King Loser - Caul Of The Outlaw

King Loser                         
Caul Of The Outlaw
(Flying Nun, FN382)

"Everything you've heard about rock'n'roll band's is a lie!"

     King Loser were the white-hot rock'n'roll centre of New Zealand for an all to brief moment in the 1990's. A garage-surf-noise ensemble who set speakers melting and rumours flying where-ever and when-ever their sonic vibrations were felt. Boasting a worse track record with drummers than even Spinal Tap, the King's (never Loser's!) were centred around the love/hate core of Celia Mancini and Chris 'Cash Guitar/King of Cunts/the Heze' Heazlewood, between them boasting more rockin' and reelin' know-how than you, me and that shady lookin' guy in the corner put together.

     Sometime around 1995 the group managed to solidify, with Lance 'Tribal Thunder' Strickland laying down a heavy Diddly beat on drums and the enigma Sean 'Destroyer' O'Reilly doin' what he do on guitar. That's the King Loser you hear on this, their 3rd album, released on Flying Nun in 1996... sadly the last too, with the band slowly imploding over the next year or so. No indication of that demise here though, Caul of the Outlaw is an album made by a band still in love with rock'n'roll, still pushing sound and style forward. Most notable here is the use of dirty distorted analogue synth (and oscillators?) as rhythmic beds for many tunes, adding a menacing yet beautiful slightly-delic/space vibe to the killer neo-garage surf rock. This is one great fuckin' album and a late gem in the Nun catalogue... King Loser - believe! 

King Loser - Trouble Land & 1692

Bebe Buell 'Hard Love' CD

Bebe Buell                                 Hard Love
(Niji, 2011)

Bebe Buell is probably best known these days, if at all, as the main inspiration for the character Penny Lane in director Cameron Crowe's celluloid love letter to his years as a scribe for Rolling Stone magazine back in the 1970's or perhaps as the mother of Liv Tyler. Tell someone she's a singer, with a new album fresh out and they'll either shrug in indifference, or worse laugh. Which is their loss as Hard Love is a tight little rocker of an album, kicking along at a tempo remarkable for a woman of her years. Mention of her exact age would be crass, but she was Playboy's November 1974 centrefold if you want to make an educated guess. 

The sound and feel of  Hard Love has a lot in common with Ronnie Spector's excellent 2006 album 'Last of the Rock & Roll Stars'. It's New York rock with one foot in the recording studio and the other still in the back room of Max's Kansas City circa 1975. Bebe has an amazing history to draw lyrical inspiration from, and it's clear from tunes like 'Baby Baby' that she's still in love with rock'n'roll and the sort of snake hipped boys who play it. It's not all rock'n'roll lust though. 'Black Angel' a tribute to deceased Ramone's vocalist Joey is a beautiful rock ballad with real emotional punch... "walking down the street that bears your name... your photo's in my black angel frame/fly black angel, fly away"... not a dry eye in the house as that tune fades out! Along with the strong originals, Bebe also covers The Runaway's 'Heartbeat' and Gang of Four's 'I Love a Man in Uniform', a pretty obscure choice, but also a prime indication that Bebe's still got excellent taste when it comes to rocking' men and the music they make.

Bebe Buell - Devil You Know

Bebe Buell - Interview

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Live at Winterland

Jimi Hendrix Experience  

Winterland – Live 1968

Sony Legacy

Also available as a 4CD or 8LP Deluxe Box-Set.

“Maybe you can grasp these pieces of electricity

... dig it as entertainment"

       

     An amazing compilation of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's 3 night stand at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom in 1968. With the classic Mitchell/Redding rhythm section laying a solid foundation Hendrix effortlessly reworks songs, throwing in guitar solos that show why he still manages to top 'best guitarist ever' polls.... The version of 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' they unleash here is just jaw dropping, the soloing so fluid, and nobody kicks in a fuzz-box like Jimi.

      Although the set is weighted more towards early Experience tracks, with only one tune apiece for the 2^nd and 3^rd albums Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland (which was then only days from being released), Winterland is a brilliant single disc distillation of Hendrix live. Along with the originals Hendrix, never afraid of singing the praises (or tunes) of his peers, launches storming covers of 'Hey Joe' and Cream's 'Sunshine...' along with a laid-back take of Dylan's 'Like A Rollin' Stone'. Hendrix introduces 'Manic Depression' as a song “about a cat who wishes he could make love to music”, a thing this disc makes it clear he knew more than a little about.

Interview with Hendrix backstage at Winterland, 1968

Jimi Hendrix - Tax Free (Live at Winterland)

The Shadow Ring 'Hold On To ID'

The Shadow Ring 

Hold On To ID 
Siltbreeze 

     I once had a person move slowly away from me after I started talking up one of my favourite films, 'Happiness' by Todd Solondz. If I'd been riffing on music, The Shadow Rings 'Hold On To ID' would've sent them running and screaming for sure. Playing it to people invariably elicits responses along the lines of “serial killer music”, “you are a sad man Brendon”, or the perennial fave “TURN THIS SHIT OFF!”... yeah, it's honestly that good. I'm talking Jandek levels of musical creepy crawl. My favourite ever response (and fave ever six word music review) was an old flatmate's totally on-point “music to stalk your ex by.” I first heard them via Bruce Russell who released 'Wax Work Echoes' on Corpus Hermeticum back in 1996 and if I'd not been told they were a UK band it would've been so easy to believe they were some lost Xpressway thing. There's such a feeling of damp and mustiness about them, like a Dunedin basement in the middle of winter... some student shit-hole, with a Throbbing Gristle fan djing on RDU, tuned slightly off station... fuckin' perfection!

The Shadow Ring - Hold Onto I.D.

 

Jonathan Wilson 'Gentle Spirit'

Jonathan Wilson

Gentle Spirit

Bella Union bellaunion.com

Jonathan Wilson - Gentle Spirit by jonathanwilson

Laurel Canyon is really all you need to know... where you come down on the sounds of that early '70s scene and it's post-60's come-down (burn-out?) vibe is going to dictate your attitude to this album. For me it's a stunner, having mellowed somewhat as I near 40. Jonathan Wilson seems to effortlessly evoke that golden sun-kissed utopia of that legendary canyon, but Gentle Spirit is never just a straight homage or period aping piece, it's got real sonic bite and touches of electronic weirdness that could see Wilson become the go-to producer for people wanting a more Californian/bong loaded version of what Jim O'Rourke (Wilco, Smog) serves up. Having spent years working as a producer and sessionman (Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Will Oldham), Gentle Spirit is Wilson's debut solo release (an earlier album Frankie Ray never seems to have come out) and he doesn't disappoint... a seriously wonderful double-album of CSN& especially Young flavoured folk-rock. As I listen to the album I keep thinking of the film The Graduate... the ennui Benjamin Braddock feels, that sense of loss and helplessness as he returns home from college is the sound I hear through-out this album. With winter turning to spring, this will be getting a hammering around here.

The Jayhawks 'Mockingbird Time' Review

The Jayhawks

Mockingbird Time

Rounder/Decca

“I want to make something for you that brings you joy”  

     The Jayhawks were always a band that deserved more than they got and now 16 years after Gary Louris and Mark Olson last recorded together under that moniker, their new album Mockingbird Time should earn them a lot more than just the critical kudos their 90's releases garnered. Any worries of disappointment I had were instantly erased as soon as I heard those beautiful intertwining vocals on opener 'Hide Your Colours'... that's the essence of the Jayhawks, the way those twinned voices just hit your heart like love (or the loss of love).

     Being 16 years older, it's no surprise that the sound has mellowed somewhat from the alt-country-pop perfection of Tomorrow The Green Grass (1995), but the influences (and easy reference points for critics) are all still there... Byrds (both Gene& Gram era's), Burritos, CSN&Y et al. It's a damn strong album, and although I'd still pick Tomorrow... as my fave, Mockingbird Time feels like it's going put up one hell of a challenge over the next few years.

The Jayhawks - Mockingbird Time

Elektra Records - My Favourites

I love it when a label has such a visionary at the helm that you can safely buy any release within a certain period and know it's going to be something special. Eleckra in the sixties and early seventies, when founder Jac Holzman was calling the shots is a perfect example... if you see that classic 'butterfly' logo you know you're going to hear the best of the era.
So, here are my top picks from the mighty Elektra records, restricting myself to a single release for each group:

Various
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968
7E 2006 stereo, 1972
Hearing this for the first time was a total mind fry. It was so exciting, the rush of these rough and raw garage bands made me wanna get high and play guitar like Keith Richards, and any album that makes me feel that way is golden baby! Lenny Kaye's comp also triggered my collector scum gene, but I'm lucky that I only have it in it's most mild form... the thought of actually trying to get all these singles is frightening, especially now we have ebay and  someone in New Zealand actually could track them down. This comp continues to launch a thousand bands a year, along with a hundred 'lost garage classic' comps... it's a beautiful thing!

The Lollipop Shoppe - You Must Be A Witch

MC5 
Kick Out The Jams
EKS 74042 stereo, 1969
Detroit r'n'r revolutionary renegades the MC5 are one of my favourite bands and this, their debut fights it out daily in my head with High Time, their final LP (recorded for Atlantic Records). The sounds of (angry white political) young America circa 1969.

MC5 - Kick Out The Jams (full album)

The Stooges 
Funhouse
EKS 74071 stereo, 1970
What can you say? Fuckin' classic... top marks to Rhino for the release of the Complete Funhouse Sessions, 142 tracks over 7 CDs, it's stuff like that that'll force me to get off my butt and get a job!

The Stooges - Live

Love 
Forever Changes
EKL 4013 mono, 1968

Mind blowing baroque pop from Arthur Lee and Love. It's such a tragedy that Love remain so unknown as their early albums easily surpass label/scene mates The Doors. This is Arthur's pinnacle, an album that is as near perfect as any mortal could hope. They do the rock/folk fusion thing well, managing to retain the aggression and menace of their garage rock roots, something too many Californian bands lost as they stopped and sniffed the 'flowers' all around. The intensity of Forever Changes is something else... I often can't listen all the way through in one sitting, Arthur Lee's trip is way too heavy for me, way too heavy for anyone, and when you read about his life it's clear it was also way way too heavy for him. MASTERPIECE!

Love - Forever Changes (Full Album)

The Doors  
Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine
8E 6001 stereo, 1972
I know it's cheating to put a 'best of' in a fave records, but this is what got me hooked on the Doors.

The Doors - Riders On The Storm

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
Accept No Substitute: The Original Delaney & Bonnie
EKS 74039 stereo, 1969
A recent discovery for me. While record shopping a guy hipped me to them as a 'Southern funky country/soul meets The Band type thing', and when he mentioned who the "friends" were... look 'em up, you'll shit!

Delaney & Bonnie and Friends - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man

Television
Marquee Moon
7E-1098 stereo, 1977
um... what to say... it's fuckin' perfect. Here's Nick Kent's classic review (originally run over two issues of NME). 

Pennylane $2 Crate Digger Delights!

• Phil Manzanera Diamond Head (E.G. Records/Polydor, 1977)
• Wah!The Way We Wah! (Eternal/WEA, 1984)
• The Teardrop Explodes Kilimanjaro (Mercury/Phonogram, 1980)
• Joni Mitchell Joni Mitchell (Reprise, 1968)
• Steppenwolf Gold – Their Great Hits (MCA)
• Bomb The Bass Beat Dis 12” (Rhythm King, 1988)
• MARRS Pump Up The Volume 12” (4AD, 1987)

Beat Dis? Impossible! Pennylane, the best second hand/cut-out bins in New Zealand!

Bomb The Bass - Beat Dis

MARRS - Pump Up The Volume