ZS
NEW SLAVES
2010 – THE SOCIAL REGISTRY
Produced By ZS
1. Concert Black
2. Acres Of Skin
3. Gentleman Amateur
4. Don’t Touch Me
5. Masonry
6. New Slaves
7. Black Crown Ceremony I: Diamond Terrifier
8. Black Crown Ceremony II: Six Realms
The line between free jazz and experimental rock is a blurry one. Zs lives squarely on the center of that line. Formed in 2000, this New York ensemble has had a fluid membership, led by founding member and saxophonist Sam Hillmer. They have released eight albums, none of which is popular in any way, building a reputation as a fine experimental group. The closest to fame they’ve been was in 2007, when Howard Stern referred to their music as “mood music…if you’re in a mental home”. New Slaves came out in 2010, and was highly praised. It was named Album Of The Year by Tiny Mix Tapes. Zs was a quartet at the time, consisting of Hillmer, guitarist Amnon Freidlin, Ben Greenberg (electronic & guitar), and percussionist Ian Antonio. This is most definitely not pop music. It can be a tough listen, if you’re not open to experimental albums.
There are, of course, no hits here, and nothing you’ve likely heard on the radio. Zs has stated that their goal is to “make music that challenges the physical and mental limitations of both performer and listener”. That’s a pretty wide challenge, and one that can be exhausting. The title track runs over twenty minutes, and the two part “Black Crown Ceremony” is 23 minutes long, but everything else is shorter and not as rambling. Along with their 2015 album Xe, New Slaves is their most accessible and critically acclaimed work. All has been quiet from Zs since their 2018 live album, Noth. Like Xe, New Slaves is a challenging soup of different genres and sounds, music that is nearly impossible to pin down. This band may not be for everyone, but if you can be open to it, there are endless rewards waiting on this strange and experimental disc.
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4 NON BLONDES
BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, MORE!
1992 – INTERSCOPE / ATLANTIC
Produced By DAVID TICKLE
1. Train
2. Superfly
3. What’s Up?
4. Pleasantly Blue
5. Morphine & Chocolate
6. Spaceman
7. Old Mr. Heffer
8. Calling All The People
9. Dear Mr. President
10. Drifting
11. No Place Like Home
There aren’t may people in the music industry more annoying than Linda Perry. As a recording artist, she’s the very definition of a one hit wonder. As a writer, she’s contributed blatant pop trash to artists like Christina Aguilera, Pink, and Kelly Osbourne. Her weird obsession with hats and her wildly over the top vocal delivery make her an unpleasantry whose stardom is questionable at best. Her band, 4 Non Blondes, surfaced in 1992 with their debut and so far only album, Bigger, Better, Faster, More! This record would have died a silent and painless death, if not for their one hit. “What’s Up?” became an inescapable smash, and remains a karaoke staple to this day. The hook on the chorus makes Perry’s over singing and her attempt at relevant lyricism almost forgivable. It’s a decent hit, but the fact that it’s made an entire career for Perry is a mystery for sure.
4 Non Blondes was an all female band until the recording of this album, when two members were dismissed and lead guitarist Louis Metoyer finished the record. A pair of singles failed (“Spaceman” and the overly political “Dear Mr. President”), and the rest of the album has been overly praised to death. Aside from “What’s Up?”, there’s very little to recommend here. If you must have that song, it’s available on several episodes of American Idol and most nineties compilations, surrounded by much better songs than you’ll get here. The Non Blondes broke up shortly after this, leaving this album and an absolutely wretched cover of “Misty Mountain Hop” that they recorded for a Led Zeppelin tribute album. They got back together in 2025, and may finally have new music on the horizon. Let’s hope that the second time is the charm…
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Rhynersoft silly music is meaningful magicalProfile Utah
I unabashedly love "What's Up?". It's so damn fun to sing along with. I currently have it ranked as my 21st favorite song of all time.
But you're right, they didn't do anything else really worth mentioning.
WILLIAM ACKERMAN
PASSAGE
1981 – WINDHAM HILL
Produced By WILLIAM ACKERMAN
1. Remedios
2. Processional
3. The Impending Death Of The Virgin Spirit
4. Pacific I
5. The Bricklayer’s Beautiful Daughter
6. Hawk Circle
7. Anne’s Song
8. Passage
One sure way to avoid the headaches of trying to secure a record deal is to do it the way William Ackerman did: simply start your own label. Ackerman founded Windham Hill records in 1976, and by the mid-eighties, it had become the home to what is now known as New Age music. New Age became popular at that time, and Ackerman became quite the success story. In addition to records by the likes of George Winston and Michael Hedges, Ackerman also released his own records. Passage was his fourth album, and it did fairly well in the eighties before New Age became unpopular in the nineties. His acoustic guitar playing is fine, never exceptional, and the music is intended as easy listening. Like most of his recorded legacy, you won’t be wowed by what Ackerman does. The saving grace is that he does it well.
Most of the album is solo Ackerman. He is joined on four songs recorded as instrumental duets. Darol Anger (violin) on “Remedios”, Robert Hubbard (English horn) on “Pacific I”, Dan Reiter (cello) on “The Impending Death Of The Virgin Spirit”, and Winston (piano) on “Hawk Circle”. Ackerman left Windham Hill as owner in 1984, and the label has been mostly dormant as a subsidiary of larger labels since 2007. He still records, having made nineteen albums since 1976. But his biggest claim to fame will always be as the face of New Age music, and the label that made it a thing for a decade or so. His biggest discovery was Winston, and he was also the man who launched the careers of Alex DeGrassi, David Cullen and Andrew York…hardly household names, but about as big as smooth jazz artists get, I guess. Passage is okay, but it won’t rock your world
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MIKE ADDINGTON
HORIZON AND MAIN
2008 – SELF RELEASED
No Production Credit
1. First Day You’ve Been Gone
2. Horizon And Main
3. Roped Yourself A Stray
4. Forever And A Day
5. Baby Please Don’t Go
6. I Could Write You A Letter
7. One Lonesome Cowboy
8. Feelin’ Blue, Blue, Blue
9. Sweet Liar
10. Walking Midnight
11. Fool In Your Eyes
12. Turned Loose
13. Living Proof
14. Spill A Little
15. If You’d Come Back
16. In This Heart Of Mine
There isn’t much to say about this one. Mike Addington is a country artist who moved around between Texas and California before settling in New Mexico. Addington released just this one album, Horizon And Main, in 2008. It was recorded in Colorado, which may be how I came across it. His website, which is just about all of his online presence outside of a rarely used facebook account, is still there. It states that there is a second album due out in 2012…that obviously never happened. As for Horizon And Main, not much is known about it. Who played on it, or any other details are simply not out there. It’s a decent enough album, but as a musician who never rose above a local level, I know how hard it is to carry on a career that doesn’t take off to another level. So making just one record is quite understandable, especially when it doesn’t sell as much as one would have hoped.
Addington claims to be a distant cousin of Maybelle Carter, and to have opened for the likes of Asleep At The Wheel and Leon Russell. Those days are apparently in the past for Addington. Horizon And Main is a good but not spectacular country album, a decent enough debut album that brings to mind Guy Clark, Steve Earle and John Prine. But it’s tough to achieve a big audience when your hometown of choice has a population of less than a thousand. Addington still plays live on occasion, but you’d have to travel into New Mexico to see him. His website is still out there, but it looks like it hasn’t been updated in over a decade with an empty calendar and just this album for sale. Worth taking a listen to, but there’s nothing else out there by him. Would have been interesting to hear that 2012 follow up that unfortunately never happened.
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TORI AMOS
TO VENUS AND BACK
1999 – ATLANTIC
Produced By TORI AMOS
1. Bliss
2. Juarez
3. Concertina
4. Glory Of The 80’s
5. Lust
6. Suede
7. Josephine
8. Riot Poof
9. Datura
10. Spring Haze
11. 1000 Oceans
1. Precious Things
2. Cruel
3. Cornflake Girl
4. Bells For Her
5. Girl
6. Cooling
7. Mr. Zebra
8. Cloud On My Tongue
9. Sugar
10. Little Earthquakes
11. Space Dog
12. The Waitress
13. Purple People
Tori Amos absolutely ruled the nineties. But all things must come to an end, and the end of making hits for Amos came with To Venus And Back. It was also the end of the nineties. This two disc set is a long one, but that’s okay. It’s actually two different albums. Disc one is a studio album of new material, continuing in the direction of her previous albums, 1998’s From The Choirgirl Hotel with increased use of electronics. The second disc consists of live material from her previous year’s tour, and is the better of the two. In all, the two CD’s combined run over two hours…a lot of Tori to digest in one sitting. Thankfully, one thing Tori Amos never has been is boring. She’s in fine voice here. and her songwriting remains sharp. Unfortunately, she does veer further away from her acoustic piano and vocal sound.
“Bliss” was the star track here. It became her last song to reach the Billboard Hot 100, and this is also her last Platinum certified album to date. Other highlights here are “Concertina”, “Glory Of The 80’s”, and the closer, “1000 Oceans”. More electronic based songs like “Datura” (which is about hallucinogenic plants) and “Juarez” (about the murders of female workers at the Mexican border) are interesting as well, but also show she was beginning to more than drift from her audience. The second disc is actually her first live album, and is much better. These versions of past hits like “Cornflake Girl” and “Cruel” make To Venus And Back worthwhile. Amos is still at it, with 2026’s In Times Of Dragons being her eighteenth studio effort. This one is not her best, but it’s also not bad at all. Worth at least a spin, and the live disc is a keeper.
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THE BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA
THE DIRTY BOOGIE
1998 – INTERSCOPE
Produced By PETER COLLINS
1. This Cat’s On A Hot Tin Roof
2. The Dirty Boogie
3. This Old House
4. Let’s Live It Up
5. Sleepwalk
6. Jump Jive An’ Wail
7. You’re The Boss (Feat. Gwen Stefani)
8. Rock This Town
9. Since I Don’t Have You
10. Switchblade 327
11. Nosey Joe
12. Hollywood Nocturne
13. As Long As I’m Singin’
Brian Setzer is moved by two kinds of music. He became famous as the front man and guitarist for the rockabilly trio Stray Cats in the early eighties…an unlikely hit band for the time. Later, beginning in the nineties, be started combining rockabilly with swing music, forming The Brian Setzer Orchestra. They had a timely hit from their third album, The Dirty Boogie, with Louis Prima’s “Jump, Jive An’ Wail”, giving the swing revival of the second half of the decade its shot of adrenaline. Setzer writes fewer songs here than he did with the Cats…only five of the thirteen tracks are his, as he seems content to cover older tracks. The Orchestra is basically a revised Stray Cats lineup with a ton of horns. The rockabilly of his older band was never going to have staying power, and the swing revival was no different.
But kudos to Setzer for sticking with this one. They are quite famous as a live act, but their albums lean towards same sounding and interchangeable. And like the rest of his revival brethren, studio recordings don’t really carry the same energy as live sets do. “Jump, Jive An’ Wail” is fine, but these guys aren’t known for doing much else. Setzer and Gwen Stefani perform the old Elvis and Ann-Margret duet “You’re The Boss”, and “Rock This Town” is a remake of the Stray Cats biggest hit, which this one was not. Setzer had a nice idea here, and he did get a big hit song out of it, but more hits never came, and the albums never got better than this…and this one was barely above average at best. It’s curious that artists like Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Squirrel Nut Zippers are still doing this, but they do have an audience somewhere.
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Of dying history
STEEL TRAIN
TRAMPOLINE
2007 – DRIVE-THRU
Produced By MARK TROMBINO
1. I Feel Weird
2. Black Eye
3. Kill Monsters In The Rain
4. Dakota
5. Alone On The Sea
6. Firecracker
7. A Magazine
8. Diamonds In The Sky
9. Leave You Traveling
10. I’ve Let You Go
11. School Is For Losers
12. Women I Belong To
Steel Train existed for a decade before quietly breaking up in 2013. Frontman Jack Antonoff has since gone on to a quite successful career fronting the band Bleachers, and as a producer for the likes of Taylor Swift, Lorde and Lana Del Rey. Before his twelve Grammy Awards, Steel Train was a promising but mostly unremarkable band that made three albums between 2005 and 2010. The best of those three was the second, 2007’s Trampoline. It’s ultimately a decent enough effort, well played, and mostly forgettable. The band moves away from their earlier jam band roots and into a more indie rock groove, blending folk rock and an almost Arcade Fire like sound. But Steel Train always lacked hits, and hits sell records. It didn’t help that they were the only band on their now defunct label that sounded like they did, making promotion a tough sell.
There are some keepers here. “Firecracker” is the best Steel Train song, and “Alone On The Sea” and “Women I Belong To” are strong. But ultimately, Steel Train hadn’t figured out their sound yet, resulting in decent songs sounding thin and almost unfinished. That development never really happened, as the label folded in 2008. Steel Train released their final album in 2010 (and also an interesting companion disc of covers of the songs on that record by female singers called Terrible Thrills, Vol. 1). Singer Scott Irby-Ranniar hasn’t done much (he’s also an actor), and Antonoff’s career has kept there from being any thoughts of a Steel Train reunion. Not that anyone would really notice if it happened. Trampoline is decent enough, but it most likely won’t be your favorite record. Slightly above average at best.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
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