A Ripple Road Trip - featuring The Soft Bombs, Baby Woodrose, Papa Grows Funk, Deep Jimi and the Zep Creams and Electric Moon

My Ripple partner lives about 463 miles due south of me, and with so much going on in Ripple World, we try to get together once a month or so to discuss, plan, and strategize our plans for world domination.   Given a choice, I'd fly rather than ever bear the horror of driving through Los Angles, but with Pope's recent surgery and a definite need to help my buddy recuperate by spending endless hours immersed in grade B sci-fi films (like the Voyage to the Planet of the Pre-historic Women, and an incredibly bad 2010 release of John Carter of Mars with Traci Lords), I decided to brave the LA nightmare and pop down late Friday night.

Any good roadtrip needs a soundtrack, but a trip like this is a little different.  With the unknown traffic sinkhole that is LA looming, I kicked over the ignition having no idea how long the drive would actually take.  My money was on 8 hours, but with LA -- 10 hours wouldn't have been out of the question.  Point being, that a good road trip, like a good mixtape, has to have some planning and an escalation and rounding out of the musical soundtrack. With that in mind, I loaded a box full of the latest Ripple submissions into the passenger seat and headed off into the unknown.

Many of the CD's in the box failed to make the cut and won't be mentioned here, but this is what occupied my ears for that 8 hour drive south.

The Soft Bombs - Embrace the Light

These guys I already knew.  I thought that "Moorish Girl" from their self-titled debut was about as good a burst of post-Stone Roses, shoegazing psychedelic pop as I'd heard in a while.  Now the boys come back with their second album, Embrace the Light, and lead-off track, "I'm Alive" follows suit perfectly.  Considering that we at Ripple released a split single with the shoegazing psych dance throb of Sky Parade b/w the garage infused jangling pop of Grand Atlantic (still available here), you might predict I'd love this stuff.  The Soft Bombs sound like the perfect combination of those bands with a touch of the jangle of The Parties tossed in.  I tried to get them to join us on stage at Hotel Utah when Grand Atlantic and Sky Parade toured through, but it didn't work out.  Next time, I will for sure.  Dynamite shoegazing pop full of swirling colors and textures.  Check em out at  http://thesoftbombs.com.hostbaby.com/

Baby Woodrose - Third Eye Surgery

Keeping the psychedelic theme going, I headed off 580 East onto I-5 South where I was greeted with the nothingness that is the Central Valley.  Baby Woodrose is a legend in garage psych pop.  I've written about him so many times that his name has become an adjective in my vocabulary.  As in, "wow, that band really brings the psych on all thick and Baby Woodrose-like."  Just as the man himself does here.  A touch more spacey at times, his label Bad Afro Records calls this his "space rock" album.  Yep, there's a bit of sitar, a bit more fuzz in places, but to me it all sounds Baby Woodrose; blissed out, impeccably done psychedelic garage pop.  No one does it like BW.  You'll find him here: http://badafro.dk/artists/baby-woodrosehttp://badafro.dk/artists/baby-woodrose

Papa Grows Funk - Needle in the Groove

As the psych haze starts to fade, I need to pump things up and get my ass moving.  Heading down I-5 is a mind-numbing trek, and I need something funky to get my ass moving.  Welcome Papa Grows Funk.  It was the name of legendary New Orleans producer and songsmith Allen Toussaint that first caught my eye, having produced 4 of the cuts, but the joy doesn't end there.  "Do U Want It" blasts out all undulating bass, serpentine guitars and gangland vocals.  This is pure funk, the kind that melts onto Bourbon Street each night from a infinite number of bars, late after hours and gallons of hurricanes consumed.  Blissed out, get your ass moving New Orleans funk.  PGF is a five piece and when they find the groove of a song they ride that baby like a cowboy breaking a bronc.  Seeing Toussaint's name, I knew I was gonna be in for a treat, but the fun doesn't end there.  Each track is a blistering funky treat.   Find em here:  http://www.papagrowsfunk.com/

Deep Jimi and the Zep Creams - Better When We're Dead

Ok, got my funk down, heading up the Grapevine above LA, time to get my rock on. With a name like Deep Jimi and the Zep Creams, you may think you know what these guys sound like.  But you'd be wrong.  Yes, they bleed a classic rock vein, but you need to toss some Rush into there and some fine melodic rock, like Survivor at their finest.   Hailing from Iceland, I'd stumbled upon one of the band's earlier discs a while back and dug their hippified take on classic rock.  Now under the production helm of Porvaldur Bjarni Porvaldsson, the band come raging back with a slicker, more polished AOR rock sound that is about as solid as any release I'd heard in this genre for a while.  Think of the heady days of the late seventies, when bands like Loverboy and Survivor vied with more rocking bands like Triumph and Foreigner for arena stage time.  That's what we got here.  Big arena-sized riffs, slick-yet-impassioned vocals and some killer hooks.  Not metal, by a long shot, but fine quality arena rock.  Visit the boys here : http://www.deepjimi.com/

Electric Moon - Cellar Space: Live Overdose

Dropping from the Grapvine into LA I need something to keep me awake (it's almost midnight) yet keep me calm from the assholes on the freeway that drive like their car really does deserve all 5 lanes of freeway.  Electric Moon pops in and tension melts away amidst a kaleidoscopic swirl of hallucinogenic guitars and fuzzed out effects.  Think Colour Haze in a pantomime match with the :Egocentrics and you'll get the idea.  Swirling rushes of guitar and hazy bass effects, find the groove, hitch up their magic carpet to it, and ride off into the fog of the LA night sky.  Trippy, stoner rock in it's truest sense of the word.  4 instrumental, free-form jams spaced out over 2 CD's.  2 hours worth of mind-bending acid/psych madness.  Somehow, it never loses what little focus it has, never fails to engage and never fails to find its own inherent groove.  A fine comedown for the drive as I pull into the Pope's driveway.  Launch your own journey here: http://www.electricmoon.de/


Safe at last at Pope's house, a carne asada burrito awaits me.  Then in 24 hours, the drive home and another musical journey.

--Racer

Revenge of the Quick Ripple Bursts - Featuring Baby Woodrose, Voice of Addiction, The Generators, and Nappy Riddem

Baby Woodrose - Love Comes Down

Any one who knows me, knows that one way to get me happy in the midst of a monster of a traffic jam is to drop some thing raw and garagey into the player, crank up the volume and watch me become one with the fuzz. That's exactly what Baby Woodrose does Love Comes down, the latest retro-psychedelic masterpiece, leaked-from-underneath-the-oil-can, blast of pure garage pop bliss. For many die-hard Baby Woodrose fans (and you can count me amongst the ranks - along with just about anything from the Bad Afro Label) Love Comes Down is the "lost" Baby Woodrose album.  Originally released in 2006 only in Scandinavia, not many folks outside ever got the chance to hear it.  Which is a damn shame, because I'll tell you, Love Comes Down may just be my favorite Baby album in the whole catalog.

If you're a fan of fuzzed-up, psyched-out, garagepunk from the sixties, this album may be your new holy grail.  Finding a smoky path that's slightly more straight ahead than other releases, Love Comes Down finds the fuzz big, the melodies huge, and the hooks massive.  Take one look at the acid tab on the cover, and you'll get an idea of what awaits you.  Each song is a corker of garage rock bliss with a riveting rhythm section, spaced out buzz, and a rock and roll grind.  Sometimes hard and charging, sometimes blissed-out and fuzzed in mellow pop psychedelia, there are no highlights, it's all good.  Better than good.  It's a rightly heralded classic of pysch-garage fuzz.  Absolutely essential for fans of the band and the genre, or just good music in general.  Go, Baby!

Voice of Addiction - Reduce Reuse Resist

Let's up the punk, shall we.  Voice of Addiction came around a sharp corner and blindsided me upside the cranium with their hyper-nitro fueled, determinedly pissed off, punk rock.  From the first cut, "Wrecking Ball," I was in their corner, cheering them on, hoping they could keep this fantastic momentum going all disc long. And they do.

Voice of Addiction bring in equal parts Oi! punk street guts, Green Day pop punk smarts, and the political snarl of Dead Kennedys, and blasts out their venom in all directions. The offenders for this musical mayhem: Ian Tomele (Vox, Bass Guitar) Andy Bobby Petty (Drums, Backing Vox) are at their absolute best when they lay it all on the line, like the steaming punk-fury of "Constant Pollution" or the pop terror of "Wrecking Ball."  If you've tired for the last time of whining emo or the 33rd incarnation of the Dookie album, you should check these guys out.  This is punk done right.

The Generators - Last of the Pariahs

Hey, I never claimed to be the hippest guy in the world, but even I'm shocked at myself for never having heard of The Generators before.  With Last of the Pariahs, The Generators have released their (count em) 8th studio album of high-octane, gun metal punk, a career that has entrenched The Generators at the forefront of the Southern California punk scene since 1997.  Yes, I live in California.  Yes, I dig punk.  No, I hadn't heard of em.  Yes, I feel like an idiot.

But that's all changed now.  Simply put, The Generators put the "rock" into punk rock.  Tons of attitude, gobs of melody, chugging guitars, blitzing rhythm section.  It's all here.  Ramones speed, D.O.A. snarl, Offspring hooks.  Why aren't the "powers that be" hailing this band as the second coming? Take one look at the video below.  Tell me this isn't a near-perfect punk song.  Aggression melody, some clean harmony guitar work, passionate vocals, a guttural bass,and a message of mankind's stupidity.  This song is branded into my auditory cortex.  Love it!

This album decimates most of the punk that I've heard this year.  DC Jam really did us a favor picking up these unsung heroes and unleashing Last of the Pariahs.  Make sure to pick this one up, you’ll be glad you did!

Nappy Riddem - One World Sovereignty

From punk to reggae?  Yep, it's a straight line, as The Clash, The Slits and others showed us way back in the 70's.  Reggae represented all the passion and defiance that punk embodied and was just as outlaw.  Nappy Riddem doesn't concentrate on the resistance aspects of reggae instead focusing on the beat and the "ass-movingness" aspects.  If you know what I mean.

When I first popped this disc into my player, my jaw dropped, my butt moved and my inner funk burst to the forefront.  It wasn't a pretty sight.   But how else could I respond to the killer old-school-cum-Parliment-meets-the-world vibe of "Nappy Riddem"?  I'd been looking for funk like this for years!  The song just doesn't let up with it's hip-moving, ass-shakedness! Then when I found out that Nappy Riddem was only a duo, I was even more impressed.  This album had none of the overly-produced, sonically sterilized boredom of many studio creations.  It's just warm and organic all the way through.  Just listen to "Devil Needs a Bodyguard."  This is Marvin Gaye updated for the 21st Century.  We got it all.  A throbbing bass.  Nasty beats.  Riotous horns, snarling guitars, and simply beautifully smooth vocals.  This is the funnest funk/soul song I'd heard since, Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."

A killer surprise find.

--Racer

Ripple News - Baby Woodrose Back Catalog Re-issued

We already professed our undying love for the fuzzed out, bubbling psychedelic pop created by Baby Woodrose, so we were thrilled to learn that lots of previously hard to find stuff is being made available again from Bad Afro Records.

Baby Woodrose - Money For Soul LP (AFROLP018)

On Money For Soul Baby Woodrose created a unique sound that took them to the 60's and back leaving the music being influenced by many shades of rock'n'roll and psych but played with heartfelt punk attitude. Baby Woodrose received quite a lot of attention outside Denmark with their self-released debut album "Blows Your Mind" from 2001. In reality a one-man operation by Lorenzo Woodrose who wrote the songs, played all the instruments, produced the record and put it out on his own Pan Records. Baby Woodrose later became a real band and Money For Soul reflected that. The album was mixed and mastered by Jürgen Hendlmeier and contained their biggest hit so far;” Everything's Gonna Be Alright”. Sleeve made by Malleus. Originally released in 2003 in 2000 copies on black vinyl. New print limited to 500 copies on red vinyl. 

Baby Woodrose – Chasing Rainbows LP (AFROLP035)

Chasing Rainbows was the sound of a band with more musical guts than on previous albums. Clearly inspired by the Baby Woodrose side-project Dragontears, Baby Woodrose  expanded their sound and produced an album that is very different from earlier efforts. Not only because of the use of instruments like cello, lap-steel, flute and tablas. But also because Chasing Rainbows was both their most poppy and commercial release AND their most experimental and druggy album so far. Originally released in 2007 in 1500 copies on black vinyl. New press limited to 500 copies on red vinyl.

Baby Woodrose – Blows Your Mind CD (AFROCD020)

The Baby Woodrose debut album is temporarily out of print on CD but a new new print is on its way!

If you're a fan of psych pop, you won't go wrong checking any of these out.