Last Harbour - No-One Ever Said (VJ Paulus Ladoni remix)

Number two in the Ladoni-Mix I been working on this autum.

Bonnie Prince Billy - Nomadic Revery (VJ Paulus Ladoni Mix)

Haven't got the time at the moment for new post. To busy with to much work. Coming back later this year, and in the meantime, here is something I been working on.

Gordon Gano "Hitting The Ground" (2002)

SONGS FROM THE WELL

• My initial reactions to this album were mixed and quite varied. As a huge, longtime Violent Femmes fan, I was both overjoyed to hear that Gordon Gano was releasing a solo album and somewhat troubled by the fact that he was doing this apart from the Violent Femmes. Then, when I got my first look at the album, I was perplexed to find that Gano lends his unique voice to only three of the eleven songs. The whole "I wanted Gano to sing all the songs" thing had a negative effect on my initial impressions of the actual music, as did the fact that I was quite unfamiliar with some of the selected vocalists. In a short amount of time, however, I came to realize just how significant and frankly amazing this album is. These 11 tracks introduce a whole new image of Gano the songwriter and musician, expanding the realms of his musical triumphs to areas I never imagined him setting foot.

• Hitting the Ground definitely hits the ground running with PJ Harvey's rendition of the title track. Harvey actually "out-Ganos" Gano on this one, reproducing his trademark yips and vocal stylings to a remarkable degree while playing a mean guitar like nobody's business. Gano's own performance of the song, which closes the album out with a bang, can do no more than equal Harvey's remarkable effort. Gano's delivery of Make It Happen is a song steeped in Violent Femmes mystique; Gano proves that he still has all of the passion and fire of youth with the brash, in-your-face, frenetic, nostalgically idiosyncratic vocals he cuts loose on this frenetic little gem. The third track featuring Gano's voice is It's Money, a short (1:21), upbeat duet with Martha Wainwright. Amazingly enough, his normally forceful delivery maintains a subdued quality that meshes quite well with Wainwright's voice.

• The real magic of this album is found in the tracks performed solely by other artists, for it is here that Gano's incredible songwriting ability shines through most brightly. The selected singers bring out the kind of beauty and emotion that Gano's voice would be hard pressed to elicit. Two prime examples of this are Oh Wonder, a song whose quiet beauty is showcased magnificently by Mary Lou Lord, and So It Goes featuring Linda Perry of 4 Non-Blondes, a song that begins slowly and hauntingly and builds in emotional intensity throughout. Merry Christmas Brother (performed by country singer Cynthia Gayneau, who just happens to be Gordon Gano's sister) is an unusual song featuring a strange duality of voices blending together to produce a warm, folk music type of feel. Darlin' Allison, performed by They Might Be Giants, has an oldies, creepy feel to its surprisingly standard delivery, while Don't Pretend features a staccato-type piano accompaniment to John Cale's strangely soothing voice.

• Of course, this album has its share of Gano-esque rocking tracks, as well. Lou Reed's Catch `Em In the Act is driven by a frenetic type of background sound I would classify as controlled cacophony. Then there is Frank Black, who sings as if he has just downed about 30 cups of strong coffee. His deep, guttural voice and energetic (to say the least) performance is memorable indeed.

• I would urge Violent Femmes fans to give this album a chance; it will not only grow on you, it will amaze you. A lot of these songs sound like nothing the Violent Femmes would ever consider trying to perform, yet the spirit and talent of Gordon Gano clearly reveal themselves in the words and music. At a little over 32 minutes in length, Hitting the Ground is a comparatively short album, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality.

More info about Gordon Gano

Dumptruck "For the Country" (1987)

A FORGOTTEN TREASURE

• Extremely good alternative jangle rock. Every song is layered with guitars. It is sort of like fusing a little Velvet Underground, a little Dream Syndicate and whole lot of Byrds. Far more refined with many more hooks than their first two efforts due to the band's compositions being solely taken over by Seth Tiven.

• The first two songs, "Island" and "50 Miles" are a strong beginning. Likewise for the two closing "Wire" and "Barking up the Wrong Tree". There is one song that is so slow and beautiful "Dead Weight", that lift the album even higher. This sounds like an 80s-era R.E.M. album recorded after they had listened to a lot of early Byrds' stuff. Perfect harmonies and jangling guitars from this underrated band. So it sounds pretty good.

More info about Dumptruck

Andy Dale Petty "All God's Children Have Shoes" (2008)

BETWEEN JOHHNY AND THE LORD HIMSELF

• How far can a banjo take you? As long as there are young men who in their heart and spirit combine an open mind with a feeling for history and a lust to wander the country to see what the people really want, it can take you pretty far. Across a continent and down a century or two, if you let it. Andy Dale Petty is exactly such a person as described above. He picks his banjo and starts to ramble the country and life around him in increasing perimeters. He meets love, fun, joy and happiness, but also hardship, pain and loss. He sees the preachers talking about sin and salvation, he hears the country stars and the rock stars sing about wide variety of things, he hears the politicians of various colours talking their slang, but most of all he hears the stories the people tell. And at night he listenes to the sounds of nature. Unlike William Elliott Whitmore, the other young man who rambles the country with a banjo, he does not carve out a niche all of his own, but he collects the scraps and records of others and builds his world from there. Which makes his world a lighter, better and warmer place to live in.

• Only in this mindest is it possible to play songs by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash on the same record as playing christian traditionals (“in christ there is no east or west”) or sing about traditions in self penned songs. And finally hit a hard note by covering John Fahey at the end of the record. That is the span Andy Dale Petty covers and it is pretty far by all means. In the middle he does a haunting version of “Joe Hill” and comments in the liner notes: “the anarchist poet and fighter who in 1915 was murdered by capitalist swine for defending his God-given right to work.” Pete LaFarge would stand up and say something, but I am still amazed by the wideness of ideological input a person can take. But wasn’t it Walt Whitman, who said in his penultimate US-american poem (before “Howl” probably…) about contradicting himself: “I am big, I can take many things.”

• And he didn’t even know Johnny Cash. I am very careful when comparing somebody to Johnny Cash, for everybody knows that he sits to the right of the Lord in my personal religion, but when I stumble upon a young god-abiding socialist from the backwoods of the USA, then I find some paralells. As if to put blame on blame Petty covers “He turned the water into wine” by Johnny Cash, the hymn from his most bible-fearing record escapades and the result of a travel to Israel of June Carter and him.

• Enough of that. Later on it is songs about the American folklore character The Goatman, strange songs about lost love, cowboy waltzes, bootleggers and other bloddy deeds. The music is constantly rather uplifting and basic in instrumentation: banjo, acoustic guitar, a little piano here and a little percussion there. Probably recorded in somebody’s wood-panelled living room. It only gets dark at night, right?

• Most fortunately, “All god’s children have shoes” strays away from any bland retro-superficiality. Though the cover of the album is strictly from the old country and hillbilly song collections and the intro sample of Petty’s grandma welcoming him home, definitely have a feel of a little kitsch, but the musical selections and their interpretation are strictly rooted in the here and now. But I guess you can listen to it anytime.

More info about Andy Dale Petty

The Knitters "Poor Little Critter On The Road" (1985)

X AND THE BLASTERS EQUALS ONE HELL OF A RECORD

• Finally back in print after several years in limbo, this delightful album is an ad hoc collaboration between Exene Cervenka, DJ Bonebrake and John Doe of X, and Dave Alvin of The Blasters. More country-oriented than the former group, more rocking than the latter, the folksy songs here give ample evidence that much fun was had by all involved, and the fact that this album inspired two tribute albums in its wake is a testament to its ultimate influence. Especially good are the title tune, the violently humorous "Call of the Wrecking Ball", and the closer, a light-speed rendition of the classic "Rock Island Line". 

• John Doe has a voice of gold (who knew he could croon so well?) and really shines on songs like "Crying but my Tears are Far Away." Exene is a bit off-key as usual on solos, but her strength is sounding like a slightly boozy Patsy Cline, and as usual she sounds great harmonizing with John. Dave Alvin does some great pickin' guitar work. The whole thing has an irreverant, casual quality to it, and yet shows the band members' reverance for such classic groups as the Weavers (Weavers...Knitters...get it?) 

 

• The one weak song on the album is surprisingly the X song "The New World." It has a pretty weak melody that doesn't really stand up to being countrified, and just sounds the best as a revved-up X song. "Call of the Wreckin' Ball" is the most subversive song on the album, about a guy that loves to stomp chickens to death. It's a crack-up, though, in its sick way. I like the slow numbers the best. John Doe is actually a darn good country singer.

More info about The Knitters

Vienna Teng "Dreaming Through the Noise" (2006)

VIENNA CALLING

• Most singer-songwriters didn't start out as software programmers, who then dumped the job for the sake of piano pop. In a lot of cases, it would be a stupid decision. But Vienna Teng continues to prove that her decision was the right one, in her third album "Dreaming Through the Noise." It's Teng's strongest album, and her delicately powerful voice and solid musicianship make this a quiet delight for anyone sick of slick pop music.

• "Blue blue caravan/winding down to the valley of lights/my true love is a man/who would hold me for ten thousand years," Teng croons in the opening song, over a bed of murky guitar and delicate piano. It's a soft, misty, slightly tense song that draws you in for the rest of the album. That sound continues in the tripping melody of "Whatever You Want" and the sweeping balladry of songs like the quirky "I Don't Feel Well" and tries out a jazzy sound in the the rueful, meditative "City Hall." Teng trips down her ballads with rippling piano and lots of delicate sentiments, and lyrics written so that images pop right into your head.

• If a few songs had been snipped out of "Dreaming Through the Noise," the album might have been perfect -- a few simply don't fit in, and don't grab you with images and musical beauty as Teng usually does. "Love Turns 40," for instance, is like a quirkless Regina Spektor song, a sound that Teng conquers successfully in the oddballish "1 BR/1 BA."

• "Singer-songwriter" usually makes me think of coffeehouse singers, holding a big acoustic guitar. Vienna Teng is a different variety, with refined and complex piano pop and polished songwriting. She's like a less angsty, more meditative Sarah McLachlan, or a more romantic Regina Spektor. Her piano is still the main instrument, whether tripping over a quirky melody, or cascading gently through a ballad. In addition, there's a bit of folky guitar creeping just under the piano. But Teng also adds some new flourishes, such as a viola, or the scrapy fiddle that pops up every now and then.

• And Teng's songwriting skills are still excellent, with the lyrics knack and potent imagery of really good poetry. Even better, there's an element of human sorrow, love or thought in most of the songwriting: "For my true love is a man/Who never existed at all/Oh he was a beautiful fiction/I invented to keep out the cold..."

• I do prefer this her album over the previous two ones because she sounds more original on "Dreaming through the noise".

 

More info about Vienna Teng

Blue Rodeo "Outskirts" (1987)

COME TO THE RODEO

• The first Blue Rodeo album certainly gave us a hint as to where they were headed -- it's uneven and ranges from weird and interesting to just plain weird to kind of beautiful, but on the whole holds up very well. Of course, twenty-one years later I may just be reacting to long exposure to the band -- but really, just hearing the opening chords of "Rose-Coloured Glasses" always lifts my spirits.

• This album features less of Jim Cuddy's clear tenor voice than subsequent ones, but he and Greg Keelor share vocals to good effect on songs like "Heart Like Mine." "Rebel" and "Underground," while pretty good songs in their own right, foreshadow Jim's later development as ballad-guy extraordinaire. "Try" is, of course, one of those songs practically everyone in Canada knows -- again, a heartbroken ballad that is just beautiful to listen to.

• Greg Keelor's shaggy vocals are perfectly suited to the strange swing of "Pirahna Pool" and "Floating." (Greg has always been a major reason these guys have such unpredictable moments -- and that's a good thing.) He sounds just disgruntled and disillusioned enough that his disbelieving "where does she get off telling me that love could save us all" in "Rose-Coloured Glasses" comes off as a head-shaking moment of admiration for the character he's singing about.

• The songwriting hadn't yet reached the point at which the whole album shines but the main elements were there. This was clearly a band with potential.

Track-List in the Comments

More info about Blue Rodeo

Doll by Doll "Doll by Doll" (1981)

WHAT A RECORD!

• “I put a penny in the toilet door
• then I quickly stepped inside
• to some graffiti and a greyhound paper
• and the gentle thought of suicide
• a razor blade would make the perfect bride.”

• Unlike the sixth song on ‘Doll By Doll’ (first track on the second side of the vinyl release), “perfect romances” and revisited memories rarely live up to our expectations. Recordings unheard for 25 years usually amass a kind of mental hyperbole in the interim; a promise no revisit can fulfil. Having built up the album in my mind, I feared that this might be the case with ‘Doll By Doll’ but, after repeated listens over the last few days, although I can scarcely believe it, it actually exceeds my expectations. And one song is so stellar I’d go so far as to say that it represents the finest few minutes of pop I’ve ever heard by anyone, ever.

• There always seemed to be something subterranean about Doll By Doll; as though a secret network of subversives existed to mould their image, design their record covers and promote their appearances — in fact, it did, and they called it Hard Ventures, back in the glory days when they were the special guests of acts such as Devo at the Hammersmith Odeon.

• Although recorded in 1980, in a Maida Vale basement, using a mobile studio, ‘Doll By Doll’ sounds as original today as it did when it was first released. And it hasn’t dated because it wasn’t produced with the aim of being fashionable in the first place. ‘Wild’ Tom Newman (the co-producer of Mike Oldfield’s original ‘Tubular Bells’, and of ‘Doll By Doll’ with Leven) created a crystal-clear soundscape of crisp, rumbling basses and rippling trebles, blending to form an atmosphere of electrical energy. The wimpy 1980s’ mid-range frequencies, later beloved by Duran Duran and the New Romantics, were eschewed in favour of a crystalline hardness; and yet the result sounds remarkably balanced.

• Figure It Out, with its Stones-ish rhythm guitar touches and derisive tone, is a noble pop song but probably shouldn’t have been the album opener; that they took the risk is proof the music industry was a different, not-yet-extinct animal in the 1980s. Leven’s voice, it has to be said, is characteristically huge from the very first note and lends his lyrics the right tone of biting sarcasm. But if I’d had to choose the opener it would have been the next song, Caritas.

• Caritas represents the closest I’m ever likely to get to hearing perfection in songwriting and recording. A special extended version was released as a 12-inch single, backed with Murder on the Highway (3’25”) and An Honest Woman (8’44”), the latter recorded live in June 1981 at Richard Branson’s Venue on London’s Victoria Street. It should have been a top 10 hit at least. Of course, there’s never been justice in pop music, and I’m sure BBC Radio One’s producers didn’t know what to make of it. From the first, angry notes of guitar feedback to its crunch ending, this is what yearning, terror and beauty in music are all about. Leven’s voice is edged with threat, and the phased guitar arpeggio that builds out of the intro; the trebly chopped funk chords; and Tony Waite’s ribcage-rattling bass provide the impetus that drive Caritas forward. But it’s Jo(e) Shaw’s overdriven lead guitar that steals the show. His mainly low- and mid-register guitar solo is thoughtful and doesn’t noodle. But he saves his best for the lick 02’26” into the song, between the fifth and sixth of the short, three-line verses. In context, the most beautiful two seconds in all of pop music come after the line: “…the blue jets scream into the sky.

• Not only is the impossibly fast, stuttered “now” Jackie’s, but also the swirling falsetto background vocals; highlighting the sheer range of his voice before his larynx was crushed in the assault. At 04’15”, this is on the long side for a pop masterpiece, but since it received hardly any radio airplay at the time it was released, that’s irrelevant.

• Soon New Life starts pensively, with a tentative, melodic bass before a calypso guitar transforms it into a celebration of coming fatherhood. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover Jackie can no longer listen to this song. As he explains on the liner notes to his album ‘The Argyll Cycle – Volume One’, at the time of recording it, not only was he about to experience near murder by strangulation and symptomatic heroin addiction, the love of his life was about to run off with the Dalai Lama’s bodyguard. The chant-like chorus line of this song seems to repeat “Since you left”, and not the song’s title; this album predates much of Jackie’s misery, but so many of the lyrical ideas seem to prophesy it that the entire album may feel to him like some dreadful form of alternative therapy.

• You can hear faint echoes of the next song, and the traditional melody upon which it’s based (the one he sung for Diana), in many of Leven’s later tunes; not least My Spanish Dad from 2001’s ‘Creatures of Light and Darkness’ and Classicnortherndiversions from 2003’s ‘Shining Brother Shining Sister’. But Main Travelled Roads is the source at its purest. When Jackie’s voice gets down and dirty for the third verse the melody comes into its heartbreaking own, and he hits some high notes that seem unlikely after you’ve heard him hit the lower ones.

• The Perfect Romance strikes up harmlessly enough. But again, Tony Waite’s bass impels this short (03’14”) track forwards, and it’s undoubtedly the darkest and most dangerous song on the record. The chorus is wondrously debauched; Leven sounds like a crazed Scottish laird serenading his ghost bride amidst the wreckage of a bacchanalian feast. Only Nick Cave gets darker, but Jackie out-sings him, out-baritones him and out-mans him.

• The intro to I Never Saw The Movie is redolent of a hobo plucking a guitar in railroad car, but thudding bass and howling bottleneck soon put paid to that. The glorious bridge (“I was so dazed / I should have been praised / I will never feel that beautiful again”), the rumbling false-ending and consequent fade-in prevent you from dismissing this as an insubstantial pop tune built around a catchy chorus.

• Up is as advertised; from its claps, finger-clicks and chiming harmonics to its rowdy, shouted “I wanna be up / Don’t wanna be down again” chorus, pre-dating Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ by at least 15 years. Shaw turns in a lovely piece of 1950s-style rock ‘n’ roll guitar before the song turns full circle for the chiming simplicity of its ending.

• There are three absolute standout tracks on ‘Doll By Doll’: Caritas, The Perfect Romance and A Bright Green Field. And if you remain unmoved by the latter, you have no pulse, no blood coursing through your veins, no soul. Waite’s bottom-E rattles your skeleton, but this is Leven’s five minutes and thirteen seconds to shine, and he’s incandescent. Listen to the supernaturally intense way in which he stretches the notes on the word “rain” and “sand”. The dexterity, range and sheer variety of his vocal is mind-boggling, and the lyrical imagery — with its centaurs, demons and holy wine — gives him plenty of room to manoeuvre. He sounds possessed and extrapolates every note beyond its comfort zone.

• The darkness that characterised Doll By Doll was of a different order from that conjured up by their west London contemporaries Killing Joke; it’s less demonic, less gothic and more humane. Leven slept rough and lived in squats through much of the 1960s and 1970s, and his encounters with damaged souls can’t help but have affected his songwriting. And yet, despite the fortress of sullenness that Doll By Doll constructed around themselves, this is a remarkably cheerful album. The contrast between light and dark is never over-done and no emotion is oversold. Each note has been agonised over without any sense of the spontaneity having been lost.

• Twenty-nine years on, it’s clear what a brave band this was; recording for an uncompromisingly commercial label, the musicians and producer stuck to their guns, made an intelligent record with an unmistakeable identity and a recognisable sound, only to be punished by a cloth-eared industry that didn’t know where to put anyone who defied pigeonholing. I defy you to find a more cohesive and satisfying record.

More info about Doll by Doll

The Long Ryders "Years Long Ago - A retrospective" (1995)

RE-POST BY REQUEST

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

• The Long Ryders (Sid Griffin, guitar, autoharp, bugle; Stephen McCarthy, guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, banjo ; Tom Stevens, bass; Greg Sowders, drums) were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s and originally associated with a movement sometimes called the Paisley Underground. With a sound reminiscent of Gram Parsons-era Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Flying Burrito Brothers, but with a harder edge, they anticipated the alternative country music of the 1990s by a decade. (Former Byrd Gene Clark added vocals to the song "Ivory Tower," on the 1984 "Native Sons") The group disbanded in 1987, but reunited in 2004 for a brief European tour, including a performance at the Glastonbury Festival. Further touring is possible for summer 2008.

• Apart from occasional Long Ryders activity, Griffin, who relocated to London, has kept busy as a solo artist and bandleader (The Coal Porters, Western Electric), and as a music journalist and critic. McCarthy, after a stint leading his own band, Walker Stories, returned home to Richmond, Virginia; he played in the indie supergroup Gutterball with Steve Wynn and fellow Richmondites Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott of House of Freaks, and in 2003 began playing with The Jayhawks. Stevens returned to his native Indiana, earned a degree in computer science and continues to release solo albums. And Sowders, who was married for a time to the singer Lucinda Williams, went to work in music publishing.

• Origins & Lineup changes: The Long Ryders formed from the ashes of the Los Angeles band The Unclaimed. Founding members were Sid Griffin and the Long Ryders' original bassist Barry Shank. Their initial studio release (EP 10-5-60) consisted of Griffin (native of Kentucky), replacement bassist Chris (Des) Brewer from Australia, Stephen McCarthy (Richmond, VA) and Greg Sowders (Los Angeles, CA). Brewer was replaced after 10-5-60 by Tom Stevens (Elkhart, IN), thus forming the permanent lineup (Griffin, McCarthy, Sowders, Stevens) which would remain in place until their eventual breakup (and later reunion). The Long Ryders brought the hellfire snot and energy of punk to a musical tradition sated on the blood of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young and Hank Williams.

• This is a kind of "Best of"-album with songs from all three original studio-album and the EP "10-5-60", and there are also some rarities and B-sides. "Years Long Ago - A Retrospective" is a nice way to get to know one of the most important band of the 80's, who had very much to do with the Americana-wave that came in the 90's. Lots of bands pay their tribute to The Long Ryders, as well as The Long Ryders had paid tribute to artists and bands like Gram Parsons and The Byrds.

Track List: 01. Join My Gang 02. And She Rides 03. Final Wild Son 04. Run Dusty Run 05. Wreck Of The 809 06. Looking For Lewis And Clark 07. Mason-Dixon Line 08. Years Long Ago 09. Capturing The Flag 10. State Of My Union 11. Lights Of Downtown 12. Gunslinger Man 13. I Want You Bad 14. Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home 15. Spectacular Fall 16. Baby's In Toyland 17. He Can Hear His Brother Calling 18. You Don't Know What's Right, You Don't Know What's Wrong 19. Pushin' Uphill 20. Christmas In New Zealand

Some more info about The Long Ryders