Posts tagged with "Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars"
Friday, 30. March 2007, 14:41:20
Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars, Music Recommendation
King Crimson’s very early music, except for The Court of the Crimson King, has always eluded me. I have Islands and like it but I never could relate to Lizards or In the Wake of Poseidon. I do now have some of that material on a compilation and am trying it out little by little. I cannot say I dislike it but I am not drawn much into excessive strings and wood winds in most rock endeavors. In any case, they moved towards a heavy textured and complicated sound with Fripp's guitar becoming more prominent and made three exceptional albums in 1973 and 1974 called Larks Tongue in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red respectively. By the time Red was produced the always revolving line up had shrank to the power trio of Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford and John Wetton. It was a powerful album and one wonders what might have come from the three had the band not suddenly dissolved. But dissolve they did and would not record again until 1981’s dazzling Discipline under a new line up of sheer virtuosos.
After the demise of King Crimson Fripp went in to three years of retirement from the music industry, though not from personal musical experimentation. When he decided it was time to ease himself back in the word of music in the form of guitarist and producer he worked with a series of often eclectic musicians on three different but similar albums that would be known as the MOR Trilogy. These albums were Peter Gabriel’s 2nd untitled solo album (sometimes called Peter Gabriel II or Scratch because of the bizarre cover art), Daryl Hall’s (yes, the same Daryl Hall of Hall and Oats) fist solo effort and then Fripp’s first solo album in 1979 (some sites cite the album as being released in 1978, but I am sure the release was April of '79) called Exposure. On these albums Fripp not only worked as guitarist but producer and sound designer as well, employing his dual delayed tape loop system called Frippertonics to full effect. This was something he began to develop when he worked with Brian Eno in the early seventies but did little with inside the structure of King Crimson. I have a separate post attempting to explain Frippertronics in the works and will leave the matter mostly closed for the time and go on to describing not only the MOR Trilogy but two other curious experimental Fripp put out during the first half of the 80's.
Fripp and Peter Gabriel on piano
One is God Save the King with The League of Gentlemen and the other is a hauntingly wonderful record called Let the Power Fall which is nothing but looped guitar notes on two tape recorders slightly delayed and manipiualted. There are no keyboards. The single guitar notes are layered one over the other again and again until it creates something you have simply never heard before. These two albums are expansions on a super rare (though I used to own it on vinyl a million years ago) album called God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manner released in 1981. But no need to discuss that album in depth since GSTK and LTPF are expanded versions of that unique album’s A and B sides. The A side being bouncy and complex, “pop jazz rock” and the B side being a taste of the lush Frippertronics that would become LTPF.
A strange thing about the 1st four Peter Gabriel solo albums is that none of them have names or are numbered in any way. They are all simply titled Peter Gabriel. This album is either called Gabriel II or Scratch. Considered by some fans to be his strangest album and the least accessible it holds an odd position for Gabriel enthusiasts. The album begins to show Gabriel moving further away from what he was doing with the latter Genes and sprinkled here and there are signs of where he will be exploring in the future. The album is sort of stuck in the middle but is not really defined by either Gabriel's past or future works. With Fripp’s production and guitar work the album is filled with tight, edgy rock and roll sounds that no other Gabriel album has in such abundance. There are excellent samplings of Frippertronics (similar in style to the type on Bowie' Heros album) and some good guitar solos as well. There are some airy, forlorning sounds on songs like Mother of Violence. The album also contains a version of Exposure (the song) here that differs from the one on Fripp’s solo album and this one with Gabriel’s low moaning voice may be more suitable to most listeners than the screeching psycho vocals (by some one unkown to me, maybe Daryl Hall or even Gabriel or another person) on the Fripp album. I will be honest, the only Peter Gabriel album I ever really enjoyed was So. I liked what was going on with Genesis with The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and his solo work departs from that very much. But I do like this album. It has some of his old style in it and Fripp’s production and playing provides a unique sound for Gabriel though maybe it is not something that would benefit it on a regular basis.
What a strange though revealing departure for essentially teenie bopper and early MTV icon Daryl Hall, of Hall and Oats, was his first solo album Sacred Songs. In fact the album is so out of character that his then record company sat it on the shelf for years worried about its lack of pop radio exploitability. Therefore it winds up being the last of the MOR Trilogy released though it was the second one recorded. And what is more amazing is that the combination of Hall and Fripp is genuinely exciting and they made on this album some great rock songs and curious music. Hall, despite his pop affinities, has a strong and dynamic voice and it plays off Fripp's catchy, choppy riffs perfectly, and giving Fripp a challenge. There are Frippertronics galore on the album and the songs have a sort of darkness to the lyrics that contrast with the often happy go lucky music. I have not heard this album in years but it is a nice little piece of music I wish I could get my hands on again. Newer releases contain the vocal pieces that are also on Fripp’s Exposure.
To further add a sinister twist to Hall’s otherwise bumble gum image the album was inspired by his serious studies into Aleister Crowley at the time. Hall owns some autographed manuscripts of Crowley books and the strange hand gestures all over the album are symbolic occult signs though they just look like Hall being cute. Don't ask me how it is that I know this. One of my phases.
Fripp’s playing is more contained and controlled here, no doubt accomodating Hall's pop sensibilities for tight structured arrangements. His riffs and solos are not all over the place like on his solo venture nor are they secondary to commanding Peter Gabriel’s musical concepts on PG II. The solos are classic Fripp. Full of zest and energy and even some humor. The album shows a side to Hall that most people never get see and it is too bad. I never liked Hall and Oats much but he released this album and another solo effort called Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine that are really good pop rock albums. This is an album you should try out if you can find. Even if you do not like Hall’s work from the 80’s you may enjoy this catchy, brooding, witty, moody little excursion into artsy pop rock . Unlike PG II and Exposure which took me numerous listenings to digest this album I got into from the first track and it was easy to just let it go from there. Perhaps the best album of the Trilogy though the least well known.
I picked up the album Exposure on vinyl in the late 80’s in San Antonio in the cut out bin at the little record store across the street from me. CDs were just beginning to appear here and there and vinyl was beginning to go the way of the dinosaur. I had no idea who Robert Fripp was or for that matter who King Crimson were. I knew the song 21st Century Schzoid Man and that was about it. I had little taste back then for art rock. What attracted to the album was this nerdy looking guy no the cover in a suit that looked more like a literature professor or stockbroker. I was only out $2.99 if I did not like itand I remember I also bought Metallica’s Garage Days Revisited the same night. I heard Exposure later that week and became a believer (but of what I did not yet know). I loved the record, or at least the A side, and it has remained one of my favorite records despite the flaws and problems with it.
For King Crimson fans who had waited since 1974 for something from their guitar guru Fripp this 1979 album must have been a real surprise, if not genuine let down. While there are a couple Crimsonesque moments such as Breathless the rest of the album is something new and adventurous for Fripp. At the beginning of side A is a joke (I assume) about playing some new things that “might be commercial” but there is not a commercial moment on the album with the possible exception of a rendition of Peter Gabriel’s Here Come the Flood.
He is joined by a host of talents that include Gabriel, Daryl Hall, Terre Roche (of The Roches) and future King Crimson bassist Tony Levin, as well as Brian Eno, Phil Collins, Peter Hammill and Syd McGuiness who was the guitarist for The World’s Most Dangerous Band of the David Letterman show fame. The guitar playing ranges from hard and fast to airy and melodic. There are his signature painstakingly intricate rhythm riffs and heavy thudding chords. There are also ample amounts of well crafted ambient Frippertronics, the most on a record since his work with Eno in the early 70’s. And while a valid criticism is that the album is all over the road it is also a special quality as well.
It came out at a time when punk was becoming New Wave and there is that sort of New Wave/Punk feel to some of it. Probably only for Fripp fanatics and maybe less accessible than even Gabriel’s contribution to the MOR Trilogy it is nonetheless an album with a cult following (Rolling Stone readers rate it with an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars, and they are a picky lot to satisfy!)and it really stands alone in Fripp’s huge discography as a brilliantly, quirky and unique rock album. I will admit other than the song Exposure and Here Come the Flood I have never liked the B side too much. It is as if by that side I have had it with the lack of a theme that usually permeates a Fripp work. The songs are short and on the one hand that makes them easy to consume, but then you also have simply too many little strange things to sample and it is hard to do. But what I sampled I like very much and still listen to the piece every now and then. What is interesting is that his next solo album is the one that garners him the title of genius frequently and yet it is as far away from Exposure as Pluto is from the Sun.
Let the Power Fall was released in 1981, the same year that the superb King Crimson Discipline was released. Crimson came back with a new line up and new sound led by frontman Adrian Belew who also shared guitar duties with Fripp, and shared them well. Old Crimson diehards were as taken back with Discipline’s display of jazzy, guitar virtuoso acrobatics as they were with Exposure’s lack of solid visonary directio, or any direction whatsoever. Belew's singing style matched his wild guitar technique and there seemed little to compare to the old King Crimson of yore.It seemed Fripp had slipped into a cocoon for years and re-emerged as something other than a Crimson butterfly.
Add to all of this the ultra-minimalist “songs” on Let the Power Fall and you can see why Fripp lost a lot of old devoted followers, while picking up a whole new generation at the same time. The album is not light listening and is pure experimentation on Fripp’s part into pure Frippertronics, or his use of two Revox tape recorders to produce loops of prerecorded single guitar notes and running the machines at a slight delay with one another. Of course there are in fact more than two loops occurring here and I am not sure what the full technique is that is going on but there are difinently more than two ot three or four guitars performing. This all predates digital recording and what happens here would evolve later in Fripp’s Soundscapes. Soundscapes are the next extension of Frippertronics done on digital equipment and allowing for four loops to play at one time with varying degrees of delay.
He would use guitar synthesizers on Soundscapes and for the most part I never cared for those albums. I had a couple and sold them off later. I do like the Soundscapes as lead ins to their live songs but as full listening they were grueling, even for me, a Fripp devotee in many aspects.
The process on Let the Power Fall Fripp is simple and as minimal as you can get, looping single guitar notes one over the other until they build into a thick washing wall of sound that is almost religious in the experience. It is similar to what he did with Brian Eno on No Pussyfooting and Evening Star but it is stripped down to barest essentials here. Not only that, but the performance is completely done on electric guitar rather than the Ambient instrument of choice which is some sort of keyboard.
Like Exposure there is nothing else like this album in the Fripp catalog but for different reasons. This was Fripp utterly removed from the rock world and doing his own thing and obviously not concerned with commercial viability whatsoever. He also seemed to putting into the album an expression of personal beliefs or philosophies that often come with musicians who do this type of music, though I am sure what all those beliefs are. He expresses this stuff in very difficult and pedantic writings that are available on the net at places like
http://www.elephant-talk.com/index.html
where you can read his diary. Eno was similar with his personal beliefs and designed the Oblique Strategies Cards, based on the Chinese I Ching. They were based on some theory of randomness and conincedence being able to supply solutions to problems when logic and reason become frozen, or something. The "worthwhile dilemmas" are worded as musical problems but I assume the card's solutions can be universal. For a peek at the online version and to select a random strategy go to:
http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html
But I think you need the real deck (which can be purchased in the 5th edition now) to understand what the hell is going on.
Well, in any case, whatever the inspiration is for doing this stuff is the result can be, in this case certainly is, marvelous. Again, as with all things Frippian, this is not for everyone and I recommend this listening venture with warning. I will post a link to a sample in a few more posts. If you like minimalist music you may like it or you may not if you expect Philip Glass or Steve Reich. Please check back in a few posts ( I plan on shifting gears and getting away from art rock and minimalist music soon) for a link to a sample. The album was an extension of the B-side to a record released in 1980 called God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners (so far unavailable on CD I believe). Another curious album came out in 1985 called God Save the King, and it was an extension of the A side.
Released in 1985 at the time the “Discipline line-up of King was breaking apart God Save the King is one of the most spirited Fripp releases ever. Whereas Exposure was Fripp delving into New Wave/Punk and Let the Power Fall was an experiment in 40 minutes of pure Frippertronics, God Save the Queen can only be described as Fripp doing disco/techo. He performs with The League of Gentlemen (a term for the band used while touring with the 60’s band Giles, Giles and Fripp) and from what I understand this was all recorded in about 1981 and, as I said, appeared as the A side to the album Under Heavy A Manners/God Save the Queen. It was released as an entire album with extra tracks after Crimson split up again, not to reunite until 1995’s underrated Thrak album.
I had the album version once and the CD version differs in some ways. The most significant change is the addition of a lead guitar over Zero of the Signified from the original Under Heavy Manners version. I have to admit that I liked it better without the solo. Fripp appeared for one song on The Talking Head’s fear of Music album and David Byrne appears here and does some really manic vocals on Under Heavy Manners (“Trumpets! I hear trumpets”). The album is full of life and disco zest and even humor. The guitar playing is in the style of the Discipline/Beat/Three of a Perfect Pair albums without Adrian Belew’s cosmic effects over top of them or Bill Buford’s complex drumming.
The songs consist chiefly of instrumentals performed on one guitar, bass, drums and organ. There are no grand visionary experiments or heavy Red type chords (a song that would reappear on Thrak) but rather simple, brisk almost jazzy performances. Fripp’s playing sounds almost cheesy to the ear untrained in Fripperisms, but the albums contains some of his wildest and most elaborate playing from that period, or maybe from any period. The rhythm section plays it simple and direct with a disco dance groove over which Fripp extrapolates amazing runs and riffs of high technical precision but without all the heart stopping time changes and tonal dissonance one would associate with King Crimson. It is a fun album with a pink cover. If you are a King Crimson fan and do not have this album, get it. If you are not, well check back soon and I will post a sample, but like all of the albums I reviewed here it is not for everyone and I admit it. Some people dismiss Fripp as a pretentious bore and others seem him one of the very few true genius’ in rock music. I think you know where I fall and I hope that this post peaks your curiosity about the man and his work. And if it does not trust me, you will hear and read more of him in the future here at The Uranium Café.
Fripp doing a live performance of Frippertronics, circa 1980
Tuesday, 20. March 2007, 05:11:13
Music Recommendation, Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars
There is not a lot of reliable information on the net about punk-rockabilly band The Cramps really that can paint an accurate picture of their history. Some fan sites dismiss the possibility of providing a believable bio at all. What comes across ultimately is that they are as wild as their songs and have lived an on the edge life that qualifies them as “the real deal” and not just a theatrical stage show that leaves their antics at the dressing room door. As is also the case with the other two cult type bands I comment on in this post there is hardly any reliable info outside poorly maintained fan sites to get an accurate picture of the band's histories. Some haven't been updated in years. The band members themselves are not prone to giving interviews and mainstream media sources shy away from reporting on them and thereby disemminating their vile and putrid messages. Well though I am not worthy to bend over and buckle their high heels I will do what I can in my humble blog to spread the gospel of these blasphemous little bands, beginning with psychobilly originators The Cramps.
The Cramps founders and only permanent members singer Lux Interior (Erick Purkhiser) and guitarist Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace) met in Sacramento Ca about 1972 and migrated east to Akron Ohio and then wound up in New City in the mid seventies when the NY punk scene was gearing up and getting ready to explode. They began performing along side seminal punkers like The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Television and the rest at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City. The line up is a constant flux of colorful looking rhythm guitar players and drummers and bass players. The back up players come and go and return again like pole cats to a hen house and the current line up for 2007 seems to be Lux and Ivy and Sean Yseult (formally of White Zombie) on bass and the return one of the band’s more popular drummers Harry Drumdini.
The music is go-daddy wild and their stage shows are just sort of freaky and subversive in the old school Alice Cooper horror rock show style. They are not like Alice Cooper in music style at all really but their shows have that sense of theatrics Cooper had. While alot of the punk scene seemed to do simplified improvisations on standard rock morsels of the late 60's and early 70's The Cramps musical roots are more grounded in the sounds of The Ventures and Eddie Cochrane, Carl Perkins and Elvis than anything else in rock-n-roll. It has a swampy, twangy, 60's fuzz tone sound that reminds you of road side revivals, red light hotels, straight bourbon shots with poppers and road house switchbade rumbles. Classic bombshell Ivy appears on stage in leopard skin tight pants and chewing gum snarl while manic Lux usually wears high heels and seems to need mega doses of lithium.
With song titles like Drug Train, Swing the Big Eyed Rabbit, Can Your Pussy Do the Dog and Like a Bad Girl Should how can you go wrong? Poison Ivy is on the mark with her high octane V-8, reverb driven guitar work and I will have to say that Lux Interior is genuinely one of a kind doing his schizoid Elvis from B-Movie land on amphetamines frontman gig. He is a theatrical showman from an insane asylum and yet it never seems out of place. They are unabashed about their drug use and sexual fetishism and their socially reprehensible activities become the core material for their songs and shows. They have been around a long time and are still going. I tend to like their later recordings, from Date with Elvis on, as the sound quality of the recordings on their own Vengeance Records label sound better, but the early songs are really meaty and raw, especially on tunes like Garbageman and Human Fly.
These are all powerful rock songs. Not everyone’s cup of tea or shot of heroin and you would have to like raw NY punk in some form or another to appreciate it all, but you would have to like Link Wrey and surf guitar as well. They have a mythic element to them that few bands have and can maintain for three years much less three decades. Lux may be a little too much for the average born again Christian to handle while former NYC dominatrix Poison Ivy is always really smokin’ in looks as well as twelve bar blues.
One fan site worth a look is posted below.
http://www.carrollsweb.com/rockndog/cramps.htm
This is a band that started off as a B-Movie concept that never got off the ground during the late 80’s. The original songs were to a be some sort of soundtrack I guess but instead they became the music Groovie Mann and Buzz McCoy would use to launch the concept band with the same name as the failed film: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. The music is inspired by all sorts of old B-Movies and Z-Movies of the 60’s and 70’s and uses well placed samples from those films to create a really interesting effect. They are not the only band to do this of course. Ministry does it very well and in a similar style and Rob Zombie uses cult film samples more sparingly in his much heavier B-Movie style metal music. But TKK does it up in the coolest fashion of all because “cool” and “hip” are a couple of the themes they draw on to create their world of jaded hedonism run amok. Their songs explore the sleazy, decadent side of life without really getting nihilistic about it. There is always something slightly comical or satirical even when they are singing or sampling about drug overdoses, muder conspiracies or bargaining with Satan.
The feel of the music is like a good Russ Meyer movie and they must really research some odd flicks to find these dialog samples. While the music does have that techno club feel to it it is still pretty straight forward rock and roll. It does not fall into repetitive electro sample land without some connecting concept to the songs and albums as a whole. They run with themes like disco glam, pill popping, martini lounges, swinging love, dirty little secrets and all sorts of creepy little things that keep Freudian analysists employed. While Lux Interior can wear high heels and never seem gay these guys just seem like their favorite movie is Al Pacino’s Cruising and they deck out in leather chaps and Harley caps in almost every photo shoot I see. Far be it from me to judge a man who wears leather chaps with his buttocks exposed but if said man does wear black leather undies and they rock like these guys do, by God, more power to them. I am not saying these guys are gay okay, most likely just bi because there also are a couple hot chicks in this band and they can sing and strut while wearing bell bottoms and platforms with the best of the 70’s diso crowd. Hopefully the chicks are bi as well.
I have been listening to Sexplosion and the Dirty Little Secrets compilation and they are good discs to start with if you do not know much about the band. They are serious about what they are doing and any fan of B-Movies and sub culture decay will love all the inferences. While The Cramps sing about drugged up hot rod races and killing bunny rabbits to relieve stress the TKK deal with a sort of Valley of the Dolls World full of shady, sexually distressed characters, international spies, bound up helpless women and barbiturates. In other words great, immortal themes to construct some foot tapping tunes to. 
Like The Cramps their stage show is one of exaggerated theatrics and visuals. A blending of the B-Movies themes they love so dearly with the music they do so well. The movie was never made but they turned the idea into one hell of a stage show.
I sit here all alone with a martini built for two. I sit here all alone cos' I got nothin' better to do.
I sit here all alone with a martini built for two. I sit here all alone, well I showed up but where are you?
Like the above bands the information on this band is spotty and questionable at best, usually coming from fan sites that are drawing their data from fan based message boards and forums. And that can be good but it can also be dubious at best. In any event such spurious histories tend to add to the myth of a band and one can never be sure if what you are reading is factual or the stuff of legend. In the case of The Lords of Acid the legend almost takes on a quality similar to the story of Dracula as the roots appear to go back to small European countries and families with reputed royal links or ties to vast fortunes in beer industries. I am not sure what to believe or not and all I am clear of is that the founder and leader is one Maurice Engelen, a.k.a. Praga Khan. He was part of the industrial techno sound’s early days in NYC but exactly how this band formed and who is who in it now I am just not sure. In fact I do not even know if I care. I do not mean that is a negative way at all. I am worried if I find out too much they will lose thier mystique for me.
The picture of the wild girl in a theater I posted below is singer “Debbie” but there are other front people and the line up seems to change regularly. Another lead singer seems to be one “Nikki Darling” but I am not sure who sings what and on what album. I do not have liner notes to draw from but I think (and I may well be wrong) that Debbie was the singer for their 2nd album, with the infamous Mitch Cooper cover, called VooDoo U which was released in about 1991. I will admit I bought the CD long ago only for the “uncensored” Coop cover but was soon taken in by the heavy sounding industrial rock on the disc. It is similar to what Ministry was doing in the early 90’s but much better in the vocal department. Whoever the girl might be that is singing on Voodoo U she can certainly sing and exudes a naughtiness that is unsettling.
Like the Thrill Kill Kult their songs glorify fetishism and Dionysian excess but the edginess to the music and singing is more pronounced. The production is of a flawless high quality and there is a definite DJ club mix feel to the songs but they are also well crafted heavy rock tunes to boot. They do not employ outside samples from films the way TKK do but they do use loops and samples. The music has that industrial feel to it and a kind of Euro-trash element as well. A little former Soviet-bloc decadence set to Khan’s well polished excursions into the rock versions of the Psychopathia Sexualis. There is definitely humor in the songs. How can you not chuckle a little at a cute yet catchy little ditty like The Crablouse, which is a song about one woman’s intimate relationship with her socially transmitted parasite.
I tend to like Voodoo U the most of their albums. It is really edgy and simply rocks on all the tracks. I have not delved too far into the other ones but I have them all on MP3 and will do so. Furthermore once I can figure out who some of the members are I might back and clear that up. But then I am not sure if that is a such a good thing. These bands seem all the more interesting because they are shrouded in mystery and lore. If you want to try to figure some of it out here is a band site of higher quality. Good luck and have many wanton listenings as you kick back in your rubber pajamas and oxygen mask with your copy of DeSade's Justine.
http://www.lordsofacid.com
Saturday, 17. March 2007, 11:30:27
Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars, Music Recommendation
Dark metal progenitor Glenn Danzig hails from Lodi New Jersey. His screaming Elvis meets Jim Morrison at Anton Levey's Satanic church styled voice came in into the music scene with his first band The Misfits in the latter 70’s and they as were raw and viscous as anything else that was punk and east coast at the time. What set The Misfits apart was not their musicianship but Danzig’s unique howl and his penchant for building catchy hooks around B-Movie themes, such as Astro Zombies, Return of the Fly and Night of the Living Dead. The band’s onstage appearance was spooky and their garb and make-up seems to predate both Goth fashion and even the Black Metal look that would come out of Scandinavia with bands like Mayhem and Emperor. I am familiar with this band through a couple anthologies I have and the music is stripped down and played pretty fast. The songs are loaded with dark humor and inferences to old sci-fi and horror films. The band’s label was even called Plan 9 records after the Ed Wood Jr. cult movie classic Plan 9 from Outer Space.
The Misfits were a hard rocking outfit and their brief moment on the punk scene proved to be more of an influence on later bands and trends than Danzig would have ever cared to admit. He mostly dismisses his time with the band now but says it was a fun time. It served as a suitable vehicle to release his dark vision with a theatrical flare he become adept at. There is some sort of band now called The Misfits that I know little about except that they dress up the same way and play sounds about midnight movies. They may be led by Eerie Von who would play with Danzig later in Samhain and Danzig, but I am not 100% certain. I have heard a couple songs even and they do not sound that bad but do not be confused, this is not the same Misfits that penned such immortal lines as:
I've got something to say, I killed your baby today.
An' it doesn’t matter much to me as long as it’s dead.
An' I've got somethng to say. I raped your mother today.
An it doesn't matter much to me as long as she's spread.
The Misfits spilt up after prolonged disputes in 1983 and Danzig went on to form Samhain. Everyone probably knows that is some Celtic word for what was once Halloween during the pagan days. Samhain is the lesser known period of Danzig’s career. It is the bridge period between the now legendary Misfits and the later to come Danzig period. There are a few significant changes in the musical approach that challenge the criticisms that Samhain was just the Misfits with out the punk. The music did slow down and became heavier and brooding, and that seems be to Danzig’s liking since ultimately that is where his sound would evolve. The lyrics became less about midnight movies and more about dark and demonic themes. Danzig appears to take his occult matters seriously at times (and tongue in cheek at others)and he seems as if he comes from some dark castle in Norway rather than Bruce Springsteen’s backyard. Another element is that the music and production is simply better than The Misfits. I have Intium and the EP Unholy Passion. Unholy has some really dark guitar by Pete Damien. I have not explored the other albums too much although I do own them.
During the live shows Danzig would appear on stage covered in fake blood (I assume)wearing a leather cowl and S&M looking garb and was known to make use of his sizable biceps by actually leaping into the audience and pulverizing ungracious fans. Again internal strife signaled time for change and Danzig formed a long lasting partnership with Def American Record’s Rick Rubin and with bassist Eerie Von dropped the Samhain band name and formed what is now known in one incarnation or another as Danzig. I do have a special note concerning Danzig the band before going further. Pete Damien was canned (Danzig is notorious for firing band members and the line up list is exhausting to look at) and replaced him with heavy blues based guitarist John Christ (nice last name for a Satanic metal band's guitarist wouldn’t you say?) who is from Baltimore Maryland and was school mates with my old cult movie pal in Seattle Matt Gehringer who shared some small school stories of John before he filled in on guitar for some of Danzig's finest moments before he too was sacked after a couple fantastic albums.
Essentially Samhain and Danzig were pretty much the same entity at one time and some Samhain projects were even finished a couple years after albums were being produced under the Danzig name. A Samhain reunion tour happened in 1999 but Danzig has since said there would never be another. There is bad blood between him and Eerie Von and Peter Damien and Danzig does not seem like one to waste time trying to rekindle long dead fires. He is a work horse it seems and has plenty of other activities to keep him busy.
The first three Danzig albums, the eponymous Danzig, Lucifuge and How the God’s Kill are considered to be some of the best stuff Danzig has ever produced. They were followed by a live EP Thrall Demon’s Sweat Live that contained the live version of the FM hit Mother and the not too bad Danzig 4. But the first albums showed a marked departure from what he had been doing in The Misfits and Samhain, which despite his seriousness sometimes were simply campy and comical and at other times just poorly played and produced. On Lucifuge his voice was just so astonishing that it is really beyond belief. And not only his voice but the direction of the band had become clearer aswell and John Christ’s simple but heavy and tight guitar work was something sorely needed for Danzig’s soaring vocals. The band left the indiscipline of punk behind and moved into more polished metal territory. The vision of the music became more centered around typical metal themes and were even a tad epic in their scope at times. The Lucifuge album is one of my favorite albums really and if you are curious about Danzig but not familiar I would recommend you start with this one. Simply because his voice is so powerful and the guitar work is clear, professional and heavy.
As the 90's decade advanced there were the obligatory numerous firings and line up changes. The list is long my friend but the outfits tended to be pretty tight and heavy in a dark aspect. However in the mid 90’s Danzig took it upon himself to release a strange album called Black Aria, which is an instrumental album of drone sounds and strings. It is Wagnerian in its intent but rock stars should not dabble in Wagner. I listened to a few minutes of it once and turned it off and never listened to it again. It was not want I wanted from Danzig I guess. Call me narrow minded. I can listen to the Bach Cello Suites if I want this type of thing, but who knows, I still have the music here somewhere and maybe I will give it a try again. Sometimes you can put something away for years and return to it and see it from a different angle. But even stranger is the next album called Blackacidevil which I always tried to give him the benefit of the doubt on because he was so attacked by fans and critics but finally have to admit I do not like it too much myself. It seems to be an attempt at a heavt metal techno sound and there seems to be drum machines and all that industrial banging stuff which is great by bands like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails but not so endurable here.
In any case Danzig returned with a some decent heavy albums in the late 90’s and early 21st century such as Satan’s Child 6.66, I Luciferi and Circle of Snakes. I listened to I Luciferi for a month a while back and felt it was a return to the sound he had done during the early Danzig albums. Yes, some bands can branch out and experiment and do a variety of things and still pull it off. Other bands need to stay close to what it is they do best, or they might wind up like Metallica.
Danzig ultimatley did not wind up in some experimental abyss and though his material is sometimes weak, as is any performers, it is very strong at others and even on his worst albums his voice is dynamic and driven. It is a dark world his lyrics and music creates but not one full of angst and morbid, suicidal gloom. It is more like an atmospheric horror movie. Some songs are like 50’s rock roll played for an audience of demons in Hades (such as Blood and Tears on Lucifuge). All in all good stuff. But the Danzig legacy does not end with gothic metal music. Nay, there is but but one more chapter in Glenn's creative universe we should peek into before we close the book.
Verotik Comics is Glenn Danzig’s foray into the field of comic book publishing and writing. The company came about in the 90’s while some of his Danzig projects were floundering a little. His energy was focused, I speculate, into getting his comic book titles off the ground and accepted in the comic book world. The company has been successful but do not expect to run down to the drug store comic book stand and pick these titles up. They are ultra violent and sexual and are found in comic book stores to be sold to persons over 18 only. A couple more popular titles are Santanika an Verotika and his list of talents include among others Frank Frazetta himself who has supported Danzig’s company and its policy of total creative freedom to the writer and artists. Other artists include Simon Bisley (sample from Prophesy included) and the legendary Esteban Maroto who did some of the greatest Warren stories ever, including some very sexy Vampirellas. I will let Danzig express himself in closing on the subject of Verotik comics:
"If an adult's comics purchases are still limited to Superman and The X-Men, I think he or she needs their head examined. There's nothing wrong with those titles, but with so many great comics out there that are pushing the envelope of what comics can be, I think people are really missing the boat. My feeling is that if a publisher is not hiring the best possible artist and writer, giving them artistic freedom and backing them with quality production, why bother?"
For further info check out these two Danzig based sites with Satan’s blessings.
http://www.the7thhouse.com/
http://www.danzig-verotik.com/verotik/
Tuesday, 6. March 2007, 12:53:42
Music Recommendation, Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars
DEATH WISH II AND LUCIFER RISING[
Amazingly this interesting 1982 album by Jimmy Page seems to have never been released on CD in the States. I am not sure but it seems it may have been released on CD in Japan and Germany but I could be wrong. Those releases, if they happened, would be decades old now anyway. I used to own the album on vinyl right after it came out and I have waited for years really for it to come out on CD. Still waiting. However I found a pretty good version that someone ripped from vinyl and converted to MP3 and it is on the web now as a bittorrent file. I got it from mininova.com. The record sounds pretty clean and beggars cannot be choosers in this instance.
It was Page’s first release after the demise of Led Zeppelin and it seems to have vanished into obscurity and only real Pageophiles like myself even know of its existence. The movie is really a bleak, dreary, ultra-violent exploitation film by Michael Winner and I absolutely recommend it. Seems Winner was Page’s neighbor somewhere outside London and proposed Page do the score one night. John Paul Jones also scored a Winner film called Scream for Help that Page and Jon Anderson of Yes contributed to. His soundtrack was pretty much rock and roll and I cannot find it even in bittorrent yet.
There is dark rumor that Page used some of his infamous Lucifer Rising score for this soundtrack, at least in the form of inspiration. As you may well know Lucifer Rising was the film Kenneth Anger commissioned Page to score and there was a legendary falling out between the two men over the music. There are potentially apocryphal tales of magic black and deadly curses and self-destructive heroin addiction that Page has said little about in the press and to which Anger has offered only scathing vitriol . Whatever the truth is we may never know. Both men were Aleister Crowley devotees and more than a little eccentric. Page’s music was never used as Anger said it was too dark and sinister and he instead turned the renowned happy go lucky music composer Bobby BeauSoleil of Charles Manson Family fame to score the film. I saw it and the BeauSoleil score sucked to be honest. Who would you want to score your Aleister Crowley film, the producer,song writer and guitarist of Led Zeppelin as well as owner of the greatest collection of Crowley memorobilia (including Boleskin House on the dank shores of Loch Ness) in the world, or a friggin' drugged out murdering memeber of a doomsday cult? Page's unused score became the stuff of legend while whacky BeauSoleil is still rotting in prison somewhere for all I know and care.
As the case so happens to be I am in possession on my hard drive of a bittorrent of said Lucifer Rising soundtrack. A version called the “blue vinyl” disk was released on Boleskin House Records in the late 80’s and contains on one side Page’s 23 or so minutes of Satanic guitar, synthesizer and theremin drones. It does not sound too bad really though if you like this sort of thing. The guitars were played and processed through an early ARP synthesizer and the sounds are swirling and dense. The emphasis seems to lean towards the synthesizer and away from pure guitar sounds. Some of it resembles the sounds at the beginning of In the Evening from In Through the Out Door. Page obviously had a dark side and it is here for you to expereince if you want to and why in the world wouldn't you?. There is simply too much happiness in the world anymore! We need more tone poems to Satan! It is not for sale on a legitimate label but MP3 versions are shared online by Page cognoscenti. I pass on to you this website where you can listen to it in all its evil glory but I do not think you can download it:
http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARrarities/ARjplucifer.html
You can also search for the bittorrent file online and download it if you know how. Furthermore if you have money to blow, to the sum of $666 exactly, you can purchase a copy and give it to your mother at Christmas time from:
http://www.goantiques.com/detail,lucifer-rising-jimmy,906342.html?source=VYZ4474
Enough on the Lucifer Rising score and back to the more uplifting subject of Death Wish II. I do not hear any of the Lucifer Rising stuff in this movie score though there is ample thick dark synth tracks and it is a great rock and roll album to boot. There are some rock songs that employ guitar, vocals, synth and even saxophone. I cannot remember all the liner notes from my old long lost vinyl but Page plays guitars, keyboards and some bass even. It may even be that the saxs are synth as I recall, but they sound pretty real to me. If they are real they are only instance of Page playing with sax that I know of on disc. The incidental music (background music in a movie) is really great and I wish Page had done some more stuff like this. If I knew how to post MP3’s to this site I would do it and if I figure it out I will add a sample track later. Page’s post Zeppelin material has always shrank in the tall shadow of his Zeppelin work in not only the eyes of critics but once dedicated fans as well. I have been listening to Death Wish II along with his The Firm material and Outrider and those are great albums. Not great in the way Physical Graffiti was great and I do not expect them to be and therefore I really enjoy them, even more lately than I did when they first came out.
There are some classic Page chops on this sound track album and some orchestral type things you will not hear him do anywhere else. Why those record company bastards have not released this on CD is a baffling conundrum to me, especially when they are producing discs by the likes of Celine Dion and Justin Timberlake right and left.
As a closing note during my Crowley period (yea, yea, I had a Crowley phase, are you gonna tell me you never did?) I met Kenneth Anger at Scarecrow Video in Seattle and he signed my copy of Hollywood Babylon with“Do What Thou Wilt, Kenneth Anger”. I was such a silly guy back then.
BLADE RUNNER
And yet another film score shrouded in mystery and lore and controversy. The Blade Runner (a William S. Burroughs term) film came out in 1982 and no official soundtrack was released until 1994. There was much outcry from fans of the movie and Vangelis as well over this and I am not sure what all the reasons were for this marvelous soundtrack being delayed so long. And the eventual release and various versions of the soundtrack outside the official one seem steeped in myth and lore. Before going into all that you can preview the CD here in its entirety I believe. There is a short intro by Vangelis on the site and it seems to be the actual official release and it opens up on my computer in Media Player.
http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/perki/records/brunner2/brunner2.html
However the disc is available to own at your local over priced CD store. Some problem around the releasing may have been due to Vangelis being dissatisfied with the quality of the tapes he was given to turn into a soundtrack. I read that somewhere but am not sure why that would have been a problem considering modern technology. I am certain money played some role in the scandel. Needlees to say bootlegs abounded in the 80's and finally an official released was announced and the soundtrack came out in 1994, 12 years after the film, on the Polydor label. Now, the story seems to get more intriguing when you do a little research and discover that this official release is in fact NOT EVEN THE ACTUAL ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK but was completely re-recorded in the 90’s on newer digital instruments and that some of the tracks are not actually performed by Vangelis himself! Okay, it's not as bad as the Milly Vanilly debacle, but I am a little surprised to read this. There is also music on the release that never appears in the movie and some fans do not consider this official release a definitive representaion of the film's music.
One release that seems all but dismissed is a symphonic version that was officially released in the 80’s. It was some attempt by the film makers to satiate the rabid fans with something/anything until they could get a real score out. I never had any interest in hearing this and still do not. There seems to be various bootlegs and alternate foreign “official” releases that contain different sets of music and the music is claimed to be the original score. I have not heard any of this and I have read some bootlegs are actually pirated recordings made in the movie theater on tape recorders!
One bootleg that seems interesting is called the “Esper Edition” and apparently contains two discs of all of the original 1982 Vangelis score in failry high quality. You can read about this version at:
http://www.mindspring.com/~spiltmilk/id187.html
I am more than a little curious about this version and another called the Gongo version which is considered the very best boot in quality though not quantity. However, even if the official releases was re-recorded and lacks most of the film score and adds music never in the film I can assure you that the quality of the official release is impeccable as listening material. This is a beautiful and haunting film score and one of my all time favorite pieces of music. It is a perfect track to a perfect movie. My comment on this film in general is that it is one similar to Apocalypse Now in that I am not worthy to review it. I am more The Fiend Without a Face type reviewer. I would like to hear the Esper Edition or Gongo version and maybe they are available as a bittorrent. I will research this and get back. In any case, this music is worth all the fuss and ballyhoo. If you do not have it, get it. It is dark and airy and compliments Ridley Scott’s best film exquisitely. Maybe there will be another "official" release someday, but for now this will do just fine.
Saturday, 10. February 2007, 06:36:52
Music Recommendation, Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars
TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS
After writing a lengthy opinion of Yes’ Close to the Edge it got me thinking of the other two albums that followed right on the heels of that prog-rock classic and while still in the mood I decided to comment briefly on them. I also spent some time trying to find some nice Roger Dean prints to post but as of yet cannot. All I can find are tiny reproductions that are for ptints that are for sale and so I need to search some fan sites later and post some reproductions of this great fantasy artist whose career and vision became symbiotically entwined with Yes’.
Tales from Topographic Oceans is the only one of the three albums I do not have with me here in China except on MP3s I got from a bittorrent site. I regret not buying this before I left the States. It was released in 1974 and while similar to Close to the Edge it is also a distinct and extremely unique musical statement in the Yes catalog. It is a double album consisting of only four songs, one song per side and I will be honest, after all these years I still have not developed a liking for the second song, The Remembering, enough to dissect it. But I am very drawn into the other three songs although I am not sure what I can say about them as they are so dense and complicated and abstract. The underlying theme is some Hindu text and the music shows all sorts of eastern influences. Some percussion sections sound like classical Chinese music. But there are plenty of strains of rock, jazz even a classical guitar section on The Ancient.
Anderson's lyrics are cosmic and fantastic though very abstract (which is okay with me but not with everyone. In fact I tend to find that Anderson's lyrics from this period are the make or break point for many potential listeners.) His vocal style employs two syllable chants and some sections are like miny mantras. The band is on the mark all the time and compared to what else was being done in 1974 this album is a simply grand and ethereal musical statement. Of course some people could not begin to get it and it is often dismissed by even prog rock enthusiasts as overblown, pompous and simply boring.
Two other worthy mentions is the glorious cover art by Roger Dean that opened into a beautiful gatefold and on inside had the lyrics spread out like an ancient scripture. The effect is not the same on a tiny CD cover. Also it is the first album on which American Alan White appears on drums after Bill Bruford left to join King Crimson and create some equally great music there. The only other recordings I am aware White did prior to this epic was some stuff with John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band and that was mostly straightforward twelve bar rock-n-roll. He jumped right into the deepest water imaginable with a band of perfectionists and held his own and then some. A timeless album that you will love with a passion, hate with a greater passion or dismiss as simply unlistenable. But it still sells at a high rate really and reached number six in the US charts then. It seemed once there was almost hope for mankind but we now live in an age were 50 Cent and Avril Lavigne go double platinum while John Lennon is assassinated.
I cannot recommend this album for everyone, including most prog rockers, but if you are able to digest it you will not be disappointed. In fact, I am going to go listen to The Remembering over and over until I get it. The problem with this song must be with me and not with such a perfect piece of muisc as this albm truly is.
RELAYER
I have heard Yes fans describe Relayer as either their favorite Yes album or the one they can relate to the least. The music on the album is very distinct from other Yes outings and it seemed to mark the end of a period really. The next couple albums, Going for the One and Tormato, while not bad albums in the least signified a change in direction from Close to the Edge and Tales from Topographic Oceans. Rick Wakeman took a hiatus from the band and Patrick Moraz took over on keyboards and as far as I am concerned he did a great job despite the sometimes vitriolic criticisms I have read of his one album collaboration with the band.
The music is less hippified on Relayer than on any other album I have listened to by them and I do not know if this is because of Wakeman’s absence and Moraz’s presence. Most likely it is due to some decision on frontman and visionary Jon Anderson’s part. Like Close to the Edge the album consists of just three songs. The epic Gates of Delirium is a song I have wrestled with all my life and I think my hesitance about calling it the masterpiece it almost could be is due to the long and grating middle section. I understand that given the context of the song this represents the sounds of war and battle. It is mostly percussive in nature and without any vocals. The keyboards and guitar and Chris Squires bass just sound like they are improvising at times. It is not a terrible section of music and the playing is superb in areas except that it all goes on just too long and is sandwiched in between two fine sections of melodic music. Remember that Yes already had five full album side epics behind them by now and they just could have filled the space in better in my opinion.
The next two songs make up for the dragging middle section of Delirium and Sound Chaser s one of Yes’ hardest rocking songs. It has a long solo guitar part in the middle that is not over played and shows why Steve Howe is one of the most respected guitar players in rock music. The rest of the song does not fail to deliver the goods either. It is a wild piece of music and not one they would have done with Wakeman on board I feel.
The last song To be Over is beautiful and is classic yes. Sounds like Howe is playing a petal steel guitar in parts. The opening sections is one of my favorite parts of all Yes songs.
I saw them in Louisville KY in 1976 for this tour and they did great. I saw them a couple years later with Wakeman and I have to confess that I thought the playing was in fact better with Wakeman, but the show with Moraz was great. It had all the props designed by Roger Dean. And speaking of Dean Relayer is one of his best covers ever. Supposedly this was the first time he had heard some of the music prior to painting a cover and after Anderson saw the finished art he changed some of the musical direction.
It is a great album but one of the more controversial ones in the Yes catalog. It is a little dark and heavy really and an abrupt departure from the Hindu scripture inspired songs that preceeded it. I would safely say it is my 3rd favorite Yes album and the criticisms I have about it are common ones with fans of the album. It is a special rock album and I would recommend it only to those with a very discerning and elevated taste (and I humbly include myself in that category.) I have to confess after Tormato I lost interest in what Yes was doing. I actually liked 90125 a little but never felt it sounded like Yes without Steve Howe, though Trevor Rabin;s playing was superb. I feel Relayer was their last truly monumental musical statement but I am not a rabid Yes fan really and I may be wrong. I am curious about the ablums Reunion, Keys of Acension and ABWH but cannot find them in China, so far not even on the web. Definently interestd in anything they may have done in the last decade that resembles their early work and I am hesitent to buy the music simply based on thiose glorious Roger Dean covers. Remember, never judeg an album by its cover.
Friday, 26. January 2007, 03:44:58
Music Recommendation, Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars
I was never a huge fan of prog rock back in the 70’s but I did develop a taste for a lot of it later on. Without a doubt King Crimson is one of my all time favorite bands though I do not know much about what they did before Starless and Bible Black. For the most part I liked Emerson Lake and Palmer’s Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery and their FM hits but found some of their other stuff irritating to listen to all the way through.. I also like what I heard of the old Genesis with Peter Gabrielle, especially The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Selling England By the Pound (one of my all time favorite albums.) But no doubt the album that lit my fire for this type of music long before I knew what it was called was Close to the Edge by Yes. I was given the alum on vinyl as a gift back around 1975 when all I listened to was Led Zeppelin and Paul McCartney. I was sort of freaked out by it and put it away for a year or so and when I was in college and got it back out after digesting Fragile I was swept away little by little until it became, as well, one of my all time favorite albums and one I still listen to. Most recently I played it over my MP3 player while on a bus traveling through the jungles near Burma and Laos and it was a most suitable soundtrack.
I believe it was Yes’ fourth or fifth album (I am not sure where Yesterdays fits in chronologically) and there is no question that it was a zenith for the band at the time. I always found those first two albums pretty forgettable except for the song Time and a Word. Steve Howe came aboard for The Yes Album and brought the band to life with his myriad of guitar styles and Rick Wakeman and his classically influenced keyboard sound joined for Fragile, the album that contained the band’s bread and butter song Roundabout. I am not aware of any other prog rock band having a hit song of the scale of Roundabout (I do not consider post Gabrielle Genesis prog rock) and therefore crossing successfully over a tad into mainstream rock.
But what they did with Close to the Edge sent the message that they were not going to be (at that time anyway) anymore of an FM station band than King Crimson or Genesis. The album is deserving of all the praise it gets and equally deserving of the criticism. The album is both grand and pompous but accessible in a way many such albums are not (including Yes’ next two concept albums Tales from Topographic Oceans and Relayer.) The album consists of only three songs. The title song does something Yes does a lot better than most bands who try it do and that is to fill an entire album side (an average of about twenty minutes) with one song. The song moves through various sections while maintaining a musical theme that is either beautiful or obnoxious to the listener depending on their listening abilities. I am proud to belong to the club that finds it simply beautiful. The first eleven minutes structured around Howe's guitar are immortal. Anderson’s Siddartha style lyrics come into full bloom while Wakeman is pretty low key until after the middle section where he comes in with church organs and then timeless synthesizer work.
The next two songs are mini epics as well. With And You and I the center again becomes Howe and his acoustic guitar, but the band performs flawlessly and again Anderson’s trademark falsetto voice and lyrics are in pure form. The album closes with the song the band would open with for years to come (mixed with Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite) Siberian Khatru, and it is simply a steady driving hard rock song with virtuoso twists and turns. Any fan of prog rock must own this album. Hard to believe this was recorded in 1972. It is also hard to believe, giving popualr music trends, that this album reached number three on the charts in the States and stayed there for thirty two weeks,without ever having any airtime on FM radio stations (no doubt to the songs extended lengths) except maybe on those old "midnight album" shows. Even more surprising is that follow up album Tales from Topographic Oceans reached number six in the States (#1 in the UK) and stayed there for twenty seven weeks. It was a double album with only four epic and abstact songs. A record company probably would not even touch an album like this now.
Close to the Edge was a watermark but change was in the air as well as drummer Bill Bruford left to join King Crimson, supposedly in part due to conflicts in the studio that developed while recording the album. He would be replaced by American drummer Alan White who while a good drummer was not in the same league as Bruford (for better or worse) and after two more fantastic albums the band began to produce some albums that simply lacked the vision and scope they seemed to have tapped into during this period. I lost interest after Going for the One and Tormato. And have not even listened to much they did after them. Some people swear that Relayer is the best Yes album ever (and it is a great album with great cover art) but I disagree and feel Close to the Edge is it. I feel the album works well with Topographic Oceans and the three albums combined mark a moment when the band climbed the mountain and “viewed the silence of the valley.”
Thursday, 11. January 2007, 14:12:36
Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars
I remembered Page's birthday on the right day but was not able to connect to the Opera server for a few days. I still admire the guy and his work even if I do not see it as flawless and immortal. I was one of those guys with Led Zeppelin posters all over my wall and even later in life I kept a pretty good collection of things, old magazines and photo books. Saw the guys in Cincinatti in '77. then later saw Plant at The Sunken Gardens in San Antonio Texas for the Manic Nirvana tour and then saw the Unledded Tour at The Gorge in Washington State. Always a fan and looking for news but rabidly obssessed anymore. I would like to read more on what he (Page) is doing with Casa Jimmy, a house for orphaned street kids in Rio De Jinaro, but the information is sparse or I have not searched hard enough. These guys were never big on interviews and airing laundry in the public. Page's interviews become infamously the most boring in rock-n-roll I felt but I read them all anyway. If I had read about him talking about how he miked up the drum kit for When the Levee Breaks or about his guitar army theories one more time I think I would have thrown myself into a pool of mudsharks. But I mostly admired the fact he talked about what he was the most passionate about, his music and Led Zeppelin and not about his private life and drug rehab or Satan and underaged groupies. Damn it!!!!!
Speaking of the seedy side of Zep I got a cool email from Thomas Friend regarding my post and review of his book Fallen Angel that I never read. To be clear, I am promoting the book and would love to read it, but I cannot find it here in China and ordering things here is hit and miss. I know it is not cool to review a book you have not read and I hope I did not pan it. I was just saying now my hero worship phase has wanned, but I most difinently endorse reading and listening to anything about and by these guys. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon, and...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. JIMMY PAGE
Sunday, 24. December 2006, 05:46:40
Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars
Testament
Listening to a lot of Testament lately. I got into them through an old heavy metal buddy of at a forgettable job in Redmond Washington. I find them more listenable than most metal I hear anymore, including Mudvayne who I have now got a little burned out on because it all sounds the same. I am simply a fan of electric guitar and therefore electric guitar solos. I also like lyrics that are not so intentionally morbid and morose, constantly whining about how terrible life is in same drab way. So much modern metal falls into this category. Testament has its fair share of dark lyrics to be sure, but it falls into thrash metal mode where it is not always so serious or uses allegory and metphor to makes its point. Seems there are quite a few periods and lineups with this outfit. The classic lineup appears to be the one with Alex Skolnick on lead guitar. He left in 1992 and was replaced by the capable James Murphy. Murphy would have to drop out around 1996 to try and survive a brain tumor (which I understand he did and returned to record with the band for their more recent material.) A third lead guitarist (as far as I know there were only three) named Glen Alvelais took over for a couple albums in 1997 and after and those tend to be pretty heavy and dark, bordering on death metal. The material I listen to seems to focus on Murphy and Alvelais. No doubt the Skolnick material is outstanding but it seems to sound a lot like (though better than) a lot of the thrash stuff or the late 80’s and early 90’s. Not to say that that is a bad thing. Singer Chuck Billy’s (who also later battled and survived cancer) vocals on the early stuff sounds a lot like Dave Mustane and the production is a bit “tinny” too, not strong on the low end, but that could be a problem of the MP3s I downloaded from a BT site. In fact I am trying to find a few version of Practice what you Preach as the sound is just awful with the version I downloaded in a big batch. Seems like I can hear some sort of click track sound in the center of the mix. (Note: I downloaded a new version and can still hear this electronic clicking sound that mirrors the drumming, so the click track sound must be in the recording, something the drummer is doing or a click track was deliberately left in the tracks... am I alone in this!! Does anyone else hear this in the center on headphones??) By the time Murphy came onboard for Low and The Gathering Billy’s voice had developed and I am more drawn to his vocal style on these and the later albums. On the abrasive Demonic he sounds very deep and raspy and gurgles great death moans over the bands darkest moments. I seem to have read that Skolnick might return (or maybe has already) and record and tour with the band. He had been doing jazz guitar stuff and touring with the Trans-Siberian Express, which I thought was a bunch of fluffy, heavy new age garbage. I do not know much about their pre-Murphy period with Skolnick other than Souls of Black (and it is great) but after Murphy their stuff remained consistent and seemed to develop and improve. They never got the fame and notice that Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth got but I think of the four they have maintained some real musical integrity and really experimented and grew, unlike Metallica, who experimented and drifted off into a musical abyss or Slayer, who never experimented and I still only like those three great albums, Reign in Blood, South of Heaven and Seaons in the Abyss. I will look for a new Testament album.
Always listening to some sort of King Crimson, usually their post Discipline stuff though I like most of the earlier stuff, especially the stuff off Starless and Bible Black, Larks Tongue in Aspic, and Red. But I prefer the stuff with Adrian Belew on vocals and guitar. I like Fripp’s work on the earlier stuff but often did not like the vocals. Right now listening to a lot of their live stuff, of which there is tons. I am not a fan of live recordings. While I do like the sound of bands like The Allman Brothers live, I never thought many other bands sounded so hot on live recordings. For example Led Zeppelin. Here was a band that sounded so great in the studio but often sounded so disorganized live, like a drunk garage band in my opinion. I like the Earl’s Court stuff on the How the West Was Won DVD and I saw tehm do a great show in Cicinatti but a lot of their live stuff lacked any listenability. Just sort of jamming. King Crimson seems to be the opposite of this rule in live rock-n-roll. They are obviously disciplined and driven on a deep level and can turn on a dime in concert to the point it does not even sound live. It is unnerving really. Fripp claims to have never abused drugs or even tried things like LSD and is pretty much a tea tottler preferring chocolates and tea to Jack Daniels and it shows. His thinking (and that of the outfit he is working with)is as clear and precise on stage as in the studio. Listening a lot to the double Cirkus CD and to the double On Broadway CD, both live. It is even refreshing to get a little away from their studio perfection and hear Adrian and Robert sort of stripped down, but even stripped down they are incredible. The material on these two CDs is from the “Double Trio” tour of around 1995 and that is when I saw them in Seattle. This type of music is not for everyone and if you want to like it it can take time and persistence. The sound is often dissonant and the timing is simply outrageous. But if you can develop a taste for it can open up a world you never dreamed of. Also listening to some of Fripp’s solo stuff as well as the two David Bowie albums they (Belew and Fripp) worked together on, Scary Monsters and Lodger (Fripp may not appear on Lodger.) I think this is where the two met and began the talks that led to the controversial rebirth of Crimson on Discipline. I also found a Crimson concert DVD here called Neal and Jack and Me and it is loaded with great material shot in Japan. This is a band that exists in a world of its own and never had a single commercial hit (other than maybe 21st Century Schzoid Man) and seems to exist by word of mouth by a dedicated and rabid fan base of listeners with hearing capabilities that are a million years advanced in evolution in relation the rest of humanity. I recommend Fripp’s solo Exposure album as well. It is what got me into this sound long ago. Exposure was my first exposure (so to speak)to Fripp and it was on vinyl! I was a Zep fan with long hair then and I saw this picture of a guy with totally short hair and a smart business suit on the cover and then fell over dead when I heard his guitar work.
For news and updates on Fripp and King Crimson there are many sites but this seems to the hub:
http://www.elephant-talk.com/
Thursday, 5. October 2006, 14:11:09
Artists Poets Writers and Guys with Guitars
Seems there is a new book out on Zeppelin. I used to worship these guys and saw them front row at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinatti back in 1977. I sort of drifted away from hero worship long ago but still check up on gossip and info on the fellas once in awhile. The latest thing worth a mention here is this new book called Fallen Angel: The Untold Stroy of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin by Thomas Friend. Doubt I will be able to find the book in China to even glance over. I did find a site about the book under the name of the author at:
http://www.thomasfriend.com/
Since I have not seen the book or read it all I have to go is this site and the gist of the book seems like it is going to be about uncovering nasty "truths" right and left. One review I read said the focus becomes Jimmy's heroin addiction and alcoholism. Alot of the book seems also to focus on all the black magick (as in Aleister Crowley) shananigans that Page was involved with on a serious level I suppose since (we all know the legend by now) he bought Crowley's Boleskin Manor on Loch Ness and had what was considered the best collection of Crowley artifacts on the planet (sometimes it is nice to be a multi-millionaire.) He has since given the house back to the Scottish community to which it belonged before the legends and it is a hostel now. I think you can pay extra and sleep in Jimmy's old bed.
I skimmed over the author's webpage though and to be honest found it a little crazy. I am not saying I am not interested in the sleazy groupie stories and drug nightmares and Satanic battles with Kenneth Anger but the book seems like (from the above author's site)it goes off into conspiracy land with some of its almost wacky assertions. And I do not take conspiracy thinking seriously. It takes song lyrics, for example, and builds them into epic themes depicting the battles of good and evil and the eternal conflict between Satan and the "Lord Jesus Christ" (his words, not mine.) Look, Zeppelin never changed the world on the basis of their lyrics but they did get the shit sued out of them for some of them. The author seems to have researched Crowley and the Silver Star and Golden Dawn and OTO stuff to death and he seems to find connections to the occult in everything the boys did. Again, I have not read the book, only the author's site. I may be wrong and the book may be a Hollywood Babylon stlye take on their career that took off at the start of the 70's and then crash landed at the close. I can dig that. But I guess I am older now and I am not so intrigued by all the dirty stories like I would have been just ten years ago. None of the guys have ever written or co-authored a tell all book and I have always admired them for them that. If I can get a copy through a bit torrent site on PDF I might give it a shot. I once had quite a collection of Zeppelin books and magazines and a collection of Crowley books too but I guess all that seems sort of strange and silly now. Their music is what survives. If no one cared about that now there would be no book. Sure the mudshark shark stories from the Edgewater Inn (where my movie pal Matt Gehringer worked and saw the actual room!!!) are immortal too and are part of the myth along with Satan and all that, but really the guys seem to have matured past it all and dismiss it in interviews as boring dribble, so why act like any of this is new or "untold." And they can still be more Satanic sitting around drinking tea than those tattooed goofs from Mudvanye or Slipknot could ever hope to be. Like it said on the third album DO WHAT THOU WILT.
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