Cool jazz alto saxophone. A sultry air of smooth and slick. It bounces off the walls and ceilings of train stations and into hotels and nightclubs. Like Lisa Simpson as she blows off orchestra for be-bop, it is enticing. Rock and blues guitarists created the wah-wah pedal to try to emulate the wail of the alto sax and failed brilliantly. In its purist form the alto sax finds voice in cool jazz.
Ask any professional jazz saxophonist, any street-corner smooth jazz wannabe with a sense of history and hearing, “who is your musical hero?” You will hear one name over and over - Paul Desmond. That Desmond is the master and the benchmark some 34 years after his death is rather amazing. Although best known for penning “Take Five,” the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s greatest hit, his alto sax epitomizes West Coast cool jazz.
CTI has done aficionados of the great cool jazzmaster a favor with release of their Master Series remastered reissue of Desmond’s1975 Pure Desmond. Here is Desmond near the end of his life playing with admirers and aspirers removed from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. On this release Desmond plays with a living legend, jazz double bassist Ron Carter; the late Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay; and Canadian jazz guitarist Ed Bickert. The album is precise and contains beautiful instrumental cool jazz renditions of Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Django Reinhardt and Antonio Carlos Jobim gems. In addition, the quartet preserves the sound of the seventies in its rendition of Johnny Mandel’s and Mike Altman’s hit, the “Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless),” which opened and closed each episode of the top TV show of the time.
What does one say about Desmond? Around town he was a ladies’ man chemically dependent on Dewar’s Scotch Whisky and Pall Mall cigarettes. He dabbled in psychedelics with Timothy Leary and Jack Kerouac, and he created some of the best alto sax smooth jazz recordings ever made. Desmond died of lung cancer at the age of 53. His life, and this album, are best exemplified by this saying attributable to Anonymous:
The purpose of life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave with a well-preserved body, but rather to Slide in Sideways, completely used up, yelling and screaming, what a ride!
Tsurumi Records just knows how to do things right. Spinning on gorgeous marbleized grey and white vinyl right now, is the latest long player from Tsurumi’s Second Academy with main man Eric Balaban and his latest masterpiece of sophistico-garage punk, Bohemian Grove. But before we get to the music (which will make me quickly forget everything else I want to say) let’s get back to Tsurumi. In a very short period of time, the good folk of Tsurumi have solidified their vision of how to unleash quality music and product onto the music loving world. Plying their Japan-meets-America-via-Seattle-Silk-Road of inspired primal-punkish rock, Tsurumi may only have 4 releases under their belts, but what releases they are. Between Eric Balaban’s Beautiful Mothers or Second Academy, or the Japanese art-punk of Golden, each release is done right. In addition to the gorgeous platter hypnotizing me on the turntable right now, the album comes with a quality pressed cover, a way-cool glossy insert, a glossy poster, and forget the download code, these cats include the entire CD in the package. How’s that for doing it right?
Ok, so enough about them, let’s get to the music, shall we? I’ve already expressed my man-love for Eric’s prior work with the Beautiful Mothers and the first, rather stripped down, Second Academy record. Truth be told, however, I really didn’t know what to expect with this new release. Joined by Brent Powell on bass, and Troy Lund/and Rob Wheeler on drums, I didn’t know if Eric could continue to captivate me. Whether his Replacements-stripped garage-punk could continue to elevate itself to new heights. To grow . . . to expand.
Oh, simple-minded me.
If anything, Bohemian Grove not only builds upon what the lads created with the first album, it represents a quantum leap in maturity, songwriting, playing, production and just about any other aspect of an album you can think of. Simply put, this is one fantastic record. If you’re a fan of acoustic-laced, powerpop fueled, amphetamine garage-based rock, (think The Replacements,The Violent Femmes, early Who) then you owe it to yourself . . . nay, you owe it to mankind to check this album out.
I understand that the album is named Bohemian Grove after the title track, but damn if I don’t want to constantly write Bohemian GROOVE because that's what this album does. It grooves. It sways, it rumbles and rocks with a constant, head-nodding, toe-tapping groove of solid rhythm, killer melodies, perfect-scratchy riffs, and damn fine songwriting. Expect a spot on my Top 10 of 2011 for this one.
Right from the start, Bohemian Grove captured my attention. The title track trods out of the speakers with an ominous weight, sounding like some meaty 1960’s beat-cool, retro-groovy punk rocker. The bass and drums are just monstrous here. I keep getting this image of some darkened ‘60’s Batman theme going on here, as if the Dark Knight existed back then taking on the Joker. Way cool. Way, way cool. Eric’s voice is inspired, harmony vocals bringing everything to the front. Fuzz guitar wails through the mix as that damn fine GROOVE just tears the song to pieces. Infinitely cool.
For this album, Eric upped the production quite a bit over the really stripped first Second Academy record. That’s not to say this album is glossy, it’s not. But it is full and warm. A rich sound that really compliments the songs, fills them out. It works.
“Like the Rich,” is a Jonathan Richman or Paul Westerberg love song classic. Sung with total honestly, yet tongue in cheek at the same time, Eric extols the virtues of throwing off the drapery of the “poor artist” and getting rich. “She says I only want to get by/I say Fuck That!/I wanna get a rock for my baby/I wanna get a stick for my baby/I wanna get a knife for my lady/I wana get a house for my baby/and have a good time/like the rich do.” All played over a slicing acoustic guitar riff and and some killer electric guitar searing flourishes. Again, the GROOVE is there. Have I said yet that this album grooves?
“Lullaby for the Divorced” ups the ante with it’s big-time retro, surf meets garage riffage and swing. Totally retro but current. The kids are going crazy at the hop or the Go-Go to this song. Wild bikini’s are doing the swim, guys are acting cool, but everyone is losing themselves in the abandon of the groove. Oh yes, there’s that word again.
The final cut on side 1, “Perfectly Wrong,” is quite simply one of the best songs that the early Who never played, but wrote with Paul Westerburg and played with the help of the Femmes. Big guitars fly in Townsend-ian whirling waves, and if that isn’t a melody that should have dominated the airwaves in the mid ‘60’s, then I’ve never heard one. But listen closely to this one and “Lullaby” before it and you’ll see that these aren’t retro classics, they’re fully modern. Pete Townsend never wrote about getting drunk in the afternoon or how her avoiding his phone calls was perfectly wrong. Or the simply purity of allowing two people to divorce because nothing good can ever come from bad love. It all just shows how much Eric has grown as a songwriter.
So, if I was a fan of the first Second Academy album (and the rougher Beautiful Mothers), with Bohemian Grove, Eric has made a true believer out of me. With any righteous divination, Eric will find his place in the revered ranks of gritty but pretty songwriters, like Westerburg or Richman (or Townsend, for that matter).
In a world where every square inch of my office is covered with vinyl, and I measure an album's worth by whether or not it deserves to occupy my valuable shelf space, this is an album, I’m proud to have in my collection.
It raw. It’s very rough. The live footage is ragged and that’s about the best compliment you can pay it. And truthfully, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There just aren’t too many video documents of the underground punk scene in LA in the early ‘80’s, and as such this “history lesson” is nearly indispensable. With live footage and interviews from members of The Meat Puppets, Redd Kross, The Minutemen, and Twisted Roots, we get a celebratory cross-section of the underground scene in all it’s grimy, gritty, unwashed glory.
Again, from a musical standpoint, don’t go expecting surround 5.1 dolby here. The footage is ample and exciting, but it’s rough. Shot on low-budget gear with a no-budget production, expect feedback, distortion, fuzz, and all around noise. Now, none of that is to say that its not what the bands actually sounded like at the time. But on your DVD player and killer surround, just be prepared.
Still, the live footage is exciting and captures the energy of the bands, the passion they brought to their music, the pure punk spirit. A special nod has to go to the live footage of the Minutemen and the much-missed D Boon, standing larger than life as he presides over his chaotic guitar parts and sputtered vocals. This footage alone makes the set priceless.
With the sound quality being so rough, the real gems here are the interviews, learning how D Boon would randomly place scattered lyrical notes around the apartment for his bandmates to find and turn into songs, learning how the bands interacted, loved each other or hated each other, banded to be a part of the SST scene or shunned it. Anyone who was a part of the scene, or remembers it, or is just curious will learn lots here.
I was lucky enough to be a radio DJ in Los Angeles back in the day and remember this stuff coming into the station straight off the street. There was a palpable buzz when ever the new Minutemen record came in. I dug on Redd Kross and the rest of the Enigma stuff. The Meat Puppets blew minds. Bands like that just didn't come around everyday.
No matter how you look at it, it was a vibrant and exciting scene that gave rise to some majorly revered legends who’ve contined to inspire bands today.
Today, we welcome Klepto to the Ripple fold. You can find his missives at his own site, The Klepto's Guide to Awesome Music. A prog fiend, he'll fill in Ripple readers on the joys of prog and other associated heaviness. For today, we're gonna re-run his earlier review of a classic album, Uriah Heap'sDemons & Wizards.
It's been a while, and I have at least two articles that could use my attention, but I just listened to Demons & Wizards again and I feel the need to tell you all about this spectacular album. I've already gone into the history of Uriah Heep (way back in January of 2009) so I don't need to go into to much detail on that front. They were/are a British band that is one of the foundations of hard rock and heavy metal music. More specifically, they are the forerunners of progressive rock and - by extension - progressive metal. They were among the first to use dual lead guitars, and layered semi-operatic vocals. Many of their songs were narratives, telling of mystical battles and amazing people; Demons & Wizards was no different. I like every song on this album, with favorites being "The Wizard," "Traveler In Time," "Easy Livin'," and "Rainbow Demon." All of these songs tell a story, filled with emotion and quite often mysticism.
"The Wizard" is the story of a man living his life, when one day a mighty Wizard comes to his fire. Their the narrator shares his food with his guest, and the Wizard tells the story of his life, his hopes and his dreams. This song was the first single from the album, and even though it wasn't as popular as the second ("Easy Livin'"), it is by far my favorite song on the album, and one of my favorites from the band.
In "Traveler In Time," there seems to be a double meaning. In the foreground, the tale is of a man who is lost in time, struggling to get back to his home, to see his love once more. But the background story, with mention of paying for his crime, being set free, searching for an answer and in the last line "of helping mankind" I believe that the reason the man is traveling through time to to either atone or to fix a mistake he had made in the past. So he journeys to return to his own time, however that it has been altered.
The second single off the album, and one of their most popular, "Easy Livin'," seems to be the most straight-forward song thus far. A quasi-love song about a man saying that his life has gotten a lot easier sense he met the woman he loves. Although not as lyrically deep as "The Wizard," the song has a grooving guitar and drum line, and the lyrics are simple to sing along with - something that would become very popular in the 80's (songs with simple lyrics; read: AC/DC)
My second favorite song, "Rainbow Demon," is another one with simple to comprehend lyrics. The song is about a great warrior (the Rainbow Demon) who "Lives for his sword and his gun." And while there aren't a lot of lyrics (one verse, repeated twice), the music for this one seems to follow the Black Sabbath of doom metal - of course with the progressive touch of Uriah Heep. The song begins slow and ominous, with not much in the way of actual music, relying heavily on David Byron's vocals, until the chorus when the band all comes in. here the sound is massive and all-encompassing; the layered vocals make their appearance, and the song grows with the second verse, laying it all out there with the final chorus. Then the chorus continues, being repeated a dozen times (it seems like), fading into the nothingness of sound that begins the track. It really is something that is better to hear and behold, then try to comprehend with my words on the screen. Go buy this album, it is worth it solely for this song (and "The Wizard" of course).
My one major gripe about the record - it even being not very major - is about the last song, "Paradise/The Spell." These are two very good and very different songs, that some some reason they decided to jam together as one track. The transition is sudden and sloppy, with the slower "Paradise" being drowned out with the more up-beat "The Spell." It just seems unnatural. In my research I have seen that in later releases the songs have been split, making me wonder where the separation of the songs took place, and how. So, I would be interested in hearing the newer versions of Demons & Wizards, just for that fact. If you are like me and have only the original style, fret not for they are both good songs (with "The Spell" being the better of the two), and outside that 15-30 second smash-up, you would never know they were one song.
I could go on and on about all the songs, and even more in depth about the ones I have highlighted already. Demons & Wizards is Uriah Heep's best album, by far, and one of the golden records of the early prog-rock scene. It belongs in everyone's catalog, and should be one you listen to once a month (for me it joins with the Wall by Pink Floyd and Dream Theater'sScenes from a Memory). The only way this album could be better is if contained "Gypsy" off of their first album, Very 'Evy . . .Very 'Umble (labeled as their self-titled in the U.S.), and my all time favorite by the band, as well as one of my favorite songs of all time, "Lady In Black" off of their second album, Salisbury.
And even though you were so bloated you couldn't breath, let alone sleep, it was the greatest pizza ever?
In Paradisum is that experience, in album form.
It's everything you might imagine: European metal (e.g., Helloween, Scorpions, Stratovarius, Rising Force, etc.), modeled distantly off European composers, playing heavily-distorted metallic symphonic music; so cheesy it's beyond semantics: tapped guitar solos and, ahem, symphonic chord progressions....
In the right mood, it is goddamn glorious.
Track one, "Fields of Avalon" intro's with fucking harpsichord...! Then operatic vocals, telling a tale of epic woe over a riff George Lynch is mad he didn't write! An updated version of Yngwie's "I'll see the light tonight"....
[You're either totally in by now, or not. You know. If not-- you disgust me. Don't even look at me, Jesus. I can't stand the sight of you.]
Next-- the fucking solo starts with harpsichord! Then...! a guitar solo that would make Herman Li ejaculate!
"Come By The Hills," track 2-- again with the harpsichord! Yes, they will abuse it, and you will love it, bitch! Then: a menacing guitar/bass backup! Holy Fucking Buddha, could this get more awesome?!
Yes.
Yes it can.
Track 3, "Santiago," is symphonic Motorhead, complete with D-beat... somehow managing to squeeze in a solo reminiscent of Warrant, of all bands....
Holy Shit-- I'm actually trying to listen to this in sections, a bit at a time, but I can't stop listening... In Paradisum draws me in....
"Alayna," the exemplary power metal ballad, won't let me stop listening... it's every relationship I had my Junior year in High School, down to its up-bent final note... It's actually freaking me out how it's completely transporting me back to 1987.... I feel so sad about this chick Alayna, and I have no idea who she is... whoever she is, she fucked up the singer... whore!!
[This is what I'm talking about! This fucking cheesy shit grabs you and makes you take a stand...! Regardless of how stupid you sound!]
"Forevermore," (who else would dare call a song that?) starts with manic riffs, both heavy and melodic....
"Pilgrim Road," melody in the thin-guitar-stringed riff with keyboards, Helloween in 2011, essentially... face-fucking solo at 2:15....
Possible album highlight "Rhapsody in Black" is Accept meets Queensrÿche with a dash of Journey and Kiss' "I Was Made for Loving You...." "I walk in neon" suggests Geoff Tate and Co. again with the title and the opening harpsichord....
Closer "Don't Let me Go," another ballad with what is probably a cello in the background... this should've been on MTV's top 10 in 1986... sad, cheestastic: my inner teenager could not be more involved now....
You will hum every Goddamn inch of this album. It's a earworm waiting to happen, again and again....
All irony aside: In Paradisum is cheesy as shit-- but it's completely unironic, optimistic, exalted Heavy Metal, in all senses of the term-- and it will rock your goddamn face off, like nothing else.
"Irony" has a half-life. "Irony" is for hipsters and people too cool (read: afraid) to believe in something.s
Symfonia believe.
Mock them all you want, but they love their music.
The term "Heavy Metal" either has a religious, holy, sacred connotation to you... or you smirk at the notion.
If you know, and I mean know, in your heart of hearts, know in your very studded soul, in your denim-jacketed world, what Heavy Metal means--
If it wasn’t for upper level corporate cost cuttings, this LP would not exist. After leaving the Stooges in 1974 and eventually music all together in the early 1980’s, guitarist James Williamson worked his way up the ladder to become Vice President of Technology Standards for Sony. A few months after the untimely passing of original Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, James accepted an early retirement incentive allowing him to terrorize stages again with his frantic Les Paul maulings. As sad as it was to lose Ron, it’s great to have Straight James back with his old delinquent pals.
In September 2010, the reconstituted Stooges took the stage at the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in upstate New York to deliver the blitzkrieg assault of Raw Power in its entirety. Luckily for us the event was recorded and is being released on vinyl just in time for Record Store Day in April. Back in 1973/74 when Raw Power was a new release (and quickly dumped into the cut out bins) they only ever played about half the songs live. So how do they sound these days? Pretty fuckin good, and even better when you turn the stereo up.
Every bootleg I’ve ever heard of the band from 73/74 has always opened with “Raw Power” and this show is no exception. James may be a retired exec and family man but he can still fire up that riff at maximum throttle. The band sounds killer. Scott Asheton pounds the beat furiously and Mike Watt handle’s Ron’s killer bass lines well. Iggy’s voice is still in pretty good shape for a dude in his 60’s and he can still deliver lines like “Raw Power is a guaranteed O.D.” with supreme gusto. The great Funhouse era saxophonist Steve Mackay blows his horn adding some cool textures that haven’t been heard on this song before. Crashing right into “Search & Destroy” the band rocks like hell and it’s obvious the crowd is loving it.
Things slow down for the moody rocker “Gimme Danger” and James lets loose with a great solo at the end. The tempo kicks way up for a double dose of speed with “Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell” and “Shake Appeal.” Steve adds some great tenor sax to these and makes them rock even harder. James busts out a slide for the great slow blues “I Need Somebody.” But that’s just the calm before the storm.
Insane jams like “Penetration” and “Death Trip” were never performed live back in the 1970’s and it’s great to hear them get aired out. Both of these feature killer guitar work from James. The album wraps up with a frenzied take on “I Got A Right.” That song had an interesting history. Performed live by the 1971 line up when both James and Ron were playing guitar, later recorded in 1972 with James on guitar and Ron on bass but dumped from the live set and then remained unreleased until years later.
I’ve often wondered what would have happened if Raw Power had been recorded under more “normal” circumstances. The album would have greatly benefited if they were recorded like the first Montrose record or Mountain’sClimbing. The Stooges were a heavy band but the production of Raw Power obviously confused most rock fans of the time. Even though they basically invented punk rock, the Stooges were always at heart a kick ass hard rock band. Hearing them blast these songs loud n proud in front of a frenzied crowd confirms that.
Hello my friends, how are you all? I hope you're all kicking ass.
I know there's been a lot of rhetoric out there regarding upcoming Anthrax shows, Big 4 and otherwise.
I've been debating on whether or not to make a public statement about this as it really pertains to my personal life and I generally like to keep that personal. Because this is affecting my band life, I feel like you, my friends, deserve to hear from me personally.
I will be playing the Big 4 show April 23 in Indio, CA s well as the shows in Manila, Bangkok, and Japan that will follow the Indio show.
I won't be playing the shows scheduled from July 2 - 16 in Europe and the UK. My wife Pearl and I are expecting our first child and she is due literally the day of the Big 4 Sonisphere show in France.
This decision to miss these shows was a deeply personal one. I co-founded this band July 18, 1981 and for almost thirty years, I have been there for everything we've ever done. I have never been faced with anything that would make me even question being there for anything Anthrax related. Becoming a father is the biggest, best thing that's ever happened to me and it made the decision relatively easy. My priority is with my wife and the birth of our first child.
As soon as I was faced with this decision, I knew, as Freddie Mercury so eloquently said, "the show must go on."
I started thinking about guitar players I knew, guys that I am a fan of, guys that I respect, guys that headbang like Angus was watching them, guys that I listen to and who I thought had the spirit to enable the show to go on.
This wasn't a hard decision at all. I asked the rest of the band what they thought, and we were on the same page.
We chose Andreas [Kisser from Sepultura] because we feel he can do the gig better than anyone. He has the fire, the attitude, and the crushing right hand to do the gig. I've played with Andreas at the Roadrunner 25th anniversary show, and I've gotten up and played with Sepultura and we are kindred spirits. We both play every show like we're going to jail the next day, like it's the last show we'll ever play. He has what it takes and he has the experience and history to fucking bring it and make these Anthrax shows something special. I can't wait to see and hear it for myself!!
This year will bring our tenth Anthrax studio record featuring the return of the one and only Joey Belladonna. We're hard at work finishing it and I can say that from the tracks I have heard, it is going to tear your fucking heads off. I'm looking forward to getting back on the road with the band that is now better than we've ever been, and seeing all your sick faces and banging heads.
Cheers,
Scott
(Scott will play the following dates) APRIL 23 Empire Polo Club, Indio, CA (Big 4 show) 30 Pulp Summer Slam Festival, Manila, Philippines
MAY 2 AP Parking, Esplanade, Ratchada, Bangkok, Thailand 5 O-East, Tokyo, Japan 6 O-East, Tokyo, Japan 7 Diamond Hall, Nagoya, Japan 9 Big Cat, Osaka, Japan
(Andreas Kisser will play the following dates) JULY 2 Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany (Big 4 show) 3 Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden (Big 4 show) 5 Komplex AG, Zurich, Switzerland 6 Fiera Open Air Arena, Milan, Italy (Big 4 show) 8 Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth, UK 9 Sonisphere Festival, Amneville, France 11 Garage, Saarbrucken, Germany 12 Vega Musikkenshus, Copenhagen, Denmark 14 Slottsfjell Festival, Tonsberg, Norway 15 Dour Festival, Dour, Belgium 16 Zwarte Cross Festival, Lichtenvoorde, Netherlands
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