You know that album that was often on in your dad's car when you were really young? This one's mine. It's not the only tape he had in the car or anything like that, but I definitely remember listening to it, sitting in the back of an old Austn Metro, looking out the back window while Ray Charles sings "Shake A Tail Feather", or Cab Calloway sings "Minnie The Moocher". It was one of the first of my dad's albums that I stole assimilated into my own collection, (I remember it being in my tape box along with "Theseus & The Minotaur and other Greek Myths", "Musical Times Tables" and mixtapes of Queen, R.E.M. and Jimi Hendrix) and I've still got it in my car now. It's got a great cast of musicians on it, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, James Brown, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and even the non music legends, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi don't sound out of place.
Years later, I have more great memories of this album, from listening to it on the way to Leeds Festival, stuck in the most community minded traffic jam of all time, with people passing Jaffa Cakes between the cars! Here's Aretha Franklin's contribution to the album "Think"...
Probably the best Pop album of the post punk era, Parallel Lines is bloody ace. Opening with "Hanging On The Telephone" (Which I only recently discovered was a cover. Blondie's version is way better than the original by "The Nerves", so don't worry if you hadn't heard it) immediately followed by the Suzie Quatro sytle glam boogie of "One Way Or Another" before continuing through a multitude of other 3 minute sparkly guitarpop tunes for the next 34 minutes or so. You've got 3 other massive hit singles (including arguably Blondies biggest hit, "Heart Of Glass") plus, pretty much any other song on the album could have been a hit single too.
plus, one of the coolest album covers of all time!
The combination of Clem Burke's frenetic new wave drums, Jimmy Destri's Farfisa organ, Frank Infante and Chris Stein's dueling guitars and Nigel Harris's bass formed a perfect backing for Debbie Harry's vocals. You probably know this album, If you don't then you'll definitely know the singles so here's "Will Anything Happen?"...
Bloc Party are a band who have always had an electronic dance element to their sound. This has become more prominent over time, with tracks like "The Prayer" and "Flux" takng their influence more from artists like The Chemical Brothers than from their earlier post punk influences like The Cure and Gang Of Four. This remix version of their debut abum "Silent Alarm" features remixes from Four Tet, Mogwai, Erol Alkan, Ladytron, M83, Nick Zinner (guitarist from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and a highly aggressive cover of "Luno" by Death From Above 1979.
Remix albums can often be a wasted opportunity, or even just a contractual obligation, but this album flows well. The remixes almost all bring something new to the songs, while retaining the same spirit of the originals.
The "Phones Disco Edit" of "Banquet" is one of the most accomplished tracks on here, and one I regularly play while DJing. I'm a huge Mogwai fan, but while their remix of "Plans" is good, it's not an album highlight. Ladyron do a mighty fine job of reworking opening track "Like Eating Glass". here's their "Zapatista mix"...
Bit of a sad one this. Nico is a rarities and B-sides album released following Blind Melon vocalist Shannon Hoon's death from a cocaine overdose in 1995. The album is named after his daughter and all proceeds went into a college trust fund for her. Blind Melon were a Psychedelic Alternative Rock band based in Los Angeles best known for their 1993 single "No Rain". "Nico" opens with a solo acoustic cover of Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" and takes in scratchy acoustic demos (including one recorded over th phone on an answer machine) right through to fully realised beautifully produced songs like "Soup", a song which their second album was named after, but was left off the eventual tracklisting for unknown reasons.
There's a cover of John Lennon's "John Sinclair", a slowed down alternate version of "No Rain" (Which is nowhere near as good as the original version) and an excellent early version of "St Andrew's Fall" entitled "St Andrew's Hall". My favouite track remains the first Blind Melon song I ever heard. Here's "Soup"...
I've discovered quite a few bands by making sure I get to gigs early enough to catch the soundcheck. Blanche supported The White Stripes on their UK arena tour in 2003 and I saw them play at the soulless non venue known as Nottingham Ice Arena (seriously, I've seen some great bands there, but the gigs are never perfect due to the venue sucking the atmosphere out of any situation). Blanche were great though, much better than the headliners that night (and I'd decided that even before Jack White acted like a spoilt petulant child when we met him after the show). Their sound is best describes as Alt Country and "America's Newest Hitmakers" was a limited edition sampler EP on sale on this tour to promote their forthcoming album due the following year.
The EP consists of 4 Tracks from the album, and one exclusive track "Red Head". It's a good track but to be honest, if you dig the band then get the album "If We Can't Trust The Doctors" instead. Here's opening track "Do You Trust Me?"...
Bands were a hell of a lot moe prolific in the 60's and 70's. While you get bands these days that take 5 years or so to record a follow up album, Black Sabbath's second album "Paranoid" was released 7 months after their self titled debut! While it's not my favourite Sabbath album, It'll always be a special one for me as it was the first of their albums I bought (I remember buying it at "More Than Music" in Tamworth in 1996). Sabbath are one of the most important and influential band of all time and there should be a statue of the four of them in Birmingham city centre.
Sabbath took blues and made it heavier out of necessity (Guitarist Tony Iommi lost a few fingertips in an industrial accident so tuned his guitar down to make it easier to play) and in doing so pretty much created Heavy Metal as we know it. Obviously Ozzy's vocals and Iommi's Riffs are a very big part of their sound but don't underestimate the rhythm section. Probably my favourite aspect of Sabath's sound is how Ward's drums and Butler's bass are always pulling against eachother as if one is trying to speed up and the other is trying to slow down, which gives them a groove like no other rock band before. This album is full of riff filled awesomeness with only the instrumental "Rat Salad" falling short of the mark. Other than tha you've got the title track, "Iron Man", "War Pigs", "Fairies Wear Boots", "Electric Funeral", the psychedelic "Planet Caravan" and "Hand Of Doom", possibly the best example of the rhythm section's groove...
B.R.M.C. is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's 2001 debut album, a fairly straightforward psych rock album taking it's influences from The Jesus And Marychain, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Oasis and T Rex. Due to it's timing more than anything else they were lumped in with the Garage Rock revival of the early 2000's but they don't really share much sonically with most of those bands. There are similarities but most of the album is more remeniscent of early Verve, Ride and other Shoegaze bands of the early 90's. There's even a bit of a stone roses element here and there (particularly on "Rifles").
There's some really nice bass playing on the record, with some great sounding fuzzed up guitar, and a few bum notes left in (which I always like to hear on a record). You'll most likely have heard the Glam stomp of "Spread Your Love" and "Whatever Happened To My Rock & Roll (Punk Song)" but here's opening track "Love Burns"...
