On the latest single from Hinds’ forthcoming album “Viva Hinds”, the Madrid based garage rock duo take unsparing yet surprisingly empathetic aim at a “local superstar” who’s lonely at the top. “Your mom and dad are paying all your bills / None of your friends will tell you how they really feel” Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote sing, reminding the star of their scene that they got what they wanted. The bright, syncopated chorus is deliciously bratty and snarky without sacrificing Hinds’ signature warmth and down-to-earth goofiness.
It’s a kiss-off to a clout-chaser who put their ego before their friendships and is now reaping all the rewards and the losses. Listening to a Hinds song often feels like a gossip session with your best friends that devolves into manic cry-laughing, and “Superstar” is yet another perfect encapsulation of their charm and effervescence.
Dummy is a rock band from Los Angeles comprised of Alex Ewell, Emma Maatman, Nathan O’Dell, and Joe Trainor. Their debut full-length “Mandatory Enjoyment” (Trouble in Mind) arrived in late 2021, becoming one of the year’s sleeper hits and garnering praise from Pitchfork, Stereogum, and more. Coming out of lockdown, the band spent two years touring in support of the record, and it is this transformational experience that pulses through “Free Energy”, the exhilarating follow-up to “Mandatory Enjoyment”.
The second entry from Los Angeles-based quartet Dummy’s new album “Free Energy” is a slippery, groove-infused propulsion through their avant-pop sound. “Nine Clean Nails” is driven by throbbing guitar riffs from Nathan O’Dell and Joe Trainor throughout, while Emma Maatman’s vocals effortlessly ride the crest of the melodic wave. “Unrelenting time / Left to my own devices / On a Saturday night / Expect another apathetic sigh,” Maatman sings, evoking the nihilism of the vaguely referenced, Trent Reznor-led group Nine Inch Nails with none of the ‘90s rockers’ industrial electronica.
Dummy only rely on influences from their own past, reviving their krautrock sound for this new single—deviating from the bubbly, fuzzed-out futurism of “Free Energy’s” lead single “Nullspace,” showcasing a confidence in the diversity emerging from their new sound.
From the new album “Free Energy” out September 6th, 2024 via Trouble In Mind Records
Jules Buckley brings together a selection of artists to join the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a unique celebration of Nick Drake, one of the great poets of the folk-rock movement who died half a century ago aged just 26.
There has never been an artist quite like Nick Drake, one of the great poets of the folk-rock movement. Fifty years on from his death at the age of just 26, the British singer-songwriter has found a new, cross-generational audience – many of them beguiled by his fragility and fatalism, his music’s mingling of the outwardly simple and the inwardly complex. For this tribute Prom, Jules Buckley brings together a selection of artists to join the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a unique celebration, with songs including ‘River Man’, ‘Cello Song’, ‘Time Has Told Me’ and ‘Northern Sky’.
This Proms concert was dedicated to the songs on the three albums that Nick Drake recorded in his short life. It was a fitting tribute to the legacy of his music, 50 years on from his death and a recognition of his now widely recognised status as a major songwriter, something that eluded him during his lifetime. It was also a brilliant example of how a series of songs originally recorded in small groups can be arranged for a large orchestral project.
Drake’s albums were well received critically, but were not successful commercially, and he died in relative obscurity. Since then he has become recognised by a huge multigenerational fan base, and many musicians now interpret his songs.
Certain of his songs have been taken up by jazz musicians, notably Brad Mehldau who has recorded “River Man” and “Things Behind The Sun”.Also, Nick Smart, head of jazz at the Royal Academy, has led a group featuring vocalist Christine Tobin performing arrangements of Drake’s songs. The group played Birmingham, and, as I recall, the mood of the music was quite dark, especially on “Black Eyed Dog”,the song about depression.
By contrast, the arrangements for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the interpretations by the guest artists often created a warmer joyful atmosphere, albeit with an underlying melancholy and with occasional moves into the darker songs from the “Pink Moon” album. Interestingly, “Black Eyed Dog” was not performed.
The vocalists were Olivia Chaney, Marika Hackman, Scott Matthews, BC Camplight, The Unthanks plus Drake’s sister Gabrielle Drake. In the first set each performed two songs, producing distinctive interpretations of the various songs. Olivia Chaney’s versions of “Hazey Jane 1” and “At The Chime of theCity Clock”, Marika Hackman’s version of “River Man” and The Unthanks’ interpretation of a song by Drake’s mother Molly Drake, “What A Song Can Do For You” all stood out. For this latter song, The Unthanks were joined by Gabrielle Drake who declaimed a poem by Molly Drake.
In the second set The Unthanks returned with Gabrielle Drake, this time performing Molly Drake’s “Set Me Free” and another of Molly Drake’s poems. In this set it was the two male singers that stood out, Scott Matthews performing “Northern Sky” and “From The Morning”,and BC Camplight performing “Place To Be” and “Saturday Sun”.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Jules Buckley, the orchestra’s Creative Artist in Association. Jules arranged “River Man”other arrangements were by Sam Gale, Jochen Neuffer, Tom Trapp, Kate St. John, Adrian Mcnally/Peter Riley and Simon Dobson.
To be released on October 25th the revered alternative/indie band will release its 10th proper full-length album, “The Night The Zombies Came”. For the new album recording sessions, the band returned to work with producer Tom Dalgety, who drummer David Lovering refers to as “a fifth Pixie” after producing 2016’s “Head Carrier”, 2019’s “Beneath the Eyrie” and 2022’s “Doggerel”.
Early on in the recording process at Guilford Sound studio in Vermont, the band noticed the new songs were dividing into two camps: what they came to call the “Dust Bowl Songs” – country-tinged, balladesque numbers such as ‘Primrose’ and ‘Mercy Me,’ and on the other side, the album’s furious punk numbers such as ‘You’re So Impatient’ and ‘Oyster Beds.’ Only ‘Jane (The Night the Zombies Came)’ keeps its feet in both camps — reminiscent of early ‘60s Phil Spector, the band hitting the sweet spot between mushy and abrasive, it’s a track that Black Francis allegedly likened to being chased by a swarm of bees.
The band’s first record since 2022’s “Doggerel” and the first with new bassist Emma Richardson (Band of Skulls) in the mix.
Pixies are Guitars, Vocals: Charles Thompson Background Vocals, Guitars: Joey Santiago Drums, Percussion, Background Vocals: David Lovering Background Vocals, Bass Guitar: Emma Richardson
More than 40 years after the release of their final album, The Police offer a massive expansion of their fifth studio effort, 1983’s blockbuster “Synchronicity“.
Released July 26th, the set will be available in multiple formats, each showcasing a wealth of rare studio and live bonus content. The centerpiece of the campaign is a 6 CD limited edition box set featuring B-sides and four discs of unreleased material, including demos, alternate mixes and takes, instrumentals, never-before-heard songs and a live concert from the “Synchronicity” tour. A 4LP box set will offer most of the B-sides and studio material on its bonus discs, and a D2C-exclusive coloured vinyl set will include that set’s first two LPs. A 2CD set will include the remastered album and all B-sides from the bigger CD box, and a limited edition picture disc will offer the original album with an alternate running order.
The set is billed in the official press announcement as being three years in the making, and it would appear it’s worth the wait for hardcore Police fans and completists. The B-sides disc includes every original studio and live non-album track released on the singles “Every Breath You Take,” “King of Pain” and “Synchronicity II,” including a rare alternate slow recording of “Outlandos d’Amour”(1978) favourite “Truth Hits Everybody,” the moody, Andy Summers-sung “Someone to Talk To,” the dreamy, eerie Sting compositions “I Burn for You” and “Once Upon a Daydream,” and even “Every Bomb You Make,” a version of the album’s signature hit rewritten and sung by Sting for the British comedy series Spitting Image. Making their CD debuts are six tracks from the band’s live set at The Omni in Atlanta in the fall of 1983, captured on the video The Synchronicity Concert; the rest of the set was issued on the 1995 package “Live!” Two “derangements” – multi-track reimaginings by drummer Stewart Copeland – will close out the B-sides assortment.
On the two studio discs are a treasure trove for die-hards: at least one, but often more, version of every track on the original album (including B-side “Murder by Numbers,” included on CD copies) in alternate form: Sting’s lo-fi demos, different mixes, alternate studio versions and even instrumentals. If that weren’t enough, there are seven songs and versions that never made the album: an early version of Summers’“Someone to Talk To” called “Goodbye Tomorrow,” a Copeland demo called “I’m Blind” that later was reworked into a cue from the drummer’s score to Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish, and even covers of Chuck Berry (“Rock and Roll Music”) and Eddie Cochran (“Three Steps to Heaven”).
A newly-presented live set closes out the box, taken from the group’s September 10th, 1983 set at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CA (the penultimate gig of the first leg of the “Synchronicity” tour). As with other shows on this tour, the trio (as ever, Sting on bass and vocals, Summers on guitar and Copeland on drums) were augmented by backing vocalists Tessa Niles, DoletteMacDonald and Michelle Cobb, performing nearly every song from the album alongside most of their hits from the previous five years. The deluxe package is rounded out with a 62-page booklet featuring new liner notes from Jason Draper and unseen images and memorabilia.
The writing may have been on the wall for The Police when they decamped to AIR Studios in Montserrat for their fifth LP – the same studio they’d recorded penultimate album “Ghost in the Machine” (1981), with the same producer, Hugh Padgham. Tensions never ran low in the band, but felt higher than before, with the group recording parts in separate rooms and sticking mostly to Sting’s song writing and arrangements. (Summers got one track on the album, the demented “Mother,” and Copeland got the quirky “Miss Gradenko.”) Sting, exhausted from a painful divorce and a burgeoning acting career (he’d starred in the British thriller Brimstone and Treacle and featured his first solo recording on the soundtrack alongside several songs by The Police), turned out some of his most intensely psychological song writing, drawing from the writings of Carl Jung and Arther Koestler for some moody but exquisitely catchy tunes – far lighter on the group’s original reggae influences, but still fitting in the trio’s unique post-punk and New Wave sound.
Beyond songs like the sequencer-driven “Synchronicity I,” full-throated rocker “Synchronicity II,” the driving “King of Pain” and contemplative fare like “Wrapped Around Your Finger” and “Tea in the Sahara,” “Synchronicity” featured The Police’s signature tune. “Every Breath You Take” was a deceptive number: lyrics of romantic pain and paranoia masquerading as sincerity under the same soulful chord progression that powered Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” and a hypnotic guitar lead by Summers. In the summer of ’83, The Police were the biggest they’d ever been thanks to that song, When the dust had settled, “Every Breath You Take” won a Grammy for Song of the Year and earned Sting that year’s Ivor Novello award for British songwriters, eventually becoming recognized by music publisher BMI as the single most-played song in radio history.
“Synchronicity” sold more than 8 million copies in America, was promoted by stylized music videos (including Godley & Creme’s well-known short for “Every Breath”) and gave The Police one last juggernaut tour, including a symbolic sell-out show at Shea Stadium, the same place The Beatles played nearly three decades prior. The trio used that highest of highs to essentially fade away at the height of fame (band tensions aside); they only recorded one more song (a controversial re-do of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” for a 1986 greatest hits album) and played a handful of gigs that same year for Amnesty International, symbolically passing their instruments to the members of U2 during the final performance. They stayed apart until a massive one-off reunion tour in 2007 and 2008, and Summers and Copeland have documented the band in memoirs, concert tours, retrospectives and documentaries. Sting maintained pop stardom for several decades since, but has made clear that, at 72 (Copeland in 71 and Summers is 81), the trio may never work together again, but maintain friendly terms with each other. That delicate, well-earned relationship informs the creation of this box, and hopefully will do so for additional releases from the band’s archives!
The Grateful Dead & Bob Dylan Performed Three Sets Together, On This Day In 1987, Back in 1987, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead teamed up for an unforgettable summer tour. Dylan had been coming off a series of unsuccessful releases, and first teamed up with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for a tour. Dylan and the Dead would perform in both 1986 and 1987, though the July 1987 series would ultimately make its way onto the “Dylan & the Dead” live album releases.
While the live album was written off as underwhelming, there’s still a lot to love about the show on July 24th, 1987 at the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, CA. After two great sets of the Grateful Dead to get things going, it was the third set that featured the full collaboration between Dylan and Dead members. Jerry Garcia works his magic in the Dylan catalogue, and the rest of the band members give their all for the performance.
It’s a true testament to their musicianship to be able to support Dylan and his unique style, but this show sees the Dead really pulling together for the cause.
Fortunately, we have some taped audio to reflect back on this great performance.
Setlist: Grateful Dead & Bob Dylan | Oakland-Alameda Coliseum | Oakland, CA | 7/24/87
Set One: Funiculì, Funiculà, Jack Straw -> Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, My Brother Esau, Friend Of The Devil, Me And My Uncle -> Big River, When Push Comes To Shove, Far From Me, Cassidy -> Deal Set Two: Hell In A Bucket -> Scarlet Begonias, Playing In The Band -> Drums -> Space -> Uncle John’s Band -> Dear Mr. Fantasy -> I Need A Miracle -> Bertha -> Sugar Magnolia Set Three: The Times They Are A-Changin’, Man Of Peace, Maggie’s Farm, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, I Want You, Highway Revisited, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Shelter From The Storm, Slow Train, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door Encore: Touch Of Grey, All Along The Watchtower
“Wish On The Bone’ is Why Bonnie’s sophomore LP and debut for Fire Talk. It’s untethered from any landscape or genre, propelled by this freedom and resulting in Why Bonnie’s most catchy, hopeful body of work to-date. Ranging from twangy country infused rock jams to more intimate and lo-fi arrangements, ‘Wish on the Bone’ is wide-eyed and waiting. It’s a coming of age film in which the protagonist rejects the forces that have tried, and failed, to shape her into something other than herself. It leaves you with a hard-fought sense of hope, which is among songwriter Blair Howerton’s greatest gifts. “You owe it to the people who are experiencing the worst to just keep pushing,” Howerton says. That’s the throughline of “Wish On The Bone”, a record that rewards with repeated listens.
Why Bonnie, the New York-based project of Blair Howerton, unveil the new single/visualizer “Rhyme or Reason” from their upcoming album “Wish on the Bone“, out August 30th on Fire Talk.
Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews have announced the details of Farm Aid 2024. The annual charity concert will take place on Saturday, September 21st, 2024 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Young and Nelson, who both dealt will health issues in recent months, forcing the cancelation of tour dates, are slated to perform at Farm Aid 2024, as are fellow board members Mellencamp and Matthews.
The Farm Aid 2024 lineup also features Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, LukasNelson with The Travelin’ McCourys, Charley Crockett, Joy Oladokun, Southern Avenue, Cassandra Lewis and Jesse Welles, with more artists to be announced. Last year’s edition of Farm Aid saw Bob Dylan play a surprise electric set with The Heartbreakers.
John Mayall, tireless and influential British blues pioneer, dies at 90, John Mayall introduced Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jack Bruce and Mick Taylor to the world, and has made 60 albums in nearly 60 years, Plenty of British bluesmen have sold more records, but few command as much respect as John Mayall OBE. With a back catalogue of close to 60 albums, and kick-starting the careers of countless stadium-filling galacticos, there’s a solid pub argument that nobody has done so much, for so long, to keep British blues afloat. No wonder they call him the Godfather.
A statement on Mayall’s Instagram page announced his death Tuesday, saying the musician died Monday at his home in California. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors,” the post said
Mayall almost missed the boat. Born near Macclesfield in 1933, he grew up in thrall to his father’s imported collection of blues 78s, and taught himself piano, guitar, harmonica and ukulele during downtime at art school. But National Service knocked him off track, and he returned to 1950s Britain to find a monopoly of trad-jazz bands “all playing the same tunes”.
At last, in 1962, he sensed revolution in the air, and the following year he hit London like a train. Even back then, pushing 30, the bandleader seemed like an elder statesman; a silverback among the cubs of the nascent British scene, whose gravitas, brittle wit and deep knowledge of the genre’s roots made him a big fish at Alexis Korner’s Ealing Club.
“London was booming,” Mayall recalls. “I was just glad the music I’d played since I was a kid was now a viable thing.” With impeccable timing, Mayall launched The Bluesbreakers, and so began an imperious early run of albums that remain set-texts for anyone remotely serious about the blues. This was Mayall’s band (the turnover of hired/fired members backs up his former guitarist Walter Trout’s observation that he was a “benevolent dictator”). But alongside the prolific songwriting, stinging musicianship and tremulous vocals, his genius lay in the nabbing and nurturing of ‘next big things’. In the 60s especially, the talent on the payroll was staggering – Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jack Bruce, Mick Taylor. And Mayall always let his charges off the leash. “Any person who joins my band,” he noted, “they’re all equal, whatever their age.”
Mayall and Clapton shared a passion for Chicago blues, and the guitarist later remembered that Mayall had “the most incredible collection of records I had ever seen.”
The piano was his main instrument, though he also performed on guitar and harmonica, as well as singing in a distinctive, strained-sounding voice. Aided only by drummer Keef Hartley, Mayall played all the other instruments for his 1967 album, “Blues Alone.”
Mayall was often called the “father of British blues,” but when he moved to London in 1962 his aim was to soak up the nascent blues scene led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Eric Burdon were among others drawn to the sound.
The Bluesbreakers drew on a fluid community of musicians who drifted in and out of various bands. Mayall’s biggest catch was Clapton, who had quit the Yardbirds and joined the Bluesbreakers in 1965 because he was unhappy with the Yardbirds’ commercial direction.
He is credited with helping develop the English take on urban, Chicago-style rhythm and blues that played an important role in the blues revival of the late 1960s. At various times, the Bluesbreakers included Eric Clapton and Bruce, later of Cream; Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac; Mick Taylor, who played five years with the Rolling Stones; Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor of Canned Heat; and Jon Mark and John Almond, who went on to form the Mark-Almond Band.
Mayall, now 90, retired from the road in 2021, but continues to make music that pleases the hardcore but make little dent in the mainstream (his last album, 2022’s “The Sun Is Shining Down“, was his 60th). And while it’s unlikely he’ll produce anything to shuffle the pecking-order laid out here, you can bet he’ll go down trying.
“With music you can be any age,” he noted in 2012. “What is the Best John Mayall album of all time?” or “What are the top John Mayall albums?”. John Mayall released a great deal of albums throughout his long and prolific career. John Mayall can easily be considered one of the best blues musicians.
John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers – Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966)
The inevitable first purchase, 1966’s so-called Beano album is the high-water mark of the 60s British blues boom, Mayall’s finest hour and Eric Clapton’s precocious launch pad.
From the languid opening swoop of Otis Rush’s All Your Love, through the jet-fuelled Hideaway, to spring-heeled Mayall originals like Key To Love and Little Girl, this is amped-up blues rock that walks a tightrope between reverential and rip-it-up exciting. Nearly 50 years after it hit number six in the UK, there’s a case for saying that nobody involved has ever flown higher.
John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers – A Hard Road (Decca, 1967)
Producer Mike Vernon hit the roof when The Bluesbreakers rolled into Decca Studios without Eric Clapton. He needn’t have panicked. The canny Mayall’s new signing to his Bluesbreakers, 20-year-old nonentity Peter Green, was patently up to snuff, whether bleeding soul over his self-penned instrumental The Supernatural, detonating Freddie King’s The Stumble, or dovetailing with Mayall on top-drawer originals like the morose title track.
Green and bassist John McVie would split that same year for Fleetwood Mac, but their legacy is an album that snaps at The Bluesbreakers’ heels.
John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers – Crusade (Decca, 1967)
Mayall was outraged by the untrumpeted death of J.B. Lenoir, and Crusade was his attempt to force the blues down the throat of the mainstream (“I hope you’ll join forces with me,” he writes in the sleeve notes).
With Green gone, his eye had settled on a teenage Mick Taylor, who brings equal parts soul and swagger. Crusade took just seven hours to record and mix, which perhaps accounts for its wham-bam brilliance. The band tips its hat on The Death Of J.B. Lenoir, and Taylor arguably pips Clapton’s Hideaway with his jaw-dropping instrumental Snowy Wood.
John Mayall – Blues From Laurel Canyon (Decca, 1968)
Mayall had spent the summer of 1968 crashing at Frank Zappa’s dissolute Laurel Canyon home. This loose concept album is his postcard, opening with the roar of an airliner touching down “Vacation”, then lurching through sticky accounts of musos “The Bear” and LA groupies the jazzy “Miss James”.
The rhythm section of drummer Colin Allen and bassist Steve Thompson provide a taut backbone, but the star of the piece is a ridiculously precocious Mick Taylor, whose pugnacious, heart-in-fingers fretwork made his exit for the Stones the following year feel like a step down.
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – Bare Wires (Decca, 1968)
Bold moves all round, as Bare Wires binned the Crusade rhythm section, added brass and kicked off with a 23-minute title ‘suite’. Jazzier and lyrically introspective, the album rewarded open-minded listeners with a volley of cuts that still dazzle, from the rug-cutting funk of No Reply (Mick Taylor working the wah-wah pedal with Hendrix-worthy panache) to the parping slow-blues of I’m A Stranger.
It tested the faith of his trad-blues fans, but the consensus was a thumbs-up: Bare Wires gave Mayall his highest UK chart placing (number three) and broke him in the States.
A small but enduring thing. Though Mayall never approached the fame of some of his illustrious alumni, he was still performing in his late 80s, pounding out his version of Chicago blues. The lack of recognition rankled a bit, and he wasn’t shy about saying so.
“I’ve never had a hit record, I never won a Grammy Award, and Rolling Stone has never done a piece about me,” he said in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. “I’m still an underground performer.”
Known for his blues harmonica and keyboard playing, Mayall has had a Grammy nomination, for “WakeUp Call” which featured guest artists Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Mick Taylor and Albert Collins. He received a second nomination in 2022 for his album “The Sun Is Shining Down.” He also won official recognition in Britain with the award of an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
Clapton, interviewed for a BBC documentary on Mayall in 2003, confessed that “to a certain extent I have used his hospitality, used his band and his reputation to launch my own career,” “I think he is a great musician. I just admire and respect his steadfastness,” Clapton added.
Mayall encouraged Clapton to sing and urged Green to develop his song-writing abilities.
Mick Taylor, who succeeded Green as a Bluesbreaker in the late 1960s, valued the wide latitude which Mayall allowed his soloists. “You’d have complete freedom to do whatever you wanted,” Taylor said in a 1979 interview with writer Jas Obrecht. “You could make as many mistakes as you wanted, too.”
The Fat Angel Sings 