Last night, I was having dinner with my mother and chatting about politics when my phone exploded with an alert that read “Rock ‘N’ Roll Great Chuck Berry Dead at 90.” Considering that Berry had […]
Tag: The Rolling Stones
Preview: Living Colour at City Winery 3/13/17
Currently comprised of founding members Corey Glover (vocals), Vernon Reid (guitar, synths, backing vocals) and Will Calhoun (drums, percussion, keys, samples, backing vocals), with Doug Wimbish (bass, drums, guitar, programming, backing vocals), the New York-based rock quartet Living Colour originally formed in 1984 and they quickly received attention for a sound that meshed elements of heavy metal, funk, jazz, jazz fusion, soul, prog rock and alternative rock with lyrics that frequently focused on the personal and sociopolitical, frequently commenting on and attacking Eurocentrism and racism in America. The quartet’s original lineup, featuring featuring the founding trio of Glover, Reid and Calhoun with Muzz Skillings (bass) cut their teeth and honed their sound and live show playing shows at CBGB’s.
Interestingly, the band found an unlikely champion in The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, who took the band under his wing, produced a demo, which caught the attention of Epic Records. And with the release of 1988’s commercially and critically successful full-length debut Vivid, the band’s original lineup, quickly rose to attention with their smash hit “Cult of Personality,” which won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance; they also won the Best New Artist Award at 1989’s MTV Video Music Awards. Adding to a growing international profile, The Rolling Stones had Living Colour opened for the rock legend’s Stateside leg of the Steel Wheels tour. They quickly followed that up with 1990’s sophomore effort Time’s Up, which also won a Grammy.
After releasing three full-length albums with a number of major and minor hits, the band split up with the members focus on a variety of creative projects; in fact, Wimbish, Calhoun and Glover had teamed up with Glover in a project called Headfake, which played frequently in the New York City area. And as the story goes, in late 2000, Headfake played at CBGBs with Reid joining them, leading to rumors of a Living Colour reunion. Of course, those rumors proved to be true, as Living Colour went on their first tour together n six years the following summer.
The members of the band have since released one of their most experimental efforts to date, 2003’s Collideøscope, followed by 2005’s rarities and B-sides compilation, a few live albums, 2006’s Best of compilation, Everything Is Possible: The Very Best of Living Colour and 2009’s Chair in the Doorway. And over the past couple of years, the band has been on a rather busy touring schedule, touring to support the 25th anniversary of their seminal effort Vivid.
As a personal note, as a music obsessed boy, I’ve almost always listened to a wildly eclectic variety of music, and in the 80s metal was a big thing. I loved Metallica, Def Leppard, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue and the like; but when I watched their videos and concerts, I didn’t see anyone who looked like me — and even in my 8 year old mind, I knew that I couldn’t be those guys. I was black and from Queens. However, seeing someone who looked like me with guys who came from neighborhoods that I knew or had family in, kicking ass and taking names was a revelation. And it made them heroes to me.
Sadly, I was too young to catch them back then; however, I have since seen them twice — once at Afropunk during their Vivid 25th Anniversary Tour and later at Brooklyn Bowl, and I’m thrilled to know that the band is playing tonight at City Winery.
New Video: The Surreal and Playful Visuals for Izzy True’s “Mr. Romance”
Renowned punk label Don Giovanni Records released the band’s debut EP Troll last year, and their much-anticipated full-length debut Nope officially released today, and reportedly draws from frontperson Isabel Reidy’s experiences dropping out of school, returning back home to deal with mental illness and a desire to find a cathartic and joyful way to combat them all — and ultimately, about loneliness, hating yourself and then leaning how to actually like yourself. Much like the album’s first single “Total Body Erasure,” the album’s latest single “Mr. Romance” consists of a scuzzy, classic rock-leaning that sounds as though it owes equal debts to Marquee Moon-era Television, The Rolling Stones and Pretenders; however, unlike the preceding single, this single manages to deal with the anxious confusion about one’s self and who and what they should want and love, with a self-effacing irony — and in some way, the song’s narrator knows those answers will be difficult to come by, especially if you’re strange.
The recently released video features Isabel in an aluminum jump suit, playing and singing the song, drinking and making out with a variety of people and a shit ton of glitter and makeup.
New Video: The Cinematic and Lonely Visuals of Psychic Ills’ “Baby” and “Another Change”
Directed by New York-based filmmaker Jason Evans, the cinematically shot videos for “Baby” and “Another Change” were designed as two parts of an extended short film, shot in and and around New York and at Cowtown Rodeo in New Jersey. The videos form a portrait of a young cowboy, desperately longing for something he can connect with, a desire that becomes clearer by the end of the second video. Throughout both videos, the viewer follows its male lead John Reddy, who actually grew up on as a rodeo rider in Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, as he smokes in his tiny room, gets dressed, commutes back and forth between suburban New Jersey and a backbreaking job in a restaurant in the City and runs errands. And from the way he walks and dresses, the videos protagonist doesn’t quite fit in anywhere — and from his expressions our protagonist carries a profound sadness and loneliness that’s old-fashioned and proud but with a masculine vulnerability. When he encounters a lovely young woman in a local bar, there share a simple yet profound moment of connection over their shared loneliness and heartache, and it’s shot with a subtly golden hue that suggests it’s those small moments that remind us of our humanity.
The second videos follows our protagonist to Cowtown Rodeo, where he watches fellow cowboys ride horses and he quickly falls in love with a beautiful white horse that he immediately connects to — and as he connects to his horse, he find himself with the young woman at the bar.
New Audio: Izzy True’s Bitterly Ironic, Classic Rock-Leaning, New Single
Comprised of Isabel Reidy (who we’ll kindly refer to with the pronouns they/them when referring to the third person), their brother Silas Reidy and dear friends Angela DeVivo and Jon Samuels, Trumansburg, NY-based punk rock […]
Currently comprised of primary members Tres Warren (vocals, guitar) and Elizabeth Hart (bass) along with a rotating cast of collaborators and friends, New York-based psych rock act Psychic Ills have developed a reputation over the past decade for following wherever their muses takes them. Interestingly, the band’s forthcoming and highly-anticipated fifth full-length effort Inner Journey Out stems from the culmination of three years of playing shows, touring, writing and recording — and reportedly, the album finds the band expanding upon the sound and aesthetic that first caught the attention of the blogosphere as the album’s material possesses elements of country, blues, gospel and jazz. In fact, whereas the previous records found Warren overdubbing himself to create a blown-out, widescreen sound, Inner Journey Out focuses on Warren and Hart’s collaborations with an array of highly-accomplished guests including Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, touring keyboardist Brent Cordero, Chris Millstein, Endless Boogie’s Harry Druzd, The Entrance Band’s Derek James, Charles Burst and a host of friends and associates, who also provide pedal steel guitar, horns, strings and backing vocals. Thematically speaking, the new album explores the interior and exterior and the pathway between the two — and as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single “Baby,” the album’s sound manages to be much more intimate and plaintive, while drawing from The Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter” and Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky” but with a subtle yet gorgeous country twang underneath the moody psychdelia.
At the core of the song is a narrator, who has spent a long time seeking love and recognizing that he’s stumbled upon the love he’s always needed while quietly suggesting that when we love others and share ourselves with others, that we find our true, essential selves. And as a result, the sentiment gives the song a quiet contemplative nature.
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In 1967 While the States and the rest of the Western world was in the height of “Flower Power,” “The Age of Aquarius,” and people were out protesting against the Vietnam War and for civil rights for people of people of color, women and the LGBTQ community, Nigeria had descended into a brutal and bloody civil war. Interestingly, the rock scene that developed during three years of bloodshed and destruction helped heal and unite the country, propagate a brand new ideal of the “modern” Nigerian and eventually helped propel Fela Kuti to international stardom.
Earlier this year, Now-Again Records released volume one of a two volume compilation Wake Up You!: The Rise and Fall of Nigerian Rock. A companion book featured research from renowned musicologist Uchenna Ikonne and an incredible array of never-seen photos that will tell the stories of some of Nigeria’s long-forgotten but best rock bands — bands that specialized in a sound that meshed funk, psych rock and rock in a way that was unique and particularly Nigerian, while being remarkably familiar to Western ears. Volume 1’s first single Ify Jerry Krusade’s “Everybody Likes Something Good,” sounded deeply indebted to James Brown, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T and the MGs and others as heavily wah-wah pedaled guitar, soaring organ chords, sinuous and throbbing bass lines, layers of percussion were paired with call and response vocals in a way that seemed to nod towards Fela Kuti’s earliest releases. Volume 2’s first single Waves’ “Wake You Up” is a shaggy, garage rock and psych rock jam that sounds as though it drew from early Rolling Stones, The Who, The Animals and others while managing sounding as though it were the forebear of Pazy and the Black Hippies psychedelic take on Afrobeat and funk.
Up until last year, there hadn’t been many comprehensive photo-metal, pre-stoner rock compilations, until the Chicago, IL and Los Angeles, CA-based distributor Permanent Records record store, along with RidingEasy Records released a carefully curated compilation of incredibly rare photo-metal and pre-stoner rock singles from the 60s and 70s on Brown Acid: The First Trip. Permanent Records co-owner Lance Barresi and RidingEasy Records’ Daniel Hall complied a second volume of rare proto-metal and pre-stoner rock from the 60s and 70s, Brown Acid: The Second Trip, which is slated (fittingly enough) for release on April 20.
Much like the first volume, the duo not only spent time collecting, compiling and then curating the material, they also spent a great deal of time tracking down the songs creators, often bands who haven’t been together in over 30 or 40 years, and encouraging them to take part in the entire process. As Barresi explained in press notes for the first compilation, “All of (these songs) could’ve been huge given the right circumstances. But for one reason or another most of these songs fell flat and were forgotten. However, time has been kind in my opinion and I think these songs are as good now or better than they ever were.” And by having the artists actually participate in the entire process, it can give the artists and their songs a second chance at some much deserved attention — if not a second chance at success.
Now, over the past month or two I’ve written about The Second Trip’s first single Ash’s “Midnight Witch,” a single that would likely remind many listeners of Mountain‘s “Mississippi Queen,” Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” and early Black Sabbath as layers of huge, sludgy and bluesy power chords were paired with a driving rhythm and soulful vocals — but with a deeply psychedelic feel. Amazingly, although the song was originally released more than 35 years ago, it sounds and feels as though it could have been released today as several contemporary bands have adopted a similar sound, including the likes of Ecstatic Vision. The compilation’s second single Crossfield’s “Take It” managed to sound and feel like a surreal amalgamation of Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, The Animals (in particular, “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”) and The Doors as blistering and scorching guitar chords are paired with soaring keyboard chords and thundering drumming with unusual tempo changes and chord progression changes that make the song feel and sound as though it were a prog rock precursor — all while giving the song an expansive, tripping off hallucinogens in the desert feel and tone. The Second Trip‘s third and latest single Iron Knowledge’s “Show Stopper” meshes elements of glam metal, metal and seemingly hip-hop and funk-inspired hip-hop breakbeats in a song that metalhead and hip-hop DJs would instantly love.
New Video: Watch Alison Mossheart Brave a Massive Storm in the Video for “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)”
http://cache.vevo.com/assets/html/embed.html?video=US3JJ1500922&autoplay=0 Comprised of Allison Mossheart of The Kills and Discount (vocals), Jack White formerly of The White Stripes and currently of The Raconteurs (drums, guitar and vocals), Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age (guitar, […]
New Video: Introducing the Dreamy Psych Rock Sound of London’s The Pacers
The London-based psych rock quartet The Pacers can trace their origins to 2013 when the band’s founding members Alexander Friedl (guitar and vocals) and Harry Stam (guitar) met under what they’ve described as “mysterious circumstances.” Bonding […]
