Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

BLACK SABBATH – ” The Ten Year War ” Box Set

Posted: July 21, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Limited Edition Box Set Includes: 8 x vinyl LPs meticulously reproduced in their original sleeves, re-mastered by renowned mastering engineer Andy Pearce from the original tapes and pressed on 180 gram splatter-coloured vinyl, each LP with unique and individual colouring.

• BLACK SABBATH
• PARANOID
• MASTER OF REALITY (incl original fold-out colour poster)
• VOL. 4
• SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH
• SABOTAGE
• TECHNICAL ECSTASY
• NEVER SAY DIE!

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• 2 x rare 7” singles, reproduced in their original sleeves: *Japanese *version of Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)/Black Sabbath. *Chilean *version of Paranoid/The Wizard (only 100 copies of the original radio promo were pressed)

• Crucifix shaped Black Sabbath USB stick, exclusive to this box set, which can be worn round the neck and contains MQA high definition audio of the first eight Black Sabbath albums

• The extremely rare The Ten Year War brochure, reproduced from the original publication

• Hardback book, featuring accolades from the cream of rock royalty, coupled with official and candid iconic photography of the band during their 1970s tours, recording sessions and photo-shoots

• Tenth Anniversary World Tour 1978 Official Programme, impeccably reproduced

• Reprinted tour poster from the 1972 Seattle Centre Arena show

• Box set cover art has been created by globally renowned street artist Shepard Fairey

Black Sabbath are one of the world’s most popular and enduring heavy metal bands and are constantly credited with inventing and defining the genre. To this day, the world of metal – fans and artists alike – cites Sabbath as being both influential and inspirational.

From the blues-laden metal which defined the band’s sound on their self-titled debut, to the multi-million selling follow-up, ‘Paranoid’, Sabbath captured the attention of a generation hungry for a new musical direction. However, the all-conquering enthusiasm shown by Sabbath’s rabid fan base wasn’t always mirrored by the gatekeepers within the music press, and it is this disparity which inspired the band to publish The Ten Year War brochure. This document was a playful dig at the journalists of the time with the witty tagline: “More good press than most – more bad press than any”.

With a career spanning 50 years, Black Sabbath have proven time and time again that their musical heritage is unrivaled. Having sold tens of millions of records, sold out global arena tours and bewitched millions of dedicated fans, the band have built a catalogue envied by all.

The Ten Year War box set brings together the first eight Sabbath studio albums in one place, plus a swathe of other rarities, and celebrates the band’s achievements on the stage, in the studio and in the public eye.

WOLF PARADE – ” Valley Boy “

Posted: July 20, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Wolf Parade

Wolf Parade have officially announced their anticipated new release, Its their first album in seven years. It’s called Cry Cry Cry, and it follows 2010’s still-great Expo 86. The album drops through Sub Pop Records on October 6th. This one was produced by John Goodmanson, who’s known for working with Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, Harvey Danger, and also did the last Cloud Nothings album .

Wolf Parade first reunited last year for some live shows and a four track EP. Before they got working on the new full length, co-frontmen Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner put out new albums with their respective Moonface and Operators projects. Then they posted updates from the studio, and announced that the new album was finished. They played two songs from it at a recent live show, including “Valley Boy,” which is Cry Cry Cry‘s lead single.

Spencer Krug takes lead on “Valley Boy,” and this song really says “we’re back” more than anything on last year’s EP did. It’s got not one but two of those classic singalong Krug hooks (the chorus and the “the radio’s been playing all your songs” line, a line Krug says is about the late Leonard Cohen). As these live shows have been reminding us, Wolf Parade are not just great pop songwriters but they really know how to let loose as musicians, and the jammy instrumental bridge of “Valley Boy” is a fine example of that.

Talking about this album compared to last one, drummer Arlen Thompson said, “All of our albums are always a reaction to our last one. Expo 86 was about as sparse as we get, which is usually still pretty dense, and this time we wanted to make the palette a little larger.” Bassist/guitarist Dante DeCaro added, “Expo 86 was a real rock record. We just sort of banged it out, which was kind of the point.” And Dan Boeckner assures us: “There are two very long songs on the record… I don’t think it would be a Wolf Parade record if it didn’t have some kind of prog epic.” Considering a major highlight of their recent live shows has been the lengthy “Kissing the Beehive,” that’s good news.

Wolf Parade have tour dates coming up,

The BYRDS – ” Fifth Dimension ” Released July 18th 1966

Posted: July 20, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Byrds released their third LP “Fifth Dimension” the highly influential, albeit transitional, album released on July 18th, 1966. Most of the album was recorded following the February 1966 departure of the band’s principal songwriter Gene Clark so the majority of the song writing went to guitarists Jim McGuinn and David Crosby. Even with the two writing, they recorded four cover versions and an instrumental. It was however the first by The Byrds not to include any songs written by Bob Dylan, whose material had previously been a mainstay of the band’s repertoire.

Much of “Fifth Dimension”, was recorded after singer-songwriter Gene Clark left the band. “Fifth Dimension” helped introduce fans to psychedelic rock. Critical reviews were mixed but the album demonstrated the Byrds’ evolution from folk-rock to a more experimental style.

“Eight Miles High” was the album’s first single, a collaborative effort between Clark, David Crosby and Roger McGuinn then known as Jim. “The previous year, 1965, we’d been on a trip to England,” McGuinn “It was our first time on a plane, and I had the idea of writing a song about it. Gene asked: ‘How high do you think that plane was flying?’ I thought about seven miles, but the Beatles already had a song called ‘Eight Days a Week,’ so we changed it to ‘Eight Miles High’ because we thought that would be cooler.”

Fifth Dimension was widely regarded as the band’s most experimental album to date and is today considered influential in originating the musical genre of psychedelic rock with tracks like “Eight Miles High” and “Mr Spaceman”. It was also the first time the bands logo appeared with the psychedelic artwork.

Arguably the most famous song on the album was “Eight Miles High”, an early excursion into psychedelic rock. Musically, the song was a fusion of John Coltrane influenced guitar playing courtesy of lead guitarist then Jim McGuinn and the raga based musical structure and vocals, “Eight Miles High” featured guitar work inspired by sitarist Ravi Shankar. The belief that ‘Eight Miles High’ was about drug use had it banned by some radio stations. “‘Eight Miles High’ has been called the first psychedelic record,” McGuinn said. “It’s true we’d been experimenting with LSD, and the title does contain the word ‘high,’ so if people want to say that, that’s great.”

Crosby, meanwhile, said “of course ‘Eight Miles High’ was a drug song. It does refer to the altitude of that flight, but it was a deliberate double entendre.” Written mostly by Gene Clark in November 1965, while The Byrds were on tour in the U.S., the song was pivotal in transmuting folk rock into the new musical forms of psychedelia and raga rock. Regardless of its innovative qualities, however, many radio stations in the U.S. banned the record citing the title to be a reference to recreational drug use ,The song’s lyrics actually pertained to the approximate cruising altitude of commercial airliners and the group’s first visit to London during their 1965 English tour

McGuinn’s mystical lyrics on “5D (Fifth Dimension),” the LP’s second single, signalled to some that it was also a drug song. McGuinn explained its deeper meaning. “What I’m talking about is the whole universe, the fifth dimension, which is height, width, depth, time and something else,”said McGuinn. “The fifth dimension is the threshold of scientific knowledge. See, there are people walking around practicing fifth-dimensional ways of life and the scientists are still on two- or three-dimensional levels.

There’s a conflict there. A lot of our world is very materialistic and scientific. It overlooks the beauty of the universe. That’s what the song is about.”

“Mr. Spaceman,” the album’s last single, was written by McGuinn as a tongue-in-cheek attempt to contact any extraterrestrials who might be in the neighbourhood. “I’m interested in astronomy and the possibility of connecting with extraterrestrial life and I thought it might work the other way round, if we tried to contact them,” McGuinn told ZigZag. “I thought that the song being played on the air might be a way of getting through to them.”

“Captain Soul” was a rare instrumental by the Byrds, the result of an in-studio jam between sessions. In The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited, McGuinn attributed the idea to drummer Michael Clarke. “It wasn’t really funky but it was interesting. Essentially, it was Mike Clarke’s trip. He wanted us to do something soul-oriented, so we did that for him.”

Other originals include Crosby’s “What’s Happening?!?!,” McGuinn’s “2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song),” which incorporates the sound of a jet engine and a pilot’s cockpit communication, and “I See You,” a Crosby-McGuinn composition. “That’s an early sessions, bubblegum type of song,”said McGuinn. “I did like the jazzy kind of feel to it. I’d been playing around with that jazz-, Coltrane-type of influence. It kinda seeped into everything I did at that point.”

“Fifth Dimension” featured a cover of Billy Roberts’ “Hey Joe (Where You Gonna Go)” and “I Come and Stand at Every Door,” an adaptation of a Nazim Hikmet poem about the bombing of Hiroshima. The band’s folk-rock roots are evident in McGuinn’s adaptations of traditional songs “John Riley” and “Wild Mountain Thyme.” Notable was the absence of any Dylan songs on a Byrds’ album for the first time. “Perhaps we were consciously trying to get away from it,” McGuinn later reflected. “I guess we were trying to show Dylan we didn’t need him. But that was a mistake because his songs were good for us.”

Fifth Dimension reached No. 24 on the Billboard albums chart but its influence was substantial. Along with the Beatles, whose August. 1966 release of Revolver included tripped-out tunes like “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “I’m Only Sleeping,” the Byrds helped create the acid rock trend of the late-’60s.

FLORIST – ” If Blue Could Be Happiness “

Posted: July 20, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Florist is a friendship project that was born in the Catskill Mountains. For a simple folk song, “What I Wanted to Hold” packs a big punch. It’s our first preview of the new Florist full-length, which is called If Blue Could Be Happiness and is released later in September.

“It’s a contemplative journey, mostly about impermanence and how important it is to recognize that as the dominant theme of life,” Emily Sprague said of “What I Wanted to Hold”

Here you can listen to the first single from our new album “If Blue Could Be Happiness” .. so excited to start sharing this with all of you. making this record was the hardest and the best thing that i’ve ever done in my life. there is so much inside of it, good and sad, and like the last album, it was for us to make and now it’s for all of you to take in and keep close. – emily

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Band Members
florist is a friendship project between emily, rick, jonnie, and felix

MAPPE OF – ” Caverns Dark / Nimblin “

Posted: July 18, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone (Pre Order)

The Canadian artist Mappe Of just released the two opening tracks of his debut’s album, A Northern Star, A Perfect Storm. With a sound that could easily remind to you of, James Vincent McMorrow or even a young Bon Iver, Mappe Of is all and none of them at the same time. A careful listen to Cavern´s Dark and Nimbin will reveal a unique sound that brings you to this ethereal, timeless atmosphere.

The sound is clear and well performed, almost minimalist. Guitar, violins, trumpets, it all helps to create these aural melodies. In his own words, “I’d like the music to be grounded in reality while simultaneously feel like it’s from somewhere else”. And he succeeds. Almost nothing for a debut album.

 

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Trying to fit this young artist’s music in a genre can be certainly uneasy. Experimental, new indie, avant-folk… call it as you want, but you have to agree with me on this: it works.

The debut album from Mappe Of. A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone will be released on limited edition white vinyl on July 28th, 2017! Each vinyl pre-order will include a limited edition 7″ of Mappe Of’s covers of ‘Pleasure’ (Feist) and ‘Dead Letter & The Infinite Yes’ (Wintersleep).

Paper Bag Record’s new bet is definitely worth a listen (or two). These two tracks are an invitation to a true sound experience. Trust me: you won’t be disappointed.

RON ASHETON (The Stooges) – Great Guitarists Born July 17th 1948

Posted: July 18, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Today’s the birthday of Ron Asheton of The Stooges, Ron formed the Stooges along with Iggy Pop and his brother, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander. Asheton, once ranked as number 29 on the list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Times,  if you feel the need to run put on one of the band’s classic albums, we  understand that completely. In fact, we should even encourage it.

By 1967  Ron Asheton was jamming with his brother Scott and friend Dave Alexander. They were soon joined by James “Iggy” Osterberg who remembered Asheton from the Chosen Few. The “Psychedelic Stooges” played their first show in 1967. In 1968 they were signed to Elektra Records along with the MC5 . He played guitar on and wrote most of the music for their first two albums, the eponymous debut (1969) and the second album Fun House (1970).

Check out these tracks featuring Ron Asheton in some capacity or other. The majority of them are pretty spot on, so prepare to get an rock education!. His raw, distorted guitar work with the Stooges was greatly influential for many punk bands to come. Asheton was found dead in his bed by police at his home in Ann Arbor Michigan in the early hours of January 6th, 2009, apparently having died of a heart attack a couple of days earlier.

After kicking The Stooges’ best-loved song off with a flurry of explosive feedback, this glorious three-note descending riff encapsulates Asheton’s ‘less is more’ style, which without question helped define punk’s early sonic blueprint.

Destroy All Monsters, “Assassination Photograph” (1979): This band came roaring out of Detroit, and although they never found tremendous commercial success, they gained a fair amount of attention as a result of having members of both the Stooges and the MC5 within their ranks at various points.

New Race, “Crying Sun” (1982): These guys were never a studio band, only a live outfit, but when three guys from Radio Birdman teamed up with one of the Stooges and a member of the MC5, you can understand why Warner Brothers found it reasonable to release a live album by the band (THE FIRST AND LAST).

Dark Carnival, “Bloody Mary” (1997): This band was fronted by Niagara, who as many of you likely already know also fronted the aforementioned Destroy All Monsters. As such, it’s none too surprising that Asheton should feature on recordings by both bands

DINOSAUR Jr – ” Where You Been ” Classic Albums

Posted: July 18, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Where You Been

Released in 1993, Dinosaur Jr.’s fifth studio album roars as loudly as any of its grunge-era contemporaries, but without their occasional bombast. “Where You Been” features ten terrific songs, kicking off with the yearning “Out There” and a Top 10 Modern Rock hit “Start Choppin,” and never lets up from there. While J Mascis plays a dominant role – in addition to writing and production credits, his just-woke-up vocals and epic guitar solos thread through every song – this is Dinosaur Jr.’s sole Sire set with a real band behind him, as bassist Mike Johnson and drummer Murph provide the insistent rhythmic drive. While flirting with mainstream success (the collection reached the Billboard album chart), Where You Been frames a gentle outlook with alt-rock thunder, and remains a firm fan favourite.

The Word was a 1990’s Channel 4 television programme in the United Kingdom. Dinosaur Jr. performing “Start Choppin'” live at The Word 1994

A. SAVAGE (Parquet Courts) – ” Winter In The South “

Posted: July 16, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The songs on Thawing Dawn form a guided tour through the romantic environs of A. Savage’s mirrored mind. While some were written recently, other tunes were penned over the past decade. For one reason or another, these compositions didn’t land with any of Savage’s other groups, and instead are presented now as a distinct collection. Reflecting back, Savage says, “Once I realized I had a small body of work that didn’t fit anywhere else, I started to examine the commonalities: What’s the common denominator of all this and how I can expand on it?”

Savage is best known as the frontman for Parquet Courts, a duty split with fellow Texan Austin Brown. Their last record, Human Performance, delved into the emotional wreckage of a broken heart, to critical acclaim. But with Thawing Dawn, it’s clear that Savage has matured. While assembling the record, he fell in love. Now, for the first time, we hear songs about being on the inside of love. Rather than lamenting the end of a relationship, we hear a voice trying, in the moment, to make sense of love’s mysteries. “Part of this maturity,” he says, “is reflecting on something when it’s happening, not just when it’s gone.”

Thawing Dawn gives us honesty: We see the artist at home in bed, more singer-songwriter portrait than esoteric statement. Throughout his discography Savage has long abbreviated his first name as a kind of writerly gesture. He says, of the move, “I am an uncivilized member of modern civilization–I’m just a savage.”

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“I always like it when records are good representations of communities,” Savage says, and this one succeeds in this regard. These ten songs were recorded between December 2016 and June 2017 by a cast of friends in Jarvis Taveniere’s Thump Studios in Brooklyn. Members of Woods, Ultimate Painting, PC Worship, EZTV, and Psychic TV all lend their talents. Savage’s voice, once shouted into mosh pits, now glides confidently above its backing band. Thawing Dawn marks the arrival point for Savage as a sensitive and skilled vocalist. A strain of rural inquiry tinges the soundscape, an ongoing trope in Savage’s writing most powerfully felt on Parkay Quart’s ballad “Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth.” On this record it is stronger, with a healthy helping of pedal steel guitar, a chorus of female back-up vocals, four familiar chords, and maybe the truth, all layered throughout these songs. Their titles also steer us this way, but don’t fully convey the hidden intricacies. “Buffalo Calf Road Woman” opens the record in a burst of C&W energy. The staccato pop piano of “Eyeballs” lays crisply beneath a refrain of heartbreak. “Wild Wild Horses” finds him confessing inside a Talk Talk bubble of guitar static and organ. The build-up of “What Do I Do” yields a guitar freak out that Parquet Courts fans will recognize. You could two-step to the swing of “Phantom Limbo.” “Ladies from Houston” is a Leonard Cohen-like ramble through a party scene. Finally, the title track is a suite of three interwoven songs that closes the record in a beautifully cinematic style.

Throughout, A. Savage delivers one-off lines of razor-sharp observation that will stick in your brain, only to surface when you’re least prepared to handle their insights. When you put your copy of Thawing Dawn on your turntable and drop the needle, you’ll learn what A. Savage has to say about romance in our modern world. Keep your ears open it’s worth hearing.

PROTOMARTYR – ” Relatives In Descent “

Posted: July 16, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Detroit’s Protomartyr have had a steady rise to gaining the awareness they deserve for their dark, alcohol-soaked post-punk. In 2015 they released The Agent Intellect to widespread acclaim, ending up on many year-end lists or quickly became ‘ones to watch’, even though that was their third album. The advantage of this slow rise into sight is that they’ve had time to hone their vicious and cunning rock – and now for their fourth album they will have an even bigger platform from which to reach people, as they have been signed by Domino Recordings.

Protomartyr’s fourth album will be called Relatives In Descent, a perfectly gloomy-yet-epic title, and it comes out on September 29th. That still feels like some way off, but in the meantime they have presented the 5 minute, album-opening statement ‘A Private Understanding’, which touches on the human condition, longing and Elvis Presley. You can consume that below.

Protomartyr ‘A Private Understanding’ taken from the new album ‘Relatives In Descent’ out September 29th on Domino Recordings

Deluxe edition LP of “Relatives In Descent” is up for pre-order. Limited pressing on multi-colored vinyl, includes 24-page lyric zine and a foldout poster.

LUCY ROSE – ” Somethings Changing “

Posted: July 16, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Lucy Rose announces UK headline tour for November

“Something’s Changing” is released on the 7th July through Communion Records. The album will be accompanied by a stunning short documentary, acting as a fly-on- the-wall account of Lucy’s debut tour of Latin America last year.  The trip, organised independently by Lucy with the help of her Latin American fans, became a huge inspiration for the record and the film is an intimate account of how it all came together.

The Documentary will act as Lucy’s support act for the Worldwide Cinema Tour. With a new partnership with Communion Records and an exciting new band for touring, Lucy Rose is as revitalised as it gets. This year for some dates she’ll tour alongside the documentary, returning to Latin America first and then India, Europe, the US and Asia. Her heart and soul stuffed backpack is going to see a lot more airports. And if “Something’s Changing” does the job it should do, she’ll finally get the recognition she deserves as one of the UK’s best songwriters, and a true believer in the power of music.

Lucy Rose has announced a pretty extensive headline tour that includes the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in London. The tour comes in support of her latest album, Something’s Changing, which was released last week via Communion Records.

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