I’m a big fan of them but saw them live a few years ago as the support act af Dinosaur Jr and didn’t really like them, I suppose because their set was too short. They’re coming back to Belgium in May and now as the main act and I’m doubting if I would go. But I suppose I should go.
Hey...you never know. Sometimes a band just has an off night. This is one I'd give a second chance to...! _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
FRENCH FRITH KAISER THOMPSON
INVISIBLE MEANS
1990 – WINDHAM HILL
Produced By HENRY KAISER
1. Peppermint Rock
2. To The Rain
3. Lizard’s Tail
4. March Of The Cosmetic Surgeons
5. Suzanne
6. Quick Sign
7. Begging Bowl
8. Kalo Takariva (Requiem For Maurice Halison)
9. Invisible Means
10. Loch Lomond
11. The Book Of Lost Dreams
12. Days Of Our Lives
13. The Evening News
14. The Nearsighted Heron
15. Now That I Am Dead
16. Hunting Sunsets
17. Killing Jar
In which three leading experimental musicians teamed up with folk rock guitarist Richard Thompson to form what was once called “the world’s most obscure supergroup”. John French played drums with Captain Beefheart. Fred Frith was a guitarist with the experimental band Henry Cow. Henry Kaiser is a fairly well know improvisational guitarist. And Thompson was a founding member of Fairport Convention. They somehow came together for an album in 1987 called Live, Love, Larf & Loaf. Invisible Means is their second and last album. And although the playing is really great, the quartet never really seemed to grasp what direction they wanted to go in. The three avant garde players were reigned in by the pop sensibilities of Thompson, who, in turn, was inspired by the others to take some weird steps outside of his comfort zone.
The results are puzzling, sometimes really entertaining, sometimes dead flat. All four players contribute songs here, with the tracks by Kaiser and Thompson being the strongest. Frith’s and (particularly) French’s songs are much weaker. The instrumentals are downright dull. It’s a strange listen, and maybe that’s what they were going for. The best tracks here come first and last…and both are from Thompson. “Peppermint Rock” is just that…a sweet rocker. But the best track here by far is his “Killing Jar”, which brings out his best Fairport self. The song is a journey, and it makes the rest of the album bearable. These guys apparently decided that it wasn’t working, because they haven’t done anything since this record. An average effort with a few fine moments.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
Awesome. Hope you get a better experience, and that the supporting acts are great as well! _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
BRUCE COCKBURN
STEALING FIRE
1984 – GOLD MOUNTAIN / A&M
Produced By JON GOLDSMITH & KERRY CRAWFORD
1. Lovers In A Dangerous Time
2. Maybe The Poet
3. Sahara Gold
4. Making Contact
5. Peggy’s Kitchen Wall
6. To Raise The Morning Star
7. Nicaragua
8. If I Had A Rocket Launcher
9. Dust And Diesel
Bruce Cockburn has always been huge in Canada…and an almost nobody in the United States. This is really a shame, because this is one talented guy. He’s a fantastic guitar player, a fine songwriter, and a political voice that America has missed for some time now. Stealing Fire is his 13th studio album (his first was in 1970), and it’s a fine effort. Cockburn had visited Central America on a charity mission, and came back with a set of songs not only steeped in political importance, but also carried by world music beats that would be made more popular by artists like Paul Simon and David Byrne. Cockburn’s only real blip on the US radar had been his 1979 song “Wondering Where The Lions Are”, and in 1984, we were too busy having a good time to notice an album like this one.
Not everything here has aged well, but there is enough to make it a great listen. “Lovers In A Dangerous Time” was a Canadian hit, and the title speaks for itself. “If I Had A Rocket Launcher” is one of Cockburn’s best known songs, which he says is not a call to arms, but a cry. Also worth hearing are “the lovely “Sahara Gold”, “To Raise The Morning Star”, and the strange yet catchy “Peggy’s Kitchen Wall”, with it’s strange hook asking who put the bullet hole there. This is one of his better albums, despite some lesser material. He’s not slowed down…Cockburn has released 26 studio albums so far, and almost all of them are worth hearing. Sometimes, we get it wrong and Canada does get it right. Stealing Fire is an imperfect gem…an often overlooked piece of what 1984 was all about.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
CYNDI LAUPER
SHE’S SO UNUSUAL
1983 – PORTRAIT
Produced By RICK CHERTOFF & WILLIAM WITTMAN
1. Money Changes Everything
2. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
3. When You Were Mine
4. Time After Time
5. She Bop
6. All Through The Night
7. Witness
8. I’ll Kiss You
9. He’s So Unusual
10. Yeah Yeah
11. Money Changes Everything (Live)
12. She Bop (Live)
13. All Through The Night (Live)
If Cyndi Lauper’s career had gone forward with a steady trajectory from her debut album, She’s So Unusual, she may have been the biggest star of the eighties, and beyond. Instead, she went off in enough weird directions as to alienate her fans and pretty much everyone else. But in the beginning…there was this kinda odd looking girl who was sort of hot in ways that felt somewhat dangerous. She giggled, she squealed, and she had a howitzer of a voice. This album was a blueprint for mallrats everywhere, a kind of dirty Madonna alternative. She was just enough punk, she was all new wave, she had attitude, and she was the 80’s poster child for spunk.
And she had some great songs on this record. “Money Changes Everything” was a cover from The Brains. She also covers Prince (“When You Were Mine”) and Jules Shear (“All Through The Night”). “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” was the eighties girl anthem, and her “Time After Time” is wonderful. And don’t forget the greatest song about masturbation ever…”She Bop”. Some of the side two tracks are weaker, but this is a true new wave classic. She went on to do “True Colors”, then slipped mostly into oblivion and a strange association with weirdo pro wrestlers like Capt. Lou Albano and his beard with rubberbands in it (?). But this debut album is Cyndi Lauper in all her strange, spunky and excellent glory.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (14/X-1983) (Album)
Cyndi Lauper was born for our generation.
It certainly sounds selfish, but the album came out the year I graduated from school.
Later, the song about Girls led to a quarrel with one of my girlfriends.
She was somewhat younger and listened to other music.
I criticized my friend's taste when I was visiting her in another city.
I suggested the first alternative that caught my eye.
In the middle of a song, the player suddenly stopped.
Apparently the superiority of Cyndi Lauper was too obvious.
A friend turned off the electricity in the whole apartment herself.
So she stopped the song and remained undefeated.))
Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual (14/X-1983) (Album)
Cyndi Lauper was born for our generation.
It certainly sounds selfish, but the album came out the year I graduated from school.
Later, the song about Girls led to a quarrel with one of my girlfriends.
She was somewhat younger and listened to other music.
I criticized my friend's taste when I was visiting her in another city.
I suggested the first alternative that caught my eye.
In the middle of a song, the player suddenly stopped.
Apparently the superiority of Cyndi Lauper was too obvious.
A friend turned off the electricity in the whole apartment herself.
So she stopped the song and remained undefeated.))
Nice! I've always loved Cyndi Lauper. _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
TAME IMPALA
LONERISM
2012 – MODULAR
Produced By KEVIN PARKER
1. Be Above It
2. Endors Toi
3. Apocalypse Dreams
4. Mind Mischief
5. Music To Walk Home By
6. Why Won’t They Talk To Me?
7. Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
8. Keep On Lying
9. Elephant
10. She Just Won’t Believe me
11. Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control
12. Sun’s Coming Up
If you think that psychedelic rock is dead, then you haven’t heard Tame Impala. Not so much a band as it is a solo project by Australian Kevin Parker, their second album, Lonerism, is viewed as one of the best albums of the 2010’s. And for good reason. More synth driven (but still with plenty of guitar) than the debut album Innerspeaker, Lonerism is trippy, catchy, danceable, spacey and it rocks. But it came out in 2012…how can that be? There is a lot more great music these days than you might think. Now granted…it may be hard for some who haven’t listened to a new album since MTV stopped playing music videos to get behind an album like this…but if you have the patience and an open mind, this can be a most rewarding record.
The best tracks here are “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”, “Apocalypse Dreams”, and the driving and rollicking “Elephant”. “Mind Mischief” is also a standout, and the rest of the songs here are very good. Parker has proven himself to be a fine songwriter, and his arrangements are powerful. Lonerism has stood for seven years so far as a classic for the decade. If you haven’t heard it, give this album a chance…and turn it up. Because rock has not died. One of the great things about rock over the years has been its ability to survive and change with the times. So, I recommend an open mind and an open ear. Albums like this are treasures just waiting to be explored.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
THE ROLLING STONES
SOME GIRLS
1978 – ROLLING STONES
Produced By THE GLIMMER TWINS
1. Miss You
2. When The Whip Comes Down
3. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
4. Some Girls
5. Lies
6. Far Away Eyes
7. Respectable
8. Before They Make Me Run
9. Beast Of Burden
10. Shattered
1. Claudine
2. So Young
3. Do You Think I Really care?
4. When You’re Gone
5. No Spare Parts
6. Don’t be A Stranger
7. We Had It All
8. Tallahassee Lassie
9. I Love You Too Much
10. Keep Up Blues
11. You Win Again
12. Petrol Blues
Imagine, if you will…The Rolling Stones release Some Girls in 1978, and then break up. For good. How much greater would the legacy of this band be? Some Girls is the last of the great Stones albums. And yet…it’s also their most underrated album. Jagger and Richards come up with their strongest set of songs in quite a while…something they would never do again. The guitar interplay between Richards and newcomer Ron Wood is dazzling. On one album, they effortlessly embrace rock and roll (“When The Whip Comes Down”), punk (“Shattered”), country (“Far Away Eyes”), disco (“Miss You”) and sixties R&B (“Just My Imagination) with the enthusiasm and energy of a much younger band.
So, yes. Some Girls is a sadly unrecognized masterpiece. “Miss You” and “Beast Of Burden” were big hits. The title track added controversy, and the energy that Wood brought to the band is palpable. That they never again approached the quality of Some Girls speaks to my personal belief that they should have hung it up right here, but who knew what would happen next? As it is, they’ve been around forever, making fewer albums of increasingly lesser quality. This is one that I suggest revisiting. Turn it up, and feel the sheer energy of this album. This is the real last hurrah for one of the greatest bands ever, and it’s better than many people remember it to be. Five stars, you say? Oh, yes! (The bonus disc isn’t bad, either.)
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
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