This month I will be living in a
musical dream world for two nights.
March
29th & 30th I will be in Austin, Texas for the first
time in my life.
This
is where the North American Space Ritual will take place.
What
is this show all about? It’s two nights of musical madness. Jazz, rockabilly,
heavy metal, and space rock will be performed live. Performers from distant
parts of the globe, England, California, Russia, and more will come together to
make a maelstrom of musical madness.
Michael
Moorcock, author of the amazing Elric series, lyricist for Blue Oyster Cult and
Hawkwind will perform with the band Moon Hawks which also features former
Hawkwind alumni Alan Davey and Nik Turner.
My
friend, John Pack from the Georgia based space rock ensemble Spaceseed has kindly invited
me to perform with them.
This
is a… I don’t know what to type about this all. My head is swimming. I hope we
all put on an amazing show for everyone. I hope that it will be as transcendent
for you all as I know it will be for me.
One
of the wonderful endearing things about this unit is the sense of humor. All
the knobs go to 11!
Check
out the sounds it makes.
This
is a wonderful vintage style modernist instrument. Totally makes me feel like
I’m making sounds for a Silver Apples/Hawkwind/Portishead tribute album.
I
am super excited to be using this instrument for the first time “live” with
Spaceseed at the North American Space Ritual.
Here it is, the yearly list no one
except my sadistic, validation-seeking, subconscious, asks for, my three favorite
albums of 2018.
3. Adam Holzman: Truth Decay
This album was a
pleasant surprise. I read Holzman’s description of it on his Flakebook page,
which interested me enough to buy it after Steve Wilson’s gig at the Berklee
Performance Center.
So glad that I
made that purchase. What a wonderful diverse collection of music! Jazz, prog,
sixties rock, thought provoking lyrics, fusion, and a pleasing plethora of
sounds swirl through this music.
Sweeping you right
along from the opening jazzy drum smack of Ectoplasm to the smooth-ish jazz
cool of Are You High? This album is a delight to my ears from start to finish.
Thank you Mr. Holzman.
2. Squirrel Nut Zippers: Beasts of Burgundy
Firstly, let me
say, that if you told me last year, before I went to see the Squirrel Nut
Zippers for the very first time, that they’re new album would be one of my
favorites of 2018, I sure wouldn’t have believed you.
How wrong can I
get?
This is a New
Orleans bawdyhouse of musical repute that makes you want to drop your pants
after you drop the bottle of booze you just emptied in one gulp. Total voodoo
fever fun times.
This album also
features a song that is now one of my all time favorite torch songs, Fade.
This song, like so
many others on the platter, sounds as though I’ve heard it before in the best
way, but it’s all original music rooted in a classic vibe. Beautifully
familiar, yet an exciting stranger in the musical boudoir of my brain.
Here is that
wonderful new torch song that burns in the dark night of the soul.
1. Gypsy Moths: Alright
This album is a party anywhere it is played.
A flipping fantastic party with gin, bar fights, dancing, romancing and rock
and fricking roll.
There’s such energy captured in this platter of good times
and sad times and drinking up a storm times, that it’s hard to not gush praise
out every time the needle or laser drops on the wax or CD.
This is music made to dance with.
This is music made to party with.
This is amazing rock and roll.
The Moths get the party started just right
with The Boys Are Back In Town. Yes, all the songs are cover tunes, but the
Moths don’t just go through paint by number motions, it’s almost as if all
these tunes were written for them to take to the dance floor and rock and roll
all night.
So
how are the players? The band’s horn section is always on fire. Guitar playing
is gritty and smooth at the same time. Keys are classic sounding. Drums on point. Bass is bouncing and
big. Vocals? Hell yeah! Everything lands perfectly.
I seriously totally dig this album so much,
that it is mentioned more than once in a trilogy of novels that I’m writing
called, Song and Deth.
Earlier
this year an unexpected pleasure awaited DNA Girl and myself at the Cabot
Theater Beverly. We went to see the Squirrel Nut Zippers for the first time.
Now of course we were into going and such but never, ever did we expect such a
heady night of musical fun.
The
band is incredible live, and because they focused on material for their amazing
new album Beasts of Burgundy is partially why they were so solid damn good.
This
album is a voodoo driven New Orleans jazz joint good time. Each song does the
amazing feat of sounding just familiar enough to be nostalgic, even though
every single tune was written by someone in the band’s lineup.
Not
a single dud or filler tune is present. It makes you feel like it’s late at
some hopping beer soaked jazz hall at the edge of a joyously cursed swamp in
Louisiana.
Rusty Trombone is
a darn funny 20’s roaring ode to oral sex. Use What Mama Gave You is an amusing
pro-stripping ditty. The zippers aren’t afraid to unzip such bawdy tunes.
It
would be incredibly negligent if one song in particularly wasn’t singled out
for special mention. The final track Fade may be one of the best torch songs
ever recorded. The feel, the burn, the incredible haunting vibe, is soul
shaking.
Listen to Fade here.
This
album is a must if you dig the vibe of old world jazzy tunes.
And
we never would have discovered this amazing album if we hadn’t gone to see the
Squirrel Nut Zippers live.
Moonscape Hotel is
the first album by Devoured by Flowers.
The 90’s are alive
in this album. Perhaps it’s fitting that this band is from Portland Oregon,
where it is often said that the lifestyle of the 90s still exists.
There were many
ages of music that I enjoy. The 20s, 60s, 70s and 90s are some high periods for
me. So the 90s vibe is a great thing.
Swooning speedy,
dream pop with a lush undercurrent of goth is a thick part of the tapestry of
the tunes on this record.
Dorian Campbell is
the lead vocalist along with playing guitar and other cool duties. I don’t know
much about Campbell’s background or other projects, but he sounds very polished
here. Clearly he has a vision of how he wants to sing, which he pulls off quite
well.
Driving the
instrumentation along is the ever-astounding tune titan, Ashkelon Sain. Friends
of mine have often heard me gush like a river about the incredibly talented Mr.
Sain. Ash was the Lovecraftian musical architect behind Trance to the Sun, one
of my favorite bands that I love to name-drop whenever possible.
Of all the tunes
here in, Faire Creatures and the last track, A Seaside Ballad are the standouts
to my ears. The wonder in Dorian’s voice in Faire Creatures is super earworm
haunting. A Seaside Ballad gets a grand boost with some wonderful female vocals
running along with Dorian’s voice.
The guitar playing
throughout the proceedings is beautifully pristine.
One
of the great joys of music is variety. There are so many wonderful styles of
tunes, why not dive into the buffet?
When
you want old school, kick butt, party on down, stomp your stereo good time rock
and f’ing roll, Alright by the Gypsy Moths is a classic.
Putting
this album on is putting a sweat soaked, dance filled, juke joint, rock and
roll dive bar awesome good time into your stereo.
I
like this record so much I have it as both a CD and vinyl record. Which do I
prefer? Well in this instance it’s very much the vinyl album. While the CD is
great for the car, the grooves of this collection of songs cry out for the
action of a needle driven sound system. Plus there’s a great photo inside the
album with fun pictures of the band boozing it up as they rip up the stage of
every bar they play at!
The
production on the album is smooth enough to not lose its much need rock grit.
All the instruments and vocals are well positioned in the mix with nothing
drowning anything else out. This is no small feet given the rich sound that the
band has going on.
What
more can I say about this awesome slice of classic rock and roll tunes? Well
here’s a personal bit, I have been fortunate enough to follow the musical
career of Chris Conway and Steve O’Brien for many years, and this band is the
best I have ever seen either of them perform in. Great job guys!
Ok this isn’t a
cut from the album, but it will give you a taste of the fabulous tunes waiting
for you if you dive in:
So
what you’ve got here is a write up of a mini vinyl album. Sugar Trip is a
beautifully colored 33⅓mini LP
with two songs on each side.
The
title track starts us with a bouncy toy piano intro that takes us on a
wonderfully bizarre trip of sounds from a dimension of psychedelic splashed
bunnies. There is a sly undercurrent here that reminds me of the tinkle of old
school amusement parks as filtered through a grand wizard of a 90’s DJ.
Mike
Langlie is the amazing dude behind Twink. He performs his crafty music on toys
and electronics. With that simple credit, Twink creates a wall of inner child
fun music.
The
whimsy on display here is so kooky it’s impossible not to dig it. The second
track on side A, “Uh Uh Oh” goes in as many directions as a day glow bouncy
ball. Just when you think you have that song nailed down, it jumps off in some
other charming direction.
Side
B takes off with Fruitbat. A fun flight of fancy. Very beat driven and brief as
a hopping bunny playing synths.
Finally
we have The Return of Doctor Eelsleeves. The title of this song alone is
awesome. It could have easily been the title to a track on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band. This one is a wobbly cacophonic spritely mish mash of a tune
that re-invents itself in seconds. At a little over four minitues this is the
longest track. Twink Prog?
This
download/vinyl album is another grand addition to the amazing collection of
Twink recordings.
