June 2009

  • There's No Justice in Life: Snakefinger's Journey with the Residents

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    Coming of age at roughly the same time as some of those proto punkers in England, Philip Charles Lithman found himself so in love with the British take on electric blues, he snagged a guitar and tried to come up with something on his own. At the age of twenty two, Lithman would make his way across Atlantic to San Francisco,though. And of all the people he could have in fact come into contact with during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Lithman met a few guys who would eventually become the Residents. Since most write ups of this guitarist usually veer towards some history of that weirdo group, I’ll refrain. But the connection made upon that initial meeting would probably be the most important relationship in Lithman’s career.

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  • The Seeds' '60s Psych

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    As much as Sky Saxon has been deified – and not just in the last week or so – it doesn’t sound, from his discs during that first phase of the Seeds that the band was too much more or less than any other garage act of the time. Maybe it’s because I hear Roky Erickson in Saxon’s voice as much as Mick Jagger. It might be that most of the instrumentation on each of the group’s three proper full lengths could be relatively easily duplicated by any number of groups. Or it might just be the fact that he hit on a girl I knew at a show and left her a dirty old man message at three in the morning. Admittedly, the band was good. And those singles are on par with anything from ’65-’67.

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  • Svenonius Enlists the K Recs. Crew

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    After twenty years of making music for ears set to pick up under ground tones, it’s shocking to think that Ian Svenonius has anything at all left to say. It would seem, though, that with his new disc, that there are a few things that he feels needs to be restated, because after the eight proper long players from the Make Up and Nation of Ulysses, most would think otherwise. Perhaps though, taking up a crew of left coasts musicians to back him up served Svenonius’ purposes. For being an individual so tied to Washington D.C. and the Dischord roster, it’s almost startling to figure that Svenonius enlisted folks from Dub Narcotic Sound System, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Bad Thoughts and Seahorse Liberation Army. He did, though.

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  • The Cowsills: A Familial Gravy Train

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    It’s always weird when knock offs end up gaining more notoriety than the originators of whatever schtick. And for the Cowsills, it must have been doubly bothersome considering the musical and theatrical implications of their career. Instead of becoming one of the first cross over stars, each of the group members eventually moved on after the group to lead relatively normal lives if not for a few brief stints with the Beach Boys’ travelling band. But that’s show business. And unfortunately, a few chance decisions probably led the brothers and sisters that made up the Cowsills to their end.

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  • 39 Clocks: Aural Protests

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    I believe what we have here folks is the last proper studio disc from German weirdoes 39 Clocks. Oddly, out of all the bands from the father land that have gained some tread in underground psych circles, these guys usually go unmentioned. The principal duo making up the group, J.G. 39 and C.H. 39 are joined by some additional players to fill out this disc, which doesn’t really sound too far detached from earlier offerings from the band. And while nothing on here is shocking any longer – the disc was released in ’87 – it’s a manageable amalgam of low fidelity pop, some folk, whatever passed for punk at the time and out of tune warbling.

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  • No Neck Blues Band Get Elemental

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    dafsddafsdIt’s odd to think of the way in which different bands gain notoriety. Some do it with creepy stage shows that owe as much to shamanistic life as rock and roll while others just rave up a racket, only scarcely associate with the press and release foggy, dense forests of sound that not only deride melody, but find only little use for regular meter or time. No Neck Blues Band has been at it, this latter way, for the better part of fifteen years. And after ingratiating themselves to Sonic Youth as well as John Fahey at the end of his life, the purposefully distant group has, as of late, been on a tear, releasing a disc per year over the last half a decade.

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  • Subway: Folk Down There

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    Busking usually gets a bad rap from the perspective of not just the performers, but the transient audience passing by, mostly out of tune and uncaring about what’s going on right there on the side walk. Some groups have made it off the streets – the Libertines and Pete Doherty most notably of late – but for the most part, it seems to just be a way by which to gain a few bucks for a drink or a piece of pizza. You don’t make millions with your guitar case open as a seemingly talented beggar. That’s not meant to dissuade you vagabonds from attempting it, but ya know…

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  • Moe Tucker and her Arsenal of Instruments

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    The Velvet Underground are the most important band in rock music – that kind that matters at least, not the trite garbage littering the shelves of Best Buy, or whatever other retailer is daft enough to stock physical discs of that nature any longer. The musical background that each player brought to this group – whether academic or self taught – served to inform everyone from R.E.M. to U2 and even bands that were good. The way in which the guitar was plied in the group by Lou Reed is usually one of the first things mentioned after the trumped up charges of members being junkies. And while Maureen ‘Moe’ Tucker is usually referred to as the androgynous drummer, she was more than that. And kinda cute in a tomboy kinda way.

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  • Pentangle is Acutally Less Than its Parts

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    Coming late to the folk revival party that could be understood to have begun in the late ‘50s, Pentangle was made up of an immense array of talent that, somehow, when congregated never full reached the zenith of some of its members’ other endeavors. Mostly, I’m thinking about Bert and John. While not generally mentioned in the States as an important milestone in the folk resurgence, that duo’s disc can be seen as some rebirth on that bejeweled isle, England. There were certainly some missteps – mostly tied to the vocal led numbers, but those slighty blemished moments seem to surpass most of the Pentangle catalog.

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  • The Chocoloate Watch Band vs. the Studio

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    The recorded life of any ensemble is and should admittedly be accepted as something separate than what the group actually was. Confining a group of players to a studio with it’s gadgetry and the often stifling affect of having no audience provides for an odd setting to capture music that’s meant for dancing and freak outs. The Chocolate Watch Band aren’t the only group to have suffered from this dichotomy, but its story is still a mighty strange one. Helmed by producer Ed Cobb, the San Jose based psych act formed in ’65 and made a decent name for themselves on the local club circuit.

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  • Sun Araw - "Horse Steppin'"

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    A track off the previously mentioned Beach House...

  • Sun Araw: We Are Make Psych

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    The murky deluge of interrelated downer, psych and drone releases from Los Angeles and Not Not Fun are at the very least confusing. Swapping members, touring together and otherwise cohabitating similar physical and conceptual places on earth and musics astral plane make for an interesting take on repeto kraut incited sounds. Some of it works better than others, although it seems that amidst each and every one of these releases from Magic Lantern and Sun Araw, there are moments that make you abandon earthly concerns for a better day in the beyond. It’s not all spaced out jams – some of it’s annoying. But if there’s a problem, the man to blame is Cameron Stallones.

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  • The Blues Magoos: A Worried, Tripped Out Blues

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    PopSikePopSikeI think that it hit 80 degrees today. And while summer official began a while ago – I believe – today seems like the first day of it. With that comes more bike rides, escaping what four walls slam my face in as I stare at a screen droning out precocious music insights that may or may not matter at the end of time, whenever that is. On those bike rides, though, I need something to sing to. I can’t explain why exactly, but long bus rides or road trips call for extended jazz workouts while bicycles call for pop to push my lungs to not only move the blood around as I traverse flat land and hills, but also to belt out a few songs. And for that very reason, the Blues Magoos got a (digital) spin today as I did some errands.

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  • Weird Al, Craigslist and Being Stunned

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    I know this is going to sound strange, but hear me out. Let's talk about Weird Al Yankovic and be serious about it. Recently, the Weird One himself has been defying all expectations concerning his career and going positively viral with the video for his new song parody, an unlikely combination of The Doors and Craigslist. Here's what's extra-weird about it- The song is actually pretty good.

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  • Leon Russell x L.A. Hippies

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    Leon Russell his a haggard quality to him – even when he was younger – that, while kinda disturbing, served to make him a unique character amongst the flower toting masses crossing the California boarder making its way to L.A. or San Fran. His solo work seemed more tied to a downer style of folk and show tunes that no one else was taking advantage of at the time. And while he released a countless amount of work under his own name, not all of it seems up to snuff. But that was from 1970 and on.

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  • Magic Lantern: High Beams (2008)

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    This’ll sound silly and it is, but when a band’s MySpace page lists the following groups - Can, Spacemen 3, Faust, Black Sabbath – I gotta pay attention. I don’t know if that’s shallow and short sighted since there are certainly groups that would claim those touchstones and just plain old stink, but Magic Lantern’s different. They’re just good and are some how are able to include a great deal of variety into an every confining genre. They won’t affect music as a whole and probably in a few years no one’s gonna know who they are, but what they’ve raved up so far is beyond reproach.

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  • The Wailers: Fabulous or Wailin'

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    WailingWailingThe US Northwest has as rich a musical history as any other portion of the world. And no, it’s not all tied to Nirvana, although those dudes ruled. But before that downer take on heavy sludge got sleek and had a turn on the air waves, there was Hendrix, Ray Charles and Quincy Jones. In the rock medium, though, that part of the country gave us the Sonics, without who, we might not have arrived at punk as quickly. And informing those folks was a group from the pretty bland satellite city of Tacoma called the Wailers.

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  • Thee Hypnotics: An Almost Psych Success

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    THEE HypeTHEE HypeBeginning as a straight Stooges cop, Thee Hypnotics could have been a lot more. The Brit band’s first single, Love in a Different Vein, while sporting that title track, also included a track called “All Night Long.” The subject matter touched upon there is pretty obvious. But what’s really notable is the fact that the band just blatantly ripped off “TV Eye.” It’s evident in the music, but even more so in the vocal delivery of James Jones – who has nothing at all to do with the Cleveland Jim Jones fellow who had a hand in not just Pere Ubu, but the Mirrors as well.

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  • Sir Lord Baltimore: Proto Something

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    SLBSLBThe real Lord Baltimore bought a plot of land in the early seventeenth century in Newfoundland and established the first known permanent settlement in the new world. That dude, though, has absolutely nothing to do with early metal or music at all, even though he may have enjoyed the lute or some such. But the band that inexplicably took his name, Sir Lord Baltimore, has been able to stake a claim to a transformative moment in heavy music’s history. They aren’t the most talented group ever, but as a trio, there aren’t too many band’s that sound this heavy. And yes, I’m well aware of Cream’s existence.

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  • 2009 - the story so far

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    There’s an old canard that says every year is the best year for music, because not only do you have some new releases, you also have everything else that came before. Well, that’s exactly the sort of nonsense you get when hippies are allowed to express opinions on things. It’s clearly wrong. Some years are definitely better for music than others. 1997, for instance. However, I’m not here to talk about the past. The other day, I had a look at my top ten list for last year and I suddenly realized that this year has already been really, really good. Way better than 2008. So, I figured, might as well make a list now! Hey! Let’s go crazy. Here are eight for starters, then…

    The Pains of Being Pure of Heart - The Pains of Being Pure of Heart

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  • Theatrics: The Heavy Metal Kids

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    The story of the Heavy Metal Kids is really just the show biz tale of Gary Holton, who made it everywhere – theater stage, concert stage, television. Being a child actor might have imbued the cockney accent toting performer with a few issues to deal with, but those problems wouldn’t really come to a head until a bit later in his career. The theatric background that Holton had, though, served to inform the stage presence of the Heavy Metal Kids to the extent that more than a few punk icons recall the band’s shows pretty distinctly even at this late date.

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  • Oceans Apart; or, How I learned to stop worrying and to play what I like

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    I was at a bar the other night that had a DJ. He was playing the usual stuff, which I mostly didn’t care much about, when he suddenly put on Ram Jam’s Black Betty. Now, I used to live in Britain, and when I was there, I was a sometime DJ and player of records. When the song started up, I turned and said to my friend “You know what, I’d never have been able to get away with plying this song in England.” In this case, there’s no particular reason, except that the song itself is a bit dumb and moronic. It did, however, get me thinking; what songs would spark a stream of opprobrium back in England, but would be fine to play over here? Well, I’ve come up with some suggestions.

    Menswe@rBreathe Deeper

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  • Big Jim Sullivan as Lord Sitar

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    ExploitoExploitoBeing a session player probably isn't the most rewarding career track to follow to its end - listen to "Session Man" (that's the second time this week I've been able to reference that, I'm psyched). But in the annuls of rock there are number of individuals who made their mark on music through this position in music. Ry Cooder is probably the best known, even as his solo work after the sessions with the Rolling Stones comes in at just above horrendous. But alongside Cooder in the UK scene was a man named Big Jim Sullivan - apparently Little Jim was used to refer to Jimmy Page, but there's no corroboration for that apart from Wikipedia...so...

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  • Duchess Says; be upstanding for the sound of young Montreal

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    Dr Dre using coughing sounds. MIA using gunshots. Sonic Youth and the Pixies using feedback. What do all of these have in common? Well, if you answered “They are all examples of artists who create fantastic pop songs out of strange sounds, remolding them so they are part of the rhythm or melody and thus ending up with something that is both cutting edge and yet still likely to be hummed by the postman,” or words to that effect, well, then you’d be right.

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  • The Ngozi Family: An Afro Freak Out

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    Afro RockAfro RockIt always fascinates me what music makes its way back to the people after a time in the wilderness. There isn’t any reason as to why Chrissy Zedbby Tembo and the Ngozi Family have been recently resurrected and dispersed to the stoned masses, but that’s what happened. Again, the aspect to this disc - My Ancestors – that probably endears it to geeks, freaks and collectors is its scarcity. Even with that being said, the fuzzy guitar here can’t be surpassed by too many other players from the ‘70s. The singing, though, is another story.

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  • Shinki Chen: Farewell to Gloomy Recollections

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    Being included in the cavernous universe of Julian Cope's writing doesn't assure a proper legacy. It actually means that you've been lost in the shuffle and had your work pretty much ignored by Western audiences in general. The story of Shiniki Chen is basically that. There are certainly enough drug related recollections and crazed live stories floating around to sate every nerdy cultist. And while those are surely interesting, the fact that Chen was supposed to be the Japanese Hendrix trumps all of that nonsense. After hearing just a bit of Shinki Chen And His Friends, it'd be kinda hard to disagree.

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  • The One Emsemble: Dig it Well

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    OneOneDaniel Padden isn't a huge name - thus locating too much in the way of a biography is problematic. Having done time in Volcano the Bear, beginning in the mid '90s, the group went on sabbatical early in the new millennium. It was apparently amicable, with different group members contributing to each others' new projects and roaming about all free range like with other divergent bands and ensembles. But what Padden has done is to begin recording under his own name - pretending it was a solo project - but then slowly enlisting a number of peripheral players to augment his approach to albums. The One Ensemble has been the resultant project. And most recently, the group has released Other Thunders via the Brit imprint No-Fi.

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  • Fred Cole: An Easy Life in Heaven

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    A LollieA LollieFred Cole and his musical partner and wife Toody, have put in over twenty years as collaborators. The two have a son - who for good reason is a lawyer apparently. But the musical odyssey that Cole followed through his life didn't begin and end with Dead Moon, even if the band is probably the most well known of his projects. Most recently, he and his wife along an inept drummer can be seen performing as the Pierced Arrows. And while, the new band shares an obvious similarity to Dead Moon, the stigma that accompanied the more famous group eventually necessitated a switch. More than forty years ago, another name served to change the trajectory of Cole's career as well.

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  • The '80s Didn't Suck: Pspyched!

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    Released just about a decade ago Pspyched! compiles various singles and album tracks from '80s bands that could, in a very broad sense, be figured to have been spawned from the acts represented on Nuggets. In reading about the disc, though, it seems that upon it's released, folks made a big deal about how cohesive the album was. But sporting a track listing that counts 14 bands as different as Polyphemus and Thee Hypnotics, that just seems like a good bit of lip service. Regardless, though, the compilation does present an interesting look at the Beggars label during the '80s when garage and psych got a weird working over.

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  • Artists Condensed: The Magnetic Fields (part one)

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    A couple weeks ago I did two entries on Stephin Merritt, half of which was devoted to 69 Love Songs by his main band The Magnetic Fields. That album was something of a departure from the band's typical sound. Or, more accurately, it focused on styles they hadn't really played with before. 69 Love Songs is overwhelmingly organic, using a low-fi acoustic approach for a slim majority of its songs. The rest of The Magnet Fields' recordings are fairly heavy on synthesizers and fuzz. To ease the transition (however backward) from 69 Love Songs and the rest of Merritt's non-MF projects, I'll start with an overview of The Fields' gentler side.

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  • Daevid Allen Trio: Live 1963 (RIP Hugh Hopper)

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    3 or 43 or 4While never the focal point of Soft Machine, Hugh Hopper was perhaps as important a member as there ever was - and as the band got into the '70s, there were a whole buncha dudes. But with Hopper and Ratledge intertwined in a sort of disheveled punk-jazz groove, it allowed for the rest of the band, regardless of how many folks were present, to lean into a solo more or dig into the rhythm further. Hopper, though, passed away a few days ago, leaving only Robert Wyatt and Ratledge alive from the classic quartet line up of the group.

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  • General Elektriks: The Problem with Technology

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    GEGEThe word indie gets tossed around too much - and even as I've typed that word herein, somewhere, I detest it. It doesn't make any sense. But that could take up an entire post in and of itself, so let it just be said that the following quote summons billows of bile from within:

    "he approached it from an indie-rock perspective, in which, as he explains it, 'a less-schooled vocal can bring out different - and maybe more intimate - emotions.'"

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  • Basil Kirchin: Music's Human Element

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    BasilBasilHow Basil Kirchin convinced Columbia Records to release his music is so far beyond my comprehension that even in mentioning it, it gives me heart palpitations. What the composer and percussionist was able to pass off on the megalith can only be construed as some sort of experimental pastiche. I don't like using the term experimental at all, but here, it's the only term that could potentially apply. And while this music is nothing short of fascinating - much like the life that Kirchin led - it really isn't something that one would toss on for pleasure. This is an academic exercise.

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  • Action Beat: Noise from the North

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    Noise AnnoysNoise AnnoysNo reader outside of the UK should have any idea where Bletchley is. But if you go and try to hunt it down on Google Maps, you can see Swindon - site of the BBC's The Office. That, though, doesn't lend any insight into what the town or the area that Action Beat hails from is like.

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  • Dinosaur Jr. x 1989

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  • Farming MA with Dinosaur Jr.

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    I FarmI FarmLet me preface all of this by saying that outta all the '80s band that gained a bit of exposure as a result of the popularity of the aural assaults from Sonic Youth and Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. was not a group that I particularly cared for. They didn't stink, but there was a less aggressive tone to their work than the aforementioned groups that didn't really appeal to me too much.

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  • The Unclaimed: '80s Psych

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    The New MunstersThe New MunstersReturning to my all too brief fascination with the Paisley Underground scene, I dug up the mini LP released by Shelley Ganz and the Unclaimed from '83. Coming across this disc on Faintly Blowing - which you should go check out - I didn't really know if I should bother with downloading this particular outcropping of retread '60s sounds. I'm glad I did, though.

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  • Os Mutantes: On the Way to a Freak Out...

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    Psych MutatesPsych MutatesI have no idea what readers of Rolling Stone would actually appreciate a list of the one hundred greatest Brazilian albums of all time, but it exists. And coming in at number 9 is the first disc from Os Mutantes.

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  • Backbreakers and Northern Soul Floorshakers!

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    Backbones SlipBackbones SlipThe creation of genre names is a never ending expedition into categorization. The most messed up thing about all of this, though, is that fact that if you say 'Northern Soul' to me, I understand. That all too specific piece of rock writer column shifting really just refers to danceable RnB.

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  • Gilberto Gil and the Brazilian Renaissance

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    SA RnRSA RnROn of the coolest words - and most visual definitions - I've heard in a while is antropofagia, which is defined as "the cultural and musical cannibalism of all societies." While this word comes from a Brazilian poet named Oswald de Andrade, the name that he gave this preexisting condition might be as important a concept to make concrete as whatever post modernism is or could be.

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  • Lee Fields: Tasty Funk 'n Soul

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    Soul GoldSoul GoldNew soul music really goes one way or the other. Either it's a throw back, adept at copping some long lost grit and swagger that only your parents can recall from the smoky parties they attended. Unfortunately, the other way in which the music could go is some modernized attempt at copping the same thing, but in the frame of new production techniques and hack session players (think on the Kinks' "Session Man") that create a solvent but sterilized end product.

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  • Elvis Costello Down the Hillbilly Hole

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    This ElvisThis ElvisThere aren't too many more disconcerting things in life than finding out that the new disc by Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane & Sugarcane - is being release on Hear Music. That, I suppose won't sound too bad to passing fans, but Hear Music is a subsidiary of Starbucks Coffee. And to have an extension of the Angry Young Men be a part of that franchise is plainly shocking.

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  • Shuggie's Shake: A Reason to Listen to Teens

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    Not the SameNot the SameHaving your father be a well known west coast musician won't generally hurt your musical ability or the contacts that you have in the business. But those aren't the reasons that Shuggie Otis was able to crank out a few, brief, put stunning recorded appearances during the late '60s and early '70s. He was a prodigy. That term isn't really over used when compared to the word genius.

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