The Fat Angel Sings

Hall and Oates for over a decade (1974-1988) Daryl Hall and John Oates were a hit-making machine that eclipsed the Everly Brothers as the #1 charting duo of the Rock era. In 14 years, they placed 16 hits in the Top 10 nationally, including six number 1’s. The duo debuted with “She’s Gone” in 1974, fighting it out with the Soul group Tavares for the highest chart position. It was a middling hit climbing to #60. But on their second outing, they struck gold with “Sara Smile,” a song written for Hall’s girlfriend, which landed at number 4 spot.

With the reissue of “She’s Gone,” in 1976, it became a smash hit at #7, and Hall and Oates had arrived. “Rich Girl,” went to #1 in 1977, but they owned the charts in the 1980s beginning with “Kiss on My List,” “You Make My Dreams,” “Private Eyes,” and “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) all from 1981, and all topping the national charts.

More hits followed; “Maneater,” Family Man,’ Say It Isn’t So,” “Adult Education,” “Out of Touch,” and “Method of Modern Love.” These guys had the Midas Touch, though not everyone was enthralled with them. The hits stopped in 1991, but Hall and Oates continue to tour.

John Oates explains; “Playing the Troubadour in LA has been a “rite of passage” for live musicians for 64 years and Daryl and I played our first show there opening for the late great Harry Chapin in 1973. Over the years I always loved seeing shows and hanging out there with musicians and friends…returning to play again in 2008 was a full circle moment for me and the vibe was amazing.”

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. Daryl Hall & John Oates “Live At The Troubadour” will be released in a 2-CD and 3-LP set (the first time ever on vinyl) on November 26th, 2021.

When the Rolling Stones first arrived at JFK Airport in June 1964, they hadn’t even had a hit record in America. By the end of the decade, they were mobbed by packed audiences at Madison Square Garden and were the toast of New York City’s media and celebrity scene.

More than fifty years later, the history of New York City and the Rolling Stones have entwined and paralleled, with the group playing in nearly all of the Big Apple’s legendary venues. Along the way Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and the rest of the Stones have left an impact on the culture of the city, from the turbulent “Fun City” of the 1960s and ’70s through the twenty-first century. The evolving career of the Stones has often reflected the cultural changes of the city, as the Stones and their music were the centre of social and political controversies during the same era that New York faced similar challenges.

Can’t Give It Away on Seventh Avenue: The Rolling Stones and New York City explores the history of the group through the prism of New York. It is a highly detailed document of the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between the world’s most famous band and America’s most famous city as well as an absorbing chronicle of the remarkable impact the city has had on the band’s music and career.

This year marks the 20th Anniversary of our first release, B.R.M.C. We wanted to celebrate this milestone with you, so we’ve put together a special 20th Anniversary Vinyl Box Set that includes a double gatefold of the original album with bonus songs plus a 3rd Vinyl disc of songs from that period that we’ve never released before, all newly mixed & mastered. We’re also including a special hard-bound book of photos taken by Ken Schles, who did the cover image for the album. This is available for immediate pre-order at the link above. This 20th Anniversary Deluxe Box will be very limited. If you’re feeling nostalgic and like us, grown out, worn out, thrown out or straight lost it. We’ve done our best to make some of the original B.R.M.C. t-shirts, to swat the moths messing with your other favourite bands shirts.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, formed in San Francisco in 1998, were originally called The Elements. After discovering that another band had the same name, the members changed the name to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, after Marlon Brando’s motorcycle club in the 1953 film The Wild One. Bass player and vocalist Robert Been’s father, Michael Been, had formed The Call in Santa Cruz in 1980. Michael Been died on August 19th, 2010, after suffering a heart attack backstage at the Pukkelpop music festival in Hasselt, Belgium, where he was working as sound engineer for his son’s band BRMC. To honour his father, Robert sang a song recorded by The Call, “Let The Day Begin”. A back story of The Call’s version, released in 1989, climbed the charts, but, because MCA elected to switch pressing plants, there were no singles in stores. According to Michael Been: “There wasn’t any foul play, though. It was just that MCA was switching over pressing plants, and they hadn’t printed up enough copies of the single — only 100,000, I think. And the record went to number one, and all of a sudden, there weren’t any in the stores — they’d all been sold. It took five weeks for the company to be able to get back to the point where they could start printing copies again, and in those five weeks, well — you live or die in this business.”…..

2001’s inimitable B.R.M.C. is most definitely a nasty bag of tricks, generous in its quantities of punky defiance, gritty alt and garage rock hybrid sensibilities, and just enough style and sheen to tip the indie scales in their favour—but what more could be expected of a disheveled trio of leather jacketed twentysomethings,

Founded by high school friends Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been in 1998, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club set out to accomplish what so few bands are able to do—create a sound indebted to those of the past while remaining relevant in the present. Both students of prominent Northern Californian musicians, Hayes cut his teeth as a member of infamous San Francisco neo-psychedelic outfit The Brian Jonestown Massacre during the group’s Give It Back! era and Been made his bones playing bass for his father, the late Michael Been, formerly of Santa Cruz-based alt rock group The Call, as a teenager in the mid-’90s. While their combined formative experience was not necessarily predictive of what was to come, it was fertile ground in the development of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s soulful, swaying guitar-oriented indie rock sound, a stream laced with various influences of half a century’s worth of popular music.

Despite the eclectic nature of their sound, B.R.M.C.’s music owes a great deal to their geographic origins. Very Californian, the grit and the grime coupled with the bliss and boundless space all visited by the spirits of the greats who came and went before B.R.M.C.’s opportunity revealed itself can be fathomed on every track of their debut album. What emerged from those early days as a group was a solid rock sound, educated yet unpretentious, inspired yet rarely derivative, something entirely unique to the group.

Released on April 3rd, 2001, the eponymous B.R.M.C. kicked the door down, bringing to the table the elements of experimental neo-psychedelia and homegrown indie experimentalism Hayes had gleaned during his time with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, while eschewing Anton Newcombe’s predisposition for hippiesh lo-fi madness for a rougher, more aggressive snarl of punk rock rebellion which, in the end, makes a final stand for classic, uncut rock and roll.

Opener “Love Burns” comes on strong, with Hayes introducing his upcoming band with the line, “Never thought I’d see her go away/She learned I loved her today.” The sting of the group’s guitars drills deeply into the listener’s skull, planting a fuzzed-out wall of sound behind Hayes’ smooth yet spacey vocals. The repetitious “Red Eyes and Tears” shows strong influences of The Velvet Underground and The Jesus and Mary Chain, offering a tighter, darker feel, more at home on an early Cure album than on anything released in the early ’00s, while turbulent favourite “Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll (Punk Song)” rocks the hardest of the album’s 11 tracks, and the subsequent “Awake” touches upon the heavy psychedelia which became a staple of the group’s sound.

The Abrahamic imagery and pleas for salvation in “White Palms” would eventually become a motif in Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s lyrics, although the question of faith begged by Hayes is belied by his recognition that, if he were Jesus, he wouldn’t return, confessing, “I’m the kind of guy who leaves the scene of the crime.” Standout “As Sure as the Sun” and the Radiohead-esque “Take My Time/Rifles” cast additional shadows across B.R.M.C.’s stage, the latter serving as one of the most realized, intricately crafted compositions of the group’s career. The funerary fuzz of “Too Real” may be understood as a blueprint for the divergent sounds of groups advertently or inadvertently indebted to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, such as their younger, lesser known Canadian cousins The Pink Mountaintops. The penultimate “Head Up High” and closing “Salvation” chart the course of an innovative band, rounding the album out and declaring a challenge to the innovations of popular contemporaries.

Indeed, the sound found on B.R.M.C. has been instrumental in the development of strains of retro-inspired millennial indie rock, developed 20 years later. More so, Hayes and Been find themselves at the forefront of an ever more revolutionary movement, as purveyors of the kind of pure, undiluted rock and roll music developed by their own idols, as well as by their idols’ idols. Everything done by Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, by The Velvet Underground, The Clash, and The Stooges is alive and well on all subsequent Black Rebel Motorcycle Club releases. The group, along with a handful of like-minded fellow rockers, continue to maintain the honesty of the genre, even while their bite has mellowed with age. This observation is by no means disparaging, as even their most recent release, 2018’s Wrong Creatures, stands as one the finest rock releases of the 2010s.

Two decades on, B.R.M.C. remains a key deity in the pantheon of modern indie rock, having borrowed its influences from well-established, worthy acts of yore and used them as way markers in forging their own authentic voice. Even in 2021, “Love Burns” and “Whatever Happened to My Rock and Roll (Punk Song)” retain their teeth, which they bare at the softening throat of their beloved genre, celebrating the grit and shadow of a bygone era in rock.

Deluxe direct-to-consumer box set combines the newly expanded and released self-titled debut album (now a double LP in a gatefold sleeve), with the “Screaming Gun” album of demos and alt mixes from the same era, and a unique full colour photo book compiled from photos from the same era.

There were no straight lines in Captain Beefheart’s career. (Particularly those albums released on the Straight imprint… but that’s another story altogether.) Even his “accessible” earliest outing, “Safe As Milk”, is shot through with unexpected detours; a collision of influences, from Delta blues to popular candy bars; and a torrent of esoteric lyrics that more than earn themselves song titles the likes of ‘Zig Zag Wanderer’ (“You can dance/You can prance/Freeze these old timbers/Drop some beams,” indeed).

Despite having released a couple of singles for A&M in 1966, the label found Beefheart’s subsequent demos too perplexing to release as an album, so the good Captain took them to Bob Krasnow, vice president of Kama Sutra Records. Krasnow agreed to issue Beefheart and The Magic Band’s debut on his nascent Buddah Records subsidiary, in September 1967. Recruiting fledgling guitarist Ry Cooder on an array of guitars and percussion instruments was another masterstroke decision, as Cooder ensured that “Safe As Milk” kept one foot in the authentic Americana camp, while allowing Beefheart to digress on his flights of fancy.

Perhaps both the album’s authentic blues influences and Beefheart’s early attempts at deconstructing them hit perfection on the likes of opener ‘Sure ’Nuff ‘N’ Yes, I Do’ and the epochal ‘Electricity’. The former cops a lick from blues classic ‘Rollin’ And Tumblin’’, with Beefheart introducing himself: “I was born in the desert, came up in New Orleans,” the first of many myth-making proclamations from the man born Don Van Vliet. The latter, however, is where the Beefheart legend really begins. With a tortured Theramin line, a maelstrom of slide guitars and Beefheart’s own vocals approximating the very sound of electricity itself (it’s said that his voice was so powerful that it destroyed the microphone during the recording sessions), the song fairly approximates the sound of Tesla coils mating.

Not that “Safe As Milk” leaps from one overwhelming barrage to another. ‘I’m Glad’ is a comparatively straightforward doo-wop outing, while ‘Abba Zaba’, named after Beefheart’s favourite peanut butter-infused sweet, hides a relatively delicate arrangement underneath layers of inscrutable lyrics.

Even in the anything-goes atmosphere of 1967, a year that saw The Beatles release Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Doors issue their self-titled debut, the Stones accept Their Satanic Majesties Request, Hendrix ask Are You Experienced? and The Velvet Underground emerge with their nihilistic debut, “Safe As Milk” was considered too weird to stick. Naturally, it went nowhere in the charts. It did, however, establish Beefheart as a compelling songwriter whose disregard for conventional song structures would pay dividends on albums to come, earning him no small notoriety and dedicated fans in the likes of latter-day iconoclasts Tom Waits and PJ Harvey.

Even in the anything-goes atmosphere of 1967, ‘Safe As Milk’ was considered too weird to stick. Naturally, it went nowhere in the charts. It did, however, establish Beefheart as a compelling songwriter whose disregard for conventional song structures would pay dividends on albums to come.

Assorted demos and acetate versions of “Safe as Milk” songs. The songs from the acetate disc were recorded along with the rest of the Safe as Milk album in April/May 1967 at Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, California. The first two songs were recorded in March 1967 at Original Sound Studios in Los Angeles, California. This was roughly the time when the Magic Band was dropped from A&M and signed to Buddah. The other demos were recorded throughout 1965-1967 at various locations. Pictures are of the band before and during the Safe as Milk era.

An essential rock artefact tracing The Groundhogs from their pre – “Thank Christ For The Bomb” blues roots to the final live show for the classic line up of Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals), Pete Cruikshank (bass) and Ken Pustelnik (drums).

Never before heard recordings from the Warner Brothers’ vaults including a vintage 1969 set from their show at the Richmond Athletic Ground (AKA The Crawdaddy Club) and their final explosive set at the Pocono Raceway track. Includes the live debut of what would become the anthemic ‘Cherry Red’ and McPhee’s seismic destruction of ‘Amazing Grace’. A career-spanning gem from the ultimate heavy rock power trio book-ending 976 days and 250-plus live shows.

Like some lost treasure that Indiana Jones’ cooler roommate just happened upon, this triple vinyl release tracks the mighty Groundhogs on a 3941-mile journey from Richmond Athletic Ground to the Pocono Raceway track in the mountains of Pennsylvania.

It takes them from blues revivalists to head-friendly prog icons and power rock innovators; bridging the gap between their first two bluesy albums and the nirvana and nadir of the band’s most lauded line up of Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals), Pete Cruikshank (bass) and Ken Pustelnik (drums) at their final show on that big American tour that broke up the original trio.

Along the way they were heralded by Mick Jagger and Robert Plant, became embroiled in student riots in Germany and were acclaimed in the weeklies as the hardest working band around, while guitarist Tony McPhee guffawed at comparisons to Hendrix, Clapton and Peter Green.

Sitting in the Warner Brothers’ vault for 50 years, four reels of tape lay wedged between the masters of the groundbreaking albums ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’, ‘Split’ and ‘Who Will Save The World… The Mighty Groundhogs’.

The first two boxes had a handwritten scrawl acclaiming them as ‘Groundhogs live at Richmond Athletic Ground, November 7, 1969’. Originally it had been thought that they were recorded at the Ninth National Jazz And Blues Festival– a nomadic event that had previously rocked up in Richmond.

In fact, they turned out to be a one-off support slot to Free, a break from their Marquee residency; the mood is intimate, jokey between songs rhetoric punctuates a monumental set that debuts ‘Cherry Red’ at the time an un-named “new song”.

The second two boxes – ‘marked Pocono’ were recorded at what would turn out to be the final show for this seminal line up when their truncated hurricane-threatened US tour ended abruptly as Tony broke his arm in a freak horse riding accident.

Over 976 days and with 250-plus live shows under their belt, The Groundhogs had sealed their legendary status.

“In their stage act they concentrate on being as heavy and as hard-hitting as possible.” The Scene magazine reported, “Live they have a tremendous presence, try and go and see them, you won’t be disappointed.”

Released on limited edition triple vinyl and housed in a deluxe roll out gatefold sleeve.

Features never heard before live performances from Richmond Athletic Ground, London (1969) and Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania (1972).

Includes liner notes with unearthed new photos from The Groundhogs archive, bumper sticker and poster.