Hey! Ho! They Let Themselves Go!

The Oswald Conspiracy Covering "Point Blank"

Jack Ruby on lead guitar; Jim Leavelle on 'boards.

"Because You're Never Too Old to Rock"

Yes. Yes, you are.

You're never to old not to love to rock – a whole different thing.

The story goes, two German grayhead men, their ages listed only as "elderly," snuck out of their nursing home to attend a sold-out metal festival.

They got back at 3 a.m.

Imagine If Leaders Could Imagine...

If you’re among the projectile bleeding heart Liberal class, prepare to piss bitch tears. Oh gawd, if only! I’ve friends and family who stop listening after the line Imagine there’s no heaven... But if only the religious fundie frontin’ leaders like Bibi and his costumed swaddled head adversaries (and allies, strange bedfellows sometimes) could say ...and no religion too... think of the many of the circles of despair that ring the world that just might disappear.

Imagine.

A Wandering Grayhead in the Millennials’ Swamp, Vol 2

T: Sharon Van Etten; L: Noa Niles (Gateway Drugs);
C: Ellie Rowsell (Wolf Alice); R: Tricky

How old am I? I lost my virginity while The Cars played, that’s how old. Just What I Needed and I pounded together. For us oldsters, it’s just too easy to stay in an endless loop of music from our virginity-losing youth.

I’m not going to do that. And I hate seeing other Boomers bullet-training their way to the Great Sunset doing it also. But as I venture into the Millennial Swamp, you won’t be surprised to find that much of what attracts me has the timeless sound. As you’ll find in the below, the blood rushing in the veins of these tracks is old skool, if refreshed.

11) The Foals, What Went Down (2015): To get the kind of intensity being transmitted here takes a band, not just someone alone in their room with beats, loops, and samples. Here, when the band leans in, it catches fire. No matter what the torturous rage of the maker behind the keys in the best EDM joints, they'll never get anywhere near the intensity found here. For that, you need a band of people bangin’ analog. That’ll never change. Never.



12) Gateway Drugs, Black Wine of the Owl (2014): There’s a through-line here from the jangly folk rock of the 60’s – think of the bands Tom Petty stole from – and some of the 80’s bands that may’ve stolen from the same sources that Tom Petty did but with harder results – Echo and the Bunnymen, early Cure and Talking Heads, etc. This ditty features some nice noise hollandaise – and that processed scream is golden – atop this otherwise straight up omelet. Plus, enough guitar retro included to thrill a grayhead like me. Bonus points for the name choices of both band and song.



13) Caribou, Odessa (2010): You may know this song from the snippets that keep popping up on television, a commercial, games, and whatnot. I just heard it on Idris Elba’s Turn Up Charlie. Caribou is Canadian mathematician and composer Dan Snaith, and judging from the fact that he created 700 songs for the album that didn’t make it on, he has an Asperger’s level of focus. The bass sound and tuned percussive sounds were manipulated samples. That laughing inter-dimensional animal sound sample was thieved right from a RD Burman record, an Indian composer best known for his extensive film work. It appears to be some horn misused brilliantly and it’s a sound that’ll crawl tapeworm deep into your music lobes. That sound is what makes this whole exercise pop.



And the source of that sample:



14) Radio Tehran, Gelaye (2010): From Tehran, transplanted to London, with a sound that’s (Middle) East meets West in the best ways possible – well, skewed more toward the West: A platform of Western rhythms and beats under a slathering of, what?, Iranian Kabob? If it weren’t for the Persian vocals, and the odd touches – like the violin – it’d be hard to distinguish them musically from other Western “indie-alt” bands. Other than the fact that they’re very good. And that they’re not feigning assimilation by pandering to English-speaking ears was another good choice on their part.



15) Sharon Van Etten, Hands, No One’s Easy to Love (2019): I’ve always been a fan of the slow build. Whether it be with my career, or my songs, or life. 

Jersey girl and mom Van Etten currently resides in Brooklyn. Her first full-length was released in 2009. Since, she’s been absorbed by the star-maker machinery with an appearance on Ellen as well as acting turns on OA and Twin Peaks.

As for No One’s Easy to Love, she had me at the title. The media categorialists (like Pitchfork) say her sound has echoes of the folk tradition. Meh. I don’t hear it. Her restrained use of electronics and emotive use of subject matter give her stuff more gravitas than the general Brooklyn coffee house folky spawn. Her voice is strong in the Grace Slick tradition and similarly without soul pretensions or appropriation. There’s also a slight undercurrent of dystopia beneath it all which, to me, makes it all the more irresistible.





16) Natasha Atlas, Kidda (1997):

Natasha is a true mixed nut, musically and otherwise. Born of an ancestrally Egyptian father (by way of Belgium) and a British mum, she too was sprung in Belgium but would grow up with her mother in England. By her own description Atlas is Jewish by birth, technically Muslim, and Sufi by choice. Musically she’s a purveyor of cha'abi moderne (popular music) but will also cover James Brown. Her voice is a synthesizer of Western and Middle-Eastern traditions. Her use of melisma, or Mezdeke, as the Turk/Arab locals call it, with dance beats is something we’ve been waiting too long for.



17) Wolf Alice, Formidable Cool (2017): According to the Guardian’s head rock and pop critic, Alexis Petridis, Wolf Alice a shapeshifting blend of shoegaze, grunge and folk. No, no, no: It’s for this that artists hate the press so – such pigeon-holing descriptions limit the band’s sound and effect and they deserve better.

North Londoners Wolf Alice display their fusty roots like heraldry. On their own behalf the band says they were opting for a retro sound, particularly in their use of bass and drums, aiming for a kind of modern Motown groove. Unaltered, it’s a sound that would’ve been compatible with like-minded bands of the 80’s and 90’s. They’re not looking to shapeshift the continuum as much as ride it. In that vein, don’t look for this capable band to carve out any striking new territory either. But what does drive them above the fray of alternative pretenders is the power and range of singer of Ellie Rowsell. Her range isn’t just one of vocal technique but of color and versatility. Hers is the right balance of authenticity, snarl, and yonic authority – she may wear the mask of the cute chick singer but she transcends that constraint by atmospheres. Formidable Cool is from their second album. No further proof needed: They’ve arrived.



18) Super Furry Animals, The Very Best of Neil Diamond (2009): From the land of Badfinger – Wales – formed in 1993 and floated with critical praise enough to fill case loads of drool cups. Such as these gushes from their Wiki page: Billboard that said they were “one of the most imaginative bands of our time” and the NME claimed that “There's a case to be argued that [Super Furry Animals] are the most important band of the past 15 years.”

F**k Radiohead, then!

Their ears have a bent toward 70’s pop tunes not unlike Scottish band Belle and Sebastian. The choice of including Neil Diamond in the title was no accident. The groove is solid enough to block gamma rays, the melody’s infectiousness is nearly virulent, and the layers of noodled guitar noise adds just the right amount of aural carbs. And there’s more than a hint of irreverence behind everything they do: Altogether, a very nice piece of sonic rarebit.



19) Tricky, Parenthesis (2013): A collab with Brooklyn-based indie band The Antlers, this version offers a much improved remixed version of the original. Tricky has been saddled with the Trip-Hop label from the beginning and this stopped suiting him long ago. His 1997 debut Maxinquaye was considered his untoppable high water mark. Tricky thinks False Idols, the album whence Parenthesis came, is better. I agree.



20) Thundercat, Them Changes (2015): If that burbling synth sound on the bottom, a tribute to this Isley Brothers monster, doesn't barb you from the get-go, forget you. Smarter (and possibly aged) ears will tell you that Thundercat AKA Stephen Bruner has done some serious crate digging. Them Changes packs a Soul sausage with peak Isley Brothers, Sly and the Family Stone, Funkadelic, and Graham Central Station – sausages that were mass-produced back in the day when Rock and Soul could run together and get creolized into the gumbo in the best ways possible. I miss those days.

When Rockers are for Napping...

Also:
• The Rolling Kidney Stones
• Almost Deaf Leppard
• Peaked Floyd
• Metallica Hips
• Graysnake
• Iron Deficiency Maiden
• REO Tourist Bus
• Nine Inch Fingernails
• ZZ Stopped
• Mr. Big Prostate
• Men No Longer Able to Work
• Survivor Benefits
• The Hip Replacements
• The Early Byrds
• Scooterhead
• No Rush
• Talking Meds
• Uriah Asleep
• Vertical (on the) Horizon

Paul Gets Mickrolled

The end of the Road:

"My Way": The Baby Daddy of "Mars" and more

Did you know that Bowie wrote English lyrics for a song that’d later become My Way? The tune was from the French song Comme d'habitude. It was composed by Jacques Revaux and released in 1967 by French singer Claude François.

Legend goes that Paul Anka heard the song on the radio during a French holiday and decided to secure the song’s rights. Anka would write English lyrics, based loosely on the original and a conversation Anka had with Frank Sinatra over dinner. During dinner Sinatra would claim that he was planning to leave show business. That night, Anka wrote the lyrics with Sinatra in mind and made subtle changes to the original’s melody. Anka brought it to Sinatra who released the song in 1969. It was an international smash.

Bowie heard the Sinatra song, recognizing it as the tune he worked on. He’d composed Life on Mars as revenge, borrowing some of the song’s structure.

Hear the story here:

Boys Playin' Hard

How to play with force and spunk:

The Fifth Beatle

Hairy Georgeson

Tadpole Sia Before the Total Pop Music Frog

When Australian pop wonder Sia first stepped away from the local South Australian music scene, she'd move to London and find work as a backup singer for Jamiroquai. Next, was work with Zero 7 for three albums. Destiny is probably the best known work of the period (2002). This being back in a time when Sia was still hanging actual face out there. I’d never realized that it was her voice I was hearing:



(Not the original vid I posted. For some reason that was taken down. This is not quite as good but close enough.)

If you want to go into pop and you don’t look like you’re ready to be pimped as sexy covermeat for an entertainment magazine, forget it. Pop music may not be for you.

It's That "BIlly Corgan Rides a Roller Coaster" Meme

If you haven’t seen this, it’s a thing:



Created by Nikki Emery: https://twitter.com/stellamelos

Head-Banging in Russia

Call it Flirting-with-Death Metal: One fast stop and it’s borscht everywhere.

The Shaggs: The Complete Story Told in 5 Minutes that You Need to Hear

“Depending on whom you ask, the Shaggs were either the best band of all time or the worst... Such a divergence of opinion confuses the mind. Listening to the Shaggs’ album Philosophy of the World will further confound.”

Susan Orlean, The New Yorker

They may be the ultimate expression of outsider art. Their story has been subject to some embroidery but the vid below seems credibly straightforward. Plus, most of them are still alive for verification. As far as the font of all this legend, their canon consists of but one album released in 1969, Philosophy of the World. A mere one thousand copies were pressed and of those 900 may’ve been lost or stolen. In the end, their considerable legend was built on a platform of 100 albums.

Red Rooster/Rounder reissued the album in 1980; RCA Victor re-re-released the album in 1999; a short-lived, off-Broadway musical about their life was produced in 2011.

The Shaggs were sisters Dorothy “Dot” Wiggin (vocals/lead guitar), Betty Wiggin (vocals/rhythm guitar), Helen Wiggin (drums) and, later, Rachel Wiggin (bass) – and most of all, fascist Osmond Family-wannabe patriarch Austin Wiggin.

Frank Zappa would claim they were better than The Beatles (this may be apocryphal though it doesn’t seem beyond Zappa’s tongue-in-cheekiness); Kurt Cobain said their album was his fifth all-time favorite. No less than Lester Bangs wrote:

“They recorded an album up in New England that can stand, I think, easily with Beatles ’65, Life with the Lions, Blonde on Blonde, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as one of the landmarks of roll’n’roll history... They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all roll’n’roll’s ever been about from day one.”

Rolling Stone described The Shaggs as “sounding like lobotomized Trapp Family singers.” Terry Adams of NRBQ – a big fan – compared the group's melodic lines and structures to the free jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman.

The fact that their obsessively controlling father insisted they not listen to music will be immediately apparent. It may also be their greatest font of treasure. They likely didn’t read much poetry either. Their “tunings,” or lack thereof, are inspired. The rhythms can only be described as in a state of constant of phasing and retardment. They are to music they are Tommy Wiseau was to film, if Tommy shot on Pixelvision. Music described to extraterrestrials based on writing from a restroom wall. On the bright side, it’s very organic.

Here’s a nice encapsulation of their story.



And the legendary album:



Dot Wiggin released the solo album Ready! Set! Go! in 2013. A fan describes Dot as “...being forced to play rock and roll music like your dad... would force you to take piano lessons. And the difference is we have it on tape.”

An official promo vid for Dot’s album:

Creep Serving a Higher Purpose, Truly

Netherlands television includes a kids version of the very popular television franchise The Voice. No doubt that much of what they present is pure dreck. All of that only makes what happened on this night all the more spectacular.

Teen sisters Mimi (15) and Josefin (13) bring something telepathic between them in their rendition of Radiohead’s Creep as maybe only two gifted people who share 50% of their DNA can. And as good as their performance is – and it’s flawless – the stunned, gaped-mouth reactions of the judges, and the audience, only push it further into the stratosphere.

Rewatch it and note how the sisters look to one another nervously before they begin. What you’re watching is them each seeing the other in that way for the last time. Because in less than two minutes they’ll be forever changed as they step out of what may prove to be the greatest moment of their lives.

Mimi starts strong but it’s Josefin that gets the judges to slam the button. As it is with great talent, it only takes a fraction of a moment to realize what she’s bringing. Then, when those two voices come together and climb up into the first creep, everyone in the room feels the magic including the last holdout judges who slam in. Also, that lengthening of the creeps from the original was a touch of genius. It was their sucker punch and secret weapon. The judges agreed. Mimi comes in soon after with a screech that overdrives the drama. Their toolbox is loaded.

I’ve watched this many times now. Clearly, there are moments here that are untamable, unfakeable, and certainly unrepeatable. Their fresh-eyed joy as teenagers is completely infectious. There’s no denying that they’ve created something brilliantly incandescent here. I hope the hype that follows doesn’t crush them. The expectations will be brutal.

Happy Death Men?

According to an Australian study, death metal fans aren’t desensitized to violent imagery, even by listening to songs saturated with it. In fact, they’re made happier than most if you can believe that. However ironic, this happens “through feelings of joy and empowerment” delivered through those brutal, screaming, thundering bursts AKA songs by way of the music they love – somehow.

Or better yet:

If fans of violent music were desensitized to violence, which is what a lot of parent groups, religious groups and censorship boards are worried about, then they wouldn't show this same bias. But the fans showed the very same bias towards processing these violent images as those who were not fans of this music.

For enthusiasts of Devil Music, this has got to be a disappointment of sinister proportions. Otherwise, here’s a dose. Get happy:

Arctic Remix: Brit Rock w/ a Cuban Override & Cold Blooded Results

Remember The Buena Vista Social Club? When Ry Cooder went to Cuba in the late 90’s, recorded some local music legends and many of us lost our collective minds? Well, in 2004 Rhythm del Mundo took some songs from various happening groups of the time, and remixed them with Cuban musicians including some Buena Vista Social Club alumni. Some of the results were damned ingenious, like this one:

Serge Gainsbourg & his Lollipop:

Entendre, please! And make it a double!

That waggish trickster Serge Gainsbourg: When he wrote Les Succettes (“Lollipops”) for the 18 year old France Gall in 1966, the girlish gal probably hadn’t much experience with succettes of the skin variety. She bought the lollipop concept, entendre-free.

I’m guessing her parents weren’t paying much attention to what she was doing either. Gall is said to have been very upset when she learned the truth about what those models meant by pulling the long succettes in and out of their mouths as well as the forest of dancing phalli she was made to cavort with. Oh. And singing verses like:

When the barley sugar 
Flavored with anise 
Sinks in Annie’s throat, 
She is in heaven.

Here’s the story according to website Dangerous Minds:

It wasn’t until she was on tour in Tokyo that someone let the cat out of the bag [about the entendre of the song]. Gall was infuriated and greatly embarrassed by what she’d unwittingly taken part in. She felt betrayed by the adults around her and mocked like a naive fool. She refused to leave her home for weeks afterwards and ultimately stopped singing Gainsbourg’s songs that had made her so famous. For years afterwards her career suffered from her association with this scandal, even if “Les Sucettes” had been a big hit.



Despite his legendary love affair with Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg made something of a career out of being a cad. In 1986 he would encounter a 22 year old Whitney Houston and just couldn’t help himself. Gainsbourg, a three pack-a-day smoker, was 58 at the time. He’d be dead four years later.

NY3 & Fripp: The Most Metal Song You'll Ever Hear & It's Not Metal

That riff drops with more atomic weight than the entire history of Nordic Death Metal and Slayer’s complete canon put together. The meter is probably pi and the violent drumming, by Narada Michael Walden, out Keith Moons Keith Moon. And the “lyrics?” What’s edgier and more metal and punk than a life-changing domestic squabble where the mother scales the depths of imagination for every pissy, bigoted, and heart-shatteringly poison-tipped arrow she can spew? (See the lyrics here.)

F--k all that devil worship crap – it’s kid’s stuff. For trauma, Satan can’t compete with an alcoholic step-mother.

This from a guy who claims guitar-based music bored him.

In 1974 he told Guitar Player that “virtually nothing interests me about the guitar.” He said most guitar music is boring. He also thought the guitar bored Jimi Hendrix and for both the guitar is only a medium used for transmitting into the universe, those metal strings being a medium that gives them a language for speaking. (Hear Fripp’s story of Hendrix going fanboy on him in 1969.)

Okay, back to that riff. He’s essentially walking down some scale based on extraterrestrial angularities and battered intervals the ear doesn’t often get exposed to. Part of his secret is the alternative tuning: Fripp invented his own tuning called the New Standard Tuning (NST). Strings are tuned to fifths, except for the top – G-C-G-D-A-E-G – and even if you know nothing and care even less about guitar technique, your ears will detect the differences instantly. It drops your lobes into another universe.

Add to this a picking style he calls perpetuum mobile (perpetual motion) which takes short melody figures and chains them together in brutally fast lines, a mashup of minimalist repeated figures, avant jazz runs, and atonal composers like Milton Babbitt and Anton Webern.

Fripp has played versions of this run over the years, going back. (See the Lark’s Tongue in Aspic III version below.) What he does on NY3 is give that sound its highest purpose. For me, it’s the culmination what all those avant grade academy types were aiming at, Fripp gives us something we can use – an agitated pleasure.



And more fripperies:

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog vs Bon Jovi: It's Not Even Close

Our mission here at Jelly Roll is uplift by raising the levels of moral, psychological, and aesthetic consciousness. We do this here by supporting music we believe deserves more of your attention. We’re not here to besmirch by launching snarky salvos at easy targets. And to that end we are (mostly) faithful. It’s a line we don’t cross.

However, it is one that Triumph has made a career of crossing and here he poops on Bon Jovi with ingenious deftness. And it is our mission is to support ingeniousness.