Friday 11 October 2013

The Vinyl Resting Place #1 Bo Diddley - The Black Gladiator

Released in 1970, four years after his last solo sojourn, 'The Originator', 'Black Gladiator' was in the same musical melting pot as Muddy Waters’ 'Electric Mud' & Howlin’ Wolf’s 'This Is Howlin’ Wolf’s New Album'. Both records are reactions by original electric bluesmen to the newer, heavier white blues sounds that were dominating the music scene in late 60s America. BB King also released a similar record, 'Live In London' in 1971 using British blues stars of the day.


Bo Diddley however drew on the newer black music of the day. The heavier, funkier sounds coming out of late 60s Motown & Atlantic, the grittier & more socially aware offerings from James Brown, Curtis Mayfield & George Clinton. Diddley sets the tone early with a musical palette of hard edged funk that hits you square in the guts. Black Gladiator could comfortably sit alongside any of the psych blues classics from Funkadelic & Parliament.



Opening track 'Elephant Man' is a killa psych funk floorstomper & probably my favourite Diddley track ever. 'Black Soul' is also a funk, freight Soul Train workout. Keyboard player Bobby Alexis is featured heavily on the album, always comping & pumping the songs forward, letting Diddley fire some thick funk lead riffs around the groove. Diddley does however revert to a more standard blues format on a few songs. 'Hot Buttered Blues' & 'Power House' are more traditional but they don't seem tired, cliched or album fillers as they are all dipped in late 60s goodness, killer guitar tones, & great backing vocals from Cookie Vee. 

Album closer 'I Don't Like You' is crazy. I mean really out there. Opera meets the blues with Cookie and Diddley exchanging hip hop style smack talk. Apart from the 12 bar misogyny of 'Shut Up Woman' (weakest track in I'm A Man style) it's a great, overlooked record with some real classic cuts on it. Blues purists may have dismissed it when it was released, but check it out, frug your acid drenched heart out to gritty, sweaty, funk blues drenched in psychedelic rain. And not a Diddley shuffle beat in sight.

Errrm nice look Bo.









Saturday 5 October 2013

Dead Sea Skulls - Fortune Favours The Brave


Remarkably, having only formed during the last few months in their hometown of Birmingham, this power rock trio have been incredibly assiduous in their already impressive output. Regular gigs, photo shoots, ep release, music video & more recently, a residency at Camden Town's Hawley Arms. 

The line up is Ash Sheehan, centre (vox/drums) Brothers Jimi, left (bass) & Nick Crutchley (guitar) 


The 'Fortune Favours The Brave' ep is an explosion of punk rock power pop, conjuring up lost melodies reminiscent of bands like The Replacements, The Exploding Hearts, Superchunk, The Lemonheads & more recently Incubus, Kings Of Leon, The Strokes, Foo Fighters & 30 Seconds To Mars.



Opening track 'Absent Ones' comes in at a lean 2.30 seconds. All Nick Valensi style monster staccato riffage, woven together with an anthemic sing-along chorus. 'Nowhere I Belong' & 'Giving All I've Got' have a *dirt under the fingernail* Incubus Morning View era groove, crossed with the power and radio friendly choruses of 30 Seconds To Mars arena pleasers. 'Come Round Again' & personal live favourite 'Riding High' completes the rest of the impressive debut ep. All of the tracks have hallmarks of well crafted songwriting, earworm choruses, funky backline grooves & flat out switchblade vocals. Riding High's Scott Holiday riffage and Jay Buchananesque bluesy vocals in particular wouldn't be out of place on Rival Son's Head Down album.

Live this band are a visual powerhouse. They might hail from the West Midlands but they have the image and attitude that spilled out of CBGB's in late 70s New York. Ash, centre stage, playing the drums (standing up) with such venom, ferocity & precision, you wonder how he manages to deliver such quality vocals as he pounds the drums to within an inch of their life. Jimi's solid, melodic funk bass grooves lock tight with the backbeat while brother Nick's tight, inventive riff's float effortlessly around Ash's impressive vocals. You forget this gloriously layered sound comes from only three players.

You should be hearing a lot more about Dead Sea Skulls. As their hashtag on twitter ominously reads #DeadSeaIsComing

Dead Sea Skulls Live at Birmingham O2 Academy September 2013

Dead Sea Skulls Live at Hawley Arms London September 2013

Dead Sea Skulls Live at Fixxion warehouse Wolverhampton October 2013

Debut EP "Fortune Favours The Brave" was produced by Andy Hawkins (Kaiser Chiefs/The Damned/Ginger/Pigeon Detectives) and is available on Broken Banjo Records via iTunes, Amazon MP3 and Spotify.




Upcoming dates:

10th Oct - Fixxion Warehouse Wolverhampton
24th Oct - Hawley Arms Camden London
9th Nov - "Cherry Cola" @ Purple Turtle, Camden





Thursday 3 October 2013

Mary Epworth 'September' Review

Mary Epworth's new single 'September' (out now on Hand Of Glory Records) is a glitterbeat glamstomper, heavily infused with synth bass, fat back beats and dirty, killa fuzz.
September shouldn't be a surprise in terms of direction, the radio-edited single 'Black Doe' from debut album 'Dream Life' hinted at a footstomping, fuzz filled future. If you follow Mary on twitter @maryepworth or have listened to various radio interview/live sessions with the band, you already know it's 60s sunshine pop, prog, psych & much, much more (not just f*lk) that excites this band. More recently a slight obsession with Bowie's foil Mick Ronson has been a major twitter topic between Mary and guitarist/vocalist Helene Bradley. So maybe some glitter-killa Ronson style riffs will be evident on the second album!
Mary - "This song in an earlier form nearly ended up on Dream Life, but once we decided it hadn’t made the cut, I realised it could be turned into a bit of a glitterbeat stomper. I’ve been in a bit of a glam rock frame of mind, and wanted to make something that people could move to. Producer Will and I went as far as dancing while we recorded the drum take, to make sure the beat was just right for a night out at the local working men’s club" 
(credit for mary's quote 'http://thequietus.com')
Coming in at only 1.46 seconds, this is a fresh slice of perfect 70s pop. Imagine Joe Meek & Brian Eno (Here Come The Warm Jets era) co-producing Suzie Quatro while Marc Bolan gets jealous in the control room.



Thursday 29 August 2013

Iggy Pop As A Linda McCartney Sausage


I Am The Lizard Falafel King...I'm Wizard With Hummus


To All The Guitars I've Loved Before. "Phase One, In Which Doris Gets Her Oats"

I was chatting to my good bud Steve (AKA Ken, Stan, Lionel), maybe a year ago about all the guitars I've had since I started playing. The list became quite expansive, so here is a blog post about phase 1 in guitar buying. Alas they no longer room with me.



1. Spanish/classical guitar

A part time loan from my ex's cousin. He showed me how 'not' to play the intro from Stairway To Heaven shortly after we endured early 90s comedy 'Green Card' with Gérard DepardieuI dutifully popped along to my local library, to get various guitar instruction books out, along with 'The Monkees Greatest Hits'. I expected to be a total natural at music & thought Daydream Believer would be knocked out in less than an afternoon. It sounded worse than the infamous one armed busker who stood outside McDonalds in New St Station with a single string (bottom E) on his guitar. Busker 1 Pat 0.



2. Hohner Acoustic Steel String

Got my first real 6 string, bought it from Argos Superstore, played it till my fingers bled, it was the Summer of 94'

£49.99. Played like a pig this one. You could easily limbo a Walnut Whip under the strings on the 12th fret. I tried my hand at refinishing it to a cherry sunburst. Obviously using brown, red & black boot polish to achieve this. I ended up smashing it on a wall like a drunk Keith Moon. *actually drunk.



3. Westone Thunder IIa with pre amp

My first electric guitar. A petrol blue beast forged from the white hot cauldron of rock. Japan. Purchased from Musical Exchanges, Birmingham for £110.00 A beast in metal/rock terms, a pig in actual tone terms. It weighed a ton and gave access to fret numbers where no man had ever or gone before. Flick that 'preamp' switch for instant shreddanoodle & a humbucking tonal palette equivalent to liquid metal diarrhea. But it served me reasonably well, & I managed to learn many, many terrible songs on it whilst giving my Uncle (next door neighbour) a temporary bi polar disorder. Ended up hocking it in towards my next electric. They go for upwards of $500+ on Fleabay!




First Guitar Amp 

Marshall Reverb 12 Practise Amp. Quite small, but very loud, and very red. (They had sold out of black ones) I ended up playing everything through this 1 x 10 speaker, bass, harmonica, vocals, keyboards. It ended up in Cash Convertors with the arse totally thraped off it.




4. Antoria 'Rockstar' 80s 335 Copy

Acquired from my pal Glen for £35.00. It needed new tuners & a bit of electrical work. I had all the hardware/pickup covers changed to chrome, put witches hat control knobs & a black scratchplate on it. It had awesome Kent Armstrong humbuckers in it, and I remember it sounded/looked great. Still kinda regret selling this one, but it would probably sound sh*t without those rose tinted glasses on. Actually thinking about it, I played a charity gig with it as John Lennon & it was a ba*tard to keep in tune. Went on fleabay eventually & I got around £150-80.



5. Vantage electro acoustic

Purchased from M.I.R in Halesowen for £179.00. Great (first) acoustic, really nice sounding pickup. Next to a premium guitar, yes, a bit thin sounding & cheap. I had this one for a few years, eventually selling it to my mate for £90.00. Who then sold it to his bass player for a profit! (sucker) It now bizarrely hangs on the wall of my new wingman, Dave, who has just joined my current covers band on bass. (I spotted it in his house after 12+ years) It looked really sh*t. My guitar was a bit darker than this stock shot below. More caramel cack.




6. Epiphone Les Paul Standard

Amazing, amazing guitar, played just beautifully. Every now and then you play an Epiphone that sings. This was one of them. I had Seymour Duncan Vintage 59' pickups retro fitted shortly after purchase. Amazing tonal capabilities. I always loved Les Paul guitars, mainly because of my hero Peter Green. If I still had this guitar I would defo get my tech guy to try and get that 'out of phase' sound Peter had. I traded this guitar with a work colleague who wanted to learn electric guitar (a £250 trade for some work he did for me), on the understanding that if he wanted to get rid of it I would buy it back for £250.00. Long story short, the guy was unwell and had pretty bad OCD. He swapped it for a really, really sh*t, I mean dogsh*t Yamaha electro acoustic. Bear in mind the Les Paul had a hard case & with the various upgrades was worth £500+. Did I mention how sh*t the ridiculous Yamaha was that he traded it in for? I don't think about it after all these years. Honest. I don't. Really.




Marshall JTM30 1x12 Combo

Purchased at the same time as the Epi Les Paul, 1994 ish. A storming amp with 2 channels. Gain channel sucked badger arse. (There was also a 2 x 12 60 watt version) The clean sound was amazing, often envied by muso bud's who played through it. Marshall only ran them for a few years because of manufacturing faults. This one used to overheat, a common problem that needed an experienced techy dude to sort out. The amount of times it broke down in it's later years was annoying. I got it fixed and flogged it earlier this year. It was still in great shape even with drunken cuban heeled boots kicking it around the stage a few times to kickstart it back to life.




7. Fender Squier Stratocaster

Cash Convertors, £60.00. Mexican. Worst guitar ever. Played like a Quality Street tin with elastic bands stretched over it. May even have belonged to someone I know with terrible, terrible musical capabilities. Even *HE* didn't hang on to this cursed block of plywood for very long. I can't remember if I gave it way, traded it or executed it.


8. Fender Telecaster MIJ

Acquired off my bud 'Stonemason Trev' back in the mid 90s. Never really took to it as a regular guitar. It looked like a honey & was chock full of twangy goodness, but I wasn't ready for a Telecaster. Yet. Sold to my then drummer for £200.00. He sold it a few years later for about £400. There's a pattern emerging here. *Side note, Trev showed me the Bm chord when I started to learn guitar.




9. Burns Marquee Club Series

I loved this guitar. The colour, the scroll headstock, the pick ups. It sounded different/better than the Strat's I was hearing/playing at the time. Had the push/pull tone pot selector for more 60s goodness. My mate Ken hated it. I slightly regretted selling it on fleabay for around £190. It was/is essentially a £200ish guitar. Makes me want to buy an original 60s one. 



10. Vintage Dobro Resonator

Being heavily into blues music for a long time, I always wanted one of these bad boys. I kept it for a long time, without really using it much. The pick up was amazing, but it sounded like a standard acoustic through a P.A. Unplugged it had it's own southern charm, a nice country blues sound. It weighed a ton and was a bitch to keep it from tarnishing. Another one to the fleabay gods. (sighs)




11. Epiphone 12 String Acoustic Early 70s

Purchased from Crap Converters for £99.00. Really nice sounding guitar that did the BBQ circuit for two boozy Summers. I always intended on getting it set up properly, have that pick up fitted so I could go on a Bowie trip with it. But it's another one of those 'getroundtoit' jobs that never, ever happens. Sold on Fleabay for £200.



12. 50th Anniversary Fender Stratocaster MIJ

Lovely looking guitar bought off my pal James. He has loads of music equipment that he has *never*, ever used. A Fender Japan guitar with aged parts. (I later swapped them to another guitar) The pick ups in this sounded great, very dark for a Strat. I don't know what is is with Fender, they never really seemed speak to me in design/sound terms. I guess I just love big ole' hollow body jazzers.



13. Hutchins Vox Tear Drop Brian Jones Ltd Edition

Being a Brian Jones fan, I always wanted a Vox Tear Drop guitar, & with this one being endorsed by The Brian Jones Fanclub & a limited run of 250 it should be great, right? Wrong. Hutchins cut corners on build quality & finish. The pick ups were thin & reedy, the fretboard felt horrible and the spray job was done with a paintball gun from 100 yards away. Brian would defo not endorse this box of basswood boll*x.



14. Fender Squier 51

The Squier 51 is the only original design by Squier. It has a split coil humbucker in the bridge, and a standard single pup on the neck. It's a hybrid of a Strat, P Bass & a Tele (headstock) I only really got it because of the Pat Butcher scratchplate and the split coil pup. (and to leave in the workshop to tinkle on) Still not sure why I sold it. (oh yeah, I'm a guitar tackle tart) Fender now do a run of these in their Custom Shop dept for £800+.




15. Teisco Hollowbody MIJ

I had a spell of watching 60s Jap guitars on Ebay when this came up. Not having much experience with them I bought it. It wasn't all bad in fairness and had some 60s goodness in the pick ups. Light as a feather and as fragile as a child's tear. I lusted after the Spectrum 5. Not a balsawood tennis racket.

.


16. Hagstrom Viking Deluxe 

Straight out the case this guitar was amazing. Thin, straight, fast neck, good finish & build, with great pickups. The Deluxe just had different finishes available & more binding. Classic 60s looks. This was my main stage guitar for a year. Loved it. Sold it. I recommend one of these to anyone who wants a 335 copy with a slight twist. It's good to be different. Another reason to have it was Jack from Wolf People plays a 60s single coil version.




17. Burns Marquee

Errrmmm. I told you I liked them. Sold. With the cellophane still on it.




18. Zenith Archtop 1959

Bought for £90 to hang on the chimney breast of my then new house. This guitar got played, drunkenly, a lot. For a guitar of it's age, it sounded amazing. When I got it I wasn't aware of the Paul McCartney connection with the Zenith archtop, (his first guitar) so when it got replaced by a Brian Jones painting on the wall, I kinda forgot I had it. Sold on Ebay to a Japanese collector for £590.00. Score.



Fender Twin Reverb early 70s

Acquired off my amp tech. Loved it from the start, the glassy highs and deep lush reverb. Like a marriage made in heaven. Then it turned sour, she moaned a lot, broke down, hissed, farted, refused to do things I wanted to do. I felt like she was putting weight on, it started to hurt up and down the stairs, in the car, out the car. I'd had enough. It cost me £180 to get out of this loveless marriage. She ended up with a Manc guy who had an aversion to shoegazing.




Marshall 50w Lead & Bass Plexi Head 1973

Lovely, lovely guitar tone. Power, fatness, overdriven creaminess, ice pick crunch. Why did I sell this again? Oh yeah, lugging a 4 x 12 stack to a pub gig on the outskirts of Wolverhampton to play to 6 people is just daft.



19. 1961 Fenton Weill 'Hohner' Amazon

Built by furniture makers. Played by guys with horn rimmed glasses and brylcreemed hair. Probably. Mahogany body. Atomic pup's! Loud, fat creamy goodness. Played it a lot, recorded great. Bought off Alien Pat, sold to Fenton Will who is even taller than me, so this tiny bodied guitar must look mental on him. 



20. 2009 Gibson Epiphone Flying V 58 Korean Unsung Plant

Purchased on a whim after a Facebook chat with my mate on the merits of Keef looking the nuts at Hyde Park in 1969. I have played it live a few times, BUT, it's 2013, I'm not Keith Richards, I'm not 25, I'm not a cock rocker & I play in tune, most of the time. It's set up great, kinda looks cool, the balance is not as bad as you think, it sounds and feels great.....unplugged. Amped up however you are very aware what you have in your hands. A fairly daft guitar with a pretty bland, nondescript factory fitted sonic pallette. Retro fit some decent pickups & you might just have a honey of a guitar in your hands, but I couldn't see me ever playing it again.


















Saturday 18 May 2013

Wolf People Fain Album Review


I like to think this album was recorded live, deep in a Yorkshire Dale, the band moodily standing in a vast clearing, incense burning, instruments set up in homage to Pink Floyd’s Live In Pompeii. Fender amps their monoliths, an electric Stonehenge to worship at the altar of all who have dared open 'Reader's Digest Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain'. Foxes, hares & hip badgers gather from the forest to testify to these four electric warriors. The band knowingly nod, exchanging switch-blade glances as harmonized riffs, spidery folk arpeggios get fuzzed, drums gets Bonham'd to within an inch of their life as the deep bass groove bores down to the very marrow of your bones. This musical alchemy twists Jack Sharp’s folklore lyrics into a sonic journey from 1971 to the Middle Ages & back to 2013. If you listen closely to the run out groove you can even hear one badger heckling ‘Do you know any Tull?’




Many reviews I have seen of the band reference Fairport, Mighty Baby, Jethro Tull etc, but while that may be true, there is also Sabbath, Traffic, Cream, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and just about any other massive guitar band or folkie in rock's melting pot. (just check the bands website & FB pages for their mixtape links, & massive musical influences) Live, I hear the twin guitars of Fleetwood Mac 1969-71, from the guitar fury of The Boston Tea Party double live album, to the restrained playing of the seminal Then Play On album. Even Jack Sharp's delicate, clear folk voice occasionally has tonal fragments of Danny Kirwan's distinctive vocal. Seeing the band live is where the songs really open up and breathe. I urge you go and see them as soon as you can.




Track Listing

Empty Vessels



I imagine this to be the opening credits to a 70s sci-fi detective series starring a young Ian McShane & Hammer Horror hero David Warner. Probably cancelled after the first series.

All Returns



Funky slithery bass, intertwined Scottish folk melodies, infused with massive octo Fuzz face pedals.

When The Fire Is Dead In The Grate



Beautifully recorded, amazing backing vocals, great interplay between Jack Sharpe and guitarist Joe Hollick. Epic track.


Athol


A heavy, medieval sounding track, superb drumming from Tom Watt and fat bass from Dan Davies on this one.


Hesperus


Solid funky unswerving bass, a creeping prog journey that simmers then cuts your head off with tonebending riffs.


Answer

Sits nicely next to Hesperus, a spidery opening riff, atmospheric backing vocals, Peter Green reverb, an early 70s Pink Island Label monster.

Thief

A haunting, reasonably clean guitar toned tale of a highwayman/thief who is caught, shackled & (I assume) on his way to be tried & hanged. Excellent backing vocals really sets this song apart from the rest of the album, and give a lost nugget acid folk vibe to the track. 

NRR

Wolf People kick Sabbath's teeth in & headbutt Hendrix who falls into a bearded, cloaked Peter Green. 



Golf Funk rating - 9.74 wizards hats out of 10 witchfinder hats






Other links


Joe Hollick Interview

Buy Fain Vinyl obviously.



















Tuesday 26 March 2013

Ryan Adams Royal Albert Hall Teenage Cancer Trust Gig 19/3/2013


On trots Beth Orton, I’m looking forward to this. I especially liked the first couple of albums, Trailer Park & Central Reservation. I eventually got hold of Daybreaker mainly because of the Adams collaboration, ‘Concrete Sky’. Most of the Albert Hall had probably hoped to hear that tonight, but maybe with their romantic history & Beth’s husband guesting in her band, it was never was going to happen. Orton has a mixed bag of songs in her back catalogue, some folk rock, some mixed with loops, some barely audible & others that soar, liberally sprinkled with vibrato and sandpaper. Tonight, her voice occasionally sounded strained & threatened to crack, but it was a good solid support set. I quite enjoyed that. Time for a vodka.

Curator this year of the Teenage Cancer Trust Gigs, is Noel Gallagher. He introduces the band as “A Supergroup, except for the drummer, he’s a nobody”. We find out shortly that it’s Noel’s tub-thumper, Jeremy Stacy from his High Flying Birds. The rest of the stellar band is made up of, (wait for it) Benmont Tench, (Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers) on keyboards, Don Was (Was Not Was), who is without doubt the coolest bass player I have ever seen (apart from Rick Danko of course). On the double eight, Cindy Cashdollar & finally virtuoso musician,  & go-to Americana producer, Ethan Johns on guitar.


I have seen Adams play live in various line up’s since Heartbreaker was released, so I’ll get this out the way now. The set was absolutely crying out for harmonies. I could hear Neal Casal's sweet harmony lines in my head, & the lady sat to my immediate right, heard mine in her left ear for longer than she probably wanted to. Ethan Johns had a vocal mike in front of him and never used it. Shame, that.

I got the feeling from the band they had obviously rehearsed for tonight, but the lack of wringing the songs out beforehand in the practice room gave them space & room to breathe. Arrangements sat back in a groove and it enabled the sheer quality of musicianship to shine through. The lack of flashiness added to the overall feel for the set, in fact I think I only remember a couple of guitar solos, and one lead line from Cindy.



The set is a live return to form with a more relaxed Adams bantering with various shout outs from the crowd. At one point he improv’s an entire song out from a misheard heckle about baked goods, Loaf Of Bread. The two new songs had a bluesier feel to them, almost like a mid 60s Dylan album cut. It will be interesting to hear the record he is currently working on with the legendary Glyn Johns (Ethan’s father.)

The band takes a break and Ryan plays a short solo set with his marvellous Buck Owens acoustic. Sweet Carolina’s whispered, controlled vocal is amazing in this setting and the solo segment gets the thunderous applause it deserves.




Towards the end of the gig, with everyone locked together like they had been touring this set for 18 months, Ryan looked at his band, & beamed “I have never heard these songs sound so good”

He just may have been right.



Set list:-

Dirty Rain
Ashes & Fire 
My Winding Wheel 
Fix It 
Where I Meet You In My Mind 
Loaf Of Bread
Please Do Not Let Me Go 
Why Do They Leave? 
Invisible Riverside 
Let It Ride 
Nobody Girl 
In The Shadows 
Oh My Sweet Carolina 
English Girls Approximately 
Do I Wait 
I Love You But I Don't Know What To Say 
Encore:
Dear John