You Accuse Me 7:10 3. Travelin’ Band 10:37 4. Ooby Dooby 12:45 5. Lookin’ Out My Back Door 14:52 6. Run Through The Jungle 17:25
Side B 1. Up Around The Bend 20:28 2. My Baby Left Me 23:11 3. Who’ll Stop The Rain 25:29 4. I Heard It Through The Grapevine 27:27 5. Long As I Can See The Light 39:00
The Who performed their rock opera Tommylive and in its entirety, for the first time back in April this year, at the Royal Albert Hall. That concert is being issued on DVD and blu-ray with the audio available on CD and vinyl packages.
The performance of the 1969 album was in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have supported for a very long time. The band have performed Tommy in the past, but crucially they always dropped a handful of tracks. This time it was different and the whole album was performed – and enhanced by specially created animations. After the performance, the band (inevitably) treated the audience to a short set of Who classics!
The Who – Tommy Live At The Royal Albert Hall is release on all formats on 13th October 2017. The audio from this special occasion is being issued on two-CD and three-LP vinyl, while the entire concert is being issued on blu-ray and DVD. Interestingly, there are no audio/video ‘bundles’ or deluxe editions
On 1st April 2017, The Who took to the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall to deliver a blistering performance of their legendary rock opera, Tommy. Written by Pete Townshend almost 50 years ago, the full length piece had, until then, never been performed live by the band. In a rare treat for fans, The Who decided to perform Tommy for the first time ever in its entirety for their participation in the annual Teenage Cancer Trust benefit shows. These shows are produced every year by Roger Daltrey at the iconic Royal Albert Hall to raise essential funds for the specialist treatment of young people with cancer.
Music video by The Who performing Tommy Live At The Royal Albert Hall.
Grizzly Bear release their first album in five years Painted Ruins produced by band member Chris Taylor. Painted Ruins fits the current political mood, it’s an album of songs beautiful on the surface, but with darkness nibbling on all sides; hope and despair on an endless see-saw. It’s also a record of thirty something friends, estranged by both geography and navigating the adult territory of marriage, divorce and parenthood, fighting through separation to find the common ground that once and still exists. It’s political and personal and the best Grizzly Bear album in ages.
2LP – Double 180 Gram Vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Download.
Kacy and Clayton – The Siren’s Song
Kacy and Clayton first met Jeff Tweedy in the backroom of the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in September 2016. The band had been invited to open for Wilco on night 4 of their annual 5-night run. While waiting for their soundcheck, Jeff appeared through a curtain backstage and introduced himself. In the conversations that followed, Kacy Anderson, Clayton Linthicum and Jeff Tweedy discussed their mutual appreciation of Davy Graham and Jeff’s understanding of Saskatchewan’s geography. Those conversations would eventually blossom into an invite to stop by Wilco’s studio, the Loft, a visit they made only weeks later. In January 2017, Kacy and Clayton returned to the Loft with a rhythm section and a batch of new songs. Over the course of 8 days, the band recorded 9 songs with Jeff Tweedy producing and Loft house engineer Tom Schick at the helm. These 9 songs are what would become the band’s fourth album, The Siren’s Song. While writing and recording The Siren’s Song, Kacy and Clayton found inspiration in the music of Sammi Smith, The Everly Brothers, Link Wray’s chicken shack LPs, country records with harpsichords, The Sir Douglas Quintet, Gene Clark, Jeannie C. Riley, as well as British traditional singers like Peter Bellamy and the Watersons. The Siren’s Song is a product of these influences and an extraordinary progression in the band’s own sound.
Echo and the Bunnymen – It’s All Live Now
Each LP is individually numbered and strictly limited. 180 Gram, black vinyl pressed at Record Industry comes in a single sleeve aqueous-gloss, old school tip-on Stoughton sleeve with brand new artwork and hard stock insert. Never before seen photos of the band. Liner notes by guitarist Will Sergeant. One of the most acclaimed British rockers from the 1980’s, this legendary band formed in Liverpool in 1978 and were forefathers of the neo-psychedelic movement. This brand new collection of their legendary live material recorded in Sweden in 1985 includes classic Rock- N-Roll covers of legendary tunes by the Doors, Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Television and more available on vinyl for the first time. Many of the tracks from Sweden were recorded live for Swedish National Radio at the Karen Club. Also included here is a legendary extended version ofDo It Clean recorded live in concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1983.
Sheer Mag – Need to Feel Your Love
Sheer Mag has let the sparks fly since their outset, with an axe to grind against all that clouds the way. A caustic war cry, seething in solidarity with all those that suffer the brunt of ignorance and injustice in an imbalanced system. With their debut LP, the cloak has been lifted. It is time to reclaim something that has been taken from us. Here the band rolls up their sleeves, takes to the streets, and demands recompense for a tradition of inequity that’s poisoned our world. However, it is in our ability to love – our primal human right to give and receive love – that the damage of such toxicity is newly explored. On Need to Feel Your Love, they make their first full-length declaration of light seen just beyond our darkness. Spoken plainly, without shame: It is love. This – is Sheer Mag.”
Interpol – Our Love to Admire
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Our Love to Admire, Capitol release expanded versions of this beloved classic. Our Love to Admire marked a critical and commercial breakthrough for the band. Recorded at New York’s Electric Lady and the Magic Shop studios with producer Rich Costey (Muse, Death Cab for Cutie), the album boasts an expansive, cinematic sound that drove home such notable songs as The Heinrich Maneuver, Pioneer to the Falls, No I In Threesome, Mammoth and Rest My Chemistry. Upon its release, the album debuted in the Top Five in both the U.S. and the U.K. Interpol formed in the late 1990s and quickly established a dense, intoxicating sound featuring layers of guitar, bass and synthesizers. The band came up through the vibrant New York scene, alongside such notable contemporaries as the Strokes and the National, but gained crucial early attention in Britain, where they recorded a prestigious live session for legendary BBC DJ John Peel. The LP and CD debut a sparkling new edition of the original album, remastered for this release by Gavin Lurssen with all of its original packaging intact. The bonus DVD captures the band’s 12-song performance at the London Astoria on July 2, 2007. The DVD includes live versions of several songs fromOur Love to Admire, along with such earlier Interpol favourites as Narc, Obstacle 1, Public Pervert, Evil and NYC.
2CD – CD and DVD Set.
2LP – Double 180 Gram Vinyl.
2LP+ – Double 180 Gram Vinyl with DVD.
Kelley Stolz – Que Aura
Extra fine songwriter and longtime bedroom-pop auteur Kelley Stoltz delivers on the promise so many of his records slyly hint at. Que Aura is the platonic ideal of a Kelley Stoltz record, which is a very exciting thing indeed. Stoltz embraces his best synth-pop tendencies, with this incredibly self-assured set of tender tunes, combining in his own hangdog fashion both a disco-lit abandon and the attendant post-party sighs of dread and remorse. Great songs come out of Stoltz at an alarming rate on any given day but this particular collection is some of his most effortlessly catchy stuff yet. Ennui under the disco lights suits him very well – there’s a hearty sip of Pulp-ian white Brit shimmy with a wink, a dash of Fleetwood Mac’s cynically professional late ’70s sheen, and even a spritz or two of Echo and The Bunnymen, which should surprise no one who’s noticed Stoltz has been playing guitar with McCulloch and Company for the past year or so. This record cements Stoltz’s place in the power-pop pantheon where he belongs, right between Dwight Twilley and Martin Newell.
Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer –Not Dark Yet
Critically acclaimed artists and sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer release Not Dark Yetvia Silver Cross Records / Thirty Tigers. Produced by Teddy Thompson, their first and highly anticipated album together is an extraordinary debut of the pair’s transcendent musical bond. Not Dark Yet was recorded in Los Angeles in the summer of 2016. The album provides a potent look at the sisters’ individual and collective artistry through eclectic song choices from writers ranging from the Louvin Brothers, Nick Cave, Kurt Cobain, and back to Jessie Colter. Shelby and Allison wrap their arms around the past, plant their feet in the present, and nod toward what’s around the bend with a co-writtenIs It Too Much, to close out the ten-song set.
LP – 180 Gram Vinyl.
Ariel Pink – Another Weekend / Ode To The Goat (Thank You)
Ariel Pink’s Another Weekend is the first single from the forthcoming album. The limited 7″ record comes in printed inner sleeve with liner notes and artwork from Matt Fischbeck, longtime collaborator of Ariel Pink.
Anna Meredith – Nautilus
Limited Edition one off pressing on Etched 12” Vinyl (500 copies – Exclusive to Rough Trade). Stand out track from Anna Meredith’s critically acclaimed album Varmints gets a release on a beautiful limited etched vinyl in all of its 5 minutes 30 seconds glory, and comes backed with hard to find gem Miranda. The flip side of the vinyl features an etching. Anna Meredith, aside from sharing bills with Anna Calvi, James Blake and These New Puritans, Meredith’s dizzying CV includes being Composer In Residence for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, writing a piece for MRI scanner, soundtracking Prada’s Spring / Summer 2015 campaign, symphonies created for nursery children, music for park benches in Hong Kong and sleep-pods in Singapore. Performances at the BBC Proms have included collaborations with Laura Marling and The Stranglers for the first 6Music Prom, a performance of her body-percussion piece Connect It from the BBC Ten Pieces project and her Last Night Of The Proms composition Froms, simultaneously performed by five symphony orchestras across the UK, was broadcast to an audience of 40 million people.
In the four years since the Tokyo Police Club’s last album, our brave heroes from Toronto spent several long winters and many manic nights. “We struggled with finding our spot as a band and owning what we were,” says lead singer/bass player and principle songwriter Dave Monks. “Everyone expected us to come out with another record like (2010’s) Champ, but we didn’t feel comfortable going on the same road we were on. We wanted to go somewhere else; an upward move, so we starting writing and looking around for something new.”
Tokyo Police Club (Monks, keyboardist/guitarist Graham Wright, guitarist Josh Hook and drummer GregAlsop) knew that a new direction could be their key—but that choice would not be without its pitfalls.
Despite lofty goals and a fervent fan base, Champ had only bumped them up to the next ladder rung, not the express escalator to the top they may have expected. Days and weeks sometimes went by without any band activity. For the first time, two members moved away from Toronto (Monks to New York City, Alsop to Boston). “At times it felt like people maybe lost faith,” says Monks. “And it really came down to the four of us gelling. When we came back to the surface, everyone was really excited again, like they had never left.
“On Champ we were exploring new corners of our band,” continues Monks, “and a lot of it was unintentional, happy accidents. This time around we wanted to have lots of those. We made an effort to make our songs more direct and understandable and maybe cross over to people who wouldn’t normally listen to Tokyo Police Club. And then it was that act of balancing, keeping it ‘us,’ making something universal about it.”
Their first decision was to provide themselves with the time they needed to make something lasting. “We spent so long on Forcefield but we had to, there’s no other way it could have gone down,” says Graham Wright. “We did everything we needed to do to make the record. And we were bemoaning how circuitous most of our process usually is: we go on this weird path and then three days later we end up exactly where we started. But we realized that you have to allow yourselves to go on these insane tangents because every once in a while they make you put three songs together into an eight-minute medley that’s the best thing the band ever did. And if you were too busy trying to be simple and to follow your gut, you would never do that.”
The eight-minute medley to which Wright refers is “Argentina,” Forcefield’s lead track, a polished, earnest, high-octane and slow-burning epic that began as three separate songs in the same key that were stitched together into a seamless conglomeration nearly four times as long as some of the earliest Tokyo tunes. It’s a statement, for certain, but in the context of the process that birthed it, the song serves as more of a symbol of the foursome’s renewed confidence and trust in each other than an experimental jumping-off point.
The eight tracks that follow sound like the Tokyo Police Club you know and love but somehow manage to reach a little higher into the rafters. The genuine spirit in the catchy choruses of lead single “Hot Tonight” and “Toy Guns” reflects the anthemic music that all four bandmates were inspired by while recording, and “Miserable” features a concert-ready refrain sure to infuse crowds of all sizes. This is a watertight sound that only a band of best friends could make, a band who after ten years of playing music together and over a decade and a half of friendship wrapped themselves up in a force field and gave it their all, realizing who they are in the process as well as what their songs bring to their audience and to each other.
“We became aware that the objective on the songs was to relate,” says Monks. “It wasn’t about being cathartic or poetic or shrouded in mystery, it was just to be super open. I’ve done that lyrically and we’ve done that musically as a band; we’ve been more forgiving to these songs and let them just be the kind of songs they are and not tried to make them flow with the trends. We’re stoked on this record—we think it’s the best record on the planet right now.”
Back in 2015, Denver outfit The Yawpers brought their blues rock sounds to Bloodshot Records with their label debutAmerican Man.The trio are now back with their follow-up, Boy in a Well, set for release this Friday, August 18th. Produced by The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson (who also plays on the album) and Alex Hall (JD McPherson, Pokey LaFarge), “Boy in a Well” is a concept record about just what its title suggests. Set in WWI-era France, the story follows a mother who abandons her child down a well, where he grows up alone and afraid. The complex and ambitious tale is told both through 12 muscular, unpredictable rockabilly tracks as well as an accompanying comic book by the Legendary Shack Shakers J.D Wilkes.
“I wanted to write a melodramatic tragedy, but one so tragic that it has kind of a necessary levity,” says frontman Nate Cook, who wrote the record in the wake of his failed marriage. “Musically, the intention was to make a biting, frenetic, punk fueled record that sounded like it was recorded in the ’50s. Nodding to the past, present, and future. Emphasis during recording was placed almost solely on the spirit of the take and or song, often sacrificing polish for authenticity.” the band has provided an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of the entire thing. Cook takes us through the record’s theme and creation, while drummer Noah Shomberg digs into the songs’ structure and dynamics.
“Armistice Day”: Nate Cook (vocals, guitar): As the first song of a record that’s both historical and narrative, the writing on this one proved maybe the most difficult. Sonically, we all tried to maintain a very muted, fogging opening, and then midway tear through to something more immediate. On the narrative side, this is the song where the eponymous character is conceived by a young French girl and a soldier returning from the front lines. Instead of hope, I tried to set up a life that is entirely perverted by and beholden to the past.
Noah Shomberg (drums, vocals): One of the main musical themes Jesse [Parmet, guitars/vocals] and I attempted to address with Boy In A Well was to create intensity without using large dynamic shifts as a tool. However, sometimes you just have to smash. The song starts out nebulous in groove and slowly builds intensity via rhythmic shifts. The purpose of the drums and guitar here is solely to create a bed for the vocals to rest on. The song builds progressively throughout the third verse but not necessarily in volume until the last vocal melody refrain.
“A Decision is Made”: NC: Obviously a more rockabilly tune, and necessarily. We needed to forward the narrative substantially here, so there’s quite a bit of exposition and explanation. Rockabilly lends itself to wordier songs, and so I was able to cram a pregnancy, parental abuse, a birth, and a messianic complex into three minutes.
NS: Straight up rocker. I tried to re-imagine the “rockabilly” shuffle on the drum kit and explore different ways of phrasing it. Where can I place accents to help build tension and build intensity through the verses?
“A Visitor is Welcomed”: NC: The girl who threw our titular character down a well has dealt with the trauma through delusion. She believes her child is the second coming of Christ, and brings offerings of food, gifts, etc to the monster that is growing underneath.
NS: The groove on this song was inspired by a few late nights watching Ken Burns’ documentary on Jazz. We wanted to use a groove that sounded like the “Big Four” as a nod to our musical heritage. It’s a groove that originated from drummers in second line bands in the late 1800s.
“Room With a View”: NC: The first song told entirely from the perspective of the Boy in the Well. I attempted to not use personal pronouns, and make sure his description were limited to comparisons, as he has had no interaction with the outside world, and has no real sense of “I”.
NS: Stay out of the way. The function of the drums here is to support and add color. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Mon Dieu”: In a shameless ripoff of Steinbeck, this song finds a rabbit falling in the well, and the boy’s desire for love killing it. This becomes the impetus for him climbing out.
Looking back, this song felt like it came together the easiest. It was one of the first songs we jammed on and completed. The drum arrangement is all over the place. It’s maniacal and suits the performance of the song just right. We recorded this song with only one microphone which forced me to hit the cymbals a little bit differently. Instead of crashing with the middle of the stick, I played everything with the tip of the stick. I think it adds a cool sonic texture to the drums in this song.
“The Awe and the Anguish”: NC: We recorded the first two thirds of this song entirely on a field recorder that was the same [Alan] Lomax used. We used one mic, and self controlled dynamics, which was new for us. This serves two functions, one being demarcating the boy’s transition from the well to the outside world, and also to demonstrate the alien nature it presents to him.
NS: This was another attempt to stay out of the way of the vocals (and story). The melody and guitar part are so vibey, all it needed was some maraca and a few downbeats on a marching bass drum … until the end.
“Mon Nom”: NC: This is a song entirely about the boy’s search for identity, and finds him using personal pronouns as he grasps a greater sense of who or what he is. Given his upbringing, most of his conclusions are pretty menacing. The last repeated line means “I am the second coming of Christ” in French.
NS: In my opinion, this song achieved everything we were trying to do with the performances on the record. We use rhythm to build the intensity of the whole song. The drums start out stripped down, eventually adding each part of the drum set and then variations of the basic groove to build tension. Nate’s vocal delivery is incredibly dynamic, starting in a low Johnny Cash rumble and ending in a Nick Oliveri style scream. The vocal delivery complements the lyrics most effectively on this song. Additionally, Jesse’s guitar playing is straight forward and outside of the box all at once.
“Face to Face to Face”: NC: In the course of her routine visits to the well, mother encounters son. They recognize each other. In a bizarre sacrifice form, and out of some novel primal instinct in him, they have an “Oedipal” encounter.
NS: Rhythmically and harmonically, this song is outside of the wheelhouse. One of the more interesting instrumental arrangements on the record for me. We tested what we could get away with on this one, but still kept the style somewhat familiar.
“No Going Back”: NC: The encounter is predictably violent, and some innate ethical boundary has been crossed. The mother lies still, presumably dead, and the boy, having destroyed (again) something he loves, is wracked with agony.
NS: I don’t recall what inspired us to write a rockabilly song in 5/4, but we got a kick out of how unusual it sounded. It took us several hours of playing various grooves and parts in 5/4 to wrap our heads around it. Nate and I keep the groove straight forward and Jesse does a great job at smoothing out the angular feel. The transition to 4/4 in the chorus gives the song some serious momentum. Some of the playing towards the end of the song is a personal nod to a drum hero of mine, Jon Theodore [of Queens of the Stone Age and The Mars Volta]. Lastly, I think this is another instrumental arrangement that compliments the lyrics/story.
“God’s Mercy”: NC: This is basically a suicidal lament, as the boy throws himself back down the well. Finishing the job this time.
NS: This is a lullaby, so I did what seemed natural: Stay out of the fucking way. We used a ribbon mic placed about three feet above the tom, cranked the gain, and I played the floor tom with my hands. We achieved a pretty cool sound.
“Linen for the Orphan”: NC: Months have passed. As it turns out, the girl was only rendered unconscious during the encounter with her son, and has come to term with their child. Unfortunately, she dies in child birth. Her parents, not wanting the child, decide to get rid of him. After a doctor smothers the child with a sheet, they need to find a place to dispose of the body.
NS: This guitar/drum vibe was inspired equally by the Cramps and the Dead Kennedys. I loved the feel of the song “Police Truck”, so Jesse and used that for some of the inspiration for the verse grooves. My favorite parts are the builds in the song. I tried to use the bells of the cymbals to build intensity rather than just crashing. I also tried to get as quiet as I could but without ever getting too loud. Tension, release, tension, release.
“Reunion”: The body is taken to the well, and thrown onto the bones of its father.
The main riff was taken from a jam session that Jesse and I had from the previous summer. We brought that to a rehearsal and Nate pushed the song into a surf pop direction to juxtapose the lyrical content. Irony, a classic Cook move. We had our pal, Tommy Stinson, lay down some 12 string on this track which added a pretty and twangy sonic layer to the song. All in all, what better way to end the record?
When “Girls” was released in the spring of 2015, we woke up and took notice. We’d loved Widowspeak’s JarvisTaveniere-produced debut in 2011, but found the follow-up, 2013’s Almanac, a trifle problematic, as MollyHamilton’s ethereal voice, lathered on too thick, can be like a cake that’s all icing and air. Yet “Girls” was a nutritious harmonic pastry, still sweet but plenty nourishing, and a few months later when “All Yours” was released, we prayed that the full album would be as good as those two songs. Happily, Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas’s move from Brooklyn to Upstate New York has filled their music with fresh Hudson Valley air, and any cloying sensibilities have been washed away. The sugar high is gone, we happily declared with All Yours came out in September 2015, and it was a wonderful backdrop to autumn.
On the 21st August in 1967: The Doors began recording their second album, ‘Strange Days’, at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, California; its commercial success was middling, along with a series of under performing singles the album contains some of the group’s most psychedelic songs – “Strange Days,” “People Are Strange,” “Love Me Two Times” and “When the Music’s Over” are now all considered classics within The Doors‘ canon; the chorus from single “People Are Strange” inspired the name of the 2010 Doors documentary, ‘When You’re Strange’…
The Doors started their career with an overabundance of riches. Strange Days followed their self-titled debut later in 1967, and was made up of a bunch of stuff that hadn’t made it onto its predecessor. While “Love Me TwoTimes” and “People Are Strange” are two of the lesser tracks you’d find on any Doors compilation.
Strange Days is packed with album cuts that are stunning. This is where they committed to a more psychedelic sound in a more thorough and sustained way than at any other point. Tracks like “Strange Days,” “Unhappy Girl,” and “Moonlight Drive” are lush, but that lushness — like the synthesizers in the title track or Krieger’s slide work on “Moonlight Drive” is ever so off-kilter, a little sea-sick. It sounds like some kind of underwater nightclub. But even as Strange Days is loaded with great textures, it’s also a punchy and efficient album; aside from the titan closer “When The Music’s Over,” no song on the album reached the three and a half minute mark. Overall, it’s also their least bluesy album (though it may be equal with Waiting For The Sun in that regard).
TheDoors perfect their brand of psychedelic pop, a brand that has their trademark muscularity but trades in relentless hooks rather than the blues sprawl of some of their later work. That’s the case for “Moonlight Drive,” but also for a hidden gem like “My Eyes Have Seen You,” where Morrison delivers the infectious chorus in that awesomely ragged yell he could just leap right into. The Doors came out swinging with the self-titled and Strange Days back to back, and while this wound up being a semi-outlier in their catalogue, it deserves its reputation as one of the finest documents of ’60s rock.
The Districts a four-piece indie rock band from the small town of Lititz, Pennsylvania. The group formed in 2009 while members Rob Grote, Mark Larson, Connor Jacobus, and Braden Lawrence were still in high school. The prolific young band released their first EP, “Kitchen Songs” in 2011, followed by the track “Telephone” , The band released their debut full-length, the following year. The Districts then released a second EP, the more acoustic-leaning While You Were in Honesdale, was released in late 2012 and the band continued to perform regionally. Their mix of jangly indie Americana and blues-inspired rock caught the attention of Mississippi’s Fat Possum Records, who issued the band’s self-titled third EP, which contained three remastered songs from the “Telephone” album along with two newly recorded tracks.
In the summer of 1970, after a shambolic set at the Goose Lake Rock Festival in their native Michigan, The Stooges put together a new lineup as they prepared to hit the road in support of their second album, “Funhouse”Zeke Zettner, previously part of The Stooges road crew, became their new bassist, and second guitarist BillCheatham was brought aboard to reinforce the primal guitar work of Ron Asheton. With vocalist Iggy Pop, drummer Scott Asheton , and sax player Steve MacKay joining the new recruits, the band headed to New York City for a three-night stand at Ungano’s, a rock club in Manhattan. Danny Fields the legendary behind-the-scenes figure who signed the band to Elektra Records, brought a portable tape recorder to the show on August 17th, 1970, and “Have Some Fun, Live At Ungano’s is a suitably raw document of The Stooges in full flight. Sounding taut and feral, the band rips through six songs from the “Funhouse” album before bringing the set to an explosive conclusion with the spontaneous “Have Some Fun”/”My Dream Is Dead.” is one of the few live recordings documenting The Stooges during the period when Ron Asheton was lead guitarist. While the fidelity leaves something to be desired, the force and intensity of the performance make this a must for anyone wanting to hear The Stooges when they were the most dangerous band in rock.
Exclusive release from 2015.
Black/white splatter vinyl with poster insert.
7500 pressed.
Recorded live on 18th August, 1970
Tracklist
A1 Going To Ungano’s
A2 Loose
A3 Down On The Street
A4 T.V. Eye
A5 Dirt
B1 1970
B2 Fun House
B3 Have Some Fun / My Dream Is Dead
The War On Drugs have ready for release a new album tiltled “A Deeper Understanding” its due out on August 25th via Atlantic Records, their first for the label (previously they were on Secretly Canadian). Now the band has shared the album’s six-minute long glorious opening track, “Up All Night.” They have now shared five tracks from the album, which is half the album.
Previously The War on Drugs had shared the 11-minute long A Deeper Understandingcut (and Record Store Day single) “Thinking Of A Place” . Then they shared another song from the album, “Holding On” and then went onto perform the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Then the band shared two other songs from the album, the atmospheric slow-burner “Strangest Thing” and the expansive “Pain”. The band have also recently covered Warren Zevon’s ” Accidently Like A Martyr” recorded for a Spotify session.
The War on Drugs‘ main creative force Adam Granduciel worked on the album in studios in New York and Los Angeles, with help from engineer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer). Other members of the band (bassist Dave Hartley, keyboardist Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall, and multi-instrumentalists Anthony LaMarca and Jon Natchez) were also involved in the recordings from time to time and thus a press release calls A Deeper Understanding “a ‘band record’ in the noblest sense, featuring collaboration, coordination, and confidence at every turn.”
Official audio for The War On Drugs “Up All Night” ‘A Deeper Understanding,’ the new album from The War On Drugs,
