Music of the Week archives (April 25th,2011 – June 10, 2012)
MUSIC OF THE WEEK ARCHIVES
April 25th,2011 – June 10,2012
I’ve done a quick backup of all the music of the week songs that I’ve posted over the time, before the site’s wipeout. I’ve put the youtube link next to the song’s title (when available) and copied my comments afterwards.
The songs are presented in chronological order, according to their posting date.
1) Dreamweb OST (Cyberpunk Manifesto V1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y-xEQeuxn7M
I’ll try to post once a week an interesting piece of music, preferably obscure, bizzarre and interesting, and spend a few words about it, in order to help in documenting obscure stuff more. In this era, content is easily available but comments and thoughts are not so spread, unfortunately.
For this first issue, i’d like to post an “hybrid” video. It has beautiful music in it (from the OST of the cyberpunk masterpiece Dreamweb for the PC and Amiga; i guess i’ll review it sooner or later), but the video also has a content different from the music, it carries the first version of the famous “cyberpunk manifesto”, a text that was written in 1997 by Christian As. Kirtchev.
2) Daniel Rezende – Wayfarer Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b-SwT_GPCJo
For this second issue of the music of the week section, I’ve decided to promote a very talented, albeit unknown to the great public, brazilian guitarist, Daniel Rezende. Daniel won the strings of fire guitar contest in 2010, his style is original and various with some ample neo-classical influences. His Youtube channel is here http://www.youtube.com/user/Danielozb
This song is taken from the horror/splatter OpenBOR game Jennifer, by masterderico. It’s a bit different from his other works, it’s more metal oriented and heavier. I hope you will enjoy this.
3) Cheap & Nasty – Beautiful Disaster http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rX744T3nEds
Cheap & Nasty are one of the many projects that came up from the dissolution of the original Hanoi Rocks in 1984. This project was led by the guitarist Nasty Suicide, who covers guitars and vocal duties here.The band adopted a retro style, mixing blues, rockabilly, country and a bit on funk. The result is a very classical, and very enjoyable, sound with a strong drive towards bluesy and melancholic moods.
The band produced two LP before disbanding: Beautiful Disaster in 1991 and Cool Talk Injection in 1994.
This is the title track from Beautiful Disaster. The video version is a bit shorter of the album song.
4) Days of Sorrow – Wild World http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fy-8cGSP10E
This Sunday we’ll uncover a little new wave gem, groovy and melancholic.
Days of Sorrow was a mid’ 80 German goth/post punk band. They released only two singles (Remembering the Days; 1984 and Wild World; 1986) before disbanding and fading into obscurity. A bootleg CDr of live songs and unreleased material is also floating around.
This is the “wild world” song from the Wild World EP (it appeared in a more primitive version on the Remembering the Days EP too). This version is a bit longer and more elaborate than the previous one.
Enjoy the danceable and romantic mood that it conveys. :)
5) Felt – All The People I Like Are Those That Are Dead http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2nMs2_7qA2E
This week I propose you a little pop masterpiece. This gem, crafted by clean arpeggios and atmospheric hammond organ, is one of the best tracks off the little known masterpiece “Forever Breathes The Lonely Word” (1986), the sixth album of the band.
The band was the brainchild of Lawrence Hayward, an enigmatic and very influential songwrites, who was an huge Television fan.
6) Fabio Frizzi – Zombi 2 OST http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aX8Ol2QYlUE
This is the main theme for the classic zombie movie “Zombi 2? (also known as “Zombies Flesh Eaters”), by the great italian director Lucio Fulci, also known as “the godfather of gore”.
The movie, shot in the early ’80s, leave behind the social use of zombies, done by directors like Romero, and picks up again the classical conception of the zombie, in connection with the voodoo beliefs. The movie has a dirty, insane, apocalyptic feeling in it (in particular the ending shot is very remarkable) and it’s highly recommended if you have a taste for horror movies.
A curiosity: Fabio Frizzi is the brother of Fabrizio Frizzi, a popular italian TV presenter and showman.
7) Andy McCoy – Wild Horses http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dNGhE8aXabM
Here’s a beautiful and intense cover of the Rolling Stones classic ballad, Wild Horses, performed by the ex Hanoi Rocks member Andy McCoy.
The video was shot in 1996. Don’t be scared by Andy’s alien looks, a mix between an inmate and an hallucinated hippie, and enjoy the music, a true tribute to rock n’ roll. Strumming while holding a lit cigarette is a true old school rock n’ roll antic, a sign of a philosophy and a intense way of living that got lost in the mist of our digital and chaotic years. Enjoy!
8) Iron Curtain – Quiet Mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nS1SltG7TOw
Iron Curtain has been a seminal band in the so-called minimal wave movement. Minimal wave aimed at recreating cold, distant, alienating atmospheres with minimal synth melodies and electronic rhythms, often inspired by the ones of the new wave movement, hence the name.
Iron Curtain, from Santa Barbara, CA, has been active in the early ’80s, from 1982 to 1988, and were strongly influenced by Joy Division, The Cure, Kraftwerk and David Bowie. Their alienating songs have became a milestone in the minimal wave movement, and all the EPs released by the band has been reprinted on a CD called “Desertion”.
This track is off a compilation of demos, live out takes and other rarities named “Artifact”. It has been released in a very limited press (only 300 copies) on vynil only.
This song is the first of the album. It’s a very intriguing, psychedelic and dark song about mental sanity and alienation.
The mind of the band, Steven Field, also released a CD of electronic music under the name of “Cosmic Love Child”. Check it out ;)
9) Duff McKagan – Lonely Tonite http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ISrgM3m8XeI
This is the last track of “Believe in me” album, by Guns n’ Roses original bassist Duff McKagan. The album was recorded during the tour of the “use your illusion” albums in 1992/1993 and is a nice collection of various material, spacing from hard rock to blues, funky, punk and other influences as well. The album features various guest, the most notable is Jeff Beck on the track “(Fucked up) Beyond Belief”. Each song is accompanied by some nice notes about the time and the reasons beyond it’s recording and songwriting.
This last track has a very retro sound in it, mirroring a bit the ’50s crooners, and has a strong night feeling into it. Curiously, the track opens with a Duff’s recurring dream…I’ve got an idea about it’s meaning, but I guess that Duff has already solved this issue a lot of time ago :)
10) The Silver Jews – How to Rent a Room http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tPf4EgnwMXs
This is the first track off “The Natural Bridge”, Silver Jews’s masterpiece.
The songs are minimalist and essential, a true work of fine crafting and love. I suggest you to read Berman’s brilliant lyrics, they mesh wonderfully with the song and are a strong point of the band.
11) Camera Obscura – Race in Athens http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mNyrVta-YQg
I am posting another obscure new-wave gem this week.
Camera Obscura, Peter Oldroyd and Nigel James, officially released only a single (Destituition) in 1983, even if there is a lot of unreleased material floating around, which is being collected by the Anna Lounge Records label, even if sadly not all of the unreleased material has survived. This is the b-side of Destituion, Race in Athens.
The sound is very atmospheric and dreamy, a perfect soundtrack for a rainy day or for a melancholic summer day. I think it’s a suitable choice for this week.
12) Joy of Life – Another Dream http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mKaT1p_EK_4
A very unknown new-wave band, Joy of Life formed in early ’80s and released one miniLP, Enjoy, under NER label (Death in June’s label) and a LP, Hear the Children, under Cadre Records label, and later disbanded in 1988. Enjoy was produced by Death in June’s Douglas P and some band members collaborated with Death in June and Current 93. This unfortunately led some people to think that Joy of Life were some sort of Death in June clone band, which they are not. Their sound is strongly new-wavish, with some folkish acoustic hints here and there, with a very strong gloomy feeling. They indeed are among the bleakest sounding new-wave bands.
Here is the first track of Enjoy, Another Dream.
13) Sólstafir – Köld http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1YQh2vyGhmA
After a couple of new-wavish issues, let’s steer towards some metal this week :)
Sólstafir is a metal band from Iceland, formed in 1995. As you can hear from this track, the title track for their latest album Kold (2009), their influences and their sound is pretty varied and intense (with a special mention to the vocals, very powerful and appropriate)…we go from the raunchy motor-headish rock n’ roll riffs, to sludgy, dronish, doomy atmospheres only to unexpectably swing towards a minimal keyboard and acoustic guitar driven melancholy. Excellent!
14) Rozz Williams – I’m not in love (10cc cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3iOOC9cK_N0
This week I am presenting you a nice little dark gem, perfect for a melancholic rainy day.
This is a live cover (from the “accept the gifts of sin” live album) of a little melancholic pop song, “i’m not in love”. The original had a very strong ’60s feeling to it and was melancholic but also lighthearted and poppy.
Rozz (for the few ones who don’t know, Williams was the leader and the founder of the seminal post-punk / dark group Christian Death. Later the monicker was taken by Valor, an ex-member of the group and there were TWO Christian Death, one leaded by Valor and one by Rozz. But this is another story :) ) trasforms this song into a very felt, heart shattering, auto-biographical song, a sort of epitome for his tortous life.
This live was recorded in 1996, Rozz suicided in 1998…may he rest in peace.
15) The Sisters of Mercy – Dance on Glass http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XIHq3m0ir1E
This week I’m offering you a demo version of a classic song…the demo version of Black Planet by The Sisters of Mercy, which can be found on their “First last and always” album.
This demo version features different lyrics (and a different title too), and it has Wayne Hussey singing on it.
16) Tyla – Unidentified http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D8wF8L9jCbE
This is the first track off the “nocturnal nomad” album from Tyla, the leader of the melancholic rock n roll band Dogs D’Amour.
This album is maybe Tyla’s finest and the one which expresses at the best the melancholic and nocturnal philosophy of the author.
The lyrics in this album are among the best of Tyla’s entire career. The themes are the ones that made Dogs D’Amour famous: women, love story gone bad, booze, melancholy, the chaos and sorrow of the modern world, all passed through the sad and romantic style that made Tyla famous but they are examined more deeply and they are more full of sorrow than the usual. Because of this, I decided to include the lyrics for the song in this post, under the video.
Drinking Chianti Reserva 1995
They pulled the body from the river, unidentified
They found only a key numbered room 405
No name, no address, unidentified
But my lady and I, a secret did we know
The identity of John DOE Valentino
For it was me who had laid
this caballeros in his watery grave
For it was he with no honour had lied
So he shall remain unidentified
Unidentified
And it was he who had cheated his own kind
So he shall remain unidentified
Unidentified
So we lead the dolce vita and we loved until we died
All that time we remained unidentified
Unidentified
17) Beach Boys – California Dreaming (Mamas and Papas cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H-ThPN8ZY4I
I’ve got some problems with my internet connection, so I couldn’t post the music of the week video on Sunday, like I usually do. I’m sorry.
For this week, I’m proposing you a very beautiful cover of California Dreaming, performed by the Beach Boys. The video is very nice too and has an appropriate atmosphere in it and it’s cleverly done. Enjoy! :)
18) The Alley Cats – Nightmare City http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SIGa_Q_uHmo
Here’s a little forgotten punk / new wave classic: the title track of Nightmare City LP, from 1981.
Sadly Alley Cats, a trio featuring husband and wife Randy Stodola (guitar and vocals) and Dianne Chal (bass and vocals) plus drummer John McCarthy, produced only two albums between 1979 and 1982 before disbanding and fading into obscurity. They later reformed as the Zarkons, releasing two albums in the late ’80s before disbanding again.
They were ahead of their times, and their influence, seldom acknowledged, can be heard on a lot of bands.
Enjoy the trip to Nightmare City. :)
19) Snatcher OST (PC Engine CD) – Beyond Sorrows http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0Xr6-LK3G9k
This little gem comes from the PC Engine CD version of Snatcher, an early Hideo Kojima’s adventure game, originally born on the PC-88 and then ported on a lot of other systems. It’s only official english release is the Sega CD version.
Enjoy. :)
20) Johnny Thunders – In God’s Name http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LLD_6wodWyc
A little buried gem from the real last rock n’ roll junkie hero, Johnny Thunders. As far as I know, this song has never been recorded properly in studio, but was only played live. There are different versions scattered around various bootlegs, this is the one which I liked the most.
21) Johnny Thunders – As Tears Go By (Rolling Stones Cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ilTogMbDmaI
This week I offer you a bit more of Johnny Thunders, after the previous week offering.
This is a very beautiful cover of the Rolling Stones classic “as tears go by”. It was performed in Japan by Johnny and his band in 1990, and it was along the final concerts for Johnny, before meeting his very sad demise…
Enjoy the wonderful melancholy that oozes from this cover, and notice the beautiful sax work :)
22) Vincent Rocco – King of Death Row http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DFRC2OJOy5M
This is a rare one! Third track from the only album that Vincent Rocco released as a solo artist, “Hell or High Water”.
The disc is an original and tasteful blend of soul, blues and funky. Classic stuff, but done in a very personal way. Rocco’s voice is very particular, maybe the closest comparison that I can make is Charlie Sexton.
Rocco also recorded some more material with a band called Multiplug, which is more rock n’ roll oriented in comparison to Hell or High Water.
23) Sabbat – Evil Nations http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ot4Kwcyii34
This week I’m presenting you an underground Japanese metal band, Sabbat. Their music is a bizarre mix of early and raw thrash metal and doom metal with strong black sabbathish tones.
This song, “evil nations”, is from “envenom” (1991), which is considered among the best works of the band.
24) Richie Kotzen – Lose Again http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RW8PCqrkrIg
Time to post a song of one of my favourite rock guitarist ever, Richie Kotzen.
This is a very little, intimate song, filled with melancholy. Richie said that it was written a short time after his divorce, in a very strange moment of his life. The song just flowed, asking very little conscious input from Richie. I guess this is how the best things are born :)
25) Alice Cooper – Dada http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CwqxKS1QhNs
This week I’d like to show you a lost gem from Alice Cooper: his Dada album.
This album, released in 1983, is the last of his new wavish works. While the other were blatant and confused, this one is a little creepy and crazy gem, with awesome, heartfelt songwriting and some original sonic solutions that never reappeared on Alice’s albums.
This album is maybe the most problematic of his whole career: is the last work written during his difficult struggle with alcohol and it substantially flopped (Alice never properly toured for Dada) despite being a very good work, strongly leaned towards introspection, written and produced with the help of Bob Ezrin, the producer with helped Alice in writing is best albums. Then, Alice’s career returned on big levels with Constrictor, in 1986, a return to a shock rock and a wink to heavy metal but this is a different story…
I originally wanted to post “pass the gun around”, maybe the album’s finest moment, an heartfelt song on alcoholism with the BEST solo that Dick Wagner wrote in his whole career, but sadly it’s not available on youtube anymore. Insted, I’m posting the title track of the album, a bizarre semi-instrumental song. Enjoy :)
26) LA Guns – Why Ain’t I Bleeding (link no longer available)
This week I’m offering you a track from the most underrated LA Guns album, Vicious Circle (1995). The disc is also the last to feature the classic line up of the band. Vicious Circle has a more aggressive edge compared to other LA Guns albums, but the ’90s were a difficult period for a lot of bands from the ’80s and so the disc went more or less unnoticed. It’s a shame because it has some of the best material ever written by the band, like this dreamy and introspective song.
27) The Scheme (PC88) OST – Challenging Tomorrow http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7T66Dc3Z5wU
This week I’m posting some more videogame related OST. This one is remarkable, it was one of the first works of Yuzo Koshiro, who became famous with the OST for Streets of Rage, composed using a NEC PC-88.
This game is a PC-88 exclusive and is a bizzare action/adventure game, in the vein of Metroid.
28) The Wake – Melancholy Man http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pvbY1Mqq-XI
It’s time to post a little, slighty poppy, new wave gem. I’m speaking about “Melancholy Man”, a fine tune included in The Wake’s second album, “Here Comes Everybody”, which arguably is their masterpiece.
Let yourself sink into these rainy and foggy moods, and enjoy the melancholy at it’s fullest. :)
29) Tim Hecker – A Piano Fall http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EE9mT4JaW_0
This week, I’m posting some bizarre melancholic drone electronic music. This is the opening track of Tim Hecker’s excellent last offering, “Rave Death 1972?. The song is named “A Piano Fall”.
30) Richie Kotzen – Faith http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=11GWEPtmjg4
A bit of more Richie Kotzen’s classic rock this week. This is a wonderful introspective blues / soul song from “The return of Mother Head’s Family Reunion” (2007).
31) The Dogs D’Amour – Things He’d Do http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lf7zWjJsoOA
This week, I’m presenting you a little buried gem of the luscious rock band the Dogs D’Amour.
This song is a B-side which never made it to any studio album of the band, and can be found only in the demo version I’m presenting you now. Like all the best Dogs D’Amour songs, it mixes melancholy, Bukowsky-ish alcoholic poetry, sorrow and the dark light and charm that everything blue, forgotten and left astray but inherently glowing with beauty possesses.
32) Tyla – Rosary Mozaic http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=05UlDFaHEE8
This is a little gem of Tyla’s (former Dogs D’Amour leader and main songwriter) solo career. It’s taken from the album Libertine, which has been reissued packed together with the album Gothic.
As in the best Tyla’s tradition, this is a little sad song, full of melancholy, bitterness and the subtle poetry of tragedy and of the forgotten.
33) Richard H. Kirk – Information Therapy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc-bTH_M0UQ&feature=player_embedded
Raising from the masters of industrial music Cabaret Voltaire, Richard H. Kirk released a lot of solo works during the years, mixing a lot of influences (very wide influences, ranging from the african tribal music to experimental noise) to obtain a very personal sound, a sound reeking of paranoia, dissociation and mental dissection, often going very far from the Cabaret Voltaire sound.
This track is off his first album, released in 1980, “Disposable Half-Truths”. Enjoy…if you can :)
34) Cheap & Nasty – End of Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HruI7P6F7uo
This is the closing track of the second, and sadly final, album of Cheap & Nasty, led by ex-Hanoi Rocks member Nasty Suicide, named Cool Talk Injection.
The album came out only in Japan, so it passed pretty much under the radar. It’s a bit heavier than the first one and it has it’s fine moments…my personal favourite is this wonderful ballad. Enjoy :)
35) The Lords of the New Church – The Night is Calling http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=teLX_eh2xhk
Happy holidays everyone! To celebrate them properly, please enjoy this fascinating and eerie song from the genius of Stiv Bators.
This one is pulled off the 1983 album “Is nothing sacred?”, the second effort of the Lords of the New Church.
Cheers!
36) Sky’s Above – Heart Touch http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZlJtxWMO29A
Happy new year! Is there a best way to begin a new year than to celebrate it with some underground and obscure quality music? Of course not, so enjoy this fine offering. A long, dreamy, new wave song from the very obscure Danish band, which released only the 12? with two songs, “Only I” and “Heart Touch”.
Again, happy new year! :)
37) The Church – Under the Milky Way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q6nKP10j4s&feature=player_embedded
This week I’m posting a little gem from a minor new wave band, The Church, famous for it’s melancholic and dreamy moods. This maybe is their major “hit” (if this word can be used in this context), so sit back, relax and enjoy :)
38) The Hangmen – Desperation Town http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bqk4sah-JJU
The Hangmen recorded their first album in 1989 and they were promoted as “the new Guns n Roses”. Nothing could be more far from the truth. The Hangmen presented a lo-fi blues/punk, some sort of “the Stooges meet the Rolling Stones” music. Musically minimal but powerful and snotty vocals and lyrics about alienation, desperation and overall chaotic confusion made them totally alien to the crowd who followed the hard rock / sleaze metal fare back in the day and the record collected dust. However, they deserve to be discovered again. The band never dropped it and in the ’00 released again records after 11 years of silence.
Desperation Town in the first song off the 1989 debut album. Enjoy the raw blues and the alienation :)
39) Far East Family Band – Nipponjin (link no longer available)
This is one of the very first Japanese progressive rock band ever, Far East Family Band. They played a very original and curious mix of Japanese traditional music, King Crimson and Pink Floyd with very good results.
This is the title track of their 1975 album, Nipponjin.
Take your seat and enjoy the flight… :)
40) Mike Rimbaud – Black Sea, Red Light http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1heNhRo2Od8
Title track off the “red light” album by Mike Rimbaud, a skilled and semi-unknown solo artist, ranging from country and folk to post punk.
41) Plumed Serpent – Life Without You / Waiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nG-CClcawls
This is one of the ’80s totally obscure bands which I’m looking for informations and material about.
These are the first two tracks of their self-titled demo (even if in inverted order: waiting is the first track and life without you is the second track in the demo) (ps I’m looking for a reupload of it), featuring a very nice gloomy and psychedelic sound,
Enjoy :)
42) The Gerogerigegege – Boys Don’t Cry (The Cure Cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=09glmnLsnKU
Best cover ever :D
43) Kutna Hora – Empty Room http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gjrWUQn6WcE
Kutna Hora is an Argentinian neo-folk band, they released two albums and an EP in the early ’00 before dissolving into darkness.
They’re quite interesting and original because they mix the typical neo-folk sound with electronic and wave influences, with a great taste and craftmanship. The melodies are refined and tasty, so the atmospheres that the music paints are.
44) Awolnation – Sail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaZMST-vHfM&feature=player_embedded
For once, I’m presenting you a recent band with a recent song :)
Awolnation released their first album, megalithic symphony, in 2010, mixing a lot of very different stiles for a very bizzarre result.
This song is strangely both accessible and weird, it’s a strange mixture of retrò-electronics with an 8-bit feel with a classic bluesy epic. Weird!
45) Hank Williams – Angel of Death http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPTyic_WPxI&feature=player_embedded
One of the most bleakest and bizarre country authors ever, Hank Williams Senior gifted us with many great bleak and creepy songs. He died tragically during one of his tours, in the ’50s and his strange death, which fell down on him like an omen told and felt long time ago, entered among the myths of the modern age and popular culture…
My personal favourite from his catalogue of songs is the angel of death, a bleak and intense warning about the end of all things.
When the angel of death comes down after you
Can you smile and say that you have been true ?
Can you truthfully say with your dying breath
That you’re ready to meet the angel of death..?
See you on the slick black Cadillac, Hank ;)
46) The Suicide Twins – Sweet Pretending http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PtlLlNajPCU
This week, it’s time to dust off one of the best post-Hanoi Rocks projects. Starring the couple extraordinarie, Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide (here listed as Nasty Superstar), “silver missiles and nightingales” is a very nice and interesting acoustic album, mixing various styles and exploring different musical landscapes of the ones faced with Hanoi Rocks, but without losing the edge and the guts that belonged to Hanoi.
This one is one of the best tracks off the album and also features beautiful additional lead vocals by unsung rock n roll hero Renè Berg. Enjoy :)
47) Christian Death – Angel (Jimi Hendrix cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0zy7AdzDUqA
A very nice and spacey Hendrix’s cover from “all the love all the hate” album.
48) Septic Death – Terrorain http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1IOe_AL6joA
This week I’m posting some nice hardcore / proto-grindcore. Septic Death was an ’80s hardcore band from Idaho, fronted by the charismatic Pushead (an artist which also drew some covers for Metallica and wrote on hardcore magazines back in the day). They were very obscure and played only an handful of shows in their career…
This track is from their 1986 LP “now that I have the attention what do I do with it?”. It’s very harsh and proto-grindcorish, enjoy the slaughter :)
49) Michael Monroe – Not Anymore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6YVF08X2UM&feature=player_embedded
This is one of the best songs off maybe the most intimate and introspective album by ex Hanoi Rocks’s frontman Michael Monroe…
The whole album is top notch quality and the songs are very well played and, most important thing of all, very felt intimately.
50) Skin & Bones – Resurrection Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=E3ov-7I6Hno
Happy Easter! Speaking of resurrection…enjoy this nice hard rock track from Skin and Bones (from their only full length album, “not a pretty sight”).
51) Kristy Majors – Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tF3fL-zJDZo
Time for some punkish hard rock :)
Kristy Majors (former member of the Pretty Boy Floyd) in this song, title track for his 2006 albun “Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll”, brings here a nice and very well working mix of raw punk roots, in particular the Ramones are an obvious and very strong influence on this disc, American straightforward hard rock and simple and catchy melodies with a modern production which, luckily, doesn’t castrate and dull out the raw power of the music.
I was thinking about writing a review for the album, but there isn’t much more to say about it…there are a couple of fillers but on the whole it’s a great album, not innovative at all but very powerful, full of a very raw and primordial energy. The lyrics are often intelligent and sometimes slightly ironic.
Come see me and take a ride, feel the power of the darker side
You know you want it, and now you need it
Burn with me, and pay the price, feel the power of the sacrifice
I know you want it, and now you need it
Come with me and burn in hell, a limousine will do you well.
I just wanna know, I just wanna know…
Do you wanna sell your soul?
Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll!!
Do you wanna sell your soul?
Sell your soul to rock ‘n’ roll!!
52) Dave Kusworth and the Tenderhooks – Wrap My Arms Around You http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O9nbnAs8xhk
This week I’m offering to you a bit of romance…
Dave Kusworth (ex Jacobites, ex Dogs D’Amour) is an English rocker in the vein of the Faces and Rolling Stones, a bitter balladeer with a very melancholic romantic side.
Over the years he played with various bands and released various albums, but unfortunately, most of them are very hard to find, even online.
His best known works are the ones with the Jacobites (along with the sadly departed legend Nikki Sudden) and the first album of the Dogs D’Amour, the state I’m in, in which he played guitar.
PS: Tomorrow, Illusion City will blow out it’s first candle! This year passed so fast and many things have changed…happy birthday, city of sweet illusions, illusions which rhyme reality and sometimes are it’s shadow on the wall, under the midday sun…
53) Elvis Hitler – Cool Daddy in a Cadillac http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=teruotszXCU
Time for some early psychobilly!
Enjoy the black humor and the punk energy of this amazing band. This is the first song off their first album, “Disgraceland” (1987).
54) Nikki Sudden & The Jacobites – Death Is Hanging Over Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gN08etKFUs8
A minor classic from the brilliant Jacobites, a band in the vein of the most melancholic and bluesy Rolling Stones. Guitarist Dave Kusworth played with the Dogs D’Amour on their first album and Nikki Sudden had a career both in new wave, with the Swell Maps, and in classic / garage bluesy rock, with his solo material.
Enjoy!
55) Slash’s Snakepit – Beggars & Hangers-on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkocqBw7m2g&feature=player_embedded
This week, one of the best songs off first Slash’s solo output, It’s five o’ clock somewhere (1995). It even made it as a single, but the video version in edited (1 min shorter), so enjoy the studio version of this minor rock n’ roll classic. :)
56) Ghost Dance – Last Train http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=afEpw9catEs
This band, spawned by the first line-up of the Sisters of Mercy, formed in 1985 by the effort of Gary Marx (ex guitarist of the Sisters) and Annie-Marie Hurst (ex vocalist for the Skeletal Family).
They recorded a couple of EPs (collected on the “gathering dust” disc) and a full lenght album, “stop the world”. They disbanded in 1989, after the commercial flop for “stop the world”, which featured a more commercial and brighter sound than the EPs.
This song is taken from their third EP, “the grip of love”, released in 1986. Enjoy!
57) Masonna – Frequency LSD Track #8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2XWmlZGe6gI
Here it’s one of the most interesting noise / avant-garde experiments from Japan…
Masonna (real name: Yamazaki Maso), one of the most influential experimental artists from Japan (he worked with Merzbow and a lot of other important artists), released in 1998 this CD, Frequency LSD, consisting of 14 unnamed tracks. In this album Masonna tried to recreate melodies similar to the ’60s psychedelic movement (hence the title of the CD) using harsh noise, screams, synth and radio loops and so on.
It’s a very interesting and intelligent experiment but of course it’s not suitable for all the tastes…this isn’t the kind of music that your granny would approve :D
Enjoy track #8 off Frequency LSD. Let the noise begin!
58) Andy Pierce – In My Room http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CvQmXaf_SFI
One of the unreleased song from the solo career of Andy Pierce (Nasty Idols, Machinegun Kelly, United Enemies), which takes a strange but tasty pop vein.
This song is very sensual and it’s minimal pop works very well. Enjoy it! If you know about more unreleased material or do you happen to have a copy of no place for late regrets please contact me, since I’m looking for Andy’s solo stuff.
The lyrics are very nice as well, so I transcribed it. I’ve got some doubts about one line (the one starting with “two necks…”) but the rest should be fine.
Andy Pierce – In My Room
I see you there, right in your eyes
When you lay down
I feel a fire through your skin, burning wild…
I feel it close, within
You don’t have to tell me a thing
Let no words be spoken
Two necks so strewn for life when in the dark
I want you close, close to me
In my darkest room, in my darkest room, I want you, over and over
In my darkest room, in my darkest room, I need you, over and over
I sign a check for the room, white sheets included
Your demon lips by my side, like red, red wine
I want you close, close to me
In my darkest room, in my darkest room, I want you, over and over
In my darkest room, in my darkest room, I need you, over and over
Again…again
On through the night with you, with you by my side
In my room sailing down the tides
In my room
In my darkest room, oh, in my room
59) Driller Killer – From Out of Nowhere http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0HzJVoSru0w
Hardcore / Crust from Sweden with big metal influences here and there.
Enjoy!