Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

MOON DUO – ” Shadow Of The Sun ” Best Albums Of 2015

Posted: November 25, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Moon Duo‘s third full-length LP, ‘Shadow of the Sun’, was written entirely during one of these evolving phases – the results are off-kilter dance rhythms, repetitive, grinding riffs, cosmic trucker boogies and even an ecstatically pretty moment.

The highest apex of psychedelia, be it art, music, drugs or literature, is to induce a prolonged consciousness shift that affects the consumer far beyond the time that they were privy to the act. Working in a rare and uneasy rest period for the band, devoid of the constant adrenaline of performing live and the stimulation of traveling through endless moving landscapes, offered Moon Duo a new space to reflect on all of these previous experiences and cradle them while cultivating the new album in the unfamiliar environment of a new dwelling; a dark Portland basement. The effect was akin to the act of descending from a train after a long and arduous trip, only to see it (and all your subsequent realities) speed off into the horizon without you. It was from this stir-crazy fire that Shadow of the Sun was forged.

Evolving the sound of their critically acclaimed first two full length records, Mazes (2011) and Circles (2012), Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada have developed their ideas with the help of their newly acquired steam engine, Canadian drummer John Jeffrey (present on the band‘s last release, Live in Ravenna. Moon Duo used the creative process as a flickering beacon of sanity in an ocean of uncertainty while in these land bound months. The unchartered rhythms and tones of this album reflect their striving for equilibrium in this new environment, and you can hear that Shadow of the Sun is the result of months of wrangling with this profound, unsettling way of being. Exploring the record, a listener will perceive the song “Night Beat,” with its off-kilter dance rhythm, as an attempt by the band to find meaning and acceptance in this new, shifting ground, while “Wilding” delivers a familiar Moon Duo sound, taking refuge in a repetitive, grinding riff-scape. Elsewhere on the record, the band recognizes that no journey is possible without being on the road, paying tribute to the cosmic trucker boogie saint in “Slow Down Low” and “Free the Skull.” From the narcoleptic dancefloor killer “Zero,” the record spirals perfectly into a resplendent daydream, the ecstatically pretty “In a Cloud,” which is a spectacular moment to witness.

In a nod to a great pop tradition, the lead single, “Animal,” will appear as the A-side of a 7-inch, packaged with each copy of the vinyl edition. The song has an early West Coast punk viciousness to it that is entirely unique to the Moon Duo catalog, and it will also appear as the last track on the CD.

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The result, at the end of the trip, is the album Shadow of the Sun.

RYLEY WALKER – ” Primrose Green ” Best Albums Of 2015

Posted: November 25, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A modern day classic in the style of “Solid Air”; finds Ryley Walker roaming through languid folk-jazz with rich instrumentation and deft improvisation.

Ryley Walker’s Primrose Green is the guitarist’s second LP in less than a year, and he’s already gotten way better. Last year’s All Kinds Of You was a good meditative folk record. Primrose Green has that, too, but it also has highlights like “Summer Dress” and “Love Can Be Cruel,” songs that incorporate jazz and psychedelia, unfolding into strange and exhilarating passages. It has roots in the British jazz-folk of the ’70s, but in 2015 it feels like it’s born from some other place entirely, or at least from Walker’s custom cocktail for which the album’s titled: whiskey with morning glory seeds.

Summoning up the spirit of songwriting past masters, Primrose Green takes elements of Van Morrision, Nick Drake, John Martyn and more without ever descending into pastiche – instead it’s a cosmic journey into jazz-inflected summertime rock and roll. The instrumentation positively dances amid brass, organ and fancy fret-work while the dizzying Sweet Satisfaction extends proceedings into a darker, rampaging terrain.

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Ryley Walker ”Sweet Satisfaction”(from Primrose Green)

”I came up with that in the middle of winter in a desolate Chicago last year, it gets really cold there, way below zero, three feet of snow, dangerous to go outside. I think it’s kind of a cover poet drunk song, a desperate song. You have seven or eight drinks and all of a sudden you think you’re this poet and can reach into a woman’s heart with this poem. It comes from that standing point. A drunk leaning against the wall poet. We had to cut that song down, because originally it was like fifteen minutes long. Maybe in the box set in twenty years! I like that version better but the label thought there was no room left on the record. We had to edit out that jam section in the end. It went on forever, not in a bad way, I thought it was pretty cool with the strings and that bit that sounded like Terry Riley.”

JULIA HOLTER – ” Have You In My Wilderness ” Best Albums Of 2015

Posted: November 25, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Julia Holter’s fourth and most accessible album to date. A sonically direct, shimmering, leftfield pop classic that everyone at Piccadilly Records has been willing her to make since first hearing 2013’s ‘Loud City Song’. Dark and lovely, exploring pop’s universalities of love and relationships, ‘Have You In My Wilderness’ is the perfect soundtrack to winter’s long nights. Julia Holter’s experimentalist pop symphonies have always been gorgeous, but in the past, even the catchiest of her compositions had a tendency to float off into airy abstraction. Have You In My Wilderness, on the other hand, has an immediacy to it, tethering her to reality in a way that feels liberating instead of constricting. There’s no conceptual framework, no Greek tragedies or MGM musicals, just Holter and her own idiosyncratic vision, that shapeshifting voice pushed to the front of the mix where it belongs. As she cries on “Sea Calls Me Home,” “It’s lucidity! So clear!” It’s exhilarating

A semi-conceptual record filled with narratives and characters that resonate deep into the subconscious, it’s a creative peak for the LA-born artist.

DEERHUNTER – ” Fading Frontier ” Best Albums Of 2015

Posted: November 23, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Atlanta art-rock provocateurs have done what so many of their peers from the Early Aughts Indie Explosion have failed to do: age gracefully. They aren’t making soft rock per say, but they are making some sublimely smooth indie rock that encapsulates the best lessons learned from their earlier, more aggressively arty works. Tracks like “Duplex Planet” inspired by the legendary fanzine of the same name and “Living My Life” make getting old just as mysterious and exciting as being young, while the glam-rock shuffle of “Snakeskin” is the grown-and-sexy song of the year. Bradford Cox and company have found a way to tease pop concepts out fine art, have rebuilt their songcraft out of the shattered pieces of 21st century rock ‘n’ roll to create and art-rock record that is as challenging as it is mature.

Last year, Bradford Cox got hit by a car, and he came out of the resulting depression with his gentlest, most comfortable collection of songs yet. “Fading Frontier” isn’t a happy album, exactly — there’s still anxiety and uncertainty and a nagging preoccupation with the looming specter of mortality. But those are all essential parts of human existence, and it seems that Cox has made peace with them. That maturity could translate to a lack of urgency, and Fading Frontier doesn’t feel like a statement on the level of something like Monomania. But when you’ve got songs this good, who cares

Deerhunter, imbued with a melange of R.E.M., Big Star and, dare we say, a touch of Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark harmony, have embraced the melodic on their lamentable opus to the Fading Frontier. Suffused in a crystalline and hazy production that recalls both the Animal Collective and Beach House, the band, mostly carrying around Bradford Cox’s baggage, have never sounded clearer and brighter. Slithering to esoteric swamp boogie, college rock and dreamy Numan-esque synth, Deerhunter navigate through the depressive thoughts and resignation of their de facto band leader; his near-fatal car accident, delusions and Marfan syndrome illness plaintively and sometimes philosophically pouring from every lyric.

BULLY – ” Feels Like ” Best Albums of 2015

Posted: November 23, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Alicia Bognanno performed the realest/rawest video of the year. “I Remember” is a blistering, intensely emotional missive, and even though Alicia’s probably performed this song 1000 times at this point, it looks like the sentiment expressed here hits a nerve every time. She holds nothing back, and by the time she’s done it feels like pure, sweet catharsis. Bully’s debut full-length “Feels Like” came out June 23rd. Of all the albums released this year, Feels Like is one of the most personal, honest and raw; it finds singer Alicia Bognanno laying herself emotionally bare in all arenas of her life, from a caustic past (or doomed present) relationship lamented on “I Remember,” the album’s lead single that hit pretty much everyone like a smack in the face when it dropped earlier this year, to reming a friend that he or she is better than their own bullies on “Six,” to pondering the possibilities of the future on “Milkman”.

The album is evidence of how strong Nashville’s oft-overlooked rock and roll scene really is, and makes a strong case for the resurgence of electric guitars in a city generally associated with pedal steel, fiddles and, more recently, the computer generated sounds that dominate modern country. Each song teems with unrestrained energy that doesn’t let up for a moment, and Bognanno’s rough-around-the-edges vocals push the tracks even further. If you’re not yet familiar with Bully, get familiar, because Bognanno and co. could be headed straight to the top.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the E.STREET BAND – ” The River “The River Tour, Tempe 1980)

Posted: November 23, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Bruce Springsteen

The Tempe 1980 concert film features 24 songs — 2 hours, 40 minutes — on 2 DVDs, and is included in The Ties That Bind: The River Collection. The new film was produced from footage professionally filmed in 1980 using four cameras and recorded in multitrack audio.

A comprehensive look at The River era, the box set contains 52 tracks on 4 CDs with a wealth of unreleased material, and 4 hours of never-before-seen video on 3 DVDs.

Included in the box set:
The River (Records 1 & 2)
The River: Single Album (Previously unreleased)
The River: Outtakes (Contains previously unreleased music)
The Ties That Bind (Brand new 60-minute minute documentary)
The River Tour, Tempe (Never-released video footage of famed 1980 show)
The River Tour Rehearsal (Rare video footage)
Coffee table book of 200 rare/previously unseen photos
New essay by Mikal Gilmore

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and the E.STREET BAND – ” Party Lights “

Posted: November 23, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Hear “Party Lights” a poignant yet anthemic Bruce Springsteen rarity, released for the first time on the upcoming box set ‘The Ties That Bind: The River Collection.”

Springsteen spent well over a year writing songs for his 1980 LP The River, and by the time he was done, he had much more songs than he could fit on even a double album. Some of the tracks wound up as B-sides, while many others appeared on the 1998 box set Tracks or the 2003 Essential Bruce Springsteen collection. But when it came time to collect material for Springsteen’s upcoming box set, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection due out 4th December, the curators still found 11 songs that hadn’t previously appeared on any previous release.

You can listen to one of those songs here, “Party Lights,” right now. An incomplete, solo acoustic home demo of the song from 1979 originally leaked out to bootleggers many years ago, but the finished, full-band rendition has never been heard until now. It contains lyrics that were later used on “Point Blank” and in the additional verse that Springsteen added to “Jersey Girl” by Tom Waits. Much like the title track of The River, the song is about a young girl forced to “grow up fast” after becoming a young mother.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are promoting the new River box set on Saturday Night Live on December 19th, but plans beyond that are unclear. Earlier this week, Springsteen performed “American Skin (41 Shots)” with Tom Morello, Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan at the Shining a Light: A Concert for Progress on Race in America  event in Los Angeles. 

The VELVET UNDERGROUND – ” The Matrix Tapes ” 4 Disc Box Set

Posted: November 22, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Velvet Underground: The Complete Matrix Tapes Box Set to Be Released

In November and December 1969, between the release of their self-titled LP and the following year’s Loaded, the Velvet Underground held a residency at two venues in San Francisco: the Family Dog and the Matrix (a pizza parlor-turned-concert hall opened by Jefferson Airplane’s Marty Balin). All in all, the Velvets performed for 18 nights, and a significant portion of the gigs were captured on a four-track recorder.
Now, recordings from those shows will be released as a four-disc box set, The Velvet Underground: The Complete Matrix Tapes. released November 20th via Polydor/Universal Music Enterprises, the collection compiles 42 recordings, including nine previously unreleased tracks.
According to a press release, The Velvet Underground: The Complete Matrix Tapes focuses on two gigs in November 1969: November 26th and November 27th (Thanksgiving).
Many of the collection’s tracks have been released before, on the 1974 release 1969 The Velvet Underground Live, on 2001’s Bootleg Series, Vol. 1: The Quine Tapes, and last year’s Super Deluxe Edition of the self-titled album’s reissue. However, this marks the first time all of the tapes will be available commercially as a single release.
The collection’s highlights include previously unreleased versions of “Some Kinda Love”, “Sweet Jane”, and “After Hours”, among others. Find the entire tracklisting below.
Rolling Stone editor David Fricke wrote the liner notes for the new collection.
The Complete Matrix Tapes isn’t the only Velvet Underground release coming soon; the 45th anniversary edition of Loaded is due out October 30th.

You would think that by now—after fifty years—the cupboard would be getting pretty bare when it comes to unreleased Velvet Underground material, but that’s simply not the case. Despite the incredible amount of material made available for the first time on legit releases in recent years via UMe’s Super Deluxe packages, there is still even more to come. And not just a little, but a lot of primo vintage VU white light, white heat recorded in high fidelity.

Two-to-three-minute excerpts of nine of these tracks and a seven-minute excerpt of “Sister Ray”—all starting at the beginning of the songs, and fading out mid-performance—that have leaked into circulation verify that the sound quality on these recordings is outstanding, and notably (though not hugely) superior to the tapes used on 1969 Velvet Underground Live. Of even more interest, the performances themselves are good-to-superb, including a version of the rarely-heard “There She Goes Again” with noticeably more jagged rhythm guitar than the studio cut; “I’m Set Free” with magnificent Reed lead vocals; a really slowed-down “I’m Waiting for the Man” with great curling blues guitar riffing, and a cool interjection of ominously stroked chords right after the white boy’s asked what he’s doing uptown; and a “Sister Ray” that starts off super-slow and bluesy, but just keeps accelerating in rhythm and intensity until the tape cruelly cuts off. If not quite as novel, the other excerpts—including “Ocean,” “Some Kinda Love” (introduced as “an alcoholic’s dream”), “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” “After Hours,” and two versions of “Venus in Furs”—likewise make the Velvet Underground fan yearn for the day when these tapes can be released.

The Velvet Underground: The Complete Matrix Tapes:
Disc One
01 I’m Waiting For The Man (Version 1)
02 What Goes On (Version 1)
03 Some Kinda Love (Version 1)
04 Heroin (Version 1)
05 The Black Angel’s Death Song
06 Venus In Furs (Version 1)
07 There She Goes Again (Version 1)
08 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 1)
09 Over You (Version 1)
10 Sweet Jane (Version 1)
11 Pale Blue Eyes (Version 1)
12 After Hours (Version 1)
Disc Two
01 I’m Waiting For The Man (Version 2)
02 Venus In Furs (Version 2)
03 I Can’t Stand It (Version 1)
04 There She Goes Again (Version 2)
05 Some Kinda Love (Version 2)
06 Over You (Version 2)
07 After Hours (Version 2)
08 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 2)
09 Sweet Bonnie Brown/Too Much
10 Heroin (Version 2)
11 White Light/White Heat (Version 1)
12 I’m Set Free
Disc Three
01 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 3)
02 Some Kinda Love (Version 3)
03 There She Goes Again (Version 3)
04 Heroin (Version 3)
05 Ocean
06 Sister Ray
Disc Four
01 I’m Waiting For The Man (Version 3)
02 What Goes On (Version 2)
03 Some Kinda Love (Version 4)
04 We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (Version 4)
05 Beginning To See The Light
06 Lisa Says
07 New Age
08 Rock and Roll
09 I Can’t Stand It (Version 2)
10 Heroin (Version 4)
11 White Light/White Heat (Version 2)
12 Sweet Jane (Version 2)
Here’s one version of “Heroin” from the band’s stint at the Matrix:

HALO TORA – ” Ruins “

Posted: November 21, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Halo Tora have always had a polished sound, even playing their very first gig to a crowd who couldn’t believe it. Their album Omni\One – their debut, nonetheless – is also incredibly polished. Their blend of post-rock has a certain easy charm and effortless cool; Halo Tora have proved time and again that they’re one of the most exciting Scottish bands to emerge in recent years.

Halo Tora are a five piece union of progressive rock burgeoning from Glasgow, Scotland. A bond formed through years of writing and live shows supporting the likes of Jamie Lenman (Reuben) and My Vitriol as well as recently embarking on their own UK tour. The band repress nothing, by concentrating and coalescing their individual creative forces the band are able to subjugate generalised stylistic boundaries contrastively sitting somewhere between prog-rock, alt-rock and post rock. The result is a raw yet emotional album which is as dynamic as it is powerful.

Halo Tora have worked relentlessly and meticulously, carefully cultivating and refining the material which can be heard in their forthcoming debut album ‘Omni\One’. Throughout the album melodic dual vocals intertwine and coalesce with equally complimentary dark and atmospheric guitar exchanges, whilst chilling classical piano sections float underneath a frenetic back-bone of driving bass and thunderous beats, fills and crashing cymbals.

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A wide range of influences can be heard throughout the album from tracks such as ‘Age of Terror’ and ‘Bones That Rock The Cradle’ which call to mind the post-rock meets progressive instrumentation and soft yet visceral vocals of artists such as Karnivool and Dredg, whereas other tracks such as ‘Permanent Revolution’ and ‘Ruins’ which blend structured atmospherics and power vocals conjure up memories of Oceansize. However, these influences never instigate notions of plagiarism, Halo Tora are able to take these moments and mould them in their own vision, which makes these compositions all the more

‘Omni\One’ is as diverse as it is accomplished and there is an invigorating confidence and honesty to it which has come through there perseverance and patience in ensuring that everything is crafted to perfection, as guitarist and lead vocalist Chris Alexander says, “This record really is a coming together of all our experiences and personalities and with that a license to explore places musically that we had never been as individuals. It was great to be able to throw ourselves at it and watch it take shape.”

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – ” The Darkness Tour ” Cd Sets

Posted: November 19, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This is a suberb Springsteen live CD ( actually 3 cds) of one of his finest ever shows.The 1978 tour was renowned for supporting a number of Radio Broadcasts and this one from LA’s Roxy Theatre is, I beleive, the finest of them all.
The sound on here is as near perfect as you could get in ’78, and the decent packaging makes for a very nice product all round. Excelllent bonus on the third disc is the full 1978 inteview Bruce gave to DJ Dave Herman – a fascinatuing recording that tells us a lot about what was making the boss tick at this point in time!

Stating the obvious first of all, this performance is the stuff of which legends are made. What you really need to know is if this particular release is sonically upgrading any of the other tapes you may already have of this well circulated performance. Well the great news is ‘yes’ in my opinion. I have various copies of the Roxy performance on different labels in my collection and I honestly feel this is the best sounding version out there including the Crystal Cat release. The even better news is that this release won’t cost you anywhere near what you would have to pay for a CC release and it is packaged very nicely. Definitely one to go for, even if you have it on other labels like I do. And for the money, an out and out no-brainer. Enjoy.

If you’re a fan then you’ll know about this but if you’re browsing and you’re in any way tempted then go for it without delay. It helps a lot if you’re familar with the first 4 albums especially Born To Run and Darkness but if you’re not you’ll be buying them very quickly after hearing this. A magnificent live album with Bruce at his peak
The nowadays “AGORA Theatre & Ballroom” in Cleveland, OH, (known since 1903 as “Metropolitan Theatre”) was not the place of this legendary appearance of Bruce The Boss” Springsteen. That colloquially “AGORA beta” called event site in close vicinity to Cleveland State University fell victim to a fire in 1984 and just afterwards the name changed to the current location. Reason for the concert in the old AGORA on 08/09/1978 was the 10-year jubilee of the local radio station WMMS and it was emitted nationwide.

Until today there was no legal publication of this concert, only different bootlegs now and then like “The teenage werewolf” for example. These recordings “travelled” inside the group of hardcore fans and for a long time we wished to be able to hear this wonderful concert in a much better quality. Therefore I bought it immediately beginning of November in the UK and I was absolutely not disappointed.

The concert is simply fantastic, all musicians are in the same top form like The Boss himself. And it took place in an atmosphere which was not possible in many of the later appearances in Mega Stadiums and Domes. It was more like a big school assembly hall with a small stage, rather few equipment, but very close contact between audience and artist(s).

The sound quality is unexpectedly good – someone must have spent a lot of work to extract this off the analogue material of that time. Of course there will always be any people who will have to find faults in everything. Simply ignore it – first it is The Boss, secondly it is The Boss, thirdly he was in top form and of course one could make it nowadays a little better, however, it’s not possible!

For me, not quite as clear a recording as the “Agora Ballroom” release, but it is a recording of a nearly 40 year old radio broadcast. The good news is that the band performance is as vital and thrilling as ever, with some tantalising glimpses of songs later realised on his next album “The River” (“Sad Eyes”/”Drive All Night”). Bruce is in fine voice and his guitar cuts as sharp as Little Steven’s pointed collar. The E Street Band play with a passion and drive rarely heard (and still do). This takes you back to a time when playing live was where truly great artists proved it all night. There’s the standard Bruce rock n roll medleys which are never as convincing as his own stuff, but a burning, angry cover of “It’s My Life”. Live rock doesn’t get much better than the epic 11-minute “Prove It All Night”, and “Because The Night” is stunning. (Just realised how often “night” appears in Bruce’s lyrics and titles). “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” is almost funky, and Bruce’s Telecaster just cries and bites on “Kitty’s Back”. A superb show – but this guy doesn’t do average.

A great concert and famed performance, (alongside the Passaic show “Piece de Resistance” boot set from ’78 as well). Although I haven’t heard the newly issued 3cd set of that show.

Beats any of the vinyl Winterland boots I have owned in the past (no crackles!) and it’s a well packaged set with decent photos, which appear to be from this era. I would also recommend the Agora 78 show as well. Also a great price for a triple cd set, beats the bootleggers?

Of the 1978 radio broadcasts that have recently been released this is up there with the Agora ballroom set as the best. The highlights for me are ‘Prove it all night’, ‘Because the night’ and of course ‘Santa clause is coming to town’, but it’s all good and at a reasonable price too.

Yet another excellent 1978 show from the Leftfield Media people. I think they have now put out all of the broadcast concerts from the Darkness tour and I’ve yet to be disappointed with any of them
I’d certainly recommend sticking with this series if you want to collect all the best Springsteen Concerts from this era as I have been doing, and before these began I was disappointed with the sound on a couple of titles on other labels.

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